"Oi! Takashi, pass the ball already." I yelled to my team's RW. We were equalised with the opponent team, who were pretty average, just like my teammates, with the exception of their striker, Barou Shoei.
Takashi was way out of range for his shot so he passed to me as I was running down the wing (yes, coach. I apologise for being out of position) . As I prepared to cut in, I noticed Barou running towards me from the side, which surprised me, since most of the time, he was up front demanding passes from his overworked team.
I heard him say something like "Out of my way, Donkey." or "Give me the ball.". Well, while I'd prefer being compared to a GOAT, I decided that in this case the better choice would be to get out of his way, and cut away from him. So that's exactly what I did, but then he widened his legs just a bit, and I couldn't resist nutmegging him. One elastico with a gentle push and then boom.
I was on the ground. Normally, that's where the defenders should be, right? Then I got up. My team had crowded the referee asking for a foul, which the referee granted since Barou had kicked me after I dribbled past him. Takashi was arguing with Barou about sportsmanship. As to why I didn't understand what happened immediately when Barou kicked me... I have Congenital Analgesia[1]. It's useful in case I'm only slightly injured as I can still use my quick touch dribbling even with an injury but incase of serious injuries it may lead to me not noticing the injury, which could cause problems.
As the team's doctor/physio rushed over, he sighed with relief. Nothing serious, infact nothing had really happened, so I could still play.
I got back into position. It was a free kick closer to the centre, in the opponent's half, so Takashi would take the kick and pass to me or Tekisugi, the LW. There were only 5 minutes left until stoppage time, so this easy goal came at a good time. We had scored 6 times this way before (though only once from a set piece)
Atleast, that's what I thought until Takashi took a shot. "What the hell, Takashi!", I shouted. Don't get me wrong, Takashi has good shot power but his accuracy is kind of... bad.
The ball soared through the air, but everyone could already see that it had missed. Takashi looked devastated. I looked at the sidelines, and saw that the coach barely looked dissappointed. I thought he might be angry at Taka for messing with his tactics but I guess he might be proud of Takashi's confidence or something? That's just stupid though. Maybe he had some reasons...
I saw their goalkeeper play a long aerial pass ahead. I rushed to press the receiving player, but he passed to their RM who took a touch forward. Tekisugi, who had dropped deep after the free kick, tackled him, and the ball went back to the RB.
Their CAM suddenly ran ahead and I marked him closely, but then their RB suddenly passed the ball. This random guy who was useless the whole match somehow made this epic pass that curved to Barou. He somehow shook of both CB's on him and took a powerful shot that soared into the net.
Beep! Beep! The referee signalled 5 minutes for stoppage time, which gave us a chance. But then I saw Tobita, running onto the field. I looked at the sidelines and sure enough, the coach had signalled for a substitution. Maybe he wasn't that happy with Takashi's play. Then, I froze, as I saw that I was being substituted out.
I ran up to him and tried to argue, but he didn't even try to explain to me why this was happening.
This makes no sense.
I'm the best on this team, why substitute me off. I had scored the 2 goals we made, and one of them was a solo run past all the defenders.
We lost the game 2-3.
After the game, Takashi looked sad. Without my asking him, he told me that the coach had told him to make that shot. 'No way', I thought, 'the coach knows Takashi's shots are powerful but inaccurate. Why the hell would he tell him to shoot'
As we were returning to our homes on our cycles ( since this match was on our turf), I realised I had forgotten my headphones in the locker room. I told Taka to go ahead and quickly turned back to the school. As I reached the locker room, I saw the coach talking with some man in a suit. They were saying something like "puresa wakin wito yu" in English[2].
As I overheard more of their conversation, I realised that they had rigged the match.
Why..
Why would someone rig this match between high schoolers.
Why is God so unfair..
As they made their way out of the locker room, I hid behind a box of old stuff.
I caught a glimpse of what was in coach's hand. It was an employment offer from Kurotorizawa, the team we had just played against. So it wasn't for money, huh.
I cycled home with my headphones on, blasting some Imagine Kaijus songs, crying internally the whole way. As I got to the final stretch, the lyrics I was listening to made more sense. Everybody else really is your enemy, huh.
As I reached my home, I saw a letter in the mailbox.
A letter, huh..
Been a while since I got one of those.
Yeah, the last time was for condolences..
For what, you say.. Uh, well my parents died 3 years ago, to a gas leak in Fubuki. I've moved on since then, though. It just took 1 or 2 months, well actually more like a year...
Yeah, there's no point lying to myself, is there..."I miss you Kaa-san, Tou-san."
I open the letter.
"JFU.. Japan Football Union! Blue Lock Training Program, next week.. Huh, only the time and location, no duration... must be pretty long then, or maybe elimination based, so they can't tell how long", I muse out loud
"There's nothing I have to do now... so I might as well go there." 'Annoying coach and shitty Kurotorizawa'
"Ok then, it's decided. Next week, I'm going to Blue Lock" 'I wonder if Barou will be there.. I wonder what he'll think when he finds out how he won our match.'
"I'm never going to let anyone else's actions determine my fate ever again."
A few weeks ago,
"Ego-san, are you sure about inviting Nishioka Hajime to the Blue Lock Program."asks a pink haired woman clutching a file.
She continues, "After all, several doctors have.."
"I'm sure, I'm sure" interrupts the man called Ego.
"After all, this program was designed to create madmen. Starting with a few madmen seems perfectly reasonable, doesn't it, Anri-chan" he drawls out
[1] Basically, no pain felt
[2] Blue Lock is based in Japan: he heard the man say "pleasure working with you"