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Chapter Text

Screams of compassion and exhilaration  can be heard across the stadium as Japan claims victory over France in the World Cup 2026 Finals.

Players from the japanese team swarm their world renowned striker as he had just scored the winning goal to end this intense match.

Isagi Yoichi had already made a name for himself after the Blue Lock project had come to a close, but winning the 2022 world cup was not something the greater public had expected from the striker. Much less taking home the 2026 World Cup in succession.

However, that in no way undermined his near perfect performance this match. Some we’re doubtful that Japan was going to be able to win against France this time around, especially with Julian Loki soear heading that monstrous team. But even a demon of a striker like that fell victim to Japan’s Ace.

Adrenaline was still pumping through Isagi’s veins as he ran across the field in pure ecstasy from his match deciding goal. He could feel nothing but the raw feeling of having achieved something so monumental.

So much, that he hadn’t even realized that his legs were starting wobble and give out as he continued to sprint, screaming his lungs out and before he knew it, he was toppling over from his body failing to keep up with his brain’s carelessness.

Damn, my body is giving out. I guess that’s what I get for playing at 100% that whole match.

Those were the only words that ended up crossing his mind as his burnt out body made its descent on the field.

                      . . .

Isagi wakes up, still in a cold sweat of what had just happened. The excitement not having made its way out of his system yet made him fail to realize his current situation.

Ugh… I really overdid it huh.

He thought to himself as he sat up on the bed he currently found himself in.

Hmm… huh? This is..?

A look of confusion washed over his face as he tried to decipher where he was currently located. Something about it seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite pin point it.

Hold on… is this.. ―

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a stoic voice coming from a person he hadn’t even realized was in this room with him.

“Did you have a nice nap, Mr. I ran out of gas?”

Before he even had the time the whip around his head to see who the voice came from, he had already recognized who it belonged to.

W-What? Huh..? Why is he here?? And… Where am I??

”Noel Noa!?!”

The boy yelped as memories from his past at Blue Lock started to surge through his mind.

“You overexerted yourself and passed out. You’ve been asleep for the past 10 hours.”

The german explained, trying to appease the young striker’s confusion. Unbeknownst to him however, that confusion ranged miles further than he could imagine.

“Here, what would you like to drink? Water or coffee?”

He said reaching for the drinks on the small table set beside him.

Still trying to put together what was currently happening and why Noel Noa was currently in the same room as him, the raven answered trying not to display how his thoughts were catching up with what was happening.

”Um… Oh. Then, I’ll take water. Thank you.”

He answered turning towards the older striker, finally properly getting out of the bed he was bound to moments ago.

“So, how was it? Did you manage to defeat Kaiser?”

It was then that everything clicked for Yoichi. The gears had turned in his brain and he had finally come to the conclusion that somehow, he had been sent back in time. He would have normally pinched himself to check whether or not he was dreaming, but the cold temperature of the water he was drinking was enough of a sign that he was not.

Still completely puzzled on what he had just realized, Isagi responded to the male before him. He didn’t want to seem insane or something weird like that, so he had decided to just play it cool for now and say the say things he did the last time he experienced this.

“I.. Uh… Yeah. In that split second, I definitely beat Kaiser”

Those words had not come off as casually as he had hoped for, but he had the oppurtinity to make up for that during the rest of his conversation with the club’s Master.

After having once again given his speech to Noa about how he wanted to defeat Kaiser as a striker, the german had revealed to Isagi the Neo Egoist League’s new pricing on the players.

Looking at this leaderboard had really put into perspective just how much both he, and his friends has improve since Blue Lock. He would he lying if he said that seeing their past selves in this intant stage of their careers didn’t make him a little emotional.

Shortly after having finished his talk with Noa, Isagi was not sure on what do now that he had been seemingly magically aent back 8 years in the past.

But he figured that the first thing he should test was if he was able to use his current body the same way he did during the 2026 Word Cup.

. . .

Every step Isagi took as he left the room’s door gradually reminded him of the Blue Lock Building’s layout. He figured that he’d probably get the best opportunity to see how his body currently functions if he went to the community field in the Germany Stratum since it was the team he chose back when the Neo Egoist League first started. 

As he turned the corner to head into the neighboring hallway, he managed to bump into a familiar figure.

”Oh, sorry I didn’t see you the－”

The raven hesitated for a second, failing to continue his sentence after seeing who he had just ran into.

”Bachira!?!”

He completely forgot he would most likely run into someone after having left the room due to being lost in thought, but he didn’t expect to see Bachira!

“Looks like the sleeping beauty finally awoke from his slumber!” 

He playfully says without being able to stop himself from letting out a short giggle.

”And here I thought you’d never wake up after having played liked that during your match against Manshine. Where are you heading to so frantically, Isagi?”

Bachira added with a proud smug of how well his friend performed during the match.

Looking back on the footage that Noa showed him during their conversation, Isagi realizez just how far behind he was during Blue Lock compared to before he got sent back. There were alot of things he hadn’t refined that he didn’t even know about yet during that time.

”Yeah, haha. I didn’t think I would end up using that much energy against Kaiser and the Manshine team. Good thing we ended up winning.”

Isagi responded with a sheepish smile lathered across his face.

“I was heading to Germany’s community field to uh… Get back into shape I guess?”

He said, trying to avoid saying anything about his current situation.

”Oh! What a coincidence! I was heading there too! Chigiri told me he wanted to to talk to Kunigami since he hasn’t really said anything to anyone yet outside of our matches..”

Bachira said, trailing off in thought thinking about what could have turned Kunigami so grim since his exit from the Wildcard program.

Hold on… That’s right… I completely forgot Kunigami was like this at this point in time. I guess I could also ask him about that since he didn’t really tell me why he was like that even we he got better…

Isagi’s train of thought was immediately interrupted by the brown haired boy.

”But uh.. Isagi, y’know… the fields the other way..”

Bachira said, pointing towards where Isagi had been coming from with a slightly confused look on his face.

