Chapter 11

-Third Person POV-

“talking”

‘thoughts’

‘Am I doing something wrong? What is it that I’m missing, or are they just to blind to realize my input?’

Grabbing his food, Gento walks past a row of tables, at one of which a purple-haired boy was trying to feed a tall boy with white hair, who was completely absorbed into his phone.

???: “Come on Nagi, eat something. I can’t let my treasure go hungry.”

The boy, apparently named Nagi, looks at the boy to his left with a bored expression on his face.

Nagi: “Nah… That seems like a bother.”

Glancing over Nagi’s shoulder, Gento sees that Nagi was playing some sort of trading card game on his phone. A game that the younger boy was quite familiar with in fact.

Gento: “You shouldn’t be using that card, it fucks over most of your deck.”

Upon hearing the younger boy’s voice, the duo turns to him surprised.

Nagi: “Huh? That so?”

Gento: “Yeah, you can only really use it for an early game cheese-strat, but from what I can see the rest of your deck is best when it scales to late game.”

Nagi looks back and forth between his phone and Gento before speaking up.

Nagi: “But the card design looks cool…”

Gento: “… did you build your deck only using cool looking cards?”

Nagi: “No, that’s stupid.”

Gento: “Then why choose a card because it looks cool, if it doesn’t work with your deck.”

At the younger boy’s question the two white haired strikers just stare at each other for a couple of seconds, an awkward silence enveloping the two. The silence gets broken when the purple-haired boy besides Nagi speaks up.

???: “Not to be rude, but who are you anyways?”

Realizing he doesn’t even know these people, Gento gains a slightly embarrassed expression on his face.

Gento: “Ah, it’s Gento, sorry for interrupting whatever this is.”

The purple haired boy waves his hand up and down, a small smile on his face before speaking up.

Reo: “It’s fine, I’m Reo by the way.”

Pointing his thumb at the boy, who was yet again entranced in his phone, he speaks up again.

Reo: “And that right there is my treasure Nagi.”

Gento sits down across from the two looking between them with slightly narrowed eyes.

Gento: “You guys dating or something?”

At his question Reo suddenly chokes on his drink.

Reo: “Huh?! Why would you think that!”

Gento putting his hands up.

Gento: “It’s a fair question, you know with the whole ‘my treasure’ thing you got going on. That’s some rom-com shit if I’ve ever seen it.”

Nagi and Reo just stare at the younger boy.

Gento: “Why are you looking at me, like I’m the weirdo?!”

Nagi: “I mean, if the shoe fits…”

Gento: ‘This bitch-‘

Shaking his head, whilst glancing at his food.

Gento: “You know what, not gonna validate that with a response.”

Reo: “Why are you here solo anyways, aren’t most people training right now?”

Gento: “First of all, I’m done for the day. Second of all, you’re not one to talk, where’s your team then?”

Reo: “Touché, they’re training but Nagi was hungry so I brought him here.”

Gento deadpans at the rich-kid.

Gento: “So you left ’cause ‘Nagi was hungry'”

Reo: “Yup.”

Gento: “Then why isn’t he eating anything…”

At this Reo turns towards Nagi, who was ‘busy’ playing a different game on his phone, completely ignoring the conversation happening next to him.

Reo: “Turns out, he found eating to be quite bothersome, so here we are.”

Looking at the mostly untouched steak Gento suddenly comes to a realization.

Gento: “Wait a sec, how many goals have you guys scored anyways? This guy got his phone back and you’re just wasting the goal bonus on a steak he isn’t eating.”

Reo: “Oh, I’ve got 5 goals so far and Nagi 4.”

Gento: ‘Huh?!’

Reo notices that Gento is staring at the two of them stunned.

Reo: “Impressed?”

Gento: “I mean sure, why wouldn’t I be. Guessing you’re Team V then?”

Reo: “Correct again, Gento.”

Gento: ‘So these are the guys we will play our last game against.’

Gento: “You wouldn’t be open to telling me you’re Team’s weaknesses if I ask nicely, would you?”

At this Reo laughs slightly, leaning his arm on the table and resting his chin on his hand.

Reo: “Nope, besides not like it’s going to help you anyways, me and Nagi are still undefeated and it’s going to stay that way.”

Sighing, Gento finishes the rest of his food.

Gento: “Eh. It was worth a shot. Anyways, I’m gonna get going now, want to go to bed early since I got a game tomorrow.”

Nagi: “See ya.”

Reo: “Night Gento-kun.”

Standing up, Gento puts his tray back and makes his way towards Team Z’s room, which was mostly empty, the only other player in the room was Team Z’s princess.

Chigiri: “Ah, Gento what are you doing back already, thought you would be with the rest of the team.”

Making his way next to the pink-haired player, Gento plops down before responding.

Gento: “Nah didn’t feel like running after that guy, so I just got some food.”

Crossing his legs he turns towards Chigiri slightly leaning forward.

Gento: “Come on spill, why were you so pissed at Isagi during training? You looked like you were preparing for murder.”

Hearing the younger boy’s question, Chigiri sighs, running a hand through his long hair.

Chigiri: “You’re not going to drop this are you?”

Gento: “Nope, so talk already! … …please…”

Chigiri: “Last year, I tore my ACL in my right knee. My doctor told me that, if I get injured again, my football career’s done for. Isagi, he asked for my reason for joining Blue Lock and so I told him. The only reason I joined this program was to find a reason to give up on football.”

