2026-07-19, 08:15 PM - Word count:
(This post was last modified: 2026-07-19, 08:34 PM by Zephyrus1128. Edited 1 time in total.)
Chapter 1 Found Here
In all honesty, being a soccer goalkeeper was harder than being a professional hero. Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. You really couldn’t draw a comparison between a round ball flying at your face and countless unidentified and dangerous superpowers being used for criminal purposes. Maybe you could, but at the very least Kazeno hadn’t met a soccer-themed criminal in his short time in the line of duty. He often did this, he found, reflecting on the past life he had and how different his life was now. It probably wasn’t the healthiest thing to do, but it kept him grounded to his ultimate goal. Soccer wasn’t what he was born to do, but it was something to be done. Another bump in the road.
Sports, to Kazeno, always seemed like nothing more than a fun distraction for schoolchildren to play to avoid doing homework, and maybe set up the pretense of physical activity so their parents wouldn’t get too mad. Instead, here at the professional level, it was grueling work day in and day out. He’d been working with the pipeline team for about four months at this point, and he felt just as sore now as he did after a day of hero training. Luckily his reflexes did well to help him react to the balls coming his way, and his coaches had seemed to be steadily growing happier with his lack of basic soccer knowledge. The talent was there, one had said, it’s just a matter of getting the knowledge up to match it. There was still a month to go to find out if the Academy decided to select any of these players to their rosters and prepare them for the SSL proper. Kazeno really had no idea where he stood. Sure, his athleticism was good enough to make it here, but how far would that be able to take him? Learning as fast as he did still might not be enough.
No sense in wallowing in bad futures, he thought. Instead, Kazeno rolled out of bed, deciding to get in a quick jog early in the morning before practice began. It was a habit that he’d had since his first month at UA. You had to be in shape there or else there was no way anyone could keep up with the hero course regimen. On this particular jog, he didn’t see too many others. Nothing out of the ordinary though, just one or two less than the usual day. He finished his jaunt around the grounds, and prepped for another day of practice.
Another month passed, and it was time to see who had impressed enough to be picked up by the Academy. Luckily for him, he had been chosen to make the jump to the next level. The bad news? He’d be playing for a team in a place he’d never been, not even close to. Accra Adowa FC, based in Ghana. Kazeno had never been to Africa, but if that’s what he needed to do in order to follow this path, then he had no choice. He packed his bags, light clothing above all, and headed to the airport. The flight was long but easy, about twenty hours non-stop in the air. Even though Kazeno could fly with his Quirk if he had it, it would’ve taken him much longer, and he’d definitely need to stop to sleep. Planes were nice enough in that he could do both at once. He’d met another new addition to the team, Sirxo Masters, relatively quickly upon arrival. With Kazeno’s limited English, he learned they’d be playing left wingback. With his limited soccer knowledge, he figured out that was a defensive position. He’d take all the help he can get. There were practice matches every so often for the pipeline prospects in Japan, but Academy matches were a few rungs up the difficulty ladder.
The language barrier was rough. English was a required course at UA, but Kazeno had never found it easy. American heroes were the most popular worldwide by far, so much of the international talk amongst heroes defaulted to English. If Kazeno had it his way, he could just stay in Japan his entire life. Thinking far ahead wasn’t his strong suit, he was far more accustomed to in the moment, quick thinking. He’d have to brush up on his English when he got to his new lodging. Practice, while certainly more intense and slightly varied in the specific drills, was more or less the same as it had been back in Japan. Reflex drills, set piece defense, distribution and vision drills. They even had him doing some dribbling drills, which seemed useless to Kazeno when he could just pick up the ball (at least inside his box. He didn’t think he’d need to leave it very often if at all). The coaches here were quick to pick up on the fact that Kazeno’s dribbling skills were nonexistent, and so kept him doing the basics so that he was serviceable in the scenario he had to. No fancy stuff, which was perfectly fine by Kazeno. The less technical skills he had to cram into his brain, the better.
He had to get up to speed quickly. His athleticism worked well enough in the pipeline, but here, he was pushed to his limit daily, and the first match he was scheduled to play in was on the horizon and rapidly approaching. Ready or not, he was about to be thrown into the fire and he’d hoped to whatever higher power that he’d been bestowed a fire resistant Quirk in this new reality. At the very least, some burn cream would’ve been nice. As it was though, he didn’t think he’d be getting either. He was familiarizing himself with the drills, but the skills weren’t developing fast enough. The power wasn’t in the right spots, the technique not refined enough to get the ball to his team. Turnover after turnover and Kazeno kept trying to brute force his way through. In the end, it took all he had just to stay afloat those first two weeks before he was slated to start against Stockholm IK. Just as quick as he’d arrived, gameday came. Nothing left to do now but put on the kit and do his best.