“Oh, right. My bad. I guess since were both going there we should go together.”

Jeez, looks like not having been here for a while has taken a toll on my memory of this place..

Isagi was just met with a nod and a smile from the other as they made their way towards the football field.

Chapter Text

All of this walking with Bachira had reminded Isagi just how talkative he was. It really made him wonder how the bright eyed boy never got tired from all that chatting. But Isagi didn’t mind, he had always enjoyed playing mostly the listening role when it came to conversations with Bachira. Having finally crossed path with Chigiri who was coming from the France stratum, the 3 boys finally arrived to their destination.

Throwing the towel laced around his neck to the ground, Kunigami was just getting started with his shooting exercises when a sudden weight on his back had knocked him out of focus.

“Let’s train together! ♪ ”

Bachira shouted excitedly as he jumped off of orange head before he had time to swat him off.

“The hell are you guys doing here? I’m not interested in some Kumbaya reunion bullshit…”

Kunigami hissed out with obvious annoyance in his tone.

“Nor am I! So how about a 2v2 then, fallen hero?”

The bee like boy sheepishly responded without any plans of taking no for an answer.

“Since you insufferable bunch won’t leave me alone, I guess I have no choice”

The brutish male responded to Bachira’s challenge without hesitation.

“Great then! I pick Isagi on my team!”

Bachira shouted before anyone else could get a word in. Seeing the excitement shift the bowl cut boy’s face, had reminded Isagi that this was the moment where he had first learned of his possible utilization of a secondary weapon in his arsenal.

He had since put alot of work into honing his usage of both his legs to create a balanced power and use them with precision. It was truly a breakthrough once he set the foundation of his puzzle in place to create unrivalled techniques with his legs.

Whether I’d be when he eventually learned to have alot of mobility in his ankles so that he could dribble effectively from watching other world class players during his Premiere League appearances or perfecting his touch and power his legs can output into the ball for near impossible results of precision, Isagi had eventually became a jack of all trades.

He had truly sharpened every aspect that makes a football player great, and added it in his arsenal of many weapons to use against other great players. And he would soon find out that those skills he had learned had not been lost with this sudden travel in time.

Kick-off had started with Isagi and Bachira being in possession of the ball. Isagi knew that despite his overwhelming talent, his current body could not be used to outrun Chigiri. Which is why he had opted to duel with Kunigami in a battle for the first point.

We decided on playing till the first team gets a goal, so I’d probably do good to test out all my specs as fast as I can.

The raven wasted no time in starting his frontal assault towards the muscle freak. He had realized soon enough that his body wasn’t too different from normal, as he had already obtained a very good physique during Blue Lock. Given this information, he was able to make ourstanding use of his abilities.

. . .

During the Neo Egoist League’s second stage, Isagi had gotten the chance to learn alot from Itoshi Sae, who had been inlisted into the league under Real Madrid’s guest appearance.

It was from him that Isagi had learned that it wasn’t only obvserving and finding weak spots in a teams defence, but also seeking out the weak areas in an enemy’s defence whilst in a 1 on 1 battle. Through these methods he had been thaught from the Japanese prodigy, he had figured out how Sae made his desctruction of an opponent’s defence seem so effortless.

From observing the opponent’s feet, legs, torso and eyes, it became quite easy for Isagi to mercilessly get passed anyone who dared to try and stop him in his tracks.

His sharpening of his dribbling techniques only enhanced those abilities once set all into motion, and how he had demonstrated those skills during his practice match against Kunigami and Chigiri really put that into perspective.

It was almost as if the ginger haired male hadn’t even gotten the time to transfer his weight onto his opposing feet to make an attempt to steal the ball before Isagi had already set him off balance with footwork he hadn’t even thought possible for the raven.

By the time Kunigami was able to regain his balance, Isagi was already past him.

Shock made its way on Bachira and Chirgi’s now wide eyed faces as they watched the striker perform such a precise sequence of actions to get past the strong male.

It didn’t take long for Chigiri to respond to this sudden and unexpected maneuver from Isagi. He bolted from his current position, leaving Bachirs wide upon and set his sights on stopping Isagi from getting anywhere near the goal whilst Kunigami was recovering the distance lost.

“Gotta admit, that was really unexpected from someone like you, Isagi. But, you aren’t getting past me.”

He said with an imposing tone as he planted his dominant feet foward, blocking Isagi’s path. With Kunigami creeping his way back from behind, it had really seemed like the blue eyed striker’s option were completely limited at this sudden press from the two.

Man, it’s nuts just how many weak spots we were oblivious to possessing when playing.

Isagi thought to himself as he only need a fraction of a second to find the modt optimal counter to Chigiri and Kunigami’s double press.

“Try and stop me, princess”

With a quick turn of his ankle, Isagi had pushed the ball away from Kunigami with an Elastico move before he had the chance to steal it. Slightly putting his weight on Chigiri with his forearm to hold his distance from the pink haired make, he used his other foot to kick the ball with a back heel kick just outside of Chigiri’s vision.

Before he could even process what had just heppened, he had been lured in by Isagi’s precise control of the ball which he then used his blind spot to make a back heel pass to Bachira who was dumbfounded of how he had been even given the ball.

And just like that, it was over. Bachira had scored the first goal and Isagi had claimed victory in this skirmish.

Chigiri and Kunigami could do nothing but sit frozen at how their colleague and rival had seemingly bested the both of them like a world class player as if it were nothing.

. . .

“What…. the hell..?”

Chapter Text

Winning the U-20 match without a doubt opened doors to unimaginable opportunities for Ego. The man was not only well versed in any topic surrounding football, but also general buisness and economics considering that both subjects go hand in hand.

Football is not only a sport of passion but also a way for small time players and clubs to push both their aspirations and financial situations to heights beyond their wildest dreams. For many, football is a way of life that has enabled them to succeed in life. So after being crowned victor of such a huge event, Jinpachi knew exactly in what direction he would lead blue lock.

