章 153: Chapter 153 : Kagami VS Midorima - A Different Style of Battle
She had a reason to worry about. Even though Kagami had no record of picking up a fight, this was because of her quick decision whenever he was about to snap. However, there were a lot of occasions when Kagami's short temper turned the game into an ugly one. For example, when he played against Papa Mbaye Shiki from Shinkyou Academy or against Seiho High.
Well, not really. If Riko remembered correctly, Kagami had a record of picking up a fight. Even though it wasn't in an official match, in Riko's opinion, it was even worse. He picked up a fight with Furihata, his own teammates, and created a rift inside the team. And to make it worse, she decided to punish Furihata, the victim of the fight.
'Even though no one talks about it anymore, I haven't made amend to Furihata. I would talk to him later.' The girl vowed to herself.
This didn't dismiss her concern though. However, it seemed Alex wasn't worried about him at all.
"Don't worry. Even though Tiger-chan has a short temper, he is also not a stupid person. He knows my standard of how players should behave on the court and he knows he wouldn't be able to enter the game again except if he was calm enough. And he wouldn't want to see his team get blasted like this without him being on the court, so he had all the motivation to keep his emotion in check."
"Well, if you say so…"
Even though Riko was hesitant, she knew Alex was right. She could still remember no matter how furious he was, in a crucial moment, she would always be able to rely on Kagami. That was the emotional control that was rarely seen from Kagami.
"Moreover…" A mischievous smile suddenly grew on Alex's face. "You will see something different from Tiger-chan this time. For this, I guarantee."
"Eh?"
"Don't worry. Just see it for yourself."
Now, Riko leaned her body forward, curious at what Alex was talking about.
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Now that Kagami was on the court, Midorima started to get more serious. That didn't mean he looked down on Furihata. But even though offensively, Furihata was amazing, Seirin's point guard wasn't his match in defense, and that was a fact that no one could deny.
However, with Kagami here, everything was different. There was someone with a similar size as him who was probably more agile and could also jump higher than him. If Midorima didn't want to suffer, he had to be careful with his shoot selection.
"Why don't you get the ball again?" Kagami's voice snapped him from his daydreaming. "Afraid of me?"
Midorima snorted ridiculously at Kagami. "Afraid of what? Getting my dunk blocked? Wait, it's not me who got blocked before. It's you, right?"
The green-haired boy smirked when he saw Kagami gritting his teeth, trying to hold back the anger. Even though trash talk wasn't his style, that didn't mean he would shy away from it. And getting under someone's skin was always an enjoyable experience for him.
"Just wait, you bastard! This time, it would be different!"
"Sure, let me see it."
And right after that, Midorima started moving, startling Kagami for a second. However, the red-haired boy recovered quickly, following the shooting guard's movement tightly. They both twirled around the high post for a while, confusing everyone else as the ball was still in Takao's hand.
However, with the help of Kimura's screen on the high post, Midorima was finally able to escape from his guard and went straight to the corner area. Kagami who saw that scowled angrily before taking a quick decision.
"Senpai, switch!"
Normally, he wouldn't want to switch the defense with anyone else. However, Kagami acknowledged Tsuchida's defense technique was better than him. Even though Tsuchida would probably not be able to stop Midorima, at least it could slow the shooting guard down until he recovered from the screen.
However, MIdorima didn't stop in the corner area. He kept running around to the paint area before he shouted something unexpected.
"Takao, here!"
Right after that, Shutoku's point guard tossed a lob straight to the paint area where Midorima had already taken off from the ground.
*BAAAAM!*
Silence descended on the court as all eyes were staring at the green-haired boy as if he were an alien. To be honest, it was a normal one-handed dunk, nothing special with it. There were at least three or four players here who could do the same. However, when the dunk was done by Midorima, the sharpshooter who always insisted that three points were better than a dunk, this triggered a wild reaction even from Shutoku's bench.
"OOOOH!!!"
"Midorima, I don't know you can do that!"
"Should we add this to our tactic, Shin-chan?"
"Good job! Hahaha!"
All the Shutoku players laughed out loud, celebrating the last play heartily. The main protagonist himself turned his head on Kagami, smirking provocatively as if saying, 'See? I can do your playing style too. Can you do mine?'
"Don't worry, Kagami-kun." Tsuchida patted his shoulder reassuringly. "You will have a chance for revenge later,"
"Yeah." Kagami nodded his head slightly.
Right after that, Tsuchida gave the inbound pass to him, initiating the offense for Seirin. Usually, the ball wouldn't go to the red-haired boy. It would always go to Furihata or Izuki whenever those two point guards were on the court. However, Furihata still recovered after getting bullied by Midorima before, so he let Kagami have possession this time.
Fortunately, the red-haired boy was in the right state of mind and didn't insist on challenging Midorima to play an isolation game. Instead of that, he decided to go with Seirin's classic play, the give-and-go.
