Maki Shinichi frowned.
He was just about to ask what Juro meant when chaos suddenly erupted in the corridor ahead.
"Make way! Move aside!"
"Bring the stretcher! Where the hell is the doctor?! Call an ambulance!"
Desperate shouts mixed with hurried footsteps echoed through the hallway.
The group froze.
They hadn't even entered the arena yet, and an ambulance was already being called?
"What happened?"
Kiyota stood on tiptoe, craning his neck.
"Did a fight break out?"
Arena staff rushed past carrying a stretcher as the crowd instinctively split apart.
Maki glanced over out of habit.
The next second...
His entire body froze.
His eyelids twitched violently.
"Moroboshi?!"
The usually composed Emperor of Kanagawa cried out in shock.
Lying on the stretcher was a man with a deathly pale face, his features twisted in agony.
It was none other than...
The "Star of Aichi,"
Dai Moroboshi.
He clutched his lower back with both hands.
Cold sweat had completely soaked his hair.
Curled up like a shrimp that had been stepped on, there wasn't a trace of the ace player's dignity left.
Hearing the familiar voice, Moroboshi struggled to open his eyes.
The instant he saw Maki, humiliation flashed across his face.
"...Maki..."
He tried to sit up.
He refused to look pathetic in front of his longtime rival.
But the moment he moved—
"Hiss!"
A wave of searing pain forced him to gasp.
He collapsed heavily back onto the stretcher.
"What happened?!"
Maki jogged alongside the stretcher, disbelief written all over his face.
Moroboshi gritted his teeth.
The veins on the back of the hand gripping the stretcher rail bulged violently.
"That guy..."
His voice trembled.
Not with anger...
But with the fear of someone who had encountered a monster.
"I'll never forgive him..."
"That damn..."
"...first-year!"
Those words exploded beside everyone's ears like an underwater bomb.
"A first-year?!"
Kiyota and Sakuragi shouted in unison.
Their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
The player who had sent one of the nation's Top Four aces to the hospital...
Was a freshman?
The stretcher was loaded into the ambulance.
Red emergency lights flashed.
The siren pierced the air.
Maki stood rooted to the spot.
A chill crept up his spine.
For the first time in a long while...
He felt genuine danger.
"A first-year..."
"So this trip wasn't a waste after all."
Makino Juro's calm voice sounded beside him, carrying the excitement of someone about to watch an excellent show.
He removed his sunglasses.
His dark eyes gleamed with the thrill of a hunter discovering worthy prey.
"Come on."
"Let's go see..."
"...what kind of monster shattered the 'Star of Aichi.'"
At the Anzai residence.
The afternoon courtyard was eerily quiet.
Only the bamboo deer scarer slowly filled with water.
Clack!
The bamboo tube slammed against the stone basin.
The crisp, lonely sound cut through the chorus of cicadas, bringing a brief hint of coolness to the sweltering summer afternoon.
Inside the room...
Tea fragrance drifted gently through the air.
Anzai Mitsuyoshi sat cross-legged before the low table.
His round face revealed neither joy nor anger.
Sunlight reflected off his thick glasses, turning the lenses into blank white mirrors that concealed his expression completely.
Across from him...
Rukawa Kaede sat with his back perfectly straight.
His usually sleepy, lifeless eyes now burned with determination.
It was the gaze of someone staking everything on a single dream.
"...America?"
Coach Anzai's hand stopped halfway through setting down his teacup.
The bottom of the cup tapped softly against the table.
The ever-smiling "White-Haired Buddha" finally showed a crack in his expression.
Rare surprise appeared on his face.
Not far away, Mrs. Anzai's wrist trembled.
Several drops of amber tea splashed onto the tatami.
She slowly turned around.
Her eyes shifted silently between her husband...
And the quiet young man before him.
Rukawa didn't avert his gaze.
He nodded.
His voice wasn't loud.
Yet every word struck like a nail being hammered into wood.
