Rebirth In Kurokonobasket - Chapter 188

It was the final day of the Tokyo preliminaries, and the top four middle school teams of Tokyo were participating in the finals for both blocks. Both finals were scheduled to be at the same time because of the timing clash between the Tokyo inter-high preliminary qualifiers.

Yuki Tetsuya finished his warmup on Tokiwadai’s side of the court and turned his head to observe Shoei Middle School warming up on their side of the court. Yuki saw Shoei’s members laughing and having fun, which was different from the last three opponents they played against, who had their moods down in the dumps.

Kaitani walked by Yuki and saw him watching Shoei’s players. He stopped and too looked at them before turning back to Yuki and talked to him.

Kaitani: “What are you looking at?”

Yuki pointed at Shoei with his chin and spoke.

Yuki: “The vibe at Shoei is different than the last three, isn’t it? They seem to be actually motivated.”

Kaitani once again turned his head towards Shoei and noticed that they did look chipper than the last three teams. He hummed and spoke to Yuki.

Kaitani: “So, isn’t it a good thing? What seems to be the problem?”

Yuki’s eyes slightly narrowed as he spoke what plagued his mind.

Yuki: “I don’t know, but something seems wrong. They look fine, but something just doesn’t fit right.”

For the third time, Kaitani watched Shoei, but this time his observing gaze turned into a glare from concentrating on them, trying to look for something wrong with them, and that in turn, scared a couple of first years from Shoei’s team. Yuki noticed that and smacked Kaitani on the back of his head to stop him from glaring at the poor kids.

Yuki: “Stop glaring.”

Kaitani rubbed the back of his head and clicked his tongue.

Kaitani: “Whatever, we just have to win the game. Who cares if there is anything wrong with them. Or, if there is actually anything wrong with them, they seem absolutely fine to me.”

He patted Yuki on the back and advised his teammate.

Kaitani: “You are worrying too much, forget about all of this, and focus back on the game. You are just getting distracted.”

Yuki heaved a sigh and nodded.

Yuki: “Yes, you are right. I should concentrate on the game.”

Kaitani nodded, and both of them joined the rest of the team for the final preparations for the game.

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

Just before the game, the team came together for the final huddle. Shun looked at all of the members of the playing bench and started his pre-game pep-talk.

Shun: “Ok, there are ten of us here, which means you got to touch nine of the other guys, so get up and make contact with each other, no man is to be left behind.

Get up, get up, get up.”

Everybody on the bench got up and patted, high-fived, fist-bumped, special handshakes were exchanged between each other.

Shun smiled and continued after the whole event was over.

Shun: “Okay. Now, all eyes on me. I will start by saying this, I am a big believer that if you aren’t hyped to go out and play the game of basketball right now, then there is nothing that I can say that would change that.

So, I am not here to motivate you, I am not here to inspire you, that is gotta come from within, and hopefully, it will. You guys need to be the ones ready to play because I already am.

If you don’t feel that excitement, then there is nothing I can do to get you hyped for the game, but I will give you guys three things to think about really quick, and the coach has told us what I am about to speak a million times, but sometimes there is a power in hearing it from a different voice.

The first thing I want you guys to do is to play as hard as you can. And when I say play, even if the chance to walk the court, even if the coach doesn’t call your number and you stay on the bench the whole time, I want you guys to play your role. So, whenever you are on the bench, you better cheer your a.s.s off today.

When you do get on the court, I want you to play as hard as you can, not for a single possession, not for a quarter, not when the coach yells at you, but the whole freaking game.

You run up and down the floor like a dog is chasing you. You box out every single time a shot is taken. You chase the ball every time it becomes loose.

You don’t make the flashy play, you make the right play. If you get a rebound and see the chance to pass it up the court for an easy layup, you do that. Play smart, and we will win the game.”

Shun pulled his jersey outwards and continued.

Shun: “I don’t care who scores, as long as the score comes from a player wearing our black jersey.

