[31] What’s Missing

"What a stylish move, but I'm here too," Aryu declared, extending his long leg to block Shinichi's charge. "Your speed is impressive, but without the space to accelerate, you can't shine."

Shinichi pulled the ball back, dodging Aryu's tackle, but his momentum was inevitably interrupted.

Karasu was closing in from behind, his sharp eyes ready for another opportunity.

It was a familiar scene: Shinichi surrounded by two players.

"Perfect," Shinichi muttered, a faint smirk appearing on his face.

He took a short step to the left, shifting his body weight to the right.

With a forceful push of his right foot, he sent the ball to the right while using his other leg to propel himself forward.

Aryu and Karasu instinctively moved to block him, but at the last moment, Shinichi's right foot cut the ball sharply back to the left.

'What quick directional changes!'

The thought echoed simultaneously in both Aryu's and Karasu's minds as they gritted their teeth and shifted their weight to keep up.

But it was too late.

"Too slow."

Shinichi's voice was cold as he flicked the ball once more, changing direction a third time and slipping through the gap between them like a ghost.

Double-touch nutmeg!

In an impossibly tight space, Shinichi executed three consecutive, rapid ball touches, each with a dramatic change of direction.

Aryu and Karasu, completely deceived, couldn't recover their balance and tumbled to the ground one after the other.

"At moments like this, when victory seems within reach, the slightest lapse in focus… that's when a ninja makes his move. Isn't that right?"

Shinichi turned his head, his face twisted into a chilling smile as he addressed Eita, who had snaked his way behind him. "Sneaky little thief, stay down!"

With a sudden pull, Shinichi dragged the ball backward just as Eita shifted his weight forward, only to immediately push it forward again, nutmegging Eita.

Before Eita could recover his balance and turn, Shinichi stepped past him, heel-tapped the ball, and sent it back through Eita's legs a second time.

V-dribble nutmeg!

In a blur of rapid footwork, Shinichi manipulated Eita's center of gravity back and forth, leaving him completely off balance.

Eita could only collapse in disbelief, his gaze locked onto Shinichi's cold, black eyes.

In just a matter of seconds, Shinichi had humiliated and dismantled V Team's three aces, leaving them sprawling on the ground.

Without breaking his stride, Shinichi continued weaving effortlessly through the packed defensive line like a serpent slithering through chaos.

Reaching the goal, he feinted a powerful shot, tricking the hyper-alert goalkeeper.

With a delicate backheel flick, he tapped the ball gently into the net.

"Hah… what a strange feeling…" Shinichi muttered, exhaling deeply, his expression unreadable as he stood motionless in front of the goal.

2:3 → 2:4

"Shinichi…" Hiori stared blankly at the silent figure standing near the goal. There was something about him—an aura, a presence—that Hiori couldn't comprehend. "The current Shinichi…"

"The current Shinichi… is dangerous!" Karasu said through gritted teeth, his expression twisted in frustration. "He has that level of dribbling skill? Wasn't this guy all about using a single feint to make his opponent hesitate and then relying purely on his speed to overpower them?"

"I actually got tricked and fell for it. Even someone as stylish as me feels completely uncool now," Aryu muttered, shaking his head dramatically, as though mourning his own humiliation.

"Stop talking and go score one back already!"

"Sigh, the opponents are already a headache, but my teammates are just as troublesome," Karasu muttered, holding his forehead in exasperation. "Honestly, I can't deal with you guys."

Beep! Beep!

"Still full of energy, huh? Seems the blow wasn't hard enough," Shinichi remarked, once again positioning himself to block Karasu.

"Oh please, unlike a genius like you who's never tasted failure, we mud-dwellers are long used to setbacks," Karasu replied with a smirk, casually chatting as if they weren't locked in a tense duel. "And scavenging crows like me are born in the trash heaps at the very bottom. What's there to despair about?"

"Full of lies, how annoying," Shinichi said coldly as he made his move.

Karasu instinctively raised an arm to block, but Shinichi countered by lifting his own arm and forcing Karasu's away, effortlessly breaking through his defensive technique.

The distance between them vanished in an instant.

Damn it, I couldn't maintain the gap, Karasu thought, hurriedly pulling the ball back.

But Shinichi had anticipated this, his foot reaching the ball almost simultaneously with Karasu's.

"There's still someone here," Eita said, appearing suddenly behind Karasu.

Together, they managed to pull the ball back, preventing Shinichi from immediately winning possession.

However, the ball slipped free under the pressure and rolled further back.

Karasu didn't bother chasing the ball.

Instead, he turned and used his body to block Shinichi's pursuit, mimicking a basketball screen.

Eita took the opportunity to recover the ball and launched forward into a sprint.

"You're not getting past so easily!" Karasu growled, veins bulging as he pressed his back firmly against Shinichi to hold him in place.

"…Karasu, you seem to be misunderstanding something."

"Huh?" Karasu replied instinctively, but he didn't turn around.

To him, there was only one thing that mattered right now: blocking Shinichi with all his might.

Everything else was irrelevant.

This focus, however, caused him to miss the sight of Shinichi's dark, flame-like eyes coldly gazing down at him.

"You seem to think that what I showed you earlier was the despair I meant to deliver. But in reality, true despair…"

"…starts now!"

"What?!" Karasu's head snapped around, not in reaction to Shinichi's words, but because the pressure against his back had suddenly disappeared. Instead, he felt… a hand?

Staring in disbelief, Karasu saw Shinichi calmly pressing a hand against his back, using it to create a deliberate gap between them.

"This… this is my upper-body movement!" Karasu thought, his eyes wide with shock.

In all of Blue Lock, no one understood this sequence of actions better than him.

And precisely because of this familiarity, his astonishment ran even deeper.

"You absorbed it all in such a short time? Kanzaki Shinichi… what kind of monster are you?!"

But the nightmare wasn't over.

After creating just enough space, Shinichi didn't use his usual burst of speed to pull away.

Instead, he lowered his center of gravity, almost brushing past Karasu as he smoothly maneuvered around him.

"He's even using Eita's off-ball movements! And earlier… that dribbling—it was high-frequency touches learned from Nishioka! This bastard…"

"…he's completely absorbed all our weapons!"

This precise, calculated movement left Karasu unable to immediately judge Shinichi's next direction.

By the time Karasu turned to follow, Shinichi had already pulled away, leaving him no chance to catch up.

All Karasu could do was helplessly watch Shinichi's figure streaking away like a blur.

No, not yet… it's not complete… just a little more…

Yet, despite his brilliance, Shinichi wasn't exhilarated by his performance.

Instead, a deep frustration gnawed at him.

It was as if an answer lay just on the tip of his tongue, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't articulate it.

A suffocating sense of irritation weighed heavily on his chest.

"I'm missing something. Just one crucial piece. If I can grasp it… I can truly destroy them."

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