2026-07-08, 09:55 PM - Word count:
The defeat of All for One more than twenty years prior certainly spawned a period of hope for not only Musutafu, Japan, but for all of the world in general. The greatest threat to a normal life was overcome by heroes, and the world could continue building towards their goals. Quirks continued to evolve, and new heroes took up the mantle of those who had decided it was their time to hang it up and retire. Of course, villainy as a whole wasn’t completely gone, but a crime syndicate on the level of the League of Villains wasn’t going to happen for a long while. But, they still existed, and so heroes had to keep the peace for the regular, everyday citizen. One of those heroes was Kazeno Kagenori, known to the public as his hero name, Spectre. His quirk, Phantom, allowed him to be one of the best reconnaissance heroes in the field. He could turn into an incorporeal cloud and spy on unsuspecting criminals and strike at the most opportune time. At least, so long as he stayed warm. Getting too cold meant that he would be forced out of his ghostly form, and be incapacitated for a short while. He had graduated from UA at the top of his class, and so he was already fairly high on the hero rankings, getting as high as 18th in the most recent poll.
This mission though, wouldn’t go as well as he hoped. A small band of villains had cropped up in the underbelly of the city, and were consistently targeting a vulnerable section of the population. It used to be an incredibly safe part of town, and as such hero patrols in the area got less common. Of course, however, relaxing the patrols just gave those criminals in waiting what they were hoping for. Most had gone down easily, but just Kazeno’s luck, one of them had an ice Quirk. What it specifically did, he didn’t know, but his movements were incredibly sluggish from the effects of the cold. He’d managed to somewhat discreetly hit his distress signal, so there were certainly other heroes on the way, one of them bound to be better suited to fighting this particular crook. All he had to do was hold out. And then, the criminal laughed. “Honestly, it’s been fun. But I think it’s time you leave for a long while. Hope you said goodbyes!” With that, another criminal walked up, placed his hand on Kazeno’s shoulder, and Kazeno’s vision went black.
When he came to, he was in a much less developed area. Not that this place he found himself in wasn’t populated, it was still plenty bustling, but compared to Musutafu, it seemed like a backwater town. He got up and looked around. The signs were still readable, so at the very least he was still in Japan. He looked around for his trusty scythe, the weapon he carried with him at all times when on duty. It was nowhere to be seen.
Of course. The criminals probably snatched it from him. Whoever came to heed the distress call will have recognized it and picked it up. He’d grab it once he got back to his agency in Musutafu. He just needed to find where he was and he’d be back in a couple hours. He couldn’t travel that fast in his spirit form, just around 80 kilometers per hour, but he didn’t really have another way of getting around right now. As he finally got up to dust himself off, he attempted to shift into his spectral form… but nothing happened. The transition was always second nature for him, so something was wrong. Another villain with a way to erase Quirks? Well, either way, he’d just find a taxi or something. As he exited the dusty back alley he woke up in, he looked around the area to find a sign of where he was and was met with incredulous stares from the people walking by. Did they not know him? Granted, he didn’t have his scythe but the outfit was still incredibly recognizable by the Grim Reaper styled cloak and chains. But there was no recognition in the eyes of the passersby, only confusion. He looked around again and saw a sign for the ‘Morioka General Store’. He didn’t know of a city named Morioka, but with the infrastructure they had here it certainly wasn’t a town he’d be unaware of. The day just kept getting weirder. A police officer had come by to see what the commotion was. “Good afternoon, officer. Can you point me in the direction of Musutafu?” Once he had a direction to go on, he’d just make his way back by taxi or on foot if he needed to. And yet, the answer just confused him even more.
“You must be mistaken sir, there’s no city I know of named Musutafu. Were you out drinking last night?” The police officer looked at him with a mix of confusion and worry. Kazeno felt incredulous. Musutafu was the largest city in Japan, who hadn’t heard of it? But the officer wasn’t playing pranks, that look of confusion was genuine. Now that Kazeno thought of it, this entire city felt off. There weren’t any Mutant-type quirks in sight, everyone looked like a normal, Quirkless civilian. On a whim, Kazeno hesitantly asked one more question. “Do you know what Quirks are?” The cop’s concerned gaze faded with a chuckle. “Quirk? I think I read about something like that in a superhero comic when I was younger. I wish I had superpowers, but unfortunately I’m just your average policeman. You shouldn’t stay out drinking so late tomorrow, and Halloween isn’t for a few months.”
