The court had gone silent.
Only the sound of Sakuragi Hanamichi groaning in pain could be heard.
"Oww... that really hurt..." Sakuragi Hanamichi's face twisted in agony. He clutched his butt and stayed down for a long time, unable to get up.
In the stands—
Seeing how pathetic he looked, Sakuragi's gang couldn't help but mutter.
Takamiya Nozomi said, "Sakuragi looks seriously injured!"
Noma Chuichirou frowned. "You think that fall's gonna leave permanent damage?"
Ohkusu Yuji snapped, "Is this really the time to be worrying about that?"
Mito Yohei said calmly, "Getting dunked on that cleanly... that's a major humiliation for Sakuragi."
"Sakuragi..." Akagi Haruko watched from the sidelines, eyes full of worry as she looked at him still sitting on the floor, holding his backside.
Matsui let out a long breath, like he'd just come back to life. "That scared the hell out of me. I thought he was gonna die!"
Fujii sighed too, still shaken. "Man, basketball really is dangerous."
…
On the court—
Aoi Kunisaku walked past Sakuragi Hanamichi with a look of disgust and said, "Stop lying there like a loser. If you can't get up, just leave the court."
Hearing that, Sakuragi immediately felt humiliated. He gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the pain shooting up from his tailbone, and shouted at Aoi, "Bastard! Who are you calling a loser?! I was just—"
Before he could finish, Mitsui Hisashi cut him off.
"You were just slammed clean into the ground by someone's dunk. That's all."
Sakuragi whipped around and glared at Mitsui. "I told you! I'm not! I didn't! That was just a fluke!"
"Ugh..." Rukawa Kaede stood with his back to Sakuragi, letting out a silent, speechless shrug.
He didn't say a word, but that simple gesture somehow hit Sakuragi straight in the gut.
"You bastard, Rukawa Kaede! You looking down on me?" Sakuragi yelled, face burning red—no one could tell if it was from anger or embarrassment. He looked like a tomato ready to pop.
Akagi Takenori didn't say a thing. But seeing Sakuragi still arguing with everyone else, he knew the guy was fine.
Ironically, because Akagi said nothing, Sakuragi felt ignored.
"Stupid gorilla! How dare you ignore me!" Sakuragi was fuming now, face tight with rage. But even so, he didn't dare say anything out loud to Akagi. He just glared at him from behind.
Back in the game—
It was like Sakuragi wanted to earn back the dignity he lost from being dunked into the floor. He charged back at Morishige Hiroshi without hesitation.
He actively engaged Morishige, trying to box out and grab rebounds.
But facing someone with clearly superior physical ability, Sakuragi could only throw himself into every little opening he could find.
Clang—
The basketball hit the rim and bounced out.
Sakuragi gave it everything to push Morishige aside, but no matter how hard he tried, Morishige didn't budge an inch.
Morishige didn't even move. It wasn't intentional—it was just normal contact. But even that made Sakuragi stumble back a few steps, nearly falling again.
"Damn brute!" Sakuragi cursed inside. But there was nothing he could do.
Morishige leapt up and reached for the ball.
Akagi jumped too, trying to beat him to it.
But Morishige's explosiveness easily outclassed him.
Before Akagi's hand could even reach the ball, Morishige's had already snatched it out of the air.
Akagi's eyelid twitched. He felt frustrated but could only accept it.
Morishige Hiroshi: Rebound +1
Again, under Shohoku's rim, Morishige gripped the ball, getting ready to dunk.
Sakuragi glared at him, arms out wide, standing firm in the paint like he was ready to die fighting.
Morishige jumped, ball in hand, and slammed it right in front of Sakuragi.
Not backing down, Sakuragi jumped too, aiming to block the dunk and serve up a crushing rejection.
In his head, he already pictured himself slamming Morishige to the ground in payback.
But the moment his hand touched the ball, Sakuragi's face changed.
He felt an overwhelming force blast through his hand. His own strength was instantly crushed.
