Chapter Text
Classes have ended, and almost everyone had went home. Save for those who have club activities. And that includes the Soccer Club.
While walking towards the field, Arazen twirls her fingers seemingly mindlessly. To the normal eye, they’re either just weird loco-motors or a way to stim(which can be, since she’s diagnosed with ADHD, much to her chagrin).
But to her, it was her way of scanning her entire surroundings. If you were either her or the first years plus Shindou and Kirino, you would see a floating vibrant fuchsia ring of runes and sigils that keep rotating around her wrist. They send out flashes of sound waves only hearable by dogs and other canines, deer, and a certain species of mutated failures.
Arazen hopes that she won’t encounter those for at least a while. She can’t afford worrying about public safety and her new(old) friend’s sanity after all.
———————————————————
Meanwhile, Tsurugi and Shindou during practice, they keep hearing these flashes of high pitched ringing from somewhere, and it’s getting close. They try to ignore it, but it keeps getting more higher and Tsurugi feels like either puking or his ears are gonna bleed.
Kirino looks at ‘his’ best friend like ‘he’ knows that something’s wrong, but decides that ‘he’s’ gonna ask him later.
Meanwhile, fortunately for them, it stopped. The two cast a knowing glance at each other, and nods.
He must’ve heard that too, the two thought to themselves. One nods wordlessly, and the other blinks, looking around to see what made that sound, not knowing that it was rather a who. Meanwhile, Arazen -with the sigil ring on her wrist now gone- had arrived at the field, or rather, is watching(observing you mean?) the yellow-clad players who are doing their darnedest to train themselves further. (Seriously, is there no such thing as limits in Raimon’s vocabulary?)
Shaking her now somewhat chaotic thoughts aside, she went down the stairs and started to walk towards Coach Endou(goddamn she’s so tempted to mess around with Raimon and their beloved coach and guidance counsellor/her godfather and blood aunt respectively. She just wants to see the look on their faces when they learn of her true heritage. Wait. Her dads didn’t say anything about not telling Raimon right?? It may probably be because they know that they can’t stop her from telling them. Still, that just gives her more incentive to do the little prank. Guess she’ll just have to pick her words right to cause the right amount of tension.)
Arazen knew with how she answered the random student’s mockery towards Tenma’s love for soccer that people will think she’s an aggressive-assertive kind of person. And with how she spooked them earlier with the little stunt she pulled back there, dangling on the tree, they’ll expect chaos from her if they ever cross paths(which is inevitably happening.)
(Fuck, she let parts of her actual personality seep through. What point is a pseudonym if you can’t make up a fake personality for it?)
…
(Maybe it’s because if there’s ever the case of them finally remembering you, you don’t want them to feel frightened about a drastic personality change between the Arazen they got to know and the real Arazen.)
(Besides, you were very young back then when all that trauma happened. You being kids, you didn’t have time for getting to know each other’s personality that deep.)
Maybe.
They never met Yokihada Arazen back then. But Gouenji-Kidou-Maraida Arazen. (Her name is ridiculous, but she loves it. All three surnames of the people who brought her here to this world, two of them brought her up and raised her, one who risked everything to bring her to this world and disappeared without a trace, intentionally doing so as to not lead to her husbands and her daughter to danger.)
(She’d sometimes wonder what it’s like to have a mom. Her mom was there for three years in her life, before she reluctantly seeked help from Gouenji and Kidou, afraid they'll push her away. And they accepted her despite what others said, and became a happy family. Until Higan was kidnapped, leaving the two men in a spiral. And that spiral became worse when Arazen was kidnapped too at the age of four. But the point is, there are still a lot of things her mom can catch up on and witness anyways. When she finds her. Not if. When.)
“-miss? Uh, Yokihada-kun, right? Yokihada-kun?”AuntieMiss Otonashi asked as Arazen spaced out, and eventually blinks. She then glances at the guidance counsellor (holy fuck, if no guy has noticed it, Auntie Haruna is actually pretty. How come most men’s standards are so shallow and pitifully low nowadays? she wonders) and chuckles, saying “Oh-was I spacing out? Sorry, didn’t mean to. I was actually wondering if I can join the Soccer Club? If you guys have anymore player slots that is, hehe.” Arazen immediately said, catching the Coach’s attention. “Oh? Does she want to join the club?” Coach Endou asked as he approaches the two girls, and Otonashi nods. "Yokihada-kun here wants to join.
“Well, do you like soccer?” he simply asks.
(Arazen internally chuckles; her dad Gouenji did say that all Endou will do to those who join at a later time in the school year is ask them that question, along with a few others and that’s that.)
“I do, actually. Been playing it ever since I learned to run.” Arazen replied(which isn’t far from the truth. Soon as she learned to talk, her first word legit was “soccer” much to her mother’s amusement. And once she learned to run, all she did was chase the white and black ball whenever she got the chance to.) and this gained an amused smile from Endou.
“You must be quite an experienced player then?” Otonashi says.
( If only you knew. ) All that the two adults got from the blonde girl was a devious grin akin to a certain goggled-matchmaker, and a mad cackle.
—————————————————————
“So you’re the new student Tenma and Shindou mentioned?” Sangoku(ever the mother hen) asked the vixen, who nodded with a grin. “Yep! That’s me!! Yokihada Arazen at your service.” She cheekily replied. “She’s…an…interesting character.” Kurama muttered, while Kirino agreed. “She scared the living shit out of us earlier, by literally dropping down from a tree.” The pink haired defender said nonchalantly, much to the choco-mint midfielder’s confusion. “What?”
Meanwhile, Shindou had been observing Arazen from afar, while said girl was joining Tenma and Shinsuke in their dribbling and stealing practice. Seems she is an expert at keeping the ball, as Tenma and Shinsuke are having a hard time against the girl, while said girl was moving in a mix of jagged chaos and graceful agility. Her movements resemble somewhat of dancing at high tempos, like tango, as her feet taps in fast percussion against the grass. Tenma complimented Arazen on her dribbling and keeping, while Shinsuke asked if she can teach them. All they got was a mad cackle that everyone else swore could’ve resembled Kariya’s when one of his pranks becomes successful, only that Arazen’s had a tinge of chaos that seemed particular to her.
The tactician kept an eye on Arazen, who impossibly have noticed, given that she was busy having a conversation with Sangoku and Kirino right after her short dribbling with Tenma and Shinsuke. The vixen seemee to happily talk with the two seniors, but it only took a split second and close attention for Shindou to notice that Arazen was indeed casting glances at him. No, not the dreamy fangirl kind of glance. It was far from that actually.
(Shindou swore he recognized the way Arazen’s eyes glinted and narrowed, he just couldn’t place a finger on how or why.)
———————————————————————————————————————
During water break, Endou received a call from Gouenji, while Otonashi had one with her brother, Kidou. The two other adults mentioned that they’re going to pay Raimon a visit to check on something (or rather someone).
(They didn’t see the way Arazen’s eyes lit up and narrowed as she overheard the names Kidou and Gouenj.)
So, while the willy nilly of training kept going on, Arazen grinned.