Chapter 22

-Third Person POV-

“talking” – ‘thoughts’

“I’ll break every single one of you!”

Entering the large room ahead of them, Gento’s eyes take a second to acclimate to the bright lights before looking around and spotting a large amount of people entering from four other doors.

Gento’s eyes narrow as he really looks at the strikers noticing a couple of things ‘That fucker was lying wasn’t he.’, looking at the ‘higher rated player’s’ uniforms his theory gets confirmed, ‘Yup, Team W, Team V, Team Y, those are the same rankings as us.’.

He turns to his left, looking at his teammates who also begin to realise that they have been lied to, however before he got the chance to speak up the large monitors turn on, revealing none other than the bowl-cut having, four-eyed genius behind Blue Lock, Ego Jinpachi.

“Hey there, unpolished gems. Good work with all the physical training.”, all eyes turn to the large monitor as Ego continues, “25 people from each stratum have gathered here. Meaning 125 of you managed to pass the First Selection.”

Gento sits down on the floor, ‘I’m not standing there while you monologue. …dick….’ he thinks to himself looking up at Ego with annoyance.

“Well, I’m sure there are some sharp ones among you who noticed this already, but there’s not a single person here who came from the first, second, third, or fourth stratum. None of that ever existed, anyway.”

At this a large number of strikers stare up at Ego, majorly surprised, “What?” Isagi asks from beside Gento.

“Only the fifth stratum existed in Blue Lock. All of you thought you were in the worst teams, V to Z. Then you fought like idiots in the First Selection.”

“You told every stratum that they were the fifth…?!” one boy with long black hair asks, shocked, before another striker with blond slicke back hair cuts in “You lied to us?! AND THEN MADE US TRAIN LIKE MAD-MEN! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!”.

“Well, duh. Have you seen, who you’re talking to?” Gento says, still sitting down on the floor tilting his head at the enraged striker. However before he got the chance to respond Ego cuts in again.

“I sure am. It was for the sake of killing any shitty shred of confidence you softies might have had. I devised this trick to nurture a hungry mindset in each of you, so that you might become the best striker in the world.”

‘That’s evil.’ Gento thinks to himself, a small smile beginning to spread across his face, whilst some other strikers were voicing their complaints.

“Are you all idiots?” Ego interrupts again, “This is exactly why I put you through all the training. Look here. Take Noel Noa for example…” an image of said striker appears behind Ego, “Even the man who is known today as the best striker in the world, was raised in the slums of France. While growing up poor, surrounded by crime and violence were the means he had to change his fate were quite literally only football.”

More strikers like Ibrahimovic and Suarez appear behind Ego, “There are many strikers in similar conditions. Their ‘hunger’ for goals are incomparable. If you’re stuck with this country’s mindset, where you’d be fine with losing in football,

You’ll never be able to reach that level.

‘Hunger for a Goal’ in order to become the best striker in the world, Blue Lock was created in order to obtain that. All of you came here wanting to bring down everyone above you, am I right? You all came here while believing that ‘you can win’.

That ‘Hunger’ will become the Ego that changes the world.”

‘Come on Ego,’ Gento thinks to himself whilst standing up and scanning the crowd, ‘I’ll show you what my ego looks like.’

“The second selection has now begun, in the first selection you grew from level 0 to 1. From now on, using state of the art training facilities you’ll grow from level 1 to 100.” Ego holds out his hand and a small hologram appears over it, “The second selection consists of 5 stages. Only those who have cleared the previous stage are allowed to move on.

Your first objective is to complete the first stage, and those of you who managed to complete the fifth stage and pass the second selection, will participate in a training camp with some of the world’s best players, that I have hand-picked.”

‘How much money does this cost?’ Gento wonders, slowly counting on his fingers, ‘Massive facility, clothes… food… pay for the big guys…’

“And that’s everything regarding the Second Selection. Only those who are mentally prepared enter the gate to the Second Selection individually.”

“On my own, huh?” Gento mumbles to himself, “By ourselves?” Bachira asks from beside Gento.

“The first stage is individual. Once you enter you won’t be ablte to return. If you don’t make it to the next stage, you won’t see anyone from here again. Naturally the Second Selection is much harder than the first. No matter how successful you were in the past, if you don’t pass now, you won’t ever. After the Second Selection, only the real egoists will be left of you trash. Best of luck.” The end of Ego’s speech is punctuated by the monitor turning off immediately, leaving a deafening silence hanging over the room.

‘Let’s see what you got.’ Gento begins walking towards one of the bins holding a large amount of footballs before reaching forward to pick one up.

At the same time, another striker significantly taller than him moves forward and takes two balls from the bin. Gento raises an eyebrow looking at the striker towering over him.

The boy shoots both of the balls high into the air, the first with a high curve and the second with a low curve, making the two collide in the air. At this Gento’s eyes widen, “Show-off.”, he mumbles to himself.

The boy begins moving towards the door shortly stopping right in front of it, “Open the door. I’ve finished warming up.” he says to no-one in particular. As soon as he makes his way past the door, the large monitors display the name “Itoshi Rin”, causing a lot of murmers to echo across the room.

‘Am I supposed to know him?’ Gento looks at the others confused, ‘Welp, better get going.’. Gento sets down the ball and shoots it across the room in a high curve, aiming straight for one of the bins on the other side of the room.

The ball hits straight into it, not touching the rim in the slightest, making the other balls spill out due to the force of the impact, “That’s good enough, I guess.” he says, stretching his arms over his head, before entering the doors and starting the Second Selection.

