Chapter 4

-Third Person POV-

“talkin”

‘thoughts’

After running through the doors Gento and the others are taken to a collection of buses and driven to a remote facility with a massive Blue Lock logo on the side of it. Shortly after arriving the teenagers are leaving the bus and waiting in front of the entrance.

A short woman with red hair is calling names one by one, handing out uniforms and collecting the personal items of each contestant.

Anri: “Gento Hirako”

Hearing his name Gento makes his way through the crowd of excited strikers, struggling a bit due to his short stature he makes his way to the front.

Gento: “Yo that’s me”

Anri turns to him, giving him a small smile.

Anri: “Alright please put your personal belongings into this box, they will be returned to you at a later point” *hands him a duffle bag* “your uniform is in here, alongside some casual clothes and basic toiletries, also I need you to sign this.” *hands him a clipboard with a contract on it*

Gento: “Alright, is it ok if I send my mom a quick text first? I don’t want her to get worried if she doesn’t hear from me” 

Anri: ‘Ah a Mama’s boy’ “Sure thing, just put your phone in the box afterwards and head to the changing room listed on the note attached to the bag”

Gento quickly shoots his mom a text telling her that he has to give up his phone and not to worry if she doesn’t hear from him for a while, after which he takes the bag and makes his way towards the changing room.

Gento: ‘Team Z huh, does this mean i’m one of the worst strikers here? That doesn’t feel right but it is what it is i guess’

After changing into the formfitting Blue Lock uniform Gento makes his way towards his assigned room. Upon entering Gento is greeted with a bizarre sight, one of his roommates is sleeping on the floor with others looking at him kind of confused.

Gento: “How the fuck is he sleeping already, didn’t we just change into our uniforms?”

Some guy who looks suspiciously similar to Ichigo walks over to Gento.

Kunigami: “Yeah he just laid on the ground after changing and immediately fell asleep, the name’s Kunigami Rensuke by the way nice to meet you.”

Gento: “That’s honestly somewhat impressive. I’m Hirako Gento but you can just call me Gento. I don’t really care about honorifics.”

After talking a bit with Kunigami, Gento chooses a corner and sits down waiting for something to happen, shortly after Kira and the black-haired teen Gento saw staring at the JFU building walk in together.

Gento: ‘That’s twelve people already. I think that should be it”

All of a sudden a monitor on the side of the room turns on showing Ego’s face on it.

Ego: “Hello there diamonds in the rough, have you finished changing? The guys you’re sharing your rooms with are both your roommates and rivals who will help you improve. Your abilities have been quantified and ranked by me according to my arbitrary and biased decision-making.

The number on your uniforms shows your current ranking out of all the 300 strikers currently in blue lock”

At this Gento looks down and sees his number is 295.

Gento: ‘295? There’s no way i’m that bad compared to the others’

Ego: “Your rank can change based on the results of matches or your training. And the top 5 players will unconditionally get to play in the tournament being held 6 months from now. They’ll be registered as forwards for the U-20 World Cup. Additionally, anyone who loses at Blue Lock, will never get to play for Japan.”

Gento’s eyes widen slightly at the newly revealed information.

Gento: ‘Never play for Japan? Guess i’ll have to work my ass of to not get eliminated’

Ego: “What you need to survive in Blue Lock is your very own Ego. Anyway, let’s get started with a simple game of tag.”

After Ego said this a ball drops down from the ceiling into the center of the room.

Ego: “You have 136 seconds, whoever gets hit by the ball is it. The one who is ‘it’ at the end of 136 seconds will be eliminated, the rules are simple: just don’t use your hands, bye.”

Once Ego finishes speaking the monitor shows the name Gurimu Igarashi with a stylized icon of the monk and the countdown showing 136 seconds left.

Igarashi: “What?”

Raichi: “What the fuck is this? This isn’t soccer!”

Seeing Igarashi moving towards the ball Gento is already on the move, trying to use the taller members in the room as body shields.

Gento: ‘Probably best to stay out of his line of sight for now, don’t want to be focused by him. Although I’m pretty confident the guy couldn’t hit the broad sight of a barn but better safe than sorry.’

Igarashi: “AAAAHHHH! Sorry Isagi!!”

He shoots the ball and it hits the wall behind the small cluster of people Isagi was near, Igarashi  tries to shoot the ball at the cluster of people again, but still fails.

Kira: “This is ridiculous. I’m here so I can prove him wrong. This is definitely wrong. I won’t let him ruin my future.”

Gento: ‘Dude can you just shut up already, no one cares.’

Because Gento got momentarily distracted, Igarashi sees him out of the corner of his eye and begins moving toward him.

Gento: ‘So l’m his next target?’

Igarashi shoots at Gento who easily dodges the ball and quickly hides in Igarashi’s blind spot whilst the monk is focused on recovering the ball.

Igarashi: “Damn it! I can’t hit anyone.”

The ball rolls near the sleeping Bachira, and as Igarashi approaches him he seems to get an idea. It seems a bit low to go after the sleeping guy, but what matters is winning at the end of the day.

Igarashi: “He’s still asleep. Gotcha!”

As he goes to shoot the ball, Bachira wakes up and kicks him right in the face, making Gento audibly laugh from his little hiding corner.

Igarashi: “Hey in a regular game that would be a red card! Foul! Foul!”

Bachira: “Hmm only handballs are against the rules, no? Anything else is fair game.”

Gento: “I mean I don’t think someone needs to explain that physically assaulting your teammates isn’t allowed. Also nice kick by the way.”

Bachira turning towards Gento

Bachira: “Thanks, but he didn’t say that though, did he? He literally just said ‘just don’t use your hands’ the rest should be fair game.”

