CHAPTER 9 - Team Gold vs Team Black
"This blue haired player is Daiki Aomine, but you can just him Aomine," Momoi introduced to the other players in English, while Aomine stood behind her, observing the other Miracles at the ends of courts. "My name Satsuki Momoi, I'll be his translator since he sucks at English," she continued as she carried No.2 for Kuroko, causing the other teammates to giggle.
Aomine's team consisted of players roughly the same height as him, and from he could tell, most of them looked Caucasian, perhaps American or European, but they definitely do not look Asian. There were players of different sizes all around the court, but apparently his team consisted of players with physique similar to him and Kagami, so he could safely assume they were not the power type like Murasakibara or Nebuya from Rakuzan, but more of the agile type. A blonde player went up to greet him, causing him to raise his eyebrows.
"I—err …" Aomine stuttered in English, but the other player smiled.
"I can speak a little Japanese, so it's fine," the blonde player said, causing Aomine to heave a sigh of relief, and Momoi to beam. He offered a handshake. "My name is Tony, nice to meet you, Mr Aomine!", to which Aomine gratefully accepted.
With that, Tony offered to translate in place of Momoi, much to chagrin of the players considering there was a real lady in front of them. On his team, it consisted of: Tony, Aomine, Jake, Evrard, Zach, to which Tony, Zach and Jake were from America, while Evrard was from Germany. Aomine naturally thought about their strength as they introduced themselves, although he tried as much not to think about that at the moment. Strength comes later… he thought, but the traces of his old attitude started to prick him in the back. Oh well… What happens happens…
A few metres away, Kagami and Murasakibara were also introducing themselves.
"You can call me Kagami, and this big guy is Murasakibara," Kagami introduced fluently, while Murasakibara waved lazily. Clearly, these two men whom towered over the team intimidated the rest quite a bit. Their team consisted of: Kagami, Murasakibara, Li, Bryan, and Leon, where Li was from China, Bryan from America, and Leon from France, quite a diverse bunch indeed compared to Aomine's team. Luckily for them, due to Murasakibara's pathetic English that made communications rather difficult, they all agreed on using hand signals which suited all of them fine.
On the other side of the court, Midorima was also introducing himself to his team, who kept staring at his lucky item.
"My name is Midorima Shintaro, I'm a shooting guard," he said. The other players nodded, as his speech and voice made him seem rather authoritative, and his aura gave of a sense of dignity that no one had. His team consisted of: Midorima, Louis, Armich, Richard and Jayesh, where Louis and Richard were from England, Armich from Germany and Jayesh from India. Luckily for them, all of them could speak fluent English, so at least there was one less thing hindering Midorima from be antisocial.
Then, there was Kuroko, whom surprisingly felt valued when the others could notice his presence easily. As he was the shortest out of all the players, he felt that the others may unintentionally look down on him, but yet they did not. In fact, their mild quiet nature actually suited Kuroko better. His team consisted of: Kuroko, Zane, Ming, Damian and Gamon. Zane was from Norway, Ming from China, Damian from the US and Gamon from Thailand.
Kise, on the other hand, seemed to be a perfect match with his team. His bubbly nature instantly resonated with the other players who gave off the same wavelength as him: he tried to ask a girl that accompanying one of the players, which easily warmed him up to the other players when she blushed upon seeing his "pretty-face" appearance. Nevertheless, it was clear that they would surely get along. His team consisted of: Kise, Michael, Don, Bruno and Fiyaz. Michael and Don were from Italy, Bruno for Brazil and Fiyaz from Malaysia.
Despite there being multiple courts, the organisers eventually decided to simply use only one court per match, which meant a two hours for the first match, a short break for a late lunch, then another two hours of matches. The reason for this is one, the increasing number of people watching, which by now increased even more till almost a hundred people. Second, they all agreed that since this match involves many skilled and expert players, they did not mind sacrificing some time to just watch all the matches. The organisers also cut down the timings of each match to around 25 minutes instead of a full forty minute game, with 2 quarters so as to shorten some time. With that, all teams are set to play.
