Aoki laughed and said, "Simple, just throw in five hundred every day."
Imamura stared wide-eyed, speechless for a long time.
Aoki suppressed a laugh, thinking to himself how interesting the guy's expression would be if he told him he had to add two hundred more points every day.
Basketball is something you lose track of time when you start playing.
Aoki looked at Imamura, who was panting heavily from exhaustion, and spoke.
" Imamura -senpai, that's enough for today."
Imamura glanced at the clock on the wall; it was already nine o'clock. He scratched his head. " Aoki, sorry to have kept you practicing with me so late."
Aoki laughed, "It's alright, I practice until this time every day."
Imamura's eyes widened in surprise again. "Huh?"
Aoki waved his hand with a smile, "You don't really think I'm a genius, do you, senpai?"
On his way home from the stadium, Yo Aoki struck up a conversation with Imamura.
"Senior, don't just focus on mid-range shooting, you need to try your hand at three-pointers too."
Imamura was stunned. "Three-pointer? A center shooting a three-pointer? Are you kidding me?"
"At 1.93 meters tall, you're considered short for a center in our county, so you won't have an advantage in the paint. But if you could develop a three-point shot, would those centers dare to guard you? You might even become one of the top centers in the country."
Imamura laughed heartily, " Aoki, you really dare to dream! How could that be possible?"
He stared at the moon and said slowly, "My biggest dream isn't to become a top national center, it's to help Takezato reach the national tournament."
"I will lead Takezato to dominate the entire country!" Yo Aoki said with certainty.
Imamura stared into his eyes for a long while before solemnly saying, "Then I definitely won't hold you back."
"Is it a deal?" Yo Aoki raised his hand.
"It's a deal!" Their hands clenched tightly together.
After parting ways with Imamura, Yo Aoki turned into the convenience store at the alley entrance, wanting to grab a bottle of water.
But he discovered that the short shop assistant on duty was no longer the same one.
While paying the bill, Yo Aoki casually asked, "Where did that short clerk from before go?"
The shop assistant looked up and said, "You mean Asatani? He's in the hospital. Yesterday he witnessed a robbery. He's usually very timid, but he actually rushed to stop it, and ended up getting stabbed during the struggle. Luckily, someone was passing by and scared the robber away."
Yo Aoki frowned. "Are you badly injured?"
The shop assistant breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, it's just a stab wound to the thigh, nothing serious."
Yo Aoki's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled.
He had a deep impression of Asatani. After training at Eda Middle School, Asatani would always come to buy water, and they would occasionally chat. He used to think Asatani was timid, but now he realized he was wrong. That guy wasn't a coward at all; he was a real man.
As Yo Aoki walked home, dribbling a ball, he passed through a dark alley when he suddenly heard someone shout, "Help!"
Without thinking twice, he turned and ran towards the shouts. By the moonlight, he could see that at the end of the alley, a man was snatching a woman.
Yo Aoki's temper flared up instantly, and he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Stop!" Then he rushed towards the man.
His shout startled the man, but instead of running away, he pulled out a knife from his pocket and cursed, "Kid, you're asking for trouble?"
Seeing him draw his sword, Yo Aoki gripped the basketball tightly and threw it with all his might. The ball was incredibly powerful, and with the poor visibility at night, it hit the man squarely on the head with a loud "thud," knocking him to the ground.
Yo Aoki rushed forward and kicked the knife out of his hand, then straddled him.
The man had just recovered when he felt the knife being kicked away, followed by someone pressing down on him. He immediately raised his hand to resist, but a large hand gripped his wrist, and a sharp pain shot through him.
Before he could even scream, his neck was grabbed and he was punched several times in the chin, knocking him unconscious.
Yo Aoki sat on him, his left hand gripping his neck, and his right hand delivered two more punches. Feeling that wasn't enough, he punched him twice more.
After subduing her, he turned to look at the person who had just cried for help. It was a girl in a sailor uniform, huddled in a corner, hugging her arms, trembling with fear.
It turned out to be a female student. Yo Aoki thought to himself, then shouted, "Hey, I've got this person under control! Call the police right now!"
