70. TEAM MANSHINE, AND LITTLE YOU

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YOU

wake up as soon as your alarm blares it's an incredibly uncomfortable noise. You feel like a vampire with the way you shot up, back completely straight and eyes wide as plates. You look down at your phone, and how it is vibrating and buzzing like there's a tornado warning—6:30 am

Fuck. You are late. Even the players have already woken up at this point. Panic slowly begins to seep into your brain as you scramble out of the sheet covers that seem to just want to stick your legs and stay—why the hell are you so late?

You mumble words that shall not be repeated under your breath as you rush into your bathroom and try and make yourself look as presentable as possible. All the while, you are wondering just how you did not end up waking when you should've (key: it should've been at least an hour ago).

My alarms always wake me... and even if they don't, Mariele is always there to make sure I'm on time... why did she not do that today?

Your thoughts are as frantic and jumbled as your movements—dabbing powder on your face as quickly (yet, messily) as possible and some styling of your hair—you're (sort of) good to go. It takes you five minutes to throw out your entire closet looking for your tracksuit, but you soon find it and throw it over whatever odd shirt you have on right now.

You slip your tablet under your arm and run as fast as you can possibly go. It hurts—for sure, it hurts like hell—but you cannot pay it any mind as you make your way down corridors, down training rooms, down the cafeteria (crap, you missed breakfast) and all the way to the main room. The entrance room, where you were supposed to be fifty-five minutes ago.

The reason why you are so frantic, the reason why you were quite literally dashing down the halls—today is the day the regulars for the match tomorrow, against Nagi, Chigiri, Reo, Kyouka—Manshine City—get announced.

To say you are puffed out would be a gross understatement. Clearly, you are not the most athletic person in the world, especially compared to the likes of the athletes you work beside every single day, but really, this was actually ridiculous. You feel like you just run a mile.

And looking back now, you really did. The distance between your room and the so-called meeting room is shocking—you wonder what Ego's thought process behind this was—probably to just make you suffer.

Just blame everything on Ego—that is your life motto at the moment. 

You look around. The room is barren and silent and you hadn't noticed there was not a single person here but you until now. You can even hear the low hum of your heartbeat from that extensive workout pounding in your chest.

Why... is there nobody here? Are you seriously that late? Did you miss the entire meeting? You suddenly feel awfully exasperated. You lean forward with your hands on your thighs and let out a deep, heavy breath. Crap. This sucks.

However, you're soon brought out of your stupor by the sound of low-heeled shoes clicking against the floor and the creak of the door open. You look up. It is Mariele, and alongside her is Noa.

They do not look the least bit bothered by your (or perhaps even their own) lateness, walking into the room while Mariele chats on about a strategy she wished to see in training—she pauses her conversing and gives you a small greeting when you meet her eyes, "Good morning, [name]. Did you sleep well?"

Yeah, too well. So well I didn't even wake up.

She's far too calm for your jittery heart. "I..." Your eyes dart from her to the intimidating presence of Noa and you feel your heart drop to your stomach. He looks like he could throw you across the room. "I'm sorry for waking up so late... I didn't... I don't know why—"

Maybe this is the end for you. You can go back home and bask in your riches—or maybe, you can take the offer that was held out for you for that one club in Germany (you can learn to speak it fast enough). Maybe Noa will toss you across the room like a ragdoll and you will spend your last moments staring up at the fluorescent lights and you will have a splitting headache before you die.

None of those things ends up happening, (un)surprisingly.

Mariele sends you a dazzling smile that rivals the light that the fluorescent ones above your head bring. "Oh, you're not late." When she sees the look of utter confusion on your face, she begins to explain, "You've been so stressed lately—all of us have been. So we decided to postpone the meeting an hour later than usual, so we could all get some more sleep in. I'm sorry, I thought you already knew."

Oh. Now you feel stupid. You did recall hearing Mariele mention something about it off-handedly when you were settling into bed but you did not give it a second thought. Maybe you should've. Still, it is a nice gesture to do this. 

You don't require it, but Noa nods to give his own confirmation of her words, "The role of a manager has no worth if said manager cannot function properly as a person. This was necessary."

He still retains his rational and logical mindset, and yet his words show that he does care. It makes you smile a little—despite the embarrassment burning on your face, you feel cared for. "... Right." You straighten your posture and cough into a closed fist, refusing to meet their eyes. "So... is the meeting starting now?"

"Yes." A simple, straightforward answer from your coach and, on cue, your teammates from both Blue Lock and Germany all walk inside.

Isagi meets your wide-eyed gaze and smiles, pink cheeks and he waves. You can't find it within yourself to wave back, so you just look away.

You get multiple small reactions like this from your friends (including a far-too-sly smirk from Kaiser) until they all line up in front of where Noa stands—you and Mariele stand together at the side.

He seems to emit a commanding aura with how he stands and his words just radiate finality. "Now, team Bastard München, It's time to announce the regulars. Based on the results of your first match and your training, I have concluded the optimal formation. Every player was then selected for bringing the desired numbers. So, without further ado, the regulars for the England match will be..."

This would be a surprise, even for you. Only Noa was in charge of coming up with final formations and player selections (by his choice—you heard Komi and Kyouka have a big part in who plays and who does not within their teams) so you have not a clue who had been chosen. A strange mix of anxiety and excitement bubbles in your chest at the thought.

Noa taps on the screen of his tablet and it projects a bright light showing the formation and players chosen with every player's little character icons. "Micheal Kaiser, centre forward."

No surprise there, you think, tapping on your watch. You scroll a little and it displays Kaiser's current statistics. His offensive stats are out of this world. 98 on shooting and 96 on offence—you are not even in the slightest bit surprised when Kaiser shows no visible signs of shock. He is the best choice for a striker out of everybody, no doubt.

