Chapter One Hundred Two: Ryonan vs Shutoku
Day Four of the Kanto Regional Qualifying Tournament.
Many spectators stood at the entrance to Tokyo Gymnasium with conflicted expressions. In pursuit of so-called "absolute fairness" for the finals, the tournament committee had scheduled both semifinal matches simultaneously at different courts.
Court A: Ryonan vs Shutoku
Court B: Touou vs Shohoku
For fans wanting to watch both games, this created painful choices.
"Senpai, should we watch half of each?" Nakamura asked, lugging equipment behind Aida Yayoi.
"No, today we're staying at Court A the entire time." Aida Yayoi stopped walking. "All four teams that made the Final Four have comparable strength. I have a feeling the games will be neck-and-neck battles decided in the final moments."
"The Shohoku versus Touou matchup certainly has tremendous appeal, but at this level of competition, watching only half won't let us grasp the real flow or decisive keys."
"We have to make a choice."
"Oh right, since Ryonan's Kanagawa's champion team." Nakamura nodded, suddenly understanding. "Following them closely is only natural!"
"Mm-hmm." Aida Yayoi nodded in agreement. Then an imperceptible smile belonging to a "fan" bloomed across her face.
"I get to watch Sendoh Akira and Yagami Sorato play again." Aida Yayoi thought happily. Maybe Hikoichi would get some playing time too—she could watch her little brother's growth. Talk about killing three birds with one stone!
Watching Aida-senpai's delighted expression, Nakamura felt admiration. To have such passion for work—truly worthy of Weekly Basketball's award-winning journalist!
---
Tokyo Gymnasium, Court A. Shutoku's locker room.
"Midorima, what's that?" Kimura looked at the small green object in Midorima's hands.
"Today's lucky item. Pokemon Box Egg, Pokedex Number 001, Bulbasaur."
"Oh, today's is pretty small. Looks good." Kimura thought to himself—at least it wasn't some life-sized doll.
Miyaji glanced over curiously. "Speaking of which, isn't there also a zodiac ranking? You're Cancer, right? What place today?"
"Second place." Midorima seriously stroked the 'Bulbasaur.'
"Huh? What's that about? Get first place!" Miyaji complained. "Or I'll beat you up!"
"That's impossible. The fortune-telling decided it." Midorima stated calmly.
Takao watched his teammates' interaction with uncontrollable laughter. Nearby, Coach Nakatani sighed quietly. No matter how weird these guys acted, as long as they performed well on court, that's what mattered.
"Alright, it's about time!" Captain Otsubo called out seriously. "Whether our opponent's a tiger or a rabbit, the lion only does one thing—crush them with full force!"
"Let's go!"
"Yes!!"
---
Both teams took the court simultaneously for warmups. Since the two teams had no prior encounters, the pre-game atmosphere remained relatively calm.
However, this calm was quickly shattered.
Midorima was conducting his signature three-point warmup—at five fixed shooting spots, five shots per location.
Starting from the sixteenth shot, his performance—stable to the point of being unnerving—completely captured the crowd's attention.
"Left corner, left forty-five degrees, top of the key... first three spots, all fifteen shots in..." Ikegami felt his heart race, murmuring in a low voice. "This guy's treating the semifinal court like Shutoku's practice gym?"
While he marveled, Midorima had already moved to the fourth spot. Hand up, ball out—still that perfect, almost mechanical shooting form.
"Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!"
Five crisp swishes rang out consecutively. Every single one dropped!
"Twenty straight three-pointers! Even in uncontested practice, only Yagami and Sendoh could do this on Ryonan." Koshino stared glumly toward Shutoku's half.
As a shooting guard himself, his practice three-point percentage only ranged from 75% to 80%.
"Koshino-senpai, actually I can do it too." Aida whispered.
Koshino glanced at him, mercilessly exposing the truth. "Yeah, if only your game percentage could reach half your practice rate."
Aida instantly deflated. His shooting depended extremely heavily on being open—his contest resistance was terrible. Simply put, even Kuroko could probably effectively disrupt his shot.
"Ugh..." Aida hung his head dejectedly. He understood his problem. If he couldn't completely escape defensive pressure, his shooting posed zero threat.
At the end of the day, this 165-centimeter height was just...
"Twenty-two!"
"Twenty-three!"
Before anyone realized it, the entire crowd began unconsciously counting in unison for Midorima. Each time the ball cleanly swished through, it drew suppressed exclamations.
