"N...ot exactly." It's the kind of speech he'd have given to his team, if his team had been this bad at self motivation.

"Gettin' any memories back?"

His first idea is saying that he remembers being a captain but there's like actually zero way Wakka doesn't know most of the captains around, or at least the ones that tend to go to tournaments in Luca. It would just raise more questions than it answered, if he said something like that.

Man he really doesn't like keeping this deception up. Maybe the protagonist will be able to help figure something better out later. But for now he can just spend a while looking thoughtful then shrug.

Wakka shakes his head in sympathy. "Well, they're more motivated than I've ever seen 'em. And I could learn a thing or two from ya. To win..."

You know what, Tōkan kinda does not like it when other people do his thing at him. It's kind of uncomfortable. Damnit, Zei, stop correctly inferring his thoughts and feelings from his body language and background knowledge!

"When's the tournament anyway?"

"In a week."

"—you're kidding me. Okay. Got my work cut out for me here."

"They can do it."

"Oh I am taking it as a point of honour now that this team will at least make it to the finals."

Wakka grins. "They can win."

"That's the spirit!"

When the others return with their lists, Tōkan takes a moment to seriously read them all and ask questions about their motivations and what they currently think they can do. Once he's satisfied with the idea in his mind of what the team thinks they can do, he asks each of them to do some exercises with the blitz ball, increasing in complexity and difficulty as each of them got the earlier ones right. He includes various different types within the same "difficulty bracket" to try to suss out specific strengths and weaknesses of the whole team.

General assessment: they're better than they think they are. It's kind of interesting to see, he can tell when they're holding themselves back for fear of being too daring or too risky, and if he pushes them in the right way they even surprise themselves.

Specifics:

• Datto is their best shot by far, and also the best at enduring tackles from other players. His thing is raw strength, though, and his actual aim isn't that great so when shooting from far enough or trying to pass the ball he's not that great. He's also kind of not the best at hand-eye coordination.
• Letty can take a beating but he really shines in accuracy. That boy can hit a seagull with a blitzball from a hundred meters away.
• Jassu has a mean streak, and is really good at faking opponents out and figuring out how to slip past their defences and grab the ball. He's kind of a garbage shot though.
• Botta... is kind of a Jassu-wannabe. He's about as good as Jassu at the whole figuring out how to get the ball from others thing but less good at pretty much everything else. The one thing he's better than Jassu at is special techniques: he has memorised a whole host of those, and a lot of them are ones Tōkan has never seen before due to being literally magic.
• Keepa is their goalkeep but he's... actually not very good at it. He mostly relies on his wide frame to throw his whole self in front of the ball when he can, but he's not super agile and takes a bit to move. He can, however, take one hell of a beating.

Okay. He can probably work with this. He doesn't think he can make this a world-class team in a week, but maybe, just maybe, they can figure out some strategies that will work, especially if he can get them to actually improve at all in anything over the week. Although he expects most of the impact he can have on the team is motivational and not actually technical. Well, whatever works. Hopefully he can watch recordings of past games when they get to Luca to figure out what they'll be up against.

By the time they break for food, Tōkan has started going over some standard formations for pairs and having everyone other than Keepa rotate out and play against each other using those formations so they can get a bit of a feel for all of them and what they work best with. They were familiar with most of the ideas, but not all, and were not at all used to this kind of practice. At the same time, he starts working with Keepa to level him up in... well, being a goalkeep. He's done enough of this kind of thing with his own team's goalkeep—he was the best shot there—that it's pretty much muscle memory by now. Keepa is worse than the Zanarkand Abes's goalkeep was, so he has to start slower, but despite his quiet he's actually very determined and diligent when motivated.

Tōkan tells them to take an hour after food but then he expects everyone back on deck and ready to blitz.

"You know, that was kinda hot," says Zei after he once again unreasonably quietly shows up, sitting next to Tōkan with his own food.

Tōkan doesn't jump, this time, but it's through active effort.

"Don't you play?"

"Yeah but I'm really not a very competitive person. At least... not in that way."

"So in what way are you competitive?"

"Kind of with myself? I want to be able to prove to myself that I can do... whatever it is I'm trying to do. And do it well. But I don't care so much about joining active competitions like that. I was just subbing in for Wakka because he's... kind of not in a great headspace, right now."

"Don't tell me if he wouldn't want me to know."

"He's probably fine with it," Zei shrugs. "Chappu—his brother—went on a mission with the Crusaders last year and was killed by Sin. Wakka heard the news just before the tournament started and it kinda messed him up. And now he's coming with me to guard me and is distracted by the game while thinking it's detracting from his responsibilities."

"...that does sound like a mess to untangle."

"Yeah. It is."

Tōkan looks out into the sea from where he sat down to eat on the deck and hums thoughtfully. "I'm from Zanarkand."

Zei chokes on the strange fruit he's eating and has to get some water to down it. "Beg your pardon?"