Crash!
The entire basket support shook.
The stands erupted in an instant, cheers nearly lifting the roof. That offensive sequence had flowed so smoothly that the crowd couldn't get enough.
"Shirasawa is way too good!" Hikoichi Aida bounced excitedly. "Nobody on Miuradai can match up with him!"
Even Coach Taoka silently nodded this time.
"If Shirasawa can switch freely between scoring himself and running the offense," he mused, "then Shohoku's overall strength may have to be rated another notch higher."
Those words made the entire Ryonan team inwardly flinch.
Shohoku, another level higher? Where would that put them in Kanagawa Prefecture?
A guaranteed top-four finish?
Or... could they really go toe-to-toe with Ryonan?
Moichi Taoka said no more.
Because even he had no idea where Shirasawa's limits lay. And this guy's limits essentially determined this Shohoku team's ceiling.
All he could do now was feel grateful that he had at least secured Kaede Rukawa.
If Kaede Rukawa had gone to Shohoku too...
Kanagawa really would have been thrown into chaos.
For now, though, Taoka still felt somewhat confident about beating Shohoku.
Of course, that depended on Shohoku getting past Shoyo first.
On the court, possession changed hands.
Kengo Murasame sidled up to Hanamichi Sakuragi again.
This time, Sakuragi had learned his lesson. Following Akagi's instructions, he deliberately kept a step away.
Seeing that, Murasame grinned. "Redheaded monkey, scared already? Staying that far away will only make scoring easier for me, won't it?"
Hanamichi Sakuragi took a deep breath and ignored him, focusing solely on his movements.
Takenori Akagi gave a slight nod from the sideline.
Some hurdles had to be cleared on your own if you wanted to grow quickly. Especially for Sakuragi-Akagi needed him to mature as soon as possible and become a dependable barrier inside for Shohoku.
That would give them more confidence in their push for nationals.
As for Murasame's talk of scoring easily... Akagi didn't take it to heart at all.
Want to catch a pass? First ask whether Shohoku's three iron gates on the perimeter would allow it!
By then, Miuradai's offense had completely stalled.
The swingman with the ball could only hold it helplessly in front of Hisashi Mitsui, with no idea what to do.
Mitsui didn't have Shirasawa's freakish physique, nor was he as fast as Miyagi.
But his defense could make an opponent uncomfortable all over.
No matter how you shook or faked, he simply wouldn't bite, his feet seemingly rooted to the floor. With solid footwork and nimble little steps, getting past him? Tough!
Just like now,
His opponent was visibly rattled, holding the ball without knowing whether to pass or shoot.
Mitsui stayed patient, neither reaching for a steal nor pressing too tightly.
He simply wore his opponent down with that airtight defensive stance.
Until Ryota Miyagi slipped in like a ghost from behind and to the side, reaching out to poke the ball away!
The basketball came loose.
Only then did Mitsui move, scooping up the ball and immediately slinging it to Shirasawa before charging upcourt.
Shirasawa caught it near midcourt and only briefly held it, timing Mitsui's sprint before sending a long bounce pass across half the court!
The ball and the man arrived together.
Hisashi Mitsui stopped sharply outside the three-point line, caught the pass, and jumped.
He leaned forward a little through the motion, but his form remained smooth and beautiful.
The basketball left his hand.
In the stands, Jun Uozumi suddenly stood up, his eyes wide.
"Hisashi Mitsui! He's Hisashi Mitsui from Takeishi Middle School!"
The basketball swished through cleanly, sending only the net fluttering.
"There's no mistaking that shooting form!" Uozumi's voice changed. "I thought he looked familiar from his first three-pointer... That's right, he's the middle school MVP from our year, Hisashi Mitsui!"
At those words, Hikoichi Aida sprang up beside him.
"What?! Shohoku's number 14 is an MVP-level player?" He looked devastated. "He didn't play in their practice game against us! I thought he was just an ordinary substitute!"
"I'm done, I'm done... What kind of scouting have I been doing?! I actually missed someone this important!"
Surprise also flashed across Moichi Taoka's face.
He knew Hisashi Mitsui had gone to Shohoku after graduating from middle school, because that year...
Ah, he really had been too busy these past few years.
After that middle school final, it hadn't just been Taoka. Many high school basketball teams had approached Mitsui, competing to recruit him.
Yet this prodigy had chosen the largely unknown Shohoku High School.
It had caused quite a stir at the time.
But soon afterward, word came that Mitsui had suffered a serious injury during training. After that, the celebrated MVP had vanished without a trace, with no further news.
Who could have imagined he would reappear in a Shohoku jersey at this very moment!
If Uozumi hadn't pointed it out, Taoka really wouldn't have recognized him. Compared with three years ago, both Mitsui's appearance and his style of play had changed far too much.
"Mitsui... Why did Mitsui have to show up now!"
Moichi Taoka muttered in frustration.
For his Ryonan team, this undoubtedly meant another threat.
Jun Uozumi also shook his head with feeling.
"Akagi, Shirasawa, Miyagi, and now Hisashi Mitsui too..."
"This year's Shohoku is something else."
Uozumi's words made quite a few players' hearts skip a beat, but not everyone took them to heart.
At some point, Sendoh's and Kaede Rukawa's seats had become empty.
On the court, Shohoku's defense tightened further and further, forcing Miuradai into a fluster and one turnover after another. Shohoku seized the opportunity to launch several counterattacks, completely changing the game's rhythm.
