Chapter 143: Not Alone

The stadium roars as commentator Atsuto Tereasa calls the seesaw battle a deathmatch, and analyst Harutaro Natsuki senses a hero about to be born. With Rin Itoshi helped up after his last block, both teams set for a U-20 corner. Rin resolves to align his mind with Sae Itoshi's so he can sense the danger zones, admitting that his lingering awe proves his brother has never stopped growing. He accepts that stopping Sae alone may cost him his own goals, but decides sealing Sae is the only way to keep the match alive, vowing today to surpass him.

Sae bends a fierce, precise ball into the box. Oliver Aiku bursts forward as Rin reads the flight and jumps to disrupt him, yet the delivery to Aiku was a decoy: the ball bounces down in front of Ryusei Shido, wide open after slipping past Reo. Shido sets for a header and Rin believes it is over, until Yoichi Isagi darts in from the side and hooks the ball clear at the last instant, having tracked the three men who mattered most, Sae, Rin, and Shido.

Isagi explains he reacted on reflex to Shido precisely because Rin's reading of Sae freed him to cover his captain's blind spot. Aiku calls a second ball, but Hiori pokes it away first and declares it is time for Blue Lock to end things, launching what may be the final counter. Rin bristles that Blue Lock keeps overtaking him and refuses to let him even lose to Sae in peace. Realizing at last that he is not alone in his fight, Rin recoils in disgust and vows to ruin them all.

Sae takes a corner that slips past Rin and lands cleanly in front of Shido. Isagi sprints in to hook the ball away at the final moment. Blue Lock claims the loose ball and starts its last counterattack. Rin recognizes that he is not fighting alone, a realization that repulses him, and he swears to ruin everyone standing in his path.

This is the third chapter of Volume 17 and the 143rd overall, part of the U-20 Arc. It released in Japan on August 25, 2021, in Issue 2021-39, and in the United States on January 17, 2023. The chapter is adapted in Episode 37 of the anime.