Miracle

      Itoshi Sae is three when his mother leaves him alone with his younger brother for the first time.       Sae is watching "Chibi Maruko-chan" on TV, waving off Rin as he climbs on him. He barely learned to walk, and Sae doesn't understand why he has to play with him while Mom is busy. It's kinda boring.       Rin babbles something unintelligible, and Sae turns his head to him, thinking how to get rid of the baby. He isn’t going to entertain him.       And then Rin calls him nii-chan, and everything freezes in Sae.       And instead of pushing him away, he pulls him closer.       Well, he promised Mom he'd look after him. He simply fulfills her request — so he tells himself.

***

      Itoshi Sae is four when he finds his dream.       Finds his miracle, what happens on a field that is ten times the size of his room. Sae doesn't understand how his father can be distracted by the phone, because Sae not only can't take his eyes off the TV, he's afraid to breathe, trying not to scare off the moment. And only when Noel Noah scores a goal, and a second later the referee blow for the end of the match Sae takes a barely audible breath. A breath that will serve as a start.       The beginning of his miracle.       Rin doesn't understand what that means yet. Sae too.

***

      Itoshi Sae is five when his mother brings him to the soccer club.       His body is trembling with impatience, and his eyes are running around the crowd of fussy kids who – just like him – came to become part of the miracle he once saw. He had been waiting for this moment since that very match, and only age forced him to run with the ball on the playground at home, and not on a special football field.       Itoshi Sae is five, and he is happy when the coach welcomes him into the team, giving out a children's uniform.       Rin hides in the closet in his room. His brother doesn't want to play with him anymore.

***

      Itoshi Sae is six, and he doesn't understand why he doesn't see that miracle in his team.       His teammates seem clumsy, and his opponents are too slow, and Soe does not understand why everything turns out to be wrong. Not like it was on TV. And not in the way he imagined in his head.       He almost single-handedly wins all the matches, suddenly quickly discovering how best to bypass opponents and score goals. And Sae doesn't understand why others can't.       And then they call him a genius. And Sae understands.       If there is no miracle in his team, then he will become one himself.       Rin watches admiringly from the stands, not hearing his mother's words. He is four and he has also found his miracle.

***

      Itoshi Sae is seven when his brother suddenly starts following him around and – to his surprise – he notices something other than football.       Five-year-old Rin is delighted with his brother, and – oh, God, admiration in this child’s eyes is clearly seen – Sae can't help but feel like a miracle. Sae literally absorbs the emotions of his younger brother as he praises him every second of his life. They start spending more time together.       Rin continues to look only at his brother, secretly practicing playing football.

***

      Itoshi Sae is eight when the world recognizes him as the new genius of football.       He wins one game after another, showing an incredibly high level of technique and understanding of the game. He has no equal among his age group, and Sae takes the delight of journalists as a given, gets rid of them with a couple of rude words.       He runs his eyes through the crowd, waiting to hear these words from someone else.       Rin runs to him on his short legs, and Sae takes his hand with a familiar gesture, showing the journalists a tongue. He smiles, seeing how his brother repeats after him.       On the way back, they buy ice cream, thinking about luck.       Rin believes that in life he was most lucky with his brother.

***

      Itoshi Sae is nine when he sees a miracle deeply hidden in his brother.       Sae sends the ball flying, hoping that his sluggish teammates can finally score a goal themselves, when Rin suddenly appears on the playing field. And carefully intercepts the ball. Scores a goal from his pass.       That's what he has been looking for all this time. Another miracle that will help him reach a new level.       Sae ignores the others and calls his brother to the team.       Rin is almost suffocating with happiness. Nii-chan praises him. The first time looks at him with eyes glowing with admiration.       He will give the first place to his brother without hesitation. The second one will be enough for Rin, just to be next to him.

