Rebirth In Kurokonobasket - Chapter 149

Sarah watched the court and players from the sideline.

The ball had just gone out of bounds, and the ball was in Team Leonal’s possession.

Sarah shifted her sight to see that Shun was on the opposite side of the inbound site.

He was just standing alone, his mark was away from him. He had his eyes close, his face facing towards the ceiling.

Sarah could see that Shun was talking in deep breaths.

She frowned and thought.

Sarah: ‘Is he feeling tired? Well, playing the full game against them would be a heavy exertion on Shun’s body.’

Sarah looked at the match clock and saw that there were only five minutes left.

Sarah: ‘If he shows any signs of fatigue, I will pull him out.’

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Contrary to Sarah’s guess, Shun wasn’t feeling fatigued.

The reason Shun wasn’t near his mark was that his attention wasn’t at the game.

Currently, Shun was standing in front of a huge Gate.

There were no thoughts in his mind, and he was just looking at the huge gate with an empty mind.

Shun stared at the huge, heavy-looking gate, and it stared back at Shun.

Slowly the gate door opened all on its own, and Shun felt a strong feeling of attraction towards the door.

It was like the gate wanted Shun to enter it, and Shun’s subconscious mind also was sending signals to Shun, telling him to enter.

Shun took steps towards the gate and entered it.

He felt the most comfortable he had ever felt.

Kageyama Shun was about to change.

-*-*-*-

On the court, Team Leonal had scored, and the ball was once again in possession of Team Ming.

Carlos went outside the baseline to pass the ball in. He looked at Shun, who walked slowly towards him and raised his hands for the pass.

Carlos passed the ball to Shun and ran to the other side, and as he passed Shun, his eyes caught a slight glimmer in Shun’s eyes.

He saw Shun following him, but he was slow, and that was coming from the slow Carlos.

Carlos: ‘Hmm?’

Carlos felt something was off, but he put the thought aside and sped up to take his position.

Shun slowly made his way to the half-court, and with each step he took, the world lost slowly lost its color, and everything turned to monochromatic black and white, and his hearing became filtered.

Shun looked at the players and saw that even though the world had lost its color, the players didn’t.

They no longer held their original colors, skin, hair, clothes had lost their color, but they glowed in a shade of different colors.

Shun noticed that as the players moved around the court, the glow around them changed their intensity.

When Gilbert moved outside, his glow dimmed down, but his glow was brighter than anybody else when he was close to the basket.

Douglas and Roger’s glow became stronger when they stayed in the post.

Antony’s glow would change without him moving at all, but every time his glow dimmed, he would move in a certain way that his glow would stronger.

Leonal’s glow stayed its brightest when he was in the mid-range.

As Bruno moved closer to the basket, his glow would become brighter.

While everybody’s glow would become dimmer when they had a defender near them, Carlos’s glow would become brighter when he had a defender with him.

Rafael’s glow would become its brightest when he was near a player of the opposite team, but it would become weak when he was away from them.

Even at his brightest, Rafael’s glow was the weakest in intensity, but when he was near the opposition players, their glow would dim in his presence.

Ivan’s glow didn’t change at all, no matter where he moved, no matter who was near him, it stayed at a constant intensity.

-*-*-*-

Currently, Shun felt that he could play better than any time he had played ever. He felt that he was superman.

Shun wanted to play solo and try his mettle against these strong players, but something in his subconscious mind attracted him to the glowing players.

Shun’s logical mind tried to find the reason behind it, and it came to a conclusion.

‘Players.

Perfect Profile.

Changing Intensity.

Weakness and Strengths.

Playmaking.’

The changing glow was the indicator of players’ strength at the different parts of the court.

The glow changed in reaction to the other players.

The current Shun could see the perfect situation of the players on the court, his mind was actively converting information into knowledge.

Shun looked at the players, and he felt the need to use this to make plays.

Shun decided to make plays using the knowledge that ran into his head.

-*-*-*-

Leonal looked at Shun’s eyes, and his breathing hitched. He saw a glimmer in his eyes.

Shun didn’t say anything or looked anywhere and did a V-dribble with a change of pace.

He switched the ball from his left hand to his right hand at normal speed, but the next moment he dribbled the back to his left hand at a fast speed.

Leonal immediately reacted to the left side, but Shun passed the ball back to his right hand and did a stiff-leg crossover, which made Leonal lose his balance and fall to the floor.

Leonal: “Huh?”

Leonal wasn’t surprised at his ankle broken, he had just seen something that scared him much more than that.

Leonal: ‘His eyes emitted silver electricity! But, that would mean…’

Shun crossed over Leonal and moved closer inside. In front of him were three players.

Roger was near the basket, Carlos was at mid-range from basket and Rafael who was between them.

Shun saw Rafael affecting both Carlos and Roger.

Shun: ‘Let’s remedy that.’

Shun pointed at Roger and gestured him to come closer.

Shun: “Hey! Here!”

Rafael immediately moved towards Roger, and in that exact moment, the bio-electricity in Shun’s body moved faster than ever, and he threw the ball to Carlos.

All three players were shocked when Carlos got the ball.

Shun looked at Carlos and loudly said.

Shun: “Shot!”

Carlos snapped out of it, shot the ball, and it swished into the net.

All three players immediately looked at Shun and saw him turning back and run to defense, but they all saw silver lightning emitted out of his eyes.

All of them immediately knew what it meant.

-*-*-*-

Shun ran towards the three-point arc and dribbled to the inside.

Just as he was at the free-throw line, Gilbert came in front of him and shouted.

Gilbert: “Hahaha! Shrimpy, you aren’t going anywhere! Now hand me the ball.”

