On the court, Kainan had possession.
Maki Shinichi dribbled the ball forward.
His expression was as steady as a mountain.
Every step he took sounded like a heavy tank crushing across the hardwood floor with dull, thunderous force.
The oppressive aura of a king pressed down on Shohoku's half like an advancing wall.
Miyagi Ryota spread his arms wide, trying to stop him.
But with one simple body collision—
Bang!
Miyagi felt as if he had slammed into a steel plate.
His chest tightened, and his feet involuntarily slid backward two steps.
"What monstrous strength… what the hell did this guy grow up eating?" Miyagi gritted his teeth.
This was the true power of Kanagawa's number one point guard!
Maki Shinichi ignored him completely.
His gaze pierced through the defense and locked directly onto the figure standing near the top of the arc.
Makino Juro.
At that moment, Makino Juro wasn't pressing forward aggressively.
He simply stood there casually, arms hanging loosely at his sides, seemingly full of openings.
Yet Maki felt an unprecedented sense of danger.
In his vision, Makino Juro appeared to be surrounded by an invisible force field.
A forbidden zone.
A thunder pool.
Anyone who entered would die.
"Kiyota!"
With a sudden flick of his wrist, Maki fired the basketball toward the wing like a cannonball.
A direct confrontation carried too much risk—so he chose to attack from the side first!
Kiyota Nobunaga caught the pass.
Facing Rukawa Kaede's defense, the wild monkey was clearly still holding a belly full of rage.
"Take this!!"
Kiyota exploded forward with full power, forcefully breaking through along the baseline.
Rukawa clung tightly to him, both of them moving so fast they left behind afterimages.
"I'm not done yet!"
Kiyota suddenly stopped and jumped near the baseline.
Not a shot—
A pass!
The basketball flew straight into the paint, where Takasago Kazuma had already secured position.
Without Akagi, Shohoku's inside defense only had one rookie left—
Sakuragi Hanamichi.
"Got you!!" Kiyota roared.
Takasago caught the ball, turned, and prepared to rise for a power dunk.
Sakuragi's jumping ability was freakishly good.
But his lack of experience showed. A single fake from Takasago threw off his balance.
"Crap! I got baited!" Sakuragi panicked.
A victorious grin appeared on Takasago's face.
Without Akagi, Shohoku's paint was Kainan's backyard!
However...
At the exact instant Takasago jumped and the ball was about to crash toward the rim—
A bone-chilling coldness suddenly surged up from behind him without warning.
No footsteps.
No breathing.
It was as if a ghost had spawned behind him out of thin air.
Takasago's pupils trembled violently as the corner of his eye caught sight of a black-and-red figure.
At some unknown moment, Makino Juro—who had been "watching the show" from the top of the arc—had already flashed into the paint!
"Too slow."
The icy voice exploded beside Takasago's ear like the judgment of death itself.
Within those crimson-gold [Emperor Eye] pupils—
Every movement Takasago made had been broken down into half-speed slow motion.
Muscle contractions.
Force trajectory.
The rising angle of the basketball.
Every piece of data was completely under control.
Smack!
A slender, pale hand sliced perfectly beneath the ball.
It wasn't a block.
It was a surgical steal.
During the upward motion of Takasago's full-power dunk—
Makino Juro used only two fingers to destroy the basketball's balance in a single instant.
The ball flew out of Takasago's hand.
The entire arena exploded into chaos.
"What the hell?!"
"When did he get there?! Did he teleport?!"
"I didn't even see him move!"
Maki Shinichi's pupils shook violently.
Even he hadn't clearly seen Makino Juro's movement path in that moment.
This wasn't a matter of speed anymore.
This was prediction.
Absolute foresight into the future itself!
The basketball flew toward out-of-bounds, seemingly impossible to save.
Makino Juro's figure flickered like a phantom.
With a light tap of his toe on the sideline, he reached out one-handed and snatched the ball back.
Then he turned around.
Facing the shocked stares of the entire arena...
Makino Juro's cold expression didn't change in the slightest, as though all he had done was casually swat away a fly.
