"W..what the hell!" Kira yelled at Isagi.
"I..." Isagi stood speechless, unsure of how to respond to his sudden outburst. "That guy's right... if I don't aim for the strongest, what kind of striker would I be?"
Isagi glanced at the blood dripping down Kira's nose, the evidence of his "betrayal", and ended up thinking quite a few things:
"Why didn't you dodge?", and "You still had time to tag someone else.", and "Why are you mad at me, it's just a game."
While Isagi was lost in thought, Kira and Ego had an unhealthy argument of how valid the game of tag was to test the players.
"The size of the room..." He spoke.
"What does that have to do-" Kira shouted.
"If you were keen enough, you would have noticed that the size of the room has the same proportions of a penalty area." He stated, cutting Kira off. "Those kind of excuses you made aren't going to cut it in a real game. With 5 seconds to go, will you really say something as stupid as 'I didn't have enough time.' or 'I was caught off guard.'?"
"And also congrats to Isagi and Bachira for challenging..." Ego's voice drifted off again as his mind slipped from the changing room.
'That shot.. I did it without even realizing. To think I could shoot that strong, it surprises me. This Blue Lock is making me feel better already.'
!Welcome to Blue Lock!
Isagi was starting to regret coming to Blue Lock.
Soon after they finished the "entrance exam", all the players were made to participate in a series of tests that were meant to showcase their physical abilities.
Isagi took a hit to his confidence during this period.
Not only that, but the quality of food you ate depended on the ranking you had. Since Isagi was ranked second to last, his food was second to last rated.
"Ugh," Isagi groaned. "Natto again..."
"Don't complain about your food!" Igarashi interrupted. "I always get pickled radish!" He exclaimed unhappily. "Look!" He shouted, pointing the main table where more players sat.
Gin Gagamaru, a frail looking boy (despite his athletic build) that had his hair in a ponytail with wide eyes and long bangs that trailed along the sides of his face instead of in front of him.
"He gets gyoza!" Igarashi started. "I'm so jealous!"
Isagi's listening ability was interrupted by his other teammates approach to Gagamaru's food. He was exceptionally stealthy. Asashi Naruhaya, ranked 297.
"Hey, that's my food!"
...
Night quickly approached, and Isagi laid awake at night.
'I wouldn't beat any of these guys if we were to play.." He thought, his stomach uneasy despite being filled.
"I don't know what kind of battles are waiting for me!" He said to himself. "I need to start getting ahead right now!"
Isagi tiptoed out of the sleeping area, extra careful not to wake anyone up.
Part of him cared about their sleep, and part of him didn't want them waking up and having the opportunity of getting ahead him.
As soon as he got out of the sleeping area, he sprinted through the hallways.
His destination? Team Z's training area.
Isagi's concentration is broken by a ball hitting the back of his head. "Oof!"
He audibly grunted and fell to the floor. "You solo training Isagi?" It was the kid with yellow highlights. The one that sent him the killer pass that had the unfortunate effect of eliminating Kira from participating in Japan's soccer.
"M-megumi right?" Isagi stated, dazed.
"It's Meguru!" He said, seemingly not offended by Isagi's mess up. "Meguru Bachira, want to train with me?"
Bachira then smirked.
"One on one?" He lifted his hand towards Isagi. "Training together is always better than training alone."
Isagi shook his hand.
Bachira was making some sense.
...
"AGHHH!" It was the first thing that came out of Isagi's mouth in the past thirty minutes, so it was no surprise when the scream shocked Bachira.
Isagi laid on the floor, sweat dripping off all parts of his body.
The score was currently 8-0 in Bachira's favor, and Isagi was frustrated.
"You're too obvious Isagi-chan!" (Chan is a suffix used to show endearment. It's odd because they've just met recently.)
"You play just like a monster!" Isagi flinched, his eyes darkening.
"What do you mean?" He said hesitantly. "A monster?" But Bachira had no time to answer, as he was too busy dribbling past Isagi.
He watched hopelessly as the ball flew high above him while he was in full sprint in the other direction. "Damn!" He thought as Bachira was now positioned past him.
With no goal keeper, it was another easy goal for the bright faced Bachira.
"It's now 9-0 Isagi-chan!"
"I know!" He yelled once again, frustrated.
Bachira placed the ball in the middle of the field and retreated to the center forward position on the left side, while Isagi took the right.
They both rushed for the ball, and this time Isagi was able to reach it first.
"Monster this monster that... my monster is stronger than yours!" Isagi yelled, very frustrated at the flow of the one on one.
With applied effort, he carefully dribbled the ball, chipping away at the space between him and the goal. He was disappointed that he couldn't completely get past Bachira.
That's when he gave up trying to outclass Bachira's dribbling, and shot the ball from mid field.
With no goal keeper to block it, the ball rolled in the goal.
"I knew you had a monster in you!" Bachira said, hugging Isagi. "I believe a monster is the sign of a great striker."
Isagi tried to push Bachira's sweaty body off of him, but gave up quickly.
"I was going to keep playing until you realized you could just shoot it from afar." Isagi's eyes widened. He was way too focused on the dribbling aspect of the game to do anything against Bachira.
"Play to your strengths!" Bachira exclaimed, hugging him tighter. "For example, my strength is my dribbling!"
They continued chatting about soccer until an alarm bell rang out of the blue, calling them to the main room to discuss the new rankings determined by the stamina tests.
While everyone conversed about their new numbers, Isagi solemnly contemplated his.
'274... that's only one rank above Igarashi...' He thought. 'And these guys are some of the lowest players? They're leagues above me!'
While Ego explained the rules of the Blue Lock system, Isagi's eyes grew heavy and he fell asleep.