German stratum
Team A and Team B were experiencing such different emotions that it almost seemed like they were not to be in the same game.
On the one hand there was the team whose players were fired up, some more fiercely and some more enthusiastically; on the other hand there was the team whose players were lost in utter confusion, some uncertain of what to expect and some burdened with the knowledge of the true identity of the redhead.
Raichi was in such an intense emotional state that he felt he might vomit at any moment. The negative energy in his body was so much that he knew his stamina that day would be double, if not triple than normal.
All that nervousness was enough to kill a horse.
Kurona, while knowing the same secret, was instead calmer. His confusion was not the cause of nervousness, but of uncertainty about what to do.
He had played with Nicklaus, and he had also activated chemical reactions with him.
He wondered if now that he knew his secret something would change or not. He also knew about his manipulative ability, having experienced it firsthand, and he was in doubt about how that game would turn out.
Would he act like Caesar, and fight alongside his soldiers, or would he be like Nerone, and let others die for his cause?
His pink eyes shifted to the figure with his back turned in front of them, seeing him for the first time in the position of central forward instead of lateral or defender or midfielder. He had one hand on his hip, and his gaze was shifting from one opposing player to another, as if he was trying to understand them even before knowing them.
Then, after a few moments, the redhead raised his hand like a child in school when he has to request permission to speak.
Only difference was that she did not wait for it: "I changed my mind, I'm on defense."
Those who didn't know him and had not even seen the famous game were confused by his words. Usually a striker didn't ask to go on defense, and a defender didn't ask to go on offense. It made no sense.
"It doesn't work like that..." a German player raised his voice, shifting his gaze to the coach to see what he thought about the redhead's words.
But Noel Noa's eyes had not even moved to the red ones, remaining instead on the tablet in his hands.
The last one who had spoken cleared his throat, understanding that it was best not to ask questions.
Apparently the master striker agreed with the Italian boy.
"Sharky, let's switch." the redhead said, and Kurona's pupils widened imperceptibly at Nicklaus's familiar smile.
Nicole's.
He looked at her for a few moments without answering, noting the nonchalance and calmness on her expression that he now recognized belonged to a real woman. He thought back to the nickname, to the way it had the same sound as when he still believed she was simply Nicklaus. He observed that grin of understanding, which had been directed at him before.
Yes, that was still the Nicklaus he had met inside that place. Or perhaps the Nicole whose name he had never learned.
"Oki doki." replied Kurona in a calm tone, heading toward the girl.
There was no point in putting an assist player in the center forward position. It could also have been dangerous.
But he trusted her.
He had trusted Nicklaus, and there was nothing different between him and Nicole.
They were the same person.
If Nicklaus was worthy of his trust, so was Nicole.
They walked past each other, and their so differently eyes met as soon as they were shoulder to shoulder.
"Wanna try something new?" she asked without hiding the femininity and suavity of her voice behind a forcibly hoarse tone.
It was the first time he had heard her real voice. He realized that it was a sound pleasant to the ear.
"I'll follow you." replied only Kurona, just in time before their gazes returned straight ahead.
I'll follow you.
A few words to express complete trust in her choices, tranquility and security in being with her, loyalty to her.
I'll follow you.
Whether you are Caesar or Nero, whether you are a general or a tyrant, it doesn't matter. I'll follow you anyways.
Nicole's eyes met Raichi's for a moment, but they ignored his gaze on her. She positioned herself at the same height as him, she as right defender and he as left.
Red irises met carnelian ones, and finally the starting whistle resounded in the room.
Having possession of the ball first was Team A, and the kickoff was given by Kaiser, who passed the ball to his little dog, Ness.
Nicole's eyes were on the field, and Noel's eyes were on Nicole. And while she watched the players move all over the place, he watched her stand still and motionless in her place.
Kaiser and Ness were moving quickly on the field, their movements perfectly coordinated, as if they had studied each other for so long that they could predict each other's behavior.
Or rather, as if Ness had studied Kaiser long enough to be able to assist him in any way.
