It was dusk after the standard soccer practice at school, and now we were at the Steel Tower Plaza, and obviously, doing special training, courtesy of Endou the soccer baka. And for once I agree with Kidou. That Endou is an idiot. Why, you ask? Because the guy tried to hold up what came his way but got crushed by the three tires that used to be held by a rope suspending it from the trees until Phoenix Feather burned it. And he fricking fainted.
Yes, you heard right. Endou, the biggest blockhead in the history of mankind, no, of all things living or not, fainted.
Aki and Natsumi who were watching our training from the side gasped. "I'm...okay..." stuttered Endou as he put a hand up, then collapsed all over again. "Let's get him to Rai Rai Ken!" Kidou shouted, trying to calm everyone else's panic as he and Gouenji started lifting off the tires. Natsumi and Aki dragged the boy out, and I supported him on my shoulder.
Kidou quickly dropped the tire he had been carrying with Gouenji and rushed over to me. "Let me," he said, then without even giving me time to reply, he lifted Endou's arm off my shoulders and placed them on his own. What was that all about?
"Yo, somebody?" Gouenji asked impatiently. That was when I finally realized that by coming over to help me, Kidou had dropped the tire, thus making it fall onto Gouenji's foot. And it was still crushed under the gigantic tire.
"On the count of three," I said, getting a grip on the side that Kidou had left. Gouenji took the other. From my peripheral vision, it looked like Kidou was frowning. But I quickly dismissed the thought, it must have just been the angle. Anyway, there wasn't anything to hate about this. Right?
We finally lugged it off and tossed it in the pile along with the other two tires, and the five us us dragged a limp possibly dead Endou to the ramen shop that I often went to with Azami nee-san before she... Nevermind.
"Kantoku! Some ice please!" Natusmi shouted into the shop. Wait, did I just hear her say "kantoku"? When I finally got a clear view of the shop, I did a double take. The man at the counter was indeed, our coach. And now that I look carefully, there was a lot of resemblence to the man who used to serve me and Azami noodles back when I was seven. It must have been the glasses, or else I would've definitely remembered.
As Hibiki-kantoku lectured Endou and the brunette goalkeeper grumbled, the door suddenly slid open, revealing a familiar face.
"Detective!" Endou exclaimed. I jerked my head to him. "You know him too?" I asked Endou. He nodded. "Detective-san has helped us a lot with finding out the truth behind Kageyama."
"Long time no see, Sakurai-kun. I didn't know I would see you here. It seems you got yourself caught in another case?" Onigawara asked.
"Another case?" I repeated, "What do you mean?"
"Well, we have another right now which I'm here for...and there's the first two..." he said, counting off his fingers, but I cut in before he could say anything else. "The first one wasn't my fault," I said quickly. He looked at me directly in the eye now, making me shiver "Ah yes, but the Inoue Shizuro disappearance was." "You forgot the car crash that killed the suicidal boy, sent one young girls into a coma, and killed a family of three," I blurted.
"That is what I'm here for today, actually," he turned back to Hibiki, "I've got more reports on Kageyama, and one of them involves the car crash. And Yuuka."
Next to me, Gouenji shivered. Yuuka, that name stuck a hollow chord in my heart. She was like a little sister to me, I wonder how she was doing right now.
"It seems..." Onigawara said, "...the car crash was caused by Kageyama."
Before I knew it, I had slapped my palm on the table and stood up. "No, it was my fault, everyone knows that. The boy wanted to suicide because of me, and the car hit him and caused a traffic jam, resulting in a car crash!" I shouted.
That was when I realized the room was quiet, and everyone was staring at me. "Inoue..." Gouenji said raspily, arm trembling as he grabbed by sleeve. "Please don't tell me...that car crash..." "Yes, it was my fault," I rolled my eyes. How many times do I have to say it for people to understand? I mean, I know it's my fault, why can't they just accept it?
"Yuuka..." his voice trailed off. And then a drop fell. Gouenji had cried.
Endou stared at me with wide eyes full of fear, and so did Hibiki-kantoku. I felt self conscious, so I slunk back down on my chair. Just what was going on?
And then suddenly it clicked. "No..." I breathed, "No...this can't be..."
I sprung up and grabbed Onigawara by the collar, catching him along with everyone else on surprise. "Tell me!" I screamed. He pushed me away, and in slow words that seemed to echo on and on forever, he said those dreadful words. "You put Yuuka in a coma."
I felt as if all the air in me was knocked out, and I collapsed back onto my chair. "I'm sorry Gouenji...I'm sorry Yuuka-chan...I'm so sorry..." I whispered, burying my face, now streaked with tears, in my hands. Gouenji too, had rivers flowing from his eyes as he clenched the silver locket Yuuka used to wear. The one with our picture in it that only me and Yuuka knew, Yuuka smiling brightly, Gouenji and "Inoue" standing behind with smiles too.
