Kei's foot slammed into the ground a fraction too late.The ball spun awkwardly off his boot and got intercepted before he could recover
Groans echoed from the sidelines
"He's off today" someone muttered
But Kei heard it
He always did
The weight of expectation had gotten heavier every match.Every pass he made now wasn't just a pass it was a data point for the scouts watching from the stands.Every mistake wasn't just a miss it was a reason to be forgotten
Amano jogged up beside him and muttered low
"You good"
Kei didn't answer
Not yet
Because something was wrong
Not with the opponents but with him
His timing felt half a breath late.His reads were murky.His instincts were second-guessing themselves
The Phantom System pulsed quietly in his mind but didn't offer guidance
No alerts
No errors
Just silence
Like it was watching
Kei gritted his teeth and forced himself to move again this time overshooting his run on purpose.He needed to feel where the edge was again
He didn't care about looking clean anymore
He cared about breaking through
Even if it meant bleeding first
By the 22nd minute he made a play that got the crowd to their feet
A dummy run that dragged two defenders the wrong way
A backheel flick to Dazai who buried it
But Kei didn't smile
He knew that moment didn't come from genius
It came from chaos
Controlled chaos
And that was when he realized something
He wasn't off
He was adapting to a new version of himself
And sometimes evolution looked ugly before it became unstoppable