Kazeno found himself in a world so much like the one he grew up in, but in the same way it was so vastly different. “Thanks officer, I’ll keep it in mind.” He knew it was useless to try and convince him that he came from a place where superpowers were real and he was known as a hero all across Japan. Instead, he asked for the capital, and how far it was. He learned that Morioka was the capital of Iwate prefecture, another name he was unfamiliar with, but if he meant Tokyo, that was about six and a half hours south. He’d have to adjust to life quick. Luckily for him, he kept his wallet on him even when performing hero work, just in case he needed to grab something quickly to help secure villains or help the less fortunate.
First things first, though, he needed to find a job. If Quirks didn’t exist, heroes didn’t either, and that meant he was unemployed. He could be a police officer, sure, but honestly he found most of the fun of being a hero came from the quick thinking it required to tackle new quirks. Average police work was underheralded, sure, but it wasn’t his idea of an enjoyable job. As he wandered the streets of Morioka, mainly looking for a store to buy a regular set of clothes, he spied a tryout poster for a soccer league. He wasn’t a soccer player, never had been, but his athleticism was high due to the excessive training he’d done as a hero and his physique was excellent. Maybe he could learn the ropes and find an athletics job. He got his new set of clothes, and went to find a hotel for the night.
As the first night passed Kazeno thought about his situation. Could he even make it back to his own world and his life before? How would he even go about it? A Quirk theoretically brought him here, but with no Quirks to speak of in this new version of Japan, he couldn’t find an identical method to return back. If the scientists of this realm had somehow figured out interdimensional travel, maybe there was a chance, but everything he’d seen had been too mundane for that to be a serious possibility. There was no chance he’d figure it out himself. He was smart enough in battle situations, and clever enough to know tactics, but he wasn’t ever your typical studious type. Classic school subjects were not his pedigree and frankly, he wasn’t about to try and learn it after just graduating three grueling years of hero school only two years prior. I guess for now, Kazeno thought, I’ve got to make this soccer thing work. If he tried to play anything requiring a large amount of mechanical skill, he’d be outclassed immediately. His best chance, he thought, would be to try out as a goalie. That way, his limited knowledge of soccer and limited mechanical skill wouldn’t be so far away from true soccer players. No fancy dribbling needed, just good old reflex and agility. Those, at least, he trained up from working in a combat field back home. Maybe those could transition to balls being kicked at him. They were kinda the same thing, right? It was probably just him coping with the sombering reality of being in an entirely new world with new rules. Or, at the very least, very old rules, from before the time of Quirks in his world. He shouldn’t have dozed off all the time in history class. As it was, he had a semblance of a plan, and a night of sleep to get, no matter how tenuous it may be.
Over the next week, Kazeno learned how to get around Morioka. The couple sets of clothes he got on his arrival day helped him avoid more piercing stares. His time as a reconnaissance hero living in the shadows left him sensitive to the gaze of others. In a way, he thought being a goalkeeper kind of felt like being a hero. He acted as one of the last lines of defense to protect the team from losing. Rather than high-stakes action, he would use his talents for sport and entertainment. His pocket change was running low, so either he’d get lucky and get a start at this soccer tryout, or he’d be living off a convenience store salary until he could find a way home. He’d found that this version of Japan still had internet cafes, so that’s where he spent most of his time, looking up tips and tricks on playing goalie to cram into his head before the tryout next weekend. Any extra ‘rest’ time was devoted to finding anything that could point him in the direction of going home. The concept of being randomly transported into a new world seemed relatively common here, at least in the manga that authors of this world wrote. “Isekai”, they called it. A fitting name, really. None of it seemed scientific though, so his search was turning up dead ends. No matter, he had a more pressing issue, as backwards as that seemed. Playing a sport was more important in the current hour than finding his way out of this alternate dimension. Backwards logic for a world sent backwards in time.
