You could just dust off your backside and leave after the game, but what were they supposed to do?
Even the weak had their dignity!
Still, Coach Anzai had arranged this practice game mainly because he felt Shohoku was no longer what it used to be.
"Ho ho ho~ That's right. A practice game is indeed necessary to help you adjust to the pace of a game early and enter the prefectural tournament in better form."
Standing among his teammates, Shirasawa smiled inwardly.
Finally!
I'm almost out of money...
The team's pretty much taken shape now. Farming some assists shouldn't be a problem!
I also wanted to see how strong Ryonan had become after picking up Kaede Rukawa.
"Then which high school are we playing?" Kiminobu Kogure asked curiously.
Ayako swept her smiling gaze over everyone and winked playfully. "Don't get too excited, now. Our opponents this time are Takezono High School!"
"Takezono?!"
Everyone spoke in unison. Even Shirasawa froze for a moment.
Why Takezono? Wasn't it supposed to be Ryonan?
Looks like the timeline's changed a little again.
But Shirasawa soon calmed down.
Only the timing had surprised him. Who they played did not really matter.
Playing Takezono would actually be better.
Takezono was considerably weaker than Ryonan, which meant he could rack up more assists. He could use this first game entirely to build up his strength.
Though I am a little curious about what Hanamichi Sakuragi will do...
Don't Yoko and that Oda go to Takezono?
When he had persuaded Sakuragi to play basketball, Yoko and Oda had been his very reason.
Now that they're really going to meet, who knows what'll happen...
So much has already changed. Could Yoko... actually come over to the genius's side?
Ayako had anticipated the players' reaction to Takezono.
Takezono's basketball record had not actually been much better than Shohoku's in the past, but the school was quite famous in high school basketball circles!
That was because its ratio of boys to girls was severely skewed!
Girls made up nearly seventy percent of the school!
Whenever Takezono played, the sidelines were bound to be packed with female fans.
Who... could resist that?
Even Yasuda could not help whispering about it with his teammates...
Sakuragi, however, stood rooted to the spot in an uncharacteristic daze.
"Xiao Bai, Takezono... isn't that Oda and Yoko's school?"
"We're going to play them?"
Shirasawa patted his shoulder.
"Yeah! Isn't this exactly what you've been waiting for? Beat Oda and win Yoko's heart back!"
"What? You're not chickening out, are you?"
Hanamichi Sakuragi immediately shook his head like a rattle, that familiar confident grin returning to his face.
"'Fear' isn't in a genius's dictionary!"
"I was just thinking, this day's finally here! How should I celebrate after I beat that little pest Oda?"
"And when Yoko throws herself into my arms... should I say yes right away? Hahaha..."
Shirasawa sighed helplessly. Sakuragi's inner world really was impregnable...
Hopefully, he could stay this way tomorrow.
Coach Anzai chuckled. "Since Takezono invited us, the game will be held at their school. Go home and get plenty of rest today, everyone. We leave first thing tomorrow morning."
"Yes!!"
Sanae drove Shirasawa to Takezono High School.
After parking, she pursed her lips in a rare pout.
That contrasting expression on such a mature beauty certainly had its own appeal!
Especially paired with those long, straight legs...
The sight made Shirasawa's mind wander...
"You seem especially happy today," Sanae said, pretending to be angry.
Indeed, Shirasawa was in an exceptionally good mood today. He had been smiling the whole way, anticipation showing through his smile...
Of course, Sanae knew what Takezono was like, and she instinctively assumed Shirasawa was so delighted because he would be facing a crowd of girls.
The more she watched him smile, the more jealousy welled up inside her.
But Shirasawa really was being a little wronged here.
He was happy because he finally got to play a game today!
He could finally get rewards!
As for Takezono's girls, he really had not given them much thought.
With a charming, mature beauty like Sanae constantly by his side, the sexy, sizzling Ayako on the team, and even the pure, adorable Haruko Akagi in his own class, who could set a person's imagination running...
Beautiful women? I'm hardly short of those, and every one of them is top-tier!
Shirasawa looked cheerfully at Sanae. Her lips were slightly pursed, and an indefinable hint of grievance lingered on her face. With her evasive gaze, she looked just like a wronged little wife who dared not speak up. She was quite the actress.
He reached out and pinched her cheek.
"All right, that's enough. Still putting on an act for me?"
That pinch immediately broke Sanae's composure, and she burst out laughing. Rubbing her cheek, she complained, half in earnest, "That hurt! Go on, you. It's almost time."
Shirasawa nodded and got out. Before closing the door, he turned back and added, "I really am happy today. My first official game means something different to me."
With that, he closed the door and strode away.
With that explanation, the little knot in Sanae's heart immediately loosened. Watching Shirasawa's retreating figure, she found the corners of her mouth curling upward.
After meeting up with the team, Shirasawa followed Coach Anzai onto Takezono's campus.
A group of boys brimming with masculine energy naturally drew the girls' attention. Their looks were hardly friendly, though. The two sides were opponents, after all.
Sakuragi's eyes swept his surroundings like radar.
Akagi punched him straight away. "You're embarrassing us! Behave yourself!"
Sakuragi clutched his head, looking wronged. He was not looking at other girls; he was searching for Yoko! His heart was in turmoil, wanting to see her yet afraid to, and he was too preoccupied to even talk back after being hit.
What he did not know was that Yoko had already spotted him from behind a fourth-floor classroom window.
