A family thing

Chapter 53 Grueling 20 minutes

Yoichi looked up at the clock once more as he walked back to his starting position. 29 minutes have past since the start of this thrilling match. He then turned around to face his opponents. Right now, he could already see the change in their attitude towards this game. The restart was taken quickly by Sendou. The second Sae touched the ball, more and more opposing players moved into his direction. 
'So they've increased their numbers up top.', Yoichi figured. "They're pushing forward while trading short passes and with Itoshi Sae at their center... They're completely different from before. Have they suddenly become goal hungry? No, they're desperate. Desperate to turn the tables.' 
Just then Sae crossed it to the wing to Teru. 
"Get him, Bachira!", Karasu shouted. Yoichi quickly positioned himself back. Right now, the main objective was not to play total defense, but to win over the ball posession in order to counter attack. A defensive move with a hidden attack strategy inside of it. Rook F-E1, the move to capture the open line after castling. Both preventing the opposing rook from capturing the line two from the open E-line but also preparing a pressuring attack from the said open line. Teru trapped the ball with his chest. Bachira ran towards him for ball pressing. 
"Come at me, Fox-face bark-bark.", he trash talked. 
"You got it, buzz buzz back atcha.", Teru replied. His one second of distraction was however punished strictly. Yoichi arrived to Bachira's aid and bodied him. 
"Where do you think you are going?", he asked the opposing player and pushed him away, forcing the ball possesion to be handed over to him. Yoichi quickly kicked the ball to Bachira, who trapped it. As Teru recovered and went for ball pressing himself, Bachira returned the ball to Yoichi, who was already running forwards for a counter attack. 
"Let's strike them with force.", Yoichi muttered to himself and received the pass from his teammate. When will those grueling 20 minutes end? He then proceeded by transfering the ball to the wings. A quick pass forwards to Yukimiya. The part time model trapped the ball, but, as he was about to perform his magic, he was met with Neru. Yukimiya scissored and rushed for the right side. As before, Neru sticked to him like a mosquito trying to suck his blood. Yukimiya stopped and crossed it to Yoichi, who ran in through the middle of the field. Their ambitious plan came to a halt. Aiku jumped up and cleared the ball away from the raven haired midfielder. The ball flew into the air. Yoichi stopped abruptly and rushed back to fetch the free ball. However, Hayate was one second faster than him and kicked the ball to Sae, who was just waiting at the center of the field to restart the attack of U20. Sae dribbled down the middle, past Karasu. 
"Get him Niko!!!", the other raven haired shouted and turned around to assist the defenders. Sae passed to Chou Kento. 
"Good.", he said and went to the right to get past Niko. Chou pushed the ball forwards a little bit and readied his shooting form. Niko reacted quickly and rushed to his left to at least intercept and break Chou's shooting form. He went down for a slide tackle, but U20's forward shot it anyway. 
"Nice Niko.", Gagamaru praised the centerback as he anticipated the play in front of him. 'That tackle limited where he can shoot, so I can read him just like you.' 
Gagamaru jumped to the side and deflected the ball seemingly effortlessly. 
"Nice save!!!!", his teammates shouted whilst Chou's face was plastered with annoyance. 
"Second ball!!!!", Blue Lock's goalie shouted to remind his teammates that they had to get the ball away from their goal first, in order to dismantle the danger within their half of the court. Yoichi looked at the clock. 15 minutes to go without extra time. Chigiri got to the ball and crossed it high to him. Yoichi jumped up and headbutted it down to Rin. Just as he landed he immediately took off, running alongside the forward. Rin passed it back to Yoichi and sprinted past Hayate, who came to mark him. Yoichi trapped the ball stationary for a second. Big mistake. He was immediately bodied by Aiku, who moved forwards purposely just to mark him. 
"You know... minutes ago, I thought, I'll go easy on the bunch of ya, but now... after you holed in three goals... it did kinda piss me off.", he trash talked. "So I decided to stop the easy going and play serious." 
"Well it sure didn't look like it...", Yoichi whispered and passed the ball to Karasu, who came to help him. They double passed, creating more room for the offensive midfielder to move. Then however, as Aiku changed his marking target to Karasu, Sae suddenly moved in closer to Yoichi. The raven haired stopped for a second to gain some breath. Sae didn't want to allow that and went in for the steal with a tackle. Yoichi barely dodged him and was now locked in a dead position. He scissored and tried to think of a way to shake Sae off. Unfortunately, U20 had no thoughts on giving him time to think his moves out. This was a real football match. Not some random official chess match with two hours on each player's clock. Hayate already ran into their direction to support Sae. As Yoichi has finally made his decision, it was already too late. He feinted for the left, to get to the right. Sae didn't fall for it and followed him. Yoichi used this opportunity to try to get around the superstar from the side he faked to go to. But as he was about to do so, Hayate reached them and kicked the ball away from his control to Sae. Yoichi tripped and fell down, but the elder Itoshi didn't care. Why should he anyway? It's not like Hayate fouled him. It was a simple accident created by the victim himself. He dribbled forwards again. Yoichi quickly got on his feet and rushed back. 3-1 was the lead. There was no way he'd let any sense of comeback happening under his watch. 12 minutes still to go until half time. Sae dribbled. The crowd started to cheer even louder. 
"What a drag.", Yoichi murmered and accelerated even more. Rin had the same thoughts, he too rushed back as fast as his feet allowed him to get back to defense. Karasu positioned himself in front of Sae to slow him down. He was successful. Sae slowed down, scissored for a second whilst the ball was still rolling forwards. Yoichi in the meantime managed to get back and immediately went in for a body battle to win over the ball he has lost in the first place. Sae wasn't fazed by that intention. It was only natural. Sae was too familiar with situations like these. He then proceeded by kneeling the ball with his left foot and stopped abruptly with marching forwards. Yoichi fell off guard and got pushed forwards a bit by his own built up velosity from chasing after him. Sae then sprinted to the right. Yoichi followed him. Seconds later, Sae passed it to Teru who heeled it back to him with his first touch. As he did so, he positioned himself as a screen and slowed down Yoichi, supporting Sae from reaching his objective. Yoichi dodged him and instead of chasing after Sae like an asshole, he chose to rush to support Bachira. As he reached his destination, Sae finally stopped. 
"You are indeed a smart player.", the Real Madrid youngstar praised. "But you still lack experience and also one crucial thing." 
The raven haired ignored the words and rushed to the right to cut off his route while Bachira tackled the left side. 
"Which is...", Sae stated before faking to for Bachira's side and then spinning between them. "Skill."