Gento stares at his teammate with wide eyes.

Gento: “Chigiri…”

Chigiri: “He told me some shit about how ‘he was like me’ and that he ‘would never throw his dream away’, like he has any idea what he’s talking about.”

Gento: “Chigiri, Isagi was probably trying to ‘inspire’ you to not give up on football.”

Chigiri: “Don’t you start with this-“

Raising his hands to calm down Chigiri, Gento continues.

Gento: “Don’t get me wrong, the way he went about it was stupid.

I’m not going to pretend I know what you felt like, when you heard those news from your doctor. I’m not going to pretend I know what you feel like, playing football with that injury on the back of your mind.

However what I can tell you, is that you probably don’t want to stop playing football. You’re scared of getting injured again, I get that, but do you think that 10 years from now thinking back to your time at Blue Lock, you’re going to be happy that you didn’t at least try?

I’m not going to force you to play, but please think, do you truly wish to give up on football?”

Finishing his sentence Gento stares into Chigiri’s eyes, who is deep in thought.

Gento: “Just sleep on it, ‘kay? Ego obviously sees something in you if you’re not rated last even though you haven’t been playing the entire time.”

Chigiri: “Alright.”

Hearing the taller boy’s response Gento gains a small smile on his face, before standing up and going to his futon, whilst he is making his way across the room a quiet voice draws his attention.

Chigiri: “Hey Gento…”

Gento looks over his shoulder seeing Chigiri looking at him.

Chigiri: “… thanks.”

Gento: “No problem, princess.”

He responds before promptly flopping face first onto his futon and quickly drifting off to sleep.

Gento: ‘Hah! Take that Bachira, I can do this too…’

*The next day, Team Z monitoring room*

Iemon: “In the next match we’ll be facing Team W and their key players are these two: The Wanima Brothers.“

Iemon says, as a picture of two boys, one smiling and one frowning, appears on the monitor. Looking at the screen, Gento who was currently spinning in one of the office chairs using all of his brain power comes to a single conclusion.

Gento: ‘That frowning guy has some weird ass eyebrows.’

Iemon: “These twins are pretty good when it comes to their joint playstyle. In fact, when they played against Barou’s Team X they scored a combined four goals.

With their unique sense of distance, these two can initiate their own plays. Their weapon is their pass-and-go playstyle which will be difficult to stop even if we’re aware of it.”

Isagi: “But these guys can’t use their weapon when they are alone.”

Gento: ‘No shit Sherlock.’

Iemon: “Correct. So, we’ll split them up. That’s the key to defeating Team W.”

Gento: “Hey, quick question. Where is Kuon?”

At the younger boys’ question the team looks around realizing that their usual coach is nowhere to be found.

Raichi: “Yeah why’s Iemon bein’ the stand-in coach? Isn’t Kuon usually the one with the nerd talk?”

Iemon: “Kuon hasn’t gotten back from his bath yet… Uh, is it wrong for me to take the lead?”

Gento: “Nah, you’re doing fine. I was just a bit confused.”

Shortly after finishing his sentence, a sweaty and out of breath Kuon rushes into the room.

Kuon: “Sorry for the wait!”

Igaguri: “Oh, he’s alive!”

Kuon: “Sorry, it took me a lot of time to figure out a name for tomorrow’s tactic… What’re you guys up to?”

Gento narrows his eyes, staring at Kuon suspiciously.

Isagi: “We were just watching the monitor for our analysis.”

Going over towards the water fountain Kuon fills a cup and quickly downs it.

Kuon: “I see alright.”

Wiping his chin he continues.

Kuon: “For the next match, just like we had practiced, we will follow an improved version of the tactic we used for the last game!

We did manage to win convincingly using our ‘Operation: Me next 9’ tactic, but we can’t forget they were the second worst team in this building. Using our old tactic we can’t fully utilize our weapons in just ten minutes and following that time frame so strictly feels like a waste of time.

Taking inspiration from the tactic Gento came up with, I came up with a new tactic called ‘The 3×3 All-Stars Tactic‘!!”

Gento: “The names are just getting worse and worse…”

Igaguri: “How lame!”

Iemon: “Wait a second, do I have to play as the goalie for the entire tournament?”

The rest of the team deadpans at him.

Raichi: “You’ve gotta, right? ‘Cause we’re doin’ this to win.”

Igaguri: “Why bring that up now?”

Gento: “I would suggest Gagamaru, but he’s actually helped upfront, so… thanks for your sacrifice, I guess.”

Isagi: “I’m thankful for your service! Just in case…”

Iemon: “Gento… Isagi… Thanks guys.”

Isagi turns towards the wall, where Chigiri was sitting with his knees pulled to his chest.

Isagi: “And you, Chigiri? Are you okay staying in defence?”

Gento: ‘Dude, just leave it.’

Chigiri: “If you have time to be concerned about others, you should spend it on finding a way to score more goals. Otherwise they will surpass you, you know.”

Isagi: “Oh, my bad then.”

Kuon: “Alright then, we’ve investigated the opposing team and come to a resolution! Let’s win this, Team Z!”

Whilst the rest of Team Z responds with various amounts of enthusiasm, Gento yet again stares at Kuon with narrowed eyes.”

Gento: ‘Something’s off.’

– End of chapter 9 –