Capítulo 16: 16 - The Price of a Gambit
When he called my name, my heart pounded out of my chest, and then everyone focused their attention on me, the only one he'd singled out.
I couldn't even think while all their eyes were on me, pressuring me with their gazes, questioning why I was the only one he wanted to see. But only two people in that room knew why—him and me.
Quickly, I opened the black door and frantically escaped the room, closing it behind me without a word. However, as soon as I closed the door, I noticed a smaller-framed woman with brown hair to her neck, straight bangs to the left of her face, and chocolate brown eyes standing in front of me.
'She's the woman who confiscated our stuff and handed out our uniforms earlier today… Teieri Anri,' I recalled.
She looked me up and down, puzzled when she saw me, so I wasn't sure if she knew anything.
"Follow me," she spoke briefly.
Seeing how her figure walked away, I quickly followed her down the drab, metal-plated corridors of Blue Lock.
She hadn't spoken another word to me since her initial instruction, her footsteps echoing down the endless halls of the facility.
The twists and turns in this place felt deliberate as if the corridors themselves were designed to disorient, like a labyrinth meant to trap prisoners. Each new corner brought us deeper into the maze, passing one identical black door after another, yet everything still looked the same.
Finally, Anri stopped in front of a large door hidden from all the others… different—its surface was a dull gray, set apart from the uniform black I'd seen so far. Without a glance back, Anri had input a code, and the door automatically slid open to reveal a pitch-black room.
She stepped aside, gesturing for me to continue on into the ominous, dark room.
"Jinpachi Ego is waiting for you inside," Anri said, her voice as calm as it had been before, giving no indication of what lay beyond.
'Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…'
I gulped, hesitating momentarily before stepping into that dark, dreary room with Anri following me from behind.
The air felt thick with tension as if it had been undisturbed for ages. The only light that lit the room came from the blindingly bright computer monitors mounted to the walls, casting an eerie white glow. There had to have been hundreds of them on the wall in rows and columns, each showing surveillance footage from different angles of Blue Lock.
He needs to touch grass.
The sharp contrast between the darkness and the glaring light stung my eyes, and I blinked against the harsh brightness, forcing my sight to adjust.
But as I walked towards the monitors, I saw a dark figure sitting in front of all those screens—the man pulling the strings behind Blue Lock.
Jinpachi Ego sat with his legs crossed, fingers steepled as his intense gaze followed my every move. His glasses reflected the screen's light, making it impossible to tell whether his eyes had any emotion. However, it caught me off guard that he was wearing crocs instead of socks and shoes.
"I take it you know why I called you here." Ego's tone was calm but calculating, every word laced with intent as he waited for my response.
I tensed, but I didn't react physically. Or, at least, I tried not to.
"You almost had me fooled… Kira Lawson-Yoshino."
Anri had stood to the side, watching the scene before her, her face still riddled with confusion.
"You've done quite well—your movements, your posture, even the way you speak," he continued, his tone devoid of praise yet heavy with scrutiny. "I'll admit, you played your part convincingly enough for most to believe you belong here."
His words were like a weight pressing down on me, but I met his gaze, remaining still. Anri watched from the sidelines, trying to gather the bits and pieces of the situation to make sense of it all.
And again, those words my brother said to me back then came flooding in all at once.
* * *
"How long are you going to keep hiding the fact that you're not a guy? One day, someone's going to find out and then everyone will find out. What will you do then?"
"Right now, you need to decide how much farther you're willing to keep up this facade and whether it's worth it to keep going."
* * *
I knew this moment would come, but I didn't think it'd come this soon. My brother warned me months ago… and I still didn't have a plan to fall back on.
Ego leaned forward slightly, his dark eyes now visible behind the glare of the monitors.
"But the illusion is shattered, isn't it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're not like the others, Kira. You're not one of them—you're not even supposed to be here."
He let the words hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "A girl, masquerading as a boy, playing in this cutthroat competition? You really thought you could deceive ME?"
My jaw tightened as I was being confronted head-on. He was trying to get under my skin and rattle me.
Suddenly, with just a flick of his wrist, he brought up a hologram of my real body and my real features that the Blue Lock uniform analyzed. There I was in the center of the room; my long black hair was down, my fair pale skin shone, and my striking violet eyes were on full display.
"What the…?" Anri gasped in shock after seeing the person on the hologram. "You're a… girl?"
Ego stood from his chair and paced slowly toward me, his hands clasped behind his back.
