Chapter 7: From 0 to 1
Central field of Building No. 5.
Naruhaya Asahi looked around at everyone on Team X's side. That guy with the pompadour—just one glance and you could tell he was the "king" among them.
And coincidentally, the pompadour guy at the front was also looking at him.
The moment their gazes met, the man wearing Team X's No. 10 jersey changed expression—his disdain toward Team Z vanished. With just one look, his body immediately tensed, shrinking down as he slipped into a charging stance.
[All fouls in the First Selection will be judged by VAR (Video Assistant Referee). Next is Building No. 5's first match, 45-minute half.]
[TEAM X VS TEAM Z — START!!]
At this moment, the ball sat steadily at Naruhaya Asahi's feet.
He stared straight ahead with full concentration, his mind racing to construct a flawless attacking route. Just then, sharp intuition told him something unusual was approaching from behind.
Almost instinctively, Naruhaya Asahi reacted—he stamped down hard with his right foot, pinning the ball firmly to the ground.
At the same moment, his impatient teammate Raichi Jingo, who had been eyeing the ball eagerly, took the chance and swung a heavy kick at it without hesitation.
However, things did not go as planned. Not only did he fail to kick the ball away, his overly forceful movement caused him to lose balance instantly.
A muffled "thud" echoed as Raichi Jingo collapsed like a kite with its string suddenly cut.
Just as he struggled to lift his head from the turf and push himself up, he unexpectedly met Naruhaya Asahi's eyes—cold, piercing, and lethal enough to kill.
A chill surged down his spine. Raichi shuddered involuntarily.
In that moment, he clearly realized: the coldness and murderous aura in this guy's eyes might be the closest he had ever come to death in his life.
"There is no next chance."
Everything had happened too fast. Striker Isagi Yoichi only reacted after Raichi fell.
Everyone else, who had originally been itching to move, all stayed obediently in their assigned positions.
The moment Naruhaya Asahi finished speaking, his sharp instinct detected Team X rapidly closing in.
If they formed a surround, it would be troublesome—so Naruhaya shot forward like an arrow fired from a bow. He sent the ball flying straight toward the opponent's half with a powerful kick.
Team X members burst into a sprint, trying to catch up to this short but ridiculously fast kid.
But shockingly—no matter how they chased, the distance between them didn't shrink. Instead, Naruhaya Asahi's small figure grew smaller and smaller, as though fading from their sight.
With blistering speed, Naruhaya sprinted ahead with the ball, skillfully dribbling past players one after another.
Yet as he ran, a strange feeling kept piling up.
The entire Team X—everyone except the goalkeeper—was blindly charging toward him! The scene was so bizarre that Naruhaya couldn't help feeling suspicious.
What was even stranger—when he was about to enter their penalty area, not a single defender stood properly to block him.
Although confused, Naruhaya's feet didn't slow at all.
He simply kept thinking while preparing to shoot.
Pong!
[GOAL!!][0:1]
Team Z scored first!
The point came so easily that Naruhaya felt unreal.
He had only ever watched one real match in his life—the intense World Cup final of this year. Whether it was the U.S. team led by Arthas, or the France team led by Noel Noa, scoring even a single goal required incredible effort. Players ran with everything they had, collided brutally, and fought desperately to send the ball into the net.
That heart-shaking excitement, that arena-shaking brilliance—just one minute of it was enough to make an amnesiac like him fall in love with football…
Yet looking at this match he was playing right now, Naruhaya felt cold. So cold he wished time would fast-forward to the end.
All he needed to do was dribble gently, take a shot, and the ball would slip effortlessly into the goal.
Before stepping onto this field, he had imagined countless tactics, countermeasures, and strategies.
He even warmed up carefully, preparing for a tough battle.
But who could have expected that facing such opponents—who could barely even keep up with him—everything would be this easy?
"No."
Naruhaya shook his head, muttering to himself:
"Football is never this easy. It must be because no one is fully in condition yet. Once the next match starts, it definitely won't go this smoothly."
Thinking this, Naruhaya quickly signaled Team Z to speed up their movement and use frequent position switches to confuse Team X—"smoke screens" to disrupt their line of sight, controlling the pace of the match.
Because Naruhaya had scored, Team Z unquestioningly followed his orders.
In an instant, Z—previously scattered—became unified, everyone focusing on supporting Naruhaya.
After all, none of them were blind. Compared to fighting individually for points, helping the only true "king" on the field was enough to win.
