JSWGAS Chapter 58

Chapter 58 58.

Chapter 58 58.

58.

Just as Kokonoe Taka stood behind the three-point line and scored a basket, another footstep came from behind. He scooped up another basketball from the basket beside him and asked without turning his head, “Sujaku? Aren’t you back yet?”

His tone was relaxed, and his voice was slightly raised, containing an almost imperceptible intimacy. The second-year students might not have noticed that his tone became serious when facing his juniors. Coupled with his originally hoarse voice compared to his peers, although it perfectly matched the ‘ace’ status of a sports club, it also made him seem more unapproachable to the crowd.

——Is that the reason?

Akashi Seijūrō lowered his eyes and said softly, “Hachimoto-senpai has already gone back.”

Harboring an indescribable thought, he deliberately chose to deny it when the basketball was about to leave Taka’s hand. The small forward, with his back to Akashi, paused slightly, and an error occurred in his hand movement. The basketball rolled and bumped against the edge of the basket, failing to go in, and fell down with regret.

“Ah, Akashi…”

Kokonoe turned around, revealing a slightly embarrassed face. Sweat rolled from his brow bone to his jaw, and he roughly grabbed his collar to wipe it away, “It’s so late, why haven’t you gone back yet?”

Perhaps the second-year senior hadn’t noticed, but his tone did drop by half a beat.

At this time, he should politely state the reason why he appeared here, or remind the other party not to train too late. Akashi Seijūrō should have a hundred ways to maintain a peaceful senior-junior relationship, but he finally blurted out rashly, “Kokonoe-senpai too, it’s so late and you haven’t gone back.”

As the last syllable fell into the air, he saw the senior’s eyes widen slightly in surprise, and suddenly realized his gaffe. The relationship between the two was just an ordinary senior-junior relationship after all, and he shouldn’t use this kind of tone that revealed his emotions and seemed dissatisfied.

This was obviously different from the polite, quiet, and distant red-haired junior in Kokonoe Taka’s memory. He stared at Akashi Seijūrō’s slightly lowered head for a while with some surprise, then suddenly couldn’t help but smile: “It seems like you haven’t changed much.” But it did become similar to that boy who glared at him in the hospital.

Akashi Seijūrō didn’t hear this murmur clearly, and raised his head blankly, but Kokonoe Taka had no intention of explaining. He casually picked up the basketball on the ground and skillfully spun it on his index finger: “Akashi, if you don’t like honorifics, you don’t have to call me that, you know.”

Akashi frowned: “I didn’t…”

Kokonoe Taka interrupted him: “I didn’t really care about honorifics anyway. You can just call me Kokonoe.”

Compared to other juniors, Akashi Seijūrō’s honorifics weren’t reluctant, but the tone he used when calling him that was always a bit strange. But in the end, Kokonoe Taka just mentioned it casually when he thought of it.

Akashi Seijūrō thought, this is too strange. He was always intelligent, but at this moment, his mind couldn’t help but go blank — what did the other party mean? Was he hinting at something? But unfortunately, he hadn’t found the answer yet, and the person who had given him the difficult question had nonchalantly turned around and started a new round of shooting.

Some words are difficult to say once you miss the best opportunity. Akashi Seijūrō stood silently in place and watched for a while.

He had seen countless outstanding talents, and there was no shortage of peers with talent around him: Aomine played without being bound by rules, freely; the opposite of him was Midorima. The latter was rational, calm, and meticulous; Murasakibara usually had no motivation and was afraid of trouble, but the talent he showed on the basketball court was surprisingly high, only his mentality was a bit childish…

Even so, if talking about the most eye-catching, it was probably only the playing style of the person in front of him.

Akashi Seijūrō was really stunned when he accidentally saw this person on the recruitment brochure of Teiko Middle School. After Kokonoe Taka went to visit Akashi Shiori on behalf of his grandmother, his information was placed on the desk in the Akashi family’s study. Akashi Seijūrō didn’t avoid Akashi Seijūrō when he opened the information, so the latter also caught a glimpse of a few pages.

That grade wasn’t mediocre even in the Akashi family. What’s more, the person in the photo was said to have almost become a disciple of a very famous coach in the tennis world, and also had a personal relationship with Echizen Nanjirō. Therefore, when Akashi Seijūrō saw that familiar face, he almost thought he had turned to the promotional page of the tennis club——

This idea was not very mature, and he quickly dismissed it. Later, Akashi Seijūrō went to find the championship video of the basketball club last year. Without a doubt, shrouded in the spotlight, the figure captured in the instant of dunking was indeed the person he knew.

