BLUE LOCK - a place where soccer is more than just a sport and a future of worldwide glory is within grasp. Desperate to prove her worth and break barriers, Keiko Iteya fights to hold her own in a rigorous competition against 299 young men in Japan...
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I stared up at the ceiling, my arms under my head in a makeshift pillow and my ankles crossed as I deep breathed. Inside my chest, emotion was toiling and I was struggling to keep my composure. My narrowed eyes were locked on the beam welded to the ceiling high above me.
If I fail to defeat my brother then my time at Blue Lock will come to an end. I sighed out angrily. Ego is right. This is my last chance to do something extraordinary that will set me apart from the others. It's time to stop being lucky and start being purposeful. If I can't beat Hikaru then I don't deserve to be here. The turf under my exposed skin itched. But I wish I could tell someone about it.
"Are you insane?" a voice questioned, footsteps approaching me.
I sucked in a breath before murmuring, "Insanity is relative, isn't it?"
Rin came to a stop next to me, a light shadow of his body casting down on me due to the overhead lights. "Shido and Karasu have been looking for you for an hour."
"Then they haven't been doing a good job. I'm not exactly hiding," I said quietly, looking past his head at the ceiling. "How long did it take you to find me?"
"Three minutes."
"Well, that's why you are the smart one, isn't it?"
He let out an aggravated noise and mumbled, "Why are you lying in the middle of the training field on your back? Did you have a nervous breakdown or something? I know you went to see Ego about your brother."
"This helps calm me," I explained slowly, finally turning my head slightly to stare up at him. "I'm in deep thought right now. I'm trying to sort things out."
"Well, what did you find out? Why is your brother on the Ubers' roster?" Rin put a hand on his hip.
I let out another sigh and looked away. "He's here to play. Ego invited him and now he's on the Ubers, which is why I got kicked out."
"He was a cripple a few months ago. That's ridiculous."
"What's ridiculous is that he's walking around with only a slight stagger every couple of steps. Other than that you'd never know he was bed ridden before," I told Rin, finally sitting up and making my legs crisscross.
"You saw him?" Rin's eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"
"I talked to him. I told him I was going to defeat him and the Ubers. And he responded in kind, as I'm sure you can imagine." I lowered my chin. "But besides that, nothing else happened."
Rin scoffed before sitting next to me. He rested his head on one of his propped up palms. "I don't know how you have restraint."
"Well... Ego threatened to disqualify us if Hikaru and I physically fought, so I can't touch Hikaru even if I wanted to punch him. And trust me, I want to," I said and shook my head. "But, I'll let how I play on the field do the fighting for me when we play Italy." I let out a sigh. "I just... I don't understand how he recovered so quickly. Maybe that's more shocking to me than him being here in the first place. I can't wrap my mind around it."
