Yo Aoki waved his hand with a smile, "Don't rush, didn't you say you wanted to have a one-on-one match with Sakuragi?"
Kiyota curled his lip. "That redhead is an idiot, who would want to fight him one-on-one!"
Yo Aoki waved his hand and said mysteriously, "We'll talk about that later. I have something more important to do right now!"
He scratched his stomach. "Do you know where the toilet is? I ate too much at lunch."
Kiyota rolled his eyes, puffing out his cheeks. "Turn right when you leave!"
With a splash of running water, Yo Aoki pushed open the bathroom door and stepped out, letting out a long sigh of relief, "Finally, that feels good!"
"These campus days are pretty comfortable, "Yo Aoki couldn't help but hum a little off-key tune.
Just then, a timid, gentle voice drifted over. "Hello, do you know Sakuragi -kun?"
Yo Aoki turned around and smelled a faint fragrance. Before him was a pretty little face.
Yo Aoki nodded. "Yes, I know him. Is there anything I can help you with?"
The girl handed over a pink envelope, clutching it in both hands.
Yo Aoki was stunned. "A love letter? So someone wrote a love letter to Sakuragi?"
The girl blushed and asked in a barely audible voice, "Could you please give this letter to Sakuragi -kun?"
Yo Aoki pressed on, "Are you sure it's for Sakuragi? You mean that red-haired idiot? Not Kaede Rukawa?"
The girl shook her head, her tone resolute. "It's Sakuragi -kun!"
Yo Aoki immediately broke into a smile, thinking to himself, "Great eye for talent! Sakuragi's spring is about to begin again!"
He used to wonder when he read the manga. Sakuragi was handsome, and his personality was lively and cute. It was just that his hair was a bit too eye-catching. Overall, he was alright, but he just didn't have any luck with women. Was it because he liked to fight?
Back when he was in high school before he transmigrated, the boys who loved to cause trouble and fight were actually more popular with girls. How come Sakuragi has been dumped fifty times? I really don't understand!
Looking at the girl in front of him, Yo Aoki suddenly felt like a parent. He immediately said seriously, "Don't worry, I will definitely deliver the letter to Sakuragi!"
"Thank you!" The girl bowed, then turned and ran away.
Yo Aoki entered the classroom, Kiyota, with her sharp eyes, spotted the pink envelope in his hand and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow! Aoki, you can still get love letters at our school?"
Yo Aoki grinned. "Hehe, too bad it's not mine."
Kiyota curled his lip, his face full of jealousy. "Hmph, I knew it, it must be that Kaede Rukawa guy's."
Yo Aoki waved his hand with a laugh, "Hey, you guessed wrong again!"
Yo Aoki walked up to Sakuragi, Kiyota's eyes widened. "Could it be Sakuragi?!"
Yo Aoki poked Sakuragi hard. " Sakuragi, get up!"
Sakuragi, still half-asleep, wiped his drool and asked, " Aoki, are we going to practice?"
Yo Aoki handed over the envelope. "It's not time yet! This is for you!"
Sakuragi rubbed his eyes, stared at the envelope for more than ten seconds, and suddenly jumped up with a "Ah!" startling the whole class.
Yo Aoki said with a smile, " Sakuragi, don't panic, it's a love letter! Congratulations, someone has confessed their feelings to you!"
Sakuragi's expression suddenly became complicated, shifting between light and dark.
Yo Aoki leaned closer and asked, " Sakuragi, are you alright?"
After a long while, Sakuragi whispered, " Aoki, you should return this letter to that girl. I can't let Haruko!"
Yo Aoki rolled his eyes inwardly. What was all this about? The two of them weren't even together yet. Haruko clearly liked Kaede Rukawa!
Yo Aoki didn't say much, placing the envelope on the Sakuragi table. "I don't care anymore, it's up to you whether you read it or not!"
After saying that, he returned to his seat.
Kiyota leaned closer, his face full of gossip. "Which girl wrote this for Sakuragi? Her taste is way too heavy!"
Yo Aoki chuckled and poked him, "What? Are you envious?"
