Chapter Text
Karasu had always dreamed of playing football on the world stage, winning the World Cup, and just about everything else that came with idolizing the sport from a young age. Which of course meant that his first opportunity to attend the "special training program to become a certified athlete" was a no-brainer of an option.
And that's exactly how he found himself there in Blue Lock, clothed in a tight body suit surrounded by three hundred of the best high school forwards.
He took his time to get dressed when he'd got to the room he'd been assigned, doing his usual thing that he'd do before each match and analyzing the people around him, afterall, these guys were the enemy, yeah?
Their room was apparently room V, both proudly displayed on the door outside in the hall and embroidered onto each of their body suits' arms alongside a number. He pulled his arm through the sleeve and glanced down to read his own number 241, before scanning the room again, they were all numbered between 241-253 from what he could tell, making him the highest, maybe it was some type of ranking system. None of the faces around him looked familiar either, he knew that he wasn't the only striker from Osaka to be chosen for the program as he'd seen the cyan head of hair that could only belong to one man back at their first meeting with Ego, but it didn't appear that Hiori would be rooming with him.
Regardless, he still tried to discern what he could from the guys around him. Most weren't all that eye catching, either physically smaller than him or just not all that tough looking, so he looked again, this time going off the assumption that their numbers were in fact rankings, which would make number 242 his biggest rival. At first, he didn't see him because the boy was curled in the corner of the room with his head tilted back against the wall and his eyes closed looking completely at peace in a room full of strangers. Karasu studied him, he seemed small stature-wise, but he supposed that it would be hard to know for sure until the boy stood up, his hair was a stark white with a green streak cutting down the middle of his bangs, with the same colour dyeing his undercut. His long legs were bent into his chest, and the more he looked the more he muscle he was able to see, this guy was surprising lean. A speed type if Tabito had to bet money on it based purely on his build.
He was staring, he knew that much, and apparently so did the other man as his eyes snapped open and suddenly locked onto Karasu's blue eyes with his own green ones. He lifted an eyebrow quizzically and all he could give as an answer was his signature smirk. "Can I help you?" the boy asked obviously annoyed and Karasu chuckled before he pointed to his sleeve's number which drew the other boy's eyes down to where he was tapping his finger impatiently.
"That makes ya #2 in this room," Karasu teased the boy, hoping that he could get under his skin early on, better to break his spirit now before he got too full of himself. Surprisingly, the only reaction he received was an eye roll before the boy returned to leaning his head back against the wall and fluttering his eyelids closed, ignoring the larger boy's presence. Karasu stood there in shock, slowly blinking his eyes as he processed this man's reaction, seemed like he wasn't going to break this one that easily. Fortunately he did not have to stare for much longer as the monitor in the room came to life to display the absolute terror of a man, Ego Jinpachi.
God that was a face that was gonna take some getting used to.
"Hello my little diamonds in the rough," his grating voice greets and Tabito sees the boy on the floor crack his eyes open with an annoyed expression, it was nice to see that his feeling regarding the man was shared mutually by others. "Welcome to Blue Lock, where you will have the chance to achieve what no Japanese football player has been able to by competing against the top three hundred strikers in your age group. The others around you will be both your enemies and teammates meant to push you to new heights."
Karasu swivelled his head around to glance at those around him and really hoped that this guy on the ground was tougher than he looked cause he wasn't sensing any challenges yet. Ego continued his monologue not long after his theatrical pause, "I have ranked each and every one of you with my own personal judgement to quantify your abilities, mainly how capable these skills make you to fight on your own. You all," he said directly addressing them, "make up Team V, you've probably guessed, but that means you are mere ants compared to the upper ranks of Team B."
The boy on the floor scoffed and Karasu smirked, never in his life did he think he might have ranked so low, and apparently this guy felt the same way.
"Blue Lock consists of five stratums, each with five other teams residing in them. You will be given the opportunity to meet the others soon, but first you must survive the first challenge," Ego smiled as a ball dropped from the ceiling to a player in the center of the room's feet, "let's play some tag why don't we." The screen changed and showed a cartoon picture of the boy with the ball as well as his name and rank of 252.