The girl snapped out of her daze upon hearing this, quickly scrambled to her feet, and stumbled as she ran outside.
Yo Aoki watched the girl run away and breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at the alley and saw an abandoned house at the end. No wonder no one had passed by earlier.
Not long after, the sound of bicycles was heard, and sure enough, two bicycles rode over; they were police officers.
Upon seeing the police, Yo Aoki waved, "Here! This is the man who committed robbery!"
Two policemen got out of the car, but didn't dare approach directly. Gripping their batons, they asked, "Who are you?"
Yo Aoki stood up. "My name is Yo Aoki, and I'm a first-year student at Takezato High School."
The two policemen approached; one checked Yo Aoki, and the other checked the thugs on the ground.
"That's him!" the police officer investigating the crime exclaimed with delight.
Another policeman came over, looked for a while, and said, "It's true! This ' Wolf of the Moonlit Night ' has finally been caught."
" The Wolf of the Moonlit Night?" Yo Aoki laughed; that was such a casual name.
Two policemen lifted the thug and tied him to a bicycle. One of the older officers laughed and said, " Aoki -kun, you've beaten this guy into a pig's head."
Yo Aoki scratched his head. "He's too weak. I didn't get a few punches out."
The young policeman said angrily, "This guy committed several crimes before, and yesterday he even stabbed a young man who tried to help someone. Luckily, he was caught today."
Another policeman added, " Aoki, you'll need to come back to the police station with us to give a statement."
Yo Aoki nodded and replied, "No problem."
On the way, the young policeman glanced at Yo Aoki's physique and couldn't help but exclaim, " Aoki -kun, you're quite tall. Are you on the school basketball team?"
Yo Aoki nodded in agreement.
The young policeman's eyes lit up. "I used to be on the Takezato High School Basketball Team too. My year was the first time we made it to the final four. Although we didn't make it to the national tournament, we really gave it our all back then." He then looked nostalgic, "I really miss those days."
Yo Aoki smiled.
The young policeman originally intended to say, "I wish you all the best in your national team competition this year," but then remembered that Yo Aoki was a first-year student, and immediately changed his mind. "I wish your whole team the best in your national team competition!"
Yo Aoki didn't care about that and nodded with a smile, "It'll definitely work!"
The next day, Yo Aoki went to class as usual. The first class was math, and the content was dry and boring.
He spent the entire class thinking about how to improve the team's strength. He started by looking at center Imamura. Although he couldn't compare to top players in the prefecture like Akagi, Uozumi, and Hanagata, he had great potential. If he trained according to his plan, it would be a qualitative leap for both Imamura and the team.
Looking at the forwards, Takezato originally planned to start Yasunori Sanada and Masanobu Mizuki, both third-year students. These two don't have any special characteristics. Their strength is okay for other high schools, but they are far from being able to compete nationally.
As for the guards, the shooting guard is Tatsu Shindo, a third-year student. He has accurate shooting and is a reliable scorer, but unfortunately, his defense is too weak. The point guard is Shunya Hojo, a second-year student. He has solid fundamentals, but his mental fortitude is poor. He is okay when the team is winning, but he is the first to falter when things get tough.
"Sigh, I'm playing both player and coach," he sighed inwardly. Coach? Right, I almost forgot about Coach Akai. Thinking of Coach Akai again, he guessed he hadn't yet realized the gap between Takezato and the other teams.
This is hellish difficulty, it's so exciting!
"Hmm? Yo Aoki, do you have a different opinion on this problem?" The math teacher adjusted his glasses and spoke coldly, clearly having heard his laughter.
Yo Aoki's face flushed, and he replied with an awkward laugh, "I have no opinion, it's just that the teacher's explanation was good."
As soon as he finished speaking, several suppressed laughs came from the classroom.
The math teacher got even angrier, taking it as mockery, and scoffed, " Yo Aoki, stand up. You'll be standing for the rest of the class."
During lunch break, Shirota ran outside the classroom to find Yo Aoki to eat lunch together.
