NIKE -Blue Lock-

A fan non-fan

"I thought you had cut your hair."

"Yeah no way, I've signed many advertising contracts, and changing my physical appearance without permission from the agencies is a big no-no." the girl replied, closing the door behind her and slipping the absurdly realistic wig off her head.

The long cascade of red hair slid over her shoulders, and a smug sigh escaped her lips as soon as she ran her fingers through it.

Her eyes flicked to Ego, lowering to the fuming bowl in front of him.

Ego froze as soon as he felt the girl's heavy gaze on him, and slowly turned his face toward her with the chopsticks a few inches from his mouth.

"No." he said immediately, causing Nicole to snort.

The redhead tossed the wig onto a futon placed in the corner of the room, and then headed towards the swivel chair on which the black-haired man sat.

It had been three days since she had destroyed the life of Number 289, whose name she had forgotten. Along with him, 24 other candidates had been eliminated, lowering the total number of young talent from 301 to 276.

Number that belonged to her, the lowest on the list.

In those days of boredom and sedentariness, the youngsters had been subjected to a strict regimen of stamina tests, such as running, weightlifting, jumping, reflexes and so on. Data had been recorded for each of them, and it was evident that a subject's physical abilities corresponded to their position in the ranking.

With one exception, of course.

"Your data are the best. Your physical capabilities testify to your record as a world champion. You have to work on that strength of yours, but it's probably pretty normal to have less of that cause of the physical constitution of your true sex." explained Ego, pointing to various numbers with his finger as he ate.

"The system also records incredible spikes when you are flanked by someone. Your best performances are recorded in running when in the treadmill next to yours was number 270, Jingo Raichi; in jumping when with number 269, Wataru Kuon; in reflexes when with number 267, Gagamaru; and finally in normal bodyweight exercises when you were working out with number 266, Rensuke Kunigami." he listed as he scrolled down the entries, never changing tone even by a comma.

He turned to her, biting into a handful of noodles and looking at her with an almost accusatory gaze.

"Basically, you only committed yourself in those when you had a chance to show to the best of each category how easy it is for you to destroy them in the only thing they could be proud about." he commented, finishing chewing the morsel and remaining staring at her.

Nicole smiled, sitting on his desk and absentmindedly scanning the myriad of screens behind her.

"Yeah, what about it?"

Ego did not answer, clenching his eyelids slightly, noticing the red in the girl's eyes becoming intense despite the absence of light.  

He shook his head slightly, looking away from the girl and shifting his gaze back to the data saved by the system.

Ego supposed it was normal to have such an attitude for someone as narcissistic and egomaniac as Nicole Vinciguerra.

He had heard the way she spoke reading and listening to her interviews.

The combination of selfishness and passionlessness could be a dangerous mixture. It created a negative type of egomaniac, probably one of the worst.

Yet Ego felt he could make the most of that kind of egotism.