Chapter Text
Fucking Isagi Yoichi.
That bastard.
He has never liked him in the first place.
It’s not like they have ever had the chance to talk, except when Team Z has provoked them the evening before their match. Isagi has looked overly confident, with his team proudly standing behind him, and Reo has had to stop himself from giving him a dirty look.
What did he even know? One look at his sweater and you could see that he was the second worst player in the Blue Lock project. Reo didn’t have the time to deal with someone he would crush in a hot minute.
Except they have lost the match. Team V. Reo’s team. Reo has lost against Isagi Yoichi.
He didn’t really care a few hours after the match. Sure, he has been disappointed that they have lost their winning streak, and he was ready to punch the guy who has pushed Nagi to let Team Z score a goal, but the disappointment soon has faded after he has realized that they were still the team with the most wins. That he and Nagi were still the best.
Later after a well-deserved shower, he has ruffled Nagi’s hair, cheeks hurting from how big he was smiling. “Looks like we’ll be stuck here for a while,” he has said, almost giggling. Nagi has only hummed, not much of a talker. “We’ll win together!” He has shouted, raising his arms, and someone has had to shush him.
“Yeah,” Nagi has answered, eyes focused on his phone. Reo has sighed in content and laid down on his mat next to his friend. He was getting sleepy. “I’m frustrated though.”
“Huh?” Reo has opened an eye to look at Nagi.
“We lost.”
“We lost,” Reo has unintelligently echoed. “And you’re frustrated.”
Nagi hasn’t said anything else. The sounds of the game he was playing has filled the silence in the room. Zantetsu was snoring beside them.
“Well, it’s normal if you’re feeling this way. I am too. You’ll only become stronger from now on,” Reo has tried to cheer him up. He didn’t really know if Nagi was upset or not, but one thing was sure: Reo wasn’t going to let stupid thoughts get the best of Nagi. “Don’t think too much about it.”
Turns out, Nagi was thinking too much about it.
Thinking of Isagi, it seems.
.
So. Nagi has left him for Isagi. Great, great.
No, not great. Not great at all.
Once again, Reo has lost against Isagi.
“What happened to being the best together?” Reo whispers, low enough so that Nagi doesn’t hear how much it affects him. He reaches out for the white-haired boy, hoping the latter would jokingly slap him and tell him it was a prank, but he is already too far, his back facing Reo. He is walking away. Next to Isagi. Without Reo.
As if reading his mind — they have always been like that, knowing the other like the back of their hand — Nagi suddenly turns back. His eyes bore into Reo’s so deeply that Reo has to suppress a shiver.
It doesn’t feel like he knows Nagi anymore.
“Thank you for telling me to start playing football, Reo,” he says, and Reo fails to see a once of gratitude in his friend’s face. It hurts so much. “We will become the best together.”
Isagi urges Nagi to step into the dark corridor, and when the door closes behind the newly formed trio, Reo stares. Stares, stares and stares.
How ironic. Nagi saying the same exact thing as him while Reo doesn’t have the slightest idea of what goes through Nagi’s head.
He looks around him. Some people are looking at him, having witnessed the break-up scene. Could he call it a break-up scene? Even if you weren’t in Team V, you had to know that Reo and Nagi were inseparable. Hell, he had even told Ego that if Nagi leaves the project, he would leave it too.
Moreover, Isagi and Bachira’s confused reactions when Nagi had asked to join their team was enough to tell that even the thought of Reo and Nagi being separated was impossible.
He notices the guy who asked them to join their team — Reo has rejected him with a sheepish smile — looking at him, eyes full of hope but still holding a certain pity in them. Reo turns with a huff, now facing the white wall. He would rather befriend a wall rather than have others pitying him.
He doesn’t need empathy.
He leans against the wall, feeling the coldness of the smooth surface seeping into his skin. He closes his eyes so that he won’t see anyone staring at him. He still feels them staring at him, but he won’t give them the chance of seeing him be defeated. A part of him wants to cry, but he won’t.
(He still ends up crying silently.)
He is not Nagi’s partner, he is Mikage Reo, a more-than-average football player. He can still win without having Nagi by his side.
There is nothing wrong with being alone when you think about it.
