"I..." Ness's mind was in a haze. He couldn't fully grasp the situation unfolding on the pitch. Years of ingrained habits made his body move on instinct, but Shinichi's words—"Play freely"—echoed in his heart like an anchor, rooting him to the spot.
It felt as if something long buried within him was beginning to stir, awakened by that single phrase. Something deeply important. And yet, this emotion dragged at his feet. The conflict between two voices inside him—habit versus instinct—left him paralyzed, unsure which to follow.
"You're spacing out here, of all places? I can't believe I got dispossessed by someone like you. Seriously."
Charles' exasperated voice snapped Ness out of his daze, but it was already too late. The emptiness at his feet told him all he needed to know—he'd lost the ball.
"Hey, you brat!" Even Lavinho, who had intentionally passed the ball to Ness as a gesture of goodwill, couldn't help but yell in frustration. He was never the nurturing type to begin with—he only gave up the ball because he couldn't stand seeing that smug bastard Kaiser. But for Ness to immediately lose it? That ticked him off even more. "Shinichi, this is who you have your eye on?"
"If it's based on his current level—then no, he's not worth it," Shinichi replied bluntly, not sparing Ness's pride. His words made Ness lower his head even further in shame.
Maybe Kaiser wasn't wrong... Maybe I was thrown away simply because I wasn't good enough...
"But," Shinichi continued, "he's got potential I'm willing to bet on. So I'll give him a bit more patience than most."
That unexpected follow-up shocked Ness.
Before Charles could pass the ball, Shinichi had already burst forward, using his physical edge to forcibly retake possession. Without hesitation, he sent the ball right back to Ness.
"Stop thinking about all the irrelevant things. Think back to what it felt like when you first played football. A magic trick where the ending is obvious can't surprise anyone. So strip away all those rules you've put on yourself. What kind of football do you want to play? Follow that voice inside you."
"Geez, Shinichi," Lavinho laughed loudly. "That's a little too preachy, don't you think? You think some anime monologue's gonna make him awaken on the spot?"
But Ness… Ness was truly shaken. Shinichi's words stirred something deeper in him than even he expected.
How did I first fall in love with football...?
His thoughts drifted back to a long-forgotten past—back to a colorless world, where his family's obsession with logic and science left no room for magic, joy, or spontaneity.
Ness had always longed for magic—something unexplainable, something that could stir the soul.
That was why, the very first time he saw a roaring stadium, waves of people surging with emotion, and the thrill that shattered all reason—he felt it.
That feeling—that was magic. The magic called football. That was what Ness had believed back then.
"But later... that magic stopped working. That's why I ended up drawn to Kaiser," he thought, a bitter smile tugging at his lips. "Because someone who could play football that exciting... had to be a better magician than me." His voice trailed off in his mind. "Those days with Kaiser passed quickly... but now that I think about it—"
"How long has it been since I last felt that unexplainable feeling?"
He looked up at the defenders converging on him. A slow smile rose on his lips.
And then—BOOM. A burst of purple flames exploded from within him, sweeping across the pitch like a shockwave!
"Wait, are you serious?! He actually awakened?!" Lavinho, who caught the moment Ness's presence transformed, gawked.
The sharp rise in Ness's movement quality was undeniable. Dumbfounded, he broke formation and ran over to Shinichi, throwing an arm around his shoulder.
"Hey hey, Shinichi, we're pals, right? How about you say a couple of those cool lines to me too? Maybe I'll awaken on the spot! If I take down Noa, I'll make you my exclusive midfielder!"
"I just helped Ness stop being lost, that's all," Shinichi replied calmly. "Lavinho, are you lost?"
"Hah? The hell I'd be lost? My only goal is to crush Noa!"
"Then it won't work," Shinichi replied bluntly, shaking Lavinho off as he began to reposition. "Don't waste Ness's awakening. Get back on the attack!"
"I love this... I haven't felt this in so long. This thrill, this spark inside me... My magic is coming alive again!"
Ness's nimble figure weaved through defenders. Now that he'd shaken off the constraints he'd imposed on himself, his dribbling was a little rough, but wildly unpredictable—and all the more dangerous for it.
"Right there... Shinichi..."
After shaking off another defender, Ness instinctively looked for Shinichi. But a sharp voice broke through his trance and sent a chill down his spine.
"Don't just fixate on me, dammit! Ness, you want to go back to being that lost mess?!"
"Play your own game, Ness! I told you—you're free!"
Without even thinking, Ness redirected his pass—away from Shinichi and into open space. There, like a predator springing from the shadows, Isagi burst past a defender. With a hand on his opponent's back to hold him at bay, he leapt—mid-air volley—
GOOOOAL!
The spinning ball crashed into the net.
Ness was panting hard, hand pressed over his chest.
"Is it because that run was too intense...?"
"My heart's pounding like crazy... this feeling... it's completely unexplainable..."
He ignored the opponents prepping for another kickoff and closed his eyes, savoring the rush washing over him.
"All this time, I poured my magic into Kaiser. I saw the way he shattered logic and called that magic. But... I forgot something."
"The magic I've been chasing—was the kind that sets the whole stadium on fire. That makes everyone in the world feel something they can't explain."
"That's the kind of magic I have to create myself."
Ness raised his head and bowed deeply to Shinichi, who was already sprinting back to defend.
"It's not for revenge anymore. Shinichi—I vow to be the magician at your side."
"Alexis Ness, hereby pledges his eternal loyalty to you."