74 Chapter 74 : VS Toō Academy VI : How to Stop Aomine?

-Before the four points play by Furihata-

On Toō's bench, Momoi bits her lips nervously as she saw the flow of the game is completely on Seirin's side.

"This is bad." She spoke to the coach. "This is the first time a team managed to shorten the gap when Aomine is out of the game. If we let this happen, they would catch up the score before the first half ends."

Katsunori Harasawa, Toō's head coach nodded in agreement with what Momoi just said. A frown could be seen on his face.

"Call Aomine-kun here." He spoke to the girl. "We need him to play again."

"Eh?!" Momoi looked at him with a bewildered face. "Are you sure about that, coach?" She asked with a concerned tone.

And Harasawa knows what is it that makes Momoi concerned. It is no secret in the team that he despised Aomine's behavior. But because of Headmaster's protection, he couldn't do anything about it. So, both he and Aomine make silent agreement, that as long as he showed up during the game, if he feels bored because the opponent is too weak, he is free to leave anytime he wants.

Normally, his players wouldn't have any problem cleaning up the mess. However, this time, it is different. This is the first time Toō faced the opponent which makes Aomine bored, yet by the time he left the game, they strike back like this, narrowed the gap to almost one digit again, and put on a fight that his players couldn't handle.

"Don't worry about it." Harasawa waved his hand nonchalantly. "He can whine as much as he wants, but I am still his head coach. I am still the highest authority in this team until the headmaster fired me. So, he doesn't have any choice here."

"Sure…"

Even with a hesitant face, she is still doing what his Sensei told her to do. A few seconds later, she goes back to the bench with Aomine following her from behind, a smug smirk could be seen on his face.

"So, they all couldn't handle it and it has to be me, huh? Trash, all of them."

Harasawa just rubbed his temple tiredly as he heard the cocky remark that coming out from Aomine's mouth. Honestly, even if it sounds wrong coming from his sensei, he couldn't wait for someone to humble him and bring him down to earth.

"It doesn't matter. Just go and do what you want. I expect the lead to be doubled again."

"Heh.. Say no more…"

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Back to the game, now with Aomine back on the court again, Seirin is also making his move. Tsuchida and Kuroko are coming, replacing Mitobe and Izuki who work hard since the beginning of the game.

After a free throw that Furihata executed flawlessly, the ball is back in Toō's possession. And just like all of them expected, the ball went directly to Aomine.

Furihata took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He could also feel Kuroko's presence lurking in his shadow, trying to support him from his blind spot.

'Well, let's see what can I do now..'

A second later, Aomine charged in the same way he did all throughout the first quarter, with his amazing incredibly high pace and erratic movement. Furihata, to the other players' surprise, managed to keep up with him better than before, showing that he managed to adapt to his rhythm. Aomine grinned as it would only make him feel motivated to destroy Furihata more.

'That is how it should be!'

Then, suddenly he stopped makes a quick stop as if he hits a brake and jumped with both his hand on the ball, trying to pull up a mid-range shoot. Furihata who saw that also jumped at the same time, trying to disturb his form. However, Aomine didn't release the ball pretty quickly. Instead, he leaned back, his whole body went nearly parallel to the floor.

'Damn!'

Furihata gritted his teeth, knowing what Aomine is intending to do. It is one of his crazy fadeaway shoots that is dubbed unstoppable because when he goes like that, it would create more space between him and the defender, making it impossible for the defender to stop the shoot without fouling Aomine. Nobody but Aomine would dare to pull that stunt, considering they would fall straight to the floor after the shoot, potentially risking an injury.

Fortunately, it is one of the shoots that Furihata has already thought of how to stop since the beginning, and his teammates know about it too.

-A little flashback-

"Listen carefully," Furihata spoke to his teammates when they reviewed Aomine's play. "This shoot looks unstoppable, but it is probably the easiest one to stop among all of his arsenals.'

What he said left his teammates completely stunned at that.

"How?" Kuroko asked, voicing the doubt that lingering his teammates. He couldn't fathom how Furihata said Aomine's hardest shoot to stop is actually the easiest one, especially when he knows how unstoppable it is from the first hand.

"Well, I know why you think it is unstoppable because the distance between the defender and him is not something that all of us could cover, especially when we are already in the air. But think! It is only an unstoppable move in a one-on-one situation. We don't need to stop him alone!"

Then, out of a sudden, realization comes through all of his teammates' minds as they get what Furihata is intending to say.

"You mean…" Tsuchida trailed off, his eyes widened as if it would pop out of their sockets.

"Yeah, this shoot is only unstoppable if we face him head-on. But if you are coming from the other direction, with how near he is to the floor, it would be easy for any of us to stop him from the other direction. Hell, I bet Phantom could snatch the ball from behind if he pulled up that stunt."

-End of the flashback-

And now, that is exactly what Kuroko does. The moment he saw his former teammate leaned his body back in a way not any sane basketball players do, he rushed from the blind spot, and right after Aomine released the shoot, he jumped from behind, slapped the ball so it doesn't go to the basket as it intended to do.

"I am sorry, Aomine-kun. But not today!"

*Slap!*

"WHAT?!"

Not only Aomine, Momoi who is on Toō's bench, and Midorima who is up in the audience stood up from their seat, their mouth gaping wide in a shocked manner as they just see something that they couldn't believe would happen in a thousand years.

Kuroko, the weakest member of the Generation of Miracles, blocks Aomine's shoot!

Meanwhile, besides Midorima, Kagami laughed his ass off when he saw the stupid face Midorima makes after reacting to what Kuroko just did.

