NIKE -Blue Lock-

Tan duo

"You're doing good, the accuracy of your shots is definitely different."

The girl nodded, grabbing the towel and gently wiping her sweaty face.

Ego watched the replica of her last kick, noting the details of the trajectory of her movement and the resulting trajectory of the ball.

His eyelids tightened slightly when he noticed the discontinuity of the arc formed by her foot.

He tightened his lips, shifting his eyes to the girl lying on the ground, her eyes closed and one hand carefully placed on the left side of her torso, just below the rib.

The girl had shown up that very night, around two o'clock, in front of the doors of the Blue Lock. Three days after she left and two days before her scheduled return date.

Ego was not stupid enough not to know that something had happened. It was hardly likely that a libertine like Nicole Vinciguerra would decide of her own free will to return to a stuffy, closed place like that.

If he also added those small and imperceptible mistakes that the girl was making even while having an even more perfect technique than when she had left three days earlier, it was only normal to have his suspicions.

"You keep making mistakes during your left kicks, though. Your movement is not fluid." said Ego into the microphone, raising an eyebrow when he saw the girl remain still on the ground.

He noticed just a slight nod from her, but nothing suggested surprise, regret or perhaps disappointment at the idea of missing those kicks.

"Also, the system is reporting slightly more labored breathing than before and a higher stress level." he continued, casting a glance at the computer screen beside him.

Each candidate had a watch attached to their wrist directly connected to Blue Lock's system: it reported heart rate, blood oxygenation, breathing, sleep quality and stress level during physical activity.

It was useful to understand how much stamina the subject had and where in particular they wasted the most oxygen during training.

Nicole raised her hand in the air, waving it as if to ward off an annoying fly, and subsequently causing it to fall back on the synthetic lawn beneath her.

Ego sighed, shaking his head in disapproval and deciding to drop the subject.

Sooner or later the problem would surface anyway.

Skip time
Team Z dorm

The girl entered the dark room, taking light and delicate steps in such a way as to avoid the sleeping beauties who were in their beautiful dream world.

Ego had finally decided to kick her out of the camp after only two hours of training.

It was the first time she had re-entered the dormitory before six in the morning, and she was honestly not used to the idea of actually being able to sleep with the team Z boys as she had done the very first few nights.

She reached her futon, positioned between the warm bodies of Kunigami and Raichi, lying carefully on her back and staring insistently at the ceiling.

She was definitely not used to sleeping in there.

She gently stroked her neck, almost wincing as she felt the fabric of the high collar of her shirt. She would have to wear it until the shape of his hand disappeared from her skin.

Not to mention the uncomfortable gauze that surrounded ber torso to protect the wound under her left rib.

It wasn't the first time she had been walking around with serious injuries on her body, but it was the first time she had to pay so much attention to them so that they wouldn't be noticed by all the people around her.