"Twenty-five!!"
"One hundred percent accuracy! Every single one!"
When the final ball dropped through clean, after brief silence, the arena erupted with enthusiastic noise. Midorima adjusted his breathing expressionlessly, as if he'd just completed something utterly trivial.
However, he didn't return to the sideline to rest. Instead, he walked directly toward Ryonan's half, stopping before Yagami and Sendoh.
"I heard you defeated Kise and Murasakibara in practice games?"
Yagami and Sendoh looked at him.
"Your luck was good. Your first two opponents—one had immature skills, the other an immature mentality." Midorima adjusted his glasses, his voice steady. "But even so, I don't believe they'd lose to you in official games."
"Oh?" Yagami raised an eyebrow, surprise crossing his face. "Are you trying to salvage your former teammates' reputation?"
"Don't worry. You'll be the first 'Generation of Miracles' member we defeat in an official match."
"Heh." Midorima laughed dismissively, turning to leave. "If you can manage it, then try."
---
Warmups concluded. The curtain rose!
"The following is the Kanto Regional Qualifying semifinal between Ryonan High School and Shutoku High School. The game now officially begins!"
"PLEASE TAKE CARE OF US!!"
Both teams' battle cries echoed through the arena, fighting spirit instantly reaching its peak.
Ryonan's starting lineup: point guard Sendoh Akira, shooting guard Yagami Sorato, small forward Ikegami Ryoji, power forward Fukuda Kicchou, center Uozumi Jun.
Shutoku's starting lineup: point guard Takao Kazunari (176cm/65kg), shooting guard Midorima Shintaro (195cm/79kg), small forward Miyaji Kiyoshi (191cm/77kg), power forward Kimura Shinsuke (187cm/80kg), center Otsubo Taisuke (198cm/98kg).
From the opening tip, Ryonan deployed what Coach Taoka considered their strongest lineup.
"TWEET!"
The referee tossed the ball high. Uozumi and Otsubo jumped simultaneously.
"Smack!"
Uozumi, leveraging height and wingspan, gained a fingertip advantage and tipped the ball toward Ryonan's half.
The instant Sendoh secured possession, Takao pressed tight with aggressive on-ball defense, his positioning instantaneous as if he'd predicted it!
"Shutoku's reaction is incredibly fast! Though they didn't win the tip, they immediately shut down Ryonan's fast break opportunity!" The announcer's voice rang out.
"Really?"
Sendoh's lips curved upward. Facing Takao's pressure, he executed a light, flowing behind-the-back dribble that elegantly created half a body length of separation.
In that instant, his left hand had already grabbed the ball, launching a cross-court laser toward Shutoku's rim!
"What a quick pass! Sendoh's target is—an alley-oop!"
At the ball's landing point, Yagami had already cut into the paint. He planted precisely, exploding upward in one stride, extending his body in mid-air, reaching for the incoming ball with one hand, seemingly about to complete a thunderous alley-oop slam!
"Smack!"
However, another long, powerful hand pressed against the ball simultaneously!
Midorima!
Shutoku's center Otsubo hadn't even returned to the basket yet. Midorima had rotated from the wing, executing an ice-cold rejection that ruthlessly killed this seemingly guaranteed alley-oop!
The swatted ball flew away. Miyaji controlled possession and immediately spun to launch a counterattack. But Ikegami quickly locked on, using solid defensive footwork to stifle him completely.
Meanwhile, Shutoku's power forward Kimura had already crossed halfcourt, arms raised high.
In pre-game preparation, they'd already identified Fukuda's defensive weaknesses as a priority attack point. Since Ryonan dared put him on the floor, Shutoku would naturally exploit it fully.
Seeing this, Miyaji immediately kicked the ball to the trailing Takao.
Takao's eyes sharpened. After reading his teammates' positions, he fired a long outlet pass toward Ryonan's half without hesitation, targeting the streaking Kimura!
"Smack!"
Another crisp sound!
The instant the ball left Takao's palm, Sendoh, with remarkable court awareness and wingspan, precisely intercepted the dangerous outlet pass!
Steal successful!
Sendoh didn't pause for a second, immediately bringing the ball himself toward Shutoku's empty basket.
The game situation changed in a heartbeat. The opening possession stretched both teams' battle lines extremely long, players caught in chaotic transition offense.
