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45: a walk

Faster than anyone anticipated, the quarter finals arrived. “Are we ready to go?” Takizawa questioned, he himself being ready to leave the hotel in favor of watching Seirin’s quarter final match.

“Uh, coach,” One of the first years called out hesitantly. “Haizaki’s… still sleeping.”

“What? Sleeping?” He looked aghast at the news. “At this hour? Ugh, Yano, go wake him up.”

“Actually,” The ginger spoke, a smile on his face as he went on. “I think it would be a good idea to leave him be.”

“And why is that?” Takizawa wanted to deadpan at him, but since he might be suggesting it in all seriousness, he decided it was worth attempting to take seriously.

“From what I can surmise, he is saving every bit of energy he has for the game, since we all know it will be strenuous going against our first member of the generation of miracles,” Aizen tilted his head slightly. “Right?”

“I didn’t think of it like that,” A few players mumbled amongst themselves.

“Plus, don’t Haizaki and Kise have a bit of bad history?”

“Yeah, there’s that too.”

“Alright then,” The coach gave his approval. “At least make sure he has an alarm set with enough time to get to the venue in time for warm up. And if you don’t mind, we’ll go on ahead.”

“Roger that, I’ll catch up later,” The ginger nodded, heading back inside to do as told. Actually, he had already made sure the silver haired ace had set an alarm for that exact time, but who knows if the dude actually did it. So, he soon found himself entering the room where Haizaki was still sleeping.

It didn’t take him long to unlock the bastard’s phone; his password was so ludicrous that it was almost laughable: Aizen loves me!

The audacity.

Checking the alarms, he found that there were two set a few minutes away from each other, probably with the purpose of not letting him sleep through or ignore them. Aizen’s lips twitched upwards, I’m glad he didn’t cut corners this time.

Right as he set the phone down and stood back up to leave, the ace groaned. “Aizen…”

“Yeah, that’s right,” The center hummed, smirking as he walked towards the exit. “Dream of me all you want, you’ll never get what you seek most.”

It took him about a minute to get back outside, and when he did, he saw a familiar face. It seemed the other person did too. “Yano-sama!” Kise beamed, jogging over to him.

“Kise, what brings you here?” Aizen questioned, looking up at him once he was in front of him.

“I had a feeling you’d be here since I saw your team a while ago, so I was hoping to walk with you to the stadium!” The blonde smiled. “If you’re okay with that, of course.”

“I don’t see why not,” The young master smiled warmly in return. The instant he did, he felt like deadpanning. Kise turned red for a split second before he coughed it off, but Aizen knew that look. He’d seen it millions of times before.

Another member added to the harem, wonderful, he thought, maintaining his expression as they started on their way to the venue. “Anyway, Yano-sama,” The blonde started off as they walked. “Are you really Kirika’s brother? You don’t have the same last name.”

“I am,” He hummed, wanting to snap at him for using her first name like he knew her intimately. The thought pissed him off, but his expression didn’t falter. “We have different surnames because our parents split, so she took mother’s maiden name.”

“Oh, I see,” Kise’s eyes brightened. “That’s good to know! Ah, by the way,” He bit his lip. “I don’t want to seem rude, but—”

Then don’t say it, Aizen was tempted to roll his eyes.

“—Do you mind if I call you Yanocchi? Ah, if you’re confused, -cchi is something I add to the names of those I respect,” The Kaijo ace explained frantically. Wow, he must either be really nervous or really excited. Definitely the former with how much he’s sweating.

“I don’t mind, go ahead,” The ginger gave his agreement, causing Kise’s face to light up.

“Thank you, Yanocchi!” Ah, what a familiar sight, Aizen smiled. It feels like yesterday when Shogo was doing practically the same thing. “Um,” Kise attempted to keep the conversation flowing. “What do you think will be the outcome of the Seirin-Yosen game?”

“Well,” The ginger glanced at the sky, the moon and stars already out. “If I were to speculate based off what I’ve seen from both teams, I would say that Yosen has around a fifty one percent chance of winning.”

“Only fifty one?” The blonde’s eyes widened a bit at his words. “What makes you say that?”

“Seirin is strong,” Aizen shrugged. “While they may have lost to them before, that fact will drive them to push harder. Not to mention they have Kirika with her big brain. However, Yosen has the edge with their height advantage. That is,” The young master’s gaze suddenly sharpened. “Unless Taiga gets in the Zone.”

“So you’re saying,” Kise reiterated. “that Seirin can’t win unless Kagamicchi is in the zone?”

“Yes,” He nodded. “The ages old parable about the sword and the shield has always said that the sword lost in the end because it could not pierce the shield. Unless they get an edge on them, such as using the Zone, Seirin stands little chance.”

“Ah, when you put it like that…” The Kaijo ace seemed to finally be on board, causing Aizen to smile slightly. Soon enough, the two arrived at the stadium.

“It was nice talking with you, Kise,” Aizen nodded to him once they were inside. “I’ll be taking my leave.”

“Right!” Kise bowed. “I’ll see you on the court!”

“Yes,” And thus, the young master was on his way while the Kaijo player watched him go, a blush dusting his cheeks. Fuck Kirika, Yanocchi is way hotter in so many different ways it’s making my head spin, Kise thought to himself. But he could think about all those ways later, for now he needed to regroup with his team.

“Ah, there you are,” Takizawa greeted as Aizen made his way down the stairs to where the Fukuda Sogo team was sitting. “Just in time, the game’s about to start.”