Chapter 21

-Third Person POV-

“talking” – ‘thoughts’

“Crush their hopes, striker.”

Sitting in the infirmary, Gento is currently eating an apple whilst watching a video on his phone, having just finished up with his check-up. Looking down at his foot wrapped in bandages he lets out a breath thinking back to the medic’s words. ‘Well, at least I don’t need any surgery.’

He sighs, laying back on the thin medical cot, and stretching his arms over his head, is thoughts get interrupted by the door to his right opening, revealing Bachira poking his head into the infirmary.

Bachira quickly looks around before spotting Gento staring at him, with a deadpan expression, “Bachira.” “Hmm?” “What the hell are you wearing?”. Looking down at himself Bachira sees his Blue Lock uniform and, what Gento was asking about, a white coat draped over it. “A doctor’s coat.” he responds, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Ok, why are you wearing a doctor’s coat? Also, where did you even get that?” Gento asks, scanning over Bachira’s outfit. “Well obviously cause I came to check on you.” Bachira responds, moving to sit next to Gento’s cot. At the response, Gento narrows his eyes at Bachira before speaking up again, “You didn’t answer my second question.” “Hmm? What second question?” Before Gento could respond the door opens yet again, revealing the rest of Team Z spilling into the infirmary.

“Hey Gento, how are you feeling?” Kunigami asks moving in front of the rest of his teammates, his eyes flicking between Gento’s face and his foot currently wrapped in bandages. At the ginger’s question, Gento waves his hand up and down before responding, “Eh. It’s fine. I got some pain meds so it’s not all that painful anymore.”.

“So what happened?” Chigiri asks, sitting down next to Bachira, who was now pouting since he was being ignored. “I got pretty lucky, since I didn’t tear anything. I just twisted it and, since I was pushing myself to my limit for most of the game it got slightly inflamed.” Gento responds before locking back down at his phone and continuing, “I should be fine in a couple of days, but until then I need to rest my ankle.”

Stretching his arms above his head, he turns to the rest of his teammates, “Anyways how did the rest of the game play out?” At his questions most of his teammates sweatdrop and turn away from him, no-one choosing to respond. “You guys didn’t actually lose, right? I gave you a two goal lead.” he deadpans at his teammates, before Bachira responds “Well, we almost did.”. Turning to his friend Gento looks at him before asking, “Really?” “Really. Nagi and four-eyes both managed to score another goal and they actually almost scored the winner at the end.”

“Yeah, this bastard-” Raichi says, jabbing his finger at Kuon, who was standing in the doorway watching the scene unfold in front of him, “Actually saved our ass and got himself a red for it.”. At this Gento’s eyes widen and he quickly turns to look at Kuon “Huh. Didn’t think you had it in you, loser.” he says looking at Kuon.

“So, did you just draw or?” he asks turning back to the others, specifically honing in on Isagi. “You should have seen it!” Igaguri cuts in, “After Kuon fouled Nagi and stopped them from scoring, Iemon saved a free kick from Reo and we started a counter. Then in the last moments of the match the ball lands right in front of Isagi, who was closely followed by Nagi, who was like actively talking shit, before Isagi hit a direct volley and scored making it 6-5 in total!” the monk continues, shaking his hands up and down animatedly, obviously still excited by the events that happened shortly before.

Turning back to Isagi, Gento tilts his head to the side “Took you long enough.” shaking his head with a laugh he continues, “At this point, I almost got the impression you couldn’t score without me Isagi.”.

Hearing this Isagi laughs before scratching the back of his head, “Well to be honest, at the moment I was just super annoyed with your last goal, where you used me again and with Nagi right behind me, I just… felt like it was the only way to score a goal.” he finishes looking down at his hand before contracting it into a fist.

“You some kind of Anime character, or something?” Gento asks, deadpanning at the action before moving to mimic the boy, ” ‘I just… felt like it was the only way to score a goal.’ ” he says whilst forcing his hand into a fist. “I mean seriously, first your whole ‘Don’t disrespect football’-speech with Nagi and Reo, and now this?” he says, making the other members of Team Z laugh whilst Isagi looks away embarrassed.

“Anyways, are the results out yet or-” before Gento could finish, the monitor next to his bed turns on revealing Ego, “Yes they’re out. Here, take a look.”, he immediately vanishes again, his face being replaced by the final standings. 

Rank 1 – Team V – 9 pts – +14 – Passed

Rank 2 – Team Z – 9 pts – +7 – Passed

Rank 3 – Team W – 4 pts – -5 – Jun’ichi Wanima 6 goals

Rank 4 – Team Y – 4 pts – -11 – Ikki Niko 4 goals

Rank 5 – Team X – 3 pts – -5 – Shoei Baro 10 goals

‘Well that’s more or less what I expected.’ Gento thinks to himself before turning back to his teammates, “Guess we did it.”. “Let’s celebrate!” Igaguri yells out, being met with a variety of voices yelling back, “Yeah!” “Let’s go!”.

Whilst the members of Team Z were planning their celebration and beginning to filter out of the infirmary, being interrupted by a loud cough. Turning back they see Gento staring back at them, “Aren’t you forgetting something? Since you know, I shouldn’t put too much pressure on my foot yet.”

A moment of silence passes over the eleven players, before Gento sighs and says, “Just get me my crutches.” “Sir, yes Sir!” Bachira responds rushing over to grab the crutches.

