Chapter 129 - Advancing to the Final Four
From the Touou bench section, Imayoshi had been watching Ryonan's lineup change with careful attention.
He recalled the player profile from the tournament roster. Yagami Sorato - listed at 190 centimeters. A fraction taller than what had been registered during the prefectural qualifying run.
In Japanese high school basketball, 190 centimeters at power forward was standard. Sakuragi Hanamichi of Shohoku was 190. Kagami Taiga from Seirin was the same. Aomine was 192.
"With Yagami crashing the paint," Imayoshi said quietly, "Ryonan was previously undersized against Meiko's two-tower setup. With him inside, three against two is more than enough."
He pushed his glasses up. "And for Meiko, forcing their other players into the paint produces nothing - it just creates fast break exposure. The question is what Meiko does now."
"Imayoshi, you're smiling like a villain," Susa said.
"Hmm?" Imayoshi looked around. Wakamatsu and Sakurai were nodding in agreement with Susa.
"...You lot would be better off watching the game this carefully all the time."
---
The timeout ended. Meiko's possession.
Miyamoto walked the ball up and assessed his matchups.
Yagami hadn't dropped into the paint immediately. He was positioned one step inside the three-point line against Takeuchi - his posture suggesting he was preventing a straight-line drive rather than committing to lockdown coverage.
On the wing, Sasaki had the height to punish Hikoichi, but Sendoh was actively disrupting that passing lane. Hikoichi was using his quicker footwork to front Sasaki's positioning - from Miyamoto's angle it looked optimistic, but it was working.
A bounce pass threaded through traffic and arrived at Shimizu's hands on the right side.
Shimizu jab-stepped once to freeze Fukuda's footwork and drove cleanly into the paint.
"Rotating right!" Uozumi moved.
Yagami converged toward the paint simultaneously, but deliberately maintained his distance from Takeuchi, keeping him just within peripheral awareness.
"Takeuchi! Move!" Tamura's voice from the sideline.
Takeuchi startled and realized the open space he had been standing in. He broke from his position and ran toward the arc.
Shimizu passed to Morishige. Yagami read the ball's destination and released Takeuchi without a second thought, converging on Morishige.
Takeuchi felt something that went past frustration. He was Meiko's exterior offensive core. Yagami had watched him run free and simply decided to leave him.
"Hiroshi!" Takeuchi called from the three-point line.
Morishige caught the ball, heard his teammate, recalled the coach's instructions.
The position was good. The opportunity was right in front of him.
He stepped left with one hard dribble to create space from Uozumi, found the angle, and rose into a hook shot.
A palm appeared directly in front of his face.
The sudden obstruction disrupted his feel for the ball. The hook came off with too much force and struck the side of the rim, bouncing high.
"Rebound!"
Uozumi and Morishige went up simultaneously. Uozumi wanted to use the height advantage to collect on the descent.
Shimizu came crashing in from the side.
The ball dropped to him perfectly. He put it back up and in.
The ball came off the rim hard. Uozumi roared and tracked it. Morishige contested. In the scramble, Uozumi emerged with the ball.
"Counter!"
Sendoh received the outlet. Ryonan shifted gears immediately. Miyamoto was retreating fast - Sendoh's transition speed was higher.
As Miyamoto came level with the three-point line, Sendoh pulled up suddenly with a backward step.
"You're not getting a clean look!" Miyamoto had anticipated something and was already lunging forward with his reach.
The ball hit the floor hard in an explosion step.
Sendoh's body fired through it, sliding past Miyamoto's extending momentum with a single stride and putting the ball up softly off the glass.
Ryonan 85, Meiko 74.
After the timeout, Meiko still hadn't scored. Ryonan had outscored them seven to nothing in two minutes.
"Pass the ball, Hiroshi!" Tamura's voice carried the specific quality of a coach who has run out of patience completely. "There's no time left for mistakes!"
"I thought nobody had me covered," Morishige said quietly, head slightly down.
"It's okay, Hiroshi." Miyamoto was already back in position. Despite the imposing frame and expression, Morishige was still just a sixteen-year-old who had been playing basketball for only two years. "Remember - we're always out here on the perimeter ready to receive. But the interior is yours to hold alone."
"Okay." He nodded.
---
Meiko possession.
Miyamoto used Sasaki's screen to find an unexpected gap and converted an open long two-pointer.
Ryonan 85, Meiko 76.
Good shot. Brief window of momentum.
Ryonan possession. Sendoh drove toward the baseline, initiating a crossing action with Hikoichi coming from the opposite direction. The ball moved hand-to-hand between them in the exchange and ended with Hikoichi stepping back out to the three-point line with nobody within range.
"What?" From the stands, Sakurai leaned forward. He'd seen Hikoichi appear in open space and couldn't identify where the defensive breakdown had happened.
"That's why he's back in the game!" Hikoichi caught the ball with his eyes already on the basket. He rose.
Off iron.
A sharp involuntary sound from Hikoichi as he landed.
Miyamoto, who had been moving to cover, stopped and held both hands up. "I didn't touch you!"
In the scramble for the rebound, Morishige's explosive second jump won the contest over Uozumi.
Yagami's hand came across the ball as Morishige gathered it. The ball came loose.
"Mine!" Uozumi went up hard and secured it.
The crowd reacted.
Uozumi turned to push the ball ahead and Morishige applied pressure from behind. The contact was heavy enough that the ball nearly came free again.
In a flash of instinct Uozumi flipped the ball along the baseline to the right.
