Double update yeah!!!!
A week later
"AND YET ANOTHER GOAL IS SCORED BY THE TAN DUO WE ADORE SO MUCH!"
The cameras captured the blond-haired boy with the pink streaks grabbing the redhead around the waist and pulling him into a... fraternal embrace.
"A duo we've seen grow and capture our hearts even when, in the Blue Lock vs Japan U-20 match, they were on opposing teams. And oh- how cute, it seems the young midfielder wants to join the celebration too."
As if on cue, the fifteen-year-old midfielder jumped onto Shidou's back, throwing his hands up in the air and screaming alongside the striker embracing Nicole.
The broadcasters' cameras, which for the first time we had the opportunity to observe the match in person, illuminated the trio with numerous blinding flashes.
Some zoomed in on the protagonist's face, focusing on his lower lip as he bit it down while flashing a triumphant grin at the cameras. Others also captured the mischievous and playful redness of his eyes, knowing how appealing the young man was to the audience.
Of course, Nicklaus Vinciguerra was the focal point of that match.
The score was 7-2: 3 goals in the first half and 4 in the second, these all scored by him.
Chris Prince looked towards the main characters beyond his own sweaty locks of hair, his breath heavy and deep from all the one-on-one clashes in the last three minutes.
He hadn't stop for a second, yet he couldn't prevent that seventh goal.
"Threshold of 60% advantage surpassed. The Joker Card is kindly asked to withdraw for the rest of the match." announced the robotic voice from the speakers, and Nicole winked at Chris as if to humiliate him even more.
"Also, the three minutes of the star change system are up: Chris Prince must leave the field." the same robotic voice announced after a few seconds, and the blond clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and resumed his breathing.
His blue eyes immediately locked onto the cameras, and almost as if he had suddenly been reborn, he proudly puffed out his chest and walked tall towards the Manshine City benches.
Unfortunately, none of the commentator-journalists had given him even the slightest attention.
"Nicklaus, you've been exceptional."
"Nicklaus, do you think Julian Loki's youth makes him less experienced or more imaginative?"
"Nicklaus, how does it feel to win in a one-on-one battle against a famous striker like Chris Prince?"
"Nicklaus, are you aware of being the most beloved figure on social media?"
The redhead grinned as questions came from all sides, the various camera flashes were powerful on his bronzed face.
Meanwhile, on the field behind him, the game had resumed, with just two and a half minutes left.
But now it wasn't the game the journalists wanted: what they wanted was right in front of them, with his enchanting Don Giovanni smirk and his cunning, mischievous eyes.
Julian smiled when, glancing to his right, he saw the dozen journalists clustered around Nicole. His eyes studied the girl's body language, the ease with which she orderly answered each question, and the calmness on her face despite the intrusive flashes from the hungry broadcasters craving the perfect shot.
His brown eyes returned to the ongoing game, now observing his team's formation.
He crossed his arms in front of his chest, watching the players on the field collaborate to get the ball to Rin Itoshi.
The young master striker couldn't help but smile satisfied, the close memory of the previous four goals in his head.
A spectacle.
Two goals scored with Shidou and Rin and the assistance of Charles, one using the latter alone, and another completely on her own.
This one, that was her third during the match, done to provoke Chris and make him enter the game.
"Nicklaus, are you aware that most of the Italian fans root more for you than for the Ubers?" asked a voice with a British accent, prompting the girl to nod.
"Oh really? Let's hope Snuffy doesn't get offended then." the girl replied promptly before someone else could propose another childish question.
"Who is your playing style inspired by?" asked a man with an oriental appearance, his Korean accent evident.
"I don't take inspiration during class tests, I for sure won't do it when I play." she replied sarcastically, eliciting approving laughter.
It wasn't that funny.
"Nicklaus, how do you feel about the fact that, statistically speaking, Noel Noa's fans have decreased by 35.6% since he accepted your expulsion from Bastard München?" asked an Italian commentator, drawing the redhead's gaze towards him.
All the journalists, though not understanding what he had said, fell silent at the mention of the famous striker.
Nicole gave him a scrutinizing look, hiding her boredom behind her iconic cover smile. A provocateur, of course: one who waited for a celebrity to denigrate another to create a stir on social media.
"Oh wow, you caught me off guard..." Nicole hesitated, nodding to invite the man to say his name.
This one, even though confused that such a prodigy was asking for his name, gratefully smiled. It made him feel almost on par with the player, albeit only in appearance.
"Alessandro."
