[Blue Lock] Chapter 8 - The Second Selection (Patreon)

Chapter 8 - The Second Selection

"Damn it! Damn it!"

"My dream…"

"It’s all because of you! If it hadn’t been for you, we would’ve passed the selection!"

Some were crying as they packed their belongings, and others were shouting and throwing accusations at Naruto.

"My fault? I’m the one who carried your ass through all the games. The 10 of you scored 1 goal in 4 matches, and even that one was by rigging the match. You’ve never given me even one pass, yet I still scored 8 goals, all alone."

Playing as a 10-man team against Team V, the strongest team in their group, had been no different than suicide. Team V beat them soundly, scoring no less than 7 goals against them, with Team W not scoring any at all.

"If you had tried including me in your team, we could’ve all passed to the next selection. But you didn’t. Now you reap what you sowed."

Saying that, Naruto left the dorm and went to the pitch. He was not in the mood to argue with them. The sooner they were out of his hair, the better.

⁂

"You can take a boy out of the hood, but you can’t take the hood out of him. Hahaha!"

"Shut up! No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have told you in the first place. I knew you were going to laugh."

"Aww, are you sulking? You’re so cute sometimes."

Luckily, it was a voice call, not a video call, so Saeko did not get to see how his face flushed at her words.

"Anyway. How is it at Blue Lock now? We haven’t talked in a while. I assume you’ve been busy?"

"The rest of my teammates were all disqualified and sent home. I’ve got the dorm and bathroom all for myself now," he said with a chuckle.

"All by yourself? Does it not get lonely?"

"I’ve been living on my own ever since my dad passed away. I’ve gotten used to it. It’s even better now because I can talk to you without the others eavesdropping on me."

"Your father…when did it happen?"

"I was 16. He died of overworking."

He had not had any real friends in years. It was also unlike him to be so open about his inner thoughts and his past. However, as he was talking with her, he felt the urge to confide in her. Girls had that kind of effect on guys.

"Dad used to be a regular salaryman. But one day, he and my godfather made some plans to start a private business, a car rental company. They had been saving up for a while, and dad also took a big loan from the bank."

"He took a big risk…"

"He did, but he thought their plan was on point. My godfather was also a man with many connections everywhere, and dad also trusted him completely…"

"Don’t tell me-"

"Yeah, that trust was the end of him. The end of us. That shithead stole all the money and disappeared."

"Oh my god. But how? Also, did you not report him to the police?"

"I am not sure, I was only 15 when it happened, and they weren’t talking about business when I was around. But, from what I found later on, they had a common account for the company, and they both had access to it. He transferred the money from the company account into his, and then he was gone."

"But the police could trace the transfer and track him down, couldn’t they?"

"They can’t do that without a warrant, and scams aren’t easy to prove either, especially among family members. Dad was also a foreigner, so that made them delay it even more. By the time the police finally started acting, it was too late. He had cashed out all the money and disappeared. For the next two years, dad struggled as much as he could to make ends meet, but, eventually, he couldn’t keep up with the monthly payments to the bank… and the bank took our home. A few months after that, dad died on the job at his desk. Cardiac arrest."

"I’m sorry to hear that. You’ve had it rough."

Feeling bad for having brought the mood down with his talk, Naruto changed the tone and the subject of the conversation rather abruptly.

"It’s in the past. I’m at Blue Lock now, life is good. The second selection is just around the corner. I can’t wait to start playing football again. I haven’t touched a ball in a week!"

"You haven’t played football in a week? Then what had kept you so busy all these days that you couldn’t even send me a text? Explain yourself, mister!"

He laughed at the tone of her voice.

"I’ve been doing physical training. I thought my stamina was great but Ego-san has been pushing my body to the limit over the past week. Two hours of endurance runs, intense core training, weightlifting, and dozens of 100-meter-long sprints—all that, every day! I was so exhausted for the first four days that I fell asleep the instant I went to bed. I wouldn’t have missed your texts or calls otherwise."

"Hmm, okay, I’ll let it slide this time. But you’re on thin ice!"

As she said that, Saeko giggled, and Naruto laughed together with her.

"It’s such a bummer that we can’t see each other… I was really looking forward to it. I was going to take you out shopping and-"

[...]

⁂ Three days later ⁂

After 10 days of intense physical training, the first selection finally came to an end. Now, it was time for the second selection to start.