Using a lucky draw machine, the first match that is taking place, is: Team Black vs Team Gold; : Kagami, Murasakibara, Li, Bryan, and Leon VS Kise, Michael, Don, Bruno and Fiyaz.
Murasakibara and Kagami vs Kise huh, Aomine thought.
The ultimate defense and offense… and the peerless copyist, this should be interesting… Midorima thought.
Akashi and Kuroko simply looked serene. Despite the hype, there was a fair bit of commotion, since the audience mainly wanted to watch Kise battling Akashi or Aomine as it might be more interesting. Nevertheless, seeing how Kise would handle two Generation of Miracles level players at the same would be quite a sight as well.
The audience cheered as both teams made their way to the playing field, while the other players simply stood near the side to watch the match. Both teams went up to shake hands. As expected, upon meeting their opponents, the potency of the auras for the Generation of Miracles instantly rose.
"Yo, Kagami-cchi, instantly playing against you eh? This should be fun," Kise said in mockingly cheerful tone.
"Heh! I should thank the organisers… We can have our rematch right now you know…" Kagami said, his excitement radiating through his voice.
"Kise-chin… good luck~" Murasakibara whistled.
"Murasakibara-cchi! I have never played against you head on before, did I?" Kise said. "This should be quite interesting!"
"Mm… but I will win…" Murasakibara's voice dropped gradually, and his expression slowly tightened. Kise smiled, and went back to his team. Heh, quite an interesting matchup… Kagami-cchi… Murasakibara-cchi…
"Oi, Murasakibara, you better play seriously," Kagami said to the tall center. " Or else, I'll beat your ass later…"
"Don't worry; I won't be slacking off against Kise-chin…" There was clearly something about Murasakibara, as Kagami noted. His lazy tone was still there, but he definitely felt something rising up in him: the feeling was eerily similar to when Murasakibara was fully serious back in the Winter Cup, which is a good thing in Kagami's eyes.
"Are they strong, Kise?" Michael asked him seriously.
"Hmm, oh yeah… they are really strong," Kise warned. "Don't let your guard down."
"That guy can copy any move?" Li asked Kagami.
"Yeah, don't be surprised if he uses your own move against you," Kagami smiled.
"Oh yea… be careful against Kise-chin, the moment he grasp your moves, it is likely he can counter against it too…" Murasakibara said, which Kagami translated. The team shifted uncomfortably, although Kagami and Murasakibara did not bother.
"Players, get into position!" The referee commanded. "The tip off begins here, players step forward."
For Team black, naturally they got Kagami, since he could jump higher than Murasakibara, while for Team Gold, they got Don, who was the tallest player of the team.
"All the best," Kagami grinned.
"You too," Don said.
"Ready… 3 … 2 … 1 … TIP OFF!"
The referee threw the ball into the air, and both players instantly jumped. The ball reached its highest point and a hand easily caught the ball. Kagami, who was about the same height as Don, easily outclassed Don in terms of raw jumping power, and he easily caught the ball and flicked it back to his team. The audience roared. It appears Team Black would be starting first.
Leon caught the ball, and he took things to his own pace instantly. Being the speedy type, and he easily made it to the half court before a person from Team Gold got to him, and easily made a behind-the-back pass to Bryan who encountered Fiyaz. Without stopping, he made a behind-the-back crossover which Fiyaz followed easily but as he stretched his leg, Bryan used his receiving hand to bounce the ball between Fiyaz's legs in a fluid motion and drove past him. Aomine raised his eyebrows, as he recognized the sort of play as something similar to streetball, befitting his American orgins. Bryan got to the wing and easily made an alley oop to Kagami, who dunked the ball into the basket, scoring them two points. It was funny how easily Team Black scored in the first fifteen seconds without much difficulty. Despite playing for the first time together, it was clear that Team Black had natural team coordination.
