On the court.
Seijuro Akashi took in the sight of Fukuda Sōgō giving up before the game had even started. His brows furrowed slightly, and his expression darkened.
A bunch of ants...
Then Seijuro Akashi turned to the Rakuzan players and said coldly,
"After this game ends, I don't want to see any smiles left on their faces."
... The Rakuzan players all shuddered, frightened by the cold aura coming from Seijuro Akashi.
Kotaro Hayama quietly nudged Reo Mibuchi's arm and whispered,
"What's going on with Akashi? He feels really oppressive right now."
Reo Mibuchi shook his head and whispered back,
"I don't know how that group from Fukuda Sōgō managed to anger Akashi, but we'd better do as he says. We'll have to play this game rough."
Kotaro Hayama nodded repeatedly.
In truth, the reason Seijuro Akashi showed no goodwill toward Fukuda Sōgō was entirely because of their attitude.
To Seijuro Akashi, only those with absolute strength had the right to win without training.
But what was with this group from Fukuda Sōgō?
They were clearly weak as hell, yet when facing him, they did not even bother warming up.
Were they looking down on him?
That filled Seijuro Akashi with disgust, which was why he had given that order.
After all, privileges belonged only to the truly strong.
... "Beep! The game is about to begin. Both teams, please get ready!"
The referee blew the whistle and shouted loudly.
Then both teams came to the center line, preparing for the pregame greeting.
However, during the greeting, everyone felt the chill coming from Seijuro Akashi.
Because of that, Fukuda Sōgō's point guard did not even dare shake Seijuro Akashi's hand.
After it ended, Seijuro Akashi turned away coldly, completely ignoring Fukuda Sōgō's point guard.
In Seijuro Akashi's eyes, the weak were not qualified to shake his hand.
Fukuda Sōgō's point guard did not dare badmouth Seijuro Akashi to his face. Only after Seijuro Akashi had walked away did he mutter under his breath,
"What's he acting so high and mighty for?"
The game began soon after.
The Rakuzan players quickly got into rhythm and started pushing hard.
After all, Seijuro Akashi's order was still echoing in their minds.
Off the court.
Miyamoto Tokima's phone suddenly buzzed. He picked it up and saw that his informant had replied.
After reading the message, Miyamoto Tokima finally understood why Fukuda Sōgō had changed so much.
The main reason was that Fukuda Sōgō's previous starters had been mentally broken.
And Shogo Haizaki was the main culprit.
To put it simply, during the Summer Cup, Shogo Haizaki had single-handedly crushed the entire Fukuda Sōgō team.
After that, Fukuda Sōgō's starters more or less lost their resolve.
After all, they had trained so hard, only to be destroyed by one person in the end. That was honestly hard to accept.
But that alone would not have been enough to make them truly leave the team.
The real reason was Fukuda Sōgō's board of directors.
After learning that Fukuda Sōgō had been destroyed by one person, they were furious.
And the person who destroyed them was Shogo Haizaki, the very player they had always wanted to invite onto the team.
That made them even angrier.
So they took their anger out on the coach.
The coach was tough too. He snapped back at them on the spot, then announced his resignation.
The board did not care at all and immediately began publicly recruiting a new coach.
During the search for a new coach, the board still had not cooled down, so they took their anger out on the players too.
It was not too severe, but it was enough to push away players who were already miserable.
So Fukuda Sōgō's players directly announced that they were leaving the team.
Even the board could not stop them.
With no other choice, the board had the new coach find new players from scratch.
That was how they ended up with this group of slackers. At first, the board had no confidence in them, but once they saw the players make it into the National Tournament, they immediately felt reassured.
With one wave of the hand, they handed the team's affairs directly to the coach.
My players could never be slackers.
As for the previous group, get lost.
Just like that, Fukuda Sōgō went through a major reshuffle and became what it was now.
The corner of Miyamoto Tokima's mouth twitched. He felt the whole thing was a little ridiculous.
But it had nothing to do with him. After all, Fukuda Sōgō's previous group was not worth paying attention to either.
They were still too weak. He had only wanted to understand Fukuda Sōgō out of curiosity.
Now that he understood the full story, Miyamoto Tokima lost interest in Fukuda Sōgō.
After all, even Fukuda Sōgō's former full starting lineup could not possibly beat Rakuzan, much less this group of slackers.
Things went exactly as expected.
The Fukuda Sōgō players had no intention of stopping Rakuzan at all.
They simply let Rakuzan drive straight into their paint.
Even though they were giving up so blatantly, it still felt a little miserable.
Because the Rakuzan players kept forcing physical contact on them or looking for something to do.
That made them feel extremely uncomfortable.
Come on, guys. We are already giving up. Do you really still have to bully us?
If you keep doing this, then we'll...
We'll give up even harder...
After all, we are slackers.
If you mess with us, then you are messing with...
Cotton...
In the end, Rakuzan High School won the game 111 to 11.
The Fukuda Sōgō players did not seem to notice anything strange about the score and were still quickly packing up their things, ready to go home.
The spectators, however, saw right through the meaning behind it.
"My god, this... Did they control the score on purpose?"
"Obviously. Didn't you see that those eight points were all points Rakuzan let them score?"
"That's terrifying!"
Off the court, Miyamoto Tokima could not help shaking his head. As expected, there was no way Seijuro Akashi would be that kind-hearted.
The 111 to 11 score had not appeared in middle school, but it appeared here instead.
111 to 11. Late, but it still arrived.
The noise from the spectators also made the Fukuda Sōgō players freeze for a moment.
During the game, their minds had been completely filled with thoughts of how they would have fun afterward. They had not paid attention to the score at all.
Now, one of them heard the word "score," so he turned his head and glanced at the scoreboard.
That one glance left him stunned.
111 to 11.
He quickly called the others over to look at the score. When the others saw it, they froze as well, stiffening in place.
Just as Seijuro Akashi was secretly enjoying himself, waiting for Fukuda Sōgō's spirits to shatter, something miraculous happened...
...
...
...
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