The Heartbreak Alliance

"A welcome gift?"

Miyagi froze for a moment and pointed at his own nose. "For me?"

"Less talk. Keep up."

Lin Bei yawned and walked straight out the door.

Hanamichi Sakuragi immediately followed him.

With the expression of someone who had been through it all, he patted Miyagi on the shoulder.

"Come on, Ryo."

"Master might be lazy, but when it comes to spending money, he's incredibly generous."

Half an hour later.

They were back at the luxury sporting goods store Lin Bei had acquired.

Ryota Miyagi held a pair of red-and-black Converse Conquest sneakers, his hands trembling slightly.

He had seen those shoes countless times in magazines.

They were also the "chick-magnet battle boots" he had always dreamed of.

"Y-you're really giving these to me?"

Miyagi looked up at Lin Bei, who was sprawled on the VIP sofa drinking cola, his throat dry.

"Yeah."

"Remember, this is an advance on your salary."

"Pass me a few more good balls during future games, and we'll call it repayment."

Lin Bei did not even raise his eyelids.

Miyagi looked at the new shoes in his hands.

Then he looked at Sakuragi beside him, whose face said, "I knew this would happen."

All of a sudden, he felt that becoming this dead-fish-eyed guy's disciple...

...wasn't so bad?

"Thanks... Master."

Miyagi's voice was quiet and awkward.

"Louder! Didn't you eat?" Sakuragi barked beside him, throwing his weight around.

"Shut up, red-haired monkey!"

By the time they left the shoe store, it was already getting dark.

Their stomachs rumbled in perfectly timed protest.

The three of them found a random roadside ramen stall and sat down.

Steaming bowls of ramen were brought over, white mist blurring their vision.

Maybe it was the relaxation brought on by carbs, or maybe it was the guilt of having just received a gift.

Somehow, the conversation turned to Miyagi liking Ayako.

And Miyagi began to open up as well.

"Actually..."

Miyagi stirred his noodles with his chopsticks, his eyes growing melancholy like a world-weary poet.

"Ayako... she never even gives me a second look."

At those words, Hanamichi Sakuragi, who had been loudly slurping noodles, suddenly froze.

A sorrow born of shared suffering instantly welled up in those always energetic eyes.

Sakuragi put down his bowl, his voice choking up.

"I understand..."

"Miss Yoko... she fell for Oda from the basketball club."

"This was already the fiftieth time I'd been rejected."

Miyagi stared at Sakuragi in shock. "Fifty times?!"

"Yeah." Sakuragi nodded mournfully. "What about you?"

"Just this one, but she rejected me ten times." Miyagi sighed and held up one finger.

The air suddenly turned thick and heavy.

The two boys who had been so high-spirited moments ago.

Now looked like two rain-soaked puppies, clutching each other and crying beneath the dim yellow light of the ramen stall.

"Waaah! So you're a miserable soul too!"

"Redhead... no, Hanamichi! I understand your pain!"

"Ryota! We have to stay strong!"

The two tightly gripped each other's hands, tears and snot streaming everywhere.

It was as if tragic background music had begun to play.

Lin Bei sat beside them, the corner of his mouth twitching as he watched.

He quietly moved his ramen bowl farther away, afraid some unidentified fluid might splash into it.

"Um..."

"Your noodles are getting soggy."

Lin Bei could not help cutting in.

Their crying stopped abruptly.

Four swollen red eyes turned toward Lin Bei at once.

Their gazes carried an urgent longing for validation.

"Master!"

Sakuragi sniffed. "You must have been rejected loads of times too, right?"

Miyagi leaned closer as well.

"Yeah, Master!"

"A guy like you who sleeps all day and looks completely unmotivated definitely doesn't have girls who like him, right?"

"Come on, tell us! Make us feel a little better!"

The two looked at Lin Bei expectantly.

Lin Bei put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

He looked at them with clear, innocent eyes.

"Huh? Rejected?"

Lin Bei scratched his head, seemingly trying hard to remember.

"Nope."

"It was always girls writing me love letters or waiting at the school gate to give me boxed lunches."

"It was so annoying..."

"..."

"..."

The ramen stall fell into deathly silence.

Even the sound of boiling water in the owner's pot could be heard clearly.

Sakuragi and Miyagi's expressions froze, tears still clinging to the corners of their eyes.

But the sadness in their gazes had already turned into anger.

Pure, murderous anger.

"Drop dead!!"

"All you normies should explode!!"

The two sprang up at once, locking Lin Bei's neck from both sides.

"Give me back my tears!"

"I'm going to shove that handsome face of yours into the ramen broth!"

"Cough, cough... Let go... Are you trying to murder your master...?"

That night, the ramen stall was filled with an atmosphere both cheerful and murderous.

The next morning.

Shohoku's basketball gym.

When Takenori Akagi pushed open the doors, the sight before him nearly made him throw the water bottle in his hand.

The two problem children who would normally be mocking each other, or even coming to blows at this hour.

Were now arm in arm on the court, practicing passes.

"Hanamichi! Catch!"

"Got it, Ryota! Watch this genius dunk!"

"Beautiful pass! Just what I'd expect from my good brother!"

"Wahahaha! You're not bad yourself!"

Pink bubbles seemed to float all around them, with lilies blooming in the background.

Even Kaede Rukawa, who had just walked in, could not help shivering at that nauseating brotherly affection and quietly moved farther away from them.

"Wh-what is going on?"

"Didn't they want to duel yesterday?" Kogure pushed up his glasses, utterly baffled.

Ayako looked equally confused. "Did aliens possess them?"

Everyone's eyes turned in unison toward Lin Bei, who was training nearby.

Lin Bei spread his hands.

"Don't look at me."

"That's the great friendship of the Heartbreak Alliance."

"Ordinary people wouldn't understand."

Although no one knew what had happened, the team's morale had never been higher.

Miyagi's return filled the point guard gap, while Sakuragi's physical gifts wreaked havoc in the paint—as a complete nuisance.

Rukawa was as sharp as ever, and Akagi held down the basket.

And on top of that, there was the unfathomable Lin Bei.

This year's Shohoku really seemed to have hope.

However.

Storms often came without warning.

That afternoon, just as practice was about to begin.

Takenori Akagi was absent that day because he had an exam to take.

Kogure was organizing everyone's warm-up.

Bang!

A deafening crash rang out.

The basketball gym's doors were violently kicked open.

The heavy wooden doors slammed against the wall with a teeth-grating groan, dust raining down.

The previously lively gym fell silent in an instant.

Backlit by the sunlight.

A group of thuggish-looking guys walked in.

The man at the front had long hair, a cruel smile on his lips, and an unfinished cigarette between his fingers.

Hisashi Mitsui.

Behind him stood a burly, cold-faced man.

Tetsuo.

Behind them followed Tetsuo Hotta and a crowd of delinquents, carrying with them the strong smell of tobacco and malice.

"Yo."

"So this is... the basketball team?"

"Why does it stink so much of sweat? Disgusting."