And lastly, we have to play together, we are a team, and we have to take care of each other. I don’t care if you think that screens and boxing out are boring and tough, as long as it is helping the person with the ball or making the score easier, you do it.

Cover for each other and work together, play hard, move smart, everything will take care of itself, and we will be happy in about one hour from now on, really happy.

Stick to those things for the duration of the game, and will be good.

Understood?”

Everybody on the team nodded, but Shun wasn’t happy with that and spoke in a louder voice.

Shun: “Understood?!”

What followed was a loud group response from the team.

Team: “Understood!!!”

Shun nodded and smiled at his team.

Shun: “Good, then let’s go win a game.”

Everybody moved to the court, leaving behind a smiling Shun and Yuki, who looked at Shun with a piercing look. Shun wasn’t able to ignore the look for long and turned to his friends and asked while he g.r.o.a.n.e.d.

Shun: “What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Yuki stared at Shun for a while, making Shun more uncomfortable by the second before opening his mouth to speak.

Yuki: “Playing as hard as possible?”

Shun g.r.o.a.n.e.d, hearing the phrase from his pep-talk, and w.h.i.n.ed.

Shun: “I knew that you would bring that up.”

Yuki narrowed his eyes a fraction and spoke.

Yuki: “So, will your esteemed self play your hardest today.”

Shun looked at Yuki from the corner of his eyes and answered.

Shun: “I will play as I am doing for the last three games, support, and defense.”

He hit Yuki on the shoulder and continued.

Shun: “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Let’s go enjoy ourselves, isn’t that what coach says the game is all about.

Come on, let’s shimmy to the court and win a ticket to the nationals.”

The Block-A finals between Tokiwadai Middle School and Shoei Middle School started with Tokiwadai winning the tip-off and getting the control of the ball for the first possession of the game and passed the ball to Shun, who raised his index finger of his left and called out to his teammates.

Shun: “Okay, kids, let’s start slow.”

Shun started with a dribble to the inside and turned to the right. His defender from Shoei followed him, but with a slight smile, he did a quick backspin to the right and ran in the opposite direction. Shoei’s small forward, who was Shun’s guard, didn’t give up and followed him back, but the moment he turned back, he collided with another person. The small forward looked up and saw Yuki standing there, screening him out.

Shoei’s SF: “Damn it!”

Seeing that Shun had no guard, Shoei’s power forward moved in to defend against him, but the moment he did, the ball was passed over his head to Sora, standing at the three-point arc line. Sora received the ball and took the first shot of the game. The ball flew in an arc to the basket, missed the center, and bounced off the net.

Shoei’s center grinned and shouted to hype up himself.

Shoei’s C: “Leave this to me.”

He jumped up for the rebound, and because of his better positioning, he got the rebound.

Shoei’s C: “OH, Yeah!”

Shun clapped from his position and praised.

Shun: “Yes, that’s it. Play together, and we will win.”

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

Yuki Tetsuya wasn’t a player that scored a lot. In a game where he was on his highest offense, he would score ten points in the whole game. The reason for that was simple, the team didn’t need him to score an exceptional amount of points in a game.

Tokiwadai had Kaitani, Sora, Narumiya, Shun, and even Hyakuzawa for scoring points. Unlike the last two players, the first three players were full offensive players and worked on one side of the court. The reason Yuki was on the team despite his low offensive capabilities was his outstanding defensive capabilities.

Yuki Tetsuya could make his mark pull his hair from frustration. On a good day, Yuki could shut out his mark from scoring and effectively make his opposite team play with four players. And coincidently, today was a good day.

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

Shoei’s power forward grunted in frustration as he had Yuki on his back and couldn’t move one step as Yuki was hounding him from his back.

Shoei’s power forward was swearing in his mind.

Shoei’s PF: ‘Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! I can’t escape from him.’

Shoei’s power forward wasn’t in a good situation. He was one of the primary scorers of the team and still hadn’t been able to score a single point.