Holding the ball in one hand, he pointed toward the still-stunned Maki Shinichi from afar.
A cruel smile curved onto his lips, his gaze full of disdain.
"So this…"
"…is your so-called Emperor?"
"Too weak."
"And since you refuse to kneel…"
A tyrannical aura exploded from Makino Juro's body, soaring into the sky like a ruler descending upon the world.
"Then I'll personally break your legs."
…
The entire arena fell into dead silence, so oppressive it made people want to vomit.
Makino Juro's declaration about "breaking legs" didn't sound like trash talk.
It sounded like a death sentence.
And it had been slapped directly onto the faces of every Kainan player.
Especially Maki Shinichi.
The "Emperor" who had ruled Kanagawa for three years.
At this moment, he didn't fly into a rage.
Instead—
He laughed.
A terrifying laugh that signaled his fury had reached its absolute limit.
"Good."
Maki's voice squeezed out from between clenched teeth, grinding like metal scraping against metal.
Every muscle in his body tightened.
Veins bulged beneath his dark skin like twisted tree roots as a visible murderous aura burst out wildly.
This was the bottom line of a king.
Touch it—and die.
"First-year brat…"
"Since you're looking for death, I'll grant your wish."
The pressure was suffocating!
Anyone could tell...
Maki was completely enraged.
This was ten times more terrifying than when he posterized Miyagi earlier.
The Shohoku players instinctively wanted to collapse inward and gang up on the out-of-control beast.
"Back off."
A calm voice cut off their movements instantly.
Makino Juro stood at the top of the three-point arc, dribbling normally.
Those crimson-gold pupils calmly watched Maki Shinichi charging toward him.
There was no fear in his eyes.
No tension.
In fact…
He looked bored.
Like he was watching a fly desperately trying to smash through a glass window.
"Arrogant!"
Maki was completely enraged by that look and immediately pressed in.
No tricks.
No fancy moves.
Before overwhelming size and raw power, skill itself became a joke.
He intended to use the most primitive and brutal method possible to crush this kid directly!
"Give me that ball!"
Maki dropped his right shoulder violently while his right hand shot toward the ball in Makino Juro's hands.
However...
At the millisecond before the collision happened—
Makino Juro's world changed.
[Emperor Eye]
Time itself seemed to slow down several times over.
Maki Shinichi's lightning-fast movements were broken apart into frame-by-frame slow-motion replays inside Makino Juro's vision.
Muscle power points.
Center-of-gravity shift axes.
Ankle support angles.
All weaknesses.
All red lines.
"Too slow. Every movement is unnecessary."
Makino Juro lightly tapped his left foot and slid sideways half a step.
Just half a step—
Yet it felt like an uncrossable chasm.
Maki's right hand grabbed nothing but air!
A chill shot through Maki's heart.
"How is that possible?!"
This guy predicted my prediction?!
Using terrifying core strength, Maki forcefully twisted his waist.
His right foot slammed into the floor as he tried to use his body width and strength to push back into position.
But that was exactly the trap Makino Juro had prepared for him.
"Got you."
A teasing smile appeared on Makino Juro's lips.
At the precise instant all of Maki's body weight pressed onto his right foot—when his old force had ended and new force had yet to be generated—
BANG! BANG!
Rapid dribbling exploded like war drums.
The basketball became an orange phantom dancing between Makino Juro's hands.
Between the legs.
A lightning-fast pullback.
Cross-over!
Makino Juro's center of gravity suddenly shifted violently to the right, baiting Maki's defensive instincts into reacting.
But immediately after—
The basketball defied common sense and slipped past the weakest point of Maki's support foot like a flower passing through shadows.
This was a precision strike against the limits of the human body itself!
Maki's brain frantically screamed the command:
"Move left and defend!"
But his spinal reflexes were still processing the previous fake.
His brain said:
Go left!
His body said:
Still moving right!
And his knees said:
Then I'm leaving.
END OF CHAPTER
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The King Of Slacking Off - MrBehringer's Secret
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