Fukuda caught it in motion, used a quick tempo shift to send Shimizu's weight in the wrong direction, dropped his center of gravity, and drove straight to the paint. His jump was compact and well-timed.
Morishige second-jumped and blocked it flat against the backboard. Again.
The ball bounced hard off the board.
Morishige landed. Without pausing he dropped his weight and used his shoulder to physically move Uozumi and Fukuda from their positions. One determined push. His legs loaded for a third jump.
"He's like a human tank!"
Just as Morishige's hand was closing on the ball, another hand arrived first and pressed down on it.
Yagami had come off the perimeter. He jumped directly into Morishige's body - shoulder into chest - and both of them hung in the air in a visible, contested pause.
Then Yagami's right arm came over Morishige's and drove the ball down through the basket with everything behind it.
The sound was heavy and complete.
Yagami staggered one step on landing. Morishige sat down on the floor from the reaction force.
"Foul!"
"Ryonan number ten - offensive foul! Basket does not count!"
The arena went silent for one second, then loud in a different way.
Coach Taoka was already at the scorer's table before the call finished. Challenge.
Game paused.
In the Ryonan section above, the chanting started regardless.
"Yagami! Yagami! Yagami!"
Whatever the ruling came back as, what had just happened communicated something unambiguous. A first-year had tried to dunk over Morishige Hiroshi on the third contested jump of the same rebound sequence. No hesitation. No adjustment to the situation.
One minute later, the original call held.
Coach Taoka had argued the charge zone and argued that Yagami's momentum was directed at the ball rather than the body. The referees maintained the contact had been a charge first.
"Don't worry about it," Uozumi said.
"I'm not," Yagami said, waving a hand. "Just minus two points."
Uozumi stood with this for a moment and felt, with unusual clarity, the exact origin of Ikegami's recurring irritation.
---
Meiko's possession. Time was running short and they pushed the pace.
Miyamoto converted one. Sendoh's defensive pressure on him immediately increased in response.
The ball went inside to Morishige. He caught it, and as he felt Yagami's double-team forming in his peripheral vision - without hesitation - he threw the ball out to Takeuchi on the perimeter.
The ball disappeared in mid-air.
Yagami had cut the pass off cleanly.
"Your delivery angle is easy to read," he said, already pushing the transition.
"Defense! Back!" Miyamoto's voice went out immediately.
Meiko recovered. Ryonan came anyway - Sendoh, Yagami, Fukuda wide in a three-on-three break against Meiko's retreating defenders.
Fukuda drove into the paint and pulled two defenders toward him. Sendoh attracted coverage from a third, committed his body one direction, and released the ball behind him without turning.
The ball went where Sendoh wasn't looking.
Yagami received it on the wing, one step inside the three-point line. He rose immediately.
Clean.
The gap widened and continued to widen.
---
Final score.
Ryonan 98, Meiko Industrial 82.
"National High School Athletic Championship Basketball Competition, Round Two winner - Ryonan High School! Advancing to the Final Four!"
Post-game handshake at center court.
Yagami reached Miyamoto.
"If you only aim for the Final Four," Yagami said, "you won't reach the Final Four."
Miyamoto's expression shifted. His grip tightened instinctively.
On either side, Sendoh and Uozumi watched carefully. Sendoh wondering what Yagami was doing saying this now. Uozumi prepared to step in front of him if Meiko's players decided to respond physically.
Yagami continued, voice steady. "Every team standing on this floor - deep down - has to be aiming for the national championship."
He held Miyamoto's eyes.
"Dreams that get laughed at when you say them out loud. Those are the ones worth making real. Aren't they."
Miyamoto held still. He was looking at this first-year player and finding nothing resembling a victor's condescension, nothing that felt like a lecture. Just something that appeared to be simple, unperformed belief.
His grip slowly released. The brief anger dissolved into something more complicated.
"Yeah." He looked back at Yagami directly. "We'll be back at the winter cup."
On the other side of the handshake line, Morishige and Uozumi had found each other.
"Old man," Morishige said, scratching the back of his head with his usual flat expression. "You're more than just tall."
A pause.
"Next time - no matter how many people you have in the paint - I won't lose."
"Right, right -" Uozumi's voice began and stopped. "Who are you calling old man?!"
---
Both teams completed the exchange and separated. Ryonan turned toward their supporters. Meiko's players walked away.
Meiko Industrial. National High School Athletic Championship. Eliminated in the quarterfinals.
---
After a simple lunch and a short rest, Ryonan's entire squad returned to the arena and found seats with a clear, elevated view over the entire court.
There was still time before the afternoon games began. The arena was already completely full. The atmosphere was different from the morning - more compressed, more electric. The particular quality of a space where a large number of people have all agreed that what is about to happen matters.
The reason was not complicated.
The two undisputed championship favorites of this national tournament, each carrying a member of the undefeated Generation of Miracles, were scheduled to play each other in the quarterfinals this afternoon.
Touou Academy. Rakuzan High School.
Within the tournament's unofficial power structure, the top tier held three teams: Sannoh Industrial, Rakuzan, and Touou. Everything else - Yousen, Ryonan, the remaining field - occupied a distinct level below.
Two of those three were meeting today. The bracket had produced what many had hoped would be saved for the final.
"This is a preview of the championship match, and it's happening now," Coach Taoka said. "Watch everything. Miss nothing."
He didn't need to say it.
Rakuzan had never faced Ryonan. Touou had beaten them in the Kanto Regional final weeks ago. For different reasons, both of them were opponents Ryonan was going to have to beat.