Author: Kenjii Izuke (Izuke)
Part 4/27: "My Friend Is My Enemy?"
"ITTE ITTE SHOYO! OTTE OTTE SHOYO!"
"SHOHOKU! SHOHOKU!"
Izuke walked out. Yesterday, Fujima had explained his strategy to her. It was simple. In fact, it was the same strategy he used for all the games Shoyo had been playing so far. For every game, Fujima sat out until he was needed. This time, he would still sit out, but Izuke would sit out as well. When crisis hit the team, both star players would enter the game and lead team Shoyo to a great victory. A victory that would make history for Shoyo High School.
"GO, SHOYO!" Fujima yelled as he winked at Toru. Toru nodded back. He stood in front of Akagi, preparing to cover him. The Shohoku players were Akagi(center), Kogure(shooting guard), Ishii(point guard), Shiozaki(power forward) and Yasuda(small forward). Shohoku's front line for the first-half was not very strong. Izuke figured they would bring out the other four players later.
Izuke felt awkward. She was the one who brought Shohoku to such a great score – they were far behind, but with her skill, she tied the marks. Now, in the replay match, she would be the one to bring the opposing team, Shoyo, up, and bring Shohoku to a terrible defeat.
"Remember, at least 25 marks!" Fujima shouted.
"Fujima-san, you know… everybody keeps asking me if I'm related to you," Izuke said, turning to Fujima.
"Really?"
"Because of my family name."
Fujima turned to glance at Izuke with raised eyebrows. "Oh, I see. They're quite stupid, then. We have different last names. My family name is Fujima. Yours is Kenjii."
"Hai, wakarimasu. Demo… but you know how they are… with Kenji and Kenjii…" Izuke said.
"Sou… I know… OH! SUGOI, TORU! GANBATTE!" Fujima shouted, giving Toru the thumbs-up sign. Toru just scored a 3-pointer. Now Shoyo was leading 10 – 4. "With luck, we may not even have to go down for this game!" The audience cheered loudly with Shoyo's famous cheer, shouting, "Ike, ike Shoyo! Otte otte Shoyo!"
With Fujima's encouragement and Izuke's presence, the Shoyo team played like never before. They were excellent! When the first half was over, Shoyo had got an excellent lead of 38 – 11. What Fujima said, was done. Shoyo was leading by more than 25 marks. Akagi was flaming his team for playing so badly.
Shohoku's coach, Anzai-sensei, finally called for a player change. The new order of players was – Akagi Takenori (center), Miyagi Ryota (point guard), Mitsui Hisashi (shooting guard), Rukawa Kaede (small forward), and Sakuragi Hanamichi (power forward).
"They've brought out their 'power team'," Izuke told Fujima, looking a little worried "Should we go out now?"
"No," Fujima answered her quickly, "We'll go in after about five to ten minutes. This time, Shoyo will win!"
Team Shoyo was still filled with energy, but with the five stars of Shohoku, the distance between the marks was getting smaller and smaller each time as the Shohoku players scored. Soon, the score was 45 – 40.
"We're going in now," Fujima said and stood up. At precisely the same time, Fujima and Izuke removed their dark green jackets. Izuke was now wearing a Shoyo jersey with the number 10 on it. "I will do my best," she murmured softly as Fujima called for a player change. Fujima replaced Shoichi and Izuke replaced Mitsuru. The new order of players for the Shoyo team was now – Fujima Kenji (point guard), Kenjii Izuke (power forward), Hasegawa Kazushi (shooting guard), Taku Ito (small forward) and Hanagata Toru (centre).
"I'll take number 14… Kazushi, take Akagi; Ito, take Miyagi; Toru, Sakuragi… and Izuke… go for number 11," Fujima ordered loudly. Izuke nodded and took her place behind Rukawa, who was looking cold, as usual. "Jyu-ichi-den!! Mark OK!" Rukawa shot her a wistful look, but Izuke quickly looked away to avoid any wistfulness that might have arisen in her as well.
"GO!" Fujima shouted, as Kazushi sent the ball to him. Mitsui knocked it away, and Rukawa caught it. "IZUKE, DEFENSE!" Fujima ordered, running to the basket, his hair flying as he sprinted across the court.
"OK!" Izuke followed behind Rukawa, and without any sign, stole the ball and began dribbling it all the way to the other side without any obstacles. There she faced Akagi, who towered high above her, ready to use his specialty – the steamboat cover.
Immediately the Shoyo team crowded round Akagi, just outside the circled area. This was a planned-out strategy. Izuke passed the ball to Fujima, who tossed it to Kazushi, who quickly passed it to Izuke again. Akagi, who had just turned to Kazushi, saw Izuke and proceeded to cover her, but quick as lightning, the ball was in Fujima's hands.
