"Hey Akira, you have ten goal points yeah?"

"hum? Oh yeah, I do why?"

"That means you cash them in and get a day outside Blue Lock!"

"Oh yeah, I guess I can..."

"Hey, guys there's someone outside who says he wants to talk to you in the cafeteria."

The Team V quartet turned to the door, all showered and in a fresh change of clothes looking to their teammate who stood leaning against the entrance. "Who is it?" Reo asked annoyed that what little downtime they had was being disturbed. "No idea, he's a guy from another team who says he has an offer to make you guys"

"Offer?" Akira said looking towards his friends who only shrugged, just as clueless as he was. "I'm hungry," Nagi says as he rolls over onto his back. "Well we might as well go and hear this guy out then, and get something to eat while we're at it" And with that, the quartet ventured off towards the building five cafeteria, where a tall brown-haired boy sat waiting for them.

"Hello, I'm Kuon-" The teen tried to introduce himself but was promptly cut off by a tired Nagi. "Food first" And with that Zantetsu and Reo went to get food from the dispenser, both choosing to get the goal bonus steak. Akira shared with Nagi, as the white-haired boy would most likely only eat half if not less.

Now that the group of Team V players were settled and eating, the dishevelled teen looked like he had been dragged through a field of glass. Dressed in a team Z jersey, catching the bronzed teen's attention. 'This must be one of Isagi's teammates' the curly-haired boy thought eyeing the boy with slight suspicion, unsure of what his intentions were.

"Hello, I'm Kuon Wataru of Team Z and I have a proposition for you" The brown-haired boy opposite them introduced himself, "Team Z, you are the next opponent? what could you possibly have to offer us? and were not throwing the match so your shit team can all go through, forget it." Reo said eyes narrowed at the trembling teen before him, this was a waste of time.

"No, no, no. That is not the offer, basically, the deal is I give you info on Team Z. The kind you could use to keep them from making goals and in exchange you guys let me advance as the team's top scorer. You do that and I can promise you one thing, you'll have the advantage in every single match"

'such a snake' Akira thought as the teen droned on and on about the so-called 'benefits' of the deal, but the curly-haired teen called bullshit. They didn't need to cheat to win, they could get ahead with pure skill alone.

"So in closing by working together I guarantee your chances of making it through to the second selection will skyrocket, well what do you say? Wanna partner up?" The brown-haired boy asked looking towards the teens before him with a bright smile, hoping his salesman pitch had worked. 'thank god he stopped talking' Akira rolled his eyes thankfull he had finally shut up, thank god because any longer and his ears would have started bleeding.

"I refuse."

"sounds like a bother"

"boring to boot"

"você está brincando comigo? de jeito nenhum, porra, were good thank's"

Akira was happy to see that his teammate and friends were on the same page, as Zantetsu worded there thoughts perfectly "You realise the proposition you are proposing is devoid of any merit whatsoever, in fact, it would be a demerit. Essentially your main priority in making this little arrangement is taking an initiative approach, so uh did that make sense to anyone else" The glasses teen said turning to the other three, Akira giving him a nod in agreement.

"Would you knock it off Zantetsu, nothing is gonna help make your dumbass sound any smarter" Reo chimed in while he played with Nagi's hair while his other hand gently rested on Akira's upper thigh, before turning his attention to the desperate Team Z player. "As for you, I never could stand people who were lame or boring and you exhibit both qualities" the Mikage boy said unimpressed at the offer presented to them.

""It's your call Reo, your's to Akira. I couldn't care less, I don't even have the energy to chew my food" The white-haired teen said, a bite of uneaten steak still on his fork as he remained slumped on the table. "Me no like snakes" Was all Akira said, glaring at the boy in front of him, his hatred for him as clear as the midday sun. "Give me a piggyback out of here" Nagi asked his face now flat against the table.

"Nagi! I brought you to the cafeteria in the first place cuz you said you were hungry"

"Sorry, but it's too much of a hassle right now"

With that, the quartet stood to leave, as Zantetsu eyed Akira's half of Nagi's steak. So disgusted at the interaction between the Team Z player, he wasn't in the mood to eat anymore.

"Very tempting a half-eaten steak, but eating someone else's scraps will make me look stupid. Tough choice"

"Wait a sec, we can work something out"

Kuon said getting out of his seat, his desperation rearing its ugly head in full force. Akira almost felt bad for him, the key word is almost, he would never actually feel bad for a snake in the grass as they deserved all the misfortune they got.