And though the world he came to was a leap backwards compared to the world he knew, time still marched ever forward. Quickly, the day of the tryout came and Kazeno was nervous. Far more nervous than he had ever been, at least in recent memory. The provisional license exam and sports festival from UA were nerve inducing, sure, but not like this. It very well may have been that this entire tryout was what was holding his future in this world and his chance to return to his own. He took a deep breath, and walked through the gate. Inside, the scene seemed eerily familiar to his orientation exam at UA. A ragtag group of people, all confident in their abilities but unsure what exactly this test would encompass, but nonetheless ready to give it their all. Luckily, there weren’t many people in goalkeeper gear. Just two others, besides himself. Granted, their gear was all the more up to date and professional. Kazeno could only scrounge some secondhand equipment from a pawn shop about a half hour outside Morioka. Oh well, he thought. He’d have to make do with his second rate gear. He knew his athleticism was some of the best in the room. None of these other prospects had actively fought criminals day after day. Of course, none of them got the ability to transform into incorporeal matter either. Certainly would be a helpful ability to have now, Kazeno thought. Travel would be so much easier, and he could theoretically sneak into unused hotel rooms for the night to avoid the monetary issue, though his pride as a former hero wouldn’t let him steal like that.
Finally, the instructor arrived and called for the prospective athletes to line up, goalkeepers in one group, defenders in another, midfielders in a third, and attackers in a fourth. Three instructors stood behind him waiting, so each would have a group. The goalkeeping instructor looked battle-worn, and Kazeno honestly wasn’t sure if it was from soccer or actual warfare. As the groups split up, the goalies moved to the net area for their first test. Contrary to appearances, the instructor was incredibly soft spoken. The voice didn’t match the face whatsoever, and Kazeno could feel the tension lessen as the instructor began to speak. The other candidates seemed to get the same original impression as well. The instructor told them the first test was to test their reflexes. He pointed at one of the other candidates and asked him to go first. Kazeno had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, but not wanting to make a fool of himself by asking and potentially ruining his chance immediately, he resigned himself to sit, watch, and learn as much as possible. The instructor called it a quick reaction test, and instructed the goalie to begin facing away from the ball. The candidate nodded, like this was a test he’d done a thousand times. The instructor made sure he was ready, lined up, and took a shot. As soon as the sound of foot hitting ball rang out, the goalie whipped around, scanning and looking to dive to stop it. The ball was struck beautifully, bending towards the upper corner. The prospect reached out, as if gravity didn’t affect him, but even that wasn’t enough. He got a fingertip or two on the ball, deflecting it into the post, but it bounced into the net behind him. The other waiting candidate next to Kazeno seemed to tense up immediately. Clearly the level of this instructor was more than what they were expecting. As for Kazeno, he’d had his share of teachers who were top of the class. He was taught by Lemillion, a former Number One hero, at one point. He knew he’d just have to rely on his training. The first candidate got ten chances at the exercise, able to save six of them. The coach turned to the waiting pair, and eyed Kazeno. “You, with the white hair. You’re up next.” Kazeno nodded and jogged over to the line like he saw the first one do. “Same exercise as just now. Ten tries, make them count. Ready?” Kazeno gave a thumbs up and waited for the ball. As soon as he heard the collision he turned around to find the ball, only to see it already hurtling down towards his left. It was much faster here than it looked watching from the sidelines. He dove, if you could call it a dive, down to try and stop the rocketing sphere, but he wasn’t particularly close as the ball careened into the nylon netting behind him. Well. Surely it can’t get worse than that. He got up, dusted himself off, and readied for the next one. Another ready check, another kick, and this time Kazeno got around quicker than before, spotting the ball curving towards his right. This time, his leap was powerful, his hero training paying off as he got both his hands on the ball and batted it down, trapping it against the turf to prevent even a corner kick. There we go. He looked up and rolled the ball back at the coach, hoping to see any hint of approval, but the coach was stoic as can be. Out of ten tries, Kazeno was able to snag seven, and almost had an eighth but the ball took an unlucky bounce off the crossbar, hitting him in the back and into the net.
