22. AVERAGE JOE

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IT'S

almost strange being alone on this silver bench. It's not something that's ever brought you comfort—no, not in a million years—but it was almost common knowledge to yourself that you'd always have somebody right there next to you. Somebody of the same gender—a woman, with a softer voice and kinder heart than most men here. 

This bench never brought you comfort—but something about that did, maybe, it was the reality that you'd always have somebody here that you could relate to.

But now, here you were, sitting alone on the sleek metal, bag resting beside you with one too many water bottles. Your notebook no longer lies on your lap, but rather is stuffed haphazardly inside your bag and forgotten as you watch them stretch and warm up—preparing for the match against Barou and Naruhaya.

You usually can't hear what they say on the field due to the loud grass crunching beneath their feet and the sheer intensity of the match (and due to how far away you are, but that doesn't sound as cool), but this time, you can hear Isagi clearly call out, "Naruhaya. I am going to crush you. Don't hold back."

Naruhaya doesn't even glance at the ball resting under Isagi's foot, nor does he look at anything other than Isagi's face. Something you do see, however, is that he clutches his pants with a crushing force—crimpling the material underneath his touch. Nonetheless, his cunning grin doesn't fade when he speaks, "Goes without saying."

The whistle blows, and Isagi kicks off to Nagi—but that also goes without saying, because that is his only team member on the court—who is facing off, head-to-head against Barou. Nagi tries to dribble his way past him—but it seems the king has greater reflexes, and easily forces the ball away from Nagi and runs towards the goal. Isagi's the only person left in his way, and Naruhaya moves away to the side like he's waiting for Barou to pass.

That moment never comes—and Isagi is left standing dumbfounded when Barou blasts the ball into the goal, seeming to be in his desired shooting range (something you know because of how Kunigami explained it). Team Red—Barou's team—scores a point with seemingly no effort. 

You don't let yourself grow nervous. Not like last time—no, you stay strong, and shove all your negative emotions into your palm, where you'll leave it gripping the edge of the bench and not seep into your mind. 

The kick-off begins again, and Nagi passes to his teammate. Isagi—who is getting marked by Naruhaya—tries to dribble around the bushy brown-head, but fails miserably—each path he goes to, Naruhaya goes quicker. Nagi is in front of Barou and shuffles around, yelling something out to Isagi. Those words must have been something demanding, because immediately after, Isagi passes the ball Nagi's way—but it's far, too far.

Both Nagi and Barou run after it, and Nagi makes it first. He doesn't turn, not even a bit when he taps the ball—using the back of his heel to stop the ball's trajectory, and then utilizes his ridiculous ball control to stop Barou from taking it. Nagi shoots the ball into the goal without a hitch—scoring a point for your team to even the playing field.

You smile and nod, even if nobody sees you, and you feel excited watching them play. Even though there's nobody to pass to them, and they're both selfish strikers who want to score it all themselves... they can still work.

The whistle blows again, and this time, Barou gets passed to and immediately bolts towards the goal. This time, both Nagi and Isagi press him—and you deduce that they've figured out that Barou won't pass to anybody, especially not when you're all in the lead. Isagi swerves his foot around the ball and rebounds it off Barou's foot so it goes flying away, and Nagi reacts quickly by running forward so Isagi can pass. Naruhaya runs after him. 

Isagi kicks the ball to Nagi—and just like in your team's game against Team V, when Reo hail mary'd the ball over the field—he uses the space between his foot and ankle to catch the ball and absorbs all its energy to stop its path in his favour. Naruhaya doesn't have enough time to stop Nagi before he blasts the ball into the goal. 

Nagi and Isagi fist-bump and Barou is practically releasing smoke when he traps the ball underneath his foot. He screams something that you don't quite catch—but in a fit of rage, you presume, he takes a shot just as Rin did, right from the centre into your goal. Only this time, it was nowhere near as graceful and precise as Rin, and the digital goalkeeper on your side blocked it. Despite this, Naruhaya catches the loose ball out of seemingly nowhere and passes it over to Barou when he calls.

Unsurprisingly, Barou does make the shot this time, and the scoreboard is evened out once again. You scrunch up your nose at how easily Naruhaya complied with Barou. That mid-shot should be criminal. If Barou actually respected people, I bet he'd be real famous.

The whistle blows again, and Nagi passes to his teammate from the centre of the field. Isagi is halted in his path by Naruhaya—and it looks like they're even having a conversation as they run alongside each other. Isagi looks more and more distressed as Naruhaya talks, and he abruptly passes to Nagi to get out of the situation—and to no surprise, with how sloppy the pass way, it's blocked by Naruhaya.