Makoto Kita it read and Karasu thought he might recognize it from somewhere, maybe he'd played this kid before but it couldn't have been all that interesting because he was drawing a blank.
"You'll have 136 seconds to play, if you get hit with the ball then you become it, whoever's it when the time runs out will fuck off and go home," Ego explained over the speakers as the boy grabbed the ball and glanced around nervously. "And of course," Ego added, "no using your hands, let's begin then."
There was a loud buzzer as the time on the screen began to tick down, the boy immediately dribbled off to the otherside of the room, chasing just about anyone he saw as everyone ran around, some looking like they were having the time of their lives while others appeared ready to shit themselves from fear. However, the boy beside him did not move from his spot on the floor, and upon closer inspection Karasu noticed he'd closed his eyes again, how bold he thought.
The clock hit 100 seconds remaining and the boy who was it was still blindly chasing after the group on one end of the room, Karasu smirked as he had the thought that now would be a good time to eliminate some of his real competition, not the low ranked nobodies. Makoto fired the ball and missed a group of two guys who'd been pushed into the corner and should have been easy enough targets, causing the ball to bounce across the room and land at Karasu's feet, just barely coming to a halt before hitting him. He glanced down at the ball, then to Makoto who was scrambling towards him, then finally to Mister Number-Two, who was still relaxing in his corner. His mind made up, Karasu lifted his foot to trap the ball and watched as the screen made a small "bzzzt" sound and updated the status of who was it to his own crude caricature, they even got his beauty mark.
His target remained unmoved as he winded up his leg and released a hard pass directly for his head, smiling as he waited for the contact to hit.
It never came however as the boy miraculously dodged to the left just enough for the ball to hit the wall beside him and rustle his hair with the wind of its movement, all while never opening his eyes. The ball unceremoniously bounced back into Karasu's possession and he watched as the other boy calmly opened his eyes to look at him again.
"You missed me," he stated more matter-of-factly than tauntingly and Tabito could only grin.
"What, no 'missed me, missed me, now ya gotta kiss me'?" he teased back and glanced at the screen to see that there were only 40 seconds remaining now.
The white-haired boy's lip curled into a grimace and he glared with a look that could kill before saying, "in your dreams, bird boy."
He chuckled and looked behind him to see that everyone had taken shelter in the corner of the room opposite the two of them to watch their interactions, Makoto in the front of the group. "Ya can have this back now there, Makoto," Karasu said before firing a quick hard shot that hit the poor boy directly in his stomach, "I've decided I want this one ta stay."
Makoto fell to his knees and gasped for air from the impact of the shot and Tabito turned to look at his number two, "hope ya don't make me regret it." The boy's lips quipped into a small smile and Karasu tried not to feel like he'd won a contest by bringing out his grin, afterall, this was Blue Lock, there were no friends here.
The game ended with Makoto still on the ground gasping for air 20 seconds later, a pathetic end for an even more pathetic player, he had tears falling from his eyes as he cried about the unfairness of the situation, blabbing about how he had been hurt and that a game of tag shouldn't seal his fate as a player. Ego reappeared on the screen and smiled, "only losers sit there and complain after they failed to do anything with thirty seconds remaining to save themselves, goals have been scored with less time remaining and you couldn't even get off the ground with your entire professional career on the line."
"You, Makoto Kita," Ego grinned, "are a loser, and Blue Lock has no place for such people. Fuck. Off."
Makoto cried looking to Karasu as if he would be able to, let alone want, to help him, and it was there, with the boy on his knees with tears in his eyes, that Karasu placed Makoto's face and name in his memories, "yer from Shimizudani," Karasu smirked and the boy nodded. Shimizudani had been the school Karasu's school team had defeated in the finals that got them their bye into nationals, Tabito had been the one to score the game winning point and Makoto was the opposing team's forward that he'd left crying on the field as he walked off the victor, "explains why ya suck so bad."
He heard a chuckle from the peanut gallery, population of one emo boy, and Karasu looked behind him to see that he'd finally risen to his feet, apparently ready to participate now that the game had already ended, "big words for someone who missed an unmoving target."