Reo doesn’t want to be dependent on anyone.
Still, he must find two people if he wants to move on to the next section. To beat Isagi. To win.
He takes a deep breath and then exhales slowly, trying to gather himself. What he need right now is mental strength. And determination.
“I have to win, no matter what,” he whispers to himself, and he tries to believe it. He has never played so well ever since he knows Nagi, so it’ll be a little hard to adjust his game without him at first, but he truly wants to make it work. He needs good players on his side.
He scans the room but no one really catches his eyes. Ugh. Here goes his will to find decent players and his determination.
Oh. Right. There is still Zantetsu! Reo understands his playing style; Zantetsu has helped him score a few goals, and vice-versa. They will make a great team together. Even though he is an excellent player, there is no guarantee that he will advance to the next stage if he teams up with someone he doesn’t know. He just hopes Zantetsu won’t take too long finishing the first stage of the second selection.
To be honest, Reo has thought at first that they were waiting for Zantetsu. But Nagi was thinking of someone else— no, Reo, don’t think of him.
He sighs.
Little by little, players enter the room and cheer when they see their former teammates and decide to team up together. Gradually, everyone starts to find teammates, leaving Reo behind in his misery. Not that he wants to play with any of them, but he will have to, and he has hoped that it would be someone that has finished the first stage pretty early like him. Not someone who could barely score ninety goals in an hour.
“Are you okay?”
A voice breaks him off his thoughts. It seems way to close to him for it not to be directed to him.
He raises his head and recognizes two guys from Team Z. However, he can’t remember their names. It’s not like he cares anyway; they didn’t catch his attention back then.
The one crouched in front of him has orange and spikey hair and the other one standing behind him has red hair. If the former has a concerned look on his face, Reo notices that the other guys is almost smirking at him, a hand on his hips. “Don’t bother Kunigami, he must be sad because his doggie has left him,” he says, tone slightly sarcastic.
Reo definitely doesn’t like him.
“Leave me alone.”
“We’re also mad because Isagi and Bachira left without us,” the other continues. “We want to crush them.”
Reo can feel anger bubbling within him. They can’t understand. They are still two, even without Isagi and Bachira, whereas Nagi was all Reo had. They have no right to be mad.
He doesn’t mention how someone would have been left us anyway if Isagi and Bachira had waited for him. The less he talks to them, the better he is. Especially if they are just here to mock him for losing his friend.
“So, Reo.”
Reo groans. Can’t they leave him alone?
“Do you want to join us?”
Oh.
.
Reo has learnt three things over the night: rude boy’s name is Chigiri and he is actually nice. The last thing is that both Chigiri and Kunigami have the same motivations as Reo.
After stepping into the second stage, they have decided that they didn’t want to play against any of the trios present.
“I feel like we would win too easily,” Chigiri has said, frowning.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Reo has asked. To be honest, Reo wouldn’t mind playing against bad players if it means he would play against Nagi’s team sooner.
“We want to improve,” Kunigami has butted in. “Be honest, would you feel satisfied beating them?” He has pointed at a random group. Reo has remembered them as members of the team they had won five against one in the first selection.
Reo has shrugged. “I guess you’re right. As long as I play against Nagi, everything works fine to me.”
“Exactly,” Chigiri has chuckled.
At least for now, they have a goal. They want to beat Nagi and Isagi — and Bachira but Reo doesn’t really care about him — and they will do it. Nothing will stop them.
.
Kunigami is a very capable striker. Reo can easily predict what he will do, and he doesn’t miss his opportunity of scoring many goals. He has scored more than two hundred goals in two hours by playing with Kunigami, which seems to be enough from an outsider’s point of view.
Reo doesn’t think so. And so does Kunigami.
“Aren’t you two tired?” Chigiri asks from where he’s sitting on the grass, drawing another stick next to Reo’s name on the paper in his hands when Reo scores another goal. The latter cheers, a big smile plastered on his face, forgetting for a moment the sad feeling at the pit of his stomach.
“Nope,” Reo drags out the word and takes a sip of water “What’s the score?”
Chigiri checks his paper. “Two hundred and twelve for you. One hundred and eighty for Kunigami.”
Reo smirks at Kunigami.
