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Isagi disappeared.
That year was the year of the World Cup. Few years had passed since Blue Lock ended and Kaiser remembered that when the player roster for Japan’s team was revealed, Isagi was in it alongside a few familiar faces. But when the World Cup started, Isagi hadn’t played one match at all. It wasn’t before halfway through the World Cup that Isagi’s name was completely off the roster.
That year was the year Japan had won the World Cup. Though the media had asked the coach and members of the team where the player Isagi Yoichi was, all of them only answered with two words: no comment. It wasn’t long before Isagi’s name became a falling grain of sand in the flow of time. Almost the whole world had forgotten about him and Kaiser did too — until six years later.
“...”
The first sighting of Isagi Yoichi after six whole years. In a small countryside town with a population of less than ten thousand. On a random evening outside a rundown convenience store.
“Y-Yoichi?”
With a little boy beside that oddly resembled him.
“Kaiser…? What are you doing here?” Isagi had the same look of surprise as him.
“Mama…” The little boy called, clinging onto the hem of Isagi’s shirt as he hid half of his body behind Isagi.
“Mama?” Kaiser repeated the word incredulously.
Isagi held the little boy closer to comfort him and Kaiser could immediately tell what the relationship between them was. Isagi took a deep breath before letting out a smile that he hoped was not as awkward as this whole situation. “Do you want to come over?” After realizing how untimely his question must have been, Isagi quickly added, “It’s almost dinner time and he hasn't eaten yet.”
Kaiser looked at the little boy peering at him before turning back to Isagi. Since they’ve met, they’ve met. For the past six years, Isagi had become someone who was untraceable so it wouldn’t be a lie to say Kaiser wasn’t curious in the least what had happened to him. Meeting him like this along with a little boy that resembled him no less, curiosity got the better of him and Kaiser gave a nod.
Isagi turned to the little boy and Kaiser watched as the lines of Isagi’s smile softened, expression complementing the color of the setting sun. The evening stars weren’t out yet but he could already see the twinkle in Isagi’s eyes.
Ah , Kaiser realized. He’s still the same.
Isagi’s apartment wasn’t fancy but it wasn’t as rustic as some of the apartments here either. Even though Isagi’s soccer career is as good as retired, he had still played on a global level in his peak so of course he would’ve had a lot saved up.
“Make yourself at home, I’ll have dinner prepared soon.” Hearing Isagi saying these words made Kaiser feel he was on another planet. He didn’t expect Isagi to ever say something like that, much less to him. The little boy was still clinging onto Isagi and Kaiser watched as Isagi bent down and spoke to him in a gentle voice, “Ao, this big brother over here is Mama’s old friend so you don’t have to be scared.” Ao peered at Kaiser again and Kaiser squeezed out the friendliest smile he could manage and waved at him. “Go watch your favorite animation with this big brother while Mama prepares dinner, alright? Tonight we’re having your favorite.” The little boy’s face lit up and after giving Isagi a nod, he ran for the living room.
Isagi straightened himself and said to Kaiser with a smile, “Sorry, could you help watch him for a while?” Kaiser, feeling awkward about all this, answered curtly, “Mnn, sure.”
Isagi thanked him and headed for the kitchen as Kaiser proceeded to the living room. He saw Ao was already sitting in front of the television so he quietly took a seat on the sofa. Kaiser looked at the little boy, trying to process everything thus far.
Isagi had a kid, that much is obvious — the resemblance is just way too uncanny and it would also explain why he hadn’t played in the World Cup. However, there were two things that Kaiser didn’t understand. One, why disappear and two, wasn’t Isagi a beta? Kaiser could only conclude two possibilities on the latter. One, Isagi had turned into an omega from long time exposure to pheromones emitted by alphas. This wasn’t common but it wasn’t impossible either since there’d been cases like these in the past. And two, the one possibility that Kaiser hoped wasn’t true — Isagi had always been an omega.
Kaiser let out a long sigh and buried his head in his hands. No way, no way, no way. There’s no way. Not a chance. Zero.
He mentally denied it as memories of all his interactions with Isagi back in Bastard Munchen came flooding back. To think that he was playing at that kind of level for an omega, wiping and devouring the alpha players left and right. There was no way a carnivorous omega player like him existed. Kaiser felt chills run down his spine. What the hell.
