13 Fame or Notority

When Haruo was back he could already see the others train together on the field. All of them seemed to train for each and every striker. He called out to them for a short moment to gather up.

After that, they all went back to training. Though some of it looked a little bit stiffer than before.

Haruo glanced over at them and stood by with his phone and recorded some of it.

There were exercises like Bachira training his already well-versed passing ability so that he could deliver to anyone. May it be the left-footed Kunigami or the physical Kuon that delivered good headers.

Why was he already recording? That was a rather simple thing to explain. Before he appeared on the training field he received a message from Ego-san that was an answer to his request.

Making things short, he actually agreed to let him do it.

The only restriction was that the time they could record was set from the early morning and only for 2 hours at maximum. They were also not to announce their team name in the recordings and only use Blue Lock.

The reason for that restriction was very apparent the moment his ID plate made a small sound and changed into a triple ???.

Haruo could guess Jinpachi did not want other teams finding out their ranks. Especially those that had access to their phones and would be able to observe them.

What made Haruo think a little bit more was the fact that the team symbol was also gone. Since he was not stupid it was rather easy to deduce something from that action.

So in his mind, it came to light that there are probably 4 other Team Z. One in each stratum. Ego-san probably made sure everyone had the same start and the information fed to them was manipulated.

Not being the type of person to argue about something like that he told his team he would record their training. He also made sure that everyone knew the rules for them being able to do this. Meaning no calling out of other teams and rankings.

Just pure training and having fun with the ball.

Everyone was at first surprised for him having his phone back but after explaining that you could win it back with goals everyone looked a little bit more eager for the training.

So it was about time to either gain Fame or Notority. With the way some of them started moving under the pressure of being recorded, Haruo figured it would be the second first.

He wondered how harsh critic from people outside would affect them.

"Hey, Chigiri. Could you hold the phone for now? I guess it is about time I make the introduction." Haruo smiled when he pointed towards the red-head with the phone.

He was currently trying to defend against Gagamaru but after both noticed his question Chigiri went over.

"You still didn't do that?", he asked back and slowly took the phone.

When the phone was aimed at Haruo he made a toothy grin and waved. "Hello everyone~"

The fluent English he used now got Chigiri to raise a surprised brow.

"How did you like that little bit of training footage? Some of you probably think not too highly about this or us in that matter...But! I hope you will still enjoy the videos. So, let us start, shall we? Welcome to Blue Lock!"

Haruo outstretched his arms and then pointed at the logo on his left chest with one hand. It was the place where the Blue Lock logo was printed on the neoprene training suits.

"This establishment here is actually a very top-secret government project. So shhh." He laughed lightly and smirked after that. "What they do here exactly? Simple. In this location, 275 youths under the age of 18 are being prepared to become Japan's number one football player. Only one of us will remain standing..."

"Oi~, Sugewara! Can you come over and help?" Isagi shouted over and that got Haruo looking towards him.

Haruo chuckled lightly. "Right, not everyone is able to speak in English here so I will add subtitles later. Just enjoy the show." Changing his focus from the phone towards Chigiri he nodded. "Can you handle holding the phone for a little while?"

"Sure..." Chigiri nodded and Haruo then went ahead joining the others.

What they wanted to train was the ball distribution after a penalty outside the penalty box.

"What? Those are just 34m from the goal. Why are you trying to go the hard path if you just can shoot?" Haruo was actually surprised that his team wanted to make passes this situation instead of shooting.

"See, told you!" Raichi grinned.

"But then the question is who is going to perform the free kicks?" Isagi scratched the backside of his head.

"We can find that out easily. Each of us performs a freekick from this position while the others make a wall. Whoever manages to do the best out of three tries will get the freekicks.", suggested Haruo.

Come to think of it no one from Team Z seemed to be able to do good freekicks. Maybe Haruo could snatch that position for himself.

That being said they all did like he suggested and everyone got three tries at a freekick shot from 34m. It was slightly angled so it was not that easy of a shot to pass both defenders and the goalkeeper.

Raichi was of course the first to try but either failed going beyond the wall or beat the keeper.

"Hahaha, look who had a big mouth!" Igarashi was in glee after seeing Raichi's bad performance.

"Shut it, moonshine!", shouted Raichi annoyingly.

"What!? Hey! Don't call me that!"

The next people did not do any better. The only one's that had remotely some success were Bachira and surprise, surprise, Kunigami. That is beside Haruo that stole the show.

