The Reason I Was Born

Fukaku shouts for someone to claim the loose ball, and as Kunigami and Aryu chase it, Aryu heads it away. Aiku and Kaiser then contest it, but Isagi boots it clear so Hiori can gather possession, with Isagi calling for one more attempt as the attack resets. Feeling Isagi's expectations pressing on him, Hiori pictures his parents as demonic figures loading their own demands onto him, and he questions why Isagi's expectations do not repel him the same way. He imagines Ego towering over the pitch, telling him that a striker's job is to shoot.

Pressured by Niko, Hiori glimpses a chance to fire. As he weighs the missing piece of the goal he and Isagi were building, he considers taking the shot himself. Isagi calls for a pass, yet in Hiori's head Ego's voice insists he shoot. Recalling Karasu's counsel to forge his own expectations, Hiori admits he has never once chosen his own future. He confesses he feared that losing soccer would strip away everyone's love and leave him an empty husk, and he sees himself as pitiful, forever unmotivated and running away. Resolving to stop hiding behind other people's expectations, he decides to set his own.

To the shock of much of the field, Hiori shoots. Niko, Aiku, Kaiser, and Lorenzo all fail to stop it, but Sendo lashes out a high kick that sends the ball ricocheting off the crossbar. Staring at the miss, Hiori concludes he was never born to play the sport. Around Isagi, however, puzzle pieces swirl as he realizes he has grasped his victory super-theory.

Hiori attempts a goal of his own, only for Sendo to block it at the crossbar. As Hiori reads the failure as proof he was not meant to play soccer, Isagi grows elated, having arrived at his victory super-theory.

The Reason I Was Born is the fifth chapter of Volume 27 and the two hundred thirty-fifth overall, part of the Neo Egoist League Arc. The Bastard München versus Ubers match remains tied at two each. Muneyuki Kaneshiro wrote the chapter and Yusuke Nomura illustrated it.