knb

by vamer

ok

Hey, where am I. I try to think. So I was going to the court to play some basketball, how on earth did I end up here?

I think harder. 2

I remember crossing the road, texting my friend at the same time. Oh yeah, a pair of bright lights shined onto me, then darkness. 5

I was stunned, it didn't take an idiot to figure out what had happened. So, I assume I just died? Wow, this feels unreal.

So whats going to happen to me now? Am I just going to stay here in this nothingness forever, floating around without a body till the end of time?God dammit! What kind of crap is this, this is not what they promised in those isekai mangas. 1

I wonder what my parents and my sister are doing. They are probably at the cemetery now. Why did I do this to them man. They were some of the best things I ever had, couldn't have asked for a better family. My parents treated me well, although they were sometimes a little harsh on me, I knew it was for my own good. As for my sister, I know she loves me and deep down I know I really love her too. 4

I really miss them.They are my family, I would do anything to see them again. I hope they live a good life without me and I hope my death death won't affect them too badly. I felt a emptiness inside me, I knew I would never be able to see the most important people in my life ever again. I felt so empty, in this empty darkness where I was floating in. 1

I wish i could cry but I don't even have a body.

I look back to the short few years which I lived.

There were so many things I had planned to accomplish in life. I was going to join my high school basketball team and live the dream. I wanted to dominate on the court like it did in middle school.I still remember my stat line, 25.9 points 8.7 rebounds and 9 assist a game. I averaged that for a whole season!

I wanted to chill with my teammates. I wanted to do the daily grind, with my teammates around me, aiming for the national title.

Man, I can never play basketball again. I remember the addictive feel of the ball in my hands, the sound of the net when it swishes, the satisfaction of hitting a tough shot over your defender. Sigh* 2

Throughout my life there were many things I liked. They constantly changed, except Basketball. It stuck with me throughout my life and I never got bored of it.

Goddammit! Goddammit! Goddammit! If only I payed more attention to the road. Goddammit.

"You know, you don't have to keep insulting my name." 2

Who was that? I there was nothing but nothingness around me, how could I have heard a voice?

"Relax, I'm right here, you don't have to get so anxious." A wave of light shone over me and in front of me stood a figure that I knew very clearly.

Stephen curry? Wow he's even chewing his mouth piece here. 6

What is he doing here, don't tell me he's dead too. He should be dominating in golden state right now, maybe having another 2016 MVP season. It was going to be his first year without Kevin Durant, I really wanted to see what he would be like.

"I'm not who you think I am, I'm god obviously. Whoever you see is the person you admired and respected the most in your past life. And stop trying to speak, you don't have a body here so you won't make a sound. It's alright, I am god, I can read your thoughts. " 9

Well that made sense to me, the greatest shooter of all time obviously deserves mu respect. Wait, did he say past life, will I have a future life? Am I going to be reincarnated?

" Wow, you are a smart one. You figured that out with just these few words, most people now would just be confused."

I guess I was pretty smart, I never really studied for most tests and still did pretty well. I spent most of my time playing basketball and watching anime anyway, why would I waste my time studying. Especially math and physics, those 2 subjects were pretty much common sense. I never really figured out why people struggle so much for it. 38

" Okay, that"s enough small talk. Now you should choose which world you want to reincarnate into. There are an infinite number of worlds for you to choose from. Anything you can imagine, there is probably a world for it. So, what have you always wanted to do in your past life. Any dreams? Any ambitions?" 2

Reincarnation, wow it sounds like something from a manga or an anime. It started because of that isekai and truck-kun craze. Wait did I get hit by a truck? Was it truck-kun? Never mind, who cares, I'm dead anyway. Now where should I reincarnate into. Is there an anime world?Like a world with a bunch of anime's put together. Something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe of anime. Oh! Is there an anime world with my favorite anime, Kuroko no basket. 2

"Seems like you really like anime huh. Yeah, there is a world but the people there are pretty overpowered. I'm seriously not kidding, nearly everyone important there has some sort of special ability or something. Well if you want to reincarnate there perhaps I should give you some advantages as well. Let's see , considering your past performance in your previous world and the fact that you died at a young age, maybe I will allow you to keep your memories. Perhaps I should give you a special ability as well, you have anything on your mind? Nothing too special or crazy though, like being a superman." 3

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

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Chapter 2: I want a System

Power huh, what sort of power would allow me to stand out in a crazy world?

Should I get Aomine's formless basketball style? Nah that style is pretty flashy but there are quite a few limits to his range. That's why Aomine rarely shot threes in the anime. He was a beast in the paint and midrange but he would never be the most efficient scorer. 5

Should I get Midorima's shooting? Its nice and all but it looks so stiff. Even in the anime he rarely dribbled and just shot the ball. After a while it became too predictable and it was extremely easy for Kagami to block the shot. He literally allowed Kagami to block him during the game in order to tire him out. If only his shooting form was a bit more flexible, he could have shot off the dribble and won the game! 3

Murasakibara's size is pretty good. But all his size allows me to do is play like Wilt Chamberlain. I'll just be banging down low and dominating in the paint. Not really ideal for me as someone who likes to play with skill. His size will never allow me to eurostep players or drive through narrow lanes. Also I'm pretty sure most people will be intimated by that size, how will I get a girlfriend. I know basketball is my number 1 priority as the moment but it could change in the future. Just saying. 5

Akashi and his emperor eye? Its good, but in the movie, last game, it showed that there were people with similar powers to him and that guy wasn't even in the NBA. I'm pretty sure NBA players in that universe are going to be way better than the NBA players from my previous life. So I think that's a pass, I don't want to get countered eventually. Akashi's is probably also the type of player who will only take open shots and never a contested one. That is a horrible type of mindset and will never allow me to play well against better good competition. 1

Kagami's jump is a definite no for me. Athleticism is great but he definitely wasn't using it to his fullest potential in the anime. Everybody knows that a 50 inch vertical can be stopped by a 7 foot tall giant. This was common in the 90's basketball where a big men would put an athletic guard back on the ground whenever they tried to drive to the basket. It was to teach a powerful lesson, that no matter how high you can jump, you ain't big enough. 4

I guess that just leaves Kise. His power is the most advantageous out of everybody's. He could copy anybody on the court and make their moves his. But with that type of style he would never become better than his opponents and he gets exhausted pretty easily. And I'm sure when he reaches the NBA there would be players he won't be able to copy. There was a period of time in the anime where he could't copy the generation of miracles. I'm sure in that universe there are players far better than the generation of miracles that he would never be able to copy.

Wait a minute, he did say I could get what ever power I wanted. That means i could come up with my own power. Let's see, what power could potentially be greater than those powers. Oh, I remember all those webnovels I've been reading. Every overpowered mc had a system. A system would allow me to continuously improve with someone guiding me along the way. Its like having a personal coach with you 24/7. If I started training basketball at a young age, I'm pretty sure I'll be better than the generation of miracles by the time I reach high school. 6

"Hmmm. What an interesting choice. If only everybody could be as interesting as you. Seems like you have decided on a basketball system. Alright, I wish you all the best in your new world and I will be watching you very closely." 7

Wait! Don't go yet, could you do one last thing for me. Please blur the memories of my friends and family from my past life. I think it is time for me to move on and I don't want to have to compare my new parents with my old ones. I think simply knowing I had good parents in my past life is enough and I am extremely grateful for everything they have done for me. 8

"Wow. I changed my opinion of you, you are VERY interesting. Sure, your request is not breaking or changing any rules, it's a small thing to fix. Now this is really goodbye, I'll see you next time."

With that he disappeared and I felt nothingness once again. 3

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 3: Baby life

He just left me in darkness. Shouldn't I suddenly open my eyes or be able to move my body just like in a manga. Why am I still stuck in the same place.

What was my previous name again? I can't remember. I try to recall the names of my family members. Nothing. I guess that god really kept his promise huh. IF THAT IS SO WHY AM I NOT BEING REBORN!

"AHHHHHHH! AHHHHH!"

I suddenly hear screams and feel the something constricting around me, as if it was pushing me out. I had learnt biology in school and put two and two together. Am I in a womb and going to be born now? I felt the walls around me pushing me further. Those must be the walls of the uterus, I never knew I would be able to get a first hand experience of whatever I learnt in school. Suddenly, I felt like I was being sucked into a vacuum cleaner and I felt a pair of hands around me.

"WAaaahhhhhh!Waaaaahhhh!" I immediately started crying. It was on impulse, I couldn't even stop if I wanted to. I knew it was instinctive for babies to cry when they are born, I even felt relieved, it would be bad if I had to pretend to cry. I tried to open my eyes, well that did not work. I guess my eye muscles have not developed enough yet. 5

I felt myself being wrapped in a blanket and passed to somebody else. The person held me closely and I could feel their warmth passing through me.

" My baby, you finally came out. I love you so much. Your name will be Nakamura kaen and you will always be my baby." I heard a female voice speak to me, that must be my mother. 5

"Dear, its our baby. You can't leave me out of this. We created him together." I heard a deep and calming man's voice. I assume that should be my father.

"Hey! He was in my stomach for 9 months! You did nothing, all you did was help at the start." 1

"I did carry you around the garden and fed you when you were tired for 9 months. You should at least give me partial credit, maybe 40%?" 1

Giggle*." I was just kidding, we are going to raise our kid together. I know he will grow up to be an amazing person like you."

"What are you talking about dear, you are the amazing person."

I heard giggles again. Are my parents actually trying to flirt in front of me. This is awkward. Technically babies aren't supposed to understand all of this so flirting in front of them is acceptable, but I did reincarnate.I wonder how much longer will this have to last. 1

2 months later*

I finally was able to open my eyes! I looked around at my unfamiliar world. I was currently lying in a crate with my mother sitting in a crate just beside me. I looked around curiously, trying to gather as much information of this world as possible. Let me see, my mother was a beautiful woman with greyish hair. She looked just like a model! I actually wouldn't be surprised if she was one considering her looks. 5

Hold on, she has colored hair, that means….. I'm an MC! Lets go! I continue observing the room around me, I see paintings and a pile of baby toys placed at the side. I look closely at the paintings, did my parents hire someone to paint me as a baby? How much money do they actually have? 10

I turned to look at my mother again and realized she was staring right back at me. Her face full of joy. She gently grabbed me and lifted me up, staring straight into my eyes.

"My kaen! My Kaen! Can you see me! Yes I'm the first person you actually see, I beat that father of yours!" She said excitedly while holding me. Eventually, she took out her phone and starting video calling someone, I guess it was my dad. 1

Here we go again, the love between this couple is insane.

3 years later*

My parents are also big basketball fans, this is an added plus. They have been watching nearly all the NBA games and telling me about the teams. However, the most shocking thing that I found out was that not only are all the NBA teams exactly the same, the NBA players are too, just that their efficiency is off the charts.

Take Stephen curry for example, his playstyle is still the same, but now he is literally pulling up from half court and making 80% of his shots. To be honest, I suspected this from the beginning as in the anime they once mentioned Shaq and how dominant he was. However, I did not expect them to be this good!

But watching the NBA games also answered another question of mine. The generation of miracles do not make every shot they take. I was always curious why the games were so low scoring, every game had a score of slightly above a 100 points but the generation of miracles were apparently making every shot. I assume the anime simply exaggerated their scoring abilities but they were still highly efficient scorers. 4

I should have to wait about 3 more years before my body becomes developed enough to play basketball. Now I cannot even dribble the ball if I wanted to as the ball was nearly a quarter of my size.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

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Chapter 4: The system arrives

3 years later*

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Kaen, happy birthday to you!" My family members finished singing the birthday song as they clapped excitedly. I was also extremely excited, not because it was my birthday but because I was finally 6. Finally! I waited for 6 whole years before i could touch a basketball again. 3

"Thanks mom, thanks dad, this is the best birthday party ever!" I said as I turned my body to face my parents. 1

"No problem Kean, I wanted to plan a bigger birthday party for you but you refused. My baby boy is finally 6!" My mother said happily while hugging me. My father just stood behind her but I could see a huge smile on his face.