"That's Shohoku's team? They look so fierce. That big guy looks like a gorilla. Scary!"
"The redhead doesn't look like a good person either!"
"They won't bully Oda, will they? Our Oda is so gentle..."
"Hey, that tall guy beside them is pretty handsome! Who's going to talk him into transferring here?"
Her classmates' chatter filled Yoko's ears.
It had only been a little over a month since she had parted with Sakuragi, yet seeing him again somehow brought the warmth of meeting an old acquaintance far from home. It showed that her life at Takezono was not going well.
Back in junior high, Yoko had started dating Tatsumasa Oda, who attended the same school, and had rejected Sakuragi's advances because of it. Back then, Oda had been a clean-cut basketball boy with dreams and drive. They had promised to enter Takezono High School together. Everything had been going smoothly, and Yoko had been full of hope for their relationship.
But once they entered Takezono, everything changed.
Oda had been captain of Wako Junior High School's basketball team. Takezono's coach had taken notice of him and specifically recruited him. Wako Junior High School had little basketball culture, but Takezono was different-the girls here particularly adored boys who played basketball well. Even the team's perennial bottom-ranking results did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.
Perhaps it was because the school had so many girls and so few boys.
Everyone on the team fawned over this first-year newcomer. He had become captain in name as soon as he arrived, and even the coach had high hopes for him. With unprecedented attention and adulation piling up, Oda soon let it go to his head.
He went from an uncomplicated basketball boy to a stern, arrogant "captain," frequently losing his temper at teammates over minor mistakes.
But the changes did not end there.
Surrounded and adored by so many girls at Takezono, Oda gradually became immersed in it, living as the "campus heartthrob." He grew increasingly cold toward Yoko, too. Those girls often targeted her, asking, "What makes her worthy of being our heartthrob's girlfriend?" Oda turned a blind eye to it, perhaps feeling that "the king's consort" ought to endure such things.
Yoko spent every day under this pressure and isolation, with no friends and a boyfriend who alternated between closeness and distance, had a bad temper, and could not be talked to at all. It would be a lie to say she was not upset, but she had chosen this path herself and could only swallow the bitterness.
Only now, upon seeing Sakuragi again, were her thoughts suddenly dragged back to junior high-how happy those days had been. Inexplicably, she felt a trace of closeness toward Sakuragi.
Besides, Sakuragi had been the last person to pursue her, just over a month ago. He had been so sincere that day. Now... he probably had a new life too.
Yoko gazed downstairs with mixed feelings.
Inside Takezono's basketball gym, the Shohoku players headed straight for the changing room to take a short break and prepare for the game.
In the changing room, players chatted in small groups about what they had seen along the way.
Unusually, Sakuragi did not join in, instead sitting alone in a daze.
This surprised Akagi somewhat.
This guy actually gets nervous? But on second thought, it was his first official game, after all, so it made sense. It seemed the little punk was not completely hopeless.
A rare trace of gratification rose in Akagi's heart. Unfortunately, he had completely misunderstood. Sakuragi was not nervous about the game at all.
Only Shirasawa understood. He walked over, sat beside Sakuragi, and handed him a bottle of water.
"What are you worrying about? Haven't you been waiting for today?" Shirasawa said. "Take care of Oda first."
"Leave everything else for later. With that brain of yours, overthinking will only make things worse. Don't end up getting schooled by Oda instead."
Those words struck home for Sakuragi. Had he not prepared for so long precisely to crush Oda and shine? Otherwise, what was he doing all this for?
As for Yoko... that would have to wait until he beat Oda!
Taking the water bottle, Sakuragi sprang to his feet and hollered as though making a vow, "Just you wait, Oda! Watch this genius show his stuff!"
Just then, the changing room door banged open.
Ayako rushed in with a stack of uniforms in her arms, instantly throwing the room into chaos.
"Ayako! This is the boys' changing room!" Kogure cried in alarm, hastily wrapping his arms around himself.
Ayako quickly covered her eyes too, apologizing repeatedly. "Sorry, sorry! I just picked up the uniforms and was afraid I wouldn't make it in time, so I rushed and... you're all... dressed, right?"
Kogure looked down. He was fully dressed. Looking around, he saw everyone else was much the same-the uniforms had not even been handed out, so who would strip naked beforehand for no reason?
At most, someone with a good physique like Shirasawa might go shirtless. The others really were too embarrassed to show much skin.
Miyagi watched in amusement. "You've got all the uniforms. What would we change into? Open your eyes. It's fine."
Only then did Ayako sneak a look around through her fingers and breathe a sigh of relief. As though looking through her fingers did not count as looking.
Coach Anzai came over, took the uniforms, and began handing them out one by one. Akagi received number 4 first, followed by Kogure's number 5 and Miyagi's number 7... The veteran players' numbers were fixed, while the newcomers received random assignments. Whatever number they got would be theirs from then on.
Shirasawa received number 9, the same as in junior high. This counted as a special consideration from Coach Anzai.
Sakuragi received number 10. He was especially pleased with it-in his mind, Shirasawa was unquestionably the strongest. The strongest got number 9, and he got number 10 right beside him! That clearly meant he was second only to Shirasawa.
Of course, that was purely because he himself thought the numbers started at 9...
Next, Coach Anzai announced the starting lineup, with no real surprises: Shirasawa, Sakuragi, Akagi, Miyagi, and Kogure. Shohoku currently had no one stronger than these five, or even close to them.