FOUND ୨୧ BLUE LOCK

72 THE 44 PANTHER

Another player from your team receives the rebounded ball and it's going Kaiser's way—it seems like today's just not his day, because leaping into the air and taking the ball away is Chigiri. He dribbles down the left side and is eventually matched up with Isagi.

Compared to the previous defenders, Isagi, though struggling, does a good job at keeping up with the speedy princess—at least until the redhead jukes him out in a motion not even he could expect. He gets past Menser and Isagi at the same time with a boost in acceleration that you don't quite remember him having—Chigiri breaks his way into the penalty area.

However, he still dribbles right outside of it, which begs the question that fills your mind—what is he truly after? Even Kunigami seems to know this answer—he reacts quickly, but not quickly enough. Nobody can react as quickly as Chigiri Hyoma, after all. 

Around Isagi, over Kunigami and past Gagamaru's fingers—the ball flies into the goal with such precision you had never previously seen from Chigiri, and you can hardly remember to breathe when he regains his posture and grins wide.

"Burn this number 44 into your memory! Blue Lock's red speedster scored the first goal!"

The announcement rings out through your ears but all you can hear is Mariele's smooth voice, "It looked like a golden formula."

You blink. "What?"

"You know, those areas that players have where their scoring ability goes up exponentially. Some have larger areas but are less precise, and some have smaller areas with an almost one hundred per cent goal rate. That goal looked like the second one." She explains perfectly, without wasting a single breath and folding her leg over the other. The way she speaks makes it feel like it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Right. It's her whole job to pay attention to her tactics and players. It's your job, too.

"Oh, right! I know a few who have that sort of thing." Like Barou, with that 29 mentre thing, and Shidou, anywhere in the penalty area... it sounds almost ridiculous, but they really can almost guarantee a goal with that sort of thing.

"Really hard to find it out, though." She pushes a strand of golden hair behind her ear and it swoops around her cheek. "It takes a lot of time to even discover where you shoot the best, and to narrow it down to such a specific spot is very hard. Most players never even come close to having something like that. It's incredible that he's figured that out."

You press your lips tightly together and nod—even though Mariele is not looking at you, you do this as a sort of way to affirm yourself—your eyes find their way onto the swishing red hair that belongs to Chigiri. That's right. You are incredible.

Kaiser looks incredibly smug. Like, ridiculously so. A smirk that stretches out from ear to ear and squinted eyes directed right at Isagi. He must feel very good about himself too, because as soon as the whistle churns into your ears, he passes the ball to the Japanese striker.

Isagi looks particularly annoyed with the pass, but takes it anyway—he creates a one-two passing chain with Kurona when they're faced with Reo, a strategy you've seen them practice during off days quite frequently.

Kurona is a perfect passing option for Isagi—always at a perfect distance and there to allow the boy to look over the field. He is constantly orbiting around Isagi, like a planet.

It's super cool, you find yourself thinking as you watch them travel down the right side of the midfield.

Isagi uses the attention Kunigami draws to himself (you guess the other team is wary of the musclehead due to his goal in the previous game) to get into a perfect open position in front of the goal—it would've been, at least, if Kaiser had not come running in and intercepted the perfect pass Kurona had sent.