"Kaen, do you want your birthday present?Why don't you try to guess what it is?" Said my father, taking out a box from behind him.

"Of course! Give it to me!"I reached out and grabbed the box from my father quickly, causing him to chuckle. 1

"You need to learn to be patient you know, it belongs to you now, its not going to run away."My father say while laughing.

I didn't really grab it to guess what was inside as I already knew. I had asked my parents repeatedly for a basketball as a birthday present so I'm pretty sure that's what they had gotten me. Well, since most of my memories with my friends and family were erased from my past life, I guess my emotional maturity was still around the same as a 6 year old. You could just say that I was a 6 year old with a very very high IQ. 7

I tore open the wrapper and looked at the box. There it is! A Spalding basketball! I caressed the the basketball, feeling the smooth leather move across my finger tips. Wow, I really miss you my basketball. I positioned my hands in a shooting motion and felt the basketball fit perfectly around my hands, my fingers sliding into its grooves. I released the ball, tossing it upwards. I watched the ball rotate the groves turning slowly, up then down right back into my hands. I jumped around energetically and knew one thing. I'M BACK! 1

That night, I lay down in bed thinking of going to the court the next day. I need first work on my shooting. I haven't touched a basketball for the past 6 years so I would be VERY rusty. I hope I still have the muscle memory of my old shooting form, learning how to shoot again would be very tedious. 4

Suddenly a screen appeared in front of me. It was blue in color and look just like a stat sheet of a video game. Is this the system I asked for? I wondered. Suddenly words started appearing on it.

[system loading…..]

[system generated, would host like to bind to the system]

Yes! I said in my mind. I wanted to test if this system could read my thoughts.

[system will now comply with hosts orders, binding….]

It worked!

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 6

Height: 28/100 (projected height growth: 1.91 meters) 23

Shooting: 3/100 (level:1)

Handles: 5/100 (level:1)

Lay-ups: 3/100 (level :1)

Post scoring: 1/100 (level: 1)

Size: 10/100 (level: 1) 1

Athleticism: 6/100 (level:1 ) 1

general points: 0 ]

My height should be pretty good as my parents are on the taller side. My father is around 1.9 and my mother is around 1.78 meters tall. But…. WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE REST OF MY STATS. What kind of trash is this, did any of my basketball skills from my previous life not carry over. Why is everything so low!! 4

"What the hell man! Screw you god, what kind of crap system did you give me!" I shouted out loud into my pillow. 2

Okay that's it. Tomorrow first thing in the morning I'm heading to the court and its time for the grind.

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Chapter 5: Daily missions

Beep BeepBeep*

My alarm clock started ringing just beside me. It should be 8 am right now, about time to get out of bed. I had made it my goal to reach the court by 9 am. If I actually want to improve my disgustingly trash stats I'm going to have to be playing basketball all day everyday.

I groaned as I reached over the bed to switch off my alarm clock. Rubbing my eyes, I struggled to get out of bed when I realized my system was still floating right in front of me.

As soon as I looked at it, words started appearing on the screen just like a video game.

[Daily missions

1. Run 1 km Reward: 2 general points

2. Make 100 shots at the free throw line Reward: 1 general point 4

3. Make 100 layups Reward: 1 general point 1

4. Dribble the ball for 30 minutes Reward: 1 general point] 1

Daily missions huh. Does this mean I need to do them everyday. If that is so I can obtain 5 general points a day. I should then be able to place the points in a specific category in my system. Which means that after 20 days I should be able to reach level 2! Nice!

I headed downstairs and gobbled down my breakfast, trying to leave as soon as possible.

"You are looking very excited today. Is there anything special happening?" My mother asked me, looking at me curiously.

"I'm going to the basketball court near the house, I want to see how good I am!" I replied her, while woofing down my food.

"Well, take care of yourself when you are there. Don't overexert yourself, your body is still young." She said to me while stroking my hair. 1

I then excused myself from breakfast, grabbed my ball and started heading out.

Hmm. What should I start with, I wondered. Maybe I should start my run while dribbling the ball, this way I can clear both the running and dribbling missions at the same time.Alright, its decided then, lets go!

I started running while dribbling the ball in front of me, because of my small body controlling the ball was slightly difficult. Let's see how much I have regressed from the past.

I started dribbling the ball in and out, between the legs and behind the back. I then pretended to drive to the right and immediately pulled the ball back. Huh, my I can more or less dribble like how I used to, then why on earth are my stats this trash.

I got down low and stared rhythmic dribbling, left, right, left, right, in and out, between the legs then spin. So I guess my dribbling is still pretty decent, I wonder how good it will get when I reach level 2.

After about 15 minutes or so, I finally finished my 1km run.

"Holy crap! This 6 year old body is not fit at all. I just ran 1 km and I'm already going to die!" I said to myself as I gasped for breath. I collapsed onto the floor of the basketball court and struggled to breath. Sweat poured down my face in buckets and drenched the floor. 3

I rested for about 20 minutes before picking the ball up again. Now its time for the real show to begin, I grinned as I thought to myself.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Hey guys, I'm just a kid trying to write this story for fun. If any of you want me to add stuff into the story, feel free to give a comment and let me know.

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Chapter 6: Pickup game: part 1

swish*

I held my hands up to follow through the shot as I saw the ball swish through net. Damn! basketball is the best! I think that should be all the daily missions for the day, now to get some of those goodies.

System, I said in my head and a screen appeared in front of me.

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 6

Height: 28/100 (projected height growth: 191cm)

Shooting: 3/100 (level:1)

Handles: 5/100 (level:1)

Lay-ups: 3/100 (level :1)

Post scoring: 1/100 (level: 1)

Size: 10/100 (level: 1) 9

Athleticism: 6/100 (level:1 )

general points: 5 ]

What should I invest my points in? I wondered. Well, my game is mainly based off driving to the basket, but I can only do that by creating separation due to my shooting. But handling the ball is also a major factor in getting to the basket, if my handles are trash I might get stripped off the ball before I even make it to the basket.

I decided to split my points, investing in all 3 skills as the same time. I put 2 into shooting, 2 into lay-ups and 1 into handles.

"Hey, kid ! Wanna play a pickup game. There's another kid here who's about your age also wanting to play."I heard someone speak to me.

I turned around and saw an adult of average height and stature talking to me. This shouldn't be too hard. I thought to myself.

"Sure, I'm in. So we playing ones and twos right. But where is the other kid though?"

"Nice, we got another player. Yeah, its four against four, ones and twos first to 11. The kids over there, he's the dark kid with blue hair."

I froze when I heard what he said. Dark kid with blue hair? There's only 1 person I know in the entire anime universe with that appearance. I looked around and saw him. 2

Aomine Daiki. The ace of the generation of miracles. The guy who tore up a storm in middle school and high school. The king of streetball was standing a few meters away from me, dribbling the ball.

Damn! I did not expect to meet him here. Nice, I now have some good competition to play against.

"Hey guys, stop standing around. Let's go!" The man I spoke to earlier shouted. We gather at the court and split into our respective teams.

I looked around at my teammates, one was a decent shooter and the other had little skill, but he was 1.9 meters tall, so he could catch every rebound. This was a decent bunch I had to work with, maybe I could get this W. 1

"Hey kid you start." One of my teammates told me. I knew he was just being kind to me as I was a kid. He probably wasn't expecting me to be any good. Can't really blame him, most kids my age don't even have a proper shooting form, they just chuck the ball. Well, time to put him in place.

I checked up my defender, Aomine, and went into a triple threat stance. It is the most basic but effective stance in basketball. Every player who receives professional training knows this move. However, most look down on it. Most young players like flashy plays, crossing the opponent, dunking or taking contested shots. But the thing that made them stand out was the thing that never let them go far in the basketball world. Most NBA players focus solely on fundamentals, even for those players who regularly make highlight plays, majority of their shots are efficient shots. As the saying goes, out of every 100 plays, it is 99% fundamentals and 1% highlights. Well, now back to the game at hand.

I got the ball, swung around and moved into him, trying to push him back as much as possible. Wow, this is easier than expected, I'm pretty sure Aomine was not this weak in the anime. I expected it to be a struggle but I was pushing him back pretty well. I then stepped back, got into my shooting motion and let the ball fly. Oh, that felt good. 1

I held my hands up as I watched every thing in slow motion. The ball rotating around as it curved towards the basket. My teammates looking in shock as they did not expect me to take that shot and Aomine, he was looking at me grinning wildly, as if he just found a new toy to play with.

Swish* The ball hit nothing but net and everything went back to normal. It was our possession again, I got the ball and passed it to my teammates. The game was just getting started and I already stole the show from the start anyway.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 7: Pickup game part 2

I watched the ball smash against the backboard and into the net. Woah, I did not expect him to be this good. So far he has carried his team, scoring around 7 or so points. Well, he wasn't very efficient, only scoring around 40% of his shots. But you gotta put it into context, this was a 6 year old kid playing against grown men. Even the shortest of the men was 40 cm taller than the both of us.

Aomine got the ball again and checked me up. I decided to give him a little space this round to test his range. In the last few possessions I had guarded him too tightly, allowing him to blow past me to the basket. I stepped back, giving him a wide open space, perfect for taking a jumpshot.

"Why u leaving me open bruh, stop slacking on defense, u gotta guard me seriously if you even hope to win." Aomine taunted me.

"Nah bruh, you don't got no shot. I know u won't make it if u shoot from there." I said back to him, grinning. 11

Aomine gritted his teeth and started dribbling. He faked a drive to the right and did a hard crossover to the left. If this was a normal person, he would have crossed his already and have a open lane directly to the basket, but this was me. The space I had created was not only for him but also for me. It provided me sufficient time to recover allowing me to cut off his drive.

Aomine then did a hesi and pulled up for a jumper. Perfect. I jumped up at the same time and swatted the ball from his hands. I then landed and stated running after the lose ball, scooping it up and making it my possession.

I knew it, his maximum range is probably at the free throw line, I thought to myself. This is good, I would't know how to even stop him if he could shoot a three. But now it was my team's turn on offense and time to win the game. The score was now 9 all, all I needed was a three or 2 mid range attempts to win the game.

I checked up with Aomine, and called for a screen. My big came forward and set a screen to the left. I jabbed the ball to my right and starting driving to my left. Aomine who hadn't seen the screen got caught. However, I did not have an open shot as my big's denfender had now switched onto me. I did a crossover to the right and spun to my left. I then jumped into my defender, giving me enough space to strech my hand out and make an extremely though layup. Damn! Why is my body so small, its so hard to even score a point on these guys.

I then went back to the three point line and checked the ball with Aomine again.

"Hey you wanna see something cool." I said to Aomine.

"Nah, just watch me, I'm going to get you back for what you did to me earlier." He replied, getting into a defensive stance, looking extremely serious.

I then brought the ball down low and started rhythmic dribbling. Left, right, left, right, left. I faked the drive to the right and stepped back, pulling up for a mid range jumper. Aomine, was too far out and could't jump to contest the shot in time. I watched the ball fly to the basket and rattle around the rim, sealing the win.

I turned to Aomine and pointed my finger at him. " BANG! That's what I'm talking about." I said to him. Aomine gritted his teeth and said:"again" 1

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

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Chapter 8: Meeting Satsuki

"Yo Kaen!" I heard someone calling to me, I turned around and saw that it was Aomine and someone hiding behind him. I couldn't really tell who the person was but I knew that he or she was really tiny.

Well, after that game that day, Aomine and I had become pretty good friends. We have been balling here together at this court pretty much every day for the past month. So I guess you could consider us best friends. Don't really know though.

"Sup Aomine, who you got hiding behind you." I replied to him, nodding my head to acknowledge his prescence. 2

"I want you to meet my neighbour. My parents are pretty busy at work so my neighbour's mum offered to take care of me. Come and greet Satsuki, she's going to be coming to the court with me everyday from now on."

Oh, nice, I get to meet another important character from the anime. I'm getting deeper and deeper into the anime. 1

Aomine, then stepped to the side and started pushing Satsuki forward. Satsuki was a tiny girl with pink hair. She had huge round pink eyes and was fiddling with her thumbs looking around nervously. Damn she's like a puppy, I thought to myself.