Fujima jumped as he tossed the ball. Swish! The ball fell through the basket neatly. "Yes!" he shouted, "Come on, Shoyo! We'll show them how to play basketball… properly!!" The loud cheers of the audience in the stands filled the stadium. IKE IKE SHOYO!! OTTE OTTE SHOYO!! IKE IKE SHOYO!! OTTE OTTE SHOYO!! IKE IKE SHOYO!!
"With Izuke, we don't stand a chance," Hanamichi panted, nearing Akagi. His red hair was drenched in sweat, and his red jersey was quite wet already. This was a surprising statement coming from Hanamichi, who usually acted as the genius (tensai) around everyone during basketball games. Akagi turned to Hanamichi and glared at him angrily.
"I can't believe I'm hearing that from you, the self-proclaimed TENSAI of it all. Sakuragi!! What happened to your bulldog determination? We have to win this game," Akagi answered gruffly, and pushed Hanamichi aside. "Go and cover them." This sparked up Hanamichi's energy. He laughed loudly, but before he could self-declare himself the basketball man for the umpteenth time, Akagi Takenori left a huge bump on his head with his fist.
Rukawa was sweating heavily. He wiped his sweat away quickly, and sprinted forward to keep up with Izuke, who was moving with ease towards the basket. Just as he caught up with her, she made a side throw to Ito, who cleverly ran past Miyagi. Ito had been training hard for months to get his revenge on the sophomore who'd defeated his pride in the past season. He bounced the ball to Toru, who took the opportunity to shoot while Akagi was somewhere else.
"AKAGI!" yelled Mitsui, pointing to the basket. Akagi roared and ran over to cover the shooter, but it was too late – Toru scored an excellent 3-pointer. Toru, who was never good at shooting from anywhere near the three-point line, had just overcome that.
Time flew by – and there was only 5 minutes left to play. The score was 75 – 55. It was an almost impossible task for Shohoku to beat Shoyo now. "Come on, play ball!" Fujima encouraged, patting Toru's back. Toru winked at him and ran off to the other side of the court.
Five minutes seemed like only a few seconds. In a flurry of fast movements, cheers of "YES! SCORE!" and yells of "BOO!", the game was over. The bell went. Shoyo had won 87 – 60!! A great victory for Shoyo – and one of the worst losses ever for Shohoku.
"YES!" Fujima shouted, slapping Izuke a high-five. "And we owe it all to you!" He gave her a big bear hug.
"Oof!" Izuke exclaimed, surprised, and then she returned the hug. Finally, she let go, and the Shoyo team proceeded to the middle of the court with the Shohoku team. Izuke stared at Rukawa and felt a pang of sadness. She'd left her old team Shohoku, in which she'd been for only a week – she'd played with them in the same match and increased their points – and now she'd helped the other team. She shook hands with Rukawa, anyway, after bowing.
"Rukawa-kun…" she said softly, "I'm… sorry."
"It's OK," he answered, looking at her, "And let me tell you a secret… my dad is going to transfer me over to Shoyo." His usually stone-cold eyes twinkled. "I never thought of it, but he's been persisting, and I figured I won't want to be around a school where their basketball team isn't the best around."
"Oh!" Izuke exclaimed. Rukawa ruffled her hair playfully. Then he straightened up and winked.
"But don't tell anyone, OK? Except… Fujima," Rukawa said, his expression turning serious, "Come to think of it… I want to speak with him for a while. Go call him, will you?"
Izuke nodded, too stunned for words. "Ke… ken… Kenji-senpai!" she exclaimed finally, "Er… could you come outside for a moment?" Fujima shrugged. "OK," he said. Izuke signalled to Rukawa, and he immediately followed them out.
"Yes, Rukawa?" Fujima said, smiling, "You want to tell me something?"
"Er… yes, Fujima," Rukawa said, looking unsure of himself, "I kind of might be transferring to Shoyo as well…" He ran out of words to say, and glanced at Izuke, wondering whether he should be telling Fujima all this.
Fujima was quite surprised. "You will? Now… this is interesting… now we'll have two promising star players! Shoyo will be quite strong after this! I guess even when I'm gone the team will be fine – with you two around."
"Go and confirm with your father, will you?" Izuke said eagerly, grinning happily.
"I've confirmed it already. I'm coming in three days time. My father called up the school and the forms have been produced. But the Shohoku team doesn't know about it just yet," Rukawa said, frowning slightly. "They won't be very happy about it." He shook his head. "But it's not like I care about how they feel."
"So why'd you keep saying might?" Izuke said.
"I don't know," Rukawa answered her, "Just seems like a nice word to use. Sounds better than I will."
The three basketball players laughed loudly, and their happy laughter echoed around the place as they walked into the park, arms round each other, with Rukawa in the middle.