"Makino Juro!"
"Your era is going to end before it even begins!!"
Maki Shinichi's roar exploded beneath the basket, reeking of the bloody desperation of a cornered beast.
The two raced side by side, their sneakers shrieking violently against the hardwood.
And at the exact instant Makino Juro gathered the ball and took his first step—
"PAH!"
A crisp sound cracked through the court like thunder.
The veins on Maki Shinichi's hand bulged violently.
At an angle that completely defied human biomechanics, his palm hacked sideways into the basketball.
The ball—
was stripped away.
Thousands of spectators stopped breathing at once.
Makino Juro, who had always been as precise as a surgeon's scalpel, who had never once made a mistake...
Had he actually failed?!
"He stole it!!"
Kiyota Nobunaga's voice cracked on the spot like someone had stepped on his tail.
"Captain stole the ball!!"
The basketball flew loose uncontrollably.
Maki Shinichi's terrifying core strength erupted.
While sprinting at full speed, he forcefully slammed on the brakes.
Turn.
Recover the ball.
Smooth as flowing water.
At this moment....
he was the king of Kanagawa.
"It's not over yet!!"
Maki snatched up the ball, purple light flickering wildly within his eyes.
His adrenaline had surged beyond the limit.
Offense and defense reversed instantly!
"RAAAAHHHHH!!"
Dribbling the ball, Maki stormed back down the court, every step crashing into Shohoku's hearts like a war hammer.
The crack in the Zone's gate had been pried open.
And in his eyes—
the world had slowed to an unprecedented degree.
Juro stood directly ahead.
That black-clad figure who once suffocated him with despair...
suddenly no longer seemed unbeatable.
"Take this, Juro!!"
Acceleration!
Crossover!
No flashy tricks—only the pure violent beauty of strength and speed.
Maki Shinichi saw it clearly.
Makino Juro's movement...
lagged for a single frame.
And that one frame—
was enough!
"He got past him!"
"Maki blew right by him!!"
On the sidelines, Takato shouted in ecstasy.
Like an out-of-control heavy tank wrapped in gale-force pressure, Maki roared past Makino Juro's side.
No one can stop me now!
So this is the scenery beyond the realm of gods?!
The hoop was right in front of him.
Maki leaped skyward, his body stretched taut like a fully drawn war bow.
One hand gripped the ball high overhead.
Tomahawk dunk!
This dunk would drag Kainan back from the edge of the cliff!
This dunk would completely shatter Makino Juro's arrogance!
"GO IN!!"
Maki stared at the rim, the obsession in his eyes burning to ashes.
However...
just as his wrist was about to slam downward—
the world suddenly went silent.
Wind.
Cheers.
Heartbeats.
Everything vanished.
An icy chill colder than death shot up his spine straight into his skull.
Maki Shinichi realized in horror—
the weight in his hand...
was gone.
The basketball that had been firmly clenched in his palm had vanished into thin air.
Momentum carried his body forward.
A dunk without a basketball looked absurdly like some ridiculous silent comedy.
"SKRRRRT!!"
He landed—
and slipped.
Maki lost his balance completely.
Like a clown whose carpet had been yanked away, he slid several meters helplessly across the polished floor.
"Bang."
His body slammed heavily into the basket support padding.
Pain exploded through him, but he couldn't care less.
He whipped his head around, pupils shrinking to pinpoints.
Near the free-throw line—
that black-haired boy still stood there.
As though he had never moved even half a step.
And on the fingertips of his right hand—
the orange basketball spun quietly.
Makino Juro stared expressionlessly at the collapsed Maki Shinichi.
His eyes were indifferent, like he was looking at an ant trying to shake a tree.
"T-That's impossible..."
Maki's lips trembled.
His brain had completely frozen.
What just happened?
I clearly got past him...
I clearly jumped...
When—
when did the ball disappear?!
The entire arena fell into dead silence.
Everyone wore the same expression of total disbelief, jaws hanging loose, eyeballs practically bursting from their sockets.
One second ago, it had been Emperor Maki's desperate counterattack and game-changing dunk.
The next second....
the entire scene flipped upside down.
The old king lay defeated.
The new king held the ball.
The extreme contrast nearly fried everyone's mental CPU on the spot.
"Bzzzt—Bzzzt—"
A faint yet piercing electrical sound suddenly crackled through the air.
The crowd raised their heads in shock.
Makino Juro slowly lifted his gaze.
His originally black pupils now seemed stained with something sinister.