Miuradai's players could only chase the ball back and forth, all semblance of order gone. Over those final five minutes, Shohoku hammered them with a 23-2 run, flipping the score to 43-37!
With eight seconds left in the half, Shohoku not only led by six but still had possession.
The spectators were stunned. Those steals and fast breaks came so quickly that a blink was enough to miss them. Shohoku's substitutes shouted from the sideline until their voices nearly cracked. They had never been so excited-erase a fifteen-point deficit in five minutes? They had not only caught up, but gained another eight points!
Only Coach Anzai remained as he always was, sitting calmly as though he had expected all of this.
Eight seconds.
Shirasawa controlled the ball at the top of the arc in the frontcourt, keeping his center of gravity low as he dribbled between his hands.
Five seconds.
He suddenly dipped his shoulder and pounded the ball hard, bursting forward! Kazuo Araki stuck tight to him, desperately keeping pace.
Four seconds.
Outside the three-point line, Shirasawa abruptly pulled back, dribbling between his legs into a sharp stop! Kazuo Araki hurriedly turned, but couldn't stop his feet and landed on his backside.
Shirasawa gathered the ball and bent his knees, glancing at Araki on the floor with a look that seemed to say, Go on, get up.
Two seconds.
He rose straight into a pull-up three!
Under the entire crowd's gaze, the ball arced toward the hoop...
As the basketball flew through the air, time seemed to stretch.
In fact, gasps had already erupted the instant Shirasawa dropped Araki. Shaking a defender was common; putting one on the floor wasn't!
But before anyone could finish marveling, the buzzer-beater was already on its way, and everyone's voices involuntarily stretched into one long cry-
"Great shot! Whoaaaa!"
Whether it went in or not would certainly change that final exclamation.
The arc climbed higher, and the spectators' eyes grew wider.
Until...
The sound of the ball hitting the net rang out together with the halftime whistle!
The entire gym erupted, cheers threatening to blow the roof off!
"Holy shit!! Fucking amazing!! That shot was unreal!"
"A buzzer-beating three! After dropping his defender, too! Number 9 is vicious!"
"That's adding insult to injury! Shirasawa just ground Kazuo Araki into the floor!"
"So damn cool! That's definitely the best basket of this year's prefectural tournament! I'm a Shohoku fan from now on! A Shirasawa fan!"
The roars filling the gym sent Shirasawa's adrenaline surging. Holding back over the previous two games had been well worth it. A sword needed honing to shine; once drawn, it had to stun everyone!
He raised both hands high, receiving the crowd's cheers like a ruler. At this moment, his edge was fully revealed!
All his teammates on the court rushed over to high-five him, laughing and fooling around as they shared Shohoku's first shining moment.
At courtside, a photographer rapidly scrolled through the pictures on his camera, then suddenly stopped and smiled at one of them.
"Perfect... Now I'll definitely have something to turn in."
46-37.
At halftime, Shohoku headed into the locker room with a nine-point lead, having turned the game around in five minutes.
"Xiao Bai, you really kept that well hidden! What a huge surprise you've given us!" Kiminobu Kogure smiled until his eyes narrowed into slits and crow's-feet creased their corners.
As he put it, if Mitsui had once been the destroyer of his dream, then Shirasawa was the guide toward it. He had thought the team was already strong enough for that dream to have some hope, but after seeing Shirasawa's scoring firepower today, Kogure's thinking changed again-
The dream seemed close enough to reach out and touch.
Compared with the lifeless atmosphere in Miuradai's locker room, Shohoku's side was practically celebrating a festival.
They had spent months shouting about beating Kainan, only to find themselves barely hanging on against Shohoku. Wouldn't people laugh their heads off if word got out?
Especially their captain, Kengo Murasame. Half an hour earlier, he had declared they would settle the game within ten minutes, only for Shohoku to nearly crush them in five...
If there were ranks to getting slapped in the face, the slap Murasame had taken was practically at the level of Buddha's Palm.
Now he sat on the bench with a livid face, while the other players barely dared breathe, afraid of setting him off.
"Shohoku... How is this possible!" Murasame gritted his teeth, clenching his fists until they turned white. "How could we be losing to Shohoku like this!"
Kengo Murasame's brows were nearly twisted into knots as he repeated the same words.
"Wasn't Shohoku supposed to be Takenori Akagi's one-man team? What the fucking hell!"
With that, he punched the stool beside him, sending it crashing to the floor.
The locker room instantly fell frighteningly silent.
Just then, a deep voice came from the showers.
"You're really worked up, Murasame-senpai."
With those words, a burly, bare-chested young man walked out.
His build was absurdly thick, his muscles sharply defined and intimidating to look at. Add his nearly two-meter height and gleaming bald head, and he stood there like a small mountain.
The instant Murasame saw him, his expression brightened, and that familiar sinister smile returned to his face.
Because the newcomer was none other than Miuradai's closely guarded secret weapon-Tetsuya Naito.
Naito had only joined the basketball team this year. Much like Hanamichi Sakuragi, he was a prospect with off-the-charts physical gifts. But in terms of physique alone, Naito might have surpassed even Sakuragi.
He had previously played rugby. Though he had taken up basketball late, his drive and build were enough to make up for plenty of technical shortcomings.
Of course, that was only what Miuradai themselves thought...
In any case, Tetsuya Naito was the "surprise" they had been saving up for Kainan.
"Naito, honestly, I really wanted to wait until we faced Kainan before unveiling you." Kengo Murasame rubbed his hands together.