Resolve

Back in their shared quarters, Team Z revels in its opening win, trading the two points earned for a generous cut of sirloin that the members share around. Igaguri, sitting at the bottom of the rankings, offers his pickled radishes to the group, but no one takes him up on it. Kunigami congratulates Isagi on his finish, and Gagamaru asks whether he knew where the ball would land. Isagi admits he simply chased it out of a desire to score and chalks the goal up partly to luck, though Bachira reveals he spotted Isagi and passed to him on purpose. Kunigami floats the idea that Isagi's weapon is a nose for the goal, while conceding he is not yet certain.

Once the party winds down and the others turn in, Isagi lies awake, still savoring the thrill of crushing their rivals, and heads to the monitoring room to review his goal. There he finds Chigiri, who admits he could not sleep either and has been studying the same match. Chigiri proposes that Isagi's real gift is spatial perception, an ability to grasp the whole field at once and conjure workable plays in an instant. When Isagi turns the question back on him, Chigiri deflects at first, then confesses that he tore his ACL the previous year and that another injury could end his career, which is why he now plays cautiously and holds himself back.

He explains that before the injury he too lost sleep over goal after goal, until the dread of getting hurt and losing everything overwhelmed his passion, and watching Isagi play made him feel ready to abandon his dream at last. Isagi refuses to accept this and accuses him of lying, insisting Chigiri does not truly want to quit and declaring he himself will never surrender his own dream. Stung, Chigiri snaps that Isagi knows nothing about his life and storms out, leaving Isagi bewildered by the outburst.

Team Z holds its victory party after the win. Kunigami guesses Isagi's weapon may be a goal scent, while Chigiri suggests spatial perception instead. Fearful of reinjuring himself, Chigiri prefers to stay in a defensive role, and his own weapon remains undisclosed.