25. Smears and Fears

"Woah," Y/n gasped. "More people. Even pinkie's on your team. I'm surprised you're still kicking, Isagi Yoichi."

Y/n shoved Rin off to the side, earning a grunt from the latter in return. He stared at Barou who was off to the side as the whistle blew. "Looks like macho man's here too. Big guy that told Gin and I to get to our rooms. Could never forget a face as ridiculous as that one. I mean, come on, he's got a bad RBF and seems like he's all brawn and no brain. Maybe there's a little bit inside that thick skull, but who knows?"

"Shut your mouth, donkey," Barou grit his teeth, crossing his arms and getting up in Y/n's face.

Y/n averted his gaze and stepped back, huffing playfully. He wanted to start, and now would probably be the best time. He put his foot on top of the ball and brought it back, giving it to Rin. Y/n locked eyes with him and furrowed his brows as if commanding him to give it back once they were free. Rin just rolled his eyes. Y/n flew past Barou, an irritating panther cub latching itself on his tail.

"Get lost, pinkie pie!" Y/n shouted, dashing to the left to get closer to Rin.

"No thanks, Your Highness!" Chigiri riposted, getting right up next to Y/n.

Aryu had been back near the center of the field, and only moved to cover Nagi. That left Rin with Barou, and Bachira with Isagi. Y/n had a clear vision of how he wanted this to end. Him winning, them losing. It was simple, really. But, how would he get there? He didn't even know that himself.

He stuck his foot out and received a pass from Rin who was against the idea of passing, and Y/n passed it back to Bachira by completing a swift turn with has back now to Chigiri. Easy. Bachira was eager to gain possession, but Y/n only passed it back to gain momentum.

Rin halted all movements, as did Y/n. Chigiri was pressing up against Y/n's back, and Barou was keeping himself up on Rin for the time being.

Bachira stared at Isagi, ball beneath his feet. "Let's start with ultra-fast scissors cranked up to the max, yeah?"

Skillfully, Bachira's legs worked overtime weaving themselves in a blur over the ball. He feinted, his body bending to one way and then quickly turning, handing the ball to his outstretched foot and bolting out of Isagi's range right next him only to get cornered by Barou abandoning his previous mark and getting replaced by Nagi. Someone came to his rescue, at least.

"Ball," Y/n demanded, raising a hand.

"If I must..." Bachira mumbled, passing it to Y/n.

Y/n stopped dead in his tracks when the ball's path was obstructed by none other than Isagi. His eyes grew wide and he furrowed his brows at Isagi. Only did he react when he saw Nagi, heading back to Rin, passing by and staying low. Isagi's eyes locked on Nagi's figure and he seemed to understand exactly what was happening. Y/n couldn't. He couldn't foresee the outcome, but he could see the moments leading up to it.

"Float one over," Nagi hummed.

Isagi knew where Nagi wanted it. He knew very well. He rolled out a pass, high and knife-like, slicing through the air and dropping straight into Nagi's possession seamlessly. Y/n slowed to a jog as he just watched Nagi receive the ball like absolutely nothing. He stopped caring right then. He couldn't bring himself to care. He wanted to, but he couldn't.

Nagi wasn't a fan of the amount of space Rin was giving him, though.

"Dishing it out to you, Red Panther," Nagi said as he passed the ball into a conveniently open space on the field.

"Right on!" Chigiri replied, accelerating at incredible speeds to get himself to the ball.

Driven by excitement, Chigiri reached the ball and heaved it forward. Inch by painful inch, it grew closer, and Y/n just watched. He stood there like a statue, even if his body swayed slightly. Something was crushing him, but it wasn't the goal. There was some point in time where everything stopped working. His eyes focused on everything but the ball and it was as if his brain wanted to be elsewhere. He had never endured such an issue before, so he had no idea how to handle it.

Chigiri scored, the whistle blew, and the scoreboard changed, but Y/n was like a zombie. A clueless zombie. His mouth hung open and it wasn't until he was dragged back to his side of the pitch that he came to again.

"What's your issue?" Rin chastised, throwing Y/n into position. "I'll take striker this time."

Y/n held his head in his hands. His brain was cutting things out and making him forget the passing of time so suddenly. He didn't hear the whistle blow, he didn't hear the shouting, and he couldn't remember seeing much of anything just a few second before Chigiri's goal. It's like he was a robot. A prototype, planned to malfunction. That's exactly how he felt.