"Hey Satsuki-san, Im Nakamura Kaen, you can just call me Kaen." I introduced myself to her.

"H-hello Kaen, i-if I'm going to call you Kaen you can also call me Satsuki."She looked at me innocently with those eyes of hers. Holy crap, she is a definite must protect. 2

"Sure Satsuki, so do you wanna watch me trash Aomine in basketball right now." I asked her with a smug. Satsuki nodded her head quickly like a doll.

" Hey what you talking about! Our current record is 30 to 20. You just won 10 more times than me, I'm going to catch up in no time." Aomine butted in, trying to defend himself.

"Nah bruh, I was going easy on you those times, I didn't want to hurt your feelings." I started trash talking him. 9

We then started bickering while Satsuki could only stand at the side and watch. After a while I turned to her and asked:" Satsuki, who do you think is the better basketball player, me or Aomine."

"Um….Um…" She was at a loss for words, not knowing which side to pick. I burst out laughing at the sight and said:"Relax, I was just playing with you. We are around the same level if I'm being honest."

"Hey kids, its you two again. Want to join our game we could really use 2 extra players." I turned around and saw the same man who invited me on my first day at this court. It was game time.

I received the ball and did a turn around jump shot over Aomine. The ball flew though the hoop and hit nothing but net."Too easy" I whispered to Aomine. 1

A few possessions later, Aomine received the ball and turned his back to face me."My turn" he said, he then swung the ball around and jabbed to the right. He then side stepped and threw the ball into the basket with his left hand. The ball rattled around the rim a few times before falling in.

After going back and forth a few times, the score was now 10 all. It was my teams possession and I caught the ball from my teammate. I drove to the right and did a jab stop. I used my left hand to nudge Aomine slightly, causing him to continue moving forward. However, his superhuman reflexes had betrayed him and caused him to twist his ankles. This weird position caused him to trip and he fell to the ground in front of me.I got into the shooting motion and let the ball fly. I gotta make this I thought to myself. The ball bounced off the rim and into the basket, winning the game.

"OOOOHHH! Someone got his ankles broken, this is too easy bruh." I started making fun of Aomine. I stuck my hand out at the same time and helped him up.

"I don't know what you are talking about man, there was some water one the floor and I just slipped on it." Aomine tried to keep his pride.

"Well whatever you say, but Satsuki is here with us she saw everything. Right Satsuki?" We both looked at her while Satsuki nodded her head vigorously.

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Chapter 9: Level 2

I watched the ball spin off the backboard and fall into the net. That was it my 100th layup of the day.

System, I called out in my head and the familiar blue screen appeared in front of my.

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 6 1

Height: 28/100 (projected height growth: 1.91 meters) 1

Shooting: 98/100 (level:1)

Handles: 99/100 (level:1)

Lay-ups: 98/100 (level :1)

Post scoring: 1/100 (level: 1) 5

Size: 10/100 (level: 1) 6

Athleticism: 6/100 (level:1 ) 2

general points: 5 ]

Finally, this is going to be it. I'm finally going to reach level 2. I wanna see what kind of upgrades I get from this. Currently, I could only make 5/10 of my shots from the free throw line and shot a horrendous 3/10 from deep. It was also pretty though for me to make layups against larger defenders and I only made around 6/10 of them. My handles were still pretty tight just that my size limited how far I could go.

I decided next round I would put my focus into size and athleticism. I wanted to make myself into a Kevin Durant like player, a player who was tall and fast but could also shoot the rock. He could score at all three levels and was by far one of the most lethal scorers in the NBA. 6

I put 2 of my points into shooting, 2 into layups and a point into handles. Then a strange sensation started going through me. I felt my hands and legs gain some sort of muscle memory. Moves and tricks that I had never done before suddenly felt possible. Oh my god! I love this feeling! I feel like I'm high and just took some drugs! I looked up at my system again. 1

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 6

Height: 28/100 (projected height growth: 1.91 meters)

Shooting: 0/200 (level:2)

Handles: 0/200 (level:2)

Lay-ups: 0/200 (level :2)

Post scoring: 1/100 (level: 1) 1

Size: 10/100 (level: 1)

Athleticism: 6/100 (level:1 )

general points: 0 ]

It felt so satisfying to see the 3 level 2s in my system at once. Wait but I now need 200 points to upgrade to level 2. Don't tell me the number of points I need doubles every time I level up. It shouldn't be much of a problem in the beginning but once I reach level 5 I would need 1600 points just to level up 1 skill. That would take 320 days which is nearly a whole year! System, please tell me you offer some sort of missions or something which will allow me to gain more points than just daily missions.

[ Host does not need to be so worried, the system will provide missions when the time is right. As long as the host follows the system, reaching level 10 for most skills would not be problem.]

Whew, the knowledge that I stand a chance to be at the top is all that matters to me. As long as I have the opportunity, I will work for it no matter how long it takes.

"Kaen, I see you been warming up for a while now, you getting in rhythm to win the game today huh." I heard Aomine call mat me, I turned around and saw him and Satsuki walking towards my direction. Just in time to test my skills, I thought to myself.

I side stepped from Aomine and shot the 3 ball. I held up my hands to follow through the shot as I watched the ball curve towards the basket, I knew it was going in. The ball flew through the net, making the addictive swish sound.

"Damn Kaen, you on fire today man, you been hitting shots all day." Aomine said to me. 2

"What fire you talking about man, this is what I'm going to be like from now on."I said back to him.

"Nah man, I'm pretty sure you are hitting more shots than you were yesterday. You think you can suddenly upgrade just like that, this ain't some video game you know." Aomine said to me, writing me off. 1

Well, sorry to break it to you but this is literally like a video game! I thought.

"Kaen did hit more shots than yesterday. Yesterday he made 11 out of 23 of his shots, giving him an efficiency of 48%. Today he made 14 out of 25 of his shots, giving him an efficiency of 56%…."Satsuki was now in her analytical phrase, and didn't look like she was going to stop anytime soon.

Well this was pretty decent, I assume that for every upgrade I get a 5% boost in each stat, I really want to see what happens when I actually reach level 10 in a category. Would I be hitting 100% of my shots. I knew this was highly unlikely but imagining it was nice.

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Chapter 10: First mission

"Hey punk, get the hell off this court. Its ours now."

"But we came here first, why should we move away?"

"What you say huh! You got some guts, we are way bigger than you guys and you still dare to talk back to us."

I heard some people talking at the other side of the court, I looked and saw a group of 5 middle school kids confronting another group of kids around my age. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on, those pieces of crap were trying to pick on them.

"Yo Aomine, check out what's going on at the other court. You think we should go help them out?" I asked Aomine.

Aomine glanced at the situation and gritted his teeth."Why did you even ask this question, you know how much I hate bullies. Let's go put them in place."

After knowing Aomine for a while, I had come to realize that he actually had a very strong sense of justice. He could not stand bullies or anyone who was treated unfairly, this was quite far from his high school self, where he abused his power as Tou's ace. 1

Sudden, I saw a screen appear in front of me.

[Host has received his first mission:

Have a sense of justice: Host has to help out the children who are being bullied.

mission rewards: 20 general points]

As I read what was written on the screen, I clenched my fists in excitement. Nice! Not only would I be able to destroy those bullies, I also get to earn general points. And 20 in a go as well!

"Come on, why are we still standing around here. Let's go confront those craps."Aomine said.

We went over and Aomine swatted the ball which one of the guys was holding.

"Well well well, what do we have here, more little kids trying to join in the party." One of the middle schoolers said.

"Nah man. This ain't your court. If you guys really want to play here you gotta win us in a match first. Hoopers do their talking on the court."Aomine squared them up.

"Brooo, these kids are getting too cocky. We just joined our middle school basketball team, you sure you still want to face us." He taunted us.

"Sure"I replied."So we play 2 against 2 first to 11?"

"Yeah no problem. Watch how fast we destroy you."

Perfect, I had recently upgraded all my stats to level 2, So I wanted to see what a complete level 2 would be like against middle schoolers.

"Yo Kaen, you shoot for ball."Aomine told me, passing me the ball.

I received the ball, went behind the three point arc and got into my shooting motion. I smoothly brought the ball from my waist up to my head and released it at its highest point and made the shot. The middle schoolers saw this and immediately got serious, knowing this wouldn't be an easy match anymore.

It took about 4 shots before I finally won possession of the ball. I checked up my defender and tossed the ball to Aomine. Aomine, pounded the ball hard and blew past his defender, laying the ball into the basket.

I then received the ball and did a side step to the right. I faked a shot, causing my defender to jump into the air, I then drove to the basket. Aomines defender went into the paint and jumped at the same time as me, trying to contest my shot. However this was a major mistake as he had left Aomine right open, I did a simple drop pass to Aomine and he tossed it into the basket.

Next possession, I caught the ball and immediately pulled up for a shot. My defender was caught off guard and could not jump in time to contest my shot, the ball flew spun around the rim a few times before falling into the net.

Aomine and I scored so aggressively and skillfully that we easily defeated our opponents 11-0. They didn't even get to touch the ball once. Well, they weren't very good. I assume they joined a basketball team that didn't even make it through the first round of the preliminaries. 1

"Bro, y'all trash. You think you can take over a court with these skills of yours, go train somewhere else and come back when you get better." I mocked them. They couldn't say anything back and simply walked off the court quietly. It was an unspoken rule on the court that all that mattered was the game, age, size and background did not matter.

[Host has successfully completed the mission.] 1

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 6

Height: 28/100 (projected height growth: 1.91 meters)

Shooting: 0/200 (level:2)

Handles: 0/200 (level:2)

Lay-ups: 0/200 (level :2)

Post scoring: 0/100 (level: 2) 1

Size: 2/200 (level: 2) 5

Athleticism: 0/200 (level:2) 2

general points: 20 ]

Now that all my stats were at level 2, I needed to decide which categories to invest my points in. I decided to work on my athleticism, handles and layups. As I grew older, athleticism was beginning to become more and more important. By the time I enter middle school, there would be people who can dunk the ball at will. Simply being skillful is insufficient, as most of my layups will get pinned against the backboard.

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Chapter 11: Which school you going to?

5 years later*

"Look Aomine, Kaen's already here." I heard Satsuki some distance away talking to Aomine. 1

We have known each other for about 5 years now and were three best friends. Our parents also got to know each other so now the three of us hung out pretty regularly at each other houses too.

"Sup Aomine, sup Satsuki, what took your so long to come to the court?"I asked them.

"Oh.We were just looking at the schools we were posted to. You know Aomine and I got posted to the same school!"Satsuki said excitedly.

I looked at how energetic she was and compared her to when I first met her. I realized she had come a long way. In the beginning, she rarely spoke to Aomine and I, only joining in on the conversation every now and then. But the three of us were huge basketball fanatics and eventually we grew comfortable with each other. Satsuki was also no longer her shy and introverted self but was more outgoing and friendly with others.

I must say, she was also growing very well. Her looks right now are stunning and I'm pretty sure once she reaches high school there were going to be many boys going after her.

"I also received my school posting this morning, I got posted to Azabu middle school, what about your?"I asked. Although I already knew the answer, I had to pretend not to know or it would raise some suspicions. 1

"Noooooo! What the hell man. We live so close to each other, why they gotta post us to different schools."Aomine shouted as he stomped the ground in frustration.

"Both of us got posted to Teiko, its so sad that we will not be able to be with you as much as before Kaen." Satsuki said. She took the news much more calmly than Aomine but I could still see the sadness in her eyes.

"Guys, why y'all getting so depressed, we are just going to go to different middle schools. We can still hang at this court every weekend like usual and we can still go to each others houses." I tried to confort them.

"Well, the three of us are going to join the basketball team in school right. This means that we can also see each other in practice matches, preliminaries and nationals right."I added on, comforting them further.

"That's facts though, we will definitely make it into the basketball team. Its just that I doubt people will be as good as you, I don't know whether ill have any competition to play against."Aomine replied.

