The Promised Revenge [Manjiro Sano]

4.5

March 1st 2004:

"Chifuyu!!"

The blond boy heard his name being called from the stairway as he sat down on the floor of the rooftop with his friend, having lunch like any other middle schooler.

He recognized those voices calling, he even fought the urge not to let out the longest sigh in front of his captain, knowing that, from the sound of their footsteps and frantic voices, it was leading to no good.

"Are those your friends?", the guy next to him asked, his long black hair slicked back, adjusting his fake donning glasses and chewing his food.

Chifuyu turned to him, a plain smile on his face as he nodded, embarrassed by how wacky his mates' voices were. "I wonder what they want from me this time..."

"Chifuyu!", the three guys burst into the empty rooftop with crying faces, running to their friend with anguished whimpers, throwing their arms around him in despair getting the black-haired guy to back off pulling along the lunchbox he was eating from, afraid that it would be spilled.

"What the...", Chifuyu breathed out, trying to get the guys off him. "The hell do you want?"

"We need your help!"
"We are done for!
"Our legacy had been destroyed!"

"Huh?", he let out, not having a single idea what the three were talking about. But their begs seemed urgent and hopeless that he slightly felt worried. What could've happened that they reached this state?

"I see...", he finally spoke, reaching the place where he got dragged to.

Hearing the noises around him and the colored light almost blinding him, he couldn't help but unbelievably stare. "So this is what I canceled my plans with Baji-San for."

"Don't simplify it!", the one with spiky hair, Sasaki, jumped in, feeling offended. "You know how much this means to us!"

"Yeah!", the second with black hair, Takeuchi, joined. "We fought a long battle to reach this stage!"

"A video game battle...", Chifuyu interrupted, face showing annoyance as he stood in the middle of the arcade.

"Chifuyu, bud", the brown-haired one, Yoshida, wrapping his arm around the irritated guy's neck, said in a soothing voice. "Remember our glory days, when our team was always the top score? Nobody was able to defeat the Foursharks."

"The only thing I remember is not agreeing on that name."

"You were our golden guard! Our key to staying the top", he continued, looking up dramatically. "And now...", he stopped, walking to the empty video game in front of them, turning it on, and revealing the game ranking. "Is the moment the team needs you the most!"

The boy stared at the screen uninterested, he had never felt more furious in his life.

He had recently become the vice-captain of Toman's first division, an achievement he had worked hard to get. Yet here he was, canceling plans with his commander over a video game he used to play a long time ago.

He sighed, taking steps closer, and looking at the name at the top of the ranking.

It wasn't their's...

"CoolY/n?", he wondered, arching an eyebrow when seeing their team's name in second place.

"We don't know who this person is", Takeuchi approached, slamming his hand aggressively on the screen. "But this son of bitch had been surpassing us for two weeks now!"