Chapter 26

-Third Person POV-

“talking” – ‘thoughts’

“Let’s pass this.”

Entering the pitch with the rest of Team Red surrounding him, Gento spots the four members of Team White spread over the opposite half prepping themselves for the awaiting match.

Near the front Nagi is standing still, completely relaxed whilst beside him Barou is resting his hands at the back of his head staring at the approaching members of Team Red with determination flaring in his eyes.

Across from him Chigiri is stretching out his arms, watching Team Red out of the corner of his eye, and in the middle of the floor Isagi is kneeling down tying his shoe laces before looking up and staring straight at both Rin and Gento.

As Gento gets into position and cracks his neck, he notices Aryu begin shuffling forwards towards Team White, or more accurately heading straight towards Chigiri. “Huh, Aryu?” he questions the taller striker, who completely ignores him, seemingly transfixed by Chigiri.

“The hell?” Barou mumbles to himself, realizing the black haired striker’s approach, “He’s coming our way.” Nagi points out.

As Aryu continues on his path straight past the other three members of Team White, he speaks up “Oi, you with the red hair.”. “Ah?” Chigiri raises an eyebrow as Aryu stops right in front of him.

“What hair treatment do you use?” Aryu questions, grabbing a hold of one of the reddish-pink strands of Chigiri’s hair. “Huh? I use whatever they’ve got in the bath, just like everyone else…” Chigiri responds, thoroughly uncomfortable with this stranger playing with his hair.

Chigiri Hyoma

vs

Aryu Jyubei

Ignoring the others obvious discomfort, Aryu continues twirling a strand of hair, “And yet look at these amazingly stylish cuticles, which means this is the shine of your own hair, an all-natural glamour is it?”.

“What the fuck am I even watching?” Gento questions no-one in particular, “Yeah…” Bachira responds, staring at the weird interaction going on in the middle of the pitch with a deadpan.

“Oi,” Chigiri, finally having enough of this, slaps Aryu’s hand away from his hair, “Quit touching my hair.” “Oh, my mistake. It was so beautiful I couldn’t help myself.” Aryu responds pulling his hair back, “I’m just so weak to stylish things. I’m honored to face someone with such glam. Let’s shake hands.”

‘Is he flirting with him? What even is going on anymore?!’ Gento grimaces at the two long haired strikers.

“Despite how you look, you’ve got quite the old-fashioned name, don’t you? Let’s have a good match, Jyubei.” Chigiri shakes the taller one’s hand. However upon hearing his own name, Aryu shrieks back spreading his arms wide and tilting his head back. “Stop it. That name is my one un-glam point.” he covers his face using his right hand, “An indisputably old-fashioned name that sounds like it’d belong to a general from the warring states era, that given name is my one and only complex!”

He all of a sudden starts violently posing, switching between a variety of poses, “I’ll have to eradicate thiw with a glamorous pose!”.

“Oi, Isagi… What’s his problem?!” Chigiri startles back, stepping towards the mentioned teammate. “Wow, I think he might’ve gotten worse than before!” Isagi yells out.

‘Fuck this.’ Gento steps forwards, grabbing aholf of his teammate’s hair before giving it a harsh yank, causing the taller to step back before holding his scalp, “OW!”.

Not having any of this, Gento kicks the taller in the shin lightly, he just point into the direction of where Aryu should go. Aryu narrows his eyes before huffing and moving towards his position.

“Get in your fucking positions and let’s get this started…” Barou angrily says towards Gento, who simply turns his head slightly cupping his ear pretending to not hear the furious striker standing just a few meters away from him. “YOU HEARD ME!” Barou moves forward to grab Gento, however his hand is met with only the open air, he looks up finding Gento already moving away from him with his back turned.

Gento looks over his shoulder, a smile spreading over his face, “Blind as ever, false king.”. 

Hirako Gento

vs

Barou Shoei

Hearing this, Barou becomes even more furious, “Oi, Isagi. We’re changing the formation… I’m gonna be the one to kill this sneaky piece of shit!!”

‘You’ll try.’ Gento thinks to himself, smile spreading even further, ‘I wonder what you’re scared of, your highness.’

“Sorry, Isagi. Can I be selfish here, too?” Nagi suddenly says, “Unless I’m facing someone who can get my pulse racing, ther’ll be no point in having left Reo, so in that case I’ll duke it out, with that number one over there.”

Nagi Seishiro

vs

Itoshi Rin

Rin simply stares back at the white haired striker, seemingly without a care in the world. “Nagi…” Isagi says, “I want to get stronger.” Nagi cuts him off, causing a grin to form on Isagi’s face, “Ok. But, If you lose, I’ll be stepping in to crush him, which means,”

“It’s you and me, Bachira!!”

Isagi Yoichi

vs

Bachira Meguru

Time until the Match Begins: 00:00:00

Second Selection Rivalry Battle 4vs4 – BEGIN!!!

