The Past Part VII

14 to 11, in their favour. Finally, some respect! Kiyota saw his teammates Sendoh, Jin, and Sakuragi move back into their defensive positions, and smirked as he saw the confusion on the faces of Maki, Fujima, Akagi and Rukawa as they came up court. Old men, all of them, still good, but not willing to make room for the stars like himself, Sendoh, and, though he hated to admit it, Sakuragi. Rukawa, though, was another matter entirely …

As Rukawa received a pass from Fujima, Kiyota dashed in to slap the ball out of his hands. Rukawa, turning, reached over to hinder Kiyota so he could recover and move back on defense, but Kiyota simply stopped in his tracks and stood in Rukawa's way, trusting Jin, who he had seen move up out of the corner of his eye, to run behind him in a pick and roll, throwing off his own defender, Maki, in the process.

Maki, though, thought two moves in advance of everyone else, and moved across to an advancing Sendoh while yelling at Fujima to pick up Jin at the arc.

Jin, with nowhere to run, decided to pass the ball off to Sendoh, who had been trailing the play. Rukawa, seeing Sendoh get his hands on the ball, moved in front of him in the blink of an eye, so that Sendoh couldn't make a quick shot.

Hmm, thought Sendoh. Super Rookie is moving fast today. What if … suddenly, Sendoh transferred the dribbling ball from his right hand to his left hand, and began to move to the left in an attempt to get by Rukawa. Rukawa, seeing Akagi and Sakuragi battling for position near the basket on that side, thought to himself, No way, he can't go that way, no room. It's a fake!

Sendoh, though, knew differently. With a burst of speed, he moved past Rukawa and then, as he was about to run into Akagi's back, he passed the ball off to Kiyota and then promptly went straight to the basket. Kiyota yelled, "Yes!" and began to elevate for a shot. Rukawa sprinted in front and raised his hand for the block, but then, instead of releasing the shot, Kiyota shifted down to his right side while moving the ball under Rukawa's outstretched arms, and flicked the ball high into the air towards the hoop.

Akagi and Sakuragi knew what was going to happen, and that there was no use positioning for a rebound that wouldn't be there, and all Fujima could do, on the other side of the court with Jin, was mutter, "Damn. Alley-oop."

Sendoh had done this set play many times with Fukuda and Uozumi at Ryonan, and it was his favorite scoring play. Almost unstoppable, and …

Out of nowhere, Rukawa's arm slashed in as Sendoh got his hands on the ball, and slapped it down to bounce off the floor into a surprised Akagi's hands. Akagi quickly pushed the ball up-court to an already sprinting Maki, who slammed the ball into the basket unopposed before running back up towards centre court. Kiyota, mouth hanging open, yelled out, "No way!" as both Maki and Rukawa slapped hands at centre court. Youhei, on the sidelines, flipped the score cards over to read 14 to 13 in favour of Sakuargi's team, and smiled. No good, he thought to himself, as he looked at Sakuragi burning with determination on his side of the court. Maki just awakened the beast in Sakuragi … there will be hell to pay before this game is over. Sendoh, looking over at Sakuragi at the same time as Youhei, also smiled. "Oi. Sakuragi," he yelled to the red-head. As Sakuragi glared over at him, Sendoh laughed and said, "Are you going to let him," pointing at Maki, "dictate the play? Show me … no, show them," pointing at Maki and his teammates, "what you can really do."

Sakuragi looked up the court at his opposition, and Kiyopta later swore that he saw steam rising from Sakuragi's head as he shouted, "No one looks down on me, on my team! I'm coming, Maki. Try to stop me!"

Jin threw the inbound pass to Kioyta, who in the face of Rukawa's defense, managed to pass the ball over his head to Sendoh, who made an instant outlet pass himself to Sakuragi. Sakuragi then blew past a startled Akagi with a sound very much like a thunderclap, and headed straight towards both Fujima and Maki, both dead set on guarding their basket. Sakuragi let out a roar, and then began jumping from the foul line towards the hoop. Fujima, knowing he didn't have the height or jumping ability to get up in the air that high, instead positioned for a rebound, but Maki, remembering Kainan's game in the past with Shohoku, knew he could elevate that high, and rose up to meet Sakuragi. As Maki went up, though, Sakuragi made his jam into a space hook in mid-air, and simply flipped the ball over the head of Maki into the hoop. Maki and Sakuragi both landed at the same time, as Sakuragi turned to Mai and laughed. "Ha! Old Man, I've gotten better. Watch out for this genius, because I've got some things to show you. I'm the MVP!"

Maki, watching Sakuragi turn around and race up the court, passed the ball over to Fujima, when all of a sudden, Sakuragi raced back, picked off the pass, and jumped up for a jam. As Sakuragi hung off the rim of the basket, Maki began to get just a little nervous. This, he realized, is what others felt when they played him.

Sendoh, back at centre court, looked at the scoreboard which now read 18 to 13 in their favour. Game on, he thought to himself.