Teiko Middle School didn’t have an easy time in that match. Their team lineup was fixed, so they were deliberately targeted by their opponents. After a fierce battle for half a game, the main force Nijimura Shūzō had already reached four fouls at the start of the second half, and one of the third-year seniors was directly fouled off the court. Although one person on the opposite side also had four fouls, they made fouls against the substitutes, and the main force even arrogantly gave Teiko the middle finger in the middle.

Hachimoto, who was the point guard, was the most targeted in the second half, and was also targeted to three fouls; if he was fouled off the court at this time, it would mean that Teiko’s command tower was about to collapse.

Akashi played the same position as him, and when he saw this, he also thought about how he would solve the problem if he faced such a situation. But his thoughts had only just taken shape when the leaping figure in the video cut off all his thoughts.

The two didn’t even make eye contact, Hachimoto suddenly shot the basketball from the gap between the two when he was being double-teamed, almost to the face of the opposing power forward. Just as a look of joy appeared on the power forward’s face, a hand that appeared out of nowhere firmly caught the ball! The person wearing the number 12 jersey had a cold expression, alternating dribbling, and suddenly stopped when the power forward thought he would pass, and threw the ball out again——

Hachimoto was waiting there. This was an extremely wonderful cooperation, especially when the point guard shot the ball with a jump shot, but deliberately left a distance, and the person grabbing the rebound plunged into the air. And above them, the number 12 small forward looked down at them and dunked the basketball into the basket!

A loud bang brought him back from his trance. Akashi Seijūrō’s eyes reappeared with luster, reflecting the figure of the person who had just successfully dunked.

The two looked at each other at this moment, Akashi paused for a moment, “Your training menu… is twice ours?”

Kokonoe Taka moved his neck. This period of time had just allowed him to use up all the basketballs in a basket, so he answered while squatting down to pick up the balls, “Um… basic training is about twice as much, and physical training is even more.”

“I had a habit before, I have to go out for a morning run to warm up in the morning, and I will go out for another lap in the evening.” He said it lightly, but Akashi knew it was not so easy to do.

Kokonoe Taka tilted his head and looked at him twice: “Akashi… should know that I didn’t play basketball before, right.”

“…Yes.”

“Since it’s starting from scratch, you have to put in the effort to practice to catch up.” He said, his eyes a little scattered. Akashi intuitively thought that the other party also thought of last year’s finals, “After all, there are quite a few people who are better than me, and I don’t really want to lose.”

“But, Kokonoe-senpai’s level is already hard to find an opponent, right?” He said calmly, “The scoring rate in last year’s competition was often the highest in the whole game, and no one has been able to surpass you since this year.”

“Is that so.” Kokonoe Taka raised his eyebrows in surprise, “Last year? Did you dig up those games to watch?”

Akashi nodded in tacit agreement. “But I think, every point I score is more than just me scoring.” The sneakers rubbed against the smooth floor, making a harsh noise. The person who was praised as the number one scorer said, “Shūzō, Sujaku, Shiraiwa, Maki, and Hayakawa… Rather than saying that this point was scored by me, it’s better to say that my teammates relayed it to me.”

He curved his gray eyes: “I just go to complete it.”

The two fell silent.

Kokonoe Taka glanced at the clock, “Well, I should be finishing up soon. You should go back early too.”

“Kokonoe…” Honorifics were drowned between his lips and teeth. Akashi raised his head slightly and suddenly asked, “Do you like basketball very much?”

Kokonoe Taka was slightly stunned, and smiled: “What are you suddenly saying…”

As he spoke, he lost his voice.

If he said that he started just with the idea of trying a different path, arrogantly setting his goal as the strong basketball club, after so long, he couldn’t remember what his mood was like at that time — basketball was indeed very interesting, and starting from scratch was even more challenging.

But it wasn’t these.

What was it then?

He remembered everything he had experienced so far. The quiet tennis court, the lonely racket, the delaminated sneakers; and then this vast, yet completely different arena——what exactly was different?

Then he looked at Akashi Seijūrō’s red eyes and said gently and frankly: “What I like is probably this team.”

