A family thing

Chapter 14 Total offense

Team Y restart. Just as the ball was passed back to the number seven, the whole team of the 4-5-1 formation rushed forwards to team Z's goal. 
'A turnover with everything they've got to overrun us. Fucking shit.', Yoichi thought as he stole the ball from a pass. 
"Formation 10!!!", Naruhaya shouted. Everyone immediately obglied. 
'Did that last goal give them enough balls to turn back to the formation strategies?', Yoichi cursed inside his mind as he watched his team members take their place in the attack formation. 'Oh god give me strength.' 
Naruhaya intended to use his weapon of moving along side the defense's line to break past it. Yoichi had no other choice but to follow his team mate's instructions, since there was no one following his own. 
'Besides... just doing what I want makes everyone think that I'm an asshole. I don't wanna be like nii-san, do I...', he thought of his elder brother and crossed the ball to Naruhaya. 'Guess Imma let history repeat itself to prove my point.' 
Naruhaya got past a defender, but to his dismay, that defender jumped up. 
"LIKE HELL I'LL LET YA!!!!", that guy shouted and cleared the ball away with a header. 
"FALL BACK!!! WE CAN'T LET THEM SCORE ANOTHER GOAL!!!", the number six of team Y shouted. "TEAM Y IF WE LOSE, WE'RE DONE FOR!!!!" 
"FREE BALL!!!!", Kuon signalled everyone. "DON'T FALTER NOW!!! BREAK THROUGH!!!!" 
"RAWWWWWWWWWWWR", Raichi shouted on top of his lungs. 
"GO GO GO!!!!", Imamura screamed. A team Y player got his foot on the ball before Igaguri. 
"Shit. Niko we need you!", the player spoke as he passed the ball away, avoiding the bald boy. Yoichi saw it coming and intercepted it with his knee, "So Niko is your name. Gonna remember that." 
"What an annoyance...", was the only thing Niko brought out. 
"We'll open a path soon!", Naruhaya said as he rushed forwards. 
"One more try, Come on!", Igaguri agreed and followed his team mate. "Hey Kageyama!! It's almost to use your weapon!!" 
Yoichi sighed. Was this the way he really wanted to play? With him as center forward. After the last game, he had to admit that it didn't feel right to play there. 

A set was sent to the outside. Yoichi ran up from his position, but his running course was wrong. As he jumped up, the only way to move the ball into the opponent's field was to use the left arm. He scored, but some people weren't happy with him. 
"Oi, Yoichi. Why the hell did you use your left arm?!", a way younger version of his brother shouted at him. Must have been one of those days with his grandpa at the volleyball gym, where they often played for fun. 
"Wasn't my set good enough?", Tobio continued to rant. 
"But my run up was not ok. So I had to use the left arm.", Yoichi reasoned. This one time however, his sister wasn't on his side. 
"You still could have used your right arm though.", she said and agreed with the argument of the second eldest. 
"My my, it's not that bad.", their grandfather smiled as he walked up to the three of them. 
"But grand father!!! He used his left arm, although he could have easily used his right to hit a powerful spike!", Tobio argued and ran up to his grandfather. "Besides, that was one of my good sets for today." 
"Your argument might be true, Tobio.", the elder man said and patted the shoulder of his second youngest grandchild. "But your spikes at Yoichi's age were as bad." 
"Hmph.", Tobio now pouted. 
"Fact is, Yoichi. Why did you use your left arm.", the grandfather now turned his attention to his youngest grandchild. 
"I thought it was better and smarter to use the left arm.", Yoichi answered honestly. 
"But... why did you think?", his grandfather asked him. "You had the ability to hit it with your right arm anyway." 
"I-I don't know." 
"Just do it next time.", Miwa now said and patted the shoulders of the youngest to calm him down. 

