05. TEAM X

*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩

TODAY

your team, last and very much least, is facing off against another team. A team that is supposedly better than all of you, and you are meant to beat him in a match. It felt ridiculous and very biased—but it wasn't like you could complain. Ego was like talking to a brick wall if a brick wall could fire you.

You try to think—to remember which one of the girls got Team X—and you get a whole load of nothing. Curse you, past [name], for not remembering such a crucial point.

You sit on the bench in the changing area in silence, watching Kuon try and explain the plan to all of them. A plan, in heavy quotation marks, because this was barely a plan at all. Each one of them hated it, except Isagi (and Bachira by extent), because he was the centre-forward. They decided this with a violent game of rock paper scissors (which, you aren't even too sure how it worked with eleven people playing at once.

They all walk out—into a place with bright lights shining down and a vibrant green field smack in the middle of the room—with anxiety bubbling in their chest. Their first match at Blue Lock—and the first demonstration of your managerial skills that you don't possess—which is, technically, your first match here too. You carry the cooler full of bottles and towels over your shoulder. It's heavy, not so heavy to the point it's painful to carry it, but it does weigh you down significantly. You keep having to readjust its position on your shoulder, and it doesn't go unnoticed.

In fact, you're sure that the rest of the team just doesn't care. You feel irritation at this fact (in fact, you hope this shitty plan goes down in flames) and scowl at the person who taps you on the shoulder and—oh. It's Kunigami, and he's motioning for you to pass him the bag. 

The irritation washes away like the tide does to a beach, and you give him a bright smile, noting how he effortlessly carries the heavy load on his shoulders like it weighs nothing. "Thank you, Kunigami."

"No problem. Saw you strugglin'." He says and walks beside you.

Your smile grows even wider, and you find yourself bounding on your heels next to him. He is pretty tall, after all. "I hope this game goes well for you all."

"I think you mean that you hope this game goes well for us." He gives you a coy grin, looking down at you. You shake your head.

"Right. For us."

"Gotcha." He nods and sets the cooler down with a loud crash onto the silver bench. He mutters a soft apology before he runs onto the field, with his fellow teammates, staring down the opponents.

There, on the other side of the bench, you see Pixie cut, and a part deep within you sighs in relief. Pixie cut might be abrasive, and she might be a country bumpkin, but she wasn't a bad person (at least, you hope so). At least it's not that bleach-head. She seems very miserable.

"In the First Selection, should any fouls occur, they will be called by video assistant referee. For building 5's first match, Team X will play Team Z in a standard game with two forty-five (45) minute halves. Kick-off!"

The announcement rings through the room, and the ball is passed to Isagi by Bachira as soon as the whistle blows.

But just as Isagi has the ball under his foot, debating what his next move should be, Raichi swoops in, and steals the ball from underneath Isagi. You watch their altercation with a dropped jaw and twitching eye. Pixie hisses through her teeth and whispers for her team to just do something.

Kunigami then swooped in and stole the ball from Raichi, which led to a whole mess of people trying to steal the ball for each other, uncaring if they were friends or foes. In this game, it seemed, even your teammates were your rivals that each player on the field needed to crush. It was ridiculous.

Pixie cut gets up from her seat with blazing eyes, "ARE Y'ALL STUPID?! WHY TA FUCK ARE Y'ALL FIGHTING YERSELF, YA DUMBASS—"

Barging through the crowd, there seemed to be an unstoppable force. A guy, significantly bigger than anybody else on the court, blasted through the mob of teenagers with ease, charging like a raging bull straight at Isagi. He blasts past him with a heel flick and gets by the last line of defence like it was nothing. To nobody's surprise, he shoots the goal, the ball flying into the net without a chance for Iemon to react.

Pixie cut sits down, folding one leg over the other and huffing, "Good. Barou finally did somethin' worthwhile." You glance at her but soon look back to the field with a tense expression.

The rest of Barou's team cheers him on, surrounding him in a circle. He speaks, with an authoritative and confident tone of voice, "Listen, suckers, and remember these words. When I play, the ball isn't my friend or any nonsense like that. It's merely a spherical servant that exists solely so I can shine. Whenever I'm out on the field, I'm the king."

You watch in complete and utter shock, lips parted and eyes wide. You look at Pixie cut—who has a self-satisfied smirk on her face—as if asking her if this guy is actually serious. She chortles, which answers your question more than words could ever say.

Your team starts getting riled up in a bad way, all crowned together on their side of the field and arguing about something ridiculous. You grind your jaw down and try to ignore the way that Pixie cut is gloating without words, her ego practically spilling out of her.

This is stupid... Why aren't they doing anything? What's the point of trying to do everything yourself?!

"Team Z. Resume the game." The announcer calls out, and your face flushes in embarrassment, Pixie cut looking over at you curiously.

The game starts on a bad note, with Igaguri intercepting a pass between Isagi and Bachira and effectively losing the ball as soon as he got it, leaving almost nobody on defence. The other team seemed to have gotten their stuff together because it looked like they decided that teamwork was a viable option; passing the ball to Barou—who, after getting surrounded, showed he understood the situation well—letting go of the ball so his teammate scores their team a point.

