[Rainbow Dash POV]

I did it…!

I actually managed to outplay a world class defender!?

I have no idea how that worked though…

Whatever

Take the small wins Rainbow…

I look towards the main forward of the match as he took a deep breath and looked forward to the opposing teams starter

Barou

A guy I remember all too well

After all he's one of my favourites from Blue Lock!

I remember rewatching all of his, Chigiri and Julien Loki’s matches all the time as a kid

I'm most definitely gonna ask for an autograph after I'm done with this match!

My eyes wandered back to the Main forward

Jin Isagi…

Isagi Yoichi’s Adopted Nephew, I remember hearing about his uncle in the news a while back…

I can't even begin to Imagine the amount of thoughts running through the poor guys… Gals..? The poor fellows head

At the start of the match he was speeding past everyone and looked like he was about to score, until he was blocked and they went on the offence

Well it's his fault for being a ball hog, we might’ve been up 2-0 if he passed to the opposite side when he had the chance

But the curve on that kick he did looked weirdly familiar…

Heck, all of dribbling moves look familiar

And not just because of he was using recognisable skills

There was something… more

It's a weird feeling, but no matter-

Huh?

That's a bit weird…

Is that… Smoke?

Why is there smok-

The piercing sound of the whistle signifying the start of the match broke me from my thoughts

I saw Barou dash forwards

Damn! Now's not the time to ask questions

Just focus on winning, you can do this

Just do what you did last time

I steadied myself as I noticed something odd

Usually when it's the other teams kickoff, you have to play defensively

But that guy…

He's just rushing in wildly!

The hell is wrong with him!

Is he throwing the game!?

He launched himself at Barou alone

Before he dashed right

And Barou… Followed?

Wait no, that's not correct, Barou was gonna go there anyway

He cut off Barou’s Chop Dribble before he even began!?

That's insane!

Can he see the future or something?

Stealing the ball off of Barou, he continued to run forwards

Ah, to hell with it!

I dashed forwards behind him, propelling myself forwards as fast as I could

The other team was confused from the instant attack, so they were disorganised

I near instantly managed to catch up to him, and it seems with Jin leading the charge, the rest of our team started to go on the offensive

Three defenders started to crowd around Jin, as he passed the ball to the left, towards me

I started to get ready for the trap, but Ji lunged himself towards the ball, before passing it back to the right…

Chop Dribbling!?

No, not JUST chop dribbling, skilled chop dribbling!

Familiar Chop Dribbling…

Familiar because it's been used to get past me when Barou had the ball

He copied his skill in an instant!?

He continued to zigzag past defenders, before I knew it, he was at the Penalty Area…

I had quickly reached outside the area, to observe the situation in case of a loose ball

He winded his foot back and got ready to shoot

His foot blasted forwards and the Goalie dived, Aiku jumped to the left in anticipation for the shot

But the shot never came

Jin, planted his foot onto the ball and now it was literally an open net, a free goal

But he didn't do anything

He turned his head, and locked eyes with me

I saw his lips move, but he was too far away for me to see what he was saying

But I read his lips

“Will you burn with me?”

A shiver ran down my back, as I saw the look in his eyes

It wasn't my imagination, smoke was literally rising from his body, and I saw the ball burst into flames as he passed across to me

He dashed back before speeding towards me, overtaking the ball and getting behind me

I have no idea why I did what I did, but the moment he ran past me, I kicked the ball forwards, not to the goal, but more of a pass to a player in the air

To far up for anybody to jump up and get

Maybe apart from one certain defender

As it was in the air, I saw Aiku jump up in preparation to trap the ball

Zooming past me, I gazed at the figure of Jin

A red blaze of flame engulfing his body, as if he were burning alive

On the floor were his footsteps burned onto the grass, each stride a million miles further than the last

He jumped up the moment he entered the Penalty Area

No!

He jumped too early! He'll be back on the floor by the time he reaches where the ball was!

He began to spin on his way up into the air, bringing his right leg closer to his body to speed up the speed of his rotation

180°

360°

540°

What the fuck…

720°

900°

1080°

Are they flying…?

