Ruin

On Parents' Day, young Rin reads his class essay aloud, declaring he wants to be a footballer like his brother Sae, and privately reaffirms that Sae will be the world's finest striker with himself a close second.

The scene returns to the snowy duel. Sae's warning that their dream ends if he wins baffles Rin, who dismisses the whole thing as a joke and tells him to quit fooling around, but Sae simply charges, declaring the first to score takes it. Rin protests that he does not want a match like this as Sae rips through blistering scissors, a double-touch feint, and a magic turn that pins the ball with the outside of his boot. Stunned by how far his brother has evolved abroad and given no time to think, Rin can only watch as Sae nutmegs him, asks what he has done with his four years, and finishes at the edge of the box.

Feeling the chasm between them, Rin hears Sae pronounce the brothers finished. He pleads that he did everything to become Japan's best and earn a scouting move, trying to make himself a worthy replacement, and insists that without a shared dream he has no reason to play at all. The words visibly hurt Sae, who then snarls at him to give up already, branding him lukewarm. He blames Japan's cozy football culture for turning talent into garbage, tells Rin he is sickening, and forbids him from ever using him as a reason to play again. However special Rin may find him, Sae says, Rin is nothing to him but an irritating little brother, and if he cannot play football he is worthless, so he should get lost. Sae walks off, leaving Rin crumbling in the snow.

Later, alone in his room beneath a wall of Sae's trophies, Rin watches a broadcast naming his brother to the Men's World 11 as a Real Madrid youth player. He concedes Sae is incredible and probably right, switches off the television, and decides he has had enough of football, convinced he was only ever a training partner discarded once useless. Wondering whether every treasured moment was a lie and whether he was merely a tool, he wishes he had never picked up the sport or shared a dream at all, then sweeps his arm across the shrine, smashing the awards and photos. He refuses to accept that the memories were false and swears to break his brother, vowing never to forgive him for upending his life. In the present, Isagi steps into the corridor to tell Rin the second half is starting.

Sae overwhelms Rin with his sharpened skills to win the one-on-one and formally end their shared dream, prompting Rin to insist he has no reason to keep playing. An enraged Sae disowns him as a brother and leaves, later earning a place in the Men's World 11. Consumed by anger, Rin vows revenge, and the story cuts back to the present with the second half about to kick off.

"Ruin" is the 125th chapter overall and the fourth collected in Volume 15, part of the U-20 Arc. It was dramatized within Episode 33 of the anime and first published in Japan on March 31, 2021.