A ferocious aura emanated from Jason Silver, sweeping in all directions.
Kagetora and the others all paled.
No wonder Jabberwock had been so confident. A week ago, they'd barely been trying—using maybe half their strength at most.
This Wildness that surpassed Aomine and the others—they'd only ever seen it in Yuuto. They never imagined someone else in this world possessed it too.
"Even the dumbest monkeys should understand by now, right?"
"No matter how hard you struggle, all I have to do is pass the ball and it's over."
As he spoke, Nash's gaze shifted to Yuuto.
"You picked the wrong side, Yu. Your biggest mistake was running with a bunch of monkeys."
"It's only just beginning, Nash. Don't act like you've already won."
Yuuto's expression remained unchanged—still that same calm indifference.
Nash and his crew had no idea where his confidence came from.
...
Yuuto took the ball, arriving once again at the top of the arc.
No unnecessary words. The moment they faced off, they moved toward each other, colliding.
A perfect fake—suddenly skipping a major movement, the afterimage suggesting Yuuto had already exploded forward, when in reality his body had quickly retreated back to the three-point line.
But.
No fake worked against Nash.
He ignored every feint, seeing through Yuuto's afterimages as he pressed forward step by step.
"How is this possible?"
Kise's eyes went wide with disbelief.
In all their practice sessions over the past few days, they'd never seen Yuuto struggle like this.
It was as if Nash could read his every move.
"No—it's not that he's being completely read!"
Akashi spoke up, his Emperor Eye catching Yuuto successfully getting the ball out.
Almost identical to Nash's method—wrapping the ball behind his back, rapidly switching hands.
Akashi also noticed that both of Yuuto's arms moved with nearly identical rhythm, even the arm not controlling the ball. This made it impossible for even the Emperor Eye to distinguish the real from the fake.
He smiled wryly. "He's already fully adapted to fighting against the Emperor Eye. He's even learned to deceive using muscle movements..."
Wait—Emperor Eye?!
Akashi suddenly froze. Yuuto's actions made him consider a terrifying possibility.
It was the reason he couldn't understand why Nash had been acting the way he did.
And Yuuto's behavior seemed to give him the answer.
Nash appeared to possess a talent similar to the Emperor Eye.
While they'd been talking, the ball had already threaded through to Murasakibara's hands.
"It's useless. A pass of that quality won't tear through Silver's defense." Nash was confident.
And he was right.
This wasn't Murasakibara's most comfortable receiving position—neither the angle nor the force was perfect.
Even dodging Nash's eyes to get the pass out didn't change that.
BANG!
In the post, Murasakibara caught the ball and immediately drove forward with force, his body colliding violently with Jason Silver.
The two were like mountains crashing together. The audience was stunned—it looked like two titans clashing head-on.
Then.
SMACK—
Murasakibara's powerful dunk attempt was swatted away by Jason Silver.
Zack secured the loose ball and fed it to Nash.
WHOOSH—
A quarterback-style long pass—Nash hurled the ball to the frontcourt. Jason Silver sprinted at full power, ignoring Kagami's contest, leaping from the free-throw line, his body gliding toward the rim like an aircraft.
Finally.
BOOM—
He hammered the ball through the hoop.
And Yuuto?
He seemed helpless, simply getting the ball back to Murasakibara again.
Murasakibara didn't hesitate either. Without fear, he battled Jason Silver in the post once more.
But.
SMACK— The ball was swatted away again. Murasakibara gritted his teeth.
"Damn it! No—not like this!"
"I need more... I need to be..."
His mind began racing, memories surfacing from the past.
Back when Okamura and the other seniors were still on the team, they'd taught him one-on-one how to fully unleash his natural gifts.
"No, you need to drop lower! Keep your upper body high!"
"You're so annoying!"
Back then, he'd been extremely impatient. What's the point of this technique?
He didn't need it.
Because no one could stop him anyway.
"If you keep going like this, someday you'll get destroyed by someone bigger and stronger than you."
That was his teammate's prediction. At the time, Murasakibara thought such a person couldn't possibly exist.
Yet here he was—a player whose strength and talent matched his own, standing right in front of him.
Back to the present.
Jason Silver received the ball, executing a powerful post-up, shouldering Murasakibara aside before spinning and slamming another dunk.
And Yuuto?
He kept feeding Murasakibara.
BANG—
Murasakibara accepted without complaint, grabbing the ball and immediately powering forward.
"Why? Murasakibara is clearly losing every matchup." Riko didn't understand why Yuuto kept insisting on passing to him.
...
"That's three straight possessions where he's been dominated!" Hyūga felt the same. Murasakibara had lost on both ends three times in a row.
Aomine, Kise, Akashi, Midorima—they all thought the same.
This seemed like a waste of opportunities.
And Murasakibara?
He seemed to have forgotten time and place, pouring his entire being into the battle against Jason Silver.
"AHHH!"
Murasakibara roared, grabbing the ball one-handed and leaping, attempting to dunk over Jason Silver.
Pure brute force!
It didn't work.
He still couldn't escape Jason Silver's clutches. The ball was swatted away yet again.
But at that moment—Murasakibara was smiling.
"So there really is someone stronger than me, with better technique..."
...
"Get back!"
Kagami shouted, ready to sprint back on defense.
However.
Yuuto did the opposite. Like lightning, he streaked across the court, reaching the ball's landing spot and reclaiming possession.
Then.
He slammed the ball forward. It bounced off the floor and returned to Murasakibara's hands.
This time.
It was a perfect pass—angle, force, everything impeccable.
Murasakibara had to drop his center of gravity to receive it. At first, he thought the pass was poorly placed—too low.
But the moment he caught it, his body's power transfer felt smoother than ever before.
In his mind, all those memories his body had stored were suddenly activated by this single pass.
"You're welcome." Yuuto finally spoke.
Murasakibara heard it. He immediately drove his back into his defender with everything he had.
BOOM—
Two mountains collided again. The intense physical battle sent adrenaline surging through everyone watching.
This time.
Jason Silver was actually pushed back half a step.
He couldn't believe it. Seeing Murasakibara rise for a dunk, he roared, "Don't you dare look down on me, you damn monkey!"
His only answer was Murasakibara's thunderous one-armed tomahawk slam.
CRASH!
The ball went in. Murasakibara had dunked over Jason Silver.
Riko and the others, who'd just been worried and confused, all stared with wide eyes.
"Murasakibara?!"
"I've seen that expression before—genuine joy from competing against a powerful opponent. Just like Kagami-kun and Aomine-kun."
Kuroko stood slack-jawed, stunned by what he'd witnessed.
...
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