[7] Ego Jinpachi's Attention

"Mr. Ego, you should eat proper meals occasionally, hmm? Are you watching the players' highlight reels?" In the dimly lit room, Anri Teieri placed a stack of files to the side and subconsciously asked upon seeing Ego Jinpachi intensely focused on the screen.

"Ah, yes. I didn't expect to find such an unpolished gem in this football desert of a country," Ego replied, slurping a mouthful of noodles. "Anri, what do you think of this?"

Anri was startled. Ego rarely sought her opinion, so she quickly leaned in to seriously watch the footage. "Wow, so cool... Ah, no! I mean, so fast... Wait, what? So fast! Eh?! What is this?!"

Anri nervously tried to cover up her slip of the tongue, but the scenes that followed left her no room to remain composed, and she exclaimed in awe.

"Mr. Ego! Look at his turn speed and footwork! And isn't that opponent the 'crown jewel' of Japanese football everyone's been raving about? He got past him so effortlessly! And that shot! He took on the entire defensive line by himself!"

Indeed, Ego was showing Anri the match footage where Shinichi had executed a feint followed by a Marseille turn to get past Ryosuke Kira. That fluid movement captivated Anri's attention completely.

"Mr. Ego, this! This player is incredible! Even Itoshi Rin, the younger brother of Itoshi Sae, can't compare to him, right? How could such a player have remained unknown until now? What were those clowns at the football association even doing?"

At the thought, Anri clenched her teeth in frustration. Their mission was to save the nation's football, yet a bunch of leeches kept holding them back.

Ego, however, nonchalantly adjusted his glasses. Once the match footage ended, he clapped his hands to interrupt Anri's rant.

"Alright, Anri, now tell me your thoughts about him."

"Uh... well, in my opinion, his technique is excellent. His dribbling skills are outstanding, and—oh! His defensive abilities are also impressive. He can guard half the field by himself! Of course, as a forward, his shooting is also very threatening. Most of his shots have great angles!"

Anri tapped her chin thoughtfully, then shared her thoughts with growing excitement.

She clenched her fists as she spoke, her enthusiasm evident. "It proves what we're doing isn't meaningless! If we provide the right environment, we can definitely cultivate the world's best striker!"

"I see. So that's how an amateur views it..." Ego, unfazed by Anri's passion, leaned back lazily in his chair, completely indifferent. "Well, from the perspective of a mediocrity, I suppose that makes sense."

"Ugh, amateur… mediocrity…"

Anri glared at him, her eyes filled with resentment, but Ego ignored her and dragged the progress bar on the video. "To me, he's just like a child—immature, naive, and overly simplistic in his thinking."

"Eh~ But I thought he was amazing..." Anri muttered quietly, uncertain, then cautiously glanced at Ego. "Do you not think highly of him?"

"Not think highly of him? Impossible. Do my words sound so ambiguous to mere ants?" Ego paused the footage, causing the screen to replay a particular moment: the scene where Shinichi's attention was drawn away by Isagi.

He played it again and again, rewinding and reviewing the same clip.

"Ugh, there he goes mocking me again! And every time it's with a different insult!" Anri pouted in annoyance, but Ego's unusual behavior caught her attention, and she started observing carefully.

"Um... Is there something special about this part?" Unable to figure it out after a while, she gave up and asked.

Ego, not expecting Anri to understand anyway, pointed at the screen. "Look. This guy is their strongest offensive player. When he avoided direct confrontation and started moving, Shinichi's attention was easily diverted."

"Especially when the opponent used the defenders' positions to shield himself. Now look at the ball carrier's current position—it's clear that their ace is in a position where he can't possibly receive a pass."

"Yet Shinichi instinctively chose to block a completely non-threatening direction, without focusing on the ball carrier. This gave the ball carrier space to pass, leading to his subsequent positional error."

"His defensive positioning relies too much on his physical attributes to expand his coverage. While this approach might seem versatile to amateurs, it's riddled with flaws from a professional perspective. It's just barely sufficient when playing against mediocrities."