Shoei’ PF: ‘Freaking Tokiwadai! Why did they have to assign this guy to me! I can’t escape from him! I have to do something, or the shot clock will run out.’

Just as he finished his thoughts, Yuki’s hand came around from behind and swiped the balls from the power forward’s hands. It was a risky move, as even the slightest contact with the power forward’s hands or arms could’ve gained Yuki a reach-in foul, but Yuki saw that the power forward was fl.u.s.tered and distracted and decided to take the risk and stole the ball.

The ball now in Yuki’s possession was passed forward for the team to score.

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

When Yuki returned to defend his mark, he was smiling. He could feel the enthusiasm in his teammates. The previous games on some level had bummed out the players because of the lack of motivation from the opponent teams, but Shoei Middle School showed no such symptoms and were playing actively. Playing with an opponent that didn’t give up ignited a fire within his teammates, and they too were having fun.

Yuki looked at his mark and found something wrong with him. His head was down, had his hands on his knees, and was breathing heavily. The power forward noticed Yuki looking at him and stared back at Yuki. He chuckled defeatedly and spoke in a tired voice.

Shoei’s PF: “You know we never thought we would win today. From the day we saw the tournament bracket, we knew that Teiko and Tokiwadai would be the ones to go to the Nationals, and the other teams had no chance of qualifying for the Nationals.

So, we all decided that we won’t think about that and play to our hardest and have as much fun as we can. With no pressure of winning, we played freely, and guess what, this was the most fun I had in a tournament. We knew that we couldn’t win against you, so we played for fun, and because we were stronger than others, we made it to the finals.

Just before the game, in the locker room, we decided to play as we had been doing and have fun.”

He heaved a heavy sigh, stood up straight, and continued.

Shoei’s PF: “Man, I tried to have fun, but I have not been able to score once with you on my tail. Not a single point. I made two offensive fouls for god’s sake.”

Yuki looked at the other Shoei players and before he could only see their enthusiasm, aggressiveness to score, good ball movement, and an overall solid team, but after hearing that the same team had given up on the game before the tournament even started opened his eyes and he saw that they lacked in tension in their demeanor that fit a game of such high stakes.

Yuki: ‘I knew it, they were a little too much chipper and didn’t have the tension fitting the situation. To think they had already given up, isn’t that worse than giving up mid-game?’

When he looked around, he saw that his teammates were still having fun in the face of an opponent that hadn’t given up. Even the rest of Shoei’s players weren’t feeling the same as their power forward and were having fun.

After thinking for a while, he turned to Shoei’s power forward and spoke to a complete stranger hoping that he would understand.

Yuki: “I request that you keep your thoughts to yourself. I can see that both our teammates are still having fun, and if you go out there with such thoughts, it will ruin the whole mood.

Your teammates will be pulled into the same state as you, and my teammates will also lose the motivation, so I request that you hide whatever you are feeling and continue as nothing happened.

This will be the last game for your team this season. Let them remember this game as a fun game. Let’s keep what we talked to ourselves and not ruin the mood. What do you say?”

The power forward looked at Yuki with wide eyes. He was the captain of the team, and after listening to Yuki’s words, he saw the point behind Yuk’s words. He gave Yuki’s proposal a thought and stood up straight. He looked at Yuki and chuckled like he had heard something funny and spoke.

Shoei’s PF: “I see your point. I will continue as nothing happened and make this game a fun game in my teammates’ memories. But don’t misunderstand, I am only doing this for my teammates, I don’t care what happens to your teammates.”

Yuki nodded and spoke with a small smile on his face.

Yuki: “Understood. I am also doing this for my team.”

One captain and one vice-captain entered a secret agreement, or so they thought as a silver-haired person had been silently observing them, and even though he couldn’t hear the words they exchanged, he still could guess what they talked about.

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

The game continued without any change, and in the end, Tokiwadai Middle School won the game and became one of the Tokyo National Representatives.

On another court, Teiko Middle School left their opponents broken and became other Tokyo representatives.

Tokyo Preliminaries had come to an end.