3.11. Metavision

Prince's face was hilarious. The man's eyes bulged, his jaw dropped wide open, and his nostrils flared like an angry bull's. "Huh?!"

Bursting into laughter, Y/N doubled over. He clutched at his stomach, his laughing ringing out amongst the cheers of the Bastard Munchen squad. As Prince's arms flew up into the air, and he whirled to face Noa, Y/N glanced up. Another look at Prince's face, and he was back to laughing.

"You cheater!" Prince marched right over to Noa. "First you don't fight me one on one, and second, you use your left leg!"

"Cheating." Noa blankly replied.

"Yes, cheating!"

"Sure. Whatever you say."

As soon as 'sure' left Noa's mouth, Prince's eyes widened even more. He pointed at Noa, spinning to make sure everyone had heard it. "See! See, everyone! The world's number one player is admitting to cheating!" He yelled. "That makes me the new number one!"

Y/N bit his own lip, trying to calm himself down. Noa was shaking his head with disappointment. "Come on, Chris. We're out of time."

"Whaaat?!" Prince's head swivelled, to look at the match time. The Star Change system only allowed them to go on for 3 minutes at a time, and seemingly in the blink of an eye, the majority of the time was up. Only a few seconds remained, and they were ticking away. "That's not fair!"

As soon as Y/N noticed the time, he shut himself up. Shoulders rounding, head angling towards the ground, he faced away from Prince in an attempt to keep the man's attention off him. If Noa goes off, will I have to go off as well? Best not to risk it - hopefully he doesn't remember I exist.

Prince's yelling was still audible though, as Noa tried to convince him to leave the field.

"This is unfair! You're depriving me of screen time!"

"You've got plenty already."

"And you! You owe me a one on one!"

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No."

"Uh, yeah you do."

"No, I don't."

"Yuh-uh."

"No."

"Fine, no."

"Yeah- wait, what?"

"AHAH!"

An electronic whistle blew. Right after, a calm robotic voice spoke. "Manshine City, please resume the game."

"Just a few more minutes, please!" There was a thump. Y/N glanced back for a moment, struggling to contain himself as he watched Noa dragging Prince off the field by his legs. "Pleaaaase!"

He didn't get a single second extra.

🥕🥕🥕

Isagi'd done it. He'd finally figured it out.

There were so many high level players on the field. Kaiser... Y/N... Prince... Noa... He'd watched every single one of them as they played, all of them at a level far beyond his own. Sure, he knew he'd probably never have the same physicality as Prince, or the same speed as Y/N, but he knew he could learn from them.

Most notably, their eyes.

What he needed to pay attention to, was how they recognised what they needed to do, at a speed much faster than average players. Y/N was a prime example of that. How had he managed to find a path through all of Bastard Munchen's players, while remaining in control of the ball?

The answer lay in the two types of vision humans had. Their central vision, which fed high resolution, focused images into the mind, and the peripheral, which fed low resolution, unfocused images. The majority of players, Isagi included, mainly used their central vision.

But by taking as much in from the peripheral vision as possible, and by turning their head as much as possible, the top players were able to understand every other player's position, as well as what each one was doing. And by having that overwhelming amount of information... they can arrive at a 'best' point before anyone else!

So this is how they play... by knowing everything that's happening on the field at one time, they can construct a 3D image of it in their minds. It would be like playing chess - a godlike vision that hovers above the entire playing field!

Metavision...

He knew he wouldn't be able to copy their physical stats. But the vision... that was another matter.

"What's up, Yoichi?"

Isagi blinked. He looked to the side, seeing Kaiser. The man was grinning, hands on hips as he arrogantly stared Isagi down. "Was it fun to stalk me? Or maybe... you understand my plays now, and you've realised just how far ahead of you I am."

He's not wrong. Right now, Kaiser is far ahead of me. All of the masters are, Y/N is. But also... they've given me the perfect weapon to catch up to them. "No." Isagi shook his head. "Thank you, Kaiser."

