The air in the Teikō First Team Training Hall seemed to have solidified into a suffocating slab of lead. Bai Ze You's dangerous floater, which had scored between the two aces Aomine and Murasbara, had been a spark dropped into boiling oil, instantly igniting a dormant fighting spirit. The cheers had yet to die down when Aomine Daiki's deep, savage voice rang out, like the roar of a beast, carrying an unmistakable challenge:
"Hey! Give me the ball!"
The Red Team (the starting lineup) inbounded from the baseline. Akashi Seijūrō's mismatched eyes remained calm and unreadable. With only a flick of his wrist, the basketball flew toward Aomine, who had raised a hand near half-court to call for it, as precisely as if it had been guided by a targeting system. The deep-blue figure caught the ball and spun around in one fluid motion, smooth as a cheetah coiling before the hunt. He no longer looked at anyone else. His deep-blue eyes held only the hoop—and the sole obstacle standing between him and it: the silver-haired rookie.
"One-on-one!" Aomine's voice was not loud, but it echoed clearly through the suddenly silent gym, carrying a raw, naked declaration. He intended to weigh this rookie's mettle in the most direct way possible!
There was no flashy probing. Aomine exploded into motion! The power of his First Step was like detonated explosives, so fast it left behind only a blurred afterimage! His powerful body, carrying wild force, charged toward Yū's defensive position like an out-of-control heavy truck, brutally grinding forward! Simple! Violent! The ultimate combination of speed and power!
"Thud!" The muffled sound of flesh colliding rang out!
Yū felt an overwhelming force slam into his shoulder, making him stagger backward half a step despite himself! The sheer difference in physical strength was laid bare in that instant! Aomine's "wildness" was the perfect combination of explosive power and physical strength that defied common sense!
Yet just as Aomine used his physical advantage to force open space and prepared to blow past Yū with a second burst of speed, Yū's slightly off-balance body displayed astonishing resilience and control! He did not choose to resist head-on, nor was he knocked completely aside. Like a supple vine, he let his whole body "float" backward with the direction of the tremendous impact, while his right foot dug into the floor like a nail and forcibly steadied his center of gravity! At the same time, his left hand, clinging to Aomine's body like a bone-deep parasite, precisely disrupted the side of the basketball Aomine had just bounced upward!
"Smack!"
The basketball instantly went out of control! Although Yū failed to steal it completely, he severely disrupted Aomine's dribbling rhythm!
"Tch!" Shock and irritation flashed through Aomine's eyes! This rookie's Roll-off Teique and balance during contact were downright bizarre! Forced to slow down and adjust, he regained control of the ball. That brief pause gave the other White Team players precious time to get back on defense! Aomine's momentum as he charged through alone was forcibly halted!
"Good defense!" someone at the sidelines could not help muttering.
Aomine's gaze grew even more dangerous, like a ferocious beast that had been provoked. He no longer sought to blow past Yū in one step. Instead, he lowered his center of gravity and began dribbling repeatedly between his legs in front of Yū, his shoulders swaying like vipers as he searched for an opening. Every Fake Move on his change of direction was packed with power and deception, attempting to tear open the defense through the combined pressure of rhythm and strength.
Yū remained fully focused, his amber pupils locked tightly onto every minute movement Aomine made. Sweat slid down his temples and dripped onto the floor. Facing an impact force of Aomine's caliber, every clash felt like being struck by a sledgehammer. But there was not the slightest retreat in his calm, watery eyes. His body was like a precision-engineered spring, absorbing force with flexibility, taking precise positions, or using rapid lateral footwork to seal off each of Aomine's attacks. He pushed his superb flexibility and core strength to the limit, like a reef standing amid raging waves. Though battered again and again, he stubbornly remained in the key route to the basket!
"This guy... is he made of rubber?!" Aomine grew increasingly irritated after failing to break through. He suddenly made an incredibly convincing Fake Move, feinting left with a change of direction in front of his body. The instant Yū's center of gravity was shaken, Aomine drove hard off his right foot, forcibly twisted his body, and executed an unbelievably swift Spin Move, attempting to slip past on the right!
Yet halfway through his turn, at the instant his center of gravity shifted completely, Yū's shaken body relied on powerful abdominal and lower-back strength and an unimaginable sense of balance to forcibly halt the shift! At the same time, as if he had foreseen Aomine's Spin Move route, his left foot moved with uncanny prescience and precisely blocked the path Aomine intended to take after turning!
"Bang!"
The two collided solidly! The tremendous force made Yū grunt, sending his body falling backward, but his left foot remained planted on the floor as if welded there! At that moment, a sharp whistle rang out!
