Chapter 15

-Third Person POV-

“talking”

‘thoughts’

‘This is why I love football, yes break, fear me you fucking weaklings!’

His thoughts get interrupted when Bachira launches himself at the younger boy, causing the both of them to fall onto the ground.

Bachira: “Holy shit! What was that!”

He exclaims whilst shaking Gento by his shoulders.

Gento: “Dude stop, shaken baby syndrome is a thing you know!”

Gento responds laughing, trying to push Bachira off of him

Gento: “To be honest, I don’t know really my body just moved on its own.”

After this Bachira stands up and extends a hand to the boy helping him up from the ground. With the rest of Team Z celebrating around Gento he leans forward and sticks his tongue out at the others.

Gento: “By the way, I meant what I said I’m still the best here!”

At his declaration most members of Team Z show varying amounts of annoyance on their faces, with Raichi looking prepared to murder his teammate, he walks up to the younger striker and slaps him on the back of the head.

Raichi: “Dude, fuck off.”

Rubbing the back of his head, Gento still chuckles whilst surrounded by the rest of his teammates. Whilst the members of Team Z were continuing their celebration, throwing praises at both Chigiri and Gento, Isagi hears various yells coming from Team W’s side of the field.

Turning around he spots Team W surrounding Kuon who was laying on the ground, whilst being kicked and yelled at by various players from Team W.

Keisuke: “Get fucked in the ass, Kuon, you fucking Bum!! We agreed you’d make them lose against us, piece of shit!! You were hidin’ that info about those two huh?!”

Putting his arms over his head to protect himself Kuon responds.

Kuon: “No… I really didn’t know!”

Keisuke: “We’re gonna make you fucking retire!! That’s what my big bro here says!!”

Hearing this Isagi rushes over and pulls the younger brother off of Kuon, trying to stop the beating.

Isagi: “Cut it out!”

Seeing his brother get grabbed, Junichi grabs Isagi by the front of his jersey. Whilst he prepares himself to fight Isagi, his arm suddenly gets grabbed by Kunigami who pushes himself in between the two.

Kunigami: “Enough. Don’t lay your hands on my team.”

With Kunigami and Junichi staring each other down and the rest of Team W being distracted by the altercation, Kuon takes his chance and runs away and back into the dressing room.

Gento: ‘There he goes… That bit him the ass, didn’t it?’

Gento turns to Bachira, opening his mouth to start another conversation before he gets cut-off by the intercom. 

Intercom: “Thus concludes the seventh and eight matches in the fifth stratum”

Match 7: Team W [3] – [7] Team Z

Match 8: Team V [5] – [2] Team X

Gento: ‘Welp, guess we basically passed already.’

Shortly afterwards Team Z returns to the locker room and begins to take their well deserved showers. 

Whilst the rest of Team Z were talking about the match in the locker room, Gento was hastily making his way towards the cafeteria with a single goal in mind.

Gento: ‘Phone-time. Phone-time. Phone-time!’

Entering the cafeteria he spots Nagi and Reo sitting alongside a dark haired boy with glasses on his face. Spotting the younger striker moving through the cafeteria Reo waves and yells out towards him.

Reo: “Hey Gento, wanna sit with us?!”

Hearing this Gento throws up a thumbs-up before responding.

Gento: “Sure! Just wait a sec, I’m gonna redeem my goal bonuses!”

After receiving his phone, alongside a steak Gento makes his way back towards the table where he saw the ‘definitely-not-dating’ duo alongside one of their teammates. Nearing the table he overhears Kuon who was trying to pitch an idea to Team V.

Kuon: “Well? You guys at Team V-“

However before he could finish, Gento throws his slipper at him, hitting him square in the face.

Gento: “Are you serious Kuon? This shit didn’t work last time, what makes you think this’ll go any different?”

Kuon, who fell out of his chair when he was hit by the slipper, stares up at Gento who was staring back at him with an exhausted expression on his face.

Gento: “Also why would they accept that shitty offer?”

He shoves Kuon to the side before sitting down right where Kuon was seated previously before turning towards the trio and immediately shoveling some of his food into his mouth.

Reo: “Do you know that guy, Gento?”

Looking up from his food Gento nods quickly, before swallowing the food in his mouth and letting out a sigh.

Gento: “Unfortunately… he’s one of my teammates. Kinda sucks at football to be honest. Quick fun fact the fucker hasn’t scored a goal without having to backstab us, kinda pathetic no?”

Whilst Gento was talking, all four players currently seated at the table where side-eyeing Kuon.

Nagi: “cringe…”

Reo: “That’s lame.”

Glasses: “How preposterous! Truly unbecoming of a striker!”

At the latter’s declaration, Gento stares him down with narrowed eyes.

Gento: “Who talks like that? You trynna sound smart or something? Also who even are you?”

At this the black haired striker lets out a loud gasp, sounding almost like he got the wind knocked out of him.

Glasses: “Huh? Wha-“

However before he could finish he gets interrupted by Blue Lock’s rich kid.

Reo: “He got you figured out quick, dumb Zantetsu.”