"Well, Alessandro, I don't know what to tell you. I hope Noa doesn't mind if the ladies and gentlemen prefer me to him. I guess I was born to be a heartthrob." Nicklaus joked with a smirk, avoiding the question altogether.
"Nicklaus, if you were to rank your favorite players here at Blue Lock-" an English voice with an Arabic accent interrupted Alessandro's attempt to monopolize the interview "-who would be the top five?"
Nicole nodded at the man's question, shifting all her weight onto one leg with a hand on her hip.
"I wouldn't be very objective in my choice. At the top of the list would definitely be-" the sound of the end of the game interrupted her response.
Nicole glanced at the scoreboard, noting that the score remained at 7-2.
She smiled one last time at the journalists and, bidding them a cheerful farewell, headed towards the exhausted boys on the field.
Her shadow covered the abandoned figure of the white-haired striker lying on the ground.
His gray eyes moved almost in slow motion to her face, noting how she watching him from above with a bored smile.
Nagi exhaled through his nose, showing no sign of wanting to get up from the overly comfortable floor. He barely had the energy (or rather the will) to express how annoying it was to have the sweaty jersey sticking to his body.
"Nick, you weren't this energetic in the previous matches." Reo stated once he approached the two, his voice muffled by the towel he was wiping his face with.
Nagi, who was staring up at the girl's face, found the energy to nod in agreement.
"Yeah..." no way, he even found enough determination to make an exclamation.
Nicole sensed a figure slowly encroaching into her personal space and felt no need to move away thanks to the slowness with which the man placed his hand on her shoulder. Then, the entire muscular arm weighed on her neck.
"Yeah, don't tell me all that energy was just to provoke me?" Chris asked sarcastically, a fake and suggestive smile on his lips as the broadcasters snapped photos of their interaction.
"That's kind of bratty of you..." he then said through clenched teeth, winking at the cameras, unaware (or perhaps knowingly ignoring) that the lenses were more focused on the girl than on him.
"Oh trust me, I don't need to exert energy with someone who lasts so little." she replied, then added, "And I'm a brat only for those who know how to handle that."
Then she looked at the cameras and, winking exactly as the master striker had done, she elicited a flurry of flashes and commotion.
Reo deadpanned at his coach's obvious social defeat.
"Anyway..." he decided to save the blond from further humiliation, diverting attention to himself.
Sensing a hand on her ankle, Nicole lowered her gaze to Nagi. She saw his fingers lightly brushing the skin above her shoes; slowly his pupils, focused on her, disappeared behind his eyelids.
She said nothing, allowing the sleeping beauty to return to his deep slumber.
"That was fucking crazy- Oh shit, I think I need to rub one out." intervened a voice too familiar, abruptly and carelessly removing Chris's arm from over the protagonist's shoulders and replacing it with his own.
Shidou also looked down, noting the contact between the sleeping beauty's fingers and the redhead's ankle skin.
Then, naturally, he kicked the white-haired guy's hand away.
The latter didn't seem to mind... actually, he didn't seem to wake up at all.
Charles Chavalier followed suit, smiling childishly and jumping onto the back of the blond with pink streaks. He rested his cheek on his head, directing his gaze towards Nicklaus.
"Eh eh, the perverted trio, we were so perfect." he said in a sing-song tone, confusing everyone except the Tan Duo.
Shidou chuckled, reaching his free hand over his own shoulder and ruffling the younger one's hair, commenting, "You damn fanged pip-squeak, you made it all so fucking smooth with those crazy passes of yours."
Charles chuckled, looking happily toward Nicklaus, receiving a nod and a "You did good, baby vamp."
Blushing with contentment, he jumped off Shidou's shoulders and ran towards Julian to annoy him and rub in the fact that the Italian redhead had just complimented him.
Julian deadpanned at the childish behavior of the boy, but couldn't help but smirk knowing that the prodigy had finally found someone who could help him grow.
He knew Nicole would be able to handle any absurd antics Charles might pull. No matter how weird or, as he put it, perverse the move was: Nicole intercepted them all.
And, from what he observed, Shidou also showed signs of sharing some of the same madness. At least when he was on the field with the redhead.
"The diagonal pass didn't make sense at that moment. A one-two or a rotating attack would have made more sense..." Rin explained, while Nicole nodded, pretending to understand what the boy was saying.
Shidou, his arm still around the girl's shoulders, groaned loudly.
"You just made my cock go limp with your fucking shit talking, you ventriloquist bitch." the blond asserted, earning an obviously disgusted look from the greenette.
"A most unique event, given that you're perpetually hard, you horny insect." Rin said with disdain, hiding the disgust behind faux stoicism even as the blond teased him with, "You seem to look at it a lot. Wanna see why your big bro likes it so much?"
