(I was painting a picture
The picture was a painting of you
And for a moment I thought
you were here
But then again, it wasn't true.
And all this time I have been lyin'
Oh, lyin' in secret to myself
I've been putting sorrow on the farthest place on my shelf.
La-di-da)
Shou was looking at the family photo he had framed in his hand. He already missed her mother and Suzu.
"I promise you, Dad. I will win this tournament for you."
Shou said he would study after the end of his lessons and headed to the library. He wasn't lying, he was going to study. However, the subject he was going to study on would not make Erika happy.
When he entered the library consisting of seemingly endless shelves, he couldn't help but be fascinated once again. The attendant spoke to the witch and asked her where she could find school records.
"What record do you exactly looking for?"
"The football tournaments held."
Upon his request, the witch wrote a text consisting of a block and a number on a small notepaper and handed it to Shou.
It was quite difficult for Shou to find the given location in the labyrinth-like library, but he finally succeeded.
In this part of the library were the records of Momoyama High School. He found the letter "f" among the books arranged alphabetically. Football.
The logbooks were in two volumes. Since what Shou was looking for was last year's tournament, he tucked the recent one under his arm and sat at a table.
He was carefully turning over the yellowed pages. He finally realized that he had reached the page he was looking for when he saw the surname Furuya. It was then that he realized that the triplets had not only played last year, but had also participated in previous tournaments.
Let's get back to our topic. Shou found the demon team's match with the sirens. He examined the striker that Erika was raving about.
Aoto Gonzales Takuma. He scored a head-trick by scoring three goals in the match. Maybe it wasn't enough to win the match, but it was, even, too much to get under Kota's skin.
He continued by examining the final match. Amarillo's captain, Akira, looked more built and bigger than the others. He was a centaur after all. Shou thought he should come back another time and do more detailed research on the creatures.
His next stop was the gym. Mr. Hanashima was there, looking exasperated as ever. Shou greeted him and asked where he could find the football field. Hanashima described its location.
"How's the team-fromimg going, kid?"
As Shou was about to turn around and leave, Hanashima called out.
"More amazing than you can imagine."
"Remember that time is ticking. The last day for registration for the tournament is Sunday."
"I know, sir."
Shou's perseverance and desire, coupled with his undying determination, aroused Hanashima's deeply buried emotions. No subject had attracted this much attention in a long time.
"Sir, can I ask you something?"
"I am listening."
"Can you do me a favor when the time comes?"
"Depends on what you want."
"You'll see very soon."
__________________
"Are you sure you won't come back to your team this year?"
"Yes."
"You can't quit football."
"And you?"
"You know that's not the point."
"Anyway." He took his ocean blue eyes away from his friend's earthy eyes. "I didn't say I quit football."
Aoto and Tagi were training alone on the football field under the orange lights of the setting day.
"Maybe you'd like to know something I learned about the tournament."
"What's that?"
"I heard that the team that wins the tournament this year will not only stay within the school borders but will be announced globally to the galaxy."
"To the galaxy?" Aoto's eyes widen.
"This might be the opportunity you've been looking for to him to see you."
Aoto remains silent and thinks. Although he doesn't respond, the silence ends with a shout from the other side of the field.
"Is there space for one more person?" Shou had finally arrived at the field.
Seeing someone training here made him obvious. As they got closer, he had the chance to see their faces and thanked God a thousand times for being so lucky.
He immediately recognized the face in front of him. His golden blonde hair on his snow-white skin, his ears resembling a strainer, and his blue eyes that would make both the sky and the ocean jealous. This was none other than Aoto in the log book he was examining in the library.
Standing next to him was a tall, brunette-skinned man with short hair. Shou was not yet advanced enough to distinguish between creatures, but when he looked at his ears, he realized that he was from a race he was familiar with. He was a werewolf.
"Of course!" The werewolf answered in an unexpectedly warm manner. His answer caused Aoto to look at him as if to say, come on.
"I'm Shou." pointing at him, "You must be Aoto. Believe me, I've heard your name a lot!"
"Everybody talks too much." His soft voice was as cold as his skin color.
"We've heard a few things about you too. You are a human, aren't you?"
"It's him!" He smiled, "And if I'm not mistaken, you must be a werewolf..." He couldn't continue his sentence because he didn't know his name.
"Tagi." He introduced himself, "You guessed it right, I'm a werewolf."
"Let me take another guess, you're a goalkeeper."
"Well...." Shou came while Tagi and Aoto were training and saw him guarding the net. Denying it wouldn't help.
"Tagi is an amazing goalkeeper." Aoto said with a clarity in his voice that wasn't there before.
"I don't doubt that."
They continued training by passing passes among themselves for a while. Aoto and Tagi were amazing players.
"We must go now." Aoto stops the ball under his feet.
"It was great training with you, nice to meet you."
"So are we, Shou!" Tagi replied friendly.
"I can't wait to watch you in the tournament. Who knows, maybe we'll even come across each other!"
"I don't play on a team." Tagi's answer was clear.