The Neo Egoist League was irrefutably the best step for Blue Lock to take. Both in buisness, and for the growth of the players involved. Televising the explosive evolution of these young rising stars of Japan was simply a flawless idea.

However, to make this project of his the most profitable while still maintaining his original goal in mind, Ego had to include some intermissions to the program here and there from events that transpiried outside of the main club matches.

Whether I’d be organizing interviews with the top auctioned players or getting the opinion of both the viewers at home and world renowed clubs that weren’t included in the program, maintaining a social media presence was definitely important for this project of his.

Which is what sparked Ego’s cunning idea of livestreaming this 2v2 match between Kunigami, Bachira, Isagi and Chigiri he had seen start out of the corner of his eye while he was reviewing data in his monitoring room.

Chewing away at his usual meal of yakisoba, he had not expected much out of this little practice round of theirs. Considering he was only keeping tabs on it for the sole purpose of it being included in additional content for BLTV, nothing could have prepared him for what he would see.

You could say this is the most emotion anyone would have ever seen the man express if anyone was in the room as he frantically set down his food and inched his chair towards the screens showcasing the Germany field.

The moment he had seen Yoichi receive then intial pass from Bachira signaling the start of the match, he could instantly notice a difference in how the boy carried himself.

Whether it was the way he extended his leg and changed his posture to catch the ball following the inital pass or how he moved his body in a way that could never be done with purely instinct, what Ego saw was a playstyle that had been meerly achieved by only one other player in the world.

Even if Noa wasn’t able to play this way of football to 100%, no, even 50% of its true potential, just the foundation level understanding he had of this methodology was enough to ascend him through the ranks and crown him as the number 1 striker.

But what he saw Isagi emulate during that match, was something he thought purely unrealistic for a human to do.

Due to human error, no matter how good you hone your skills and technique or how powerful your instincts are, there will always be a way to counter your version of football. Weak points can be found in any football player no matter how unimaginably good they are if you observe them well enough.

However, this playstyle aimed to completely throw that out of the window and forge a method of playing that would eliminate virtually any way to counteract it. Achieving something so seemingly impossible required the upmost understanding of your body movements and the opponent’s. Even without bringing forth it’s full potential, the german striker was still able to utilize it to become the best.

To simply put it, dumbfounded is not a nearly adequate description of the wide eyed look on Jinpachi’s face once the match had concluded.

It took everything in him to not summon Isagi immediately to his office to explain what he had just seen, but Ego decided that if what had just transpired was truly the birth of an insurmountable wall for the world of football, then he would want to see his talent in action during the Ubers vs Bastard München match.

. . .

“The fuck was that?”

Kunigami, almost at a lost of words from what he just saw.

“Yeah Isagi, since when could you pull moves like that, huh. Don’t tell me you were hiding these crazy techniques from your best friend!”

Bachira added, still a little surprised from what he had seen his raven haired friend pull off.

Chigiri hadn’t even said anything, believing that Kunigami and Bachira had perfectly encapsulated the confusion he was feeling right now, despite their difference in politeness..

Isagi had only up until now thought about avoiding raising suspicion that he was not the same Isagi they knew, but he hadn’t thought about how he would explain his change in playstyle.

So, he had to improvise a little.

“Uhm… I mean.. sleeping for 10 hours must have given me a little boost of energy… Yeah.. that’s it..”

Isagi had never been a good liar. But atleast now he knew that he was fully well capable of doing the same things as his “future self” would despite some few minor changes in physical strenght.

The 3 looked at each other with a blank expression, following Isagi’s seemingly underwhelming response.

“…”

“If you were going to give us such a half ass answer, you shouldn’t have even bothered responding.”

Kunigami said, grabbing his towel and begining to walk towards the exit.

“Don’t need to hide getting special treatment lessons or some bullshit like that from Noa, nouveau hero.”

He said as he finally made his exit from the field.

Jeez, I forgot how hot headed he used to be.

Isagi thought to himself, forgetting the other two were even there as he trailed his thoughts into his memories of future Kunigami. However, that was short lived as an interrupting voice suddenly brought him back to reality.

“That’s no fair you know! Getting some one on one training sessions from literally the best player in the world is cheating, Isagi!”

Bachira whined as he jumped into the raven’s arms.

“Guess I still have alot of work to do at Manshine if I want to keep up with you Egoists,”

Chigiri added, quieting Bachira’s needless whining.

“and since we’re done with this, I’m gonna head back to the England stratum before they realize I’ve been gone.”

Chigiri said as he picked up a water bottle from the dispenser near the exit.

“This was fun, though I won’t lose to you two dolts next time.”

He couldn’t keep himself from grinning, excited for the future to come where he’d have another opportunity to fight against both Bachira, and this improved state of Isagi.

“I’ll be waiting for you, princess.”

Isagi responded as he watched the red head walk down the exit hallway, waving them goodbye.

“Seriously tho, you must have it good over at Germany. Lavinho is one odd teacher I tell you!”

The yellow eyed boy said as he tried to mimick the crazy looking expressions his Brazilian coach gave him when they first met. Isagi could not help it but laugh at this once again demonstration of Bachira’s consistent silliness.

Chapter Text

Silence loomed over the public bathing area as Nagi’s face emerged from the water, looking as lazy as always. Content filled the silver haired boy’s mind as all he could do was replay those moments where he had truly beaten Isagi.

A display of ball control so outrageously precise had never been seen before in pro football. If Nagi hadn’t already made his name known to he world with his game starting goal during the U-20 match, this time he truly had.

His moment of tranquility was swiftly broken as his violet haired friend pierced the silence that weighed over the empty room by jumping into the bath alongside Nagi.

“Why, hello there. I’m now a player worth 40 million Yen!”

He loudly proclaimed, raising his hand high up to his chest. You could tell how excited he was about his new auction bid by how his eyes were glittering.

“Congratulations”

Nagi responded, still not even bothered enough to open his eyes to gaze at the other looming over him.

“So Nagi-sama, how does it feel to be valued at 88 million Yen?!”