Coming to the room designated to hold the Second Selection, Naruto stared in confusion at the rest of the players, specifically at the rankings and the names of the teams written on their shoulders.

‘Why is everyone’s ranking so low? And those guys there too, how can they be from Team W? What's going on?’

While he was still trying to make sense of the situation, the screens turned on, and Ego’s voice came from the speakers:

"Hello there, diamonds in the rough. Good work on your physical conditioning. You might have already noticed: there are no players from Buildings 1, 2, 3, or 4 in here. That’s because only Building 5 exists in Blue Lock. You all believed that you were at the very bottom of the pile, and you battled through the first selection filled with stupid determination."

"You put us through all that crazy training! Are you trying to kill us?!"

"You lied to us? Screw you!"

But while the others were shouting at him, filled with indignation, Naruto slapped his fist against his palm.

"‘I knew it! I knew there had to be something wrong with my ranking! Looking at how much weaker than me were the majority of players in our group, it made no sense for me to have a rank similar to theirs!"

"Yeah, that’s right," Ego said, not affected by their yells in the least. "It was all a ruse I set up to destroy that half-baked confidence that you have all come with at Blue Lock and give you the hunger to become the best in the world."

As some players started bitching loudly again, Ego raised his voice.

"Idiots! I’m calling those sentiments half-baked. Listen. Let’s take Noel Noa as an example. He’s currently considered the best striker in the world, but he grew up in a slum in France. Surrounded by crime and poverty, the only way to change his fate was with a ball. Soccer was literally his only option."

Ego’s words about Noel Noa hit Naruto very close to home.

‘He’s just like me!’

He was in exactly the same position at the moment. An orphan, barely getting by from one day to another, with nothing to his name. No parents, no money, no smarts, no trade skills—nothing. All he had was football and a dream to one day make it big. A dream to become a professional football player and change his life, to escape poverty.

"There are countless strikers with similar stories all around the world. Their hunger for goals is immeasurable. Since you were born and raised in Japan, where losing doesn’t affect your life, most of you will never know the level of hunger for goals these players have."

Ego’s words continued to resonate with Naruto. His behaviour and attitude on the pitch up until that moment had been precisely as Ego said. Even after securing his position as the top scorer of the team and ensuring that he qualified for the next selection, Naruto never stopped chasing goals. With his teammates actively trying to isolate him completely on the pitch, he could have just taken it easy and waited for the time to pass. But he didn’t do that. He continued to run himself ragged for the sake of recovering the ball, and he continuously strived to improve his game for the sake of scoring more goals.

"Blue Lock exists to give that to you. In fact, you all came here wanting to kick the butts of those ranked above you, believing that you could win. Am I right? That hunger will become the ego that changes the world. With that being said, we will now begin the second selection. The first selection was about finding what it means to be a striker: finding your weapon and turning zero into one. From here on, it’ll be a battle of multiplying that one into 100."

"The second selection is divided up into five different stages. It’s a leveling system where you’ll only be allowed to move on after clearing each stage. And those who cleared all of the stages and finished the second selection will participate in a strengthening training camp with top world players of my choosing."

A murmur of amazement came from the crowd of boys when they heard his promise.

"When you are ready, go through the gate one at a time. Yes, you heard it right. Alone, not together. The second selection is far more difficult than the first. If you survived the last round because you got lucky with teammates, prepare yourself. In the second selection, the trash will be sifted out first."

⁂

"You go first."

"No, you do it."

"No way, man! I’ll let others go first."

"I wonder what are they testing now?"

While everyone was hanging back, not having the courage to be the first to attempt the test, two boys stepped towards the door at the same time.

One of them, tall, his black hair arranged in a fashionable style, and with handsome facial features, looked like the heartthrob of most teenage girls out there.

As for the other one, he looked like the opposite of him. With his strong-looking body, his spiky blonde hair standing in all directions, and the strange scars on his face, he gave off a dangerous vibe. He looked no different than a thug.

"Move aside," Naruto said when he saw the black-haired boy had grabbed a ball and stopped in front of the door, presumably to warm up.

"Is he going to start the selection without even warming up?"

"What’s with that guy?"

"I don’t like him. He’s too cocky."

Brushing past Itoshi Rin, who was just about to show off his skills with the ball, Naruto ignored the peanut gallery’s words and stepped through the doors. He had warmed up before coming here. Whatever Ego was going to throw at him, he was more than ready for it.

