Chapter Text
Reo steps into the book store.
The atmosphere is quiet and cozy, and several people stand around as they flip through various magazines and novels. In the back, he can hear the soft voices of several people chatting. He walks deeper into the store and sees a teenage girl sitting at a table with a stack of books piled high onto it. She’s chatting with an employee, but on seeing Reo, she drops her jaw.
“Whoa,” she says, and Reo’s a little used to these types of reactions— he’s no celebrity, but people occasionally recognize him on the streets. Her surprise, though, seems to go deeper than most.
“It’s so different seeing you in person,” she says.
“You mean compared to on the news?”
She hesitates before nodding, her short, peachy hair flouncing with the motion. “Something like that,” she answers. Her surprise wears away quickly and she grins at Reo. “So, are you looking for me?”
Reo’s eyes glance over the covers of the books on the table— a title he recognizes, the very book tucked under his arm right now. “I heard there was an author signing event today. Are you her?”
She pushes her glasses up and grins. “These books aren’t just for decoration, you know.”
“Sorry, you’re just a lot... younger than I thought.”
She waves her hand away. “Yeah, yeah— I get that all the time. You know, I’m an old soul. I might look young, but I’ve lived a lot of life. Makes for good story material.” She takes the pen that’s been tucked behind her ear and twirls it around her fingers. “Now, what can I do for you?”
Reo pulls out the book he’s tucked under his arm and puts it on the table. “My boyfriend got me your book when I was in the hospital, and I was wondering if you could sign it. I really liked it a lot.”
“Oh, sorry to hear about the hospital. Good to know my book was good company, though.” She grins and asks, “Did you have a favorite part?”
Reo thinks back and says, “I don’t often read transmigration stories. I liked the aristocratic magic world, and I thought the xianxia one was really fleshed out. But—”
“But?”
“But… it wasn’t really all the separate parts as much as it was… everything together. Like how it built up into this release. I mean, this sounds dumb, but it felt so… familiar? Like I felt like I was a part of the story. Like I got my own catharsis out of it.”
The author smiles. “Well, you know what they say. The writing’s good if it really sucks you in, so I’ll take that as a compliment.” She flips to the inside cover of the book, and puts her pen to paper. “Am I signing this to Reo?”
“Yeah.” After her initial reaction, Reo’s not surprised that she already knows his name.
“To Reo, I’m touched to know this story gave you release— while writing it, I also felt the same, and I’m moved to know that we’re now connected in this way. I hope you feel peace in this life you have. Sincerely, Ayumu.” She puts down the pen. “How’s that?”
Reo flusters a little. “Oh, that’s a lot more than I had expected. Thank you so much.”
“It’s no problem at all for a fan!” She slides the book back across the table back towards Reo. “Honestly, I’m super glad you came across my book.”
“Yeah. My boyfriend doesn’t read, so I thought it was weird when he gave it to me. But really, the first sentence hooked me in. I couldn’t put it down.”
Ayumu smiles. “Well, some stories seem made for some people. Maybe this story was meant for you?” And Reo smiles in response, but before he can thank her and leave, she says, “You know, I’ve been working on a new book— completely different from this story— but maybe you’d want to read it? I’m looking for feedback, and if you have some free time…”
Reo nearly jumps at the opportunity. “Yes! Are you kidding me? I’d love to!” He pulls out his business card and hands it to her.
“Then I’ll send the file to you. And if your boyfriend liked my book, you can let him read it too.”
“He loved it.” Reo chuckles a little. “He said he cried when he read it.”
Ayumu presses a finger on her chin and smiles as she says, “Hmm. I guess all of us felt connected to this story, then.”
◇-◈-◇
“Reo!!!!!”
Zhilan slams into Reo and forces him to stagger back while Nagi looks on, nonplussed. The smaller girl shouts, “I’m free! I’m finally free!!!” She jabs an accusing finger at Nagi and says, “Why didn’t you visit me more, Nagi? I was so bored!”
Reo ruffles her hair. “Slow down. You’re still recovering. You’re going to injure yourself again if you keep up this energy.” And then he looks down at where she tackled him, a bruise already starting to form, and frowns. “Or maybe you’ll send me back to the hospital.”
Zhilan doesn’t take any notice from him. She bounces up and down. “Reo, now that we’re finally out of the hospital, let’s do something fun!”
“Can Nagi come along, too?” Zhilan glances at Nagi and gives him a sour look.
“Well, he wasn’t a bed buddy, but I guess he can come.” Reo smiles— as roommates in the hospital, he and Zhilan got close as they recovered. Though she was initially a little wary of Nagi, her diffidence is just a front. He knows she loves Nagi, too.
“What are we gonna do?” Nagi asks.
Zhilan grabs both of their hands and drags them forward. “Hang out, duh. Gotta make up for all the lost time.” Then she glances at Nagi. “And maybe head to the night market. Nagi owes me a bag of tea.”
◇-◈-◇
Reo presses his hands against his calf muscles, running his palms against his flesh. Then, slender fingertips trail along his knee, and Reo looks up to see Nagi staring down at the same leg.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asks.
“I feel like Chigiri,” Reo answers, pressing his fingers into the meat of his leg, waiting for a painful twinge, but there’s nothing. “I know the doctor said I’m good, but—” and Reo remembers it, but he doesn’t really remember it. The truck was just a flash of light; a chaotic LED blizzard that blinded Reo into nothingness. Next he knew, he woke up in the hospital, aching everywhere with Nagi at his side.
