Chapter 5

-Third Person POV-

“talking” 

‘thoughts’

Gento: “Took him long enough”

Hearing his comment Bachira begins to laugh out loud whilst most of the others stare at the duo in confusion. Isagi, still shellshocked at how he ended the career of another player within the starting minutes of the Blue Lock program, looks at the duo that gave him the chance to destroy Kira’s future.

Gento: “Thanks for not fucking me over and just letting my pass go to waste. The name’s Gento Hirako by the way, just call me Gento though.”

Bachira turns towards Gento,a huge smile plastered on his face.

Bachira: “Nice pass! And there’s no way I could let a chance like that go to waste. I’m Meguru Bachira, nice to meet you.”

Whilst the two of them continued their small talk, Isagi approached them with a confused look on his face. Noticing this Gento tilts his head towards the older boy waiting for him to start talking.

Isagi: “Why did you pass to me? If i didn’t kick the ball you would’ve been eliminated. Same goes to you Gento, if Bachira had decided to just leave your pass you would be on your way home right now.”

Bachira: “Hmm? Obviously you were gonna kick it, you should have seen your face. ‘Only results matter’ that’s what went through your head right?”

Gento: “Eh? Have you seen the guy I passed to? I don’t know really, I just got the impression he would do what he found the most entertaining and letting a chance like that go seems a bit boring, no?”

Not expecting their answers, Isagi just deadpans at the duo.

Isagi: ‘What the hell is wrong with these guys?’

Igarashi: “What is this? Is this insanity going to continue?”

Ego: ” ‘Insanity?’ You’re right. That’s the world of ‘win or lose‘, the world created inside of Blue Lock. Those world-class strikers you adore put their lives on the line like this every single day. How does it feel to fight for your career for the first time? Does it scare you? Does it excite you? Are you shaken up? Did it make you go, ‘All right! I survived!’ That’s what victory feels like. Etch that into your brain. Every time you get a taste of that pleasant sensation, your ego grows. And that will elevate you to the heights of the world’s greatest striker.”

Gento: ‘That seems a bit exaggerated no? But I have to respect his dedication’

Ego: “Congrats you lumps of talent, you passed the exam to officially enter Blue Lock. There are eleven of you in this room. The eleven of you will live together, train together and work together. Although remember there can only be one striker leaving Blue Lock victorious, be prepared for betrayal. You will be rivals trying to wreck each other’s dreams to achieve the impossible Blue Lock’s Team Z.“

After Ego finished his speech the monitor turned off leaving a heavy silence to pass over the newly dubbed ‘Team Z’.

The next few days are filled with extensive physical training to boost the players strength, speed and stamina. During their training Gento is struggling a bit more in comparison to his teammates/rivals due to his younger age and comparatively underdeveloped body. Gento is seen running on a treadmill with large amounts of sweat running down his face.

Gento: ‘This shit fucking sucks, I want to go home.’

Dinner in Blue Lock consists of rice and miso soup, alongside a side dish that is decided by your current ranking within Blue Lock. During dinnertime Team Z is often seen eating together quietly.

At night Gento is seen laying in bed completely awake.

Gento: ‘The beds here are so goddamn uncomfortable, might as well go for a walk, maybe it will help me sleep.’

Gento quietly leaves the room, so as to not wake up his sleeping teammates. Lost in thought Gento leisurely walks through the facility taking note of its rather large size and selection of training rooms. Nearing one of the training fields he notices the door ajar, lights on and voices talking inside, his interest piqued Gento begins moving towards the training field.

Bachira: ” -the monster told me ‘receive Gento’s ball and pass it to Isagi’. The two of them also have monsters inside of them.”

Gento well and truly weirded out makes his presence known, whilst entering the training field.

Gento: “Monsters? Are you okay dude, what are you talking about, also shouldn’t you be in bed by now?”

The two boys startled, turn towards the new voice, see Gento making his way towards them.

Bachira: “Yo Gento! You’re one to talk isn’t it past your bedtime? Anyways since your awake care to join us?

Bachira replies as he passes the ball towards the 14 year old. Gento upon receiving the ball starts juggling it subconsciously before flicking it back towards the bumblebee.

Gento: “Sure not like I have anything better to do, maybe this’ll help me sleep.”

Bachira: “Do you also see that monster Gen-chan?”

Gento: “Nah not really, although when playing football it feels like I have some sort of sixth-sense where I just know where to position myself, so I can just stay invisible.”

Isagi: “Monster? Sixth-sense?”

Bachira/Gento: “Yup!/Yeah pretty much.”

Gento: ‘This feels like it happens a lot, me and Bachira being on the same wavelength’

Bachira: “Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Noel Noa, all those amazing players have monsters inside of them. It’s what proves that you’re a striker after all, or at least that’s what I believe.”

Seemingly satisfied with Bachira’s explanation, Isagi turns towards Gento awaiting the ghost-boy’s answer.

Gento: “I don’t really know the best way to explain it but im a fan of the quote from Johan Cruyff ‘Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is’. I just think if I’m playing the best game that I can then I don’t need flashy dribbles to score the most goals.”