He said as he splashed over water onto the silve haired’s face, trying to captivate his attention.

“To be honest, I still can’t wrap my head around it. Besdies, we lost the game. So why are you giddy, Reo?”

He said as he finally stood up from his laying position in the bath.

“Oho! Looks like my treasure hasn’t seen yet!”

Reo said as he motion his hand towards a tv that had been propped up on the wall, usually used for viewing footage while bathing. He grabbed a remote and opened a link that displayed highlights from the BLTV games that had been saved online. Nagi’s play truly captivated the world.

“Oh, that’s kinda lit.”

He almost excitedly said.

“Dude, get more friggin’ excited!”

Reo responded, replaying the clip once more.

Their attention waved away from the monitor on the wall as Reo boasted about his future plans for both Blue Lock and football whilst Nagi mostly listened, interjecting here and there.

They were shortly after enticed to bring their attention back to the television when a notification came with ding, signaling the first addition to Blue Lock’s archive of additional time clips.

“Extra content? What’s that.”

Nagi said, slowly lowering himself back into the bath.

“What’s this about.. it reads, “Practice match between Barcha’s Meguru Bachira, Bastard München’s Kunigami Rensuke & Isagi Yoichi and Manshine City’s Chigiri Hyouma.” huh?!”

Reo read out with slight confusion to his tone.

“Is this some fan service bullcrap or something?!”

He said jokingly as he scoffed at the title of the video.

“Isagi’s in it, I wanna watch it.”

Nagi said, moving closer towards to monitor to get a better view.

To Reo’s dismay, he obliged and started the video. The date of the time of recording for the video situated tothe right of the title, showed that this eas basically being live streamed.

I guess this is the first time I’ll get to see Isagi play ever since I’ve beaten him during the last match.

Reo never gave Yoichi his attention much, only knowing his name was just a product of him being the reason why Nagi intially deserted him. So Isagi had never truly stood out to him. But in those few seconds he allowed the raven to have his attention after the start of the practice match, Reo saw something completely different from what he had known Isagi to be.

All Nagi could do was fully stand up in the bath, as his eyes glimmered and shine from what he was seeing on the monitor.

“I- Isagi..?”

Was all he could mutter to himself as both him and Reo sat in awe at what they were watching. And as soon as the match started, it already ended within a minute thanks to Bachira’s goal. But, it was obvious the Barcha player was not the focus of this match.

“Tell me you’re seeing this, Reo. Is that actually Isagi..?”

Nagi said, still not letting his eyes leave the monitor even after the match had concluded.

“Looks like he really took that beating personal huh…. right Nagi?”

Reo responded, trying to mask his own mix of confusion and surprise slowly washing over his face as he looked over to Nagi, looking for a response.

But Nagi was entranced, not even looking back at Reo, he simply responded;

“Replay it.”

Reo couldn’t hold back the sour expression that took a hold of his face but he couldn’t also deny himself that what he saw was something that he’d want to watch again. With a quick press of the remote he hald been holding he replayed the video, still in complete silence.

“That trapping.. and ball control… it’s somehow better than mine…”

Nagi said, still hypnotized by Isagi’s triumph over Kunigami and Chigiri.

“C’mon Nagi, that couldn’t possibly right… Maybe they just made him look good for fan service or some shit like that.. How could Isagi possibly get to a level like that when he’s been sleeping like a baby ever since our match..?”

Reo said, as if he was not only trying to convince Nagi but himself too.

“I want to go see him.”

Nagi proclaimed, getting out of the bath and grabbing his towel.

“Huh?! What do you mean, Nagi?! Hey wait up! Isn’t it their lunch time by this point?? You can’t just barge into the Germany stratum’s cafeteria!”

Reo said, frantically trying to follow behind Nagi whilst also grabbing his towel.

“I’m sure Isagi wouldn’t mind.”

Nagi said, finally heading towards the locker rooms to retreive his clothing.

God damn, Isagi. You just won’t let me have him, won’t you?

Was all Reo could think to himself as he shortly followed in the footsteps of the silver hair.

I was getting hungry anyways.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Swirling a nameless brand’s newest wine release within his coupe glass, Itoshie Sae was slacked and alleviated the energy spent from his previous games as he rested on his bed. Real Madrid had been off season for a week or two now and Sae had returned to japan to rest from his intensive months with his team in the Champion League. 

Though, to say this was how he would have hoped to spend his intermission from football is an overstatement. He would have preferred loitering somewhere overseas like America or Brazil but here he was stuck in his home country because the rest of his team had insisted they wanted to be shown around the type of place that harbored a player like Sae. The midfielder isn’t usually the sort of person to give in to peer pressure but he knew full well he wouldn’t be able to escape the constant pestering from the rest of Real Madrid’s roster for the following months during their vacation if they didn’t go. That isn’t to say he wasn’t able to escape the equally continuous tormenting of his patience during the plane ride back to Japan from his excited colleagues wanting to find out all they could about the place before even landing there as well.

Though surprisingly, it hasn’t been as abhorrent as he thought coming back here. Aside from the boring nature of the trip that he had already predicted would happen, it was a nostalgic experience to come back here. But now, having spent the last few days visiting different places in Japan, Sae could remember to show his team, he found himself in his hotel room rather bored and pondering how to spend the rest of his time. This is when he had caught wind of a new installment of the Blue Lock Program he had participated in not too long ago during the recreational U-20 match. 

“The Neo Egoist League..?”

He read headlines here and there as he skimmed through the website looking for more information on what this new branch of Blue Lock could be. Switching to the video tab of the site, he hoped to see more of this program in action by viewing the training that went on within the facility as he wondered why it would be made public with recordings opposed to before.

“I suppose they got more budget after winning that match.”

  This seemed like just another phase of the program to him until he saw very familiar faces start to show up in some of the footage he saw. Slight surprise washed over his face as he saw world renowned Champion League players representing their respective teams within this project. And these were no small fries by any means. Facades he knew all too well started taking the spotlight in these recordings. This became slightly interesting to Sae and had him intrigued for the next few hours as he followed more and more information regarding this new league until he stumbled across someone that really stood out to midfielder. 

