Chapter 118: Warped

The commentators reel as Nagi's stunning goal ties the game, one admitting he has never heard of him. The crowd is thrilled yet bewildered, and the broadcasters concede they no longer know who the story's heroes are, wondering aloud if the Blue Lock Project actually worked.

Still seated with his fist raised, Nagi finds his own pose cringeworthy before Isagi and Chigiri pile onto him in celebration, all three certain they can win and carry Blue Lock to the world. Gagamaru approves, Yukimiya sulks at not scoring, Otoya laments missing his hero moment, Bachira calls it only the start, and Karasu razzes Nagi as a showoff.

In the stands Anri asks why the offense suddenly clicked after struggling so long, and Ego tells her not to get carried away. Create a fifty-fifty scoring chance, he says, and they are expected to convert. He identifies Rin's improvisation as the goal's origin, reminding her that the selections trained every player's knack for it. When Anri equates this with the chemical reactions he preaches, Ego calls it a form of improvisation: plans rarely survive contact with a real game, and where average players panic and hunt for the source of failure, winners see only a challenge. He presses Anri on the match's objective, and when she says to win, he agrees, arguing the sooner the players treat every obstacle as a mere challenge, the better. Blue Lock needs egotists who find and conquer their own challenges, and Rin chased his fastest while Isagi answered, making Isagi the key to Rin's awakening.

On the pitch Isagi credits the goal to Rin dismantling the formation, which freed Nagi, Otoya, and Yukimiya to strike. He tells Rin it is a shame he did not score but praises the play, only for Rin to snap that it means nothing unless he scores himself. Rin acknowledges Isagi was also chasing a goal and calls that good, saying they exploit each other for their own ends, and that warped bond is exactly right for them. Isagi accepts that their unpredictability springs from the gap between them, and that he need not play nice as long as it serves his goals.

With fifteen minutes left in the half at 1-1, Sae carries the ball forward until Rin cuts him off, demanding to know why Sae has not greeted his own brother after thirty minutes. Rin declares the match is for him alone, his chance to finally surpass Sae. Unbothered, Sae dribbles at him as Rin counters every move, then locks bodies to win the ball. Kitsunezato calls for a pass and Isagi offers help, but Rin furiously orders him away, insisting this is a fight between brothers.

The stadium's bias toward the Japan U-20 collapses after Nagi's goal. Ego explains how improvisation unlocked the equalizer. Rin frames his bond with Isagi as mutual devouring. The game resets, Rin clashes with Sae and sees the match as his shot to surpass his brother, and he warns everyone to stay out of their duel.

Warped is chapter 118 overall and the sixth chapter of Volume 14 in the U-20 Arc, adapted in Episode 32. The twenty-page chapter released in Japan on February 10, 2021, and in English on July 19, 2022.