[50] Judgment
"It's almost over. What are you doing coming up here now?" Rin grumbled irritably.
Shinichi, however, raised three fingers. "Three minutes."
"Huh?"
"The time it took for you all to score four goals from the start until now is three minutes longer than the time it took for me to shut you out. In other words, even against opponents of this level, you're still struggling more than when I crushed you."
Rin fell silent, turning to glare daggers at Nagi and the others.
Shinichi shrugged and walked to the front, taking his position. "Just watch closely from beside me and see how it's done, you mediocre lot."
...
"Is that guy really coming onto the field?" Nagi, panting heavily, looked over at the figure stretching his chest. "What kind of player is he?"
"Yeah, we only have one chance left," Reo said, casually wiping the sweat from his face with his shoulder. "We were just starting to see some hope, and now this guy suddenly joins the game. Seriously..."
"But this also proves my combo worked, doesn't it?"
"Hold onto that feeling from before, Nagi. We're going to push past our limits."
"Got it."
Beep!
The whistle blew as Reo began advancing with the ball. Shinichi, looking as nonchalant as ever, even yawned as he stood in position. "Hurry up. I'll give you one chance to show what you've got on offense."
"Tch, what arrogance. Don't act like you're not worried." Reo shot back, irritated by Shinichi's dismissive attitude. "You were so threatened by me and Nagi that you broke your own rules and decided to come onto the field. Now you're pretending you don't care? That's laughable."
It was clear that Shinichi was caught off guard for a moment.
He froze, genuinely confused.
Though the words were familiar, his brain struggled to process their meaning, leaving him momentarily stunned.
Reo wouldn't waste this opportunity. He swiftly lifted his foot to break past Shinichi.
But just as he passed by and began to think the opponent wasn't so formidable, an inexplicable sense of dread welled up in his chest, completely without warning.
Turning his head, Shinichi seemed to have just processed the situation.
He turned and locked eyes with Reo.
In those lifeless, unflinching eyes, Reo saw an unsettling void.
"Dead men don't talk," Shinichi muttered.
'What's going on? This strange feeling... But I definitely got past him. There's no way he can catch up in a situation where he'd need to turn around—'
Just as Reo tried to convince himself that the eerie premonition was just an illusion, an alarm rang in his brain like a morning alarm clock blaring at full volume.
His senses screamed at him as he suddenly realized something was amiss in his field of vision.
In the blink of an eye, the figure in his peripheral view had vanished!
Shinichi had sharply lowered his center of gravity, slithering like a snake to evade Reo's line of sight.
With a swift S-shaped maneuver, he darted behind Reo, circled around, and once again appeared in front of him.
"I honestly didn't expect your sense of self-worth to be this inflated," Shinichi remarked, his tone casual but cutting.
"Don't overestimate yourself, trash. The so-called progress you're so proud of is nothing more than a baby learning to crawl—insignificant in my eyes."
'What the hell?! When did he get behind me?!' Reo's mind reeled.
'And so fast! Way too fast! He didn't even turn around when I passed him, yet somehow, he was faster than my full sprint? This guy's a bakemono!'
Reo's mind was completely overwhelmed by shock and fear.
An instinctual terror, the kind prey feels when targeted by a top predator, surged uncontrollably within him.
He couldn't even register what Shinichi was saying anymore.
Acting on pure reflex, Reo kicked the ball with all his strength, desperate to send it as far away as possible from this dangerous figure radiating an oppressive aura.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as he hoped.
Even Rin, when facing Shinichi with proper defensive positioning, could only rely on lateral passes to avoid Shinichi's terrifying ability to predict and intercept.
For Reo, this panicked, haphazard pass—a desperate move born from fear—was no match for Shinichi's predatory instincts.
And sure enough, Shinichi's right leg pushed off the ground with explosive force.
The sheer power drove him forward like a bolt of lightning, striking with the precision and ferocity of a mamba seizing its prey.