"That was faster than I thought, haha," Michael commented.
Indeed, Kise thought, but... as he observed Bryan, that move is already mine.
Fiyaz restarted with the ball and he passed the ball to Michael who dribbled. He passed the ball to Kise who was at the half-court line as he immediately moved forward, and naturally met Kagami near the three point line. The commotion in the audience grew louder, as right in front of them was a match between a Generation of Miracle and a potential superstar.
"Yo, I'll be taking you and your Perfect Copy on!" Kagami said fiercely.
Kise smirked. "Sorry Kagami-cchi, I'm saving my Perfect Copy for later!"
Kise instantly made quick crossovers similar to Aomine, and although Kagami could follow them, he noted how he wasn't in his Perfect Copy state, which indicated his improvement in his stats. Not good enough, Kagami thought, the ball still clearly in his sight. Kise smiled and quickly made a crossover to right hand which caused Kagami to stretch out his left leg, and like Bryan, he copied his move and bounced the basketball through Kagami's legs and drove past him, meeting Murasakibara who stood there lazily at the paint.
"Yo Kise-chin, try getting past me…" Murasakibara said as he took a defensive stance. Kise instantly took notice of his long legs and arms, but not before noticing Kagami behind him.
"That was Bryan's –" Kagami muttered, he remained unfazed. He could still catch him, and he turned around at attempted a back tip. However, there was a little bit of distance between him and Kise, and Kise turned his body in one sweep motion while making a crossover, with his sides facing Kagami and Murasakibara. In his attempt of doing a back tip, Kagami had to stretch out his right leg while turning and using his hawk-eye like vision, Kise used his receiving hand to bounce it through Kagami's legs once again while rushing past him, barely catching it near the side lines, causing the audience to roar in amazement. As Kise brushed past Kagami, Kagami could swore he heard Kise giggling at him, which made his insides burn. At the side line, Kise aimed for a shot, to which Murasakibara noted and quickly made a step forward and reached his hand out.
"Not gonna work, Kise-chin—" Murasakibara said, but his eyes widened when he saw Kise's eyes glowed slightly. His form was clearly not a normal jump shot, but rather he brought the ball to eye-level with his left hand palm, which his right palm at the back of the ball, ready to thrust it like a gun.
"Is that so, Murasakibara-cchi? If I remember correctly, you can't stop this shot…"
"Oh shit, this is Kuroko's—" Kagami snapped.
"—Phantom Shot," Kise smirked arrogantly as he took aim and pushed his right palm. The basketball seemingly left a trail of goldish hue as it burst through the air and seemingly through Murasakibara's hand. In reality, the ball disappeared out of the center's sight as Kise made a shot similar to Midorima's high projectile three, imitating his high arc to compensate for his lack of Kuroko's misdirection. Murasakibara heard the basketball enter the hoop behind him as he landed, scoring Team Gold three points. The audience cheered again, while the other players stared in shock and amazement.
What the hell, that player is totally crazy, Bryan thought angrily. After all, he had spent several months trying to perfect that move of bouncing the ball through the leg to use it in an actual game successfully in conjunction with the crossovers, but yet that man easily copied him and could even manipulate the move to fit his very advantage as though he already mastered it in a single glance. God dammit… Bryan thought, but could not help be amazed at such skill as he unwittingly smiled.
"Shit… Kise-chin got me, huh…" Murasakibara muttered as he stared at his palm that he thought the ball had phased through.
"Heh… Murasakibara screwed up…" Aomine grinned. "Did he not learn to counter that move after all this time, or did he just not expect it?"
Momoi looked curiously to him. "I'm sure Mukkun improved in his own way…" she said worryingly, though Aomine did not exactly look convinced.
"Don't mind," Kagami nudged Murasakibara's arm, causing him to look at the redhead. "We can back at him next time." Murasakibara almost expressed surprise at the motivational comment that Kagami made, and quickly made his way back to his position.
