Tangent | Soukoku; AU [✔]

59 ➳ preparations // h.x

three days before the big day, and a day before the aforementioned 'team building' proposed by the coach. i'm not really that interested in the latter, not when i'm still feeling like a candle about to run out of wick, but it's not like i have a choice either. 

i consulted hawthorne about this and had asked for his assistance to help me compose something to the landlord as i wouldn't be home until the next day after the team building. the pastor encouraged me to go, telling me that gatherings like those might help me better understand the people around me - much like how the people of the apartment sometimes invite people to their parties.

it was useless to have a discord with hawthorne, too. everything he says just logically makes sense to me, and it's just the irrational side of me that refuses to go. what am i, nine years old?

anyhow, fitzgerald also approved of my absence for that day and even goes on to say that not only he appreciates me for 'actually asking permission this time around', but also something like it's nice that he's seeing me out of the apartment more often like the other tenants living here.

again, it's just another lengthy way of people conveying to me to go touch grass.

for the entirety of this week before the team building, we also have to keep practicing as well as constantly studying about the team that we will be facing. this team we're facing is apparently the armed detective agency, team tag "ADA", the second leading esports team of yokohama.

agency... why do i feel like that sounds oddly familiar for some reason. it rolls off my tongue.

i mean, i already know that the team exists even before joining the mafia. ADA was actually one of the teams that i wished to join one day, but hey, getting picked up by port mafia now isn't really half-bad. the armed detective agency feels like a very strict organization that adheres to high standards that i think i might need more experience before even dreaming of it as my first esports involvement. for now, i'm just grateful to be part of the pro scene as a whole.

it's also an honor to face them; in the finals too, no less.

☀

"mr. hawthorne, what do you normally bring on an overnight trip?" i asked the pastor with me in the room as i rested my head on the couch slumped and stressed about the team building. i've never really left home too long for me to pack things up, and the last time i ever did that was when i moved out of my parents' home to settle in where i am now.

hawthorne lifted his glasses from the rim with his signature serious face still plastered. "what are you exactly going to do for a team building anyway?"

that's when it hit me - coach mori never really told us.

"uh," i stalled, trying to remember if the sinister coach ever told us what it was, but my memory isn't that old for me to be forgetful. "i don't think our coach told us. he just said we'll be going to tokyo."

the man with me didn't comment on that, probably because he never really got too far out from yokohama and isn't a local of japan either. i've never been to the main city too, as i was born in kyoto and just found permanent settlement in yokohama, never leaving elsewhere after.

"that isn't the countryside, i guess you can just bring an extra set of clothes," hawthorne shrugged. "bring at least 3 just to be very sure."

"that's... a lot."

"better prepared than not, child."

i sighed in defeat and just packed three sets of clothes as per hawthorne's instructions. while i was about to stuff my things into my bag, my phone buzzed in a very specific way. i normally set certain patterns of rings and vibrations to important contacts such as the pastor roommate. this time, the buzzing indicates that it was the port mafia group chat that had pinged.

upon opening the message, my eyes widened from what i read. it was the coach.

'oh, have i told you guys that we're going out swimming and poker tomorrow?'

do we really have to go outside of yokohama just to... gamble and pretend to be a fish? can't we just do that within the city?