Like a fierce tiger trapped in a cage, ready to break out at any moment.
Taiga Kagami was currently in such a state.
The Wildness talent was hidden in his DNA, waiting for him to activate.
But ultimately, he was still one step short.
Yuuto watched Kagami turn and chase to his side, exerting force with five fingers to dribble the ball behind his back.
"Going to change direction?!" Kagami's attention was highly concentrated, his brain spinning wildly, predicting Yuuto's next move.
But the next scene, he couldn't judge no matter what.
Because it had exceeded the scope of his brain's understanding.
This was a way of playing he had never considered.
Bang~
With a loud noise, Yuuto, dribbling with his right hand, pulled the ball behind his back. Instead of changing direction smoothly as Kagami predicted...
He actually raised his right arm and swung it backward again, hitting the basketball with his elbow to complete this imaginative pass.
Snap!
The basketball hit the floor and bounced into the hands of the trailing Ryuhei Kasuga.
With a flat path to the basket, Kasuga dribbled quickly into the paint and scored with a layup.
From beginning to end, Yuuto didn't look at his teammate once, his eyes locked on Kagami.
And Kagami also stared blankly at Yuuto staring at him.
That feeling.
It was like a god asking a mortal: Did you understand?
A genius's flash of inspiration!
This was a spirituality one couldn't possess no matter how many years of hard training.
This broke Kagami's past cognition of basketball.
The ball... can actually be passed like this...
The scene erupted like a volcano; cheers were endless.
This time it wasn't just the north stands, but the entire arena cheering.
This pass was simply inconceivable.
The Tokyo people, who had waited a long time, finally witnessed the tip of the iceberg of Lion King Yuuto's talent.
"Shouldn't be this fast."
Yuuto withdrew his gaze.
Kagami's Wildness only awakened after experiencing the huge setback given by Aomine.
That was proof of him becoming more mature.
Or it could be understood this way:
It was only after the match against Touou that Kagami realized he was still far from a true genius.
Before, his path was too smooth.
After returning to Japan and joining Seirin in the original work, he had smooth sailing.
Although the process was thrilling, often playing games down to the buzzer beater, he indeed passed Kise and Midorima successively.
To put it bluntly, he hadn't lost.
"Honestly, I didn't expect you to be quite similar to those guys. I thought returning from the US, you would be somewhat different from them. Didn't expect you to be a group of arrogant guys too."
Watching the anime always from the protagonist team's perspective, he actually hadn't noticed that Kagami was also an arrogant person.
He was no different from the Generation of Miracles.
This time as an opponent, standing from a different angle, Yuuto saw it clearly and understood.
True.
If not for arrogance, Kagami wouldn't have thrown a tantrum with his teammates just because he lost once to Aomine.
"Huh?" Kagami didn't understand his meaning. "What are you talking about? Where am I arrogant?"
"Nothing, meant to praise you as a genius." Yuuto jogged back on defense.
He felt he talked a bit too much.
However, Kagami's appearance also reminded him.
This world never lacks geniuses.
He had only tasted victory once; it was far from enough.
Far, far from enough!
...
Beep~
The whistle blew; the first quarter ended.
Seiho led Seirin by 8 points, 31:23.
Luck seemed to stand on Seirin's side today. It should have been an 11-point gap, but in the end, Izuki Shun hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer.
If it were Junpei Hyuga, it would be understandable. But it was Izuki Shun, who was defended with no opportunity, throwing it up randomly and it went in.
Sure enough, anything can happen on the court.
Seirin bench.
Facing an 8-point deficit in a single quarter, they could accept this result; at least it wasn't pulled to double digits.
The psychological impact of single digits and double digits is completely different.
But their expressions no longer had the lofty ambition from yesterday.
So hard to play!
Unprecedentedly hard to play!
Different from the tension against Kaijo; facing Seiho, besides nervousness, they could feel the immense pressure given by the opponent.
Physical and mental—both levels.
"But compared to Kuromori, at least we know why we're losing so miserably!"
Junpei Hyuga saw it clearly.
Everything stemmed from Yuuto.
His dominance on both ends of the floor was astonishing.
Especially when they crossed the three-point line, Yuuto's suffocating sweeping ability made their offensive tactics difficult to deploy.
But did they really see clearly?
Kuroko decided to tell them anyway.
"Yuuto's level on both offense and defense will become stronger as time goes on."
As soon as this was said, one could hear a pin drop on the bench.
Frozen for about five seconds, Junpei Hyuga, who was pouring water into his mouth, put down the bottle and uttered a "Huh?" in question.
"Sorry, I'm actually facing this kind of Yuuto for the first time too. At first, I thought too simply."
"It took me 10 minutes to realize that Yuuto's talent will keep activating as long as we score."
Do you know what you are saying?
As long as we score, he can keep evolving?
Riko Aida opened her mouth and asked, "What exactly do you mean?"
"Last year... in our game against Teiko, the game was very anxious at the beginning, and we were even at a disadvantage most of the time."
"But as the game went on, we slowly began to keep up with Teiko's game rhythm, and Teiko's scoring efficiency dropped bit by bit."
"By the second half, the pressure we felt from Teiko became much smaller. Yuuto alone could completely cover the defense inside the entire three-point line."
One person?
Entire area inside the three-point line?
The Seirin players felt like they were listening to a fantasy story, their expressions indescribably complex.
How could one person's power achieve such a level?
"So Kuroko, you mean?"
"At this rate, all our offensive and defensive tactics that are weaknesses for Seiho will be corrected by Yuuto."
Speaking up to here.
Riko Aida and the others understood.
Simply put, if they continued playing like this, their offense wouldn't penetrate, and their defense wouldn't stop them.
"Is there really no way?"
"There is..."
"Unless Seirin can consistently bring out different, and effective, offensive tactics."
In the second-floor stands.
Momoi caught Midorima sneaking out in disguise to watch the game again.
Little Green-hair was even more perverted this time, wearing a Shutoku team uniform out and telling people he wasn't Shintaro Midorima.
"Or if players make huge changes or complete their own evolution in a short time." Midorima had taken off his disguise.
Being seen through at a glance every day, he also felt annoyed.
But he was more concerned about Seirin's choice now.
...
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