The bustle of the Teikō First Team Training Hall was isolated in a corner by an invisible barrier. At the center of the court stood several strangely shaped machines like silent steel beasts, gleaming coldly. Bai Ze You was shirtless, wearing only athletic shorts. The smooth, powerful lines of his muscles were exposed beneath the glaring white lights. His silver-gray hair was damp with sweat and clung to his clean forehead. Sweat flowed along the furrows of his bulging back muscles, gathering in the hollow of his spine before dripping onto the huge, elastic black yoga ball below, spreading into a small dark patch. He lay face-up on the yoga ball in an unbelievable posture, his waist and abdomen bent backward like a fully drawn bow. Only his shoulder blades and heels served as supports against the unstable surface.
* The Bowstring on the Ball: His body rose and fell slightly with the yoga ball's gentle rolling, maintaining this balance beyond common sense. Every breath tugged at his deep abdominal muscles, while his powerful core acted like an invisible anchor chain, locking the fragile balance in place. He slowly raised both arms, spreading them like a swan's wings and stretching them behind his head, fingertips straining to touch the cold floor. His shoulder blades were stretched to their limit, his chest fully opened, and his spine seemed to be pushed backward vertebra by vertebra by an invisible hand, producing a faint, teeth-grating creak. This was not a motionless sculpture, but a dynamic flexibility challenge that walked along the edge of imbalance!
* The Dance of the Suspension Straps: Not far away, two black suspension straps hung from above. Special restraints secured Yū's ankles, leaving him hanging upside down like a bat! Blood rushed instantly to his head, bringing intense dizziness. Yet his amber eyes remained unnaturally calm, locked onto a marked point on the floor below. Relying only on the astonishing strength of his waist, abdomen, and back, he controlled his suspended body and began swinging left and right, forward and backward, even adding rotation like a pendulum! Every swing came with the harsh scrape of the straps and the groan of muscle fibers stretched to their limits! His awareness and control of his center of gravity had been twisted to the extreme in this inverted state!
* The Catwalk on the Balance Beam: A black balance beam barely ten centimeters wide stretched across the court. Yū stood barefoot on it, his soles acting like precision suction cups as they sensed every grain and tiny rise in the wood. He slowly lifted one leg, bent his knee, and suspended his foot above the other knee like a one-legged yoga crane. Then his body began leaning slowly forward, backward, and sideways... Every movement was extremely slow, yet filled with breathless tension! It was as if he were dancing on a blade; every subtle shift in his center of gravity tested the flexibility and stability of his ankles, knees, hips, and entire spine to their limits! Sweat ran like a stream down his tense calf muscles and dripped onto the floor beneath the beam.
The air was filled with the scent of evaporating sweat, the faint roughness of rubber scraping, and the tiny sounds of muscles stretched to their limits, like bowstrings pulled taut. There were no collisions, no basketballs pounding the floor—only a nearly cruel silence as he challenged the boundaries of his own body. Every breath Yū took carried a burning pain, and every stretch brought a distinct soreness from his ligaments and deep fascia being pulled. His old back injury awakened like a venomous snake in these extreme poses. Every exertion brought a sharp stab of pain, reminding him that this body was both fragile and resilient.
"Ugh... what a pain..." Murasaki-bara Atsushi's lazy voice drifted over from nearby. His huge body squatted like a small mountain in the strength-training area as he casually pressed a barbell plate far beyond an ordinary person's limit with one massive hand. His purple eyes glanced at Yū, bent backward over the yoga ball, with bored puzzlement. "Twisting around like that... won't he break?"
"Hmph. Empty showmanship." Aomine Daiki's contemptuous snort smashed through the silence like a heavy hammer. He had just finished a set of explosive squat jumps, sweat pouring over his bronze skin as though it had been coated in oil, radiating explosive strength. His dark-blue eyes swept contemptuously over Yū, who swung upside down beneath the suspension straps. "In the face of absolute strength, something soft like that will fall apart with one hit!" He casually seized a basketball and hurled it at the backboard with savage force. The thunderous impact seemed to prove his point.
