Alert (not spicy)
——————————————
"Why aren't Shidou Ryusei and Nicklaus Vinciguerra on the team?"
These were fateful words that led to these other words like "...stupido coglione che non riesce a vedere oltre le sue cazzo di lenti..."
Ego looked at the girl from the cameras, hearing her without listening since he was understanding absolutely nothing of the sentences coming out of her mouth.
The only thing he understood was that she was cursing at him.
The other boys in the room stared at the first ranked, all at arm's length. Let's just say that their reaction to the news released by Ego was definitely different than that of the redhead.
"It was either him or you, which did you think I would choose?" the man asked after a sigh, tired of not being able to understand what the girl was saying.
"Definitely something that wouldn't cause you to lose your best investment." replied the girl, continuing to caress her earrings as she thought back to the news.
"You are not my investment."
That day the candidates would find out who would be the lucky 11 people on the core team, and any replacements.
And nothing would have gone wrong if some had not noticed the fact that, in naming the 11 titleholders, Ego had failed to name two of the strongest in the rankings: the first and third.
And when Ego had said that someone, a certain Sae Itoshi, had decided to take as his striker a certain Shidou Ryusei, a certain someone else had not taken it well enough.
"Shidou is the one who lets himself be used the best. He's so desperate that he'll go to the limit of his irrationality to keep up with me." the girl said with a cold stare as the people near her began to feel the weight of her presence.
Ego imperceptibly clenched his fists under the desk, avoiding showing emotion just as the girl on the screen was doing.
"It was also a risk to put him on the team together with the center forward, Rin Itoshi. Better to have lost him now than to get a red card later." retorted the man, causing the redhead, who for now still ignored such rules, to roll her eyes.
"That doesn't explain why Nicklaus isn't on the team though..." intruded Reo in the conversation, casting a glance at the redhead only to see his eyes already on him. He repressed a shudder, immediately avoiding his gaze.
Ego sighed, grateful that someone had decided to change the subject, knowing there was no way to win over the girl.
He supposed it was the Italian stubbornness.
"Nicklaus and Shidou have shown they are capable of reacting to each other's movements, something no one else in here has been able to do, even Rin Itoshi."
The boy, hearing his name, held back an annoyed grimace. He knew he didn't have those characteristics that allowed the guy with the antennas to connect to the redhead, but hearing it was definitely worse.
His teal eyes shifted covertly to the profile of the boy to his right, noticing the way he kept absentmindedly playing with his earrings.
"If none of you are able to react to Shidou's destructive irrationality, the only way to counter it is with Nicklaus."
Nicole shifted her gaze to a corner of the room, losing interest in the topic.
She was not really angry about losing Shidou. What had moved her was the fact that Shidou had been taken with the absurd thought that they could give her trouble.
And even if Sae had failed to succeed, he had certainly caught her attention.
"Basically, Nicklaus will be brought in only if and when Shidou is also there." Isagi said aloud, causing the 30-year-old to nod.
"Why not bring him in with us?"
Nicole shifted her eyes as soon as she heard that question, meeting those already focused on her of the green-haired boy.
His gaze serious, determined, icy.
Ego raised an eyebrow, not understanding why the boy had suddenly decided to show interest in the one person in there for whom he should have had some resentment.
"I don't see why I should. You can't keep up with him, and slowing him down doesn't do me or you any good. It's the same problem I would have by having Shidou Ryusei stay in the Blue Lock." he explained in a monotone, drawing the redhead's gaze to himself.
That's bullshit.
In those days they had continued training, and the girl had shown that she could trigger chemical reactions with Kurona, the Karasu - Otoya pair, Bachira (though with some difficulty since the girl kept observing him more than trying to play with him).
Ego had also demanded that they try with her Rin Itoshi, who had refused, and Barou Shoei, with whom a quarrel had started that later turned physical.
Rin thinned his gaze, averting his eyes from both the redhead and Ego.
As soon as he had realized that what his bastard brother, Sae, actually wanted was actually Nicklaus, he had immediately thought about how satisfying it would be to use redhead against him.
True, doing it alone was satisfying.
But using the striker his brother had demanded to destroy him, that would have been even better.
Too bad he didn't know that victory would soon devour all of them. Itoshi Sae and Itoshi Rin included.
Days later...
Days passed.
