59. THE NEO EGOIST LEAGUE

note: i cannot speak german OR italian so i used google translate guys. dont come at me please

also i wasn't supposed to post this until i finished with the barcha match but i literally cant wait i want u guys to meet the pretty german manager already GOD

˖*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩

TO

become the best striker in the world takes skill, strength, talent, willpower, and of course, a hell of a lot of ego. You've known this for quite some time now. In fact, ever since you've started working at Blue Lock, this fact has been drilled into your brain like they were words from God himself.

The next dimension—that is Blue Lock. To become the most incredible striker in the world, and for you to support them as the most diligent manager possible, you must travel back to this place, and assist these egoists.

You understand this well. You think you understand this better than anybody. It's so utterly simple, yet gets overlooked so easily.

To become the best, first, you need assistance from the best.

And you, by all means, were planning on being that assistance. 

You roll your suitcase out of the bus and thank the driver for helping you with some of your bags—stacked atop your suitcase in the best way it would fit, and others wrapped around your shoulder blades.

It's been a while since I've worn this jacket. The blue and white windbreaker jacket with the Blue Lock pentagon logo on the left side of your chest, and a logo of a sports brand you can't be bothered to remember underneath. It still smells like Blue Lock. Blue Lock has a particular smell you can't describe—like constantly getting a whiff of fresh paint.

Being the last one to get out of the bus—you were instantly met with the chatter of your manager friends around you. Merodi looks over at you, somehow with double the bags you currently have, "[name]! Is this not so exciting?!"

She looks like she's about to run over and shake you silly, but the plethora of bags in her possession prevent her from doing so. You silently weep in joy.

Kyouka fiddles with her nails, flicking them across her skin in a nervous gesture, "Thinking about what Ego's planning to do with us kind of scares me..."

"He seriously won't get rid of us this late into the project, right?" Komi shakes her head and comes up with the most logical explanation possible—it makes you smile because it's so like her. "There's no need to worry. We've already skipped far too much school for that to happen, anyway."

Jenny rubs her face with her hands and lets out a loud groan, "Ugh... I didn't even wanna come back, but the pay was way too good to pass up! They increased it by like... three million yen! My boyfriend nearly died when he heard the salary."

Himara places a lithe finger on her chin—pitch-black eyes lost in thought. "It makes me wonder where Ego's gotten all this money from. He was so stingy with it before."

"Right?" You nod in agreement.

Komi jots her thumb backwards, over her shoulder in the direction of flashing camera and people hidden not-so discreetly in the bushes surrounding the Blue Lock entrance. "Maybe it has something to do with these guys."

You're suddenly taken down with blindness when a flash zips directly into your eyeball and you groan, "God—what the hell?!"

This is practically Ego's fault again! He should've invested in a bouncer instead of giving us more money than we even need!

"Are we famous now?" Kyouka certainly looked pleased at the thought, no matter how much she tried to hide it behind a confused expression.

Merodi doesn't even try to hide her excitement at the thought, eyes twinkling and you think she's strutting poses for the camera—"Cool! I always wanted people to adore me!"

"I can tell," Himara sasses quickly, before taking a swift leave towards the entrance of the ever-so-familiar Pentagon building. "I don't have time for pictures. If we're late, it'll be our heads on a stake."

She's right, you think. You can't waste time fraternizing with paparazzi—you need to do your job. With this newfound determination in your mind thanks to Himara's straight-forward and bluntness, you march forward right by her side.

She glances at you quickly—but you don't shift your gaze from what's in front of you.

The others behind you quickly follow after you take your movement—and with this stance, comes a swift change in your life, all due to Blue Lock once more.

˖*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩

Well. You found the room you were assigned to for now. It did specifically say that this room would be temporary, which gives you the impression you'll be moving around a bunch like in the Second Selection. 

After you've set all your bags down and unpacked your most important things—you find a few gifts on your pillow. There's a note that accompanies these gifts—it strangely reminds you of the time you received what you like to call your Shidou Zapper—laid flat on your pristine bedsheets. 

