011 Blue Lock: System Ten Years Early

Clap... Clap...

Sparse applause rang out as Ego Jinpachi once again appeared on the screen:

"Well said. Then let me reiterate once more. You 'raw gems of talent'—here, results are everything."

"So, the one who was hit last—roll out yourself. You've lost your qualification."

The extra opened and closed his mouth a few times, but in the end said nothing. Dejected, he picked up his luggage and walked out the door.

"You really saved me quite a bit of trouble. Otherwise I'd have to listen to every loser's wailing in every room and patiently explain things—just a lot of extra work for me."

On the screen, Ego Jinpachi lifted a cup of coffee and took a sip expressionlessly.

"But not everyone is as sharp as you, so what needs to be said still has to be said as a matter of procedure."

"However, since you spared me the trouble of arguing with mediocrities, I'll use the extra time as a special service to chat with you."

"After going through this game of tag, does anyone have any thoughts?"

Everyone looked at each other. Finally, a blue-haired boy raised his hand.

"Um, the size of this room should be the same as the penalty area, right? And the time limit is strange—it's not an integer. As a normal game, the time left for strategic thinking feels a bit short."

"Hmm... Hyori Yo, rank 244. Looks like not everyone here is a brain-dead idiot." Ego Jinpachi gave rare praise and raised his hand to summon a 3D projection model.

"That's right. This game is essentially testing your ability to handle the ball in the penalty area. The runner needs perception of others, game sense, and positioning. The chaser needs excellent dribbling and the ability to shoot accurately while in motion."

"And in a match, each player's average ball possession time is about 136 seconds."

"Among you, Kōken Shinichi was the first to notice this and chose to proactively take on the risk of elimination by becoming 'it' in exchange for offensive initiative. He also waited until the very last second to act, cutting off all possibilities of a comeback."

"A forward is someone who takes full responsibility for scoring goals and fights until the final second. Kōken Shinichi not only dared to shoulder that responsibility, but at the end, because of his personal preference, temporarily changed his attack target and hit No. 245—who was completely behind him and in his blind spot—with a high-difficulty turning shot."

"This is a desire to win that isn't swayed by collective common sense, but driven solely by one's own desires. It's also the selfish mentality a forward must possess—what I seek."

"The world-class players you admire fight like this to the death every match. So how was it? The feeling of betting your life for the first time—scary, right? When Shinichi was chasing you, it was like encountering a wild beast barehanded in the wilderness."

"You were scared, right? Your scalp tingled, goosebumps all over your body, huh? But at the moment time ran out, didn't you suddenly feel relieved? 'Thank goodness, I'm the one who stayed!'—didn't you think that?"

"That's the feeling of victory! Just like Shinichi said, some people were unqualified in his eyes, but in the end, you stayed while those with better overall qualities left. Because the world of winning and losing is that unreasonable. And you—right now, in this first game—are the winners!"

"Remember this feeling. Etch it into your brain. Every time you taste this pleasure, it will amplify your sense of self. In the end, you'll all have the chance to surpass Kōken Shinichi and continuously approach the peak of becoming the world's number one forward."

"Are you addicted to playing teacher now, you lunatic? Even serving people motivational soup?"

Shinichi, who had been turned into a target to give everyone a benchmark, was extremely displeased and bluntly tore him down.

"If this bunch is only at this level, they won't surpass me even in a hundred years."

"Kōken Shinichi, considering your performance, I can even give you some special treatment. How does it feel? Pretty exhilarating, right—this feeling of deciding someone else's fate and destroying their future?"

"Nope. Very ordinary. After all, I just eliminated a completely ordinary passerby. Forget exhilaration—I don't even feel a sense of achievement."

"Without an opponent worth fighting, I can't get excited at all. Unless the one I just eliminated was Noel Noa—I might be happy for a day, then forget his name a week later. No matter who it is, anyone who blocks me dies. It's that simple."

"Excessive confidence is stupidity... but for now, keep being yourself. The third round... alright, time's about up. Congratulations—you've passed the test to enter Blue Lock."

"Just like Shinichi said earlier, the 11 people in this room form a team. From now on, you'll be a team that lives together—sometimes helping each other, sometimes betraying, sometimes destroying each other's dreams. Blue Lock's Team X."

...

"Hey, no way—can that even be considered human? Weren't we told everyone summoned here is under 18?"

"This speed—why not specialize in track and field? The talent gap is total annihilation."

"Not just track and field. Every test event—he's first by a landslide. If there were an ability chart, he'd completely lap us once—no, twice!"

Inside a room filled with training equipment, a group huddled together whispering, and the topic was naturally Kōken Shinichi, who was undergoing tests.

"Got nothing better to do?" Shinichi didn't want to be stared at like a circus monkey. One glance scattered the group like startled birds, leaving only one person behind, who said nothing and just watched him.