Shun’s god-speed impulse passed bio-electricity in his body. And, Shun in just a split second, calculated what he had to do.

His court-vision scanned the court, and Shun knew where everybody was.

Shun: ‘Gilbert is in front of me, Ivan is at the three-point line behind me, and Roger is near the basket.’

Shun did a small jump-stop to slow him down on the spot and spun to face Ivan to the outside.

Gilbert, who saw that, concluded.

Gilbert: ‘Shrimpy is going to pass to stone-face bastard.’

He immediately moved towards Ivan, and Ivan too got ready to receive the pass.

But, both of them were startled when they saw Shun passing the ball to Roger in a no-look pass while facing Ivan.

Gilbert: “Hah?!”

Bruno caught the ball and moved towards the basket.

Shun while still not looking at the basket thought.

Shun: ‘Gilbert will be too late because of the surprise, and Roger will score easily.’

As Shun predicted, Roger dunked the ball in, and Gilbert was too late for the block.

Gilbert and Ivan looked at Shun and saw him walking towards his side of the court for defense and saw the silver lightning cruising in his eyes, and thought.

Gilbert & Ivan: ‘He is in the zone!’

-*-*-*-

Shun ran towards the baseline with the ball with him, as he entered inside the three-point arc, he was met by Bruno.

Bruno’s eyes widened when he saw the silver electricity leaking from Shun’s eyes.

Bruno: ‘Zone!’

He tensed up, ready to give it his all to defend Shun.

Shun entered Bruno’s range and immediately did a spin-move to the left, but abandoned it half-way in a fake and passed Bruno from the right.

Bruno stood stunned on the spot, as he was sure that he just saw Shun passing him from the left, but the next moment, Shun was passing him from the right, and the spin-move was a fake performed to an illusion-level perfection.

Bruno: ‘He is definitely in the zone.’

Shun passed Bruno and was very close to the basket, in the next moment, he saw Douglas closing in on him.

His reflexes jolted alive and he lobed an overhead pass to Antony on the other side of the basket.

Shun didn’t stop there and ran past Douglas towards Antony, leaving behind a confused Douglas.

Douglas: “What is he doing?”

Shun ran past Antony, but not before saying two words.

Shun: “Pass, screen.”

Antony understood the meaning behind the words and immediately got to work.

He waited for a moment and before throwing the ball behind him, and stepping forward to set up a screen.

Douglas, who has just turned, saw Shun catching the ball at the corner of the three-point arc, and Antony setting up a screen to box him out.

Douglas: “Dammit!”

Shun, without any interference, shot a three-point jump shot, and without looking at the ball mid-air or the basket, turned and ran towards his side of the court for defense.

-*-*-*-

On the sideline, Ming stood up from his chair and clapped hard.

Ming: “Amazing! Excellent! That is how a point guard should play!”

Sarah was also impressed, but she was stunned silent.

Sarah: ‘He is the zone. He is in a state of extreme focus. That is why he can make those plays.’

-*-*-*-

Shun continued to set passes and plays to his teammates.

Team Ming started to widen the point gap as each and every play was turning into points.

Team Leonal’s rhythm started to break down as they kept loosing on defense.

Behind the back passes, crossovers, alley-oops, bounce-passes, three-pointers, rim-finishes, Shun was doing everything he knew how to do.

On the last play of the game, Shun did something he wasn’t able to do twenty days ago, but he was sure that he could do it now.

-*-*-*-

Shun looked at Ivan and passed him the ball without any tricky plays or passes.

The others were surprised, but they immediately concentrated on the game.

Shun moved inside towards the basket, but none of them paid him any attention, and that wasn’t because they didn’t think of Shun as a threat, but because they knew that once Ivan got the ball, he didn’t pass.

Gilbert arrived next to Ivan and said to him.

Gilbert: “It is the last play of the game, let’s see who is better!”

Ivan was about to respond when he saw Shun moving towards the basket.

Shun turned toward him and pointed at the basket.

Ivan’s eyes narrowed when he saw that, and he was about to ignore it, but then he remembered Shun’s performance for the past five minutes, and after a moment of an intense struggle inside his mind, he decided to do what Shun was asking for.

Ivan, without any warning, jumped for a jump-shot, and hastily shot the ball.

When Gilbert saw that he didn’t even give a jump to contest the shot, and growled.

Gilbert: “Hey! Just because you’re team is ahead, and this play won’t matter, there was no need to shoot the ball in such a pathetic manner.”

He turned his head towards the basket. His jaw dropped when he saw Shun in the air, and the ball flying towards Shun.

Gilbert: “No way! He shouldn’t be able to do that! But…”

Gilbert remembered Shun being in the Zone and clicked his tongue.

Gilbert: “Alley-Oop! Shrimpy, you sure have balls!”

Shun, with a wild grin on his face, caught the ball in mid-air and slammed the ball into the basket.

Shun got to the ground, dropped to his knees, and yelled as loudly as he could.

Shun: “YEAAAAAAAAAAH!”

After the yell, Shun fell backward on his back and laid on the floor, breathing hard.

Shun saw the world regaining its color and sounds around the court returning to his ears.

Finally, the unnecessary thoughts returned to his mind, and he chuckled.

Shun: “So that was the zone, huh. That was addictive.”

-*-*-*-

Kageyama Shun, in his second year of Middle School, at the age of thirteen years, during the FIBA summer camp, experienced the elusive state known as the Zone.

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A/N: Complete Title: Final-Day; Part-Zone.

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Thank you for reading, please look forward to the next chapter.

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How did you like this chapter? I am not used to writing Zone, and it would get better in the future when we have Zone scenes, there were a lot in Canon(HS).

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