I don't own Inazuma Eleven or Psyqualia (belongs to CardFight! Vanguard). OCs go to their respective owners!

| 8 | FAMILIARITY

Takuto Ryota gulped inwardly as his phone started to vibrate and a certain name appeared on the ID.

"Take five guys, you're gonna need it," he sneered to the rest of the team before walking away to a dark corner of a school building far away from the field.

The team just muttered incoherent words as he walked away, Takuto only catching the words, "damn him," and "jerk".

… but he couldn't blame them… it was half his fault his teammates had to see the horrid guy he had become.

He hesitated slightly whether to answer it or not but it wasn't too long before he pushed the answer button and held the phone to his ear.

"Hello," it was barely a whisper that came from his mouth.

"Aw Takuto-kun, not sounding as happy as you should be to be hearing from me," the voice on the other end jeered at him.

Takuto just kept silent, he knew that HE wouldn't be calling for no reason.

"Oka-san's been keeping an eye on you," the voice said after acknowledging he wasn't replying to his "friendly" hello, "She's starting to expect… a lot more from you."

Takuto's frown dropped further… how much more does that woman want him to act like this?

"Of course she's not disappointed about your current actions towards those silly Inazuma High kids … but she wants you take it up to the next level," the voice continued to taunt him, "I'm pretty sure you don't need a reminder of what will happen if you don't follow HER orders."

Takuto ran a hand through his hair. As much as he hated what he was doing, it was for his own good and he didn't want his "reminder" to actually happen.

"I understand," he stated simply.

"Good," the voice seemed to be smirking, "Remember Oka-san's watching."

Those were his last words before the voice hung up.

Takuto clenched his phone hard in his hands almost ready to throw the phone at the nearest object yet restrained himself from doing so.

How could things lead up to this? He just wanted to stop what he was doing, stop what he was doing to the people around him… hurting them.

He never wanted this to happen… what did he do to deserve this? What did he do for HER to deserve this?

Right now, all he could do was follow orders… one mistake could lead to everything going for the worst.

Because right now, the only thing he was focused on is getting HER back, to make sure SHE was safe and for HER to not suffer the consequences if he managed to make even one small mistake.

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars

Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came, and went and came, and brought no day,

And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this desolation; and all hearts

Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:

To look once more into each other's face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye.

"Endou-kun?"

Darkness. Was this new life always surrounded in darkness?

He looked up to see where the voice was coming from, but the world he viewed through his eyes was once again filled with darkness.

"Who are you?"

Déjà vu?

This feeling… it felt too familiar…

He heard a voice chuckle from behind yet as he turned around all he could see was the world consumed with darkness.

The voice chuckled as Endou proceeded to yell, "What do you want?"

"I just want to talk… Endou-kun," he followed the taunting voice through the darkness. It's jeering the only sign of direction.

Then it stopped.

The voice stopped.

So he stopped.

And somewhat, a distance away from Endou a boy appeared.

His face shadowed his appearance leaving Endou questionable to his identity. His hair, a familiar brown… where had he seen that hair before?!

Endou gritted his teeth as he came standing face to face with the owner of this taunting voice. To Endou, the gap between them was list a deep river, the line that mustn't be crossed.

"What do you want?" Endou repeated harshly. He didn't know who this guy was… but despite the familiar feeling.

The figure smirked, "I'll be looking forward to our match Endou-kun."

"Match?" Endou questioned, "Wait tell me who you are?"

Then it hit him.

Endou rubbed his eyes as he watched two shadowy figures walk out from the hallway that led to their mother's office. He had woken up with a dry mouth and was heading down the stairs that led to the main hall from the bedroom floor towards the kitchen on the west wing of the ground floor.

He was just about to turn down the second set of sets when he had felt a familiar presence as well as the clicking of shoes down the hallway. He ducked behind the railing of the first set of stairs, peaking through its gaps. He could barely see the outline of the two shadows; the darkness of the mansion shaded their appearance in dark shadows.

"Have a safe trip back, ok?"

He heard the first voice say to the second figure, recognizing it has his 'mother's'.

"Don't worry Oka-san,"

He heard the second voice talk. It seemed deadly familiar, yet he couldn't place who it was though it certainly wasn't one of his 'brothers'' or sisters'' voices,

"I will assure this mission's success."

"Who was that person?"Endou thought to himself as he watched the figure run out of the mansion and into the darkness of the night,"And what mission were they talking about?"

He didn't have much time to ask as the boy's image started to fade away, "WAIT! TELL ME WHO YOU ARE?"

"Only time will tell… Endou-kun…"

"WAIT!

The boy let the darkness eat him as he sank deep down into the shadowy nightmare surrounding Endou. All he could hear was the fading voice of the 'ghost' who talked to him.

"Endou-kun."

"Endou-kun."

"Nani?" Endou blinked several times before coming back down to earth.

Endou rolled out of bed the following morning with a frown on his face. After the night of his first practise, he had hardly had a wink of sleep. Not because of practise though, no he had loved his first practise which too be honest was the first time he had felt happy in such a long time. Yet there was something else that kept him up:

"I will assure this mission's success." The words echoed in his mind.

