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If you have read my other theory posts, then you must have realised by now that I love overworking my pea-sized brain and overthinking shi—that's exactly what I did with this theory too, and it has made me somersault to a conclusion that their relation might not exactly be as simple as we just thought.

First thing that caught my attention was this line:

It was when Isagi said, "I'm sure you have your own things you are excited about. Everyone does!"

It's not that tough to understand the hidden annotation that he has lost passion for something he used to treasure at some point. Considering he is from a soccer manga and IS a soccer player himself, I'm pretty sure he was talking about soccer only.

Now, two possibilities come in my mind:

He was interested in soccer since his childhood, and then he lost the spark.

Something sparked his interest in soccer, and then he lost it.

For this post, I'd like to think it's the second possibility.

And if you haven't guessed it already: I think that spark was Itoshi Sae.

Sae was only about 13 when he was scouted by Re Al, meaning Bunny was about 14 at that time which places them in the same age group which further means that the chances of them playing with/against each other is quite high.

Now adding one and one together, this is the theory I want to put forward: Bunny took interest in soccer because of Sae, then they formed some kind of unusual bond and friendly rivalry, then Bunny lost his interest and basically abandoned Sae, then something happened between them just like what happened between Sae and Rin in that snowy night.

...

Yeah.

I know it sounds like some cliché fanfic, but bear with me, aight?

He does seem like someone who's straightforward with his words—he literally said, "I envy you" to a guy (Isagi) he met some minutes ago. He just seems someone.. cruel. Someone who'd leave someone just because they don't seem to give them the kind of fun they used to anymore.

And before someone says, "Sae is cruel too," let me remind you that Sae isn't cruel, he is cold. He really doesn't seem hollow like Bunny does. His emotions are present, even though his face looks indifferent most of the times which is exactly what I want to pinch right now—Sae does NOT wear his emotions on his face often, so to have his expressions twist visibly so intensely, he and Bunny must have some kind of deeper history.

And this deeper history thing is exactly where my cliché fanfic-like theory comes from: Sae and Bunny weren't rivals from the get-go.

I know that FC Barcha and Re Al are canonically rival teams, and Sae was in the Re Al from the start, but who said that Bunny was in the Barcha since the start? Who said that Bunny was never the part of Re Al at some point?

Take a closer look at Bunny's profile in Isagi's phone:

"He joined the first team midway through the season..."

Hm?

If he were to be Barcha's old member, then why would he join the first team MIDWAY through a season? Wouldn't it make more sense if he were in the the first team from the very start? I mean, he is a member from New Gen World XI!

Yes, I know that Sae is the part of New Gen World XI too but is just in some supportive team of Re Al, but you get what I'm trying to say, right?

Besides, here's the elephant in the room:

His eyes looks so dead.

Yes, his scars.

The last time we had a character with a distinctive feature in their character design, Michael Kaiser happened. Which is why I think that Bunny has to have a deeper plot/background because why else would a character of a SPORTS manga have a scar like that? The scar just seem too eye-catching to be used on a character who is just that typical talented dude who crushes people's dreams.

And why would Sae watch someone's match who just crushed his dreams? Hm?

That would've been funny, wouldn't it?

Just look at his face at the next panel:

He looks so done and depressed.

UGH!

I would've cried too, ngl

P.S. Nagi is a Taurus.

Any one who has read/watched Blue Lock knows that things which are NOT majorly relevant to the plot are rarely talked in this animanga, so we getting more than one panel talking about Ness through Yukimiya's POV definitely means something. Using one braincell of mine, I can surely say that means Ness is going to get some kind of character development. Now adding one more braincell of mine to work, I am sure that one of the following is going to happen:

Words used in Yukimiya's POV are going to be used in Ness's later character development.

Yukimiya himself is going to have a major role in Ness's character development.

As things have been like so far, I'm leaning more towards the second option because if it weren't to be that case, then Yukimiya really wasn't needed to be dragged into the plot's limelight. I mean, this type of inner monologue where we get some kind of insight about a character is usually written from Isagi's POV, so Yukimiya really didn't need to be here, but he IS! That's why I think that Yukimiya is going have a role in Ness's character development.

You getting me?

Kaneshiro-san's writing has been brilliant, and very truthfully speaking, I'm not that smart where I can confidently predict what he is going to do with Ness's endgame, but putting whooping three braincells of mine into work, I can visualise Ness having his own Hiori-like (chapter 237) moment when he has finally let go of his Kaiser's obsession.

I'm not 100% sure what these chains actually mean, but using Hiori an example again (chapter 233), I'm thinking that they represent what holds back the player from reaching his true egoistical state, and we all know the blue rose symbolises who in the Blue Lock Franchise—Michael Kaiser.

Don't get me wrong though.

I mean, Kaiser is indeed a shitty, toxic, selfish, inconsiderate asshole to Ness, but he isn't one thing and that's: a bad soccer player; Kaiser is a freaking amazing player. Considering that he officially started playing soccer in an official team at the age of 15, he is hella good! Before the age of 15, he had no formal training—he was all by himself, so even with only 4 years of official training, he is so good which actually shows how much of a great player he is!

Now the question is: how is Kaiser holding back Ness? How does someone so talented and skilled hold back someone if they are on the same side as you?

...

Exactly.

That's why I never fully point all of my fingers at Kaiser—Ness has faults on his own demise too.