Tabito studied the boy, he was shorter like he'd thought during his original analysis but lithe, however, it was his presence that surprised him. This guy was dangerous and both he and Karasu knew it, it was present in every step he took and breath he released, he was a predator in this room full of prey.
"Ah," Karasu hummed at their guest, "sleepin' beauty decided ta join us."
Ego cut into their conversation before the boy could answer by once again telling Makoto to "fuck off."
Fortunately, for the guy's already limited dignity, he grabbed his stuff and scurried out of the room not too long after that and Karasu crossed his arms and looked up at the monitor as Ego began to explain how the next few weeks would work. "You'll be facing off against the other four teams of this stratum in a round robin style tournament," Ego explained, a grid appearing to further help the high schoolers visualize his words, "you as Team V are the highest ranking members of your stratum, but don't let that go to your head. The bottom three teams from the tournament will be removed from Blue Lock except for the three top scorers from each team. You will have 48 hours to prepare for your match against Team Y, do not let yourselves be overshadowed by a lesser's ego," he warned before the monitor went dark
Karasu tilted his head back to look at the boy again, finding him already glaring with an unimpressed look, "I'm Karasu Tabito," he said, extending his hand.
The boy hesitantly took his hand, looking as though he was scared that Karasu was carrying some incurable disease, "Otoya Eita," he spoke back, his grip firm in Karasu's rough hands, as he was releasing his hand, Otoya added "you're more of a bird boy than I thought with a name like that."
Karasu flashed a toothy grin, "the hair's my signature look."
"I wouldn't be speaking so highly of that bird's nest if I were you," he said, the look of disgust having not left his face since he'd first risen to stand next to him. Karasu feigned hurt before taking a finger to sweep the boy's bangs off his forehead, "at least my picture doesn't show up when ya google 2009 scene kid," he teased and Otoya swatted at his hand to get him away from his face.
"Whatever," he groaned before shoving past him to join the others in the room, "and don't think I've forgotten that you tried to get me eliminated," he threw over his shoulder before continuing on.
Karasu grinned, at least he had this guy to keep him entertained.
---
The next day Karasu begins to wonder if he'd regret those words.
Ego assigned them to some team training to get a gauge of their physical abilities and fitness levels, starting with a warmup, endurance training, time in the weight room, then finally field time. In each stage of this training Karasu found his eyes drifting to Otoya, wanting to see where this guy stood against his own abilities. Just how large was the gap between them skill-wise?
Eita held up well despite his size, and in the running drills he absolutely crushed all of Karasu's PB's for the 100, 200, and 800 meter sprints, although, in the endurance run Karasu still managed to hold out longer, so there was that. On the field, Karasu immediately took charge and established himself as a sort of leader of the pack, using his charm and already boastful scores in their physical training to win over the majority of the team to follow his word to victory.
All except Otoya it seemed.
"I'm willing to give anyone a chance to score who is willing to follow my playmaking style," Karasu promised as if he were running for some type of political office, and a majority of the others nodded in response. Otoya however, scoffed, "who died and made you captain?" he asked, his tone dripping with challenge, "cause I have a strong feeling my playstyle and your's aren't gonna align well."
There was a quiet murmuring among the group as some people agreed with Eita, what happened for those whose abilities didn't match with Karasu's vision? Tabito's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as Otoya ruined what should have been an easy slide into a leadership position. "Well, let's work on some matchups, what kind of football does everyone want to play?" Karasu smiled, playing the nice guy if it meant he'd get everyone to fall in line.
Otoya tilted his head in thought, as if he'd never put too much thought into the question, "I just wanna do what I feel like," he said.
This time Karasu was sure his eyebrow twitch was visible as Eita smirked, pleased with his work of pissing off the older boy. The others in the group however began to give their own answers so Karasu moved on to them, listening and adding each players' weapons into his mind to build strategies with. They tossed around some ideas, some being a few different formations they could try, who might work well with who, and finally, they drew lots to assign a goalie, the role going to a poor first year.
In the end, Karasu landed himself center forward as most of his teammates were used to playing on a wing to some degree. They would swap between who was playing on the sides depending on who was playing the best at that time. Of course Otoya would get to start on the wing, since his number was the second highest, with the third highest number getting the other. Karasu held the right to pull someone up to the wing to replace anyone at any given moment, and if the majority of the team so decided, he would swap out of center forward to keep things fair to a degree.