Anri, irritated but unable to argue, pouted even more. But as Ego dissected the play, she couldn't help but take his words seriously.

The reflection of light on Ego's glasses obscured his eyes, making it impossible to discern his expression. However, the subtle clenching of his fist betrayed his excitement.

"That being said, it's precisely because of these flaws that his talent stands out even more!"

"In fact, you could say that in terms of football knowledge, he's a complete novice—barely third-rate. But his physical attributes have already far surpassed that level. Even when facing the top players in the game, he only suffers minor disadvantages, and in some aspects, he even surpasses them."

Ego was already being generous. Although possessing a Gold-Class Talent allowed Shinichi to achieve in a year what would take an ordinary person a decade of grueling practice, Ego believed that no amount of effort—be it ten years or a hundred—could elevate mediocrity beyond its limitations.

Even among the 300 players selected for Blue Lock, a collection of geniuses many of whom had been playing football since childhood, Ego saw them as nothing more than unrefined, undeveloped players.

In his eyes, anyone who couldn't awaken their potential deserved to be swept aside as trash.

As for Shinichi, he had spent just a year focusing on honing his dribbling and one-on-one techniques.

Entering Blue Lock meant a complete overhaul of one's football philosophy.

Shinichi, however, had skipped all that unnecessary learning, saving himself the trouble of rebuilding from scratch.

This way, he avoided the pitfalls that others—like Isagi at the start—faced under mediocre coaches steering them in the wrong direction.

"Ah, I see... So you're saying he's extremely talented," Anri remarked with interest, flipping through a file. "Hmm... Found it! Kanzaki Shinichi... Wait—what?! Isn't he backed by our largest sponsor?"

Anri stared at the face in the file but didn't recognize it. Shinichi had sent an agent to negotiate the contract, so she had never met him in person.

Still, a sponsor willing to throw down two billion yen? That kind of money left a lasting impression, even amidst the numerous contracts Anri had been dealing with lately to keep Blue Lock running.

Yet the thought made her frown.

"Mr. Ego, he doesn't seem like the type who's deeply invested in football," Anri said, recalling the negotiations where the agent relayed Isagi's intent.

"'I find your philosophy interesting and thought I'd come play around.' That's what his agent said. By the way—" Anri grumbled as she continued flipping through the documents, only to suddenly gasp and cry out sharply. "He's only been playing football for a year and can already perform like this? He's a total genius!"

Ego stuffed his ears with his fingers, waiting for Anri to calm down before lazily responding. "Of course I know that. But don't worry—he won't lose interest so easily."

Ego stared intently at the screen, which displayed footage of Shinichi refining his ability to exploit tight angles in the remaining matches.

"Guys like him are like wild beasts. They may not even realize it themselves, but as long as they feel hunger, they'll never stop moving forward."

"In other words, unless they win to the point of boredom, as long as there's a goal ahead, they'll tirelessly tear into it."

"This is what you call a beast... A monster driven by an ever-expanding ambition!"

"Sigh~ But what if he keeps winning? Won't he lose interest?"

"Anri."

"Hmm?"

"I honestly didn't think your brain could be this slow." Even Ego seemed at a loss for words. He tapped his temple and said, "If he keeps winning, doesn't that mean he's become the world's number one striker? At that point, our goal is fulfilled."

Without giving Anri a chance to argue, he waved her off to handle some tasks. However, her professionalism compelled her to clarify the unusual request Ego had made.

"A contact for the director of Germany's Bastard München club? Is there something unresolved in your negotiations?"

"No, I just realized something after watching him. Some of my previous plans were too conservative, and I intend to make some adjustments," Ego said, pushing up his glasses with a mischievous smile.

"To provide our 'beast' with the greatest possible hunger, I plan to have the real 'world's number one' deliver a lesson he'll never forget."

...

Meanwhile, our protagonist, Shinichi, had no idea that his matches had drawn special attention from Ego Jinpachi, to the point of altering Blue Lock's original plans.

Even if he knew, it wouldn't have mattered—because right now, he was facing an even bigger problem.

He had been summoned by the boss!