Soccer System: All the Skills, One Player!

The roar of the fans exploded through the stands, as if thunder had ripped through the sky.

When Lucas' feet finally touched the turf again, he ran and slid on his knees across the grass. The screams of the fans reverberated in his ears. Lucas could barely breathe, but a smile appeared on his face, wide and genuine. The plan had worked.

Nishida was the first to reach him, hugging him tightly and almost knocking him back to the ground.

"You did it, Lucas! You did it again!" He shouted, laughing with excitement. Kenji, Tsukada and several other players went to celebrate with him.

But while Wushia College celebrated the goal that tied the game, Klaus and Luke were static. The sound of cheers and shouts from the crowd echoed around them, but it seemed distant, muffled.

Klaus, his hair wet with sweat falling over his eyes, felt a pang of fear rise in his chest. He cast a furtive glance at Luke, who still kept his head down and his jaw clenched in frustration. Klaus knew what was going through his brother's head. They were failing to be the best...

Luke clenched his fists at his sides, trembling slightly. His gaze was distant, lost. He knew they couldn't lose. They couldn't afford to fail. The image of his father came to mind with the clarity of a recurring nightmare.

*

Years ago, the twins were still small, simple boys playing soccer in the streets of a small town south of Moscow called Yasenevo. Although the sun was shining that day, their lives were shrouded in shadows. Their father, Sergei Kazuki, was a man of Russian-Japanese origin, a stern, rigid and brutal man.

Rumors in the neighborhood said that Sergei was a retired military man who had fallen on hard times, but no one really knew how much truth there was to it. What everyone did know, however, was the fear he instilled in his own family.

With snow-white hair and an expression that never softened, Sergei was the monster in the closet that the twins Klaus and Luke feared. He didn't see his children as children, but as unfinished projects, promises of greatness that had to be forcibly molded. He demanded perfection - he couldn't accept failure.

Klaus vividly remembered an evening when he and Luke had returned home after playing a friendly match in a city field.

Normally, the twins' mother would take them to the championship, but she had a black eye and couldn't leave the house, so Sergei took them. During the game, he didn't cheer or congratulate them on their victory, but left everything to be said when they got home.

"You should have scored more goals!" Sergei had said to Klaus.

Klaus, only eight at the time, had cried quietly, but Sergei showed no mercy. He believed that feelings were weaknesses.

"A mediocre man has no place in this world." he continued, before raising his heavy hand and slapping the boys, one at a time. "If you want to make me proud, you need to be stronger."

The twins' mother, Ayame, was always on the sidelines, watching in silence. She rarely spoke, never interfered. But her eyes, red from suppressed crying, said it all. She was a broken woman, trapped in an abusive marriage, with no way out.

For Klaus and Luke, the only way to free their mother from Sergei's control was to become the best at soccer, to get a career that would give them the means to get her away from that life. Their mother had no other option - she was financially dependent on Sergei because she had been married to him from a very young age, and Sergei knew this, which made his cruelty all the more ruthless.

Soccer, for the twins, had always been more than a sport. It was the only thing that connected them to the hope of a better life, the possibility of escaping their father's shadow. Klaus played with the strength of someone who had something to prove, while Luke, always the quieter of the two, carried an even greater burden: he felt that the protection of his brother and mother depended on him.

*

Back in the field, Luke raised his head slowly. He met Klaus' eyes. The silence between them was charged with memories and promises.

Klaus approached Luke and said, "We can't fail."

It was rare for Klaus to show vulnerability, but there, in that instant, the weight of expectations and the fear of failure was something logical.

Luke took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, the familiar fire of determination had returned. Enjoy new stories from empire

"We won't fail." His voice was low, almost inaudible, but full of conviction.

On the other side of the field, Kenji watched the pair carefully. He knew that the plan to isolate them was working, but something in their countenances made him uneasy. They weren't just good players, they were also hard-working, which explained why the No9 always came back to score.

"They won't give up easily." Kenji muttered, already anticipating that this was going to be a much tougher game than the previous ones had been.

The game restarted with the referee's whistle, and this time the twins didn't hesitate. Klaus dropped back to pick up the ball, while Luke floated between the opposing lines, waiting for the right moment to cut in like a blade. The ball came in low, passing through three players with quick, precise interchanges. The passes were agile, and the ball seemed glued to Luke's feet as he advanced.

They had adapted to the marking that isolated them.

However, Wushia had evolved over the course of the championship too. Since the preliminary round, the team had faced tough opponents, growing stronger with each victory. It was no longer the same group of players that had started the competition. The togetherness, the pace, the confidence - all of it had grown together.

When Luke passed the ball to Klaus with a soft touch, Kenji read the play precisely. He stepped forward, anticipating the next move, and blocked the pass with an outstretched leg.

Kenji, with the ball at his feet, saw the field open up in front of him like a blank canvas, and Tsukada was free on his right, with Nishida on the right edge and Yukihiro further left, ready to run.

"Now go!" thought Kenji and passed the ball to Tsukada, but before Tsukada could turn with the ball in hand, Luke appeared out of nowhere, like a sudden shadow, stretching out his leg and stopping the movement.