In one swift motion, he intercepted the ball effortlessly, claiming it as his own.
The fiercely spinning soccer ball struck Shinichi's shin, but instead of bouncing away, it seemed to sink into an invisible swamp—its rotation and force diminishing with every moment, as if the more it struggled, the deeper it sank.
The energy of the ball was gradually absorbed, and Shinichi's seamless control as he stopped the ball began to overlap in Reo's mind with another hauntingly familiar figure…
"This is... Nagi's absorption-style trap?!"
The final straw fell, and overwhelming fear consumed Reo's mind. He stood frozen, helplessly watching Shinichi intercept his pass and then charge toward him once again.
"Reo!"
A familiar voice exploded in his ears like thunder.
Nagi, sensing the danger, sprinted over. "Reo, it's not over yet! Stop him—we'll do it together!"
"Nagi… That's right! The game isn't over. As long as I'm with Nagi..."
Nagi's fervor reignited Reo's dulled brain.
He clenched his teeth with all his might, so hard that blood seeped from his gums.
The metallic taste spurred his mind back to action.
"Come on, then!"
"Perfect," Shinichi sneered, his tone laced with condescension. "You two can enjoy front-row seats as I deliver judgment upon you."
Although he could have easily broken through their defense with his speed, Shinichi abruptly came to a halt and raised his leg, assuming a shooting stance.
"And then, fall into the abyss of despair and repent."
He's shooting from here?!
The thought simultaneously struck Nagi and Reo.
This is still some distance from the midfield line!
It seemed absurd, but they couldn't afford to let their guard down.
Rin had already proven it was possible to score from midfield.
On this smaller field, it wasn't unthinkable that this monster could do the same.
"Bring it on!" Reo shouted, carefully observing Shinichi's movements and the angle of his toes.
Then, in a swift, decisive move, he slid to the ground, aiming to block any low shot with his body.
In that instant, Shinichi unleashed an explosive strike!
"I bet right! As long as I make the first move and force my opponent to react, they'll inevitably attack the gap I can't cover. That's when my teammate can easily intercept the ball on its now-predictable path!"
Reo watched excitedly as Nagi leaped and positioned his right leg to block the ball's trajectory. "This is a technique I learned from the blue-haired guy on your team, Shinichi. No matter what, when it comes to controlling the ball, Nagi won't lose!"
"We've got it!"
"Have you, though..." Shinichi's voice came from unnervingly close. Reo's heart sank as he realized that instead of stopping after the shot, Shinichi had continued sprinting forward.
"Even without relying on these little tricks, I'd still do this. Because..." Shinichi's gaze darkened, his tone ice-cold.
"From the very beginning, I've been aiming to destroy Seishiro Nagi."
"You can lie there and watch. The next play will be the real story."
'Wha... What is he talking about? This makes no sense! Nagi has already anticipated the ball's path. He'll definitely stop it. The possession is ours. What's the point of this?'
'Unless... Is he planning to pass it to Nagi only to steal it again? Could Shinichi be a defensive specialist?'
Reo's mind spiraled with questions, his thoughts tangling like a mess of yarn.
But before he could make sense of anything, something even more terrifying happened.
The ball struck Nagi's leg as expected, but instead of stopping dead as though by magic—a hallmark of Nagi's absorption trap—it rebounded at high speed.
Its target: Kanzaki Shinichi, who was already charging toward them.
As gravity pulled Reo and Nagi down from their jumps, Shinichi leaped into the air.
Meeting the rebounding ball mid-flight, he made no attempt to trap it or adjust his position.
Instead, he unleashed a ferocious volley shot straight at the goal.
The ball's trajectory curved like a crescent moon, its exaggerated arc perfectly evading the Blue Lock goalkeeper's desperate dive.
The moment the ball struck the net, Shinichi landed gracefully, towering over the two who had fallen to the ground.
"I told you," Shinichi said, his voice calm and resolute.
"This... is judgment."
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