3: Arriving at Blue Lock

The game had now ended, the score line was 4-3 to purple hairs team. I'd tried my best but guarding the both of them was to much for me, I scored a hat trick as well as winning man of the match. But a loss is a loss. 

Tired I slumped on the ground untying my boots and looking to the sky I smiled, not because we lost but because I managed to find people that could put up a fight, coming to Japan I had the thought that it was a wasteland in terms of talent, But today I had witnessed to bizarre talents. So removing my boots and socks I put on my favorite Jordan's while putting my sports bag back on ready to leave. Though I was stopped.

"Hey! Don't go just yet!" Turning around I saw Reo dragging Nagis hand whilst running behind me before stopping. "Hey, we just wanted to ask what your name was." I was initially surprised though I smiled saying, "Zachary, Zachary Ibrahim."

"We're Reo and Nagi, we hope to verse you more in the future." "Yeah, but next time I won't lose."

The whole time Nagi just stared at me blankly.

"Zachary! It's time to go home!" "Well hopefully I'll see you guys soon." I then hurried out of the pitch before entering in to my mums car.

{2 DAYS LATER}

It was finally the weekend so I was happy that I got some days off, in my spare time I like watching streams, videos and on the rare occasion movies. Though I was abruptly stopped by my mom calling me down stairs.

Rushing down I ask her what's wrong, "Something came in the mail for you, I wanted to open but your dad told me off." "Yeah thanks."

Opening it I was met with a letter from the JFU, "What's it about." "It's talking about a training program sponsored from the JFU." She then took it before calling my dad who was watching TV.

She showed it to him asking for his opinion, "Well it really just seems like a training program, while building my career up I went to a lot of them. Zachary needs this type of training, espcially when he decides he's going to Manshine City", he said with a big smile on his face. "Yeah but Zachary is still to young to be going on long term programs, especially since he's in Japan. He may understand the language but it's foreign land."

"It seems to be just a meeting, and Zach knows the language as much as anyone else here, so he should be okay." To be honest I kinda wanted to go, it gives me the chance to meet more people like Nagi and Reo, and improving my skills is always a good thing. 

"To be honest I want to go." Though I was completely ignored while in front of my arguing parents.

{3 DAYS LATER}

My dad managed to convince my mom to let me go, so he took me to the headquarters dropping me off.

"Hey Zach, make sure to behave in there, don't go to hard on them." He said with a wink. "To be honest I don't think I'll need to go to easy." So I waved goodbye and walked over to the center.

Opening the doors I was met with a full crowd of people, after losing to the monster duo I did my research on a few good players at Japan. So I was surprised to see that most if not all of them where here.

"Testing, Testing." Suddenly a mic was heard in the meeting room. "Well it seems all you unpolished gems have arrived, according to my calculations the best strikers under 18 are all gathered in this building. My name is Ego Jinpachi. I was hired to make Japan world cup champions."

Who the hell is this guy.

"To put it in simple terms what Japan needs is a revolutionary striker. With the 300 of you here I will create that person."

"This is the purpose of this facility, Blue Lock. All of you will be living in this facility undergoing special training I devised. But I promise you this the final one remaining will become the worlds best striker."

Ego Jinpachi? I've heard of all sorts of coaches worldwide, but never have I heard his name. Though what he was saying didn't really apply to me, I though this what just a training program but if it is what he says it is then I shouldn't be here. I'm still technically an English guy, so representing Japan wouldn't make sense.

"Imagine, your at the world cup final with 1 minute left of additional time, you have the ball and are 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper, your teammate is running beside you calling for the ball, but you ignore him and shoot the ball without hesitation. Only those type of egoists can step through." Egoist... The type of person to take the shot without any hesitation, I then had a flashback to the match against purple hair. When I was 1 on 1 with the keeper, but Ryo was calling for the ball, I didn't even bat an eye and took the shot.

The doors then opened, practically calling my name so I took a step forward ready to run through after being seduced by the dream of becoming World N0.1, though I remembered my self and stopped. But then I saw a black haired kid sprint towards the gate, then I lost all sense of practicality and sprinted right behind him.

I made it to other side with what looked like everyone from the entrance, I was then met with a woman who introduced herself as Ari, she took my phone then handed me clothes that had 222 as well as V written on it.

I then got to my locker room and I was surprised to see Ryo here as well as some guy struggling to put his clothes on. "Yo Ryo." "Zach! You got picked to huh, expected of my rival." In response I said, "You've gotta be able to match up with someone to be called a rival."

Then while we where talking I was met with another familiar face, Nagi and Reo. Ryo then started yelling at them but they didn't remember him. Though Reo looked behind him before noticing me, "Hey! Zach nice to see you!" Nagi then followed suit, "Oh hey Zach." "Yo."

Ryo then got even angrier since they remember me more than him. Reo and Nagi then walked over and helped the dumb guy. "Thank you very much, these clothes were defective, though I knew from the start and it was a good "brush up" for my "pre-release."

This guy just tried to speak English. Then responding in English I said, "Bro you really should work on your English." Dumbfounded from what I said he just stared at me before Reo erupted in laughter making fun of him.

Then Ego came on the screen, "Are you finished changing you unpolished gems? Hi Hi."

"The others in this room are both your roommates and rivals meant to push you further, using my judgement I have ranked you all from lowest to highest the number on your uniform shows your rank."

Looking around I noticed the guy ranked highest in the room was the dumbass, he was only 1 above me though at 221. That excited me a little bit knowing there was another guy better than me in this room. But what was hard to believe was that there was more than 200! Even though I knew I wasn't new gen 11 skill yet, I could still hold my own. 

He then explained the pros of finishing in the top 5 which was participating in the u-20 World Cup, though the negative is not being able to represent japan which I wasn't to scared off. I had some time to think about it and discovered my whole existence here shouldn't be allowed, not only wasn't I Japanese but I wasn't a striker either. So how come they let me come here? 

"Now then, why not start our game of tag."