IEGO: CS || Wavering Hearts

『 CHAPTER 1 』

Matsukaze Tenma was confused.

As he sat on the stairs of the Riverbank, he reviewed back the odd things he had experienced ─

Odd thing one: Shinsuke doesn't remember him. Rather, Shinsuke viewed him as just a fellow freshman who happened to go to the same school.

Odd thing two: Aoi, though still his childhood friend, was the same. Yet she never mentioned the Soccer Club.

Odd thing three: Shindou Takuto is now a member of the Music Club, and while no longer Captain of the Soccer Club, he acted as if Shindou was never the captain of a club he claimed doesn't exist.

Odd thing four: Kariya and Kirino are apart of the Book Club. So were Minamisawa and Kurama.

Odd thing five: Kurumada, Hikaru, Amagi, Hamano, Hayami, Ichinose, Aoyama, Midori, and Akane were also now in different clubs.

Odd thing six: The soccer club is no more. Scratch that; soccer doesn't seem to exist as a sport anymore.

Odd thing seven: [Surname] [Name] is -

Matsukaze Tenma frowned.

♡ ┄ ♡ ┄ ♡

"Sangoku-senpai!"

"Oh, a freshman!" Sangoku smiled at Tenma.

He doesn't remember me either!? Tenma sweated.

"Interested in joining the Sumo Club?"

The Sumo Club? You chose that club? Wouldn't Amagi-san fit it better? Tenma almost asked. But, he shook his head and asked instead:

"Sangoku-senpai! Is [Name] with you?!"

Sangoku's smile faltered ever so slightly. His eyebrows crooked in confusion. "[Name]...? A-ahem, there's quite a few people with that name. If you could tell me which [Name] is it, I could -"

"T-then, did [Surname] [Name] walked with you today?!"

Sangoku's smile dropped. His eyes widened. His fingers trembled. His breath, nearly, hitched.

"May I ... know your name first?"

"It's Matsukaze Tenma..."

"Matsukaze-san..."

Tenma straightened his back, eyes slowly widening when Sangoku's eyes turned glossy.

"H-how..." Sangoku stuttered out, "how ... do you know that name Matsukaze-san..?"

♡ ┄ ♡ ┄ ♡

Tenma buried his face into his knees. Why did Sangoku acted that way? Why did he looked ... so in pain?

"Matsukaze-san?"

Tenma snapped his head up, and saw Sangoku behind him. Sangoku gripped his bag, held a deep breath, released, then asked:

"May I sit beside you?"

"Ah, s-sure!"

Tenma scooted to the side. Sangoku thanked him, and took up the empty spot. Silence ensude as Sangoku gathered his bearings. He said this, "We ... didn't quite get to finish our conversation before we were interrupted, by the bell."

Tenma didn't know what to say, so he could only nod.

"Well, could you answer ... my question from before again, Matsukaze-san?"

Tenma paused, then nodded. "Okay."

Tenma started from the beginning. How he first met you, how you met the team, how you reunited with Sangoku ⸺

Sangoku gripped his head. Glitches of vision of your smile appeared in his head. Your smile upon your patched and stitched skin. Odd. Your skin never looked like that before.

"S-Sangoku-senpai?"

"I-I'm fine. Please, continue."

With a frown, Tenma complied.

⸺ how you joined the team, how you supported them in their rough times, in the rough times where soccer was strictly regulated, in the rough times young teens were trained so harshly just to regulate a fun little sport, how you, him, Sangoku, and the rest of your friends were kidnapped to an island, how your team witnessed you in deep states of unconscious, how Raimon: the soccer club won the Holy Road.

Tenma ended it there. He waited for Sangoku, who continued to grip his head, to say something. And Sangoku did. He did; as he gazed at Tenma with an unreadable emotion.

"Just ⸺ just to confirm, this [Surname] [Name] that you know of is alive, and well, and that I have reunited with her, and played soccer with her?"

"Yes," Tenma said so, with genuineness in his eyes.

Sangoku realised then and there that he couldn't shake it off as an elaborative joke. Thus, his voice shook.

"That doesn't make sense," he breathed. "That doesn't make sense at all."

"W-why, Sangoku-senpai?"

"Because ⸺" Sangoku swallowed both his tears and his gulp.

"Because [Nickname] is dead."