Saitama Prefecture High School Soccer Final Ichinan High vs. Matsukaze Kokuo High
The rain felt like needles. The mud was sucking at his boots like a swamp trying to drag him to hell. But Isagi Yoichi didn't care.
He was in the Zone.
"One minute left! Don't give up!" The Ichinan coach screamed from the sidelines, his face wet with rain and desperation. "One for all! All for one! Play as a team!"
Isagi, running down the center of the field, scoffed internally. Shut up, you old fool. 'One for all' is why we're losing.
The score was 0-1. Matsukaze Kokuo was leading. They had Ryosuke Kira, the so-called "Jewel of Japan." Kira was good. Isagi admitted that. But Kira was arrogant. He thought talent was enough.
Isagi had the ball at his feet. The clock showed 45 seconds remaining.
Activate.
Isagi's pupils dilated. The world slowed down. The noise of the crowd faded into a dull hum. The grid appeared over the field.
He saw it. The "Scent of a Goal."
Three defenders were collapsing on him. To his left, Tada was making a run. Tada was wide open. The goalkeeper was shifting toward Isagi, anticipating the shot.
Logic says pass, Isagi's brain whispered. The coach says pass. Common sense says pass.
In the original timeline, the timeline where Isagi was weak, he would have passed. He would have trusted his teammate. Tada would have missed the shot, hitting the post. They would have lost. Isagi would have gone home crying.
But this wasn't that timeline. This was the timeline of the Monster.
Isagi looked at Tada. He saw Tada's breathing pattern—he was hyperventilating. He saw Tada's ankle angle—he was running flat-footed. He's scared, Isagi analyzed in a split second. If I pass to that piece of trash, he's going to choke. He'll hit the post. 100% probability.
"Isagi! I'm open!" Tada screamed, waving his arms like a drowning man.
The defenders closed in. "Crush him! He's gonna pass!"
Isagi smirked. "Who said I was sharing?"
Instead of passing, Isagi did something insane. He slammed his foot onto the ground next to the ball, creating a splash of mud that flew into the closest defender's eyes.
"What the—?!" the defender cursed, blinking.
Nutmeg.
Isagi tapped the ball through the blinded defender's legs and exploded forward. He was through. It was just him and the keeper.
Ryosuke Kira was sprinting back, sliding to block the shot. "Don't get cocky, you second-rate nobody!"
Isagi didn't panic. He saw Kira's slide coming from his peripheral vision—his Metavision. He knew exactly where Kira's foot would be in 0.5 seconds.
Fake.
Isagi wound up for a power shot with his right foot. The keeper dove. Kira slid to block.
But Isagi didn't shoot. With a flexibility he had honed since birth, he chopped the ball back to his left foot. Kira slid past him, crashing into the mud like a graceful idiot. The keeper was on the ground, helpless.
The goal was a gaping maw. Empty. Waiting.
"This is my ego," Isagi whispered.
BANG.
He tapped the ball into the empty net with his left foot.
The whistle blew.
GOAL!
Ichinan High: 1 - Matsukaze Kokuo: 1
The stadium went silent. Then, it erupted. But Isagi wasn't done. The game was tied, but there was injury time. 30 seconds left.
"Get the ball!" Kira screamed, his perfect face twisted in rage. "Kill him!"
Matsukaze kicked off. They rushed forward, desperate. Kira had the ball. He was fast, elegant. He danced past two of Isagi's useless teammates.
He's going to shoot from the right side, Isagi calculated. He always favors his right when he's panicked.
Isagi didn't run to the ball. He ran to the space where the ball would be. He intercepted the pass before it even reached Kira's midfielder.
"What?!" Kira gasped. "How did he know?"
Isagi was running back the other way. Counter-attack. 10 seconds. His legs burned. His lungs felt like they were filled with broken glass. But the vision... the vision was crystal clear.
Only the goalkeeper stood in his way. Isagi was outside the penalty box.
Too far to dribble. The defender is catching up. Shoot now.
Isagi planted his foot. He remembered the feeling of that kickball in the park. The perfect trajectory.
Direct Shot.
He didn't trap the ball. He hit it on the volley, straight out of the air. The ball flew like a laser beam, cutting through the rain.
It smashed into the top right corner of the net.
GOAL.
Ichinan High: 2 - Matsukaze Kokuo: 1
The final whistle blew.
Isagi stood in the rain, steam rising from his body. His teammates were tackling him, crying, screaming about "The Miracle of Ichinan."
"We're going to Nationals! You did it, Isagi! We did it as a team!" Tada was sobbing, hugging him.
Isagi looked down at Tada with cold, dead eyes. Team? he thought. Don't make me laugh. You were just a decoy. I won this. Me. My vision.
Across the field, Ryosuke Kira was on his knees, pounding the mud. The Jewel of Japan had been shattered by a nobody from Saitama.
Isagi walked over to him. He looked down at the fallen star. "You're strong, Kira," Isagi said, his voice flat. "But your football is... lukewarm."
As Isagi walked off the pitch, the hero of his school, he felt a vibration in his pocket. He ignored it. He didn't know yet that a man named Anri Teieri had been watching from the stands, her iPad recording every second of his movement.
He didn't know that in a dark room somewhere, a man named Jinpachi Ego was eating instant yakisoba, watching the replay of Isagi's goal, and grinning like a maniac.
"Found him," Ego muttered, slurping a noodle. "The Egoist."