Akashi was stunned.

He raised his head and saw the black-haired, gray-eyed senior walking over, his expression calm and he looked to be in a good mood. He reached out and gently rubbed his head. Akashi Seijūrō stiffly maintained this posture. It wasn’t until Kokonoe messed up his rose-like bright hair that this ace senior smiled as if he had teased Akashi enough.

“Our team.” He let go, “Good luck, Akashi, I’m looking forward to the day I can play with you.”

…

…

“Kokonoe-senpai, can you help me with my passing problems?”

Before Kokonoe could agree, Aomine Daiki called out in dissatisfaction: “Hey hey! Akashi! I was here first, Kokonoe-senpai already agreed to 1v1 with me!”

“That’s not right, right? Daiki? It should be my turn already.” Haizaki Shōgo squeezed over from the side, cutting in, his tone frivolous, “A blockhead like you can’t be taught no matter how much Kokonoe-nii teaches you, and Nijimura-senpai is the power forward, the power forward finds the power forward, Kokonoe-nii is the small forward, naturally he has to be with me——you go find Nijimura-senpai for 1v1.”

“? What are you saying, Haizaki! You were dragged out by the teacher and made to stand as punishment for sleeping in class this morning!” Aomine Daiki was provoked successfully, yelling madly, “You were the second to last in the quiz too?! Who exactly is the blockhead!”

“Ha?! Is the monkey who plays ball based on instinct still yelling?”

Seeing the two roll up their sleeves and about to have some friendly physical exchange, a faint voice suddenly floated over——Nijimura Shūzō didn’t know when he had come behind Aomine, looking sinister with a black aura all over his face: “Aomine, you haven’t done your passing training today, right? There are still two sets left of physical training… looks like you have a lot of energy? You have the mind to 1v1 with Little Nine?”

Aomine Daiki: “…”

“So weak, Daiki!” Haizaki Shōgo gloated, but before he could laugh twice, his collar was grabbed——he was so familiar with this technique that he could immediately guess who it was, “Uh, Kokonoe-nii…?” His arrogance immediately disappeared, speaking in a soft and trembling voice, making anyone want to say he was pitiful.

“If I remember correctly, I just tutored you before.” Kokonoe Taka condescendingly shook his collar, almost making Haizaki vomit, “Second to last? No wonder you’ve been so honest these past two days, coming to train yourself without me having to catch you.”

Haizaki Shōgo: “…”

The two walked away dejectedly. Only then did Kokonoe Taka turn his head and look at Akashi holding the ball: “Passing… I guess I can.”

Akashi blinked: “Sorry for the trouble.”

The following days were filled with training, and Kokonoe Taka’s training menu continued to add new items in an orderly manner. When Coach Shirokane was holding a training camp for everyone in the first string, he even took out his training menu as a standard answer to spur on the others, threatening them that if they didn’t meet the standard, he would loosen their skin according to Kokonoe Taka’s standard.

The scorer’s prestige in the basketball club rose once again——after all, he was the only strong person who could still get up after the training camp and go to the coach to discuss the training match as if nothing had happened.

Although he himself trained very hard, Kokonoe Taka did not actually force others to train with him. There were a few first-year students who regarded him as an idol and wanted to train according to his training menu, but he persuaded them to go back. And he would also care about the physical condition of his teammates——once Hachimoto himself didn’t realize that his face didn’t look very good, but he was stopped by Kokonoe Taka when he was about to play. The latter pointed out quite keenly that Hachimoto’s temperature was slightly higher than usual, and needed to go to the infirmary for a check-up for safety reasons——

Afterwards, Hachimoto, who was knocked down by the flu, lay on the bed in the infirmary, calling Kokonoe his provider with a rather exaggerated expression.

Of course, he was beaten up by his ‘provider’ as soon as he said this.

However, this sentence was really not wrong in some situations.

After the All-Middle School League ended, the Teiko Middle School basketball club was in high spirits. But they were soon defeated by reality: the first-year students were led by Aomine and Haizaki, and the second-year student was the captain Nijimura Shūzō——these three had the most unbearable test papers, full of check marks at a glance. Hachimoto even suspected that the pitiful few points were just comfort points given by the teacher because he couldn’t bear it.