“Isn’t that..” 

Sae thought to himself momentarily as he almost forgot the raven haired striker’s name while he pressed play on the next video. That video he had chosen being titled; 

<< 2 vs 2, Bastard Munchen against PXG & FC Barcha >>.

He finally put down his drink, straightening his back as he intently focused on the video before him. It didn’t take long for the pre-game ads to finish running, but it still made Sae begrudgingly reconsider purchasing that subscription for the service that was glaring at him under the form of a big blue button when he had first found the website. After a short introduction of the current situation, Kick-off started and Isagi found himself in possession of the ball with Kunigami Rensuke at his rear and Bachira Meguru as well as Chigiri Hyoma defensively standing a few meters in front of him.

Nothing notable had quite happened yet considering it had only been a few seconds since the match started but, Sae had already noticed something was different. It was almost as if someone completely different was playing in his eyes. Regardless of only having seen him in action during one match, he was able to make a very accurate and fair assessment of what type of player Isagi Yoichi is. That ability is a very integral component of what allowed him to read opponents so well, which is why it surprised him to see someone so drastically change within such a short time period making him wonder what kind of ideals they could possibly be teaching at Blue Lock to harbor this kind of change.

It wasn’t only his vibe that was different about him, despite not having that close-up of angles of the match, he could still see a multitude of inconsistencies with his past performances. From the way he stood to where he held the ball at his feet, hell, he was even using a different foot to dribble the ball this time.

“Just what have you been doing during these short weeks..?”  

Sae thought to himself as he watched the striker engage his first opponent. But, oddly enough, the way he went about confronting the foe before him was not the same head-on way he had seen every striker in Blue Lock exhibit during the U-20 Match. It was akin to a more reactive playstyle instead of offensive playstyle, like trying to place a brick wall to block defenders from creating opportunities to steal the ball, almost as if…


“He’s playing like me..?”  

He thought to himself, baffled by the display the raven haired player was putting on. Not only was he able to replicate and dare he say outdo the image that he had in his head of how that style should be played but he was also alternating between egging on the defender for a reaction and then taking initiative to direct the tides of the engagement, completely off putting and knocking his next opponent off his feet.

This was not something Sae had seen before in a striker, much less anyone in general. It was practically the type of football he had only dreamed of achieving ever since he originally left Japan for Madrid. Not even watching the rest of the video after Isagi had made his pass, he switched his phone to the messenger app and quickly started typing up a paragraph to his team’s manager.

Sae had now set his mind on Real Madrid participating in the Neo Egoist League.

Chapter Text

Blue Lock’s purpose design has and always will be to create the idealistically perfect striker, that will never change. Despite having monotonously brought together an abundance of worthy players alongside Tieri for the program during its early stages, Ego had set out from the very beginning to methodically weed out the unqualified dirt of the bunch. Jinpachi was never really the creative type, his somewhat “abstract” ideas and representation of how to take on the ambition of becoming a top player had already been instilled within him from the very moment he stepped foot in the world of football. 

Thus, figuring out a way to bring out the desired reactions and awakenings within all of these players in Blue Lock was a challenge for him to say the least. So when he had heard that the inbox for the Neo Egoist League’s business account had received an inquiry from the world renowned football team Real Madrid, Ego’s blocky glasses lit up with inspiration on how to push these participants further into their perfect forms. “A few changes to the schedule wouldn’t hurt, right?” He said to himself with his iconic grin from ear to ear.

— ┊⋆ ┊—

“Next up is Ubers I believe.” Kurona said as he twirled his braid with his index finger, distracted with the phone in his other hand. “Right, we’ve got a break until then though, since they’ll be playing against Barcha before playing against us.” Said Iori, having just walked in the room, fresh from his morning shower. 

“I’d love to watch their game but, I’ve gotta step up my game a couple notches before the next match if I want to get to at least step on the pitch once during this stage.” he added as he lazily flopped beside Kurona on his bed, disturbing his recently started trance in the game he was playing. “You’ve got your own bed y’know.” He pouted as he moved over to make room for the other. Amidst the not too important yammering between the two, Isagi was lost in thought on his own bed thinking about how to go about this.

“That’s right, at this point in time, we played against Barou and the formation Ubers had made centered around him.” The raven thought to himself, copying his scarlet haired friend by taking his phone in hand too. “Ah man, it’s only now hitting me just how much of a pain getting past their defense was. But then again, I’d be a little weird if I got on the pitch knowing their exact plays and plans for the whole game from the very start. Well, the little I can remember anyways.” Isagi’s thought was interrupted by Yukimiya returning as well from the shower. 

“Isn’t it a bit early to be talking this much.” He said to the two on the bed bickering, eye shadows still slightly visible as he looked for his glasses on his night stand. “Well, there’s a lot to talk about. We only have 1 free period until we have to play against Ubers afterall, and I don’t think any of us want to be left behind by the harsh currents of Blue Lock.” Iori replied. “I guess that’s always what we’ve been concerned about in this place when it comes down to it.” Yoichi mulled over that as he finally got out of his bed. 

“Well, Iori already said so, we can’t afford to fall behind. I’ll be heading to the training field since it’s early and there won’t be many people there.” Isagi said as picked up his gear bag and waved at his friends and with one final “See you later”, and he was off.

It had only been a few days since Isagi had been transported back in time and honestly, he was proud of himself for how quickly and how much of the facility he was remembering. Not having to have someone accompany him to his destination like a lost puppy this time he felt almost as accomplished as when he scored his first goal in Blue Lock. Almost. He set down his belongings and got ready to warm up after he put on his gear. He had a lot of thinking to do before his next match so right now, his plan was to figure out how he was going to tackle this upcoming game.