The blood-red eyes shifted to the bluenette, whose gaze as attentive as it was absent was focused on the German striker as he run at his same speed, and you could almost see the wheels in his brain moving as he thought about who knows what.
On the left, just behind them, Cerberus was running with ferocity and rage in his gaze. Kunigami's concentration was animalistic.
Kaiser and Ness dodged the first line of opponents, and Kurona immediately cast a glance at the girl, waiting for directions.
Nicole looked at him and then looked away. Still nothing.
Kurona nodded, choosing to play as he normally would. That was what the girl wanted for the moment anyway.
Nicole also began to move.
Only she moved without respecting her position as the right defender.
Raichi's eyes went wide, looking first at Kaiser and Ness, who were getting closer and closer, and then at the figure of the redhead, who was instead getting farther and farther away from both him and the two opponents.
"NICO- fucking hell." he took off running as well, guided by his instincts.
Fuck Nicklaus.
Fuck Nicole Vinciguerra.
Fuck him, or her- whatever.
Fuck even that Kurona asshole who god only knew what he was doing.
Fuck them all.
Since every fucking person in that place was doing whatever the fuck they wanted, he was going to do that too.
Raichi's shoulder collided violently against the chest of the running body of Ness, the one who had possession of the ball.
"AH, YOU SEE RED BITCH? I CAN ALSO DO SENSELESS SHIT-" he shouted to Nicole as his eyes focused on the ball, and the already pale face of Kaiser's little dog became even paler.
Why had a defender, even a so retrograde and flatly unoriginal one, suddenly decided to act as a striker?
The ball was stolen from under his purple eyes; the blond had taken advantage of his moment of confusion and surprise to take over.
The purplenette's brows furrowed in an expression of horror as the ball he had failed to pass to Kaiser disappeared from his sight.
His eyes filled with panic and regret immediately shifted to his owner- the first in rank.
Kaiser raised an eyebrow, yet remained stoic despite everything. His light blue eyes pointed into the purple one.
"Bring my ball back."
Ness turned on himself, starting to run after the defender who had suddenly decided to be a striker.
His shoulder collided against Raichi's, but neither of them gave any sign of wanting to slow their run.
"You are a defender, what do you think you're doing uh?" asked the purplenette as he stared intently at the ball, failing to catch it because of the way the blond was defending it.
After all, Ness had said it himself: he was a defender.
Raichi sneered, never shifting his attention from the spinning sphere in front of him.
"UH?! I WAS BORN A STRIKER, YOU EGGPLANT FREAK." he shouted in a delirious tone, only to lose his smile as soon as to his left stood a body even more imposing and muscular than his and Ness's combined.
Kunigami.
"Fucking fallen hero..." hissed Raichi, now visibly struggling.
The two bodies were starting to tighten the distance more and more, and running forward without tripping over his own feet or those of those two was becoming more and more complicated.
He was almost there.
He was only a few steps away from entering the penalty area. So little, all it took was one very last effort.
But the blond boy's heart was pounding in his chest, and his head was aching from having to think about running forward and preventing Ness from stealing the ball from his right, from Kunigami's attempt from his left.
Then his eyes met hers. Red as a ruby in the bloodstained hands of a lover who died for passion. Red as embers still burning. Red as the power.
The same power she had over him... over them all at that moment.
Raichi's body moved on its own.
His leg went further back than before, the tip of his foot pointed more outward.
The inside of his shoe hit the sphere. And then the ball was no longer in front of him.
"I can't let you do that."
Ness's words woke the blond
from his trance-like state, and only then did he realize that the ball he had intended to pass to Nicole was blocked by the purple haired boy's inner thigh.
Kaiser's dog had noticed the redhead's presence, and had also realized that he'd be the recipient of the defender's pass.
He could not allow it... he could allow everything but to let him control the gambe.
It was better to lose the ball than to let it come into the possession of the one who had Kaiser's attention.
After blocking it, the sphere fell to the ground, behind the three boys who had been unable to brake along with it. All three of them spun around.
