BEEP~~~
With the sharp buzz of the electronic whistle, the match between Shutoku and Tōō finally began.
Both centers jumped simultaneously for the tip-off, and it was Shutoku's Otsubo Taisuke who first gained possession. The ball was slapped into Takao Kazunari's hands, and with a swift turn, he passed it to Midorima Shintaro.
Swoosh!
A clean, well-coordinated play, Shutoku scored the first basket of the game.
3:0.
"Oh~~ not bad at all!"
Aomine Daiki glanced back at the hoop behind him and smirked. "That kind of teamwork doesn't come overnight. What's this? Are you trying to imitate Atsushi now?"
Midorima lightly pushed up his glasses, the lenses glinting coldly. "You talk too much, Aomine. That's not like you at all. Why don't you stick to your old style, let your basketball do the talking."
·····
That opening play from Shutoku had indeed been unexpected.
Even Aomine, with his lightning-fast reflexes, hadn't been able to react in time.
But when it was Tōō's turn to attack, Shutoku failed to mount an effective defense either.
Unlike Shutoku's team-oriented approach, Tōō's offense revolved entirely around individual skill. Aomine Daiki dribbled his way into Shutoku's paint, slicing past Midorima, Takao, and Otsubo one after another before calmly laying the ball into the hoop.
3:2.
"Woahhh~~ there it is! The 'Ace' Aomine's solo drive!"
"So strong! Even Midorima couldn't stop him?"
"As expected of the Generation of Miracles' top scorer!"
Visually, Aomine's solo play was nothing short of electrifying, no other style could whip the crowd into a frenzy faster.
But before the audience's cheers even settled, Shutoku was already on the move again. Midorima received the ball and immediately went for another shot.
"No way I'm letting you shoot that easily, Midorima!"
Aomine lunged forward, leaping high to block.
Yet even as he rose, Midorima remained steady, releasing the ball with flawless precision. From nearly 28 meters away, the basketball arced through the air like a falling star and pierced through Tōō's basket.
Swoosh!
6:2.
Midorima adjusted his glasses again, a faint gleam flashing across the lenses. "Don't get the wrong idea, Aomine. Just because you beat Kagami once doesn't mean you can beat me!"
"You bastard… got some nerve, huh?"
·····
"They're really going head-to-head!"
"Unbelievable… this is what a Generation of Miracles showdown looks like."
"Still, I don't get it, Kagami managed to block Midorima's shot before, so why couldn't Aomine do it?"
To those who only half-understood basketball, it truly didn't make sense. In their eyes, both Aomine and Kagami were power forwards, and Aomine was supposedly stronger.
So logically, what Kagami could do, Aomine should do even better.
But in reality, this was exactly how things should be.
Just like during the Interhigh: Shutoku had been defeated by Seirin, and Seirin had in turn lost to Tōō by triple the margin.
Did that mean Shutoku would've been crushed just as badly if they'd faced Tōō directly?
Of course not.
It all came down to attribute advantage.
Midorima's shot release point was absurdly high. Kagami could block it only because of his extraordinary vertical jump.
Aomine, however, lacked that particular gift.
·····
"Ahh~~ it's turning out like this again, huh!"
Shoichi Imayoshi watched the court with a sigh, half-expecting this, yet still feeling a twinge of helplessness. A helplessness born from the unbridgeable gap between ordinary humans and geniuses.
"Every time one of the Generation of Miracles or that monster steps on the court, oh, and now we have to include Kagami from Seirin too, it always ends up like this."
As predicted, Shutoku versus Tōō quickly turned into an all-out battle of firepower.
Both teams' aces were going all-in, launching into a scoring frenzy.
And against two Generation of Miracles playing at full strength, defense may as well not exist.
·····
"Man, it's just not fair!"
From the stands, Kasuga Ryuhei watched the fierce showdown with a sigh. "No matter how hard normal players train, when they go up against monsters like these, they don't even qualify to compete."
"True enough," Tsutomu Iwamura nodded. "Against players like that, if you don't have Generation of Miracles-level defense, you're basically a traffic cone."
"But this stalemate probably won't last long. Sure, Midorima can't stop Aomine's offense right now, but that doesn't mean Tōō doesn't have a way to shut down Shutoku."
"Don't forget, they've got another ace in intelligence on their side."
Time flew by for the spectators, and before anyone realized it, the first quarter had already ended.
31:24.
Shutoku led by seven points.
Everyone knows, three-pointers beat two-pointers. Even a kindergartener could tell you that.
However, once the second quarter began, Midorima's scoring rate suddenly dropped.
Aomine intercepted his pass.
"He's getting stronger mid-game… has he entered the Zone?"
As someone who also possessed that instinctual animal instinct, Akashi Asuka could sense the change far more keenly than others.
If Midorima's already being suppressed, then Tōō's next target must be… Shutoku as a whole.
Akashi Asuka, Satsuki Momoi, Akashi Seijuro, despite their differences, the three of them shared a similar mindset. When they devised a strategy against an opponent, they didn't leave a single crack to exploit.
And just as Asuka had predicted,
In the second quarter, relying on Momoi's predictive defense, Shutoku's entire rhythm broke down. Their offense stalled, their defense faltered, and Tōō seized the moment to completely turn the game around.
48:53.
That was the score at the end of the second quarter, Tōō now leading by five.
·····
"As we head into the third quarter, Shutoku definitely won't sit back and do nothing. Midorima's no fool, he must've prepared something to counter Momoi's predictive defense."
During halftime, Kasuga Ryuhei leaned back, hands behind his head as he spoke casually.
The higher the level of the match, the easier it became to predict the outcome. With enough intel, most results in professional sports could practically be foreseen before the game even began.
And even Akashi Asuka couldn't argue with Kasuga's assessment.
Except…
"Still," he said, narrowing his eyes, "if Shutoku wants to win, just one counterattack won't be enough."
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