Gento: “Eh fair point, since you didn’t get in trouble it should be fine.”

As the rest of the room stares at Gento and Bachira, confused about how they could idly chat with their careers on the line, Gento suddenly feels a slight nudge on his foot. Looking down he sees the ball laying next to his foot, at the sight of which he sweatdrops.

Gento: ‘….. fuck …. shouldn’t have gotten distracted like that.’

Gento leisurely kicks the ball forward making his way towards the cluster of people at the side of the room.

Gento: ‘Who should I focus? I mean Igarashi is always an easy target, but taking out the worst person so early seems like a bit of a waste no?’

Gento suddenly kicks the ball toward the group of people causing them to scatter across the room, he immediately runs towards the ball as it bounces off the wall.

Gento: “Oi bumblebee do me a favor real quick and pick someone for me to shoot at.”

At this Bachira gains a big smile on his face moving towards his preferred target.

Bachira: “It should be obvious who to pick, don’t you think?”

Gento kicks the ball at the wall next to Bachira causing it to bounce towards the bumblebees foot.

Gento: “Here have fun weirdo!”

With only a couple seconds left Bachira passes the ball to Isagi.

Bachria/Gento: ‘Come on you see it too right? Show me that ego.

Isagi receiving the ball, thinks for a second staring at Igarashi who fell on the ground, before kicking the ball full force into Kira’s face. 

At the hit Kira falls down staring at Isagi, as he gathers himself and tries to get up quickly a loud buzzer sound is heard signaling the end of the game. On the screen a stylized icon of Kira is shown with the text eliminated in front of him.

Kira: “Huh, Isagi? Wh- what was that? What are you doing?”

Kira goes to wipe off the blood on his face whilst still staring at Isagi with disbelief plainly written across his face. Even Isagi has a surprised expression etched onto his face.

Isagi: “I-I don’t know, the ball just came out of nowhere and-“

Kira cuts him off.

Kira: “Don’t give me that shi-“

This time it’s Kira who gets cut off by the sudden appearance of Ego on the monitor.

Ego: “Hello there diamonds in the rough, the only thing that matters in Blue Lock are the results. The losers are locked off. ‘Jewel of Japan’ Ryosuke Kira, you are disqualified, get lost.”

Gento: ‘And there goes the supposed jewel of japan, i expected more to be honest.’

Gento slowly moves to stand next to Bachira, watching as Kira completely loses it.#

Kira: “This is bullshit. How is it possible for my future career to lie in tatters? All because of some stupid game! I’m japan’s crown jewell! You are telling me Igarashi and Isagi are more talented than me!? Why does this silly game of tag even matter!? It has nothing to do with football”

Ego: “In Blue Lock, everything has to do with football. Look around you, Mr. Mediocre Elite. The room you are in is the same size as the penalty area. Roughly 75% of goals are born within these confines. If you can’t control this simple space you have no talent as a striker.”

Kira: “So what? This is tag, TAG! What does this have to do with my abilities as a player!?”

Gento starts getting annoyed at Kiras constant whining and decides to speak up.

Gento: “Dude can you just shut up already. You lost so quit whining, i’m the youngest here yet you’re the only one acting like a child. Think for a second, this was supposed to test our abilities under pressure and this just shows how you immediately crumble if something doesn’t go your way, grow up dude.”

At this Kira gets angry at the 14 year old, Ego cuts him off before he can say some snarky retort.

Ego: “It seems like one of you diamonds in the rough actually has a brain, and the youngest one at that. Let me explain some more: 

If you are the runner you need a keen sense of interpersonal space, tactics and positioning.

If you are the chaser, your dribbling and aim must be on point, also the quality of your shots matters greatly.

Take a look at the shots of both Bachira and Hirako, both of them managed to precisely shoot the ball with little to no time, of actually being in control of the ball. Even Isagis shot at the end, with his first touch he hit you square in the face.

Just like I said at the start, everything in Blue Lock has to do with football, no exceptions.”

Kira: “Who gives a fuck, how can you evaluate my skill level in just over two minutes. A football match is 90 minutes if you didn’t know.”

Gento leans over to Bachira whispering.

Gento: “Here comes some random explanation on how 136 seconds is the perfect way to show how skilled you are.”

Bachira quietly snickers at the younger one’s comment.

Ego: “The average amount of time any player spends with the ball in a 90-minute match is about 136 seconds.”

Gento: ‘Called it.’

Ego: “You wasted the chance that was afforded to all of you equally.”

Kira: “But I couldn’t do anything in those last 10 seconds!”

Ego: “Would you say the same thing if this was a match? You still had second left when you got hit, you could’ve survived if you had shot at the immobile Igarashi. But you didn’t see it. In a way it was the last play before the final whistle. You lost hope the moment your teammate’s shot hit you.

You missed your chance at victory by not taking the extra step. Whoever is ‘it’ in this game of tag might be the loser if he holds to the ball for too long. But he might also be the winner because he’s the one that chooses who gets hit next. A striker’s shoulders should bear this responsibility and fight to the last seconds.

Gento Hirako and Meguru Bachira understood this and set Yoichi Isagi up to eliminate you, the person with the highest rank in room z. That’s the selfish obsession with victory that I’m talking about. That is the EGO you need to survive in Blue Lock.

You don’t have what it takes to be the best striker in the world. Ryosuke Kira you lost so, fuck off“

Hearing this Kira throws another temper tantrum before finally leaving the room, leaving his failed football career and crushed dreams behind.

Gento: “Took him long enough.”

– End of Chapter 2 –