Rebirth In KurokoNoBasket

(At Teiko's Bench)

Akashi looked at his team members.

Akashi: 'Kuroko is tired from the fast-paced game. He exhausted himself going up and down the court with no breaks.'

Akashi turned towards Haizaiki and saw him in no condition to play.

Akashi: 'What did Kageyama Shun say to him that got him this down.'

Akashi sighed and looked at his coach. The coach nodded and addressed the whole team.

Shirogane (Teiko's Coach): "The lineup for the fourth quarter will be Nijimura, Akashi, Midorima, Aomine, and Murasakibara."

Akashi stepped forward and said.

Akashi: "This quarter is going to be the most difficult one even with the huge lead. Nothing is stopping Kageyama Shun from stealing the passes. All we can do is make it harder for him to steal the passes."

Nijimura: "And, how do you suggest we do that?"

Akashi closed his eyes for a moment and then spoke.

Akashi: "Kageyama Shun needs certain conditions fulfilled before he can steal a pass."

Midorima: "What conditions?"

Akashi: "First, he needs to know the pass routine, conditions, and performance of the players, their habits, and other things that might help him predict the plays.

He spends the first half of the game, fulfilling that condition.

Next, he needs to be in the middle of the court for him able to steal a pass."

[A/N: Not the half-court, but in the middle of the court, draw a line joining the baskets on both ends of the court, and he would need to be on that line.]

Aomine: "Why should he be in the middle of the court?"

Akashi: "No matter how fast a person is, he won't be faster than a ball traveling at a fast speed. Kageyama Shun cannot go from one end of the court to another fast enough to steal a moving ball. He needs to be in the center to reach in time."

Nijimura: "That makes sense."

Akashi: "The last condition is not really a condition but a factor that makes it easier for him to steal the ball."

Shirogane (Teiko's Coach): "And, that is?"

Akashi: "The longer the distance between players is, the more chance he has to steal the pass going between them, as it increases the time he has to reach the ball."

Akashi took a pause and continued,

Akashi: "We can't completely stop him from stealing our passes, but we can reduce the numbers of steals.

Keep the passes less in number if you have to pass, keep them short, and finally, and try to draw Kageyama Shun to the sides of the court."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The final quarter started, and the ball started with Teiko.

Akashi dribbled the ball and was met by Ishida in the way. Akashi slowed down, but the next moment he speeds past him.

Ishida: 'So fast.'

Akashi reached beneath the basket and jumped for a layup, but the ball was smacked out of his hand.

Akashi looked behind to find Shun running back towards Teiko's basket.

The ball was caught by Otsubo, who directly threw it to Shun. Shun caught the ball and layed it into the basket without a defender in sight.

The audience cheered for Shun at the quick score.

Viewer: "That was so quick."

Aomine looked at Shun, who just scored.

Aomine: 'He ran the moment he blocked Akashi, I wouldn't have that much awareness of the situation.'

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Nijimura passed Mibuchi with a quick crossover; he was met by Ishida and Aone's double team.

Nijimura looked at Shun, who was guarding Aomine in one corner of the court, so he skillfully passed the ball to Midorima in the other corner, who scored a beautiful three.

Shun got the ball from Otsubo, dribbled forward, and met by Aomine.

Shun: 'Let's aim for a four-point play.'

Shun stopped and used the 'Earth' form Mibuchi to foul Aomine and land the ball in the basket. The ball swirled around a few times but landed safely into the net.

Shun sighed in relief as the three-pointer went in.

Shun: 'I really need to work on my accuracy; let's increase the number of shots in practices.'

-*-*-*-

Akashi tried to get past Mibuchi, but both were in deadlock. Akashi looked at Midorima and passed at him, but Shun swooped in and stole the pass just in front of Midorima.

He dribbled the ball to an open space and shot from the three-point line, making the shot.

The game went on with Shun slowly but steadily decreasing the point gap.

Shun decreased scoring from inside and started to score more from outside. He thoroughly utilized Mibuchi's shooting forms to score three and the occasional four points at a time.

Shun kept on stealing the ball and kept increasing the point scored by Tokiwadai.

-*-*-*-

Murasakibara was pissed. He had been scored against over and over by Shun in this game. He wanted to block him, but he couldn't, the ball would always go over him.

He wanted to stop Shun from scoring, but Shun switched to scoring from outside, and that wasn't his area defend.

Murasakibara: "Then, I will just score over him."

Murasakibara dribbled the ball from one side of the court to the other side by himself. He saw Otsubo being occupied by Nijimura, and Shun was free.

He headed towards the basket for a dunk, and as he expected, Shun came to the post stop him.

Murasakibara: 'I will dunk over you.'

Murasakibara jumped with the ball in his hands, but just before his hands reached the height of the hoop, another set of hands collided with the ball.

Murasakibara looked to find that Shun had met him at Shun's maximum vertical reach.

Murasakibara: "He angeled and positioned himself such that he would have the maximum power and impact just before the height of the hoop."

