Chapter 34: Not worthy of being a Striker
"Fuck!" Izumi yelled out before running towards the first person that came in his sight, he then shot the ball at full power but the tall man dodged it and ran to the other side while Izumi still had to run behind the loose ball.
'110 seconds left' he thought to himself as he turned around and shot towards the flashy man who didn't move since the beginning of the game.
The Oni's screen changed as the 266th ranked player Akira trapped the ball and smiled brightly. "Here comes the Akira special!" He said and slightly pushed the ball in front of him before shooting it at full power, the sound of the impact between the ball and his feet echoed through the whole room as the ball launched towards Izumi.
Before Izumi could even comprehend what was happening the ball came at him in a straight line and at an extremely high speed. He couldn't do anything as the ball collided with his face and made him fall down to the ground.
"I'm sorry but the world's best striker have no mercy when it comes to football hahahaha!!" Akira yelled out with a happy expression before crossing his arms together.
"Fucking psycho..." Izumi whispered as he slowly stood up and looked around, when he saw that he only had 76 seconds left he started panicking and ran towards the largest group of people, in the middle of the crowd, Sugiyama ended up tripping on another player's foot and fell down to the ground.
"Please don't..." Sugiyama said with small tears in his eyes as he watched Izumi rushing towards him with a crazed look on his face. "If you want to blame something don't blame me, blame your own weakness, people like you can't be strikers!" Izumi yelled out as he shot the ball while aiming at Sugiyama's face.
Unexpectedly Ichikawa jumped up in front of his little brother and trapped the ball with the outside of his foot, the Oni's screen changed once again with only 54 seconds left.
"Stand up, it's not over yet." Ichikawa said while helping up his little brother, "Let's just play like we're used to." He added with a confident smile before passing the ball to Sugiyama. They then both ran towards the closest group of people while passing the ball to each other and ambushing them, Sugiyama was on the right while Ichikawa took care of the left.
The Oni's screen kept changing every second as they exchanged extremely fast passes. Once they were close enough to the group, they shot the ball towards Jude who was the closest to both of them. The ball went straight to his face but at the last moment, he managed to instinctively weave his head to the side to dodge it. The ball then bounced up from the wall and ended up back in Ichikawa's feet.
'Fuck, there's only 27 seconds left, I can't risk passing the ball back to Sugiyama.' He thought to himself as he ran alone towards the big group of people. He tried shooting a few more times but all of them ended up hitting nothing but the wall, the more rushed by the time he was, the more mistakes he made.
"Big brother! There's only 11 seconds left, pass it to me, we can do it together!" Sugiyama yelled out to his older brothers who turned towards him and feigned passing him the ball, but at the very last moment he shot it with full power towards Akira.
Akira didn't bother dodging and instead trapped it with his face, the ball fell down from his face and landed in front of his feet. His face lit up as he smiled even though his nose was now completely bloodied from the impact.
"A true striker have no reason to dodge such a pathetic shot, I'll show you guys what a true world class striker looks like! It's time for the Akira special hahahaha!" He said with a wide smile on his face before slightly pushing the ball in front of him.
Unexpectedly right before he got the chance to shoot it Jude appeared from his side and stole the ball from him. "I'm sorry but I'm a man on a mission and I have a quest to complete." Jude said with a small smile as he activated his [Excitement] special weapon.
As soon as he touched the ball everyone started feeling the effects of his second special weapon [Emperor's Aura], it was a passive special weapon that gave the player an intimidating aura as soon as he touched the ball.
When everyone felt the sudden change in the room, their mind started getting more confused, and their unnecessary thoughts started accelerating and adding up, as soon as Jude shot the ball toward one side of the ball they all instinctively ran to the other side, the special weapon, as well as the pressure of the tag game, made the most weak willed players panic even more which in turn delayed their reaction time and made them rely solely on their instincts.
The ball then bounced back from the wall, and with only 5 seconds left, Jude trapped it with his chest before turning around and shooting the ball with a full power half volley. The shot was extremely accurate and headed straight towards the most crowded area.
The ball came towards them at a high speed and while most of the players didn't even have time to move Akira instinctively dodged the ball by crouching down, unfortunately, the player behind him got hit in the face and fell down to the ground as the timer ran out of time.
'This is the end...?' Izumi thought to himself as he looked towards the screen which had the Oni's name and rank written on it.
As soon as the game ended, the Oni screen changed and Ego's face appeared on the big screen once again. "Good job, you unpolished gems. Let us continue to the results. The player we will get rid of is...Izumi Kazuki." Ego said in a monotonous voice.
"Wait... No no no no. That can't be? I'm a genius! That's why I got called here. I'm sure if you give me one more chance I'll be able to surpass everyone here in rank!" Izumi yelled out towards the screen while panicking.
"A genius you say? How many geniuses do you think exist in this world? I will give you the answer. More than you can count. Even in Japan geniuses were never a lacking material, but what differentiates a genius and a striker is ego. Skills enough aren't going to take you anywhere and you do not possess the quality needed to be a striker."
"W-what? Why would a simple tag game tell me that I have no ego? I do! I have what it takes to become the best, I know it!" Izumi yelled out once again.
"The one who's "It" decides the fate of this game, he decides who wins and who loses, yet you chose to be part of the cowards who let other people decide their fate, you can only go after the weak and choose comfort by shooting the person who tripped. We don't need weaklings like you here. Fuck off." Ego said while adjusting his glasses.
Izumi then for the first time started tearing up as he headed towards the exit, when he looked back one last time he was met with a glare that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
'Why are you showing me the same disappointed look as last time...' Izumi thought to himself as he exited the Blue Lock facility.
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Saint_Hubris
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