Yū acted as though he had not heard the mocking comments, not even lifting his eyelids. His gaze remained focused on the tiny marked point beneath the straps. Guided by his will, his inverted body completed an extremely slow yet utterly controlled 360-degree horizontal rotation. At the apex, his fingertips nearly touched the cold ceiling. He forcibly suppressed the dizziness and swelling pressure caused by being inverted and by his blood flowing backward with sheer willpower. Aomine's contempt and Murasaki-bara's indifference were like breezes over a deep pool, unable to shake him. He knew that only flexibility beyond common sense and absolute control of his body could bridge the gap between himself and Aomine's explosive strength or Murasaki-bara's absolute physical dominance! This was the foundation of his name, White Phantom—the support that let him weave through the jungle of strength and create miracles!
"Wheeep!" A sharp whistle tore through the training hall like a battle cry!
"Everyone, listen up! Group scrimmage! Three-on-three offense and defense in the key!" Nijimura Shūzō's booming voice carried unquestionable authority. "Red Team: Aomine, Murasbara, and Takahashi, a third-year defensive enforcer! You're on defense! Blue Team: Bai Ze, Midori, and Kuroko! You're on offense! Rule: The offense may only finish inside the paint! The defense blocks with everything it has! Begin!"
The arrangement instantly set off a powder keg! They had shoved Yū, Midori, and Kuroko—three players not known for physical play—into the key guarded by the two prehistoric beasts, Aomine and Murasaki-bara. They even had to finish inside the cramped paint. It was no different from sending three lambs into a lion and tiger's den!
Excitement and cruelty blazed in Aomine's eyes! At last, he could openly crush that irritating "soft-boned" nuisance! He grinned viciously and rolled his thick neck until it cracked. Murasaki-bara yawned, his huge body stepping into the paint like a moving mountain. Annoyance at having his peace disturbed showed in his purple eyes. He casually spread one enormous hand, covering most of the space beneath the basket. A terrifying pressure descended like a tangible wall!
Midōrima Shintarō pushed up his glasses. His eyes behind the lenses were cold and sharp, his brows tightly furrowed. Clearly, he was extremely dissatisfied with the arrangement. Kuroko Tetsuya stood calmly in the corner, his sky-blue eyes revealing nothing.
Bai Ze You drew a deep breath. His old back injury throbbed faintly under the tension. His amber eyes swept across the two enormous figures standing like the Wall of Sighs, then glanced at Midori and Kuroko, who were likewise unsuited to brawling. A sharp light gathered deep in his eyes. The battlefield of flexibility was not the yoga ball or the suspension straps, but this brutal paint where muscle and strength collided! He bent to pick up the basketball, the familiar grain beneath his fingers carrying a heavy weight.
"Begin!" Nijimura commanded!
The Blue Team attacked! Midori held the ball near the free-throw line. He tried to draw the defense with the threat of his precise shooting, but Aomine clung to him like a burr. The immense pressure left him barely enough room to raise the ball! Murasaki-bara's huge body completely covered the basket, his massive hand forming a net from heaven and earth!
"Ball!" Yū called from the left low post! Using an extremely convincing Fake Move, he briefly shook off Takahashi's tight defense and established an extremely narrow receiving position at the edge of the paint!
Midori did not hesitate. He lofted the ball toward Yū!
However!
"Don't even think about it!" Aomine roared! His huge body erupted with terrifying speed, instantly rotating over like a black storm! His massive hand whistled through the air and slapped viciously toward the basketball! Bloodlust flickered in his dark-blue eyes!
The ball was about to be swatted away!
Yū, airborne, saw Aomine's vicious face and enormous palm blotting out the sky reflected in his pupils. Time seemed to freeze! His momentum carried him upward! At that critical instant, his body leaping to receive the ball performed another movement beyond its limits!
He did not try to withstand that terrifying force. His waist and abdomen twisted as if an invisible giant hand had wrenched them, folding his entire body forcibly to the left in midair! His extraordinary Air Time Ability and core strength bought him a precious fraction of a second! At the same time, his hands, originally reaching for the ball, changed position in midair. His right hand darted out like a nimble snake, and his fingertips gave the ball an exquisitely precise, gentle tap!
The basketball did not fly toward the hoop. That bizarre fingertip tap changed its trajectory, sending it along a low, strange arc with heavy sidespin, narrowly skirting Aomine's enormous blocking hand. As though it had eyes, it spun toward Kuroko Tetsuya, who had quietly moved into the completely open space on the other side of the basket!
Kuroko caught the ball! Without the slightest pause, he flicked his wrist!
The ball softly kissed the backboard and dropped through the net!
