Chapter Text
Teieri Anri is a frequent customer in his mother’s bakery and currently works in the Japan Football Association. A young woman starting fresh in her career with the tendency to decide too long whether to choose a bagel or croissant in her usual run ins at the bakery. She comes in the mornings around seven and occasionally comes again at three-thirty just before the shop closes to get a cup of caffé latte and a cookie if there’s still some to spare (there always is some to spare because Yoichi’s mom has grown fond of her).
Here’s a little something about Yoichi’s mother.
Isagi Iyo has the tendency to gush to her son about her customers like a proud grandmother showing off her grandchild to all her other grandma friends which is funny because Yoichi is sure that his mother (despite her very friendly demeanour) is a private person and she doesn’t enjoy talking about her private life to her other mom friends. It comes to the conclusion that Isagi Iyo likes bragging about the little things in life only to her son and husband; the stray cat in that intersection finally gave birth to five kitties!; this season’s macaroons are once again a huge hit; honey, look! Yocchan got 79 on his maths exam! – so on and so forth.
Which goes without saying that when Yoichi’s mother makes a passing comment about how Anri-chan seems hard at work lately, huh, she hasn’t come to the bakery as much so I hope she’s doing well – Yoichi is a little curious. He doesn’t know Teieri Anri as well as his mother (she likes making small talk with her regulars) so Yoichi has half the mind to just hum as a reply and not think much about the passing commentary.
No, wait.
Teieri Anri-san is a regular in Isagi Iyo’s bakery and Yoichi has only seen her a handful of times whenever he comes over to help and doesn’t she work for the JFA?
Yoichi pauses because yes she does work for the Japan Football Association and now he’s invested. “Did she say anything about a project, maybe? I heard the JFA wants to start something,” he says while scrolling through his old chat with a classmate so as to look busy when his mother turns to look at him with a tilt of her head.
Yoichi is no good actor and an even worse liar so Iyo hums, takes his phone away smoothly to inspect the week old messages and Yoichi lets it all happen with a bashful smile on his lips, hand scratching his cheek lightly.
“If Yocchan wants to know more about Anri-chan’s work then maybe Yocchan should help out more in the bakery,” she tuts, waving his phone in front of him in a scolding manner before giving it back with a mischievous smile. “Information these days don’t come cheap, you know?”
He laughs and ducks his head, cheeks growing warm as he tucks his phone away. “Ah, well I’ll see what I can do next week.”
He’s about to get up from the couch when his mother huffs, gesturing him into the kitchen and Yoichi follows because he’s a good son like that (not because Isagi Iyo is the one who wears pants in the household— nope). She gives him three plates stacked together and some utensils on top and points at the dinner table. “If I remember correctly, I think Anri-chan wanted to talk to you. Something about understanding the thought process of young kids interested in football or something along those lines?” Iyo tilts her head with her eyes closed as if in deep thought to recall the memory but she knows she has her son hook, line and sinker.
“Tomorrow,” she smiles before Yoichi can ask. “Anri-chan said she’d like a muffin to go for breakfast.” Yoichi really loves his mom.
He places the plates down and starts setting the table with almost uncontained excitement in his hands. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”
Iyo smiles and rolls her eyes. Truly, what a simple boy she has for a son.
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Anri likes to think that she’s a fairly simple person. She loves tidiness and a professional working environment and she likes remembering her father’s advice on not taking bullshit from other people when she believes in something. She really, truly is a simple person because she only wants to see her country make some sort of effort in the international division when it comes to football.
With all the excitement and high competitivity when it came to baseball that resulted in generations of rivalry between the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants (Japan loves baseball and the level of support for this sport is no joke), Anri doesn’t understand why people can’t invest the same level of excitement towards football.
Because football is the embodiment of adrenaline and the international league is the definition and what should be the standard of what every football player should strive to achieve. Japan is competitive when they want to be so Anri can’t accept that they (the board of directors in JFA) are content with mediocre plays in their international representative team.
So Anri stays up for a number of days coming up with a concrete proposal and necessary steps needed to achieve this country’s best team. She contacts Ego Jinpachi, a senior from the same sports university who she remembers is often invited to give advice to international teams about football and graduated top of his class. Anri doesn’t know where he went after that except that he’s no longer in Japan and when she finally gets his contact information after digging up here and there, Ego rejects her calls seven times before finally listening to her requests.
He comes back to Japan a week later, arriving at the break of dawn and immediately instructs her to find someone who knows the ins and outs of what football is to young players before taking a cab to the hotel Anri booked and leaving her at the airport. She doesn’t mind the treatment because it does not affect or deter her goals and it means she could start the task given to her instantly rather than wasting time taking Ego-san to the hotel.
