Rebirth In KurokoNoBasket

It was a lively day in Tokiwadai Basketball Club, as in different parts of the gym, two newcomers in the Tokiwadai's first-string were being whipped into shape by their more experienced teammates.

On one side of the gym was the shorty of the first-string; Kurumatani Sora. He was wearily panting as he ran around the court, in random directions, lengths, and speeds.

The odd thing with Sora was that a rope was tied around his waist, whose other end was being pulled by someone.

Sora felt a pull from the rope, accompanied by a voice. He looked at the other end of the rope to find his senpai looking back at him while still running.

Kaitani: "Sora, don't let the rope become taut. You need to be able to maintain the current pace for at least twenty minutes.

You and I are short. We need speed and stamina as the basic requirements to succeed on the court."

Kaitani was chosen by the coach to bring Sora up to speed with regarding his speed and stamina.

Sora huffed as he replied to Kaitani.

Sora: "Yes, senpai!"

Kurumatani Sora had met with the coach and made the decision that he wanted to join the first-string early. Sora was not unaware of the dissatisfaction in both first and second-string with his promotion.

He clearly not skilled enough to be in the first-string, and there were a lot of players in the second-string that thought that it should be them that should've been promoted.

Over that, Shun was the one who handpicked Sora, that was like saying that Sora would be Shun's successor when he retired, that itself put a lot of pressure on him, but Sora still decided to join the first-string.

It had been a couple of days since Sora had joined, and this was what he had to do every day.

The method was simple, Kaitani and Sora would tie one rope around their waist, and Kaitani would lead while Sora would follow. All Sora had to do was to make sure that the length of rope between them didn't become taut.

Sora already had enough stamina to last a quarter and a half against Kuroko, but this was the first-string, they didn't plan for the short-term. The coach and Shun saw Sora as the team's next point guard after Shun retired.

If Sora didn't quit, then he would become an excellent player by the time he became a regular on the team.

The coach who was roaming around the gym looked at Sora and thought.

Coach Koetsuji: 'One week for him to get used to the pace, one month for him to show slight improvements, and by the time of the preliminaries he would have acceptable stamina for a bench player on the team.'

If what Sora was doing was rough and tiring, then on the other side of the court, Hyakuzawa Yudai was going that could be said to be humbling.

Hyakuzawa was going against Shun in a one-on-one exercise. It was a training exercise, so Shun was repeating a series of layups repeatedly, he would switch their order, but every layup on the sequence would be identical every time.

Hyakuzawa was allowed to stay in the restricted area to block the layups.

[A/N: There is a three-second restriction for staying in the restricted area, directly below the rim. It is the shape of a D. Look for it in a picture of a court. It might not be in some of the photos.]

Hyakuzawa was getting bewildered with every try to block Shun.

Hyakuzawa: 'How can he score when I know what is coming.'

Shun spoke as he got ready to go on offense once again.

Shun: "Hyakuzawa-kun, try to look at my ball hand's positioning. You will get an idea about what kind of layup is coming."

Shun got a run-up and jumped in front of Hyakuzawa. He followed with his jump and held his hands above to block.

Shun had the ball in his right hand, to get around Hyakuzawa's block, he moved his ball hand to the right.

Hyakuzawa followed Shun's advice by moving his hand to the right.

Shun smiled as he looked at Hyakuzawa's attempt to block him. Shun decided to angle the shot by bouncing it off the backboard. He pushed the ball with his fingers, the ball hit the backboard and bounced into the rim.

Hyakuzawa was dismayed as he saw Shun push the ball right beside his arms.

Hyakazuwa: "Ah! God Dammit!"

Shun laughed as he got the ball for another attempt.

Shun: "Good. That was a good attempt. You moved your hand after seeing my ball hand, but the thing is I too can move after seeing you."

Hyakuzawa frowned and asked.

Hyakuzawa: "Then what was the point of doing that?"

Shun dribbled the ball and threw a shot to the basket. It went in the basket with a swish.

Shun: "The point was that looking at the ball hand is just one of the steps you can take to block your defender. There are many other things that you can do to increase the chances of a block."

Shun passed the ball to Hyakuzawa and said.

Shun: "This time, you try to score. You can do whatever you want."

Hyakuzawa spun the ball in his palm and decided what he was going to do.

Hyakuzawa charged forward and jumped for the offense. He was a little frustrated and wanted to let out some steam, so he decided to go for a dunk.

Shun smiled and jumped for the block.

Hyakuzawa hadn't even the highest point of his vertical reach when the ball was smacked out his hands.

Hyakuzawa: "No, wait!"

Hyakuzawa tried to grab on to the ball, but it was already out of his reach.

They both got on the ground, and Shun shrugged as he proved his point.

Shun: "Did you see that? It was easy."

Hyakuzawa thought back to the exchange and tried to find the answer. He looked directly at Shun and said.

Hyakuzawa: "You jumped before me."

Shun nodded, but Hyakuzawa had more questions.

Hyakuzawa: "But how did you know that I was going for a dunk."

Shun explained as he dribbled a ball between his legs.

Shun: "First, you firmly grabbed the ball with both of your hands. Remember, look at the ball hand.

Next, you were too close to the rim when you jumped.

Just with those points, I concluded that you were going for a dunk."

Hyakuzawa nodded as Shun continued to explain.

Shun: "You have to look at all the information in the form of positioning, timing, jump, glances, and other things.

At first, it is going to be difficult to look for all these things, but after some time and a lot of practice, noticing these things will become like muscle memory or a better word, instinct.

So, work hard. Ask the coach to pair you up with different members every day. Playing against different people will help you develop that instinct faster."

Hyakuzawa looked at Shun and found a particular thing.

Hyakuzawa: 'He has not been idle ever since I saw him. He is always doing something.'

Hyakuzawa was finally noticing the hard work that made Shun the kind of player he was.

Tokiwadai basketball club was thriving, and a new batch of players was being trained to join and lead the team.