41 Chapter 41 : Before the Game Against Shutoku
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Author note:
There will be no full-court shoot from Midorima in this fanfiction as I find it is too unrealistic to happen in the real game (Except the buzzer beater). But I will still make him OP as that is what I really thought about him. I hope you can enjoy it. Thank you!
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"We lost, huh?" Tsugawa murmured lowly. The exhaustion that he didn't feel from the game accumulated, adding to the weight of the loss.
"Yeah, we lost." Iwamura nodded, patted his back. "They improved so much that I didn't even recognize the weak Seirin team we played against last year."
"We grew complacent," Kasuga added. "When all the teams in Tokyo are getting stronger, we are satisfied with the title of the king of North Tokyo. That's our downfall."
Iwamura nodded once again in agreement, but he added one more thing,
"Yeah, but this is a good loss for us. We still have one more chance in the winter tournament, and unlike this time, we will go to the next tournament as a challenger. If Shutoku, the king of East Tokyo could still grow stronger, what stopped us to do the same?"
Hearing Iwamura's speech, his teammates couldn't help but nod, and this time, determination burning in their eyes.
"Yeah, we still have one more chance before Senpai retired from the team," Tsugawa murmured. "I will get stronger! There is so much I can improve this time. My offense ability is rather weak, and I cannot hold against superior strength like Seirin's #10. I have to work on that first. It will take a long time, but it would be worth it. We will be stronger!"
"Yeah! I will have to train harder too!"
"Me too, Tsugawa-san! I might only be a bench player right now, but I will grow stronger to help you!"
"Leave it to us!"
The positive attitude that Tsugawa displayed moved his teammates' hearts. Now, all of them are more determined to improve as a player and as a team.
Iwamura nodded, and smiles a little at the sight of the burning determination from his team, especially from Tsugawa. After all, Tsugawa is the future captain of Seiho whom his coach has nurtured since the beginning. However, seeing the referee signaled them to come, he needs to tell his team.
"Good attitude. But for now, we need to leave. The next game will be started in five minutes."
Realizing that they have been sitting on the court for almost five minutes and the Seirin players are already waiting in the middle of the court, they stood up and form a line quickly.
"Bow!"
"Arigatou Gozaimasu!"
The players from both teams bowed deeply to end the game. It is the tradition for any high school sports tournaments in Japan. No matter how fiercely they battled against each other, they would have to respect their opponent when the game ended.
"Good game." Tsugawa offered a handshake to Furihata. Seirin point guard nodded at him, receiving his hand while saying, "You too. It is not easy to handle your defense."
After hearing that, a smile beamed from Tsugawa's face.
"I know, right!"
They exchanged conversation for a while, making their teammates look at them with strange gazes. After how they trash-talked to each other, now they are acting like they are a best friend?
Well, just like the main protagonist of old-fashioned manga always said, nothing beat a fierce battle for a bonding time.
"We will train more for the next winter tournament! I hope we will meet again! Good luck, Seirin!"
"Sure!"
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"Furihata-kun, why are you suddenly becoming a buddy with that bastard?" Izuki asked when they finally sit at the spectators' side. Everyone suddenly turned their attention to him, wondering the same. However, Furihata shook his head, snorted a little.
"We are not a buddy. It is just, as fellow players who have similar playing styles, we have some respect for each other. You might think he is a bastard, and his teammates might also think the same about me. But, hey! Not everyone is willing to be a villain on the court. We all know the necessity and the consequence behind our action on the court, that's why we have each other respect."
His teammates just look at each other with confused expressions. Surprisingly, it is Kagami who understands the meaning of Furihata's words.
"I get what he said. If you meet someone with the same playing style, no matter win or lose, you will find yourself have some respect for him because both of you understand how hard the path you walked into is."
Now, everyone is looking at him with mouths gaped wide, shocked by the wisdom behind his words.
"Hey, I can be smart too, you know?" Kagami huffed a little, eliciting several chuckles from his teammates.