The Blue Lock team trained as never before, fighting, sweating, laughing, and coming to their own satisfaction. Many of them discovered that they were more compatible than they thought, and many rivalries became more heated.
At the distance of a week, they were finally at the place they had always dreamed of being: the stadium of the Japanese national team.
"You look peaceful."
Nicole looked up at Anri, noting the sweet smile that adorned her face and the curiosity in her big brown eyes.
"I have no reason not to be." the girl replied simply, while in the seats behind her were individuals on the verge of vomiting from excitement.
Anri laughed slightly, shifting her eyes to the window and as she thought back to the type of character who sat beside her.
She is so stoic...
"Dude I'm gonna piss myself." was heard from behind, and honestly the two women simply decided to block the voices from disturbing them.
Nicole's eyes lowered back to the screen of her cell phone as her pupils moved to reread the words she had now read five times already.
'Be home in an hour. I don't care where you are or who you're with: the Ferrari directors need to talk to you about signing the contract. You know very well on whom I will vent my anger if you dare not show up'
The message had been sent fifteen minutes earlier, and nothing had been added since. Not a further threat, not a recommendation, much less insults.
He had limited himself to that one message.
The bus stopped in front of the stadium entrance reserved for athletes, and everyone got out of the vehicle to walk down the long aisles.
Everyone had already changed, the strategy had already been discussed countless times on the outward journey from the Blue Lock to the stadium, and no one felt like waiting any longer for the game to start.
Red's eyes flicked to Nagi's figure for a moment as soon as she sensed his presence at her side, noting how his gray eyes were staring at her profile.
"Is something troubling you, Seishiro?" she asked without really sounding concerned, absentmindedly scanning the boy's sleepy, bored expression.
Nagi did not immediately answer, merely looking at her.
He had noticed how her finger had never moved on the screen despite all the times she had turned it on: there was something she kept looking at.
He didn't know the girl.
She was very mysterious, and even if she weren't, determining her character was difficult. By dint of switching between Nicklaus and Nicole, understanding what the true character of the champion were was almost impossible.
"Not really." he replied after long moments, shifting his gaze back in front of him as the girl returned to lowering her gaze to her cell phone.
Nicole read the message once more, then tightened her lips and held back a sigh.
She did not feel like going to the old man's house. It was not the first time he had asked her for such a thing, and she knew that it would eventually become a money argument between the old man and the poor sponsors, with her having to sip every last minute and then sign a contract in which she had no decision-making power anyway.
Red eyes glanced for a moment at the backs of all the boys in front of her, who were laughing, joking, patting each other on the back and teasing those among them who were showing anxiety.
She could see Anri's face turned a quarter as she was saying something to Ego by casting glances at the tablet she held in her hands, while the taller one merely looked straight ahead.
Her pupils once again traced the last words.
'You know well on whom I will vent my anger if you dare not show up.'
I have no choice uh...
She cast one last glance at the two most adult men in the scene, and then with her back to all who were on their way to the match that would determine their future, she left them.
It didn't matter anyway: her future had nothing to do with theirs.
Nagi blinked, pointing his gaze to his side only to notice that the same figure he had been thinking about before was now no longer there.
He stopped in the middle of the hallway, looking in every direction in a vain search for the girl.
Oh, she has a talent for making things suddenly disappear....
He tightened his lips slightly, not knowing exactly what he should do in such a situation. His laziness suggested that he should say nothing at all and let the news come out on its own.
But something, he did not know whether his intuition or a way of feeling, was telling him to speak up and to do it quickly.
He sighed, rolling his eyes and muttering a "what a pain..." under his breath. Then his tone rose slightly, and his words made the first in line stop.
"Ego-san, Nicklaus has disappeared."
Skip time
"No answer." sighed Anri, closing the voice mail for the 15th time and lowering her gaze to the clock.
Precisely 40 minutes since the girl had disappeared, 30 since the game had started.
Ego continued to keep his eyes fixed on the game whose first half had almost come to an end, trying as much as possible to stay focused on the ball passing quickly from one side of the court to the other.
But it was completely useless.
Completely useless.
The more he tried to remain attentive, the more his attention shifted irrevocably to the sudden, unwarranted and irritating disappearance of the Italian champion.
She had said nothing.
Much less warned.
She was simply there one minute and gone the next.