"I'll give you credit where it's due. You've maintained your disguise so well that you made it onto the Shiratori Junior High football team—one of the top academies in Japan. Not only did you fool everyone… you somehow thrived." He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in.
"You played so well during your junior high years, I chose you to be part of the Blue Lock Project despite not being on a current high school team."
I swallowed hard, a flicker of hope kindling inside of me.
Was he… complimenting me?
"But," Ego's voice darkened, "you're a girl, playing in a world meant for men's football. And now that I know the truth, I don't see the point in keeping you here."
The cold finality of his tone sent a chill through me. I felt my stomach twist, and the hope that flickered moments ago was now snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
He stood from his chair, pacing slowly toward me with calculated steps. "I'll admit, you've proven yourself in more ways than one: Your disguise was nearly flawless. To blend in so seamlessly among the boys, to fool everyone—including me—that… takes more than just deception. It takes… commitment."
My jaw clenched even more, but I remained silent.
This wasn't just about my disguise; I knew he was leading up to something bigger.
"But it wasn't just your commitment to this facade that impressed me," Ego continued, pacing slowly in front of me. "Your playstyle… I studied you during your junior high years. You were like a 'clone'—able to replicate the moves of others with near perfection. Your ability to learn new things quickly—every pass, every trick, every goal you scored was executed with pinpoint accuracy. Like a 'Clone,' but never the original."
I felt a cold shiver run down my spine.
He had noticed. He had watched me all along. My ability to copy moves I saw—a skill I had honed—and it was one of the very things that had gotten me this far. But now, it felt like he was dismantling me piece by piece.
"You've been playing football for only three years, which is less experience than most of the 299 guys at Blue Lock, and you're… mediocre at best. But this—" Ego gestured around the room, a dismissive wave of his hand, "this is men's football. You can fuck off and get out."
"W-What?" Hearing how cold-blooded he was filled me up entirely with dread.
My mind screamed at me to say something, anything, but my throat tightened as the realization of what he was saying began to sink in.
He was expelling me.
"End this charade before it goes any further," he warned, his voice low and dangerous.
My heartbeat thumped in my ears. The room seemed to close in around me as my future dangled by a thread. I could feel my grip on everything slipping further with every word.
If I let him dismiss me, it was over—my dream, my football career, everything.
But then, Ego's words echoed in my mind.
"You played so well… I chose you to be part of the Blue Lock project."
My fists clenched, my body trembling with barely contained fury. At this point, I didn't care what he said. He wasn't going to take this away from me—over my fucking dead body.
"Jinpachi Ego, you invited me here because you saw my potential," I said, my voice cutting through the thick silence that rested in the room. "Yeah, I've been playing for only three years, which is less than most of the guys here, but you said it yourself—my skill earned me this spot."
Ego paused, his back to me, and he didn't respond.
Good, because I wasn't done yet.
"During your speech that day in the JFU building, weren't you the one who said: "All you under-18 strikers have been chosen solely based on my criteria and biases to be here today. All 300 of you." Right? Aren't I still a part of that?" I angrily refuted, clenching my fists as I spoke. "I matched your criteria to be here. I belong here."
"I chose "Akira Yoshino," not whoever YOU are. Go on, pack your things and fuck off," he brushed off, but it pissed me off even more.
Gritting my teeth, I opened my mouth again. "I'm still "Akira Yoshino!" Akira is my first name, I'm just used to being called Kira! What difference does it make?!" I countered, but he didn't look interested in anything I had to say.
His uninterest provoked me even more, and I couldn't stop my mouth. I didn't want to.
"I've always fucking hated bastards like you. You go on to compliment me and my achievements, but discredit me because of my gender."
He turned to face me, his expression unreadable, but I pressed on, voicing my frustration.
"I'm not asking for special treatment," I continued, my voice rising. "I've worked my ass off to get to this point. I'll CONTINUE to work my ass off to get even farther! And like you said after that Oni Game, I had the tenacity and the courage to pursue my own will by eliminating Ryosuke Kira, the strongest in that room! Isn't that the "egoism" you said you were looking for?"
"You and I both know you're limited in your physical capabilities," he said emotionlessly. "Your capabilities right now as a woman are unbelievable, but no matter how hard you try, your physical capabilities won't scratch the surface of a male."
I scrunch my face, irritated at every word from his filthy mouth. I knew he was right, but it wasn't the first time I heard words like this.