***

      Itoshi Sae is eleven, and he and his brother are invincible.       Rin turns out to be the partner he needed. They seem to be reading each other's minds. Rin understands without words where Sae will be waiting for his pass.       He's also very obedient. Sae is surprised by this – since his younger brother has always been very naughty – but Rin agrees without argument with anything proposed by him, doing exactly what Sae expects from him.       Sae is slightly concerned with such submission but presses all thoughts to the root. They're winning, so what's the point of thinking about such stuff?       Rin continues to look at his brother with admiration, not seeing the threads that bind him tighter and tighter.

***

      Hitoshi Sae is twelve when his classmate slips him a manga.       He refuses, says "has no time for such things". Football is only thing he is in, and Sae is not going to be distracted by any nonsense.       And then his teammate compares him to one of the characters in the same manga he heard about the day before.

***

      Itoshi Sae is twelve, and his teammates compare him to Uchiha Itachi, asking if he is definitely not hiding the sharingan. Otherwise, where would such a genius come from? Sae waves off, silencing the guys, and, telling them not to talk nonsense, leaves the locker room.       Feigning reluctance, he still agrees to take a manga from a classmate.       Rin frowns in confusion as he sees his brother with such a strange book. Sae ignores his gaze.

***

      Hitoshi Sae is thirteen, and his brother's obsession with him obviously scares.       Rin does not think of football without his older brother, for him football is only about playing with nii-chan in pairs, scoring goals convenient for both of them, and Sae does not know how to convince him to develop independently.       But he knows he doesn't want to ruin this miracle.       He sees in the Rin something more than just a support player for him, the genius of Itoshi Sae. After all, Rin is also a genius. He's a miracle too.       And he doesn't want to destroy him.       Instead, Sae asks his parents to sign a contract for him with the youth team of the Real Madrid club.       If Rin doesn't want to develop on his own, then he will force him.       He's a good big brother, right?       Rin hides his disappointment but promises to move on. He's not a kid anymore, is he?       Sae flies to Spain, hugging Rin one last time and promising that they will become the best in the world.

***

      Itoshi Sae is sixteen, and he admits that he misses.       Looking at the sea, he thinks about his brother. Mom constantly informs him about Rin's achievements, and he can't help but be happy for him, hearing that he is gradually climbing higher and higher. He knows that Rin will cope, by his arrival he will become the best striker in Japan.       However, with all this, he cannot help but worry about his brother. There are so many strong players in the world, and sometimes Sae thinks that his soft brother will not be able to manage with it without help. He thinks about what will happen if Rin continues to cling to him when he returns home to Japan. Rin, without hesitation, gave him the place of the first striker, not even intending to fight for him. He just agreed to the second place, to a place next to his nii-chan.       Sae is worried about it. To reach the world level, you need to strive for more, you need to aim for the first place, go all-in, especially with good cards in your hands. And at the moment, Rin has a full house.       And Sae wants to give him a royal flush.       Sae closes his eyes, filling his lungs with salty air, and suddenly realizes that he is ready to give his brother the place of the best striker in the world. The place that once became his dream, made him a miracle.       But there is another miracle. What he swore to himself to protect.       And he, as an older brother, is not going to give up his words.       Especially since he's also a miracle, and it doesn't matter what position he plays, right?       Sae is thinking about becoming a midfielder.

***

      Itoshi Sae is seventeen, and he does not want to admit that he is tired.       The coach convinces him to stay in the forward position and not to destroy the established team, and Sae postpones these thoughts until returning to Japan.       The matches are getting more intense, the tension in the team is growing, as is the temperature in mid-July. Summer is his favorite time of the year, but Sae begins to hate it, looking forward to autumn and returning to Japan.       The circles under his eyes are growing, and Sae doesn't understand why he can't sleep properly. He replaces the hours of sleep with training, not wanting to admit the instability of his condition.       When the coach catches him at night training, and then chastises him, forbidding him access to the field outside the prescribed time, as well as giving him a few days off, Sae takes up manga for the first time in several years. Accidentally stumbles into a battered volume in one of the bags that his mother—or brother—slipped him, and decides to occupy himself at least with this.       And then, after so many years, reaching the story of the Uchiha brothers, he realizes himself lost in time.       He doesn't read to the end, but he understands that if he suddenly needs to break the thread connecting them to make Rin stronger, then he will do it. He will become his number one opponent, whom he will have to bypass in order to reach the top.       With his eyes dry from fatigue and his brain inflamed from insomnia and constant stress, Sae thinks that he is ready to become the new Uchiha Itachi, and then finally puts off the manga, deciding to try to get some sleep.       Rin scores the decisive goal, not yet knowing that Sae is preparing to make a new Uchiha Sasuke out of him.