With that decided, they began some drills, and Karasu quickly learned what Otoya had meant by 'doing what he feels like.' Basically, Otoya's football style was: listen to what Karasu wanted him to do and then do the exact opposite. If Karasu said run through for a pass at the top of the box, then Otoya would be waiting at a goal post, or if he called for a one-two pass to make it up field, the second he'd received the ball Otoya would make his own mad dash to the net.
Karasu wanted to scream and cuss the boy out, anything to get out his frustrations and before sending him as far back into their defensive line as he could, but the fact of the matter was: Otoya Eita was a great striker.
If Karasu was the most logical type of player, then Otoya was the most spontaneous, and somehow, in some cruel twisted way, it just worked. He was always open and in position (even if it wasn't where Karasu wanted him), he could shake any defenders with ease, and his off the ball movements were just downright sexy. If Otoya was being too heavily guarded he knew how to pull the defenders free from Karasu's path with subtle movements so the boy could make his own way up the field, so it wasn't like he was losing out on his own goals either. Otoya was good at what he did, but it wasn't what Karasu wanted to do, so how was he supposed to work with a kid as annoying as him?
Regardless of how he felt about the situation, their game against Team Y still came to pass the next day. As they were entering the field, Karasu saw that familiar sight of cyan hair. "Hiori," he called and the smaller male looked up, gave a small smile and slowly crossed to the front of the field to meet with his senior.
"Hello, Karasu-kun," Hiori greeted softly, not really displaying any emotion in his voice, it was like even saying hi to his old teammates was only a formality to him, "I didn't expect ta see ya ranked so low."
Karasu shrugged and glanced down at his number on his sleeve, "just barely under the cut, I s'pose." He saw that Otoya was hovering around a bit too close to be not listening in on their conversation and glared at the younger striker, now why couldn't all players be as polite as Hiori was? The feminine-looking boy followed his gaze to see Otoya and smiled softly, "well I should line up I s'pose, good luck Karasu-kun," Hiori wished before turning to find his position in the midfield.
Otoya approached silently from behind and nearly caused Tabito to jump when he quietly whispered into his ear, "that guy's pretty like a girl, does he have an older sister? Bet she'd be gorgeous."
Karasu turned and stared in disgust at his teammate before giving his shoulder a hard shove in the direction of where he needed to be on the right wing, "don't get distracted," he warned, earning only a smirk in response.
The game began with a buzz from the speakers and Karasu made the first pass off to Otoya who fortunately passed back like he was supposed to. Karasu looked up and noticed immediately that the other team was already in disarray as more than half broke their positioning to charge for the ball.
"What are you guys doing?" Someone on Team Y called before also charging in, not wanting to be left behind. Karasu chuckled when he realized what this was about, they had already given up hope on winning the match, as far as they were concerned the only way out of the first selection was by becoming the top scorer.
This would be as good of a time as any to prove his worth to his team, which would be likely pretty easy against a bunch of mediocre players such as these. Karasu would just have to keep them off the ball. He began to work his way up, guarding possession as his teammates were trapped on the outside of the frenzy, he saw the smart ones such as Otoya and Hiori who knew to position themselves outside the dogpile to collect loose balls, not that there'd be any. With the help of his strong arms, he pushed up through the crowd, managing to break through to the other side with ease, n' with a feint there n' a push here, he thought as he pressed through the final remaining defenders and made it to his shooting range. He gave a clear curved shot at the open net, hitting the top corner only because he liked to show off.
He took his hand and ran it through his hair as the buzzer sounded and the screen updated with his score, "n' that's how ya do it," he smirked to Otoya, who'd never been more than a few steps behind him the entire time. "God," Otoya complained, "you're so pretentious."
"Ya love it," Karasu said as they walked back to their end and received only a shove in response.
He caught Hiori's gaze as he was returning and saw the look of defeat in his eyes, Karasu shook his head at his junior, he knew things were bad for him considering he'd been put in a team of people not even willing to try but that didn't mean he wanted Hiori giving up, hell the kid already was on the lookout for a reason to quit the sport.
