Chapter 23

-Third Person POV-

“talking” – ‘thoughts’

“What’s up with that guy?”

Now in the second room, the newly formed team of three were sitting next to eachother with no one speaking a word. Looking between his new teammates Gento sweatdrops, sliding down from his seat and laying down on the floor ‘This sucks.’

He rolls around the floor, stealing glances at his teammates every now and then, ‘Why are they so weird…’. Gento watches as Rin stares down at the empty chair in front of him, almost like it personally offended him, ‘He’s such an edgelord.’ Turning slightly he spots Aryu staring at the floor, trying to see his own reflection, ‘And Aryu is just… Aryu, I guess.’

He groans loudly as he turns around, now laying face-down on the floor, ‘Why are the others taking so long.’ he thinks to himself with his arms and legs spread wide, almost like a human starfish.

Gento continues laying there, beginning to slowly fall asleep before he gets startled by the door to his right suddenly opening with the chatter of another trio of strikers following.

“Ah?!” he hears Isagi gasp, slowly turning his head, Gento spots the trio of Bachira, Isagi and Nagi standing in the doorway. ‘No more Yaoi?’ he thinks to himself as he sees Nagi split up from Reo.

Bachira rushes past his teammates and flops down onto Gento, making the younger groan and try to push the older off of him. “Get off, you’re heavy.” Gento whines as Bachira tries to stay on top of him, “Not happening Gen-chan!”.

During this Isagi is staring at Rin determinedly, before his thoughts get interrupted by another appearance of the mastermind behind Blue Lock, “Hey there, Diamonds in the rough. The second selection’s third stage starts here. It’s a 3v3 battle.”

‘Oh?’ Gento looks at Bachira from the corner of his eye, who is looking right back at him. ‘This’ll be interesting.’

“The 3rd stage is a mini-game styled battle with the teams you formed just now. Both teams will have BlueLock-Man as their goalkeeper, and the team that scores 5 goals first wins.” Ego continues his explanation, “And that winning team will pick one member from the losing team and steal him for your own, forming a team of four.”

“It’s just like that game… uh…” Bachira starts before pausing, “Red Rover.” Nagi cuts in. Gento looks at the two, “I have no clue what that is.”

“And by rising up in the stages, you’ll increase the number of teammates by one each time. The team that creates a team of 5 and reaches the fifth stage will have cleared the second selection.

But, the losing team will have to go back to the previous stage. Thus they’ll end up as a team of two and the moment you lose a 2v2 the person who’s not chosen in the end… the one who becomes the last player will be eliminated.” Ego is still explaining.

‘He sure likes to listen to himself talk.’ Gento deadpans at the monitor, before looking between the other team of three, ‘Let’s hope Nagi and Isagi can find a way to survive. Not like I’ll pick eather of the two.’

“This is where you rob each other’s rivals. The true form of the second selection is a ‘Rivalry Battle‘.

Thus, you’re free to pick whoever you want as your opponents. The match will be made only if both parties agree to it.”

“Are you done yet?” Gento asks standing up, finally freed from the prison that was Bachira. Ego promptly ignores the youngster.

“I see. So there are still other teams of three who will come here later.” Bachira says, stating the obvious. “Seems so, since we steal someone by winning it might be good to fight against those teams who have members we’d want to get.” Nagi responds.

At this the trio turn to look at Gento, who is now staring at a nearby wall, thoroughly bored by the long explanation. 

“Exactly.” Ego cuts in, starting to speak yet again. ‘Holy fuck, can we just play already?’ Gento thinks to himself, tilting his head back with a groan.

“The key to clear this stage is picking your allies and to represent that new Blue Lock ratings are being announced.” As Ego finishes his sentence, Gento looks down and sees the number on his arm shoot up from 265 all the way to number 3, ‘That seems better.’.

“And of course, there’s no fakes this time. Your rankings will be the order in which you cleared the first stage, and once again your ranks will be updated based on the results from your performance in matches.

You standing here are already those who can change ‘0’ to ‘1’ on the field. This will be a survival battle where you clash those ‘1’s, mix them and heighten them to their limits.

Those who can grasp the chemical reaction between egos will be the strikers who pass this stage.

Do anything to win.” Ego finally finishes his speech, the monitor showing his face turns off immediately after. ‘Fucking finally.’ Gento thinks to himself, cracking his neck whilst staring at the now black screen.

Gento calmly walks over to his teammates before speaking up, “So? We gonna play those guys?” he asks, pointing at the other strikers in the room over his own shoulder. “It would be the most glam choice to play against ranks 4 through 6. Even if we win against those potatoes over there I will not look glam at all.”

“What’s with you and the whole ‘glam’ thing?” Gento asks, staring at his teammate with a deadpan, “It’s a lifestyle, you wouldn’t get it.” Aryu calmly responds. “Ah, alright.”

“Shut up.” Rin, beeing the edgy little shit that he is, cuts in “It doesn’t matter who my opponents are. I just want to win quickly and go forward. You guys are only here to meet the numbers.”

‘Pissy bitch.’ Gento thinks to himself, staring at his teammate. “Huh? You… Your face might be glam enough, but who do you think you are?” Aryu responds, flipping his hair over his shoulder.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. The three of us only happened to get teamed up because we finished the fastest.” Rin starts, before looking over his shoulder at Gento and Aryu, “You’re just stepping stones to me. You guys and all of Blue Lock.”

‘Why is everyone monologuing today?’ Gento sweatdrops, staring at Blue Lock’s supposed number 1. ” ‘Win and you get to represent Japan in the U-20 League.’, the only reason I’m here is to take advantage of that rule. All of this is to represent Japan and then surpass my older brother. The purpose of soccer to me is to crush Sae Itoshi.”

“Haha. That guy’s a real egoist.” Bachira chuckles whilst putting his hands behind his head. “It seems like that team is just weirdos.” Nagi says, scratching the back of his head. “Eh? What did I do?” Gento asks, sounding majorly offended whilst staring at Nagi who blankly stares back, choosing not to respond.

During this, Aryu is pestering Rin, complimenting him on his ‘glam’ backstory. ‘I really got a couple of weirdos…’ Gento thinks to himself, watching the two out of the corner of his eye.

“Bachira, Nagi. Sorry, it doesn’t matter who you play, right?” Isagi speaks up, staring at Rin with determination burning in his eyes. “Let’s battle.”

“I figured.” Bachira responds smiling at his teammate, “I had the same idea.” Nagi says calmly.

“Are you talking to me?” Aryu questions, still moving his hand through his hair. “Yeah. Anyone will do.” Rin responds coldly, staring down at Isagi.

“Getting a bit confident now aren’t we, Isagi?” Gento mocks his former teammate, cracking his knuckles.

Second selection – Third stage –3v3 Rivalry Battle

#7 Seishiro Nagi, #15 Yoichi Isagi, #16 Meguru Bachira

VS

#1 Rin Itoshi, #2 Jubei Aryu, #3 Gento Hirako

BEGIN!

– End of Chapter 20 –