"Great play!!!"
"Hanamichi Sakuragi with the Alley-oop pass slam!!"
"So cool! So dominant!"
"What an incredible pass from Shirasawa!!"
The Shohoku bench erupted, everyone leaping up and cheering wildly.
That basket was a huge morale boost.
What a vicious dunk!
No... the pass was even better!
He had completely fooled everyone in the gym!
For that instant, everyone's eyes had followed Shirasawa's fake.
A no-look pass, and an Alley-oop pass at that!
Simply incredible.
Watching Shirasawa pass was truly a pleasure.
His movements were smooth, his passes precise.
Hanamichi Sakuragi released the rim and landed, immediately seeking out Shirasawa for a high five.
He knew that once the opportunity came, Shirasawa would get the ball into his hands.
Even with Shirasawa looking at Miyagi at the time, he had never doubted it.
It was understanding, and it was trust.
"Nice dunk, Sakuragi." Shirasawa smiled.
Sakuragi's hands trembled slightly with excitement.
These were his first points in an official game, and he had scored them with the dunk he was so proud of!
Hearing his teammates cheer, he felt his chest burn, excitement surging through him.
Shirasawa pointed his chin toward the floor, and Sakuragi followed his gaze.
Tatsumasa Oda lay there, his eyes squeezed shut and the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
Being dunked on like that was nothing short of a slap in the face.
He had looked down on Sakuragi so much and said so many nasty things.
Yet now he was the one lying on the floor.
He had even become the backdrop for someone else's highlight.
Hanamichi Sakuragi did not gloat. Instead, he straightened his back, his voice full of certainty. "Oda, see that? That's the gap between us."
Those words pierced Oda's heart like a needle.
He would rather have had Sakuragi laugh and mock him than hear the word "gap."
He had played basketball for so many years, working his way up step by step to where he was today, becoming someone of standing on the team.
Yet now a delinquent who had only started playing in high school was telling him to his face that there was a "gap."
The most frustrating part was that he could not find a single word to argue back.
In the stands, Yoko rose worriedly, scanned the court, then hurried down.
The referee walked over to Oda. "You okay? Can you still play? There was no foul on that play. Two seconds left."
Oda nodded weakly and pushed himself to his feet, but his head felt too heavy to lift.
Takezono had lost their fight too. They tossed up a careless shot from the backcourt, and the whistle sounded to end the first half.
On the court, Shirasawa and the others strode toward the bench in high spirits, greeted by their teammates' explosive cheers.
On Takezono's side, everyone from the players to the coach hung their heads.
No one spoke as they walked silently back to the locker room.
"Akagi, we've never played a game that felt this good before, have we?"
Inside Shohoku's locker room, Kiminobu Kogure's face was flushed with excitement.
He alone had scored twelve points in the first half, setting his personal record for a half.
After speaking, he looked at Shirasawa with gratitude written all over his face.
He knew perfectly well that he owed it to Shirasawa's passes.
Shirasawa had played all twenty minutes of the first half, handing out a staggering seventeen assists.
Every pass was like a scalpel, precise and deadly.
That did not even include his indirect assists.
It was fair to say that nearly two-thirds of Shohoku's sixty-plus first-half points had involved him.
Those numbers were terrifying.
Takenori Akagi nodded solemnly.
He really had never played a game that went so smoothly. In the past, he would not even have dared imagine it.
Now every teammate could take part in the offense. He no longer had to force his way through double-teams alone, exhausting himself only to lose anyway.
This was the biggest lead he had ever experienced at Shohoku.
Though... if losing margins counted, it was not the biggest.
In any case, Coach Anzai had been right.
Shirasawa was the kind of player who brought his own system, drawing his teammates on the court into his rhythm before they even realized it.
He let everyone bring out their best with ease, raising the entire team's strength by several levels.
Shirasawa took the stat sheet from Ayako, and the corners of his mouth lifted after he read it.
Seventeen assists. Not bad.
Push a little harder in the second half, and wait for an even bigger haul.
At that moment, everyone on Shohoku wore a smile they could not hide.
After that half, they could all feel it: Shohoku really was about to take flight.
Only Hanamichi Sakuragi, who had sidled up beside Shirasawa to peek at the stats, suddenly let out a strange cry.
"Huh?! Ayako, did you write this wrong?!"
His eyes widened as he pointed at the number on the sheet. "I... I only scored two points?!"
He had given everything he had throughout the first half and really had not had time to count his points.
After that final Alley-oop pass slam, he had been utterly convinced he had crushed Oda.
Yet Oda's scoring total stubbornly had an extra "1" in front of his.
Ayako smiled reassuringly. "Don't just focus on points. For a beginner, you already played really well!"
"Especially that dunk after your block at the end. That was amazing! Ask everyone if you don't believe me."
Sakuragi swept his gaze over the others, and they all smiled and nodded at him.
When his gaze reached Akagi, the corners of Akagi's mouth twitched twice before he reluctantly squeezed out, "...Keep it up."
That single sentence instantly rekindled Sakuragi's inner chuunibyou.
He grinned broadly and launched into an endless stream of self-praise.
Eventually, everyone ran out of patience. Shirasawa, Akagi, and Miyagi closed in from three directions, pinned him to the floor, and gave him a thorough "lesson."
