Kurokami Shinji stared at the double-team in front of him, a flicker of excitement flashing in his eyes.
"Hmph… not bad. Choosing to trap me, you actually know what you're doing."
"But still…"
"Is that really necessary? I'm not that monster Shigure."
Kashigawa Tatsuo shook his head, extending one hand to measure the defensive distance.
"With your height and that rare outside shooting ability most centers don't have… for you monsters of Teiko, I suppose it makes sense."
Kurokami immediately noticed the way they were positioned. Kashigawa, the taller of the two, was clearly focused on stopping any mid- to long-range jumper he might take.
"But…"
"Two men are enough?"
"What?!"
Ball in one hand, Kurokami's triple-threat stance looked anything but threatening. His posture suggested no intent to drive, yet the mounting pressure radiating from him made Kashigawa and Mori Osamu's defense tighten instinctively.
"This is my debut game with the new team. I'll have to show everything I've got… otherwise…"
His mind flashed back to his days at Teiko.
Back to those brats who didn't even bother to ask which high school he was heading to.
Tch!
They ignored me completely!
The grudge that had festered since he left Teiko boiled over. Kurokami suddenly dropped his stance, exploding forward from mid-range.
As expected
At 202 cm, any speed-based drive was quickly walled off by Kaijō's two-man defense.
But in the very next instant
That failed drive suddenly twisted into a spin. Not a power move, but a whirl of elegant footwork, shifting angles in tight, precise steps.
Kurokami lacked Murasakibara's monstrous physical gifts; his speed told the story well enough. But like Fukasaya, he had chosen a different path
abandoning all-around development to pour everything into refining the micro-steps of his footwork.
Step after step, sharp and fluid:
Left
Right
Left again
His towering frame seemed to glide like a fish through water, slipping between Kashigawa and Mori Osamu in an instant.
On the other end of the court, Hayakawa Mitsuhiro was dumbstruck. As a power forward, he was even more shocked than when he had witnessed Shigure Akihito's dominance earlier.
He forgot entirely to clear out of the paint, leaving no space for Kurokami.
Now
Kurokami extended the ball one-handed toward the rim, lowering his body as though preparing to strike. Fujikawa Masaei slid over to help, face tightening—he nearly bit on the fake!
A drive feint!
The one-handed ball snapped back!
Dead-ball stance
His shoulders twitched left, then right
In that heartbeat, with Kaijō's three-man front all second-guessing from his layered fakes, Kurokami gave them no chance to recover.
His attack flowed relentlessly.
Right foot pivot
Spin!
Inside the lane
Fadeaway jumper!
Swish!
The ball cut clean through the net.
The three defenders were still reeling from his endless footwork and deceptive feints. Even without the fadeaway, they couldn't have reacted in time.
Meanwhile
Watching the shot, Shigure Akihito's eyes gleamed. He was stunned by Kurokami's composure, realizing immediately that his footwork had already broken beyond Akagi Takenori's Dream Shake.
It had fused into something deeper, more versatile—and faster than back in middle school.
And beyond that
Triple-threat explosion.
Short-step agility.
A fadeaway with height, speed, and precision.
Kurokami Shinji clearly hadn't wasted a single day since leaving Teiko.
On the sidelines, even Captain Fujikawa Masaei's usual calm cracked, awe flashing across his face.
Too strong…
Just Kurokami Shinji alone was enough to overwhelm Kaijō's entire frontline.
A 202 cm center who could put the ball on the floor, combine such footwork, and shoot fadeaways—neither Kaijō's technique nor their size could hold him.
…
Kaijō's starters rallied on offense.
They had been shaken by Kurokami's dominance, but with their captain's encouragement, they still tried to keep composure.
But
With Shigure's all-court defensive reach…
Very quickly, the score ballooned to an absurd 22–0.
Almost all the points had come from Kurokami Shinji and Fukasaya Reiji, while Teiko's Twin Stars—Shigure Akihito and Nijimura Shuzo—hadn't even fully unleashed their offense yet.
Nijimura advanced the ball.
Kaijō, however, kept their defense glued to Kurokami, hyper-focused. Even when he was off-ball, at least two defenders hovered around him.
Kurokami: "…"
So this is what Shigure enjoys?
To be honest, it wasn't half bad. When this happened, it meant one of two things: either the opponents thought everyone else was weak and only needed to help on him, or… they were so rattled by his dominance that they had no other choice.
Clearly, this was the latter.
Seeing this, Kurokami deliberately pulled inside, dragging the whole cluster of defenders with him, opening the perimeter for his teammates.
Fujikawa exchanged a glance with his teammates. In an instant, they understood. Kashigawa and Mori Osamu rushed in to help, joining forces with Fujikawa to cage Kurokami. The outside was left to Moriyama Yoshitaka and Kasamatsu Yukio, the speedy second-year duo.
Inside
"Let's see how you handle this."
"…What's the point?" Kurokami muttered softly.
Fujikawa and the others left nothing to chance, locking him down tight.
But just as they were about to close the trap
Kurokami used his height and vision to loft the ball high over their heads, sailing toward the three-point arc.
"At Teiko… winning is everything. But that doesn't mean we don't pass."
Whoosh!
The ball was released. The sound of a shot followed almost immediately.
Fujikawa: "!?"
What?!
The pass had barely left Kurokami's hand, and already the shot was flying? Too fast!
On the sidelines, a stunned silence gave way to an explosion of voices.
"Ah?!"
"Am I dreaming?"
"Shigure Akihito just…"
"An… alley-oop three-pointer?!"
In that instant
Leaping from beyond the arc to snatch Kurokami's high lob midair, Shigure Akihito stunned everyone.
Still rising, he released it in the style of Mitsui Hisashi's alley-oop jumpers
And then
Swish!
Nothing but net.
END OF CHAPTER
CROWN BEFORE THE MIRACLES
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