Miuradai

Kanagawa Prefecture Private Miuratodai High School.

At the school gate, a middle-aged man paced anxiously.

His name was Harada, and he was the basketball coach of Miuratodai High School behind him.

Ever since he had watched a basketball game recording sent to him by an old friend a month ago, he had been eagerly awaiting this day.

Screech!

A few minutes later, a taxi pulled up in front of him.

The moment Harada saw Wu Yufei step out of the car, he rushed forward excitedly.

"Ha ha! Yufei, you finally made it!"

"Hello, Coach Harada!"

Wu Yufei replied in Japanese with considerable fluency.

During the ride over, Wu Yufei had continued searching through the memories in his mind from this life and finally recalled some extremely crucial details.

The original owner of this body in this life was also named Wu Yufei. A year ago, he had come to Japan with his father.

Moreover, the original owner of this body had also been a basketball fanatic—several times more obsessed than Wu Yufei had been in his previous life.

From childhood to adulthood, nothing but basketball had ever stirred his heart, not even confessions from girls.

Over the past year, Wu Yufei had led his middle school basketball team through victory after victory, ultimately finishing eighth in the National Tournament.

That middle school had been a bottom-feeder team that could not even make it out of the Prefectural Tournament the year before. With Wu Yufei's arrival alone, it had suddenly become a national top-eight team. Though it had only been middle school-level competition, it still fully demonstrated Wu Yufei's individual strength.

Wu Yufei's father in this life was a business-startup maniac. Riding the wave of China's reform and opening up, he had become one of the first people to strike it rich, then rapidly expanded his business overseas, with Japan as his first stop.

Wu Yufei's father was friends with one of Miuratodai High School's board members. Naturally, he had introduced Wu Yufei to Miuratodai High School.

After all, the school was close to home, had a good campus environment and excellent facilities, and, more importantly, its basketball team was fairly competitive within Kanagawa Prefecture.

That was the background.

As the head coach of the Miuradai Basketball Team, Coach Harada's coaching ability was rather average, but he had big ambitions. He had always wanted to break the pattern Kanagawa Prefecture had maintained for more than a decade, where Kainan and Shoyo fought each other while every other team served as mere supporting cast. Thus, he had spent the past two years trying to strengthen the team.

Thanks to his efforts, the team's primary scorer, Murasame Kengo, had grown increasingly mature, while their secret weapon, Naito Tetsuya, had undergone a year of development and was now ready to play in games.

The only thing the team lacked now was a powerful point guard.

Although Araki Kazuo was barely capable of starting, he had never truly satisfied Harada.

So, he desperately wanted a strong point guard who could completely unleash Murasame Kengo's scoring ability while also activating Naito Tetsuya's tremendous power under the basket.

All those wonderful visions had been thoroughly ignited after he watched Wu Yufei's game footage.

I have to get this kid! That was Harada's only thought after watching the recording.

He had single-handedly dragged a team that could not even get out of the Prefectural Tournament into the national top eight. That level of ability was more than enough to utterly outclass Araki, the team's current starting point guard.

With Wu Yufei orchestrating and driving the team, the potential of both Murasame and Naito would be completely unleashed. Miuradai would absolutely be able to defeat Shoyo and even Kainan, charging into the National Tournament!

That was precisely why Coach Harada had put aside his pride and treated a fifteen-year-old kid with such courtesy.

Of course, Wu Yufei had no idea what Coach Harada was thinking. Right now, he only wanted to play basketball as soon as possible and test the power of his new body!

Led by Coach Harada, the two headed toward the Miuradai High School Basketball Gymnasium. Along the way, they chatted about basketball, and Wu Yufei's clear thinking and manner of speaking made Coach Harada appreciate the young man even more.

When they entered the gymnasium, although it was still vacation and there was a full week before school started, the basketball team members had already been forcibly called back from their break by the coach and made to report to the gymnasium on time every day for training.

Seeing the coach bring in someone they did not recognize, all the players looked at Wu Yufei with curiosity.

Looking at those unfamiliar yet familiar faces before him, Wu Yufei was filled with emotion.

The Miuradai Basketball Team—this was a team that had made a brief appearance in the original story before vanishing without a trace.

Although the team had performed terribly in the original story and had been utterly crushed by Shohoku in the first round of the Prefectural Tournament during the story year, Wu Yufei did not think Miuradai was a weak team in the slightest.

First, according to the backstory, Miuradai had been eliminated by Kainan the previous year. In other words, the team had made it all the way to the prefectural top eight.

Second, the team's average height exceeded 185 centimeters. Even Araki Kazuo, their point guard, was tall. Looking across all of Kanagawa, perhaps only Shoyo could match such average height.

Third, the team's players were not useless tall guys. Murasame Kengo possessed excellent driving ability, Naito Tetsuya's physical gifts ranked among the top three in all of Kanagawa, and the other players were all around average level as well.

The only reason they had been knocked out by Shohoku in the first round during the story year was that their ball handling had been poor, and they had happened to run into the protagonist's team.

Naito had the physique, Murasame had the skill, the other players had the height, and there were no particularly troublesome hotheads on the team. They were all relatively obedient.

If Miuradai could properly drill its tactics, play defense, and fight positional battles, it definitely would not lose to any strong team in the prefecture.

Besides, this was the school his wealthy father had chosen for him, so he had no real choice anyway. He might as well keep his mindset as level as possible.

No matter what hand fate dealt him now, Wu Yufei was confident he could play it well with all the skills he possessed!

"Everyone, assemble!!"

At Coach Harada's call, all the Miuradai players in the gym quickly gathered around him. The thirteen of them instinctively lined up in order of height.

Once everyone had assembled and stood at attention, Coach Harada nodded in satisfaction, then cleared his throat.

"Ahem! Today, I'm introducing a new teammate to everyone! Yufei, introduce yourself."

"Okay."

Wu Yufei stepped forward. Only after everyone had turned their eyes toward him did he slowly begin to speak.

"Um... hello, everyone! My name is Wu Yufei. I'm an exchange student from China, 188 centimeters tall and 86 kilograms. My strongest position on the court is point guard. In one week, I'll officially become a student of Miuratodai High School, so I came early to greet my seniors."

"Although Yufei has only been in Japan for one year, during his third year of middle school last year, he directly led his school's basketball team to the national top eight. His ability absolutely meets the requirements to join our team. I hope everyone will work hard together. This year, we must take revenge on Kainan!"

"Yes!!"

All the remaining players responded loudly.

Naturally, they warmly welcomed the arrival of a strong teammate. What was more, Wu Yufei was an expert who had led a team to the national top eight.

Though it had only been middle school-level competition, they still had to battle their way through round after round to get there.

"Alright, then so that Yufei and all of you can better understand each other's abilities, everyone warm up for ten minutes. Ten minutes from now, I'll arrange an intrasquad scrimmage!"

Coach Harada gave the order directly.

Ding-dong—!

The instant Coach Harada finished speaking, Wu Yufei heard a system notification sound from the depths of his mind.