Block C Preliminary Match, Eisei Gakuen vs Teikoku Gakuen
[GOAAAAAAAALLL!!!]
[Eisei Gakuen’s Ace Striker Seiryuu makes the first hat trick of Holy Road widening the gap to 3-0!! Nothing less from the current number one forward in the Nation! With Japan’s Blue Dragon leading the team, Eisei Gakuen truly cannot be stopped, as you would expect from last year’s Holy Road Champions!!!]
[Despite Teikoku Gakuen not being a weak team at all, the Eisei Eleven are making it look just too easy! With a 5-1 record in the pre-season and a quarter-finalist last year, Teikoku is one of the more anticipated teams this season but Eisei Gakuen is making them look like complete amateurs!]
On the pitch, a tall boy with striking features and sharp, dark blue eyes could be seen in front of the goal. With furrowed brows and a twisted look on his face, while he could be called handsome, the intimidating and menacing aura he was giving off made the audience want to look away from him.
“Tch. Seems like any team can make it to the finals these days”
Taking a look at the trembling goalkeeper who was bent over and trembling after running away from the shoot in fear, Seiryuu just gave a look of disgust before turning around and harshly spat out
“Pathetic”
“Aniki! Aniki! Nice shoot as usual, looks like even the famous Teikoku Gakuen is no match for you! Huh, aniki, where ya going?”
Despite it only being the end of the first half, Seiryuu ruffled his hair in frustration before walking off the pitch. Running to catch up with him, the black haired boy who had yelled out to him, began to jog alongside his older brother and cocked his head in confusion.
“Aniki?”[1]
Turning to look at the younger boy, Seiryuu lazily waved his hand back at him to tell him to head back to the field.
“I’m done playing with the minnows Daigiichi, you and the rest of the kids clean up these small fry and I’ll meet you guys back at home”
A quick “ah” slipped out of the skinny boy’s mouth before nodding his head in understanding. It made sense to him that Seiryuu would be bored considering how lacklustre the first half had gone. Teikoku barely had any ball possession and to be frank he knew that if Seiryuu had wanted he could have easily scored more goals than they had.
“See you at home then Aniki!”
After giving his older brother a large wave to see him off, Daigiichi turned around before yelling out
“We’ll be playing as 10 for the second half guys! Aniki is gonna head home first!”
30 Minutes Later
[And that’s the whistle folks! Eisei Gakuen continues to show off their dominance,completely shutting out Teikoku at 7-0 making them one of only 3 teams left in the nation to be undefeated after the pre-season and first round of preliminary matches! We’ll look eagerly to their next match against Raimon next week folks in the exciting Block C Holy road Preliminaries!]
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Sun Garden, After the Match
Hungry after the match, the ten sweaty kids who had just finished off Teikoku Gakuen with ease rushed back into the orphanage and were greeted by a savoury smell coming from the kitchen.
Watching the others rush into the kitchen only to get yelled at by Auntie Furuya, a girl with purple-white hair and bright yellow eyes rolled her eyes scornfully, not surprised in the least by her siblings’ usual antics and chaos. She blinked her eyes a few times looking around for the distinct ocean-blue hair of her older brother knowing he was probably training or studying as usual and lost track of time.
Heading to the living room, she was greeted by a pair of feet that were draped over the couch. As she steadily walked closer to the couch, she wasn’t surprised to see Seiryuu languidly lounging on the couch watching a soccer match. However, as she continued to approach the older boy she noticed he had a bit of a strange look on his face that she had not seen before and had not yet taken notice of her. Curious about which match he was watching, she silently watched from behind the couch only to widen them when she saw a stunning girl with raven-black hair leap into the air and softly whisper
“Pandora’s Box”
She recognized that girl, they had defeated Raimon in the quarter finals last year, but besides Mika Kuroha she didn’t think they were all that great considering how famous they were as the school that had produced legendary pro players: Endou Mamoru, Gouenji Shuuya,Kazemaru Ichirouta, Kabeyama Heigorou, and even rising star Matsukaze Tenma himself.
Not sure why her older brother was watching the preliminary of such a lacklustre team with such intensity, she finally decided to interrupt him and lightly reached over the couch to tap his shoulder. Leisurely looking over his shoulder, Seiryuu’s eyes just blinked a few times before casually asking
“Oh, you’re back already Haruka?”