To [name],

Welcome back to Blue Lock. As you see, there are a few things that have been given to you that were not during Blue Lock's first stage. 

You pick up the first item. It's a tablet—you recognise it as the same size, shape, and look as the one Anri held during the U-20 match.

There is a Blue Lock tablet, specially for you. You shouldn't feel too happy, it's not for games. The only things you can do on this tablet is record data for each of your players, and check their statistics for their physical/soccer capabilities. Exciting, right?

Your eyes brighten. Finally, you don't have to waste all the ink in your pen.

You are also permitted to use this device to do research—but you will be under strict monitoring at all times and the tablet will immediately shut off from 11 pm to 5 am. Don't get too excited.

Of course, Ego could never be nice. It would certainly kill him. You look at the next thing laid flat on your bed. A watch. It had a screen similar to that of your tablet, except its case was fully black and the screen lit up when you touched it.

Next, is a fitness watch. You managers must keep track of your player's vital stats, and what better way than using a smartwatch? This one strictly does not allow access to anything but vital stats to your players and yourself. Heartbeat, blood flow, stress levels—everything is in this watch.

You don't even want to think about how he even managed to pull this off, so you don't. You think the uses of this watch are plainly simple, so after you slip it onto your wrist—you quickly look towards the last thing left for you. It's a case—a case for something, you don't know what yet.

So you open the case, and there lay two earbuds. They blend in perfectly with the colour of your hair, as if they were tailor-made for you, and fit snugly into your ear without a hint of discomfort. You remove them right after you realise you have no idea what they do—they could turn you into a frog for all you knew—and quickly pick up the note to make sure you don't somehow go green and froggy,

For the last item, it is a pair of earbuds from our generous sponsors of this project. They allow communication through different languages—each one for all of you is directly defaulted to go from whatever language you hear, into Japanese. Isn't that incredible? 

You don't disagree that they're super cool, but you wonder why you even need them. Was Ego feeling nice and wanted you all to test-run his new mad project? You could never tell with him.

Now that you're acquainted with everything, make your way to the monitor rooms. More information will be discussed there.
- Ego Jinpachi

You scrunch up your nose and roll your eyes, but still, you discard the paper on the carpet beneath you, walking out of the room in your flats and making your way to the monitor rooms. It must be important if we're getting invited there.

Making your way into Ego's fortress—you'd be lying if you said it didn't intimidate you. Spending all day, every day in there without fail—it must smell like garbage.

Still, you guess it's still (sort of) an honour, and an incredibly rare experience to even see him in person—and he's your boss—so you follow the note's instructions and find yourself standing at Ego's door. There's a strip of light that peeks out from the slight crack in the open door—usually, the room was pitch dark—and you can make out a few figures.

You open the door and step inside, and you're sure you've just stepped into a whole other alternate universe when you have.

There are all of your manager friends, Anri, and Ego, and two unfamiliar faces. Your first thought it that these are two women—who have distinctive European features, which stand out in a room full of Japanese people—and they don't look all too pleased to be here. Well, one of them, anyway. The brown-eyed brunette with bouncy curls that your eyes are instantly drawn to looks like she's going to pass out from boredom. 

And the green-eyed blonde next to her, on the other hand, is smiling, but it feels oddly empty and stretches out across her face a bit too wide. Your second thought is that they're both very pretty. The brunette has soft features that make her look otherworldly, while the blonde has a sharp and angled face that smooths over her prominent facial bones. 

Still, you tear your eyes away once the blonde gives you a look, one you can't really decipher, and you face Anri and Ego.

Before you can speak, however, Ego interrupts you, very rudely, if you may add, "Before you ask any redundant questions—I will explain this, one more time." His voice sounds strained when he says the last part—you have a feeling he's explained this certain subject of whatever-the-hell's going on here one too many times by now.

