Chapter 84

Spotting Bachira storming forward on the counter, Isagi knows he has to halt him or at least stall until three teammates recover into defense. Bachira, meanwhile, instinctively hunts for a passing option before admitting the reflex is carved too deep into him. He recognizes that playing with his monster had become his whole reason to exist, trapping him inside his own imagination, and he treats it as a curse he must shed.

When Tokimitsu calls for the ball and Isagi moves to cut off the pass, Bachira slips it through his legs instead. Sensing the shift in his style, Isagi watches as Chigiri steps up next and gets nutmegged too, then Baro grabs his shoulder and suffers the same fate. Forty meters from goal, Team White views him as an unreadable wild card. Nagi, Chigiri, and Baro all crowd him while Isagi fixes on Rin, poised to intercept any pass in his direction. Bachira juggles the ball against three men, lifting it and tucking it behind his neck, and spins away when Nagi hooks his shoulder, as Rin's aura swells nearby.

Clear of Nagi, Bachira finds room to shoot, aware it will likely leave him alone but seeing that solitude as his release. His strike is stopped by Isagi, who tells him he trusted him to reach the goal on his own.

Bachira has a breakthrough and nutmegs Isagi, Chigiri, and Baro in turn to slip past all three. He then dribbles clear of Nagi and shoots, but the effort is smothered by Isagi, who had anticipated the solo run all along.

Initial Impulse is the eighth chapter of Volume 10 and the eighty-fourth of the series, set in the Second Selection Arc. It ran in Japan on May 20, 2020, and reached English readers on December 21, 2021. The chapter is adapted in Episode 22.