Chapter Thirty-Three: Monster? Childish!
"Uekusa-senpai, you alright?" Yagami Sorato extended his hand to the fallen teammate.
"I'm fine." Uekusa Tomoyuki accepted the help and stood, rotating his shoulder and wrist. Apart from some soreness in his back from the fall, nothing was wrong.
"Ah, I was just trying to grab the ball down." Murasakibara Atsushi seemed to notice the fallen Uekusa only now, speaking lazily. "You're just too weak."
Hearing this, Uekusa's expression remained unchanged.
As a point guard, he'd long grown accustomed to opponents using trash talk on the court to provoke him. His value as Ryonan's starting point guard lay precisely in calmly organizing the offense. Uncontrolled anger was often the beginning of the next turnover.
However, Yagami Sorato frowned.
"Kid, are you like Kise—never lost before either?"
"Hah?"
Murasakibara looked at Yagami. "If you keep talking to me like that, I really will crush you."
"Try it if you can," Yagami deliberately adopted a dismissive attitude. "I just hope you won't cry after losing the game."
Offensive transition, Ryonan's ball.
After Uekusa Tomoyuki advanced to the frontcourt, Yagami called for the ball.
"Were you trying to provoke Atsushi just now?" Himuro Tatsuya smiled enigmatically. "Better not do that, or you'll regret it."
"Are you his parent?" Yagami said calmly. "If so, remember to teach him some manners."
After discovering his opponent wasn't affected by his fakes, Yagami stepped back and pulled up.
Himuro Tatsuya jumped to contest.
"Swish!"
Three-pointer, good.
Ryonan 3 - Yosen 5
"Beautiful shot, Yagami!" Uekusa shouted.
Sendoh Akira looked at Yagami, thinking silently.
Offensive transition. Ryonan quickly retreated on defense.
"???"
Yosen's first two possessions had been fast break counterattacks, so Murasakibara staying under the basket wasn't strange. But this was a normal offensive transition—and Murasakibara still wasn't participating in the offense?!
Yosen was attacking in the frontcourt 4-on-5!
Yagami muttered internally. He'd seen players move sluggishly on defense when fatigued, but never seen a player slack off on offense by staying under the basket.
"Aren't you underestimating us a bit too much?" Sendoh also found it odd.
Fukui Kensuke passed the ball from the high post to Okamura Kenichi, who backed down Uozumi Jun in the post, hammering toward the basket.
"Can't move him?"
Okamura's first two steps felt normal, but after entering the free throw line he couldn't advance another inch!
"Is that first-year brat making your whole team this arrogant?" Uozumi roared, completely pinning Okamura in place.
"Watch out!" Liu Wei, boxed out by Ikegami Ryoji for an instant, sensed trouble.
"Smack!"
Sendoh swiped the ball directly from Okamura's hands. Ryonan's perimeter players—Uekusa and Yagami—immediately leaked out in transition.
Yosen's retreat was quick, with Fukui Kensuke and Himuro Tatsuya tight on their heels.
Sendoh chose not to pass, instead driving straight to the basket with the ball.
"With Atsushi there, fast breaks are useless against us!" Okamura thought while retreating.
However, Sendoh stopped at the top of Yosen's three-point arc. "No one's even chasing me? Really?"
"Swoosh!"
Sendoh launched an open three. Murasakibara wanted to close out but was too late to contest.
"Swish!"
Nothing but net.
Ryonan 6 - Yosen 5
"Another three?" Araki Masako frowned displeasedly. "I originally heard Ryonan was a steady, disciplined team. Why are they jacking up wild shots from the opening?"
"This is what you were trying to express, right, Sorato?" Sendoh said quietly with a laugh as he ran past Yagami.
Against an interior monster like this, the most effective method was using outside shooting to break him down.
Of course, this approach carried both difficulty and risk.
"Yeah, let's make this kid unable to comfortably camp in the paint." Yagami's eyes held coldness. Murasakibara relied on his physical gifts to look down on everyone, but basketball wasn't that simple.
"I've been meaning to say—you're also a first-year. Calling someone else a kid?"
"Can't help it. He seems too immature."
Offensive transition. Yosen's ball. Murasakibara still didn't participate in the offense.
"You seem quite confident in your offense." Yagami glanced at Murasakibara doing nothing under Yosen's basket.
"Since we can put the ball in the basket with individual ability," Himuro's tone was flat, as if stating the simplest fact, "naturally we don't need one more person participating in the offense."
When defending Yagami earlier, Himuro had realized they were the same type of player. Both had solid fundamental movements, using numerous fakes between drives and shots to deceive opponents.
But there was one technique unique to himself.
Himuro executed a swift crossover, his shoulder suddenly dropping in an extremely strong driving motion!
Yagami's center of gravity shifted back slightly, but Himuro had already used the momentum to rise, pulling up for a jumper!
Yagami reacted instantly, jumping almost simultaneously, his long arms fully extended trying to block the shooting lane.
However, as Yagami's body began descending, Himuro maintained his form, then calmly released the ball—his powerful core strength and incredible hang time creating an unblockable shooting window!