Meanwhile, back in his court, Kise received congratulations from his teammates, who had never seen such skill performed at their age before. However, Kise frowned. Despite the successful shot, it would not be wise to attempt that shot again, as he had expected some buffer time for him to perfect his shot before the defender got to him, and he seriously did not expect Murasakibara to suddenly appear in front of him in such close proximity. It shocked him that in that fraction of a second, his accuracy wavered and declined when his line of sight was completely obstructed and his the fear caused his sense of direction to be momentarily lost, which was not supposed to be the case as for the Phantom Shot, the user was supposed to be able to see the hoop or at least know the direction if skilled enough to make the shot successfully. It would have been an insult to Midorima's perfect pinpoint accuracy if he had missed.
Akashi, too noticed this at the side lines, as he observed Kise's pained expression. While Murasakibara had not shown anything yet, it was painfully obvious his stats had too drastically improved, perhaps even more than Kise. What will you do Kise? Akashi thought.
The points now were at 2-3, Team Black to Team Gold, only about half a minute had passed, and there was still about 12 minutes before the first half end. The Black Team once again restarted with Murasakibara and the game went on. As time passed, the score slowly increased, with players from both teams starting to show off their moves. Kagami made several two pointers and layups, although his pace was considerably slower than usual, Murasakibara on the other hand easily deflected all attempts to score from Team Gold such that the scores that they could get was through Kise's high projectile three (which he used sparingly), or through sudden quick fakes and alley oops. However, the highlight of the match was Kise imitating the other player's moves with extreme precision as well as ease. Team Black's Bryan's streetball style from America was easily copied using Aomine's freestyle as a base, enabling Kise to make quick fakes and crossovers. At one point, Team Black's Leon made an extremely quick Euro step dribble which consisted of dribbling forward in one direction and then immediately switch directions, used by many NBA players, and Kise easily copied this and even combined with Bryan's streetball style, making the move even more formidable. By the seven minute mark, the points have increased to 20-28, Team Gold to Team Black. Despite the advantage and point gap, the pressure on Team Black was immense, with Kise easily countering all of their moves, although Team Gold was not much different, having to defend against Team Black's coordination as well as break through Murasakibara's impenetrable defense.
The commotion of the crowd grew louder and their excitement boomed.
"Woah… neither team is holding up…!"
"Maybe Kise stands a chance?!"
Kagami was already panting slightly. He had not done anything serious yet, like going into the ZONE or attempting some of new moves he learnt, but he felt that if he did not do anything, the probability of Kise counteracting against them was pretty high.
"Murasakibara, how are you holding up?" Kagami asked roughly.
"Not too bad… they aren't getting through…" Murasakibara commented, although he seemed rather annoyed that he could not guard against three near-uncrowned kings level players at once. Even that was a tedious task despite managing to hold all of them down, but even more frustrating was not being able to do anything against Kise's high projectile three.
Kuroko at the sidelines asked Akashi who was beside him. "Akashi-kun, who do you think will win?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure," Akashi admitted. "Neither of them has shown all of their cards yet, but Kise has no doubt already seen through most of Team Black's moves…"
Furthermore, if Kise uses his Perfect Copy in bursts, he could easily dominate this game, Aomine thought, remembering his training with Kise. His stamina could easily outlast the time limit of Kagami's ZONE, but yet it does not appear like Kise is willing to use it, indicating there must be some sort of drawback to that.
Team Gold restarted the ball, and Fiyaz passed the ball to Kise. Kise made his way to the other half of the court and passed the ball to Don, who managed to make his way into the paint, avoiding Li. Upon meeting Murasakibara, he attempted a floater shot, which in theory, was good to use when you are not close enough for a layup, but also not far enough for a regular jumpshot. Furthermore, it is generally advisable to finish off against a tall defender. However, this may not apply to Murasakibara.
"Oi… oi… Are you seriously trying to score with that slow ass shot?" Murasakibara asked in mocking tone as Don flicked his wrist to initiate the floater. The purple-haired defender easily reached the ball when he jumped and rejected the ball with full force down.
