The Past III - Game on!
Sendoh stood near centre-court, out of position after trying to react to Rukawa's blazing burst of speed earlier in the possession, and motioned to Kiyota and an irate Sakuragi to come over before in-bounding the ball. "Need a break already, Sendoh?" called Akagi. Maki, on his way back to centre-court, laughed. "No matter. Take all the time you need. We'll still win."
Sakuragi, instead of berating Kiyota for his double-team failure, looked at Sendoh. "Hey. Sendoh. What's the plan?" Jin, smiling, said to Sakuragi, "Nice to see you've matured even more since we last met, Sakuragi. No need to say we didn't try, because after all, you know Maki." Sakuragi nodded, and replied, "You and Wild Monkey tried your best, but the Old Man has too many skills for even this genius to completely stop by himself. But, together …."
"Exactly," said Sendoh, "we will win this game together. Maki will have his moments, as will the rest of his tram, but if we force them to work hard all game, we can beat them in the end. I'll stay on Rukawa. Sakuragi, we need you to stay on Akagi. Jin, stop Fujima. And, Kiyota …."
Kiyota laughed. "Take on Maki? It will be my pleasure. I'll make him play at both ends of the court, and then we'll see what happens at the end. But, Red-Headed Monkey …." At this, Kiyota turned to Sakuragi. "… we need you to be in two places at once. If Maki gets by me, rotate over and stop Maki from penetrating until I can recover."
Sakuragi laughed. "No problem, Wild Monkey. I'll be double-trouble for both Maki and Akagi."
Sendoh took the ball back behind their in-bounding line, and then passed the ball out to Jin. Immediately, Fujima went for a quick steal, but Jin spun off of Fujima's reach-in to the opposite side, and then fired a pass to Kiyota. Maki, however, read the play, and tapped the ball away from Kiyota to Rukawa.
Sendoh, who had begun to move up-court as a pass option for Kiyota, now backpedaled in anticipation of an attack by Rukawa. So as to not disappoint Sendoh, Rukawa dribbled and then pressed an attack right at Sendoh before faking to his left. As Rukawa then moved back to his right in preparation for a quick shot, he was surprised to see Sendoh had not reacted at all, but was still waiting for him. Bastard, thought Rukawa. Just back from a serious injury and he still reads me like a book. Pass off.
Rukawa kept his eyes on Sendoh as he faked a shot, and then fired an overhead pass in to Akagi. Akagi grabbed the high lob out of the air, and then spun around to eye up a shot. Not surprised to see Sakuragi in front of him, Akagi then used his left shoulder to push into Sakuragi while dribbling the ball out of his reach with his right hand. A frustrated Sakuragi reached in to swat at the ball, at which point Akagi powered past Sakuragi and began to lumber towards the hoop. Sakuragi, though, sprinted back and, as Akagi went up for a massive Gorilla Dunk, swatted the ball out of his hands from behind. Akagi feel to the ground in a heap, and looked over at his sister, who smield and shrugged her shoulders at her older brother. Damn it! thought Akagi. He's gotten faster since the last time I saw him!
Meanwhile, Sakuragi had passed off to Kiyota, who had run into the impenetrable defense of Maki. No matter what Kiyota did, he couldn't get past Maki's outstretched arms. Suddenly, Rukawa and Fujima came in to triple-team Kiyota, at which point he began to lose his handle on the ball. Before he lost it completely, though, he lobbed a high arcing ball towards the hoop. Let's see if I'm right …, though Kiyota. Just as he began the thought, he heard a roaring sound from behind him, and then a blur as something red flashed past. Yep. I'm right ….
It was Sakuragi, who had seen Kiyota in trouble and trusting the Wild Monkey's basketball instincts, had blazed towards the hoop. "Finally, Wild Monkey, you have accepted this genius' basketball abilities. Slam …."
However, before Sakuragi could finish his exclamation, and just as he managed to get his hands on Kiyota's well-timed alley-oop pass, a massive arm came up from behind and swatted both the ball and Sakuragi to the ground. "Ten years too early!" Akagi roared, and then, picking up the loose ball, he yelled out, "Fast break!" and passed the ball to Fujima.
Fujima saw only Sendoh and Jin to oppose a rush by himself, Maki and Rukawa, as Kiyota was falling behind the play after putting so much of his energy into his last possession. Okay, thought Fujima, let's do it with some style. Fujima passed off to Rukawa, who set up as if he was going to shoot a fade-away over Sendoh, but then at the last moment passed off to Maki, who blew through Jin and finished the play with a beautiful reverse dunk which ended with him hanging backwards off the front of the hoop.
Maki laughed as Youhei changed the score to 5-4 in Sendoh's team's favour. "Good defense, guys, but no finish. Sendoh, you may have to do this all on your own!"
Sendoh knew that doing things on his own wasn't an option anymore …. Then again ….
As Kiyota in-bounded to Sendoh, the ace quickly passed off to Jin, who was promptly double-teamed by both Maki and Fujima. Jin, though, passed through the double-team back to Sendoh, who used a scrren on Akagi by Sakuragi to enter the key. Immediately, Sendoh was faced by an intense-looking Rukawa. Not now, Super Rookie, Sendoh thought, as he went up a quick shot. As Rukawa went up in defense, Sendoh quickly looked around, saw who was open, and before Rukawa could react, passed to a wide-open Kiyota, who drained a three.
Then, as Maki in-bounded to Fujima, Sakuragi turned from his apparent jog up-court, streaked in, stole the ball, and lobbed an alley-oop pass to an air-borne Sendoh, who slammed it through the hoop.
Youhei laughed from the other side of the court. "10-4! Go, Hanamichi!"
Akagi, breathing hard, heard what Youhei had said, and began to wonder … who exactly was training who here? On paper, they had the better team, but … he saw Kiyota and Sakuragi laughing together, and Jin and Sendoh giving each other a high five, while Rukawa stewed under their basket, Maki looked thoughtful and Fujima scowled at Sendoh. "Time-out!"
Sakuragi and the rest of his team wandered over to their sideline to drink some Pocari Sweat, while Akagi and his team stood at their sideline. Fujima spoke first. "They are playing to their strengths, and have learned to play as a team to fufill their desire to win. We need to play to our strengths as well, so we can play together as a team, not as individuals. Maki, you are the best player on this team. If you let me direct the plays, and if you all trust me, we'll get the points we need."
Maki nodded. "You were, and still are, my greatest rival, Fujima, but you have always been a better strategist than me. Your time as player-coach of Shoyo proved that. I agree. Let Fujima call the plays, and we will do the rest. Akagi?"
Akagi nodded. "We can win. We must win."
Maki nodded. "Rukawa?"
Rukawa simply said, "We are strong."
Maki smiled. "Then we are agreed. Fujima, lead on."
