⋆. 𐙚 ˚

"My body hurts."

You sluggishly walked behind your teammates, itching your irritated skin. You didn't even bother opening your eyes and kept murmuring to no one about how tired you were.

Soon enough, the team arrived at a big doorway illuminated with a blueish hue. On the top of the door, '2nd STAGE' was written in bold letters. Looking around, no one was excited to start the next selection in this state, 'He should have given us half a day off.'

One of the girls pushed a button attached to the door, which automatically triggered it to open. Stepping inside, you were a bit shocked to see how many people had already gathered in the gigantic white room.

Your eyes roamed around and fell on team Z standing in the corner and discussing amongst themselves. Your eyes accidentally locked with Fukushima, making you scowl at her in disgust as the dark blue-haired girl returned the favor by showing the middle finger.

"Looks like someone is still holding onto a grudge?" Misa teased you slyly, "I don't have a problem with anyone besides her." You rolled your eyes at her.

You regained your posture and continued looking, 'They may be from different buildings but look as beat up as us.' 

You wondered for a second before something clicked. This time you didn't look at the player's faces but rather at their rankings being displayed on their biceps, "What the fuck." You whispered to yourself.

"Rank 167, Team V..." You whispered in shock. Stepping forward to get a better view you were perplexed at what was happening before you. Every individual that wasn't in your block had somehow had the same team assigned to them that was given to you, 'the worst players' of Blue Lock or the members of building 5.

Suddenly, it clicked, 'Ah, I see...We've been fooled.' Before you could inform anyone about what was happening, the five big screens mounted around each corner of the room lit up, and there sat Mister Ego in his glory, grinning like a mad scientist about to launch his world-ending plan.

"Hello there, unpolished gems. Good work on passing the first selection and making it this far. If you were smart enough, then you would have noticed. There are no players from buildings 1, 2, 3, or 4 here. That is because only building 5 exists in Blue Lock." You sighed in defeat.

You had already figured it out but it looked like the other girls didn't as they immediately started cussing Ego out who was used to it by now, 'He made us train like a fucking dog whilst feeding us lies to demoralize us and in the process fueling our anger to defeat the players of buildings 1,2,3 and 4 and re-building our ego...Fucking genius.'

Ego then stretched out his arm and a hologram of the building appeared, further confirming his statement for those people who refused to believe so. "agh what the fuck!" Ejiri was going to throw a fit but Ai's smack to the head shut her up real quick.

"You all believed you were the bottom of the pile, battling through the first selection filled with stupid desperation." Ego chuckled at everyone's pathetic faces like a tyrant until you all lost their shit and immediately started the shit out of him.

"Seriously?! screw you!"

"you put us through all that training! you torturer!"

" I couldn't even text my boyfriend because of how tired I was!"

"you trynna kill us or something?! "

"ding-ding, yup that's right." Ego fixed his glasses, "Ego you sadistic asshole." You mumbled with a sigh of exasperation also escaping, "It was all a ruse I set up to destroy your half-baked confidence and give you the hunger to become the best in the world."

 Ego's statement made everyone even angrier, 'it's like he has a death wish.' You questioned his antics of speaking to a room full of girls going through puberty. He was picking a fight with the wrong bunch, 'Someone's going to crash out on him.'

He then proceeded to give an example of Noel Noe, explaining how poor he was and how to change his fate soccer was his only option. 'That's sad and all but still doesn't give him the right to almost kill us.' you quietly listened as Ego continued his speech.

"There are countless strikers around the world with similar stories. Their hunger for goals is immeasurable. Since you all were born and raised in Japan, where losing doesn't affect your life, you will never know or experience this hunger and passion these players have. Blue lock exits for this purpose." 

Those words were like a shock to everyone, suddenly it was a shove into the light of how for granted losing in soccer was taken. Even though half of you all wanted to jump Ego he was also correct.

"You all came here to kick the butts of those ranked higher than you, believing you could win. Am I right? That hunger will become the ego that changes the world." Ego calmly stated, fixing his posture.

'Am I going crazy because I'm starting to enjoy this?' You grinned, the loss of taste that Fukushima had forced into your mouth may have made you go insane...Just a little insane. You looked at Ego with a different look in your eyes.

"We will now begin with Blue Lock's second selection. The first selection was about finding what it meant to be a striker and turning the 'zero' into 'one'. From here on, it'll be a battle of multiplying that one into a hundred on this cutting-edge training field."

Ego explained, you smirked in excitement for the next challenge. He raised his hand once more as five holograms of the Pentagon appeared with the listing of 1,2,3,4 and 5 respectively ingrained onto them.