On the other side of the doors, Gento is met with a long, dark corridor at the end of which another pair of doors labeled, ‘1st stage’ were positioned.

Upon entering the room, a panel on the side of the wall opens up shooting a ball at him, with a high speed. Gento stretches out his left foot, trapping it before beginning to do some keepy-ups with it, “Ok, didn’t expect that.”.

Hearing some noises behind him, Gento turns, seeing a humanoid figue behind him, with the Blue Lock logo etched onto its face. “A hologram…?” Gento asks himself, watching as a goal begins forming behind the figure.

‘Hmm.’ Gento flicks the ball up high, hitting it on the way down aiming for the top right corner. At the same time, the hologram jumps towards it, however the ball dips slightly making it hit the net as a ‘Ding’ sound echoes across the room.

Over the goal, another hologram appears with the following text:

1st Stage – Time: 89:49 – Clear 99 Goals

“So all I need to do is score 100 goals in 90 minutes?” Gento cracks his neck as a cocky smile makes its way across his face, “Seems easy enough, let’s use my weak foot, for a bit.”

A panel behind Gento opens up, shooting a ball towards him at a high pace, shortly before it could make contact, Gento flicks his right heel up making contact with the ball and causing it to curve over his head, right in front of his left foot.

Letting the ball bounce once, he fires off another volley, hitting the cross bar leaving the ball to bounce over the line into the goal, ‘That was lucky.’ Gento thinks to himself, pushing his tongue into his cheek whilst crossing his arms, ‘Let’s go again.’

Goal #7 – Gento rushes towards BlueLock-Man, flicking the ball over the hologram, as soon as it moves forward to intercept him.

Goal #15 – Using the outside of his left foot, Gento curls the ball into the bottom left corner, just out of reach of the digital keeper.

Goal #25 – Gento fires the ball into the roof of the goal from a close distance.

Goal #27 – Gento just barely manages to flick the ball over the line with his heel, after recovering a failed shot.

1st Stage – Time 80:12 – Clear 70 goals

Now breathing heavily, Gento watches as more holograms begin to appear, acting as a group of defenders, “Really Ego?! This is where I thrive!” Gento laughs out loud.

Receiving the ball Gento sets it down on the floor, taking a step back and hitting it with all his might, aiming it straight at one of the defenders. However, before it could make contact, the ball curves to the left right past the defenders and Blue Lock Man, whose vision was blocked completely.

Goal #35 – Gento takes a free kick, with his left foot curling the ball up high, just under the crossbar.

Goal #57 – Gento curls the ball right through the stationary defenders, the keeper manages to touch the ball with his fingertips but can’t change its course enough to intercept the goal.

1st Stage – Time 75:58 – Clear 40 goals – LV. MAX

The defenders immediately start moving, intercepting shot after shot from Gento, who is beginning to get frustrated.

‘Really? Losing to some robots?’ he thinks to himself, eyes flicking between all the holograms in front of him.

The ball now at his feet, Gento rushes forward straight at the defenders, who space themselves out, trying to block Gento, ‘Now, kill it.’. Gento completely relaxes his body, not giving his opponents a chance to predict his next move, ‘Come on, come on.’ a defender, slightly moves to the side, leaving a gap just barely big enough for the ball to fit through.

Seeing this Gento immediately fires the ball forward hitting the back of the net. Seeing this Gento smiles and cracks one of his knuckles, gaining a large smile on his face, “Come on Blue Lock, let’s break that programming.”

Goal #75 – Gento manages to get past the defenders and fires a low driven shot, just barely scraping over the ground without touching it.

Goal #89 – Another shot from the keeper’s blind spot.

Goal #95 – A high curved shot, right into the top corner.

1st Stage – Time: 60:17 – Clear 1 goal – LV. MAX

A panel to Gento’s right opens up shooting the ball high into the air, tracking its movement Gento rushes to the destination. With the ball slightly over his head, Gento turns his back to the goal and jumps up, tilting his body backwards.

‘Just. one. more. kill.’ Gento puts his hand onto the ground before hitting the ball full force, the ball weaves right past the heads of the defenders and the outstretched hand of Blue Lock Man hitting the back of the net.

Gento lays on the ground as the holograms begin disappearing from around him, standing up he wipes the sweat from his face and starts leaving the large room.

Upon entering the doors labeled ‘2nd Stage’ Gento finds himself in a mostly empty room, looking around he spots the dark haired striker from earlier leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. ‘Itoshi Rin.’ Gento thinks to himself, ‘Or something like that. I think.’ before turning to the other player situated in the room.

‘Why are all of them so damn tall?’ Gento sweatdrops, looking at the boy seated in front of him, looking up he spots a monitor telling them to form teams of three.

“So, you wanna team up then?” Gento asks the two, moving towards them. “It doesn’t matter, I don’t need you anyway.” the broody striker responds, already moving past them and towards the next pair of doors.

“That’s not a ‘glam’ response.” the other striker says, striking a weird pose. “Glam?” Gento questions staring up at his now-teammate, “Glam.”.

“The name’s Jyubei Aryu.” the long haired striker introduces himself, holding out his hand towards Gento, “Gento Hirako.”, Gento reponds shaking the tall striker’s hand.

“Come on already, you luke-warm trash.” Rin speaks up from across the room, looking over his shoulder at his teammates.

At this Gento sighs, visibly deflating as he moves to follow, “What’s up with that guy?”

– End of Chapter 19 –