"Hey Reo Akira, any idea why this guy is so desperate?"

"Guess he wants to win"

"he's a triste pedaço de merda, that's why"

"Huh? You can't win without sneaking around? Being weak sounds like such a hassle, I'd rather just quit playing. Hey, Akira is football so interesting you'd still play even on the losing side?"

"Well-"

"Hey, hold up" The quartet was faced with none other than Isagi Yoichi blocking the door, with his other teammates right behind him. Akira hadn't spoken to him in a while, and it wasn't because he was mad at him or something he was just busy. "And who are you?" Reo asked

The blue-eyed teen didn't answer and instead pointed at Nagi "Never look down on football" he said with a pointed stare. "You still haven't answered my question," the amethyst-eyed teen said not taking kindly to being ignored, noticing how the black-haired boy's eyes trailed over his Akira, eyes filled with a feeling he knew all too well. Love.

"I'm with team Z, Isagi Yoichi and I'm the one who's going to defeat you"

As three of the four teammate V players left the room without saying another word, they failed to notice that one of them stayed behind, "You really could no take a softer approach, meu amigo?" Akira said looking towards Isagi with a bright smile, as he stepped towards the door.

"It's good to see you again Isagi, Bachira, Kunigami, Chigiri. I look forward to playing against you guys, if I was you though I would skin that cadela alive for betraying you team" And with that Akira followed his teammates out the door, leaving the rest of Team Z starring at the four boys with more questions then they had answers.

"How the fuck do you know the good-looking one, I swear to god if you guys are rats too I'm gonna skin you and turn you into a coat for my grandma"

"Clam the fuck down Raichi, it's not what you think"

"Yeah budget Cruella, listen before you try to peel our skin off like fruit"

The four explained how they each knew the curly-haired beauty with golden eyes from Team V. Once the team had an understanding of the situation and that there was no foul play involved, they all made their way back to their room to begin the team meeting, Kuon included.

"Team Y's Nico scored the equaliser against Team W, so match nine ended in a draw. As a result, we are now in third place out of the five teams competing. What's more the only match remaining in building five is our game against Team V, if we draw we won't advance due to our worse goal difference. So if we wanna survive, then we need to win plain and simple."

Lemon's opening statement set the tone, the harsh reality that it was do or die trying. "Hey Kuon's listening in, the scum" Raichi seethed looking towards the team traitor, seconds away from ripping his head off. "So what? Who's gonna work with him now anyway?" Naruhaya Asahi said and he had a point, no one liked a turncoat.

"Seem's like a miracle team Y came away with a draw" Igarashi Gurimu chimed in with a fair point, to which Chigiri couldn't help but agreed "That is strange, Niko didn't strike me as someone as the type of player who would take on shots himself"

"I guess he got inspired by a certain someone" Bachira joked clearly referring to Isagi and the moment the two shared during their game against each other, 'so he's the kinda guy who gets stronger after losing' Isagi thought with a wide grin.

"All right, now let's discuss the key players on Team V our final opponent. This front four has managed twenty-six goals over three games, their team has gone undefeated thanks to their incredible ferocity on the attack. Zantetsu Tsurugi, three goals, Mikage Reo, five goals, Nagi Seishiro, six goals, and Ito Akira Team V's top scorer twelve goals. If we don't stop them from scoring, we'll be packing our bag gentleman."

Now that their situation had been laid out in front of them, it looked downright impossible. A David and Goliath situation, and maybe this time round Goliath would be the victor.

"How the fuck did that guy score twelve goal's surely he can't be that good"

"Hey you guys know this dude, he has any weakness"

"Not that I know of, when Isagi and I played against him in a friendly game it was impossible to get the ball off him" Bachira confessed, his words doing nothing to reassure the nerves of his teammates who looked to grow more worried at this revelation.

"I mean he's Brazilian and Miguel Ribeiro's son so are we really surprised he's good?" Chigiri asked, as when Team Z found out that they were going against the son of Miguel Ribeiro most of them shit their pants. As all of them looked up to him, and knowing the original perfectionist he would have trained his son to be like him too, perfect.

"We need to focus and train hard if we want to have any chance of beating Team V," What Kunigami said was spot on, they all knew that this was going to be an uphill battle with setbacks at every corner. They needed to put in the work and prepare as best as possible, in terms of strategies and tactics maximizing every possible advantage over the opposition. Which would be easier said than done, but the team were optimistic as they had one week to prepare for the showdown of a lifetime.

'I love you Akira, but I am not losing this match'