[Blue Lock] Incompetent

Itoshi Rin looked at him, his gaze still intent and unwilling to turn away. Itoshi Sae looked back at him and saw his own cold expression reflected in those eyes. Distracted, he thought about how this was what Japanese winters were like: snowflakes falling from overhead, the air damp to the point of suffocation, yet not as cold as a snowless night in Spain.

He stood in the snow like an outsider, watching the gifted Itoshi Rin break himself, imitating Sae as he lived, forgetting the unstoppable destructive force he had once been. In this confined environment, he seemed so fragile, so easy to pierce through.

Ah, Itoshi Sae thought. How pitiful. How limited. How powerless.

This was his younger brother.

This was actually his younger brother.

Reader advisory: They fall out on a snowy night, but don't quite manage to break up. Lots of personal interpretations and invented backstory for the older brother, and lots of my own preferences about the brothers laid bare.

Theme: If you can't break free from the limits of working together, if you remain forever trapped in your own shadow, if you can never make your talent shine, then let it be.