Days passed one by one.
Watching the kids continue extra practice after daily activities ended, Shio Yamashita believed that fighting for Yuuto regardless of cost back then was the wisest decision he had ever made in his life.
He still remembered the first day, the regulars of the basketball club wanted to give Yuuto a display of authority, teaching him how to respect seniors, showing considerable hostility toward Yuuto.
Now it was all good.
The entire team was kneaded into a ball by Yuuto instead; even Ryuhei Kasuga was incredibly convinced by Yuuto.
Such cohesion could allow them to explode with stronger power.
Seeing the basketball club activity time about to start.
Shio Yamashita arrived at the gym on time with the grouping table and called everyone over.
"The grouping for the Inter-High District Preliminaries is out."
His gaze swept over everyone, finding only anticipation in the kids' eyes, nothing else.
Such confidence satisfied him.
"This year we are placed in Group A. Touou is in Group B, so before the Final League, we won't be able to get revenge on Touou."
Hearing the word "Touou," Iwamura and the others breathed heavier.
Over the past two years, they had lost to Touou more than once.
If asked which team they wanted to beat most right now, it was undoubtedly Touou.
"Although we won't encounter Touou in the group stage, don't lower your guard. The participating teams in Group A this year include Shutoku."
Shutoku?!
As soon as this name came out, the air flow around them seemed to stagnate for a moment.
Tokyo had Three Kings; this had been mentioned many times.
However, last year, since Senshinkan failed to get any Generation of Miracles member in the competition among many basketball clubs, they were bound to fall out of the main group in the next three years.
Current Tokyo was in a state of three pillars standing tall.
Lion King Yuuto was with them at Seiho, Daiki Aomine at Touou, and Shutoku—they secured the Generation of Miracles' best shooter last year.
Those geniuses—if you haven't teamed up with them, you don't know how unreasonably strong they are.
"If we want to break out of the Tokyo district, we must cross over Shutoku."
Shio Yamashita circled forcefully on the schedule with a red pen.
Meeting in the group stage was already a foregone conclusion.
This year, between Seiho and Shutoku, one team must be unable to participate in the National Tournament (Inter-High) main draw.
But conversely.
As long as they could win this match against Shutoku.
Then Seiho would essentially automatically obtain one of the three promotion spots in the Tokyo district.
"But before that, we will encounter the Seirin team Yuuto met before."
Shio Yamashita pointed to the schedule again.
According to the Group A schedule, after the first round, if everything went smoothly, Seiho would meet Seirin in the second round.
"It really is a Group of Death." Iwamura shook his head.
Seiho's draw luck for the National Tournament this year was truly terrible.
Not only meeting Shutoku in the group stage but also having Seirin, a dark horse that defeated Kaijo not long ago.
This made Seiho's road to promotion confusing and unpredictable.
"Hmph, the ones who should be worried are them. We are Seiho!" Ryuhei Kasuga snorted coldly, still taking pride in wearing the Seiho jersey.
Seiho's grouping was indeed bad, worthy of being called a Group of Death.
However.
He dared to guarantee that compared to them, Shutoku and Seirin must be more stressed right now.
In fact.
He guessed correctly.
When the grouping came out, the atmosphere of the entire Seirin basketball club became heavy.
"Our opponent in the first round is Shinkyo Academy. They welcomed a foreign player this year, a black player with outstanding athletic ability and height over 2 meters."
"From what I know, Shinkyo won all their practice matches this year by large margins. They have already set their sights on Seiho and Shutoku, hoping to defeat teams possessing the Generation of Miracles and Yuuto."
"Foreign aid? Doesn't matter, we also have Kagami the returnee, right? Hahahaha." Junpei Hyuga told a cold joke, attempting to relax everyone.
And defeating Kaijo indeed gave them great confidence and courage.
They believed they wouldn't lose to Shinkyo and a mere foreign aid.
"Correct, but the difficult part is the subsequent matches. If we successfully make it to the next round..."
"Our next opponent is the King, Seiho!"
Riko Aida was never worried about Shinkyo, but Seiho.
"Last year we lost to Seiho by a large margin. This year they even brought in Yuuto."
Almost no good news.
They already had no psychological advantage against Seiho, and now the opponent absorbed last year's strongest middle school student.
This put huge pressure on everyone at Seirin.
Hearing this, Taiga Kagami couldn't help recalling Yuuto whom he saw that day.
The opponent's composed demeanor was deeply engraved in his mind.
Intuition told him the other party wasn't bluffing.
However...
"Can't win? Just perfect!"
"After returning to Japan, I haven't played for a while and got rusty. I feel very fulfilled now."
"Life really needs challenges after all!"
Kagami couldn't help laughing out loud.
He was also the type who got more excited the stronger the opponent was.
"That's the spirit." Riko Aida smiled slightly.
Precisely because victory was slim and no one thought they could win, they could exert power exceeding 100%.
"Yosh! For the upcoming National Tournament, training this year is all doubled!"
...
May 16th.
The flames of the National Tournament reignited.
This day.
Yuuto arrived early at the basketball club to wait.
Today was the opening day of the National Tournament.
Compared to Tochigi Prefecture, the Tokyo area had the most participating teams in the country.
Roughly estimated over 300 teams. Even though the promotion spots were the most in the country at 3, the promotion ratio reached an astonishing 1:100!
This meant every promoted team needed to step over the corpses of 100 participating teams.
Such a competitive environment also resulted in the teams breaking out of Tokyo being generally very strong.
They took the team bus to the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
The venue was bustling with activity. Not only the participating teams came, but also students and fans behind each team.
Tokyo area was already recognized as the most fiercely competitive region.
Especially obvious this year.
Of the six geniuses who shocked the nation last year, just the Tokyo area gathered 3 of them this year.
Undoubtedly, for the next three years, the Tokyo area would be the "center" of national high school basketball.
As the bus drove into the arena, it received cheers from many fans.
This was partly because Seiho itself was one of the best teams in Tokyo, but even more so because of Yuuto.
Three years ago, Homi Academy was still a scrub team unable to break out of Okukozome.
After having Yuuto, they not only defeated Seikai Dai High Affiliated for three consecutive years but also became the noble National Tournament champions in one fell swoop.
Such a story was very popular in a place like Tokyo.
Compared to those geniuses who came out of famous schools step by step, this boy who led a scrub team to kill their way out of the countryside naturally carried the legendary undertone of a conqueror.
In Yuuto, people could feel an inspirational story of counterattacking from the bottom.
...
Get 20+ chapters ahead on - P.a.t.r.e.o.n "RoseWhisky"