3.25. Least Of His Problems

For nearly all of the Bluelock players, the two week break was over in the blink of an eye.

Everyone had done different things, as Niko had learnt. Chigiri had spent most of his time with his family. Bachira had gone caving in some remote mountain area. Raichi had taken anger management classes (Niko didn't think they'd worked), and Igaguri had been, as usual, working in his family temple.

Out of Niko's closer friends, Karasu had been travelling to as many cities as he could in the south. Hiori had been sinking insane hours into his video games. And Aiku...

It'd been only a few days into the break. Niko had been enjoying not having to talk to people, and also Solo Levelling's new anime. But Aiku had messaged first him, then his parents, asking if Niko wanted to go on a road trip. No, please no, was his immediate answer. Yes, he would love to, was his parents' answer.

And so Niko was stuck with Aiku for a week. They'd gone all the way down to the bottom of the mainland, then all the way back up, stopping at every single location possible. Aiku may have been many years his senior, but he was by no means a responsible adult. Niko was forced to endure through endless bad jokes, listening to him flirt with every single cashier, and endure embarrassment every single time Aiku called Niko over to 'socialise' with random strangers.

It'd gotten even worse when Aiku had literally forgotten him at a shopping mall. Two hours after Aiku had dropped Niko off at an arcade to go shopping, Niko had called him, only to find out that Aiku was just getting in the car and getting ready to go. Of course, he'd rightfully grilled the older man over the next few days.

And by the end of the trip, he'd begged Aiku to drive him back home, which Aiku had only given in to when Niko gave him wide, innocent, slightly teary doe eyes.

When Niko had stumbled through the doors, his parents had laughed heartily. Niko had scowled, accepted the loving hug they'd offered to him, and warned that if they ever tried anything like that again, he would trash his father's gaming setup. His dad had paled.

Needless to say, he hadn't been bothered much for the rest of the break.

"Want some popcorn?"

Niko glanced across at Lorenzo, sitting near him on a leather sofa. They were back in Ubers' lounge, inside the Bluelock facility, and watching the BLTV livestream. He nodded slowly, reaching across.

"...thanks, Mike. Welcome, everyone! We're your casters, Natsuki and Tereasa, and... well, it's been two weeks. Are you ready for the restarting of Neo Egoist League, match six?!"

"As the desk was saying earlier, I think we're gonna see some very different stuff come out from all of our teams from now on. Two weeks may not seem like a long time on paper, but it's more than enough time to cook up some new strategies!"

"Yeah, definitely. We've shown you the starting teams, and now, let's welcome the players to the stage!"

Watching the stream from under his bangs, Niko noted each player as they appeared onto the pitch. Manshine City didn't seem to have changed their roster, sticking with their team of Nagi, Reo, and Chigiri from Bluelock. PXG had brought out Rin Itoshi in a solo striker's position, supported by both Tokimitsu and Nanase.

The game started. Niko leant forwards in his chair, wordlessly accepting some more popcorn from Lorenzo.

From the moment PXG kicked off, it was clear who had the upper hand.

Rin Itoshi was a nightmare. A whirling devil, instantly barging his way through Manshine's first players. He didn't need the support he'd been given, dribbling his way directly through their centre with sloppy, unrefined touches. They didn't need to be pretty though - with brute force, he broke through their lines alone.

His team rushed to keep up. As soon as Rin had broken the gates open, like some kind of battering ram, PXG's passing began. They took advantage of the chaos Rin had caused, passing the ball between them at crazy speed. Karasu flitted in between players, slipping around defenders to get off crazy passes.

They continued like that. More and more players had to be committed by Manshine City, in order to slow them down. Reo managed to win a duel against Tokimitsu, stealing away the ball. But it only lasted a few seconds before a press from Nanase and Rin stole it back.

But PXG didn't launch an all out attack. They'd metaphorically hammered down the gates of Manshine City, flooded their soldiers inside, and just... waited. Turning the screws slowly, the pressure increasing on the Manshine players the longer the game went on.

Niko spotted it.

The ball went to one of the PXG players, directly in the centre of the field. Slightly long, messy blond hair that stuck up on one side. Bright yellow eyes, pale skin dotted with freckles. A skinny torso. He looked young, too. Maybe even as young as Niko himself.

When his foot came into contact with the ball, though, he realised that the boy's age had absolutely no impact on his skill. It was an astonishing pass. Perfectly whipped between two Manshine players, from halfway across the field, it fell right towards Rin. The backspin slowed it down much more than a normal ball would, allowing it to land right at the striker's feet.