Rolling her eyes, she sighed in exasperation. Like Daigiichi, Seiryuu was a complete soccer freak who completely lost track of time when it came to the sport. While Haruka acknowledged it was pretty fun to be able to play with all her siblings on the field she couldn’t understand how the two could be so obsessed with it.
“It’s already 19:30 big bro, the match finished like 2 hours ago. Anyway, Auntie said dinner is ready so come on and let’s eat already. There’s not going to be any food left if we don’t hurry”
Pausing the video he was watching, Seiryuu got up to follow her to the kitchen where the rest of the siblings were. Sitting down, he watched Daigiichi devouring a full turkey ferociously next to him as if he had never eaten before in his life.
“Daigiichi!! Why do you have to be such a pig, though that’s an insult to pigs because frankly even they have better manners than you!”
Cheeks fuming, Haruka harshly scolded Daigiichi, to which he just ignored her and proceeded to start his second plate of food as usual.
“Come on Haruka, we all know that if he doesn’t eat this much then he'll never have the physique of his hero Kabeyama” teased a short boy with soft orange hair from across the table who simultaneously patted the seat next to him where he had prepared a plate of food for her already.
“Thanks, Hyosuke '' replied Haruka before sitting down before eyeing Daigiichi again. Despite eating like he had 4 stomachs he was one of the skinniest members on the team and to be honest she had no idea where all that food went and she didn’t want to know either.
With the Eisei Eleven finally starting to dig into their meal with full gusto, the table went quiet for a bit before a girl with red hair, dark bronze-orange eyes and a straw hat on her head pointed her chopsticks at Seiryuu and loudly complained
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I can’t believe you abandoned your nakama so easily today Seiryuu!! Abandoning your nakama is the number one rule of anime that can never be broken, my poor heart is never going to recover from this betrayal!!!”[2]
Watching her older sister begin to exaggeratedly sob into her stupid straw hat ,Haruka rolled her eyes in frustration before looking over at Seiryuu who had an amused look on his face. Raising his lips slyly, he opened his mouth only to cheekily reply
“As my nakama, I had full faith you would be able to win even without me there Suzaku.”
“Hold on Seiryuu, I think Suzu is on to something. Your disappearance caused severe emotional damage that we deserve compensation for…I’ll be generous and settle for financial compensation. You know my bank account number so don’t be a stranger.”
While neatly cutting some turkey breast and dipping it into the sauce, a lean girl with glasses and her chestnut brown hair in a bun winked at Seiryuu before going back to her food. With a strict and clean appearance it was hard to tell whether what she had just said was a joke or not.
Turning to face the girl who had decided to join the fray, Seiryuu put on an exaggerated hurt expression that didn’t suit him before asking
“Even you Hiraoki?”
Turning to look at the rest of his siblings who just stared back at him harshly, Seiryuu put his hands up in defeat before narrowing his eyes and continuing
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there for the match next week…Now stop ganging up on me and finish dinner or I’ll have to report it to Hitomiko-san.”
Hearing Hitomiko’s name brought up the other 10 siblings quickly refocused on their dinner before getting ready to clean up the kitchen.
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Seiryuu and Daigiichi’s Room, After Dinner
Having finished brushing her teeth, Haruka peeked into Suzaku’s room where the older red-head girl was polishing her figurines as usual and dragged her away despite the girl’s protests and then proceeding to go over and knock on Seiryuu and Daigiichi’s door.
“Come in” yelled out the younger of the two roommates energetically
Opening the door, Haruka wasn’t surprised to see Daigiichi laying on his bed watching some soccer match as usual on his phone while Seiryuu was sitting upright on his bed reading a soccer magazine.
Peering in from behind her, Suzaku’s orange eyes popped over her shoulder looking to see what her two brothers were doing before deciding to make fun of Seiryuu who was intensely staring at the magazine without bothering to look up at the duo that had just entered the room.
“I think you’re the last person on this planet still getting the physical copy of FourFourTwo, Seiryuu, you do know they have something called a website?”[3]
Seiryuu eyes didn’t even blink to acknowledge he had heard the snarkish jab before replying without looking up from the magazine
“Big talk coming from the girl who was begging outside Hiroaki’s door the past two weeks to order her the Bandai 2008 Limited Edition Tony Chopper Chopper Figure, I thought we were going to need to get some buckets to prevent the house from flooding over, you were crying so much”
Suzaku’s cheeks puffed up in indignation as she was about to retort but promptly received a jab in the elbow from Haruka, who gave the older girl a dirty look before climbing onto the bed next to Daigiichi.
