"What favorite to win? Never heard of it. They're just a mere..."
Makoto Hanamiya suddenly spoke in a strange, pinched voice.
When Miyamoto Tokima heard that familiar line, he was instantly taken aback.
"Makoto Hanamiya, what have you been reading lately?"
Hearing that, Makoto Hanamiya's expression immediately turned serious. Then he started rummaging through his backpack.
As he searched, Miyamoto Tokima noticed that Makoto Hanamiya's backpack was packed with books.
Miyamoto Tokima even caught a glimpse of a few titles.
[The Proper Use of Eloquence]
[Practical Verbal Tactics]
[The Art of Provocation]
[Complete Guide to Insults and Comebacks]
When Miyamoto Tokima saw those titles, he was briefly stunned.
Were these books... actually serious?
While Miyamoto Tokima was still in a daze, Makoto Hanamiya suddenly grabbed one of the books and introduced it excitedly.
"Tokima-san, found it!"
"This is the book I've been reading recently! The stories in here are amazing! And I realized that a lot of the lines can be used on the basketball court!"
"Like this one, [Are you in such a hurry to leave? Is someone waiting for you up ahead?]"
"I found out that this line works incredibly well on the basketball court!"
"Tokima-san, I've got to say, the trash talk in this book is incredible. The guy in here really has no filter!"
"And he'll talk back to anyone. No matter who it is, he goes straight at them. He's basically the king of trash talk!"
As Makoto Hanamiya spoke, his eyes were practically shining. It seemed like he really did admire that character's mouth.
The more Miyamoto Tokima listened, the more absurd it felt. The more he listened, the harder it became to hold himself together.
Damn it!
Was this book really meant to teach you trash talk?
Miyamoto Tokima suddenly felt that the group he had gathered was way too absurd.
How had the villains from the original story turned into a bunch of walking punchlines in his hands?
This was difficult.
In the end, Miyamoto Tokima helplessly waved his hand, sighed, and said,
"Take your time reading it. Who could possibly outread you?"
Makoto Hanamiya did not understand why Miyamoto Tokima was reacting like that, but he knew very well that when his leader looked like this, it meant he had done something wrong.
So Makoto Hanamiya hurriedly said,
"Sorry, Tokima-san. Maybe I'm still too inexperienced and can't fully understand this masterpiece yet. Allow me to study it more carefully."
Miyamoto Tokima froze.
So Makoto Hanamiya was trying to put on a show for him now, was he?
Fine, then. Let's play.
"Very good. In that case, once you finish reading it, hand me a 2,000-word book report. I'll check whether you truly understood it."
Makoto Hanamiya's pupils suddenly widened, and he cried out,
"Huh?!"
Shogo Haizaki and Shuzo Nijimura were secretly laughing off to the side while muttering quietly to each other.
Seeing that, Makoto Hanamiya thought to himself,
Damn it! If I have to suffer, then everyone suffers with me! Sorry about this!
Makoto Hanamiya suddenly pointed at Shogo Haizaki and Shuzo Nijimura and said,
"Tokima-san, I don't think I should be the only one reading this masterpiece. I think Haizaki and Nijimura should read it too, so they can learn how to use this kind of thing on the court."
"So I volunteer to supervise the two of them and read this book together with them!"
Miyamoto Tokima nodded in satisfaction.
"Then I'll leave it to you. When the time comes, Nijimura-senpai and Haizaki will each hand in a 2,000-word book report too."
Makoto Hanamiya immediately showed a look of triumph and nodded repeatedly.
"Yes!"
This time, Shuzo Nijimura and Shogo Haizaki were dumbfounded. The way they looked at Makoto Hanamiya changed completely.
To put it this way, if looks could kill, Makoto Hanamiya would have been reincarnated a hundred times by now.
... While Miyamoto Tokima and the others were talking, the two teams on the court were also warming up.
Rakuzan's warm-up was extremely orderly and disciplined. It was obvious at a glance that they had gone through professional training.
However, Miyamoto Tokima was not particularly interested in that kind of warm-up.
Because it was basically useless.
The purpose of warming up was to get yourself into your best condition as quickly as possible.
If the whole team was forced to follow the same routine, what if someone did not warm up properly? Then would the warm-up not have been a waste?
Meanwhile, Fukuda Sōgō was even more outrageous.
First was their roster. If you looked closely, you could see that almost all of Fukuda Sōgō's players were unfamiliar faces.
None of the previous Fukuda Sōgō members were there. The players now were all people they had never seen before.
Then came the warm-up.
Rakuzan was doing a disciplined warm-up, right?
Fine.
Then we simply will not warm up at all.
Yes, you heard that right. Fukuda Sōgō skipped warm-ups entirely.
The whole team sat on the bench, sipping water and chatting casually, showing no concern for the game whatsoever.
Even the coach looked completely indifferent.
Because all of them felt that the game was already over.
To put it bluntly, they had only joined the team to coast along, so they could brag about it to others after leaving.
If the players were just there to coast, then there was even less need to explain the coach.
Getting paid while coasting through work, was that not one of life's greatest pleasures?
So the coach chose to slack off together with the players. Basically, they only put on a show when the school board came to inspect them.
The rest of the time, they just played around.
None of them had expected to make it into the National Tournament either.
Somehow, they had muddled their way all the way into the National Tournament.
The opponents they had been matched with in the earlier rounds were all pretty weak. Only Seihō had been a little difficult, and for some reason, that match had ended in a draw.
Even so, they had somehow made it into the National Tournament without any real danger.
They had already made up their minds. If their opponent was Seihō again, they would give it a try.
But if it was any other school, especially championship favorites like Kirisaki Daiichi or Rakuzan, then they would simply give up.
After all, they were not like other players who had lofty ambitions and fighting spirit.
In their minds, they could not beat those teams anyway, so what was the point of playing?
Was it not better to go through the motions with a clear conscience, then head home and have fun?
With that mindset, they were matched against Rakuzan High School in their very first game.
So everyone, including the team coach, made the same choice without hesitation.
They gave up.
That was why the scene from just now had happened.
Rakuzan High School warmed up step by step, while Fukuda Sōgō sat on the bench and chatted happily.
Watching this from the stands, Miyamoto Tokima was also a little confused.
Because according to the original story, this kind of thing should never have happened with Fukuda Sōgō.
In the original story, Fukuda Sōgō's captain was a regular at the National Tournament, and he was also someone who placed great importance on etiquette.
There was absolutely no way he would do something like letting the entire team give up.
On top of that, many of the players currently on Fukuda Sōgō were unfamiliar faces Miyamoto Tokima had never seen before, which made things even stranger.
With those doubts in mind, Miyamoto Tokima took out his phone and sent a text message to someone.
This person could be considered an informant Miyamoto Tokima had been secretly cultivating.
What do you mean, cultivated by Miyamoto Hiroshi?
If Miyamoto Hiroshi cultivated them, does that mean they are not mine?
Ridiculous!
...
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