“Good game,” Kunigami says and they high five each other. “I didn’t know you were that good.”
Reo doesn’t think he is that good. Truthfully, he plays better when there is Nagi by his side. Usually, Nagi is the one who scores, and Reo helps him scoring. He can’t play more than ninety nine percent of his capability.
He’s just lucky that Kunigami and Chigiri are less skilled than him. They are not bad, per se, probably the best players he could have found among the remaining boys.
He is sure that the more they train together, the more powerful their little trio can get.
“One more round?” Reo asks after wiping his sweat with a towel. He watches as Chigiri puts a bandage around his knee and stands up after a short stretch— he has been sitting for a while now.
“We should rest,” Kunigami suggests.
Reo frowns. “No, I’m okay. You rest and I play against Chigiri.”
Chigiri and Kunigami shares a look. “You can rest too,” Kunigami protests.
“I’m fine.”
“It’s already one in the morning and you’ve been playing non-stop. Between the three of us, you’re the one who needs to rest the most,” Chigiri tries to reason.
“I said I’m fine,” Reo insists, but not unkindly. He doesn’t want to fight; he understands that they may be worried for him but he doesn’t need that, thus why fighting isn’t going to solve anything.
Kunigami sighs and Chigiri nods, although not pleased. It seems like they don’t want to fight neither.
“Fine, then,” Chigiri relents. “But I’m not going easy on you.”
Reo smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes. “Good. Let me warm up a little bit before. My legs are sore,” he tells them and stretches his arms while walking around the field to relax his legs. He looks straight ahead, willing himself to stay calm and relaxed. He knows it doesn’t matter whether he’s tired or not, because a second without training is a step forward that Nagi takes without him.
We’ll become the best together.
He repeats this over and over again in his head until he reaches his teammates in the middle of the field. They stop talking the moment Reo is near enough to hear them.
Knowing they were talking about him, he simply decides not to address the elephant in the room. “Okay, Chigiri, let’s go.”
When Chigiri gets the ball, he starts practicing his shooting techniques. Reo watches him carefully; his movements are floppy; he is holding the ball wrong and he shoots too low.
Reo doesn’t miss any chance of stealing the ball and scoring a goal.
It has only been fifteen seconds and Reo has already scored.
“’I’m not going easy on you’, you said,” Kunigami teases with a voice that’s supposed to be Chigiri’s. The latter groans and throws his hands in the air.
Reo walks back to them after picking up the ball. “Have you always been a striker?” He genuinely asks.
Chigiri frowns at the question then shrugs. “Yeah. I’ve just stopped playing for a while so… I’m getting used to it again.” His voice gets quieter at the end of the sentence; Reo supposes that it’s not something he wants to talk about.
Reo vaguely remembers the boy not getting too much involved in the Team V versus Team Z match. It was only at the very end that Chigiri has suddenly woke up and ran with lighting speed through the field before passing the ball to Isagi. Reo was too busy being disappointed with the final score that it hasn’t occurred to him that Team Z has won thanks to Chigiri.
Chigiri isn’t a bad player.
He steals a glance at Chigiri, who looks kind of gloomy now. He doesn’t find it in himself to cheer him up, so he only nods and throws the ball to him.
“One-zero for me,” he announces. “Let’s see if you can catch up to me.”
Chigiri doesn’t answer him but he looks determined and Reo is glad for it. He doesn’t need anyone slacking off.
They continue playing for a while longer, although Reo gets more and more distracted as time passes and doesn’t really pay attention to the score anymore. He’s having fun, Chigiri and Kunigami succeed in challenging him, but he wishes Nagi was here.
They decide to call it a day — at two in the morning — when Chigiri scores twenty goals in a row.
After they walk back to the dorms, Chigiri almost passes out on the bed and Kunigami has to nudge him to keep him awake so he doesn’t fall asleep before taking a shower. “Five minutes please,” Chigiri whines and Kunigami, ever the kindest, indulges him.
On the other side, Reo gathers his stuff — the pajamas, a toothbrush, and a towel. “I’m gonna take a shower,” he says to Kunigami, who answers with a wave and a see you later.