Two crimson-gold currents of electricity tore and crackled wildly around his eyes like tangible lightning.
Compared to Maki Shinichi's faint purple glow—
this light was purer.
More violent.
More despair-inducing.
[Zone Tyrant]
[Activated]
This wasn't a crack in the door.
The gates had been thrown wide open.
A god had descended upon the mortal world.
An invisible pressure exploded outward from Makino Juro like a tsunami sweeping across the arena.
The air became thick and heavy.
Gravity itself seemed to double.
Kiyota Nobunaga, closest to him, felt his legs go weak instinctively—
the primal terror of prey facing a natural predator.
Holding the ball in one hand, Makino Juro looked down coldly at Maki Shinichi, who had just climbed back to his feet.
A chilling curve rose at the corner of his lips.
"You pried open the tiniest crack and thought that meant you could challenge a god?"
Makino Juro's voice wasn't loud.
Yet it carried a metallic sharpness that echoed throughout the silent arena.
"That wasn't a door."
Makino Juro stepped forward.
Thud.
That single step felt like it landed directly on everyone's heart.
"That was merely a window for mortals to glimpse despair."
He raised a hand and pointed toward his eyes, where the crimson-gold storm raged violently.
"This... is the true Zone."
"This... is the true divine realm."
Maki Shinichi's hand trembled violently against the floor.
The "crack in the gate" he had been so proud of looked like a candle flame before a hurricane—
ready to be extinguished at any moment.
Makino Juro took another step.
"Since you're so desperate to see that world..."
"Then I'll let all of you witness it."
Crimson-gold light flowed around him like a god overlooking insects.
"The dimensional gap..."
"between you and me."
The instant those words fell—
his figure vanished.
"BOOM!"
The floor groaned under the unbearable force.
This wasn't speed.
It was teleportation.
Maki Shinichi couldn't even see Makino Juro's starting motion before the black figure was already right in front of him.
"Not happening!!"
Maki bit through his tongue, forcing down his fear as his body instinctively slid sideways to block him.
Even if I die—
I'll stop him!
However...
Makino Juro merely glanced at him coldly.
While dribbling at high speed, his body suddenly feinted sharply to the right without warning.
The movement was so exaggerated it outright violated physics.
Maki's center of gravity was deceived instantly, his body collapsing uncontrollably toward the left.
And at that exact moment.
Makino Juro's figure snapped back unnaturally and flashed past from the right side.
No flashy dribble moves.
Just overwhelming speed difference and absolute manipulation of balance.
"How... is that possible?!"
Maki's eyes widened helplessly as he watched the back of jersey number 16 streak past him.
He couldn't even touch the corner of Makino Juro's clothes.
That sense of helplessness...
was the separation of entirely different dimensions.
"STOP HIM!!"
Takato screamed hysterically from the sidelines, his tie completely crooked.
But there was no need for him to shout.
Kainan's defense had already moved.
Jin Soichiro and Kiyota Nobunaga.
One left.
One right.
Like two iron gates sealing the lane shut.
"Don't underestimate Kainan!!"
Kiyota's face twisted viciously as he used every ounce of strength in his body.
Though Jin Soichiro looked slender, his gaze at this moment was as hard as steel.
A perfect trap defense!
Even a sports car would be reduced to scrap metal if it crashed into this wall!
Facing the double-team, Makino Juro didn't slow down in the slightest.
Within his crimson-gold eyes, streams of data flashed wildly.
The one on the left—
insufficient support strength in the right ankle.
The one on the right—
center of gravity too high, pelvis tilted forward.
Nothing but openings.
While sprinting at full speed, Juro suddenly stopped dead.
From extreme motion to absolute stillness.
Jin Soichiro and Kiyota Nobunaga instantly lost their rhythm.
Their bodies wanted to stop with him....
but inertia dragged them forward.
And at the exact moment they forcefully tried to recover their balance—
the basketball in Makino Juro's hands switched beneath his legs like a butterfly weaving through flowers.
Left hand.
Right hand.
Left hand.
The rhythm was unbelievably strange.
Every single dribble struck perfectly at the timing of their neural reflexes.
"My balance... it's gone..."
Jin realized in terror that his legs felt as though their tendons had been cut, tangling together uncontrollably.
Kiyota felt as if someone had viciously kicked his knees out from under him.
Makino Juro's eyes were ice-cold.
His thin lips parted slightly.
And he uttered two words.
"Kneel down."
END OF CHAPTER
The King Of Slacking Off - MrBehringer's Secret
👉 patreon.com/MrBehringer