As Kazeno drifted back over to the sideline, he was already thinking about how he could have done better or improved. But the first candidate was impressed. “Dude, you killed it out there. I’ve never seen anyone adjust that fast.” Kazeno just shrugged. “You’ve gotta be malleable when you’re out in the field.” The platitude was meant originally for field work as a hero, but it still held water as a sporting ideology. As the day wore on, he found himself pretty evenly-matched with the other prospects, but where they were treading water on all the tasks, Kazeno seemed to improve with every single challenge thrown at him. By the end, he felt he had proven to be a solid project for these coaches to take on. As the coaches convened, he hoped they felt similarly. They broke the huddle after around ten minutes of deliberation, and gathered all the players together once more. “If we call your number, you’re in. Stick around afterwards to get the next steps.” Glancing down at the pinnie he received, he set his ears to listen for number 18. He figured goalkeepers would probably be called last, and sure enough they started with attackers and moved back along the field. As they called more defenders, the nerves started to kick in again, no matter how much Kazeno tried to shove them down. “Last but not least, 18. If you didn’t get called, apologies, but you didn’t make the cut. Come back next season and give it another shot.” Kazeno could almost feel the breath he was holding dissipate as he realized he made it through. Step one was complete.
As the candidates who advanced stuck around, the main coach got everyone’s attention. “Welcome to the SSL Japan Pipeline Program. This is your first step to joining the SSL, but don’t think that just because the goal is now in sight, that you’ve got it in the bag. Out of the twenty or so of you who made the cut, only one or two will likely make it to the big leagues. It very well may be zero of you who make it. You’ll have room and board here while you work towards the end of the journey. Don’t make us regret choosing you. Follow Instructor Iwamoto to the dormitories. You’ll have time later to grab things from your house and bring them here.”
And just like that, so many of his problems were being solved. It remained to be seen whether this path would pay enough for him to live off of, whether he’d even make it further than this with no real formal soccer training, and above all, how would he make it home? He hadn’t given up on making it back to Musutafu and his life as a hero. He didn’t have the tools that he’d trusted his life to before. Instead, his gloves and cleats would become the new tools that will help him ascend the soccer ladder. In the meantime, he’d continue searching for a path home. For now though, Sceptre had become just plain Kazeno Kagenori, goalkeeper prospect.
This mission though, wouldn’t go as well as he hoped. A small band of villains had cropped up in the underbelly of the city, and were consistently targeting a vulnerable section of the population. It used to be an incredibly safe part of town, and as such hero patrols in the area got less common. Of course, however, relaxing the patrols just gave those criminals in waiting what they were hoping for. Most had gone down easily, but just Kazeno’s luck, one of them had an ice Quirk. What it specifically did, he didn’t know, but his movements were incredibly sluggish from the effects of the cold. He’d managed to somewhat discreetly hit his distress signal, so there were certainly other heroes on the way, one of them bound to be better suited to fighting this particular crook. All he had to do was hold out. And then, the criminal laughed. “Honestly, it’s been fun. But I think it’s time you leave for a long while. Hope you said goodbyes!” With that, another criminal walked up, placed his hand on Kazeno’s shoulder, and Kazeno’s vision went black.
When he came to, he was in a much less developed area. Not that this place he found himself in wasn’t populated, it was still plenty bustling, but compared to Musutafu, it seemed like a backwater town. He got up and looked around. The signs were still readable, so at the very least he was still in Japan. He looked around for his trusty scythe, the weapon he carried with him at all times when on duty. It was nowhere to be seen.