Otsubo read the situation accurately, sprinting back to the basket to meet Sendoh head-on while Takao pursued from behind, forming a double-team.
Sendoh showed no fear. He jumped as if to attack but gracefully flicked his wrist in mid-air—
"Swish!"
The ball reached Yagami's hands on the right wing.
"Let me see what kind of level the 'Kanagawa Rookie King' who defeated Kise really possesses." Midorima's steady voice sounded in his ear. He stood before Yagami, his 195-centimeter height creating powerful pressure.
Yagami's lips curved into an excited smile. He suddenly dropped low, compressing his center of gravity, feinting a strong drive left.
Midorima immediately slid over, using his body to seal him off.
Just as their bodies were about to make contact, Yagami's dribbling right hand violently yanked the ball backward. His footwork simultaneously retreated—a massive, clean stepback that instantly created more than a full step of separation from Midorima, pulling him back beyond the arc!
Midorima reacted quickly, forcefully stopping his forward momentum and immediately turning, extending his long arms as far as possible, desperately contesting!
But Yagami had already risen calmly, his body maintaining perfect balance in the air, his wrist softly releasing the ball.
"Swish!"
Nothing but net!
[Ryonan 3 - Shutoku 0]
Ryonan struck first! The game's opening three-pointer belonged to Yagami Sorato!
"In a real game, who makes more threes is still up for debate." Yagami said lightly as he brushed past Midorima. "Let's compete, Midorima Shintaro."
"Heh. Interesting." Midorima's gaze sharpened.
---
Change of possession. Shutoku's offense.
"Sorry." Takao told his teammates, his expression somewhat grave. He hadn't expected his outlet pass to be intercepted so cleanly by Sendoh.
In Shutoku's pre-game scouting report, Sendoh was supposedly a player who took time to heat up and needed time to enter his rhythm. Though everyone seemed to know he was strong, the pressure he brought to opponents and spectators still fell short of Yagami.
"Don't worry about it. After all, they're Kanagawa's top team. Having this level of ability is expected." Otsubo said in a deep voice. "The game just started. Focus."
"Understood!"
Takao took a deep breath and pushed forward with the ball again.
But the moment he crossed the timeline, Sendoh's defense immediately enveloped him, the pressure almost suffocating.
"Sorato told me you're like the shadow supporting Midorima—critically important." Sendoh applied pressure while speaking in a calm tone. "So he specifically instructed me that from the very beginning, I should completely crush you."
"Aha... I'm really quite honored." Takao laughed dryly, trying to mask his stress with words. But under Sendoh's relentless defense, his dribbling footwork was actually forced into continuous retreat, nearly backing up to halfcourt.
This feeling... it's like facing that old guy from Kainan...
Meanwhile, Midorima was getting fronted by Yagami's constant pressure, unable to easily receive passes. Inside, Otsubo battled Uozumi under the basket, both fighting desperately for position.
Takao's brain worked at maximum speed, trying to sort through his options.
Surveying the floor, Shutoku's offense seemed stuck. Only Kimura and Miyaji, matched against Ryonan's wing defenders, held slight advantages.
Takao steadied himself, dribbling between his legs repeatedly, trying to create space and find a fleeting passing window. Just when he felt Sendoh's defense seemed to show a tiny crack of looseness, preparing to change rhythm and deliver the pass—
"Smack!"
Sendoh suddenly pressed forward aggressively, his long arm shooting out. The slight defensive relaxation was deliberate—he'd been waiting for the exact instant when Takao shifted his center of gravity and the ball left his hands!
The ball was stripped cleanly!
Takao's rhythm completely disrupted, the basketball bounced uncontrollably off his foot, caroming to the side.
Sendoh reacted with lightning reflexes, snatching up the loose ball and exploding forward in a flash!
He shook off every pursuing defender, easily penetrating into Shutoku's paint, flicking his wrist to guide the ball through the net.
"Ryonan scores another two!"
[Ryonan 5 - Shutoku 0]
"Two consecutive possessions! Ryonan's limited Shutoku's opening offensive attempts extremely effectively!" The announcer's voice carried amazement. "Their pre-game preparation was clearly thorough, especially Sendoh. He's completely shed his usual slow-start image, displaying remarkable aggression and defensive pressure from the opening quarter!"
"By the way, though you all seem more interested in Sorato—" Sendoh's face carried a relaxed smile "—Ryonan's ace is me."
"If you can't beat me, don't even think about beating Ryonan."