"I see..." Yagami's expression grew serious.
However, Himuro's touch was slightly off. The basketball hit the back rim and bounced up!
"Clang!"
"He missed!"
"Rebound!"
The paint instantly became a battlefield as Uozumi Jun, Okamura Kenichi, Ikegami Ryoji, and Liu Wei battled for the board!
"Smack!"
Liu Wei secured the rebound, quickly passing to perimeter point guard Fukui Kensuke.
"Give me the ball!" Himuro shouted loudly. He wanted to try again!
Fukui had just received the pass and hadn't had time to survey when Uekusa and Sendoh rapidly formed a double team!
Uekusa timed it perfectly, his hand darting in for a precise poke!
"Damn!" Fukui felt the ball lighten in his hands.
Uekusa knocked the basketball loose. Sendoh's quick eyes and hands snatched it up, immediately launching a counterattack like lightning stabbing into enemy territory!
Simultaneously, Yagami sprinted at full speed, precisely positioning himself in the left corner beyond the three-point line.
"Here!" His voice was calm and clear.
Murasakibara, stationed under the basket, looked between ball-handler Sendoh and baseline Yagami, pulled in opposite directions by this sudden fast break.
In that moment of hesitation, Yagami had already caught, jumped, and released!
The motion flowed like breathing.
"Swish!"
The basketball swished through cleanly, crisp and pleasing.
Yagami maintained his follow-through, eyes calmly watching the retreating Himuro Tatsuya.
"You didn't think you'd get a second chance, did you?"
Ryonan 9 - Yosen 5
"Tweet!"
"Yosen requests timeout."
"Murasakibara, if you don't start attacking I'll hack you to death." Araki Masako held a wooden sword, speaking calmly.
Yosen's 4-on-5 frontcourt offense meant someone would inevitably get double-teamed. Once a counterattack formed, Murasakibara under the basket might defend the interior, but absolutely couldn't do anything about outside shots.
Araki wasn't worried. The current deficit was simply because Murasakibara hadn't participated in the offense yet.
Also, that Yagami Sorato and Sendoh Akira on the other side were abnormally hot. She believed that wouldn't last much longer.
"I got it, Masako." Murasakibara pouted. "Put the sword down first."
"Call me Coach!"
"Got it, Masako."
Timeout ended. Game resumed.
Yosen's possession. With Murasakibara participating in the offense, Yosen's offensive rhythm noticeably slowed.
"You guys woke up the 'monster' Atsushi." Himuro told Yagami. "He's not actually that interested in basketball, and he super hates trouble. Most of the time, he'd rather stay quietly under the basket, as long as nobody provokes him."
"But when you force him to fully participate in the offense like this, especially when you've completely angered him..." Himuro paused, his voice carrying absolute confidence. "Absolutely nobody can stop him!"
Yagami turned his head, glancing at Himuro with an expression that looked at an idiot, speaking coldly: "Now I finally understand why Murasakibara has that immature and willful personality."
"Huh?" Himuro was slightly stunned.
"Even his parent figure is this chuunibyou and unreliable." Yagami's voice held no fluctuation. "Do you think basketball is playing house?"
Just then, Murasakibara posted up Uozumi Jun in the paint, raising his hand for the ball.
The basketball was immediately lobbed to him.
"From now on," as if confirming Yagami's words, Murasakibara's low, oppressive voice rang out, "I'll let you thoroughly experience what it feels like to be crushed until not even scraps remain!"
"Pfft." Ikegami Ryoji, who'd heard the entire exchange, couldn't help laughing.
Still, joking aside, Yosen's offense after Murasakibara received the ball clearly carried the heavy atmosphere of an approaching storm.
Murasakibara dribbled while powering toward the basket. Uozumi raised both hands, defending with full strength, yet was still pushed step by step toward the rim, his shoes producing harsh friction against the floor.
The instant he neared the basket, Murasakibara explosively powered up, jumping resolutely, forcefully spinning in mid-air!
"BOOM!"
An earth-shattering two-handed dunk!
Ikegami Ryoji, arriving first to help, was knocked aside by that unstoppable force, stumbling and falling to the ground.
Murasakibara, one against two, posterized Ryonan's interior duo!
Ryonan 9 - Yosen 7
The rim hummed and vibrated. Murasakibara released his grip and dropped back to the floor, his face showing traces of wild satisfaction, seemingly wanting to say more.
However, Ryonan gave him absolutely no time to celebrate or talk trash!
The very second the basketball passed through the net, Yagami, having run to the baseline, had already grabbed the ball. Without the slightest hesitation, he hurled it toward the frontcourt!
A precise full-court quarterback pass instantly tore through Yosen's defensive line before they could retreat!
The basketball flew straight to Yosen's basket.
"How is he there?!!"
A blue figure appeared. Sendoh Akira caught the ball, jumping easily, extending his body in the air for a graceful one-handed tomahawk dunk!
"Bang!"
Ryonan 11 - Yosen 7
Only then did Yagami look at Murasakibara. "What were you about to say again?"
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