“Obviously I can’t just walk in there and score 3 goals and leave like it was nothing.” He joked to himself as he picked up the pace of his warm up stretches. Practicing his left and right footed shots from around 30 meters, he wondered whether he should try and replicate his performance from last time he played this match or do something completely original.

Closing in on 20 meter shots, he slowly started picking up the pace as he considered the many options he had. Well, the options that were possible anyways. Coming back in time also had his cons which he subconsciously realized during his practice match with his 3 friends. Despite his current body having the dexterity, compatibility for the precision he exudes with his techniques, constantly playing at the level of his “future self”, takes a toll on his efficiency overtime.

“Performing on some sort of ‘energy economy’ mode would probably do me good this match. If all it took me was a short training match between some buddies to figure out my current body isn’t cut out for this then I’ve gotta switch things up” Isagi thought to himself, finishing the last shot of his drill. Still mulling over the thought, he took a swig of his water bottle and before he could set it down he noticed his fellow teammate walk on the pitch.

—

“I know he’s usually quiet but.. This is just not normal..” Tokimitsu said, looking over at the boy in question on the other side of the pitch. “Well, I guess that’s just how he is but now that you mention it, you’re right. He’s been rather off lately.” Nanase replied, rather surprised he hadn’t noticed this yet. “Last time I saw that emo freak sulk this much it was over his brother.” Shidou said as he just got done with his repetition of the drill the team had been doing. “It’s not like we’ll be seein’ much of his brother again anyways so I wonder what’s got him in such a bad move.” Nanase added. The thought of Rin being this unusually upset made most of the team in PXG from Blue Lock uneasy to say the least. 

He was usually a very indifferent person when it came down to anything that wasn’t related to Ryusei in any way, which made it all the more unsettling that he seemed this upset over something that surprisingly didn’t involve the supposed ‘Antenna freak’ this time. Most of the team was too scared to go ask Rin himself and the rest of the PXG team that weren’t from Blue Lock most likely didn’t care enough. However, this still piqued Shidou’s interest and in his mind, was probably something he could piss off Rin for the millionth time so he was set on figuring it out himself after training.

 A few hours later, training had concluded for most of the Neo Egoist’s leagues and PXG was in their changing rooms getting ready for lunch hour. Gazing not so conspicuously at Rin from time to time, Shidou had noticed that the Itoshi brother hadn’t gotten changed and left as quickly as he normally would. Rin would generally try to get in and out as quickly as possible to avoid time he would have to be around other people or to maybe even fit in an extra yoga or stretching session before lunch. However, this time would be different as he sat in his corner amidst the bustling changing room keeping to his own devices with a seemingly troubled face.

Talking about how Nanase could improve his assistance to Rin on the pitch, Loki held a bright smile on his face until he noticed Shidou get up and walk towards Rin. Knowing trouble was most likely brewing, he started walking in hopes to intervene before anything happened but both strikers were suddenly interrupted by the 4 TV monitors positioned around the room lightning up with an ear piercing beep noise.

“Uh, is this thing on? I don’t use the locker room monitors a whole lot so hopefully this works.” A distorted voice slowly regaining its pitch of humanity began to emit from the speaker system hooked up to the monitors as the screens displayed static progressively dissipating to reveal the image of a familiar figure. 

“Well hello my unpolished gems! Had a good training?” Surprise took most of the people that were still in the changing rooms as the man behind this whole program had shown himself at such an unusual time. “As you all know, there are currently 5 teams in the Neo Egoist League, world class selections from clubs all around the world that have come here to foster your improvement.” He said, pushing up his glasses on his nose as his grin threatened to reach his ears. “However, despite Ubers versus FC Barcha happening soon, there has been a change of plans to the schedule.” By now, most of the fitting room had quiet down to not miss a word he said. “Following the next match, the upcoming matches will be rescheduled in favor of fitting in a new opponent for the program”.

Total shock is an understatement of what had taken over the faces of most of the players in the facility, even the coaches weren’t notified of this. “A new opponent..? As in a team or a player?” Isagi thought to himself, in the Bastard Munchen changing rooms as he was having a conversation with Kurona about future plans. “The general gist of how we’re going to go about this hasn’t been fully planned but,” Jinpachi says as he sets down his newly acquired plate of sushi. 

“What is confirmed at this moment is that once the next match is completed, Bastard Munchen will not be playing against Paris X Gen. They will be playing against the new challengers of the Neo Egoist League, Real Madrid as well as their ‘ New Generation World Xi ’ players, striker Libur Akuma and midfielder Sae Itoshi.”

Rin’s thoughts were already pretty troubled with what he had seen previously from Isagi. But all of that went out the window when he heard the final sentence of that broadcast. With a final ding noise, the small intermission was done and had left most of the teams in disarray over the news they had heard.

“There’s no god damn way, is he coming here for me..? Or that shitty…” Rin thought to himself as he hadn’t even noticed Shidou right in front of him, still in disbelief of what had been said by the four eyed dictator. 

“What..? This isn’t how this happened..?!” Isagi mulled over, somewhat rattled at what had just been said. Despite a minority of the Bastard Munchen locker room not knowing truly how great Sae is apart from what they say at the U20 game, as well as most of them now even knowing who Libur was at all, Isagi was an outsider when it came to that as, they were both key players in his world cup victory in the future. This had greatly changed the current situation.

Chapter Text

To say this unexpected news of world class club Real Madrid’s arrival to the Neo Egoist League went unnoticed was an understatement. Blue Lock players, Club members and even coaches alike were all quite shaken up by the recent news in a way the presence of the other clubs couldn’t quite replicate. Some were indifferent to the news, viewing it as just another hurdle in the path that lies ahead. Others however, weren’t too happy about this news. One thing was for 

sure though, changes had to be made.

It had only been a dozen minutes since lunch started and it was already apparent that the latest news was the talk of the facility with how loud the cafeteria was. Many different members from all of the different clubs had gathered in the shared central cafeteria to talk about the arrival of Real Madrid. Ego, being the one behind this whole circus, expected things to be loud for a while after announcing this. Despite knowing this would happen, he couldn’t help but get irritated from his phone blowing up with notifications as he tried to enjoy his well deserved lunch.