Reality daunted him, He’s a monster.
Kaiser jolted when something squishy grabbed and pulled his fingers away from his face. He lifted his head to see a pair of bright blue eyes in front of him. “Mister, are you okay?”
Kaiser saw his own face reflected like the surface of the ocean in those eyes and it was then that he saw his expression wasn't quite right. He quickly collected himself and tried his best to calm down. Ao looked at him anxiously, waiting for his response. Kaiser let out a cough and came up with an excuse, “I-I’m fine. Just hungry.”
The anxiety in Ao’s eyes was replaced with relief. He said reassuringly, trying to make Kaiser feel better, “Dinner will be done soon, Mister. Mama cooks the best food so Mister can have more later.”
The longer Kaiser looked at Ao, the more he felt that Ao resembled someone else other than Isagi. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it and just decided to continue conversing with him, “And what does Isagi— Your mama cooks best?”
“My favorite food.”
“And what’s your favorite food?”
“Hamburger steak.”
The conversation of course didn’t have much meaning but it was better than him going overboard with his imagination. As they continued, Ao became more comfortable with Kaiser and sat beside him, his TV show long forgotten. It was after a while that Isagi called, “Dinner is ready.” Ao jumped to his feet, excitedly pulling Kaiser to the dining table.
Kaiser awkwardly took a seat in front of Isagi and watched as Isagi helped Ao into his seat. Isagi then proceeded to cut the hamburger steak on the plate into smaller pieces before shifting it in front of Ao. “Ao’s favorite food,” Isagi smiled and ruffled his hair.
Isagi was about to start on his own plate until he felt Kaiser’s eyes on him and looked up. “A-Ah.” Kaiser shifted his eyes, realizing that he had just been caught staring. He kept thinking of something to say and just as he spiraled down further, Isagi said to him with a smile, “Eat up, the food will get cold.”
“M-Mn. Thank you for the food,” Kaiser managed, hoping his tone hadn’t sounded off. He picked up his fork and knife and began cutting into the hamburger steak. He brought the first piece into his mouth and the texture and seasoning of the meat melted on his tongue. He sneaked a glance at Isagi, looking at him in a different light.
It’s good.
After dinner, Isagi went and took a bath with Ao.
Kaiser sat down on the sofa and his eyes scanned the living room to find pictures of Isagi and his kid on the wall. Most of them were either of them together or Ao alone. There weren’t any pictures of Isagi alone. What’s more, Kaiser realized, there weren’t any trophies or awards of Isagi’s achievement displayed anywhere. He noticed that when they were walking back together, people either walked past Isagi as if they didn’t recognize him or exchanged friendly greetings with him like neighbors would. It seemed that in the countryside, no one knew Isagi as the infamous soccer player that had stood on the world’s stage.
And it seemed Isagi didn’t want anyone to know either.
Kaiser’s phone buzzed and he fished it out and looked at the caller id. He suddenly recalled that he was here for work. As soon as he answered the call, the screaming from the other end of the phone almost made his eardrums burst. Kaiser pulled the phone away from his ears and headed for the balcony to continue the call.
By the time Kaiser was done, over thirty minutes had passed. He slid the balcony door open and went back inside just in time to see Isagi putting down a plate of sliced apples on the dining table. Isagi looked up at him, “Done with your call? I cut some apples, come have some.”
Kaiser rubbed the back of his neck as he headed over to the table, “Sorry it took a while.”
Isagi gave him a reassuring smile, “No, I should be the one apologizing for holding up your time. You’re here for work, aren’t you?”
Surprise crossed his face, “How did you know?”
“I think that should be pretty obvious. The number one player in Germany wouldn’t come to the countryside in Japan without a reason right?”
Kaiser sat down and took a slice of apple. “I could be here for vacation for all you know.”
Isagi gave him a questioning look, “I highly doubt that. I imagined you would’ve gone somewhere more… Bustling.”
Kaiser grinned, “You’re right about that.” He bit into the apple and the fresh juicy sweetness of it tingled his taste bud. “I came here for a photoshoot. Previously, I shot a bunch of luxurious and fancy-looking kinds so the magazine this time said they wanted something new.”
