Chapter Text
They won.
Blue Lock had actually won.
Rin thinks with his head bowed, and a towel draped over his hair on the bench of their locker room. By that point everyone else had left already changed out of their match kits and left but Rin's legs were still stuck to the slick surface of the metal.
Some part of Rin, is still in disbelief that a makeshift team of strikers beat Japan's U-20 team. For a smithereen of a moment after hearing those cheers Rin would've thought that all his hard work had been worth it.
That it had been worth pushing himself to his limit and then some to beat Itoshi Sae just like he set out to do.
But alas it had to be Isagi that stole his thunder.
His goal right out from under him.
How dare he? Who the hell does he think he is?
"How lukewarm.." Rin finds himself muttering out loud. Whether he's talking about Isagi or himself when he says that he couldn't say.
And then he's brought out of his thoughts and thrown rudely back into reality by an irritating voice.
"Hey, Rin."
Ugh, Isagi
Rin glares up at him clenching his jaw hard.
"What does your half-baked NPC ass want now? Didn't I tell you to go die already?" Rin bites like he's more mad at Isagi for stealing his rightful goal and not at himself because if it really was his goal, it wouldn't have had the opportunity to be stolen.
Isagi who's now changed into a more comfortable sweater and loose-fitting pants with a scarf hanging around his neck seems to ignore his jab for the most part and cuts straight to the point.
"Damn, harsh man jeez....I just came ask if you wanted to go with the rest of us. We're going out to eat at this fancy restaurant to celebrate, Anri set it up. The U-20 players are coming too, since Ego and I guess Blue Lock kind of owns them now that we won..." Isagi continues to ramble like Rin could give a damn.
But to Isagi's credit, Rin had momentarily entertained the thought. His stomach was craving food, but the second Isagi mentioned that the U-20 players would be there too his appetite vanished at the thought of Sae being there.
Wait...no...
He would've probably booked the next flight out of here now that he's seen what he needed to from Blue Lock.
And so, with bated breath and his gaze tracking back down to the marbled floor, Rin asks..
"...Is my brother going to be there?"
"Oh, Sae?"
Yes, dummy who the fuck else?
"Yea, he said he'd tag along because apparently his manager couldn't find a flight out of here and back to Madrid until early tomorrow morning." Isagi says casually adjusting his scarf like the sentence didn't just ruin Rin's entire night.
God Dammit.
"I'm not going." Rin huffs crossing his arms. To an outsider, it sort of resembles a petulant child throwing a tantrum.
Isagi sighs, half expecting that answer the moment he mentioned Sae was joining. For a second, he considering lying just so Rin would come with them, but he knew Rin might've actually started a fight if he found out at the restaurant or worse, in the van.
Oh well...Isagi tried his best.
"Alright...suite yourself. Make sure you eat when you get back to the Blue Lock facility then, okay?"
"Tch...don't tell me what to do."
Isagi rolls his eyes turning and walking back out of the locker room to reconvene with the others, though there's no heat behind it only silent acceptance.
The Rin of 2 hours in the future would've begged, borrowed, and stolen to go back in time just to slap his past self in the face for not putting his self-pity on pause and had just gone out to eat dinner with everyone else.
Rin sits there for about 5 more minutes after Isagi leaves before he eventually drags himself up to change into a pair of sweats and basic cotton t-shirt because according to Rin, unlike Isagi's tepid self, Rin could handle the cold just fine.
After gathering his things he slings his duffel bag around his shoulder and catches Ego in the hallway as he's exiting from some sort of meeting room.
"Hey." Rin calls out.
Ego cranes his head over to the sound his eyes as blank as ever and simply narrows his eyes at Rin.
"What are you still doing here? The others left already." His tone doesn't show it, but he really is curious.
"Yeah. I know." Rin deadpans. "I didn't want to go, so I didn't. I just need one your staff people or whatever to take me back to Blue Lock."
Ego rolls his eyes at him so hard they almost roll right into the back of his head because of course he still has players causing problems after they've won their most important match.
"Fine, you know what whatever...uhh you." Ego looks around and randomly points to a staff member walking by. The poor staff member looks around confused before pointing at himself.
Ego sighs deeply pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yes, you. Who else would I be pointing to in an empty hallway? Listen up, you are going to take him, back to Blue Lock. Oh, and take that cleaning lady with you too, god knows when those showers have been cleaned last."
Rin cringes slightly hearing that last part, but he's not sure what he expected when he shares a whole facility with borderline crazed animals. Seriously he's starting to think he's the only normal person in all of Blue Lock.
Well as normal as one at Blue Lock can be. After all, Blue Lock always demands some level of insanity.
Regardless, in a few minutes Rin ends up in one of their company vans riding shotgun with that random staff guy driving and the cleaning lady in the back seat. Rin was hoping for a peaceful ride as he props his head on his hand and gazes out the window, but alas he can't have that either.
The driver continuously tries to make conversation with him and Rin fully intended on ignoring him until he got the hint which seemed to work until the cleaning lady decided to lean all the way forward just to be closer to chime in on the one-sided conversation.
Great...now he has to listen to those two chatterboxes the entire 20-minute trip back. Wonderous.