Kaiser frowned. "What?"

"I know how to beat you now."

Isagi got into position, as finally, Manshine City began to organise themselves. After Prince and Noa had gone off, the field had changed massively. Isagi had to be the one to exploit it.

Y/N stood in the centre with the ball. His eyes were wide, playful as he looked around the pitch. On either side of him were Nagi and Chigiri. Reo and Agi hung back behind, and the rest of Manshine's defensive line was set up far back. He stretched, lifting both arms over his head. Isagi tensed.

Y/N passed, and the game restarted.

Everyone was on the move in an instant. Agi received the ball easily, stopping it with the side of his foot. As Kunigami ran forwards, pressing him, Agi used the back of his heel to pass the ball backwards to Reo. Y/N jogged down the centre of the field, waiting patiently for a pass.

Chigiri tore down the left side of the pitch. Nagi slowly moved up the right. Bastard Munchen's players were collected in the centre of the field, trying to trap Reo and Agi in order to steal the ball away. Y/N hesitated. Then he ran back, placing himself in a good spot to take the ball off them. "Agi! Here if you need!"

The man glanced over to him. One enemy player had noticed Y/N, standing right behind him. If he received the ball, Bastard Munchen might just immediately steal it away.

But it was Y/N L/N he was thinking about. The boy wouldn't give away the ball like that. So Agi passed, a low and fast ball straight to Y/N's feet. It bounced across the ground, rolling perfectly straight towards him. Y/N's shoulders leant forwards-

He accelerated, leaving his mark behind as he ran towards the ball. The enemy player, caught off guard, attempted to chase. As soon as Y/N's feet made contact with the ball, he changed directions. Placing one foot in front of him to stop his momentum, he took off past the other player, towards the goal.

But after his run before, it looked like Bastard Munchen weren't taking any chances. Kaiser was the first to press him, Kunigami and Ness right alongside him. They came in from three sides, forcing Y/N to backpedal. He would've run straight through if he could, but they were so tightly packed it would've been impossible.

They didn't give up, though. Y/N dashed to one side, circling around the defensive wall they'd set up. He attempted to get past them on the side, but was met with even more Bastard Munchen players. They were throwing nearly everyone in a coordinated press at him - probably because they knew he wouldn't pass.

"Y/N!" A yell from a teammate, behind him.

I have to get the attention off me. I need them to be out of formation, not in one group like this. His unpredictability was useless against the sheer volume of people that were against him. After all, they could simply cover every single possible thing he could do.

He scowled. Without even looking behind him, trusting his teammate would be there, he slammed his heel into the ball, sending it backwards away from the enemy goal. I need space. Just a few metres of clear ground. As one, the enemy players looked towards the person he'd passed to.

Manshine City went on a roll. Nearly all the opposing players had grouped up to deal with Y/N. As such, the rest of the pitch was wide open for them to run into. A pass to Agi. Then a pass to Reo. They were moving upfield at a full sprint, the Bastard defenders struggling to get into good positions.

Reo tore through the unorganised defence. Y/N's eyes brightened. He raised a hand, signalling for the ball. But instead of passing to him, Reo passed the ball to Nagi.

It was such a strange thing to watch. Y/N had seen passes like it many times before, in the games Team V had played back in the first selection. A simple one, that allowed Nagi to do whatever he wanted with his crazy trapping ability. But he hadn't seen it in a long time, for whatever reason the pair had.

They hadn't played together for a long while. Neither had they really talked, despite being in the same training rooms, and in the same dorms, and on the same team. Y/N had noticed it, but hadn't said anything at the time.

But now...? Seeing the conflicting emotions on Reo's face, and Nagi's nod, something had clearly changed.

One Bastard Munchen player stood right behind Nagi. If the white-haired boy trapped it, he would be able to run forwards, immediately stealing away the ball or at least forcing him to pass. Instead, Nagi turned his body so his side faced the ball. He extended his leg. The ball bounced on the outside of his foot, flying up into the air and over the defender's head.