Less than three minutes in, Stockholm was already putting pressure on. Adowa Accra wasn’t controlling the ball well at all, and any semblance of an attack lasted only a couple passes before a missed through ball or technical skill gap gave the ball right back. Kazeno had the ball and wasn’t seeing anything close, so he followed the advice of his coaches and tried to boot it long for a forward. Of course, as had happened so many times in practice, his forwards weren’t able to control the pass, or more accurately, the ball was straight to Stockholm rather than his own teammates. Shake it off, you’ve dealt with worse. Here came Stockholm though, adeptly passing the ball back and forth through the Adowa Accra defenders and midfielders. One of their players had it to Kazeno’s left, and as Kazeno tried fruitlessly to direct the defense, a cross came through to a man left completely wide open. Kazeno instinctively looked to start towards the far post, but the ball went near side and he couldn’t catch up to it. Couldn’t be a poorer start to his Academy career, but Stockholm was up one to nil and there were still more than eighty minutes to play. As play got underway again, Stockholm was quick to take possession back from Adowa Accra. Once again, Stockholm advanced down Kazeno’s left side, crossed it into the box, but this time, he couldn’t pin the blame on his defense. He tracked the ball through the air, saw it off the attacker’s head… but couldn’t reach out in time. Had his senses dulled from not being in active combat in months? Possibly, but he couldn’t exactly become a vigilante in this world. He didn’t have his Quirk to help him out of danger and vigilantism was likely as frowned upon here as it was back home. In a way, Kazeno thought this was ironic. Likely no other athlete had had the thought to become a crime-fighting vigilante after the heinous act of… giving up two scores to an opponent. Guess that line of thinking came with his world. As it was though, this reality said Stockholm IK was up 2-0 on Adowa Accra FC only five and a half minutes in. The entire team was capitulating under the pressure. Luckily, that was the end of it for the time being. Stockholm was still oppressive, but Adowa Accra was able to tread water. At least, for around the next 20 minutes. Stockholm would get another before halftime, making it three goals to nil against Kazeno and Adowa Accra. The second half was none the better, though by scoreline you could argue it was. Adowa Accra got one of their own back, but Stockholm scored a fourth before the day was said and done.
Kazeno sat in the locker room. The coach was giving a pep talk, something about new teammates and new strategies to be learned. There would be more matches. Kazeno’s mind was elsewhere. This had felt like one of the toughest things he’d ever done, and all it was was a single soccer match. He had much work to do if he wanted to get home.
Elsewhere, someone turned off their television. “Ironic,” they muttered to themself. “Seems even the ideas I hadn’t yet baked into the machine have come to life.”
In all honesty, being a soccer goalkeeper was harder than being a professional hero. Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. You really couldn’t draw a comparison between a round ball flying at your face and countless unidentified and dangerous superpowers being used for criminal purposes. Maybe you could, but at the very least Kazeno hadn’t met a soccer-themed criminal in his short time in the line of duty. He often did this, he found, reflecting on the past life he had and how different his life was now. It probably wasn’t the healthiest thing to do, but it kept him grounded to his ultimate goal. Soccer wasn’t what he was born to do, but it was something to be done. Another bump in the road.
Sports, to Kazeno, always seemed like nothing more than a fun distraction for schoolchildren to play to avoid doing homework, and maybe set up the pretense of physical activity so their parents wouldn’t get too mad. Instead, here at the professional level, it was grueling work day in and day out. He’d been working with the pipeline team for about four months at this point, and he felt just as sore now as he did after a day of hero training. Luckily his reflexes did well to help him react to the balls coming his way, and his coaches had seemed to be steadily growing happier with his lack of basic soccer knowledge. The talent was there, one had said, it’s just a matter of getting the knowledge up to match it. There was still a month to go to find out if the Academy decided to select any of these players to their rosters and prepare them for the SSL proper. Kazeno really had no idea where he stood. Sure, his athleticism was good enough to make it here, but how far would that be able to take him? Learning as fast as he did still might not be enough.
No sense in wallowing in bad futures, he thought. Instead, Kazeno rolled out of bed, deciding to get in a quick jog early in the morning before practice began. It was a habit that he’d had since his first month at UA. You had to be in shape there or else there was no way anyone could keep up with the hero course regimen. On this particular jog, he didn’t see too many others. Nothing out of the ordinary though, just one or two less than the usual day. He finished his jaunt around the grounds, and prepped for another day of practice.
Another month passed, and it was time to see who had impressed enough to be picked up by the Academy. Luckily for him, he had been chosen to make the jump to the next level. The bad news? He’d be playing for a team in a place he’d never been, not even close to. Accra Adowa FC, based in Ghana. Kazeno had never been to Africa, but if that’s what he needed to do in order to follow this path, then he had no choice. He packed his bags, light clothing above all, and headed to the airport. The flight was long but easy, about twenty hours non-stop in the air. Even though Kazeno could fly with his Quirk if he had it, it would’ve taken him much longer, and he’d definitely need to stop to sleep. Planes were nice enough in that he could do both at once. He’d met another new addition to the team, Sirxo Masters, relatively quickly upon arrival. With Kazeno’s limited English, he learned they’d be playing left wingback. With his limited soccer knowledge, he figured out that was a defensive position. He’d take all the help he can get. There were practice matches every so often for the pipeline prospects in Japan, but Academy matches were a few rungs up the difficulty ladder.
