A family thing

Chapter 54 One last dance

'That was close.', Wakatsuki thought and observed the ball going to his teammate. However, Blue Lock wouldn't be Blue Lock if they didn't intervene. Karasu slid into the pass route and stole the ball away. 
"SWITCH!", Yoichi shouted to ignite the change of offensive and defensive midfielders in their positions on the pitch. Karasu nodded and looked at the clock. Seven minutes until half time. Seven minutes until a deserved break. Then he looked back at the defense positioning of his opponents. All the defenders have already repositioned themselves and built up a human fort in front of their goal. There was no way, he could crack that. At least not on his own. Karasu passed the ball to Otoya. Yoichi chased after them. What they needed right now wasn't really another goal to put them ahead by one goal. What they needed was time wasting, as unsporty as it sounded. Otherwise, their steam for the second half would run out before it's even going to start. Otoya dribbled through the right wing, but as the defenders were too strong he decided to play it save and passed it back to Yoichi. However, the U20 wouldn't be the U20 if it didn't have anything to say against that. Darai forsaw this decision and sped away and stole the ball. An immediate pass to Sae followed as if it was a reflex forced out of him. Karasu saw it and slid tackled the ball rolling on the ground and managed to stop it from going to its destination. The ball got out of control from both teams. Securing the ball was now the greatest task that has to be completed by all means. Even though if it meant to just waste time until the whistle was blown. Yoichi dashed towards the lose ball and fetched it with a rainbow right over Wakatsuki, whom he spotted with his inner radar. The capture of victory felt so near and yet so far. Aiku came as a support for his teammates. He couldn't afford another goal to be scored upon them. 
'Keep the ball in the air.', Yoichi muttered inside his calm mind. 'Otherwise you would not be able to control it in the sand.'
The raven haired lobbed the ball straight over the central back with his next touch and ran past him smoothly. Aiku quickly turned around and grabbed a hold of him to at least fight with his body for the ball, in which he had the upper hand. 

Two parties were fighting inside of Yoichi. One told him to strike as he had the chance to do so. One told him to waste time and continue with his strategy plans and the Ego's instructions. 
"Fuck it.", Yoichi grunted and gritted his teeth. Niou rushed in to support the defense. A small defense ring of the U20 formed itself around him. Yoichi stopped abruptly and span around behind Aiku into his blind spot and got into his shooting form. Niou jumped up to block it. Yoichi had different intentions though. He slowed down his leg swing and pushed the ball sideways and proceeded to run to the side of the box. Rin who was waiting right behind the two defenders got out of the offside zone to be of help. But Yoichi wasn't searching for him in the first place in such a situation. Someone else cut in. Nagi. An easy goal and pass if Sae was just standing there and watching and not butting in. The Real Madrid super star bodied Yoichi to win the ball. They were inside the penalty zone. Should he fall down to try to argue about the ref's decision to waste time and hope for a penalty? No, that's not inside his book. He wasn't a pussy who played dirty like that. The lines appeared. Yoichi used all of his body weight he could use and pushed against Sae. A crosshair appeared right on the meeting point between Nagi's runway and the goal. Right where the white haired lazybun would want it. Patternless. That was his style. Patternless. No one was able to take it from him. Not Sae, not Ego and not even Pele. Yoichi striked the ball. Just the way he did it with the last opportunity he created for Rin. Nagi barely trapped the ball. 
"Hyup... nasty...", he murmered and shot his two touch volley right at the goal. Unfortunately for him though, Fukaku raised his hands just in time and deflected the ball which flew over the cross bar. Out. Corner for Blue Lock. 5 minutes left. 5 more minutes. Yoichi placed the ball down at the markings on the grass. He took a deep breath and then overviewed the situation inside the box. Should he cross it deep inside, so that someone was able to score a header? Unlikely. The tallest players are, at the time, the U20 defenders. Even though Aryu was able to make a difference, but he was still against two players with similar heights. Besides, the speciality of his attackers weren't midair battles, so why should he send in something, where the opponent had the clear advantage? Which leads to only one option, a quick close corner. Yoichi took a deep breath and then kicked it straight to Bachira. He then ran past the dribbler from behind just to receive the double pass being transfered to him directly. He dribbled towards the middle whilst looking out for a passing option. The lines were moving so fast in order to calculate a route for a pass, which could create possible attack. Sae went towards him to intercept him. Yoichi scissored but then passed it to Karasu. 
"Come on, give it back to me, ya damn crow...", Yoichi murmered before receiving the pass of the Blue Lock defensive midfielder. As if on cue, Hayate ran to him for ball pressing. 4 minutes. But those 4 minutes seemed like hours. Yoichi scissored and decided to take his chances in a 1v1 battle. He still had some space to move the ball. Crucial for this 1v1. He could use them for dribbling, passing and also shooting. His choices were left open. But it's best to control the time of the match if the ball is in his posession. At this point of the match, his team was already longing for the end of the first half and truth to be told, he was one of them. Yoichi dribbled he was now on full concentration. However, he didn't want to waste time the way, he saw professional players do on television. He was not a coward. Yoichi scissored one last time. Just then, Hayate decided to take the initiative to tackle the ball. Yoichi anticipated that and quickly rolled the ball back and used the opportunity to dodge the bullet and swiftly span around his opposing player. Now he got past him. What next? Yoichi looked out for possibilities, but even those were limited, as he was now faced with an all men defense of the U20. 
'Damn it...', he muttered and passed the ball forwards to Bachira. The dribbling monster lobbed it directly over the incomming Neru. At that moment, Rin rushed into the penalty zone. 
'There it is~', Bachira thought and crossed it into the runway. However, it would not be god's plan if it didn't involve hardships. Just as the ball flew past Niou, who was too worked up on marking Nagi, Aiku stepped into that small path, where Rin would have come in and stole the pass away from Rin. 
"Shit!", Yoichi cursed and sprinted back, whilst in his back Aiku passed the ball to Niou who then launched it forward to Sae. 
'Fucking typical... I can read them like a book and yet, I can't do nothing about it!!!', the raven haired sprinting back to his own half cursed inside of his mind. 'I knew I should have played it save. FUCK!'