"Thanks I guess..." said the calm, unflappable voice of Kurona, who who knows how long had been standing behind them.
Without even giving them time to think, the boy moved from behind them, heading toward the center strip of the field. They were already in the team A's zone, and the line of attackers had long been overrun.
This meant that Isagi and Kaiser would no longer be a problem.
His eyes flicked to the figure who had previously signaled him to position himself behind the three struggling players, and after a further nod from her he increased his speed.
He moved to the right side of the field, and all the players shifted their attention to that area. Just as their eyes focused on him, Kurona took a long breath and powerfully kicked the ball, sending it exactly to the spot from which the trio had just moved away in order to run to him.
"The fuck..." whispered Raichi as soon as he saw the sphere fly over his head, not understanding why Kurona would run away from them and then throw the ball back to their positions.
But the reason became obvious when the same figure who was supposed to stay in the right part of the field, appeared instead to their left.
"I knew you'd play along, lizard tongue." said the girl, turning to the blond but casting a derisive glance at the autumn haired one.
And it was with red eyes set in orange ones that she struck the ball remorselessly, making the goal that so many had longed for and none had managed to make.
—— 0-1 ——
Raichi's run slowed, until it came to its end. His breathing labored and his face was red as his sand-colored eyes remained fixed on the triumphant figure.
Play along? What the fuck she was talking about? He had not played along with nobody. He had only left his position... he had left his position as soon as she, too, had done the same thing.
He followed her lead...
His breathing began to slow as he realized how easily he had allowed himself to be manipulated, and his incredulous eyes remained fixed on the cruel girl.
"You..."
Nicole raised an eyebrow, looking away from Raichi and shifting her gaze instead to the other boy.
"And by the way, Ness, you're actually not that useless."
The named boy gritted his teeth in disgust, shifting his eyes from the goalpost that belonged to his team to the red-haired figure.
The sneer on those red lips made Ness want to punch him and spit on him for how much he hated him.
Nicklaus had used him.
He knew he would notice his presence, and he knew he would rather block the pass than take the ball back.
"If Kaiser doesn't give you enough cookies to reward you, know that I'd love to have a dog."
"Fucking devil bitch..." hissed Ness with his gritted teeth, as his hate and envy-filled gaze remained fixed on the figure who wasn't even paying attention to him anymore, more busy talking to the boy with a braid in his hair.
"He really is something... he understood how you think after watching you for a few brief moments." Kaiser asserted as he flanked the purplenette, causing the latter to stiffen in shame.
Ness didn't even want to imagine how pitiful he looked in the blond's eyes at that moment.
"He's probably figured out how our game works too. He's smart..."
But the German's eyes were too busy scrutinizing Nicklaus to notice the little dignity of the purple haired boy beside him.
Kaiser saw him quietly talking to his companion with the braid in his hair, whose eyes were focused on him intently. Such intensity that it almost seemed he was about to sink into the blood of the other's irises.
"He's also quite magnetic..." Kaiser whispered more to himself than to others, but Ness heard it loud and clear, and it almost seemed to him that the blond was comparing him to himself.
The purplenette lowered his gaze to his own feet, then raised it to the red-haired figure.
Now his violet eyes were even darker than they already were, tending to the color of the night.
Fuck Isagi, Nicklaus would be the target of his wrath.
Skip time
That was the only goal she scored.
For the rest of the game she stayed in defense, and just like her also the rest of team B seemed to calm down.
Her rank position did not change from 12 to 11: she wouldn't be part of the Bastard München.
From the other team, Kaiser and Ness had scored three goals, Kunigami one, and Isagi had scored the last one by a stroke of luck. A crushing 5-1 victory in a game in which only one team seemed to have competed.
Noel Noa watched the recording for the thousandth time, particularly the first play.
He saw Kurona, the midfielder in the forward position, cast a glance at Nicklaus.
He saw Nicklaus's eyes carefully follow Ness and Kaiser's steps. He saw him cast a glance at Raichi, though not being noticed by the blond, and then sprint down the right side of the field.