Barou catches the loose ball and runs with it—Nagi follows him closely. Barou does his signature bull charge, but in a twist of events, he passes over to Naruhaya, who runs with it.

You're on the edge of your seat, and you're left breathless with anticipation at what his next moves are—you may have been on his team all this time, but really, you've never really noticed him. Compared to the others, it felt like he was more invisible. 

But maybe, you guess, that's his strength—appearing invisible. Because he had come out of nowhere, and kicked the ball into the goal—but it was slow. Usually, the goals that had been scored here in Blue Lock were so intense and fast that you couldn't even catch it, but this time—you could see its trajectory clearly. Blue Lock Man must have had the same AI thought process as you because the hologram caught the ball with ease and it rebounded off of his hand.

Both Nagi and Isagi rush forward to try and claim the loose ball—but Barou charges through them will full force and blasts the ball into the goal without a hitch—now that Blue Lock Man is down.

With the scoreboard now being 3 — 2, in Barou and Naruhaya's favour, you feel a sense of anxiety rising. Barou is good, obviously, but it's not like Naruhaya isn't putting up a fight—it's just that, compared to somebody like Nagi or Barou, it's clear where he falls short. He isn't brutally forceful like Barou, nor can he slink his body around like Nagi.

But compared to Isagi at this moment—you have a fleeting thought that he could defeat him.

Nagi holds the ball under his foot and looks over at Isagi, passing the ball to him when the kickoff begins. They both run up the midfield, passing to each other when their own respective paths get blocked and they end up juking Naruhaya when he consistently blocks Isagi. Isagi passes the ball to Nagi once more, and using his ridiculous ball control, he swerves it away from Barou and shoots the ball in.

The score is evened out 3 — 3 now, and you can't help but wish for this to go a little faster. With so few players, it's hard to pull off crazy combo moves or even anything worth noting. Really, this game is just between Barou and Nagi. Isagi and Naruhaya are like the background characters in their overbearing light.

You're finding yourself almost disappointed at this fact—considering how high of a standard you held Isagi to. The whole reason I decided to choose you, Isagi... is because I thought you were incredible. Right now, you're almost making me regret my decision.

The kickoff begins again at Barou's side—and he goes for the crazy Rin kick like he did before (even though it didn't work, he tries again like something will change). Nagi reacts almost immediately, feet taking off the ground as soon as the ball leaves the floor and catching it before it falls into the goal. Consequently, Nagi tumbles to the ground from how high he has to prop himself up, and Isagi dives for the ball with Naruhaya following close behind.

Even if, from where you stand, Naruhaya is completely visible, you assume he positioned himself directly where Isagi would be blind—just so he could sneak up and snatch the ball from right under his nose and take a shot for himself. Nagi glowers at him and takes on a defensive role to block his shooting path, while Barou runs up from beside him and demands he passes.

The threat of Nagi seemed to linger on the bushy brown-head—so he does pass to Barou, and it takes minimal effort for Barou to score in his preferred shooting range with no defence, a place where his accuracy goes up substantially.

4 — 3. They only need one more point to take this game—and it makes you nervous. You grip the fabric of your tracksuit pants and clench your jaw, staring hard at the game in front of you. Your eyes never leave the field once (a given, seeing as you no longer have any person besides you who also has nothing else better to do) as Nagi passes to Isagi when the whistle shrieks through the air.

The fated match-ups happening these entire matches occur once more—with Naruhaya meeting Isagi's heated stare and stopping him from running any forward. It doesn't take a moment of hesitation before Isagi passes to his teammate and it takes Nagi less than a figurative minute to shoot the ball into the goal and even out the scoreboard once more.

Barou slams his foot down on the ball and glowers, his body basically radiating heated rage and fury. You wonder how a vein in his forehead manages to stick out constantly—even with Raichi, it was only when he got super pissed. Maybe he's been like this since birth. Full of pure, unadulterated rage.

Nagi positions himself at the goal this time, so Barou can't do his constant Rin shot and try to score a goal from the centre-point. Even as Naruhaya tries to tell him to not risk shooting from where he is right now (as Nagi is certain to block it with his inhuman skills), Barou doesn't care, and as he usually does, he does things in his own, kingly way. So, saying that—Barou takes the shot from the centre point and it swerves in the opposite direction it did the past two times.

