Through The Hoop
Chapter 9
The Hardest Quarter
Okay, this is the last chapter of this match. After this, the quality of the chapters goes up quite a bit, as I took a break and came back to writing it when I'd gotten better and knew more about basketball. Anyway, onto the chapter!
Opening Music: http/youtu.be/RZN6IZbpRdA
(Shows a basketball rolling across the floor in slow motion)
(Shows sweat run down my cheek) (Shows me run forward and tap the ball)
(Shows me and the rest of the team on a basketball court with lots of people watching)
(I wipe my forehead on my shirt) (Shows William)
(Shows Dick)
(Shows Stephen)
THROUGH THE HOOP
Dakara itta janai ka!
(Shows my sitting on a little wall in front of the leisure centre)
Yowosa wo uri ni shitatte mai ni nanka!
(I look to my right and see Sam and Ben standing there with me) Susume ya shinai nda zenee!
(Ben eats a burger while Sam waves at me)
Hakanai jibun
(Shows the whole team exercising) enshutsu shitatte dare mo mu kandou!
(Shows all kinds of different basketball courts)
Kodoku ga sainamu yoru ni datte.
(Shows me, Ben and Sam watching a basketball game)
Asu machiwabiru hikari ga aru! (Shows me practicing dribbling a basketball)
Tsuyogaru yowai jibun wo!
(Shows Dick catch the ball and long shot it)
Mitomera eru tsuyosa wo!
(Shows Jack and Aidan next to each other)
Hajimeru n da!
(Shows William score a three pointer)
Yareru mon sa!
(Shows Stephen catch the ball and pass it)
Sokoka a mae wo mui chatte! (Shows me and Sam bro fist) Aruke! Aruke!
(Me and Sam run down the court) Hashire! Hashire!
(Shows Dick watching the match) Nandodemo!
(I pass the ball behind my back) Chousi hazure no
(Stephen catches the ball) koe datte ii sa!
(Stephen runs alongside Aidan) Sore ga doushita n datte!
(Aidan steals the ball and scores) Sakebu nda ore no
(Shows me running around with the ball and then throw it behind my back)
banda! Can you do it?!
(The ball goes past Sam's head, but he reaches back and gets it) Suruto dou darou nani datte!
(Sam throws the ball)
Kowaku nanka
(William catches the ball and throws it)
naku nattenze!
(I catch the ball and throw it behind my back)
Kyou ga wagimida!
(Ben dunks the ball)
Can do it!
END
The score was 50:51, the final ten minutes of the game had begun. Aidan and Jack were now on the court at the same time. We could barely handle them separately, what would we do now that they were together? On top of that, we were all exhausted. My eyesight was beginning to blur because of my overuse of the slow mo, periodic blinks only just keeping the problem at bay. Sam's legs were shaking as he stood, multiple jumps having had their toll on his muscles. If we carried on using our abilities to the full, we'd tire even more and maybe get injured, but what else could we do? Against the two aces, we had no choice, no other way to win.
Music: http/youtu.be/hKwYIoiU2c0 [Kuroko No Basket OST- Fast Attack]
Jack received the throw in as the whistle was blown and wasted no time in rushing forward with the ball, Aidan close by for support as the rest of their team fanned out. I knew I was putting myself at risk to keep using my slow mo eyes, but I saw no alternative. Stepping forward and meeting Jack on the outside line, a grey line of fog circled around my iris, he seeing and being mediocrely surprised to see it was thicker than before. As he bounced the ball towards his left hand, I easily stole it and passed him on his right, seeing he wouldn't be able to turn that way in time. He looked shocked to see I had broke past him, and worried that I would score, as only one player now stood between me and the hoop. Fin.
Fin looked anxious, nervous. He was short, the same height as me, but short for a basketball player, so he likely wouldn't be able to stop a high shot. He saw my eyes and grey ever more worried when he realised I was using the slow motion again. He reached for the ball without thinking, then I took the opportunity to dash past him, scoring an easy layup for two points. The score changed in our favour at 52:51.