He saw Raichi panic and unconsciously copy the redhead's actions, running on the left. He saw him use his striker's heart and his defender's skills at the same time, managing to get the ball to the other side of the field.
He saw Kurona cast another glance at Nicklaus, and the latter point to the trio with a nod of his head.
He saw the redhead move toward the center of the field, into the three boys' field of vision, while Kurona went unnoticed behind them.
He saw Raichi look up at him and hit the ball. He saw Ness do the same thing, blocking it. He saw the ball fall to the ground and spin behind them.
He saw Kurona catch it and immediately move to the center of the field, behind Nicklaus' trajectory, and then do the same thing when the latter moved to the right again.
He saw everyone's eyes focus on Kurona as Nicklaus took advantage of their blind spots to head to the left of the field.
He saw everyone start running to the right, leaving the other side clear. And then he saw the ball go exactly where no one was. No one but Nicklaus.
And then, goal.
Noel Noa sighed, resting on the back of the swivel chair as his carnelian irises pointed to the ceiling of his own office.
He thought back to the rest of the footage, to the way the redhead had refused to touch up the ball, let alone make an effort to move too much; to the way his eyes followed the movements of those who looked most interesting to him.
He thought back to the way Raichi had gotten angry, calming down as soon as he had put his hands on the collar of his shirt.
He thought back to how Kurona had put a hand on his shoulder at the end of the game, bringing his eyes to the redhead's body as if to ascertain something.
There was something strange about the respect the others had for him. And he wasn't just talking about the two guys showing special shrewdness toward him.
He was also talking about all the other Blue Lock candidates who kept their distance but never looked away. Almost as if they were afraid, there was no telling whether of him or something else.
But even though they were afraid of who knows what, their eyes never dared to tear themselves away from the red figure, almost as if he demanded to have their attention.
"Should I be creeped out or flattered?" a voice suddenly asked, probably referring to its own image on the big screen in front of Noel.
The latter spun in his swivel chair, and his carnelian eyes met the red ones.
"Be whatever you want."
"Flattered it is." replied Nicole with a smile, closing the door behind her and entering the master striker's office.
It was smaller than Ego's, but still equipped with the latest technology. She could see a miniature hologram of herself hitting the ball.
Nicole's red irises shifted again to the German's well-defined face, and Noel saw the way those cruel, feline eyes sank into his own.
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" asked the young woman, approaching the desk and leaning against it, her back to the monitor and her front to the coach.
Noel watched her for a few more moments, remaining stoic and impassive despite the depth of the red irises aimed at him.
"Tomorrow the matches between stratums will begin, have you made your choice?" he asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest and opening his legs slightly in a manlike pose, relaxing his previously legs crossed posture.
Nicole nodded, not appearing disturbed by the man's rather provocative posture.
"I like it here. I don't really feel like playing right now, and I wouldn't be on the team with you since I'm not ranked." she said, making her intentions clear from the start.
Noel nodded. "Why don't you want to play?"
Nicole shrugged, leaning her head over one shoulder.
"I kinda find them all boring." she stated honestly, and the coach did not know why she was so sincere.
"Even Kunigami has disappointed my expectations." she said in such a way that it seemed as if she had said it over her head, however pointing her eyes at the man, making it clear that she actually meant to say it and be heard instead.
"You knew about the wild card project." stated Noel in fact, leaning forward with his upper body and looking up at the standing figure.
Nicole sneered.
"Of course." but she did not explain why.
The German watched the Italian carefully. He tried to understand a message behind the way he spoke, perhaps behind that wry smile on his lips, perhaps behind his apparent nonchalance.
"What if I put you on the team anyway?" the man asked stoically and indirectly defiantly, slowly standing up from his chair.
Nicole did not flinch, lifting her chin to maintain eye contact with the taller and more imposing figure.
"And go against your principles? Do I have that much influence over you, perfect striker?" her voice was more melodic and suave than Nicklaus's must have been, but the man paid no attention to it and Nicole didn't care.
She was looking at a man with a capital M after all.
"No influence, my data are correct." he replied in a deep, hoarse tone, and his imposing, mighty figure covered her relaxed, petite one.