"Hey Einstein!" Came a gruff voice. Y/n didn't hear it until a fist tapped his back harshly. "Wake up!"

Y/n felt a tug on his hair. His eyes locked with cruel red ones. "Get yourself together! Where's that ego you showed me when you faced my team, huh!? This isn't the Y/n everyone was so worried about! You're nothing but a pathetic bug right now. At this point I'm more deserving of the King title than you are."

Y/n registered Barou's harsh words. No matter how mean, he was right. Completely right. No amount of bickering would prove him wrong because you simply couldn't. Y/n bit his lip and furrowed his brows. He didn't make an effort to reply. Barou brought Y/n's drained face closer to his own and grit his teeth. He wasn't even sure Y/n was fully conscious at the moment.

Y/n could barely see Barou's face, but those piercing red eyes were enough to keep him at attention. It was so blurry, so bright. He swore he could see some sort of black smoke surround every inch of his vision. Violent crescent eyes calling out to him, a wide, toothy grin with teeth as thin as toothpicks yet sharp as knives. He felt something chilly enveloping his body, mainly pooling at his legs. His focus was still shoddy, and his eyes weren't registering much of anything except the face in front of himself.

He stared into those bright eyes. Those thin white, bright eyes. He forgot about Barou. He forgot about the match. He forgot about the field. He didn't know what was happening. It stared back at him so unapologetically as if it wanted to do something. It disappeared. He stared at Barou again, who was waiting for a reply.

"Let go or I'll kill you," he murmured.

"There we go," Barou whispered to himself with a grin. "And here I thought you were drunk or high.. Maybe both."

Barou let go of Y/n's hair and kept his eyes on the boy, but that proved to be difficult. He was gone so suddenly, but Barou spotted him and tried his best to keep up with him. It was like he suddenly used his mind's absence to enhance his sensory perception. Either that or he was bathing in the ecstasy of something. The ecstasy of showing off, or the ecstasy of criticism. Never had he been criticized for not doing anything on the field so harshly unless it was Raichi. And for that, he thanked Barou.

Of course, he would never say that aloud.

Y/n's eyes scanned the field for the ball, but everything seemed so slow and frozen. It's like everyone on the field was moving meters every new frame. Even so, the shouts were enough to tell him what was happening. The slowness of his vision had helped somewhat, as he was able to register things much better. In an instant, everything was smooth. Aryu had just stolen the ball from Chigiri and passed it over to Y/n who was racing down the field. Barou made quick maneuver in front of Y/n, but he redirected it to Rin with his first touch since he ultimately couldn't do anything.

Y/n was like a rabid dog waiting to get a bite of the ball. Barou stared at him, contemplating how exactly he would devour such an animal; how he would overpower him. He would watch, like a predator in wait for his prey to show any weakness. Y/n was clueless to the fact that he was switching places with Barou; that he was now the victim at the jaws of a lion. A king of hunting and devouring. A master at his craft. In fact, everyone was watching him. Watching, waiting. Wanting to get a piece of his untamed soul.

"Not on my watch," Nagi said to no one in particular. "Just gonna blast it?"

Rin's face was calm; emotionless. He pulled it back just as Nagi went in for a slide tackle and ran past him with the ball. Chigiri and Isagi obstructed his path as well, but he couldn't care less. Bachira passed by the both of them on the outskirts.

"Another shot, really?" Chigiri scoffed, getting up close to Rin.

"No, you're wrong!" Isagi shouted just as Rin drew the ball back and went around Chigiri.

Rin was like a water strider, dancing on the delicate surface of a lake without breaking the surface tension. He waited for Isagi. He waited for him to make a last-ditch effort, and he did. Rin more than less jumped over Isagi.

"So you've finally learned how to use your eyes?" Rin asked him, only hearing a slight gasp from Isagi. "Even so, you'll never make my heart sing."

The whistle blew. The score was evened out.

Team white started with the ball, but Y/n was keen on getting it. He wanted that ball, and nothing would stop him.

He was a thief of great speeds.

His vision was smeared, his mind elsewhere, but his eyes were taking in every little detail and spitting out answers just as he had done before in that overwhelming chamber of required goals. Y/n dashed past Nagi, Chigiri, and Isagi, keeping Barou at bay right behind him.