Y/N nodded appreciatively. Nagi's first touches are incredible... As he dashed around the defender, collecting the ball on the other side, it was clear to Y/N he was getting heated up. Starting to perform better, under the pressure of the game and Reo's new guidance.

I wonder if he's gonna score-

Isagi got it. As soon as Nagi had got past the defender, trapping the ball on the other side, he'd appeared. Coming in with a slide tackle, stealing the ball away, and scrambling to his feet, he'd somehow managed to predict Nagi's play, and moved to stop it. Y/N's eyes widened. The fuck?!

Wait... actually though. Isagi passed to Kurona. Instead of going down the right flank like they usually did, the pair set a course right down the middle of the field. Coincidentally, it was the perfect play. Manshine City's defence was weakest in the centre. Does he see it too?

They approached Reo. Isagi dashed to the left side. Kurona went to the right, carrying the ball. As Reo faced Kurona, trying to slow him down, the shark boy passed through his legs, to Isagi. He used his teammate as bait... and took advantage of his passing skills?

A second defender. This time, it was the opposite. Isagi was the bait, and as the defender faced him, he passed straight to Kurona. They flew by, not giving the defence a chance to group up at all. And they're avoiding any groups of players... they're just taking them on one at a time...

Y/N started running.

Three defenders between them and the goal. Everyone on Manshine was backpedalling as fast as possible, trying to get back. Everyone on Bastard was speeding up, flooding players into the enemy half in a huge counter-attack.

They did the exact same thing for every single one of the remaining defenders. First, dividing them, so Kurona and Isagi only faced one at a time. Second, splitting up, Kurona going one way while Isagi went the other. From there, they could do virtually anything - it was impossible for the poor defender to do anything.

Face Kurona? He'd just lob the ball over the defender's head, or through their legs. Face Isagi? He'd pass to Kurona, or simply just run past. Trying to face the player with the ball resulted in a pass. Trying to face the player without the ball allowed the other to simply sprint past.

Using their new strategy, they absolutely demolished Manshine's defence. Isagi counted in his head, watching as the number of defenders dwindled. Three... two... one...

As they passed the last defender, Kurona's leg swung back. He connected well, sending a perfect pass right in front of Isagi. It was just the right distance to the goal, too far for the goalie to come out, but short enough that shooting it would be easy.

Unfortunately for Isagi, Kaiser appeared.

Shit, why now?! Of all times, why... how?! Isagi could see the smirk on his face. Kaiser threw himself into Isagi's way at the worst possible time. "Ex-fucking-scuse me, Yoichi. Very cool run." Isagi was already midway through shooting, foot approaching the ball.

Do I just shoot it?

He's gonna block!

Should I reset...

No, there's no time?!

I just have to go for it.

Isagi shot. He held his breath. The ball glanced off Kaiser's thigh, ricocheting off course. Fuck.

It would've gone out. The nearby Manshine players stood still, just letting it go. It should've gone out, flying above the crossbar and bouncing off the field. But it didn't.

Kunigami somehow found it in him to leap, head clearing the top of the goal as he flung himself forwards. Leg stretching, body tilting, knee jutting out, he managed to hit the ball with an impossibly precise kick. Literally a metre from the goal line, he slammed his foot into it with power rivalling Noel Noa's.

A flash of blue and white.

A blur of motion.

Something hurtled in from the side.

It blocked the ball. All the power of Kunigami's shot went straight into it. The recoil of the ball sent it flying far back, far away from the goal. As one, all eyes turned to face the ball. Manshine defenders scrambled to clear it. Bastard players scrambled to get control of it.

Y/N L/N dropped to the ground. His hands went to his forehead, where there was a red mark where the ball had hit. Poking it gingerly, he grimaced.

"Ouchie."