Sae didn't know about Yoichi's thoughts. He wouldn't have cared anyway. He dribbled down the center of the pitch. Karasu quickly ran over to slow him down. However, Sae had something, none of the other players on the pitch had. Not even his own teammates from the Japan-U20. That was experience. The experience of competing against the whole world. The experience of competing in Europe. Every football players' dreamland. The money, the competition, the clubs. The whole lot. From the German Bundesliga, over the French Ligue Un to the British Premier League and then down to the Spanish Laliga, across the mediterean to the Italian Seria A. The whole lot. The big money, the honour, the skill and that skill was the thing, that's going to cost Blue Lock 11 its victory. A quick elastico did the job against the defensive midfielder. 
"Not yet, you shitty brother.", his rude little brother muttered as he caught up. Sae used his arm and fend off an attempt of Rin to body him and regain the ball possession. In order to do so, he had to stop unfortunately. Just in that moment, Yoichi slid for the ball. Sae anticipated that and quickly dodged to the side making Yoichi slide into the emptiness. 3 minutes were still left on the clock. Sae scissored to get past Rin. His brother however followed him flawlessly. Sae then swiftly feinted for the left side. Rin quickly covered up the hole to stop his brother. Sae then used this small gap, he has zugzwanged out of Rin and crossed it up front to Kozato, who took the ball and dribbled down the right side. Bachira, who has moved up previously to the other end of the pitch was still in pursuit to race back to do his job before it was too late. The only two men guarding the box now were Niko and Aryu. Kozato sent it inside to Sendou. The self declared superstar used his first touch and placed the ball a bit forward to gain some space. 
"Stay vigilant of the line of defense, Niko boy!!!", Aryu shouted. 
"Yessir!", the gloomy raven haired answered. Sendou on the other hand ignored the chitchat between the two teammates and decided to shoot it. Gagamaru quickly reacted to it and jumped to the right side, where he has forseen the ball to go. However, both lucky and unlucky for him at the same time, the ball hit the side bar and deflected back into the pitch. Chou ran to get the rebounded ball. 2 minutes until half time. If they wanted to come back from a 3-1 deficit, they needed every single second remaining on the clock. He quickly passed it back to the Sae. But with him came the other Blue Lock defenders. At this stake, if they still wanted to avoid a complex defense break through in order to score an easy goal, they needed to do something fast. 
'Fuck it, looks like I have to give that selfdeclared nothing-but-shit a fucking second chance.', Sae cursed inside his mind. 
"Where do you think you're going, superstar?", an agonizing voice spoke behind him. Kageyama Yoichi. 
"Not this shit again...", Sae muttered annoyed, slowed down and waited for the contact of the person annoying him in the first place. The body contact eventually came. Sae on the other hand did not intend to follow the simple plans of that short minded boy. He then stopped completely, forcing the raven haired into spratting his legs in order to brake down his acceleration and kicked the ball between them, before he sprinted past him just so he can fetch the ball up again. An immediate cross up front to the striker he hated with all his might followed. But unfortunately for him, this has been the best choice for him to make in that situation. 
"Shit...", he heard Yoichi curse before sprinting off again. 
'There is literally nothing stopping him, huh?', Sae thought. 

Sendou received the ball again. This time though, Niko was prepared. He observed his opponent's closely and then looked at the ball while he was 
'The ball has a back spin to make it easier to trap... so it's actually decelerating.', he muttered inside his mind. 'A nice smooth pass! Even if I run at full speed, I'll be a half step too late. It's a bullseye cross.'
And still he couldn't stop but to run. 
'This is a fucking booby trap, even more fucked up than they were in Vietnam.', he thought. 'By dragging me out and breaking what's left of our formation. They'll be able to easily get past our defensive nonexisting defensive line. A high level trap laid down by Itoshi Sae and if I go in, it's GAME OVER.' 
His eyes suddenly started to burn. 
'But, did you really think that'll be enough for you to win? Mr. Genius?'