⁂

‘Everyone outside is living in 2018, while we, at Blue Lock, are living in 2049,’ thought Naruto when he saw the hologram of a goalkeeper that suddenly appeared. It reminded him of the trailer of a sci-fi movie that had come out the previous year.

As surprised as he was at the apparition of the hologram, he forced himself to stop thinking about it when he saw that the red circle around him started decreasing in size.

‘The goalpost and the size of this room. Ego-san is probably trying to test our goal-scoring ability from inside the box. It’s similar to the game of tag before the first selection.’

Looking at the hologram defending the goal, Naruto narrowed his eyes.

‘Let’s see how well it can stop my shots. If it can stop them at all.’

He grinned. If there was one thing he was good at, it was shooting.

⁂

"This is exactly what I envisioned. The way to clear this stage will change depending on how a player uses their skills. For those who survived because the others did the scoring for them, this 90-minute stage will be a challenge. But, for a striker who can turn zero into one with their own weapon, this is a place to hone and polish their skills so they can evolve," Ego said as he watched the players with great attention. "Test out their-"

"What with that guy?! He’s crazy good!" Anri unexpectedly cut his monologue short as she pointed towards one particular box on the screen.

"Oh, him?" Ego replied. "If we’re talking about shooting alone, he’s the undisputed Number 1 player at Blue Lock. This doesn’t even qualify as a test; it’s more like a training session for him."

⁂

"This is hella fun!" Naruto let out a shout as he kicked a fantastic volley, the timing and power of the shoot being so good that neither the hologram goalie nor the moving mannequins came anywhere close to stopping it.

As Ego said, his shooting skill was so good that his test could not be counted as such. As he didn’t have friends, for the longest time before coming to Blue Lock, Naruto’s only playing mate had been a wall. There were many days when he would spend hours just playing passes with the wall or kicking the ball at empty cans.

Dribbling, positioning, tackling, tactics, team play, mentality, vision, etc.—there were still many areas where he needed to improve as a football player. But when it came to shooting, he was elite. It was one of his two weapons, a formidable weapon that he had polished for years.

Even after coming to Blue Lock, due to his teammates’ refusal to include him in their plays, he had not received any passes from them. But now that he was in the middle of a 90-minute-long test where he was getting passes continuously and there was a keeper to defend the goalpost, Naruto was having the time of his life.

⁂

‘Huh? Am I the first to have come out of the test?’

He had been so fired up that he forgot all about the number of goals that he had scored before the whistle rang and the robotic voice announced to him the end of the test.

‘I wish it was longer. Or, at least, they should’ve let me stay the full 90 minutes.’

Letting out a long sigh, he sat down on the floor and rested his back against the wall. Minutes passed slowly, like a snail. He was starting to get restless.

‘If only I had my phone with me.’

Thinking about his phone also made his thoughts wander to the two people related to it. He involuntarily smiled as he thought about Saeko.

"Um, Ego-san? Can you hear me?" Naruto suddenly said and looked at the screens installed in the room.

A few seconds passed without getting an answer, and he was about to let out another sigh when Ego’s voice came from the speakers:

"I can hear you, yes. What is it?"

Hearing Ego actually give him a reply, Naruto stood up and asked:

"I was wondering… is the reward system from the first selection still available?"

Ego took on a thinking posture, as he had not expected that question.

"Hm, I was planning on doing away with it because some of the rewards will become obsolete for the players undergoing the second selection. For example, starting with the second selection, everyone is going to be given beds rather than sleeping on the floor, in a futon."

"Then… Is there another way for me to win a one-day ticket out of Blue Lock?"

"Ah, so that's what you were after."

Although Ego didn’t show it on his face, Naruto could tell from the tone of his voice that he was inwardly amused.

"Fine. If you can score 10 goals, you can exchange them for a day outside. But keep in mind that from here onward, it won’t be as easy to score as before. Most of the riff-raff have already been disqualified, and the goalkeepers will also no longer be amateurs who have never defended before."

"I understand. Thank you very much!"

Mere moments after Ego’s face disappeared from the screen, the second player to finish the first stage of the second selection came out as well. A brief expression of surprise flashed on his face when he realized that someone had cleared the test faster than him, but he didn’t strike up a conversation. He went into another corner of the room and leaned with his back against a wall, crossing his arms to his chest.

After that, as minutes trickled by, increasingly more players started coming out of the testing rooms.

