07. TEAM Y

*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩

THIS

game was the deciding one, because, if you lost it, then you lost everything. Team Y lost to Team V—Kyouka's team—by a landslide, so you had a little more faith in your team than you did last time (a very, very miserable game if you'd say so yourself). Now that you all had a (sort of) plan with a lamely terrible name to make sure everyone had a chance to shine, your team were all set. Even you felt yourself getting a little pumped up, knowing that if they lost this—it would be the end. They needed to win. They had to. For your sake.

Iemon sets your bag down on the bench, and you quietly thank him before he runs off, to his teammates, and you start unpacking. You pull out your notebook, and snap the lid off your pen—attaching it to the back—and scribbling down a title:

GAME 2 — TEAM Y

You give yourself a satisfied little smile, and you nod to yourself. Yeah. This would be good. You had a better chance of winning against the lower-ranked team. Sure, you were all still the lowest, but they weren't too far off, and who knows what their teamwork would be like? You have faith. You believe in your team.

You freeze up when you feel a strangely familiar glare on your back, and you slowly turn your head—meeting flaming, ruby-red eyes that bore into your soul, and a mop of bleached blonde hair to go with them. Bleach-head, your unofficial official rival manager.

Instead of backing away from her glare like you usually did, you meet it with just as much ferocity, eyes squinted at her and narrowed. Her irises widened, and she scowled, lips turning down before she promptly turned away, sticking her face up, away from you. You grin—counting this as a win. [name] 1, Bleach-head, 34.

The whistle blows, and your head immediately snaps up to the field, seeing Kunigami pass to Bachira. You place your face in your hands, watching intently. Bachira dribbled around a red player, making use of his special skill. A boy comes in from behind and steals the ball from him while he is distracted by two other players in front of him. The boy, with hair covering his eyes completely (seriously, how does he see?) monologues for a bit, which leaves an opening for Bachira to pass the ball to Igaguri—who, as soon as he sees the boisterous boy free, passes the ball right back to him.

The players on the red team all crowded your team's players and seemed to have a marker for almost everyone. While your original plan was to go for a more offensive-centred route—so everyone had their chance to shine, your opponents looked to be on the more defensive side, making sure each player was accounted for and blocked. It's not half-bad, you think, and look over at Bleach-head. She seems to be just as focused as you are, eyes narrowed at the field and nails digging into her milky white skin.

The formation switched after the 10-minute mark, Kunigami receiving a pass and blasting the ball towards the goal—only for it to get blocked by multiple legs, and fly out. Chigiri throws the ball in—being one of the only permanently defensive roles—and passes it to Isagi. It gets passed to Kunigami, and with a miserable repeat of the first time—his shot is blocked and flies back to the boy with hair covering his eyes.

He pelts it to the other side of the field, to a boy with a yakisoba bun on his head, who, after feinting Iemon out, gets a goal in.

The whistle blows, and the ball is placed in the middle. Naruhaya kicks the ball up high to Kuon who—utilising his incredible jumping skill and given height—receives it perfectly and passes it to Kunigami. The blonde pauses, and the boy with hair covering his face—you heard Bleach-head refer to him as Niko—steals the ball from right under his foot, passing it around in their own half. 

You snort at the ridiculous sight, and Bleach-head shoots you a glare, "Something funny?"

You shake your head, crossing your arms under your chest and leaning forward, a satisfied smile on your face. "I'm just wondering how that boy can see."

You can see from the corner of your vision that Bleach-head rolls her eyes and snorts herself, folding one leg over the other as she straightens her back.

"Me too."

You smile at her passive response, then focus on the court. Half-time break happens before you know it— just so happening to be during Raichi's time, and it just so happens that he punched a wall on his way in—and you pass a water bottle to Isagi, who thanks you. You block out most of the arguing (it was just Raichi yelling) and try your best to stay as quiet as possible to keep your mental peace of mind.

"We're going to lose at this rate!" Raichi fumes, getting all up in Naruhaya's face and snarling, "If we don't push back we're done, you realise that?!"

"One more point! That's all they need before we're done!" Naruhaya screams, "So think about that!"

"Okay, come on now—" you roll your eyes, getting out of your seat and stepping over until you are stopped by a tug on your jacket—seeing Isagi's face and his terrified gaze as if screaming at you silently, no, don't do it. Or maybe, he's telling you that if you do, you'll be next.

"If we want to win, it means being more aggressive out there," Iemon sips from his water bottle, groaning.

Chigiri—gaze directed at the ground—speaks with a solemn tone, "The real question is will this plan even work out? If our weapons prove to be ineffective against them, we'll just be dying a slow death."

Raichi shoots him a furious glare, a vein on his forehead visibly pulsing, "You won't even tell us your weapon, so why don't you shut the hell up?! Got it?!"

"To improve our chances of winning, instead of wasting time with useless weapons, I'm saying we should focus on Bachira and Kunigami, whose styles are obviously difficult for the other team to manage."

"Who's weapon is useless you waste of space—!!"

