NIKE -Blue Lock-

A hero and his god

Kunigami seemed to sense rancor on the blonde boy's part, and he thought twice before agreeing. After all, he had just seen the aggressiveness with which he had hit that poor boy until he broke his septum, and the idea of playing with a person who played dirty was not appealing.

His uncertain eyes shifted to the redhead's silent, attentive ones, almost as if seeking an answer from him.

Nicole approached Shidou, placing a hand on his arm and squeezing it lightly.

"What about we leave these two for tomorrow, mhm?" she asked softly, lifting her intense red eyes into the boy's pink ones, suddenly brighter than before.

Shidou looked at her intently, then sneered. With his free hand he grasped the one the girl had laid on his bicep, squeezing it lightly just as he was squeezing the other.

Kunigami's eyelids tightened, Reo raised an eyebrow.

The redhead seems to be way too friendly with a someone who just five minutes earlier was beating up a poor guy.

"I'm gonna take a shower. Join me later." the blond-haired boy said aloud to her before leaving, not sparing himself from casting a victorious grin at the other two.

Nicole stayed behind, shifting her red eyes to the unexpected duo only when Shidou disappeared behind the corner.

Kunigami was the first to speak.

"That guy's a psycho, you good?"

Reo was the second.

"A psycho with a psycho, what a duo."

Nicole rolled her eyes, passing the two and heading toward the cafeteria. They followed her.

"You have to know how to handle him, and I happen to know how to handle people." the redhead stated quietly, throwing a glance at the purplenette, who almost felt offended at the indirect insult implied in the sentence.

"I know how to handle Nagi. Right now we're just having disagreements." he self-defended, and the girl could not help but smile slightly.

"Oh no, a couple's quarrel."

Reo clenched his teeth, and Kunigami sighed at the redhead's defiant attitude and decided to change the subject to prevent a possible second fight between the two characters.

"You look better than at the beginning of the second selection." affirmed the autumn-haired boy, inspecting him from head to toe and noting the lack of sleepiness with which he had left him four days earlier.

"I guess I just had to find a way to... release my stress."

With Shidou's head between her legs.

She smiled, thinking back to the smart choice she had made in revealing her identity to that very one.

She had immediately delineated Shudou Ryusei's character the very moment she had seen him: eccentric, overly passionate, evidently isolated.

After all, when they finished their first stage, there was no one in the room waiting for him, a sign that he had no one to really count on.

And the confirmation had come as soon as they had their first match: Shidou was aggressive, violent, lacking in empathy, considered insane (probably because he was) by the others, and for that reason pushed away.

Perfect for her.
Perfect for giving the responsibility of her secret to someone else.

In fact, if he ever wanted to tell people who she really was, he would find no one who would believe him or come close enough to hear him out.