Onmyou 11: Kurasu and Soccer

A week has passed, and sit eems like their investigation hasn’t made much progress.

I tried helping by using Enemy detection, but seems like there’s not hostile enemy around us. That means the Ayakashi must be hiding their bloodlust quite well, or the information given to them were false.

I didn’t think it would concern me that much, but it seems like if they don’t deal with the Ayakashi soon, I might be forced to step up and help.

“Yo, you saw the episode for this week’s G*vv?”

And for the entire week, Kurasu have been following me around everywhere during school time. After school, he enter Onmyouji mode and serious about his work, but while it’s school time, he’s basically a normal person that really like Tokusatsu.

“Anyway, how’s the investigation?”

“So far, nothing. We searched everywhere in school, yet we couldn’t find anything.”

“Well, good luck.”

“...Mahiro!” Akaki shouted at me from the soccer field, with Kaki standing next to him.

“You free, right!? Let’s play!”

“Sure.” Right before heading to the field, I invited Kurasu to join us.

“Eh? I don’t know… I’m supposed to be helping with the investigation…”

“Not like you guys are making much progress. Just take a break for now and enjoy your school life.”

“!! I’ll take up your offer.”

“Whose he?” Kaki asked as he kicked the ball towards Kurasu.

Kurasu started to juggle the ball, before kickign the ball up high and do a bicicye kick towards the goal.

“I’m Araki Kurasu, first-year student who just transferred last week. Nice to meet you, senpai.”

“What a show-off for a kouhai like you!” Kaki replied with jealousy in his words after Kurasu showed off his skills.

“Great to meet you. So, how about a 2v2? Kurasu-kun and Mahiro, me and Kaki?”

“Why not. The usual, right?”

“Yup. First to 5 wins, no goalkeepers, loser pays for ice cream later.”

“You’re on.”

“And too bad for you, the game already started!!” Kaki, while we were talking, quickly kicked the ball towards our goal.

But Kurasu was quick to react and stopped the ball.

“Tch.”

“This is going to be easy.”

“You think so?” Akaki tried to steal the ball away from Kurasu, but Kurasu was able to skillfully dodge and got a clean kick onto the goal.

“Easy peasy.”

“No more Mr nice guy!” Kaki decided to play foul, but Kurusu dodged and counterattacked, pushing Kaki onto the ground.

“Try again, Senpai.”

“This guy…”

“Dammit! You’re good, Araki-kun.”

After 15 minutes of playing, Me and Kurasu easily won the match. Though, it's Kurasu who was carrying the team.

“Thanks, Akaki-senpai.”

“Want to join the soccer club?”

“Sorry, but I’m in the Tokusatsu research club.”

There’s a tokusatsu research club in our school!?

“Oh, that club. A shame that someone like you with such great athletic skills is part of them.”

“Tch, can’t believe I lost to one of those Otakus.”

Both Akaki and Kaki even know about that club!? Though it seems like they have some bad reputations…

“I may be good at sports, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy them like you guys. I just want to sit back and watch my shows.”

“I see… oh, look at the time. It’s almost time for practice.” Akaki said as he hurriedly left us, with Kaki following behind him.

“Don’t forget the ice cream later!”

“Got it!”

“You’re not going?”

“I’m part of the go home club. I occasionally got asked by them to help out if the soccer club’s short of members.”

“I see…”

“You seem to be enjoying school. Also, about what you said before, was it all true?”

“...Yup. I didn’t want to become an onmyouji, but it’s family business.”

“Then, what do you want?”

“...Don’t know. I don’t normally have the time to even think about it. Everyday is just a constant chore of fighting Ayakashi. Heck, being able to be in school even for an undercover mission is like a dream.”

“You didn’t go to school!?”

“Nope. Only onmyouji from a distinguished family are allowed to go to school, while we low-level Onmyouji are only destined to be an onmyouji and nothing else.”

“I see…”

“Ah, it’s not that bad. We do get paid decently well, a rank 3 like me and Hyouka-sama earn about 1000k yen a month.”

“That much!?” Jeez, if I can earn that much in a month as an Onmyouji, I might actually consider becoming one.

“But, it’s a risky job. I’ve seen a lot of my peers die young…”

“...Want to watch a movie?” I said to avoid getting into any heavy topics.

“Sorry, but I promised Kenichi to search with him, and it's already passed our meeting time.”

“I see. Sorry for holding you back.”

"It's fine. It's great to be able to have fun playing sports once in a while."

As Kurasu left, I decided to check for any enemies once more. As expected, nothing.

“...What’s this?” On the ground, is a piece of crumpled paper. It seems like something threw their trash into the dustbin and missed, or they simply littered.

I picked it up and curiously decided to see what it was before throwing it away.

“...You’re kidding me…” What was written on the paper is a language I’ve never seen before.

“Translation.” I tried to decipher the language, but it seems like my magic failed to translate it.

‘Translation’ is a magic that allows me to read and speak any language as long as there’s a sample of text or speech for me to see or hear.

The only downside is, in order for the magic to work, the language must be spoken or written in a complete form.

That means… It’s not just the language, but also a cipher code. A cipher written with letters of an unknown language.

“Seems like I’ve found a clue to the Ayakashi’s plans or something…”