Chapter 112: Instinct
The match raged on.
Shidou, facing down Rin, wasn't holding anything back. He threw every trick in his arsenal at the younger brother, desperate to break through. Rin, however, was a wall. He refused to give Shidou even an inch of breathing room, and the two stayed locked in a stalemate in the midfield. Shidou was actually teetering on the edge of losing possession.
Dribbling was never his specialty. The penalty box was his true throne; that was where he belonged.
Despite his savage appearance and manic behavior, Shidou had a high football IQ. Realizing he couldn't force a breakthrough here, he flicked a pass out to Kira on the flank.
Kira received the ball and gave a sharp nod. Bachira and Kurona immediately understood the signal and pushed forward, leaving Haiji alone to anchor the backline. Kira took control of the tempo, and Team A began a slow, suffocating advance into Team B's territory.
Rin tried to disrupt them, but he was a lone wolf. No matter how much ground he covered in the midfield, he couldn't halt Team A's momentum by himself.
However, once Team A reached the final third, they realized that breaking Karasu's compact defense wasn't going to be easy.
Kira and Shidou were being shadowed so closely they barely had room to move.
Bachira tried several crosses to open up the play, but the Team B defenders were playing out of their skins to block every path.
The tension on the pitch was suffocating.
***
Audiovisual Room.
The crow were dissecting every play.
"Team A is hitting a wall," Chigiri noted, clicking his tongue. "Karasu's tactical adjustments are perfect. He's completely neutralized their rhythm."
"But if nobody scores, what's the point?" Igaguri asked, looking confused.
"Team B is playing for the kill," Niko said, his eyes sharp behind his bangs. "Even though the defense has retracted, Rin is still positioned like a poison stinger in the back of Team A's half. One mistake from A, and the counter-attack will be lethal."
Niko knew this style well. It was exactly how his Team Y used to play.
Igaguri nodded like he understood, though he probably didn't.
***
Back on the pitch.
Under Team B's relentless pressure, Kira's Karasu trial card finally expired.
Fortunately, Team A hadn't made any fatal errors yet. Kurona and Bachira were maintaining a solid passing foundation, acting like the electrical conductors for Team A's offense. The current was still flowing, even if it hadn't struck the goal yet.
Team B's box was under siege, with Shidou nearly breaking through once before Karasu sniped the ball out of bounds for a corner.
Kira knew it was time for his own evolution. He needed something primal to shatter this deadlock.
Kira closed his eyes and whispered: "Use Ryusei Shidou Attribute Trial Card."
[Ryusei Shidou Trial Card activated successfully!]
[Strength +4 (Continuous decay)]
[Shooting +4 (Continuous decay)]
[Duration: 10 minutes]
Suddenly, Kira felt every cell in his body ignite. It was as if a buried, savage hunger had been unleashed from the depths of his soul.
A wave of pure, aggressive adrenaline flooded his system. Kira felt his body temperature rise; the Shidou Ryusei card was a pure rush.
"Bachira-chan... give me the ball," Kira whispered as he jogged past his teammate.
Bachira blinked, a little surprised. Kira calling him 'Bachira-chan' was a total departure from his usual style. But Bachira trusted Kira's instincts implicitly and nodded.
Bachira stepped up to take the corner.
'Deep breath,' Bachira thought, scanning the chaos in the box.
Karasu was glued to Kira's back. He knew Kira's off-the-ball movement was legendary, so he kept it simple: if Kira didn't move, he wasn't a threat.
'You're not going anywhere, Kira. You can't score with your back to the goal like Shidou can,' Karasu thought.
Bachira took his run-up and lofted the ball directly toward Kira's position.
The box exploded into a mosh pit of shoving and grabbing. Kira used his back to pin Karasu down. Karasu assumed Kira was just going to trap the ball and look for a layoff. He prepared to lunge and kill the play the moment the ball touched Kira's foot.
He was wrong.
The moment the ball dropped into range, Kira didn't trap it. He performed a violent, mid-air pivot. Using a completely illogical, contorted posture, he struck the ball blindly behind him.
Boom!
The ball screamed into the net.
Goal!
"Ngh!" Kira shouted, unable to stop himself.
He finally understood why Shidou was always making those weird noises. When you score a goal like that—purely on instinct—it's impossible not to feel the electricity.
Karasu stood frozen. Kira had moved as if he had eyes in the back of his head. He hadn't even looked at the net; he had just known where it was. It was an instinctive strike that defied every defensive principle.
'Is he even human? He just pulled a Shidou move without a second thought,' Karasu thought, looking at the goal in disbelief.
"Kira-chan! That was beautiful! I love it!" Shidou cackled. He had finally found a kindred spirit—someone who understood the ecstasy of the box. He felt a surge of pure joy.
Kira felt like a weapon. With Shidou's cells humming in his body, he felt like he existed only to put the ball in the net.
Rin's expression turned even darker. While he was still trying to solve the game with his mind, Kira had just rewritten the rules with his body. Rin felt a surge of frustration; he couldn't find an answer to this level of spontaneity.
The match resumed, but Team B's morale had taken a massive hit. Karasu tried to organize another clinical attack, but Kira was everywhere.
Usually, Kira was conservative on defense, but now he was a manic force of nature, sprinting across the pitch with endless energy. He finally understood why Shidou was so active. When the adrenaline hits this hard, your body just moves.
The balance of the game had shifted entirely toward Team A.
Kira sniped a pass in the midfield, intercepting a Team B transition. Team A's counter-attack ignited.
Normally, Kira would have slowed down to coordinate with Bachira, looking for the most rational path. But with the Shidou card active, he didn't want to wait. He drove forward with a jagged, taunting laugh.
"Did you catch rabies from that dog or something?" Rin growled, closing in to shut him down.
Kira didn't answer. He just gave a sharp, predatory grin.
Rin felt a chill of intuition.
Kira launched a high, arching ball toward the penalty area. Karasu realized the danger instantly. In his peripheral vision, the real Shidou was already tearing toward the box like a heat-seeking missile.
This was a connection between two monsters. A limit-break link-up.
'Did they plan this?' Karasu wondered.
Shidou wasn't even looking at the ball. He was just running. He knew where the ball would be, and Kira knew where Shidou was going. It was a play built entirely on raw, primal instinct.
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Here's your extra chapter...