8 Capítulo 8 - Trivela Is my Weapon.
Kuon's decision to celebrate seemed appropriate; after all, we were practically qualified by the end of the game. Kunigami used his points to buy meat for everyone, and we celebrated for the rest of the night.
The following day, we thought it would be beneficial to have a team training session. I also took the opportunity to analyze how each player performed. Bachira stood out as a skilled attacker, with tremendous dribbling ability. Kunigami had a strong left-footed shot, and Isagi seemed to be gravitating towards playing in midfield, becoming a much more interesting player as he demonstrated an exceptional ability to read the field.
"Ugh... This training is exhausting me... Do we really need to be this intense?" Igarashi asked, sitting on the pitch.
"I think we can call it a day... I'm tired too," Kuon replied, fixing his hair.
Although the three I mentioned earlier were the best in the team in my opinion, Chigiri also caught my attention. He always seemed to do the minimum, never taking risks, and played quietly...
Suddenly, Ego's voice echoed from the screen.
"Greetings, raw gems."
Everyone paused their training to look at the screen.
"I know this mayo pasta I'm eating is delicious."
"It does look delicious," Igarashi said, drooling.
"I prefer meat," Arthur remarked.
"Let's see the results of the matches and the current standings."
1st Place | Team Z | 6 Points | 21 Goals
2nd Place | Team V | 6 Points | 12 Goals
3rd Place | Team W | 3 Points | -1 Goals
4th Place | Team Y | 3 Points | -16 Goals
5th Place | Team X | 0 Points | -16 Goals
Match 5
X vs Y
3 - 4
Match 6
W vs V
1 - 5
"Now, the most interesting part comes. So far, your ranking has been based on performance, but now the rank is based on the most important thing for attackers, goals."
The numbers on the uniforms began to change.
"So now, the best-ranked player of Team Z is... you, Arthur Saito."
I'm Rank 265 then...
"It was obvious," Raichi said.
"Rank 271... For the ladies, I'll say I was Rank 1," Imamura joked, covering the number with his hand and smiling.
Ego finished eating the pasta and continued. "Until now, you've been looking for a weapon that could elevate your level. The next step is... to make it extraordinary!"
"Consider, for example, the Argentine striker Lionel Messi. In summary, his main weapons are his hyper-fast dribbling and incredible shooting speed with his left foot. This made him one of the greatest in the history of football."
Even Messi has main weapons... I need to define mine soon...
"These weapons vary from person to person. So, the way to polish them depends on each of you. Just following Messi's footsteps would only lead to ruin for you... Now, through your unique abilities, evolve your weapons to make them perfect. A rough gem is nothing more than trash until your talent shows itself as a perfect crystalline gem."
Beep. Ego disappeared, and a countdown to the match appeared on the screen.
Team Z vs Team W
23:59:59
"Hey, Arthur," Raichi approached me after training.
"What a surprise, you said a sentence without swearing."
"Shut up, I wanted to ask if you could help me."
What's this? What does he need help with?
"With what?"
"Well, I've been playing in midfield for our team, almost like a defensive midfielder."
"Okay."
"As you're a very skilled attacker, what do you find annoying to face? How do you see a good marker?"
"That's a good question... You have a lot of stamina and physicality; I think often you make rash tackles, and I find it easy to get past you for that reason. If you closed down more and closed the space until the right moment... Maybe you'd be more effective."
"I see. That's all I needed."
Raichi grabbed the ball and returned to the field.
Is he enjoying playing as a midfielder? Or does he just want to improve for the team? Either way, I think his effort is commendable; Raichi could be really good as a defensive midfielder because of his physical strength and endurance.
Arthur headed to the cafeteria right after training. There, he met Bachira.
"Hey, Bachira!"
Once again, Arthur had a large plate of meat in his hands.
"Hey! So much meat, give me some."
"Never."
Bachira stole a piece of meat from Arthur's plate.
"You bastard!"
"If you complain, I'll take another one."
"You'll be dead before you try."
"Arthur, how did you play football before Blue Lock?"
Is he changing the subject to avoid getting hit?
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I always played alone; people didn't like playing with me. The monster inside me kept me company, and I never got tired of it."
"That sounds boring." Arthur said with his mouth full.
"So people played with you even though you were that good?"
"Hm... You know, one day I remember hearing a friend of mine say to stop inviting me to play football. We were in fourth grade; I remember the next day spreading the word to everyone in sixth grade about how he and his friends said that sixth grade was terrible at football."
Bachira laughed. "And what happened?"
"They called me desperately to play on their team against sixth grade. And I played, scored countless goals against those poor players. And they invited me to play with them."
"So you became popular?"
"Well, I was always invited to play; sometimes they put rules like I couldn't score with my left foot, or I couldn't dribble the same person more than twice in a game."
"I see... You found a different solution."
"I think so. But here in Blue Lock, I think I can finally move on to a new stage. I feel like I can still improve a lot as a player."
"Well, I'm glad to know you can still improve; otherwise, it would be boring to surpass you. Thanks for the meal, by the way!"
"Meal?"
Arthur looked at the back of the meat pile, where there was a hole missing a lot of meat.
"BACHIRA!"
Bachira ran away from Arthur, who gave up chasing him and saw Chigiri entering a room he had never seen before.
"Where's he going?"
When I entered the room, Chigiri was in front of several screens, watching highlights from the last games.
"Studying the last games? There's nothing tactically interesting in those games, I guarantee."
"Were you injured?" Chigiri looked into Arthur's eyes.
"I still am, actually, but I don't care."
"How do you manage that?"
"Oh, it's just a minor pain; I'm stronger than that."
"Don't you think you could get even more injured, stop playing football forever?"
"No."
"So you're a fool after all..."
"But now that you've said it, I'd do the same thing."
Chigiri was surprised by Arthur's response.
"Don't you care about getting badly injured?"
"Chigiri, don't get me wrong. But my life is football. I love this game, and I won't stop playing for anything. There's no fear that would make me give up."
"You're being foolish. What if you get injured to the point that it changes your entire life beyond football?!"
"It's not like I don't care, but I love playing football. If it means ending my knee playing football, I'll do it without any regrets. The 'what if' doesn't matter to me right now."
Chigiri stood up. "Thank you, Arthur. I came to Blue Lock to find a reason to give up football altogether, but I can't just listen to your words and feel good about myself. In the next game, I'll play for real."
Before opening the door, he turned to me again.
"By the way, I heard you're unsure about your main weapon... I'm sure one of them is your trivela shot. I doubt anyone in the country can do it with as much mastery as you, especially with both feet."
Chigiri extended his hand to Arthur, who returned the gesture with a fist bump.
What a melancholic conversation, but then I was right, Chigiri was really holding back during the games and training, and then my weapon is my trivela shot... I think he's right about me too, he's a smart guy, I'm looking forward to seeing him play.
Kuon invited everyone to study about the next team, Team W. He started talking about how the brothers were dangerous and had insane synchrony, they could cause us problems and blah blah blah, To be honest, I ended up falling asleep in the middle of the explanation, all I know is that I'm looking forward to re-debut my left foot.
END OF CHAPTER