“If you don’t think you’re ready…”
Reo shakes his head. “I want to play again,” Reo says. “I mean, I’ve been training and recovering, and we’ve even played practice matches. But…” Reo trails off as he thinks about the stadium lights and the buzzing crowd of fans where he knows Zhilan and Ayumu are sitting together, waiting for Nagi and Reo to walk out with the rest of the team. Where his parents are perched in the best seats, about to witness Reo playing for their first time.
Quietly, Reo says, “Everything feels so open now. I’m not being suffocated by Blue Lock. I’m not worried about my responsibility as a Mikage. There’s so much more space for me now, and it’s… scary.”
“Scary,” Nagi echoes.
“Yeah. I’m scared.”
Nagi’s quiet for a moment before he confesses, “Me too.” Reo looks up at him in surprise.
Nagi says, “I don’t know how any of this ends. If we win the World Cup—”
“— If I get run over by a truck,” Reo jokes, and Nagi gives him a deadpan look. Reo grumbles, “It’s been months. Shouldn’t it be funny by now?”
Nagi sighs and says, “If you get run over by a truck. If we end up owning a coffee shop, hating on half our customers. Whatever. There’s a million other things that could happen. But… whatever happens, we said we would help each other through it, right?”
Reo’s lips quirk up. “So sweet, Nagi.”
“Yeah, whatever. We have a game to play.” Nagi holds his hand out, and Reo grabs onto it, allowing Nagi to pull him up.
“Okay then,” Reo says. “Let’s go.”
Author’s (Final) Note:
On Writing this Fic:
There were several challenges to writing the quick transmigration genre: first being how to explain the setting of each story universe. Each story has a plot that Reo is supposed to follow, and I wanted to avoid a boring wall-of-text info dump for each world (though apologies if the writing ended up being that). While Reo familiarizes himself with his physical surroundings, he gets a generic overview, and specific details are leaked bit by bit as Reo approaches each plot point: I hope it felt more natural this way. And like this, you get some reminders of what the plot is supposed to be in each world.
Second, each arc has their own emotional beats, but the arcs altogether also needed to form a coherent, emotional story. After a story universe ended, I had to think about how Reo changed from universe to universe: did he still want to be friends with Nagi? Did he still love Nagi? This made the first two arcs comparatively lighter in tone from the last two, when Reo went through the most change.
It was important to me that both characters change and grow throughout the story. I found that although Reo was the main POV, it was more difficult to tell when he had changed. I think, though, the last arc (a retelling of Blue Lock) helped to expose how different his attitude towards Nagi was. Comparatively, it was easy to tell that Nagi had changed (mostly because of Reo's/the system's shock), but it was hard to figure out why he had changed. After all, he's supposed to be 'reset' from world to world.
Increasingly in each world, at the end of the world (or when Reo dies), Nagi wants to ‘hold onto’ Reo more: in the first world, Nagi was completely distrustful of Reo (and then learned that he was wrong to be). In the second world, he wanted to trust Reo, but Reo managed to deceive him (and later learned why the deception had to occur; to protect Nagi from the danger of the direwolves). In the third world, Nagi trusted Reo even after Reo’s heinous acts, but Reo still managed to evade him and die, and Nagi never understood what happened. Each subsequent ending has Nagi wishing he had understood Reo more and more. In the last arc, Nagi asks Reo, ‘Let me know you.’
It's more than trust and love— it’s understanding. And at the end, Nagi is granted that: full understanding of Reo when he finally regains all his memories.
On Me:
Nagi and Reo’s canon relationship really interests me, especially from the perspective of Reo. In the fics I’ve written for them, I push this relationship to the extreme (stretching it way more than what’s in the manga): What if you had a friend who became everything for you? What if they had forsaken you? Could you forgive them? Could you still love them? In the previous fics that I’ve written, I’ve explored different angles from this dynamic, but this fic was probably the heaviest. Could you still love that friend even if they were tied to your death? Could you still care for them even if it was your fate?
After writing so much angst, I’m plotting a fluffy NagiReo fic, so I’m not quite done with this fandom yet lol (though it will take quite a long time for that fic to come out). But if you’re stuck in your feels after this fic ending, I made an angsty NagiReo playlist for this fic (listen in order! It follows along the plot of this story).
If you stuck around to the end of this fic (even to the point of reading this AN), you’re a real trooper— quick transmigration is not a popular fanfic trope, so thanks for taking a chance on reading this. If I managed to get you to check out translations of Chinese quick transmigration (qt) or xianxia novels, I’m glad that I could expose you to a new realm of writing.
On the Fandom:
A couple of weeks ago (from the day of writing this AN), I read an absolutely gorgeous fic, and I left a comment saying, “Something happened to my heart while reading this.” Now, this fic was published in 2016, so it’s been 5 years since the author initially posted it, and I didn’t expect a response. But they did respond, saying “Something happened to my heart while I wrote it, honestly. I still think about it a lot!”
This will be the first 100k word fic on AO3 for Blue Lock. I think the canon material allows a lot of space to explore and play in, and I'm really anticipating all the future Blue Lock fics to come (especially with the anime coming out!) My story is just one exploration, and I hope that I’ve set a good precedent for creating rich stories with characters we love. I have a feeling that this story will linger in my heart even after it’s finished, and I hope something happened to your heart while reading it.
I’m happy that I could contribute my writing to this budding fandom. To anyone who commented (and especially the people who commented regularly), you guys make me feel so connected with the fandom and my story— there are so many times when I couldn’t stop smiling because of a particularly kind comment. Thank you, thank you, thank you! To any future readers, I’d love to hear your thoughts about this story. And to everyone who made it all the way to the very, very end, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story!
And of course, a last piece of art.
( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