Of course. The criminals probably snatched it from him. Whoever came to heed the distress call will have recognized it and picked it up. He’d grab it once he got back to his agency in Musutafu. He just needed to find where he was and he’d be back in a couple hours. He couldn’t travel that fast in his spirit form, just around 80 kilometers per hour, but he didn’t really have another way of getting around right now. As he finally got up to dust himself off, he attempted to shift into his spectral form… but nothing happened. The transition was always second nature for him, so something was wrong. Another villain with a way to erase Quirks? Well, either way, he’d just find a taxi or something. As he exited the dusty back alley he woke up in, he looked around the area to find a sign of where he was and was met with incredulous stares from the people walking by. Did they not know him? Granted, he didn’t have his scythe but the outfit was still incredibly recognizable by the Grim Reaper styled cloak and chains. But there was no recognition in the eyes of the passersby, only confusion. He looked around again and saw a sign for the ‘Morioka General Store’. He didn’t know of a city named Morioka, but with the infrastructure they had here it certainly wasn’t a town he’d be unaware of. The day just kept getting weirder. A police officer had come by to see what the commotion was. “Good afternoon, officer. Can you point me in the direction of Musutafu?” Once he had a direction to go on, he’d just make his way back by taxi or on foot if he needed to. And yet, the answer just confused him even more.
“You must be mistaken sir, there’s no city I know of named Musutafu. Were you out drinking last night?” The police officer looked at him with a mix of confusion and worry. Kazeno felt incredulous. Musutafu was the largest city in Japan, who hadn’t heard of it? But the officer wasn’t playing pranks, that look of confusion was genuine. Now that Kazeno thought of it, this entire city felt off. There weren’t any Mutant-type quirks in sight, everyone looked like a normal, Quirkless civilian. On a whim, Kazeno hesitantly asked one more question. “Do you know what Quirks are?” The cop’s concerned gaze faded with a chuckle. “Quirk? I think I read about something like that in a superhero comic when I was younger. I wish I had superpowers, but unfortunately I’m just your average policeman. You shouldn’t stay out drinking so late tomorrow, and Halloween isn’t for a few months.”
Kazeno found himself in a world so much like the one he grew up in, but in the same way it was so vastly different. “Thanks officer, I’ll keep it in mind.” He knew it was useless to try and convince him that he came from a place where superpowers were real and he was known as a hero all across Japan. Instead, he asked for the capital, and how far it was. He learned that Morioka was the capital of Iwate prefecture, another name he was unfamiliar with, but if he meant Tokyo, that was about six and a half hours south. He’d have to adjust to life quick. Luckily for him, he kept his wallet on him even when performing hero work, just in case he needed to grab something quickly to help secure villains or help the less fortunate.
First things first, though, he needed to find a job. If Quirks didn’t exist, heroes didn’t either, and that meant he was unemployed. He could be a police officer, sure, but honestly he found most of the fun of being a hero came from the quick thinking it required to tackle new quirks. Average police work was underheralded, sure, but it wasn’t his idea of an enjoyable job. As he wandered the streets of Morioka, mainly looking for a store to buy a regular set of clothes, he spied a tryout poster for a soccer league. He wasn’t a soccer player, never had been, but his athleticism was high due to the excessive training he’d done as a hero and his physique was excellent. Maybe he could learn the ropes and find an athletics job. He got his new set of clothes, and went to find a hotel for the night.
As the first night passed Kazeno thought about his situation. Could he even make it back to his own world and his life before? How would he even go about it? A Quirk theoretically brought him here, but with no Quirks to speak of in this new version of Japan, he couldn’t find an identical method to return back. If the scientists of this realm had somehow figured out interdimensional travel, maybe there was a chance, but everything he’d seen had been too mundane for that to be a serious possibility. There was no chance he’d figure it out himself. He was smart enough in battle situations, and clever enough to know tactics, but he wasn’t ever your typical studious type. Classic school subjects were not his pedigree and frankly, he wasn’t about to try and learn it after just graduating three grueling years of hero school only two years prior. I guess for now, Kazeno thought, I’ve got to make this soccer thing work. If he tried to play anything requiring a large amount of mechanical skill, he’d be outclassed immediately. His best chance, he thought, would be to try out as a goalie. That way, his limited knowledge of soccer and limited mechanical skill wouldn’t be so far away from true soccer players. No fancy dribbling needed, just good old reflex and agility. Those, at least, he trained up from working in a combat field back home. Maybe those could transition to balls being kicked at him. They were kinda the same thing, right? It was probably just him coping with the sombering reality of being in an entirely new world with new rules. Or, at the very least, very old rules, from before the time of Quirks in his world. He shouldn’t have dozed off all the time in history class. As it was, he had a semblance of a plan, and a night of sleep to get, no matter how tenuous it may be.