Hah, what did you just say Aomine. You are literally going to go to the most overpowered middle school in all of Japanese basketball history and you are saying that you may not have any competition! The people there are as talented as a top middle school program in the USA in this world.I thought to myself. However, they probably shouldn't be as good as me right now, I had recently reached level 4 in all categories.

"You guys realize that I'm a girl right. What am I going to be doing in the guys basketball team?" Satsuki said, disrupting my thoughts.

"Well, you are pretty smart Satsuki. I was pretty sure you were going to join the club as the manager or something. I'm sure you can create some insane strategies for them."I tried to push her in the right direction. I knew she would join the club but this was to make sure just in case.

"Hm, thats a pretty good idea Kaen. Joining as the manager would not only allow me to enjoy basketball but I can also take care of Aomine." She replied.

"Hey! Why are you talking about me like I'm a little kid. Well not that it matters, but basketball bros for life?" He asked us while sticking out his fist.

I grinned, stuck out my fist and replied" Basketball bros for life."

"Once again you guys realize that I'm a girl right, how can I even be a bro." Satsuki chirped, but she stuck out her fist as well. Our fist collided, solidifying our friendship which would last a lifetime. Through basketball, relationships and drama we would always remain the best of friends. 3

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

This is going to be the end of the childhood phrase. From now on the story is going to go on to the middle school arc. Trust me, the middle school arc is going to be one hell of a ride.

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Chapter 12: Azabu middle school

Damn, this middle school is huge.This was my first thought when I stepped into the school. There 3 basketball gyms in this school and a variety of other sports facilities which could be used. It even had a whole 800 meter racing racing track.

I made my way to to where the first years were supposed to gather. I looked around and saw some of my new classmates gathered in a spot. I must say I looked somewhat out of place here as I was 12 and had grown to a height of 1.75 meters tall which was considered very tall for my age. 11

We were then brought by a prefect to a classroom where we were introduced to our form teachers and subject teachers. They shared with us what we were going to learn in the year and events which would be taking place, you know the usual boring stuff at the start of every year.

"Okay, now shall we take turns standing up, introducing and sharing something interesting about ourselves." Said one of my form teachers.

Someone at the front of the class stood up and introduced herself in a soft voice"I am Miku Nakano and I like listening to music and reading about history."

The rest of the class started clapping in the usual bored way but I nearly fell off my chair. MIKU! The best girl from quintessential quintuplets was in my class! Oh my god, I need to get to know her.

A few people later, another guy stood and introduced himself." Raku ichijo, I do not have any hobbies in particular." 2

Woah, another character from an Anime. Raku Ichijo was from the popular harem anime called Nisekoi. Wait if he is here that means his best friend, Shu, and the second best girl, Onodera, should be in this school too!

Soon, a girl stood up and introduced herself as Onodera Kosaki that she liked baking. Another guy also stood up and introduced himself as Shu Maiko. 1

Nice, I can't wait to see what other anime characters I get to see soon.Now it was my turn to introduce myself.

I stood up and said:"I am Nakamura Kaen, I like to play basketball, I plan on joining the basketball team this year."

"Wow, you are very tall. I confident that you can make it to the basketball team Kaen. If I remember correctly, our basketball team is very strong and made it to the nationals last year." My form teacher added on to my introduction. 1

So this middle schools basketball team is strong. That's good, I was hoping I wouldn't have to carry the team all they way to the finals. If that was so my chances of beating the generation of miracles was very slim.

Soon, a red haired guy stood up and introduced himself:"I am Karma Akabane, I like fighting and am good in my studies. I hope to get along well with you guys." 8

Oh my favorite character from assassination classroom is also in my class. This is great, I think I found the people I'm going to hang out with for the next few years. 1

After the introductions, our class had ended and now it was time for the club carnival. It was just like a carnival in an anime. Each club had its designated area and was supposed to encourage newcomers to join their clubs. Not like it really mattered to me, I only had one goal in mind and that was to join the basketball team.

I rushed through the stalls, ignoring the calls from the other clubs asking me to attend their performances and headed straight to where the basketball club was situated. It was obviously situated at the basketball gym and when I entered, I came face to face with a giant towering over me.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Hey guys, I don't know whether you like this version of KnB where people don't follow the normal Japanese way of speaking. But, I personally felt the Japanese way of speaking was too boring and decided to spice it up with some slang from the hood.

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 13: Tryouts: Part 1

There was a giant towering over me, he had brown hair and a friendly face. As soon as he saw me he started smiling and said:" Welcome to the basketball team. I am a second year player Kiyoshi Teppei. Are you here to tryout for the basketball team, if you are please join the group over there." He stopped and pointed to a large group of people gathering at the side of the court.Then he continued to explain. 5

"Our basketball club is one of the biggest clubs in this school. We have a total of 3 teams. The third team consists of amateurs and will only play in practice matches and maybe get promoted to the second team in their second or third years. The second team team consist of people who have been playing basketball for a while and they may get promoted to the first team after their first year. Most first years will join the second team so you could aim for that. So do you understand everything?"He asked me after he finished his explanation.

"What about the first team. You did not mention anything about the first team."I asked.

"Well, in this school it is very, VERY, rare for someone to join the first team in their first year. The last time that happened was like 15 years ago and that person remains a club legend. If I remember correctly he went on to play in the NBA for a couple of years after graduating from college."

"I see, thanks a lot for the help." I said gratefully before making my way to the group of first years. Making it to the NBA was just a dream for many but I knew one thing. I am definitely going to make it to the NBA in the future and the first step is to make it to the first team.

I joined the group and looked around and I noticed a familiar face. Isn't that Kazunari Takao, the point guard who teamed up with Midorima in high school and there is Ryo Sakurai, the mushroom head sharpshooter that went to Tou. Nice, there is actually some really good talent in my batch.

I walked up to them and introduced myself:" Hey, you guys look like you know how to ball. I'm Nakamura Kaen, you can just call me Kaen, I'm looking to play small forward."

"You got an air of confidence around you huh, I'm Kazunari Takao, you can call me Takao and I'm going to be playing the point." Takao stuck out his hand and I shook it.

"I-im Ryo Sakurai, n-nice to meet you K-kaen. I'm Ryo Sakurai, you can just call me Ryo and I-i want to play shooting guard." Ryo stammered awkwardly. Woah, I knew he did not have much confidence but I did not expect it to be this bad in middle school.

"Everybody gather up in the middle, it's now time for the tryouts. We are going to be testing your shooting, handling and finishing and your moves in the paint. Then we will be playing practice games to determine your worth on the team. Good luck to all of you." The head coach said and started signaling to begin the tryouts.

System, I called out and looked at my stats.

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 12

Height: 35/100 (projected height growth: 1.96 meters) 3

Shooting: 400/800 (level:4)

Handles: 350/800 (level:4)

Lay-ups: 600/800 (level :4)

Post scoring: 0/800 (level: 4) 1

Size: 0/800 (level: 4) 4

Athleticism: 600/800 (level:4 )

general points: 0 ]

I had come a long way over the past 6 years, now all my stats were at level 4 and even my projected height had increased by 5 cm. Although I knew that from here on out my growth would be much slower, it was still extremely satisfying to feel myself levelling up in basketball. It was like a drug which I never stopped wanting. Now it was time to crush this tryout.

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JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Hey, if you guys want me to continue with this novel, vote for me dawg.

I tagged this book, come and support me with a thumbs up!

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Chapter 14: Tryouts: Part 2

First we had to do shooting drills. We started from the top of the perimeter and had to make as many free throw line pull up jumpers as possible out of 10 shots. I easily made all of them. Next, we had to make as many catch and shoot three pointers as many possible also out of 10 shots. I had made 7 out of 10.

To test our handles, they made us start from one side of the court and dribble to the other side of the court. We could do any move we wanted and we would be graded based on those move. However, if we messed up any of the move such as losing the ball or stumbling, points would be deducted.

I felt this was a very good way to test a player. If a player simply dribbled the ball, it showed that he was not confident in his handles. If a player dribbled too flashily, he would also be deducted as those type of moves should definitely not be used in games. I decide to go with simple between the legs and behind the back moves and did not mess up a single one of them so I felt I did pretty well.

For layups and paint moves, they made us do a variety of drills such as handoffs, finishing over defenders, finishing with contact, footwork, overhand and underhand hooks. I was able to do most of them with little trouble except maybe the overhand hooks. I wasn't used to playing in the paint and had practiced few skills for it.

After all the drills, we were each given our respective scores out of 100 and told to wait for the practice games. I looked at my paper and saw a score of 85. I didn't know how great it was compared to other players but I definitely wasn't satisfied. Dammit, 85! I was aiming for at least 90, what more could I have done. Maybe if I hit all of my threes they would have given me a 90?

"Hey, Kaen what did you get! I got 73." Takao came to me and waved his paper excitedly.

"I got 85, why are you looking so happy getting 73? I'm sure everybody else would have gotten around 75 to 80." I asked him curiously.

"85! KAEN ARE YOU SERIOUS! 85! Do you know the highest score for the tryouts ever recorded was 88 and that was 15 years ago, you are only 3 points away!"Ryo who was walking to us exclaimed. 2

"Really? I expected better, I missed like 3 threes in the shooting test and screwed up some of my finishes." I said sadly. I wasn't really sad with my score, more like I could not beat the club legend who made it to the first team in his first year, and that guy only made it to the league for a couple of years. He wasn't even an all star in the NBA or else I would have known his name.

"Okay, everybody huddle up." I heard one of the coaches calling us in the middle. We all started making our way towards him.

"Now it's time for our practice games. There are 20 of you here, I want you to split into 4 teams on your own. This is a chance for you to shine if you messed up and did not do so well in the drills earlier. I expect everybody to treat this as a real game and try your best. Now lets go!"

I teamed up with Takao and Ryo and the 3 of us found 2 other big men. One of them was 1.85 and the other was 1.83 meters tall. This is actually a pretty good team, now it is time for me to boost my score.

We were playing full court practice matches. I got the ball and passed it to Takao who then started making his way up the court. Once the both of us crossed mid court and we started a play. Takao started driving to the basket, pulling both his defender and Ryos defender with him. He then kicked the ball out towards Ryo. I then ran towards Ryo and he handed the ball off to me and set a screen. My defender go caught in the screen and I turned around and let the ball fly. The ball, flew through the net hitting nothing but air. Easy, I thought to myself with a smile.

Next, it our possession and I was marking the other teams small forward. The point guard passed it to the forward and he caught it with his back facing me. He then tried to spin around me and drive directly to the basket. Unfortunately for him, he was too slow and I managed to get a hand on the ball.

I ran after the loose ball, scooped it up and started sprinting full speed to the basket. I looked back and saw my mark trying to chase me down, probably hoping to redeem himself with a block. I stopped suddenly in front of the basket and did a pump fake. My defender bit it and jumped. He the realized it was a fake and tried to avoid me but it was too late. I jumped into him and heard the whistle call, I then tossed the ball up and watched it fall through the net.

"Lets goooo! And 1! Why you making this so easy bruh!" I taunted my mark, I then walked up to the free throw line and sunk the shot.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Hey guys, I don't know if you find my chapters kinda short but it's because I'm trying to post 1 chapter everyday but I'm pretty busy with actual basketball and other commitments. And it's also because I'm just writing this for fun and I my writing pretty trash.

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 15: Tryouts: Part 3

The game continued in similar fashion and my teammates and I continued to dominate the practice games. Takao and I were decent passers and we could run the pick and roll with our bigs. Takao was also very good at driving in, drawing defenders and kicking it out to the perimeter. This must have been one of the reasons why he was so compatible with midorima, I must learn from him one day.

Passing and defending were the 2 skills which were not included in the system. I think this is because passing is something which requires intelligence, not just skill. Skill wise, having a good handle usually directly translated to being a good passer.

As for defending, the only skill you need is athleticism and footwork everything is just your grit and determination to shut down your defender. If you give half assed defense, you are going to get scored on no matter how skillful your are.