"Losers," Y/n muttered.

Y/n felt that murderous presence behind him. He felt it grow close. Y/n was nowhere near his max. He still had a lot of steam left in him, but he couldn't help but wonder if he was slowing down. He listened to the stomping, he listened to the shouting.

"He's gonna destroy that AI!" Isagi shouted.

"Moron, he can't! It's a hologram!" Chigiri argued.

Nagi came in for a slide tackle, but Y/n rainbow flicked it and was mere inches away from crushing Nagi's leg with his foot. Barou was right behind him, trying so hard to catch up with him. Y/n didn't care, why should he? He was so close to the goal until he felt an arm prop itself up in front of his body.

Barou. It was fucking Barou. Not on his watch. Not while he was so close to scoring. But he had to pass. He passed back to Bachira. As much as he hated it, it was necessary. How? How did Barou get so close? Was Y/n's body relaxing? That's not supposed to happen.

Bachira gave Aryu a high pass.

"A pass to the star of the show? How kind," Aryu hummed with a glamorous grin and headered the ball into the goal.

But that goal was supposed to be Y/n's. It should have been his. He brought that ball to that goal, he dodged all of the others, but it was all Barou's fault. Barou was there. He was in the way of everything. Although they had still scored, it wasn't with his goal, so in his eyes, it shouldn't have counted. But he couldn't score with Barou on his ass.

"Since when did you get so slow," Barou said, the sentence sounded more like a statement than an inquiry, though. "I thought you were faster."

"I am. Shut up, dumbass, I'm getting to the good part," Y/n mumbled the last part.

"That's my line!" Isagi argued.

"Shut the fuck up!" Y/n shouted.

Y/n resumed his place on the field and stared at Barou, gritting his teeth. He was waiting. He was waiting for the ball to be passed, he was waiting to show everyone who was boss.

Nagi was waiting, too. Not waiting for anyone to make moves, but waiting to devour everyone. He was in such a state where he wanted to completely destroy Rin's and Isagi's vision of the field. He wanted to take in everyone's vision and crush it, rewriting the script.

So he did just that.

He passed the ball to Chigiri, who was faced with Aryu. Barou was trying his best to stay in front of Y/n and keep him at bay, while also requesting a pass to help Chigiri get around Aryu.

Y/n was shoving his body against Barou, knocking him around a little. It was no use. He was shunned by Barou's sheer size and his attempts were in vain. He tapped into his speed just a bit, abandoning Barou. Needless to say, he was up on Chigiri's ass in moments.

"Move it, slowpoke," Chigiri demanded. His face said it all. That next goal would be theirs. One hundred and ten percent theirs.

Y/n didn't want to believe it, until he saw Nagi show up Rin by diabolically disabling the ball's momentum.

"How about this? My two-stage fake volley.."

Tied again. How long would this keep on going? Y/n just...broke. Again. ...Kind of... He realized that he was ultimately powerless in the face of fear. He felt powerful and free, but just feeling as such wouldn't get him anywhere. If you feel like you could eat a horse, could you? No. If you feel like you could fight fifty bulls, could you? No. A feeling is only that. A feeling. It cannot be reality unless you make it a reality. Do you feel like you could kill everyone's ambition by extracting their powers and making them feel worthless while you watch them crumble? He did, and that was something he would definitely make a reality. His reality.

He had such fiery feelings, but such a quiet way of expressing them. He expressed them by destroying others, and sometimes, he'd destroy himself because he had nothing else to destroy. Even so, he watched his opponents fall. He wanted to watch them wail. Watch them die in real time. Watch them cry their tears as they mourn their loss. Watch them hate their opponent with such ferocity that it awakens a new beast to best. He ached so horribly to score a goal of his own. His legs shook with greed; with want. His hunger wasn't satiated. Not even a little. He was starving, and he needed to eat; to feast.

Barou's prey was also his own predator. A tiger and a lion fighting one another so aggressively. So...so ferociously and vigorously. It was almost like watching two apex predators fight for ownership over a territory, and that territory was this field.

Rin started with the ball. Of course, he looked at Y/n. Y/n looked back at him. Y/n exhaled heavily. He grew hungry for the ball once more. To be honest, he had always been. But this was worse. It was a hunger only chaos could satiate. A hunger only destruction would feed. A hunger that required dream crushing as fuel.

"Give me the ball if you want to win."