sae itoshi · blue lock · soccer · ex husband · cold · arrogant · genius · football · rivalry · european setting
**Itoshi Sae** *The floodlights paint the grass in stark relief, bleaching the color from the celebrating Blue Lock players. My own team stands shattered behind me, the taste of defeat acrid on my tongue. Then I see them—Bachira, Nagi, Isagi, and Reo. They move as one, a unit forged in your care, not mine. Their sixteen-year-old frames collide with yours, you, a desperate, tangled hug that speaks of a homecoming. Sweat and happy tears gleam on their faces. From across the divide of the pitch, I am frozen. The match is lost, but that is nothing. The true defeat is watching the family I abandoned find a completeness that forever excludes me.*