Arc1// Chapter 17- Suffering

 Piiiiiii—!

 Team Red : Team White

 1 : 1!

 And then, a suffocating silence was brought forth. 

 It was so silent that a drop of pin could be heard.

 Reo hadn't been with Kunigami for as long as Team Z. But even he knew and acknowledged that Kunigami was unshakable and determined in his dream.

 If Team Z were to hear of this, they would never believe this.

 That, Kunigami would abandon his dream that made up the majority of his image in favor of another dream.

 Being the best striker in the world.

 In the pursuit of a dream this heavy, he abandoned his so-called 'shackles'.

 Now, Kunigami felt empty, as if he was hallowed from inside out. He almost wanted to regret his decision.

 It wouldn't be too late if he were to mend himself right now.

 But he didn't.

 Because of his changes that happened just now. Because he landed a goal just now, that goal just now was evidence that he made the 'right' decision. 

 Thus, he continued to ignore the shards -parts of his former self- lying on the ground and the aching from within.

 David gulped, his instincts were screaming, telling him that the guy– the hero– ex-hero was dangerous. The two times he felt this way was when he witnessed Itoshi Rin and his brother engaging in a… battle disguised as a soccer match.

 And, the second time was when Ego made that soul-shaking speech.

 Right now, this guy had gone through a complete makeover as if he was a gal who went to Thailand to have sex change.

 This guy was now completely unrecognizable.

 His aura went from hello-are-you-okay-do-you-want-to-have-my-streak to stand-in-my-way-and-I-will-kill-you.

 Otoya was taken aback, something that rarely happened to him.

 Team Red was the team to have ownership over the ball since they lost the last goal to Team White.

 Otoya wiped his sweats and made a pass to David. And David carried it all the way forward before he was stopped by Kunigami.

 The 1 vs 1 that happened at the start of the match was now re-happening except Kunigami now completely different from before as if a chuunibyou emo dark lord had taken over his body.

 David instantly made a decision seeing that Kunigami planned to steal the ball from him. 

 With a swish, the ball fell under Otoya's feet!

 Reo approached Otoya, with the intention of stealing the ball from him again!

 "Stay obediently and quietly like the loser you are, Reo."

 Oh, fuck off Nagi. I will prove that I don't need you either! I will definitely say those words to you.. and take my revenge!

 Unfortunately, he alone wasn't enough to stop Otoya.

 Kunigami glanced toward their way and threw David off him. And came to defend against Otoya together with Reo.

 "Tch," Otoya tsked, his eyes darting here and there, searching for a way out. With Reo and Kunigami being the way, his escape route had been cut off!

 At long last, he curled up his knees, ready to give the ball to David.

 However…

 Vengeful, Reo was there in the way to take the ownership over the ball. He stuck out his tongue, "Bleh".

 Otoya wasn't able to hound right after him either as Kunigami stayed behind.

 Reo took off, going around David who came to intercepted him. His balance stats taking affects at this very moment.

 Kunigami took a glance toward them and Otoya took that single second to dash right after Reo!

 Unlike before, Kunigami didn't ground his teeth and say something at occurrences like this. His mouth was pressed tight, his aura as heavy as a mountain around him.

 Right now, Reo was in the lead, steadily toward Team Red's goal. David was second, and Otoya was close to catching up to David. The last one who just started running was none other than Kunigami.

 "Oh no, you don't." Otoya soon surpassed David and he sped up even more. Reo wanted to throw something at him -preferably a brick- just for him to drop dead at this very moment.

 At this moment, the new and ex-hero Kunigami was engaged in a battle with David. Again. Falling into a stalemate between them. Again.

 Now or never!

 Reo made a leap of fate and kicked the ball toward the goal! But alas, it seemed that fate didn't seem to favor Team White, or just him.

 Because by lightly kicking the ground with the tip of his feet, Otoya flew forward and touched the ball, making it stray from the goal, in the process.

 Otoya then fell down toward the ground, making a 'cool' impression as his hair swayed slightly in the air.

 This moment was quite suitable for a romance manga but Reo wasn't having none of that and mustered up his glare at Otoya.

 "Oh, is the purple kitten angry? Too bad, you can't do anything about that," Otoya was… just being Otoya.

 Reo's face flared up. Not from being embarrassed or suddenly being shy. No, it was from deep anger.

 Honestly, Reo felt like shit. His days were pretty shitty these days. 

 His best friend dumped him. To be honest, it was kinda Reo's fault for treating him like a 'thing' instead of a human being. 

 Then, he proceeded to lose toward the said 'ex-bff's' team and lost one of his teammates in the process.

 After he and his other teammate fell back to 2 vs 2 matches, they got challenged by a dipshit team.

 'Just' after they freaking lost.

 He just can't take a break.

 Then, his last teammate suddenly went Super Saiyan or some shit in the middle of the game and he was now emo.

 The worst thing was he hadn't seen his idol–crush's face once in this place. When that damn Nagi had him even bumped into his chest.

 Reo was not jealous.

 He totally was not.

 Right now, he felt very tired physically and mentally and just wanted to sleep surrounded by Leon body pillows. 

 He should've listened to Kunigami when the Hero– ex-hero was signaling with his eyes to not fall into their provocation.

 The conclusion is Leon's younger brother and the mentioned younger brother's teammates were so shitty that he can't even.

 "Is exhaustion catching up to you buddy?" David commented with a shitty grin. If there was a thing about David that everyone had noticed, it was that David treated everyone except Leon with an asshole-y attitude. The treatment was like heaven and earth; water and oil. "Too bad for you since I've never known how that feels."

 Reo stopped, and he saw red.

 "Piiiiiiii—!!!"

 "A Yellow card to Mikage Reo!"'

 VAR called out and Otoya rushed, but not to restrain a raging Reo. He just came near the fight to get a better view. 

 In his humble opinion, it would have been better to have popcorn.

 "Fight, fight!" He clapped with an expressionless face. In the end, the expected fight scene (by Otoya) didn't happen because the two were off-put by Otoya's cheering.

 "Damn, how boring." The Ninja went back to his place since Reo and David not only did not fight, but even gave him weird looks.

 David swept the blood under his nose with a thumb and stood up with a hand on the ground. He gave Reo one last look before he walked off.

 Reo had a shadow on his face, despite feeling a momentary pleasure when he punched David just now, his mood was now back to square one.

 The match was interrupted but it still had to continue.

 Although having a heavy mood with the threat of being kicked out creeping under him, as if shadows would come up from the ground to swallow him whole, Reo still had to continue.

 Reo wasn't strong enough, nor was he fast enough.

 Having a balanced stats meant he would always cap at 99%.

 "Piiiiii—!"

 Team Red : Team White

 2 : 1!

 Kunigami glared at him, dragging him up by his collar as he gritted out, "What had gotten into you? Just now, you could've stopped him. You had several opportunities yet you did not use any of that. No wonder Nagi left you."

 Before this match… Kunigami wasn't like this. But now he was… -for a better word- an asshole.

 Reo fell under blow after blow.

 Reo wished this suffering would come to an end.