When the ball was back in play though, Jack got a hold of it and took it out of my reach before I could get over to him. He got away from me easily and came face to face with Sam, who he knew would be able to jump up and block his shot. Regardless, he jumped, Sam jumping as well, putting as much force as he could into his legs. It was a trick however, Jack leaned to left and passed the ball around Sam, Aidan catching it and scoring with a one handed throw. Sam winced when he landed, trying to ignore the pain in his legs as the score went up to 52:53. Every jump made it worse, soon he would barely be able to stand.
After that, Dick got a hold of the ball and tried to dribble forward, but couldn't get past Jack. He called out to Sam as he passed left, he receiving the ball and trying to go forward while Aidan stuck close to him. He almost tripped when a sudden pain struck his legs, nothing serious, but enough to make him stop. It was long enough that Aidan was able to sweep the ball into his hands and take a formless shot, which went in and changed the score to 52:56. Sam was too preoccupied by his legs to notice the cheering, he was seriously concerned about how much longer he could go on for.
Not much later, I was faced with Jack again as I approached the half court line. I knew I would have to use my slow motion sight to get past him, but when I started to, my vision immediately went blurry. All I could make out was his right hand moving, so I tried to go left, only for him to steal the ball and get around my left side. My teammates gasped in shocked to see that my slow motion had been beaten, but the truth was the slow motion itself hadn't worked. My vision had been so blurry that I was fooled by the slightest movement of his hand. Consequently, Jack scored a fadeaway shot over Sam, who once again jumped up and winced upon landing, this time almost crying out. His legs were extremely shaky and weak as the score went up to 52:58. He wouldn't last for much longer. Dick could see it, but he didn't know what to do about it. Ben's head was still injured, so we had no one to sub him out for.
"Those two aren't going to be able to keep it up for much longer, they're already faltering." William warned Dick, hoping the team captain would have some sort of plan.
"I know, but what can we do? There's no one to sub them out for." Dick regrettably replied, knowing his long time teammate would be disappointed.
"You don't have any plans?" William exclaimed, almost a little to loud, some of the opposing players turning their heads to listen in.
"I didn't say I don't have any plans, just not about what to do with those two." Dick corrected sternly, William seeming sorry that he had doubted him. "We've been in the team for longer than them, so let's show them what we can do, as their seniors."
Jack had overheard their conversation, standing not too far away with Jack. He had gathered that Sam and I were tiring, so he turned back to Aidan and gave a command. "Don't let up, they're close to the breaking point."
Music: http/youtu.be/RLhaSbIqDNk [Kuroko No Basket OST- Vanishing Drive]
Moments later, Aidan came forward with ball dribbling under his hand, quickly closing in on our hoop. He knew Sam would break after just a couple more jumps, so with only him in the way there was nothing stopping him from scoring. He threw the ball up high with one hand, Sam gaining less height than usual to do his weakened state, confident it would go in. His eyes widened however, when he saw William reach his hand in from the side as he jumped, grabbing the ball in mid air. William's eyes darted all over the court as he looked to see who was open, then knocked the ball back down to Dick, who began dribbling forward. Aidan and Jack were left in the dust near our hoop, the other three being the only ones in Dick's way.
"Don't worry if you're getting tired! You don't need to think we're counting on you alone to win to game!" Dick called out to me and Sam as he carried on down the court, shouting inspiring words. "If you're ever tired, injured, or just can't do it by yourself, we're here! Your seniors are here, those who have been in the team longer than you! Rely on us, your seniors!" By the time he has finished his speech, the captain was face to face with Dom. No one had yet gotten past him cleanly, but still Dick faced the quick footed defender with confidence. Seeing Stephen coming up close behind him, Dick passed back and moved away from Dom, as if he was letting his teammate take the shot. Stephen jumped up as if he was going to shoot, but instead performed his high overhead pass, sending the ball sailing over Dom's head. Dick, who had used the moment to get around the defender, swooped his arms up and caught the ball easily. Panicking, Dom spun round as Dick went to take the shot, his arm hitting against Dick's belly just as the ball left his hands.
