3.36. The Final Day (Part 2)

On the sidelines, sitting in the stands with the rest of the Manshine players, Yukimiya watched the game.

Something was wrong. Yet, the majority of the assembled people didn't seem to notice as the game restarted.

Immediately, Kaiser and Ness took off with the ball. As usual, they formed a triangle with Grim, passing between them as they slowly made their way upfield.

But PXG had found a way to counter it. Four players converged on the trio. Two of them went for Kaiser. One of them marked Grim. And the last one, Zantetsu, approached Ness slowly. At the last second, he took off incredibly fast, sliding and knocking the ball away.

PXG moved to pick up the ball. Yet, Hiori was faster, scooping it up before any of them could. He made to shoot-

And Charles was behind him. The young boy rested a hand on his shoulder, pinky finger poking Hiori's cheek as he whispered something into his ear. Then he took off, flying down the pitch.

Right. So if Charles outread Hiori like that... that means he has metavision. And incredible passing on top of that... Yukimiya leant forward in his chair. How can I work around him to score my own goal?

Raichi tried to intercept.

Charles didn't even bother dribbling past him. They approached each other. And with a flawless motion, mid run, he swung for the ball.

With the outside of his foot, he made the pass. A demonic pass, arcing right around Raichi in a wild banana shape. It curved, going around one, two, three Bastard players and finally reaching its target. Shidou Ryusei.

Yukimiya's stomach dropped. That kind of pass... the only other person he could even think of doing something like that was Sae Itoshi. Nobody else could even come close.

And the worst thing was, even as Kunigami surged forwards, jumping high to intercept the pass, Charles didn't look bothered by it. The ball bounced away to Ness. And Charles just stood there and shrugged.

"Wow." He was close enough for Yukimiya to hear. "Pretty cool." So nonchalant, even though the incredible pass had been for nothing. It was chilling. Charles was nothing short of a prodigy.

Ness passed to Grim. Grim sent the ball, as usual, to Kaiser. And intercepting it, struggling against each other as they overtook Kaiser to the ball, was Kunigami and Shidou.

Kunigami got the upper hand, bouncing the ball away to Raichi. Yukimiya noted the furious expression on Shidou's face.

Raichi jumped. Trapped the ball on his chest. And, flying in from the side, Charles was right there again.

He was everywhere. Hiori and Isagi were trying to contain him, and PXG was trying to get the ball rolling, but it didn't matter what anyone else did. Whatever Charles wanted to do, he could. Nobody could stop him.

He was a demon. An uncontrollable, unpredictable agent of chaos. In a strange way, Yukimiya could compare him to Y/N. Neither of them liked to be tied to anyone. They preferred to play solo, going only for what they wanted. And, unlike a lot of people, the thing they wanted wasn't always a goal.

Like now. Charles's passes were good enough to be shots. But instead, he always chose to give the ball to teammates, namely those that were the most interesting. Like Shidou.

Rin drew level with him. Yukimiya could only watch. Hiori followed as fast as possible behind them both. In front, Isagi was ready.

He'll pass to his teammate, like always! Yukimiya mentally yelled. Get Rin!

Isagi thought the same. As Charles's foot swung for the ball, he moved towards Rin. But Charles didn't pass. He tapped the ball forwards, a cheeky grin playing on his face.

Hiori was there. Only then, did Charles decide to pass. He's toying with them...

But again. As the ball reached Shidou, Kunigami was there. Jumping, putting himself intentionally off balance in order to reach the ball, Kunigami swiped it aside with his head. He hit the ground hard enough to make Yukimiya wince, but that didn't matter.

He was completely shutting Shidou out of the game. The, in the words of Michael Kaiser, 'pink haired philistine', was struggling, and struggling hard against Kunigami.

And on the field, the game raged on.

Charles pouted a little, as the pass to Shidou was cut off for the second time. Why is emo Ichigo trying so hard...! Just let pinkie get the ball already!

He jogged forwards, doing a full three-sixty to take in the entire field. Ugh. Get me the ball already, teammates. The ball was in Bastard Munchen's hands, being shifted from player to player. Charles watched each player as they passed. NPC... NPC number two... uh, Raichu from Pokemon...

And finally, his team had a chance at getting the ball back.

It went to a curly haired boy, near the centre of the pitch. From one side, the dumb guy with glasses cut off one of the passing lines, and on the other, hairband guy ran to cut off the other. Charles didn't know anyone's names except Loki, Rin and Shidou - cause they were actually fun to pass to.

The pitch turned into a one on one. The crow guy headed right for the curly haired boy. Charles sped up a little bit, waiting not so patiently for the ball. His teammate was taking his sweet time stealing it away.

"Hey!" As he approached, Charles waved both arms. "Budget Batman! Hurry up!"

The budget Batman in question shot him a scathing glare. "I like crows, not bats!"

Charles made a face, and stuck out his tongue. "Didn't ask, hurry up already!"

His teammate lunged forwards. Using long arms, he shoved the curly haired boy back. He moved, sidestepping till he had a little more space, then dug his foot under the ball, and lifted. "Go, Mr. Extraordinary!"

A mediocre pass at best. But, because Charles was so amazing and cool and amazing and fast and amazing and strong, did he mention amazing, he got there easily. He clicked his tongue. "Noice."