Without taking her hands off the desk behind her she slightly leaned toward him, looking at him from under her long eyelashes.
"Maybe your data are, but the ones recorded in the system? Those aren't. And am I wrong or do you and everyone in this stratum rely on the system?" she asked, and with each question mark she let her body lean closer and closer to his.
And, with now very little space between their chests, she let a sneer of derision lift the corner of her red lips.
"Oh, don't tell me I'm the exception?"
Noel looked down at her, his carnelian eyes sinking into her ruby ones, almost as if he was allowing her to speak to his soul.
Their gems so different but so perfect, whose mix could have created the color of the sunset.
A sound resounded in the silence that had fallen between them, and Noel's eyes moved to the hand around his wrist.
"Your reflexes are amazing. Perhaps a bit too much considering you are a mere striker." the man stated, without taking his gaze off the redhead's firm grip.
"Such reflexes only occur if the body senses danger. But I only intended to touch your back." and the more he spoke the more the smile on her face grew.
A wry, sarcastic smile that was anything but sweet and happy.
"You have a problem with your back. I can even tell by some of your movements." said Noel confidently but still emotionlessly, retracting his hand from her grip.
"Is that the reason you don't want to play? Because of a muscle strain in your back?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, almost as if to suggest that he found the excuse almost ridiculous.
Nicole did not immediately respond, and from her cold, impassive expression it also appeared that she had not heard at all.
But then she smiled and pushed her previously too-close body away from his.
"Muscle strain, that's funny." she whispered to herself, turning her face and pointing her gaze elsewhere, letting the man look only three-quarters of her expression.
Noa saw the black pupils dilate and tighten, signaling that she was probably thinking about something. He noticed her lips move imperceptibly, her eyelashes blinking twice as fast as normal.
Then she sighed, pointing her eyes back into his.
"You'll be my master striker, telling you would do only good for the both of us." she said, as if the man could understand what she was referring to.
She turned her back, signaling to him that she would not block his hand this time. Noa looked at her back, still covered by the shirt she had trained in that day, and then cast a glance over her shoulder to see if she was going to change her mind.
But there was nothing in the redhead's demeanor to suggest stiffness or fear, a sign that she was really giving him permission to see for himself.
The German lowered his gaze to the hem of the shirt, grasping it with his fingers and slowly raising it.
Immediately red lines appeared in his eyes, starting at the level of her coccyx. He said nothing, merely continuing to uncover her bare back. And the higher he went the more he wondered when those lines would end.
But they did not end until he lifted her shirt past her shoulder blades.
The vision was simply horrifying: it seemed that a desperate monster had scratched her back in order to get rid of her.
"Just don't touch it. The spray stopped working three hours ago-" ergo during the game.
The fact that the girl had a special medication made the man realize that a doctor had prescribed it.
"How long have you had them?" he asked, following every inch of red flesh with his eyes and wondering what on earth she had done to deserve such a thing.
"Uh... more than twenty days? I don't know." she replied nonchalantly, and Noel wondered how deep they must have been at the beginning given that still after at least twenty days they were red like that.
"Why do you have these?" he asked, bringing his fingers over one of the many lines and tracing its length, merely inspecting it but without touching it.
Nicole didn't answer for a first moment, looking straight ahead.
Why did she have them?
Did there really have to be a reason? No matter how much she thought about the answer, she couldn't find it. She couldn't find it simply because the answer did not exist.
She had not engaged in a fight, fallen, been run over or anything like that. There was no answer, no why, no logical reason behind the wounds on that body.
It was simply...
"...because it's me."
She straightened her back, simply turning her torso in profile. A wry, yet ironic and amusementless smile played on her lips as her red eyes watched the carnelian ones slowly lower, starting from her face, to her jaw, to her neck, and to finally stop.
"And let's say they like me more when I act as a female."
Carnelian eyes remained fixed on the bulge at chest height covered by adhesive bands.
A woman's chest.