Daigiichi watched as his sister made herself comfortable on his bed before crossing her legs and he sighed while pausing the match he was watching. Judging by the light orange hanging aura emanating from her, he sensed this was going to be a longer talk than usual so he bent over to grab some cookies below his bed. He offered some first to Haruka who declined saying she just brushed her teeth, and then began to munch on them to allow the sweet chocolate taste prepare him for their upcoming discussion.
“So, you gonna talk about what happened today big bro?”
Haruka decided to break the ice knowing Daigiichi and Suzaku were basically useless for these types of sensitive discussions and cautiously looked at Seiryuu who had cocked his eyebrow at her as if he were asking
“Do you really want to do this?”
Beginning to sweat a little, Haruka began to stare daggers at Suzaku and then nudged Daigiichi with her foot as a clear signal for backup immediately. Like heck these two idiots were going to let her take on their oldest brother by herself.
Letting out a small “oh!” after a kick in the leg from Haruka, Daigiichi cleared his throat a bit before asking
“So…how’d you get home by yourself Aniki?”
Slap
Haruka loudly facepalmed, covering her face with her hand and let out a long and exasperated sigh. Looking desperately at Suzaku she hoped that as a 3rd year like Seiryuu, she would at least have the sense to ask about why he had left the match against Teikoku Gakuen today despite never having skipped out on a match before.
Scratching the inside of her nose with her pinky, Suzaku half-heartedly followed up on Daigiichi’s useless question
“Haruka is right Seiryuu, I’ve got a bone to pick with you”
Letting out a sigh of relief, Haruka began to look at Suzaku with a little bit more respect than usual, she guessed that at times like this she could finally act like an older sister despite her usual immaturity.
“I can’t believe you were hogging the TV all day today, you know that I need to watch Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu on Thursdays! Now thanks to you I had to watch it on my tiny phone instead!! My poor heart won’t be able to take much of this cruelty”
Beginning to dramatically sob into the ninja headband that she had switched to after dinner, Haruka's last straw snapped watching this.
“This damn otaku!!”[4]
With fire in her eyes, Haruka eyes gave death stares to Daigiichi and Suzaku who began to sweat, sensing they were in deep trouble with her later, before turning to look at Seiryuu who was just watching the three with a bemused look on his face.
Clearing her throat, Haruka gave a few “ahems” before boldly saying
“You might be able to fool the rest of them, but we’ve been with you the longest so if you think the explanation you gave at dinner is gonna cut it you got another thing coming”
“......”
Losing a bit of steam as the silence prolonged Haruka belatedly added a respectful
“...Sir” before waiting to see how their oldest brother would react.
Munching on his cookies a little bit faster now, Daigiichi checked on Seiryuu’s colour but as usual his brother was too bright to see anything so he couldn’t tell how the older boy was feeling and decided to just go for it and back Haruka up.
“Er–Aniki… I think Haruka is just trying to ask if you’re feeling sick or anything like that, not that you would ever get sick since you’re the greatest big brother of all time and no cold or flu would be able to get you sick…so actually I think we’re just wondering if you got injured or something… not that you would ever get injured against players like Teikoku but I have noticed you going out late at night and…”
As Daigiichi continued to ramble, Seiryuu’s eyes narrowed before he finally sighed and closed his soccer magazine.
Hearing Seiryuu close his magazine loudly, Daigiichi immediately closed his mouth and the 3 younger siblings straightened up their posture a little in anticipation.
“....”
Flattening his lips in disapproval, Seiryuu opened his mouth to speak.
“It seems like I’ve been giving you too much free time to have useless thoughts like this, I’ll be tripling the training menu starting tomorrow”
“...!!!”
In unison the 3 siblings quickly shuddered before widening their mouths in protest
“Aniki!!”
“Big Bro!!”
“Captain!!”
Looking at their eyes widened in horror, mouths gaping and pitiful gazes Seiryuu tried to repress a smile, as usual they looked like baby ducks following him around which is why he had taken them under his wing in the first place.