"Hyori Yo? What's up?" Shinichi helplessly put down the dumbbells and casually wiped his sweat with a towel. His gold-grade Genius trait made him recall this character who only appeared briefly at the very end of the anime.

"I'm just curious—why do you play football? You're so strong, you must carry huge expectations from others."

At the final scene of the anime, he'd thought this guy was someone like Bachira who played purely for joy. Is he actually this annoying type? Shinichi thought, recalling only the manga scene where Isagi Yoichi awakened Meta Vision and clashed with Kaiser, and waved his hand impatiently.

"Other people's expectations? There's tons of that. Why should I live for that kind of thing?"

"Running, chess, archery—basically every sport, I've achieved quite a bit. Those people always begged me not to waste my talent and to keep pushing in that field."

"But what does that have to do with me? I just do what I want. Right now, football is interesting. Blue Lock is interesting. So I'm playing football. If tomorrow the basketball world produces a Generation of Miracles, I'll switch to basketball the next day and try it out."

"But didn't you say you'd become the world's number one? Isn't that wish important? Could it be that something you didn't notice gave you expectations that made you—"

"Stop. Stop. Stop." Shinichi cut off Hyori Yo's rambling and pointed a finger at him. "Get one thing straight. It's not that I 'want' to become the world's number one. It's that I 'will' become the world's number one. That's an absolute fact that no one can stop."

"So whether your so-called expectations exist or not won't change anything. I act solely for my own interest and 'fun.' That's all."

Shinichi picked up his towel and left, leaving Hyori Yo standing there in a daze. Karasu Tabito told him to 'have expectations' for himself, but to him, anyone's expectations were useless. Just seeing the word 'expectations' was enough to make him nauseous.

Born into a family of top athletes, their expectations for children were to become number one—there was no family affection at all. If you couldn't meet their expectations, the family itself would instantly collapse and cease to exist.

And to maintain his family, he kept playing football. Coming to Blue Lock was merely to escape that family—for as long as possible.

But Hyori Yo discovered for the first time that someone could completely ignore such things. And those other so-called geniuses—bewitched by parents' and coaches' words, thinking they were chasing their own dreams when in fact they were merely products of others' expectations—were even less capable.

Only Kōken Shinichi. This free man—if he hadn't come to Blue Lock, Hyori Yo would never have discovered him. That expectation he couldn't realize himself might be transferred onto him. Shinichi didn't care anyway—when lice are many, they don't itch.

Because of Shinichi's confidence, his talent, his performance in the first game of tag, what he lacked, and his ambition—at the moment their eyes met during discussion, Hyori Yo was certain he saw the same scenery in Shinichi's eyes as his own.

Hyori Yo instantly discarded all the bullshit Ego Jinpachi had said. He never wanted to become the world's number one anyway...

He saw it! In Kōken Shinichi's eyes, there was no so-called title of 'world's number one' at all! He was clearly looking far beyond. This man's ambition was far more terrifying than anyone in Blue Lock!

Bearing no expectations at all—what on earth supported him in reaching this point?

Hyori Yo was certain that although Shinichi spoke lightly, he would absolutely not stop before reaching his final goal. Could it really be as he said—driven purely by interest? By the ridiculous reason of fun?

Hyori Yo suddenly recalled Shinichi's words in the first game. Perhaps he never regarded any of this as a challenge. To him, it was just a 'game' destined to be cleared.

"Seriously... that guy is so single-celled." Seeing a completely different scenery in Shinichi's eyes, Hyori Yo felt his blood boil for the first time in his life. Something utterly different from Ego Jinpachi—something extremely crazy—was drawing him in.

Even if it was a chance encounter, that was enough to become his reason to fight. He absolutely would not let this talent be buried! And standing beside him, I will personally witness this pivotal turning point where football history changes!

And I, who accompany Shinichi from before his rise, watching little by little as the storm sweeping the entire football world takes shape—perhaps I'll experience a unique feeling that no football person in the world could ever understand.

I, Hyori Yo, want to see just how far Shinichi—carrying expectations as heavy as mine—can go. To achieve this, I'm willing to become the 'aid' that sends Shinichi onto the throne of history. I'm willing to live for such a future!

This isn't a choice made for me by others. It's the path to the future that I, Hyori Yo, found myself!

Of course, what Hyori didn't know was that in some aspects, Shinichi really wasn't lying. If he truly discovered that Generation of Miracles, he might really switch to basketball immediately.

After all, the system's name is the Legendary Athlete System—it isn't limited to football. He only came to play because he discovered the main storyline called 'Blue Lock' and planned to follow the main route to level up a bit.

Yeah—if that kind of thing really happened, then Hyori Yo, who had silently bet his life behind the scenes to pave the way for Shinichi, would probably switch jobs the next day to become Japan server's second top marksman, and take Shinichi out like assassinating a certain leader.