On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Dinner

Hours passed by, and the majority of them went through a rollercoaster of emotions to process their entire story. From how normal everything was on Sandorias, to the things they had to deal with on Sazanaara, to the dangers they faced on Gardon, to the happiness and sadness they went through on Ratoniik.

Mizukawa and Potomuri's story, along with Katora and Kiel's, was told as they recounted how they faced the impostor before reaching the final planet (The girl in question needing to be held back from picking fights with a dead alien the entirety of the story).

And then Faram Orbius, where they arrived with full determination to save their friend, only to reach the stadium and find that he had betrayed them. Well, not really, but without knowing any of the details about the cannon, it sure felt that way. They remembered how casual Kimiko was from the beginning, so in hindsight, they probably should've trusted her more, but it wasn't like they could help it either. And they couldn't forget the shift in timeline that caused everything related to her to disappear for a day and how the navy haired striker reacted to it all. After that, they fought Ixal Fleet, stayed over another night at the castle, and departed for home... only to be intercepted by two alien ghosts that wanted to have a soccer battle.

Which led them here.

"All of that... happened?"

"It must've been stressful for you all."

"You did well."

"But to think Tsurugi became a bad guy again. That's funny!"

"Not at that moment, it wasn't." Sakura argued with the goggles wearing senior. "He really scared us!"

"And yet another person saying 'again'." Minaho pointed out, causing realization to drop on the rest of Earth Eleven. "When was the first time he did that?"

Those from Raimon all exchanged glances. It was all done and over in their perspective, and they've turned it into a bit of a joke within the club, but to retell it...

"Shindou?" Of course, Kirino was the first to turn to him.

"... I'm fine with it, but Tsurugi and Kimiko aren't here to give their side of the story, so..."

"I'll take care of that."

"Gouenji-san... Alright, then." After exchanging nods with the rest of Raimon as well, he took a deep breath. "Before meeting us, have any of you heard of Fifth Sector?"

Some nodded while others tilted their heads in confusion.

And another few hours went by.

~~~~~

"What happened to you? You don't look so good."

"I don't want to hear that from you of all people."

"Now, now, you two..."

By the time they returned to the lab's waiting area, it was dinner time. Many of them had decided to lend a hand with the cooking, so the only ones that went to call on the two left behind were Shinsuke, Kurama, Sakura, and Zanark.

But to their surprise, they found that the doors to the lab itself were open and heard three voices chatting. Running over, they found the two brothers on either side of the blonde girl laying down on a bed and hooked to what looked like a dozen machines.

"Kyou, were you bullied or something while I was out? The heck did I miss?"

"A ton. A fuck ton." He ran a hand through his hair (that had been let out of its usual ponytail, to their surprise), his expression annoyed more than anything. "For the most part, it's people being worried about the fact that you're dying."