As soon as he gets inside the bathroom, he is relieved to see that he’s the only one there. He undresses quickly, ignoring the fact that he is a little bit sweaty and then turns on the shower. His body is tense when he steps under the hot stream of water.
He feels weak.
He has played too many matches and trained too hard in the past few days. He knew what he was getting himself into joining Blue Lock but the reality is quite brutal. He doesn’t get enough sleep and it shows.
His muscles ache and his heart is heavy.
He feels the tears sting his eyes.
Stupid Nagi.
He laughs bitterly. The irony to think of a boy when he should only focus on winning all the matches in order not to fuck up his whole football career.
He realizes he has spent a little too much time in the shower when the door opens and someone steps in. He quickly wipes the tears away— thankfully the water is still running so the other person can’t hear his sniffles.
Stepping out of the shower, he sees Kunigami in front of the sinks, brushing his teeth. The latter looks at him through the mirror, smiling, but the smile quickly fades into a worrying expression. “Reo? Your eyes…”
Reo rubs his eyes, which must be red from the crying. “I’m okay,” is all he manages to say.
Obviously, Kunigami doesn’t believe him. “But—”
Why does Kunigami seem to be concerned about him so much? They have only known each other for less than twenty-four hours and, as much as Kunigami seem to be the most amiable person ever, Reo would rather be left alone in his misery.
To be honest, it’s a little bit embarrassing to admit that he’s feeling down just because his friend has left him. They are not here to make friends, but to become the greatest soccer player. People would probably tell him that, and he agrees. Still, Nagi has left a big hole in his heart.
“Hum.” Reo’s thoughts are cut off by Kunigami clearing his throat. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
Reo softly shakes his head and blocks any conversation attempt the other might start. They wouldn’t understand anyway, so they don’t need to bother.
.
Despite feeling exhausted all the time ever since he joined Blue Lock, Reo has always had complete eight hours sleeps. However, this night, he has barely managed to sleep three hours.
Which brings him in the cafeteria early in the morning, in front of a small plate of food for breakfast. He doesn’t feel hungry at all but he needs to eat if he doesn’t to be sick afterwards. He just hopes he can eat everything quickly without any difficulty.
He’s alone in the room, save for a random boy two tables away from him, so it’s deadly quiet. The only sounds are the rustlings of the cutleries. Reo could die from how awkward it is.
He bites into the slice of bread without enthusiasm, staring at the table as it has personally offended him as he chews.
Turns out even eating proves to be a difficult task. He continues eating though, forcing his stomach to accept it, even if it feels like being stabbed repeatedly with knives the moment he swallows.
It doesn’t help that his mind keeps wandering back to Nagi— of course it does, he thinks angrily, he can never catch a break.
After what feels like a decade, Kunigami comes in followed by Chigiri, and they are both laughing.
It’s almost cute, how the two of them are always together. It makes Reo smile despite himself and the tension in his shoulders dissipates a little bit as he watches them. He waves them over so they sit with him.
“Slept well?” Chigiri asks as he takes the seat next to Reo and Kunigami sits in front of Chigiri. They all know that Reo has had a bad night, if the rustlings of the sheets of Reo turning all the night are any indicator.
“Yes,” he answers. What’s the point of lying?
The three of them continue their breakfast, Reo having trouble finishing it, unlike his teammates who are eating as if it’s been three days since they have last swallowed anything. If he wasn’t paying attention, he wouldn’t have noticed Chigiri gently sliding his seaweed soup bowl towards Kunigami, and Kunigami putting some pork on top of Chigiri’s rice.
His bread looks even less appetizing than before.
Reo doesn’t bother to try to talk, mostly because Chigiri is very talkative and Kunigami is a great listener. He still answers when they try to include him in the conversation but he’s aware that his words are only monosyllables.
Only when they finish eating and cleaning their plates does Kunigami fully turn to Reo. “Do you have a moment?”
Reo raises an eyebrow. “Yes?” They are supposed to begin training together; he doesn’t have anything to do right now.
“Follow me.”
He follows Kunigami to the locker rooms — they part ways with Chigiri who has gone to the bathroom to do his skincare routine.
