Extraordinary // Blue Lock Fanfic

3: First Selection

It's been three days since we came to Blue Lock and currently all of us were doing stamina tests.
Right now we were running on treadmills with 12.5 mph and everyone seemed to be struggling. Except for Raichi and me.
Igarashi seemed to be on the verge of throwing up. And yep he did.
Isagi was barely better with an endurance time of 42 minutes compared to Iga-guri with 37 minutes.
Raichi prided himself on endurance and freely mocked the two.
"You two are too weak! You think you can become the world's best striker like that? Just go home before you cry after losing to me weaklings!"

His endurance time was 1 hour and almost 14 minutes. He was ahead of them by a lot.
However his confidence got knocked down a few pegs after he looked at me.
"And Asher you-", Raichi was at a loss for words.
I was barely breaking any sweat and had been at it for like at least 2 and a half hours.
"Yeah?", I looked at him nonchalantly.
He remained quiet for a while before picking on Isagi and Igarashi again.

After that were jumping tests to which Kuon seemed to take the lead with 68 cm.
Isagi only managed 60.96 cm to which Kuon questioned Isagi with slight worry.
"Huh? Are you feeling unwell today?"
"Uh... I guess I am", Isagi answered unsure.

When it came to me I didn't really practice jumping all that much in Germany and expected to score a lot lower. I jumped up to 76 cm and landed with all eyes on me.
I just ignored them and went to the cafeteria after hearing the bell ringing.
After all our schedule was strict down to the minute.
Everyone automatically gets miso soup and rice but depending on your ranking you could get better or worse side dishes.
As I was ranked 290 I had the pleasure to eat tempura shrimp and vegetables.
I grabbed my tray with the freshly fried tempura and sat down next to Isagi.

I could only spot natto on his tray to which I sighed. Glad I wasn't ranked that low.
Isagi however salivated at the sight of my tempura. I sighed again.
"Do you want some?", I asked him to which he just nodded excitedly.
I'm sure he had to eat natto for the past few days so I couldn't blame him.
Iga-guri, who was ranked 300, could only eat pickled radish as he stared intensely at Isagi's plate out of jealousy. Yeah no way I would also spare him some of my Tempura.

Gagamaru who was ranked 296 enjoyed some gyoza with.... his hands? Passing him was Naruhaya, ranked 297, who took a piece of gyoza right out of Gagamaru's hand and ate it.
I sighed again. Team Z was way too chaotic in more than one way.
And that's also how most of the other teams viewed us primarily.
Every team of the 5th annex ate in this cafeteria as well however there was barely any interactions even within their respective teams.

Guess everyone is a little bit anxious about Blue Lock.
Even when it was already sleep time, I wasn't anywhere near exhausted which made sleeping all the more impossible. And these futons were not as comfortable as my bed in Germany.
I sighed as I got up and sneaked myself out of the room to get some more practice in.
I went to the Indoor training field and got me a ball and started stretching to warm up a little. Meanwhile I heard some footsteps gradually getting louder and turned around to spot Isagi and Bachira.

"Asher you're still up?", Bachira asked excitedly.
"Yep. Couldn't sleep."
"Same here.", Isagi exclaimed.
"Ohh how about playing together?", Bachira looked very excited.
"Sure.", I replied with a stoic expression.

"Then here I go!", Bachira started off with the ball and Isagi tried stealing the ball failing miserably.
"Hey, when we were playing tag... You passed to me. And you said it was because you thought I'd hit Kira... Why'd you think that?", Isagi started a conversation.
"Because... there's a monster inside of me! It only comes out and talk when I'm playing soccer.", Bachira casually exclaimed while skillfully dodging Isagi's attempts of stealing the ball.
"Never heard anything like this before.", I exclaimed whilst stealing Bachira's ball from behind him.
"In that one moment the monster inside of me said 'Pass to Isagi! He has a monster inside of him too!' and for some reason when it came to you, Asher... my monster just said 'Don't get in his way.' I was sure you both had a monster as well."

"Don't know what you're talking about.", Yeah I had not a single clue. Did Bachira maybe suffer from some accident and was hallucinating? Well not my business anyway.
"You can hear the monsters' voices can't you?", Bachira looked at both of us with an absolutely serious expression.
I glanced over at Isagi and he seemed absolutely clueless as well.

"So Isagi, Asher... I'm glad I came to Blue Lock because I could meet you two!", Bachira genuinely smiled at us.
I chuckled and immediately reverted my face again to its usual neutrality.
"What- Did you see that Isagi? Asher smiled!!"
"Did not.", I insisted.
Even Isagi started laughing with Bachira.
"You did!"

I sighed.
"Are we gonna practice or what?"
"Yeah let's continue! Isagi you in?"
"Bet!"
And we spent playing around for half and our more until we decided that we should go to sleep.

___

In the morning we were woken up by the ridiculous annoying speakers that gave off a *beep* sound. Seems like our rankings were updated.
"Guys check it out! I'm 275 now! I've gone up by a lot!", Iga-guri gloated.
To that the others looked at their plates as well noticing their ranks which have all gone up.
"Whoah I'm 274 now!", Isagi exclaimed.

Mine was.... 265. Still low. Maybe it has something to do with the players that have been eliminated in the entrance test?
Just then the monitor flashed on again with Ego's face.
"Nice work, everyone. You lumps of talent. Are you enjoying life in Blue Lock?"
"Are you kidding?! How can we enjoy this?! Can we really get good at soccer in this shitty place?!", Raichi bursted out.
"He's right! I want some real food!", Naruhaya added.

"The reason it's shitty here is because you're all shitty at football, idiot."
"Huh?!", Raichi got even more pissed by Ego's remark.
"Let me tell you something about Blue Lock. This facility is composed of 5 wings with 25 teams from Team B to Team Z. All teams are split into groups of 5 and are living together in each wing. Since one person was eliminated during tag in each room, there are currently 275 of you in Blue Lock."

"Huh? So even though I've gone up from 300 to 275, I'm still dead last?", Iga-guri exclaimed.
I knew it.
"You're split into teams in order of rank. Ranks 1 through 11 are Team B, 12 through 22 are C... you get the gist, right? Your team Z is in the lowest ranked of the 5 wings... Wing #5. Additionally your team is made of the bottom tier in this wing from 265 to 275."
With that statement Raichi started picking a fight again.

"Seriously?! Don't lump me in with this trash...", which got a reaction out of Iga-guri and Kunigami.
"Huh?!"
"Look who's talking, trash."
"Let's all calm down...", Kuon tried to cool things down.
With that Ego continued with his explanation.
"Those in the upper ranks are enjoying food and training in the top wing and leading a lifestyle befitting of a top striker. Whoever is best at football here, is king. If you want a nice life, then win and boost yourselves.

Now then.... Let's begin Blue Lock's First Selection."
At last - a chance to prove my worth.

To be continued...