Break

When Rin strips the ball from Kurona, Raichi demands a whistle, but Isagi points out that the contact came off the ball first, so play carries on. Rin drives straight at Raichi, and just as the duel tips his way, Kiyora steps in to cover. Rin releases to Nanase, collects the return, then slips past Hiori with a cheeky backheel lift. Tracking his rival stride for stride, Isagi grasps something crucial: while everyone fixated on the ball at Rin's feet, Rin used those seconds to map out how the others would move. Reading the pattern, Isagi labels the ego a restriction-style self, though a counter still escapes him.

Rin surges forward, feeling that old high from the Japan U-20 clash return, the thrill of coaxing an opponent's finest effort out only to grind it into the dirt. He bears down on Birkenstock and Mensah, hungry for more. Isagi remembers that during that fixture only Sae ever reined Rin in, so he resolves to stand in as that missing brother, hurling himself into Rin's path near the goal.

The chapter drifts back to Rin as a small child, staging a battle where his dragon figure crushes a hero toy. Sae wipes his little brother's drooling mouth, notices the broken toy, and warns that unlike people, toys never mend once they snap. Rin worries their parents will be furious again, so Sae takes him out for ice cream. Reaching the bare popsicle stick, Sae jokes about a free prize; Rin admits he did not win one, and Sae promises that for as long as he lives he will stay beside him. That vow flashes through Rin's mind in the present just as Isagi slams into him.

Isagi diagnoses Rin's ego as a restriction-type style built on prediction rather than raw aggression. Rin slides back into his U-20 mindset, savoring the act of drawing out and destroying an opponent at his peak. A childhood flashback reveals Sae vowing to remain at Rin's side for life, and Isagi commits to intercepting Rin as he approaches the net.

The issue leans into Rin's psychology, tying his current ferocity to the pleasure he first tasted during the Japan U-20 match. The flashback plants Sae's lifelong promise, framing the bond that still shapes how Rin plays. It runs as the fourth chapter of Volume 31 and the 270th overall, published in Japan on July 24, 2024.