Zee

Parents were not meant to outlive their children. Nagi was never meant to outlive Reo -- he never wanted to in the first place. He only ever came to Blue Lock because Reo promised to "stay with him until the end," only ever played soccer because "it was the first time someone had ever showed interest in a guy like [him]."

Because of this, Nagi didn't fear [Death] the same way that Reo did.

Nagi had always lived half of a life. [Death] just meant returning to those listless days. But Reo...

Reo became hyperaware of his inadequacies from the moment Nagi left him in the second selection. He's been overwhelmed by his fear of his dream's death for hundreds of chapters. Reo thought he was the weak link, that his death would be the end of his dream with Nagi.

Meanwhile, Nagi lived with lazy confidence in both him and Reo. He didn't even comprehend the possibility of Reo's or his elimination.

Nagi had never acted on "pure survival instincts," because he'd never feared [Death]. By Ego's definition, then, everything he did in Blue Lock was out of Love.

Only when Ego had said it out loud did a small fear of [Death] sprout in Nagi for the first time. All he had known before was that he didn't want Reo to die (Nagi was driven by Love), but he hadn't considered that dying himself would also mean losing Reo.

He panics.

The tragedy is that Ego's spiel about dreams hits him just a bit too late. He's always been willing to die -- [Death] wouldn't affect his love. But now... now he's realizing he wants to live for his love. To stay by Reo's side, to support him and be supported. He doesn't want to leave. He begs, desperately, for his love to manifest as ego, so that he can stay, so that he can live.

Many have characterized Nagi as selfish. I don't think this is the case. He makes every decision based on what he thinks will benefit Reo. His survival in Blue Lock has been a consequence, not a priority. But here, we see Nagi finally turning selfish.

He's the one afraid of being without Reo.

He's the one afraid of being alone.

The same monster that enveloped Bachira envelops Nagi.

But while Bachira could separate his love for soccer from his love for Isagi...

Nagi... could not.

Nagi wants to play soccer to stay by Reo's side. He's always been satisfied, as long as he was together with Reo. He never manifested a dream beyond that. The undead don't dream.

He pursued a goal of beating Isagi, after seeing how upset Reo was from losing to him, and he won. He avenged them. All he wants now is to be by Reo for as long as he can.

But dreams like that don't survive in Blue Lock.

Nagi and Reo have always been Ego's foil -- the question of whether Love could overpower Ego.