Then came the call of the referee, after a blow of his whistle. "Foul! Holding! White 6! Basket Counts! One Free Throw!" He announced as Dick's shot passed through the hoop and changed the score to 55:58. We could hear the reserves in the bench and some of the leisure centre members muttering about it being an amazing four point play, not being able to help grinning at the sound of the praise.
Dick made the free throw flawlessly, boosting the score to 56:58. Now that we were only two points behind, our morale was boosted once again. With eight minutes thirty left on the clock, we had a good chance for a comeback. Our side of the small crowd cheered for us as Fin took the ball back into play, all of us fired up by it and feeling our energy suddenly and unexplainably refill.
[Stop Music]
Just as he had done many times before, Fin leant around William to perform a curving pass. As he threw the ball and the curve began, I ran to intercept it before it reached Aidan's hands, but noticed that things weren't going in slow motion. As hard as I tried, I couldn't activate my special eyes, consequently not being able to reach the ball before Aidan caught it. My teammates were stunned by the action, knowing that it meant I was tiring and that soon the tide of the match might turn sour, but had no time to reflect on it before Aidan came up the court. Dick tried to stop him with his arms held out wide, but Aidan simply motioned to the left to draw Dick that way, then went right instead, getting past easily. "A fake?!" Dick thought to himself in shock, surprised that it had been good enough to lower even his guard.
Aidan next met Sam, just before the hoop, and jumped without any hesitation. Sam gritted his teeth and fought through the pain in his legs to jump up too, but didn't reach nearly as high as Aidan had. Our team was once stunned to see our abilities waning as we grew tired, Aidan easily throwing the ball into the hoop with one hand and upping the score to 56:60. Their side of the stands cheered, even the small number of people that were being enough to create loud applause.
We were concentrating on Sam at that moment however, almost not caring at all what the score was. When he descended from his jump and landed, his feet gave way immediately, being too overused to keep him upright any longer. He immediately tumbled to the ground in a heap of limbs, his lower legs red hot with pain. We all rushed over to him immediately as the medical team came out to take a look at him. As we all looked on with concern, they concluded that the muscles in his legs were overworked and had been badly strained, then proceeded to put him on a stretcher and carry him off. We all huddled best our hoop to discuss what to do next, hoping he would be okay. We all looked worried, but the game wouldn't stop for one player.
"So now what do we do? We don't have anyone we can replace him with." Stephane commented worryingly. I was a little offended by the use of the word 'replace', but knew what he meant. We were down on players, would the game be forfeited?
"Without him to block their shots, we can't win even if we did have another fit player." William added grimly, we all knowing it to be true. "They'll keep scoring and scoring, until the point gap is too large for us to do anything about. We should just call a forfeit, it's only a practice match anyway."
I couldn't take that, I was still rating to go, I didn't want to give up. I didn't want to lose, I had no wishes to learn what that felt like. "We can still do this." I argued, the others looking at me doubtfully. "We'll have to go for a run and gun strategy, it's our only chance of winning. Non-stop shots and aggressive play to match their skill."
"Even so, we don't have a fifth player, which means we can't legally play." Dick reminded me, shooting down my plan.
"You have a fifth player." Came a voice from the side of the court, all of us looking to see that Ben had stood up and walked over to the line at the edge, his head still bandaged up but his eyes full of determination. "Let's win this."
Music: http/youtu.be/MqqgpQf4g0I [KnB OST- Unexpected]
"What's he doing on the court? I thought he was injured." Aidan wondered out loud as our team stepped back into place, Ben being at the front of our lines.
"It doesn't make a difference, we're still gonna win." Jack commented dryly in response, getting into position without a second thought.
