A family thing

Chapter 58 Awakening beasts

"Is your knee alright?", Yoichi asked Chigiri while helping Chigiri to stretch the cramp out. 
"Yeah... Sorry.", Chigiri grunted. "Even thought the second half's just begun..." 
Doubts and regret was written all over his face as the sour words left his mouths. Yoichi smiled a bit at that sight. 
"Chigiri, you did great.", he spoke. "But it looks like you're getting subbed out." 
He pointed at the substitution board. 
"Shit.", the pink haired cursed. After a while Yoichi helped him up and he made his way towards the bench. 
"Chigri.", Yoichi called out. 
"What?" 
"I believe you already know.", he spoke without turning around. "Get that shit right next time." 

"Oh, what's this?", the commentator announced. "Blue Lock eleven is subbing on some players!!! Number 4 Chigri Hyoma and Number 3 Niko Ikki are being subbed out and coming up for them are Number 14 Mikage Reo and Number 16 Hiori Yo!!!"
Natsu looked down at the pitch. The other guys were still fantasising over that last goal. Her mind however was fixed on one player only. Kageyama Yoichi, who seemed to be deep in thought. 
"What are you thinking right now, Yoichi?", she asked herself. 
"Huh?", her brother said confused and sat up abruptly from Yachi's lap. "What was that about Yoichi?"  
"Uh... nothing..." 

"Good work, Niko!", Reo shouted and stormed onto the pitch. This was his moment, his chance. This was the moment to proof himself, the moment of truth. Was he good enough to go pro? Was he good enough to play against the top players of the world? Was all the practise he has done up until now enough? 
"I'll leave it to you.", Niko shouted after him and walked to the bench. Reo walked over to Nagi still a bit nervous. 
"Hey, Nagi.", he called out. "You'd better score a goal, you're better than this."
Nagi turned around, "Yeah..., I know." 
"It's all over if we don't win.", Reo spoke. "And it's still too early for us to stop."
"Yeah, I know.", was the dull answer of his best friend.  

Yoichi walked up front to the center of the pitch where Rin has already placed the ball onto the floor. 
'Alright, let's protect our lead.', Yoichi muttered inside his head and received the pass from Rin. The seemingly frozen players at their starting positions started to move, as if the gun for the start at a tracking race has been shot. 
'Aggressive ball pressing is a key for defensive teams with lethal counter attacks.', Yoichi thought as he was met with Shidou Ryusei being the one aggressivly pressing him to win Japan's U20 youth team the ball possession. The raven haired slid to the right. This time however, Sae added himself to the pressuring attack instead of leaving him alone in an one on one situation against Shidou as it has been in the first half. 
'Shit...', Yoichi gritted his teeth and quickly passed the ball between them to Nagi. The white haired transfered it to the wing to Bachira. Bachira trapped the ball skillfully and span around the defender marking him right away. He moved along the right wing and looked around. There. Kageyama Yoichi sprinted through the middle past the complete Japan U20 team as if he was doing a parcour race. As if Subway Surfers has come to life, Yoichi was there, avoiding, dodging, shaking off the U20 players like Jake dodging and shaking off the trains and the copper, who's seemingly never going to lose weight, no matter how many updates happen. 
"Oh~ Hello there~", he sing songed and pushed the ball forwards one last time. Neru ran towards him even though he knew he was too late. Bachira didn't wait for him to catch up and sent it right towards the center without further chit chat. 
"There you go~", he said and watched as the ball curved towards the middle. This time, Aiku forsaw that. 
"Not this time, ya bunch of robbers.", he murmered and jumped up before Yoichi. Being the taller one of the two he intercepted the ball with his head. 
"Shit...", Yoichi cursed under his breath as he watched the opposing captain stealing the ball from them. He landed and quickly rushed for the lose ball. None the less, Hayate beat him to it and arrived on scene bfore him. 
"Got it.", he muttered and swiftly passed it forwards to Sae. 
"Fuck!!!", Yoichi grunted and started to pursuit the world renowned star of Japan. Sae had no intention of letting Yoichi retrieving the ball for team Blue Lock. He stopped shortly in front of Karasu and scissored shortly before using an elastico to run past the other raven haired of Blue Lock. 
"Shit...", Karasu cursed. Shidou meanwhile broke free into the penalty area of Blue Lock. Reo marked him immediately. Sae saw the situation and passed a quick ball right to his left behind Aryu, who was trying to get in his way by initiating an 1v1 battle for the ball. Shidou got to the ball quickly and was just about to spin around to do a routinal shot for the goal. Reo had other ideas. He positioned himself only millimeters apart from Shidou locking down his options to spin around, denying him the easy shot he would have taken. 
'Defending by blocking the body and not letting me turn around?!', Shidou captured the situation. 'This bastard has actually got something...' 
"Fuck you...", Shidou muttered and decided to pass it outside to Kitsunezato, the arriving back-up. Kitsune ran for the ball and crossed it immediately after a quick spin around to get past Bachira. Shidou ran diagonally. Kitsunezato's crosses weren't as accurate as Sae's, so he had to do his best to adjust, if he wanted to score as efficiently as he does with Sae's passes. He jumped up as the ball was bound to fall a bit short. His body started to warm up. His vision became blurry as if his brain was not in control of his body anymore. The feeling of his cell burning and doing everything for him without the need for him to step in thrilled his heart. Joy, excitement and greed for another goal overtook his mind. Everything inside him longed for that one moment.  He swung his leg. No one could interfere anymore. Reo was five steps too late. He had space, he had time. He had everyting and he'll use it. All the heat from his cells were channeled into his leg as if they are screaming at him to finish it. His leg became hotter and hotter until it made contact with the ball. 
"BANG", was all he could hear before the heat inside of his leg and his body became normal. As if the ball has taken it away as it's making its way past Gagamaru and into the net of Blue Lock. 3:3. The score was now equalized. One goal and 32 minutes seperated him from winning. 
"So the first to achive 'Flow' in this match was you... Shidou Ryusei." 