First, he handed the ball to Furihata. And without waiting or seeing what the point guard would do, he had already started running, cutting from the sideline. Furihata knew instantly what his teammate wanted to do and passed it without hesitation.
The ball went to the high post before the presence of a blue-haired boy suddenly appeared there, tapping it aside to the paint where Kagami arrived.
"Ha! Nice pass, Kuroko!"
"Don't think you can always dunk on us! Senpai!"
"I got it!"
The moment Kagami received the ball, he was already surrounded by Kimura in front of him and Midorima from behind. He used his agile body and spun around, splitting the double team with ease. However, right after that, there was already someone who was waiting for his presence in the paint, and that was Otsubo.
"Now you are trapped here!"
Kagami clicked his tongue in annoyance. Even though he managed to split up the double team before, Kimura's hand was still active to bother his dribbling stance and not allow him to jump. And with three people surrounding him, there was only one thing he could do.
"Kagami, here!"
Kagami kicked the ball out to the corner area where Tsuchida was in an open position. However, he didn't stop just like that. Instead, he continued running from the baseline to the corner area, passing Tsuchida from behind just to arrive at the right wing.
"Senpai!"
Tsuchida knew what to do here. Instead of taking a shoot, he passed the ball and set a screen immediately to prevent Shutoku's guard from following his teammates. However, right after Kagami received the pass, the power forward didn't go inside again like the routine he usually did, Instead, he pulled up a jumper from the wing, startling Shutoku players for a second.
*Clank!*
*Clank!*
*Splash!*
It went in! Even though the process was ugly, the ball still went into the net! And this was done by none other than Kagami who liked to go dunk instead of taking a shoot from outside. This was the perfect answer to Midorima's last provocation as the red-haired boy also smirked as if saying, 'I can do your style too. So, what's next?'
Midorima smirked, pushing up the glasses on his face while inwardly thinking, 'Now, it started to get interesting.'
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After that, the game basically turned into a showdown between Kagami and Midorima. However, there was something wrong with them. Kagami who had a violent playing style was always looking for a space to shoot from the outside, and Midorima who frowned upon the two-point method would penetrate Seirin's paint area violently.
This was so exciting and yet confusing for both parties involved.
"Should we tell him to stop?" Riko asked.
"No, just let him be." Alex shook her head as a reply. "I don't know why that green-haired boy started to do the thing he usually didn't do, but I know why Tiger-chan started taking a lot of shots like this. He reached a bottleneck and was desperate to break through it. This was just another one of his attempts, and since this was just a normal sparing game, let him do what he wants there."
Riko furrowed her brows, thinking that Alex favored Kagami too much in this team. However, she didn't show her dissatisfaction. She knew if she was still in charge of the team, she would also do the same. Kagami was the ace of the team, and once he broke through his bottleneck, the team would also get stronger.
And after a while, they finally could see the glimpse of the breakthrough that they had already waited for.
When Kagami took a V-cut and was ready to pull up another three, he saw Midorima close down the distance between them. With his quick thinking, he changed his stance from the triple threat into the dribble one, ready to drive forward forcefully.
Midorima of course knew about it. In fact, he closed down the distance to force Kagami to go inside as he was a bit uncomfortable letting the red-haired boy always take shots from the outside. He didn't have enough of Kagami's data and habit of shooting to defend him properly. However, when it was a breakthrough, Midorima was sure what would be the result.
'It is going to be a dunk.' The green-haired boy murmured. 'He is just another Kise, a dunk merchant. No matter how high he jumped, the end was still the same. I need to wait until he passes his highest point and jump too.'
And right to his predicament, Kagami took off from the ground, raising the hand that held the ball high to avoid the block. Midorima wasn't worried about it a bit. He kept waiting patiently until he was sure he could touch the ball.
'I cannot jump higher and stay in the air longer than him. So, my only chance should be when he is about to slam it down. Let's see….. Now!'
After calculating the timing, Midorima also took off from the ground, three seconds later than Kagami. Even though the time wasn't the same, Midorima's calculation was right as his hand was about to touch the ball. However, right before he could do that, Kagami suddenly retreated his hand slightly, avoiding the incoming block.
"WHAT?!" Midorima widened his eyes in disbelief.
In a span of a second, Kagami retreated his hand back in the air just to avoid Midorima's block before raising it back, creating a double clutch movement as he slammed the ball down through the hoop.
*BAAAAAAMM!!!!*
He used both hands to balance his body in the air, hanging on the rim for a while. Silence was down on the court as everyone looked at him in awe as if he was a gladiator who just come back from a battle. Midorima who got posterized could only stare down at the ball blankly, not knowing what to think.
And when he turned around and made eye contact with Kagami, a shiver ran down his spine as his instinct screamed danger all over his body. This was the survival instinct that all the living beings had to warn them of the danger, and now, it alarmed Midorima of something.
A beast just woke up from his long sleep and now, it eyed him as prey.
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Author note :
If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes
You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 173 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 34 too.
Thank you! :)
-Zeta Faes-
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