"Why did I think of that...", Yoichi muttered as he passed the ball to Igaguri and rushed forwards to the position of the striker. Niko ran besides him. 
"You guys heard it too, right?", he suddenly asked him, as they ran down the pitch. "Ego's speech about strikers carrying weapons." 
"What... speech?", Yoichi asked confused as he recalled himself being asleep at several team meetings. 
"You see, I thought a lot about it.", Niko continued anyway. "It thought... 'What even is my weapon.' Doesn't it seem like each player in Blue Lock has some outstanding talent? Even so, we wouldn't win relying solely on Okawa's powerful simple shooting technique. But... I can't afford to losen. Even if I'm not as fast, even if I'm not as strong. The weapons I carry to stay in Blue Lock are... my eye for knowing exactly where on the field I need to be and my mind for manipulating the players on that field. Even if you try to stop me, you can't stop my planning." 
'What the fuck...', was the only thing Yoichi could think of. "Let's see how fast you plan then."
Igarashi dribbled down the left side. Unfortunately though, the ball was taken away from him by one of the team Y players. 
"Quick, keep the ball from them. Pass it around!", another player shouted. 
"WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING?! THEY'RE JUST PROTECTING THE BALL...!!!", Igarashi shouted. "ARE THEY AIMING FOR A DRAW?!"
Just as he said that, the other players of team Z rushed to steal the ball. The clock slowly ticked to 44 minutes. Yoichi was still marking Niko. 
"One minute remains...", the number seven suddenly spoke. "It's almost time for team Y's last resort. We had this plan made in case we we're tied. Our defensive revenge tactic." 
"Huh?", Yoichi replied confused. 
"The signal...", Niko pause for a second and watched his team mate crossing the ball to Okawa. "Is when Okawa takes possession of the ball. And it won't be like the 89 minutes of this game where Okawa was the sole attacker. In the very last minute of this game, team Y will attack with everything we've got." 
Niko then sprinted into the direction of team Z's goal, "It's our last resort one shot kill counter attack."
With that every single player of team Y rushed into one direction. The goal. With the passing around they've baited every other team Z player into their half to try and steal the ball and their trap worked. Everyone of the in the 4- or 5-man-chain started to run like the soldiers from the first world war coming out of their trenches with the bayonet attached to their rifles. Okawa and Niko did quick one-twos to get past one player after another. It didn't matter if the defenders found their way back. It was already too late. Niko got past Raichi. The last one guarding the box and faced Iemon who got himself ready. Just as he thought the number seven would shoot, a pass to the side was made. The goal keeper turned around to see Okawa. 
'It's over... Checkmate...', Niko thought. Suddenly a shadow came out of the last corner of his eye and took the ball from him. 
"It's always, Okawa, Niko.", Yoichi whispered. "He is your only way to a goal. He smells like a goal more than anyone." 
His statement was met with shock. 
"You and I, we're the same. We see and think the same things.", Yoichi continued. "So that's why instead shooting it yourself, you passed to Okawa. But this is my win. Because you don't have what it takes to be a striker." 
After he crossed it to Kunigami. 
"Nice one, Kageyama.", the orange haired muttered and brought the ball further to Bachira who immediately dribbled through the defense. Yoichi sprinted through the middle and stared at Bachira. 
"Give it.", was his unmistakeable order. 
"I'll leave the rest to you.", Bachira muttered and crossed a high ball. Yoichi observed the ball. Short right step. A longer left step. Followed with a longest right step. Then he rammed his left foot befor his right foot and lunged himself into the air. 
"Holy shit...", Kuon thought and watched Yoichi headed it into the net in such a massive height. The digital whistle announced the end of the match. The youngest Kageyama landed on his feet.
'A speech of weapons, huh?', he thought as he walked through the pitch of corpses. At least that's the way he would describe it, since everyone of team Y was lying on the ground with a very bad mood. Yoichi walked to the gate. Midway he spotted Niko crying on the ground. 
"Those who use great tactics to win, shall go down in history. But those tacticians who only rely on one final blow, shall dig themselves a six feet deep hole with a stone marking it.", Yoichi said to Niko. "I'll meet you in the next phase of Blue Lock, Niko." 
The team Y player looked up. Tears were still running down his cheeks. The only thing left for him, was to see how the winner of this match, Yoichi Kageyama walking through the gate.  

Yoichi wasn't able to not smile in the locker room. Winning a frustrating game like that one with his own goal was just amazing. His inner self was celebrating like shit. 
"I'm so fucking awsome!!!!", he shouted inside his mind and slammed his fist on an imaginary wall. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
On the outside however, he was calmly putting on some clothes while his other team mates were celebrating like his inner self. 
"YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!", Raichi shouted in the background and wagged his jersey like a flag. The others have put the two steaks on a table and cheered around it, still half naked. The water was bumped like German beer. 
'Jesus Christ, this is almost like a NBA locker room after a champion ship dub.', Yoichi thought as he put on some trousers after a refreshing shower. If there was champagne provided by Blue Lock, it would have been all over the place already. 
"WE'RE SO GONNA WIN THIS!!!", he heard Igarashi shout. 
"EASY DUB!!!!", Raichi agreed. The worst part about that was the steak he had to share. Yoichi looked at the meat slowly being taken away. Slowly he's starting to get emotional. 

Ego looked at the screen with a big smile on his face. Anri on the other side of the room would rather describe it as creepy and she is right. The male was sitting cross-legged on a gaming chair with his elbows pressed on his knees. His hands formed a triangle with his fingers and his face was hiding behind it. Sometimes Anri is indeed questioning her own decision of making Ego the head coach of Blue Lock because a man with such a smile is firstly creepy and weird. Secondly no one with a halfly right mind would let someone like that even close to a child or teenager. 
"So, what is it this time?", she asked after a while. 
"Nothing.", he answered and continued to smile. 

Yoichi was sitting in the monitor room, looking at the huge screen. A person soon joined him. 
'Chigiri, was his name, right?', he thought as he looked at the male with long pink hair styled in a woman like way. The scene of his header appeared on the screen. 
"Oi, Kageyama. Why are you here?", Chigiri asked as he sat down. 
"What can I say... Couldn't really sleep.", Yoichi answered and leaned back. "What about you? Why're you here?" 
"I couldn't sleep either.", the pink haired male replied and replayed Yoichi's goal again and then he replayed it once again. Again and again. 
"Watching your goal... A goal like that pumps your adrenaline...", Chigiri spoke. "It's the greatest moment for a striker."
"Guess you could say it like that.", Yoichi replied still looking at the monitor. "Well... if it had been the 'me' from before... I don't think I would have gone for the kill." 
"I see...", the pink haired muttered. "What do you think is your weapon?" 
"What do you mean?" 
"According to Ego's speech, everyone has one. What is yours?" 
"Don't know what you're talking about, cause I slept through that speech." 
"I'd say it's 'spatial perception'. Since I was on defense the whole game, I was able to watch how our team moved. Most players can plan around the things in their direct field of view. But when they have possession, that field of vision constricts significantly. Whereas you sometimes seem to have a vast understanding of the field. As if, you knew exactly where or when what is going to happen. With such an enormous view, you can craft an ideal play instantly. It's as if you're a god looking down from heaven with a radar and all those stupid sensors attached to your brain."
"Pffft... that's hilarious. But thanks Chigiri, thanks for the compliment. I feel much better now." 
"Don't think about it, I told you that because it would help the team, so we can win." 
"Oh right. What's your 'weapon' then?", Yoichi asked after a while.