The language barrier was rough. English was a required course at UA, but Kazeno had never found it easy. American heroes were the most popular worldwide by far, so much of the international talk amongst heroes defaulted to English. If Kazeno had it his way, he could just stay in Japan his entire life. Thinking far ahead wasn’t his strong suit, he was far more accustomed to in the moment, quick thinking. He’d have to brush up on his English when he got to his new lodging. Practice, while certainly more intense and slightly varied in the specific drills, was more or less the same as it had been back in Japan. Reflex drills, set piece defense, distribution and vision drills. They even had him doing some dribbling drills, which seemed useless to Kazeno when he could just pick up the ball (at least inside his box. He didn’t think he’d need to leave it very often if at all). The coaches here were quick to pick up on the fact that Kazeno’s dribbling skills were nonexistent, and so kept him doing the basics so that he was serviceable in the scenario he had to. No fancy stuff, which was perfectly fine by Kazeno. The less technical skills he had to cram into his brain, the better.
He had to get up to speed quickly. His athleticism worked well enough in the pipeline, but here, he was pushed to his limit daily, and the first match he was scheduled to play in was on the horizon and rapidly approaching. Ready or not, he was about to be thrown into the fire and he’d hoped to whatever higher power that he’d been bestowed a fire resistant Quirk in this new reality. At the very least, some burn cream would’ve been nice. As it was though, he didn’t think he’d be getting either. He was familiarizing himself with the drills, but the skills weren’t developing fast enough. The power wasn’t in the right spots, the technique not refined enough to get the ball to his team. Turnover after turnover and Kazeno kept trying to brute force his way through. In the end, it took all he had just to stay afloat those first two weeks before he was slated to start against Stockholm IK. Just as quick as he’d arrived, gameday came. Nothing left to do now but put on the kit and do his best.
Less than three minutes in, Stockholm was already putting pressure on. Adowa Accra wasn’t controlling the ball well at all, and any semblance of an attack lasted only a couple passes before a missed through ball or technical skill gap gave the ball right back. Kazeno had the ball and wasn’t seeing anything close, so he followed the advice of his coaches and tried to boot it long for a forward. Of course, as had happened so many times in practice, his forwards weren’t able to control the pass, or more accurately, the ball was straight to Stockholm rather than his own teammates. Shake it off, you’ve dealt with worse. Here came Stockholm though, adeptly passing the ball back and forth through the Adowa Accra defenders and midfielders. One of their players had it to Kazeno’s left, and as Kazeno tried fruitlessly to direct the defense, a cross came through to a man left completely wide open. Kazeno instinctively looked to start towards the far post, but the ball went near side and he couldn’t catch up to it. Couldn’t be a poorer start to his Academy career, but Stockholm was up one to nil and there were still more than eighty minutes to play. As play got underway again, Stockholm was quick to take possession back from Adowa Accra. Once again, Stockholm advanced down Kazeno’s left side, crossed it into the box, but this time, he couldn’t pin the blame on his defense. He tracked the ball through the air, saw it off the attacker’s head… but couldn’t reach out in time. Had his senses dulled from not being in active combat in months? Possibly, but he couldn’t exactly become a vigilante in this world. He didn’t have his Quirk to help him out of danger and vigilantism was likely as frowned upon here as it was back home. In a way, Kazeno thought this was ironic. Likely no other athlete had had the thought to become a crime-fighting vigilante after the heinous act of… giving up two scores to an opponent. Guess that line of thinking came with his world. As it was though, this reality said Stockholm IK was up 2-0 on Adowa Accra FC only five and a half minutes in. The entire team was capitulating under the pressure. Luckily, that was the end of it for the time being. Stockholm was still oppressive, but Adowa Accra was able to tread water. At least, for around the next 20 minutes. Stockholm would get another before halftime, making it three goals to nil against Kazeno and Adowa Accra. The second half was none the better, though by scoreline you could argue it was. Adowa Accra got one of their own back, but Stockholm scored a fourth before the day was said and done.
Kazeno sat in the locker room. The coach was giving a pep talk, something about new teammates and new strategies to be learned. There would be more matches. Kazeno’s mind was elsewhere. This had felt like one of the toughest things he’d ever done, and all it was was a single soccer match. He had much work to do if he wanted to get home.
Elsewhere, someone turned off their television. “Ironic,” they muttered to themself. “Seems even the ideas I hadn’t yet baked into the machine have come to life.”