"Anyway!" Riko suddenly spoke, gaining everyone's attention. "Let's just focus on the game. We all have predicted that Shutoku will win this game, so, let's observe them and try to find some sort of weakness."
Everyone nodded, turning their attention to the court. There they saw Shutoku players warming up with Midorima keeps sending the ball to the basket from way downtown.
"Oi, Bastard, how do you compare your three-point shoot and Midorima's?" Kagami suddenly asked, gaining some interesting reactions from his teammates. After pondering for a second, Furihata let out a wry smile as he replied,
"You will have an easier time stopping me than him."
"Yeah, I think so too." Kuroko who hasn't spoken anything suddenly chimed in and nodded in agreement.
However, while it looks like just a normal conversation, their teammates couldn't help but be stunned at the information.
"Why do you think so, Furihata-kun?" Riko asked, deciding to join the conversation. "Your three-point shoot is as accurate as Junpei, what makes you think Midorima is better than both of you?"
Hyuga also leaned his body toward his kouhai, interested in their opinion. However, surprisingly, it is Kagami who gave them the answer, not Furihata.
"It is the time release and the height difference, right?"
"Spot on, Red." Furihata nodded. "While both Hyuga-senpai and I are good, we have our weaknesses that could be exploited. Hyuga-senpai took about three seconds before he releases the shoots, so anyone could stop his shoot easily if they get closer enough to him. That's why Hyuga-senpai is always on the move whenever he had no ball. It would not only create space for him but also buy him more time for a better outcome."
He paused his explanation, letting his words sink into his teammates' heads.
"As for me, while my time release could be compared to Midorima, I don't have the height advantage like him. So, if my opponent has a good ability to read the game like Izuki-senpai and is slightly taller than me or has an explosive jump like Red, he would be able to stop me easily. And unfortunately, my height is pretty average here, only 170 cm. That's why I resort to a lot of tricks like trash-talking to distract my opponent."
His teammates nodded but understanding filled in their eyes. Now, they understand a bit why Furihata likes to talk too much during the game.
"But Midorima doesn't need that," Furihata spoke once again. "His time release is as fast as me, and he is even slightly taller than Kagami, making his release point higher than anyone on the court. As long as he got the ball, he can shoot whenever he wants. And not only that, he is pretty well balanced in another aspect too, such as dribbling, reading the game, and even his defense is a top notch. That's why I think he is the most OP player out of the Generation of Miracles."
The atmosphere suddenly turned grim as they heard Furihata's opinion. Even Riko doesn't know what to say as indeed, the more information she gets about Midorima, the more she thinks it is impossible to stop him.
"Anyway, has anyone checked Oha Asa Horoscope today?" Furihata suddenly asked his teammates, changing the topic. Koganei opened his phone immediately and cursed out loud.
"Fuck! Cancer has the best luck today!"
And now, everyone has some sort of horror expression on their faces, while Furihata couldn't help but let out a tired sigh and murmur,
"Oh, God.. This will be one hell of a game again.."
Everyone nodded solemnly, knowing that their next game would be hellish for them
"Any idea how to handle him, Furihata-kun?" Riko asked her point guard while racking her brain to find any way to stop Midorima. Furihata pondered for a moment with a thoughtful face before he said,
"Just put Red as his guard. It is the best we can do right now."
"Yeah, that is the only way I could think of how to stop him." Riko nodded in agreement. Kagami who heard that he would be assigned to guard Midorima suddenly grinned in excitement.
"Ooh! Leave it to me!"
Seeing as everyone nodded in agreement, Kagami's grin is getting widened once again and now he turned his attention to the court, observing Midorima with such creepy eyes. He received a smack in his back from Furihata.
"Ouch! The hell!"
"Stop grinning like that! It is creepy!" Furihata couldn't help but scold the red-hair for the wide grin that plastered on his face. Honestly, with how he grins right now, Furihata is afraid Kagami would injure his facial muscle before the game.
"By the way, Red. If you are facing him head-on, try to initiate a conversation with him. Harrass him in every legal way you could think of. That would hold him for a bit, hopefully." He said out of a sudden, causing his teammates to look at him in confusion.