"That shrimp probably got scared and went crying to his mom." Barou affirmed while keeping his eyes fixed on the ball, as the urge to play and the fury of not being on the field continued to grow more and more within him.
What infuriated him the most was the fact that the fucking dog who had left with his tail between his legs was ranked number one in Blue Lock.
Such a coward, superior to him. Unbelievable.
"No, there must be another reason. Nicklaus is anything but a fearful one." commented Mikage with furrowed brows, biting the inside of his cheek as he watched Nagi stand in the field without him.
Ego sighed, taking his head in his hands and closing his eyes for a moment.
He needed to think.
What could make Nicole Vinciguerra leave so suddenly without saying anything?
The money? No, they had already understood that the girl didn't care about those.
Family problems? She had no one but her manager.
Loss of interest? Perhaps, but it would have made sense only if there had been another sport to replace this one.
In addition it was common knowledge that the girl, before leaving a sport, needed to reach the top of it.
Maybe the problem was the fact that it was a team sport. It was the first team sport she participated in. But even then it would not have made sense: Nicole's style remained purely solitary even when surrounded by people.
"Stop thinking about that jerk and think about watching your team." urged the sharp-toothed blond completely out of nowhere, looking with more than obvious anger and frustration at the soccer field.
His fists were clenched, hidden under his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"That gay shrimp is a fucking attention seeker..." he muttered, gritting his teeth and trying to hide the fact that he, too, wanted to understand the reason behind the redhead's attitude.
The moral condition of the people who were playing on the outlined lawn was definitely no better.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck...
Rin kept running as hard as he could, looking with hatred burning in his eyes at the boy who had possession of the ball.
The Blue Lock team was restless: some were not concentrating, some were too busy thinking about their own grudge, and some simply did not know how to move cause of the others' completely confusing attitude.
"By the way, where is that red-haired boy?" asked Sae in a quiet, hollow tone as he maintained possession of the ball without even showing the slightest bit of fatigue.
Rin made a disgusted and furious grimace, pissed off at the mere thought that while he was thinking about destroying his brother, this one was thinking about a person who had absolutely nothing to do with them.
"Shut the fuck up, you piece of shit. Why the fuck do you care about that now uh?" the younger of the brothers asked in a higher, swinging tone, snapping to touch the ball with the tip of his foot.
And failing miserably.
Sae kicked the ball, causing it to take a curved trajectory and land in front of the U-20 ace's legs.
"I wanted to see Blue Lock's gem for myself." replied the older man simply, never acknowledging his brother with a glance and never really paying attention to him.
Rin's eyes widened at Sae's words. The gem-not the gems. The gem. One. Only one.
That's what that project was for Sae, that's why he accepted to be part of a team he always thought was pitiful, embarrassing, full of players who couldn't play.
Sae wasn't looking at Rin that day, wasn't even considering him.
It was the other he wanted.
Nicklaus Vinciguerra: the gem Blue Lock had for the world.
Meanwhile...
"Have a good day." the taxi driver greeted her politely, leaving the girl's figure in front of the large gate of the estate.
On her face was an expression of pure boredom and disinterest, stoic and evidence of strong emotions.
Her hand lightly clasped around the strap of her backpack where she had placed her wig and soccer shirt, aware that she would have to dress for the second half of the match afterward.
Her eyes lowered for a moment to the time, then shifted to the time at which the message still on the lock-screen had been sent.
55 minutes.
5 minutes before the time limit.
Nicole walked to the door, casting a glance around the yard and assuming that the sponsors' car had been directed to the garages.
The old man didn't like people leaving their stuff in the place that served as his home's presentation.
She opened the door without knocking, knowing that there would be the staff ladies or Abigail there to welcome her as a guest.
"I'm her-"
She was hit on the head.
The girl lost a pulse, immediately losing her balance and falling to the ground.
Her eyes, whose vision was blurry, immediately located the baseball bat, and before she could even react that same object struck her in the ribs.
The girl gasped for air.
That bat was not just wood.
"YOU'RE JUST AN UNGRATEFUL BITCH."
The now-familiar hand abruptly grabbed her hair, beginning to drag her like a dead body.
The girl gritted her teeth, closing her eyelids and trying to resist the pain. She felt he would split her head open at any moment.
"Did you enjoy toying with me, Nicole? Or do you prefer Nicklaus? Or maybe cocksucking whore?"
