The entire world seemed to have been muted at that moment.
Miuradai's two inside players were still frozen in their jumping poses, but their faces were filled with shock and confusion.
Where was the ball?
The basketball that had been right before their eyes—how had it suddenly vanished?!
They slowly lowered their heads and saw that white figure.
Shirakawa stood there holding the ball in one hand, landing at his leisure. Not even a strand of his hair was out of place.
Like an elegant magician, he had completed an unbelievable theft right under everyone's noses.
"Y-you..." Miuradai's center stammered, unable to form a complete sentence.
Shirakawa did not even spare him a glance.
His gaze shifted beyond the three-point line.
There, a figure in a Number 14 jersey had already set up to shoot.
It was Hisashi Mitsui.
From the instant Sakuragi's absurd shot had been blocked... no, stolen by Shirakawa, he had already run to the spot he knew best, the spot where he had the most confidence.
His eyes were focused and blazing.
As if they were saying: Give me the ball.
Shirakawa smiled.
With a flick of his wrist, the basketball shot out like a precisely guided shell, without the slightest unnecessary spin, flying straight and accurately toward Mitsui beyond the three-point line!
It was a... behind-the-back No-Look Pass spanning the entire paint!
"What?!"
Miuradai's captain, Kengo Murase, had his pupils suddenly contract!
He had kept his eyes fixed on Shirakawa, convinced he had sealed off every possible passing lane.
But he had never imagined that his opponent would use such a... utterly unimaginable method to pass the ball!
He wanted to intercept it, but it was already too late!
The basketball landed firmly in Hisashi Mitsui's hands.
Catch, jump, release.
The entire sequence flowed in