2 Greed For Victory

All the players that walked through the gate walked out at the back and saw a lineup of many busses.

Haruo just entered one at random and went straight to the back where he lay down after dropping his luggage beneath his head

Taking out his smartphone from his luggage that he placed nearby was basically the next action to get some music into his ears with pods.

While listening to it he closes his eyes and relaxed as much as possible.

The ride would probably take some time and even if it didn't, he would not care about the location.

Before the bus departed a few other players came into it and sat down.

Haruo could hear how some of them screamed at him. When he opened his eyes and looked he saw some monkey face looking at him. No, it was two monkey faces. One was mad while the other smiled.

"What the hell do you two want?", asked Haruo the obvious twins.

"How about you make some room, dipshit? We want to have the backseats.", said the happy looking guy of the two but obviously his smile was just a fake one.

The twin brother who looked angry made some weird grunt and started to lazy eye on purpose for some reason. Was that supposed to be some kind of intimidation? Was this guy somehow retarded? No offense to people like that but this one was plain stupid.

Haruo just blinked a few times with his eyes thinking about that and slowly raised his hand showing a middle finger. "Fuck off." Then he ignored those two.

Obviously, these two somehow had short fuses and the mad looking fella tried to even punch him.

So much for professionalism. Haruo only reacted in reflex and kicked the mad monkey's face sending him stumbling back with a bleeding face.

"Chose other seats, you monkeys. And I dare you to try to touch me again. Because next time I will use your head like a real ball." Haruo's gaze was freezing cold because he disliked bastards that became physical like that the most.

There were many people that lost their career because of injury. And he was not about to get into some dumb fight and get injured.

The two only glared at him and gave in after someone entered that informed all players that the bus would now depart and that whoever wanted to leave still had the chance now.

Being not annoyed anymore Haruo went back to relaxing.

It took a few hours but they soon arrived at their destination.

Haruo stood in front of the Blue Lock building and whistled in amazement. "That sure looks expensive. They actually build such a place just to make this project? Maybe Japan is not completely lost yet? How many people can view a game here, I wonder?"

"It is 40,000. That is the number of people that can take a seat inside the stadium that is integrated in the middle of this complex." a beautiful woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a topknot at the back answered his curiosity. Her brown eyes wandered to her notepad.

"You must be Haruo Sugewara. You are the last to come out of your bus. Did you perhaps fall asleep? Anyway, here is your uniform."

"Hmm, you are?" Haruo smiled at the smaller woman and took the uniform. Taking a glance he could see a 298 and a Z on it.

"Interesting, you are actually the only one to ask me about my identity. Well, I am a member of Japan's Football Association. The name is Anri Teieri."

"JFA?" Haruo suddenly nocked his head sideways and looked at her.

-[Anri Teieri]-

[Man Management: A+]

[Tactical Finesse: A+]

[...]

"I will be asking this only once but...What does Football mean to you?", asked Haruo now after seeing her having some interesting talents.

A manager by the looks of it even if there are some talents listed that were nowhere remotely of any use in football.

Anri's expression became serious.

"I want Japan to win the World Cup!"

Haruo made a surprised expression and looked at her genuine feelings towards the sport. She did not seem to lie. That basically made her gleam with happiness.

But seeing something else that was also as big as her enthusiasm move in form of a jiggling wave made him chuckle and then even laugh lightly.

"Hey! I am serious here! If you dare think this is not a reasonable goal then you should not even enter this place." It looks like she felt offended by his reaction.

"Ahaha...Sorry, that was not really it. I was just surprised by those two babies being just as enthusiastic as you." Haruo smirked and now pointed towards the rather large breasts of the woman.

Noticing where he was pointing, Anri quickly got a small blush and hid them behind her arms that she placed in front of her chest.

"You..." She stated with a glare at him.

Haruo only smirked sheepishly. "Alrighty. The World Cup, is it? Then I really should put some effort into this, huh? Don't want to see such a beautiful lady all depressed and crush her small little heart that is beating for football."

That surprised the woman and she looked at him walk past her into the building.