I took the ball from under our to get it back in, moving forward as soon as the whistle was blown. I was quickly stopped by Jack and knew I wouldn't be able to do much against him without my slow motion eyes, so instead passed behind my back to Stephen on the left. When faced with Dom, he did all he could and performed a high overhead pass to William, who received it no problem. He was then marked by Fin, so he dribbled one way then passed the ball in the other direction. Fin wasn't able to react in time to intercept it and so Dick caught the ball. He was up against Aidan, both of them jumping up into the air. Aidan tried to reach up to the ball to stop the coming shot, but couldn't. "He's so tall!" He thought to himself in panic just before the ball was thrown, but he managed to stretch his hand scrape it with his fingers, altering it's course slightly. It consequently bounced off the rim without going through the hoop, Cal jumping up to catch the rebound, but Ben was there too. He jumped up higher and faster than Cal and dunked the the ball in with one hand, intimidating his opponent with his pure strength.
The whistle blew, the score changed to 58:60, our supporters cheered and applauded. The other team looked startled and annoyed, but play soon resumed. Fin easily got a curved pass around Ben to Jack, who sped off away from their hoop and towards ours, Dick and William moving to intercept his path. Behind him, Jack could see that Ben was staying close by the hoop, suggesting he was planning to dunk as soon as someone got the ball to him. "Not happening!" He thought to himself, swiftly stepping to the side to get past the two defenders in front of him. He had messed up though, as William easily speared the ball out of his grasp as he passed, I running out to grab it. I immediately went for the shot, completely open since their team had fully gone on the attack. As my eyesight faltered a little once again, I knew the shot would miss, but there was Ben. He jumped up from his post near the hoop and dunked the ball in to complete the play, upping the score to 60:60. Cheers were heard from our stands again, cries from the ones who were more knowledge about the sport awing over the impromptu alley oop.
[Pause Music]
"Nice dunk, Ben!" Dick called out as we reformed ready for play to be resumed, high giving each as we went along.
"Nice pass, Olly!" I heard Ben call out to me, I smiling in return and complimenting his dunk as well.
Aidan and Jack watched from their end of the court as they retrieved the ball and assessed the situation. They saw us grinning and congratulating each other on a great play, but their faces were stale and serious. "Hey, they're going to win if they keep up this momentum." Aidan warned.
"Then let's break the momentum." Jack replied. "If they want to go run and gun, we'll show them how it's done.
Jack rushed forward aggressively as soon as play resumed, eager to score enough points to demoralise us. He was once again met with Dick and William, but decided to play it a little differently this time around. This time he went around the side Dick was guarding, he being able to do fairly well to stop the approach with his lanky arms outstretched, but Jack then busted out his true speed. As Dick's left hand reached for the ball, he passed it to his right. As his hand changed direction and went for the ball again, Jack passed behind his back to his other hand once again, then broke past without a problem. All this happened within a matter of a second, it was almost a blur to those watching. When he was next faced with William, he jumped slightly to bait William to jump full force, then skirted around his side and took the shot, changing the score to 60:62.
Their side of the small stands cheered once again, even the few people making quite a noise. "Damn it, they took the lead again." Stephen snapped, his annoyance at the constantly changing tide of the game very apparent.
"Don't underestimate us, we'll win this match yet." Jack muttered to us as he made his way back to his position, giving a smug smile. We responded to it with confident smiles of our own, then the game ramped up in the final seven minutes.
Those seven minutes were harsh, for both sides. For every dunk that Ben was able to score once we got the ball to him, Aidan and Jack words together to score another. For all that time, the score stayed fairly even, neither team being able to take a big enough lead. By the time there was only a minute left in the game, the score was near tied at 72:70, we barely in the lead. We suspected however, that it wouldn't be long until that lead was once again taken from us.
Jack sped down the court at an incredible speed, the time left on the clock spurring him onwards. He easily got past Stephen with a well executed and speedy fake, then was faced with William. He knew the point guard would have a higher chance of intercepting the ball, so he passed left behind his back to where Cal was standing ready to receive. As the ball left his fingertips, William went as agilely as he could to reach it, but then Jack hit it with his other hand, sending it in the other direction to be caught by Aidan, who sped past our defenders until I was the only one left.
As he crossed the ball over from his right hand to hand to his left, I called upon my slow motion eyes for one last time, but was disappointed to see only blurs when they activated, meaning I couldn't stop the ball from being passed back to Jack, who had rushed forward and got the ball, shooting and scoring a three pointer while he was open. Their side of the stands cheered louder than before, although still quietly due to the lack of viewers, as the score changed to 72:73. In their eyes, the outcome of the game was settled, there was no way we could make a comeback in thirty seconds.