“Little Nine——” Nijimura Shūzō had none of the reliable attitude of a captain, and returned to being that screaming blockhead, “Help! The teacher said that if I fail, I have to make up classes, and making up classes will delay the time for club activities——I can’t have the captain absent when we go out to compete, right?! What will others think of us then!”

Compared to him, Haizaki casually fell on Kokonoe Taka’s bed in a very boss-like manner: “So comfortable.”

Aomine Daiki couldn’t help but open the closet in his room, and then lay on the ground to laboriously look under the bed, finally sighing in disappointment: “It’s not there…”

Hachimoto did well this time, so he gloated and spread the test papers of the three blockheads flat on the table, making a gesture of invitation to the real owner of the room.

The owner of the room lived up to expectations, first grabbing Haizaki from the bed and pressing him beside the seat; then rewarded Aomine with a punch and pressed him next to Haizaki——when he looked gloomily at Nijimura Shūzō, the latter very consciously sat upright with a serious expression, as if the person who was just acting like a fool wasn’t him.

The outside aid who was invited over glanced at the test papers of the blockheads and gave a candid suggestion.

“There’s no hope.” Midorima Shintarō said coldly.

“There’s no hope, huh.” Akashi came to the same conclusion after being silent.

Kokonoe Taka suppressed the veins that appeared on his forehead and was about to explode when the door was pushed open and Murasakibara walked in holding a pile of snacks, “Grandma told me to bring these up…” His voice was vague, but his movements were not slow at all, quickly stuffing a small cake into his mouth in one bite.

Haizaki immediately jumped up: “Ah! That’s too cunning! I want to eat too!”

Aomine: “Hey! Murasakibara! Don’t eat so fast!? Leave one for me!” Murasakibara: “No, what I get is mine.”

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

He smiled kindly. As soon as Hachimoto saw his smile, he closed his eyes in pity, “Amen.”

With three muffled thuds, the three first-year students with big bumps on their heads sat obediently in their seats.

“Sujaku, please watch Shūzō first and let him finish the national language paper properly.” He enunciated clearly, especially emphasizing the word ‘properly’. Hachimoto obeyed and gave a serious ok gesture.

“As for Aomine and Haizaki… Akashi, Midorima, please take care of this basketball blockhead.” He hesitated for a moment and pointed at Aomine. His intuition told him that one person probably couldn’t save Aomine’s grades, “Aomine is worst at English and math… Can the two of you take care of one subject each?”

Seeing the two nod, Kokonoe Taka made eye contact with Haizaki, who had been staring at him all along.

“Why is it you teaching me again?” Haizaki Shōgo hummed in dissatisfaction, “Please——I’ll get tired of it if it’s always you——”

“It’s okay, my fists won’t get tired.” Kokonoe Taka replied gently.

“…”

Murasakibara, who was also assigned to Kokonoe Taka, looked longingly at the dessert plate he had put behind him and wisely chose to remain silent.

That being said, after the tutoring began, Kokonoe Taka immediately felt that he had lost ten years of his life——

Aomine provoked the usually calm and self-controlled Midorima to roar frequently, and the cracks that had always appeared in Akashi’s calm expression were faintly visible. Not only was the person being tutored asking some questions that only elementary school students would ask, but in the end, he even complained that Midorima wasn’t explaining clearly enough.

His elementary school student questions naturally provoked Haizaki’s ridicule. The latter insisted on ridiculing Aomine even after being knocked on the head several times by Kokonoe Taka; Nijimura eventually joined the argument——he mainly couldn’t stand Aomine answering even simple math questions wrong, and didn’t even look at the test papers, painfully popularizing the application of various formulas to him.

The only one who was worry-free was Murasakibara.

…Although mainly because Kokonoe Taka used the desserts behind him to lure him to be obedient. But for now, he was indeed the most worry-free.

…

…

Miyagi Prefecture.

Iwaizumi received a message from his friend in Tokyo.

“Iwa-chan, please teach me the Iwa Punch.”

“No, if you can, please tell me how you usually control your murderous intent towards Trashykawa.”

How to control it…

Iwaizumi Kazuki thoughtfully glanced at Oikawa, who was attracting butterflies not far away, finished the drink in his hand, and slammed the bottle fiercely behind Oikawa Tōru.

After arguing with the other party back and forth for a few sentences, he lowered his head and replied.

“Just beat him to the point where he doesn’t die!”