Chapter 117: Nice to Meet You

The broadcast marks Rin breaking through, alone before goal. Gen Fukaku braces for a shot, but Rin instead drifts wide into the box, and both the keeper and Isagi notice he is making the finish harder for himself. Rin fires with his left, his weaker foot, and Isagi realizes he is trying to reproduce Sae's earlier goal. The ball rises toward the net, but Fukaku flicks it with a fingertip onto the post and back into play.

The miss startles Anri, Rin, and Isagi, and Nio compliments the save as Yukimiya chases the loose ball with Neru marking him. Isagi reads the moment and engineers an ideal setup, drifting into the defense's sightline at a prime receiving spot to freeze Neru and buy Yukimiya a clean look. Yukimiya thanks him and shoots, but Aiku blocks it with his foot at the last instant. The ball loops up again, and Nio calls Darai to claim it, only for Otoya to burst in from behind and startle him with his speed, a move straight from their practice. With the Iron Wall Quartet finally prized apart, Blue Lock can cash in, but Otoya's shot is stopped by Nio's forehead.

The ball climbs high into the center toward Nagi, who senses his chance as Hayate and Wakatsuki move to smother him and Aiku guards the line. In truth Nagi traps the ball midair, drags it behind him, taps it up off the turf for extra airtime, and spins a full one-eighty so his dominant foot meets it cleanly. Announcing "Nice to meet you, Japan," he hammers the ball into the right corner to tie the game, then asks if anyone heard him. After a stunned beat the crowd explodes, the Quartet reels, and Aiku remarks that Blue Lock's madness is genuinely destructive as Nagi pumps his fist on his Japan debut.

Rin attempts Sae's shot with his nondominant foot and misses, though his run further unravels the U-20 defense and hands Blue Lock control. After a string of denied shots, Nagi finishes a spectacular goal, leaving the match level at 1-1.

Nice to Meet You is chapter 117 overall and the fifth chapter of Volume 14 in the U-20 Arc, adapted in Episode 31. Running twenty-one pages, it released in Japan on February 3, 2021, and in English on July 19, 2022.