Project Z

The room, if you could call it that is dark and wet, full of water.

The flickering light outside is enough to make the brunet's eyes burn so he keeps them shut. He feels dizzy and weak. The only sounds he can catch are those of fast typing sounds and, although light, he hears the sound perfectly.

How long has he been there?

The last thing he recalls seeing is the face of a white-haired man looking at him with sick glee in his eyes. The brunet doesn't know why, but that memory makes his body tremble subconsciously.

The more he tries, the less he remembers. He doesn't know who he is, has no idea how his life has been up to that moment and what happened to him.

"Project Z, nice to see you back. Thought I killed you for a moment there," a voice says, interrupting his thoughts. It is eerily familiar. He tries to concentrate on where he heard that voice before but remembers only bits of it:

"It's time... with you... you'll forget... power..."

They make no sense but the brunet has a feeling, or rather, he is sure of it. That man is dangerous. Every part of his body screams that.

"We can now start the second phase," the man says once more and footsteps walks away from the room. But it isn't the man, he is still there, staring at him creepily.

He suddenly feels a strange pain in his legs, moving fast to the rest of his body. He feels like he is burning.

His lungs, heart everything inside his body is burning, aching, throbbing. ä̴̮̩̯̗͎͔́͗͑̋͆̽̑̾g̶̖̒͛́̄̂͑̋́̽͒͘͠͝ǫ̷̧̨͇̈́͜͝n̶̩͙̙̬̮̂́ï̷̧̖̟͎̝̹̻̦͓͈͙̻͈̇̅̔͘z̵̛͔͖̯̈́̇̑̔̃́̉̐̎̍̒͜ͅi̶̛̯̳͐͌̊̆̆̌͘n̵̺̦̟͇̯̝̲̰̖͛̋̏̉̚͜ḡ̶͉̏̀̍͌̊̌̎͊́̾̓̕

He can't form any cohesive thoughts. The pain is too much. His mouth is open, but he can't hear anything come out. He feels his skin starting to burn up. He starts seeing dark spots and the last thing he sees before the blackness engulfs him is the same sick smile on the man's face.

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He opens his eyes and finds himself in a strange place. Strange doesn't necessarily mean something bad. The brunet actually finds it welcoming. Anything is better than that dark, painful (if the pain he felt earlier has anything to say) and lonely room.

He looks up and sees four crystals floating in mid-air. They soon start moving in a circular motion around him and changing colour.

One displays light-brown, another red, the other white and the last one was a light-turquoise.  The only thing the four gems have in common is the emerald aura that surrounds them. He notices he is the one emitting the emerald aura.

Suddenly, the room bursts in a beautiful mixture of those five colours. It is simply breathtaking and leaves the brunet looking in awe. He feels protected, safe. He feels like he could stay there forever.

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(Meanwhile in Raimon)

Endou is distressed, highly distressed. There has been no success in tracing the missing brunet in the past two months. Security forces have been alerted and have been trying their best to find the missing teen. Even western forces have been informed. But it seems the teen has disappeared from the face of the Earth.

The Raimon players are now in high school and have become a national team that plays against other high school soccer teams worldwide.

Imagine the shock Japan received at the disappearance of 14-year-old captain Matsukaze Tenma.

He is currently driving from the Resistance base to Raimon High school. When he gets there, and enters the meeting room, he sees all the hopeful faces of the teens on him. 

Grief fills him as he sees that hope fade from the players' eyes when he shakes his head. The first person to go to him is Shindou, who starts questioning him about any information he acquired. The man knows Shindou is desperate, he sees it clearly in his eyes.

His gaze shifts to the navy haired boy sitting in a side in the room, his eyes are red. Bags under them and faded tear streaks. He seems paler than normal and no matter how Endou doesn't like the idea, he knows nothing he could say would cheer them up.

Some people like Sangoku and Kirino are on a computer, the place where Shindou had been before coming to him. They are most likely looking up information on the net regarding the last match they played and the team they played against. Endou knows they have been on that computer for the past two weeks, meeting themselves at Shindou's house.

Others are trying to calm themselves like Kurama who was kicking a ball around but Endou knows that does nothing to calm the light-blue haired teen's nerves.

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One Aki Kino has been particularly devastated since the tragedy. Because she was there when it happened. She saw how the team had been destroyed, most of the shots aimed at Tenma. She saw as all the players collapsed and Tenma, the most stubborn, was the last to succumb to the pain.

She saw them lift him.

She saw them pass through the barrier taking the brunet with them.

And she did nothing. She just stood there, mouth agape not able to utter a sound.

She remembers the pained filled gaze Matsukaze Rin sent her when she came to Inazuma town as soon as she heard the news.

She remembers the woman's wailing screams on how she couldn't lose her son too as she heard the heartbreaking details of the 'disaster' known as "壊れたチーム" match

She recalls the devastated looks on the Raimon's remaining members as they woke up in the hospital the following week after the terrible match. 

She remembers all this as she walks into the soccer building in Raimon's High school. She walks through the hallways to the meeting room and passes by the field. She briefly imagines Tenma's smiling face as he trained with his team and her eyes get blurry and the tears fall quickly.

She increases her pace to her destination and opens the room. What she sees inside the room was heart-wrenching. The teens all have dark bags under their eyes. Kurama is playing with a ball trying to calm his nerves.

Shindou is talking to Endou and his eyes hide slight desperation. Tsurugi seems to be the worst of all. His head between his clenched knuckles she can't see his face, but she's sure they must be wide in horror.  He was the one to receive the harshest blow after hearing the news with Tenma being his best friend.

These teens are supposed to be, facing their studies, dreams and future but here they are, worried about a missing teammate. What kind of sick bastard would ever be so sadistic to kidnap teenagers who've never done anything but help people?  

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It's really interesting to try writing in a new verbal tense. I hope it stays consistent 😬😬

I like to think the Japanese words mean the broken team alas, I am not Japanese so I have to trust in google translator. 😶