After Story: Resolve

Chapter Ten: Paperwork & Praise

It had been about a couple of weeks into the routine when I realized that exercise and training weren't going to be enough.

"Applications," I said, holding up a sheet of paper as we sat around the kotatsu in Yohei's dorm room. "We'll need to get as many applications from as many teams as we can."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Sunohara complained. Mei, sitting next to him, nodded in agreement.

"Probably," I said. "But that won't be your job. Your job will be to keep training." I gestured to his sister. "Your sister and I will be taking care of any paperwork, at least until she has to go back to school."

"How come only until then?" she asked.

"You need to focus on your studies, or you'll end up like your brother and me; trying to cram a future at the last minute."

She pouted but relented. "I understand."

"Anyway, I'm not worried about you anymore," I said to Sunohara. "I'm surprised I only had to kick your butt for a couple of days."

"What can I say?" he said with a grin. "You motivated me."

"Gross," I retorted with a grin of my own as we switched roles from the prior conversation.

The younger Sunohara looked back and forth between us, understandably confused. She hadn't been there for the conversation, so she was probably feeling a little left out. "So what are we going to do next?" she asked.

I leaned back on my hands. "Like I said, you and I will be getting whatever paperwork we need and fill it out. Then we send it back and wait for an answer."

"How many teams are there?" she asked.

"A lot," her brother answered. "You have the Professional Football League and the regular Football League, which still has a lot of professional players on them. Last I knew the J. League had about forty teams and the JFL had about...ten?"

"So we're going to be almost as busy as your brother," I said half-jokingly. "That reminds me...are you okay with her giving me your information? I'll probably need it for the paperwork."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You're not going to do anything weird with it, are you?"

I narrowed my eyes right back. "I might sell it to the highest bidder."

"As long as I get a cut..."

I broke my facade. "Jeez, I'm just kidding! I'll only ask her for what I need for the forms, all right?"

He relaxed his face into a smirk. "It's fine, Okazaki." He turned to his sister. "Call me or Mom and Dad if you need to."

"Okay."

I tapped the top of the kotatsu with a finger. "Just so you know; Mei and I will be filling applications for as many teams as we can, so you may not end up on the Antlers at first."

He gave me a thumbs-up. "Got it."

I looked from one Sunohara to the other. "Well...let's go!"

***

I glared at the paperwork on my desk. Less than two days after I got off the phone with the team's office I had received the application. The problem was that I knew very little of the information that they were wanting. Medical history, previous addresses, extended family...they wanted everything.

"Are you okay, Okazaki-san?" Mei asked as she tidied my room. At least I didn't collect porn, so I didn't have to worry about her coming across it accidentally.

"It's just frustrating," I remarked. "I don't know even half the information they need." I looked over to her. "Would it be all right for me to make a list of things to ask your parents about?"

"That's why I'm your assistant!" she declared with a grin and a salute.

"All right, then!" I got out a blank sheet of notebook paper as I turned back to my desk. "I'll try to translate this from 'legalese' to Japanese and get it to you."

I felt a gentle touch on my back and looked up to see Mei softly smiling down at me. "Thank you again for..." she shook her head ever so slightly. "...everything."

I gave her a smile as well. "Like I said; don't thank me yet. We have a lot of work to do and about a month left to do it."

She nodded but continued to...study me.

"Mei?" I croaked, my throat suddenly dry. "I need to get back to work."

She nodded again. "I'll bring you some tea." She bit her lip as she turned and left my room.

I turned back to my desk one more time and sighed as I started on the list.

***

I gave her the list at dinner.

"Wow..." she breathed. "This is a long list."

I bowed my head. "I'm really sorry. It just...It never occurred to me that I'd know so little about your brother."

"It's okay," she said, shaking her head. "You wouldn't know about this kind of stuff anyway, so it's okay."

"When can you call your parents?"

She glanced at the clock. "I should be able to talk to them after dinner. I'll probably only be able to get about half of this tonight, but I can get the other half tomorrow." She looked across the kotatsu at me. "Is that okay?"

I shrugged with a smile of defeat. "Better than what I'd be able to do."

She returned my smile. "That's true." She looked down at the paper again. "Amazing..."

"What?"

"Just...you made sense out of that application enough to write this," she answered, still looking at my list. "You're amazing, Okazaki-san."

"Stop saying that...please."

She lowered the list to look at me fully. "Well, it's true! You tried to help Onii-chan back in April-"

"I helped him try to lie to you," I pointed out.

"Yes, but you were willing to help him and you came up with a way that would have taken care of me if it had been true." She tilted her head slightly. "You didn't have to do that."

"Well...it was..." I let my gaze drop from hers. "...it was funny watching him have trouble."

"Okazaki-san." Something in her tone drew my gaze back to hers as she started counting on her fingers. "You helped Onii-chan come up with a plan for dealing with me, you went along with my plan to get him back in the Soccer Club, you helped me try to get the club to let him in even when they were being mean to me, you fought them along with Onii-chan, and you made him remember me and fight for me." She leaned toward me. "You're wonderful, Okazaki."

I suddenly felt a little dizzy. "M-Mei...? I don't feel good. Leave me alone."

Instead, she moved closer. "You're not used to people saying nice things about you, are you? Well, you'd better get used to it." She paused. "You're wonderful, Okazaki."

The room was starting to spin. "S-Stop..."

"You're amazing..."

"No...I'm not." I held my head as the room started to tilt.

"You're incredible..."

I struggled to my feet, leaning against the wall as I tried to shut out her words. "I-I'm going to go take a bath..."

I stumbled to the door to the back hallway, only to find Mei in my path. "You're awesome...Tomoya."

"Mei...please get out of-"

Everything suddenly went black.