Forming the trio

After a few minutes of waiting, Rin was the first to come out, and after entering the room and looking around, he widened his eyes when he noticed Arata sitting in the corner of the room with his eyes closed as if meditating, apparently not believing that someone else could have finished making the hundred goals before him. However, neither Rin nor Arata exchanged words as their eyes met; they just stayed each in their corner waiting for the other participants to arrive. The third to arrive was an extremely tall boy with long black hair who looked around and observed the other two who were silent in the room and decided to do the same. He leaned his back against the wall, crossed his arms, and stayed like that for almost a minute until Rin went towards the long-haired boy and said something that wasn't audible enough for Arata, and then they came towards him.

"Hey, my name is Jyubei Aryu," Aryu said while running his hands through his hair with Rin silent beside him.

"Hey, I'm Ichinose Arata, how can I help you?"

"Rin and I are looking to form a team, and we thought you might be interested. After all, we're already here and we were the first to finish, so we're probably the best," Aryu said convincingly.

"I'm not interested," said Arata.

"What? Why?"

"There are some players I believe would be better for me to form a trio with, and that guy... I don't like him," Arata said, pointing to Rin, who became visibly irritated with Arata's words.

"Hey, you worm, what's your problem? I never even said anything to you," Rin said.

"The problem I have with you is that if my guess is right, this first moment will be the only one I can completely crush you, so I'm not interested in missing this opportunity," Arata said... who already knew the system of the second phase and was sure that from the moment Itoshi Rin and Ichinose Arata joined a team, there would be no more competition, and they would continue as a team until the end, so he would use this first chance to give his business card to Rin and invite him to his team later. Evidently, there would be other opportunities in the next selections, but Arata wanted his first encounter with Rin to be memorable for him.

"Who do you think you are to speak to me like that, you piece of shit," said Rin, enraged.

"I'm the one who will show you that the player you should be worried about is not Itoshe Sae but Ichinose Arata," said Arata.

"I'll make you eat those words; you and him, none of this matters, all of you will be swallowed," said Rin.

"Well, anyway, I'm not interested, find someone else," Arata finished.

"That wasn't very stylish," Aryu said.

After rejecting Rin and Aryu, he noticed them inviting Aoshi Tokimitsu, who was the next to finish, then it happened as in the canon, and the trio between Rin, Aryu, and Aoshi was formed.

After a few more minutes, more participants arrived, including Nagi and Reo, and then Isagi and Bachira, who came towards him as soon as they saw him.

"Have you been here for a long time?" Isagi asked.

"I finished a few minutes ago; when I got here, there was no one, so I waited for you to finish so we could move on to the next part."

"And apparently, it will happen in trios..." Isagi said.

"Then let's form a trio; I'm sure we wouldn't lose a single game with this lineup!" said Bachira.

"Even though I refused Rin's trio, I thought about trying a different trio to gain new experiences. There are some interesting candidates like Barou, who would be a bit tricky to deal with, Tabito Karasu with his analytical ability, and Eita Otoya with his incredible speed that could be used both for attack and defense. But I decided to stick with what I've been working on; currently, both Isagi and Bachira are better than they were in canon, so there's no reason why I wouldn't choose them for my trio, not to mention that a large part of the goals we scored in the first phase came from some play of someone in this trio, so the chemistry I have with Isagi and Bachira is not something I can simply ignore," Arata thought.

"Man, I really want to play against those world-class players; it would be so awesome to see what I could do against them," Isagi said as they walked towards the next stage.

"Yeah, just thinking about playing against them, I can't control myself!" said Bachira as he jumped excitedly.

"I wonder how Blue Lock has so much funding to attract them, not to mention all that structure we saw with hologram systems simulating high-level goalkeepers... although Ego already said he's betting everything on this project, which makes him a genius because it seems like there are several interesting talents here, including me," Arata said confidently.

"Me too," said Bachira as he tried to kick Arata