10. Grass Angels

In the end, they lost horribly.

Y/N didn't do much, just hanging around his own half of the field talking animatedly with Chigiri. The pink-haired boy was somewhat trying to defend, but Y/N only bothered to move slowly towards the ball.

They got past him every single time, but unlike the rest of Team Z, who were looking more defeated by the second, the sweet smile didn't fall off Y/N's face as he lay on the ground, making funny faces at Chigiri.

Despite his tiredness, and the fact that they had lost five to one, Chigiri cracked a small smile.

As the game's closing whistle filled the pitch, Y/N grinned. "Sooo, that didn't go so well."

"It might've gone better if you tried..." Chigiri hadn't meant to say it, but he was feeling frustrated. He wasn't meant to be, because his entire reason for coming here was trying to quit soccer, but he still felt annoyed at the way Y/N didn't seem to care about his soccer career.

"I did try, I just wasn't good enough." Y/N lied through his teeth. The smaller boy laughed, skipping over to Chigiri and taking the princess's wrist. "Come on, I'm sure it'll go better next time!"

"Mhm..." Y/N's words didn't quell the frustration inside Chigiri, but it was somewhat nice to see that he was still happy. For some reason, the idea of Y/N being upset didn't sit right with him.

"Y/N, did you see that last goal?" Bachira hopped over, grinning at Y/N. "Sure, we lost, but did you see it?!"

"Not one bit!"

"Whaaat?"

"I was making grass angels." Y/N solemnly said.

Chigiri joined the conversation, looking very confused. "The only words I heard were grass angel."

"Like snow angels, but with grass. Duh."

"Huh." Like always, Bachira threw an arm around Y/N, which the smaller boy leant into naturally. Bachira was a bit sticky with sweat from the 45 minutes of running., but it didn't really matter to him.

Team Z headed towards the tunnel they'd come in from. Everyone except Y/N and Bachira looked utterly defeated. Their heads hung low, and their feet dragged on the turf as they walked off the pitch.

Oh, and Isagi sat alone on the pitch, staring at the enemy's goal. His legs were crossed, head bowed, and Y/N knew that it was better to let him think by himself.

So he just stuck close with Bachira, the two sharing small smiles as they made their way through the tunnels and back to the team's dressing room.

Nobody spoke. Everyone seemed far too wrapped up in their own thoughts. Y/N supposed it was good. If they didn't feel a sense of defeat from this game, then they wouldn't have the drive needed to become the world's best striker.

He knew he was being hypocritical, because he didn't feel an ounce of sadness at the loss. These games meant absolutely nothing to him, and besides, he wasn't at risk of being eliminated from Bluelock yet, so he didn't have to try.

Team Z continued their walk of silence back to the changing rooms, a few of them heading straight for the showers, and a few choosing to just sit around, taking deep breaths.

Y/N just sat down, hands behind his head as he sighed contentedly.

After a few minutes, Raichi made a quick comment. "It was a mistake making Isagi the centre forward. Next time, it's going to be me."

Naruhaya quickly interrupted. "No, we can win if I'm the centre forward."

"No, I scored. Let me be the centre-forward." Kunigami's low voice came next.

Y/N looked around the room, eyes falling on Isagi. The boy was sitting against the opposite wall to him, seeming to be deep in thought. It can't be nice, though, hearing Raichi talk shit about you.

The voices rose, most of Team Z trying to prove they should be the centre forward. They didn't seem to understand what the loss actually meant, still just fighting for themselves.

Just as he stood up to try to get their attention, Kuon did as well. "Guys! That's enough!"

Y/N met Kuon's eyes across the room, and nodded once. He understands.

"We're a team that's already lost once," Kuon explained, picking up a whiteboard and drawing a small diagram on it. "And out of the five teams, only the top two progress. Imagine all teams win two and lose two. It's three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. So the average points are going to be 6 for each team."

A few of Team Z frowned with confusion, and Igaguri in the front scratched his head. "What does that have to do with us?"

Kuon opened his mouth, but before he could, Y/N spoke. "It means that if you lose another, you have no chance at all of getting through."

He nodded at Kuon, silently thanking him for his efforts, before grabbing a second whiteboard. "If the average is six, to pass as a team, you need to aim higher, and get seven points. That means two wins, a draw, and a loss. We've had the loss already."

Y/N purposefully said 'you' instead of 'we'. He knew that if Team Z lost the second game, or lost any other game, he would use his full potential and score enough to progress alone.

"If you don't step it up, you'll all be out."

Igaguri looked at Y/N with a hint of annoyance. He didn't like the strange boy - both for his seemingly constant happy attitude, and this sudden bout of seriousness. "Well, do you have any ideas?"

Y/N thought for a second, and in that time, Igaguri took his opportunity. He waved Y/N off. "What's the point of all this talk if you don't actually know how to hel-"

In the blink of an eye, Y/N was in front of Igaguri, roughly shoving the short monk into the wall. He grinned happily, the expression completely at odds with his iron grip on the front of Igaguri's Bluelock uniform.

"I was thinking, monk." He hissed under his breath, still with a pleasant expression on his face. To everyone else, he was just whispering kindly to Igaguri, but only the monk could hear the venom in his voice. "Don't assume I'm useless."

Y/N turned to face the rest of Team Z, pointing at the screen above him. "Yeah, I can help. Ego mentioned creating soccer from zero, right?"

"Yeah." Isagi stood next to Y/N, apparently finished contemplating the meaning of life.

"Well, the sorry free for all at the start there, would be soccer's zero!" Y/N explained. He seemed way too happy for talking about such a serious topic. "And that big guy, Barou Shoei? He used his individual talents as a striker to turn that zero into a one."

Isagi took over. "And using that as a guide, a team can turn that one into a ten, or even a hundred. Soccer, and a team, are created by that individual power."

Y/N nodded, smiling. "Each person has their own power. I like to call them 'weapons', because if you score a goal, that means you've completely killed off the entire enemy team. You've destroyed their offence, their defence, and their goalkeeping."

He watched Team Z closely. All of them looked fully invested in what he was saying, and briefly he wondered why Ego hadn't told them this yet.

"So, identify your unique weapon. We all have one, you just need to find it." Y/N looked each and every one of them in the eyes. "And once you have your weapon, you can go about using it to utterly dominate the field."

He smiled.

As the last word left his lips, three things happened. Bachira walked out of the showers with a towel over his shoulder, completely naked. A loud knock on the changing room door drew everyone's attention. And high up on the wall of the changing room, a large screen flickered on, showing Ego Jinpachi.

"Hello there, diamonds in the rough." He began.

"Hol' up!" Y/N raised a finger to the screen, making Ego pause with confusion. "We have a visitor."

He opened the door, revealing a boy wearing the Team X vest over his Bluelock uniform. Y/N smiled welcomingly, getting a nervous grin back. "Hi."

"Hi." Y/N replied curtly.

"I'm looking for Y/N L/N? Barou Shoei wants to see him."

"Ah." Y/N turned back to Ego, waving goodbye. "Continue with your team strategy meeting or whatever guys, I'll join you later!"

He ducked out of the room, leaving his teammates confuzzled. "So, he couldn't be bothered to come talk to me himself?"

"He expects you to go to him. In the cafeteria."

"Do I at least get free food?"

"..."

Y/N laughed, patting the Team X boy on the shoulder. "I'm joking, mostly. Let's head over there now, I don't want to sit there and hear Ego yapping."