"On the same position, for the right side, Kunigami Rensuke. Whose total evaluation has increased taking in consideration his goal in the first match." This does not surprise you either. That goal was good—real good—and Kunigami's specs have increased massively since whatever he went through at Wild Card. He shows no visible signs of shock either—he doesn't show any visible signs of anything except irritation, anyway.

"On the right side, as an offensive midfielder, Isagi Yoichi. Your total evaluation has also increased taking into consideration your performance in the last match."

That's good. A small sigh of relief escapes your lips and it does not go unnoticed by Mariele, who laughs quietly at your reaction. Behind the boy, you can see Gesner mumble a less-than-polite word under his breath.

"Grim will take the left side, and Ness will take top centre." Both men look pleased at their selection. "Ali will be the anchor defensive midfielder. Next is the defence line. The right side back... will be Kurona Ranze."

The shark-toothed boy's lower half of his face is buried in the top of his windbreaker jacket. He doesn't visibly react to Noa's explanation of why he is being chosen, only keeps the same mindless yet determined face he always has. 

He peers over at Isagi and announces that as long as he gets to play, he will choose his side. Choosing Isagi over Kaiser—that's a no-brainer. Good on you, Kurona. You smile, looking at the short boy. You wonder what he will bring about in a match.

"The two centre-backs are Mesner and Birkenstock, and the left side-back... will be Yukimiya Kenyu. You have very competent numbers, meaning it'd be a waste to have you on the bench. I hope you use your speed to cover for the left side. But I'm expecting you to use your abilities for offence and defence. Hopefully, you can give a new stimulus to the team."

You pause. Looking toward the boy with rounded glasses—his face doesn't show any single emotion. He stares forward, blankly at his coach, and says simply, "Roger."

"Finally, the goalkeeper. Gagamaru Gin." 

You snap your head around to see the lanky boy—a pinky finger stuck up his nose and eyes wide with curiosity. A goalkeeper... he was very good in the U-20 game. He speaks, "Me? That's outta the blue... for why?"

Noa taps on his tablet and a hologram version of Gagamaru appears before you all. There are numbers with a stem that connects to each part of his body and represents his statistics, and his weapons—with his lanky flexibility and insane "feral boy" instincts—you realise Noa is right.

"I'm aware this wasn't what you were going for... but your physical data show that you're incredibly well-suited for the position of goal-keeper. So, for this team, you're the one... who has the best numbers for acting as goalkeeper. That's all there is to it."

Gagamaru does not seem to care one bit. His beady eyes find their way to the ceiling and he looks up mindlessly as he talks, "Huh. Neat. At least I get to play, so I'm cool."

That's a pretty good mindset to have.

The hologram of a miniature field and the positions of each of the regulars float about in the room once more. "That'll be all. This is our formation for this match. Of course, this formation was decided based on the numbers. But it also can be said that these are an experimental team of eleven. And I'm sure you all know why... This team... has two different philosophies."

His voice becomes background noise to occupy your ears when Mariele starts to speak. Your full, undivided attention is on her. "Two differing philosophies in one team... it sounds chaotic."

You smile a little. "Is it not?"

"No, it is. But they make it work. Somehow. To steal the ball and make a play for yourself—to get angry at the fact that somebody else other than you had scored..." Mariele looks wistfully lost in thought, and her eyes shine when she stares up. "I had never thought of such a style until Blue Lock. It's so..."

She pauses. "I can't find the words."

A little chuckle escapes your lips, and she turns her head to look down at where you stand beside her. "... Fun?"

She blinks. Blonde lashes fluttering over bright verdant eyes. Then, they crinkle upwards, into crescent moon shapes and it decorates her fair skin so nicely, "Yes. That's it. It is fun."

A team that centres around logic and rationality... nothing must be fun for that to work. You shake your head at the thought. Maybe Blue Lock isn't all too strange in how it works.

Perhaps you had thought wrong. But that was just a fleeting thought, because as soon as you know it, a bright light emits from behind Noa, and he gestures towards the hall that led into an even brighter room. "Prove it to me, then. Time to play, Bastard München. Do not hesitate... Just win."

The words are straightforward, but they soothe a certain part of your heart. He will not sugarcoat, or ask you to do your best—he simply wants the results. Even if Mariele may not agree, or even if you may not agree—in a way, Noa has this certain sense of authority that makes it hard to say no.

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note: hello guys! I've had this idea for a while, ever since i received a few comments about it on my quotev about confusion with some things (i didn't really think about it since i'm the author i know everything about the story but obviously you guys don't lmaoo)

so I've decided to a host a q & a !! i will answer literally any question about the story, future plans for the story and about the characters (even about me as the author if you really want loll) and i think I've gained enough consistent readers to the point to do this

obviously if it's questions about points that go past the blue lock manga i will have no idea, but if it's something about the characters and how they feel about name, or the managers, or anything like that i will happily let you all know! i love answering your guys' questions and explaining why certain things happen in certain ways etc.

i'll even answer questions about certain scenes that may happen in the future wink wink

some examples could be like:

- "Why is Shidou so attracted to [name]?"

- "Is there any plans of a Karasu kiss scene in the future?"

- "What are the player's opinions of [name]?"

- "Why did Rin kiss [name] in chapter 44?"

- "Do the managers like [name] romantically?"

Stuff like that! If it's too ambiguous like: "What is going to happen in [name]'s future?" Obviously, it's going to be really hard to answer, so please try and keep it pretty specific! I'm honestly just really excited to do this because I've been wanting to do it since like chapter 50 hehe

anyways, please ask! i promise i will answer all them all the next time i publish (if the next chapter is already out by the time you are reading, i'll reply directly to your comment ^^) please ask them here!