Nagi doesn't even react as the ball is swiftly blocked by Blue Lock Man, and it seems that the ball is shakier and less powerful than his usual kick. You think to yourself, It's probably because he forced himself to do an unnatural kick. Even Barou knew Nagi would block him if he did his usual thing, but switching it up is hard.

The ball flies up into the air, and swiftly, Isagi and Naruhaya run for it. You know that Naruhaya is faster than Isagi. Nagi is running from where he previously stood at the right side of the goal—so for Isagi and Naruhaya, there's only one option to go—left. Barou demands the ball once again—but this time, he is promptly ignored by his teammate, and Naruhaya, for the first time, goes for the shot. A direct shot—one that is all too similar to Isagi's own.

But it's nothing but a cheap copy, and Naruhaya's play proves it. It doesn't even get blocked by your digital goalie, rather, in an unfortunate chain of events, it slams against the goalpost and rebounds away. Nagi takes advantage of the shock and catches with the side of his foot, and Isagi reacts instantaneously—darting down the field with Barou trailing beside him.

Isagi twists his body around in a dangerous movement—sliding across the grass to get behind Barou's back as soon as his eyes dart away, and Nagi catches it. He sends the ball over as soon as Isagi gets into an open position away from Barou, and without so much as a hitch—sends the ball flying into the goal with a killer straight shot.

You slap your hands onto your cheeks as a giddy smile stretches onto your face—the whistle blowing into your ear sweeter than any melody you've ever heard. They won. Isagi won the battle between him and Naruhaya, and now, they're reaping the rewards.

"Game over! Final score, 4 — 5. The winners are Team White." The speaker blares and Isagi connects palms with Nagi in victory. You rush over and Isagi grins your way, holding both his palms up in a high-five.

You comply with his silent request with a large grin and slap Nagi's palms just as hard, ignoring his whines after, you ball your hands up into fists and bound up and down on your heels. "Again, Isagi, you really do like making me wait on the edge of my seat for you to pull it off. Do you like seeing me get all antsy?"

He visibly jolts back when you sigh and say your last comment and his cheeks grow pinker than they were when he was sweating and running across the field, "What?! No way!"

You snort, covering your lower face with your hand, and turn your head away. You don't catch the way he laughs—no, you don't even catch yourself smiling in a way that is so unlike yourself.

The moment was instantly soured when the crunch of grass was heard—and each of your attention was diverted to Naruhaya falling to his knees. His eyes are wide in shock and his pupils are concerningly tiny, * "We were only one point away... If I had only gotten a goal..."

It's like the weight of his body overtakes him, and Naruhaya collapses onto the ground, head buried in the grass and fingers tugging deep in the green. "They won... Why can't that be me?! Dammit... dammit!"

You can hear his heaving breaths from where you stand beside Nagi, and you don't react as Isagi steps forward, hand reaching out slightly like it would console the smaller boy, "It was a really close match. I mean that. Between you and I—either of us could've easily been the winner."

Naruhaya whispers something, but it seems neither of you catch it because Isagi asks him to repeat himself. Naruhaya doesn't repeat himself—at least, not since Isagi asked, but only mumbles something that you assume only Isagi can hear. 

"Naruhaya... Thank you," you can practically hear the smile in Isagi's voice, even though his back is turned away from you. You mentally pray that this isn't another situation from when you won against team Y and Isagi decided it would be a good idea to stand over Niko and watch him cry—but deep in your mind, something tells you that this is different. "If the two of us hadn't faced off like this, I wouldn't have become a stronger player."

Nagi looked tired—real tired—and honestly, you were too. He leans forward on his heel and it digs into the faux grass beneath him, "So, now we pick. Which one?"

You almost take a step back when he says those words—and you refuse to even look in Naruhaya's direction, lest he think you were pitying him. As if it wasn't obvious enough to him, Nagi decides to ask, like it was even a choice, to begin with. You cross your arms under your chest when Isagi points his finger in the opposite direction of Naruhaya, and you sink into your shoulders, head turned away.

If we didn't choose Barou, we'd have to be cracked.

You tune out the rest of the conversation between Naruhaya and Isagi—former teammates and friends. Now, Naruhaya was gone, and you were left with one less familiar face. Even if you weren't the closest with him, nor did you talk with him all that much—you couldn't bring yourself to look his way. Not even you were walking away—when fat tears rolled down his cheeks and dripped onto the floor, could you bear to look over your shoulder.

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* guys i literally cannot understand what he says. I'm literally doing guesswork because i cant understand a single thing.