“And you came to the countryside of all places?”
Kaiser shrugged his shoulders, finishing the slice of apple. “More or less.”
The topic of the conversation ended there. Kaiser, feeling that it was about to turn awkward, took up the second slice and it was then that he realized Ao was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s the kid?” Isagi nodded towards the direction of the room and said, “I just put him to sleep. Ao usually sleeps this early on weekdays.”
Now that they were talking about the little boy, Kaiser had some questions he had been wanting to ask but had been too afraid to. After Blue Lock, they didn’t keep in touch with each other and the only news he’d ever received of Isagi was through the media. To suddenly meet him like this… He wondered if people might burst in from the entrance with cameras and said that this was all a prank like that Japanese prank show his manager had shown him on his flight here. If only that was it. Otherwise, this was all just way too coincidental.
Isagi let out a soft chuckle and Kaiser turned to him. “You can ask me questions you know.”
“What?”
“We’re almost thirty and a lot of things have changed. It’s been years since we last saw each other and even though we weren’t on the best of terms in Blue Lock, we were still teammates. We were finally going to play against each other after a long time so it must’ve been quite a surprise when I didn’t show up at all. So, just ask.”
It really did feel unfulfilling to Kaiser after hearing Isagi say all this. They had played together on the same team and just as they were going to play against each other again after all these years had passed, Isagi had disappeared like smoke, leaving no traces or reasons behind. There wasn't a lot he wanted to ask but to say he wasn’t curious about anything at all would be a lie.
Questions lined up in Kaiser’s head and before he could hold himself back, the question that had him in turmoil the entire evening had already left his mouth. “Were you always an omega?”
“...”
“...”
Kaiser clasped his mouth and dropped to the table with a loud thud. “S-Sorry, that… That… That didn’t come out right.” He was so embarrassed he wanted to crawl into a hole. Isagi said so much to set the mood for him to ask one at the time and he ended up with the most insensitive question that was completely unrelated to soccer.
Kaiser heard a stifled sound coming from Isagi and he slowly looked up just to see him burst into laughter. He lifted his head in confusion. “S-Sorry I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just that… You’re the same as I remember.” Kaiser remembered how Isagi looked when he laughed. Though it was never directed at him, Kaiser always ended up sneaking glances at him when he heard his laughter.
“You’re as tactless as ever.” He suddenly heard Isagi say in between his laughs. Kaiser gritted his teeth as a vein on his forehead popped. He whipped his head to the side and fumed, “Well sorry about that. It’s not as if I wanted to ask something like that out of nowhere.”
Isagi brushed a tear from his eyes as his laugh dissipated. “Omega, huh?” Isagi muttered after catching his breath. “To tell you the truth,” Kaiser slowly turned back to him as Isagi revealed, “I’ve been living as a beta for as long as I can remember. It was halfway through Blue Lock that my heat came and at that time, I found out that my secondary gender test result had been wrong all this time and my heat was just late.”
This sort of case was rare but there were reports of people who had gotten their test results wrong after experiencing their first heat. But for a caselike Isagi’s, it was the rarest of all. An omega normally experienced heat at the age of 13 to 14, and even earlier for some. For him to experience it any later was uncommon. What’s more…
“I thought I was done for but Ego said he would help me hide that I was an omega and because I wanted to continue playing in Blue Lock, I agreed to it.”
Kaiser almost jumped out of his chair. “Are you both crazy? Do you know what kind of danger and risk you had put yourself into? Blue Lock didn’t allow any omegas to participate because majority of the players are alphas. If you’d gone into heat in the middle of the match or even off-match, you…!” Kaiser didn’t continue but Isagi knew what he wanted to say. It’s not as if Isagi hadn’t thought about it.
“I know,” Isagi acknowledged. “The first time my heat came, I was crazy scared. I didn’t know what was happening and I was alone in the locker room. It was Kurona who found me hours later.” Kurona. Kaiser hadn’t heard that name in a while. That red haired beta.
