The scoreboard didn't matter anymore.Not to Kei
He wasn't counting goals
He was counting fractures
Fractures in the opponent's rhythm,in their morale,in their faith
And now it was time to plant poison
But not the kind that kills
The kind that spreads slowly
Kei dropped deeper into the midfield again even though no one told him to
Amano glanced back confused but said nothing
Kei intercepted a pass then passed it right back
To the enemy
Gasps from the crowd
But it wasn't a mistake
It was a question
What will you do with this?
The opponent froze for half a second before pushing forward
And Kei followed
He tracked not the ball but the mindset behind it
Every pass they made now was a response to uncertainty
They were trying to understand why
But there was no why
Only doubt
That doubt spread faster than any play could
Suddenly even their cleanest passes looked nervous
One player hesitated and lost it to Dazai
Another yelled at his teammate for not overlapping
The poison had reached the brain
Kei smirked
Because sometimes the most dangerous move
Is doing exactly what they expect
Then making them question why they expected it in the first place