NIKE -Blue Lock-

Joker

Finally the real third selection was about to begin.

Isagi was anxious.
His gaze was fixed on the one door that was not yet opening.

Out of six groups, almost all of Team Z had survived.

Leaving aside Nicklaus, who he knew had made it as he had seen him participate as the sixth player in his match, only one person was missing from the roll call.

Kunigami Rensuke.

His blue eyes watched the last door rise, showing first the shoes, then the legs, then the numbers on the jerseys, and finally the faces of the last survivors.

"Homage!" greeted the one in the center, number 108.

Bachira opened his eyelids wide in surprise, as did everyone from the old Z team, shouting an "Igaguri?"

I mean, how the fuck had someone like that survived...

Nagi, on the other hand, opened his eyelids wide as soon as he saw Reo, glad that his friend had managed to advance and that they could finally be reunited.

But for Isagi, that was not enough.

It was not enough because there was one more person, behind those four in front, that the bluenette needed to see more than any other.

Kunigami, where are you?

But the fifth person to step inside the room was not the boy with the orange hair, imposing stature, and gentle expression.

No. He had the familiar but unfamiliar number 111 on his shirt, his hands in his pockets, his posture hunched and a relaxed gait. On his face was a mocking grin.

Isagi's eyes went wide as his heart missed a beat.

"That's all, folks." said the unknown man, while his eyes seemed to lighting up with their own light.

Where was Kunigami?

Suddenly a sixth person appeared from behind the stranger's figure.

Another number 111, another mocking smile, decidedly more enigmatic and mysterious, and a confident, commanding gait.

Background voices rose in the room as soon as everyone pointed their gazes at the familiar face.

Everyone knew that character.
Nicklaus Vinciguerra, the sixth of all those seven teams born from the second selection.

"If you keep looking at me like that I might blush." stated the boy, leaning his head over one shoulder and looking down at everyone there.

Isagi's eyes then spotted the purple-haired boy, and he immediately ran toward him.

"Hey Reo, why isn't he with you? Come on..." asked the bluenette in a desperate and confused tone, opening his eyes wide as soon as he saw the purplenette look away from him and remain silent.

His blue eyes then shifted to Nicklaus, seeking from him an answer to that same question.

"Nicklaus...please tell me, if there's one person who knows, it is you. Kunigami wouldn't go anywhere without y..." but as he spoke, the words died in his mouth.

The redhead looked at him without saying anything, with his eyes so warm and yet so cold and merciless. The stare controlled and fixed, opposite to Reo's which instead had turned away immediately.

Suddenly the body of the stranger with the second 111 as his number appeared in the view, forcing Isagi to look up at the face of the tan-skinned boy.

"It's over. I sent him right to hell..." said Shidou in a teasing tone, proceeding to explain that such a guy, with his hero persona, was destined to end up like that in such a sport.