Eventually after a few minutes Rin gets annoyed enough to snap his head towards them, but just as he opens his mouth to tell him to shut up. Rin hears the harsh screeching of tires and the honks of cars blaring in his ears before a there's a violent crash into the driver's side of the car.
He blacks out feeling his head thud against the window.
Rin comes to after a few moments feeling a pounding in his head and he attempts to lift his head, but it feels so heavy. With a groan he wills himself to look around to figure out what the hell had happened.
But with everything still spinning and it takes a moment for his vision to come into focus.
He feels a pain in his wrist and then looks around bleary eyed. There's shattered glass everywhere and there's something poking his shoulder. He turns to the window to see a..tree branch?
What the hell?
Rin blinks trying to remember what happened and recalls enough information to know that they were on a highway... or was it a freeway...maybe it was a street? Were they near a wooded area?
His head hurts too much for this.
Rin shifts a bit in his seat feeling his seatbelt starting to stab his thigh and peers down to see his clothes all ripped with scraps littering his body in the wake of the torn fabric. There appears to be a good amount of blood soiling his clothes too, but he can't feel or see any massive gashes on him so he doesn't know where it came from.
Rin gathers enough energy to turn his head to the other side because he remember being pissed that the driver and that lady in the back wouldn't stop fucking talking to know that there were at least two other people in this vehicle.
He immediately regrets it seeing as there's definitely a body that's slumped against the wheel, but the head is no where to be seen.
..well that at least explains the blood he's currently soaked in..
The sight is...jarring to say the least and Rin winces turning away to face the front of the car while shutting his eyes tight. He tries not to dwell on the image too much, and turns to look in the back seat as much as can while being restrained by the seat belt because he remembers the cleaning lady being there.
Rin can't say she's doing much better considering that while he might not be a doctor he's 100% sure that necks are not supposed to be bent at a 180 degree angle.
He turns back around sighing a bit but the motion makes his chest hurt and feel tight.
Rin's no stranger to blood and gore, after all he loves horror movies and played hundreds of horror games, but this? This was real life.
And boy, does Rin hate the smell of death.
Deciding he doesn't want to sit here in a crashed van that's covered in glass and blood with only the company of two corpses Rin uses the rest of his energy to fumble the seatbelt off and weakly open the door.
He practically has to drag himself out of the van and he thinks about seeing if at least the person they crashed into is alive.
Once Rin's feet are planted on the dirt he holds onto the car door as the world tilts around him.
He definitely had a concussion.
He manages to turn his head in time to see through his tunnel vison someone stumbling out of an equally mangled car. The guy is wearing...a hospital gown?
Rin doesn't get to dwell on it any further, when he can't fight the dark spots dancing around in vision any longer. His eyes flutter slightly, and they keep rolling back despite him trying fighting to stay awake.
He crumples to ground with a thud.
Rin doesn't know how long he had been out for but when he comes to, he certainly didn't expect for his nostrils to be bombarded with the scent of cedar wood.
He feels his face being pressed against a wooden planked floor and when his vision clears up enough for him to see more than 1 foot in front of him, he's able to recognize a wooden chair and a front door and paintings and stairs and-
Wait
He freezes as a chill goes through his body. Rin is not the kind of person to be scared easily but this scene made him feel a slight bit of panic.
Where is he? Rin wonders his pupils dilating as the adrenaline goes through him. How did he get here?
Where is here?
Rin tries to move and sit up but as he does so his brain pulsing against his skull hard, and his wrist writhes in pain. He looks down to examine his wrist only to find his hands and his feet tied oddly, by rope.
What the fuck.
The creaking of floorboards can be heard not long after that and Rin hesitantly looks up to see a disheveled man in a hospital gown staring down at him....pitifully?
Rin swallows but doesn't dare speak first.
"Such a shame...if only you had prayed harder...maybe confessed to your sins...you wouldn't be in this position."
Rin damn near thinks he must be hallucinating from the concussion because what?
The confusion must show on his face because the strange man continues frowning at him and suddenly speaking in a snappy tone.
"Don't act dumb. You know what you did."
It's Rin's turn then to bite back all while tugging at the restraints.
"What the fuck are you talking about? I didn't do shit, you fucking psycho."
It earns him a kick to knee which as him recoiling against the table he's tied to.
"Fine. Live in denial. It does not matter anymore. God knows what you did, and I'm going to bring you to Him."
And Rin..respectively has no clue what that could even begin to mean.
Not that Rin cares with how hard his heart is pounding against his chest right now.
A raspy "Fuck you" is all he manages to get out because if Rin wasn't restrained he'd sure as hell be throwing the first and last punch on this guy's sorry face.
Arguably, what Rin finds the most disturbing out of the whole situation is ironically not the fact he's been kidnaped straight out a car crash, but the fact that this crazed guy doesn't even seem phased or stereotypically 'psycho' like he's seen in the movies.
His eyes aren't foggy and abnormally wide, and he doesn't have a huge toothy grin.
He just fully believes in whatever the fuck he's saying and doing...like it's normal.
Like it's the right thing to do.
It sends a chill down Rin's spine.
He needs to get out of here.