ego death | blue lock

16.

the dragged out explanation mr ego gave sparked a conversation within our team.

"MY WEAPON IS MY AWESOME SHOOTING TECHNIQUE! IT'S CALLED 'SEXY FOOTBALL'!"

i think we all know that raichi's weapon is speaking in all caps..

"my weapon is.. my dribbling.." bachira mumbled sleepily, falling down onto my lap.

he was fast asleep, not giving a crap about our conversation. out of habit, i played with his hair while listening to the others speak.

"mine.. is tackling?"

"mine is getting behind the enemy!"

"probably that i'm an all rounder.."

"my left leg shooting power."

"speed and technique!!"

"mine is jumping power. yours isagi?"

"my weapon.. huh. i wonder.."

"..you don't even know your own weapon? pfft-"

"WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE? QUIT WASTING OUR DAMN TIME IF YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT!"

"w-wait!! i'll think of something!!"

"um, okay. since isagi's thinking, let's move on. yours y/n?"

that's really funny because i don't even know myself.. might as well just lie about something.

"mine is.. um, accuracy."

"is that so? okay, the last one is chigiri."

"..i don't wanna say."

"what?! but everyone else is saying theirs already. if we find out our weapons, we can win this round!" naruhaya said in disbelief.

"..i know, but even so i won't. sorry."

i looked over at chigiri who was averting his eyes to his knees. why won't he tell us?

"mmm.. pass to me.. pass..!" bachira mumbled, turning his stomach towards me and hugging my torso. raichi gave the both of us a disgusted look before glaring at chigiri.

"well since her highness won't say anything, let's move on.." kuon said, flipping the page in his notepad.

"based on what ego is telling us, we should learn how to make use of our weapons. however.."

"-wouldn't we just repeat the same mistakes if we do that? i'm not sure if ego's method would work for our team." iemon cut in. the others agreed with a few nods.

"we need some kind of powerful strategy of some sort.." isagi mumbled, looking at kuon who was writing furiously in his notepad like a maniac.

"this.. this might work. but everybody would need a chance.. no, wait. with this tactic, we could make it work."

i'm not sure if kuon was aware of it, but all of us were getting creeped out with his self-dialogue. well, minus bachira who was too busy burying his face into my stomach.

"we'll go with the 'me next!' tactic. in short, everybody will get a chance to play as the forward and everybody else will assist. each person gets ten minutes as the forward."

surprisingly, it didn't sound that bad. it was the best we could do at the moment.

"since there are no objections, we will practice this tactic and the formations for our next match."

the day after, we practiced with each of us as the center for a little and also came up with formations for each person. we weren't exactly a team, but this was definitely better than the last match. i was gaining more hope the more we practiced that we wouldn't lose.

because if we lost, that would mean that everything would be over.

i was desperate to stay in blue lock. i may not have the skill, but i am willing to work to get to where i need to be.

after we finished practice, me and chigiri were left inside the indoor practice field cleaning up. it wasn't awkward, but i couldn't forget what happened when we were saying what our weapons were.

i was going to ask chigiri, but he beat me to it.

"when you said your weapon was accuracy, were you telling the truth?"

oh damn. he caught on.

"well, not really? i.."

should i tell him? that i haven't played in a while?

i didn't tell anybody because i didn't want them to use that against me. i was definitely worse compared to how i used to be. i didn't want anybody to possibly recognize me from when i was active.

it's better to make it seem like i just suck at football. right?

"..i just didn't want to get made fun of by raichi. i mean, isagi got the worst of it from him."

i chuckled a little after to make it seem more believable. i don't think it worked though. chigiri gave me a side glance.

"well, if that's what you say.. i was asking because i think you might have another weapon.."

huh? another weapon?

"i think you've already noticed that i don't talk a lot. because of that, i mostly observe other people. from what i saw at practice, it was pretty clear to me that your weapon was not accuracy."

"what i did notice was that during the last match, it seemed like you were able to somewhat stop barou when he was scoring the first goal. but that itself seemed like a total accident."

he was talking about when barou was doing three nutmegs in a row during that first goal. i managed to stop him from doing a third one but the ball ended up rebounding against my legs, causing him to get past me.

"i think your weapon might be.. quick reflexes? or something along those lines. it seems like it's not intentional, just something that happens at the moment."

reflexes? something along those lines.. i think i know what he's thinking of.

"..like what i'm doing is instinctual? out of instinct?"

chigiri's eyes lit up with recognition and he nodded.

"that was the word i was looking for. but it seems like your weapon only works in certain situations.. i think you need to somehow find a way to create a scenario where your weapon can work?? i dunno if you get what i'm saying..."

chigiri must be a genius. he figured it out before i could.

"OHH, i get it! i know what you're talking about."

i gave him a big hug and thanked him at least a thousand times.

"you don't understand how much i needed this realization. thank you so much!!!"

chigiri awkwardly hugged me back. i could hear his heart beating really fast because of how close we were. when i pulled back, his face was slightly flushed. i was too happy about discovering what my weapon was to think about why his face was flushed.

"alright, i'm gonna head in. again, thanks so much! see you in the morning!"

"o-okay. good night!" he replied after a few seconds.

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5.11.2024