Chương 29: Kyōsen Private Middle School Vs Kishiyamoto Middle School; Second Quarter
「Nara Preliminaries, Day 4, Block A and B, Round 4: Finals.」
At Kyōsen's bench, while the action on the court is happening, a man who's well passed his prime and is in his twilight years suddenly approached Chu Lin in a very familiar manner.
"It looks like ya got dogshit luck this year huh, Chu Lin. Ya bastard managed to snag such a hidden gem among the pile of dung which is your team. How miraculous! The end of the world must be quite near now…"
Chu Lin's gentlemanly demeanour immediately vanished just by hearing this man's voice as he flared up and fired back.
"You old coot know nothing about luck. Using your own influence back in the day as a previous MVP in the IBA Finals to lure in players is straight up cheating, Old Yamato."
"Hohoho. That's just how the world works, brat. I'm sure ya also used your influence as a previous all-star player and an IBA Hall of Famer to lure in some good seeds. Talk about a pot calling the kettle black. You never change your disgusting hypocritical ways, eh? Chu Lin."
"Aren't we just similar old coot? I hate all-rounder players the most during my day but I want to create the best of them now. You hate agile bigs because they can block your shots back in the day but here you are, creating a team full of bigs."
There was a brief lull in the conversation between the two coaches before Itou Yamato, the coach of Kishiyamoto, suddenly said something that surprised everyone who overheard their conversation.
"How does it feel to have such a monster in your team? Inhuman capabilities, exceptional court vision, quick situational judgement, a natural ball handler, and he also have the eye best suited for an ace player like him, 「Balor's View」. So many basketball fans will haunt you for the rest of your life if ya ruin such a kid, Chu Lin…"
With a serious gaze of his own, Chu Lin replied, "You don't have to worry about that old coot. Such a great gem, I will never let him get ruined by my own hands. You know me, I only guide those I teach and never dictate them what they should do in order to progress."
With a satisfied nod, Yamato finally went back to his team's bench. However, he left everyone who overheard him curious. As their representative, Riko stepped forward.
"Coach! Is what Kishiyamoto's coach said true? Seiji have 「Balor's View」?"
In response to her question, Chu Lin just answered her while stroking his mustache.
"Well, didn't you see what he did earlier? That moment when he broke that big's ankle?"
"Haa… I saw it but…"
"The series of movements that he did is quite unnatural. It's like he dribbled the ball and sold fakes knowing that it would lead to that big messing up his balance, making him fall to the ground helplessly."
"But I thought an ankle breaker can only happen by some stroke of luck or something?"
This time, it was Neko who asked this question.
"Well, there are a few exceptions to that rule. One of those few exceptions are the wielders of the eyes that, in essence, could see the future of his opponent(s). You'll never know just how nasty those eyes are if you never played against someone who possess them."
※・※・※・※
After Seiji's spectacular dunk, Hanagata, Kishiyamoto's captain, encouraged his teammates, telling them not to mind it. With Itou Raku(PG) holding the ball, the entire line up of Kishiyamoto went on attack mode.
*[A/N: From here on, I will call the players of Kishiyamoto by their surnames. Itou Raku(PG) as Itou, Hanagata Toru(C) as Hanagata, Hayakawa Mitsuhiro(PF/C) as Hayakawa, Kazushi Hasegawa(F) as Kazushi, and Shoichi Takano(F/G) as Shoichi.]
Itou, with him being marked by Izuki, tried to make separation from Izuki to possibly try a three-pointer. However, Izuki is tightly guarding him, not letting him have any open looks.
After a few seconds of trying without any results, Itou passsed the ball to Hanagata who's asking for the ball from the paint with an overhead pass after jumping, for more elevation. Hanagata easily received the pass and posted up against Akagi.
After squaring off against each other, Hanagata tried to force his way in. However, when Akagi didn't budge that much, Hanagata jumped up, at first trying to go for a forced jump shot. When Akagi contested him, Hanagata, with little space to make any drastic changes to his posture midair, opted for a hook shot.
After hitting the back of the rim slightly and bouncing to the front of the rim, the ball eventually went in. With that, the score is tied, 2-2.
In the next possession, Akagi asked for the ball from Izuki when he got inside the paint. With their height difference being quite big, Izuki easily passed the ball to Akagi with an overhead pass over Itou.
Kazushi tried to intercept the pass but he was stopped by Kogure who pulled him towards the outside of the perimeter. He didn't want Kogure to get an open look for a three so Kazushi have no choice but to abandon his plan.
'It has low chance of ever succeeding, anyway.' Kazushi thought after weighing the pros and cons.