*Team Z’s room*

Team Z were setting up a multitude of foods in the middle of the room, or more accurately trying to, since Igaguri is messing around and jumping on the futons whilst Naruhaya is actively stealing the food. During this Gento is seated near the wall, resting his foot on a pillow he stole from one of his teammates and watching a video on his phone, ignoring the chaos around him.

“Heey, can anyone go grab some drinks from the dining hall?” Kuon asks, setting up a futon to the left of Gento, who is still ignoring the striker, because of his betrayal. “Okaay!” Bachira drawls out, waving a hand from where he is laying on the ground, “Get up, Bachira. C’mon, let’s go.” Isagi speaks up from beside him.

Watching the two leave, Gento turns back to his phone, having received a text from his mother and quickly replying, before a voice from his right startles him “Aren’t you going to follow them, like you always do?”. Turning his head, he spots Raichi looking back at him with a teasing smile on his face.

At this Gento reaches over to grab one of his crutches, before promptly hitting Raichi over the head with it, causing the striker to shrink back and rub the spot where he was hit. After a second Raichi becomes enraged, as per usual, and begins to stand up, ripping the crutch from Gento’s hand in the process, however before he could get the chance to retaliate, Gento screams out “Kunigami!! Raichi’s bullying me!!”

Hearing the younger’s voice, all heads turn to the two strikers, finding Raichi standing over Gento, with one of the younger’s crutches in hand, whilst Gento was shrinking back into his futon. Both Chigiri and Kunigami move to intercept Raichi’s ‘attack’, whilst Gento, currently hiding behind the ginger haired striker, is sticking his tounge out at Raichi causing the boy to become even more angry.

Gento spent the rest of the night, either enjoying the food and having some conversations with Chigiri, or rage baiting Raichi. By the time Bachira and Isagi arrived back at their room the rest of Team Z was already fast asleep.

*The next morning*

“WHAT?! THE SECOND SELECTION DOESN’T START RIGHT AWAY?!” Raichi, calm as ever, yells at the monitor with Ego Jinpachi’s face on it. “Can you not yell so early in the morning?” Gento glares at Raichi, rubbing some sleep from his eyes.

“Oh, shut up. In the time it takes for the second selection to begin I’ll have you all undergo physical training.” ‘Welp, not me though.’ Gento thought to himself, now fully awake and staring at the screen.

“During this time, you won’t be allowed to touch a football. If you break this rule or if you can’t keep up with the training, you’ll be expelled.” Ego continues, before Gento interrupts him “What about me? Aren’t I supposed to rest my foot?” he asks, raising his hand in the process.

“Are you only a pair of legs, or do you have other muscles?” Ego counters, staring back at Gento, “You will be joining them a bit later, but I have some plans for you, don’t worry.” he says with an evil smile on his face.

‘Alright, shouldn’t have asked.’ Gento thinks to himself, as he sweatdrops at Ego’s response. “FUCK YOU! Why do we have to wait for the other strata to finish?!” Raichi cuts in, still yelling. “How long will that training even last?” Iemon asks, “Yeah, at least tell us that much!” Igaguri yells out, crossing his arms.

“Don’t get cocky just because you got carried and managed to pass the first selection in the fifth stratum. You’ll train till I tell you to stop, trash.” Ego responds, looking down at the gaggle of strikers, with disgust before continuing “In the fifth stratum, players are exempt from the first selection and have been training with the latest equipment. Be grateful, I’m giving you precious time to train and catch up. 

Remember that you’re still at the bottom.”

‘Let’s get this over with then.’ Gento thinks to himself, moving to stand up with some help from Bachira.

9:00 AM – 2 sets of 2-hour endurance training.

During this Gento was doing some light workouts with a medic, trying to get his ankle back to normal.

2:00 PM – Extreme Trunk training

Gento joins in with the others, comparatively still being high on energy.

4:00 PM – Weight training

Gento is seen leaning over a trash can, dry heaving with Chigiri rubbing his back.

6:00 PM – Sprinting 100 laps

Gento spents one hour with his physio and the other watching past games in the stratum.

8:00 PM Dinnertime

Gento is laying his head on the table, pushing his food around using his chopsticks. Across from him Bachira is falling asleep, face first in his food whilst Chigiri is forcing down his food.

On the fourth day of Team Z’s ‘Hellish physical training’, Gento joins the others in their routine, wearing a bandage on his right ankle to provide some support.

Day 5 – Gento is laying back in Team Z’s room massaging his legs, looking ready to pass out any second with the rest of Team Z scattered across the room, looking equally exhausted.

Day 8 – Gento, surprisingly, is looking forward to training with a small smile on his face, whilst the rest of the team stare at him as if he were insane.

And then on the tenth day at exactly 6:30 AM, the lights in Team Z’s room turn on and an alarm bell echoes through the speakers, waking all the strikers, before an automated voice begins speaking, “As of right now, the ‘First Selection’ of Blue Lock has finished on all strata.”

Gento stands up with his unkempt hair, standing more astray than normal and a small amount of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.

“All participants who have passed, please put on your training suits and head to the center of the basement of your stratum. Repeating…” the annoucment continues on loop while Team Z were trying to orient themselves.

“It’s over?” Iemon asks, slowly standing up. “That took way too fucking long you shit-face! I’d destroy this whole fucking stratum if I hat to wait another day!” Raichi exclaims, hitting a fist into the palm of his hand whilst gritting his teeth.

‘Let’s see what the other stratums have to offer’ Gento thinks to himself, whilst putting on his training uniform, before following the rest of his teammates towards the center.

“Come on you losers,” Gento gains a large smile on his face

“I’ll break every single one of you!”

– End of Chapter 18 –