JSWGAS Chapter 54

Light seemed to be attracted by the person in the center of the arena, gathering and gathering. Until that figure, gleaming with bright edges, passed his opponent and reached out his arm, the basketball was attracted to him like a magnet, miraculously appearing in his palm.

Then, a dunk!

Hachihongi let go of the hand that passed the ball, his heart filled with joy that didn’t lose to the scorer. He laughed loudly, rushed to his teammate’s side and gave him an overly enthusiastic hug: “Hey! Little Nine! You’re so reliable!”

“…Don’t suddenly pounce over, you idiot Suzuhiro.”

His teammate turned his head away in disgust, but still patted his back, then immediately withdrew his hand, “The game isn’t over yet.”

“That’s right!”

Hachihongi Suzuhiro retracted his elation and excitement, and glanced at the scoreboard on the sidelines: 54-39 – it was only the beginning of the first quarter, and Teiko Middle School was leading their opponent by fifteen points.

This was Kokonoe Taka’s first official game since joining the first string. To test what Kokonoe Taka could do, the coach used all reserve members of the first string except for Kokonoe Taka in the first quarter. After the first quarter started, the coach switched in Hachihongi to coordinate with Kokonoe – as expected, compared to Kokonoe Taka fighting alone, the combination of these two showed an unusually strong offensive power.

Hachihongi Suzuhiro himself was an extremely skilled player at creating scoring opportunities, and Kokonoe Taka’s offensive rhythm matched his perfectly: on the route where Hachihongi wanted to pass the ball, Kokonoe Taka was definitely lying in wait.

And after such a long period of communication and training, Kokonoe Taka could even support Hachihongi Suzuhiro after shaking off the person guarding him, giving him more offensive options.

Hachihongi Suzuhiro chuckled and easily leaned back and shot in the gap created by Kokonoe Taka, scoring a point. He glanced at the player blocked by Kokonoe Taka: the feeling of being stared at by a beast at his side wasn’t pleasant, right?

– This feeling was more than just ‘unpleasant’.

–

Originally, Teiko Middle School was only wary of the main player Kakuharukawa and the ace Amano by other schools participating in the middle school league. But these two had already decided to retire and were only there to hold the fort during the competition, basically not playing anymore, and they were replaced by first-year rookies – a major change in the lineup, which made these schools inevitably look down on them. But their arrogance was quickly shattered by these rookies.

First to emerge was the power forward Nijimura Shūzō. His ball-handling skills were excellent, his overall view was outstanding, and his vision on the court was wide, allowing him to easily break through opponents who were taller and stronger than him.

Next was the point guard Hachihongi Suzuhiro. To be honest, the initial impression of him by the team members was that he was a handsome and sunny big boy, but they were quickly slapped in the face: this person played basketball as if he had eight hundred hearts, and he played fake moves and feints with superb skill. He could obviously rely on his own excellent skills to make a living, but he insisted on playing psychological warfare.

– Finally, there was the small forward Kokonoe Taka, who forced opponents to withstand the pressure he brought as long as they stood in front of him.

Frankly speaking, in games where Kokonoe Taka played, Kokonoe Taka was often not the ace player who could shine from the start, he needed time to get into shape. And after getting into shape, he only needed a moment, a second, a blink of an eye to suddenly explode with a terrifying aura. In this situation, the player responsible for playing against him was the most tormented on the field: he was bathed in Kokonoe Taka’s seemingly real dangerous gaze, and his whole body felt as if it was pricked by needles.

No one could stop such a fully fired scorer. Kokonoe Taka’s positioning of his team was very accurate: score, score, and score again! He could jump over players taller than him to dunk, and when he lowered his head, his entire face was illuminated by the light falling from the ceiling, but his eyes were as bright as a beast searching for prey in the dark. He could also appear unpredictably on the opponent’s passing route, intercepting the ball with superb skill and stealing the opponent’s scoring opportunity!

The philosophy of Teiko Middle School’s basketball club was “Unbeatable”.

Their opponents knew that no one could always be “Unbeatable”. But whenever the player with the jersey number 12 successfully intercepted the ball again, or cooperated with the number 13 point guard to use that amazing alley-oop, or acted as bait to draw away the marking that trapped the number 11 power forward…

Every time this happened, the banner of “Unbeatable” behind him seemed like a certain prophecy.

Overwhelming cheers and applause were given to the scorer – this was just the beginning: Kanto Regional Exchange Tournament, Tokyo Regional Preliminary, All-Japan Middle School League…

Although Teiko Middle School was known as a strong basketball school, they only won the national first place in last year’s All-Japan Middle School League. This year, almost all of the third-year main players retired, and there were no very outstanding first-year players. The outside world’s evaluation of them was mostly a pity of ‘lack of continuity’, until they once again broke through the high wall with their strength!

– And lifted the laurel of the All-Japan Middle School League championship.

…

…

“I say, who went to accept the interview…” Kokonoe Taka shook the “Monthly Basketball” in his hand, “What do you mean – ‘My family’s scorer is very aggressive on the court, but he’s no less aggressive off the court, and he’ll even take his anger out on others because his bento isn’t delicious, saying it makes you want to find a grave and bury yourself on the spot’ – Nijimura, why are you running?”