1260°

The flames around his body dissolve, attacking onto their back as a pair of wings

Above his head a halo of fire

Their long green hair flowing down, the hair tie visibly burnt and falling to the ground

Both Aiku and Jin were facing each other, both above the heads of all other players on the field

The ball was perfectly positioned between the two of them

1440°

With the last spin, he extended his knee and all the power produced from the spin along with his own strength combined together to blast the ball

Everyone on the enemy team rushed to the impact point

But the ball was simply too fast

I feel a drop of sweat run down my forehead

There was a silence, a deafening one

As Jin fell to the floor with a loud thump

I swallowed the saliva in my throat as I ran over to Jin

As he slowly got up I saw his unfocused eyes stare at the floor

The burnt footsteps on the floor had dissipated, as if it was nothing but a mirage

There was no sign of anything burning at all, as if the fire was a mere illusion

I jumped up and tackled Jin in a hug, before he looked at me and sidestepped

I nearly bit my tongue as my chin hit the floor, but I didn't care

As Jin noticed my predicament, he turned and held out his hand to help me up

I held his hand and pulled myself up, before grabbing onto his shoulders and began to speak

“That… was…”

“AWSOME!”

As soon as I broke the silence, I had heard hundreds of cheers from the stands echoed throughout the field

I had somehow managed to snap Jin out of that weird state, as their eyes now focused

Jin turned their head towards the crowds, all their gazes directed right at them

“What are you waiting for, aren't you gonna celebrate!? You just scored a goddamn… Super goal!”

They looked back at me, before smiling, grabbing my hand and bowing to the crowd theatrically

I saw what they did and smirked to myself, following suit right after

It would've looked better if we did it at the same time, but whatever

“That pass was perfect, thank you” They spoke with a breathy tone, obviously tired from the super goal, before rising from the bow and pushing their hair back with their hand

“That was barely even good… either you or Aiku could've gotten that with equal amounts of ease…” I replied, as I also got up

“Which makes it perfect to ‘burn’ for” they said, staring at the

I think I now understand what they meant when they said “Will you burn with me…”

A move so risky it could've lost us the match

Forfeiting the safety of a normal goal in exchange for the miniscule chance to burn yourself into everyone's mind for eternity

That's weird…

Why would anyone do that, though?

What reason…

I just don't know…

“Thanks you for trusting my restriction” I heard Jin mumble before they started walking away

It suddenly struck me, exactly why they would do something like that!

I've been thinking about it like showing off, but it's not really. In those few moments where he was ‘on fire’, it was when he was restricted. When the odds are against his favour, he was able to reach his top performance and surpass everyone else on the field

How the hell would I reach something like that myself…?

If I was in the situation he was in, what would I have done?

Frankly I don't think I could've done anything even remotely similar to him

I need to think, have I ever been like him!?

Where I was working at ‘Top Performance’?

I mean I guess that one time during the Equestria Games, where we were up against Crystal Prep, like always

I had managed to score the goal that tied both of us up at 3 - 3…

But that was in completely different conditions…

When everyone was underestimating me and they got sloppy

When I had the freedom to pick and choose what I could do next

If I work best in environments where I have the freedom to make choices, there are people who work better when there are rules that they have to break
Bh
And in Jin’s case, rules they have to follow
.
Which means if that pass was even a little easier for Jin to receive he probably would've snapped out of that ‘Top Performance’ and missed

That pass I did was solely on instinct, so that was literally just a Lucky Goal

I think my understanding of Jin has increased a bit…

No…

More than that, if I apply that same thinking to everyone else I've ever played against, or seen play

It would work again-

This explains so much!

Why Rin made the plays he did during the PXG vs Bastard Munchen NEL Match, or any other time after that

Or why Kaiser had did what he did during that same match

But, their reactions to such awakening were completely different…

It feels like I'm missing out on something in this analysis…

Also-!

“Hey Jin! What was all that fire stuff? Like the wings and little halo-” He turned around in a split second. Honestly I forgot about it for a second because I was just so focused on the analysis…

They their eyes widened at me before they took a breath, softened their gaze and smirked

“Let me give you a piece of advice” they spoke with a knowing tone

Okay yeah, just deflect the question then, that's fine

But now that I think about it, no one has really talked about fire... At all

Maybe I was the only one who could see it?

But judging from his reaction it was real to a degree...

“Hey! Who ever said I needed your advice!?” I retorted as he rolled his eyes

“Use your eyes. They're so much greater than you give them credit” that is some bad advice

“Yeah… Sure” I have no clue how to interpret that, but might as well try to be nice to the person who gave our team a goal lead…

Author's Note

This was so much fun to write ngl

"Jin's ego is represented by fire!?!? What the hell!? The last time he entered flow it was based off of camera's!", I hear you think

Yeah that's kinda important to the plot so I am not going to explain myself

Also I'm so good at foreshadowing, remember when Treehugger said that his Aura was "Angelic"? That was referencing this (the "low-key" however was referencing how his EGO Stat was pretty low at the time)