"Thirty seconds is plenty..." I thought to myself confidently, sticking out my hand behind me as a signal for William to give me the next pass. "Once more..." I said in my head, urging my eyes to work once more. "Once more!"
The second I felt the ball touch my fingers, I gripped hard and clutched it in my hand. I then bent my legs, everything going in slow motion as I finally managed to use my slow motion eyes one last time, hoping they would hold out long enough for me to complete the move. When I was ready, I pushed up with my knees and jumped into the air, arcing my arm back to prepare for the throw. Whilst in the air I saw the faces of the opposing team, their expressions a mix between fear that I would score doubt that I would be able to from where I was, the half way line. Slowly reaching the peak of my jump, I took advantage of my slow motion eyes to adjust my every movement, from the position of my fingers on the ball to the momentum of my arm as it began swinging forward. Suddenly breaking out of slow motion, I tossed the ball high and far, the changes I had made to my form in slow motion being enough to send it to the end of the court. Both my team and the other looked shocked as it came down right above the hoop, but I knew it wouldn't go in. My vision had blurred again just as I had taken the shot, affecting the trajectory ever so slightly.
As I suspected, the ball bounced off the backboard and then the rim before floating in mid air for a second. In that second, I saw the disappointed faces of my teammates and the smug smiles of our opponents, they being sure they had won, only three seconds remaining on the clock. Their expressions turned to stunned ones however, when Ben's hand reached up for the ball, he having jumped as soon as he had seen it miss. "How did he get there?!" Aidan wondered to himself, only just recalling that he had seen a shadow slip past him while he was distracted by me throwing the ball, but had dismissed it as nothing.
Ben's hand found the ball at the peak of his jump and gripped it tight, but Jack then jumped in from the side, having rushed in as soon as he knew there was a danger of us scoring. In the short time, he had only been able to jump in a way that allowed him to barely reach over with one hand, making for a weak block. When Ben brought the ball down, his dunk harshly knocked Jack's hand out of the way and pushed the ball through the hoop, it falling through the net hard and fast as Jack was knocked down onto his arse.
The buzzer sounded. The whistle was blown. The score was 74:73, in our favour. After a spilt second of stunned silence, our team and supporters bursted out in celebratory cheers. Our team members hugged and gave high fives, but Jack remained on the ground, staring in disbelief up at Ben.
"That was a great game, you've earned my respect, for sure." Aidan congratulated, walking over to us with a friendly attitude, not seeming too annoyed that he had lost. "After this game and the last, I've made up my mind." I wasn't sure what he was going to say next, staring confusedly at his fist as he stuck it out towards me. "Let me join your team!" He then pleased, surprising us all. "After seeing how strong you all are, I want to grow strong alongside you. I want to play alongside you! Will you let me?"
After a moment of thought, Dick stood next to me and replied, "Sure." He and Aidan then bumped fists, me doing the same with him after. Stephen, William and Sam soon came over and did it too, welcoming him on board.
After the welcoming was done, Aidan turned to look at Jack, who was now standing and staring down with Ben, and asked him, "Hey, are you gonna join too?"
Looking over with a slow turn of of his head as he continued to look deadly serious, Jack bluntly answered, "I'm not going to do that, I won't abandon my team. Remember, just because I lost today doesn't mean I'm not strong. Come see our game in the first round of the Spring tournament, and you'll see we're strong."
Following that speech, he promptly left the court without another word, his team accompanying him as they gave comforting words. After another few seconds, I mumbled, "Hey...we won..."
Those words were what made the team fully take in the truth of it, our victory. They all realised what it meant and smiled one by one, putting their hands in the middle one last cheer.
"All right!"
END OF CHAPTER
I'd also like to quickly mention that we were fast approaching being caught up with this, as in having all of the chapters currently written uploaded onto here. Once that happens, these'll probably be more of a once a week thing, as that's how long it takes me to write one chapter.