You see, from a broader perspective, Reo and Ness seem a lot alike—both of them have some kind of obsession with Nagi and Kaiser, respectively which is holding back these midfielders in a way. BUT! From a closer POV, there's a fine line difference between the Magician and the Chameleon, and the difference being: Reo is more about winning WITH Nagi, whereas Ness is more about making Kaiser win to the point where he is even ready to be a carpet for the Emperor to walk over.

Yes, we also need to keep in mind that Ness found Kaiser when he was on the brink of losing his faith in his own magic—that is something which is very scary for Ness because magic is the only one thing he has been believing ever since he was a kid, and the thought of losing it all must be almost equal to losing his own self for him, so obviously he is going to stick close to his saviour. However, very ironically, his Messiah is being the very reason why he is going down the spiral and might lose his magic altogether forever.

Being so obsessed over Kaiser has narrowed down his vision to the point where he can't see his own magic anymore. I mean, Ness, all by himself is a very good player. He has a great soccer IQ. He is literally considered as the centre of BM's goals. He also has a great physique—you can NOT forget that he ranked above WC!Kunigami in that Noa's test.

Kunigami was already known for his physique way before the wildcard too, and Ness managed to rank above the WC!Kunigami! I repeat, WC!Kunigami! That orange head is a physique beast now, and Ness managed to be ABOVE him—ABOVE that beast. What more proof do we need for Ness's abilities?

Crazy!

And this is exactly he needs to realise now—that he has come so far because of Kaiser, but Kaiser has also come so far because of him only. Sometimes, geniuses just need other geniuses too—Reo is not enough all by himself, he needs Nagi to reach his dreams, but so does Nagi, Nagi isn't complete without Reo too. Just like that, if Ness needs Kaiser, then Kaiser also needs Ness's magic—Kaiser turned Ness's passes into goals, but those goals needed Ness's passes.

You getting me?

What Ness needs right now to have his true awakening is for him to believe in the power of his own magic. Surely, it's the strikers who score the goal, but it's the midfielders who create the opportunities for the goals to happen. Once he realises his worth, once he realises the kind of power he holds, once he realises that it's the others who need to rise up to his magic's level, he is going to be near unstoppable.

Yes, of course, he might not be watching BLTV solely for Rin and the reasons might also be Isagi, Shidou, Kaiser, and maybe even Lorenzo, Charles, Loki, and Noa. However, I just like to believe that he never stopped looking out for his little brother, Rin. And in a very strange way, I think he was looking out for Rin in that Snowy Night too.

First thing first, something was wrong with Sae in that flashback.

As the saying goes, "Eyes are the window to one's soul," he looks so worn out—miserable, in fact. And I highly think that around the time of this flashback, it hadn't been that long since he lost his dream—or maybe got his dreams crushed. And I got two reasons to think this way:

To repeat my words, he looks miserable, which is a given when you lose a dream, compared to his later appearance like in the U-20 match. And judging by the timeline, the flashback and U-20 match have 1 year-ish gap which is an ample amount of time to cope up and get a hold of yourself.

Rin kept close tabs on Sae through news and all. The younger Itoshi would definitely be the one, if not the first, to know that Sae was now aiming to be the best midfielder instead of the best striker. But..

...Rin didn't know shit.

Now, you might be wondering why in the world I'm focusing so much on the timeline, right? Like, Sae got his dreams crushed, then he return to Japan and confronted Rin—what's the big deal about it even if these events happened in a short amount of time?

...

And that's where you'd be wrong if you think this way.

We all keep forgetting that to be the world's greatest striker was Sae's dream first before he decided to share it with Rin. Sae has been playing this sport since he was one year old. Soccer, probably, came into his life before Rin did. Rin gave his teen years to this game, but Sae has nearly given his whole life to this dream.

Now imagine yourself in Sae's position. Imagine devoting your whole childhood and teen years to something only to not be able to achieve it in the end. Won't you be devastated? Won't you be a mess? Won't you need some time to collect yourself together? Now do you understand why the timeline matters so much? And why the timeline is such a big deal? Hm?

Secondly, Sae has never been a visibly sweet person, even to Rin.

Yes, Sae took care of Rin, but did we ever see him go, "Aww! My lil baby bro Rinnie! Cutie patootie! My baby bro <333333" Did we? He had always been rather.. emotion-less and blunt. After the above panel, too, his words were, "You can be the most amazing, after me."

He just has been like that.

Always.

That's why I have always believed that he never changed as a person, even after Spain. He has been like this from the start, which is also why I think that his harsh words in that Snowy Night was just another way of him looking out for Rin because guess who has known soccer longer? Who has gone out of Japan and seen the outside world's soccer with his own eyes?

Yeah.

In a way, Sae's dream had more weight than Rin's. The older Itoshi had soccer in front of his vision, meanwhile the younger one had his Nii-chan in front of his eyes. Despite being so focused in this sport, Sae just couldn't be it, so what makes you think Rin could've made it when his sole focus was his Nii-chan instead? Wouldn't have Rin struggled so much in the outside world with this kind of mentality?

And this is something, I think, Sae knew too—on that Snowy Night, he actually realised what Rin's real mindset was like and immediately knew that it just wasn't going to fly in the world stage. Sae was just saving Rin from the hardships he himself must've went through during his time in Spain—Sae was just looking out for Rin.

"What about those mean things he said to Rin?" you may ask, and that's exactly where the timeline comes into play—Sae was just a mess, and Rin's words were the breaking point for him.

"What words?" you may ask now, and these are the words:

Repeating myself, eyes are the window to one's soul:

EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

Okay, now stay still.

INCOMING!