Receiving the ball, he ran forwards, chanting in his head. Shidou, Shidou, Shidou. With this treasure I summon thee! Charles winced. Maybe he'd been watching too much anime.

Two guys appeared in front of him. One of them looked like a wet rat, a blue rose tattoo barely visible under his blond hair. The other looked like a wetter rat, magenta hair bobbing as he nodded frantically to the first. "Block the pass to the cockroach!"

Charles blinked. Cockroach? That's a good name...

Footsteps rang next to him. Rin drew level, peeling off to the right. He locked eyes with Charles, beckoning for the ball as he drew both of the rats' attention. Charles could've leapt for joy. "Ooh, good follow..."

But you just gave me an opening to pass.

"Syke!" He grinned, slamming his foot into the ball and sending it straight through the gap between blond rat and short rat. Hahh... soccer is so easy. Now maybe Shidou can score, woo-

"Huh?!"

The weird cyan guy appeared. He flung out a leg, barely intercepting the pass. And he landed in a crouch, staring down a surprised Charles. Nobody ever did that before? Who is this guy...?

"I'm starting to figure you out, imp." The guy monologued. Charles was a second away from tuning him out, then decided that he was funny enough to listen to. He's also been watching too much anime. "Instead of going for the straightforward pass, you love attempting those annoying passes nobody in their right mind would go for."

"Nice, Hiori!" A yell from some NPC. Charles tilted his head to one side. Hiori. Then he blinked. Man, Japanese names are strange.

And Hiori was still monologuing. "So, you're going down, damn last boss!" He looked up at Charles, grinning. His hair was plastered to his face with sweat, and he was panting hard.

Charles grimaced. Ew. Gross.

He moved backwards to his own team, as alternate-universe Bakugo trapped the ball. He yelled, spittle flying from his mouth, and Charles gagged. Manners, guys!

Bakugo struggled against one of Charles' teammates. He screamed loud, passing across to the edge of the pitch. "Ultra-sexy pass!"

Charles blinked. What.

Hiori caught the ball behind his back on his heel, flicking it over his head to catch it in front. Folding his arms, not even bothering to move, Charles watched three of his teammates all rush Hiori at the same time. They trapped him against the sideline, Batman in front, dumb guy behind, and NPC to the side.

Hiori didn't even flinch. He looked backwards, like he wanted to pass in that direction. But, waiting till the last second, he whipped the ball right through the middle of two players. Charles narrowed his eyes. "Hey, that's my pass! You copied me!"

The ball arced through the air, right for a guy running towards the goal. Charles scratched his head. What was his name again...? Um.

"Are you there, Isagi?" Charles glanced at Hiori.

"What did you say?"

Hiori looked towards him. "Isagi."

"Eeeee...saggy." Charles blinked. "Can't you have normal names?"

But Hiori had already run off.

Isagi was running towards where the ball would land. He faked a run around the left of defenders, then cut right, threading the gap between them. Shidou followed him, drawing level as he tried to overtake Isagi to the landing point.

Isagi stopped running. He began moving to the side, towards the goal. And flying in from the side, knee extended to smash the ball towards Isagi, was...

Emo Ichigo?!

Charles pursed his lips, surprised. Since when did he like to pass?

It didn't matter. On the left side of Isagi, Rin flew in. On the right, Kaiser. Both of them, ready to steal the ball away as it spiralled over Isagi's shoulder. If he trapped with his left, Rin would get it. If he used his right, Kaiser would.

Leaning in, squinting his eyes, Charles tried to see what was going on.

Isagi didn't plant his right foot.

But he swung his left forwards anyway, meeting the ball just before it hit the ground. Rin will block it then.

He flicked his left foot into the air. Drawing a full circle around the ball with his left, his right one shot forwards.

Everyone in the world expected him to trap it. Kaiser would steal it away. Out of all the tens of millions watching, none of them predicted what would happen next.

Isagi's right foot made contact with the ball.

Not a trap, though.

A direct shot.

The ball barrelled into the back of the goal. Charles' mouth dropped with awe. Whoa.... He shook his head. What the fuck? This is Bluelock, not Blue Glock. Isagi's goal reminded him of one of those Wild West movies he'd watched. A midair quickdraw, a double pump.

It was an astonishing goal. The stands erupted into cheering, Manshine, Ubers and Barcha alike in pure wonder. With that goal, Isagi proved himself to be one of the top players in Japan, his value immediately skyrocketing and his global popularity going through the roof.

Yet, it served another purpose for the Bluelock management. It refocused the audience, made them completely forget about the Mercenary situation.

Because they hadn't planned for the Mercenary to not show up. The casters' so-called surprise had been completely improvised, and thankfully, everyone had bought it. There would be complaints as normal, but it was better than everyone knowing what was actually happening.

Y/N L/N was missing.

Bluelock workers scoured the entire facility top to bottom, more of them searched the grounds outside. Anri and Ego were hunched over the monitors, replaying security feeds.

And it wouldn't be such a big deal. If a security guard hadn't been found bleeding out, unconscious near one of Bluelock's side gates.

The game continued.

PXG and Bastard Munchen's players continued to go at it.

The others in the stands continued watching, oblivious to the panic engulfing the rest of the compound.

Online, the viewers kept eyes trained on screens.

The Bluelock workers kept searching. Finding nothing.

And as for Y/N...

He was facing a god who'd gone insane.