It was probably one of the best passes Niko had ever seen, on the same level as Sae Itoshi. But, he didn't feel the same... overwhelming pressure that playing against Sae brought. Against Sae, it felt like Niko was trying to contain a god. While this kid's passing was similar, the rest of his abilities were severely lacking compared to Sae.

He was already coming up with ideas on how to stop him. A rushed press would be terrible, he'd just pass it away. A good thing would be to have a permanent marker on him. Maybe Aryu? That way, he wouldn't be able to even receive the ball to send it onwards.

Rin trapped the ball easily, with it bouncing slightly up into the air as he did. He took advantage of that. While the ball was midair, Rin's leg shot forwards at incredible speed.

The ball speared into the net.

"One-zero, to PXG!" The casters were instantly on it. "And what a goal from Rin Itoshi!"

"Oh, wow! Simply inhuman from him! I was saying we're gonna get new stuff after the break, and it looks like we have. Whatever Rin Itoshi did, it worked like magic!"

"And with that goal, Y/N L/N has been substituted onto the Manshine City roster! Will they put him on...?"

"They're just resetting the game here, let's wait a second. Y/N L/N hasn't had too good of a performance here in the Neo Egoist League, with mediocre stats and outcomes, but maybe he's changed something?"

"It doesn't look like we're going to find out today. No, Prince is shaking his head. Mmm..."

"He's not going on?"

"I don't think so. Honestly, with Y/N's recent performance, I can't say I'm very surprised. For such a prodigy, he really hasn't done well over the past five games."

Niko pursed his lips. It didn't matter if the casters' words were true or not - they were just plain rude. Thankfully though, they moved back to talking about the game relatively fast.

The match continued, in the same way. Rin stayed on the entire game, playing some of the best soccer Niko had ever seen. He scored a second goal just minutes after the first, passing the ball to his teammates to sprint past the defence. He beat the majority of them, and his team worked fast. Within a few seconds, they'd got the ball to the same midfielder as the first goal, and the boy had booted the ball all the way upfield.

Again, the pass was incredible. A curved one this time, more like a shot than a pass as it drew an arc over everyone's heads. A few of the Manshine players were near the ending point, grouping up as Nagi prepared to trap the ball.

Rin was there too. Flying forwards, jumping higher than Niko had ever seen him jump before. He snatched the ball from the sky before Nagi could get it, slamming it into the ground. As the Manshine defenders surrounded him, Rin lunged forwards. He passed each of them.

None of them could touch him. Rin outdid Nagi's trapping, flying past the boy like he was nothing. He shoved himself against Reo, barging him aside like it was nothing. The two Manshine defenders, so famed for their speed and power, could do absolutely jack shit against Rin as he barrelled straight past them.

It was terrifying. His eyes were wild, body moving in a completely primal way. Like he'd given something up, thrown away his humanity in order to achieve that power.

One more defender between him and the goal. Rin didn't even bother dribbling past him. Instead, he shot.

It was something Niko would've never predicted. An utterly mad shot, something that a logical person wouldn't dare attempt. Rin's foot collided with the ball, somehow lifting it up into the air.

It went way over the defender's head. Niko could only watch with widened eyes, as the vertical spin on the shot carried it down, down, down. The goalkeeper didn't have a chance as it bounced off the ground, and into the net.

"Second goal, PXG!"

Though, as the game continued, Manshine City seemed to find their footing. They launched decent attacks, the majority of their success being found around Chigiri on the wing. Simply put, nobody on PXG could outdo him there. There was just too much space, and Chigiri was faster than all of them.

Where Reo and Nagi failed to make anything happen, Chigiri could break through the lines. He did so a few times, and on the third try, something different happened. PXG were out of position, and he took full advantage of that.

Insanely fast taps and turns - though Niko could name someone that did it better - completely demolished PXG's uncoordinated defenders. Chigiri broke through the lines, cutting in and out, eventually finding that golden zone that Snuffy had pointed out he was using. He shot, and of course, scored.

Prince subbed on. Loki didn't. And yet, as PXG began with the ball, it all went downhill for the English.

Rin was a monster. If it were even humanly possible, he kicked it up a gear against Prince. He couldn't quite hold his own, but with the backing of his team, and that little midfielder, he outshone the master by far. Niko's breath caught.

What... the...

The striker broke through the defensive line. The pass was perfect, flying right through everyone. And even though it was way in front of Rin, he lunged forwards and trapped it.

