Ascension│Bluelock x male reader

2.14. Nine-Buddies

"Please get into teams of five. We will now be playing - the Rivalry Battle. Every stage your team moves up, you will gain points, to be used on luxuries and benefits. If you lose on the first stage, you will receive negative points, and be subject to punishment." The message was repeated once in Japanese, then in English.

Julian Loki stood alone in the huge room. Hundreds of kids filled the place, the majority of them larger than him. After all, he was only nine. Most of the others were ten or eleven. Yet again, he wished he was anywhere but there.

He wasn't allowed to go back yet. That was what they'd said. 'It can't be that bad', they'd told him. Well, it was that bad, and Julian didn't know how much longer he could last in this hell and come out in one piece.

And he was tired. And he was hungry. And he was upset. And because of that, he'd missed the entire explanation behind what was going to happen, and was now left to guess, standing amongst the crowds.

"Hey!" A lighthearted voice behind him chirped. Julian froze. He cautiously turned around, not knowing at all what to expect. After all, nobody normal would sound so happy in this place.

"Hey...?"

He came face to face with another boy, around his height. He looked oddly calm, not as scared nor as worried as the rest of the kids. Two boys stood by him, and one girl. None of them looked too happy to talk to him, except the one in the middle.

Placing his hands together, and ducking his head slightly, the boy smiled. "Wanna join our team? We're pretty good, I promise."

To him, the voice was fast, speaking in such rapid Japanese he had no clue what he was saying. Julian chewed on his lip, waiting for the boy to stop talking and staring at him with a clueless look. Eventually, it worked, and both of them just awkwardly stood there. The rest of the people in the boy's group exchanged confused looks.

Holding up a hand, Julian gave a small, shy wave, and tried speaking in English. His Japanese was horrible, English slightly better. "You know English?"

More confused glances.

"Eng-lish?" Julian was ready to just walk away and hope that some random group of kids would pick him up. Then there was a voice.

"You speak English?"

His eyes instantly went to the boy in the middle, much shorter than the rest. "Yes."

"That's alright!" The boy nodded reassuringly. "I was just asking, do you want to join our group? We're pretty good." His accent was a little different to the French one Julian was used to, but he spoke it extremely well.

Julian hesitantly glanced around the rest of the group. "How old are you?"

"They're all eleven, and I'm nine and two months." The boy sounded a little annoyed, emphasising the two months part. "But I'm really fast, and I'm good at soccer! So you should join us!"

"You're nine too...?"

"You as well?!" The boy grinned. "Well, you have to join us now. We can be nine buddies."

One of the boy's teammates tapped him on the shoulder, eyes wide and lost. He leant forwards, speaking in quiet Japanese while he cast an apprehensive look at Julian. Julian swallowed as they had a short conversation, the middle boy shaking his head.

Right after, he turned back to Julian, smiling. "So, how about it?"

"Sure..." If he was honest, he didn't know what to think of this new boy. He was much too happy, keeping a cheerful, relaxed atmosphere that put all the other kids in the area at ease.