Unfortunately for an argument-loving Nicole, the voice from the speaker ordered everyone to retreat to their layers.
Nicole nodded to those who greeted her, and then, as always after a match, she headed towards Ego's office.
Hands in pockets, expression now devoid of the fake smile, she tried to walk as slowly as possible. The later she talked with that oppressive psycho, the better.
She ran a hand through her wig, pushing the strands away from her face and pulling them back.
"Ohi..." a voice called out, and Nicole glanced towards the end of the hallway.
Kunigami was there, arms crossed in front of his chest and back against the wall. His orange eyes were glaring at her with a gruff but not necessarily violent demeanor.
Nicole looked at him, not stopping her stride. Instead, she passed him without changing the pace of her steps, just nodding her head to invite him to speak.
Kunigami gritted his teeth, jaw tightening. He hated how fucking chilling his presence could be.
Then, avoiding losing it prematurely, he put his hands in his pockets and began to follow the boy.
"Train with me." he went straight to the point, sparing himself the discomfort.
Nicklaus didn't react as he had expected, perhaps by mocking him or telling him off. He continued to walk calmly, his back turned to the boy who felt an intense and dangerous animosity towards him.
"Why?" she simply asked, stopping in front of Ego's office door and turning to face the autumn-haired boy.
The latter turned his attention to the door, and his eyebrows furrowed imperceptibly.
How many times a week, or even a day, did the redhead have to meet with the director?
Before he could answer, the door opened automatically, and Nicole, with robotic habit, crossed the threshold.
"Wild Card, come in too," Kunigami heard Ego's monotone and bored voice coming from inside the dark room.
He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and entered the office of the cruel director with a straight back.
Ego was there, a steaming cup of instant noodles in front of him. He had his elbows on the table and his fingers crossed in a way that served as support for his angular chin. His glasses, reflecting the light from the screens, prevented the orange-haired boy from meeting his black eyes.
"I thought I told you to keep your distance from the Joker Card, you wild failure." he stated with a fleeting tone, slowly tilting his head so that at least one of his lenses didn't reflect the computers.
Kunigami clenched his fists when he saw the man's ominous left eye fixed on him.
"Non svegliar il can che dorme, Jinpachi." intervened Nicklaus's voice, who had silently gone to sit on Ego's never-used bed.
Ego turned towards her and rolled his eyes, the translation of the Italian saying into his ear resulting strange but intuitive enough.
Kunigami also turned towards him, observing his calm yet imposing presence: he was manspreading, his back slightly tilted backward and supported by an arm resting behind him, while the opposite hand was comfortably abandoned on his thigh, almost covering in a teasing manner his intimate areas.
His dark red eyes were fixed on the boy, their intensity so strong it took Kunigami's breath away.
The Wild Card had to look away.
"This angry dog barks but doesn't bite, apparently. I saved him from the project under your request and this is the result: an incapable striker." said Ego, his stern gaze now focused on the redhead girl.
Kunigami remained still, trying to understand what was happening. Was this what both the director and the Italian boy meant when they told him it was thanks to the latter that he was still in Blue Lock?
"Oh, trust me..." she smirked at the boy, indicating her now-healed lower lip, "...he bites alright."
Kunigami swallowed, fists in his pockets, diverting his attention and shifting his focus to the footage of the now-finished match.
He couldn't explain the character's mood swings, let alone keep up with them.
Anri, who unfortunately for her sanity was witnessing the scene, sighed.
"Kunigami Rensuke, please explain your request." she asked gently, a professional smile on her face.
"I imagine you understand our reluctance to let you two train together. Especially after, how can I call them..." Anri paused for a moment.
She rethought about when they first met after the Wild Card project, the myriad of insults, the physical aggression, the lack of control (still to be justified) from Nicole during the interview.
"...some unpleasant misunderstandings." she concluded, finding the synthesis less fitting but also less dirty in vocabulary.
Kunigami looked at the woman, knowing he couldn't blame her. But he also knew that his behaviors were entirely justified... or at least he hoped they were justified.
Slowly, he turned to scrutinize the red-haired boy, who shamelessly had never stopped staring at him. He shuddered under his hot yet icy gaze.
In his mind, he recapitulated all their moments together from the beginning of the Neo Egoist League: his violence, his insults, his anger; his ridicules, his humiliations, his provocations; their kiss in that dark room, and the one in that gym...
He felt his heart skip a beat at the memory of how he had mocked and taunted him in Italian, or at least he believed he was taunting him, right after that passionate and desperate contact.
