Watching Yuuto slaughter his team, Shio Yamashita opened his mouth, hesitating whether to ask Yuuto not to kill them too ruthlessly.
On the court.
It was the third-year regulars' turn again.
Ryuhei Kasuga was the team's main scorer and also the playmaker.
As soon as he reached the three-point line, Tomoki Tsugawa was already defending right in front of him.
Several match-ups had already shown him how tricky Tsugawa was—it was like seeing a ghost.
"Damn it!" After trying a few times, he still couldn't break through Tsugawa's blockade.
He really wanted to disregard everything and go one-on-one with him.
But as Seiho's point guard, he had to maintain sufficient rationality.
In his two years at Seiho, he hadn't not encountered tricky defenders.
Just treat Tsugawa as that level of opponent.
Seiho's victory was the primary condition above all else.
Without waiting for Tsutomu Iwamura to act, Ryuhei Kasuga actively called for a screen, "Iwamura!"
Hearing this, Tsugawa's attention was involuntarily diverted mostly to Iwamura.
But Ryuhei Kasuga.
He very cleverly bypassed Tsugawa's defense from the other side.
No one ever stipulated that a pick-and-roll must involve driving from the teammate's direction.
Kasuga broke into the free-throw line in a few steps, while Iwamura rolled to the basket simultaneously.
They had executed this coordination countless times over the past two years; their teamwork was incomparably tacit.
Two of the three "deadweight" freshmen saw this and immediately pounced in their direction.
Kasuga's eyes narrowed, having already prepared to pass.
The one he remained vigilant against was always the Lion King, Yuuto.
Pap-pap~
Using unique footwork, he shook off the double-team, killed into the paint, and jumped.
At the same time, Yuuto's help defense arrived.
"You're exactly who I was waiting for!" Kasuga shouted in his heart.
He had no intention of challenging Yuuto. His eyes had already confirmed Iwamura's position; in mid-air, he changed his low layup into a pass.
But...
"What?!"
Ryuhei Kasuga, Tsutomu Iwamura, and the rest of the players all widened their eyes as if seeing something incredible.
They saw Yuuto in mid-air perform a move that violated the laws of physics, spinning while swinging his arm, intercepting Kasuga's pass.
But humans can't truly violate the laws of physics completely, which meant Yuuto...
"Completely saw through our offensive intent..."
The ball was picked up by one of the deadweight freshmen, and they followed up to complete a counterattack.
Score 10:2!
Ryuhei Kasuga ignored the score, staring at Yuuto with dull eyes.
"Why so surprised? Didn't your eyes tell me what you wanted to do?" Yuuto stood motionless.
Before this, he had faced Akashi's perfect passing.
"Compared to Akashi, your offensive intent is too obvious." Yuuto twisted his neck. "That guy's passes could always avoid my interception and be delivered to teammates in the safest, most tricky way."
Those were perfect passes that required multiple corrections and luck to intercept.
Ryuhei Kasuga was still far from it.
"10 to 2... The gap is actually this big." Shio Yamashita took a deep breath on the sidelines.
He had given up and started thinking about how to comfort these poor kids after the match.
He always knew Yuuto and the Generation of Miracles were strong.
But those were middle school games after all. Even if the talent was once-in-a-decade, it shouldn't go so far as to thrash the players he meticulously coached.
Now...
His disciples were probably going to suffer a bloodbath.
...
Ten minutes later.
This unique welcoming ceremony ended.
The score was 27 to 10. Seiho's starting five lost by 17 points.
Such a result exceeded everyone's expectations.
At this moment, the basketball club members looked at Yuuto with different eyes.
Not to the extent of treating Yuuto like a god as the Homi Academy people did.
However.
He indeed left an indelible, profound impression in the hearts of Seiho's players through this match.
"Did you all feel it? This bone-chilling defeat."
Shio Yamashita walked up to his disciples.
Currently, Ryuhei Kasuga and the others were all dejected.
What pride of a King? It had long been ruthlessly crushed by Yuuto.
"This is our Seiho's situation over the past two years. We always call ourselves Kings, but our performance gives people a sense of incongruity and absurdity compared to that title."
"A King is never self-proclaimed; they should be praised by others. Go back and reflect properly on this."
Shio Yamashita chattered endlessly over there, scolding his disciples.
No destruction, no construction.
This was the rhetoric he decided on after thinking for a long time.
Crush their pride, then help them stand up again.
"We disappointed you, Coach." Tsutomu Iwamura sighed silently, stepping forward first as captain to express his stance. "But Yuuto, he really is so strong."
In a 10-minute match, Yuuto convinced everyone with ability that reigned above all others.
...
Seirin Basketball Club.
Similar things were happening there too.
All day today.
Head Coach Riko Aida was a bit tense.
The reason was that during club recruitment, she noticed two incredible freshmen.
One was a returnee, a first-year named Taiga Kagami.
Although separated by clothes and not seeing very clearly, upon first meeting, Riko Aida was still shocked by Taiga Kagami's body stats.
Honestly.
It was almost the same as Yuuto, whom she had seen with her own eyes. Especially the leg muscles were quite developed; who knew what height he could reach jumping with full force?
The other one she hadn't seen in person yet, only an application form.
But this person was the one she cared about most.
Because the school he played for in his third year of middle school was Homi Academy.
Homi Academy!
That was the academy where the Lion King Yuuto was.
Under his leadership, Homi Academy successfully sniped Teiko last year, preventing the Generation of Miracles' three-peat and winning the championship in one fell swoop.
That match was absolutely the most intense in the history of the National Tournament.
The sparks created by the collision of those geniuses were incomparably brilliant.
Moreover, the name Tetsuya Kuroko was extremely familiar to her; he was one of Homi Academy's starters at the time.
A Lion from Okukozome actually came to their Seirin.
This was a huge stroke of luck.
She couldn't wait for the upcoming basketball club activities.
...
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