Ryo continued to knock down shots. His accuracy from the perimeter was slightly less than mine, he could shoot around 40% from beyond the arc while I shot around 50% in games.

As for me, I continued to dominate in similar fashion. I drove to the basket, shot over players and crossed players like it was nothing. I dug deep into my bag of tricks hoping to boost my score so I could finally beat the club legend.

I received the ball from Takao and started bringing the ball up. This was the last play of the last practice game of the day. It was time to make a highlight. I signaled to my teammates for an isolation play and asked them to clear the space for me. Now, it was just me and my defender by ourselves, time to go to work.

I started rhythmic dribbling, something like what James harden does. Every time I dribbled the ball, I jabbed my feet slightly in one direction, hoping to throw my defender off balance. Left, right, left, right, between the legs…. I did at least 5 dribble moves before I saw an opportunity, my defender had moved slightly to the left, perfect for me to drive right.

I burst to the right and suddenly pulled the ball back, behind my back. My defender did not anticipate this and went flying. I stepped back behind the three point line and shot the rock, swishing it, letting everybody know their place.

The clock then sounded, letting everybody know the end of the game. Damn, I took 12 seconds to make one isolation play, I should start training some isolation moves or I may get shut down if a better defender got placed on me.

"Okay everybody, gather in the middle. We are going to slot you into your respective teams and positions." the head coach said.

He then started listing off a few names and giving them the positions which suited them best. Most players went into team 3 with a third going into team 2.

"Kazunari Takao. Scored 75 points in drills and 73 points in the practice game. Total 148 points, team 2." 1

"Ryo Sakurai. Scored 70 points in drills and 75 points in the practice game. Total 145 points, team 2."

Oh, not bad, not bad at all. They were the 2 current highest scorers of this batch. The third highest scorer was 13 points lower than Ryo. No wonder they became starters in their firsts years in high school.

"Nakamura Kaen."

I perked up when I heard my name being called.

"Scored 85 points in drills and 92 points in the practice game. Total 177 points, team 1. That's it for everybody who made the teams. I hope you work hard and contribute to your respective teams." With that the coach ended his speech.

"Damn, he set the new record for the highest score." I heard one of the seniors whisper.

"He's insane, he made it to the first team in his first year." I heard another say.

Everybody was looking at me like I was some kind of monster. Well, can't really blame them as I'm going to be one of the MC's in this anime.I just shrugged my shoulders and turned to Takao and Ryo.

"Yo Takao, Ryo, you guys better make it to the first team next year. I better have some people from my batch with me or I'll get lonely."I said with a grin.

"No problem, just don't slack off or we'll catch up to you in no time."Takao replied, and we bumped out fist.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Hey guys, anything you want me to add, just add a comment and you may see your ideas in future chapters!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 16: First day

Ring*Ring*Ring*

The bell sounded, signalling the end of class. Arggghhh, the classes are so boring. I more or less learnt all these topics in my past life, they pose no challenge to me.

"Hey Karma, you are finding these classes boring too, right? You were sleeping in literally every class today. What club did you join after yesterday's club festival?"I turned to ask my table mate, Karma.

"I just walked around, didn't find anything very interesting though. I was looking for a kendo or fighting club but I guess this school's too soft, doesn't seem to have any."He replied.

"I don't know about you, but when I was walking towards the basketball club yesterday I saw a Karate club. You probably just didn't look hard enough."

Hearing that, he suddenly perked up."Dude, you serious. You actually saw a Karate club. Where, where, where, I need to go there right now."

"Bro you really need to chill on the fighting, but if you go to level 3 in the club building you should be able to find it."I told him.

"Alright got it, thanks Kaen, you are a true bro."He said, waving at me while running off. 5

Finally, got rid of him. Now I can approach Miku in peace. I really want to get to know her. She was sitting in the front of the class with her headphones on, listening to music and looking at her phone. 1

Hmm, how would I approach her. Going up to her and trying to talk to her is extremely awkward. I need to create some sort of situation where I have a legitimate reason to talk to her. 3

Suddenly, she stood up and started walking out of the classroom. I followed her at a distance, trying to see where she was heading to. Oh she is heading to the staircases, meaning she is probably going to the vending machines to buy a drink.

She reached the vending machines and I waited a few moments before approaching her. I then pretended to be surprised to see her at the vending machines and said:"Oh we are from the same class aren't we, what was your name again?"

She then took off her headphones and looked at me"You are Nakamura Kaen, I am Miku Nakano. Nice to meet you." 2

Shit, say something more to continue to conversation man. I don't actually know how the hell to respond to that.

"Well you can call me Kaen. Did you join any club yesterday? It was a pretty big festival am I right?"I asked her.

"If I'm going to call you Kaen, just call me Miku. I did not join any club yesterday. I'm going back to class now."She replied me quickly and started heading back to class.

Someone tell me why she is so introverted and why am I so socially awkward. I couldn't even get a conversation with a girl to last for more than 4 sentences. I really need to practice over the next few years. 4

Back in class, I sat down at my desk and buried myself into my textbook to hide my misery. I had more or less learnt everything in middle school in my past life except the year 3 curriculum of Japanese middle schools. So I was trying to look like a genius and spent my time in class studying those textbooks.

Suddenly, I saw someone approach me. I looked up and saw Raku, he said:"Hey you are Nakamura Kaen right, you look like one of those smart kids who study way in advance, you even brought the year 3 textbook to school. If there is anything I don't quite understand can I ask you?"

"Sure, you are Raku Ichijo aren't you. Can we just call each other Raku and Kaen, I'm not like the other Japanese. I don't really like to follow the crap where we have to call each other by their first names first." I told him trying to look very serious. 2

"Woah. Relax, you are just a kid you know. You don't have to try and go against society and all that."Raku replied, looking very intimidated.

Then I broke into a smile, saying"Nah just playing with you man, let's be mates." I then stuck out my fist and he bumped it back.

"YES! I got a new friend in this class. Let me introduce you to my childhood friends, this is Onodera and this is Shu…" He said while pointing to the 2 people standing behind him. Nice, I formed my own clique in my first day, at least I don't have to worry about being lonely anymore.

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JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 17: Kiyoshi Teppei

After class, I said goodbye to my newly made friends and rushed down to the basketball gym. Today was going to be my first day at practice and I wanted to set a good impression.

Everybody knows that the most hardworking baller is always the first one at the gym and I wanted to let everybody know that it was me.

However, when I got to the gym I could already hear the ball bouncing. Who could be at the gym at this hour? I wondered.

I went through the entrance and saw Kiyoshi Teppei, standing on the court practicing his shooting, his body already drenched in sweat.

Damn, I know people in this world are hardworking but I didn't expect it to be at this level. This guy is literally being a Kobe Bryant, spending every minute of his time at the gym.

Kiyoshi realised I was here, and spoke to me:"Oh, you are the first year kid who made it to the team. Practice was supposed start at 3, what are you doing back here at 2?"

I could say the same to you I thought.

"I wanted to get some reps in before practice, you doing the same?" I asked him back.

"Yeah, I was just practicing some moves which I don't usually do in practice, but now that you are here, I got a perfect practice buddy. Wanna play some 1 on 1?"

"Sure" I replied, I then quickly pulled out my basketball shoes and started wearing them. I like to wear the curry 7's as I'm obviously a curry fan. 3

"Okay, you start."He told me, tossing me the ball to check me up.

I received the ball and jabbed to the right. He shifted slightly to the right, I thought he had bit the bait and burst towards the left. However, he recovered in astonishing speed and placed me in a really though position. I did a jab stop and attempted to push him back a little, but I ended up shooting a contested mid range shot which clanked off the rim.

How? How did he recover so quickly I wondered?

Kiyoshi then received the ball and started backing down to the basket. I tried my best to stop him but was simply incapable. How do you expect a 1.75 meter tall guy to defend someone who was 1.85 meters.

After scoring on me a few times, Kiyoshi finally missed a fadeaway jumper and I got a chance to score again.

I received the ball and did a crossover from left to right. I then shifted my body slightly to the left, causing Kiyoshi to also move to the left. I then drove right and found myself having a wide open lane to the basket. I jumped and tried to lay the ball in, only to find it pinned against the backboard.

Kiyoshi turned to me and said:"You may be skilled, but you know nothing about defense. All your current skills will help you win against mediocre defenders, but when you are placed against a truly good one, you will realize how weak you are." 1

He then continued:"I'm not trying to let you down, I'm just speaking from experience. This was what happened to me when I first joined the first team. Did you wonder why I recovered so fast in the first play. I had pretended to shift to the right, I did not actually put any weight into my right leg.

You also do not know how to defend someone in the paint do you. You are trying to use your body but what about your hands and legs, there is so much strength there that wasn't used.

And from the last play, you should learn to watch out for defenders trailing you. I gave you an open lane on purpose so you would try to attempt a simple layup. This type of layup is not a problem for many of the bigs in the nationals, you must learn to work on these problems before then." 19

Kiyoshi continued to rattle on and on about the areas I was lacking. I had thought that the system was all I needed but now I realized that I was wrong, very wrong.

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JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 18: Teammates

After receiving nearly an hour long lecture from Kiyoshi about defense, footwork and the mental side to basketball, the rest of my teammates started streaming into the gym. 1

I saw Yukio Kasamatsu, the future captain of Kajio high school and Kise's teammate and he should be a third year.There was also Kotaro Hayama, another one of the uncrowned kings, the fastest dribbler in high school. 1

Damn! This team is stacked, I thought to myself. This team has probably made it to the nationals every year, maybe even won a championship.

"Yo Kiyoshi, you here early today again huh. We wanted to join you but the damn Sato sensei held us back. Who you got beside you?"

"Yo guys, this is Kaen. He's the crazy first year I was telling you guys about yesterday. Did you know he broke the record, he scored 177 points."Kiyoshi introduced me to them.

"Woah! The talent we have coming in every year is insane. I don't see how we can not win the championship this year, we have Kiyoshi and Kotaro plus a new super rookie." Said Yukio. I'm going to assume he was the captain of the team from the way he spoke and conducted himself in front of everybody.

"Everybody gather up! It's time to start practice. I don't want to see anybody slacking off, is that clear."The coach shouted.

"YES SIR!" We all chanted back in unison.

"Okay so we will first be doing a warm up with 30 laps around the field. Then shooting and handling drills. After that we are hitting the gym to do some weights then a practice game to end the day. Is that clear."

"YES SIR!" We shouted.

Holy crap. If this was done in my previous life, people would be fainting and dying and the coaching staff would be going to jail. But I guess, this was the anime world. People had much stronger bodies and I noticed that even an average person was taller, stronger and faster than an average person from my previous world. But still, this training regiment for a bunch of middle schoolars is crazy. 4

We ran the 30 laps and did our shooting and dribbling drills. After, I collapsed into a corner, feeling like I could no longer lift my arms. I have already completed the daily missions more than 4 time, yet you tell me I still have to lift weights and play a practice game after this!

"Hey, Kaen. What you doing over here?"I looked over and saw Kotaro talking to me.

"I-I don't think I can go on anymore."I struggled to speak and catch my breath.

He chuckled and said"Don't worry, everybody was like that when they first entered the first team. Trust me, this is all about your determination. If you believe you can still go on, you can still go on. And this is only the first day, after 2 to 3 weeks, your body will get used to it." He then offered me his hand and helped me up. 2

We then went to the school gym and started working out. The coach asked us to do a combination of lifting and calisthenics. We lifted to target certain muscle groups in our body which were particularly important to basketball, such as your shoulders, back and legs. Calisthenics were then done to give the rest of the muscles in our body a proper workout, ensuring that our entire body develops properly in a healthy manner.

After the gym, my arms and legs felt like jelly. My mind was fuzzy and I felt like I couldn't really focus well. My body was exhausted.In the practice game I was trash, I couldn't make most of my shots and my passes were off. Shots that I had practiced multiple time just did not go in. I even struggled to lift my arms for the simplest of layups.

After the game, I just sat on one of the benches and closed my eyes, trying to recover the little energy I had left in my body.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on my bed at home with the sun beating down on me. I checked my phone. How the hell is it Saturday and why am I in my bed. Shouldn't I still be in school after practice. I am dreaming?

