I don't own Inazuma nor its characters and English isn't my first language, so there might be some grave mistakes.

The story takes place some years after they resolved the fitth sector-thing.

Chapter 1: Changes

Soccer. Raimon. Kirino. Shindou thought of all this things while he was watching the sea. It was a hot day and everyone else was swimming in the ocean, but the caption of Raimon didn't feel like it. Instead he wished he could play soccer with his friends right now.

The brown haired boy sighed. It was still be another week until he and his parents would return home from their summer residence. He had never thought that he would miss his friends so much … Although the Shindou family came here the last years too it wasn't the same, because … Ah that's right, last time Kirino came with them. Shindou smiled as he remembered how the two had played soccer on the nearby field everyday. Kirino would always resist to visit the beach because he easily got sunburns. Nevertheless the two had a lot of fun and he didn't miss swimming in the sea even once.

Maybe he should text his pink haired friend … But then Shindou thought of Kirino's weird behavior before they went into holidays. He even hadn't say goodbye nor did he explain why he wouldn't come with him to the summer residence. Maybe it was this mysterious thing called puberty that had captured Kirino too. A while ago he noted a lot of changes at his teammates: Everyone seemed to care less about soccer and more about, well other stuff the brown haired boy didn't understand.

Sighting again Shindou took out his cell phone, at least he could ask his friend what was wrong with him …

Two unread messages. 'Kirino?', he thought hopefully. But both were from Tenma with not much worthy information, but enough to let Shindou smile for a second. Obviously the other boy had only soccer in his thoughts. After sending a message to Kirino all Shindou could do was waiting for a reply.

Vacation had never been so boring before.

###

Soon after returning to Raimon Shindou went to play soccer with the team. The summer was nearly over now and the all wanted to user their short free time to practice as much as they could before school would start again – well, more or less.

"Where is Kirino?", was the first thing Shindou asked. His friends hadn't answered his text message and by now he was really concerned about the pink haired boy.

"He didn't appear today", Sangoku answered. "Maybe he has found a girlfriend." He waved his hands, looking at the sideline where a quite cute girl was cheering on him.

"He isn't like this." But his words didn't sound as confident as he wanted them to be. Kirino wouldn't do this, would he? Falling in love with a girl?

"Speaking of which, is it ok for me to leave practice earlier today? I really like this girl you see ..." Sangoku looked at him.

Shindou shaked his head. How could a girl be more important than soccer? But after all he couldn't force him to play. "Yeah, it's alright."

"I'll go and visit Kirino", he then decided suddenly. "Maybe he got sick, I should be by his side then. After all, Kirino always did this for me." Shindou quickly grabbed his back and went in the direction of his friend's house. It was ok for him to leave early, wasn't it? Different from Sangoku his reason was important, Kirino was his best friend for several years now and not some girl he just had met.

As he stood before the house Kirino lived in, Shindou hesitated. He had never been here before, in all this years – how could he not notice this until now? Maybe it had been a bad idea to come here without calling his friends … But then his hand had already ring the bell and soon the door opened. Now it was to late to return anyway.

"Kirino, do you have girlfriend?", Shindou asked hastily as soon as he saw his friends face. After he realized what he had said, the captain of Raimon blushed. "Err … I mean … ." He looked at Kirino, but that didn't help either. The questioning glance of his friend's azure blue eyes made him blush even more. "Well … I'm your best friend so I wanted to know … ."

"No, I don't like girls, after all you can't play soccer with them", Kirino answered shortly. "Is this all you wanted to know?" He still hadn't opened the front door fully.

Shindou was surprised by this question. When had his friend become so cold towards him? "Eh, yeah." However despite of the coldness in Kirino's words he felt somehow relieved. After all he couldn't imagine his friend going out with a girl. And he also didn't want to … . He heard the door closing before his nose. 'Geez, he really seems to try to avoid me … .'

However, on his way back to practice, he suddenly got a weird message from Kirino.

'I'm going to cut my hair. Can you

come back and help me with it?'

Something seemed to be terribly wrong with his friend. A second ago he even didn't want to let him in, and now Kirino wanted him to come back. Maybe he really was ill and had a fever – yeah that must be it, at least it was the only explanation Shindou could come up with.

Then he realized what Kirino was planning to do. His beautiful hair; it was always so soft and smelled after the shampoo his friend used. How could he came up with the idea to cut it out of the blue?

'Don't do anything! I'm on my

way, please don't cut it.'

He couldn't let this happen. He knew Kirino would regret it after the fever would vanish. As his best friend, he had to stop him, hadn't he? Practice would have to wait, Kirino's hair was more important to him now.

Anyway please review and tell me, if you think this is worth continuing.