A family thing

Chapter 36 The loser has to fall

Rin didn't hesitate and swung his leg as the ball was still midair. Dada Silva didn't like that though. He ran and jumped up to block the shot as he was already too slow to steal the pass. Rin saw that coming. So instead of going for the direct kill, he moved his leg slowly to trap the ball with his first touch. Loki then came as a support. Rin moved out of the way and dribbled into the box. A quick pass to Nagi ended the desperate defence attempt of the world five. The white haired wasted no time and put his magic onto the ball. Cavasoz dashed towards him. But Nagi was the first one to touch the ball. An easy goal. An easy point. First touch. He faked a volley, to bait him into rushing past him for a block. Second touch would have been a goal. If it weren't for Loki coming to seal of the hole. But Nagi had patience. He answered with another fake that drew away the French superstar. 
"Shit...", Loki muttered. Nagis eyes were burning. Almost like he was setting up a high score on his all time favourite video game, but it was much more. Much more intense and hyping. His blood burned and his brain was commanding for a goal. Nagi swung his leg and drilled the ball into the net. 3-2. The lead was restored. There was still hope for a win. 
"What the hell did you do back there?", Rin asked Yoichi. 
"I had fun. That's what I did.", he answered. "But why didn't you score on your own? That was something you could have done back there. Aren't you supposed to be number one?" 
"Don't give me orders. You fucker.", Rin retorted. 
"Oh come on. That great pass didn't become an assist because of you!", the raven haired complained like a child. "Or did you get scared?"
"Fuck off." 
"Oh my, the oh so great Rin Itoshi got scared by some Brazilian no brainer." 
"I said fuck off!!!!", Rin shouted. 
"Oh he had so many muscles and I couldn't shoot. Meh meh meh meh meh meh meh." 