Him against Nagi. They collided, Nagi trying to knock him off balance, Rin trying to get rid of him. I'm glad we already played him... Niko thought.

Core strength. Body balance. Trapping. Dribbling. Shooting. He watched in silent awe. All of his specs have evolved to insane levels...!

More defenders came for Rin. It didn't matter, as he did the exact same vertical spin shot. No goalkeeper, no defender, nobody could stop him.

The ball burrowed into the back of the net.

With a hat-trick, Rin Itoshi won PXG the game against Manshine.

Next to Niko, Lorenzo whistled. "That was cool." His voice was oddly muffled, and Niko looked over to see Lorenzo's mouth literally filled with popcorn. His jaw was open way too wide to be healthy, stuffed with so much food stray pieces were falling out.

Niko grimaced. "Swallow before you talk."

"I can talk just fine." Lorenzo piped. Though, through the popcorn, it sounded more like oy-cah-alk-juss-fie. Niko pursed his lips, and shook his head.

"What did you think of Rin?" He paused. "Don't answer that until you swallow."

Lorenzo's jaw moved, crushing the popcorn slowly as he swallowed. Niko tore his eyes away, hearing gurgles and zombie-like groans as the man somehow swallowed. He sighed, clacking his teeth. "I mean, he's decent. Worth a lot, I'd guess."

"That's it?" Niko blinked.

"Uh, duh." Peering into the popcorn tub and seeing nothing, Lorenzo's head tipped back. "I was looking more at Manshine City. Cause that's our next game."

"Oh. Did you see anything useful?"

"Watch out for the lady." Lorenzo kept clacking his teeth together. "Fight down the centre of the pitch. They have strong playmakers, weak attackers, mid defence. Guh... I forgot the rest."

Niko fought the urge to smile. "I'll ask Snuffy. The game's in a week, right?"

"I dunno."

"Okay..."

"Oh!" Lorenzo raised a finger into the air, slouched on the sofa. "That kid... uh..."

Niko waited. "Huh?"

"That... erm... the money guy." Lorenzo drawled. "The money money money guy. The one that likes money, sort of. I forgot his name..."

"A lot of people like money." Niko replied. "Snuffy? You?"

"No, silly." Lorenzo flapped his hand. "The fast one. The Mercenary, that's it."

"Y/N." Niko stated. "What about him?"

"What happened to him?"

That was a shocker of a question. Niko sighed. "Don't know." He didn't want to think about it. Y/N didn't want to talk, and honestly, it kinda gave Niko a bad feeling. He doesn't trust me.

"Okay...?" Lorenzo picked at some popcorn in between his teeth. "I think we should concede the first goal against Manshine."

Niko blinked. He glanced across at the man. "What?"

"You didn't see it? He's changed, mostriciattola. I'm telling ya, if he subbed on right there, PXG lose the game."

Niko frowned. "What? How?"

"Hell if I know." Lorenzo shrugged. "Maybe he sold his soul or something."

"Y/N wouldn't do that." Niko scoffed. His eyes drifted back to the screen. "Maybe we'll see how good he is in the next game."

"Barcha against PXG? It'd be a slaughter without him." Lorenzo murmured. "Welp."

"Welp." Niko agreed. He stood up from the sofa. "I'm gonna see Snuffy. Coming?"

"Nah." Lorenzo waved goodbye. "New season of Kardashians dropped."

"Don't tell me you watch that."

"Maybe."

🥕🥕🥕

Isagi clambered onto the bed, joining Hiori, Kurona, and Yukimiya cross-legged on the blanket.

The four of them sat around a tablet, reviewing the auction rankings again. After the match, they'd been announced.

The Manshine City against PXG game had been incredible. Rin was... definitely different. And in about two weeks, they would go head to head.

Isagi only cared about the top few.

Rin Itoshi - 180,000,000

Isagi Yoichi - 150,000,000

Barou Shoei - 130,000,000

Bachira Meguru - 66,000,000

Chigiri Hyoma - 50,000,000

Kunigami Rensuke - 50,000,000

Nagi Seishiro - 43,000,000

Y/N L/N - 41,000,000

Oliver Aiku - 38,000,000

Yukimiya Kenyu - 36,000,000

Rin was still ahead of him. That was the most frustrating part.

But Isagi couldn't - wouldn't - let it stay that way. I want to be number one. I want to finally beat Rin. He's always fucking in my way. Every single time.

I want to see the scenery from the top...

What Isagi didn't realise was that in the Barcha against PXG game, in three days, a new threat would arise.

He didn't know it, but Rin was about to be the least of his problems.