Kiyota immediately puffed out his chest. "How could that be! How could that Red-haired Monkey compare to my charisma, Nobunaga Kiyota?"
Yo Aoki shook his head with a smile, "Oh? Is that so? Haha~"
During the following class, Yo Aoki kept a close eye on Sakuragi, Sakuragi was extremely restless. He was torn between the start and end of the class, and only opened the letter near the end of the class.
Yo Aoki's lips curled into a smile, thinking to himself, "That's right, even if it doesn't work out, it's good to be friends!"
The moment the bell rang, Yo Aoki jumped up, walked around to the dazed Sakuragi, and patted him on the back. "Hey, Sakuragi, it's time for practice. What are you dawdling about?"
"Oh, I see," Sakuragi replied casually, still lost in thought.
Yo Aoki grabbed him and turned to walk towards the gym. Kaede Rukawa and Kiyota also went with them. The four of them formed a group and headed straight for their destination. Since first-year students get out of school early, the four of them arrived early and were considered one of the first groups of people in the gym.
The PE class in the gym hadn't finished yet, and the court was noisy, so the group couldn't go down to the court and had to go to the second floor to wait. There wasn't any serious training on the court downstairs; it was all basic dribbling and passing, nothing interesting to watch.
Just as he was feeling utterly bored, Yo Aoki suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure from behind, and his eyes lit up. "It's her! What a coincidence!" he whispered, afraid of being overheard.
He quickly nudged Sakuragi's arm, pointed in a direction with his chin, and said, "Hey, Sakuragi, that's the girl! She's the one who wrote you the love letter!"
"Which one? Which one?" Kiyota, with his sharp ears, immediately leaned over upon hearing the noise, leaning down in the direction he was pointing, almost sticking half his body out.
Yo Aoki quickly grabbed him, " Kiyota, gossip is fine, but don't throw yourself down!" But Sakuragi was too shy and turned his head away, not daring to look in that direction.
Yo Aoki gave him a slap in exasperation, "Hey! Aren't you supposed to be a seasoned player who's been dumped 50 times? Why are you acting all coy?"
"What?! Dumped 50 times?" Kiyota gasped in surprise, then burst into laughter, clutching his stomach. "Hahaha!"
Kiyota's commotion was so loud that it instantly attracted everyone's attention. The girl followed the gaze and looked over. She was clearly stunned for a moment, quickly glanced at Sakuragi, her face flushed red, and she quickly lowered her head.
Sakuragi blushed crimson with embarrassment at the laughter, and was about to rush up and give Kiyota a headbutt, but he stopped abruptly as if he suddenly remembered something, and glared fiercely at Kiyota. Kaede Rukawa, standing to the side, had his hands in his pockets, not even glancing in their direction, acting as if nothing had happened.
Yo Aoki couldn't help but sigh, "What kind of situation is this? The person you like doesn't like you, and the person who likes you, you don't like. It's really frustrating."
Coach Takato had just stepped into the basketball court when he saw it was packed with people, and his brows immediately furrowed.
He turned to Teacher Koyama, who was still standing there, and said, " Koyama, quickly get these students to leave; we need to have closed training."
"Yes, teacher," Koyama quickly replied.
Koyama stood in the center of the court and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Everyone get off the court now!"
"What's going on! Why can't we watch?"
"That's so unfair!"
"We're determined to stay here!"
"What? You want to run laps of ' San-Go-Nana ' again?" Koyama's face turned green, and he shouted sternly.
Upon hearing that they would be punished, the students immediately and reluctantly moved out.
The girl who had originally stayed stared at Hanamichi Sakuragi for a long time before finally dawdling away with her classmates.
Koyama walked up to Takato, bowed, and said, "Teacher, I'll be leaving now, I won't bother you any longer."
Takato smiled and nodded, "Okay, thank you, Koyama."
Koyama repeatedly said he didn't deserve such praise, then turned and ran away quickly.
Yo Aoki leaned closer to Nobunaga Kiyota, nudged his arm, and whispered, "Hey, why is Teacher Koyama so afraid of Coach Takato?"
