Tangent | Soukoku; AU [✔]

51 ➳ headlines // d.o

'port mafia's support, Jisatsu, officially off the team - replaced by academy player XYAxis'

'Jisatsu confirmed to have parted ways with port mafia; new player XYAxis takes over role'

'PM Jisatsu leaves team, PM takes in first female pro as replacement'

and so on. these headlines were all over the internet today as the team finally decided to officially announce my departure off the pro scene. i also got various text messages from the people in the agency sending me some of the articles about this.

perhaps something had happened to a point that they have reached this point of decision. ranpo, the agency's best analytic, 'speculates' that the team might have encountered problems that may be potentially harmful towards xyren, directly or indirectly. knowing ranpo, he's never really wrong.

if i were to guess, it's probably the media that they're avoiding. as my replacement, people expect that xyren would know the reason why i left the team - but i will put the money on the double that none of those blockheads told her even an ounce of context about my leave.

according to the announcement of the port mafia official social medias, the reason they have put regarding me leaving the team is that we weren't able to reach an agreement in the contract. well, that is the most neutral reason they can ever put out there without drawing too much attention on all parties involved - me, the team, and most importantly xyren.

everything feels like mori's plan, considering how smart and well-executed everything was. the announcement came along the day of the semifinals, wherein the media was high alert about everything. this also diverts the attention of people from however the team will perform in the semis since people would eventually stop speculating my absence as a factor of port mafia's game.

mori is really the brain of the team, i'll give him that.

since i'm all over the headlines today, i decided to just say inside of the agency's office until the end of the day. normally i'd just be wandering around the streets, but i reckon that's not a good idea now.

i opened the agency laptop to watch today's tournament. there really is a huge difference between watching at the stadium, being on the stage, and watching games as a home viewer. the good part about being part of the last cluster was there was more information fed to you such as current stats of the game, as well as replays that you can see a lot clearer.

for some reason, port mafia was doing well during the first two games until they fell off somewhere during the second game, forcing them to go to game three, where they are now. the game was slow, and i could tell from the caster's commentary that they were running out of words to describe what was happening - everything was going back and forth.

during the last teamfight at the most crucial part of the game, there was a brief moment wherein the faces of the players were shown. the camera had panned towards xyren, and to my surprise, that is the most expressive that i have ever seen her.

xyren was usually stern yet expressionless; her entire existence screams independent woman. she was a woman of few words, and it doesn't help that she keeps her tone in a deadpan manner while equally doing so with her eyes full of nothingness.

this time, the camera caught her at the most perfect time. 

the woman brushed her bangs sideward after the teamfight, revealing her crimson eyes that she normally keeps hidden. i remember that one night pretty clearly too.

her eyebrows were crossed, red eyes looked sharp to a point it could cut people if they stare too long, and her mouth movement while talking were far bigger than they were by default, indicating that this living corpse of a woman may be - in fact - capable of being heated by emotions.

"whoa, look at that face cam, partner," one of the casters commented. "XYAxis looks distressed after that teamfight despite winning it!"

"that's the most expressive we've seen the female support, buddy," yeah, that's what i thought so too, casters. "but i mean, 4dTaintedSorrow did almost gave away their chances of winning again. i can probably understand her stress."

ah yes, of course it was chuuya again.