"The second selection consists of five stages. Only those who clear the stages get to move on to the next and those who pass...Get to participate in a training camp with the world's top players that I have hand-picked myself." Your eyes widened a bit at the last part.

'World's top players? This guy sure has some connections alright.' You stood awe-struck for a minute, thinking how much huge this was. This guy was providing some seriously good opportunities that people dream about. Ego grinned, suddenly four baskets, fully loaded with balls sprung up from the ground and were placed at the sides of a gateway.

At the center of the gate '2ND SELECTION' was boldly embedded. Your eyes trailed to the arrow that pointed toward the ground that had the number '1' on it, indicating that this was the first stage.

"That's all I have for you, once you are fully ready, go through that game one at a time." Ego finished, "The first stage is individual challenge?!" Misa voiced out. Worry was written on her face, "But I don't want to get separated from you.."

"Of course, the difficulty has been certainly increased from the previous selection. If you survived the last round because you got lucky with teammates, well then get ready!" Ego's smile screamed satisfaction, "In the second selection, trash will be sifted out. Only the true egoist will remain. Best of luck to all of you."

With that, the screen glitched and instead of Ego, there was Blue Lock's logo. You took a second to breathe before turning to your teammates, "Don't panic!" Airi kept mumbling to herself.

You looked around, 'Looks like no one is willing to go in quite yet...' Suddenly Misa hugged you, "But I don't want to play alone!" She sniffled in a cutesy way, "Me too but we don't have a choice do we?"

From what you were observing, everyone was likely scared of what Ego had in store for them and you were one of them, well not scared but a little anxious, 'I mean if I don't play smartly I could lose any second starting from the first selection.

A few seconds passed and you couldn't hold your anticipation, "If no one's going then I'm going first." You whispered to Misa but before you could step forward towards the door someone else did.

You looked at the person who approached the door before you. She had beautiful and shiny black hair, captivating teal eyes with long underlashes adorning her eyes. The black-haired female held a cold look, observing everyone in the room including you with her piercing gaze. 

She grabbed a ball from the basket and dropped it on the ground making a 'thud' sound. By this moment the whole room had gone silent, some questioning what she planning on doing and some lost in her beauty. She placed her foot on the ball and grabbed another one from the basket making you quirk a brow.

Suddenly the black-haired female kicked the ball she had placed her foot on high up in the air.  Before the ball could hit the floor, she jumped and performed a frontflip, extending her right leg as if doing a bicycle kick, and kicked the second ball which was just a second ago in her hand. 

The balls collided with each other at great speed and bounced off several walls in a beautiful trajectory as if creating a star pattern while moving at a high velocity. Your eyes widened, realizing both the balls coming your way, quickly jumping out of the way both the balls hit the wall rather gently as compared to their high speed and landed in the basket.

"..." You gulped the spit you were holding, there was utter silence. Everyone just stared at the female dumbfoundedly. She looked at everyone's faces, observing their reactions, and turned around, menacingly walking towards the gate. 

She sparred you look for a second before looking again and glaring at the rest of the players as if they had stolen her leftovers. But unlike you, the rest shivered or looked somewhere else.

"open the gate, I'm done with my warm-up."

Her voice echoed in the room, 'Warm up?!' You made a perplexed face at her words. The more you looked at her the more you thought she looked rather familiar, 'Have I seen her before?'

The gate opened for her and without a second thought, she stepped inside. The gates closed slowly behind her and so did her figure disappear in no time. 

The screen above the door showed an icon of the said female which also displays her name at the bottom of the screen, 'Whoever designed that sketch of her did not do her any justice.' There were loud gasps at her name you were confused but realized the shock of the players.

"Itoshi Aya?!"

"You mean to tell me she's the sister of that insanely hot soccer player Itoshi Sae?!" Misa squealed in excitement, "Whoa...We're playing soccer with that prodigy's sister?" Ai voiced out with an anxious look.

You couldn't even get a word out, 'No wonder she's so pretty...Runs in the family I guess.' You shook your head in disbelief.

You spent some time saying goodbye and prying Misa off you and finally stepped in the gate and entered an eerie dark hallway, 'Calm down [Name]...' You were scared of the dark and hated the feeling someone would be behind you.

After what felt like an eternity you finally reached the end and pressed up a dimly lit blue button, granting you access to the other side you closed your eyes for a second, 'This is it... I guess.'

As soon as you stepped a foot in you were flashed with a bright light lit up in every corner of the large room making you blind for a minute, 'What the fuck is wrong with Ego.'

You looked around the room, grasping the new surroundings. The floor was matted with grass while the room and the corners were made with off-white tiles. There was a big but singular screen stationed at the side of the room, 'What now?'