Kunigami doesn’t say anything as first, as they both change into their uniform, but when Reo is done while Kunigami is still putting the clothes on, he grows frustrated. “Does it really take you ten minutes to dress,” he sighs. He doesn’t say it like a question but more like a scolding.
Kunigami doesn’t flinch at the tone of his voice. He looks rather… nervous?
Finally, the orange-haired boy speaks: “Are you alright?”
Reo blinks at the sudden question. Then he shrugs. It feels like Kunigami asks him that every five minutes; Reo appreciates the gesture but it’s not like Kunigami is his mom.
Even his own mom never asks him if he’s okay, he thinks with gritted teeth.
“It doesn’t matter,” he settles on saying.
“It does.” Kunigami pinches the bridge of his nose. “You can’t play at your best if you aren’t feeling well.”
“I’ll manage. I never let my emotions take control of me when I play.”
“I think you do though.”
Reo frowns. “What?”
“Yesterday when we were practicing, you were distracted and couldn’t make goals anymore,” Kunigami pauses and waits for Reo to say something.
“I was just tired,” Reo offers as an explanation.
“Why?”
“Nothing. I—” He was thinking of Nagi. “I…”
Kunigami — that fucker — has a sly grin on his face. “So?”
Reo stares at him, then at the wall. He doesn’t want Kunigami see him as weak and vulnerable, but—
“I don’t know why it’s eating me alive,” he mutters, lowering his head. “It shouldn’t make me feel so… I don’t know…”
“But it does,” Kunigami says, and Reo can’t exactly pinpoint why he finds Kunigami annoying. Yeah, he knows that he is making a big deal out of it. After all, people come and people go, so he shouldn’t feel that devastated after Nagi’s betrayal(?). Especially since they haven’t been friends for so long, only a couple of months.
It’s just that… their bond was amazing, at least for Reo.
And it feels like he has lost something so important to him. Like Nagi didn’t care at least a tiny bit about him.
“Look, Reo,” Kunigami says, surprising him and cutting him off his thoughts. “I know you aren’t comfortable talking about your feelings with me because we don’t really know each other but I want you to know that you can open up to me. I won’t judge your or tease you about it.”
Reo nods. He trusts Kunigami, he really does; he seems like the nicest person left in this confined place, particularly when everyone here is aiming for the top and won’t mind using others to win. The end justifies the means, they say.
Surely, Kunigami doesn’t have ill intentions behind it, right?
“How did you react when you realized Isagi left to the second section without you?” He asks, because it’s easier to ask someone how they would react rather than admitting how you reacted.
“Well… A bit sad at first because I thought we were all close — Isagi, Bachira, Chigiri and I — but we could only make a team of three so it couldn’t have worked anyway, you know, and I’m glad he went with Bachira. They’re very close. I think if they had waited for us, nothing would’ve changed; like, Chigiri and I in one team and Bachira and Isagi in another team,” Kunigami says, ever as honest. “The only thing I’m very disappointed about is that they didn’t wait for us. I don’t blame them anymore but… yeah, kinda disappointed.”
“Is that why you want to crush them?”
Kunigami sheepishly laughs, a hand behind his neck. “It’s just friendly rivalry,” he admits. “And they’re the ones I’m the closest to so it’d be fun if we play against them.”
Honestly, Blue Lock isn’t the right place to have a ‘friendly rivalry’, but Reo understands where Kunigami comes from. Playing against your former teammates must be pretty exciting; to see them as rivals instead of teammates, to see how they have grown up.
However, this isn’t the answer Reo wanted. “What if they had teamed up with Chigiri?” He doesn’t voice the ‘without you’ — it would have been to much of a reality hit to him, admitting that Nagi has really left without him.
“Oh,” is all Kunigami says.
Seems like Reo have successfully struck a nerve.
Kunigami stays silent for a moment.
“You miss him?” Kunigami asks instead.
Reo already knew that he misses Nagi, but now that Kunigami has explicitly brought it up without beating around the bush, he has to admit it.
“Yeah,” he whispers. “Yeah, I do.” He keeps his silence for a minute, then adds: “It’s weird, isn’t it? We’ve only known each other for like two, three months, so I don’t understand why I’m feeling like that.” His eyes are getting watery. “God, you’d think I didn’t have any tears left in my body,” he lets out a hollow laugh as he rubs his eyes.
