Rebirth In KurokoNoBasket

By the time all the players of both teams were ready, the stands were a little more than half full, which was a high number for prefecture semi-finals or even a final.

Yuki, Kaitani, Hyakuzawa, and Sora looked around, feeling nervous about the number of people in the stands.

They looked at Aone, Mibuchi, and Shun, who were talking amongst each other without showing any signs of nervousness.

When they stopped talking and turned towards them, Sora asked.

Sora: "Senpai, aren't you nervous?"

Shun looked at his junior and chuckled.

Shun: "The crowd at the first round of Nationals was larger than the current one."

Mibuchi smiled and comforted them.

Mibuchi: "Don't worry about the crowd. Ignore them if you can, if not then don't worry, we will make sure that we don't fall to a situation where the crowd will boo us."

Shun laughed as he pointed at Kaitani.

Shun: "Kaitani, weren't you born ready."

Kaitani huffed and replied.

Kaitani: "I was born ready, then I was not for a while. Now, I am back to born ready."

Then he flexed to prove his point.

The coach called Shun, so he excused himself from the group.

Mibuchi looked at the crowd and said while staring at the stands.

Mibuchi: "Think of it this way. Most of them are not here to watch you."

He turned his eye to Shun, who was talking to the coach.

Mibuchi: "Most of them are here to look at our point guard and ace, and from the looks of it, they will be getting what they came here for."

He turned back to the group and said.

Mibuchi: "The starting five will be Me, Aone-chan, Kageyama-chan, Yuki-chan, and Kaitani-chan."

He looked at Hyakuzawa and added.

Mibuchi: "Sometime during the second half, we will switch out Kaitani for Hyakuzawa, to get some defensive support to pressurize

Yukigaoka, amid Kageyama-chan's steals."

He looked at Sora and instructed.

Mibuchi: "Sora-chan, you will come in if we need Shun to be on an offensive position, which I doubt will happen, but still be ready."

He clapped his hands and asked.

Mibuchi: "Are there any doubts?"

Everybody shook their heads. Mibuchi nodded and instructed.

Mibuchi: "Let's move out."

With that, Tokiwadai moved out to the court.

The semi-final game between Tokiwadai and Yukigaoka was about to begin.

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

On Yukigaoka's bench, their coach addressed his players for one last time before the game.

Yukigaoka's Coach: "We are facing Tokiwadai as our semi-finals opponent."

He looked at his players and said.

Yukigaoka's Coach: "I am confident about our ability to gather points. What I am worried about is our ability to defend against Tokiwadai's onslaught.

Do you remember the Tokiwadai's last year tapes?"

Yukigaoka's players nodded their heads. The coach continued.

Yukigaoka's Coach: "From the videos, we can conclude that Tokiwadai hasn't been playing at their full strength.

Kageyama Shun hasn't scored earnestly even for a single minute this tournament. He has only been moving the ball around and hasn't been on active offense. If he does score actively today, then we will be in trouble.

Then there is the captain, Mibuchi Reo. From what we heard about their last game, he only played one quarter seriously, the offense will once again pile up if he plays seriously for the whole game.

Next is our biggest problem, Aone Takanobu. He is a post player, we won't be able to stop him if we don't put two players on him, but that would give others on the team chances to score.

Yuki Tetsuya is an excellent on-ball defender. He will be a pressing hindrance to our offense. So, keep passing the ball around.

Kaitani Riku is a fast player and is a perimeter shooter, please look out for him when charges to the basket.

And, then there is Hyakuzawa Yudai, he hasn't played much, but he is tall, we need to look out for him if he enters the court."

He stood up and said to his players.

Yukigaoka's Coach: "All I can advise is to keep on scoring, and don't slow down on offense. The offense is all we have, don't worry about missing shots and failing to get rebounds, if you hesitate for a single minute, Tokiwadai will swallow us.

Now go out and play the game, play hard, and don't hold back. This is the semi-finals, things get crazy in semi-finals."

Yukigaoka's players stood up straight and said.

Yukigaoka's Players: "Yes, Sir!"

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

The referee walked on the court with the game ball in his hand.

He looked at the players, and then let his eyes roam around the stands and thought.

Referee: 'Whew, there are a lot of people here as expected of the semi-finals.'

He looked at the players and said.

Referee: "Please get ready to greet each other."

Both teams formed lines, and the referee instructed.

Referee: "Bow."

All players bowed and said.

Players: "Let's have a good game."

The referee nodded and again instructed.

Referee: "Please, get into position for the tip-off."

The players got into position, and the referee walked to the center and announced.

Referee: "Semi-finals of Tokyo Preliminaries between Yukigaoka Middle School and Tokiwadai Middle School is about to begin."

He nodded at the jumpers from both the teams and then got ready to toss the ball for the tip-off.

Aone and Yukigaoka's center looked at the ball as it traveled up, and the next moment the difference of skill level between them became apparent.

Aone jumped just before the ball reached its maximum height, while Yukigaoka's center's take-off was at the moment the ball reached the maximum height.

Aone had trained himself to get tip-off balls, and he had the fundamentals engraved into his bones, he could predict the ball's top reach by judging the speed of the ball, and he knew how long it will take him to reach the ball, so he would time his jump so that he would sweep the ball just at the right point.

Whereas, Yukigaoka's center moved when he saw the ball stop at its highest point and then jumped, which made him late to get to the ball.

Aone reached the ball much before Yukigaoka's center and directed it to Yuki.

Yuki looked around and saw Shun running with his hand raised up.

Yuki: 'Right of the bat, huh.'

Yuki threw the ball straight to Shun.

Yukigaoka's members were taken by surprise when they saw Shun running, so the shooting guard, who was at the back, and the point guard, who saw Shun first ran to guard him.

Then they saw the ball fly to Shun.

Both of them sprinted straight towards Shun at their top speed.

Shun caught the ball and dribbled it straight to the basket. He had already registered his defenders with his court vision.

Shun: 'Two defenders, one is chasing, while the other is directed to the basket.

He is planning to meet me and stop me from scoring directly at the basket.'

Shun reached the basket and jumped for the layup, with the ball in his right hand, Shun positioned his back to one defender, and he raised his left hand to keep the second defender away from the ball.

Both defenders also jumped, but the point guard wasn't able to make it in time to block the layup, and the shooting guard wasn't able to put a hand on the ball, because Shun's arm was in his way.

Yukigaoka's SG: "Dammit, can't reach."

He tried to extend his hand, but failed and saw the ball land into the hoop, finalizing the games first score.