"Not really…" Don smirked, having partially understand Murasakibara's Japanese.
As the ball landed on the ground, Kise instantly darted from the sides and grabbed the ball, his eyes glowing. In an instant while Murasakibara was still in the air, Kise jumped, and made a double clutch shot, traces of blue-ish aura rising from his body.
"Huh? Kise-chin, don't underestimate me…" Murasakibara said irritatedly, and he swung his massive right arm sideways, turning his body in mid-air. His hand was inches away from Kise's fingers, when Kise suddenly smiled, causing Murasakibara's eyes to widen.
"Sorry, Murasakibara-cchi, but can you catch up with this speed?" Kise muttered smugly as traces of green erupted from his body, mixing in with blue aura. In one motion, he flicked his wrist holding the basketball straight up, barely missing Murasakibara's large hand and the ball shot up into the sky like a bullet. The audience held their breath as the ball landed straight down into the hoop, the sound of it resonating through the court, as both Kise and Murasakibara landed.
"What was that?!"
Kise used Aomine's speed to grab the ball, and by tracing my accuracy and motion of my high projectile three, along with Aomine's formless shot, he is able to make a shot that has an exceedingly high arc just right below the hoop… Midorima thought to himself. It appeared that even he was impressed with Kise's vast improvement in his skills.
At this point, Murasakibara started to look seriously angry, seeing how he could not deal with Kise-chin at all. When Kise turned around to face him smugly in the eye, Murasakibara frowned harder than ever. The points increased to 22-28, Gold to Black, and although it was not much, at least the point difference was lowering little by little.
"Kise-chin…!"
The game continued on, with the points further increasing. Alas at by ten minute mark, the points had changed to 35-40, with Team Black still in the lead. At this point, Kise smirked. He was ready, and he did not need to hold back starting from now. Meanwhile, Kagami and Murasakibara felt rather annoyed that they could not stop Kise, despite Kagami's numerous dunks and two pointers. As such, team Black decided to keep this pace to maintain the point gap, and this safe style of play might help them win this match. On the other hand, team Gold had other plans.
"Everyone… would you mind passing me the ball for these two minutes?" Kise asked, causing the other members to raise their eyebrows.
"I'm sure y'all know I can copy other people's moves, that's why for these two minutes, I'm going to turn the tide in our favour. In exchange, for the second half, I'll need you support as my maximum time limit is generally about six minutes…" Kise attempted to explain, but the members roughly got the message.
"Sure thing, but what are you going to do?" Fiyaz asked.
"You'll see…"
Team Gold restarted the ball and Michael passed the ball to Kise who dribbled it to half court line. Instinctively, the Black team quickly rushed back to defend. After all, knowing Kise, his offense would instantly destroy most of the players there. However, he suddenly stopped and aimed the ball, his feet planted firmly to the ground, causing Kagami and Murasakibara to gasp in shock.
"Oh shit—"
Kise maintained a stoic expression, and then jumped. His eyes started to glow a bright gold and a green aura emanated from his body. The audience became silent and he released his shot. The basketball flew through the air as players and audiences alike stared at the red shiny ball. It made its way slowly, but surely, and then it reached in hoop from an extremely high arc. Even then, nobody seemed to doubt his accuracy. After a few painful seconds, the ball entered smoothly into the hoop with a hint of grazing the ring, and the sound resonated throughout the court. The audiences, players and organisers gaped in amazement, then after a brief pause, the crowd roared.
"What the hell?! From the half-court?"
"That's Midorima's three…!"
The Generation of Miracles was stunned. Despite seeing it before, witnessing that shot again still had the same impact that made them speechless. It seems Kise would be going serious right about now. The points increased to 38-40, Black to Gold. Kagami started to panick, as if he was not wrong, Kise would not be stopping here.
Team Black restarted the ball, and the ball ended up in Kagami's possession. Upon reaching the other half of the court, he met against Kise, whose eyes still glowed.
