Staring at Reo Mibuchi before him, Midorima Shintarō adjusted his glasses with a sharp glint in his eyes, having just answered back with a three-pointer of his own. Beside him, Akihito Shigure, the one who had orchestrated this three-point duel, was visibly surprised by Midorima's shot.
Something unbelievable had just happened: Midorima's three-point shooting, compared to before the Inter-High had even started, had clearly grown stronger.
Stronger in ways that were impossible to ignore.
His step-backs had extended his shooting range.
His arcs soared higher.
And most striking of all, his ability to maintain accuracy so long as his form wasn't disrupted, the beginnings of an anti-interference trait, was starting to take shape. Midorima's development was already aligning with the trajectory he would only reach much later in the original story.
Yet, he was still just a first-year. The "blossoming" of Midorima's shot, which in the original timeline wouldn't emerge until his second Inter-High, was still more than a year away.
Of course, the audience couldn't see the deeper implications.
All they knew was this:
Even before the "Twin Stars of Teiko" had taken the court, the clash between Reo Mibuchi and the first-year Shintarō Midorima, an exchange of relentless three-pointers, was already electrifying.
"Unbelievable! Teiko's Midorima looks like he's gotten even stronger, he's never used that shot before! He actually sank it right in front of the Five Generals' 'Yasha!'"
"Amazing!"
"What a perfect opening, an even three-point shootout!"
"That arc just now… once the ball leaves his hands, unless you smother him from the start, that trajectory is untouchable."
"Exactly! Even though Mibuchi is about five centimeters taller than Midorima, the arc completely erases that advantage."
"His release is so fast, too…"
"To block him at the moment of release, you'd need inhuman reflexes!"
"I don't even think this is his full strength. The decisiveness in his shots, even against someone like Reo Mibuchi, he looks completely unbothered by the pressure of the Five Generals."
Swish!
Swish!
Swish!
Three-pointers rained down on both ends of the court.
Reo Mibuchi cycled through his three signature shot styles, Heaven, Earth, and Void. The form was identical, only the shifts in balance distinguished them.
Even though Midorima knew this…
The change in Mibuchi's center of gravity was far too sudden, compounded by the threat of "Void" and his own height disadvantage. Midorima still struggled to contain it.
But Midorima wasn't backing down.
He unleashed every ounce of strength he had, anchoring his attack around his uniquely steep high-arc shot, while also demonstrating range from a full step beyond the three-point line.
In a sense, his threat was strangely similar to Mibuchi's.
Where Mibuchi manipulated defense with his Heaven, Earth, and Void,
If you reacted too slowly, it was Void.
If you pressed too quickly, Earth would draw a foul.
If you were just right, Heaven carved out the space.
Midorima's answer was his own layered threat.
If you gave him too much space, he'd fire immediately, his anti-interference accuracy punishing you.
If you closed in, he'd step back and shoot from just outside the line.
And if you pressed even harder, he would drive.
Yes, a drive. Something Midorima had never truly embraced before.
Perhaps it was Shigure's influence.
Or maybe it was the changes he'd witnessed in Murasakibara last game.
Perhaps it went back to Akihito Shigure's duel with Reiji Fukaya.
Or even earlier still, on the street courts of Tenbashi.
Whatever the spark, Midorima was now willing to break from the script and push toward the paint, using drives to enhance the danger of his three.
Pull-ups.
Drives.
Step-backs.
A triple-threat arsenal that allowed him to answer Mibuchi point for point, retaliating immediately after every score.
But…
For all his progress, Midorima's drives were still raw. Unlike Shigure, he couldn't yet convert them into consistent points. His penetration was more a theoretical threat than a reliable weapon.
Mibuchi quickly sniffed it out.
Once he judged that Midorima's drives weren't lethal, he recalibrated. His defense collapsed back on Midorima's three, baiting him into drives, then hounding him from behind and funneling him straight into Rakuzan's defensive web.
Midorima exhaled heavily, then,
To everyone's astonishment,
Whoosh!
He passed.
Shigure caught it, launching from a range even more outrageous than Midorima's, and drilled it.
In that instant, Midorima's threat level spiked once more.
And deep inside his chest, where restlessness and doubt had churned endlessly, clarity bloomed.
He understood now, through Teiko's journey, through Aomine and Murasakibara's transformations, through every moment that had led here.
By daring to step beyond threes, he had amplified them. And by strengthening his three, he had, in turn, given power to his drives, and now, even his passes.
This evolution, this growth,
It meant only one thing.
He was stronger.
Failing in the three-point duel wasn't a misstep in direction, it was simply that he wasn't yet strong enough.
"Murasakibara, we're just first-years. If you don't want to end up like Nagayoshi, realizing too late, crushed by defeat, then now's the time. Sharpen every weapon you can."
Fukaya's words to Murasakibara now echoed for Midorima as well.
What he needed wasn't curiosity.
It was the drive to surpass his seniors.
A tiny flame flickered to life in Midorima's heart.
Born from trial after trial in this game, it burned quietly, steadily, banishing the confusion and hesitation that had plagued him.
No longer just "three-pointers," but a Three-Point System, a structure built around threes, strengthened by every weapon that magnified their threat.
And in that flame, Midorima began to change.
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