Blue Lock

Isagi stood in the bathroom after doing his morning routine. He was worried. He hadn't tried to open the system yet. Worried if he had made it up in his head. Finally, after staring in the mirror for minutes, he spoke... "Profile."

Isagi was relieved as he saw the blue profile screen appear in his face. Though, his relief was replaced with interest. His SP had went from 100/100 to 110/110. Isagi had guessed that from all of his training yesterday.

The other thing that caught his attention was his 'Perfect Touch' skill. It was now Level 2. He didn't even notice it had a level yesterday. Brushing his thoughts away, Isagi dismissed the profile as he went downstairs. 

When he got downstairs, his mom gave him a letter. Opening up, Isagi read about a project called Blue Lock.

"Blue Lock?" Isagi questioned to himself. The meeting place was for today, so Isagi hurriedly ate his food to get ready.

-X-

Isagi arrived at a building that was designated as the meeting place. As he got there, he heard some footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw Ryosuke Kira. The forward on the team Isagi lost to the day prior.

"Oh hey, you're Isagi from Ichinan, right?" Kira said, a smile on his face.

"You know me?" Isagi questioned. He was surprised, honestly. Not expecting the star from the game to remember someone like him.

"Yeah, you had some great plays yesterday. It was good match, thank you!" Kira waved at Isagi. If it wasn't for the genuinely cheerful smile on his face, Isagi would've thought that Kira was being a prick.

"I wonder if Kira has a profile..." Isagi had thought. Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of him. It was Kira's profile. It was set up the same as Isagi's. Judging from how Kira didn't react, Isagi assumed only he could see the screens.

"We should head inside." Kira pointed towards the door as he started walking over there.

Isagi followed, looking at Kira's profile. As he read, he noticed a few things. Kira's SP had a max of 130, he lacked skill slots, and that he had a rank. Specifically Rank C. Isagi assumed that only he had skills, but the rank was something he had no idea about.

Opening up his profile, he conveniently found his own rank. Similar to Kira, he was rank C as well. It made Isagi wonder if he was equal to Kira in strength.

The two made it into the building, a minute or two later, the lights cut off. And then, a man appeared on a stage at the front of the room.

Once the doors closed behind Isagi and Kira, the lights in the room immediately turned off. Stage lights then shone onto a tall and lanky person up front.

"My name is Jinpachi Ego, I was hired to give Japan a World Cup victory." The man spoke. He then continued on about the program; Blue Lock. 

"But I promise this. The last remaining person will become the world's best striker." Ego said. Those words hit Isagi like a truck. It reminded him of what Noa had said for some reason.

Isagi heard Kira speaking up about something, but he didn't care. His legs moved on their own as he began to dash towards the door. He heard as others followed him, but they didn't matter. All that mattered was becoming the best.

 -X-

Isagi entered the room he was assigned to. He had a compression suit in a package with the number 299 on it. There was also the letter Z.

Looking around, he saw a couple other people. Only one of them being familiar. That person being Ryosuke Kira.

After everyone got changed into their outfits, a screen turned on. On the screen was Ego.

"As you've been able to see, each of your suits have a number on it. I have ranked all 300 of you in the facility based on how good you are as a striker." Ego spoke.

"I'm 299 out of 300 people? I'm way too low." Isagi thought.

"After countless of games and training, the top 5 of the program will be registered in the U-20 World Cup. And those of you who fail will forever lose the right to represent Japan, so I suggest you don't slack off." Ego smirked.

"That's absurd." Kira muttered, just loud enough for Isagi to hear it.

"Now, let's play some tag." Ego said, a ball falling from the ceiling as he said so. The time limit is 130 seconds, the person hit with the ball becomes 'IT'. The person who's 'IT' when time runs out fails. No using your hands, okay?" 

After that, the screen switched. Putting an icon of the lowest ranked player, Gurimu Igarashi with a rank of 300. A beep was sounded out as the timer started to tick down.

"I-I'm it first?" Igarashi gulped as he put his foot on top of the ball. "No hard feelings to whoever gets out, okay?" Igarashi stuttered as he started to run around.

Everyone scattered as Igarashi ran around, kicking the ball but missing every time. Igarashi felt hopeless until he came across a boy who was on the ground, sleeping.

"He's sleeping? W-Well, it's him or me right?" Igarashi said with a cheeky smirk as he went to hit the boy with the ball.

However, he was interrupted by the boys foot colliding with his face. Igarashi stumbled back as he felt blood drip from his nose. "T-That's not allowed in football!"

The boy who was sleeping stood up. "He said we can't use our hands, right? He didn't say anything else."

A large guy with orange hair walked up to the boy. "Hey, we should play fair and square. I hate people who play dirty-" The guy was cut off as a ball slammed into his face.

"Homage!" Igarashi yelled out as he ran away.

The icon switched as the name listed was Rensuke Kunigami, rank 291. "Damn you, Igarashi." Kunigami cocked back his leg as it slammed into the ball, launching it towards Igarashi. 

However, the ball hit into Isagi's stomach as Igarashi had pulled him in for cover.

Isagi held his stomach in pain, the wind being knocked out of him. "That's some crazy power." Isagi muttered as he stood up. His pain was the least of his concern, he now had to worry about not being it.

Isagi opened up his profile as he looked at his stamina. It was now at 70/110 from all the running he was doing when Igarashi was it. It wasn't terribly low, but if he kept kicking the ball around, he knew it wouldn't be good for him.

Isagi looked to the side as he heard some yelling. He saw as the boy was on Kunigami's back, making him an easy target. Though, before Isagi could do anything, the boy was thrown off by Kunigami, slamming into Igarashi.

As the boy got up, it was clear that Igarashi had messed up something with his foot.

"Hit him Isagi!" Kira yelled out.

"I can save my career if I end his... He can't even move, it's an easy hit." Isagi thought. He cocked his foot back but stopped himself. "No. The only way I can get better is if I go for someone stronger!"

Isagi turned around as he looked at Bachira. Isagi activated 'Perfect Touch' as he kicked the ball. He watched as it flew in the air, curving towards Bachira. His SP dropped to 50.

"I like you." Bachira said he made no attempt at dodging the ball, instead trapping it. Bachira charged at Kira, a terrifying smile on his face. "If you wanna beat someone, you gotta go for the strongest guy!"

"You're going for me?!" Kira began to run away from Bachira. 

He kicked the ball at Kira, Kira dodging however. He then swung a kick at Kira before swinging another. Kira evaded both, beginning to run back. Bachira smirked as he tapped the ball with his foot, knocking it over Kira.

"He missed!" Kira said with a smile of relief. However, the ball fell down to Isagi. "Gotta clear the strongest guy." Isagi muttered as he slammed his foot into the ball.

The ball smacked into Kira's face, knocking him to the floor. The timer ticked down to 0, a loud beep ringing out.

Before Isagi could say anything, a screen appeared in his face.

Congratulations on winning 'Tag'! You have been awarded a Gold Card!

[Open] or [Save]