Meanwhile, on Team X, aside from the pompadour guy who already understood the situation, the others still assumed that simply stopping Naruhaya would solve everything.
"Hey! Don't underestimate us!"
At this moment, the ball was controlled by the pompadour man of Team X.
He skillfully flicked the ball up with his heel—sending it over Isagi's defensive range. Then he burst forward like a gust of wind, performing a dazzling string of dribbles, bypassing Jūyōna and Imamura Yūdai with ease.
Seeing the open field ahead, he sped up, ready to charge—
But suddenly, the ball disappeared from under his foot.
Instinct made him whip his head around.
And he saw—
that caramel-haired shorty, silently behind him.
The kid had lowered his body to the extreme and, taking advantage of Barou Shouei's attention being locked on Imamura, stole the ball with lightning speed.
Barou's veins bulged with rage.
"STOP THAT LITTLE BASTARD!!"
Team X understood the urgency—if they didn't stop Naruhaya now, the match would slip out of control.
They ran with everything they had.
But even giving their all, the speed gap was too great—they could only watch helplessly as Naruhaya shot forward like a released arrow.
Despair spread across every member of Team X…
Pong!
Team Z scored again.
When the ball returned to Naruhaya's feet, he finally understood that strange sense of disconnect.
It was when he shot the ball and saw the goalkeeper not even react—that moment when no one could stop him—he understood.
First:
Team X was filled with selfish idiots. Not one could lead; their team was a headless mess.
If they weren't too slow to catch him, they'd be a giant ball of people fighting over the ball.
Second:
The administrator had once said: "This is the battle to create football from zero."
Now he understood—their current situation was exactly that.
Team Z had unity because he defended his scoring right against Raichi and secured the first point—this was 1.
Team X, without a leader, fought only for personal scoring—this was 0.
Well, not exactly—Team X did have a leader. The pompadour guy. Clearly stronger than the others. But his speed compared to Naruhaya was laughably slow—he never even showed his "horns." At best, he was just a bigger fish among trash.
Third:
Aside from him, everyone's ball skill was terrible. The entire match felt like children playing pretend.
If he were a spectator, he would feel cheated and demand a refund. Even a staged match would be more exciting.
Ugh—
Naruhaya felt nauseous, stomach turning as if he might vomit bile.
He remembered the World Cup chat comments mocking Japanese football. At first he thought Arthas was just being extreme—but now he saw it was simply the truth.
Then he remembered—his ID card listed his nationality as Japan. He shook his head rapidly.
No. He couldn't think like that.
This was the bottom-tier match of Blue Lock. He was placed here by mistake. That's why he felt like he was bullying children.
Once he reached higher floors, he would join real football.
Looking at the pile of "trash" before him, Naruhaya felt it necessary to teach them the difference between players.
From then on, without relying on Team Z at all, he scored again and again with his own speed.
Time passed.
45 minutes ended.
Team X vs Team Z was over.
Except for Naruhaya, everyone stared at the screen in disbelief:
[0 : 14]
"Bullshit! This ranking is wrong! That shorty is insanely good—he can't be from Building 5!"
"Yeah! He's a damn BUG! Z's cheat code! Kick him out!"
"This match is unfair!"
Naruhaya stood coldly, listening to Team X's chatter.
He sneered inwardly—no wonder their skills were trash.
Blue Lock existed to select the world's No. 1 striker from 300 players. If they lacked the courage to challenge those stronger than themselves, they shouldn't play any sport.
"Hey. Can you useless trash shut up and get out of my way?"
His dark brown eyes were like bottomless voids, radiating a chilling aura. Anyone who met those eyes instinctively flinched backward.
The moment he spoke, the players blocking him froze—
then moved aside on their own, clearing a wide path for him.
In Blue Lock, the best player on the field was the king.
This unwritten rule was absolute, for every team.
And once the king gave an order, no one dared resist.
After Naruhaya left, Barou stepped up and asked Team Z:
"What's that shorty's name?"
"Naruhaya Asahi."
Isagi answered without even turning his head, eyes blazing as he stared at the caramel-haired boy's fading silhouette.
For some reason, Isagi felt Naruhaya's departing figure resembled his idol, Noel Noah.
The shape, the walk—nothing was similar.
Yet the feeling was the same.
Isagi Yoichi: This is what a striker should be.
A puzzle piece labeled Speed appeared from nowhere and settled onto his shoulder.
Naruhaya Asahi, huh…
Barou Shouei engraved that name in his mind.
He would face that shorty again—as Team X's scoring king.