In the end, the culinary war between Jun Uozumi and Eri Fujisawa ended in a complete victory for Uozumi. At first, Eri Fujisawa was so stubbornly aloof that she refused to eat even a single piece of sushi.
Later, when she became unbearably hungry, Eri Fujisawa finally ate a piece.
From that moment on, Eri Fujisawa's taste buds were conquered, and she began eating with gusto.
Even so, as she left, Eri Fujisawa still went against her true feelings and said the food was nothing special.
Her bulging little belly gave her away, though. Ryota Kudo gave Jun Uozumi a thumbs-up to tell him he had done a great job.
Only after seeing Eri Fujisawa off did Ryota Kudo take a stroll around the neighborhood with Shizuka Kudo.
Ryota Kudo naturally had no interest at all in a girl with Eri Fujisawa's eccentric personality. At most, he found girls with such anime-like personalities rather amusing.
By contrast, the gentle, soft-spoken Shizuka Kudo was truly charming.
Ryota Kudo was pretty much certain now that parallel worlds had points of intersection too. This Shizuka Kudo was the famous Japanese beauty from his previous life.
Not only was Shizuka Kudo sweet-looking and good-natured, but she was also very considerate of other people's feelings. Even an ordinary conversation with her made Ryota Kudo feel very happy.
To put it nicely, someone with this personality had high emotional intelligence and knew how to care for others.
The less flattering term was a people-pleasing personality. People like this liked to gain acceptance by pleasing those around them.
In any case, as the person whose feelings were being catered to, Ryota Kudo found it quite enjoyable.
Shizuka Kudo had not come here for fun this time, but for work.
She had come to Kanagawa to take part in a singing show and would be joining the production the next morning.
Shizuka Kudo would not be attending tomorrow's game, but she would come to see Ryota Kudo once more before leaving Kanagawa.
After taking Shizuka Kudo back to her hotel, Ryota Kudo finally went home to rest.
After battling Shinichi Maki physically throughout today's game, Ryota Kudo was exhausted. Not long after arriving home, he fell into a deep sleep.
Once asleep, Ryota Kudo suddenly dreamed that he had fallen into the ocean, his body sinking steadily.
Not far away on the seabed, Ryota Kudo saw an enormous iron gate.
Landing in front of the iron gate, Ryota Kudo tried with all his strength to push it open, but he could not budge it.
Ryota Kudo had watched the anime "Kuroko's Basketball," and he realized this was definitely more than a simple dream.
Rather, after his grueling battle with the elite point guard Shinichi Maki, he had reached the gate to ZONE. All he lacked now was an opportunity to open it.
Before long, it was the next morning. After a good night's sleep, Ryota Kudo woke up full of energy again.
This young body really was great. He was brimming with energy every day.
As before, they would gather at the entrance to Shohoku High School today and take a bus together.
The moment Ryota Kudo reached the entrance to Shohoku High School, he was startled. The school gates were packed with a sea of students.
Looking closer, he saw Hanamichi Sakuragi standing in the crowd, shouting, "Hahahaha! You all saw this genius's performance yesterday, right? I'm the invincible King Kong's little brother!"
Ryota Kudo could only feel helpless about this guy's love of showing off, but Hanamichi Sakuragi had indeed contributed a great deal to yesterday's victory over Kainan.
There was nothing wrong with letting him bask in the glory for a while, so Ryota Kudo left him alone and walked around the crowd, ready to enter the school grounds.
But the nearby students soon spotted Ryota Kudo. They stopped crowding around Hanamichi Sakuragi and swarmed around Ryota Kudo instead.
When it came to popularity, Ryota Kudo was naturally far more popular than Hanamichi Sakuragi at Shohoku High School.
A girl nearby held a basketball magazine in her hands and asked excitedly.
"Kudo, Weekly Basketball covered the details of your victory over Shinichi Maki yesterday. You've become the number one player in Kanagawa!"
"Really?" Ryota Kudo took the magazine from the girl, puzzled.
It was a sports magazine from Tokyo, indeed called "Weekly Basketball." Its first article covered yesterday's game between Shohoku and Kainan.
The headline was "The coronation of Kanagawa's new king," and its author was Yayoi Aida, that beautiful reporter.
The headline was a little sensationalized, but the content was very professional, giving an objective account of yesterday's game.
The article praised Ryota Kudo highly, with Yayoi Aida repeatedly referring to him as Kanagawa's new king.
Clearly, Yayoi Aida really thought highly of Ryota Kudo. Even in her exclusive interview with Akira Sendoh, she had never praised him this much.
Since he already had a system giving him an unfair advantage, Ryota Kudo could naturally afford to be a little cocky. He readily accepted the title of Kanagawa's number one player.
"Thank you. My goal isn't just to be the number one player in Kanagawa, though. It's to conquer the nationals!"
That sent the surrounding students into an uproar.
"Kudo is so cool!"
"Go for it, Ryota Kudo! We're all behind you!"
People their age were at their most hot-blooded. With just one sentence, Ryota Kudo had fired everyone up.
Naturally, though, Hanamichi Sakuragi, who had been the center of attention a moment earlier, now had no one around him.
This left Hanamichi Sakuragi grumbling in annoyance. "When did Kudo become as full of himself as that damned fox? So annoying!"
Just then, four people suddenly approached Hanamichi Sakuragi. They were the members of the Sakuragi Gang.
Earlier, the Sakuragi Gang had seen Hanamichi Sakuragi showing off nonstop in front of the crowd. As his mischievous friends, they had long since had enough of it.
Now that they saw no one around Hanamichi Sakuragi, the Sakuragi Gang finally approached with mysterious smiles.
"It's all right, Sakuragi. You've still got us. You might be the Foul King, but we still support you!"
"Hahahaha! Sakuragi, you've fouled out with five fouls in five straight games now. I wonder how long you can keep that record going."
Although Hanamichi Sakuragi had played very well against Kainan, he had once again fouled out with five fouls when there were still seven minutes left in the game.
"Damn it! All of you can go to hell!" Hanamichi Sakuragi unleashed his headbutt special move again, leaving every member of the Sakuragi Gang sprawled on the ground with smoke rising from their heads.
The morning's farce did not end until the first class was about to begin. Ryota Kudo and the others returned to their classrooms for lessons as usual.
At three in the afternoon, as soon as class ended, the members of the Shohoku Basketball Team immediately gathered in the gym.
After a day's rest, Takenori Akagi's ankle injury had improved considerably, and he could move around normally now.
After yesterday's game, Takenori Akagi had gone to the hospital to see a doctor. According to the doctor, his ankle would need about a month to recover.
During that time, it would be best to avoid strenuous exercise.
However, given Takenori Akagi's personality, he would definitely play in next week's game.
At three thirty, after they had changed into their practice uniforms, Shohoku's training officially began.
Coach Anzai was absent as usual, but having Takenori Akagi sitting courtside had the same effect.
Training was not very intense this week. The focus was on getting familiar with their tactics and recovering their stamina, and everyone was relaxed.
After about an hour of training, the gym doors were pushed open. Coach Anzai walked in from outside, followed by a girl with short hair.
Ryota Kudo recognized her at a glance. She was the willful girl from yesterday-Eri Fujisawa.
She really had come today. Eri Fujisawa had definitely come today for the friendly match between Ryokufu High School and Shohoku High School.
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