“It’s okay, you can cry,” Kunigami says softly.
“Sorry,” he says with a small voice. He shouldn’t be crying over such a stupid thing, but he can’t help it. The pain is real and he hates it.
“Don’t apologize, it’s normal,” Kunigami assures him. “I’ve known Chigiri for a less time than you with Nagi, and we’re already close. He’s a person I’d like to keep contact with in the future. I think I’d have been sad if he had gone with Isagi and Bachira.”
“I’m not sad, I’m—” heartbroken? Distressed? Miserable?
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Kunigami gives him a sympathetic smile.
Reo doesn’t want to be pitied by anyone, but he also doesn’t want to be alone. “It’s just… it’s embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing?” Kunigami repeats the word.
Reo nods, biting his lips.
Kunigami tilts his head. “What is embarrassing, though? You’re just hurting inside.”
“I don’t want to look weak. I don’t want him to see me like this,” he mumbles.
“You’re not weak, Reo.”
“I know but—”
“But what?”
“If he sees me like this, maybe he’ll realize I’m just a cry-baby who can’t handle separation and he’ll leave me again,” Reo breathes. “And— and I don’t want him to leave me.”
Kunigami stares at him, eyes kind, then shakes his head. “He’s not like that, and you know it.”
“It’s Nagi we’re talking about,” Reo laughs brittlely. Nagi isn’t someone who expresses himself easily; he’s often misunderstood because of that. Back then, Reo was proud to say that he was the only one who could understand him.
Now, he wonders if Nagi really tried to understand him at all.
Kunigami puts a comforting hand on Reo’s shoulder and squeeze it. “What I’m saying is you don’t have to be ashamed of having feelings. He hurt you and it’s your right feel what you feel right now,” he says. “But it’s not the end of the world, you’ll see him again and you could talk about it if you want. He didn’t stop being your friend.”
Yeah, they are still friends.
Somehow, it makes him crack a smile.
“Thank you, Kunigami.”
“No problem,” Kunigami beams. “I’m here if you want to talk. Chigiri too— he’s worried but he didn’t know how to talk to you so he made me do it,” he lets on.
Reo internally groans; he hates when people are worried about him.
Kunigami squeezes his shoulder once more before letting go of it. “I also wanted to tell you something.”
This seems to perk up Reo’s curiosity.
“I’m a genie.”
Reo stills.
“We’re late to practice,” Reo says in a monotone voice. “Chigiri must be waiting for us.”
Kunigami grabs his arm before Reo can escape. “No, I’m serious.”
He searches for any sign of joke on Kunigami’s face but the other really looks serious. He’s a really good actor. But it’s kind of pretty weird how Kunigami suddenly decides to do a prank in a serious moment.
Reo sighs, wondering why he seems to trust Kunigami so easily.
“What do you mean?” He asks slowly.
“Genies are beings that can grant wishes, right?” Kunigami asks.
“Yes, of course, but—”
“Well, I am one,” Kunigami interrupts, grinning.
Reo nods, frowning. “You do know I don’t believe you right now.”
“I know it sounds surreal but I promise I’m telling the truth. If you don’t believe me, ask for something you want and I’ll make your wish come true.”
Deciding to indulge in Kunigami’s weird antics, Reo starts to think of something he could ask for.
Should he ask for money? No, his parents are already rich and he won’t need it in this closeted place. Having his phone back then? No, he doesn’t have time to use it and—
It’s stupid. Kunigami must be lying.
“So?” The other urges him.
“I forgot my water bottle in our room,” he utters unintelligently. “Could you make it appear— oh that’s so weird,” he cringes. “Forget I said anything. Bye.”
In lightning speed, even before Reo can turn to leave, a water bottle materializes itself in Kunigami’s hands.
“Oh, you must be kidding me right now,” Reo chuckles nervously. There is no way this happened before his eyes. “I’m lacking so much sleep,” he whispers to himself. “I’m going crazy. This is all Nagi’s fault.”
“Stop doubting me,” Kunigami pouts. It’s a weird sight, Reo thinks, but not as weird as the magic Kunigami just did.
He crosses his arms and sighs. He can’t believe his own eyes anymore, and the other boy seems completely confident in what he is doing.