FORM A TEAM OF 3 AND PROCEED

As he read the words on the screen, Naruto thought while looking at the rest of the players who had passed the first stage so far:

‘I don’t know most of these guys. And since we’ll be making teams of three, every single member is important. I should get myself some decent teammates.’

Those weren’t only his thoughts; everyone wanted the same thing. However, with most of them coming from different groups, they didn’t know each other’s capabilities. All they could do was judge them by looking at their current ranking. But that wasn’t an accurate way of ascertaining someone’s skills either, because each player had their own strengths and weaknesses. While some could be average at shooting, they could be talented dribblers or have great vision and positioning.

But his face brightened when he saw a short boy with bob-cut hair and yellow eyes coming into the room as well. He was one of the few players who had left a deep impression on him at Blue Lock until then.

⁂

"Hey! Isagi! You’re here already!"

"Bachira!"

"Reunited again!"

The two boys high-fived each other, happy to see that they had both passed the first stage. After Isagi filled him in on what they had to do next, Bachira asked:

"So, who do you want to fill the last spot?"

"Huh?"

"There are two of us, but there is still one spot free."

"Let’s see… The players that come to mind are Kunigami or Chigiri, I guess."

"Nice. But we can only choose one of them. Which one would you prefer?"

Isagi hesitated before answering: "How about teaming up with whoever gets here first?"

"Hey, Bachira! I’d like to join your team. What do you think?"

Bachira and Isagi were startled as they looked at the newcomer. Isagi, in particular, gulped. It wasn’t as if the one who approached them was some sort of giant - his height was average - but he was so well-built and his face looked so intimidating that he couldn’t help getting nervous.

‘He’s the Number 1?!’  Isagi was stunned.

But, as he recalled his match against Team W and the recordings of Team W’s plays against others, he realized that there was no reason to be surprised.

‘He’s scored multiple goals from over 30 metres away. The first stage was probably a piece of cake to him.’

"What do you think, Isagi?" Bachira asked.

There were four players that left a very strong impression on Isagi in the first selection. One of them was Shoei Baro, after Team Z’s match against Team X. The second was Seishiro Nagi due to his ball control. The third was Bachira himself; his dribbling was something he had never seen in anyone in his age group. And the fourth was Uzumaki Naruto. His shooting skills and his athleticism were unreal, he was a nightmare to play against. The way that he had knocked Kuon unconscious with a single punch only cemented his image as a "boogeyman" in Isagi’s mind.

"It’d be great to have you on our team," Isagi began, "but I need to ask you one question first."

In spite of how intimidating Naruto appeared to be, Isagi wasn’t one to back down just because of that. Not when his future at Blue Lock depended on his decision.

"Are you going to continue playing in the same way you played with Team W?"

"I think you’re misunderstanding something: I can pass the ball to others just fine. I can be a team player. They were the ones who excluded me from their game."

"Huh? Why would they do something like that? Your skills are amazing!" Bachira said in surprise.

"I eliminated someone’s brother in the game of tag. They were twins, and he took that loss particularly hard. But they were the ones who started it, they targeted me for no reason. After that, I refused to play as a defender, so he managed to turn the whole team against me."

He scratched his cheek for a moment before saying:

"I guess I could’ve been more flexible… But they were out of their minds to isolate me. Come to think of it, if we had been a real team, you guys would’ve probably not passed the first selection."

Isagi chuckled awkwardly at that. Team Z did cut it very close, especially after the drama with Kuon.

"Alright then. Welcome to our team!"

"Thanks," Naruto said and they shook hands.

⁂

‘Chigiri and Kunigami will probably not like it that we went ahead without them…’ Isagi thought while he and his two teammates were walking through a corridor towards the indoor pitch where their next match was going to take place.

‘But this is Blue Lock. Only egoists survive here. I have to look after my own interest first and foremost.’

Thinking that he had gotten the No. 1 player, a striker as overwhelming as Uzumaki Naruto, in his team, Isagi clenched his fists, barely containing his hype about their future matches.

Eventually, they reached their destination.

"Oh, the field is so small. This is no different from a futsal field," Isagi said when they came out and saw the pitch.

"It makes sense. We are having a 3 vs 3 match, we are too few players for a big football field," Bachira said.

A few moments after them, another three players arrived.

"Naruhaya? And Shoei Baro?!" Isagi said at first in surprise and then in alarm.

"And the Messi of Aomori too!" Bachira also added.

Naruto didn’t know who the first and the last were, but he knew Shoei Baro quite well. A feral smile appeared on his face.