They lined up and the other team seemed more uneasy after watching one man beat them all, perhaps they'd hold their positions and give them a real challenge after all. Their center made his first pass and Karasu pushed up aiming directly to intercept the new boy's dribbles, it seemed that he was right that Team Y was going to try to play as a more unified system as they stay more or less in their zones. Seemed he'd done a number on their egos with that score.
He pressed into the boy's space and saw his eyes dance to look at Hiori who'd stepped up to help out, Tabito tsked quietly and pushed in, slowly peeling him away from his own pass, "that was never gonna work." Pulling free from his opponent, Karasu feinted around You, not wanting to waste time crushing someone who'd already been defeated long ago.
To his surprise, Hiori stayed close behind him, blocking the boys only escape as two of his seemingly more organized teammate's blocked him in from the front. He used his peripheral vision to see what his passing options were when he saw the movement up field, Otoya was silently padding his way in and between the defenders undetected, and his path would put him right front and center of the net. "I s'pose ya've earned this one," he muttered before passing the ball where Eita was practically begging for it to go.
Otoya greedily snatched the pass and gave his finishing kill blow to secure Team V's second score of the match, "boom," he said gleefully, smiling to himself as he watched the score update on the monitor.
"Ya must be some type of ninja, 'Toya," Karasu said, walking over to pull the other boy up off the ground and congratulate his goal. Hiori didn't stray far and when he'd pulled Otoya up he wrapped an arm over his shoulder much to his protests he stood and watched the odd dynamic of Team V's top strikers. Otoya smacked his chest and Karasu released him while laughing, the boy did eventually answer his question with a quiet mumble, "my ancestors were if it matters, I'm just sneaky."
The rest of the match went exactly as the first two goals had gone, either Karasu would score or Otoya would attack from the shadows. Finishing with a final score of 6-0 for Team V and Otoya and Karasu tied in scores, though Karasu smiled to himself because he knew by way of assists, he would still be considered number one when their ranks were updated.
Karasu did pause on his way out to squat next to a defeated looking Hiori who was sat on the turf staring at his hands, "You-chan," he said, "ya still haven't found that reason ta keep playin', hm?" he asked despite knowing the answer just from looking at the boy.
Hiori shook his head but said, "I know why I'm playin', Karasu-kun, the reason just ain't mine."
He smiled sadly at the boy, "well don't go losing to these guys, I wanna see ya in the next stage alright?"
Hiori smiled slightly but didn't raise his head to look at Tabito. "Well isn't this a heartwarming chat," Otoya's smooth voice unexpectedly came from beside him. This time, Karasu did jump in surprise and he turned to glare at his teammate, "I'm gonna have ta put a bell on ya," he grumbled, not remembering if this guy had always been so deadly quiet. Hiori did look up this time, taking in their visitor, "ya two make quite the duo," he praised and Karasu wished he would shut up.
"No we don't," he and Otoya said in synch, which caused them to whip their heads to look at each other. Hiori giggled and pushed himself up off the ground so Karasu and Otoya rose as well, "well ya already seemed stronger to me, Karasu-kun. I'll see ya in the next selection." And with that he wandered off.
Karasu watched him disappear before Otoya shoved him hard from behind, enough to make him stumble forward one step, but not completely fall down, "damn," Otoya swore and Karasu turned ready to fight the idiot, "you've sure got one hell of a core," he praised, "and also are such a good little senpai for his cute juniors," he teased, reaching up to pinch at Karasu's cheeks.
The purple-haired man narrowed his eyes and swatted away his hands, "Hiori's a good kid," he stated planning to leave it at that. At that point everyone had disappeared off the field to change out of their gear and shower, something Karasu was desperately wanting to do as well, but he supposed Otoya did just compliment him in his own weird way, guess he owed it to him. "Yer fast," he said, "and yer off-the-ball movements are down right erotic," he tacked on quickly afterwards.
Now it was Otoya's turn to narrow his eyes, "you did not just call my playstyle 'erotic'."
"Sure did," he grinned with his tongue poking out between his teeth, "don't make me take it back."
They exited the turf at long last, jostling back and forth and tossing out petty insults the entire way to the baths.