On the court.
The moment Sakuragi Hanamichi landed, his confidence had already swollen to its absolute peak.
"Wahaha! Did you see that?!"
"This is the power of a genius!"
He gripped the ball with one hand, his gaze sweeping arrogantly across the court.
"Miyagi! Take it!"
With a powerful swing of his arm, Sakuragi hurled the ball like a cannon shot toward Miyagi Ryota.
Miyagi caught it, his eyes sharpening.
"Fast break!!"
Lightning fast!
Miyagi exploded forward in an instant, shaking off Itou Taku's defense.
Three-on-two in the frontcourt!
"Rukawa!"
With a quick flick of his wrist, Miyagi sent a perfect bounce pass forward.
Rukawa Kaede caught it in stride, facing Hasegawa's help defense.
He didn't slow down.
He jumped straight up.
"Move."
A cold voice echoed midair.
Holding the ball in one hand, Rukawa's body carved a perfect arc through the air as he soared over Hasegawa—then smashed the ball viciously into the rim!
BOOM!!
36:35
Shohoku takes the lead!
"ROAR!!!"
The entire arena erupted in thunderous cheers.
And then..
"Thud!"
From the Shoyo bench, the man who had been sitting all this time finally stood up.
Fujima Kenji.
The movement wasn't subtle.
In an instant, everyone's attention shifted from Rukawa to him.
That presence—
Even from half the court away, it was unmistakable.
It was the signal of Shoyo's counterattack after their pride had been trampled.
"Tweet!"
The referee's whistle cut through the noise.
"Shoyo requests a substitution!"
In the stands.
A player from Kainan High was watching the game.
Kiyota Nobunaga had been casually sipping his drink, but when he saw this, he nearly spat it out.
"Cough—cough… what the hell?!"
"That guy Fujima is actually going in?!"
"And this early in the second half?!"
His eyes widened in disbelief.
"No way! I've gotta tell Maki and the others!"
Hot-headed as ever, Kiyota acted on impulse.
He tossed aside his drink, jumped to his feet, and sprinted toward the corridor.
In the hallway of the gym.
Kiyota ran at full speed.
His mind replayed Rukawa's dunk and Fujima standing up.
"Those Shohoku guys… they actually pushed Shoyo into a corner."
"That Rukawa… tch, he's nothing special. Still nowhere near me."
Muttering to himself, he paid no attention to the room numbers.
"This is it!"
He suddenly stopped and shoved open the locker room door.
"Hey! Listen up!"
"Big news! Shohoku just turned it around!"
His loud voice echoed through the room.
But—
The expected reaction never came.
Instead, there was dead silence.
Kiyota froze in the doorway, his expression slowly stiffening.
Because what he saw…
Was not his Kainan teammates in their purple-and-gold uniforms.
Instead, it was a group of burly men in blue-and-white jerseys.
At the center stood a towering figure like a giant ape—
Uozumi Jun.
Beside him sat a laid-back, handsome guy with spiky hair—
Sendoh Akira.
Everyone turned their heads and stared at Kiyota like he was an idiot.
The air froze.
Nothing was more awkward than sudden silence.
"Uh…"
Kiyota blinked, then glanced at the door sign.
…This was Ryonan's locker room.
"You are…?"
Uozumi frowned, his massive frame radiating pressure.
"From Kainan?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Don't tell me…" His eyes narrowed. "You're a spy?"
Kiyota's face instantly flushed red.
But as a prideful top rookie, there was no way he'd admit he'd walked into the wrong room.
He puffed out his chest, hands on hips, chin raised.
"Hah? A spy?"
"You've got to be kidding!"
"Kainan are kings! Why would we need to spy on Ryonan?"
"You think too highly of yourselves, big guy!"
"What did you say?!"
Veins bulged on Uozumi's forehead.
Seeing this, Kiyota grew even more smug.
He pointed his thumb at himself, striking an exaggerated pose.
"Listen up!"
"I'm Kanagawa's number one rookie!"
"A starting player for Kainan High!"
"Kiyota Nobunaga!"
That arrogant, overbearing attitude—
Was eerily similar to a certain red-haired troublemaker.
Black lines seemed to drop behind the Ryonan players' heads.
Koshino Hiroaki couldn't help but complain:
"This kid… why is he exactly like that red-haired monkey from Shohoku?"
Sendoh Akira, who had been silent until now, suddenly smiled.
He didn't care about Kiyota's rudeness. Instead, he caught the key point in his words.
"You said… Shohoku turned it around?"
Sendoh stood up and walked over, his tone calm.
"Then Shoyo's number 4… has already entered the game?"
Kiyota snorted, looking up at the taller Sendoh.
"That's right!"
"Fujima's face turned green—he's about to go in!"
Hearing this, the smile in Sendoh's eyes deepened.
"I see…"
"Looks like the real show is just beginning."
He turned to Uozumi.
"We should head out too."
"Let's see just how far this dark horse called Shohoku can run."
By the time Kiyota returned to the stands with the rest of Kainan—
The atmosphere in the arena had reached its peak.
"Fujima! Fujima! Fujima!"
Amid deafening cheers—
Fujima Kenji had already removed his jacket, revealing the iconic number 4 jersey beneath.
He stood by the sideline, finishing his final stretches.
Even without stepping onto the court—
The aura surrounding him had already thickened the air itself.
"So it's finally happening…"
Makino Juro sat on Shohoku's bench, watching that figure clad in green.
He could feel it—
That presence of a true elite.
The kind of leader who could calm teammates and strike fear into opponents simply by standing on the court.
"Looks like the real Shoyo…"
Makino Juro tightened the cap on his bottle and casually tossed it.
The empty bottle traced a clean arc before dropping perfectly into the trash can.
"…is about to awaken."
Fujima Kenji stood at the sideline.
His green number 4 jersey didn't make him look particularly tall—if anything, among Shoyo's giants, he seemed somewhat slender.
But the moment he stood there, hands on hips—
An invisible, chilling aura spread outward from him.
The slight panic in Shoyo's players—
Vanished the instant he stepped onto the court.
Their focus returned.
Because that—
Was their anchor.
Their soul.
Their absolute ace.
"So he's finally in…"
In the stands.
Maki Shinichi held an unfinished sports drink, a faint smile on his lips.
"To think Shohoku pushed him to the point where he had to step in personally to clean things up…"
"That guy, Fujima…"
END OF CHAPTER
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