Hachihongi Suzuhiro opened his locker, “Monthly Basketball? The magazine interviews are all accepted by ‘Captain Nijimura’.”

With that, Hachihongi stared at the championship photo from this year pasted inside his locker door. They played very well in that game. After the game, everyone was so tired that they wanted to fall asleep, but Hachihongi Suzuhiro insisted on taking photos with his teammates.

He chuckled to himself, but the sound of Nijimura Shūzō being beaten up and calling for help on the other side didn’t bring him back to his senses to help.

“Little Nine! Little Nine! Don’t hit me!” Nijimura Shūzō held his head and scurried around, “I know I was wrong! I shouldn’t have secretly criticized you!”

Kokonoe Taka accurately grabbed the back of Nijimura Shūzō’s neck, dragging him backwards like a large cat: “What was wrong?”

Nijimura Shūzō was dragged by him, and obediently tiptoed a little so that he wouldn’t be dragged so hard: “Uh…” He racked his brains to think, “Shouldn’t, shouldn’t have exposed Little Nine’s private side to the reporter? – Ouch, ouch, ouch!”

He repeatedly cried out in pain, trying to avoid Kokonoe Taka’s head-knocking attacks: “How would I know why you’re angry if you don’t say it!”

Kokonoe Taka read emotionlessly: “I’m not angry.”

“You’re clearly angry! You haven’t stopped!”

“…” Raises fist.

“That’s definitely rage turning into embarrassment!!!”

Hachihongi Suzuhiro changed his clothes, walked over, picked up the “Monthly Basketball” that had been thrown on the ground during the fight, and flipped it open to read: “Wow, there’s so much space introducing us… Why did they even interview players from other schools to ask them what they think of us? Isn’t that rubbing salt in their wounds?”

Nijimura Shūzō shouted: “Don’t worry about any interviews! Quick, save me?! Is your captain about to die in the hands of a demon who always wants to usurp the throne?!”

Kokonoe Taka: “So you’ve always thought of me this way, Shūzō, a ‘demon’? Hmm?”

Hachihongi Suzuhiro casually flipped through the magazine, pretending not to see the commotion over there: “Captain, you’re already in the second year, and you’re about to become the senior to today’s new members, be more mature, okay?”

“? Who’s not mature!”

Hachihongi Suzuhiro’s interjection distracted Nijimura Shūzō for a moment, and Kokonoe Taka quickly and accurately seized this moment, allowing him to successfully mess up Nijimura Shūzō’s hair.

“Good assist.” Kokonoe Taka praised.

Hachihongi nodded modestly: “Just so-so.”

“You two should respect the captain a little!”

The third-year seniors had left the school not long ago and gone on to high school. When the captain took over, he passed the burden of main player to Nijimura Shūzō: among these three, only Nijimura Shūzō was considered reliable, concerned about his juniors, and very responsible. He could also control the two problem teenagers Kokonoe Taka and Hachihongi Suzuhiro at critical moments – although he used the method of ‘If I don’t go to hell, who will’.

Hachihongi Suzuhiro continued flipping through the magazine: “But those players have pretty high evaluations of Shūzō – Middle School No. 1 Power Forward?”

Nijimura Shūzō freed himself from Kokonoe Taka, pouting as he smoothed out his hair: “That’s because the people who could compete with me have graduated.”

“I really hope some interesting new students will come in this year…” Hachihongi pondered as he continued flipping backwards, “After the seniors graduate, we’re really short on shooting guards. – Ah, they even mentioned me.”

Kokonoe Taka leaned over and saw a quote from a player from another school printed on the paper – ‘A very annoying PG, I don’t want to play against him in my first game in this lifetime… His smile makes you want to reward that face with a fist.’

“Pfft.”

“What are you laughing at! Little Nine, don’t you think that’s an exaggeration to say about me?” Hachihongi complained, “That was clearly a tactic! A tactic! I’m a very friendly person!”

Kokonoe Taka raised an eyebrow and asked, “Friendly enough to trick the other side out of their bank card password?”

Hachihongi Suzuhiro scratched his head embarrassedly: “Hehe, it wasn’t that exaggerated… I just guided their passing a bit, and tricked away the person guarding them. You’re praising me so much that I’m a little embarrassed.”

Nijimura Shūzō scoffed twice and flipped through the magazine: “But these people all think Little Nine is very scary… All sorts of exaggerated descriptions have come out, saying things like ‘facing not a person but a beast’, ‘The sentence on Teiko’s banner is talking about him’, ‘A player born to score’ – what do you think?”

“What do I think…” Kokonoe Taka amusedly pulled the magazine away from the two of them, “I’m having a lot of fun playing. – That’s it. And the scoring opportunities were brought by my teammates through hard work, what reason do I have not to get our point?”

The two of them: “…”

Kokonoe Taka: “What kind of expressions are those on your faces.” Disgusted tone.

The two of them dragged out their voices, smiling mischievously and being particularly annoying: “Nothing -”

Kokonoe Taka was too lazy to pay attention to their strange tones, so he simply took the magazine and went out.

“Eh? Aren’t you coming to see the new members joining the club today?” Hachihongi asked. Today was the day for club recruitment.

“Isn’t it enough to have the two of you?” Kokonoe Taka leaned on the door frame and turned around, saying lazily, “Good luck, main player and vice-main player. I have some private matters, so I won’t be there today.”