He clears his throat, motioning towards the two unfamiliar women, "The second phase of the Blue Lock training program will include many unfamiliar people—players, might I also add—in the big five leagues of Europe."

Your eyes could've dropped out of your skull from how wide they grew.

"The football pros are the peak of everything Blue Lock wishes to be—and thus, I deemed this as our only suitable choice. England, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. Each player will choose a team they'd like to play for and play alongside the already-established U-20 team of each league. With the existence of those teams within Blue Lock, is it not natural to have their coaches and managers accompanying them?"

You finally rip your eyes away from the wicked smile Ego has on his face and look towards the two women. As if this was practised, immediately, the blonde woman goes first. She sticks her hand out towards you—you do not shake it—with a drop-dead smile and tucks her golden hair behind her ear. 

Without an ounce of hesitation in her smooth voice, she speaks, "Hallo! Mariele ist mein Name. Ich bin der Manager der deutschen Schicht, Bastard München. Es ist mir eine Freude, Sie kennenzulernen. Du hast ziemlich auffällige Gesichtszüge."

You blink, lips parted in surprise and you don't know what to say. No, you really don't—you don't even know what she said. The words that fall out of her lips are unmistakably German, but you don't speak a lick of it, so you're completely clueless about her words. She could've insulted your grandmother and cursed your family name and you would've had not a clue.

You could sound out a few phrases, like Mariele ist mein Name clearly meant, Mariele is my name, and you heard manager somewhere in her words—but other than that, you just stared at her dumbly.

She didn't look phased at all by your expression. She lowers her un-shaken hand and keeps that guileless look as the girl beside her finally tears her eyes away from her nails and stares at you.

"Mi chiamo Bianca. Sono il manager di Uber. Non so nemmeno perché sono venuto qui, è noioso da morire. Piacere di conoscerti, immagino. I tuoi capelli hanno una bella consistenza."

Once more, you had not a single clue what she was saying. This time, you couldn't make out a single word she said, because she talked so fast it flew in one ear and soared out the other—she looks away from you as soon as she's done talking and chooses to focus her gaze on a spot on the ground instead.

"So? Have you made their acquaintance?" Ego looks at you expectantly, and the stupid look you have on makes him let out a guttural groan. "You did not understand a word, yes? Idiot."

Woah, rude!

Mariele, the blonde, turns to Ego with a confused look, glancing back at you as she talked, "Oh! Hat sie nicht verstanden, was wir gesagt haben?" Her bland smile returns as she looks at you, "Ich glaube, Sie haben vergessen, Ihre Ohrstöpsel einzustecken!"

Ego sends you a glare, "Put your earplugs in."

Oh. Right. You almost forgot about those. Ignoring the way your cheeks burn when Bianca sends you a raised brow, you fumble a little with the case resting in your jacket pocket as you take out the earplugs and stick them into your ears. 

"Sul serio? Ha dimenticato? Pensavo che le avessi detto di usarli." The moment the earplugs buzz in your ear, proving they're officially turned on, the words that leave the woman's lips shift into the language you know—yet still, amazingly keeping the same tone of voice, accent, and even pitch, "I'm not going to introduce myself again. I've already done it five times."

Your lips part in shock. This was incredible. You could understand them perfectly—they're speaking fluent Japanese so suddenly. This is so cool!

"I think she understands now," Mariele points at you, yet does only look at Bianca. Then, she turns her head and gives you a sultry smile, "Hi! It's nice to meet you."

You nod, meeting her striking eyes for a brief moment—you tear your gaze away before you believe yourself to grow lost in them—"It's nice to meet you too."

You're not too sure what will become of all this—something tells you that you'll be seeing a lot more of this strange, blank-faced blonde woman.

˖*⋆｡˚𖦹࣪˖ ִֶָ⋆｡°✩

note: more yuri!!! this will also be a driving point for kyouka (if manshine decides to do something with itself smh) hehehe i love GAYS