“Are you sure you didn’t learn this from books or whatever?”
Of course, of course Kunigami answers his rhetorical question as seriously as possible. “Nope, you don’t have to learn anything when you’re a genie. You’re just born being one and that’s all,” he explains. Reo waits for the moment Kunigami finally caves in and furiously burst out laughing, but it doesn’t come.
Instead, he makes a face at the lack of response. Then offers the water bottle to Reo who hesitates to reach for it, afraid that this was just a simple hallucination.
But it’s real. The bottle’s weight in his hands is very much real.
“I can’t believe it,” he murmurs, amazed. He takes a sip of the cold water and coughs.
So what? Is Kunigami really a genie?
Reo doesn’t know how to respond to Kunigami, but he decides to ask the most important question first. “Why did you tell me?”
“Because you looked like you needed it,” Kunigami answers simply.
“Huh?”
“I’ve been stuck with people who needed my help ever since I was born. I don’t know why but I can’t escape them until they make their three wishes, and after they do so, I disappear from their life and they forget about me,” he tells him.
It sounds… sad, Reo thinks, but Kunigami doesn’t look one tiny bit melancholic about it; perhaps he has grown used to it, perhaps genies don’t feel emotions as strong as ‘normal’ human do.
“So… me?” Reo asks, unsure, pointing to himself.
“It’s been a while since I’ve last granted someone’s wishes. Coming here, I’ve already forgotten who I was,” he starts explaining. “And then— my genie senses kept telling me that something was wrong,” he adds.
“Senses? Genies have those?” Reo questions.
He finds it absurd to have this conversation when he was sobbing not even five minutes ago.
“No…? I don’t know. It just didn’t feel right to me. I thought it was about Chigiri but, again, it didn’t feel right. I just figured it was you after I asked you to join our team.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you?”
If Kunigami starts getting frustrated at Reo’s reticence, he makes a poor job at hiding it. “I’m just telling you that you’re stuck with me until you make your three wishes— well, two, now.”
“Two?”
Kunigami nods at the bottle in Reo’s hands. “It was your first one.”
“What—” Now that he’s lowkey believing Kunigami, he refuses to have wasted his first wish on something so stupid — he could have walked to their room to grab his water bottle alone, without the need of a genie. “I said that without thinking! I didn’t know you’d literally do it!” He cries.
“Your fault then, not mine.”
Reo glares at Kunigami then at the object in his hands as if it has personally offended him.
“How am I supposed to make a wish? I don’t have anything to ask for right now, or it’s just going to go to waste like this one.” He raises the bottle in the air to prove his point.
Kunigami shrugs. “I don’t know, Reo, I’m just here to grant them. I’m not in your head,” he unhelpfully says. “Until then, you’re stuck with me.”
Reo scoffs.
“Does anyone here know?”
“No. It’s against the rules to tell someone. Obviously, the only ones who know are the ones who summon us.”
“I did not… summon you,” Reo deadpans.
“That’s beside the point. And I was joking about your first wish by the way, it didn’t count.”
Great. Reo didn’t have any idea for two wishes but now he has to make three?
“You won’t leave me alone until I use these three wishes, right? Errr, I don’t mind, you seem like a good friend to hang out with all my life.”
“I’m not your friend, I’m your genie,” Kunigami corrects him.
Reo shivers, not bothering to hide how embarrassing what Kunigami just said is. “Gross. Go tell that to Chigiri or whatever.”
“So. What are you three wishes?”
Frankly, Reo just wants Kunigami to shut up for now, but it’s a bit too harsh to say that to someone who only wants to help him, even if the method is a little weird (read: fulfilling his wishes).
Since he doesn’t have the energy to deal with this nonsense anymore — both the NG (Nagi Situation) and GP (Genie Prank), he jokes, devoid of any humor: “I want Nagi to be in love with me.”
When Kunigami doesn’t say anything for at least one long minute, Reo cocks an eyebrow, smirking because yeah, of course none of this is real! but Kunigami is looking right back at him with an unimpressive look.
It’s almost looks scary.
“W-what?”
“I don’t know, man, but you still have three wishes."
Oh.
Oh.