He let go of her hair, causing the back of her head to bump against the icy floor of the room.
The man's large fingers gripped her face violently, squeezing with such force that his fingers made the insides of her cheeks touch.
"Yes, because with is this what you do with this pretty little mouth, surrounded by 300 boys. Isn't that right, Nicklaus?"
He slapped her face, causing her to turn away from him because of the force of the blow. A diagonal red line was opening the skin of her right cheekbone: rings.
The red eyes remained fixed on the ground, totally ignoring the movements of the man who was now standing in front of her slumped figure on the ground.
"And not only with the little mouth, isn't it so little one? With that body of yours..."
Nicole gritted her teeth at the man's disgusting tone, feeling his eyes burning on her with a sick and dangerous fury.
"Maybe you grew a dick to fit into their standards, but those ones on top stayed there, didn't they?"
No response, just a distinct clank, followed by the sound of leather sliding against cotton fabric.
A belt.
"Take off your shirt, hands against the wall." the voice no longer had that ironic sarcastic tone, now merely cold, hoarse and deed.
Nicole did not move, clenching her hands into two fists and sticking her fingers into the palm.
A hard kick hit her on the left rib, exactly where she had been hit last time, causing her to escape a grunt of pain and forcing her to react to the man's order.
"DIDN'T YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID, NIKE? HANDS AGAINST THE WALL BEFORE I RAPE YOU FROM BEHIND UNTIL YOU DIE OF PAIN."
She hated him.
She hated him so much.
She hated him to the point of being willing to die herself to stay away from him.
She bit her tongue in force and despair, feeling the iron taste of blood on her own taste buds.
She tried not to let her hands tremble in pain as she grabbed the hem of her shirt and brought it over her head, ignoring the burning she felt on the left side of her torso.
"Hands against the wall."
This time, there was no resistance.
Her red eyes remained focused on the floor beneath her feet, shame flowing through her body. She did not have the courage to look up, to stop that abuse, to kill him.
First lash.
Her eyelids fluttered open, her back arched, her hands pressed against the wall.
She repulsed him.
Second lash.
Her heart was beating hard in her chest, her body was heavy, the burning strong.
She hated him.
Third lash. Fourth lash. Fifth lash. Sixth. Seventh. Eighth. Ninth. Tenth.
Her fingernails crawled against the wall, her torso bent forward, her back arched, her shoulders trembling, fire burned on the now forever ruined back, as the sweet flow of blood coursed over her skin instead of tears.
Eleventh lash. Twelfth lash. Thirteenth lash. Fourteenth. Fifteenth.
Her hands now on the ground, her arms and knees unable to support her weight, her throat unable to release a cry that demanded to be released, in her back seemed to pass a myriad of knives that went deeper and deeper without ever ending her punishment.
"Nicole, why are you standing like that? Is this your favorite position: that of a whore?"
Sixteenth lash.
"It suits you."
Seventeenth lash. Eighteenth lash. Nineteenth lash. Twentieth.
That was the day of her death.
She was sure of it. Her face was turning black, she could not breathe, her vision was getting dimmer and dimmer.
A woman enters the room.
She is a young woman in her early twenties, a rare beauty. Blond hair, blue eyes,
Nicole knows who she is.
"Abigail, get out of here or you're next." threatened the old man without even looking her in the face.
Abigail stood motionless, her skin paler than snow, her lips tight, her eyes wide open, her heart fast in her chest.
Blood. So much blood.
That was all she could see.
She could see it in the girl's irises, in the color of her hair, in the drops that were littering the floor, in the slashed skin of her back that would never be the same again.
"You see Nicole, you scared Abigail."
Twenty-first lash, perpendicular to the previous ones.
Nicole rolled her eyes back, on the verge of falling into a sleep she hoped would be perpetual.
Abigail screamed, grabbing the landlord's biceps and trying to stop him while copious tears wrinkled her beautiful face.
"Please leave her alone. You're killing her, she's only 18 years old-"
A slap echoed through the now silent estate walls, and the thud of a body being thrown to the ground was the second noise.
Nicole opened her eyes slightly. She was not the one who had been hit.
Abigail stared incredulously at the man, trembling fearfully under that oppressive and creepy gaze with which he had never dared to look at them.
