I'm "It"?

*Jude's pov*

'It's finally time, I've been waiting for this moment all my life' I thought to myself as I entered a bus with the Blue Lock logo and colors on it.

On my way here I've seen many familiar faces, many of the players here were players who reached the third selection, one of them was a tanned guy who kept running around excitedly. Though I knew that for now it was still too early for me to care about that so I turned around and ignored it.

I sat down in the first empty seat I found, then closed my eyes, I could hear the guys in the back of the bus chatting together and making a lot of noise but I didn't pay any attention to it. I needed to focus to be ready for what was coming next, I had an extremely important quest I absolutely needed to succeed in.

If I successfully complete this quest I will finally be able to unlock my true potential and reach a whole new level. That would be the beginning of a new start for me. That's something I can't give up on, that's the only way for me, someone who was fated to always be sick, to be able to catch up to geniuses with God given talents such as Nagi.

After what felt like an hour, the bus finally stopped, I looked out the window and could see an immense building divided into many different blocks. As soon as we got off the bus we all had to stand in line and wait for our name to be called, once someone's name was called Anri would be giving them their new uniform.

"Next...Jude Sanchez." I went out of the line and approached Anri who then handed me a Uniform with the letter X written on it before asking me to enter the facility and head towards a room with the letter X written on it.

"Is this really the right place?" I said as I looked around the empty room. After thinking about it, I simply assumed that I was the first and walked inside the room then took off my clothes and started changing into the blue lock uniform.

But right as I was about to start putting on my shirt, a short young man with light brown hair opened the room before immediately closing it again after he saw me.

"I think we got the wrong room, big brother" I could hear a small whisper coming from the door before it once again got pushed open.

"Hello hello!" An average height, light brown haired guy said before entering the room and pushing his brother inside.

"I'm Ichikawa Yoshiro, and this is my brother, Sugiyama, he's quite the shy person so don't mind him too much hahahaha" he said while laughing happily, and pointing towards his little brother who was hiding behind him.

"You can call me Jude, nice to meet you." I went up to shake his hand while still shirtless, but unlike his little brother he wasn't fazed in the slightest and soon enough both went to change into their Blue Lock uniform.

After changing all my clothes and taking off my shoes like we're asked to I went to lay down on the ground while putting my back against the wall and closed my eyes while waiting for the rest of the people to come in.

----------

*Izumi's pov*

I looked at my new uniform with the letter X on it as I searched for the corresponding room, ever since I've heard that man's speech I've been so pumped up. I'm convinced that I will become the number 1 striker in the world, I will prove that I'm a true genius.

'All of those who didn't believe in me will regret it sooner or later!' I thought to myself as I opened the door with a huge X on it. As soon as I entered the room I saw around 10 people already inside. I also recognized Jude who for some reason was the only one warming up and stretching.

I couldn't help but get annoyed when I saw his excited smile, it was the same one he had the day he beat me and my team. This time I will make sure to show him that I can't be humiliated that easily.

"Hello everyone!!!" A loud voice came up from behind me and startled me. I jumped up and looked behind me only to see a slightly talked guy, he was a little more muscled than the average but the thing that truly stood out about him was his face.

Not only did he dye the middle of his hair but he also had literally stars in his eyes, everything about him was shining. I could see that everyone in the room turned towards him and had the same thoughts as me.

"I'm Akira Endoji! I hope you all will remember the name of the one who's going to become the best striker in the world hahahaha" he kept on yelling his heart out before going to the lockers to change his clothes, I tried ignoring him and did the same.

"Are you done changing you unpolished gems? I will now be explaining more about what is going to happen from now on." The man named Ego said through a screen at the very top of the room.

"The people in this room will be both your roommates and your rivals, we have estimated your potential based on my judgment and my peers' calculations represented by your ranking, it is the number attached to your uniforms." As soon as he said that everyone double-checked their number.

'I'm 276 out of 300 players? Fuck, that's way too low. Am I that bad? Just how many geniuses are there here?' I thought to myself as I looked around to peek at everyone's number, that loud guy who said he was going to be number 1 was ranked 266. Even Jude who I saw as my rival was only ranked 265 but that didn't seem to faze him. Maybe because he was the best in rank in this room? I still couldn't understand him at all.

"Your ranking will be changing daily depending on many factors such as your training and game results. In the end, the top 5 strikers will become the selected strikers for the Japan U20 national team. But those who are defeated at Blue Lock will be permanently barred from Japan's National team." As soon as he said that most players in the room tensed up at the idea of losing their chance of joining the National team.

"The one component which will decide your fate is going to be your "Ego", that's what we will measure as you stay in this facility. Well now, it is time to play tag." He said in a cold voice.

"The time limit is 136 seconds, the player with the possession is "It" whoever is "It" at the end of the time can get the fuck out of here, and of course no using your hands, those are the rules." As he said that a ball suddenly dropped from the ceiling and stopped in the middle of the room, the screen he used to talk to us also changed, I could now see a drawn version of my face as well as my name and Blue Lock rank on the screen.

Before I even realized it I already wasted 4 seconds so I ran as fast as I could to get the ball before looking around. 'What should I do now? This is so fucked up. Why am I so unlucky?'

------------

(I've been pretty busy recently so I didn't have the energy and time to post yesterday, but hopefully today there will be another chapter out in a few hours so spam the Power Stones!!)