Meanwhile, the oppressive atmosphere in Takezono's locker room left Oda squirming in his seat.
He kept feeling that everyone looked at him with disappointment.
So he got up and went outside alone, wanting some quiet.
Really, he also wanted to hide.
Just then, Yoko hesitantly approached him.
"Oda, you..."
"What do you want to say?" Oda whipped his head around, his temper flaring. "What are you doing here now?"
"Did you come to laugh at me?!"
"I've had enough of those pitying, disappointed looks from all of you! I play badly for just twenty minutes, and you're going to dismiss all my hard work?"
"It's all because of that punk Hanamichi Sakuragi!"
His sudden outburst frightened Yoko into retreating several steps, panic written all over her face.
"Oda," she said, her voice trembling slightly, "how did you become like this..."
Oda stared at Yoko, his tone turning cold. "Become? What's the point of always saying that? Aren't I changing for the better?"
He advanced a step. "I became the team's leader in my first year. The entire team set their sights on nationals because of me. If I spent all day with you like before, how could I live up to the team's expectations? How could I improve?"
"But you?" Oda grew more agitated as he spoke. "You're always complaining about one thing or another. You're not even happy that I have fans. You keep messing with my head!"
"If anyone's changed, it's you!" He raised his voice. "You've become selfish!"
Tears immediately welled up in Yoko's eyes. She had come to comfort him. Seeing that something was wrong with him, she had been worried but had not known how to begin.
But Oda acted as though he had gone mad, blaming everything on her. The more Yoko thought about it, the more wronged she felt. She had always supported him quietly, swallowing her own hurt, yet now she had become the selfish one.
She wiped her tears and simply let out everything in her heart.
"Oda, think about how you played basketball in middle school. Were you the same person then as you are now?"
"Did your teammates feel the same way about you then as they do now?"
"And the two of us..." Yoko's voice choked slightly. "We weren't like this either."
"Is all of this really still what you wanted back then?"
"You've changed so much I don't even recognize you anymore."
After hearing her out, Oda trembled slightly all over, his face livid.
Forcing down his anger, he replied, "That middle school stuff is outdated. This is high school. I have all these fans and bigger goals. This is what I wanted from the start!"
Yoko shook her head and tried to persuade him again. "But..."
"Enough with the fucking buts!" Oda suddenly growled, raising his hand and swinging it at Yoko's face!
A sharp slap rang out.
Yoko staggered back two steps, her cheek immediately swelling red as tears streamed uncontrollably down her face. But there was no longer any hurt in her eyes, only utter disappointment.
Just then-
"You bastard!!!"
An enraged roar erupted nearby.
A red blur suddenly rushed between them!
"Sakuragi?!" Oda and Yoko cried out together.
Hanamichi Sakuragi's eyes were wide as he seized Oda by the collar and slammed him against the wall. At that moment, the difference in their fighting ability could not have been clearer.
"You actually hit Yoko! You scumbag!"
As he spoke, Sakuragi had already raised his fist, ready to smash it into Oda's face.
Oda squeezed his eyes shut in terror, his face turning white.
"Sakuragi, don't!!"
Yoko's tearful cry made Sakuragi stop his fist just short of Oda's nose.
The rush of air swept past, leaving Oda drenched in a cold sweat.
Angry and bewildered, Sakuragi looked at Yoko. "You're still protecting him after this?"
But Yoko's answer left both Sakuragi and Oda stunned.
"Sakuragi, you can't hit him." Yoko wiped her tears and looked earnestly at Sakuragi. "If you hit someone, the team will discipline you."
Sakuragi stared blankly at her. What she meant... didn't seem to be that she was worried about Oda?
Was she worried about me?
Oda took the opportunity to wrench free of Sakuragi's grip and glare fiercely at Yoko.
"You've really disappointed me!"
With those words, he turned and ran without looking back.
Yoko shook her head with a bitter smile. The truth was right before her eyes. Everything she had given meant nothing; she had given it to the wrong person. She had been hit and blamed, yet somehow he had ended up making himself out to be in the right.
At a loss, Sakuragi patted his pockets, hoping to find a tissue, but found nothing.
"Yoko... you..." he stammered. "Were you worried about me just now?"
After asking, Sakuragi's heart pounded.
But clearly, his timing was wrong. The girl was upset. How could she be in the mood to talk about that?
Yoko sniffled and lowered her head. "Sakuragi, thank you for showing up."
With that, she turned and left, soon disappearing around the end of the corridor.
Sakuragi stood rooted to the spot, looking completely bewildered, unable to make sense of everything that had just happened.
Just then, Shirasawa's voice came from behind him.
"You can't rush feelings." Shirasawa walked up beside him. "But things are already moving in the right direction. Trust me, Sakuragi."
As chance would have it, Sakuragi was there because he had come out to use the restroom after Shirasawa and the others gave him that "lesson."
He had been muttering to himself along the way when he happened upon this scene between Oda and Yoko.
Sakuragi had initially hidden nearby to observe, wanting to see how things stood between them now-after all, Shirasawa had said that defeating Oda on the court would win back Yoko's heart.
He had never expected to witness Oda slap her.
Sakuragi had immediately lost his cool. In fact, even if the person being hit had not been Yoko, he most likely would have rushed over to stop it anyway. Hitting women was utterly disgraceful, and he could not stand it.