Over the next week, Kazeno learned how to get around Morioka. The couple sets of clothes he got on his arrival day helped him avoid more piercing stares. His time as a reconnaissance hero living in the shadows left him sensitive to the gaze of others. In a way, he thought being a goalkeeper kind of felt like being a hero. He acted as one of the last lines of defense to protect the team from losing. Rather than high-stakes action, he would use his talents for sport and entertainment. His pocket change was running low, so either he’d get lucky and get a start at this soccer tryout, or he’d be living off a convenience store salary until he could find a way home. He’d found that this version of Japan still had internet cafes, so that’s where he spent most of his time, looking up tips and tricks on playing goalie to cram into his head before the tryout next weekend. Any extra ‘rest’ time was devoted to finding anything that could point him in the direction of going home. The concept of being randomly transported into a new world seemed relatively common here, at least in the manga that authors of this world wrote. “Isekai”, they called it. A fitting name, really. None of it seemed scientific though, so his search was turning up dead ends. No matter, he had a more pressing issue, as backwards as that seemed. Playing a sport was more important in the current hour than finding his way out of this alternate dimension. Backwards logic for a world sent backwards in time.
And though the world he came to was a leap backwards compared to the world he knew, time still marched ever forward. Quickly, the day of the tryout came and Kazeno was nervous. Far more nervous than he had ever been, at least in recent memory. The provisional license exam and sports festival from UA were nerve inducing, sure, but not like this. It very well may have been that this entire tryout was what was holding his future in this world and his chance to return to his own. He took a deep breath, and walked through the gate. Inside, the scene seemed eerily familiar to his orientation exam at UA. A ragtag group of people, all confident in their abilities but unsure what exactly this test would encompass, but nonetheless ready to give it their all. Luckily, there weren’t many people in goalkeeper gear. Just two others, besides himself. Granted, their gear was all the more up to date and professional. Kazeno could only scrounge some secondhand equipment from a pawn shop about a half hour outside Morioka. Oh well, he thought. He’d have to make do with his second rate gear. He knew his athleticism was some of the best in the room. None of these other prospects had actively fought criminals day after day. Of course, none of them got the ability to transform into incorporeal matter either. Certainly would be a helpful ability to have now, Kazeno thought. Travel would be so much easier, and he could theoretically sneak into unused hotel rooms for the night to avoid the monetary issue, though his pride as a former hero wouldn’t let him steal like that.