"What a play!" Huge cries of astonishment erupted from the sidelines!
"What?!" Aomine landed and stared in disbelief at the rolling basketball, then at Kuroko, who had appeared in the open space like a ghost. His dark-blue eyes were filled with disbelief! That midair folding evasion and fingertip pass... It was practically acrobatics!
"Ugh... what a pain..." Murasaki-bara muttered. For the first time, he fully opened his lazy purple eyes, now carrying a trace of seriousness at having been disturbed, and looked toward Yū, who had just landed.
Possession changed hands! The Blue Team attacked again! Kuroko Tetsuya melted into the shadows like a ghost, using his teammates' screens and his diminished presence to quietly slip deep beneath the basket. Midori reacted quickly and tried to thread a highly concealed bounce pass to Kuroko!
However, Murasaki-bara Atsushi's huge body shifted instantly as though he had foreseen it. His massive hand slapped toward the passing lane like swatting a fly, carrying suffocating pressure!
"We're done for!" someone cried from the sidelines!
The ball was about to be intercepted!
Just as it was about to enter the range of Murasaki-bara's giant hand, a silver-gray figure appeared in the passing lane like teleportation! It was Bai Ze You! Relying on top-class anticipation and explosive speed, he forced himself between Murasaki-bara and the passing lane!
The instant he caught the ball, Murasaki-bara's terrifying hand descended with destructive force! There was nowhere to dodge!
In midair, Yū saw Murasaki-bara's cold face and enormous palm blotting out the sky reflected in his pupils. The pressure was like a tangible tsunami! At the critical moment, he did not forcibly protect the ball. His body arched sharply backward in midair! At the same time, while his body was twisted to the extreme, muscle memory formed through countless flexibility drills and an astonishing spatial sense guided his hands. His wrist gave a subtle flick, changing from protecting the ball to an extremely fast, tiny behind-the-back pass!
The basketball seemed to have been given life. It squeezed through the nearly nonexistent gap between Yū's arched body and Murasaki-bara's giant hand, narrowly reaching its target—Midōrima Shintarō, who had briefly been left open again!
Midori caught the ball! Without hesitation, he bent his knees, lowered his center of gravity, raised the ball, and released it! The motion was a textbook reproduced perfectly!
Swish! His precise jumper from one step inside the three-point line dropped cleanly through the net!
"Whoa!" Another wave of cheers swept across the court!
"Another pass?!" Murasaki-bara Atsushi slowly landed and stared at the rolling ball. For the first time, clear irritation appeared in his purple pupils! That silver-haired kid was as slippery as a loach! His strength had nowhere to go!
Twice in a row, under the suppression of absolute strength, Yū had used astonishing flexibility and midair adjustment to deliver deadly assists! His performance completely ignited Aomine's anger and Murasaki-bara's irritation!
"Stay glued to him!" Aomine roared at Takahashi, fury at being toyed with burning in his dark-blue eyes!
On the Blue Team's next possession, Yū had just received Midori's pass near the free-throw line when Aomine Daiki's bull-like body slammed into him with terrifying momentum! The pressure was like a solid wall! At the same time, Takahashi viciously closed in from the wing! A double-team like an iron wall! Murasaki-bara Atsushi stood ready beneath the basket! A triple strangulation!
"Crush him!" Aomine's low growl was filled with savage killing intent! His massive hand slashed toward the basketball in Yū's hands with a howling wind!
Desperation!
Yū was instantly surrounded by three mountains! The crushing pressure nearly suffocated him. His old back injury protested sharply under the squeeze. Sweat instantly covered his forehead. Yet the flame called concentration burned to its limit deep within his amber eyes! The ultimate test of flexibility had arrived!
Facing the massive hands and bodies pressing in from both sides, Yū's body displayed unbelievable Roll-off Technique and flexibility beyond its limits!
* Roll-off: Like a supple willow branch, he drifted backward with the force of Aomine's collision, cleverly shedding most of the impact! At the same time, his waist and abdomen twisted impossibly to the right like a water snake, avoiding Takahashi's vicious strip!
* Center-of-Gravity Control: As he rolled off the force, his right foot drove into the floor like a nail. His powerful core erupted, stabilizing his center of gravity within the narrow space of the double-team! He did not fall!
* Creating Space: The instant his balance stabilized, his compressed body used the flexibility of his waist and abdomen and the explosive power of his hips. Like a spring compressed to its limit, he sprang upward through the fleeting gap between Aomine and Takahashi, forcibly creating a sliver of room for a shot!
