A family thing

Chapter 6 Tag

Tobio was sitting on the balcony of his penthouse in Rome. The loud noises of the traffic were 30 floors beneath him. A small cup of coffee was standing on the table in front of him. Next to it on the floor was a yoga-mat he has just used for a morning work out. Sweat stains were still visible on it. 'I'll take care of that thing later... Too lazy to do it now...', he thought and took a sip of his coffee. Sometimes he wonders why some people use those huge mugs to drink that hot liquit inside his cup. It was something to enjoy after all. Not a soft drink or anything like that to have in great potions. A wind breeze blew his hair to the side. 
'How comfortable... Can't rest here for the rest of the day though.', he figured and looked at his watch. 9a.m. Time to go to the practice. He had a title to defend after all. The title of the champion in the Italian professional volleyball league. So he took the matters inside his hands. He quickly cleaned his mat and grabbed his training bag. Then he exited his home and locked up behind him. 
'Now, the car, or actually... Imma take the bus.', he thought. Just as he came to the hall of the big building a stranger stopped him from walking outside the door. He had those weird bangs covering the sides of his face. 
"What do you want?", Tobio asked the man. 
"I'm Sae Itoshi.", the stranger introduced himself. 
"Yes, and?", the setter asked. 
"I'm here to talk about something.", Sae retorted. 
"Well... I'm kinda in a hurry, so... could you go away for a second? I need to catch the bus..."
A red bus drove by. 
"Never mind. What do you want?", Tobio asked again. Annoyance was clearly written over his face. 
"Well, are you the brother of Yoichi Kageyama? Tobio Kageyama.", Sae asked him. 
"Yes, now tell me what you want.", the volleyball player retorted. 'This guy is getting on my nerves.' 
His patience was definitely running out. Firstly, that guy made him miss his bus and now he wants to know about his brother. Secondly, he forced him to drive his car through the morning rush hour of Rome's traffic. Not the best way to make a first impression on him. 
"My brother, Rin Itoshi, is in the same football project as yours. Have you ever heard of Blue lock?", Sae continued. Blue Lock did ring a bell inside Kageyama. Wasn't that the project his little brother has attended? There was this message he has read before he started with his daily morning routine. 
"Oh that, yes. I do know about that, now tell me what you want.", Tobio demanded. 
Sae started to smile, "I came here to tell you, that my brother will end up beating yours." 
Twitch marks appeared on Tobio's face, "Was that all?" 
"Yes, why?", the football player replied with a his menacing look. 
"So, you, Sae Itoshi, came all the way from Japan..."
"Correction, Spain, Madrid. I play for Real Madrid." 
"You came all the way from Spain, just to make a war declaration, that made me miss the bus I wanted to take to get to the team practise at 10.30 and forced me to drive through the whole morning rush hour of Rome?", Kageyama listed up the reasons to kill that guy in front of him. 
"Got something against it?", Itoshi replied without breaking a sweat. Tobio looked at him silently. A blue aura formed itself around him meeting the red one of the person in front of him. After a while Kageyama started to grin. 
"So, you must be very paranoid. You are scared that your brother might be surpassed, but I can assure you, he won't.", Tobio spoke. "Though, I must warn you. Your brother, Rin Itoshi. In the near future, he will be just a pawn on the chess board of my brother."
"Is that so?", Sae replied with a dry voice. 
"Everything is possible in sports. The greatest records will be broken. High hopes can be shattered and bets can be ruined.", Kageyama philosophized. "Now if you excuse me. I have a termin."
The raven haired boy then walked to the garage.
"Until we meet again. Sae Itoshi.", he waved his hand and stepped through the door that led to the underground parking lot. 

"The hell...", the blonde boy with sharp teeth cursed. "A test as soon as we move in? It's not even football..." 
Someone even tried to run away. 
'Pathetic...', Yoichi thought as he looked at Igaguri taking the ball. 