"I want..."
"...to go to America."
Silence instantly swallowed the room.
Clack!
The bamboo deer scarer struck the stone basin once again.
Like an alarm bell.
Or perhaps...
Like a heavy hammer striking the heart.
Nagoya.
Aichi Prefecture Qualifying Tournament.
The roar of the crowd nearly blew the tops off the newcomers' heads the moment they entered the arena.
Yet hidden beneath the deafening cheers...
Wasn't the excitement of a home crowd.
Instead...
There was fear.
The kind of fear reserved for witnessing something beyond human understanding.
Every eye in the arena...
Was locked onto the scoreboard.
The crimson numbers were so glaring they made everyone's scalp tingle.
Aiwa Academy 17 — 37 Meihou Tech
"...What?"
Maki came to an abrupt stop.
The corner of his normally composed face twitched violently.
He stared at the scoreboard.
For a brief moment...
Even his breathing stopped.
"Aiwa Academy..."
"...is getting destroyed?"
"By..."
"...twenty points?!"
As Kanagawa's undisputed king...
Maki understood better than anyone what Aiwa Academy represented.
A perennial National Top Four powerhouse.
Home to the legendary "Star of Aichi," Dai Moroboshi.
At this level of prefectural competition...
They were always the ones doing the slaughtering.
Yet now...
The script had been completely reversed.
"Come on..."
"You're kidding, right?"
"The team that sent Moroboshi away in an ambulance..."
"...is them?"
Kiyota's jaw hung wide enough to fit an egg.
Even the finger pointing toward the scoreboard was trembling.
Sakuragi stood at the entrance to the stands with both hands stuffed into his pockets.
He looked down over the court like a lion surveying its territory.
His sharp eyes swept across every player like radar.
"Which one..."
"...is the first-year?"
His brows knitted together.
His face was full of displeasure.
"How dare someone act even more outrageous than this genius?"
"He actually rammed somebody into the hospital?"
Standing at the rear, Makino Juro lowered his sunglasses with a single finger.
His deep eyes immediately locked onto one figure.
Ignoring the chaos around him...
His gaze settled on the enormous mountain of flesh slowly jogging back on defense for Meihou Tech.
"There."
He lifted his chin toward the court.
The corners of his mouth curled into an amused smile.
"That one..."
"...the brown bear wearing a basketball jersey."
Kiyota followed his line of sight and immediately let out a strange yelp.
"Number 15?!"
"The freshman who crushed the Star of Aichi..."
"...is that giant?!"
Maki narrowed his eyes.
His gaze became as sharp as a hawk's.
Number 15 looked like a moving fortress.
Even among a court full of towering centers...
He stood head and shoulders above everyone else.
The overwhelming sense of pressure radiating from him...
Could be felt even from dozens of meters away in the spectator stands.
"That's right."
Maki's voice sank lower.
A rare trace of caution entered his tone.
"Only a monster like that..."
"...could create a disaster on this scale."
At the Anzai residence.
The tea had long since gone cold.
"...Go to America..."
Coach Anzai quietly repeated those three words.
His voice drifted like someone touching an old wound that had never truly healed.
Rukawa remained perfectly still.
Like a statue carved from stone.
The air inside the room had grown so heavy it was almost suffocating.
Mrs. Anzai quietly stepped outside.
She gently slid the paper door shut.
Leaving the master and his disciple alone.
"...To study abroad?"
Anzai adjusted his glasses.
His eyes behind the lenses were unreadable.
Rukawa was silent for several seconds.
He was organizing his thoughts.
For someone whose world revolved around nothing but sleeping and basketball...
Expressing his feelings was even harder than entering the Zone.
"I want..."
"...to become a better basketball player."
Rukawa raised his head.
His unwavering gaze pierced straight into Coach Anzai's heart.
Every word rang with absolute conviction.
"That's all."
END OF CHAPTER
The King Of Slacking Off - MrBehringer's Secret
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