Accidental Reverse

Chapter 35

I lived, bitch.

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Accidental Reverse Arc 3

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Unfortunately, Aki won't let him skip dinner again.

Tenma understands where she's coming from, really, he does.

Doesn't mean he's not almost faceplanting in his porridge from the sheer exhaustion that has hit home after today's training session. His head is leaning heavily on the back of his hand as to not aggravate the cuts. He slowly and robotically eats his dinner without even tasting it, his injuries newly bandaged after Fuyuka stopped by a little while ago. There's a conversation going on around him, but the mood is much more subdued than it was during lunch – the entire team is exhausted, and it shows.

Another difference is the better contact with the Resistance members. Seems that, after training together, Raimon is finally opening up to them. The fact they're all too tired to care much about anything right now might help as well.

Kudou, surprisingly, has joined them for dinner as well, together with Natsumi and the adults present during lunch earlier. He's discussing something in quiet tones with Kidou and Sakuma, although their discussion finishes quite easily. Seemingly having agreed to a decision, the man gives Raimon's temporary coach a nod of approval.

''Everyone,'' says Kidou, seemingly taken it as a sign, and easily gathers the teenagers' attention, ''it seems to be in our best interest to stay here for one more night and get all of you home tomorrow before school starts so you can talk with your parents for a while. Practice will be suspended, if everyone agrees to it.''

There are some muttered agreements from the teens.

Sangoku, glancing around at his friends, suppresses a smile. ''I think that's fine,'' he speaks for all of them, since even Shindou seems too tired to give a straight answer right now. ''Will afternoon practice continue as usual?''

Kidou inclines his head.

''What's important right now, though,'' says a voice suddenly from next to the coach, and all eyes turn to Sakuma, ''is that your opponent for the semi-finals is clear.''

That wakes everyone up.

Tenma glances at the white-haired man, lazily playing with his porridge. ''Wouldn't it be, like, totally shocking if it turned out it's actually one of the current favorites for winning that has absolutely no fashion sense whatsoever, wouldn't know really but imagine them dressing in purple and grey and then combine it with yellow – seriously, have they ever seen a color chart, purple and yellow do not go together especially not with a green captain band – and wouldn't it be very terrifying and surprising if their captain is described as ''the genius soccer player that only comes around once a decade'', and what if it turned out it's actually just a first-year who happens to spend half of his time in the hospital and isn't actually supposed to play soccer at all, but who's enough of a soccer dork slash orange slash sunshine child to later join Raimon in the fight to save soccer from imminent destruction or something similar?''

His teammates seem, for some reason, a little annoyed. Or confused. Or both, really, he's not being picky.

Beyond that, the Resistance members are staring at him.

''He's gotten worse,'' comments Kudou bluntly as he reaches over to pour himself another cup of coffee.

Sakuma, meanwhile, has narrowed his eyes, possibly in irritation, and shoots the man next to him a look. Kidou pretends not to see it, and so Teikoku's current commander looks back at the brunet. ''Thank you, Matsukaze, for that refreshing description,'' he says dryly.