Game One (3)

"If I had to say, it'd be whoever scores more points wins," the middle-aged man in sunglasses said teasingly.

"Dad!" The short-haired girl was speechless. "That's stating the obvious!"

"Wasn't your question obvious, too? I just got here. How would I know?" the middle-aged man said matter-of-factly.

"Hmph!" The girl had no retort and folded her arms in anger, turning her attention to the court and ignoring her clueless father.

At that moment, Teiko Junior High had stopped Seihō Junior High School twice in a row, while Seihō had repeatedly failed to stop them. Daiki Aomine and Ken Kaneki had scored twice in succession, bringing the score to 11–2. Seeing how badly things were going, Seihō's coach quickly called a timeout.

"Damn it!" Tomoki Tsugawa had barely reached the bench before angrily smacking it. "That blond guy's so full of himself!"

Just a moment ago, Tsugawa had confidently gone up to defend Ken. Young and hotheaded, he'd naturally thrown out a few threats like "I'll shut you down" and "You won't score on me once." But Ken's expression hadn't changed at all, as if he were treating Tsugawa's threats like hot air. He'd simply taken the ball from Shuzo Nijimura, then used a Flash Step to get past Tsugawa and throw him off balance before finishing him off with a leftward crossover.

But that wasn't what had angered Tsugawa most. After completely shaking him, Ken hadn't shot right away. Instead, he'd backed up two steps, crossed the three-point line, and taken the shot. Then he'd turned to celebrate without even watching the ball, as if he knew it would go in—and, of course, it did.

The humiliating move had gotten Tsugawa worked up, and he'd immediately tried to take Ken on one-on-one. Unfortunately, before he could even shoot, Ken swatted the ball away with a huge block. Daiki Aomine grabbed the rebound and finished the fast break.

"Okay, Tomoki. Don't get so impulsive from now on. Don't try to take them on by yourself; that won't work," Tsutomu Iwamura said after gulping down several mouthfuls of water. "If you don't stick to the plays, I'll ask Coach to take you out!"

"Sorry, senpai!" Tsugawa apologized.

"All right, I won't waste time. The only thing we can do for the rest of the game is tighten up our defense. Even if we can't score, we can't let them score easily!" Seihō's coach concluded.

"Right!" the Seihō players responded.

"Wow, they're fired up," Ken said, looking at Seihō's bench.

"Should we shout something too?" Aomine asked, getting a little excited as he watched Seihō's enthusiasm.

"No. That'd be embarrassing."

"No. Too much effort."

Shintaro Midorima and Atsushi Murasakibara said in unison.

"Okay, okay, settle down. Let's adjust the lineup," Kōzō Shirogane said with a smile. "Nijimura, take a break. Haizaki, you're going in for him."

"You're planning to play Run and Gun, Coach?" Ken asked. He quickly figured out why Shirogane was making the substitution.

"That's right." Shirogane crouched down and looked at Ken as he explained, "You'll be the core of this lineup. Move to point guard, and Haizaki will take your spot at power forward. Use speed and strength to apply pressure on defense and force them to keep switching between offense and defense."

"Yes, Coach." Ken nodded, wiped his face with a towel, and answered calmly.

"Beep-beep! Timeout's over!" Just as Shirogane was about to give Ken a few more pointers, the referee blew the whistle.

"Don't worry, Coach. Leave it to me." Ken casually tossed his towel onto the chair and flashed Shirogane a bright smile. "I'll lead them to victory."

Shirogane had still been a little worried, but seeing Ken's confidence put him at ease. He patted Ken on the back without saying a word.

"Let's go, everyone!" Ken clapped his hands and shouted as he headed onto the court. The rest of the Teiko players answered in unison, "Yes!"

"Hey, that kid's got a lot of spirit!" the middle-aged man on the sidelines said, watching Ken with interest.

"You mean the blond one? He's really good. He scored seven of Teiko's points at the start," a young man beside him said, taking the liberty of filling him in. "Especially that opening dunk. It was hard to believe he was still in junior high."

"A dunk?" The middle-aged man gazed thoughtfully at Ken on the court. Ken was defending Koichi Sakamoto at the top of the key.

As the starting point guard for a team that had reached the semifinals of the prefectural tournament, Sakamoto was certainly no slouch. But once Ken took it upon himself to guard Sakamoto and raised the defensive pressure another notch, Sakamoto clearly struggled to adjust. Seeing that, Iwamura came up to the top of the key to set a screen for him.

"It's no use. I saw it coming." Just as Sakamoto was about to use Iwamura's screen to drive past Ken, Ken seemed to vanish into thin air. The two players' vision blurred, and the pair who'd been preparing to run a pick-and-roll unexpectedly collided. Ken easily stole the ball right beside them.

"Fast break!" Ken's voice rang out like the starting pistol for a hundred-meter race. The Teiko players streaked across the spectators' field of vision like shooting stars. After briefly checking everyone's positions, Ken delivered a No Look Pass straight into Shintaro Midorima's hands. Midorima didn't hesitate after catching the ball and immediately shot a three-pointer. The Seihō players rushing back on defense didn't reach him until the ball had reached the peak of its arc. The ball plunged down before their despairing eyes and swished through the net.

"Let's go home, Reiko." The middle-aged man took off his sunglasses, looking slightly bored.

"Huh? You're not watching anymore, Dad?" The girl called Reiko quickly stood up and followed him, asking curiously.

"The game's already over. Seihō's bound to lose," the middle-aged man said with certainty. "Seihō is a defensive team, and their offense isn't very strong. That means if they can't stop their opponents from scoring, they're doomed."

The middle-aged man seemed to think of something. He stopped and looked toward Ken on the court. "But with that kid around, Seihō might manage a few scattered baskets at most. They have no chance of mounting a comeback. There's no need to keep watching. We can just check tomorrow's paper to see by how many points Teiko beat Seihō."

As the father and daughter spoke, Ken seemed to sense something and looked up in the middle-aged man's direction.

"That kid's got sharp instincts," the middle-aged man thought as Ken looked his way. "Being a basketball player in the same era as that kid is truly unfortunate..."