Suddenly one of the white tiles opened and launched a ball flying at great speed toward you making you flinch but stopped it with your feet. You furrowed your brows, confused about what was going to happen.

You heard a distorted noise coming from behind you, turning around you were surprised to see a goalpost and holographic goalkeeper rise from the ground. The holographic had a rather sturdy and muscular build, 'Looks like something she would be into'

You stood at the center of the field, eyeing the hologram before a blue area appeared behind it. On top of the goal was written 'GOAL ZONE'.  You looked at the ball under your foot before looking at the goalkeeper and understood what you needed to do.

'I just have to score a goal? Looks easy but knowing that rat he must have hidden in some mechanic to this.' A bright red light flashed on your figure, forming a circle that started getting smaller by the second.

 You thought for a second, hesitating a little. Taking a few steps, you lightly tapped the ball forward and kicked it, the ball flew in a beautiful curve. The holograph jumped to block it but missed by an inch winning you your first goal.

Another ball was shot towards you, but this time it was after like it was going straight at your head. You leaped and skillfully trapped the ball, 'I swear he is trying to kill us at this point'. Another circle appeared, 'Is this acting as a timer of some sort?'.

"I have done this before, this is a penalty area situational training. I should assess the situation fast, run into the space that's getting smaller by the second, outwit the goalkeeper, and finally grab a goal" You murmured to yourself.

You kicked the ball once more into the same corner with the same force applied as the last kick. The Blue Lock man jumped once again but it curved at the last second changing its route, curving to the other corner. The blue-lock man fell to the ground as the ball touched the net, scoring another point.

You were satisfied with your planning, 'I feel like I've improved a lot by coming to Blue Lock, not only my skills but my mental state...Just a little though.' Your thoughts were abrupt when the screen mounted on top flashed open.

[TO CLEAR THE STAGE: 98 GOALS]

[TIME] 89:29

You scrunched your face at the number of goals that you had to complete to progress, '98 more to go...This will be a lone battle that will challenge me as well as my ego in the penalty area." You rubbed your temple as another ball could be seen hurdling your way.

Maybe the pressure was climbing up on you and had reached your head as the stages got worse and worse each turn, "When will this end?!" You screamed out of exhaustion but had to keep going for the sake of it.

Bam!...! Bam!....! Bam!...! Bam!....

"Finally." You held an expressionless face, tired from scoring a hundred goals back to back. You wiped the sweat from your forehead which was creeping around your whole body making you uncomfortable.

"I feel like I cleared it pretty early." You looked at the timer which had stopped with a fairly good time left on it. You inhaled and exhaled in an attempt to relax your overworked body.

Walking to the exit gate you felt your legs wobbling with each step, 'I need to work on my leg strength...' You stumbled upon a short white hallway that led to the main room. Subconsciously you held your breath.

To your surprise, you found two females in the room, and out of them, you recognized one of them pretty fast, 'Of course Itoshi's here and...I don't know the other but her hair is cool.' You were a bit amazed at your speed and maybe got a little ego boost out of it.

You were in your world, not wanting to disturb anyone but it looked like that wouldn't be the case, "You...You're very beautiful I will admit, well not as beautiful as me but you could easily get modeling offers, whats your skincare routine?" 

"Uhh...Thank you too?" You made an awkward face at the brown-haired female approach to start a conversation. You met eyes with the Aya sitting far back on a chair, 'Where did she get a damn chair?' 

"Thank you darling but I already know that. I am Aikawa Ami! An aspiring fashionista and likes everything sty~"  You raised a brow at the brown-haired female unique way of speech but ignored it. 

Your eyes then trailed to both Aikawa and Aya's ranking numbers which now had been changed to 1 and 2 respectively, ' Looks like the new ranking depends on the order in which players clear, one by one.' 

You then looked at your ranking, "Number 3...?!" You whispered to yourself, shaken a little by how much better your skills had become.

The three of you stood and well sat around in awkward silence with you and Aikawa making little talk here and there which led to particularly nothing, "Hey you two." Aya spoke out making you flinch.

"It says we need to make a team of three to progress onto the next stage." You took in what she was saying and realized quickly, "You want us to team up?" The black-haired female nodded quietly.

'But what about her?' You were stuck in a predicament. On one hand, you are getting an opportunity to team up with the current top-ranked player in Blue Lock but on the other hand, you promised to meet up with Misa.

"Im in, what about you [Name]?" Aikawa looked at you with sparkling and pleading eyes, "I uhm-" Just as you were about to answer the door opened, and the person you had both wished and not wished to be here came through.

"[Name]?"

꩜ .ᐟ

A/n: Ya'll are NOT ready for the drama I'm about to cause from here and going forward lmao :)