Chapter Text
“We haven’t properly met yet, right?”
The Captain – real name unknown, he doesn’t quite remember it – is standing before him, hands on his hips, shining him an authoritative smile. He’s even more impressive in real life than he was on TV, though this could be because now, he sees that the guy is almost towering over him. He now gets to see every callous on the man’s hands, every hair in his strict eyebrows, the way his lips are pressed.
Shoot, he forgot to introduce himself! That’s why The Captain looks so… dissatisfied!
“My… my name is Shirosaki Kosuke,” he quickly spits out, though he articulates too harshly the syllables. I’m in class 1-3. I… I joined the soccer club when I transferred here a few weeks ago.” He bows down. “It’s… it’s a pleasure to meet you, Captain…!”
His head still bowed down, he hears a hearty laugh. He’s tempted to lift himself back up to see what’s so funny, but he figures he better stay put. This is The Captain, after all.
“Hey, no need to bow to me like that! I’m just a guy like you.”
Kosuke, slowly, gets back up. The Captain is giving him a warm smile, as if he hadn’t just been a complete embarrassment for the team.
“I’m Matsuyama Hikaru, the captain of Furano. Nice to meet you too, Shirosaki!”
That’s it?
No grandiose speech about his accomplishments? He was a semi-finalist at Nationals and part of the best twenty-four players there. He was selected for that fancy training camp they were going to set up to know who they’d send to Europe to represent the country. Surely he’s got a lot of other things to tell him than just his name and, of course, being the captain…
Oh, right. Matsuyama! His name was Matsuyama! He was pretty sure he was mistaking it with Matsuda, but he met Matsuda before that. They don’t really look like each other, even if they both play as midfielders. He really needs to get working on his name memory, it’s really, really bad.
Before Kosuke can even put any one of his confused thoughts into words, The Captain frowns again.
“Sorry for pulling you away from practice, by the way, but I really needed to speak to you privately.”
“What… What can I do for you, Captain?”
At the tremble of his words, The Captain’s expression softens.
“Man, do I look this menacing?” He sighs with another smile.
“N-no, that’s not it! You’re not scary at all!!” Kosuke wants to disappear, or at least run away far, far away from the clubroom. As far as possible, even. “It’s just… I dunno, I’m all nervous and stuff!”
“Don’t be, I won’t bite you! In fact, I want to ask you about joining the team with us third-years.”
“W-what?!”
Kosuke tilts his head to his left. What could a guy like him have possibly done to be integrated to the regular line-up of the semi-finalists of the latest Nationals? To share a team with someone like The Captain, Oda and the others? He’s just a freshman, and to top it all off, he’s not even been on Hokkaido for long at all! Why would they recruit him where he’s sure there are a lot of more fitting second years wishing for such a place?
On the other hand, can he even turn such an offer down? The Captain trusts him enough to be part of the main line-up. Would he let him down by refusing, even if it’s by modesty?
“Well, I guess I better explain why we’re recruiting you all of the blue like that. Sorry for the confusion.”
“N-no, it’s fine! I was just, uh, curious about it, that’s all! Since I’m only in first year and all!”
Not even the awkward chuckle Kosuke lets out manages to melt his embarrassment. This is a terrible start and he hasn’t even played yet!
“I know I used that against you guys when you got rowdy with the managers, but really, please drop that first-year shtick. That won’t matter once we’re on the field anyway.”
“Oh… Okay!”
Captain scratches the back of his head.
“I keep getting distracted, sorry.” He does sound a little stressed, but Kosuke wouldn’t know any better if it was just how he naturally spoke. “Let me catch you up to speed.”
He shifts in position to have his arms crossed. He’s now definitely towering over him with his additional head (man, growth spurts can arrive too early for Kosuke, he’s a dwarf in comparison).
“There’s this competition the Football Association has organized for middle school players named the New Hero League. It’s supposed to help them select players for the upcoming junior championship in America and Furano has been selected as one of its sixteen participants since we finished in the best four last month. It’s an exhibition league, so there’s no prize to win and it won’t make us national champions or anything, but it’d be cool if we could show everyone how good our teamwork is and that we don’t mind the heat back in Saitama.”
His posture stiffens. If Kosuke had to compare it to anything, it’d be an itch that he can’t scratch.
“The thing is, as much as I want us to participate and how motivated most of the team is, we’re all in third year, and some of us won’t be able to participate because they’ve got to prepare for exams or help their families with their business. We have substitute players, but they won’t be enough, and I’ve been told by my teammates that you were quite a good player yourself. That’s actually why I wanted to see you one-on-one, I want to evaluate your level myself and see if you could join our ranks. Does that sound good to you?”
He finally unwinds a little.
“Oh, and if you can’t for whatever reason, don’t feel bad about it! Summer homework can be a pain. Just ask Oda about it!”
