"It's over. Looks like Midorima really had the edge."
"Such a shame. Kaijō was actually pretty strong. They should've made the quarterfinals."
"Just bad luck. Running into Shūtoku in the very first round… sigh."
After sitting for so long, Shuzo Nijimura stretched lazily as he spoke.
Shogo Haizaki clicked his tongue and muttered:
"Serves them right."
Miyamoto Tokima laughed.
"Well, now that the match is over, we should head back."
With that, the members of Kirisaki Daiichi stood up and headed toward the gym exit.
...
On Seirin's side.
Riko Aida stood up and said:
"Let's go. We should talk to their coach."
With that, the Seirin team also got up and left.
...
On the court.
Ryota Kise stood there blankly, looking dejected.
"So we still… lost."
Shintaro Midorima walked over and extended his hand.
"Let's fight again next time, Kise."
Kise looked up and met Midorima's calm eyes.
He smiled with relief and reached out to shake his hand.
"Alright!"
"But Midorimacchi… can you tell me something?"
"What was that hang time at the end?"
Midorima answered casually:
"Animal Instinct."
Then he turned and walked away without looking back.
Kise froze for a moment, repeating the words to himself.
"Animal Instinct…?"
Then he murmured again as if questioning himself:
"But doesn't Animal Instinct normally show itself…?!"
At that moment, Midorima felt shrouded in mystery to him.
Smack!
"Stop spacing out. Let's go."
"Back to practice. We'll take it back in the Winter Cup!"
Yukio Kasamatsu smacked Kise lightly on the head and spoke sternly.
Kise turned and saw the determination burning in his teammates' eyes.
The corners of his mouth lifted, and he laughed loudly.
"Yes!"
And so…
Kaijō's Summer Cup journey…
came to an end.
...
On the way to a restaurant with the Kirisaki Daiichi team, Atsushi Murasakibara's phone suddenly rang.
He answered it.
"Hello? Who's this?"
"Oh. Okay."
After hanging up, he turned to Miyamoto Tokima.
"Miyamoto, Himuro's transfer paperwork is done."
Miyamoto nodded.
"Tell him to come to the restaurant. Make sure he has the address."
Murasakibara nodded blankly and spoke into the phone again.
"Himuro, just come straight to the restaurant. The address is…"
After confirming everything, he hung up.
Soon after, the Kirisaki Daiichi group met Tatsuya Himuro at the restaurant.
After finishing their meal together, they headed toward the school gym.
Because…
It was time for the traditional welcome ritual for new members!
When they arrived at the gym, everyone moved around casually for a while to digest their food.
After two and a half hours of relaxed activity, the matches finally began.
Himuro's first opponent was naturally the original Kirisaki Daiichi starting trio.
Kojiro Furuhashi.
Kazuya Hara.
Hiroshi Yamazaki.
Himuro handled the three of them with relative ease.
For his next opponent, he chose Kentaro Seto.
After all, you pick the easy target first.
Kentaro Seto wasn't particularly strong in one-on-one offense—his defense was decent at best.
So the gap wasn't very large, but Himuro still won the match 5–2.
Next up—
Makoto Hanamiya.
Hanamiya stepped onto the court with a smile.
"Aren't you going to take a break?"
Himuro shook his head and gave a gentle smile.
"I don't need to rest yet."
Hanamiya smiled slightly.
"Good. Otherwise it wouldn't be very fun."
Even though Hanamiya was smiling, Himuro couldn't shake the feeling that he had bad intentions.
The match began.
Hanamiya had possession.
The moment he received the ball, Himuro immediately pressed up to defend.
Hanamiya spoke right away.
"Hey, hey… hasn't anyone ever told you that you smell awful?"
"Standing this close—are you trying to suffocate me?"
"You should have some self-awareness. Be a good boy and back up a little."
Himuro thought maybe he actually smelled bad, so he really did take a step back.
Hanamiya immediately burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! You actually stepped back?"
"What are you, a dog? So obedient?"
Only then did Himuro realize—
Hanamiya had been mocking him the entire time.
Instantly, anger flared in his chest. He stepped forward again to resume tight defense.
Hanamiya smiled faintly.
"Idiot."
The moment Himuro stepped forward, Hanamiya instantly dropped the ball and drove past him.
Because Himuro had been moving forward, he couldn't adjust in time.
He was beaten in a single step.
Hanamiya easily finished with a layup.
After scoring, he didn't forget to keep mocking him.
"Is your defense made of paper? One poke and it's torn!"
Himuro gritted his teeth and shot back:
"Is talking trash the only thing you're good at?"
Hanamiya exaggeratedly widened his eyes and spread his hands.
"Are you introducing yourself?"
"I just scored, remember?"
"So the one who's all talk… isn't that you?"
Himuro wanted to respond, but couldn't think of anything to say.
So he stayed silent and picked up the ball to attack.
But Hanamiya—the nation's top trash talker—wasn't about to let the opportunity pass.
"What's wrong?"
"Did our American honor student forget how to talk?"
Himuro finally snapped.
Oh, you want to call me the American honor student?
Fine.
I'll roast you in English!
The next moment, Himuro fired off a stream of English insults.
But what he never expected—
was that Hanamiya responded in English.
And his insults were even harsher.
Himuro was completely stunned.
He couldn't out-trash-talk him in Japanese.
He couldn't out-trash-talk him in English either.
So what could he do?
Endure it.
He couldn't exactly start a fight with Hanamiya in front of Miyamoto, could he?
Himuro still couldn't understand why Hanamiya was treating him like this when they were on the same team.
What he didn't know was—
this had all been arranged by Miyamoto.
And not just for him.
Everyone else had gone through it too.
You could say that aside from Miyamoto, every member of Kirisaki Daiichi had suffered Hanamiya's trash talk at some point.
Don't ask why.
The answer was simple.
Pressure training.
Himuro stopped responding and focused on attacking.
On the basketball court—
skill speaks louder than words.
Just as Himuro prepared to show what he could do—
a ferocious figure suddenly appeared behind Hanamiya…
...
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