Arisa Nishijima

Most of Hanamura was asleep at 5 in the morning, except for the Nishijima household. Arisa Nishijima stood outside the family's modest two-story home, stretching her legs. Up, down, left, right.

She shook her foot a few times, testing it. There was a bit of tightness there, but no stinging pain. Good.

She rolled her ankle once more.

Still good.

Chizuru would probably disagree. Speaking of Chizuru, Arisa opened up her phone and expected a text from her captain at 5:03 AM. But there was nothing. Her last text with Chizuru had been a few days ago, when Arisa asked her for drills to do while she was out injured.

"...damn it."

Seeing no point in lingering on this topic any further, Arisa slipped on her headphones and began her run.

Hanamura sped by in a blur. Gray buildings under the dull morning sky weren't exactly worth stopping to look at. Aside from the blooming blossoms of April that shared the color with her twintails, everything was a washed out blur.

At the end of her run, Arisa checked her phone again.

5:45. There was no text from Chizuru.

She ran back home and got on with her morning routine. A quick shower, then she did her makeup, then her pink hair had to be checked for any showing roots (none, obviously) before tying it into her signature twintails.

It was 7:00 when she got downstairs. Her parents were already at work, meaning there was only one other person left in the house.

"Good morning, Sakura."

Her sister, with hair in the color of Hanamura's flower, gave her a comforting warm smile.

"Good morning, Arisa!"

Sakura rose from her chair, steadying herself with her cane as she crossed the room to give her baby sister a kiss on both cheeks, making Arisa blush bright red. The girl wrestled gently out of the affectionate older sibling's grasp.

"D-don't do that. Also, sit down! You have a bad day today, right?"

Sakura looked at her cane.

"Oh, this? My knee is acting up a bit today, but nothing that bad. I still have to go to class later."

Arisa gently pushed Sakura into a chair.

"Sit. Down."

Her older sister pouted childishly, but Arisa ignored her and reached for an apron.

"What do you want for breakfast? I'm running a bit late today so I can only cook for you."

Sakura looked at her sister's back.

"Eggs and toast then! But Arisa, seriously...you don't have to take care of me...you're injured too, right?"

"It's just a light sprain." Arisa replied a bit too quickly. "Chizuru won't let me practice because she said I would 'hurt' myself doing so...like I am that fragile."

Silence settled between them.

"...she's not wrong for that, you know? Arisa, just know that...no matter what, you don't have to do everything alone, alright?"

Arisa didn't reply.

She left for school soon after, and the journey was a brisk 20 minute walk. Arisa counted the subjects for that day in her head, with first period being English.

She absentmindedly put on her indoor shoes and accidentally bumped into some girls that were walking past her.

"Sorry."

"O-oh, it's fine! Good morning, Nishijima-san!"

Oh, these girls were in her class. Arisa had to glance a bit upwards to see their face. She tried to at least look friendly with a tiny smile.

"Morning."

Her classroom, Room 2-2, was already filled with students sitting around and chatting about whatever they needed to catch up to their friends about in person. Arisa, however, had none of her own.

Well at least, that was what the common perception assumed.

"Arisa-dono~"

A velvety smooth voice that sounded like fine exotic silk incarnated reached her ears the moment Arisa sat down in her seat. And she could not help but sigh.

"Murasaki, don't you have better things to do this early in the morning?"

"Is it any better than greeting my precious friend? Nay, I say." she giggled "Prithee, call me Inari."

Arisa's head was gently tilt backwards, coming face to face with the person whom she called Murasaki. Their eyes met, Arisa's emerald piercing green with Murasaki's beautiful silver.

Murasaki's fox ears on her headband, in the same color as her silver hair, twitched.

"Don't you have...I don't know, other friends?"

Murasaki blinked, her long curved lashes felt annoyingly perfect to Arisa. It could also be because the red eyeliners she had that pushed her into that line of being 'extra'.

"Of course I do, Arisa-dono, but few are comrades~"

Arisa replied with a sigh, leaning her head back and turning around to not hurt her neck talking to this fox.

"Why haven't you come to practice recently? I'm out injured, but you already missed two sessions already, damn it."

Murasaki did a dramatic little faint - even twirled her hand and placed it on her forehead before leaning against a desk like she was going to collapse.

"Oh how thou wounded this one, Arisa-dono! I had permission from Chizuru-dono, of course. My acting troupe needed me for very important things! But I would be attending practice today, of course."

Arisa looked like she wanted to say something, judging by her scowl, but ultimately relented with a sigh.

"Whatever. I still can't fucking believe Chizuru won't let me back in practice. My leg is FINE, I don't even feel that bad."

"Language, Arisa-dono." Murasaki played with her hair and Arisa glared at the fox but let her do so. "However, I do think Chizuru-dono is correct with her decision."

Arisa shot her a dirty look. But Murasaki shrugged.

"Arisa-dono, thou art our greatest spear, our weapon to topple even giants." there was something hypnotizing with Murasaki's voice "For your grand destiny of 'revenge', you cannot afford to break, can you not?"

Arisa blushed bright red at those words, and crossed her hands together, turning head away from the smiling fox.

"Y-you and your words!"

"Fufu, I speak no lies~"

...

Despite accepting that, Arisa couldn't help but feel disgruntled.

How could she not? Every second she sat here waiting were second that she would never earn back again, and it was driving her nuts. But still, knowing that forcing herself to break would achieve nothing, Arisa came to the decision...to sulk alone.

She arrived around the near back of the school, at the sports field to grab herself some strawberry milk from the vending machine just in time for the ruckus of the student body to fill the air in their lunch rush. But Arisa was alone, that was all she needed...

Donk.

Donk.

Donk.

But then she heard a sound...near where she was standing. It sounded like...a ball hitting the wall.