“Ego helped get me the best suppressants there were in the market and after taking them for six months, I realized that my heat never came again. I guess I am what you call an incomplete omega. The doctor said chances of my heat coming again would be low and it wouldn’t be easy for me to get pregnant either.” Isagi stared at the ceiling lights as if he was reminiscing. “So, I guess everything worked out well, didn’t it?”
Kaiser felt he was digging into memories that even Isagi didn’t want to remember. Isagi must've harbored complicated feelings about his secondary gender. Not being a complete omega while not being a beta that he had believed to be his whole life. It must’ve not been easy.
Kaiser kept quiet and listened as Isagi continued, “Even though I had mixed thoughts about my secondary gender, to me, it was still better than going into heat every month. That way, I could put my whole body into playing.” Isagi stopped there and looked down at his hands that were clasped together on the table. He revealed calmly, “Then my heat came — two months before the World Cup. Talk about timing.” Kaiser could almost hear the irony in his voice.
“I was in the locker room after a match. I had stayed back for practice so there wasn’t anyone left. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone left. Then he came in, found me in that state and you could guess what happened.” Isagi’s hand tightened. “Of all people…” Isagi snickered.
Isagi took a deep breath to calm himself. There was really no helping it. No alphas would have been able to hold themselves back once they caught as much as a whiff of the pheromones released by an omega in heat. Even Isagi at that time felt like he had lost himself to his heat. All his senses were drowned out by the pheromones being released by the alpha in response to his heat. Time felt like an illusion as he tried to satiate the growing heat inside him.
“For an incomplete omega, I got pregnant the very first time I had sex with an alpha during heat. It was really ironic. Wasn’t the chance supposed to be low? That doctor would be in for a real shock if he found out.” Isagi’s hand gradually loosened as he heaved a breath. “But what happened had happened. There was no way to turn back time. A month after that incident, I found out I was pregnant. And the rest is history.”
Isagi finally looked up at Kaiser and to his surprise, he was wearing a solemn expression on his face. This was probably the first time he saw Kaiser look like that. There was a short silence between them before Kaiser asked him, “Then why did you give up playing after giving birth?”
Isagi played with his fingers nervously. “My body didn’t work as well as it used to after giving birth. Plus, the doctor said my heat would be more regulated now as well so if I continued playing, I would eventually go into heat in a room full of alphas. That was the danger you just talked about, right?”
Kaiser hesitated before he asked, “Was there no one who would be willing to mark you?”
“No,” was Isagi’s answer but Kaiser found it hard to believe. Back in Blue Lock, he had seen the way some people looked at Isagi. He knew what kind of meaning that gaze held. It was all too familiar to him. Because he himself had been looking at Isagi the same way.
After Kaiser received another call from his manager asking what time he would be back, he knew it was time to leave. He needed to get up early tomorrow and he had just arrived in Japan earlier this morning so he really needed to be well rested for tomorrow's shoot. Isagi walked him to the door and after Kaiser put on his shoes, he turned to Isagi with a face that was tinged slightly pink. “Thank you for dinner and also,” he hesitated a bit before finally saying, “Sorry if I made you tell me things you didn’t want to.”
Isagi chuckled, “Wow, I never thought one day I would get to see the great Kaiser feeling shy.”
Kaiser rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue. “So much for me caring.” He turned to the door and stopped halfway out when he heard Isagi say, “Thank you for listening.”
Kaiser turned around to see him leaning against the wall on his side, casually waving to him with a soft smile and a twinkle in his eyes. “Come again for dinner after your shoot is done.”
He really hasn’t changed one bit.
Kaiser held back the one last question he wanted to ask Isagi because he might’ve already gotten his answer to it. Hearing it directly from Isagi would only leave a bittersweet taste in his mouth.
“I’ll think about it,” was all Kaiser said before he closed the door.
The hotel Kaiser was staying at was a twenty minute walk. He could’ve called for his manager to pick him up but he wanted some time alone. It was only 10pm but the street was already quiet and almost empty. This was way different than the city. And because it was exactly that, the stars could be seen more clearly, spread out like a blanket across the night sky.
He looked for the brightest one and when he did, he took a breath to calm his racing heart. He let out a soft chuckle and recalled the face Isagi had before the door shut.
Yoichi’s eyes look brighter after all.