"So the worst player is it...", Igaguri muttered and looked around him. "I have to do this. I can't go back. If I lose, I'll have to become a monk at the temple."
"Ho, ho. That guy does have fighting spirit. I take it back. He's worth it. Let's call him... Budha.", demon said. Chaos broke out. The balded one dribbled to the guy who was still sleeping and took aim. A foot hit him in the face out of nowhere. 
'What the fuck...', Yoichi thought. 
"Morning~", crazy bangs murmered. "Wasn't the only rule no using hands?" 
Muscle hero then walked up to him, "Hey, I hate that dirty shit. Play fair and square."
"You are a little bit too serious, don't you tink?", crazy bangs retorted. The ball suddenly hit the onrange coloured hair dude in the face. 
"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS", Igaguri cheered. Soon the picture on the screen changed to one with the muscle hero on it. 
"Kunigame Rensuke... Rank 291...", Yoichi read out loud. 
"Fucking bastard, yer going down Igaguri.", he cursed and directly fired a heavy ball to the direction of the bald boy. His target however, pushed Yoichi in front of him. 
"What the..."
Unable to react, the ball hit him in the gut. 
"Ups...", Kunigami said. 
The raven haired boy's data were put on the screen. He stood up slowly and put a hand in front of his face to regain his posture. 
"Remember, sports are fun. So let's have fun!", the line of his coach echoed inside his head. 
"Let's have fun.", all three voices of him said at the same time. He stepped his foot on the ball and looked through the room. Then he looked at the clock. 
"I have one minute, huh?", he thought and waited until the clock ticked down to fifty seconds. Right after the zero replaced the one on the clock he started to dribble. 
'Someone who does not deserve to be here.', he thought. 
"Someone who has disrespected me.", demon whispered. 
"Someone who is useless.", dictator breathed out. 
Crazy bangs rushed to him to take the ball. Yoichi kept it, by stopping quickly and performing a turn over leaving the other boy sliding away. 
30 seconds on the clock. All the other boys in the room were running away. 
"Come here, my victim.", Yoichi spoke with the dangerous voice of demon. 
Igaguri broke down and sat in front of the ranging monster with the ball. He clutched on his ankle which started to swell.
"An injured ankle, you are rubbish. Too bad for my time.", this time it was dictators voice. Yoichi pressed the ball between his feet and jumped over the injured player. 10 seconds. The crowd was still running away. 
"Come here, my little feast.", demon shouted through the mouth of Yoichi. Crazy bangs rushed at him again. The only one in this room not running away. 
"Hey, let me join in the fun!!", he screamed. 
"No. This is...", dictator replied for the youngest Kageyama whilst he flicked the ball over the shorter male and ran past him. "This is my cake to eat." 
Two seconds. Yoichi set his foot on the floor and swung his leg like a whip. The ball accelerated with a bang and hit the one player he hated most. Kira. Blood came out of his nose. His left cheek became red. Zero. It ended. Just like that. He held the swollen part of his face. His name appeared on the monitor. Kira Ryosuke. Rank 289. The huge letters of the word "lose" was written over him in a slime animation. 
"What the...", Kira started to curse. "Kageyama... why the..." 
Ego appeared on the screen again, "Good job, you unpolished gems. Let us continue with the results. The player we will get rid off is Ryosuke Kira! You are expelled!" 
Kira starred at the face on the monitor shocked. 
"What the fuck!", he managed to scream. "Do you think you'll win the world cup with dumb shit?With these stupid games? Why was I...? HOW COULD YOU ERASE THE FUTURE OF A PLAYER AS TALENTED AS ME?!" 
The white haired boy then pointed to Igaguri. 
"AREN'T I JAPAN'S NATIONAL TREASURE?! HUH? SO WHY THE FUCK DON'T YOU EXPEL IGAGURI OR KAGEYAMA INSTEAD?!", he shouted angrily. "WHAT'S EVEN THE POINT OF THIS STUPID GAME?! TAG AIN'T FOOTBALL. SO WHY'RE WE DOING SHITS LIKE THAT?! HUH? TELL ME?!" 
