2 Chapter 1: A not so average game of Tag
[Kai's pov]
"Hey, man. Did you not see the note on the invitation that says to come in uniform? You look so out of place."
A voice entered my ear. Looking at the source, I saw a boy around my age who looks like your typical isekai protagonist.
Everything about him screams of boringness.
Well, let's not judge the book by its cover. Especially me myself who've experienced the consequences of doing exactly that.
"Nah~ I wear what I want." I answered him as I put my hand at the back of my head.
I answered with a little lie. I can't be bothered to explain to him what exactly happened since that's just a waste of time.
"A-ahaha I see...I'm Isagi by the way and this is...Kira-kun." He then gestured on another dude walking at our direction who waved at me with a smile.
This one looks like your typical goody two shoes ikemen.
"Hello there, I'm Kaizer but you can just call me Kai."
After talking for a bit about random things, the light turned off leaving only the light following the man on the stage on.
Looks like it's about to begin.
--
[Skip Ego's speech]
--
"Now that's...a striker, don't you think so?" With his creepiest smile, Ego finished his speech.
'And...it looks like this dude beside me is so convinced that he looks like he's possessed.'
Looking at my side, Isagi looks like he is in his own world.
After a second, he finally snapped out of it as he started running ignoring us.
"Huh? Isagi-kun?"
As if he created a domino effect, everyone, even Kira who argued back to Ego, also started running towards the doors while Ego had his usual creepy smile as he lifts up his glasses with his fingers awfully similar to the "All according to plan" anime schtick.
Well, I can't really say that I was also not convinced by his speech.
I bet that if this dude was a lawyer, then he can win even the losing cases just by his words alone. That's how good this creepy dude is in convincing others.
Meanwhile, I just stayed for now. It's not like I'm not going but I don't want to join the chaos of entering those doors so I'll wait for all of them to enter. Some dudes seems to be in the same wavelength as me since they also just stood there while watching the chaos near the door.
After a few minutes, everyone finally entered the door. Well, except for 4 people including me.
"You two not going?" I asked the two. The 3rd person is Ego by the way.
"Nah, too much pain in the ass. Let's just go home, Reo." The one playing games in his phone said. He has a white hair and cyan eyes.
From his words, he's the lazy the type. Meanwhile, the dude whose name apparently is Reo is a dude with purple hair.
"C'mon Nagi!-"
Nagi is his name huh...well, whatever. Why am I even analyzing them anyway. I really hate this habit of mine.
Ignoring them, I also walked towards the door.
When I was infront of the door, I was stopped by a familiar voice coming from my back. He was by the door but I ignored him since I have nothing to say to him. Looks like that's not the case for him.
"Do your absolute best to survive, Kai. I even kicked out a player just to empty a spot for you."
Hearing a disturbing word, I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow in intrigue.
"Survive?" I asked turning my head to him.
Why do I need to survive in a football training camp? Is the project some kind of squid game type or something?
Instead of replying to me, he started talking to the other two ignoring me.
Seeing this, I continued to enter.
Wether I "survive" or not doesn't matter...well as long as it's not a matter of life or death obviously. The thing that matters the most currently is if football is truly the one for me. If not, then I couldn't careless if a player got kicked because of me since I will quit from the project myself if it's not my sport.
--
3 days later.
I am now aboard a bus going up a mountain where a huge blue building stood.
"So this is blue lock..." I muttered in a slight awed voice. Well, who would not? This humongous building is created just for the sake of a single uncertain project.
Even if they managed to create a super striker here, it's not like they can already win the world cup with just that.
"Well, I never believed that bullshit anyway..."
It's not like I have trust issues but there's no way that I will believe such an obvious fat lie.
"It will be more believable if- wait what the heck am I even doing analyzing shit again" stopping this bad habit of mine, I slapped my face a couple of times.
Well, I said that it's a bad habit but the truth is that I just really hate doing that. Since for me, if I were to live a life where I will analyze every single thing, I would rather die.
Anyways, looks like we arrived.
--
"Next...Enryu Kaizer." A woman around her 20s gave me my uniform and confiscated my phone and wallet.
She has brown hair and eyes. Quite a beauty if you ask me. If I were to describe my impression of her, then I would unhesitatingly say that she's some kind of secretary.
After grabbing my uniform, I then entered the facility following her instructions of looking for the room that matches my uniform's letter.
"Z and..."
"-300..."
Ego said that there's a total of 300 participants so I guess I'm last...I don't know what this number implies but I have some hypothesis which should be obvious even to idiots...
-
After walking for a bit in this labyrinth of concrete, I finally saw a door that has room Z imprinted on it.
Seeing that, I stood infront of it as it automatically opened.
'Automatic doors huh. Quite the budget they have there.'
Entering it, stares greeted me once again.
There's 11 people in the room. So adding myself, we have a total of 12 people. I searched some things before coming here and I figured that a football team is composed of 11 players so this number confused me a little.
"Yo." I greeted them with my hand raised.
"Oh, Kai. Nice seeing you here too!" Isagi greeted with a smile. It seems like he just finished changing.