I went downstairs and found my mother preparing breakfast for me.

"KAEN! ARE YOU OKAY! I THOUGHT YOU FAINTED YESTERDAY OR SOMETHING! TELL ME IS YOUR BODY ALL RIGHT NOW?!" My mother asked me anxiously.

"Yes mum, relax. My body is perfectly fine now, maybe just a little sore. But how did I come home, I swear I don't remember coming home from practice."

"Oh sweetie, your teammates carried you home yesterday. They said you were too exhausted to stay awake. The three of them, wonderful young gentlemen, what were their names again? Oh, Yukio, Kiyoshi and Kotaro and they even asked me to pass on this message to you."

"What did they say?"I asked anxiously.

My mum smiled at me and patted my hair and said:"You did good."

~~~~~~~~

Hey guys, could you tell me what kind of skill sets you would like the mc to develop.

I was going to have him become an all around player but if you want him to be more focused in certain areas leave me a comment.

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JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 19: Signature shot and system upgrade?

I was shooting the ball and Kiyoshi was rebounding for me. I had already made more than 200 shots but I pushed on, trying to see how far my stamina could take me.

Swish*

Clang*

Swish*

Clang*

Clang*

After a while, I started to miss more shots than I made. I knew that was my limit and signaled to Kiyoshi to stop the drill.

"Damn Kaen, 250 shots out of 400 shots. If I did not know you, I would have thought you were a high schooler. At the rate you are improving, you are gonna be the ace of this team real soon"

"Nah man, this team has you and Kotaro, I'm still have a long way from your standard ."I replied to Kiyoshi.

"Alright, alright, if you say so man. I'm just telling you not to push yourself so hard again, I don't want you to collapse again. When we brought you to your house, your mother looked like she was going to sue us or something ."Kiyoshi said, sticking out his hand.

I dapped him up and went towards the water cooler to get a drink. Along the way, I called out my system.

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 12

Height: 35/100 (projected height growth: 1.96 meters)

Shooting: 797/800 (level:4)

Handles: 350/800 (level:4)

Lay-ups: 600/800 (level :4)

Post scoring: 0/800 (level: 4)

Size: 0/800 (level: 4) 1

Athleticism: 600/800 (level:4 ) 1

general points: 5]

It had been 1 and a half months since I joined this team and I had gained points much faster than I had expected. Completing the daily missions every day and some small missions that had popped up here and there had allowed me to earn nearly 400 points very quickly.

I had decided to invest all my points into shooting. I was average in height for players in the first team and if I wanted to perform decently in games, my shooting had to be good. I had made it my goal to become the best shooter in the team thus I had to upgrade my shooting to level 5.

I invested 3 points into shooting and I noticed something different.

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 12

Height: 35/100 (projected height growth: 1.96 meters)

Shooting: 0/1600 (level:5) (Signature shot: none)

Handles: 350/800 (level:4)

Lay-ups: 600/800 (level :4)

Post scoring: 0/800 (level: 4)

Size: 0/800 (level: 4)

Athleticism: 600/800 (level:4 )

general points: 0 ]

Signature shot? What is that never heard of that. Is it something like a signature move, like a Kobe / Jordan fadeaway or a Harden stepback? I tried accessing the signature shot function in my head and I saw the screen change. 1

[Signature shot:

Curry three: 2500 points

Kobe fadeaway: 1600 points (Can be upgraded to Jordan fadeaway) 3

Dirk's one-leg fadeaway: 1600 points

James harden stepback: 2000 points

Klay's perfect form: 1500 points

Chris paul's elbow jumper: 1500 points

Original shot: 3000 points

general points: 0

Note: Host can equip more than one shot at a time] 4

Woah, that's quite a lot of moves I can buy. I guess curry's shot is the most valuable, with his form, I would be able to shoot from anywhere on the floor. He is the greatest shooter of all time for a reason.

I did not expect Harden's stepback to be the second most valuable move though. I knew he was one of the hardest to guard in the NBA, but 2000 points! I have to save up more than a year to buy that.

Kobe's fadeaway can also be upgraded to jordan's fadeaway. I guess Kobe was a step below Jordan when it came to the fadeaway so it made sense. BUT WHY ARE THEY SO EXPENSIVE!!

The cheapest move is 1500 points, and what the hell is the original shot. It cost 3000 points, does it allow me to create my own unguardable move or something?

Well, the one thing for sure is that I would not be able to buy any of these moves anytime soon. But the moment I can I'm gonna buy Klay's shooting form, the most beautiful picture perfect form in the NBA.

This new feature is pretty cool, it helps add some depth to my game, something which I was worrying about for a long time. The system only gave very general categories such as shooting and layups but did not focus on specific moves or other aspects of the game such as defense and passing.

The level system was also not very helpful sometimes, I wish there were tiers which allowed me to compare myself to my current competition. At the moment, I do not know whether I'm considered good, average or bad among players in the nationals.

[Does host wish to upgrade system?

If host upgrades system, host current stats would be converted into stats for the upgraded system.

Warning: Although upgrading the system is free and more advanced. Upgrading skills would be slower in general.]

!? An upgrade to my system! This is kind of cool, but what does it mean that upgrading would be slower? Maybe it will focus on more aspects of the game, so my points will be spread out across multiple categories? I have no idea but this system upgrade literally sounds like a free gift to me, so I'm going to take it.

Yes, I said in my mind. Replying to the system.

[System upgrade in process, please wait.]

Then a new screen appeared in front of me, a much much larger screen than what I was previously accustomed to.

[Host: Nakamura Kaen (Middle school player) Age: 12

Height: 35/100 (Projected height growth: 1.96 meters)

Close shot: 0/400 (Level: 2)

Driving layup: 600/800 (Level: 4)

Dunking: 0/100 (Level: 1)(Host has yet to meet required height and vertical)

Post hook: 0/200 (Level: 2)

Midrange shot: 0/1600 (Level: 5) (Signature shot: none)

Three-point shot: 0/1600 (Level: 5) (Signature shot: none)

Free throw: 0/1600 (Level: 5) (Signature shot: none)

Pass accuracy: 120/800 (Level: 4) 1

Ball handle: 120/800 (Level: 4) 1

Post control: 110/800 (Level: 4)

Interior defense: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Perimeter defense: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Steals: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Block: 0/200 (Level: 2)

Rebounding: 0/200 (Level: 2)

Speed: 200/800 (Level: 2)

Strength: 200/800 (Level: 2)

Vertical: 200/800 (Level: 2)

(Level 1 refers to the ability of an average middle school player)

Badges: None 2

Shop:

General points: 0]

Holy crap. Damn. This is one hell of an upgrade.

- - - - - — - — - - -

Shoutout to MRAHH24 for suggesting the system upgrade. I was also thinking the system I came up with was somewhat pathetic so yeah this is the new and improved system copied from 2k. MRAHH24 thanks for the suggestion and I think you are going to see more of your suggestions real soon. 1

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JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 20: Dinner

Argh*

I groaned as I bent down to untie my shoes. The preliminaries were about 2 months away and the coach had increased the training yet again. I don't really know what happened last year but I know the coach was really pissed about it. He mentioned losing to our rival school or something.

But, you don't have to take out your anger on us and try to kill us coach, I thought in my head.

"Kaen, why did you come back so late? I remember telling you to come home early today, we are going to Satsuki's house for dinner ."My mum said to me, looking rushed.

"I had practice mum, the coach just upped it again." I replied.

"OKOK. Quickly go and take a shower. I'm going to give you 5 minutes, we are already late!" My mum started urging me.

I rushed up the stairs but I heard my parents talking in the background.

"Dear, why did you only give him 5 minutes, you know we are 30 minutes early?"

"You have to rush him, if not he will take forever to finish bathing."

Bloody hell! You know I'm a boy right, it's the bro code to never take more than 10 minutes in the toilet unless in emergencies like having a stomachache. 2

30 minutes later, I found myself shabbily dressed in Satsuki's house. Aomine's family was here to, and today we were celebrating our entering into middle school. 1

I was sitting on a couch, with Aomine and Satsuki wolfing down some chicken wings.

"Damn these KFC chicken wings are sick. Satsuki, you are on diet right, gimme your skin, you are gonna grow real fat if you eat them ."I exclaimed.

"Screw you Kaen! Eveybody knows the skin is the best part of the meal, guilt tripping me won't work ."Satsuki retorted.

"Yo Kaen, where the hell have you been man! I go to the court every weekend and I never see you there." Aomine said angrily.

I held up both my hands and said:" My bad, I'll probably start going back to the court in about a months time. My body is trying to get used to the training. Every weekend, I feel so sore that I can't leave the house."

"I kinda understand what you mean. The training in middle school is way more than what we did before. You know Aomine and I joined the school team." Satsuki said happily.

"That's great! I knew you could make it. Aomine, I hope you joined the first team in your school cause I did." I replied.

"Yeah, I'm one of the rare phenoms who joined the team in the first year. But you know this year there were 3 other's who also made it to the team!" Aomine said.

"You will never believe this. There's this super tall giant who has purple hair. He is our age but is 2.1 meters tall already, crazy right?" Satsuki said. 1

"There's also this green haired guy. He's pretty tall but his shooting is insane. He make's like 8 out of 10 open threes. He is probably more accurate than you Kaen."

"Oh there also this really short point guard. He makes the craziest passes….."

I looked and Aomine and Satsuki rambling on and on about their team. Well, I would too if I was them.

"But do you know who our captain is?" Aomine suddenly turned to me and asked.

"Nope, am I supposed to know?" I knew Teikos captain was good but he wasn't anything special in the anime.

"Well he is the current number one player in the entire middle school scene and he is insane. I couldn't even stay in front of him once. He is an all rounder. He can dribble, shoot and score in the paint, I don't know how to defend him." Aomine replied.

Damn, luckily Aomine reminded me or I would have underestimated him in a real game. If Aomine could not keep up with him, I would only be able to keep up with him slightly. The captain of thteam was Nijimura, he would not be a threat to me next year but I was only a first year this year. How could I forget.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. Kaen, you go to Azabu middle school right, did you know our schools are rivals. Our schools are the top 2 teams in Tokyo and our school won your school in preliminaries finals last year." Satsuki said.

Ohhhh. No wonder the coach was so pissed. Seems like we did not even make it to the nationals last year. What kind of information was my form teacher giving me, didn't he say the team went to the nationals?

"Eh, I guess I'm going to meet you guys in a match sooner or later. I'm going to be aiming for a starting position on my team so you guys better not expect me to go any easy on you." I said with a grin and stuck out my fist.

"Don't you dare go easy on us. It won't be any fun if you do." Aomine replied and we bumped our fists.

I wanted to talk more about basketball but I had a feeling Satsuki would be left out eventually, so I decided to change the topic.

"Hey Satsuki, did Aomine make any new friends in middle school or is he still trying to act like a gangster?" I asked.

"What the hell did you say! This is how I act naturally!" Aomine retorted.

"Yeah, did you know during the first day in school, the teacher asked Aomine to introduced himself and guess what he said?" Satsuki left me hanging, she then continued.

"He went like, If you are not interested in basketball leave me alone, I have no time to be with you." She said, attempting to imitate Aomine.

I burst out laughing." HAHAHAHAHA! Aomine is having trouble making friends, you can't keep relying on me and Satsuki forever you know!"

" Hey, shut up man. Don't gotta keep digging it in."

"Well on the topic of making friends. Satsuki, you are a girl right, how come I have no trouble talking to you but there's this one girl that keeps ignoring me." I turned to ask satsuki.

"Huh, Satsuki just looks like a girl on the outside but is a boy on the inside." Aomine chirped.

"Ooooh. Kaen, you trying to hit up girls, you know you are only 12 years old right." Satsuki teased.

"Well, if you want to talk to a girl, there are a few tips you must remember." Satsuki then started rambling about the right method to approach, conversation starters …..

I had to take down all these notes in my head as they may come in useful when approaching Miku in the future.

Gimme your power stones dawg, it feels nice to get them.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 21: Prove my worth

"Everybody stop the drills and take a short break, I have an announcement to make. Tomorrow we will be hosting a practice game against Joshibi middle school. Since they are quite a weak school, I want to try something new. Kaen will be a starter tomorrow and he will be playing point."The coach said, stunning everybody.

Wait. I get to be a starter? Nice! The coach then continued.

"Although he is only a first year, Kaen has proven himself to be an above average player on this team. If any of you are unhappy with this arrangement just remember that while he is just as or maybe more talented than any one of you, he is one of the hardest working players on this team. I do not want to hear any complaints.

Kaen, I know your preferred position is small forward but we currently have Yukio playing that position. You just have to wait till he graduates then you can play that position. 1