Ego remained silence for some seconds to form his menacing face. 
"At Blue lock, everything you do is related to football.", he explaind calmly. "Have a good look at your surroundings you shame of a talent." 
Yoichi followed the instructions, 'That crazy bastard... It can't be...' 
"The area of the room is 16.5 x 40.32 meters.", the man on the screen continued.
'It can be...', Yoichi thought. 
"Which are the exact same proportions as the penalty area.", Ego reminded them. "About 75% of all goals are scored from this little area. You could say it's the domain of a striker. In other words, in small space the positioning skills of a striker mean everything."
Kira's eyes grew wider. 
"Therefor, those unable to survive under such conditions, can hardly qualify to be talented strikers."
"SO WHAT?! OKAY SURE THE ROOM'S WIDTH IS EXACT OR WHATEVER, BUT TAG'S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOTBALL", Kira tried to argue. 
"The skill required by fleeing side is tactical awareness. In other words positioning.", Ego destroyed the argument. "As for the pursuer, what they need is not only accurate dribblings but the precision to make shots that will hit their target. That's what makes it optimal football training." 
"THAT'S..., THAT'S... HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO KNOW THAT BULLSHIT IN JUST TWO MINUTES...?"
"Because you are a striker, aren't you?", Yoichi interrupted him with a mutter. He was leaning against the wall. 
"You are a striker, aren't you?", he asked again. 
"YES, YES I AM, NOW WHAT HAS..."
"IF you were a striker, a real striker, you'd have followed the goal to win, not to just play the small side character by running around.", Yoichi made clear. "You had time to redempt yourself. I gave it to you." 
"YOU GAVE ME ONE SECOND, YOU TRAITOR!" 
"Yep, one second to tap it and hit that moron over there massaging his ankle.", the raven haired boy pointed to Igaguri who was still wearing a painful expression. "And to specify it, I was never your friend, so technically... I am not a traitor." 
"ARE YOU SAYING YOU ARE CHOOSING RANK 300 OVER RANK 289? I AM WAY BETTER THAN HIM! WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HIM INSTEAD OF ME?!" 
"Ranks are just momentary standings. They are just some things that the sports moderators have to make their stupid analysations on televison.", the shadow of his hair covered his glowing blue eyes as he repeated the same words Hinata spoke to him. "I've analyzed your game style, Kira. Remember the two goals you scored against me?"
"WHAT ABOUT THEM?!"
"They all required an assist by your teammates. You were just there to make a tap in. Easy as that. Everyone could have scored that goal. Even Igaguri.", he continued with his speech. "And even then, you did nothing for the ball to come forward. All you did was receiving the ball which my shitty teammate missed and pass it to your teammates who were the ones bringing the ball to you. Don't you get it? You always need teammates to do the dirty work for you, whereas I only required on of my teammates to get past that goalkeeper. Do you see the differences now?" 
"IF YOU WANTED TO SAY, THAT THE LAST SHOT OF YOURS WAS A PASS..."
"You are right, it wasn't a pass, but you could have just jumped up to make a chest receive and tap it at Igaguri. A two touch tab in. A buzzer beater. A game winning buzzer beater. Those highlights in the NBA of those ridiculous long range three pointers. What a glorious moment. What a special chance I gave you. But you didn't use it." 
Kira then glanced at Ego who just smiled, "Just like he said, Ryosuke Kira. This was your loss. Now fuck off." 
Knowing he had no arguments against the objections anymore, Kira just gritted his teeth and left the room. 
"Now then... congratulations, you have passed Blue Lock's entrance test.", Ego turned his attentions to the rest of the boys. "Your room was designed for no more than 11 people. From now on you will cohabitate together, you fated eleven. You may cooperate with each other and also betray each other. You and the rivals, you'll have to trample, you are Blue Lock's Team Z."