Banned?

Somewhere in Shibuya City,

Two men were currently seated in a high end room which was located in a tall building among the many in Shibuya City.

One of them was holding his phone as he watched a livestream until it's end.

"Fufufu, this boy is really interesting. Don't you think so? Jax?", one of the men asked.

Jax who was seated opposite of that man, nodded his head and looked back at his phone with a grin.

"I knew that he was something special when he won the Street Ball Rumble yesterday but I never thought that he was still holding back. Looks like Shibuya City has produced another exceptional genius this time"

The man who was seated opposite of Jax nodded before going back into silence.

However, that lasted only a few moments before he broke the silence.

"With how good he is....Do you think it's a good thing to let him continue participating in the Street Ball Rumble?"

Jax was surprised when he heard this.

Reo was already considered a star for the Street Ball Rumble but now, this man was proposing to prevent Reo from participating in the event.

Wasn't this man trying to make losses instead then?

The man opposite him was not just anyone but Kenji Hanoyama, the branch manager of the Street Ball Rumble for Shibuya City.

The Street Ball Rumble was not just a typical weekly basketball challenge. Instead, the Shibuya City Street Ball Rumble was just a tiny part of an extremely large franchise that covered the entirety of Japan.

Every town, city or special ward municipal in Japan had a Street Ball Rumble branch present there with the prizes varying from place to place.

In Japan, there were 4 types of municipals which were cities, towns, villages and special wards. Unlike the other 3 municipals, special wards only existed in the Tokyo prefecture and consisted of a total of 23 special wards.

Shibuya City was one of those 23 special wards in Tokyo but for the Street Ball Rumble, it was considered the worst branch among all the special wards in Tokyo.

After all, Shibuya City was a major commercial and finance center. As such, people focused more on business and economy than basketball and while basketball was immensely popular as well, it wasn't that much of a priority.

And somehow, that was also carried down in their genes as well. For a long time now, there had been no exceptional players from Shibuya City making their entrance on the grand stage.

Players like Kotaro and Mite were considered exceptional geniuses in which Shibuya City had not seen for over 50 years but even then, their best achievement was getting their schools past the preliminaries and into the Interhigh.

Even if their individual talents were good, basketball was ultimately a team sports after all and with their other teammates dragging them down, the first round of the Interhigh was as far as they had ever reached.

Preliminaries were won by fighting tooth and nail to the very end but after that, it didn't matter how much you wanted to win. Talent and skills would ultimately overwhelm them at the very end.

Outside Shibuya City were only monsters of the younger generation, some of which had the talent to overwhelm 3 opponents at once.

Compared to them, the players in Shibuya City were nothing but shrubs and as for Kotaro and Mite, they were considered as good players even among the aces but among those aces in the official Interhigh, they would be able to do nothing but kneel down and face despair.

Kenji didn't react to Jax's surprised look. It was as if he had anticipated this.

"I know what you're thinking but from a business perspective, that Reo will be helping with the promotion of the Street Ball Rumble but over time, it will deteriorate"

"The Rumbles from other municipals have an average of 50 participants with some days peaking at a 150 or over but for us....50 is our maximum limit"

"If Reo were to continue dominating the Rumble, that would not be an issue but from how he ends the game so fast with his overwhelming skills, it would be more like destroying his opponents physically and mentally"

"Many of them participate in the Rumble for various reasons such as wanting to get experience, the joy of destroying their opponents on the court or even for a shot at the prize. But if Reo were to come in, all of that would be taken away and over time, it would cause more and more people to stop taking part in the Street Ball Rumble"

"After all, no one wants to be destroyed and humiliated on the court"

With that explanation, Kenji looked on at Jax.

Jax was only a DJ who was contracted to the company and as such, he didn't have the ability to look into the future from a business perspective.

Seeing Jax thinking it through, Kenji proceeded to finish his explanation.

"I'm sure you know that all our income comes from the registration fees from the participants as well as the livestream from JSport. If the number of participants decrease, so will our income and with less action on the court, eventually the livestream will collapse as well"

"We are already threading on thin ice at the moment and if any more mishaps continue, it could possibly end my time here as the branch manager and even you could get affected as well"

Kenji wasn't telling Jax all of this out of goodwill but also because that Jax was one of his real good friends.

Kenji and Jax were only in their twenties and had been good buddies since university.

