Chapter Seven: I'm a Generation of Miracles Fan
Sendoh Akira pushed the ball into the frontcourt and dumped it to Uozumi Jun in the post. Another interior bucket for Ryonan.
Ryonan 85 - 78 Kaijo
The gap widened to eight points.
Three minutes into the fourth quarter, Kaijo hadn't scored a single point.
TWEET!
Kaijo timeout.
Even with Coach Takeuchi's adjustments during the break, the situation on the floor remained unchanged.
Kaijo's role players went ice cold. Besides Kasamatsu Yukio maintaining some offensive output, the rest of the team shot a miserable two-for-eight in the closing minutes.
TWEET!
The final buzzer sounded. Never once did the game reach a point where a crucial possession would decide the outcome.
Ryonan 99 - 90 Kaijo
Ryonan won the practice game handily.
"YEAH! WE WON!" Aida Hikoichi, another Ryonan first-year on the bench, shouted excitedly. "That was awesome!"
"Idiot, wasn't that obvious?" Ikegami Ryoji laughed, hands on his hips.
"I... actually lost?" Kise Ryota stood frozen in place, unable to accept this reality.
Since he'd started playing basketball in his second year of middle school, Kise had never lost a game. Well, his one-on-one battles with Aomine Daiki didn't count—he'd been losing those constantly. He'd known this day would eventually come. Or rather, once the Generation of Miracles split up, this outcome was inevitable.
But Kise hadn't expected it to come so quickly.
"Huh? Ah...?" A wet sensation rapidly slid down Kise's cheeks. "Am I crying?"
"Kise, are you crying?"
"Wait, I know you're frustrated, but this was just a practice game, right?" His teammates scrambled to console him.
Even Kise's cheering section on the sidelines showed worried expressions.
"Damn it, why...?" Tears kept streaming down Kise's face no matter how much he tried covering them with his hands.
"YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU CRYING FOR?!"
A miraculous kick from Kasamatsu, coming from behind, somehow made Kise's tears stop.
"OW!"
"Seriously! Someone who's never lost before has some nerve being this emotional! Dumbass, I'm kicking you to death!"
"YOU ALREADY ARE! KASAMATSU-SENPAI!"
"Use this opportunity to write the word 'revenge' in that empty dictionary of yours!"
"Next time, we're winning this back—and beautifully!" Kasamatsu said seriously.
Objectively speaking, Kise had played brilliantly—46 points and 6 assists were exceptional numbers. Kasamatsu quietly clenched his fist. The ones who truly needed to grow were the "upperclassmen" like him.
"They're quite a good team," Sendoh observed Kaijo's bench casually. He'd had a lot of fun in this game.
Sendoh finished with 27 points and 13 assists. Yagami's first-half performance: 22 points and 8 assists. Uozumi's line: 12 points and 11 rebounds. Ryonan had gained plenty from this matchup.
"Let's line up!"
Both teams took their positions at center court.
"99 to 90, Ryonan High School wins!"
"THANK YOU FOR THE GAME!"
"Let's go, Nobunaga. We saw a pretty good game today."
"Yes, Jin-senpai!"
The two Kainan players maintained a tacit silence on their walk back.
Jin Soichiro felt like the game they'd watched was somehow incomplete. They'd arrived right around when the score was tied, and while Kise Ryota's dominance had been genuinely surprising, Sendoh's more mature playmaking compared to his first-year self had also stood out—he could now orchestrate the entire team.
The final margin seemed normal enough, but... what was missing?
"Wait. If Ryonan had trapped Kise from the beginning, Kaijo's role players' shooting shouldn't have been that terrible!"
Jin felt he'd grasped something crucial. "So what happened in the first half?"
"Too bad we didn't get here earlier."
Kiyota Nobunaga was also deep in thought, though his concerns centered on the title of Kanagawa's strongest rookie.
"Never thought that Kise Ryota guy would be this good. Hmm, he's probably maybe slightly better than me..."
"In that case, adding Rukawa Kaede, I guess my 'top rookie' title needs adjustment. I'll reluctantly share it with them—Kanagawa's Big Three Rookies."
"Mmm, that doesn't sound too bad actually."
"Yeah, that works!"
"Thank you very much for the game, Coach Taoka." Coach Takeuchi Genta had softened considerably after the final buzzer, his round face looking genuinely pleasant.
"Coach Takeuchi, it's only been a year and you've already found such a gem!" Coach Taoka shook his hand with genuine admiration. "Once you've built better chemistry, the competition for national tournament berths in Kanagawa will only get fiercer."
"This year's Inter-High preliminaries will be divided by region. Let's both advance and meet at nationals!"
"Looking forward to it!"
"Sendoh, I didn't expect your game to shift toward point guard," Kasamatsu approached Sendoh after the game, somewhat wistfully.
"Ah ha ha, you noticed?" Sendoh didn't hide it, acknowledging it openly.
Kasamatsu rolled his eyes. It was way too obvious. Last year's Kanagawa Rookie of the Year had once dropped 47 points in a prefecture game, but today he'd dramatically reduced his shot attempts, distributing to teammates instead.
"You're really something," Kasamatsu sighed.
"Well, after we got back from Tokyo last year, I kept thinking about how Ryonan could go further." Sendoh smiled. "Then it hit me while I was fishing!"
"Ryonan needs someone to connect the team more than another scorer."
"Besides, playing this way is fun too."
"Oh, and I caught a huge fish that day too. Heh heh."
"NOBODY ASKED!" Kasamatsu barely restrained himself from kicking this "fisherman" (his muscle memory from kicking Kise was getting strong).
Sendoh made it sound easy, but changing your entire playstyle wasn't simple. The Generation of Miracles became famous because all five played on the same team and went undefeated.
In terms of pure individual genius, Kasamatsu considered Sendoh every bit their equal.
And this year, Ryonan had added that rookie called Yagami Sorato...
"Next time we meet, we'll be the ones winning," Kasamatsu declared. "Don't let Kise being an idiot fool you—his growth rate will exceed your imagination."
"Ha ha, then let him practice like crazy!" Sendoh laughed.
"ACHOO!" Kise sneezed while washing his face at the sink, feeling like someone was talking behind his back.
"Hey. This greeting's a bit late, I guess." Yagami Sorato stood by the sink.
"It's you," Kise's tone turned hostile. "Don't tell me you came specifically to mock the loser?"
"Not really. Just surprised you cried from losing."
"Huh?"
"You jerk, you're saying you didn't come to—" Kise charged forward furiously.
"Actually, I'm a Generation of Miracles fan," Yagami said calmly.
"Hm?"
Kise stopped in his tracks. A fan? They were both first-years, so being a Generation of Miracles fan made sense.
Well...
Kise felt simultaneously embarrassed and awkward. Man, why'd he have to lose this practice game!
"So I'm going to defeat all of the Generation of Miracles."
A breeze passed through. The moment seemed to freeze.
"???"
"Huh?" Kise laughed in disbelief. "Do you even hear yourself?"
"That kind of joke won't be forgiven easily."
"Oh, I'm not very good at jokes," Yagami said seriously. "If you didn't catch that, I can say it again."
"From now on, I'm going to defeat all of the Generation of Miracles."
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