A faraway voice reacts, “hey!”
Kosuke can’t help but chuckle.
“I’ll do my best, then!”
“Good! Let’s head to the field.”
The match itself is nothing too noteworthy, Kosuke supposes. He spends the first minutes of it still dazed to be part of the main team, the A guys, the ones who wear the white-and-red jersey and nothing else, no bib and no bright blue exterior shirt – but quickly finds his pace. He misses some passes because, unlike whomever should be in his place, he’s not used to Nakayama’s slightly brushed shoots that don’t quite land between your feet nor Kaneda’s kick-before-you-speak style of centrings – yet by the end of the first half, he’s gotten all of its muscle-memorized.
Not to brag or anything, but Kosuke thinks that’s his strongest suit: he’s always been adaptable. Mom has had to move places a dozen times of the years, and while he’s sure that they’re here to stay in Furano City because Mom loves the lavender fields and her job near them so much, Kosuke has had to improv over the years. Sometimes it failed, but if there’s one thing he’s always been good at, it’s adapting to people’s plays in soccer.
His friends may’ve only ever been teammates and a soccer ball.
For how awful his name memory is, he’s been learning the names of his teammates pretty quickly. Nakayama and Wakamatsu kind of look like each other, both with their hair shaved and whatnot, but Wakamatsu is a noisy defender while Nakayama is a fellow forward (and a bit more silent). Kaneda is the midfielder who likes to tease his teammates even on the field. Oda is the very boisterous forward who may or may not serve as the captain’s right-hand. Kato is the regular goalie. They’re all very much friends and Kosuke feels completely out of that circle, but he tries to laugh at Oda’s bad puns.
That’s when you know he’s not in the friend’s group, because everyone stares at him funny, including the captain’s uneven eyebrows to feel like be belongs anyway.
Of course, since he’s teamed up with most of the veterans of the team, his side wins the match. This is no small part thanks to their captain and his terrific long shoot – a beast Kosuke has only ever seen on TV, yet unlike most things, is even more impressive in real life – which scores at least twice on its own against their substitute goalie (if Kosuke remembers correctly, they’re supposed to be in the same class). He’d like to believe he contributed by accidentally scoring with a header he intended as a pass to Nakayama.
“It’s not fair, Captain,” Oda says as he removes his armband, pouting. “Your side always wins, even when I’m not in it! Can’t you play without any other regular, for once?”
“I mean, you’re really not as indispensable as you think,” Kaneda snickers, but the Captain shoots him a glare… before fondly rolling his eyes and turning back around.
“We could try that, someday,” he replies, as serious as before. “It doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”
“Hey guys, you heard that?!” Wakamatsu chuckles. “The captain said Oda had a good idea! Oda had a good idea for once in his life, guys!!”
“Wow, that doesn’t happen every day,” Kaneda deadpans.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!”
The eight regulars still here laugh together and Kosuke, still a bit lost, decides he may as well chuckle along.
Captain claps his hands together and everyone immediately goes down to Earth. It’s almost witchcraft how immediate it is.
“Guys, let’s calm down for a moment. We’ve got a newcomer and I’m pretty sure he’s completely lost.”
“Shoot, you’re right!” Kaneda turns to the small guy among them. “Shirosaki, right? Sorry, we kinda forgot ’bout you.”
“It’s fine. What you were talking about seemed really funny.”
“It’s more, like, us making fun of Oda – which is a tradition around here, but that’s beside the point.”
“He’ll learn our ‘traditions’ in due time. For now…”
The captain puts his hands on his hips again and, with a grand smile, changes the topic:
“That was a really nice match, Shirosaki! I’m impressed with how quickly you got familiar with how we played. It’s not everyone who can immediately catch our passes and dribble alongside us as if that wasn’t their first match with us!”
Wow, Kosuke doesn’t know what to say. He knew he was adaptable but hearing it from the Captain of Furano Middle School just doesn’t hit the same spot as sweetly.
“W-well, it’s just that… You guys are, like, so good at teamwork, so it’s real easy to get into it…”
“Hey, no need for humility, dude! You’re good and that’s it!”
“As Oda said,” the captain adds, “no need to shy away from your abilities. We’re gonna need them too, so if we could all get familiar with it, the better!”
“Wait a sec’, you…”
“You’re on the team, now, Shirosaki,” he announces with skipping a beat, lips breaking into a smile. “Congratulations!”
“Congrats, dude!”
“Welcome aboard!”
“We’re gonna show everyone in the country how resourceful Furano really is!”
Kosuke really has no words, but he has all the smiles in the world, and a chest swelling in pride. He’s managed to get roped into the team he wanted the most to win when he was watching the latest Nationals, they all seem super nice, and it just feels like home, the right place to be at the right time. This is perfect.
He really wants to help those guys reach their goals, now.