"Maybe they're transphobic, I don't know." she joked, but the hint of rancor and sarcasm in her tone suggested there was more to what she was revealing.
Noel stared at the woman's half-naked torso for a few more moments, then released his grip on the hem of her shirt and let it fall back to the level of her hips.
Then he looked away.
"Forgive me for making you uncomfortable, I had no idea you were a woman." he apologized cordially, his tone calm and deep.
Nicole turned her gaze to the man's sculpted profile, not responding to the apology.
After all, why was he apologizing? No one had apologized to her until then, so why was he doing it?
"I wanted you to know, and I let you know." she said carelessly, turning fully toward the man who instead had a thoughtful gaze directed elsewhere.
Nicole bent her head over one shoulder, smiling slightly at the politeness and respect he was showing her.
Mature men definitely had a powerful charm and sex appeal.
"And I'm not uncomfortable. I like it better when men look at me." her shamelessness was as unnerving as it was arousing, so much so that Noel decided to listen to her words and look at her.
"Aren't you too young to say something like that to a grownup man?" the coach asked in an impassive, stoic tone, scrutinizing the redhead better.
She had the look of a 17-year-old and the experienced gaze of someone in her late thirties.
He couldn't exactly tell how old she was.
"Does my age scare you?" she asked smartly, detaching herself from the table on which she was leaning and circling around his imposing figure.
Her eyes lowered for a moment onto the muscular legs hidden behind his sweatpants.
"Though I am legally an adult in my country." she said as she continued to inspect his mighty body, unconsciously studying the features that determined its strengths and weaknesses.
"May I know your name?" asked the coach, following with his eyes the slow, feline walk of the red-wigged girl.
She grinned.
"Vinciguerra." she introduced herself, without adding more information.
Noel stared at her intently, trying to figure out where she was going with this. She had not changed the name.
"But you have my permission to address me as everyone else does, Noel Noa." the girl stated in a seductive, suave tone, stopping exactly in front of him and looking up at him with those cruel, deceiving eyes of hers.
She did not rise on her toes, but her gaze so deep and magnetic forced the other to bow, just enough for her breath to tickle his neck. Then a whisper, and the sound seemed to be like the roar of a god in the silence of a temple.
"Call me Nike."
Nike... Nike...
Slowly the girl pulled her lips away from his earlobe, while her cruel, wanting eyes watched from the side those pointed straight ahead of him.
Nike...
Noel Noa could not tell whether the sound of that name made the same effect as the nectar of the gods on the tongue if a human or as a violent thunder on a quiet summer night.
"Nike..." he whispered in his deep, hoarse and seemingly stoic voice, and Nicole's grip on his shoulder tightened slightly at the shiver of ecstasy she herself felt at hearing him.
Like that thrill caused by a lover's caress as they gently and passionately runs their fingers down your spine, causing that pleasant goose bumps, the kind that makes you close your eyes and melt like a piece of ice under the warmth of the sun.
Carnelian gems set into ruby ones, and this time it was he who felt the chill.
"You are Nicole Vinciguerra..." he slowly realized, as his soul trembled under her power.
The only difference was that of pleasant the thrill he sensed had absolutely nothing.
Ego Jinpachi has welcomed under his wing the most egomaniac among them all.
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Nicole is not a person who takes care of herself (in fact, she likes to see Sae taking care of his own skin) and therefore always forgets to put on the spray.
Nicole is not used to be treated well by older men (actually just her father) and Noel's respect and kindness confused her in a positive way.
Nicole can feel attracted to older men, in particular when they are as authoritative as they are respectful (screaming in daddy issues).
Noel Noa wonders what Ego's plans are with the girl since she is known for being untamable.
Nicole doesn't understand that a man can speak to her without seeing her as a sex object, so her relationship with men is perpetually filtered by physical/sexual approach (she herself sees men as their sex and not as people)
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Author
I'm posting this chapter from Kusadasi, since I only have connection when I arrive in port.
I would like to know what you think of this chapter and what you think will happen now that more and more people know about Nicole's identity.
And thoughts on sugar daddy Noel Noa?