Tangent | Soukoku; AU [✔]

50 ➳ semifinals // h.x

in a blink of an eye, it was already the next day. the day of the semifinals.

my entire existence still feels tired from what i had done yesterday. i really ought to remind myself never to do that ever again, and i hope this won't affect me that much in the game.

coach mori had already executed what we had all discussed yesterday - to announce that dazai no longer pursues as a pro-player, and that i am now an official replacement from the port mafia's selection in the gaming university. this was to avert the media's attention away from me, but while we still anticipate their presence, it was better that the media focuses on the coach and the entire organization as a whole rather than to me.

this was also broadcasted within the big screen of the stadium today, the casters parroting the entire tweet of the port mafia social media. reactions of the people over the bird app were mixed, and so did the people of the crowd. i didn't want to dive in too deep on it for now, as i need all my mental energy for the game today.

unlike the elimination rounds that we've only got one chance at winning, the semifinals onwards will be on a best-of-three format, meaning that we have to win two games to advance our slots towards the finals. to an extent, at least we have some leniency in case we fuck up on the first game - which i hope not.

while we were setting up on-stage, my orange-haired adc was looking at me with a confused and worried expression on his face. why does it look like i'm forgetting some context that had occurred yesterday? i don't think chuuya would be plastering these faces if there wasn't anything wrong.

"i-is there anything bothering you, nakahara?" i straightforwardly asked. the game will start in a few minutes, i bet, so we don't have a lot of time for conversation.

i'm not sure if the stage lights were just too colorful now, but i'm pretty sure the man's cheeks were tinted pink for a brief second there.

"well, i was just wondering why and what were you sorry about, xy," chuuya said in a rather wary voice, something you don't hear every day from this wine-loving man. "we can talk about it later though, if you're up to it."

somehow i still feel like i'm missing context that i should be knowing, but i do not. i hope that hayakawa xyren of yesterday didn't do some stupid shit while i was fazed from passing out.

i just agreed for now that we'll be talking about it after the tournament today - for now, we have to give it our best to secure our spots in the finals.

☀

game one went as smooth as butter, and how we anticipated it as well from yesterday's planning. the opposing team did show the symptoms that they usually have during their game, and all i could say is that we executed our counterplan beautifully.

we were hoping that we could keep this momentum until game two so that we don't have to extend to game three.

i was honestly going to say that chuuya had finally learned from his mistakes from the last game during the eliminations, but for some goddamn reason he started to wander off on his own and got picked off by the enemy. the enemy had realized that this was our weakness that they can exploit towards the door of victory.

i shouldn't have jinxed it. we were going to game three now.

as far as i knew this port mafia team, their past games for the past few years were always 'slow and painful death'. or at least, that's how e-sports fans have dubbed them anyway.

these were one of those slow and painful games; it was a 50-minute game of back-and-forth trading of objectives, everyone was strong at that point, and it was just a matter of one fuck up that will get us out of the game.

we were now at the point of getting the final objective - the last thing we need to win the game in our favor. both teams were preparing for one last fight in that objective.

our jungle akutagawa made the call of letting the enemy team get there first, while asking me if i could peek in the fight first before anyone else, being a tank support during that game. i agreed to the suggestion and went on ahead to check in the darkness. placing a ward to give us vision, i quickly gave a shotcall that me and akutagawa can go in first, while kajii and tachihara must work as backline for chuuya.

the plan was working well but the execution was messy, especially chuuya got ahead of himself again as he got hooked towards the enemy team and wasn't able to act fast enough.

all of a sudden, i remembered that message from dazai to chuuya.

'i wish that's how fast u react in game'

that was the reason why i apologized to him last night; both of them take so much beatings from each other that i just felt the need to apologize. it maybe just me at the heat of the game now, but sadly that statement holds true.

it's clear to me now why this team never won anything, as much as i hate to admit it.

but whatever. we won game three, we get to advance to the finals... yet at what cost?

☀☀☀

a/n: well would you look at that! if you made it all the way there, then you have witnessed the end of the second arc!

i didn't think i'd get this far, especially when i suddenly stopped writing somewhere around 2018 and only continued now. for those who are still reading, thank you so much! i can't express my gratitude enough~ ^^

the next chapters onwards will be the third arc! i don't think this will need a fourth arc, but we'll see. i said the same thing in chapter 25 that this might not need a third arc, and yet here we are now lol

again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for reading this random work of mine and i hope y'all are enjoying it as much as i'm having fun writing it! have a great day~

—risu, 110322, 23.59