But before he entered completely he turned around.

"Oh right! When I become number 1 you gotta go on a date with me, alright!?" Haruo let that little joke out and then disappeared into the building completely.

Anri that received that provocation had another blush and frowned. "He sure has some confidence..." Then she looked down at her chest and fixed her clothing a little. But that only got her pouting somewhat. "Am I getting fat?"

---

Inside the building, there was only one door still open so he entered there. And after following along some other endless looking halls he finally found his room marked with a Z.

Entering he saw another 11 people inside and all those guys were also looking back at him.

"Tsk, it's that annoying guy. So he ended up in our room?" A condescending remark came from a blond guy. It was Ryosuke Kira, the guy that was so full of himself stating and preaching he would not abandon his team for anything.

Maybe he was right and he just had a somewhat too romantic heart for the sport but Haruo also knew better than anyone that at a certain level there is no friendship on the field.

"Well, look who it is? Aren't you the guy that said he would not abandon his team? Watcha doing here?", said Haruo back with a smile and proceeded to change into the dark blue neoprene sportswear that looked like a swimsuit. In all honesty it probably was just exactly that.

With his feet being barefoot now he could feel that the building had floor heating. At least no worry about getting a cold. Also explains that sleeping dude tp his right.

"Hello, my name is Gurimu Igarashi. Nice to meet you." Now after he was changed another guy came and shook his hand wildly.

Haruo only rose a brow at this guy's over friendliness. "Likewise...but can you please stop shaking my hand now?"

"Oh sorry. What is your name?"

Haruo only smirked. "Haruo Sugewara. You should remember it because you will probably only see my back and how it will disappear. If you guys don't keep up you will be left behind in the dust, got that?"

Igarashi smiled wryly and didn't know how to react to the arrogance that Haruo showed now.

Suddenly the monitor that was on the wall activated.

"Are you done changing, you unpolished gems?" It was Jinpachi Ego talking on the other side of the screen. "The people in the room will both be your roommates...and your rivals. We have estimated your potential based on my judgment and various calculations. And you all received a number on your shoulder ranging from 1 to 300. That number is indicating your ranking from the 300 unpolished gems currently in Blue Lock."

"Haha, look Isagi. This guy is just the worst. He only got a big mouth for only being 298" Kira scoffed at the number that Haruo had. Not even noticing that his supposed friend had the 299 nor that all other players were sneaking a glance at Kira's own number that was the highest number of 289.

Haruo started thinking about this the same moment it was presented to them. Something just didn't make sense and after figuring something out he just smirked and kept listening to Jinpachi.

There was more information about the top 5 ranking player would be put into the U-20 national team. But all other players that failed here would never be able to go international.

There was a shock in many eyes seen. Especially the two guys that were a number lower than Haruo.

Yoichi Isagi, the fella that Ryosuke Kira was talking with to this point seemed in thought until a game was finally announced.

"We are going to play a game called -Tag-. You should all know it, whoever had contact with the ball is the it. There will now be a timer and the last to be the it will be thrown out of Blue Lock. Have fun~"

A shrill sound sounded and the screen changed into a polygon depiction of a player. In this case, it was Igarashi who had the number 300.

Haruo started smirking and walked into Igarashi's blind spot at his back without making a sound.

At the same moment, a notification appeared in his face that he had not often seen. That is because it mostly came when he played football.

[To devour a selected skill of -Ryosuke Kira- you need to not be the "it".]

[Bonus: Be the one to decide the "it". Reward: 3x -Skill Devour-. Applicable to any member in Team Z]

It increased his heartrate even more because that meant he could get a lot of trophies in just a single swipe. And that little manipulative shit's talent was actually what he wanted the most currently.

-[Ryosuke Kira]-

[Football Prodigy: A+]

[Hard Shot: B+]

[...]

'Now it is time to feast. So my decision to come here was not wasted at all. You all will really become my stepping stones. Playing for Japan? Who cares. When I become the best in the world it doesn't even matter.', thought Haruo at the current moment and was exhilarated at the prospect to become the best.