APOTHEOSIS ✦ BLUE LOCK (x Male OC)

Chapter 4 : Trust

"Now, onto the details of Blue Lock's first selection, starting next week. The first selection will be between you, the 55 players of the fifth stratum," Ego said, spreading his arms in front of him where a holographic table chart appeared with 36 grids, the letter of the alphabet from V to Z written on the top and side of the chart, with a line drawn from the top left to the bottom right.

"Consisting of a round-robin of the five teams within it."

A team of all forwards..? Hayami thought, furrowing his eyebrows. It's possible, but things would probably get messy...

"When all is said and done... only the top two teams will advance to the second selection."

"It's all-or-nothing."

Three points for a 'win', one point for a 'draw', and no points for a 'lose'. Suddenly a redhead spoke up, Hyoma Chigiri.

"Huh? You're saying us 11 players from team Z are playing? But aren't we all forwards..?" he asked, pointing at the rest of the team Z players.

"Exactly," Hayami chimed in. "Doesn't that mean some of us have to cover other positions too?"

"Then..."

"I'll play as CF," Raichi announced, which was answered by a series of complaints.

"Huh? You mean me," Kunigami said almost instantly.

"Except I will," added Gagamaru.

"Isn't that fine?" Ego cut them off. "Football is, at its core, a sport where one scores goals. It would be only natural for all of you to play as forwards. You may have the positioning system and tactics that come with it ingrained in your foolish heads, but that is simply one part of football's long history. In the beginning, football was a sport played with every member as a forward."

"So our football will begin from that starting point. And from there, fix your knowledge of football from scratch."

Hayami squinted his eyes at the remark.

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Fuck, Hayami thought as he looked at his hands that were shaped into scissors, the sound of Raichi groaning faint in the background. The first game will be held two hours from now, between team X and team Z. The entire team agreed to make their first lineup with the game 'rock paper scissors'. How mature ...

...But it wasn't like there was a better option, rock paper scissors was the quickest and fairest option there was. And it's not like Hayami's position was that bad either, although he'd much prefer playing as a forward than a right midfielder. But, beggars can't be choosers.

They've all agreed that whoever won would be able to pick any position they wanted. So, being the winner, isagi got the privilege to play as a forward. The rest of the team just followed by rank.

Ego had explained to them how the first selection would play out, which was a round-robin. The round-robin will involve all five teams inside this stratum, only the top two teams will survive and the bottom three will be eliminated. The members of those teams will be immediately expelled from Blue Lock and will lose the right to play for Japan's national team.

There was a catch of course. Ego said there is a way to avoid elimination, and that is to be the top scorer of their respective teams by the end of the selection. Ego said the purpose of this system was to save only the best scorer from each eliminated team.

Hayami looked at the rest of his teammates. An unpleasant feeling lingering in him, making him furrow his brow.

If Hayami doesn't find what it is he's missing, if he doesn't wake up that 'monster' Bachira talked about earlier, he might not survive Blue Lock. The football he's capable of playing now is insufficient.