Yoichi watched from afar as the rainbow eyed jumped around in celebration. 
"Fuck. There goes my lead...", he cursed and looked up at the crowd. The whole stadium was echoing with their chants, their cheers for their team that has just scored a mavelous goal. 
"Tch.", he became angry with himself. 
'Did I allow myself to rest just because I outplayed the world five in just one situation?', he asked himself. 'Did I really started to relax on my laurels just because I scored a goal myself in the first half? What was I doing?' 
He then looked at the scoreboard. 
'No, this is not the football I'd like to play.', he concluded and gritted his teeth. 'This is not the thing I worked for. This is not the thing I put in the effort for.' 
Something suddenly broke inside his mind. A whistling sound bombarded Yoichi. The lines, the sight from above suddenly came all at once and not for a split second. 
"This is my stage.", he whispered. "I will control it." 
The blue colour inside his glowing eyes became colder and colder. 
"Control." 

Rin looked up at ths score. He too felt agony and stress starting to build up inside of him. Their flawless 3:1 was blown away in less than 15 minutes. The raven haired he despised so much seemed to feel it too. No wonder. He was a perfectionist after all. Someone with a different mindset to football, but still with the same goal. But the match was not over. 31 minutes were still left on the clock. 31 minutes and one goal seperated him from the goal he has set himself since that very day. Was that the reason his brother chose Shidou over him? 
"Screw it.", he grunted and walked back to his position, the center of the pitch. Gagamaru fished the ball out of the net and threw it out to the waiting forward to restart this match. 
"Alright, let's get this restarted again.", Karasu murmered and waited for Rin to kick off, which he soon did. Yoichi leaped forward after passing the ball back to Karasu after receiving the ball from the green haired Blue Lock captain. Karasu moved forward to the center, with Shidou coming from his 12 o'clock like a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun. He waited for Shidou to get nearer for just a split second, before passing it forward to Nagi. The white haired turned around and trapped the ball. One last feint to Yoichi, before actually going for Yukimiya on the wing. The said teammate skillfully received the ball. 
"You've got nowhere to go.", Neru, his marker, declared as he positioned him in front of him. 
"Says who?", he retorted and went for the wing. Neru sticked to him, not letting him go. Yukimiya stopped for a split of second then passed it to Yoichi, who rushed through the middle. Sae arrived on scene in front of him, ready to lock him down whatever it takes. Yoichi on the ohter hand, had no intention of playing the puppet of his game in any way. Hiori was free on his right. Without further ado he transferred the ball into the runway of the cyan haired winger with his first touch and continued running. Every piece of his chess game was in attack mode. All he needed to do now was to crack through the annoying defense of the U20. Hiori scissored quickly and rainbow flicked it over Darai. Seconds later he passed it inside to Rin.  At least that was his actual intention. Until Aiku stepped in by putting his leg into the pass route, deflecting it in the process. Yoichi quickly rushed to get the ball back, but Hayate was already there fetching the ball and kicking it to Sae. Yoichi sprinted back catching up with Sae, who stopped to make him postion himself in front of him. 

"We're up, Reo.", Aiku warned him as they watched Sae only being held back by Yoichi. He rehearsed the instructions Ego has given him one last time, "Listen, Mikage Reo. There's only one reason for you to be subbed in and that is to stop Shidou Ryusei."
"Got it.", he said a few minutes ago in full confidence, unaware of the goal that was about to happen. "I practiced as a defender as well in the training camp and I've been observing the U20 defenders for the whole match like you've told me."
'Shidou and Itoshi Sae, don't let either of them out of your sight.', he told himself one last time. Yoichi a few yards in front of him, seemed to finally getting the hang out of defending Itoshi Sae. The U20's assault seemed to have slow down. Whatever directions Sae dribbles to, he follows up to them with the perfect timing locking down all the favourable options and cutting down every good space that was preferable. Reo observed them carefully. A battle for space and options. To him Yoichi's plan's first priority with this sort of approach wasn't necessairly getting the ball. It was rather forcing Sae into uncomfortable places, where he couldn't get the maximum out of his shots, so it could be easier for the rest of the Blue Lock defenders locking down the passing options Sae had. 
'Still dribbling.', Reo thought as he looked at Sae. Then he turned his attention to Shidou who was rushing towards him. He looked back at Sae, 'He hasn't moved yet...' 
Shidou came closer and closer. 
'Not yet...', he thought to himself as Sae finally got to position where he had the option of a tough shot. 'Here it comes... time to kill...' 
The ball followed Shidou sharply as he made his way through Bachira and Yukimiya. Reo stormed forwards and jumped forwards. The same movements Oliver Aiku would do to intercept a midair ball.