About-Face

The stage's second level begins, and by carefully reading the holograms and the incoming ball, Isagi scores and grows confident he can clear it, with the board demanding fifty-two more goals in just over forty-eight minutes. In the monitoring room Anri praises how quickly the players are improving, but Ego warns her not to be too impressed since the real test has barely started. After Isagi bags twelve goals in six minutes, the system jumps to its maximum setting: the defensive targets begin moving and the balls arrive as slow, spinless deliveries that throw off his rhythm. Ego explains that this level drills world-class passing scenarios of erratic speed and direction, weeding out anyone lacking finishing precision, stamina, and constant awareness.

Struggling to convert, Isagi realizes his trouble stems from a lifetime of comfortable service. Bachira always fed him tidy passes, Kunigami shielded him like a wall, and Chigiri waited to bail him out, so he never truly battled alone. Refusing to keep depending on others, he resolves to win on his own gifts. He surveys the targets and keeper, races to the shooting spot, and fires, only for the keeper to block it because the ball strayed from the line he had imagined. Accepting he must strike with real accuracy, he tries again, catching the ball at its impact point with such pace that the keeper cannot react, and the goal drops.

That finish crystallizes his formula: pairing his spatial reading with a direct shot struck at the impact point lets him score entirely by himself. As Anri marvels at the surge, Ego observes that people naturally chase what suits them and that Isagi must be trembling at his own growth. The counter hits zero, clearing the first stage, and Isagi heads to the waiting area, where a message instructs the players to advance in groups of three.

Isagi recognizes that his past success relied entirely on Bachira, Kunigami, and Chigiri, and commits to fighting alone. He locks in his scoring formula by combining spatial awareness with a precisely timed direct shot. Clearing the first stage, he learns the next round requires three-player teams, with Reo and Nagi shown to have cleared as well.

Titled Ippen, this twenty-page chapter continues the Second Selection Arc in Volume 6 and is dramatized in Episode 12. It sits between Chapter 41 and Chapter 43.