Who was Inoue Shizuro now? He wasn't a soccer star. He wasn't the hero of Kidokawa Seishuu. He wasn't the girl who wanted to regain her reputation.
No, he was a monster who stepped on people for his own needs.
And with that sickening conclusion, the fact finally sinked in that I was Inoue Shizuro. Inoue wasn't just a mask, he was me. We are the same person with different appearances and different personalities, but when it comes down to it, our cores and desires are the same.
My memory flashed back to the time I had knocked the members of Nosei unconscious during our practice match when I was still in Kidokawa Seishuu, and Gouenji, Nikaidou-kantoku, and the audience shouting at me angrily to stop this massacre. Then it went to the grotesque shapes of those boys I had left behind in the alley that day after they had tried to hurt me the day before. Finally, it showed a boy with spiky hair wearing the Carribean Jr. High jersey standing bravely guarding his goal from a ball with cherry blossom petals swirling after it. The last image was him sobbing on his knees, the ball in the net, and the score reading 12-3 in Kidokawa Seishuu's favor.
Onigawara's voice brought me back to reality. "There's more to the story," he said, eyeing me and Gouenji's messed up forms warily. I looked up, and so did he. "The car that the suicide boy ran in front of did not hit him."
"Wait, does that mean he's still alive?" I asked with a spark of hope. It was quickly vanquished by Onigawara's next words. "No, the car swerved away, thus hitting Yuuka, but that messed up the traffic order so another car ended up running over the suicide boy in the chaos."
"And what does Kageyama have to do with that?" Kidou asked. "There had recently been found some proof on the suicide boy's body that Kageyama may have drugged him, being the cause of driving him over the edge of insanity. Kageyma a did this most likely because he wanted Inoue Shizuro and Gouenji off Kidokawa Seishuu because he thought they were threats to Teikoku's winning. The suicidal boy was the first person to ever attempt suicide after Chi Sakura Mai, right?" I nodded. "So that must mean that something was off, because he was Sugimori Takeshi, goalie for Carribean Jr. High, someone who was actually a famed goalie," Onigawara finished.
"But he's still alive! Sugimori's the goalie of Mikage Sennou!" Gouenji protested. "Yes, that leads me to my second reason why I'm here," the detective said still in that calm demeanor. I could tell that the tension of the room went up as everyone held their breath and leaned in to listen. "Kageyama may have discovered how to revive the dead."
"That's impossible," Kidou butted in. Again, I couldn't help but agree with him. I get that the Commander has many connections, but the world didn't have such high tech science knowledge yet.
"Let me finish," Onigawara coughed, and Kidou looked at him skeptically. "Not revive, but save. Within twenty four hours of death, Kageyama has found a way to bring back the person. That is what he calls Project C according to the evidence we have managed to piece together."
"But I am here for one more piece of information. Kageyama also seems to have something planned up his sleeve. When I interrogated Fuyukai, he talked about something called Project Z. He told me that the Football Frontier was controlled by Project Z. And he told me that Project C was to combine with Project Z, making Project ZC the 'grand finale', but we have no idea what that meant.. Fuyukai's last words to me was 'godlike beings from the sky are out to execute and sneer at us'. It seems Kageyama has a plan with something to do with the sky. Kidou, have you seen or heard anything related to the sky at Teikoku?"
"No, I have no idea," Kidou said. Onigawara sighed. "I guess I'll be leaving now," he said as he started to get up. "Wait," I interrupted. He paused. "I think I remember something, but I'm not sure when or where I saw it, though it was for sure when Kageyama was around."
"Please continue," Endou said determinedly. "I think....it was a picture of an angel. She had silvery hair and there were stats in collumn next to the picture," I said in a small voice with uncertainty.
Kidou's face seemed to light up. "Now I remember! That was on Kageyama's computer screen the day you were assigned to become Teikoku's manager."
"Do you remember any of the words in the stats collumn that Sakurai mentioned?" the detective asked. Kidou shook his head, "It was all numbers and looked like coding." When Onigawa turned to face me, I shook my head also. "No, I was too far to see of the small texts." Onigawara sighed again in defeat and frustration. "Well, I'll tell the police to investigate as much as they can with that picture in mind," he said, the nodded a farewell to Hibiki and left.
But something didn't feel right. The picture of the angel on the glowing computer in the dark room kept nagging at the back of my mind, even when I went home and fell asleep.
Okay, so I said it would be 2000-2500 words, but sometimes, it just doesn't, like this chapter. So I'll lower it to 1500-2500. And some that do have 2000+, I may divide it into two different chapters because they are different events, even though linked. So just never mind on what I said about the word range. Also, I found actors/actresses for my ocs (well actually I just found some anime charas that fit the description of my chara design).