She was afraid.
She had always been afraid of him, but this time more than ever she feared for herself.
"You little Russian bitch, you must not dare to speak when you have not been given permission to do so. Do you comprehend?" he asked with a chilling slowness and depth of tone, preventing the blonde from finding even a syllabic answer to that question.
Yes, I do comprehend.
I swear I do comprehend.
Please don't come any closer, I understand.
I understand, my lord. I understand. I swear to you that-
Abigail was grabbed by the hair, her head pulled back so that her tear-red eyes were pointed into those blinded by her master's madness.
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND WOMAN?"
Abigail burst into tears, unable to resist such torture any longer. Her sobbing echoed in the estate devoid of lively souls, filled with death instead.
The old man opened his eyes wide, staring in disbelief at the girl's reaction.
He burst out laughing.
"Now that's a satisfying reaction. Well done Abigail, you've managed to do what that slut Nicole has never managed to do in years." he said laughing maniacally, a personality switch more frightening than disturbing.
He released his grip on the blonde's hair, letting her fall to the floor and shifting his gaze to the redhead.
"You see Nicole? It doesn't take much to make me happy-"
Something circled his neck.
And a foot on his chest made him fall to the ground.
His sadistic eyes met the empty, merciless ones of the devil, whose foot was pressed on his sternum almost as if she intended to break it. The girl pulled her grip on the belt, tightening the leather circle around the skin of his neck even tighter.
Her gaze devoid of any thought as she watched the man try in vain to free himself from that noose, which was slowly taking the life out of him.
"Maybe you're right, old man-this reaction is quite satisfying."
His expression was ridiculous, characterized by a grimace of fear, revulsion, feigned repentance and a plea for mercy. Tears were pooling in the corners of his eyes, while the salivary gland's product began to drip from his mouth.
Her hand trembled as a new wave of fire took hold of her body. Her eyes fixed on his face, which was turning purple from red due to oxygen deprivation.
She hated him.
Him, his face, his voice, his presence. All of it. She hated everything about him.
But that face.
That same face on which her nightmares were based on.
That face...
Nicole dropped to her knees, one leg on one side of his body and one on the other.
One punch.
A second punch.
A third punch.
A fourth.
A fifth.
Stifled cries of pity.
Attempts to scratch away the leather as if it were paper. The metal of the buckle sinking into his skin.
A sixth punch.
A seventh punch.
She stopped counting.
She just hit. One punch after another, with more and more force, more and more intensity, more and more resentment.
But her gaze had never been more calm and empty than it was at that moment.
"NICOLE! NICOLE NO."
She ignored Abigail's screams, ignored her expression of horror, her plea for him to stop.
She wanted his face to be completely red.
For her knuckles to crack from how hard she was beating him.
Let his breathe last against one of her fists.
Two trembling arms, however, gripped her forearm with strength and desperation, failing to match the power of the younger one but managing to stop her.
"Nicole... Nicole please don't become like him. You hate him, don't become like the one you hate."
Nicole did not react to Abigail's cry, but her body remained frozen without her being able to move it anymore.
Her eyes fixed on the old man's blood-covered face, while an interrupted and irregular breath came out of his mouth since his nose was broken.
"Nicole please...please go away. Run away. Run away from here."
Nicole imperceptibly opened her eyes wide, her pupils narrowed like those of a beast soon became of a normal size.
She struggled to get up, unable even to feel the pain of a totally destroyed body and a psyche on the brink.
She took a step forward.
Then another. Her eyes moved for a moment to the blonde's blue ones.
Abigail... that's her name then.
"GO NICOLE."
The girl began to run. Her hand quickly grabbed the bag that had fallen at the doorway, and she shoved the heavy door open.
She did not know what to do, how to get away from that place, how to disappear as she had been asked.
The clock was ticking but her thoughts could not move, nor could her legs, her body.
The clock was ticking and for the first time, she could not keep up with it.
"Take this." another voice had spoken, and as soon as she turned around a set of keys landed in her hands.
A woman in her forties, dressed as a maid, looked at her with a sad look on her face.
"That's yours, take it and leave."
Nicole did not respond, backing away while still looking at the unnamed woman, then starting to run toward the garage.
Her eyes immediately spotted it. The motorcycle she had raced on at her last Grand Prix.