In contrast to Hanagata who used his wits in order to score on him, Akagi brute forced his way towards the hoop as he pushed Hanagata slowly towards it. Then, with a jump and with all the power he could muster, Akagi dunked the ball to the basket with his signiture move, Gorilla Dunk.
"WRAAAGGH!"
*BAAM*
Hanagata was off balanced for a moment mid air but he regained control and managed to land on his feet. After adjusting his glasses, Hanagata looked at Akagi with slight anger visible in his eyes.
"I really hate brutes like you…"
Next possession, Kishiyamoto once again have the ball. Itou made a careless pass towards Kazushi, which was slightly tipped by Izuki. As a result, Kazushi had a hard time receiving the pass. When he tried to go for a mid range jumper, the shot was way off as it hit the front of the rim.
At the bottom of the rim, Hayakawa and Wakamatsu are engaged in their own heated battle. Hayakawa boxed out Wakamatsu perfectly as Wakamatsu had a hard time going into his jumping posture. With an explosive jump, along with his explosive shout, Hayakawa got the rebound and tried to go for a put back.
"HAAAA! I —OT THIS!"
"YOU'RE SO GODDAMN LOUD DAMN IT!"
*thuck*
Unfortunately, the ball once again missed. After coming down from the air, Hayakawa and Wakamatsu once again fought for the rebound. Too bad for Wakamatsu, Hayakawa is really pretty skilled at boxing out his opponents. All he could do is watch Hayakawa once again jump up explosively, rapidly approaching the ball mid air.
However, as the two rebounders are fighting, they didn't notice a shadow that is already near them.
"Was it like this?"
Along with that whisper, somebody else got the ball from Hayakawa, who looks visibly surprised by what happened. When he looked towards his right, he saw Seiji holding the ball within his grasp.
"I got the ball now."
*thud*
After landing on the ground, Seiji sprinted towards the other side of the court.
"—OME BACK —ERE YOU!"
"GODDAMN IT! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU EVEN SAYING YOU LOUDMOUTHED PIECE OF…"
The three of them ran really fast in transition, leaving behind the rest of their team. When the rest of them caught up, Hayakawa, Seiji, and Wakamatsu is already on the paint with Hayakawa trying his very best to stall both players from Kyōsen.
Since Hayakawa is quite persistent, Seiji looked for another option by activating his 「Eagle Eye」. This is when he saw Kogure who managed to break free from his defender, Kazushi. With a bounce pass, Seiji passed the ball to the now free Kogure.
With an open look three, Kogure took the shot. However, just when he released the ball, Kazushi caught up to him and slightly tipped the ball. This resulted in the ball missing its mark.
Thankfully, Akagi got the rebound from Hanagata. He then once again jumped up for a put back but this time, Hanagata managed to slap the ball away from his hands.
"The ball!"
"Go get the ball!"
Both team's captain shouted for their teammates to get the ball. When they saw who got it though, the former celebrated while the latter clicked his tongue in slight annoyance.
"Here, catch!"
With that shout, Seiji threw a lob pass towards the already mid air Wakamatsu.
"GOOD JOB KOHAI! NOW, EAT THHIIISS!"
"LIKE I'D —ET YO—!!"
All of the players looked at their two very athletic players as the former slammed the ball onto the basket while the other tried his hardest to block it.
*BAM*
"YOSSHA! I FINALLY GOT BACK AT YOU!"
"IT'S —OT OV— YET!"
"THE HECK ARE YOU SAYING, OI!"
At the two's banter, both captains facepalmed.
"Wakamatsu-senpai, you call him loudmouthed but you're also doing the same thing."
"GAAH! GODDAMN IT!"
With that play, the first minute of the game came to pass. The crowd is already on the edge of their seat as they watched such an intense game from their seats.
※・※・※・※
To be continued…
[A/N¹: Welp, finally a hot blooded chapter with all the blood(sweat) and gore(physicality) present in it. I'm beginning to love this match up. Hanagata VS Akagi and Hayakawa VS Wakamatsu. The battle of OG Centers and the New Gen Anime Centers(or center-like). I had a lot of fun writing this. I might just write the whole game, blow by blow, just because I'm loving the vibes of it.]
[A/N²: Hope you all love this chapter. Ahh, I want to thank my past 2 chapters self for creating such a decision of making a win condition. Good job! Anyway, yes, Seiji got the eyes of DeAndre Paul, the 「Balor's View」. Take note that these pair of eyes is the stronger version of 「Emperor Eyes」, similar to how Akashi's 「Complete Emperor Eyes」 is the stronger version of Nash Gold Jr's 「Belial Eyes」.]
[A/N³: Hayakawa talks like he's eating his words but it's quite hard to picture that. This is why Hayakawa's dialogues have '—'.]
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