However, the moment he left the ground—
"Ughhhh!" A muffled roar exploded like thunder! Murasaki-bara Atsushi's enormous purple body leapt like a collapsing mountain! His terrifying wingspan and giant hand blocked the sky, descending on the basketball Yū had just raised with enraged force! This time he was no longer lazy or holding back! He would swat that annoying fly to death! His coverage reached an astonishing 120%!
Murasaki-bara's giant palm blocked the sky ahead!
Aomine and Takahashi followed like shadows below!
There was nowhere to escape in the air!
A true dead end!
In midair, Yū saw Murasaki-bara's face, twisted slightly by rage, and the giant palm blocking out all light. The pressure of the wind even stole his breath! Time seemed to stretch. Momentum carried him upward, and he was about to crash into that wall of death! Pain tore through his back like flames as he exerted himself to the limit. Yet the extreme calm deep within his amber eyes and the muscle memory formed through countless flexibility drills took control of his body like instinct!
He did not fight back or try to evade the palm covering everything. His body performed a series of movements beyond the limits of the human body, like a dreamlike ballet:
1. Extreme Backward Folding: His waist and abdomen bent backward as if wrenched by an invisible giant hand! His upper body nearly became parallel to the floor! His powerful core gave him precious air time and a backward angle, narrowly avoiding the most direct range of Murasaki-bara's palm!
2. Midair Gyroscope Rotation: Using the momentum of his backward arch, his body was drawn by invisible threads and forcibly rotated ninety degrees to the left in midair, turning completely sideways to the basket! Murasaki-bara's enormous body entirely blocked his view!
3. Blind-View Fingertip Scoop: As his body rotated to the limit and he lost sight of everything in the resulting imbalance, his right hand relied on near-instinctive muscle memory of the basket's position and his fingertips' last stubborn sense of the ball's center of gravity. His wrist flicked gently and discreetly! The spinning ball followed a strange, low arc almost parallel to the floor, like a nimble swallow, scraping beneath the lower edge of Murasaki-bara's slightly raised palm through a gap only a few centimeters high that should not have existed!
Swish!
The faintest sound of net brushing rang out!
The basketball dropped through the net!
Murasaki-bara's supposedly inevitable block slammed into... empty air! Its tremendous momentum even made his huge body stagger slightly!
"Ahh—!" The entire training hall filled with suppressed gasps! Silence! Absolute silence!
Everyone stared dumbfounded at the scene! Under the combined strangulation of Teikō's two absolute-strength aces, Aomine and Murasaki-bara, and while surrounded by three defenders, Yū had actually finished the play with a series of unbelievable Aerial Ballet evasions and a Blind-View Fingertip Scoop! This was no longer a technique. It was a miracle of bodily flexibility and spatial awareness—a breathtaking Aerial Ballet offered to basketball!
"Ugh... ah..." A muffled groan filled with unbearable pain broke the silence!
After completing that impossible evasion and finish, Yū's body lost all control as though every bone had been removed. The enormous rotational momentum and backlash from his forced exertion subjected his waist, abdomen, and back to unimaginable counter-joint impact when he landed! Like a broken puppet, he twisted and crashed heavily onto the hard floor, landing on his back!
Bang!!!
The muffled impact made everyone's heart seize!
Yū curled into a ball on the floor in agony. Violent pain engulfed him like a tsunami. His old back injury shrieked destructively like ignited explosives. He clenched his teeth so hard that his gums began to bleed. Cold sweat instantly covered his paper-white face, and his body convulsed uncontrollably!
"Bai Ze-kun!" Momoi Satsuki screamed in terror, rushing onto the court without a thought. Her cherry-pink ponytail whipped violently behind her, and tears burst from her eyes!
"Medic! Hurry!" Nijimura Shūzō's expression changed drastically as he rushed to Yū's side!
The entire training hall instantly descended into chaos! Aomine Daiki stood frozen, shock and a trace of barely perceptible... bewilderment in his dark-blue eyes. Murasaki-bara Atsushi's huge body stopped, astonishment and a trace of... helplessness clearly reflected in his purple pupils for the first time. Midōrima Shintarō pushed up his glasses, his gaze still cold behind the lenses, yet seemingly frozen. Kuroko Tetsuya's sky-blue eyes widened slightly. Akashi Seijūrō's mismatched eyes narrowed as he stared at the figure curled up on the floor.