Nicole threw her backpack to the ground, grabbing her Blue Lock shirt, the only garment she had, and covering her bare torso, ignoring her still bleeding back.
Then she set off, for a destination that was unclear in her mind.
And the wind lashed against her hair, as it violently caressed her face, almost as if it were trying to bring her down. The inertia of the air had never been heavier, and it almost occurred to her that she was going faster than she had gone on the track.
But she didn't care.
She didn't care that she didn't have a helmet. She didn't care that she was exceeding the speed limit. She didn't care if by a simple pebble on the asphalt she could have died.
She needed to reconnect with time, to get to where it had left her, to pick it up again, and to overcome it.
The girl arrived in front of the entrance reserved for athletes, and the security guards flinched as soon as they saw the bike not slowing down against them.
Nicole slammed on the brakes, getting off the bike even before it could stop and continuing to run inside that claustrophobic hallway that seemed to want to lock her inside.
She ran.
She ran like she had never run before, ignoring the oxygen that did not enter her lungs, or the burning in her body that at any moment would have dropped her.
And finally she reached where her unconscious had urged her to go.
"JIN-"
Ego raised an eyebrow, turning his gaze to see who it was and meeting the girl's red eyes.
"Oh, look who has returned from hell-" he froze as soon as he saw her long red hair.
And they were not alone.
The remaining candidates on the bench stared in disbelief at the figure of the famous Italian champion in front of them, looking at her long hair and sharp blood-red eyes.
"Nah, cause what the actual fuck..." whispered Raichi, unable to take his eyes off the woman who was quickly reaching for the director.
Ego's eyes widened slightly, turning his gaze to all the teenagers with their gazes on the redhead, then shifting it back to her.
Anri also was shocked, casting a quick glance at the cameras to see if there were any pointed at them.
But what shocked the brunette more was the scratch from which some blood was flowing down the young woman's cheekbone.
Ego watched in shock as the redhead stood in front of him, bending her knees so that their eyes could look at each other.
"Am I on time? Tell me am I on time? Am I on time?" the girl's voice was hoarse, with a hasty tone of anxiety.
Her eyes larger than usual, blind but not blind with victory. No, that thing Ego was seeing in her irises, he had never seen before.
The girl's trembling hands gripped the man's wrists, squeezing them lightly as she kept repeating the same question over and over.
The second half had already started 20 minutes ago, and there were 25 more to go before the game was over.
So no, she was not on time. She wasn't even out of time though.
"Have you completely lost your mind? Where the fuck is your wig? The cameras could point towards us at any moment-"
"Let me in on the court. Please, Jinpachi, let me go there." the redhead abruptly interrupted him, almost as if she were completely deaf to the 30-year-old's rebuke.
Barou's gaze was fixed on the girl's left profile, her earrings, her red lips and long eyelashes. The confusion was soon replaced by realisation.
"No fucking way..." he muttered aloud.
Raichi opened his eyes wide, hearing the girl's last words. His gaze continued to linger on the Italian woman's profile, and suddenly a bucket of icy water hit him right in the face.
"Nicklaus..."
Ego gritted his teeth as the ever-increasing comments of the Blue Lock teenagers began to enter his ears.
But when he tried to scold the girl for her carelessness, the words died in his mouth.
She was shaking.
He said nothing, carefully studying the redhead's face. For the first time since she had arrived, he noticed that there was no Nicole in front of him.
Those slightly wide-open eyes. That pupil so large. Those shiny irises. Those trembling hands that gripped his wrists tightly. That look of pure despair.
That was not Nicole Vinciguerra.
He gritted his teeth, noticing the streak of blood that was trickling down from the diagonal cut on the right cheekbone of her face.
"What happened? Where did you go-"
"Just let me play. Jin let me play, please. Please let me win for one last time." the girl seemed not to hear herself when she spoke, as if the speaker was not her but someone else.
"Let me win. Let me live for one last time. Please. Please I just want to feel that feeling one last time."
He will kill me. This time he will kill me. I know he will.
Anri put her hands in front of her mouth, trying to cover her bewildered expression at the young woman's words.
Ego just stared at her, trying to understand what was going through the redhead's brain to make her say such things.
She looked like a broken record. A perfect diamond suddenly chipped.
He couldn't let her go.
She was out of it, unpolished, clearly on the verge of ultimate collapse. No one would ever be able to get her back on her feet again.
