Third Arrow

Bachira remarks on the feud between the Itoshi brothers, and an irritated Nio points out that they are settling it during a national fixture. Sae and Rin barrel through the midfield tangled together, Rin fighting to wrestle the ball loose. When Rin commits, Sae throws a shoulder into him and steers the ball beyond his reach, then twists away while his sibling overruns. Isagi watches, stunned. Rin latches on once more, but Sae shoves off him, rocks the ball side to side to build speed, and threads a cross-elastico nutmeg through his legs. He tells Rin that clinging to their bond guarantees he will never climb past him. The break lands, the announcer awards Sae the opening round of the rivalry, and the stands erupt.

Karasu snaps at Rin to pull himself together and win. Aryu warns Niko that the Japan U-20 attack is building. Niko recalls his one-on-one with Ego, who told him his height and pace are unremarkable yet his gift for surveying the whole pitch makes him the team's lookout. Niko resolves to track everyone angling to combine with Sae, watching the receivers rather than the carrier, then pinpoint and neutralize the biggest threat. When Sae feeds Sendo, Niko clocks the backspin that will make the trap easy and realizes he would arrive half a step short. He recognizes the cross as bait meant to drag him out and split the line open. Rather than bite, he sprints in as though fooled, halts just before Sendo, spots the slight bounce off the trap, and hooks the ball clear while it hangs in the air.

Hayate chases the loose ball, but Karasu beats him to it and calls the counter. Facing the collapsing markers, he deciphers the three-layered U-20 defense: Hayate hounds the ball first, the Iron Wall Quartet then seals its zones, and finally Aiku anchors everything with Total Defense. Deciding to carve his own gap, Karasu slips it to Otoya, who is instantly shadowed by Darai and returns it. Trading rapid one-twos, Karasu urges more pace. Aiku steps into Otoya's lane and dismisses the move, but Otoya reveals the pair were never the real threat; the plan was always Chigiri. He releases the ball to the winger, and both attackers tell him to rip open a hole.

Sae breezes past Rin and takes the first exchange of their rivalry. A flashback explains that Ego picked Niko for the starting eleven because of his field vision, and Niko puts that spatial reading to use by clearing Sae's trap cross. Karasu and Otoya then launch a counterattack, breaking down the three phases of the Japan U-20 defense, though their combination is really a decoy meant to free Chigiri.

"Third Arrow" is the 119th chapter overall and the seventh installment collected in Volume 14, falling within the U-20 Arc. The chapter was adapted as part of Episode 32 of the anime and first ran in Japan on February 17, 2021.