020 Blue Lock: System Ten Years Early

"Alright, stop arguing! Do you even know what situation we're in right now?" Kuon Wataru's angry shout drew everyone's attention. Kuon looked at this bunch with a mix of frustration and disappointment.

"Do you know what position we're in? We've already lost one match. The first round of selection uses a five-team round-robin format, and only the top two teams by points get to stay with all members intact."

"Assuming all teams are roughly equal in strength and all end up with two wins and two losses, that's 6 points. In other words, if we want to stay, we need to aim for at least 7 points. That's likely the cutoff line to break through the first round."

"A win is 3 points, a draw is 1 point. So doesn't that mean we just need to win one more match?" Raichi Jingo said carelessly. "In the next match, my sexy football will decide the outcome."

"You could say that, but what's more important is that if we lose one more match, we'll be infinitely close to the dead line. We absolutely can't fall back into this kind of chaotic, no-coordination dogpile again."

"Huh? Then wouldn't it be fine if you all just cooperate with my sexy football?" Raichi Jingo could agree with the earlier part, but when he heard the end, he couldn't help sneering as he shot back, pointing his thumb at himself.

"Just pass the ball to me."

"If it's about shooting, you should pass it to me. My shots are the most powerful and the most threatening," Kunigami Rensuke also raised his hand.

"What did you say, you muscle-brained idiot? You just want to be the top scorer!"

...

The locker room became noisy once again. Isagi Yoichi leaned alone against the wall, lifting his head to look at the lights above.

"If Shinichi were here, what would he do? No… that guy would probably have blown everyone away in the first match. There's no way he'd be trapped in a situation like this."

He knew clearly that there was a huge gap between himself and Shinichi, but it was precisely because of that gap that he was driven to keep striving and surpassing himself. Yet reality was always cruel. Facing the grim situation before him and the dejected mood of his teammates, Isagi Yoichi felt an unprecedented pressure and helplessness.

'What am I even doing? I clearly wanted to defeat that guy, wanted to become number one in the world… and now I'm sinking here. Am I going to end up like the prefectural tournament again…?'

'Teammates, a coach who doesn't trust me, a whole team that no longer wants to win. Am I going to relive that regret again, where I couldn't even get on the field at the very end?'

Isagi Yoichi clenched his teeth. His face, hidden behind a towel, was twisted and ferocious.

'Even if I get eliminated, even if everything ends… at the very least, the final outcome has to be decided by me! If it were Shinichi, he'd definitely say that.'

'I will decide the final result with my own goals. I'll decide my own future.'

...

While Isagi Yoichi was quietly undergoing his transformation in the dark corner, Kira Ryosuke also stood up.

"What matters is what that guy said about turning 0 into 1. That should be the key to this round of evaluation."

After being ruthlessly dealt with by Shinichi, and viewing things from the perspective of a loser, Kira Ryosuke could now more deeply understand Ego Jinpachi's words. He no longer only wanted to refute and deny Ego Jinpachi's theories like before, but instead began to think seriously.

"I think the key to turning 0 into 1 is a 'leader'," Kira Ryosuke said, first pointing at himself. "In the first match, because I coordinated with Isagi to score the opening goal, everyone temporarily trusted us."

"And it was the same for our opponents. Barou broke through the goal all by himself, which united Team X. Everyone played to their own abilities. At that point, it became a true 1 versus 1 between the two teams."

"But when the situation gradually became tense, we instead fell into internal conflict. You stopped listening to my leadership and completely broke apart the 1 I had integrated. At that time, the field turned into a 1 versus 0, and naturally the side with the larger 1 won."

"What kind of joke is that! You, a leader? I was just in the place I was supposed to be at the time. And what do you mean by that? Are you trying to dump all the responsibility on us so you can play at being some kind of damn leader?"

The hot-tempered Raichi Jingo rushed up and grabbed Kira Ryosuke by the collar, roaring at him.

"I never acknowledged you as a leader, and by your logic, it's not our problem at all. It's you, you bastard, who betrayed our trust!"

"At the end of the day, you're just too useless. Passing the ball to you doesn't give anyone hope of victory. Isn't it only natural for a leader who can't lead people to win to step down?"

"And that goal of yours was just because Isagi Yoichi had good vision and passed it to you. Didn't you just steal a goal while everyone was in chaos?"

...

After a barrage of furious accusations, the entire locker room fell into an eerie silence. Kira Ryosuke took a deep breath and lowered his head in desolation.

"Yeah, that's right. I did betray my teammates' trust. Back then too, I was completely destroyed by the opponents, lost in their overwhelming strength. I'm not the kind of player with the strongest individuality."

This was Kira Ryosuke's most genuine feeling after these few days of life in Blue Lock.

"There is only me because there is everyone." What a ridiculous sentence. Team football, the team's victory, the team, the team! The team… relying on the team for everything, every goal depending on coordination. But what if all of that were lost?

Kira Ryosuke, just like his favorite saying, would completely fall after losing "everyone," degenerating from a "treasure" into an utterly unremarkable "ordinary person."

In the end, why was he called the "treasure" of Japan football? It was because his way of playing football was the most similar to Japan as a country. The entire team functioned like a precise machine operating by the book, and he was merely a component with slightly higher efficiency who happened to be in a more visible position.

A forward should not be confined within rigid mechanical operations. A forward's talent, their flashes of inspiration, would only fade away under day-after-day obedience. A forward should transcend the team, no longer acting as the team's support, but instead making the team the support of the forward!

Don't let the team make him—let him make the team!

...

"Hah, so you do understand it pretty clearly. In that case, next match just follow behind me. I'll—"

Kira Ryosuke suddenly shoved aside the loudmouthed Raichi Jingo, cutting him off.

"I lowered my head not to admit fault. Get that straight."

"I was just reflecting. Reflecting on why I let idiots like you speak up, and how I could ever give trash at the very bottom the right to resist."

"In the next match, I want you all to obey me completely and act according to my tactics."

"No objections allowed!"

...

Shinichi, who had used his status as an investor to pull strings and obtain access to Blue Lock's surveillance, happened to witness this scene. He burst into excited laughter.

"Haha, as expected of me. I actually managed to make things this interesting!"

"Congratulations on your evolution, Kira Ryosuke. This look of not caring about the lives of those at the bottom is wonderful. You've officially evolved from 'Japan's treasure.'

"What kind of fun will this completely unknown transformation bring me? I'm really looking forward to it."