"Charging foul! Red Team No. 5!" The referee decisively pointed at Aomine!
"What?!" Aomine stared at the referee in disbelief, fury filling his deep-blue eyes. "He ran into me!"
The referee remained expressionless and pointed toward where Yū had fallen. "The defensive position was established legally. Your Spin Move collided with the defender. Charging foul!"
Aomine spat viciously, his gaze scraping across Yū like a blade as Yū rose from the floor. Yū wiped the sweat from his chin and calmly met Aomine's amber-eyed stare. There was no smugness or provocation, only the concentration that followed completing a defensive play. That silent attitude only made Aomine even more furious.
At the sidelines, Nijimura Shūzō nodded slightly. That defense had displayed more than Yū's physical gifts. It had shown outstanding defensive anticipation and sense of positioning! To create a charging foul through precise positioning under pressure from an opponent of Aomine's caliber, that composure and defensive intelligence were exceedingly rare even on the First Team!
"Beautiful, Bai Ze!" his teammates on the bench shouted excitedly, their morale surging.
Possession changed! The White Team went on offense. Yū brought the ball up. The player assigned to guard him was still Takahashi, the experienced, hard-nosed third-year defender. Having learned from the previous lesson, Takahashi defended even more cautiously, lowering his center of gravity and spreading his arms like a spider opening a giant web, leaving Yū no easy path through.
Yū did not rush into the attack. Instead, he patiently dribbled at the top of the arc, calmly scanning his teammates' movements. Suddenly, his eyes caught a fleeting opportunity! The White Team's small forward, Ishida, used a teammate's screen to shake Midori off by half a step from the baseline and cut toward the open space beneath the basket!
An opening! The instant Takahashi's attention was slightly drawn by Ishida's movement, Yū moved! His upper body snapped left! His shoulder dropped, and his sharp gaze stabbed toward the left lane! It was an enormous, utterly convincing Fake Move toward the left!
Takahashi's nerves instantly tightened! He had already been fooled once. This time, he did not let his center of gravity move completely, but his body still instinctively prepared to shift left and seal off the lane!
At that subtle instant of weight transfer, the wrist of Yū's right hand, which was controlling the ball, flicked with such speed that it seemed to vanish! Within that tiny space, the basketball traced a bizarre "Z" and passed impossibly between his legs into his left hand! At the same time, using the momentary difference in rhythm created by his feint, his body pivoted on his right foot and executed a Spin Move so swift it left only an afterimage! Takahashi saw a blur, then felt a gust sweep past his side!
"Behind-the-back dribble into a spin! He's done it again!" someone shouted from the sidelines.
But the Red Team's rotations were astonishingly fast! The instant Yū shook off Takahashi, Midōrima Shintarō's tall, slender figure arrived on help defense like a phantom! His defense was as precise, tight, and merciless as the three-pointers he shot! He raised an arm and completely sealed off Yū's shooting angle!
Midori stood in front, with Takahashi chasing from behind! Yū was trapped once more! Yet his movements did not pause for even an instant! Facing Midori's airtight block, Yū's sprinting body suddenly retreated a step at high speed! It was an abrupt stop-and-step-back! Midori's anticipated block immediately fell short!
Just as Midori leaned forward and tried to close in again, Yū's retreating body compressed like a spring pushed to its limit. Drawing on powerful core strength and explosive ankle power, he surged forward once more! His pace shifted between fast and slow, and his rhythm turned bizarre—a Fake Move pretending to shoot before driving through!
Even Midori's instrument-like brain seemed to jam for a split second! His vaunted anticipation and defensive habits faltered briefly for the first time before an opponent whose rhythm defied common sense and whose movements combined extreme flexibility with deception!
That fraction of a second was enough! Yū had already slipped like a fish through the fleeting gap at Midori's side! He charged straight into the paint!
"Stop him!" Akashi's calm voice rang out again.
Under the basket, the purple figure resembling a primordial giant beast had already been waiting! Murasaki-bara Atsushi's massive body covered every possible shooting angle! His terrifying pressure was like a solid wall!
Yū did not slow down at all! One step inside the free-throw line, his sprinting body suddenly launched off the floor! A trace of coldness flashed through Murasaki-bara's eyes. His enormous body rose like a mountain, and his massive palm blotted out the sky!
Everyone thought Yū was about to perform another extreme midair evasive floater. Yet just as his body rose and was about to collide with Murasaki-bara's giant palm, his right hand holding the ball flung it impossibly behind his head! His wrist flicked softly!