"What about you, Aoto?" Shou asks, but the answer he gets is another question.
"Come across? Do you play on a team?"
"Let's say I'll play."
"But with whom?"
"A vampire, a ghost, and-"
"What?" Both of their faces had expressions of surprise. The creatures he listed were completely different from each other. This meant only one thing.
"Olio team?.."
"No way!"
"Just a remember that our door is always open to you guys."
Without further ado, Shou said goodbye and left the field. He had a satisfied smile on his face. Everything was going exactly as he wanted.
"Did you hear what they said, Aoto??" Tagi was excited.
"Do you think he's serious?"
"Aoto, Aoto!! This is perhaps the greatest opportunity that has ever come your way. Imagine, the team that wins the tournament is announced and this team consists of mixed players. There is not a single living being in the entire galaxy who has not heard of this!!"
Aoto looks thoughtful; He knew Tagi was right about what he said.
"He said the door was open for you." Tagi said.
"He told it was open for us."
"You know I can't." Tagi sighed hopelessly.
"I'm not going anywhere without you."
"Please, do not do that."
"That's enough, Tagi! You know I don't like seeing you waste yourself away."
"That doesn't change the fact."
"Yes, but the truth is not what you think. Don't you believe me? The human saw you for the first time and said the same thing as me."
"I'm not as good as I used to be. I just can't do it anymore."
"The only thing you can't do is trust yourself!"
Tagi bows his head.
"We would always be together? As you promised..."
About 6 years ago, on a summer evening, the air was quite still and the surroundings were mockingly calm.
Tagi hates this. While he feels a panic that he cannot resolve, an energy current that is literally tearing his chest apart, not a single leaf of the dense forest trees illuminated by the light of the full moon moves.
He is only 11 years old and he can no longer escape the transformation that about to happen. Everyone in his pack had already gone through this phase. But he just didn't want it.
He didn't want to turn into a fur-covered, sharp-toothed monster. All he did was go out one night to look for the ball he had forgotten in the forest next to their house.
Those flesh-hungry, deadly eyes were never forgotten from his mind, even for a moment. He still remembered the feeling of those sharp teeth sinking into his skin.
He was attacked by a werewolf and was later sent to Momoyama by his family for his safety. It was for everyone's benefit that they took action so early. Tagi was taught in full detail what had happened and was about to happen. Less than a week had passed since he was separated from his family and placed with the herd, when the time came.
There are two types of werewolves: innate and acquired. If you are attacked and bitten by a werewolf, you will become a werewolf candidate who will transform on the next full moon. Naturals, on the other hand, can keep their transformations under control to some extent.
Tagi was becoming more and more tense as the moon continued to rise. He could feel that there were only minutes left for the transformation to occur.
The sobbing sound of a little child was echoing in the densely wooded forest full of cemeteries. It was an environment that would suit a monster school.
He cried so much that his breath had stopped along with his voice. Only then could he hear a song coming from far away.
The voice was mesmerizingly subtle and soothing. So much so that he followed it with great desire to find its source. He could feel the hair on his body as his steps brought him to the edge of the river. The transformation had begun.
He vaguely remembers what happened next, like a dream. A boy around his age, whose pale skin glowed under the moonlight, was sitting at the head of the river he was looking at with his teary eyes, and was singing. That was exactly the sound that brought him here.
The child must have noticed his situation because he did not stop singing. On the contrary, he changed what he said. Every note he heard sent a wave of calmness through his body. The sound was intoxicating.
The last thing he remembers from the night is that he started to roar with his growing body. What follows is endless darkness...
When he woke up, he found himself lying on the edge of the river. There was no blood, no wounds. There was nothing he was afraid of seeing, he felt well but tired.
When he came to his senses and managed to raise his head, he saw the boy from the evening standing next to him.
"It was your first time.. right?"
"Y-yes.." Her eyes filled with fear for a moment "Please, don't say I tried to attack you!"
"You were crying.. that's all."
"Why didn't you run away?"
"I can protect myself. Siren songs can have many effects on the others."
"Siren?"
"Don't you know what is it?"
"No... It hasn't even been a week since I've been here. Everything is so new and incomprehensible to me."
"You probably don't remember, but I sang to you all night long."
"To keep me calm?"
"Yes."
"I wonder... I followed your voice to the river's edge, but why were you singing before my arrival?" Tagi asked after a short silence.
"For my father to hear."
"Are you lost?"
"He's the one who disappeared." He bowed his head "I.. I just hope.. maybe, if he hears my voice he will come back."
"I miss my family so much, too... But look, maybe we can be brothers to each other." They looked at each other and smiled warmly.
It's easy to say that they were inseparable from each other for 6 years. They were always there for each other for support and help. Just like now.
"Even if I don't join the team, I'll always have your back, Aoto."
"I don't want to have you on my back, but my side."
(And I kept runnin' for
a soft place to fall
And I was runnin' far away
Would I run off the world someday?
But no, take me home.
Take me home where I belong.
I got no other place to go.
No, take me home.)