The first thing that lingered in his mind about the statement was how familiar the voice sounded. Of course it couldn't have been any of his new siblings – he'd stayed with them for so long already that he'd gotten used to the sound of their voices. Could it have been someone from Inazuma High? But he knew the voices of his ex-teammates just as well as his new siblings… why couldn't he put a finger on it?

And mission? Endou automatically assumed it was the mission of getting back at their old teammates for forgetting them… but something just felt… like there was something more to it than just that.

After taking a shower and changing into a plain black hoodie and jeans, he wandered into the unusually empty kitchen. Still in thought as he grabbed a cereal box, bowl and spoon from the cupboard and a carton of milk from the fridge, kicking the door closed as he left for the dining room. Lightly dropping his breakfast onto the table, pulled out on of the chairs in the long table and started pouring the milk and Fruit Loops in the bowl before taking a spoonful in his mouth.

Of course most of the team didn't usually plan to wake up till around lunch with the exception of Kaito and occasionally the Kazuo twins who would wake up at nine AM for early breakfast. Yet here he was up at six AM with only a good three hours sleep.

A sudden whisper and a clamber of feet down the stairs broke the silence as Endou looked up from his cereal.

"Coast is clear," one of the voices said. Endou got up from his seat and walked to the mansion's entrance to see four of his younger siblings (Two girls and two guys) trying to sneak out of the house.

"Where you guys going?" Endou spoke and the four looked up at Endou.

The younger boy sighed, "Oh it's just Endou-nii."

Endou took a good look at the four as he tried to remember their names, he knew that despite the fact he had already been in the Shadow Paladin mansion for a good three months already, he didn't talk to most of his other siblings as much as Kaito and the Kazuo twins.

The youngest boy in the group, Dime Sin, as he had recalled remembering the first time he had watched them practise, was a talented forward and midfielder. He had short blond hair with a short fringe which covered his bloody red eyes and was also light skinned. He was pretty hard to forget because of his rude and stubborn loudmouth personality and on the field was often pretty short tempered too.

He recalled Sin pretty well as he was always found hanging by one of the other girls and the other boy in the group.

The girl older by a year, whose name was Denero Jade seemed to lead the little 'gang' was a talented player on their team able to play Forward, Midfielder and Defense Her long black hair was tied up in a ponytail using several different colour hair ties and her fringe parted to the left with streaks of bright purple jade which matched the colours of her beautiful jade eyes. On her right wrist, a top her lightly tanned skin, she wore a black bracelet with the word RazR written in bright green and a pair of purple and black DJ headphone wound their way around her neck. Endou knew Jade wasn't usually one for words but it had surprised Endou that the one time he did talk to her she admitted she had never played for a team before.

Utau RazR the eldest in the group and only a year younger than Endou at fifteen years of age nodded to Endou a silent 'Good Morning'. The forward ran a hand through his short spiky hair which highlighted his beautiful emerald green eyes and light skin. A silver cross necklace hung from his neck while a diamond earring pierced onto his left earlobe.

Finally, the youngest girl in the group, who was thirteen just like Sin, had her usual frown plastered onto her face. Noble Yura threw a piercing glare at Endou, then back at the other three players before huffing and started placing her shoes on. Her long straight hair was tied up in a messy ponytail and her glaring eyes were a bright snow white which seemed to darken every time she laid an eye on anyone. Unlike the other three who were wearing a pair of black and blue Shadow Paladin tracksuits, she was the only one wearing casual clothing: A red coloured short sleeved T-Shirt with a black jacket similar to the orange jacket Gouenji wore a long with denim shorts and boots.

Of course Endou remembered her clearly well, although he got along well with most of the team, she herself was one of the few who seem to clearly have no respect for anyone, not even her siblings. Endou felt the she already had a grudge against him… yet he didn't know why. It's not like he did anything to her… did he?

"Where are you guys going?" Endou didn't bother with a morning greeting.

He knew very well that they weren't allowed to leave the mansion at all. Only a few were granted permission to leave once in a while, whom most were the older kids such as Kaito, Kisora and Endou. The twins on the other hand were also able to leave every so often running errands for their 'mother'.

"It's none of your business CAPTAIN. I was going to make a little visit somewhere," hissed Yura, "Yet THEY…" she motioned to the other three, "decide to sneak out the same day as me to go and spy on their old school Teikoku Academy."

It was pretty obvious that Yura was not pleased by the other three's actions which caused Sin to glare at her.

"Like we purposely planned to go out the same day as you," Sin retorted.

"You guys know Oka-san is gonna kill us if you guys go out of the mansion's border's right?" Endou told the four which resulted in Yura gritting her teeth.

"Endou-nii, could you come with us then, please?" Jade asked him in almost a soft whisper; her Jade eyes looked at him with sorrow and despire.

Endou sighed as RazR and Sin looked at him with a pleading look in their eyes. He'd rather not let Oka-san punish the four for going out when something important to them had hit their mind.

"Okay…fine...," Endou gave in as he ran down the hall to find his shoes before the five of them scrambled out the door.

OCs Introduced in this chapter:

Denero Jade Utau RazR

Other OCs in this chapter:

Gouenji Haruka, Noble Yura, Dime Sin