He sighed, dislodging his wrists from the girl's no-too-tight grip and looking up again at the losing team. His team.
"You are not able right now. For now sit down and rest-"
The girl abruptly grabbed him by the hair, making the younger boys' eyes go wide and causing the 20-year-old brunette to escape a brief scream.
Their faces were inches apart, his black irises set in her blood-red.
"I want to live for five seconds, Ego Jinpachi. One last time."
Now Ego could see her well.
The blindness, the fear, the horror of no one knew what. The girl in front of him, for some unknown reason, seemed convinced that this would be her last day alive.
He shifted his eyes for a moment to the board behind them, then back to the girl now standing before him.
She was not able to stand.
It was obvious. Whatever she had, her body seemed unable to bear it.
He did not respond, merely looking straight into the face of his most beautiful diamond, fearful that it might break at any moment.
Then, after a few seconds, he sighed.
"All right, take the wig and put it on. Barou Shoei, go in with her." he suddenly ordered, causing a reaction of disbelief from everyone present.
Anri opened her lips wide, turning to Ego as soon as the girl took off the sweat pants covering the shorts of the jersey, running to the bag to get the wig.
"Have you completely lost your mind? Have you seen her? She's hurt in the face, something has happened to her." tried to polemicize the brunette, shifting her eyes to the girl and making a worried grimace as soon as she saw the difficulty with which she was trying in vain to put on the wig.
Ego looked up at the redhead, noticing her hands trembling as she attempted, failing, to tuck her hair under the false hair.
Suddenly he became aware of her knuckles covered in blood.
He gritted his teeth, telling the girl to sit beside him. Nicole did so, bending her neck slightly as soon as she saw Ego's gesture of lowering her head.
"When you are finished, I demand to know everything." he ordered her, hearing no response but knowing that he had been heard.
As he finished settling her down he patted her on the shoulder, urging her to get up and head for the field. His black eyes immediately spotted the traces of blood on his fingers: she was also injured in the head.
"Barou, help her position herself and try to keep her on her feet." he said to the black-haired boy who had just stood up, ignoring the way his red eyes were hesitantly staring at No. 1's back.
Barou for the first time in the entire match did not feel the same fire and adrenaline that had driven him to feel so much hatred as he waited to step onto the field.
There was simply something wrong in the air. As if a fire was about to burn them all alive.
A cold, chilling fire that would kill them without even letting them feel a bit of warmth.
His large body flanked that of the boy, or rather the girl, looking uncertainly at her profile. One hand hesitantly circled her less developed biceps, now for clear reasons, trying to help her stand.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on, shrimp..." he muttered with his gaze forward, tightening his grip on the girl's arm when the referee whistled for the change.
"...but I don't like it at all."
The girl said nothing, starting to walk, totally ignoring the boy she was going to replace as he passed her.
As soon as she put her first foot inside the line, the atmosphere inside the field changed.
All eyes shifted to the figure of the redhead, whose gaze was low, with the tuft of hair covering his eyes.
Shidou's eyes went wide with excitement, while Sae's eyes followed the figure accompanied by the more imposing boy.
His teal eyes shifted to the expression of the demon he had taken from Blue Lock, noting the excitement and anxiety leaking out of his every pore.
Nagi glanced at the girl, lowering his eyes for a moment to her hands and noticing the blood staining her knuckles.
Barou tightened his lips, leaving the girl in the defensive midfielder's position, while Karasu moved to the left wing's spot.
Barou's crimson eyes studied Nicole Vinciguerra's figure for a moment longer, as the grip on her arm loosened until it disappeared altogether.
He did not know what had happened in those last minutes. But of one thing he was certain.
No one was prepared for what would happen in the next few.
____________________
Nicole did not react until another person was hit.
When Shidou did not see Nicole on the court, for a first moment he was tempted not to play at all.
Abigail, when she saw the girl's violence, feared that her adoptive father's behavior had affected her
The reason the girl is still able to move is the adrenaline and anxiety of being able to experience the vitality of victory one last time.
____________________
Author
Chapter written in one night in a flash of genius honestly (wish I had these enlightenments to study)
I like it better than yesterday's, so I hope you like it too.
And forgive me for the part with the father, but well...if you need it, don't mind venting here or idk.
Bye bye