It seems Kira is also placed here as he also greeted me back.
"So you two are also here huh. Neat."
After greeting them, I also proceeded to change my clothes.
"Whoa! Look at your body dude! What the heck's kind of training you did to gain this!?" A poke and a voice came from my back as I look at the source.
A boy with an army cut looked at me excitedly.
"Yeah, I was proud of my physique but looks like you beat me to it. Any tips?"
Looking at the other one who complemented me, a dude with a muscular build and an orange hair came to sight.
I then felt another poke as I looked to my side and saw Isagi doing the same thing as the army cut dude.
Slapping their fingers away, I answered them.
"Well, what can I say. Good genes, I guess?" Well, I can say the real reason but that would again take too much time which is something that I would not waste on people I just met.
"Really!? Did you came from a bloodline of body builders or something!? Oh by the way, the name's Igaguri Igarashi! Nice to meet cha!" He said with his over enthusiastic voice while stretching his hand out for a handshake.
The other one also introduced himself as Kunigami Rensuke with a salute.
Shaking it, I also introduced my self.
"Enryu Kaizer. Nice to meet you too."
Igarashi was about to blabber again before he stopped as we all heard a beep from the monitor attached at the center near the ceiling of the room.
Appearing in the monitor is a face that we are all now familiar with.
[Are you done changing, you unpolished gems? Hey, hey.]
After seeing us all in the standard uniform given to us, he continued.
[The people in your room will be both your teammates and...your rivals.]
At the word rivals, everyone except me had their expressions turn to a worried one.
[Except for a certain one of you, we have estimated your potential based on my judgement and my peer's calculations...which is represented by your rankings. It is the name attached to your uniforms.]
I see...I guess I'm that certain someone huh.
That makes sense. He probably didn't have the time to calculate my stats and abilities since I never played a match before unlike the others.
Well, I guess I'm the only one who knows that here as Igaguri patted my back probably to tease me on being last.
[Your ranking will change daily based on several factors. For example, going up and down based on your training or the results of your games.]
Hearing that, Igaguri froze before he looked at my body that he is patting and to his own. Seeing them, worry started appearing on his face.
Looking at his number which is 299, I guess he's the next one to go down to the very bottom if I were to go up in the training.
Which is something that should be obvious considering my body.
[And unconditionally, the top five players will participate in a certain tournament six months from now on. They will become the selected strikers for Japan's U-20 national team playing at the world cup.]
Hearing what he said, each of my teammates were shocked.
Should I act like I'm shock too just for the giggles?
[Also...those who are defeated at blue lock...will be permanently barred from japan's national team. We are looking for one crucial component which is "Ego"]
Receiving the bomb that Ego dropped, "Eh"s could be heard behind me as their shocked faces intensified although for the opposite reason from before.
So that's what Ego mean by "survive" huh. I'm getting the feeling of deja vu here.
What's with Japan having facilities that secretly raises superhumans anyways? Is that the trend now a days? Well, I guess it makes sense since human creatures always wants to evolve.
[That is what we will measure as you live here in this facility.]
He then titled his head a little as his creepiness intensified.
[Well now...it's time to play "Tag".]
A hatch opened in the ceiling surprising us as a football came out of it and fall towards the ground.
[The time limit is 136 seconds. The player with possession is "it". Whoever is "it" when time runs out...]
[-Can get the fuck out of here.]
[And of course, no using your hands.]
He said before the screen changed to a mini figure of me with "ONI", my name, and the "Rank 300" on top with the timer on 2:16 which is a total of exactly 136 seconds as Ego said.
From the monitor, Ego's voice is heard by us again.
[Tag is but one of the many exercises pro players warm up with. This "Egoism" test I have devised will provide great selfishness behind strikers...]
[Prepare and attack. This isn't your average game of tag.]
Meanwhile in the room.
"The hell!? A test as soon as we moved in!? It's not even a football..."
A guy who looks like he has anger management issues complained.
"300...so the last player is the first to be "it"...as expected of you, Ego-chan. You've really thought this through huh...well, it's not that bad of a feeling being an underdog..."
I muttered as I stepped on the ball. He really intends to shove the idea of competition into our brains huh. I guess this is where the ego that he is always talking about will bloom.
Oh this is fun-
"W-wait a second! That thing about japan's U-20...do you really believe what that guy said!? That must've been a bluff!" Shouted Igaguri trying to convince me.
"That doesn't matter, Igaguri. Wether I will destroy someone's entire career or not doesn't matter to me at all...all that matters to me is wether this shit would make my heart race or not."
"And judging all of Ego-chan's words, this project seems to be..."
I grinned and started to dribble my way towards the number "one" in this room.
I've already started to atleast practice the basics before coming here so that I would not embarrass myself atleast.
"-Really, really~ good."
[Kickoff!!!]
-
-
-
-End-
(A/n: The one who got kicked out is Yudai Imamura by the way.
Y'all probably didn't even remembered his name due to his complete irrelevance but...yeah. Just to let the people who is actually interested in knowing the "chosen one" know.)
