章 31: Crossing paths

*??? Pov*

For all my 18 years of life I was hailed as a genius, every single person I met made sure to remind me of how talented and amazing I was no matter what I was doing, for me Football was nothing more than a side hobby I had because it made me more popular.

My high school was very well known for having an amazing football team that made it to the nationals almost every year so just being part of the team made me way more popular, I was able to gain everyone's admiration and even got together with my crush thanks to that.

Everything was going well, I've gone to the nationals 2 times with our team, and even if we lost afterward it was fine, Everyone praised us, we were the pride of the whole prefecture and I was the genius striker who was leading the team to victory, I even thought of taking it a bit more seriously and aiming for a good placement in the nationals.

I was very hopeful about this year's tournament, but all of my hopes and dreams got turned into ashes once I met this Demon. It was our second game in the prefecture tournament, we were all very confident and knew that our opponent was a team that never made it past the semi finals so we weren't too worried.

That was our mistake... Our biggest mistake. Not only did that team beat us but they even humiliated us, we lost by 3-1 against them, it might not look like much of a difference but in reality, we didn't lose against them. We lost against a single man.

They must have made a deal with the devil for such a man to join them, in the whole game he didn't stop running with that stupid smile on his face while talking about how he finally found a team that might amuse him, I couldn't understand why he was trying so hard, even when they were winning he didn't stop pressuring us and always came back to the defense, his defense was even better than that of his teammate who played at that post.

I couldn't comprehend where did such a player came from, I could see that he was a foreigner but why would such a strong foreigner come to a country such as Japan? With his current level, I'm sure he could play in some really good youth clubs.

Yet he decided to play in Japan... Ever since that loss against him, I started rethinking about my talent, I started to have second thoughts about my entire life, I went to watch every single one of his matches to try to understand what was the difference between us, I was always told I was one of the best and that I was destined for greatness yet compared to him I was nothing.

The thing that haunts me to this day was his expression at the end of the game, when he saw that we had all given up and stopped actually trying I could see the absolute disgust written all over his face, it was my first time seeing someone looking at me in such a way.

At that point, I truly reached the lowest point in my life, I tried training as hard as I could to try to forget what happened that day but I could see that everyone around me no longer admired me as much, I could sense their disappointed gazes, and every single time someone looked at me that way I couldn't help but get reminded of the look that man gave me before exiting the stadium.

Right when I was in my darkest times and about to give up on football I received a special letter, an invitation to a "Player Improvement Project", I couldn't help but happily smile to myself, I felt like it was an invitation handed to me by God himself, it was my chance to prove to myself that I was still a genius and that I was able to surpass that man.

Who would've thought that just as I was about to enter the Japan Football Union Building I would find that same man looking around curiously, not a single one of my friends got invited here yet this man was here.

I didn't know what to do, My mind told me to run away and act as if today never happened but my heart told me otherwise. That man gifted me with a whole new perspective of football, that day he was clearly shining brighter than anyone else. I want to understand him more!

"Heyy, I'm Izumi Kazuki. I didn't think we'd meet again." I said as I cast away my anxiousness and went up to him with a smile.

"Who are you..? Oh wait, you're the stupid lefty?" He said with a smile before putting his hand in front of me for a handshake

"Stupid lefty?? I remember you calling me that during our last game. What's up with that nickname?" I replied with an angry tone as I pushed his hand away, I couldn't just let him insult me to my face that way.

"Isn't that the best nickname for you? You're a very talented guy, the best player I've met ever since I came to Japan and yet you're limiting yourself to playing around your team and staying inside your coach's system. Even though you're such a good player you allow yourself to be badly used and end up wasting your own potential, if that isn't stupidity then I don't know what is." He said with a smile before going into the building.

"What..? Wait!" I said as I rushed behind him, what did he mean by wasting my potential? I was playing with the best team in the whole prefecture! Isn't he the one wasting his potential with such a bad team?

I kept pondering about the meaning of his words, though my thoughts came to an abrupt stop as soon as he opened the door. I could see hundreds of people our age, many of them were familiar faces I met when I went to the nationals in the past 2 years, but the weird thing is that I only saw strikers.

I could even see some of the most famous players of our generation, I could even see from the side of my eye Ryosuke Kira, the player who kicked me out of the nationals last year.

I knew that all of those players were extremely good and all had an amazing future waiting for them but I couldn't tell why we were all gathered here today.

"Tch..Test, One, Two." Suddenly a loud voice echoed through the whole place, I looked up to see who it was and saw a tall, lanky, and pale man who appeared on the stage, everything about his appearance made me feel uncomfortable.

"Congratulations, you unpolished gems."

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(I updated the system stats explanation system and switched up some explanations about the stats in the professional mode after reading more about Blue Lock and the different levels of players, so feel free to check it out.)