The medical team rushed onto the court like firefighters. Nijimura and the medics carefully examined Yū's condition. Momoi knelt beside him, tears filling her cherry-pink eyes. She held an ice pack in trembling hands and wanted to touch Yū's convulsing back, yet feared worsening his pain, so she could only hover helplessly above him. "Bai Ze-kun... hold on..." Her voice was thick with sobs and terror.
"Lower back... old injury... possible tear..." The medic's voice was grave as he quickly ordered the players to prepare a stretcher. "Take him to the infirmary immediately! Full examination!"
With Nijimura and the medical staff supporting him, Yū was lifted onto the stretcher with extreme difficulty. Every tiny movement drew an uncontrollable groan of pain from him. The veins on his forehead bulged, and sweat ran down like a stream. Momoi stayed tightly beside the stretcher, her cherry-pink eyes fixed on Yū's pale face, both hands clenched until her knuckles turned white.
Just as the stretcher was about to leave the edge of the court, Yū endured the pain and turned his head with immense difficulty. His amber eyes were bloodshot from the pain, but deep within them, a sharp light like ice tempered in fire pierced through the agony and fixed itself straight on Aomine Daiki and Murasaki-bara Atsushi!
There was no furious roar or wounded accusation in that gaze, only absolute coldness and a silent declaration like a brand: Your absolute strength cannot imprison my dance of flexibility!
Aomine and Murasaki-bara felt their hearts tighten beneath that gaze. Aomine irritably turned his face away, while Murasaki-bara instinctively avoided eye contact.
The stretcher left the training hall. Silence once again covered the court. On the floor, the dark stain mixed with sweat and traces of blood silently recounted the astonishing yet brutally costly Aerial Ballet that had just taken place.
Momoi Satsuki bent down and picked up the basketball lying quietly on the floor, which had witnessed both miracle and pain. She hugged it tightly as though it were the most important thing in the world. Her cherry-pink eyes were filled with worry and fear, but even more with unprecedented determination. She hurried to her equipment bag, pulled out the thick Shorthand Notebook inside, and flipped rapidly to the newest page. Her cherry-pink eyes shone startlingly bright with almost obsessive concentration and a scientist's fervor. Ignoring the dead silence and her teammates' complicated gazes, her pencil began racing across the page:
Event: Extreme Midair Evasion Finish (Code Name: Phantom Ballet) Evasion Sequence: Extreme Backward Folding (Angle: -75°±3°) → 90° Left Midair Rotation (Rate: 2.5 r/s) → Blind-View Fingertip Scoop (Release Height: 2.85 m, Release Angle: -5°, Rotation Rate: 15 rev/s) Evasion Success: Murasaki-bara's block passed within <0.5 cm of the ball! Aomine and Takahashi's blocks neutralized! Physiological Cost: Existing L4-L5 lumbar injury stress peak exceeded the safe threshold by 300%! Risk of tearing in the core muscles (transversus abdominis, multifidus): Extremely high! Excessive twisting of the sacroiliac joint: Risk of dislocation! Talent Assessment: Joint mobility (lumbar extension, hip rotation): SS-rank (beyond the known limits of humanity) Core strength (maintaining extreme postures): S+-rank Spatial awareness (blind-view finish): S-rank Neuromuscular coordination (fine control during high-G rotation): SS-rank Conclusion: Bai Ze You's flexibility and body-control talent... have touched the inhuman realm. But... this is both a blessing and a curse. Every "Phantom Ballet" burns his spine. Data model warning: Overuse will cause irreversible damage! Talent Critical Point... exceeded!
She heavily circled the final conclusion in red and added three enormous, startling exclamation marks beside it. Her cherry-pink eyes stared fixedly at the words before she looked toward the door where the stretcher had disappeared. Tears silently slid down her cheeks and fell onto the cold words "irreversible damage."
Beneath Teikō's sky, the White Phantom displayed the pinnacle of flexibility through a breathtaking Aerial Ballet. Yet after the spotlight went out, it left behind more than astonishment: it left a cold warning. Every blossoming step of this dance beyond the mortal realm came at the cost of burning away his life. The road to miracles had always been paved with thorns, and the dancer of the Phantom was destined to write his own tragic legend amid the intertwining of glory and pain.
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