The basketball traced a strange, high-arcing floater over Murasaki-bara's raised arm, which had reached up to block, and flew precisely toward the completely unguarded space on the other side of the basket!
There, the White Team's center, Kobayashi, had already understood perfectly and leaped high!
"Bang—!" A powerful two-handed alley-oop dunk!
"What a play—!!!" The entire training hall instantly erupted! This was more than a score. It was a brilliant combination that had pierced through layer after layer of defense from Teikō's starting lineup! From spotting the open space, to using convincing Fake Moves and bizarre rhythm changes to shake off two elite defenders, Takahashi and Midori, to that final stroke of genius—a behind-the-head floater pass that sailed over Murasaki-bara's giant palm!
"Beautiful pass, Bai Ze!" Kobayashi shouted excitedly after landing.
Yū landed and breathed lightly, his amber eyes sweeping across the scoreboard, its score rewritten by that basket, before he calmly retreated on defense. The substitutes at the sidelines were so excited they nearly rushed onto the court.
"Beautiful, Bai Ze!"
"That pass! It was incredible!"
"Did you see that? He even fooled Midorima-senpai!"
The smile on Nijimura Shūzō's face was impossible to conceal. He clapped hard several times and called out in a booming voice, "Great play, Bai Ze! Keep it up!" That praise was like official recognition, instantly raising Bai Ze You's standing within the team by a significant margin.
Deep within Akashi Seijūrō's mismatched eyes, genuine ripples finally stirred beneath the frozen surface of the lake. He watched Yū retreat on defense, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the edge of his sleeve. That chain of movements just now... the Rhythm Change and body control when breaking through Takahashi... the bizarre Fake Move that toyed with Midori... the spatial awareness and nerve behind that blind pass over his head... This could no longer be described simply as "talent." This was a court commander with top-tier Basketball IQ, capable of making the most reasonable and most deadly choice under immense pressure! He picked up Momoi's Shorthand Notebook and quickly wrote down several keywords: Rhythm Master, Space Reader, Deadly Passer. For the first time, the corners of Akashi's mouth curved into an extremely subtle smile, cold yet brimming with interest. This rookie might not merely be a blade on the wing. He might even become... the key that organized the entire team's offense?
On the second floor of the training hall, Kise Ryōta's golden eyes were already shining like searchlights. He gripped the railing tightly and leaned forward, muttering nonstop, "That pass just now! That pass! How did he see it?! And that Fake Move that fooled Midorima-senpai... Whoa! That was so cool! I have to learn it!" His passion for basketball and urge to imitate novel techniques had been completely ignited.
At the sidelines, Momoi Satsuki's cherry-pink ponytail trembled slightly with excitement, and her fair cheeks were flushed. The pen in her hand practically flew across the Shorthand Notebook, her cherry-pink eyes shining astonishingly brightly. "Incredible... It's not just physical talent... His reading of the defense... his anticipation of his teammates' positions... his grasp of the timing for passes... and that mind, still as ice even under the combined pressure of Aomine-kun and Murasbara-kun... This can no longer be fully measured by data!" She raised her head and looked toward the silver-haired boy on the court, her gaze filled with pure amazement and the excitement of someone who had discovered a treasure.
Yet that excited gaze pierced into someone's eyes like the tip of a needle.
"Hmph." A muffled snort filled with displeasure came from Aomine Daiki's direction. His deep-blue eyes swept coldly over Yū, who had met Momoi's gaze, then glanced at Momoi, whose face was full of excitement and whose eyes held only basketball data. An inexplicable fire suddenly flared in his chest! That rookie again! He had challenged Aomine repeatedly on the court, and now even Satsuki... even Satsuki's attention had been drawn to him?! Aomine abruptly waved his hand, irritably brushing away a teammate who tried to give him a high five. He turned and strode toward the sideline, grabbed a water bottle, and drank several gulps. Beneath his messy deep-blue hair, his eyes were terrifyingly dark.
Yū naturally sensed that cold gaze watching him, and he also saw Aomine's irritated back as he left the court. His expression did not change at all, but deep in his amber eyes flickered the faintest trace of understanding. Competition was everywhere on Teikō's stage, and some forms of competition were perhaps subtler and more complicated than the clashes on the court. He withdrew his gaze and refocused on the fierce game. Sweat soaked through the Red and White Training Uniform, clinging to the smooth, powerful lines of his muscles. A First Team spot had to be defended with strength and proven through performance. And the qualification to become the White Phantom was being carved out, stroke by stroke, in his own way, upon this battlefield woven from sweat and collisions—growing ever clearer and more dazzling.
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