ego death | blue lock

07.

"congratulations you unpolished lumps of talent."

"according to my personal judgement, the three hundred of you are the best under eighteen strikers."

how am i considered one of the best strikers if i've already quit playing football?

"my name is jinpachi ego. i was hired to give japan a world cup victory."

who?

"i'll say this plainly: the only thing necessary for japanese soccer to become the best in the world is the birth of a revolutionary striker. with the three hundred of you here, i will conduct an experiment to create the world's best striker.."

"take a look, this is the facility created for this purpose: BLUE LOCK."

"starting from this point on, the three hundred of you will be living here together while undergoing the training i've devised.."

"you CANNOT return to your homes. BLUE LOCK will mark the END of your previous football career."

"but i will say this: the last remaining person who can survive this BLUE LOCK and outlast the other 299 will become the world's best striker."

"that is all for the details. nice to meet you guys."

what the fuck?

"who even is this guy..?"

"chat is this real?"

"i wanna go home...."

"WE HAVE TO LIVE TOGETHER?!"

"what is this guy yapping about?"

"what about my teammates at home.."

"um, excuse me? sorry but i can't agree with what you said just now." a white haired guy said, speaking over the confused murmurs of the other people.

"that's ryosuke kira! the jewel of japan!" someone said behind me.

"for most of us our team is our main priority, especially for those that are participating in nationals. there's no way i can accept those terms. i.. will not throw away my own team!"

quiet murmurs of agreement could be heard from people who were playing in nationals.

jinpachi ego scratched his head and just stared at ryosuke kira before he replied:

"oh i get it now. you all must be fucked up in the head. if you wanna leave then fuck off. your teams are more important than becoming the best striker in the world? you'd rather choose to be some random high school champ in a country that's shit at football? are you dumb?"

"when i look at you i cringe at the thought of japan's future in football."

damn.

"don't you get it? japan is the best country when it comes to organizational skills in football, but in everything else? we're second rate."

"i want to know. what is football to you?"

"a sport played by 11 people?"

"'our bonds are important'?"

"'i will play for my teammates'?"

a sport that i quit long ago.

"well whatever you're thinking is wrong. this is exactly why japan is shit at football."

"football is a sport about scoring goals, even at the expense of your teammates."

"the best player is not the one with the most assists or the best technique, its the player that scores the most goals. if you want to play 'pretend football', fuck off already."

"how insulting..take those words back! players like honda keisuke or kagawa shinji and many others have shaped japan's national lineup using the 'team play' that is instilled within our country.. you're wrong! they are our stars!" kira ryosuke said, anger lacing his voice.

"who? oh you mean the team that has yet to ever win a world cup? i don't care about trash that can't become the best team in the world."

"let's talk about noel noa for a second. he's managed to win the ballon d'or over astounding players like christiano ronaldo and messi. he's talked about as if he's the best player in the world.."

(ballon d'or: annual football award given to male and female players with the best performance)

"in noel noa's words: 'i'd feel better losing 3-4 after scoring a hat trick rather than only winning by 0-1 with an assist.'"

"and eric cantona: 'when the seagulls follow the trawlers, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.'"

"lastly pelé, arguably the best football player in history and winner of three world cups once said: 'the best defender? the best midfielder? the best forward? the best goalkeeper? i always answer: that's me.'"

jinpachi ego bent his back backwards in a rather repulsive manner. "whaddya think? sickening huh? narcissistic much? but they say it because they are the best."

"their extraordinary EGOISM is the one thing that japan lacks."

egoism?

"YOU WILL NOT BECOME THE GREATEST STRIKERS IN THE WORLD UNLESS YOU HAVE THE EGO TO MATCH."

i feel like what he's saying doesn't apply to me...

"my purpose here is to create such a player in japan from the corpses of 299 players.. one hero will rise in all his glory."

but nobody had ever told me this before..

"alright you lumps of talent, let me ask you one last question. imagine this: you are at the very finals of the world cup playing under the eyes of 80,000 spectators in the stadium."

"the score? 0-0. it's the stoppage time of the second half: the very last play. a teammate managed to pass the ball to you, but it's one on one with the goalkeeper."

"there's a teammate six meters to your right who could probably score the goal if you passed to him.. but without hesitation you shoot."

the gates behind jinpachi ego open.

"if you desire this rebellious 'EGOISM', then step through the gate."

my ego is dead. it should be dead. it already died long ago.. but why are these words..

"i'll say it again, loud and clear:

football is a sport to develop you all as strikers. think of literally everyone else on the field as your pawns.

throw away your common sense. when you're on the field, you're the star."

..waking up my ego?

"your greatest joy is scoring, nothing else. you live for the excitement of that very moment."

"now that's a striker, don't you think?"

a boy from the crowd took off sprinting in the direction of the entrance to BLUE LOCK.

soon a domino effect followed. more and more people ran through the gates until there was barely any left.

reo grabbed me and nagi's wrist, dragging us through the gates of BLUE LOCK. but this time, i didn't resist. this is what i wanted.

this is what my ego wanted.

-

3.06.24

this took forever to write but i can definitely say that i'm proud of this chapter 😽

bro the amount of research writers have to go through for this stuff is no joke..