Finally, the instructor arrived and called for the prospective athletes to line up, goalkeepers in one group, defenders in another, midfielders in a third, and attackers in a fourth. Three instructors stood behind him waiting, so each would have a group. The goalkeeping instructor looked battle-worn, and Kazeno honestly wasn’t sure if it was from soccer or actual warfare. As the groups split up, the goalies moved to the net area for their first test. Contrary to appearances, the instructor was incredibly soft spoken. The voice didn’t match the face whatsoever, and Kazeno could feel the tension lessen as the instructor began to speak. The other candidates seemed to get the same original impression as well. The instructor told them the first test was to test their reflexes. He pointed at one of the other candidates and asked him to go first. Kazeno had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, but not wanting to make a fool of himself by asking and potentially ruining his chance immediately, he resigned himself to sit, watch, and learn as much as possible. The instructor called it a quick reaction test, and instructed the goalie to begin facing away from the ball. The candidate nodded, like this was a test he’d done a thousand times. The instructor made sure he was ready, lined up, and took a shot. As soon as the sound of foot hitting ball rang out, the goalie whipped around, scanning and looking to dive to stop it. The ball was struck beautifully, bending towards the upper corner. The prospect reached out, as if gravity didn’t affect him, but even that wasn’t enough. He got a fingertip or two on the ball, deflecting it into the post, but it bounced into the net behind him. The other waiting candidate next to Kazeno seemed to tense up immediately. Clearly the level of this instructor was more than what they were expecting. As for Kazeno, he’d had his share of teachers who were top of the class. He was taught by Lemillion, a former Number One hero, at one point. He knew he’d just have to rely on his training. The first candidate got ten chances at the exercise, able to save six of them. The coach turned to the waiting pair, and eyed Kazeno. “You, with the white hair. You’re up next.” Kazeno nodded and jogged over to the line like he saw the first one do. “Same exercise as just now. Ten tries, make them count. Ready?” Kazeno gave a thumbs up and waited for the ball. As soon as he heard the collision he turned around to find the ball, only to see it already hurtling down towards his left. It was much faster here than it looked watching from the sidelines. He dove, if you could call it a dive, down to try and stop the rocketing sphere, but he wasn’t particularly close as the ball careened into the nylon netting behind him. Well. Surely it can’t get worse than that. He got up, dusted himself off, and readied for the next one. Another ready check, another kick, and this time Kazeno got around quicker than before, spotting the ball curving towards his right. This time, his leap was powerful, his hero training paying off as he got both his hands on the ball and batted it down, trapping it against the turf to prevent even a corner kick. There we go. He looked up and rolled the ball back at the coach, hoping to see any hint of approval, but the coach was stoic as can be. Out of ten tries, Kazeno was able to snag seven, and almost had an eighth but the ball took an unlucky bounce off the crossbar, hitting him in the back and into the net.
As Kazeno drifted back over to the sideline, he was already thinking about how he could have done better or improved. But the first candidate was impressed. “Dude, you killed it out there. I’ve never seen anyone adjust that fast.” Kazeno just shrugged. “You’ve gotta be malleable when you’re out in the field.” The platitude was meant originally for field work as a hero, but it still held water as a sporting ideology. As the day wore on, he found himself pretty evenly-matched with the other prospects, but where they were treading water on all the tasks, Kazeno seemed to improve with every single challenge thrown at him. By the end, he felt he had proven to be a solid project for these coaches to take on. As the coaches convened, he hoped they felt similarly. They broke the huddle after around ten minutes of deliberation, and gathered all the players together once more. “If we call your number, you’re in. Stick around afterwards to get the next steps.” Glancing down at the pinnie he received, he set his ears to listen for number 18. He figured goalkeepers would probably be called last, and sure enough they started with attackers and moved back along the field. As they called more defenders, the nerves started to kick in again, no matter how much Kazeno tried to shove them down. “Last but not least, 18. If you didn’t get called, apologies, but you didn’t make the cut. Come back next season and give it another shot.” Kazeno could almost feel the breath he was holding dissipate as he realized he made it through. Step one was complete.
As the candidates who advanced stuck around, the main coach got everyone’s attention. “Welcome to the SSL Japan Pipeline Program. This is your first step to joining the SSL, but don’t think that just because the goal is now in sight, that you’ve got it in the bag. Out of the twenty or so of you who made the cut, only one or two will likely make it to the big leagues. It very well may be zero of you who make it. You’ll have room and board here while you work towards the end of the journey. Don’t make us regret choosing you. Follow Instructor Iwamoto to the dormitories. You’ll have time later to grab things from your house and bring them here.”
And just like that, so many of his problems were being solved. It remained to be seen whether this path would pay enough for him to live off of, whether he’d even make it further than this with no real formal soccer training, and above all, how would he make it home? He hadn’t given up on making it back to Musutafu and his life as a hero. He didn’t have the tools that he’d trusted his life to before. Instead, his gloves and cleats would become the new tools that will help him ascend the soccer ladder. In the meantime, he’d continue searching for a path home. For now though, Sceptre had become just plain Kazeno Kagenori, goalkeeper prospect.