However, you still need to prove yourself in tomorrows match. If I see anything unsatisfactory with your game or you make too many mistakes, you will be pulled out and placed on the bench. Is that clear?"

" YES COACH!" I shouted.

Kotaro then slapped me on my back and said:" Look at our super rookie. He just entered the team and obtained a starting position in his first practice game. Just remember not to hog the ball though or the coach will get mad. He hates people who never pass."

Haru, the teams starting power forward then added on:" No pressure though. If you see an open shot, take it, I'll rebound all your misses."

"Alright, thanks guys. I swear tomorrow I won't let you down." I replied to all of them.

The next day, I hit the gym early to find Haru already there, practicing his post moves. I placed my gear on the bench, changed into my basketball shoes and put on my headphones. I then proceeded to grab a ball from the rack and start my pre game warmup.

"Yo Haru, can you be my rebounder, I'm going to practice my threes."

Haru gave an ok sign, signaling that he agreed.

I then started shooting as the lyrics of my current favorite song, Rolex, starting playing through my headphones. 2

I just wanna Rolly Rolly Rolly with a dab of ranch

I already got some designer to hold up my pants

I just want some ice on my wrist so I look better when I dance

Have you lookin' at it, put you in a trance

I just wanna Rolly Rolly ….

I held up my hands to follow through as I saw the ball fly through the net. Oh yeah, I'm feeling good today, real good.

Kotaro then walked up to me and dapped me up:" Damn Kaen, you on fire today, that was like your tenth in a row or something."

"Yeah, I gotta make sure to impress the coach today, I don't want to sit on the bench for the rest of the year."

"Chill bro, I don't know if you know this but the coach was only saying that so you don't get complacent. When he decides to start someone, he probably isn't going to change his mind."

That statement was comforting, at least it showed that I had sealed the starting position.

The buzzer then sounded, signaling for everybody to clear the court as the game was going to start soon.

After a quick talk from the coach, the team huddled together.

Yukio: "Alright guys lets go on three. 1, 2, 3."

"AZABU!" We chanted in unison.

The starting 5 from both teams then stepped onto the court to start the game.

As I took up my position on the floor, a familiar screen appeared in front of me.

[Game time: Host can earn points during games.

Game: Practice game

1 point scored: 3 general points

1 assist: 6 general points 3

1 rebound: 2 general points

1 steal: 4 general points

1 block: 6 general points

Note: Number of points host can earn increases during official and national games.] 1

Woah, I can now earn points during matches. This isn't even an official match, just a practice game and the system is giving me the opportunity to earn points. Not that I'm complaining but this system has become very generous lately. 1

I watched as Kiyoshi and the other teams center prepared for the jump ball. Kiyoshi was clearly the taller center and I had utmost confidence that he would win the jump ball.

As expected, Kiyoshi easily won the jump ball and tipped it over in my direction. I scooped up the ball and started making my way up the court, looking at the position of my teammates at the same time.

My defender started marking me once I crossed half court and I shifted slightly to the left, leaning in that direction. Seeing my defender take the bait, I crossed the ball between my legs and burst to the right. I then put my head low and started driving towards the basket. Once I reached the paint, the other teams center stepped forward and I did a handoff pass to Kiyoshi who tossed it through the net. Easy.

Now it was our turn on defense. I had been putting in some work on my defense. With my new system, I realized how much I sucked at defense. I had been investing as many points as possible into the defensive categories. Now it was time to put it to use.

Before the game, the coach had instructed us to do a full court press. Basically, it involved everybody marking their guy from one side of the court to the other, not in a half court setting.

I was playing the point, so my job was the toughest. The opponents inbounded the ball to their point guard who then started dribbling. I started pressing him, trying to make it difficult for him to advance and constantly swiping at the ball. He tried to switch directions by moving back and bringing the ball behind his back. I had seen this move in practice countless times and by now, was used to it."Gotcha" I swiped at the ball, knocking it lose.

From the corner of my eye, I saw my Kataro cutting towards the basket. 1

"Kotaro" I yelled and did a simple behind the back pass to him and he scored an easy layup.

The opponents rebounded the ball to the point guard again and once again I started pressing him. The point guard was frustrated but he was not stupid. He simply passed the ball to another of his teammates. Kiyoshi, who was marking him stepped forward and the teammate just passed the ball.

This was a risky but effective solution to get out of the full court press. Should there be a careless pass, the ball would be stolen. However, with concise and careful passes, it would not be difficult to cross half court.

After crossing half court, they passed the ball to their center who started working his way into the paint. But the thing was, their center wasn't anybody special. He wasn't big or strong, nothing Kiyoshi couldn't handle.

He tried to go up strong to the basket but was simply swatted away by kiyoshi."Let's go! Get that outta here!"

Kotaro grabbed the ball and started pushing the pace up the court. The opponents only had only defender on him, who ran forward and attempted to block his way to the basket. Suddenly Kotaro came to a stop.

"Five" He uttered, putting 5 fingers on the ball and pounding it as hard as he could.

BOOM*

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Chapter 22: Practice game: Part 1

Boom!*

The sound reverberated through the gym. Both my teammates and opponents were shocked to see this move except me. He had never done this move in practice before, I assume he was practicing this secretly on his own. It was pretty impressive to be able to do this when he was only a second year but well, his 5 now is like a 3 for his high school self.

Kotaro then did a quick crossover and layed the ball into the basket. The score was now 7-0 and the opposing team called a timeout.

"Damn Kotaro where you learn that move!" Kiyoshi thumped Kotaro on the back.

"Yeah, that was crazy. How strong must you be to pound it so hard." I chipped in.

"Nah there's actually a technique behind it, it's kinda complicated but I'll try to explain to you guys after the match." Kotaro replied.

We then sat on the bench and started to rest.

"We are doing well so far. I want to continue seeing effort during the full court press and good ball movement. If you hold the ball for more than 10 seconds, just pass it. I don't want any disruption in the flow of the game. Is that clear." The coach said.

"YES SIRE!" 2

The buzzer then sounded, indicating the end of the timeout. We then proceeded onto the court and the game continued.

A player from the opposing team inbounded the ball to the point guard. I then started pressing him up, trying my best to swipe at the ball. After failing to get pass me, one of his teammates started running up the court and the guard passed to him.

They then attempted to run a basic pick and roll. This strategy might work with a normal team but that was not us. We had been drilled by the coach countless times and details to watch out for was ingrained into our minds by now.

"Switch!" Kotaro yelled to Haru. Kotaro then switched onto the opposing teams big who was receiving the ball. The player then took a tough mid range shot which when through the basket.

Well, it was good defense by Kotaro but you can't prevent every shot.

I then got the ball and started dribbling. Once I crossed half court, my defender started to pressure me. I did a quick cross over and managed to get a decent amount of space to operate. Seeing that I got pass my defender, I drove towards the basket. Once I got into the paint, the opponents center once again stepped forward to contest my shot. But this time I did not back down.

Gripping the ball tightly to my side, I jumped into my defender, getting right up into his chest. Once there was a significant amount of contact, I stretched out my hand and tossed the ball into the basket from the other side. I then fell to the floor and looked up to see the ball fall through the net.

YEAH! Looks like investing all those points into layups was worth it!

We continued pressing them for the entire game, constantly switching out players when they got tired. Luckily the training from hell the coach had given us had greatly improved our stamina, allowing the starters to play for most of the game.

I attempted shots when I was open and passed the ball to the open man when not. I had been trying to learn off ball movement, it is a great skill to have and can create many opportunities for both me and my teammates. I constantly cut to the rim, set screens and ran to the open area to find an open shot.

I had been watching the warriors and their off ball movement. It was amazing to see Steph or Klay manage to get open after a series of well planned screens. It just looked so smooth and mesmerizing, as if the whole team functioned as one. 2

Most of the offensive load went though Kiyoshi and Kotaro though. Kiyoshi was Mr. fundamental I have a feeling he modelled his game after Tim Duncan. He scored skillfully in the paint with a combination of footwork and trickery. He usually hit opponents with a series of pump fakes, getting them up into the air before scoring the easy basket. He had even added the bank shot into his game, making him a highly efficient scorer.

Kotaro was busy testing his new move during the game. Crossing over players and stunning them with his dribbling. The ball moved too fast for most to react, they would try to reach in and find nothing but air. By the time they turned around, Kotaro was already driving towards the basket and they had no chance of catching up. Should another defender try to help, Kotaro would simply kick the ball to the open man for the open look.

"Damn. The full court press really puts a load on you. I think I've run like 3 kilometres in this game already." Kotaro groaned as he sat down on the bench. It was not the break between the third and fourth quarters and the score was 78 - 36

"During the fourth I want the bench players to be playing. The starters can take a break, you have done more than enough. Kaen, you will continue playing in the fourth. This round I want you to carry the offensive load. I want to see what you can do."

Oh. Is this a challenge? Well, bring it on.

––—

power stones pls

actually I don't really know what they do but who doesn't want free stuff

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Chapter 23: Practice game: Part 2

The buzzer sounded and my team, consisting of bench players, and I walked onto the court. I looked around at my teammates. There was Yuto, he was a reliable second scorer on the second team. He could shoot consistently at an acceptable percentage, allowing him to gain the position of a shooting guard. His game mainly consisted of him running around, trying to loose his man who was ball watching.

Next was Sota. He was tall, very tall. Standing at 1.89 meters tall, he was the second tallest player on the team, just behind Kiyoshi and he played the position of center. Imagine a 15 year old being that tall, it is just crazy. He wasn't very skilled though. The furthest he could shoot was from the free throw line but it didn't really matter much. He practically lived under the basket, grabbing rebounds and tipping in missed shotes.

At small forward, there was Yuki. I really want to play his position but I gotta control myself for now. At least I'm getting the keys to the offense so I could still use some moves for small forwards. Yuki was an average player. He was average in everything and never excelled in anything. This style of play was perfect for being a small forward as it allowed one to utilize all skills in basketball.

Lastly, was Koki, the teams power forward. He was actually only a power forward in name, he played nothing like one. Although he was 1.84 meters tall, he was a spot up shooter. In practice, he mostly trained his threes, never working that hard on any other part of his game. He wasn't bad at what he did but he was very limited.

Well, this was what I had to work with for now. Definitely no stars with me, but that means that it was my turn to shine the brightest.

Since we had won the tip, it was our turn to start in the fourth. I got the ball and started dribbling up the court. Hm, what should I do, let me get my teammates involved right now.

I passed the ball to Yuto who then started dribbling the ball. I stopped for a moment, allowing my defender to relax. Once I saw that he wasn't looking my way, I burst in Yuto's direction. I ran past him and he quickly handed the ball off to me and set me a screen. I squared up my feet and got into my shooting motion and let the ball fly.

I knew it was going in before it did. It just felt so good on my hands. The ball fell through the net and I ran back on defense. The coach had noticed that the opponents had gotten used to the full court press and told us to switch back to the normal half court defense. This was a huge boost as now I had the gas to last through the entire fourth quarter.

My opponent came forward with the ball and I started marking him. He then burst to the left, putting his head low trying to drive to the rim. "LEFT" I heard a shout, I but it was too late. My opponent had trapped me and I had no choice but to run into the screen. "Switch!" I yelled back, hoping one of my teammates could cover for me. The guard then passed to ball back to my screener. He was in front of me and had a clear position to the basket.

I watched as he ran towards the basket. All those lessons of defense with Kiyoshi as well as a variety of defensive skills I received from the system flashed through my head. I took note of his timing, footwork and where the ball was. I watched as he took hold of the ball with 2 hands. And I counted in my head.

One

Two

Now

I jumped and got my hand on the ball just after he released it. Feeling the ball firmly in my hand, I instinctively did one thing. I threw the ball as hard as I could out of the court. I then landed and everything went back to normal.