While your teammates were all at each other's throats, all wanting to score the points and unwilling to let others help them. It was stupid—they are stupid, you decide, and clench your fists hard onto your lap, scowling at them from the benches. 

She's... emittin' a dark aura... Pixie cut scoots to the edge of the side of the bench, sweatdropping.

The points pile up, and with each goal scored by Barou, your boys grow more and more agitated, clearly only thinking about themselves and not how to get a point.

You saw that even Isagi—who you would say is one of the most level-headed players, was losing his cool—going in for balls that he wouldn't be able to reach and bumping into his teammates. This was bad. 

You were clearly going to lose. By a miserable score difference. But...

If I try... then maybe... we could get just one.

You suck in a deep breath, then stand up, off the seat, and stand on the edge of your side of the court. Your chest rises, and then you cup your hands around your mouth and yell, "GET IT TOGETHER! IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO SCORES THE GOAL, AS LONG AS IT GETS IN THE NET—!!!"

"[name]. Please do not disturb the game, and return to your area."

You huff at the video referee, scrunching up your face and stomping back to your seat, face flushing red with anger and Pixie cut staring at you in shock, along with the rest of your team. You ignore these stares and find yourself only thinking about what you can do to win—or just, at the very least, score one point in the last three minutes.

You feel Isagi's stare and you meet his eyes—clouded by something strange—and you glare, eyes narrowing into a phrase only he could understand. Isagi doesn't make an expression, but as soon as he leans down to position the ball, Bachira says something to him, and Isagi nods. You feel a surge of pride, and your stomach twists as you watch intently at what they will do next.

Isagi runs up to the other side—right in front of the goal when he's blocked by the immoveable force that is Barou, staring down at him with an unforgiving gaze. You see Isagi visibly pause and look around, wondering what he should do when both Raichi and Kunigami come from either side—calling for the ball.

Raichi is free—while Kunigami has somebody marking him. The clear choice is Raichi, and yet, Isagi, without breaking eye contact with Barou, swings his foot around and the ball flies over to Kunigami, who grins and pelts it into the net—scoring Team Z's first goal.

Raichi grabs Isagi's collar as soon as the point is scored, and is screaming into his face—teeth bared in a snarl. Kuon tries to break them up with no avail—and right when the whistle rings, you stand up, out of your seat, fists curled into a ball.

"And that's time. In Blue Lock building 5's first match, Team X wins, with a score of 5 to 1."

Raichi shoves Isagi to the ground, and the latter doesn't speak after. Nobody bothers to help him up—leaving him sitting there, in the middle of the court, alone.

You pack up the rest of your things. The team doesn't bother to wait up for you either—clearly too distracted by their miserable loss—and ends up walking away without both you and Isagi. You look at how Pixie cut laughs with her team and even slaps Barou on the shoulder, proud of her team.

She was bonding with her team already. Faster than you were, anyway.

You then glance back to Isagi. He looks so lost. So defeated. And despite your better judgement—that you should just leave him be—you can't. You ball up your fists and suck in a deep breath before you start walking. You walk onto the field. Then, you walk up behind him, standing there with your notebook under your arm and a blank expression on your face.

"Isagi," you say, and he doesn't even react to your voice. Your fingers unconsciously find their way to the fabric of your tracksuit pants, fiddling with them, "It's time to go now."

"I don't..." His voice is not as friendly or kind as it usually is when he greets you in the mornings. He sounds so meek—so small and scared. Your heart skips a beat as his breath picks up, and you let out a sigh.

"Come on," your voice lowers, to the point of a whisper, and he turns around when you tap him on the shoulder. Your hand is extended—waiting for him to take it.

And take it he does. You pull him up, holding his hand for a second longer before you let go, walking to grab your bag.

*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩

You and Isagi fell far behind, so you two ended up walking back to your rooms alone. He seemed less frazzled than he was when he was just sitting there on the field—but still very clearly shaken up by their loss. Isagi looks over at you, pursing his lips before he grabs ahold of your bag's strap and speaks, "I can take it."

You nod and slide it off of your arm and pass it to him. "Thank you." He nods back. You notice how his eyes are focused on the grey walls you two pass by rather than what is in front of him or even the person walking beside him—and you see he is thinking about something. It doesn't take a genius to know it's about his avoidance of scoring, and you are no genius.

"Isagi," you say, making his head snap towards you almost pathetically fast. "It wasn't a bad idea to pass to Kunigami. It would've been a better idea to go to Raichi—but you didn't, and that's okay. If you don't want to score every ball for yourself, that's fine. But if you're too scared to score a single one for yourself, then you will have no place as a striker here."

"...Huh?" He blinks froggishly—as if he can't believe what you are saying—and tilts his head closer to you.

"I'm just saying that it's not bad to rely on others sometimes," you pause, now that you two have reached the main Z room. "But if you want to be stronger, and compete with the best, then you should learn to rely on yourself, too."

You take the bag back and ignore how his lips are slightly parted from confusion and he stands scarily still. You have no idea what Isagi is thinking about, and you don't care to know. You only care about doing your job as a manager, and this is one of them.

You bow your head a little and turn your gaze away from him, "Thanks for carrying this back."

He swallows thickly, looking at your retreating figure walking into the Z room, and murmurs, "It's no problem."

*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