031 Blue Lock: System Ten Years Early

"What a gorgeous dribble, but I'm here too." Aryu Jyubei appeared at the perfect moment, his long leg stretching out to cut off Shinichi's sprint.

"Your speed is very stylish, but without space to accelerate, it can't shine."

Shinichi pulled the ball back to dodge Aryu Jyubei's tackle, but his attack was inevitably stalled. Karasu Tabito from behind also rushed up with predatory intent—once again, that familiar scene of being boxed in by two people.

"Perfect. Just what I wanted."

Shinichi took a cushioning step to the left while his center of gravity tilted to the right. He lifted his foot and pushed the ball to the right, then stomped hard with the other leg to launch. Aryu Jyubei and Karasu Tabito reflexively blocked, yet with a cut of Shinichi's right foot on contact, the football returned to the left along its original path.

'Such a fast change of direction!' The thought rang almost simultaneously in the minds of Aryu Jyubei and Karasu Tabito, but both clenched their teeth, forced their weight to shift, and lifted their feet to kick at the football.

"Too slow." Shinichi watched their struggle with indifference. His left foot flicked lightly, the football changed direction once more, and Shinichi slipped straight through between the two.

Fried meatball dribble!

In an extremely tight space, Shinichi touched the ball three times in rapid succession within a short moment, executing three large direction changes. The two were completely deceived in their balance, utterly unable to chase, and fell to the ground one after the other.

"Right at the moment when victory seems imminent, that instant of slackness is when a ninja should strike... that's what you're thinking, right?"

Shinichi twisted his head and flashed a terrifying smile at Otoya Eita, who had snaked behind him.

"A petty thief who sneaks around—hurry up and lie down for me."

Shinichi stepped on the football and pulled it back. The instant Otoya Eita's weight shifted forward, Shinichi pushed the ball ahead through Otoya Eita's legs. Before Otoya Eita could reset his balance and turn, Shinichi took a cushioning step past him by half a stride, clipped the ball with his heel, and the football passed through Otoya Eita's legs once again under the applied force.

An extraordinarily fast V-pull performed through the opponent's legs. Under this chain of continuous forward-and-back weight shifts, Otoya Eita could only stare in disbelief at those pitch-black pupils and collapse backward, powerless.

In just a few short seconds, Shinichi had consecutively defeated three of Team V's top aces! And every single one was a humiliating ankle-breaker!

Shinichi's steps never stopped as he surged forward, like a nimble swimming snake weaving freely through the crowded back line. Then, in front of goal, he used a fake shot to fool the tightly wound goalkeeper and gently tapped the ball into the net with a deft scissor kick.

"Hah... that really is a strange feeling..."

2:3 → 2:4

"Shinichi..." Hiori Yo stared blankly at that silent figure, feeling as though he had entered some state Hiori couldn't comprehend. "The current Shinichi..."

"The current Shinichi... is dangerous!" Karasu Tabito said with bared teeth.

"He actually has dribbling at that level? Wasn't this guy someone whose speed would drop when touching the ball, so he usually just used a single feint to make opponents hesitate and then blasted past them with speed?"

"Even I got shaken off—now even beautiful me doesn't feel fashionable."

"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and score one back."

"Sigh, the opponents are already a headache, but my teammates aren't any better." Karasu Tabito rubbed his forehead.

"I really don't know what to do with you guys."

Beep—beep!

"Still full of energy—looks like the blow wasn't enough?" In a familiar matchup, Shinichi once again stood in front of Karasu Tabito.

"Ah, unlike a genius like you who's never failed, we mud-legged folks got used to setbacks a long time ago." Karasu Tabito was happy to banter with Shinichi.

"All lies. It's really annoying."

Shinichi took the initiative to attack. Karasu Tabito reflexively raised his hand to block, but Shinichi raised his hand at the same time, knocking Karasu Tabito's arm aside and directly breake the opponent's defensive technique. The distance between them closed in an instant.

'Damn it, I failed to control the distance.' Karasu Tabito hurriedly pulled the ball back, but Shinichi had already anticipated it. A predictive kick touched the football almost simultaneously with Karasu Tabito.

"There's someone else here, you know."

At some point, Otoya Eita had looped behind Karasu Tabito and pulled the ball back together with him. Working together, they avoided losing possession outright, but the football still slipped off their feet due to Shinichi's tackle and rolled backward.

Karasu Tabito simply gave up chasing the ball and twisted his body, setting a screen like in basketball to block Shinichi's attempted pursuit. Otoya Eita took over possession and charged forward with the football.

"Don't think you're getting past so easily." Veins bulged on Karasu Tabito's forehead as he pressed his back hard against Shinichi.

"...Karasu, you seem to have misunderstood something."

"Huh?"

He answered aloud, but Karasu Tabito didn't turn around at all. To him, the only thing that mattered right now was doing everything he could to block Shinichi. Everything else was irrelevant. Because of that, he failed to notice Shinichi looking down at him indifferently with eyes burning with black flames.

"You seem to think what just happened was the despair I wanted to give you. But in fact, true despair..."

"...is only just beginning now!"

"What?!" Karasu Tabito suddenly turned around, not because of Shinichi's words, but because he could no longer feel the resistance of clashing with Shinichi against his back. Instead, what replaced it seemed to be... a hand?

Under Karasu Tabito's horrified gaze, Shinichi pressed his hand against Karasu Tabito's back, opening a not-too-small distance between them.

"This is... my upper-body movement!"

In the entire Blue Lock, no one was more familiar with this sequence of actions than Karasu Tabito—and precisely because of that, the shock was even greater.

"In just this short time, you devoured me... Kōken Shinichi... what kind of monster are you?"

But the despair was not over yet. After Shinichi raised his hand to create a bit of space, he didn't rely on speed to pull away like before. Instead, he lowered his center of gravity and brushed past Karasu, almost grazing him as he went around.

"Even Otoya's off-the-ball runs too! So that's it—those earlier dribbles as well, the high-frequency touches learned from Nishioka Hajime! This bastard..."

"He absorbed all of our weapons completely!"

Karasu Tabito couldn't judge Shinichi's takeoff direction right away. When he turned to look, Shinichi had already opened the distance, and all he could do was watch that speeding figure helplessly, no longer able to give chase.

'No, it's still not enough... just a little more...' Yet at this moment, unlike when he awakened incomplete Meta Vision and basked in his own evolution, Shinichi was instead extremely irritated.

Shinichi felt as though some answer was right at the tip of his tongue but stubbornly refused to come out. A strange agitation enveloped his heart.

"Just missing one thing. As long as I can understand that crucial point, I can truly... destroy them."