"I told you that the bastard over there would give you a surprise." He pointed his fingers at Furihata. "We have already studied Aomine's play for two weeks, trying to figure out how to stop him. That bastard is the one who has the idea to do that, and now, he and Kuroko do it flawlessly." He grinned smugly at Midorima who is still standing beside him.

"Wow…" Takao looked at Furihata in amazement. "I know he is good, but to be this good? Why the hell we have never heard of his name before?!" At this time, only Kagami knows Furihata's middle school doesn't have any basketball team at all. However, before he could gloat about that fact, he could hear the shout from the court,

"SENPAI, HERE!"

It was Furihata who yelled at Tsuchida, asking for the ball.

Right after Kuroko blocked Aomine's shoot attempt, the ball went into Tsuchida's possession, and Furihata didn't want to miss the chance of a fast break, especially when Aomine is still down on the floor.

Realizing what Furihata wanted to do, Tsuchida dishes the ball quickly to the first-year point guard. And right after he get the ball, Furihata launched it directly to the other side of the court where Kuroko is already running.

"PHANTOM!"

"SHIT! DEFENSE!"

All Toō players who have never thought that they would witness Aomine getting blocked like that rushed back toward their side in panic, trying to stop the fast break. However, their attempt is futile as right after Kuroko grabbed the ball, the blue-haired boy took two steps forward before putting the ball to the basket with an easy layup.

"LET'S GO, KUROKO!"

All Seirin players roared, celebrating two amazing plays that Kuroko just did. From the block to the layup, even though it was just a normal layup, for Kuroko who is famous for not doing anything but pass and steal the ball, it was an amazing feat to do.

"Nice play, Kuroko!" Almost everyone slapped his back, making him whine for a moment.

"Please, stop it, Senpai. It hurts." Even though Kuroko said that, with how flat he sounded, nobody believed him.

"Nice block, Phantom." Furihata suddenly spoke to him, which was responded to by a single nod by Kuroko.

"It is because you pointed it out before, Furihata-kun." Kuroko decided to stay humble. "And I don't think we can do it again next time. Aomine-kun would be more careful around me now."

"Yeah, you are right."

Meanwhile, on Toō's side, Aomine grinned like a lunatic right now. Every part of his body shivered in excitement when his mind replayed the last play.

"As expected from Tetsu. Even though he is weak, he will always surprise me like that." Then, he turned around to Wakamatsu who is grabbing the ball to start the game. "Oi, give it to me!"

"You bastard!" The center scowled at Aomine. "Don't think because you are the headmaster's golden boy you-"

"Enough, Wakamatsu!" Imayoshi stopped him before he went too far. "Just give him the ball and do what he said."

"But Captain-!"

"Just do what he said!" Toō's captain snapped. "Or do you want to receive the headmaster's wrath?"

Wakamatsu scowled more but still gave the ball to the power forward. The ball was live again soon after, and it went straight to Aomine again. Furihata is already on him, sticking around like glue.

There is a brief pause as Aomine dribbled the ball. But in an instant, he moved forward in a lightning speed. However, Furihata managed to follow his movement easily, causing a grin to form on the corner of Aomine's mouth.

"I take it back! You are far more interesting than I thought!"

Then, Aomine did a quick spin move, which was still followed by Furihata easily. This didn't dissuade Aomine from continuing his movement, as he shifted the ball with a crossover, followed by the second and third one. Through all of this though, Furihata somehow managed to follow his movement, didn't bulge for a second by the fake after fake Aomine did to get away from him.

"Does Kouki-san have some experience in street basketball?" Momoi who watched Furihata managed to keep up with Aomine muttered in amazement. She couldn't fathom how someone is able to follow Aomine's movement for this long without getting fooled for a second.

But despite the excellent defense part from Furihata, Aomine still keeps pressing forward, leading the two of them to the corner of the court without realizing it.

"Damn! He managed to corner me!" Amonie thought inwardly when he realized their position, impressed with Furihata's defense. 'But don't think you would be able to stop me!'

Moving just as fast as ever, Amoine did a spin move once again and shifted the ball with a crossover, which by now managed to fool Furihata for a second.

"Ha! Got you, bastard!"

However, letting Aomine pass through his defense is also part of Furihata's defense in the first place. Right after Aomine get away from his guard, Furihata lowered, his body slightly just like Godai trained him to do before he slapped the ball from behind, stripping it off Aomine's possession.

"WHAT?!"

Being able to stop Aomine once, everyone still thinks it was a fluke. But twice in a row? Now everyone looked at Seirin players in a different light.

"STEAL!"

"DEFENSE! GO BACK!"

But once again, Toō players are too late as right after stripping off the ball from Aomine's possession, Furihata is already running, and a second later, Kuroko managed to get the ball and hit it with his palm, sending it straight to Furihata's direction like a laser beam.

"Let's go, Furihata-kun!"

Furihata grinned, knowing the ball would come as he keeps tracking Kuroko's movement from the start. He knows Kuroko would be able to step up when he poked the ball from Aomine's hand. That is why he runs forward without hesitation now.

And right after he get the ball, as if he wants to gloat to Toō players, instead of keep driving forward, he stopped before stepping into the three-point line and pulled up a shoot from his spot. And a second later,

*Splash!*

Another three points for Seirin!"

And when his eyes meet Aomine's, a smirk could be seen on his face as he muttered,

"Finally, we got you!"

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Author note :

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You can also read this fanfiction up to chapter 94 on that page. Thank you! :)

-Zeta Faes-