Jax had chosen the party life while Kenji had opted to be a businessman and with his ability to look into the future, he had successfully climbed the company ladder until he became the branch manager of Shibuya City.

After doing so, Kenji saw it fit to give Jax a part time job based on his qualification and friendship with him but Kenji didn't want to stop here.

He wanted to climb to a higher position until he could live comfortably and happily settle down with no worries whatsoever.

But to do that, he needed to prove himself.

Being sent as a branch manager for Shibuya City was a test that had been devised by the higherups and Kenji knew this.

His ability to accurately predict things from a business perspective made him valuable to the company but how valuable? That was the question.

Unless he could prove himself to be a valuable asset, the most that he would ever get in his life was being a branch manager in Shibuya City.

Everything was going fine with the Street Ball Rumble gaining more popularity over time as well as more participants joining.

However, they didn't expect one thing.

An anomaly known as Reo.

With his skills, Kenji could very well tell that Reo didn't belong in Shibuya City. Not among these low level players.

His skills were godlike in Shibuya City but if he went to any other municipals, he would only be counted as a regular player.

This was one of the primary reason why different branches minded their own business and didn't merge together. If an anomaly were to suddenly come in from another branch, it could very well mess up the Rumble and cause devastating losses which could result in the higher ups losing their positions.

When Kenji saw Reo for the first, he knew that Reo's skills didn't belong in a place like Shibuya City and even wondered if Reo was from another municipal. However, after going through Reo's records, he found that he was just a regular-born Shibuya City citizen like every other.

He wouldn't have minded Reo participating in the Street Ball Rumble if he was a little good but this went far beyond a 'little'. As such, it was probably in his best interest to prevent Reo from participating in the Street Ball Rumble for now.

However, Jax felt like Kenji was making the wrong decision even if his points did make sense from a business perspective.

As such, he tried to talk Kenji out of it.

"Kenji, I've known you for a long time and while I know that you are one of the best in business but in understanding people ,you are still the worst"

Kenji frowned when he heard this.

He had been praised as a genius numerous times for his brilliant mind and being criticized was not something he took kindly of.

Still, he kept quiet as he let Jax continue his words.

"People love action and drama. It's something I've noticed way before becoming a DJ"

"What I'm saying is that people already know that Reo made his debut in the Street Ball Rumble. Even the bloody livestream mentioned the Street Ball Rumble"

"Just from the number of viewers from that challenge alone, you can already tell that people are itching to see more of Reo but the question is....where can they see him?"

"He's only an elementary student after all and the competitions for elementary school basketball is practically non-existent in Japan. As such ,most people will remember the one thing associated with Reo....The Street Ball Rumble!"

Kenji was listening all this while and after hearing Jax's speech, he began thinking about it as well.

People were a source for the Street Ball Rumble whether it was income and popularity. Without both, the Street Ball Rumble would ultimately collapse.

Meaning that even without Reo, the Rumble could still face a decline.

A headache started brewing for Kenji the more he thought about this.

Honestly, even if they haven't reached the point of ruination, Reo's presence alone could determine their sole outcome.

"Ah! Why did that brat even have to appear now?! I'm having a headache just by thinking about how to deal with it!", Kenji finally lost is as he grabbed his hair, not caring for his image as a branch manager in front of Jax.

He had only been in Shibuya for about half a year but now, he was already up against a troublesome situation.

Why did this stinky brat appear all of a sudden to screw him over?!

Thankfully however, Jax was there to support him.

Entering into a thinking pose, Jax remained silent for a few seconds before speaking.

"If you can't ban him, why don't we just change the concept of the Rumble?"

Kenji however, was not feeling better as he covered half his face.

"That's impossible. The rules of the Rumble are absolute among every branch in Japan"

"If I suddenly change it....forget being demoted, I might even get fired"

Jax shook his head when he heard that as he spoke again.

"I'm not talking about changing the rules completely. I'm talking about 'modifying' them"

"Instead of changing it completely, why not modify it to make the Rumble better while taking care of that little problem?"

This time, Kenji kept quiet but with his gaze locked onto Jax, one could tell that Kenji was listening.

Seeing this, Jax continued.

"I'm not sure how but try to change the concept in some way that it will make the Rumble more fun in the process while also limiting Reo's capabilities"

Kenji couldn't help but let out a wry laugh at this.