"Why do you think I dress up as a male? It's not because I enjoy it—it's so I can prove people like YOU wrong. It's because people like YOU can't take me seriously when I appear as a girl. You said this project was about finding the best striker in Japan, right? If you truly believe in that, then why does it matter if I'm a girl? I thought your ideology believed that football is about skill? About who can rise to the top?!"
His silence was deafening. He watched me, his eyes cold and calculating. His face, emotionless, gave nothing away.
"You want to send me home because you think I don't belong here," I said, my voice unwavering. "But I've earned my place here. And I'm not leaving without a fight."
"You think I care?" he countered, unbothered by everything as if this entire conversation was wasting his time. "I'll just take you out of Blue Lock and bring back Ryosuke Kira."
"WHAT?"
It was a cold threat.
I didn't know Ego enough to be able to tell whether he meant it or not, but did anything matter anymore?
What more did I have to lose? He was planning on expelling me from the program, so how I chose my words didn't matter.
'Fine, let's gamble, Giraffe.'
"Hahaha! You wouldn't dare."
I laughed like I had lost a few screws. I think his craziness was already rubbing off on me.
He raised his eyebrows as if what I said piqued his interest. "What makes you say that?"
"Hmm, let's just say… you don't seem the type to go back on your word once you've made it," I bluffed but shrugged it off with a playful smile.
Anri was looking at me as if I was insane for facing the puppetmaster behind Blue Lock, and maybe I was insane, or maybe one day in this place was making me insane. But that didn't matter. This was now a battle of "wit."
"After I put on the Blue Lock uniform, you figured out I was a girl, but you still let me participate in the Oni Game. You had every opportunity to rat me out, but you didn't. If you really wanted to get rid of me so bad because of my gender, you would've immediately exposed me in front of everyone and expelled me right away. But yet… you still got rid of Ryosuke Kira."
"Why do you say that, MISS-ter Wannabe Striker?" he menacingly stepped closer, but the smile never left my face.
"Because…."
And only one thing had escaped my mouth to explain it all.
"You're fucking crazy."
Teieri Anri audibly gasped, holding her breath.
At this point, I couldn't tell if I was bluffing anymore or if I was really convincing myself that he was like this, but if I'd learned anything about Ego's personality, he was fucking crazy, alright. Passionate about football, almost to the point of insanity.
But, if I could guess what kind of person he was by now, he was a man who wouldn't back down, who would chase his vision of the perfect striker, even if it meant tearing everything down to build anew.
He hadn't expelled me from Blue Lock right away. In fact, he had allowed me to stand among those 11 guys in that room as the only girl to fight among them for a place in this cutthroat competition.
Yet, his ideology never stated who could be the greatest striker.
All of a sudden, Ego's lips curled into the faintest hint of a smile—a twisted, calculating grin. He adjusted his glasses, the glare once again obscuring his dark eyes.
"Interesting," he said softly, almost amused.
'Wait, what?' I blinked, surprised at his reaction.
"Let's make a… GAMBIT."
He turned back to his desk, leaning against it as he steepled his fingers once more. His gaze bore down on me, almost as if he were sizing me up for the last time.
"You've already made your move, risking everything by stepping into Blue Lock as someone you're not. It's a bold play—your gambit. However, every gambit has its STAKES."
He folded his hands, his smirk widening. "You want to stay here? To climb to the top despite your disadvantages?" His eyes flickered with a knowing look. "Then PROVE it. Outplay, outthink, and outperform every player in this building. Right now, I'll even guarantee you privacy—your own shower and bathroom."
My eyes widened, the intensity of his words hitting me like a wave.
"You might have a spot here for now, but don't think it's permanent. If anyone figures you out—if even for a second your disguise slips—you're out. And not just from Blue Lock—your entire football career will be over. PER.MA.NEN.TLY."
He paused, letting the weight of his words settle. "This is your gambit, after all. The risk is yours. Make your choice."
I swallowed hard, meeting his gaze as I felt the challenge in the air. I didn't know why he was suggesting it or what he could possibly gain from this, but…
This was it. A chance. But, it came with the highest stakes imaginable…
"I… accept."
It was the obvious choice.
I had made the first move, and now, there was only one way to go.
[I may or may not be coming out with a special chapter in a few days... I'm calling it a "Locked Chapter." Only those of you early enough to read them will get to as a prize for supporting me and this story so far. After 5-7 days, all words will be removed, and no one will get to read them again. So... be on the lookout if you're interested! <3]
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