Someone who knows what young players are thinking of .
Anri does not know any highschoolers and the ones she does know don’t play football. She managed to receive financial support for a project unthinkable from stubborn and old directors, get an adequate person to fill the role of coach, and still get full hours of sleep. If she hadn’t stopped at the first obstacle of making that proposal then Anri is determined not to let this stop her either.
And if she’s not wrong, Isagi-san from the bakery she frequents has a son who used to play football, didn’t she? Anri isn’t sure if someone who once played and stopped can still understand the sport but it’s a start so she gets in her car and drives to her favourite bakery with a growing sense of excitement. She’s a step closer to seeing Japanese football change, isn’t she? She can’t wait.
⚘⚘⚘
“ Isagi-kun, would you like to watch Japanese football change forever?”
The way to Yoichi’s heart is simple and it only took Anri-san twelve minutes to see that she understands Yoichi when it comes to football and Yoichi understands her too because their shared love and passion for the sport is all it takes for Anri-san to take the leap and offer Yoichi a front row seat in seeing the sport he loves again. Yoichi has never been more sure of a decision than he is at that moment.
Which brings him here.
It hasn’t even been thirty minutes since Yoichi arrived and already he wants to throw up his lunch just to leave a mess before power walking to the nearest train station and going back home. Ego Jinpachi is a dick and Yoichi doesn’t like that the guy’s ideals are so selfish (isn’t that the point ?) yet so concrete because it speaks to the inner voice in Yoichi’s heart and he knows Ego does not spout bullshit when it is literally what he sees every football star he has ever watched do when they’re playing on the field. It’s selfish yet liberating to touch into that inner dark side everyone has inside themselves– to play for the sake of yourself yet your team still reaps the benefits.
It’s selfish, arrogant, self-centered and egotistical yet so good because isn’t that the beauty of football? He remembers the feeling of wet grass under his shoes, ball at his feet as he dribbles forward and past the defenders on the opposing team and Yoichi remembers his chest bursting with the thrill and rush of adrenaline in his veins as he runs forward, forward, forward to make that goal and he remembers his coach and teammates screaming at him to pass the ball– stop being selfish and let the enemy take away the ball if he passes and Yoichi remembers he did not pass the ball and someone tackled him from behind– knees buckling under the sudden weight and something snaps and cracks in his legs and suddenly he’s clutching his knee because it fucking hurts–
“If you’re gonna be useless then do it somewhere else,” Ego’s voice does not hide his exasperation and huh , Yoichi never knew he was so good at distinguishing emotions through someone’s voice because when he snaps his attention to the glasses-clad man in front of him, Ego looks bored, mindlessly filtering through the files and files of highschoolers with a not so impressive win streak to their names.
“I, uh,” Yoichi stutters and blinks, mouth gaping like a fish before he shakes his head. “Sorry,” he says instead, scratching his cheek and feeling sheepish. “I just thought your philosophy was kinda good.”
Ego scoffs and Yoichi thinks he rolls his eyes a bit before throwing another file in his direction. “I want three-hundred forwards from these schools to be brought into the project. Have the files sorted and invitations ready by the end of next week,” Yoichi full on gapes like a fish this time and Ego loosely gestures to the other piles of boxes behind him on the floor. “From those too. We want players from all over the country to take part. Make sure you don’t slack off.”
It hasn’t been a full hour now and Yoichi wants to burn all these files out of spite and take the fastest train home. He amuses the idea for a moment before nodding at Ego who gets up and heads towards the door. “Ah, wait, should I look for something specific before deciding if someone should be invited or not?” Because in all honesty, Yoichi hasn’t fully grasped what the hell he should do. Wasn’t he supposed to manage a team..? He’s still trying to wrap his head around the fact that there isn’t even a team yet to manage.
Ego is already half-way out the door before Yoichi even finishes his question. “The point of the program is to turn at least one of those players into the best striker this country has ever seen. Do you really think not even one out of three-hundred can meet those expectations?” the older man gives him a pointed look and Yoichi restrains himself from scratching his cheek again. “If you need help just call Anri-chan.” With the simple advice, the door closes with a small click and Yoichi is left alone in the room filled with files of five-hundred highschoolers.
It goes without saying that maybe Yoichi could just choose at random– he doesn’t even have to filter through half of the files to acquire the amount he needs but…. At least the chair is comfortable.
He starts with the file closest to him and scans through the piece of paper: student ID, grades, age, year and amount of wins the school’s club achieved this year. The first file is not so impressive. Yoichi throws it to the floor and moves on the next; rinse and repeat. He promised his mother he’d be home by dinner afterall.