Chapter 73: Solo Dance
"Raaah!!!"
"Tch… Princess. Not bad at all." Barou smirked, arms folded.
Chigiri's face was flushed with excitement, though he knew deep down that the biggest credit for this goal belonged to Isagi.
Chigiri walked up to Isagi and gave him a massive hug.
"Great pass. I didn't expect you to pass it to me. Didn't you have a chance to score yourself at that moment?"
Chigiri was still somewhat puzzled by Isagi's final choice.
Isagi's eyes were incredibly firm. "No. If I had shot, it definitely would have been intercepted by Kira. I did it precisely when everyone thought I was going to shoot."
"Passing the ball out was the best way to defeat them."
Chigiri nodded thoughtfully, understanding Isagi's line of thinking.
Nagi's face also revealed his excitement. "In that case, let's take this game right here..."
"Let's defeat them together and prove that Isagi, Chigiri, Nagi, and Barou are the stronger ones!!!"
The four of them stood back in their positions with aggressive momentum, ready to face the Red Team's attack.
"Hey, that pass just now was unexpectedly stylish~. The opponents are only one goal away from us now..." Aryu's expression showed a rare hint of nervousness.
Kira, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed, as if he didn't feel they would lose at all.
Itoshi Rin's expression was exceptionally serious. "You guys better show me everything you've got. We eliminate them with the next goal."
"You got it, Iceberg." Kira agreed with a grin.
At the same time, Kira noticed something strange about Bachira.
Bachira stood dazed in his spot, as if he were pondering something deep.
"Bachira? Are you okay?" Kira walked up to him."You've been spacing out these last minutes."
"Sorry, Kira, I..." Bachira wanted to explain something.
"You don't need to say anything. Don't think about anything. Just enjoy the match..." Kira patted Bachira on the shoulder to comfort him, then left to return to his position.
"Don't think about anything... enjoy the match..." Bachira muttered these words under his breath, considering them, but a different voice rang out in his mind: 'Kira, if I really stop thinking about anything, I'll never catch up to you for the rest of my life!'
'Thinking and evolving... that is the theme of Blue Lock!!' Bachira's small brain, which he didn't use often, began constantly searching for his own path to evolution.
The Red Team kicked off.
Rin and Kira repeated their old trick.
A two-man passing game to push forward.
When Kira received Rin's pass, he felt a massive force coming from behind.
"Hey, hey, hey. How many times are you guys going to use the same move?" Barou pressed against him, every muscle in his body pulled taut.
Even with Rin's attributes, Kira struggled to withstand Barou's desperate, life-on-the-line pressure.
'This guy?' Kira could only use all his strength to shield the ball, looking for an opening.
"Nice, Barou. I'll steal this ball..." Chigiri began his rapid, high-pressing approach again.
Seeing the situation turn bad, Kira kicked a pass to Rin.
Isagi, standing near Rin, had anticipated this and had been waiting for Kira's pass all along.
When Isagi charged in for the interception, Kira didn't show a trace of panic. Instead, he wore a meaningful smile.
'What does that mean?'
'I clearly saw through this pass, didn't I?'
Isagi couldn't understand the change in Kira's expression, so he extended his leg with all his might to intercept.
Bang!
Rin was still one step faster.
"Tsk. Still a little too slow." Isagi understood that this wasn't a gap in his vision, but purely that his other abilities were too inferior compared to Rin.
That was why Kira dared to pass to Rin so recklessly.
He completely ignored Isagi's defense and interception attempt.
Thinking of this, Isagi couldn't help but feel a little angry. He felt he was being looked down upon by Kira.
After snatching the ball first, Rin didn't hold onto it. He kicked it directly high into the air.
Aryu had been waiting there for a long time on the other side.
Nagi was there, too.
The aerial duel between the two men played out once again.
Nagi's choice this time was very clever. He didn't try to contest Aryu's height with brute force like before.
He waited for Aryu to trap the ball with his chest in the air, and the instant the ball bounced up...
He extended his right leg high, positioning his entire body in mid-air.
He was stealing the trap!
"A very clever choice, but useless..." With those words, Aryu actually jumped a second time the instant he landed, snatching the ball back.
"Is this guy a stick insect?" Nagi was shocked internally. The length of those limbs felt like a foul.
Aryu glanced slightly at the positioning on the field and delivered a diagonal back-pass.
Kira, who had shaken off Barou, immediately received the pass.
Behind Kira, Barou was gasping for breath.
He really couldn't keep up anymore. The fuel in Barou's tank had been burned dry.
"I won't leave you unmarked!" Isagi grit his teeth and came over to cover.
"Yoichi Isagi, you're starting to become a bit of a nuisance." After stopping the ball, Kira began to sway.
Isagi's center of gravity wasn't fooled by Kira's feint.
'I already know. Dribbling techniques are all about using body feints to trick the defender into shifting their center of gravity, then breaking through in the opposite direction.'
'As long as I predict the opponent's breakthrough direction, I won't be passed easily!'
After several continuous changes of footwork, Isagi surprisingly didn't reveal a single opening.
Kira was deeply surprised. Isagi's defense had gotten stronger, too.
'In that case, I have to pass first.'
The instant Kira moved his leg, Isagi moved too.
"You're passing to Rin, right?!" Isagi shouted, extending his leg directly to block the direction of Kira's pass.
He had left Rin open precisely to bait Kira into passing to him. All Isagi had to do was intercept it right here.
However, the ball didn't fly toward Rin. Instead, it arrived at the feet of the trailing Bachira on the other side.
'He gave it to Bachira?'
Isagi looked back in disbelief, shouting at the same time: "Chigiri, stop him!!!"
"I'm on it." Chigiri moved like a panther, chasing down Bachira who held the ball.
"So you've come, Chigiri." Bachira seemed a little different from before in this moment.
Chigiri didn't pay it any mind. He extended his leg directly for a sliding tackle.
Bachira fluidly flicked the ball to the other side, dodging Chigiri's tackle with ease.
'Bachira?'
Kira noticed the change in Bachira. 'He's not hesitating anymore?'
'The instant he got the ball, he didn't immediately look for my position or Rin's position. That's it, Bachira. Stop listening to the voice of the Monster in your heart.'
'I have to win. I have to win this!' As Bachira dribbled forward, he repeated the mantra in his heart.
'Since joining Blue Lock, I don't want to lose any of the people or things I've encountered...'
'Kira is always by my side, playing soccer with me. I really felt that just having that was enough...'
'Because I didn't want to lose the first "friend" I ever met. I didn't want to go back to being all alone.'
'I...'
His mother's face suddenly floated into Bachira's mind.
'When people grow up, you know, they start to want to believe, but they find they just can't anymore.'
'So when you start pretending not to hear it, little by little, you'll genuinely become numb and won't be able to hear your own voice anymore.'
'What you want to believe in is something so illusory and ethereal.'
'Eh?'
'Am I afraid of going back to being alone?'
'Am I playing soccer because I'm afraid of being abandoned by Kira and Rin?'
'Bachira, since when did you start playing soccer because others needed you to?'
'What you should truly believe in isn't that stuff. Those are just the voices of the Monster in your heart.'
'Win this match and steal Isagi over to our side—that is the voice of my heart right now!!'
And then.
The boy began to stride forward...
The sprite on the field began to dance.
Following the guidance of his own heart...
In this moment, he had no dance partner...
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