"You want me to do a trash talk against him?" Kagami asked while still rubbing his back. However, Furihata shook his head.
"No, you don't need to. Any topic would be fine, just keep talking at him."
"Any reason why?"
Furihata let out another sigh, finding the answer is kinda ridiculous. Nonetheless, he still answers Kagami's question.
"Well, it is said in Oha Asa Horoscope that Leo and Cancer are not meant to be best buddies. And seeing as you are a Leo, if he really takes Oha Asa's words like gospel, there is a high possibility he would be annoyed by you no matter what. Let's just use it to our advantage and annoy him more."
Everyone has deadpanned gazes directed at him, making Furihata sigh one more time.
"Hey, I know it is ridiculous, but I am just doing my research, okay? I can do anything about it!"
"Furihata-kun is right, you know?" Kuroko suddenly spoke, gaining the attention of the others. "Midorima and I never got along during our middle school. I thought it was just because Midorima resent me who doesn't have any talent to be on the first team. But when I asked about him, it was just because people with blood type B like him would never get along with people with blood type A like me."
It leaves his teammates speechless as they decided to ignore all the weird supernatural things that Midorima believes and just watch the game.
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As time goes by, Seirin players marveled at how accurate Midorima really is. Whenever he gets the ball, he would not hesitate to send it straight to the opponent's basket. However, Furihata narrowed his eyes slightly, finding something strange.
"Any useful intelligence, Furihata-kun?" Riko asked when she noticed Furihata's expression.
"I think I just find something interesting." He mused, gaining the attention of his teammates. "Midorima's shoot is indeed very accurate, and his range is very incredible. Look! This is his five three-point shoots from the logo, right?"
Riko nodded while looking at the court as Midorima once again hit the basket from the logo. But she is still confused about what is so interesting about it.
"You can check it later, but you will find it would take a longer time for Midorima to release the ball the distance is." Now, not only Riko but everyone is also stunned at his statement and turned their attention quickly to the court.
"When he is right in front of the three-point line, it took him one second before he releases the ball. But when he shoots from the middle, he needs at least three to four seconds before he releases the ball. I think, the farther we can force him to take a shoot, the more likely it is for Red to stop it with his explosive jump."
Now, everyone grinned as if they found some sort of super-secret information from the FBI. Hope filled their hearts as they finally find something to stop Midorima, even though it is still hard to do.
"What do you think, Kagami-kun?" Riko asked for Kagami's opinion as she would dump the responsibility on the red-hair.
"Don't worry, coach," Kagami replied confidently. "If it is about the explosive jump, I am confident that no one can match mine here." And Furihata had to admit that Kagami is right. The red-hair is the strongest among the team, and explosiveness is his best weapon.
Riko also let out a relieved sigh as she said,
"Thank you, Kagami-kun. I am sorry I dump the responsibility on you." She apologized. However, Kagami just waved his hand, dismissing her apology.
"Don't worry, Coach. I am also excited about the next game, so it's a win-win solution for us."
They all nodded and decided to turn back their attention to the court.
Shutoku is really obliterating their opponent, as the game is finally ended with the score 108 – 49.
59 points difference! They really show everyone why they are the best team in Tokyo, and now, they are eyeing their next opponent, Seirin, for a ticket to the Tokyo Final League.
"It is time, isn't it?" Furihata murmured lowly. Everyone nodded, feeling a bit tensed.
"Let's not think too much about it," Riko spoke. "Let's just come and try our hardest to win the game. Isn't that what we did since the beginning?" Her players look at each other, realizing that hearing all the intelligence about Midorima really makes them cower for a bit.
"She is right," Hyuga added. "Let's just do our best here. It is not the stronger team who would win the game. It is the winner that would be the stronger. Let's prove to Shutoku that we are stronger than them!"
"Yes, Captain!"
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Author note :
If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes
You can also read this fanfiction up to chapter 61 on that page. Thank you! :)