Curious, Arisa decided to follow. Turning the corner, she saw...a girl with bright apple-red hair and two cute buns practicing with a football.

"Mm...still not good enough..."

She would dribble around, shoot at the wall and control the rebound. From what Arisa could see...she was decent at best. Not great, but not bad either.

The girl fumbled a bit in controlling the ball, and she shoot a strong shot against the wall...but seemed unsatisfied about that.

"Why can't I make it curl inside...?"

"Because your fucking ankle is loose." Arisa spoke up without realizing why she did it, and the redhead jumped back in shock, apparently unaware that she was being watched all this time.

They...just looked at each other.

And Arisa got embarrassed first, immediately turning around.

"Sorry..."

"N-no wait, I was just surprised...what do you mean about my ankles?"

This...actually shocked Arisa enough for her to stop because she was genuinely confused which weirdo was enough of an oddball to ask for advice from someone who interrupted their supposedly private training session.

But then she saw the earnestness in those wide round eyes that Arisa could not try to play it off. So she sighed...

"Give me the ball."

The other girl did. Arisa pointed to a spot on the wall.

"See that mark over there? I'm going to hit it, watch."

She rolled her ankles again - it didn't hurt, this should be fine. With a small run-up, Arisa made her shot.

The ball curled in the air, twisting upon itself as if it was dragged along a fix trajectory before hitting that black scuff mark on the wall. The other girl was floored.

"How did you do that?!! That was so cool!! S-senpai, please teach me!"

Tried as she might, Arisa still felt a bit proud of herself and embarrassed. Still, she played up her role as the 'mentor' here and motioned at her foot.

"A-as a general rule of thumb, your ankles should be locked as it provides a rigid surface that transfers maximum energy from your leg into the ball without absorbing the impact. You know like...a wet noodle right? If you hit like a baseball bat, it's too wiggly to create force. But if you have a solid baseball bat, now you can swing hard without losing much force"

She picked the ball up and handed it to the girl.

"Where were you hitting the ball?"

"Umm...about here...with the inside of my foot" She pointed to the bottom of the ball.

"That's your second mistake...seriously, how did you not know this? You're hitting too far underneath it. For a curler, you want to strike slightly off-center and below the middle, then wrap your foot across the ball. The contact and follow-through are what give it the spin."

The girl nodded, pondering about it for a moment before trying that herself. But before she did, Arisa also added in something.

"Slightly lean your body backwards, but not too far. But don't lean forward, got it?"

She nodded. She took in a deep breath...ran up to the ball...and nailed the ball just where she needed to. It curved beautifully in the air, and despite lacking power and missing the target, it was still a successful curler.

"I got it!!!"

Arisa couldn't stop herself from grinning either, showing her sharp fangs. She came face to face with the radiant smile of this odd little girl and could not really turn away from her.

"T-thank you for helping me, senpai. I'm...Madoka Ishikawa, I'm a first year!"

Madoka said, extending a hand.

Oh, was this where she was supposed to introduce herself? Arisa scratched her head awkwardly, darting her eyes away...before relenting and giving her a handshake herself.

"I'm...Arisa, second year."

"It's nice to meet you then, Arisa-senpai!"

For some reason, they ended up sitting together for lunch in this dingy corner of the school, with Madoka eating something that looked straight out of a cartoon while Arisa just sipped on her strawberry milk...

"...so I told them that 'there is no way you put Manchester City's prime higher than Barcelona's prime'!"

And talking about football. How did they get here?

Madoka was very animated when talking about football, so animated that even her hair buns moved along with her like a hamster's...ears or something.

"City's prime was really good...City in general is good." Arisa shrugged.

"Yeah, but they are not prime MSN good! I like them too, but..." Madoka pouted before turning to Arisa fully, chomping down some rice as she did "Oh yeah, senpai, what team do you like?"

Arisa replied without thinking. "Real Madrid. But my favorite player has never played there...unfortunately."

Madoka let out a quiet 'ohh' as she continued eating her lunch.

It would be a few more minutes before she spoke up again.

"You know, senpai...it's really fun to have someone to talk about this with. I mean, I have other friends who play football too, but they all sort of...know know me, you know? And I can't talk about it to my friends either because they would think I'm weird or something."

"Why do you have to give a shit about what another person thinks if you like something?" Arisa finished off her milk carton with a squeeze, absentmindedly.

"Well, it's because...! I'm new, you know...new to Hanamura, I just don't want people to think I'm seeking attention or whatever."

Arisa just...stared at her. "Most people don't give a shit."

"W-well yeah, but still...!"

A beat of silence.

Arisa paused for a moment, opening her mouth...and then closing it, before turning her head away.

"You can..." she mumbled something.

"Senpai...?"

"Ugh..." Taking up all of the courage and social side of her, Arisa spatted out. "Y-you can talk to me about it, if you want! I-it's not like I'm indulging you or anything, don't take it the wrong way. Here, have my LINE!"

Before Madoka could reply, Arisa had already shoved her LINE's QR in the first year's face. But she did glance back to see how Madoka's face lit up with joy to the point where it felt like looking at the sun itself.

"Can I really?! Thank you, senpai!!"

Click clack.

"Done! Ooh, your profile is super cute-"

"Shut up, or I'm blocking you." Arisa grumbled, as she saw the time. "Shit, I gotta get back to class now."

"Oh oh, me too. Senpai, let's have lunch again tomorrow, okay? With each other, obviously!"

Madoka hurriedly cleaned up her bento box and neatly wrapping it together before running off, not forgetting to turn back and give Arisa a final 'goodbye' wave.

Arisa just stared at her until she disappeared from sight.

...

"What an odd girl."

But she couldn't help herself from looking at Madoka's LINE profile with the profile picture being a younger Madoka hugging the ball and her dog and smile either.