When Haruo placed himself at the ready he looked at the wall and started thinking. 'Should I try performing a CR7 kick?'

He did contemplate about trying something out and after remembering the subtle technical positioning he really performed a powerful freekick.

It started with the same pose, to the same running to the final execution. And surprisingly the ball flew true in a slight curve to the right corner of the goal.

[Precise Power Free-Kick: B+ developed.]

Everyone looked at the ball in disbelief.

"Whoa, was that a move from Cristiano? That was nice~." Bachria grinned. "Can you show me how to do it?"

"Hmm, sure." Haruo was a little bit confused just now. He was only trying to mimic the shot and did not expect to make such a clean hit.

Thinking about it now he looked at the second ball in front of him.

'It feels so different...But this feeling is so nice...' Haruo finally noticed it was the change from his body. Each fiber of his body was now much more powerful.

Demanding shots like this one felt much easier. At least easier than it was ever before.

Normally you would need powerful thighs for this. But the muscle fibers seemed to do their work without them.

Since he did try this out before he could clearly notice the change. It never went as smoothly as right now. That just showed him how different he was now.

Haruo then changed up the position of the ball but never made the distance smaller. He even increased it.

Performing another two shots just made the deal for him being the freekick taker. Each shot was dead on point. Only the last one when Gagamaru was in the goal was caught by the goalie.

"Nice one, Gagamaru!" The others were actually happy for Gin being able to stop the ball.

"My hands hurt...." Gagamaru on the other hand looked at his hands that came into contact with the ball.

"Well, then you will have to do some strength training if you want to be our goalkeeper, Gagamaru." Haruo smiled and gave him advice. But he probably would not take it since he still had the mentality of a striker.

The training went on for a while until everyone was rather exhausted and needed a break.

"Thanks, Iemon." Haruo took his phone back from him and wave at the camera. "Hope you liked it. I am also going to upload some footage later. If things go well I will even upload some matches at a later time. But that will take a while. See ya~"

Stopping the recording Haruo told the others he would go to the data room. It was a room with a big screen and various data about previous matches.

In their case, there was not much to be seen yet since the first selection did not allow analyzing teams. It probably was only available after the round-robin was over.

Anyway, what he was after was what was inside the room. A woman in comfortable clothing stood inside.

"Oh~, Anri-san. It's nice to see you again." Haruo smirked right at the moment he saw the woman.

He could see a slight frown on her face. The first name basis was after all very rude and only very close family could use it.

So Anri sighed lightly and handed Haruo the object in her hands. It was a laptop with the Blue Lock logo on it. "Here is the laptop for you to use and upload your recordings. There is an editing program already preinstalled."

"Not saying hi or ask how I have been doing? That is cruel."

"Stop fooling around. If you don't take it now, I will go back with it." Anri suddenly went into defence mode and started a no-nonsense attitude.

Haruo only smiled wryly and took the laptop. "Thanks. This PR should help you get your project running smoothly. When public opinion is raised, even only by a marginal bit, it will increase hope that there may be a small spark of truth in your speeches. Ain't I right, miss young and head-strong JFA-Member?"

Anri got surprised by his words now.

"I looked you up, you know. You sure are fighting for the chance of taking the next glory for the world cup. At first, I only thought you were just enthusiastic and trying to keep morale up. But it looks like you really do believe that Japan may win one day."

"Of course I do believe that! Why else would we do all this!?"

"Good question. You are destroying 299 careers for just a small chance, right? Those 299 dreams are just crushed. After that, a lot of them would need to start cramming so they keep up in their schools academically. And for some their careers as footballers would be over with their chance of a national team being stolen...25 are already gone. How many will follow? How long will it take until a new batch of young prospects will grow up?" Haruo said those words with cold abandon but sincerely he did not really care.

The JFA probably made sure that if this project did not succeed that anyone taking part in it would be discarded and never would be able to go international. Neither player nor staff. That did include Anri and Jinpachi who also put the same risks into this as the players.

For that, he respected the woman a little. But what he wanted to see right now was the reaction from her And what he saw from Anri was a deep frown.

"I thought so...Anyway, tell Ego-san my thanks. He collected a really interesting bunch of people here." Haruo just started walking away and waved her goodbye.

Anri only looked at his back.

On the other side of the cameras, Jinpachi was staring at the little screen. A small creepy smile appeared on his face again.

Then his hands tapped over his own laptop and a screen appeared with data about Haruo.