Closing his eyes he laid back down on his bed before getting lost in thought, Seiryuu wasn’t completely sure himself what was going on and had been mulling it over on the subway back home.
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Earlier That Day, Tokyo Subway
Leaning back in his seat, Seiryuu let out a deep breath as his eyes stared outside the subway window. As the city scenery fleeted before his eyes, the images in the window began to blur as he recalled the match he had just left.
“DRAGON GENESIS”
Teikoku’s goalkeeper opened his eyes wide with the fear visible in his eyes, Seiryuu wouldn’t be surprised if he soiled his pants next he was so pathetic. Quickly stealing the ball back after the next kickoff, Seiryuu watched his siblings easily bypass the defensive line and pass the ball up to him. Receiving the ball, the world seemed to freeze over as if everything was moving in slow motion. The sounds of the crowd and the field disappeared next and everything went silent. Feeling his chest tighten, soon the field went black and it was just him and the ball.
It didn’t matter.
He had done the same shoot a thousand times by now, he didn’t need to see to hear to know where the goal was
[GOAAAAAAAAL]
[Japan’s best striker quickly scores a second point for Eisei Gakuen! It looks like we’ll be seeing a new record folks for consecutive hat tricks in Holy Road for a second straight year!]
Huff Huff Huff
Grabbing his chest, he felt his lungs tighten as sweat began to drip down from his forehead.
That idiotic announcer. Spouting out useless commentary again.
He heard the unpleasant woman’s grating voice again.
“Who are you again? You’re still here?”
Waiting, waiting, waiting, a boy hugging his knees in a garden hidden by shadows.
Then last year…
[ANDDDD WITH THAT, EISEI GAKUEN IS THIS YEAR”S HOLY ROAD CHAMPIONS!! CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS OF THIS FIERCE MATCH]
His siblings quickly surrounded him as they handed him the trophy, but Seiryuu couldn’t shake off the uncomfortable feeling that he had felt. Something was boiling in his stomach, he had achieved everything he had wanted. He was the number one striker in Japan and led his team to victory in Holy Road. Yet it wasn’t enough…
As memories continued to flash in his mind, Seiryuu’s eyes refocused to look outside the window where the setting sun cast a pink-orange light on the buildings that flitted in and out of his sight as he headed back to the Sun Garden with an unreadable expression.
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Present
“It’s not enough”
“???”
“???”
“???”
The 3 younger siblings who had patiently been waiting for his response just looked at each other in confusion before looking at him with blank expressions.
“I’m not strong enough”
“What the heck are you talking about big bro? Is this about the upcoming match with Raimon? We’ve already beaten them before!! Or is this about their new member, the supposed genius midfielder Seiko or Senia or something? Trust me, a girl like her has nothing going on inside her head, she’s not a threat at all!!!”
“Haruka’s right aniki! You’re the best forward in Jr.High in Japan, you’ve even been scouted by all sorts of teams from abroad! There’s no way anyone is a match for you in Japan… no the world!!”
Tapping her chin a little before joining in on the chaotic clamouring of Haruka and Daigiichi who were throwing compliments endlessly, Suzaku looked Seiryuu in the eye before asking
“Is this about that new kid from Outei Tsukinomiya? The kid called the “Child of Soccer” or whatever. It’s a cool title but you’ve got us, and as long as your nakama believe in you there’s no way you can lose captain.”
Purple eyes flashed in Seiryuu’s head before he murmured under his breath
“He’s not the only one I’m interested in…”
Haruka couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Their older brother had never been like this before, he was always the strongest of them and their team pillar. Without him, none of the people in the room would even be at the Sun Garden right now…
Daigiichi looked over at his sister, considering how bright she was giving off orange light he knew she was extremely agitated but he stole a glance at Seiryuu. In the 4 years they had been together he had never seen such cold light from his brother and a shiver went down his spine. He grabbed Haruka’s knee quickly before she could open her mouth and just shook his head.
Closing her mouth, she knew too that Seiryuu was ending the conversation tonight. She’d just have to show him that Raimon,...
No…
No team in Japan was a threat to them. Clenching her right hand into a fist she grabbed Suzaku with her left hand before saying goodnight to Daigiichi and Seiryuu who just gave a curt nod to them and she closed the door.
As the lights turned off one by one in the Sun Garden, an uneasy silence fell over the orphanage.