Isagi stares at the ghostly-bumblebee-combo as if they were completely insane.

Bachira: “And at the end of the day I’m happy to join this program even if it was just to meet the two of you.

At this a small smile makes its way to Gento’s face.

Gento: “Likewise bob-cut.”

Bachira: “Anyways let’s go another round Yoichi but this time it’s me and Gen-chan versus you”

Gento: ‘A bit unfair, no?’

Bachira passes the ball to Gento and starts running towards Isagi. Gento starts moving towards Isagi at a slower pace keeping the ball close by his feet, Isagi runs towards Gento trying to tackle him to get the ball. Reading his movements Gento does a bodyfeint towards the right of Isagi, who upon seeing Gento’s body shift to the right tries to tackle him. As soon as Isagi steps forward Gento quickly turns to his left, sending a quick pass to Bachira. Whilst Isagi gets up to move towards Bachira a small notification interrupts the three of them.

Intercom: “The results of the fitness tests have been finalized. Please return to your rooms to receive the new rankings.”

Gento: “Guess we better make our way back to our room guys.”

The three of them return to their quarters, seeing the rest of team z awake to receive their new rankings. Upon entering the room Igarashi immediately approaches Isagi with a huge smile on his face.

Igarashi: “Hey, Isagi, what rank are you? I shot way up from my old rank of 300. See? I’m 275 now.”

Isagi: “What? That’s amazing!”

Igarashi: “Oh, you did, too. Look!”

Looking down at his uniform Gento sees that he also has increased his ranking.

Gento: “Oh looks like I went up from 295 to 270. Yo Bachira, what’s your rank saying?”

Bachira: “Hmm? Oh, it’s 265 now.”

Gento: ‘Wait did we all just increase by 25? This feels off.’ “Wait did we all increase by the same amo-“

Before Gento can finish speaking he gets interrupted by Ego appearing on the monitor.

Ego: “Well, well. Hello there, you lumps of talent. How are you enjoying life at Blue Lock?”

Raichi: “Cut the crap! Do you really expect us to improve in this shitty environment?!”

Naruhaya: “Yeah, what he said. I want better food.”

Gento “I mean a better bed would be ni-“

Gento again gets cut off by Ego.

Ego: “Obviously the environment sucks because your football skills suck.”

Gento: ‘Why did I decide to train under this dickhead again?’

Ego: “Let’s talk a little bit about Blue Lock. In this facility, a total of 25 teams from B down to Z are split into 5 groups, one per building. Oh, by the way. Each team lost one person after the game of tag, so there are 275 players left.”

Gento: ‘I knew there was something shady about our ‘upgrade’. We didn’t improve jackshit!’

Igarashi: “What!? So I’m still dead last? I was happy for nothing!”

Ego: “Your rank decides your team. Ranks 1 through 11 are in Team B, ranks 12 to 22 are in C and so on and so forth, in short, you Team Z guys are the lowest-ranked in Building 5. The worst of the worst.”

Raichi: “Oi, don’t lump me in with the rest of these nobodies!”

Ego: “Higher-ranked players eat gourmet food and get to train in better buildings. In Blue Lock, the best football player is king. If you want a better environment, win your way up. Alrighty then, let’s get the first selection started.

The first selection will involve the 55 of you in Building 5. It’s a kind of 5-team round robin. Only the top 2 teams will move on to the second selection in this survival match.”

Gento: “So we’ll be playing as a team for the time being? How though? Did you forget we’re only forwards?”

Chigiri: “Yeah we are all forwards, how’s that gonna work?”

Raichi: “Then I’ll play center forward.”

Kunigami: “No, I will”

Gagamaru: “No, me.”

Whilst the rest of the room starts arguing amongst themselves Gento looks down at his hand and begins thinking to himself.

Gento: ‘This shit is going nowhere, they’re just gonna keep arguing and solve none of our problems. I would prefer to play as the striker but if I say that now it’s just gonna make our situation worse. If push comes to shove I can just play as our number 10, gives me enough freedom to play like I want to.’

Naruhaya: “Igaguri, you can be in defense.”

Igarashi: “What!? I wanna play center forward!”

Gento: “Before you guys rip each other apart I just wanna say I’m gonna play as our number 10”

Ego: “Football was originally a sport all about scoring. You’ve been stupidly imprinted with the notions of positioning and tactics, but all of those roles only evolved over time. Football initially started with every player being a striker. So play football as it was originally. Create football from 0 using your brains.

Abandon what you’ve believed to be common sense until now. Shove new notions into your brains. What we really need right now for Japan to become the best in the world isn’t the teamwork of 11 players. What we need is one hero.

Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar. Football can evolve endlessly if a hero like that exists. To stop him, new defensive systems are created. To top him, new tactics are born. One person’s play can change a team, a country or even the world. That’s the kind of sport football is.

Are you ready to fight? In Blue Lock!”

Upon finishing his speech Ego disappears from the monitor, only leaving the instructions for team z to change into their football kits and make their way towards the pitch.

Gento: “Guess it’s time to play against Team X, let’s see what Blue Lock has to offer.”

– End of Chapter 3 –