Yes, Kunigami had every right to feel animosity. Especially against the one who had made him so miserable.
Nicole looked at him, reading every single light or shadow on his face. Her eyes shifted to the micro-expression of the director, noticing how troubled he was.
She kept silence for few more seconds, staring at the man. Slowly, she turned back to the fallen hero again, her eyes empty of thoughts.
"Rensuke, do you want to know why you were sent to the Wild Card project?" the protagonist's calm voice echoed in the room, and Anri and Ego immediately turned their heads towards her.
"Vinciguerra, watch your tongue-" Ego was interrupted by the cruel smirk of the girl.
"Why? You scared it might be poisonous?" she asked ironically, maintaining her slouching posture and imposing presence.
She knew what Ego was afraid of. She knew it very well.
As long as the secret to hide was that Nicole Vinciguerra, the famous and iconic Nike, was at Blue Lock, perhaps there was still some chance of salvation.
Undoubtedly, there would have been problems, and his entire project would have failed. But at least he could have silenced certain unfounded theories thanks to the fact that there would be only one piece of information circulating.
But what would happen if, in addition to that secret, the public found out that a boy had been kept there just to amuse and further highlight the undisputed winner?
The entire Japan would accuse him of being a traitor to the country: not only had he allowed an Italian character to compete against 300 Japanese boys, but he had probably reduced those 300 potential future athletes to mere toys for a foreign winner.
And the blame would never fall on Nicole, who would obviously be even more loved by the whole world for her ability to destroy an entire category of future footballers.
No, it would all fall on him: the one who boasted so much about being able to create the number one striker in their country... and who instead had destroyed Japanese football forever.
"You can't do that..." the blank-haired man said through clenched teeth, his calm and unsettling presence suddenly replaced by tension.
Anri, also with her wide brown eyes, stared anxiously at the girl who was capable of dragging them all down to hell with her.
Kunigami watched the scene, perplexed, confused, suddenly no longer interested in his initial intention.
Now he too was looking at Nicklaus, and he dared not look away. For the first time in months, in his eyes there was not hatred.
"I can't?" the girl asked with cruel malice, the question for Ego but her attention on Kunigami.
"What do you say, handsome..." the boy shuddered at the familiarity of that nickname, and suddenly it seemed to him that everything was forgotten.
"...you think I can't?"
Meanwhile
The lad fixed his gaze upon the depths of the box.
His typically stoic eyes were now brimming with terror and disgust, while his countenance was even paler than its usual hue. His complexion was no longer a rosy white, but rather a sickly pallor, akin to that of a corpse.
Unable to bear such a sight any longer, he rose and hurried to the bathroom, expelling the morning's breakfast from his stomach.
He wished to purge the fear, horror, revulsion, and nausea coursing through him. Yet, he could not.
Instead, he collapsed against the bathroom floor, his gaze vacant and his body trembling like an autumn leaf, barely clinging to the branch, teased by a malevolently gentle breeze.
He shut his eyes, hoping for darkness. Yet, against the bleak backdrop behind his eyelids, reappeared the horrifying gift he had received.
A note atop it read:
"Welcome to our family..."
And in the box, a mass of beautiful blonde hair drenched in blood.
"...Sae Itoshi."
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"Welcome to our family." was the same message Sae received when his and Nicole's gala clothes arrived as a gift. But while his name was not mentioned then, as if to highlight the knowledge that he would be a passing toy, now his name is there.
And it is not good.
Nicole is very natural in front of cameras since she was taught to be in front of them from an early age. She is also very smart from a communication point of view, so she knows how not to get fooled by the techniques of journalists. She tends to put them at ease and make them feel at her level so that they themselves avoid asking her annoying questions so as not to feel guilty.
Nicole is actually snappier because now the scabs on her wounds are having a hard time reopening and bleeding. She has also wanted a one-on-one confrontation with Chris Prince for quite some time.
For those who have read the manga, Ego's idea was to make Kunigami become what Charles Chavalier will become for Julian Loki: a tool to reach the top faster.
After months surrounded by boys, Nicole (when disguised as Nicklaus) knows how to move exactly like them. She could do it before too, but it has become second nature to such an extent that she is able to unleash her inner masculine attractive force. (I mean, you saw Kunigami's reaction)
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Author
Double update.
I wanted to make it up to you and fortunately I had the chapter all in my head.
Hopefully it came out well because the one before was... duller?
And... Idk, tell me what you think, what do you think will happen now and yeah... do your thing.
That's it.
See ya babes