Chapter 30: The Twelfth Man
The Team Z locker room was quiet. It wasn't the silence of a team that had given up, but the heavy, pressurized air of a group that knew they were at the edge of a cliff.
Eshan sat on the bench, his back straight, methodically tightening his laces. He felt the weight of the room. Usually, he would just ignore it, treating his teammates like background noise in his own story. But as he looked up, he saw Isagi gripping his knees so hard his knuckles were white.
Eshan didn't offer a smile. He didn't have one ready. But he did stop what he was doing.
"Isagi," Eshan said. His voice was calm, but it lacked the usual biting edge.
Isagi looked up, startled. "Yeah?"
"Stop trying to shoulder the whole match before it starts," Eshan said, his silver-gray eyes meeting Isagi's. "You've got decent eyes. Use them to find the gap, not to look for ghosts."
It wasn't a "warm" talk. It was a professional correction. But for Eshan, it was a step. He was acknowledging Isagi as a player, not just a body on the pitch. Isagi nodded, a bit of the tension leaving his frame, and Eshan went back to his laces.
"Everyone, let's go!" Kuon stood up, clapping his hands with a bright, performative energy. "Team W is synchronized, but we're a unit! We play for each other!"
The team cheered, but Eshan's Absolute Awareness caught the hollow ring in Kuon's voice. He had lived long enough to know that when someone over-explains "loyalty," they're usually the first ones to break it.
Eshan stood up, draped his jersey over his corded muscles, and headed for the tunnel. He didn't say anything to Kuon. He didn't need to. The silence between them was a battlefield of its own.
The Kickoff: The Unseen Friction
The match began with a frantic pace. The Wanima twins were a blur of synchronized movement, their "eye-talk" allowing them to bypass Raichi and Igarashi with insulting ease.
Eshan was playing deep, tracking the flow. But something was off. Every time he made a move into the final third, the space was already occupied by a Team W defender. It was as if they had a copy of his mental playbook.
Then, the first fracture happened.
Kuon went up for a header against the younger Wanima twin. It was a standard aerial duel, but Kuon "misjudged" the flight of the ball. He fell awkwardly, bumping into Gagamaru and clearing a path for the elder twin to walk the ball into the net.
TEAM Z 0 - 1 TEAM W
"Damn it! I'm sorry, I slipped!" Kuon yelled, hitting the grass with a fist.
Eshan walked past him as they reset. He didn't glare, and he didn't shout. He just paused for a split second next to Kuon.
"That was a clumsy bit of acting, Kuon," Eshan said, his voice a low, dry rasp. "You're better at drawing diagrams than you are at faking a fall. Try harder."
Kuon's face went pale, his eyes darting toward Eshan, but the "King" was already moving back to the center circle.
The Zero-Point Pivot
The goal had rattled Team Z, but for Eshan, it was a moment of cold clarity. He was playing 10 against 12. If he wanted to win, he couldn't just play "within the system." He had to break it.
He took the ball from the restart and drove forward. The Wanima twins closed in immediately, their smirks wide.
"We know your turning radius, Sato!" Keisuke laughed. "Kuon told us—" He stopped himself, but the damage was done.
They lunged, creating a pincer movement designed to trap Eshan's right-side drive. Eshan didn't flinch.
He initiated the Zero-Point Pivot.
Using his Absolute Ball Feel, he didn't just turn; he used his sole to kill the ball's momentum instantly while using his balance to rotate his entire body 180 degrees in a single, fluid motion. To the twins, it looked like Eshan had simply "rotated" through them. Their momentum carried them into each other, their "telepathy" failing against a move that didn't follow the data they had been given.
Eshan glided past them. He was in the clear. But as he prepared to strike, he saw Kuon "scrambling" back—positioning himself directly in Eshan's shooting lane, effectively acting as a third defender for Team W.
Eshan's eyes narrowed. He looked to the wing and saw Chigiri watching, his hair blowing in the wind, his feet rooted to the spot in fear.
'Still guarding that ghost, Chigiri?' Eshan thought.
He didn't take the shot. Instead of forcing a goal through Kuon, he fired a sharp, low-driven pass toward Isagi, who had found a pocket of space. It was the first time Eshan had truly trusted someone else to finish the job.
"Finish it, Isagi!" Eshan shouted.