Kuon comes between the fuming Raichi and the deadpan Chigiri, placing a hand on the former's chest to stop him from getting too close to the redhead. "Stop fighting already, it's riskier to change the plan this late in the game. As long as we continue switching up our tactics, I'm convinced they're going to struggle to figure out different ways of responding to them. Our attacks haven't been pointless!"

"The fact is, the operation next up it's me number 9 is working, so don't fear Okawa's counter. And keep pushing the offensive!" He turns to the rest of the team with an authoritative aura. The rest of the team—with few exceptions—whoop and cheer him on, and you take a seat, crossing your legs on the bench and pursing your lips.

*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩

It was Gagamaru's turn to be on the centre, and he almost immediately got the ball back and passed it to Isagi. Gagamaru ran up to the goal, and Isagi passed—a little too hard, it seemed—but it didn't matter to him, as he used the tips of his toes to give him the last speed boost he needed, throwing his head forward and smacking it into the ball. After he looked up from his spontaneous makeout session with the ground—disappointment was (not) evident on his face, the ball being barely blocked by the goalkeeper and falling out.

Bachira was throwing in, looking around to see if anybody was free. The ball flies off of the goalkeeper's hands, and it seems to be flying randomly at first glance—until, you see it coming straight into the direction of Niko, and luckily, Isagi is there, the ball bouncing off of his chest. Isagi gives him an angry stare, and you feel Bleach-head laughing from next to you, the seat rocking back and forth.

"You know what—" Bleach-head says, a grin stretching across her glossy lips, "That guy over there. 11. He's pretty smart. He already figured it out."

You cock an eyebrow at her, then look back to see Isagi's shot towards the goal blocked by Niko, rebounding off of his calf and towards the outside... when Gagamaru runs in, using the entire right side of his leg to bounce the ball into the goal. He slams into the metal bar holding up the net, coughing out blood and his nose leaking the red liquid.

An incredible save. You think, then you shake your head and instinctively get up, out of your seat and run up to the line separating you from the court. You look around, trying to get a good look—only to meet the eyes of Chigiri, who gives you a subtle shake of his head in return, before turning his head away.

You press your lips tightly together, before you realise you can't do anything in this situation—and can only yell from the sidelines. You feel so powerless, you feel...

You shake your head again, a troubled expression clearly on your face. You quietly take your seat, fingers drumming against your thigh and your heart rate increasing as Gagamaru coughs out more blood.

Bleach-head turns her face to look at you, a brow quirking up in confusion. She stares at you for a little longer—and this time, you do not look back.

When the whistle blows, Isagi tries to pass the ball to Naruhaya, but it gets blocked by a red team member's chest and passes to Niko—who is in turn, blocked by Isagi.

Thirty fives minutes into the second half, it was abundantly clear that Team Y did not intend to try and score any more points (which was strange, you thought, since they weren't in the lead anymore, just tied) and decided it was okay for them to just make sure that your team didn't score any points to overtake them. It wasn't a bad strategy—just one that seemed redundant when it was actually in play.

"Just do it already!" Bleach-head steps up, out of her seat and cups her hand around her mouth, yelling to the players on the field. Her brown brows are furrowed and her eyes are turned into a glare, directed at their top scorer. The mohawk guy looked right back, rolling his eyes and muttering something that looked like an unfriendly word, and kicked the ball—for the first time in the match—all by himself.

Almost immediately after, every single member—even the ones previously playing defence—all ran in with the mohawk to join in on the attack, and since your team committed so many players to attack, there was barely anybody left to defend. You ball up your fists and let out a frustrated scream, glaring at your team desperately running back to defend the goal.

You want to shout—to scream at them to move—but you know it's useless because they already know. In the last minute of the game, they needed to both stop an attack and score another goal, which, in hindsight, seemed incredibly unlikely. Niko receives the ball just inches away from the goal, winding up his leg to kick it—

—when he passes it over to the mohawk, running to his shooting range with an evil grin plastered on his face. He stops mid-run, however, when the ball stops, connecting with a foot—Isagi's foot, you cheer mentally, a spark of hope igniting in your chest—and doing an abrupt turn, twisting his body around and doing a kick across the playing field, Kunigami effortlessly receiving it with his chest. Two other players try to physically push him back with their hands (is that seriously not a foul? You glare), leaving him to pass it to Bachira, getting past multiple players with his ridiculous dribbling.

He looks around, sticking his tongue out and grinning when he spots something—someone—and kicks the ball over heads, over Gagamaru (who dived for the ball in response, missing) and to Isagi. With a strong wind-up, and no defenders marking him, he slams his foot into the ball and steals a goal at the last second. It leaves the ending score of 2 to 1, with Team Z winning.

"And that is time! Team Z wins Blue Lock Building 5's fourth match with a final score of two to one." The announcer's voice rings out, and you can't help but get up out of your seat and cheer, a wide smile stretching across your face.

They won. You can stay. You aren't going home, not today.

Isagi is surrounded by praise and cheers from his team, but he chooses to walk over to the opposing side—lying on the ground and panting, devasted by their loss—and walks right up to Niko. His teal eyes are filled with glassy tears, and Isagi looks down upon him.

You can't see his face that well, but his eyes are filled with a strange blankness that makes him feel like a totally different entity.

*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