Noa proceeded to watch the game even more intendly. Who was going to get him first? Bastard Munich, or some other club? It was clear that he wasn't the only one watching this game on the television. Who could also want such player in its system? Definitely more than just Munich. Noa supposed clubs like Real Madrid, or FC Barcha and even the Ubers from definitely clubs going to make moves on him. It doesn't matter. If he wanted to become some sort of coach in the future at his beloved club, which he has intended to do for a long time, he had to win him over. Kaiser, Ness, Grim and then in addition, Kageyama Yoichi. The midfield would be destructive. He then looked closer at the defense situation at the Blue Lock's side and watched as Sae got past him. 
"He's still lacking experience and some skill. That can be seen right there, but that's not going to be the real problem to recruit him.", Noa muttered to none other than himself. "We can work on that." 
He then looked through the background history of that talented player. Kageyama Yoichi. Number 11. There was not really something about him there. Only that his elder brother was a world class volleyball player playing for the reigning Italian-Superlega-Seria-A-champions Ali Roma. Anything else, about his sports career so far was just normal. 
"But how did he glow up?", Noa thought out loud and scrolled through some high school matches from the past. There was nothing in there that matched his performance on that particular television screen. None of them were similar in the slightest bit. Noa sighed an then picked up his phone. 
"Alright there goes nothing.", he muttered and dialed a number. The usual beeping sound rang. Seconds later the other line was put through. 
"Yes?", a raspy voice on the other side said. 
"Mr. president, it's me, Noa. I wanna talk about ..." 

'Fuck, he went between us...", Yoichi cursed inside his mind and turned around to chase him. Sae ran up and crossed the ball right across the box, not waiting for the opposing number 11 to catch up. 
'Let's give that guy a second chance.', Sae thought as he sent that ball to the supposed star of the U20, Sendo Shuto. 
'What a nasty trajectory to the middle...', Sendo thought as he saw that cross to him. 'I can't react to it, NO, fuck it. I'll do it. I'll be a hero. I'll be the star of this U20 team.' 
"Lukewarm.", a dark and raspy voice whispered behind him. "Become the best in the world with a pass like this? Dream on, you piece of shit older brother." 
Rin overtook Sendo and blocked his shot. The ball leeped into the sky over the Blue Lock's box. 
"What an annoying little brother.", Sae growled and ran towards the landing point of the ball. 
"Not so fast.", Yoichi butted in and pushed Sae away in a fierce body battle for the airbone ball. He forced away his left foot onto the ball and desperately tried to touch the ball with all the freedom he had left. Bachira picked up the ball. Nine minutes. Karasu quickly fetched the ball and passed it forwards to Chigiri who was already rushing forward as the victory over the battle of the ball posession became clearer to be in favour of his own team. No time is to be wasted. Nine minutes were more than enough for a fourth goal. The whole offense of Blue Lock followed suit like the a world war one assault from the movies. Nagi saw Chigiri and rushed forwards. A chance. A hope. The only two things responsible for human evolution. The only two things making Nagi go forwards despite his lazy nature. Chigiri saw that too. Niou staid on the white haired though. There was no way, he would let such an easy goal happen in front of his eyes. 
'Fuck, there's no one open.', Chigiri thought as he sprinted down the right side. Otoya was also cutting in. Who is it going to be? The U20 team has reformed their defense. No possible way to strike. No passing opportunity left. 
'Right, then I shall do it my bloody self.', Chigiri thought and cut in towards the center on his own. But then Aiku posed himself in front of him locking everything up completely. Chigiri dodged him and took the shot regardless. However, thanks to Aiku's perfect defense, the goalie was able to read it easily and dived to the correct corner and caught the ball. 
"You're annoying, has anybody ever told you that?", Chigiri commented on Aiku. 
"Yes. Many, actually. Want any names, princess?", the U20 captain replied with a big smile on his face. Unlike those two, the goalie didn't waste any time on trash talking the opponent. He immediately swung his arm and threw the ball to Wakatsuki. Seven minutes to go. When was the timer going to go to zero. 
'If this keeps on, we'll lose too much steam...', Yoichi thought. 'I have to do something.' 
He then pressed onto Wakatsuki right after he has received the ball. 
"Damn it.", the pressed player muttered as Yoichi stuck onto him. He immediately chose to flee the threat and passed it over to Hayate. 
'Close call...', he thought.