BLUE LOCK - a place where soccer is more than just a sport and a future of worldwide glory is within grasp. Desperate to prove her worth and break barriers, Keiko Iteya fights to hold her own in a rigorous competition against 299 young men in Japan...
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Rin led me through a familiar path in town. We passed shops busy with activity and people out enjoying the day with friends and family. I was smiling, just enjoying that I was back in such a place that once meant so much to me.
Suddenly Rin came to a stop at a small store decorated with plants and flowers on the outside. It was a florist that my mom used to regularly support. She would always order fresh flowers in the summer to brighten our home and the florist had always been so nice to me when I went to pick them up as a kid.
"Wait here," he told me quietly and then disappeared into the shop.
I did as he asked, turning away from the entrance and staring up at the gray sky as the wind blew again. The breeze ruffled my hair and scarf, tickling my cheeks. It would definitely storm soon. A minute later, footsteps sounded behind me and I turned to see Rin walking out of the shop with a small bouquet of roses in his right hand. My eyes widened. What?
"Here," he said, holding them out to me, staring right at me with a blank expression. I stiffened in confusion. Is he giving me flowers? Rin sighed lightly at my confused expression before he continued. "They aren't for you. Just hold them and let's go."
"Oh. Okay.... Wait what? Then who are they for?" I questioned after taking the white roses from him. He just walked off and my eyes narrowed. I was getting tired of his silence and ignorance of my questions about where we were going. "Rin!"
"We're almost there," he promised me, looking over his shoulder to make sure I was following.
I pressed my lips shut and trailed behind him into a local park with a garden and small koi pond located outside of the main strip. People would come here to gain wishful thinking or take a relaxing walk on a beautiful day. It had been there for decades, according to my mother, as people in the area helped to keep it maintained and clean over the years. I had been here a few times in my childhood, but never with Rin or Sae.
Rin walked along the small path that led up to koi pond, stopping next to a freshly planted tree near the edge of the water. I smiled as my eyes passed over the tree and then looked at the fish swimming under the water. "I haven't been here in a long time. But I've always liked the koi fish."
Rin lowered his head, hesitating before saying, "My mother told me that your mother grew up in this town."
I sadly smiled. "Yeah, she did. My grandfather was from here too. She never wanted to leave this place either, but did do because she loved Hikaru and wanted to support him." My smile fell. "I guess we had that in common."
"My parents moved here when they were a young couple," Rin said to me, breaking the soft silence that fell between us. I curiously looked over at him, wondering where he was going with this. "They told me that the first year they were here, they went to the local Cherry Blossom Festival and your mother performed for everyone in dresses of orange and black. It was some sort of dance to symbolize the journey of a koi fish through life, but it was something that everyone here seemed to really enjoy because she did it every year until she married." His words brought my smile back slowly as I started at a fish moving close to the edge of the water. I had heard this story too from my father, but it was nice to know that my mom had touched other people with her dancing as well. Rin turned to the small growing tree next to us. "A few months ago, the locals and my parents got together and planted that tree in your mother's name, next to the koi pond, so that even after death, every year she could continue to dance in the petals that fell over the water. That's what they told me anyway."
