Chapter Text
Reo couldn't believe it. Nagi was locked out. Nagi was locked out.
When Nagi and him first entered Blue Lock, they made a promise: They were going to be the world's best strikers in the world.
How did this happen!?
Reo held back a tear. How did Bachira manage to intersect!? There had to be a way out of it. There had to be a way to get Nagi back.
***
"You emo bastard! How much money do you want."
Ego wasn't phased to see the purple haired baller with asymmetrical bangs. He assumed Mikage would try something like this.
"There's no way to bring him back. You and I both know Blue Lock must be fair in order to birth the world's best striker. If you can't handle Blue Lock without him, then there's no reason to stay." Ego waved off to the non-existent door.
As much as it pained Reo, he knew what Ego meant.
If he were to aim to be the strongest striker, he knew he needed to score goals for himself, not for the white-haired boy whom he made his promise for.
Reo nodded and walked out.
***
Nagi sighed, "It's just me, myself, and Choki, stuck in my bedroom, living outside the world I left behind."
It had been a week since he had left Blue Lock. A week without Reo...
Nagi still couldn't believe it himself that he had lost that game. He still remembers winning the goal during the u20 arc. He remembers how happier he was when he reconciled his friendship with Reo. He remembers when they made those team attacks work.
As Nagi laid on his back, his arm reached up for his selfish dream. He thought that Reo and him would make it to the top, but he failed everything when he tried to pass the ball to him.
Of course, they knew I would pass. I was so incredibly obvious! God, if I had just found a way to fucking score myself I would still be there.
However, Nagi knew there was nothing he could do about it now.
After the rankings were revealed, he was immediately escorted to grab his belongings. Anri was the one who greeted him out, giving her thanks for participating at Blue Lock. The best he got from this place was only a thank you. He didn't even have time to say goodbye to his teammates, nonetheless apologize to Reo.
But the worst thing, by far, was that disastrous car ride home.
***
"Nagi, I'm so glad you were able to get involved in this thing, and I don't think I've ever seen you look so happy, but now that you are kicked out we need more source of income. Your father and I don't make enough money to support us or your private school. Could you ask your rich friend to lend us money?" Nagi's mom looks over at him while she is driving.
"Mom, Reo and I aren't fri-- MOM PAY ATTENTION TO THE-"
Crash, kaboom.
The airbags were suspended, but Nagi and Nagi's mom were a-okay! 😋
They rapidly got out of the car and turned to see who they hit, but thankfully, they didn't have to search far as they heard them almost immediately.
"Oh my effing goodness, how DARE you crash my Mario kart 3000, don't you know this cost me a gagillion moneys!?!? You shall pay for this! I mean, just look at this mess!" The man points to the smallest insignificant scratch on his Mario Kart 3000.
A blonde haired boy with a mole on his right cheek walked out of the vehicle, "Dad, hey, it was just a little scratch, and we still have more at hom-"
"Listen here, boy, you have no right to say anything. You were supposed to be our extra cash cow by becoming the world's best striker, I don't want to hear it!" The blonde haired boy winced.
Nagi's ears perked up. No one in Japan would be shouting that they would become the world's best striker unless they joined one specific program, the program he just failed.
The blonde haired boy suddenly made eye contact with Nagi, "Wait, aren't you Nagi Seishiro? Aren't you supposed to be in Blue Lock."
Nagi quickly looked somewhere else, not wanting to be a part of this conversation.
The man from the "damaged" car started talking again, "Look, I don't want to deal with the legal battles and the time, and I don't think you guys want to either. I own a small restaurant chain, and one of my stores is severely understaffed, but I don't want to pay high wages. What if your son can," He looked over at Nagi, "work there for a year at like $5 an hour, and we can forget all about this dispute."
Nagi's mom thought it over. Her family was poor, there was no way they could ever win the legal battle, and maybe in some way this could even help Nagi.
"Okay." She replied.
"??? " Nagi quickly looked over to his mom with stellar confusion, as she was already signing the papers the guy coincidentally already had prepared.
Once she finished signing, Nagi's mom looked at the rich man and said, "I'm so sorry for the trouble, and yes, he will start working next Tuesday."
"Great!" He said as he smiled evilly.
Just as Nagi's mom was calling for an Uber. The rich ass man headed back to his car and then hollered to his own child, "Kira we got to go!"
The blonde haired boy Kira walked quickly and into the kart. Then they went on their merry away after eating a 🍄 on the road.
As they waited for the Uber, Nagi's mom said to her boy, "Look Nagi, I know you would much rather be a leach than to go to work, but there is no way we could ever go bankrupt, and hey, maybe you can learn something at the restaurant. It could be the start of something new!” His mom stated with fake optimism.
Nagi just stared back at her with emotionless eyes.
The Uber arrived, and they got in it. Thankfully, they still had some money left, and so they went to their small apartment.
As they entered the place, Nagi's mom thought of her boy as he dragged his feet up the stairs. It had been a while since she last saw him with that expression.
The way he looked at her now was the same as back then. It looked like Nagi had no purpose in the world, no reason to stay here, aside from playing video games, of course. He avoided everything like the plague and had no fascinations. She was getting extremely worried by the beginning of his high school years, but that changed when he gained his first friend.
Nagi barely talked about him, but she could see a small flicker of light whenever he did. So when Nagi came up to her to ask to participate in Blue Lock, there was no way she would say no.
The next time she saw Nagi was on T.V. It was the Blue Lock vs. Japan’s U20 match. She grabbed every family member and friend she knew and invited them to go watch the match.
“No way Nagi’s mom, Nagi, is going to go up against the U20? I didn’t think that boy had any drive.”
Nagi’s mom responded, “I didn’t think so either, but look at where he is now. You guys should come watch.”
And so the living room was full, full of Nagi supporters that Nagi didn’t know anything about. They were on the edge of the couch, edging in their seats.
The white-haired boy sped through the field, kicking the ball into the air before bicycle kicking it, aiming towards the goal. Almost as if in slow motion, the defenders stared at Nagi with jaws dropping, unable to come up with solutions to defend this. They couldn't fail. They couldn't get their name off the starting lineup. But as they looked up, what could they even do?
Oliver Aiku, the team's defender captain, was running to go save it. He wasn't going to get this lame ass team to score another mother flipping goal! And ran and ran he went, but it was far too late. The ball pushed through the goalies' hands and went straight into the goal.
"GOOOOLLLLLAAAAAZZZOOO!!!!!!!"
The living room exploded with screams. Friends and family jumping with joy and laughter. Hollering like chimpanzees in the small apartment room home.
“Nagi's mom! I didn't know your son was a football superstar,” said family member #1.
“Yeah how'd that happen!”
Nagi's mom would laugh it off and say things like, “it was out of the blue.” or some shit like that. Really, she was only glad to see that spirit within Nagi, and she was glad to continue seeing it during the neoegoist league.
But now he is worse than before. She only hoped that maybe his new job could make a difference.