The world five looked at the two bickering teammates. 
"Looks like going easy on them won't do.", Luna muttered. The goof-around-mood disappeared. 
"Such an ungrateful pack of brats.", Dada agreed to the last statement. 
"Time to finish the job.", Adam spoke and put the ball onto the center of the court. "Shall we?"
Jokes were put aside. The real game has started. Blake restarted the match and by passing it to Cavasoz. Bachira ran up and positioned himself between him and the goal. 
"You're lacking something.", he mumered and started to scissor before simply passing it between Bachira's legs to Luna, who ran by and got off Rin with Tempo. "I know, your playstyle lacks theatrics."
'They used the time of one second to transfer the ball...', Yoichi thought. 'So this is what it means to be a Superstar...'
This time he was the one guarding Dada, since he was the one with the highest vertical jump on the team. Niko was put in charge of guarding Luna, whilst Rin guarded Adam. Nagi had to put up a fight with himself to stay on Loki. Luna wasted no time and crossed a perfect pass for Dada. Both of them jumped up. Silva being the muscular one of the two of them managed to body him away midair, and sunk the ball into the net. 3-3. The scores were equalized yet again. 
"Fucking hell...", Yoichi cursed under his breath as he got up. "Shit." 
He quickly got the ball and ran to the center. This will definitely not be the end. Not because those bastards decided to switch up a gear. He quickly passed it to Nagi. Just as he was about to receive the double pass back though, a shadow dashed by and stole the ball. Loki rushed towards the goal with Yoichi in his pursuit. On the first few meters it looked like he could catch up, but as they went further, the raven haired fell back more and more. Niko got into position and tried to block the path. Loki on the other hand rolled it back to Cavasoz, the Argentinian who ran in. He ran up to the ball that was still outside the box and curved a perfect shot into the goal that sent the goalkeeper flying. 4-3. No celebrations. What was there to celebrate in the first place? Goals and points that should have been scored way easier? Goals that should have been scored a long time ago? Was it really worth celebrating scoring against some high school brats? Not in their agenda. Niko looked at the players in front of him. They had no chance. The only reason they scored those three miracle goals earlier was because of them holding back. Now they switched up a gear. There was no way in hell to take it back from there. The only two on their team who were still not accepting that fact were the one with the blue eyes and the one with green hair. Rin ran to the center with the ball inside his hands. Yoichi receive the pass after restart and took it to the goal with the help of Rin. Luna came to defend him. Yoichi scissored and passed it right through the spread legs of him for Rin, who ran through. Right after that he proceeded to run into the direction of the goal. The green haired in possession of the ball was pushed out to the right side of the pitch.
"Still not giving up?", Luna asked him right next to him as they both ran through the middle. Yoichi ignored him. The lines were already set up but Luna was still on his toes. A way to score under such contitions? He didn't want to push his lucks. Rin got free from Blake's pressing for one second and used it to cross it to the middle. 
"Shit...", Rin swore as he saw the ball curve not in the way he wanted it. 
"Oh my, looks like that cross has missed its target.", Luna whispered into the ears of Yoichi, when they were both inside the penalty area. 
"Out of my fucking way.", the raven haired answered. Blue flames seemed to burn down every bit of his body. The number five on his jersey waved like a flag through the thrust of his take off speed as he finally broke free from Luna. Yoichi's crosshairs appeared. One of them marking the ball and one of them marking the spot inside the net. His blue eyes darkened. A much more clearer view came from the whole field. As if he could see it from the sky like a bird. Dada ran towards him to block the shot he was going to make. Both the view and the lines told him that. Yoichi ran out of the box and jumped up. He leaned back while swinging his right leg. 
"If you're coming to block it.", he whispered as Silva jumped up right in front of his face that was now looking at the goal upside down. "Then I'll just kick it right past your fucking dickhead." 
Everything started to move in slow-motion. His foot crashed into the ball spinning above him and gave it a new course. The goal. It accelerated with a loud bang. Dada's long hair were stroked as it made its way past him. The goalkeeper jumped up. No one was able to reach it anymore. 
'Perfect.', Yoichi thought and landed gracefully onto the grass. One person however, was not moving as slow as the others. And he was definitely not in the mood to let Yoichi equalize either. Loki rushed in with his god speed and headed the ball out of the danger zone as it was obvious that the goalie couldn't save it. The ball landed to Luna. One first touch and that guy was already past Niko, the boy that came in to get the ball back. Yoichi quickly got up on his feet again. Nothing in the world would make him let that happen. He accelerated with every bit of energy that was left inside of him. Victory was the only option, faliure's not, or was it? Yoichi caught up to Luna and got in front of him. Crosshairs formed inside their eyes like lightning.
"Not yet. Fuck it.", was the only thing he breathed out. "It's not fucking over. Not yet!"
His voice was raspy. His opponent stopped the ball for some second.
"You're good.", Luna admitted. "Unlike the other three kids. You're still trying to win."
With that the blonde started ran up, "I'll crush you wholeheartedly."
Scissors, faster than light, were performed before Yoichi. Even he couldn't catch up to it. Suddenly he felt something roll through his legs. 
"Not under my watch.", he grunted and span around quickly with his right arm already up for a body battle to catch Luna in a body battle for the ball. 
"Not bad.", the blonde complimented. "But not enough."
He caught the ball with his foot and span around Yoichi from behind to run past him from the left side. Yoichi just accelerated as Luna picked up some speed in front of him. Rin managed to get back and went for him. Leonardo moved his leg slightly to the right and kicked it through Rin in a swift movement. 
"Hey, you shouldn't do that.", Luna told a shocked Rin when he ran past him. "If you spread your legs so readily, people will think you're easy." 
His opponents wouldn't give up whatsoever. In came Yoichi with a spinny slide tackle from his right side. Luna saw that coming miles away and rainbow flicked it over him. After that he quickly jumped up to dodge the last attempt of Yoichi stealing the ball. A wide open goal was waiting for him. The others were too late. The ball landed just a bit in front of him. Perfect. He quickly swung his left leg and stroke the ball into the net. No goalkeeper in the world could have saved that. Not even Manuel Neuer. 5-3. The match ended. The world five have won. Effortlessly even with the miracles Yoichi created. 
"Fucking hell.", he muttered in front of him as he lied on the grass. Still at the place he tried to steall the ball from Luna. 
"Relax kid.", the said male suddenly tapped his shoulder. "Our roles here are to assess you, after all." 
Luna then followed his teammates to the exit. Before he went through it he turned around one last time, "The real point of this match was to pick the members for the Japanese team in the U20 world cup."
"The match was already settled on the premise you guys would lose.", Loki spoke. 
"There's no way, you could've won!", Dada added. 
"We've gotta report to Ego our thoughts on their abilities.", Cavasoz hurried up the trio trying to comfort the losers. 
"Let's head back to our rooms already.", Adam joined in on his side. 
"Adios, you unpolished gems.", Luna farewelled them one last time. "Next time, let's meet in a real game." 
"Fucking shit...", was all the ones from team Blue Lock heard from their captain before they too left the arena. 

The mood inside the room was tense. So tense, only the tuffest and strongest would have survived it. 
"100 Million Yen per world-class player?!?!?!", a business man shouted outraged. Ego couldn't remember his name though. That has never been his strength anyway, so why did he keep trying? 
"And one million bonus per goal?!?!", the same one continued. 
"JUST HOW MUCH MORE MONEY YOU PLAN ON WASTING ON THIS RIDICULOUS PLAN OF YOURS?!?!?", another one shouted. 
"Yeah! There's no way they were ever gonna win!!!", another one butted in. He had long hair and a goat beart which Ego found quite funny. 
"What was the point?", the one next to him asked which the other men at the table agreed to. Ego sighed and began his explanation to those with nothing but money in their heads, "'If you love your child, send them out into the world.' The point was to have them experience the world at this sensitive period in their development. I don't expect oldtimers like you who've gotten comfortable giving up, to know how to dream, so you can just shut up in your corner."
One of them with glasses tried to talk back but the president of the JFA on the other side of the table intervened, "Yes, yes, that's enough from you, Ego-kun. I'm putting a halt to the Blue-Lock-Project with this." 
That got the attention of the four eyes immediately. 
"We're fending off complaints from the participating students' parents.", Buratsuta explained. "The scope of this project remains unclear and to top it off, we're not seeing any results. Carrying this on any further would blemish the name of our organization. So it's time to put an end to this foolishness and..." 
"Then I'll show you some results then.", Ego interrupted him. 
"What?", the president said. 
"Remember the big match we settled, Mr. President?", Ego asked him. 
"Yes, I do, Ego-kun.", Buratsuta answered. 
"Let's have that earlier. I will promise you, Blue Lock will change the face of Japan in that very game."