He turns to Gento and continues his sentence.

Reo: “That’s Zantetsu, one of our teammates, third highest rank in the fifth stratum and Team V’s resident dumbass.”

Gento: ‘He’s ranked higher than me? rude…’

At this Gento shrugs and quickly stuffs his face with the rest of his steak.

Gento: “Ehh who cares. Anyways, look who got his phone back and scored a hattrick last game!”

He holds out his phone, a huge grin spread across his face.

Nagi: “Took you long enough…”

Reo: “Nagi… don’t be rude.”

Reo gently chastises his treasure, before turning back towards Gento.

Reo: “So we’ll be playing against your team next. Are you prepared to lose Gento?”

Gento: “Nah, I’d win.”

At this Reo and Gento stare each other down whilst Nagi lays face first down on the table, already over the conversation and Zantetsu was still trying to come up with a response to Reo’s earlier statement.

Nagi: “Reoooo I wanna go back to the room. I’m too tired to eat, gimme a piggy-back ride…”

Already standing up and pulling the taller boy onto his back Reo responds:

Reo: “Nagi! We came here ’cause you wanted to eat something!”

Nagi: “Sorry but I feel like it’s a pain now.”

Whilst Zantetsu was considering eating Nagi’s leftovers in the background Reo, now with a sleepy Nagi on his back, turns back to Gento with an apologetic smile on his face.

Reo: “Sorry to cut this short Gento, but I gotta take care of my treasure, you know?”

Gento, who was already entranced by his phone, waves him off without a care in the world.

Gento: “Don’t worry, take care of your boyfriend or something. Remember next time we’ll meet the both of you are going to lose your perfect streak.”

Reo chuckles before walking towards the exit, with Zantetsu flanking his side, whose face was suspiciously shaped like Nagi’s leftover steak.

Reo: “Good luck Gento, you’ll need it!”

Seeing the trio walk away Kuon walks up to yet again try to persuade Team V to support his plan.

Kuon: “Wait a moment! I still have more to discuss!”

Gento: ‘Bro… We’ve basically passed already, take a look at the current standings dumbass.’

Nagi: “Reeeooo… Why’s that guy so desperate?”

Reo: “‘Cause he wants to win.”

At his ‘definitely-not-boyfriend’s response Nagi narrows his eyes at Kuon

Nagi: “Those who can’t win even after putting in all the effort are just weak guys not worth the hassle…”

With the trio walking further away from Kuon he continues

Nagi: “If I were you, I’d honestly just quit.”

Gento: ‘That’s what I’m sayin’

Nagi: “Hey Reo, is football really worth playing if you end up losing?”

Upon Nagi’s question another voice comes from the entrance of the cafeteria, belonging to none-other than Isagi.

Isagi: “Hey stop right there.”

Hearing the black haired striker speak up Reo stops and turns to look at the source of the voice.

Reo: “What do you want?”

Isagi: “Don’t you dare mock football!“

Gento: ‘… cringe …’

Reo: “And who the fuck are you?”

With the rest of Team Z filtering in behind him Isagi speaks up again

Isagi: “Yoichi Isagi, from Team Z. We’re the ones that will bring you down!!”

*Fast-forward to Team Z’s monitoring room*

Intercom: “And with that the fifth stratum’s penultimate match has come to an end.”

Match 9: Team W [1] – [1] Team Y

Standing in front of the monitor Iemon speaks up, with a remote in his hand.

Iemon: “Match 9 ended in a draw thanks to a late equalizer by Niko. After this match’s result our group standing has changed again so now it looks like this.”

Rank 1 – Team V – 9 pts – +15

Rank 2 – Team Z – 6 pts – +6

Rank 3 – Team W – 4 pts – -5

Rank 4 – Team Y – 4 pts – -11

Rank 5 – Team X – 3 pts – -5

Iemon: “Team Z is second, no matter the result of the following match we’ll pass. So realistically we don’t need to try all that much.”

However before he could continue, Gento cuts in and interrupts Iemon.

Gento: “Iemon with all-due respect shut up. I’m gonna speak for the rest of us, minus the dirtbag in the corner, that we want to win this even if the result doesn’t matter.”

At his declaration the rest of Team Z speak up voicing their support with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Gento: “Come on coach. Tell us what we need to do, to win this.”

Iemon: “Alright then, first of all we got to figure out who’s the key behind Team V’s success, which would be this trio.”

He finishes his sentence by projecting the faces of Nagi, Reo and Zantetsu onto the big screen.

Iemon: “In three games, they have scored a collective 18 goals. These top 3 players are responsible for their team’s ridiculous and surreal victories.

With five goals Zantestu Tsurugi.

With six goals Reo Mikage.

And Team V’s top scorer, the highest rated player of this stratum, with seven goals Seishiro Nagi.

If we don’t stop these guys, we’re pretty much done for.”

As the team starts talking about possible strategies to stop the mentioned trio, Gento, completely ignoring the conversation around himself, stares into the projected faces of Nagi and Reo.

Gento: ‘Come on geniuses, show me what you look like when you experience true fear.’

-End of Chapter 12 –