Ryonan High School
The setting sun dyed the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of the Ryonan gym a deep, blood red. The floor gleamed from the friction of shoe soles, and the air was thick with the scent of "male hormones" and high-intensity grind.
"Defense! Move your feet!" "Uozumi-senpai, get the rebound!"
Taoka Moichi stood on the sidelines, arms crossed, his brows furrowed in a permanent scowl. He was incredibly confident in this year's lineup. With the two-meter-tall "Big Boss" Uozumi Jun and the genius scorer Sendoh Akira, this was Ryonan's best chance to seize a spot in the Nationals.
Bam!
The main doors were slammed open, nearly flying off their hinges. Everyone froze as Aida Hikoichi came tumbling in, tripping over his own feet and crashing onto the hardwood with a loud clatter. Ignoring the pain, he scrambled on his hands and knees toward Taoka.
"C-Coach! Something terrible has happened!" Hikoichi gasped, his notebook crumpled in his trembling grip.
"Hikoichi! How many times have I told you to bow when entering the gym!" Taoka's forehead veins bulged. "And what is all this fuss about?"
"No, Coach! It's Shohoku! I went to scout Shohoku!" Hikoichi's eyes were wide with lingering terror.
"Shohoku?" Taoka snorted disdainfully. "That one-man team with Akagi? What's there to scout? Besides Akagi, maybe that Rukawa kid from Tomigaoka is worth a glance."
"No! Not Rukawa!" Hikoichi frantically flipped open his notebook, pointing at the messy, frantic scribbles. "It's a first-year named Hayashi Rin! He... he absolutely destroyed Rukawa in a one-on-one!"
The gym fell into a deathly silence, followed immediately by a burst of uproarious laughter.
"Hey, Hikoichi, did you fall asleep and dream during your scouting?" Koshino laughed, clutching his stomach. "Destroy Rukawa? The MVP? A rookie like that would never go to a dump like Shohoku."
Even the mountain-like Uozumi Jun let out a low, dismissive snort. "Nonsense."
"It's true!" Hikoichi's face flushed red. "That speed... it was like a ghost! Rukawa didn't even have time to react before the ball was in the net! And Hayashi Rin said..."
"Said what?" Taoka asked, his curiosity finally piqued.
"He said... playing basketball is too tiring, and he only won so he could leave practice early."
Taoka Moichi was stunned. Winning just to leave early? It was even more absurd than Rukawa choosing a school because it was close to his house!
"Alright, Hikoichi," Taoka waved him off impatiently. "I think you were so scared by Rukawa's reputation that you started hallucinating. What kind of monster could a crappy public school like Shohoku possibly have? Forget about that... WHERE THE HELL IS SENDOH?!"
The team went silent. Just then, a door in the corner creaked open. A boy with a "hedgehog" hairstyle poked his head in, a fishing rod still in his hand.
"Ah... everyone's here," Sendoh Akira said, wearing his trademark, harmless smile. "The sunset today is really nice, perfect for fishing..."
"SENDOH! AKIRA!" Taoka's roar nearly blew the roof off the gym.
As Sendoh leisurely changed his shoes and walked onto the court, he paused by Hikoichi. His gaze swept over the notebook, lingering on the giant words: "UNBELIEVABLE - HAYASHI RIN."
"Destroyed Rukawa, huh..." Sendoh narrowed his eyes, a playful curve lifting the corner of his mouth. "Winning just to leave early... that personality sounds like we'd get along quite well. Hikoichi, next time, take me to see this guy."
The next day at Shohoku High, the math teacher was enthusiastically explaining quadratic functions. Meanwhile, in the "King's Corner" at the back of the room, Hayashi Rin was using an upright textbook as cover, sleeping like the dead.
Thwack!
A piece of chalk, traced in a perfect parabolic arc, hit Rin squarely on the forehead.
"Here!" Rin jolted awake, instinctively wiping drool from his mouth.
"Come up here and solve this problem," the teacher growled.
Rin walked to the podium, staring at the blackboard symbols that might as well have been ancient runes.
[System Alert: Academic crisis detected.] [Consume 10 Slacking Points for 'Genius Possession Card' (1 minute)?]
Exchange, Rin thought.
Scritch-scritch-scritch.
Thirty seconds later, Rin tossed the chalk aside. On the board were three different solution processes, the last one using university-level calculus. The classroom was silent.
"Teacher, may I go back to sleep now?" Rin asked politely. "I haven't finished my dream."
During lunch, Rin lay in the shadow of the rooftop water tank, sipping strawberry milk.
"Master!" The metal door was kicked open, and Sakuragi Hanamichi charged in like a red gorilla, holding two enormous, deluxe yakisoba bread rolls. "Can you teach me that 'Instant Transmission' move today?"
Rin took a bite of the bread. Double meat. Promising pupil.
"Hanamichi," Rin said with deep sincerity. "To learn Instant Transmission, you must first master 'Stillness'. Look at me. Am I not still?"
"You're... very lazy," Sakuragi answered honestly.
"Wrong! This is called 'Still as a virgin, swift as a fleeing rabbit.' Your basketball spirit is too restless. You must practice meditation. Hold one position without moving for an hour, imagining you are a stone. If you can do that, I'll teach you the next move."
"Really?!" Sakuragi's eyes sparkled with idiocy. He immediately froze in a bizarre pose, his face turning red from the effort.
Rin lay back down, satisfied. With the Red-Haired Monkey acting as my personal bodyguard and bread-delivery service, this transmigration life is finally looking up.