***

      Itoshi Sae is still seventeen when he returns to Japan for the first time in a long time.       Summer gives way to autumn, and then winter, and the circles under his eyes become a little smaller, but he's still not okay.       He would like to rest, wash and sleep, but the first thing he does is look for Rin on the football field. He is sure that he will find him there.       And so it happens — he finds Rin not far from home, his brother continues to practice shots at the goal, even after his friends leave.       Sae realizes that he made the right decision when he sees Rin making the same mistakes.       And freezes, seeing his brother's anger in response to his decision. Sae didn't know that Rin clung so strongly to his ideal of "Itoshi Sae is the number one striker" that he built in his head as a child.       Sae promised him that they would become the best. And so it will be.       He will be the best midfielder, and Rin will be the best striker. And then the whole world will recognize their miracle.       His miracle.       However, if Rin doesn't accept him as his midfielder, then he will become his opponent.       He will become someone Rin wants to surpass.       He himself will break this threads between them so that his younger brother can become the best striker in the world.       He will become new Uchiha Itachi, as he promised himself.       Unfortunately, Sae did not finish reading the manga to know how it will end.       He clenches his teeth tighter, suppressing the urge to turn around and say he was wrong.       Rin is sure that he lost his dream that day.

***

      Itoshi Sae is eighteen, and he is preparing to face his brother for the first time in a serious match.       Rin successfully passes the tests in Blue Lock, and Sae is not surprised to hear that his younger brother will be the main figure in the Ego team.       This game will be one of the steps that will lead Rin to the top, Sae is sure of it. He will also try to do everything to be upstairs to give his brother a hand when the time comes. Even if Rin doesn't accept it, Sae will support him from the aside.       He is surprised to see the familiar excited expression on Rin's face, realizing that he was able to enter the Stream. Sae concentrates on the game, not going to give in to his brother for a second. Only a strong opponent will be able to help him go beyond his borders.       Unfortunately, for a moment Rin loses control, and the ball flies too far, falling right under the feet of Isagi, who has been waiting for an opportunity for a goal all this time.       But Sae is still happy. Their rivalry has made Rin a little stronger, and his soul becomes a little easier from the realization that he did not spoil their relationship in vain.       He's not upset about losing. He had achieved his goal, victory was a secondary priority.       Sae exchanges a few words with his teammates and finally pays attention to his brother. Rin is sitting on the ground with his head down in the realization of defeat. His team won, but he lost today. He couldn't get around his nii-chan and gave the goal to everyone's beloved Isagi.       Sae thinks differently and, distracted by the moment, is even going to cheer him up — and then out of the corner of his eye catches Rin's glowing eyes and involuntarily escaping "nii-chan" — but sharply pulls himself up, saying not at all what he was going to. Praises Isagi Yoichi, knowing how it hurts Rin.       It's necessary. It's necessary, he says to himself, unable to look at his brother's face.       He will definitely make Rin stronger, even if it means putting an end to their brotherly relationship.       He has already taken more than one step, and there is no way back. He will only continue to tear this wound more, thereby feeding Rin's strength.       And if he accepts him after that, Sae swears — on his last day on Earth, he will make the best pass in the world to the best striker in the world.       To his brother. To Rin.