“Can these idiots never just take something to the chin and be quiet.” He thought to himself as he finally begrudgingly picked up his phone to open the chat messages. Jinpachi had a group chat with all of the club coaches where he would have the opportunity to broadcast private information to them about upcoming events or anything generally important he had to say to them. It was far easier than having to separately go in each of their sectors to deliver some boring info. Apparently, having a group chat like that could also have its disadvantages.

NEO EGOIST LEAGUE | Coaches

Today 11:13 AM

HELLO??

REAL MADRID??

╰Chris Prince, 11:14 AM

Yeah tf is this about 4 eyes

╰Lavinho, 11:17 AM

They’re right, why were we not informed of this earlier?

╰Julian Loki, 11:18 AM

God cant u guys just shut up and eat lunch.

Ego Jinpachi, 11:19 AM╯

Ego, what is the meaning of this?

╰Noel Noa, 11:23 AM

Fine whatever meet me at the meeting

 room a-30c in like 15 minutes 

Ego Jinpachi, 11:25 AM╯

K.

╰Marc Snuffy, 11:29 AM

Ego always hated face to face meetings, but he supposed this one was necessary. Reluctantly making his way to the designated meeting room, he finally arrived almost on time to finally shed some light on this whole ordeal. 

“You guys are way too punctual, it’s freaky.” Ego said as he closed the door behind him and took an empty seat around the roundtable where the coaches of Blue Lock resided. “Why the hell would you bring those guys here!?” Chris started before Ego could even push up his glasses to begin speaking. “Despite this annoying brute’s constant screaming, I’m going to have to agree with him. Why did you bring these guys here, and how did you even pull it off? Real Madrid doesn’t care about money so surely you must’ve offered something else?” Snuffy added.

“God relax, this isn’t that big of a deal. And no, I didn’t pay them anything, they offered to come.” Ego replied, finally fed up with them not giving him the chance to speak. “They did, why?” Loki asked, obviously more interested in that answer than why he even brought them here. “Beats me, I didn’t bother asking. Although, I think that pink haired midfielder is to blame for that.” He responded, not too bothered himself about the ‘Why’ of their reasoning for coming to him about their integration into the Neo Egoist League.

“Even if I have my own gripes about this, what are we going to do about the equality of this addition to the club pool?” Noa asked, finally breaking his silence, prompting Chris and Lavinho to look at him confused, which forced him to explain a little more. “They have an entire roster of purely club members whilst we have a mix of Blue Lock players and our club members. We can’t exactly send them extra Blue Lock players to even the numbers out because there aren’t any left.” he added.

“Relax, I’ve got all of that figured out already.” Ego answered, sitting up from his chair and moving towards a big screen on one of the walls. Grabbing the remote, he turned on the monitor and flicked through a few files before pulling up a tab that displayed all of the 5 clubs with a number below it.

 “Moving forward, all of the clubs will get their opportunity to fight against Real Madrid. No roster changes will be made to their club as like you’ve mentioned, there are too few players in the program to lend to them. However, as it currently stands, each club previously in the Neo Egoist League has a current ‘total’ net worth based off of the price of each of their Blue Lock players belonging to their team combined together.” Each of the numbers below the team’s icon’s slowly began to count up to their designated value as Ego spoke.

“Using this accumulated value, you will all be given the opportunity to either stick with your current roster or use that money to loan a Blue Lock participant from another club for a single match. The price of that loan will be half of the market value of the player you are looking to buy. All of you will have a limit of 8 players total and 2 maximum per club that you can loan for your match against Madrid.” Ego added as all of the current prices for each Blue Lock player flash on screen. “I expect all of you to announce this to your teams as I can’t be bothered to go through that trouble myself so with that, I’ll see you all later.” He said as he turned off the monitor and left the room without even hearing their complaints, despite there being many.

###

Isagi was still digesting the news as he ate at one of the cafeteria tables with a few of his friends. He genuinely couldn’t tell whether his memory was that bad or if he’d impacted the past this much.

“Hopefully I haven’t messed up things too much…” He thought to himself as he half mindedly listened to Bachira yammer about his absurd newly found concept of ‘Ego Juice’. Thankfully for him, that conversation was cut short by lunch being over and everyone returning to their sectors for their free time afternoon. However, a little further down the hallway to the Bastard Munchen sector, a crowd of the club’s players began to accumulate as the coach himself, Noa, stood blocking the way to their district.

“Why the horde?” Kurona said whilst leaning on Isagi’s shoulder, having just arrived at the traffic. “I’ve got no clue.” Isagi replied, equally confused. It didn’t take long before all of the Bastard Munchen members had entered the hallway and Noa had finally begun explaining himself. Ushering them all to follow him to their game planning room he started explaining the new system put in place by Ego following the addition of Real Madrid to the Neo Egoist League.

###

“So basically loaning players for the clubs’ matches against Real Madrid?” Hiori asked, still trying to grasp the situation. “Precisely, this also means that I will be making drastic changes to the starting 11 for our match against them as I plan to purchase some players from other clubs. This also means that you should all prepare yourself for the possibility of having to both play for another club temporarily and play against Real Madrid more than once. So use the intel from your previous matches to your advantage. That’s all I had to say, I won’t keep you all here any longer. Enjoy the rest of your evenings.” 

And with that they were all dismissed to go think over what had just happened in the span of a few hours. So many doors had just opened up for a lot of people and now they have double the chances of proving themselves to be capable players in the eyes of other clubs watching the program. Despite all of that though, for Isagi, this wasn’t exactly the course of events he would call ‘good’.

Chapter Text

It had only been a few hours and most of the club coaches had turned in their loan requests to Ego, they didn’t quite need to be that punctual considering they still had an entire match to decide and evaluate who they wanted on their team against Real Madrid, but some seemed quite sure of their decisions already.