Then, as Morishige's whole body powered forward, Sakuragi was dragged along with the momentum and flung backward.
A bad feeling rushed through him.
All anyone could see was Sakuragi flying through the air, pulled by the force of Morishige's dunk under Shohoku's basket.
Clang—
A deafening crash echoed through the entire gym.
Morishige Hiroshi slammed the basketball hard into Shohoku's hoop.
Sakuragi Hanamichi was flung straight out, crashing onto the floor beneath the basket.
His head was spinning.
He lay there, eyes dull. For a moment, he couldn't even feel the pain surging through his body.
The crowd gasped in unison, jaws tightening and breath catching.
That last fall Sakuragi took looked brutal.
"Is he okay? That looked like a nasty landing."
"Maybe… hopefully… probably… he's fine?"
"He hasn't moved. Did he just die?"
"No way. It's just a basketball game. He's not gonna die from that."
…
The spectators whispered, murmuring about what had just happened.
On the court—
Akagi Takenori and the others watched Sakuragi lying there, concern written all over their faces.
The Shohoku bench was already preparing to rush over with the first aid kit.
But just then, Sakuragi sat up.
The dazed look faded from his eyes.
He snapped back to his senses and looked up—at Morishige Hiroshi, still hanging from the rim.
One up high. One down low. Their gazes locked across the distance.
Time seemed to freeze. No words could capture that moment.
"I will never—never forgive you," Sakuragi growled, eyes blazing with fury, teeth grinding.
A red aura rose from his body. A wild, primal energy burst from him and spread outward.
Everyone saw the shift in his energy and their faces changed.
They recognized it.
It was "Wild Instinct."
They'd seen this before, during the match with Kainan.
Morishige Hiroshi felt it too. His expression shifted slightly. He released his grip and dropped back to the ground.
The referee had just raised the whistle to call a foul, but saw Morishige let go.
The breath he'd drawn got stuck in his throat.
Cough, cough, cough, cough…
The ref hacked awkwardly for a while, glaring at Morishige like he owed him an apology.
Morishige had no idea he'd just unknowingly pissed off the ref.
"You look kinda scary like that," he said. "The old man said this thing of yours is called…"
He thought for a second. "I think it's called 'Wild Instinct,' right?"
Sakuragi stomped up to him, eyes wide and fierce, almost pressing his forehead into Morishige's.
They stared each other down, face to face.
Everyone around thought the two were about to brawl.
Both Shohoku and Meihou players got ready to pull them apart.
But right then, Sakuragi's expression flipped. His glare melted into a smug grin.
"How's that? I got Wild Instinct and you don't. Jealous? Well too bad! Only geniuses like me have it. Sucks for you!"
Immediately, the crowd collapsed in unison.
Everyone—Shohoku and Meihou alike—looked at Sakuragi with faces full of contempt.
Shameless.
But… technically, he wasn't wrong.
Still, Morishige didn't get angry. He just stared back calmly with that simple, clueless look on his face.
He answered flatly, "Why would I need that? You're not even my match anyway."
Crack.
It was like thunder cracked right over Sakuragi's skull.
He froze, eyes wide, speechless for a long second.
Then his face turned bright red with frustration.
"Just now I was holding back! You better get ready. I'm gonna beat you next time!" he yelled, then stormed off.
Akagi Takenori shouted after him, veins popping, "Idiot! Where the hell are you going?!"
"Back on defense, duh!" Sakuragi yelled back without thinking.
Mitsui Hisashi slapped his forehead, looking totally done. "Are you stupid? It's our turn to attack now."
Uhh…
Sakuragi froze on the spot.
It felt like a crow just flew right over his head.
Rukawa Kaede walked past him, giving him a side-eye glance.
Sakuragi, trying to ignore the embarrassment, returned the glance.
Then Rukawa said bluntly, "Big idiot."
Sakuragi's face turned red with rage. He wanted to shout back, but knew he'd messed up.
So he said nothing and swallowed the anger down.