"Tsk…!" Kagami uttered, while Kise smirked as he dribbled the ball on the spot. How should I go about this…! Kagami thought desperately, but in the midst of his swirling thoughts, Kise easily found an opening and knock the ball out of Kagami's hands. At the fraction of second, he could have sworn to see some red behind Kise. Kise instantly grabbed the ball and did another high projectile three, which naturally sank in, earning them another three points, and changing the points to 41-40.
Team Gold was left speechless with amazement. They could not believe such skill existed, especially with someone at their age, and were left shocked. The last two minutes were filled with desperation as Team Black attempted to regain their momentum but to no avail. They succeeded in scoring one or two two-pointers, but compared to Kise's continuous high projectile three, their efforts were completely in vain. Despite Kagami's attempt to jump and block Kise, he was always either screened by two players (Michael and Don respectively), was too far away, or simply being ankle-broken by the blonde copyist. By the last twenty seconds, the point gap had literally increased to 56-44 Team Gold to Team Black, truly a miracle.
"Kagami…! Can't you stop him…" Murasakibara asked angrily, his patience clearly running thin. But yet he was not exactly angry at Kagami's incompetence, but rather at Kise's overpowering abilities, coupled with the fact that he could still last another 4 minutes for their second half.
"No… I can't… there are too many obstacles…" Kagami gritted his teeth. At this point, Kagami was seriously considering going into the ZONE, but in doing so his stamina could easily drop to dangerously low levels if he unknowingly performed high level moves to score in the midst of his desperation and he could not risk that. In fact, it would be better to enter the ZONE in the second half.
"Then I'll do it," Murasakibara finalized, causing the rest of his teammates to stare at him in shock.
The game once again restarted with Murasakibara passing the ball onto Bryan who managed to make his way and met Fiyaz. With some difficulty, he managed to avoid him with a couple of crossovers, but he unfortunately met Kise, who easily predicted his moves by copying the Emperor Eye and stole the ball without hesitation. He quickly dribbled to near the free throw line widening in shock as he met the 2.10 meter center. At that point did Kise actually realize how tall Murasakibara was when standing face to face with him.
"Murasakibara-cchi…!"
Despite this, he quickly stopped and jumped, attempting another three-pointer that could easily assure his team's victory. Murasakibara darted forward with his supreme speed and jumped with his hands raised, easily towering over Kise's range and blocking his line of sight. Even the audience could tell that with Murasakibara's defenses right in front of Kise, attempting that three pointer shot might not, or rather, would not even succeed. Not even you can make this shot with this wall in front of you, Kise-chin! But Kise suddenly smirked.
"Sorry, but I expected this when you came to defend me…" the blonde admitted in mid-air.
"Huh?!" Murasakibara snapped. With that, Kise quickly grabbed the ball from his shooting posture and flicked the ball sideways to right to Bruno, who stood at the wing ready to receive the ball. He easily caught the ball, and with hardly anyone defending, he easily scored that three-pointer just before the timer ran out. Kagami who was at the other side of the court could only watch helplessly as Team Gold earned another three points, thus finalizing the points for the first half as 59-42. Clearly, Team Black was in a pinch.
kkkdragon123! so im sure yall have read the message on top, so yep. At this point it's already about 4k words and I didn't expect it to be this long (describing the match and all), so expect the full chapter to be closse to 8-9K words? yep. So yea, that's all, wait for the update guys! There's still a second half to be played! In the meantime why don't yall take a guess to see who wins? Don't worry your opinions won't affect the outcome haha(my bad) since I already planned most of the stuff for this arc (who wins and whatnots). Also the matchups for the Interhigh is roughly decided already, you can also guess if you want! Till then, wait for the next update of this chapter! I promise yall gonna see some intense battling.
UPDATE 29/8/16: I've decided to put this as a single chapter since I feel that it will flow better so here's this. Next chapter will continue the match!