Shirota asked, " Yo, I heard you slept with Wolf of the Moonlit Night last night?"
Yo Aoki replied, "Yes, I saw it when I got home last night and just took care of it. How did you know?"
Shirota laughed, "I heard from Coach Akai that the police went to the school this morning and told the principal about what happened last night. They even said they'd give you a certificate of merit."
Yo Aoki said seriously, "If we're going to give an award, it should be to the person who got stabbed." He thought of Asatani, the convenience store clerk.
Shirota agreed, "Yeah, that guy definitely has guts."
Yo Aoki suddenly remembered Shirota's suspicious behavior these past few days and asked, " Shirota, what have you been busy with these past few days?"
Shirota pulled out his notebook and waved it in front of him. " Coach Akai assigned me a secret mission, and I've been working on it for the past few days. Do you want to know?"
Yo Aoki nodded in agreement.
Shirota smirked. "The coach asked me to investigate the strength of high schools in the prefecture, and I just finished it today."
Yo Aoki responded with an "Oh," a reaction that surprised Shirota, Shirota somewhat disappointed.
Seeing this, Yo Aoki quickly feigned interest. " Shirota, tell me, what are some of the best players in the prefecture?"
Shirota immediately perked up, clearing his throat twice. " Aoki, I've been running around to various high schools these past few days, sneaking in to observe and record things. I even got caught once and almost got beaten up."
Shirota wiped the sweat from his forehead, still shaken.
"I checked Kainan first. They're still as strong as ever. Their ace, Maki Shinichi, is a third-year Shinichi Maki this year, even more terrifying than last year, like a monster; Soichiro Jin, a second-year student, is incredibly accurate from the outside; and then there's our own Nobunaga Kiyota, who just joined Kainan." Shirota's expression was grave. "This team is terrifying."
Yo Aoki certainly knew the significance of Kainan; in the story, they had won the national runner-up title. "I really want to play against them!"
Shirota waved the notebook in his hand, oblivious to Aoki's thoughts, muttering to himself.
" The Shoyo team has changed a lot this year. After I finished my scouting, I realized that they are a completely different team from the one we watched before. In addition to their ace Kenji Fujima, they actually have four players who are over 1.9 meters tall!"
Aoki stroked his chin, his tone tinged with regret.
"This must have been specifically designed to target Maki from Kainan."
Shirota didn't dwell on Aoki's regret and quickly changed the subject.
"Next up is Ryonan High School, whose strength is on par with ours. Their ace is Akira Sendoh, a second-year student, and Jun Uozumi, a third-year student."
Aoki frowned, a headache starting to creep in.
Do they still think Ryonan on the same level as us? It seems they haven't recognized the gap at all. If this scouting data is given to Coach Akai, who knows what kind of trouble it will cause.
Aoki suppressed his thoughts and asked Shirota if he had investigated other schools, such as Shohoku.
Shirota immediately nodded, saying that he had focused his investigation on Shohoku, since Aoki had always mentioned how strong Shohoku was.
"Their ace is third-year captain Takenori Akagi, whose dominance under the basket is incredible. They also have Kaede Rukawa from Tomigaoka Middle School, who's quite famous. But the other players are just average. So I think that although they have fighting power, they're no match for us."
As Shirota finished speaking, he suddenly slapped his forehead, revealing a look of lingering fear.
"Oh, and there was this weirdo with red hair, who looked like a complete novice. He was the one who spotted me and almost beat me up, but luckily a player with glasses stopped him, and I managed to run away."
Aoki laughed heartily after hearing this, secretly pleased. Only Sakuragi would notice something like this. He was actually quite interested in meeting these people.
Aoki stroked his chin and turned to Shirota.
" Shirota, I think you've been fooled!"
Shirota was stunned for a moment, looking completely bewildered. "What? You were scammed?"
Aoki pointed to the notebook, his tone certain. "I think everything you've researched is deliberately revealed to mislead you."
Shirota immediately shook his head. "Impossible, I was disguised and doing all the scouting. Apart from Shohoku, no other high school noticed me!"