"You say it as if it's an easy thing. If that's so, what's your brilliant 'modification' then?"

Kenji was also looking a bit forward to this. If Jax could come up with a good modification method, it might also be permanently implemented by the higher ups.

Unfortunately, Kenji was expecting too much.

Raising his hands in an uncertain manner, Jax spoke with a lost look on his face.

"I don't know. I thought you would figure that out"

"I just gave you a suggestion"

Crack! Crack!

Veins bulged on Kenji's forehead.

If you don't know then why did you even say it?!

Honestly, if Jax hadn't been a good friend of his, Kenji wouldn't have hesitated to flip the table and leave.

So, containing his anger, Kenji asked Jax in a strained voice.

"Do you know how hard it is to do what you said? Forget about just thinking of the modifications, the whole proposal will be disastrous to even put together"

"Even then, knowing the higher ups, they will probably question and critic every single word in the proposal"

Hearing this, Jax didn't seem fazed as he adjusted his shades.

"Those old men should have retired long ago if you ask me. Young men should be taking over the world these days. After all, you don't see any old DJs in the club now, do you?",said Jax.

Kenji felt another headache coming out as he barely squeezed the words out of his mouth.

" 'DJ'ing and business are both different"

Jax seemed to ignore what Kenji said as he waved his hand.

"Meh, details. What I'm saying is that you need to hype up the Rumble from a perspective that I can't do"

"What if another company came along with a much more popular concept than ours. It will only be a matter of time before the Rumble falls to ruination"

"Although the chances are slim, those old men won't think about stuff like that. To them, they probably think that nothing will change since they have been up on that throne for such a long time but for people like us who are still in the middle, we can see that and we can change that"

For some reason, Jax's speech had become awe inspiring to Kenji. But whenever Kenji thought of doing the proposal, he felt as if going back to hell would be a cruise compared to what they were going to do.

Putting his head in his hands, Kenji felt another headache coming along but this time....he didn't argue with Jax.

"It's going to be tough"

That was the only thing Kenji said.

Hearing this, Jax let out a grin. It looks like his idea had been accepted after all.

"For now, I suggest letting Reo participate in the Street Ball Rumble next week. Even I'm not that heartless to make you do a proposal in one week", Jax recommended.

Kenji just nodded his head at this. Even he knew that doing a major proposal in one week was impossible.

Then, Kenji remembered something.

"With how famous the livestream has gotten, there would have been no doubt in it achieving a Level 3 Impact Factor if the host hadn't shut off the livestream early"

"For missing Shibuya City's first ever Level 3 Impact Factor since the founding of JSport....I can already imagine the headlines and critiques for tomorrow's newspaper. Fufufu"

Thinking about this, Kenji was already imagining the comedic scene of the newspaper's head editor raging in his office for missing out on a massive headline.

Missing a Level 3 Impact Factor was a huge headline but achieving a Level 3 Impact Factor was an even bigger headline!

Just thinking about this made Kenji feel a bit pitiful for that unfortunate host.

After reading tomorrow's critiques, would that host even have the face to show himself in public anymore?

Jax didn't really care about this as he replied.

"For some reason, I feel like that host did the right thing despite what many are saying"

"Looking at that boy, you could already tell that he wouldn't make it until the end. In my opinion, he would have surely flopped at around the 160 mark or so"

"After all, he's just a kid"

Then, out of nowhere, Jax showed an excited grin.

"On that topic....That match gave me some inspiration on what his title should be"

Kenji's ears perked up when he heard this.

Jax's titles were unique to say the least and most of the time, fit the criteria perfectly.

"Oh? Then, tell me"

Jax didn't rush but instead, took his time in drawing out Kenji's anticipation.

"Well....what do you think about 'The...."

Kenji kept quiet for a while as he heard this.

"It's a bit extreme. Don't you think so? After all, he's only an elementary school student", Kenji asked.

Jax however, didn't care as he explained.

"Trust me. In the future, I can bet that he will outgrow this title into something more monstrous instead"

Soon, time passed briskly as Kenji and Jax continued talking and before anyone in Shibuya City knew it, it was already the next day.

As for the newspaper headlines, it was exactly as Kenji predicted and as for the main character, Reo....he was laying on the bed, passed out from the aftereffects of zombification.