Kiyota rolled his eyes and grinned slyly, "Have you forgotten? Koyama used to be from Kainan, and he was Takato's last disciple. He used to get scolded a lot."
"No wonder!" Yo Aoki also laughed.
Once all the players had arrived, Takato finally spoke, "After several days of discussion with Senior Taoka, we finally finalized the training plan, which will consist of two parts: tactical coordination and physical training."
"I'll handle the tactical coordination; physical training will be left to Senior Taoka."
Upon hearing this, the faces of Akira Sendoh, Jun Uozumi, and Kiccho Fukuda immediately fell. Everyone knew that Taoka's training was notoriously ruthless.
Takato continued, "We'll practice defensive tactics this afternoon. Let Maki lead everyone in warm-ups first."
"Yes!" Shinichi Maki immediately replied.
The fifteen players were divided into three teams. Team 1 consisted of Shinichi Maki, Yo Aoki, Akira Sendoh, Jin, and Takenori Akagi; Team 2 consisted of Kenji Fujima, Kaede Rukawa, Nobunaga Kiyota, Hisashi Mitsui, and Jun Uozumi; and Team 3 consisted of Ryota Miyagi, Hanamichi Sakuragi Kiccho Fukuda Toru Hanagata, Hanagata Toru, and Kazuma Takasago.
The training rules are that one team defends, while the second and third teams take turns attacking. Each round lasts 30 minutes with no rest in between. Then the teams switch to defend, and so on. The only time to rest is when they switch to attack. It lasts a full 90 minutes, pure hell.
As the first training session began, Takato shouted from the sidelines, "2-3 zone defense!"
Yo Aoki and his team immediately set up their formation under the basket.
After two rounds of offense and defense, Takato shouted again, "Half-court man-to-man!"
The group scattered instantly.
"Switch to a 32-zone defense!"
"Provide cross cover!"
Thirty minutes later, Takato nodded, a rare occurrence for him. "Team One's tactical execution is quite good."
"Alright, now switch to defense for the second team, and the third team, prepare to attack!"
Next, the second team switched to defense, and the third team switched to offense. At first, they were able to tie with the first team, but after a while, they started to falter.
" Mitsui! Why did you stop?"
" Rukawa! You're already tired after only halfway through?"
" Kiyota! You're in the wrong place!"
" Uozumi! Run faster!"
Takato nodded to himself. "The second team is still a bit inconsistent, but overall it's alright."
But his joy lasted only half a minute. As soon as the third team took to the field, Takato almost collapsed on the spot.
Toru Hanagata and Kazuma Takasago switched positions and stacked up, Kiccho Fukuda's defense was a mess, and any formation was useless if he broke through. And Hanamichi Sakuragi was running around like a headless fly.
Although Sakuragi has improved rapidly, he is still a novice and doesn't know anything.
Takato scratched the back of his head and sighed, "Looks like we'll have to teach according to individual aptitude."
After the afternoon training session ended, Hisashi Mitsui dragged his leaden legs to the bench. The high-intensity training had exceeded his expectations, and he was a little panicked, afraid that he wouldn't be able to hold on.
He let out a long breath, Takenori Akagi walked over and asked, "How's Mitsui? Are you alright?"
Hisashi Mitsui stubbornly insisted, "It's alright, I can do another round."
Akagi smiled and said, "Let's go have dinner."
Although he had trained at Shohoku for half a year and his physical fitness had improved a lot, he was still a step behind Akagi and the others. His strong sense of pride made him unwilling to fall behind.
He muttered to himself, "Why did I waste those two years?" He said this countless times, but there's no going back.
At 6 PM, Takato Moichi Taoka arrived at the stadium. Takato said seriously, " Taoka- senpai, we've got a pretty good grasp of the players' situations on the first day of training."
Taoka chuckled easily, "Yeah, these kids are all pretty good, especially Aoki, he stands out even among a bunch of skilled fighters."
Takato raised Takato and joked, "Senior thinks highly of Aoki?"
Taoka chuckled, "Likewise."
Taoka asked, "What are your thoughts on the starting lineup? It's not going to be the same five as before, is it?"
Takato smiled but didn't reply.