The plane landed smoothly at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
During the journey, Eiji Sawakita had already confirmed that Ryota Kudo's Chinese was excellent.
Now Eiji Sawakita was even more determined to cling tightly to this dependable ally during their time in China. He certainly did not want the language barrier to leave him "deaf and mute."
As they walked out of the spacious, brightly lit terminal, a wave of humid, unfamiliar air washed over them.
Ryota Kudo stopped and took a deep breath.
Setting foot on the land where his bloodline had its roots, he felt a surge of complicated emotions he could not put into words.
Even the air seemed to carry a different kind of fresh sweetness (though in reality, it was mostly exhaust fumes and the smell of the city).
He looked around at the Chinese signs and listened to the clamor of Chinese conversations around him, a strange sense of belonging mingling with the feeling of being in a foreign land.
"Kudo, how do we get to that training base?" Hiroshi Morishige asked, looking somewhat lost as he surveyed the busy scene before him.
Eiji Sawakita also cast him a dependent look.
Ryota Kudo gathered his thoughts and smiled confidently. "Follow me."
He walked to the taxi waiting area and deftly raised a hand to hail a mint-green cab.
The driver was a friendly-looking middle-aged man who appeared to be in his forties.
At the sight of the three unusually tall boys, especially the giant-like Hiroshi Morishige, his eyes widened in surprise, and he asked in Mandarin with a thick Shanghai accent:
"Well! You three lads must play basketball, eh? Look how tall you are!"
Ryota Kudo opened the front passenger door and slid in with ease, answering in fluent Chinese with a smile. "You've got