Rin kicks off the game by passing the ball to Bachira who receives the ball and heads straight towards Isagi. ‘Alright! Let’s go Isagi! I’ll start things off with a max speed scissor feint!!!’

Nearing Isagi he lowers his body low to the floor and performs some step-overs at a lightning fast speed, this causes Isagi to pause observing the dribbler before him. Spotting this Bachira performs another feint before turning sharply to his left, hoping to lose his opponent, only to be surprised when Isagi manages to keep up with him.

Taking a step back and keeping the ball between his legs, Bachira takes a moment to gather his thoughts, ‘I should’ve been able to lose Isagi with this… what’s going on?’ scanning the field in front of him he spots Nagi hovering just to the side of Isagi, ‘He’s using his awareness of the entire field in order to position himself! Instead of getting hung up on the 1v1 against me. He’s defending based on where he wants me to go.’

“What’s wrong, Bachira? Can’t get past me?” Isagi taunts his former teammate with a smirk on his face. At this a larger, more child-like smile grows on Bachira’s face, ‘In that case, then I’ll just head straight at Nagi!’.

At the exact moment he finishes his thought he performs yet another step-over before rushing straight to the right of Isagi catching the other by surprise, causing him to stagger for a second. However before Bachira could get far away from Isagi a voice cut in from right behind him.

“That’s what I thought. Give it over, bob cut.” Barou says, rushing straight at Bachira, who turns slightly forcing his body in between the approaching Barou and the ball.

‘They’re working together?’ Gento wonders to himself, raising an eyebrow as he moves to follow behind Barou, “Yo, weirdo behind you.” he calls out for a pass, ‘This feels odd…’.

Hearing his teammate’s voice, Bachira looks up, briefly locking eyes with the younger before passing the ball with his heel, sending right around Barou. The ball, however, would not reach its destination as Isagi moved to intercept it, managing to receive it barely a foot away from Gento.

“So you weren’t teaming up.” Gento says out loud looking at Isagi, who turns his body squaring up with Gento and shooting him a confident smirk. Behind him Barou grows more infuriated, “GRAAH, DAMMIT! Outta my fucking way!” he shouts out loud before forcing his way past Bachira.

Gento tilts his head at the striker in front of him, watching out of the corner of his eye as Nagi and Barou charge past the two and heading straight for his team’s goal. “Come on, take your best shot, I wanna see how you guys tick.”

“Send it may, nice and easy.” He hears Nagi say from behind him, the noise of voice continuously falling as the white haired striker continues to create distance between them. “Yeah, I know there, right?” Isagi responds before sending the ball high over the pitch, curving it to just outside of Team Red’s penalty area.

Nagi watches as the ball approaches, turning his head back towards the goal he sees Rin position himself in between the white haired prodigy and the goal, just barely outside of the area where the ball would intercept Nagi’s path.

Nagi’s eyes widen as healizes what Rin is planning, ‘That kind of spacing is what makes this guy so hard to handle. Even if I keep pressing onwards without pausing, this distance means I can’t just burst past him, but if I stop, he’ll close the distance.’

He spots the ball closing in rapidly, ‘He can read me to this extent? Itoshi Rin!!’, considering his options for a fraction of a second he suddenly jumps up not even bothering to turn his body towards the ball, catching even Rin by surprise. “Can you feel it? This is the only way, red panther.”

Whilst still in mid-air he passes the ball using his heel towards the right side of Team Red’s penalty box, straight into the path of their speedster. “Bring it on! It’s mine.” Chigiri says determinately. “What a stylish pass.” Aryu comments as he moves towards the ball.

Without wasting another second, Rin moves away from Nagi and rushes to get the ball. With the three strikers sprinting at the ball, Chigiri leans forward slightly pushing himself forward with all the force he can muster and accelerating even further.

With a couple centimeters separating the ball from the outstretched legs of both Rin and Aryu, Chigiri suddenly bursts past the two gaining control of the ball as Gento watches on impressed, “Looks like you managed to improve.” he says to himself.

Isagi who is standing to the side of Gento turns towards him “What, you scared to lose?” He taunts the younger, using the words he had used to taunt Niko in the past. At this, the relaxed expression on Gento’s face instantly dies as he turns to look at Isagi with ice-cold eyes.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Gento questions his former teammate, who shrinks back at the unexpected coldness in the shorter’s voice. “Huh?” 

In the same exact moment, the ball crosses the line as Chigiri had managed to beat Blue Lock Man in a 1v1.

GOAL!! Scorer: Hyoma Chigiri! – Team Red 0:1 TEAM WHITE

“You’re lucky we were on the same team last selection.” Gento says turning away from the dark-haired striker. “Don’t forget which one of us should fear the other.“

– End of Chapter 23 –