Manshine City was the first club to send in their form only an hour and a half after Chris’ meeting during lunch. He had a total budget of 158,000,000 ¥ following Chigiri, Reo and Nagi’s outstanding performance in their previous matches. This had allowed their coach to gladly take advantage of that overwhelming amount and get his hands on Kurona Ranze from Bastard Munchen, Kunigami Rensuke from Bastard Munchen, Yukimiya Kenyu from Bastard Munchen and Rin Itoshi from Paris X Gen for a total price of 68,000,000 ¥. A small price to pay for an already incredibly cohesive and well put together lineup of players to add to his team.

Ubers had not sent in their submission yet.

Paris X Gen with a total budget of 68,000,000 ¥, decided to loan the following players; Gin Gagamaru from Bastard Munchen for 14,000,000 ¥ ,Isagi Yoichi from Bastard Munchen for 25,000,000 ¥ , Hyoma Chigiri from Manshine City for 15,000,000 ¥ and Kurona Ranze from Bastard Munchen for 12,000,000 ¥. This roster costed the club 66,000,000 ¥.

Bastard Munchen had a budget of 178,000,000 ¥. With that large amount of money, they decided to recruit only Rin Itoshi from Paris X Gen for 18,000,000 ¥ and Oliver Aiku from Ubers for 13,500,000 ¥. This short list costed them a mere 31,500,000 ¥.

FC Barcha being the second club to send their loaning request, had a budget of 117,000,000 ¥. With those funds, Lavinho decided to loan Oliver Aiku from Ubers for 13,500,00 ¥, Gin Gagamaru from Bastard Munchen for 14,000,000 ¥ , Ryusei Shidou from Paris X Gen for 10,000,000 ¥ and Nagi Seishiro from Manshine City for 44,000,000 ¥ which came out to 81,500,000 ¥ for the team.

###

Fixating on his phone reading the preceding information about loan transfers, Isagi felt a little dazed about the whole ordeal as he pondered the situation on his bed. “Despite not currently being in the top 10 in terms of market value, it looks like alotta teams want a midfielder like you, huh.” Hiori said to his fellow red headed teammate he was once again stealing precious space on his bed from.

“Yeah, I dunno if I’ll be able to keep up with playing with so many different teams on such short notice. Though, I guess this’ll be an easy way to inflate my market value since I’ll get to play more matches than most others.” Kurona responded, having accepted the fact that his bed was no longer only his to use a long time ago as he viewed the news himself.

“It’s only been a day since the transfer system was instated in light of Real Madrid coming to Blue Lock and so many teams have already posted their lineup requests.. I think it would’ve been a smarter idea to at least wait until the match between Ubers and Barcha happening today ended before making final decisions.” Isagi said, sitting up from his bed and setting down his phone.

“Yeah, I think Snuffy made the right call sitting outa this one.” Hiori responded. “Speaking of which, their match starts in a few minutes I think. You guys wanna go watch it in the spectating room?” He added. Although Isagi didn’t really need to go watch this match considering he already knows what happens, he supposed it would be better to make sure not too many other events diverged from the past without him being aware of it.

###

Seeing his friends from the past break through their limits and find new versions of themselves for the second time felt a little odd. It’s like rewatching a movie and noticing small things you hadn’t before on the first run. A few glimpses at how Barou played against Barcha during this match really puts it into perspective for Isagi just how much more proficient he became at his craft following the U-20 match. He knew that he had a hunger for improvement but Isagi never quite got to see it in person, he wondered if this was something he’d experience for every other 

person he’s grown with in Blue Lock.

Taking Isagi out of his zoned out state of reminiscing, Hiori asked how he would plan on having to deal with both Kaiser and Rin on his team when playing against Real Madrid. Which, that was something that hadn’t even crossed his mind since he looked at the results.


“Right, I suppose Rin isn’t too fond of me at the moment and neither is Kaiser.” He mumbled to himself following his cyan haired friend’s question. “Haaa.. that’s gonna be such a pain..” He groaned to himself as he watched Barou score his second goal against Barcha.

“Hell would have to freeze over before that guy actually decides to work with you to win, and throwing Kaiser in the mix will only make things more complicated. Not even to mention the heated relationship he has with his brother on the other team.” Hiori added, chuckling at how absurd the circumstances are. “You’ll hafta figure something out because we’re up next against Madrid after this match. But, whatever you do I’ll be right behind you, remember that.” He said, trying to comfort his obviously disgruntled friend.

“Thanks Hiori.” He replied. “I think I’ll take a quick walk to clear my head.” Isagi said, sitting up front the futon he had been lazing in. “I’ll see if I can find Kurona on my way back, he’s been gone for a snack for like 10 minutes now.” He added as he walked through the metal frame of the room. “Cya in a bit.” Hiori responded as he waved him off.

Yoichi was heavily debating paying a visit to either Rin or Kaiser so he could have a shot at smoothing things over for the upcoming match following what Hiori had just told him. Though, he wasn’t sure if that was a good idea at all considering both of them being on such bad terms with him at the moment which made his head spin with annoyance.

Completely swallowed up by his thoughts with his head in the clouds, he neglected to notice the person turning the corner in the hallway as he bumped into him. “Ah.. Sorry!” He said as he awkwardly scratched his forehead with his eyes closed and a sheepish smile painted on his face.

“Isagi?”

He expected to have bumped into someone like Raichi who would’ve given him an earful of insults and relentless screaming which is why he was so quick to apologize without even seeing who it was. However, the voice that responded to him was not that of the blonde meathead he expected.

“S-Sae..!?” He said, startled, as his eyes shot open whilst he took a few steps back. “He’s already here..?? Forget that, why’s he in the Bastard Munchen Plaza!” Isagi thought to himself, trying to maintain his composure as a million thoughts raced through his head.

“Hello, Isagi Yoichi. I suppose it is convenient that I ran into you in such a manner.” He responded with his ever so expressionless face. It really does run in the family huh. “There’s something I wanted to ask before our match against each other.”

Chapter Text

I’m curious, do you guys still want to read this?