The ball slipped out Murasakibara's hands and was caught by Aomine, who scored by himself, but the impact from the block was enough to raise the morals of Tokiwadai to the highest.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The point gap finally became zero in the last minute of the game.

With twenty seconds left on the clock, Shun, who had not passed once in the second half of the game, passed the ball to Ishida, who scored two points with a face-up jump shot from within the three-point line.

All the players on the court were surprised. The coach and the bench players were also surprised by the pass, even Ishida, who scored by the pass was surprised.

Teiko's coach called for their last time up immediately after Ishida's score.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

(At Teiko's Bench)

Shirogane (Teiko's coach): "Concentrate on scoring with all your might, the ball will be in our possession, so no matter what happens don't let Kageyama Shun steal the ball."

Akashi: "Ok, this is what we are going to do, Midorima I want you to be open for a pass, make sure to leave your mark behind."

-*-*-*-

(At Tokiwadai's Bench)

Tokiwadai's Coach: "If we want to win, we need to defend with all we got. Stick to your marks. They need three points to win, so they will try for that, but they might try for pushing the game into overtime, so I repeat, don't leave your marks, stick with them like glue."

Otsubo: "We will make sure to defend them with all our might."

Tokiwadai's Coach: "I have nothing more to say, and none of the teams have a time out left, so make to win."

Team: "Yes, Sir!"

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Shun took a deep breath and took the position right in the middle of the paint area. He was ready to steal any ball, and if Teiko tried to come-in directly, he was ready to stop them.

The ball was with Akashi; he dribbled the ball forward. Shun saw all of Teiko trying to break away from their mark.

Akashi looked at the clock, he let it run by waiting, so that the play he made would be the last one of the game.

With a few seconds left on the clock, Akashi moved forward.

Shun saw Midorima and Murasakibara break away from their mark.

Shun: 'Midorima is trying for a three-pointer, and Murasakibara is trying for a tie, but Murasakibara is too far to score a point.'

Murasakibara wasn't in the post area as there was no need for a rebound and was outside the three-point line trying to draw out Otsubo from the post, in case Akashi tried to go in for a score himself.

Shun saw Akashi stop, and he immediately ran towards Midorima for a pass steal.

Shun: 'Akashi won't risk over time, he will go with Midorima. Midorima himself said that he would never leave a buzzer-beater to chance. This is his only option.'

Shun was already close to the pass trajectory when he saw Akashi pass the ball towards Murasakibara.

Shun: 'What is he doing!'

Shun then saw something that blew his mind, even in his wildest predictions, he never saw the current scenario.

Murasakibara caught the ball, and from the three-point line, he jumped for a jump shot.

Shun had never seen Murasakibara so uncomfortable as he was looking right now, his face was warped in discomfort.

Murasakibara released the ball, the ball traveled an arc and dropped right on the base on the base of the rim.

Shun: 'YES!'

The referee blow in his whistle to announce the end of the time.

Referee: *Whistle*

But then, Shun saw the ball bounce straight up, and Shun's heart stopped for a second.

The stadium went silent at that moment.

The ball that had bounced so high came down and dropped right into the basket.

Then there was noise.

Shun dropped to his knees and saw Teiko's members grabbing and jumping on each other.

Shun: 'We lost.'

Shun felt like crying his eyes out, he tried to resist, but a few tears managed to worm their way out to his face.

Ishida came to Shun and helped him up.

Ishida: "Come on. We have to gather up."

Shun stood up but didn't raise his head.

Ishida, who looked at that sighed and said.

Ishida: "Shun, you couldn't have done anything else. We would have lost with a huge point difference if it weren't for you."

It was true Shun had massively outclassed everyone in scoring in the finals.

Shun had scored seventy-seven point out of Tokiwadai's hundred and eight-point total. The next top scorer in the game was Nijimura, with twenty-eight points in his name.

Shun had led the game with steals, with fifteen steals.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Shun didn't listen to anything until he saw a hand come in front of him.

He looked up to find Akashi standing there with his hand extended.

Shun didn't extend his hand but asked him the question he wanted to ask the most.

Shun: "Why did you pass to Murasakibara."

Akashi didn't smile as he thought that might be ins.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e.

Akashi: "I noticed that you move before the ball is released from the passer, which leads me to believe, that you moved according to predictions, and not the actual release of the ball. I knew that between Midorima and Murasakibara, you would always choose Midorima.

Murasakibara had never shot a three in the entire tournament right from the preliminaries, and I, myself was not confident enough to score against you. So, when the choice came, I choose to take a risk with Murasakibara's three, rather than taking a chance of the ball getting the ball stolen by you.

I told Murasakibara to be ready for that three-pointer, I purposely lured you to Midorima and passed to Murasakibara."

Shun looked at the still extended hand and shook it. He looked at Akashi's face and said.

Shun: "You win this time, but the next time I will defeat Teiko with a respectable point gap. I don't want this kind of situation to repeat."

Akashi: "We will see about that. Teiko will be again next time, so don't get your hopes up."

Shun laughed, turned, and walked away.

Shun looked up at the ceiling, finally feeling that his first National tournament had come to an end.