"YEEEAAAAAHHHHH! THATS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!" I yelled. The bench was going crazy. My teammates were all over me. The referee blew the whistle signaling an out ball but no one cared.

That block had hyped my teammates up and giving us the flow of the game for the rest of the quarter. My opponents who held the slimmest chance of hope just gave up, knowing it was over. This was the power of defense, the power of a block.

My opponents then inbounded the ball. They continued running their plays but it was easy to see that none of them put any effort into it. Nice, this means that they will be slacking off on defense too. Time for me to earn rack up some points.

I watched at the ball bounced off the rim and was caught by Sota. I started sprinting down the court and stretched out my hand. "Ball!" I yelled and felt the ball land firmly in the palm of my hand. I then picked up the pace and dribbled quickly to the basket. I looked around and saw no defenders over me. Wow, I guess they have really given up huh.

I then tossed the ball into the basket. That was 6 points right there, easy. 5

After a series of badly run plays by the opponent, we got possession of the ball once again. I dribbled forward and shot a pass to Koki who immediately pulled up and shoot a three which went in. Another 9 points.

Clang. I watched as the ball bounced off the rim and flew in my direction. I caught it and started making started dribbling in the direction of my basket. A defender stepped forward to guard me. I turned my back towards him and faked a look to my left. I then spun to the right and drove to the basket for an easy lay in.

The points just keep coming.

_ _ _

There were about 5 second left on the shot clock. I got the ball from one of my teammates and started dribbling forward quickly. I watched as the clock counted down, 3 seconds, 2 seconds there was not enough time. I pulled up about 2 meters from the 3 point line and let the ball fly.

Beep the buzzer sounded while the ball was still in the air. The entire gym stood still in anticipation. The ball hit the backboard and went firmly through the net. "Lets gooo!" 1

I high fived my teammates and looked at my coach. He gave me a firm smile and nodded his head. I did it, I finally earned his respect and the starting postion.

"Nice one Kaen, that was some good shooting right there." Said Yukio. 1

"Dude, where you even get that range. I never seen you shoot from there in practice." Said Haru.

My teammates showered me in praises and I sat on the bench with a bright smile on my face. However, I wasn't smiling at their comments, I was smiling at what was on the screen in front of me.

–––

Hey guys, do any of your have tips to improve your vertical. My highest recorded vert was 34.5 inches or about 80 cm which is pretty trash for a 16 year old. If you have, pls share in the comments. 5

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

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Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 24: Second team

I slept well in bed that night dreaming of all the points I earned from the game. I had scored 22 points, dished out 8 assist, caught 7 rebounds and had 3 steals in the practice game. This earned me a record 140 points in a single game. 140 POINTS! I would have taken at least a week to earn the same amount.

I had invested my points evenly into all categories, trying to get all my levels up to level 5. I decided against buying a signature shot for now as they were insanely expensive. I wanted get decently good at everything first before experimenting on new things.

Well, all in all I earned hell of a lot of points and there were many more practice games to come before the preliminaries started.

-The next day—

I opened the doors and stepped into the gym for the second team. The court was overcrowded as heck, people were doing their drills or just working on individual parts of their game. I estimated that there were at least 40 people spread out amount two courts.

Dang! This is crazy. In the first team, there are 2 courts spread among 15 players and we sometimes get in the way of each other. How do the people over here practice?

"Sup Kaen, what is mr prodigy doing in the mediocre second team gym." I heard someone call out behind me.

I turned around and saw Takao, his body drenched in sweat, resting on a bench.

"Yo, I came over here to hang with you and Ryo. I haven't balled with you guys in a while. I've only been seeing you during school time." I replied.

"A-are you sure you want to play with us. We aren't as good as the first team, s-shouldn't you be practicing with them."

I glanced to the side and knew it was Ryo speaking.

"Nah, today is a rest day for the first team. We just had a game yesterday. I'm bored so I came down here to chill a bit. You guys are the best I have at the moment so yeah."

Takao immediately butted in:" Hey, you better not get so cocky. Lets play a game right now and watch me trash your ass."

I smirked:" Oh, really. Come, let's go I'm all in."

I then went over to one of the coaches for the second team and asked if I could join in on the matches. I guess the coach was happy for his players to be playing against better competition so he readily agreed.

The coach the coach then blew his whistle and started arranging the players into teams for a couple of friendly matches. We would be playing full court games for a duration of 1 quarter in teams of 5.

I was paired up with Ryo, a pretty short point guard and a pair couple of decently tall guys. I guess the point guard could shoot and pass. The big guys would just bang around in the paint.

Well they pretty much gave me the keys to the entire offense. The point guard even stated that he would be playing catch and shoot and he asked me to run the point in addition to playing the small forward position.

This should be good practice for me since I would be playing the point position for the rest of the year.

I started with the ball and made my way up the court. Wait, I thought to myself. This should be the perfect time to try out some new moves. I mean, if these new moves wouldn't even work against mediocre competition, it would not work in the first team.

I then picked up my pace and advanced more quickly. When I was right in front of my defender, I slowed to a stop and brought the ball close as if I was going to shoot a shot. My defender bit the bait and lunged forward. Once I saw this, I threw the ball to my left and started running after it, leaving my defender behind.

I managed to regain control of the ball, I entered the paint and saw the center come forward to defend me. I continued to run and when I was just in front of him, I jumped to the side, bypassing him completely and layed the ball in smoothly.

_ *

A couple of possessions later, I got the ball and called for an iso. My teammates then started moving away from me, giving me a large space to operate. I looked at my defender and started dribbling. I moved towards my right, as I moved I continuously jabbed my foot lightly forward, as though I was going to drive. Suddenly, I lunged forwards, causing my defender to react and sprint to the right.

I then placed my hand on my defender and gave him a slight push, nothing too obvious, something which the refs will not be able to catch and did a quick crossover to the left. I watched my defender fall to the ground and I quickly stepped back behind the three point line. I stared at my defender and waited for him to get back up. He quickly tried to get back up to contest the shot but I let the ball fly and watch it swish through the net. 1

"Damn, Kaen, that's some nasty stuff you doing right there." Takao yelled from the side.

"Wait for your turn, I'll show you some more moves." I cheekily replied to him.

After a couple more back and forth possessions, the game came to an end. The result, well let's just say my team destroyed them, badly.

Ryo has improved significantly since I last played with him during the tryouts. He has definitely been working on his shot, it is much smoother than last time. His handles have also gotten better. In the past, he looked pretty awkward trying to dribble past his defender but now he has more confidence in his handles.

Now, it was time for the next match. I would be going against Takao, time to see how much he has improved.

––

Have any of you ever ankle broken someone before. I have only done it once and it was while playing at a street court not in an official game. If you have share it in the comments. If you haven't gimme a power stone. 2

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

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Chapter 25: Second team: Part 2

I watched as the bigs on both teams jumped for the ball. From my point of view, it was quite clear that Takao's team was going to win the tip. Eh, its fine, its not like the tip really matters that much anyway.

I then turned around and started running back on defense, setting myself up and waiting for the opponents to bring the ball forward.

"I got Takao, the rest of you mark your man!" I shouted to my teammates.

"Oh, is mr prodigy actually going to start trying now?" Takao said with grin.

"Only if I need to." I replied, just as Takao started lunging forward.

I was much faster than him and managed to block his drive in time, preventing him from driving to the basket. Due to a slight miscommunication, one of my teammates had slacked off on his man and come over to help, leaving his man was currently wide open. However I did not think much of it. He was currently behind two defenders, how did he expect Takao to see him. I thought.

Suddenly, Takao threw a behind the back pass straight into the hands of the open man and he tossed the ball into the basket.

Crap, I remember now. He had his eagle vision or eagle eye in the anime. If I remember correctly, it allowed him to see the positions of all players on the floor. I messed up. 1

"Stay with your man, I don't need help on defense. Just don't leave your man open." I told my teammates.

I then caught pass from one of my teammates and started going on offense.

I signaled for Ryo to get ready and he nodded his head. We then started running towards each other, confusing both our defenders. Once Ryo was just beside me, I handed the ball off to him and set a screen, preventing both our defenders from contesting the shot. Ryo then let the ball fly and it fell through the basket with ease.

A few possessions later, I was currently with the ball being defended by Takao. Seeing that I was a distance away from the 3 point line, he stepped back.

"Oh, are you sure you want to leave me so open." I said.

"Who are you kidding man, if you make a shot from there I will buy you a drink after this." Takao replied.

Ok, I gotta make this shot right now. I squared up my shoulders and dipped the ball down. Once I ensured that I had gotten sufficient momentum, I brought the ball up to a low set point and let the ball fly. I watched as the flew in a arc before rattling itself through the rim. I then turned to Takao, with a grin and said: " Remember your promises."

On defense, things were not looking that great. This was basketball, a team sport, defense was not like offense where it could be run through a single individual. Defense required the whole team to work together and any weak spots would be targeted by the opponents mercilessly and that was what Takao did.

I had no trouble locking Takao down and preventing him from scoring, but preventing him from passing was a whole other matter. This was my first time playing with my teammates and it showed. There was a lack of coordination between my team members, whether it was on switches or help defense. There were many times where my team members had left a man unguarded or were simply caught ball watching. Takao would just fling a pass to his open teammates for them to knock down a shot.

"Screw it, this is not working. Ok we will stick to man to man. Just make sure to stick with your guy and him only. No switching or anything just lock them down for one last possession." I told my team and they nodded their heads in agreement.

Takao then started dribbling. He got one of his teammates to set a screen for him. I was expecting it and easily dodged. However, he had also expected his teammates defender to also switch onto him so he could run an easy pick and roll play. But that did not happen. My teammate stuck with his guy and Takao was now left in a bad position holding the ball. I stepped forward and started to pressure him and managed to get a finger on the ball, knocking it loose.

I then ran after the loose ball, picking it up and looked up at the clock 7 seconds left. I picked up my pace and sprinted towards my basket. Takao was running just beside me, trying to push me of course. I could tell that he was putting in extra effort, trying to make up for his bad play on offense.

Once I neared the basket, I slowed down, still keeping Takao at my side. There were only 3 seconds left. I pounded the ball once, hard and gave Takao a slight nudge with my shoulder. I then burst forward and came to a stop on two legs before jumping up and made the lay up.

Nice, there was only 1 second left on the shot clock, the game was basically over. My team had beaten Takao's 30 - 17. A valiant effort from Takao but his teammates just weren't good enough.

I turned to Takao: " I'm gonna be kind and let you get me a green tea. That's like the cheapest item in the vending machine."

"This is just not fair. Why did a first team kid come here to bully us in the second team." Takao joked.

"Well, I gotta admit you two did improve quite a bit since the last time I saw you. Ryo's shot is a lot smoother and you, how do you manage to pass like that?" I asked.

"Well, lets just say its a trade secret." Said Takao with a smirk.

I guess he ain't gonna share about his eagle eye just yet. I'm pretty sure there's some sort of underlying method behind it but I'll figure it out later.

"Yo Ryo, Takao and I are gonna get drinks. Wanna come!" I yelled at Ryo from across the court. Well, I guess it was nice to ball with people my age once in a while, since everybody on the first team is a year older than me. Maybe I should come here more often.

––-

Your power stone is looking good, give it to me.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 26: Exams

I was on the verge of falling asleep in class. The drone of the teacher, the noise the classroom fan was making and the afternoon heat were all trying to put me to sleep. I propped my textbook up and lay my head on the table.

I don't even know why I bothered trying to cover up the fact that I was sleeping in class with a textbook. It was so obvious to the teacher but it was basically hinting to the teacher to go away.

"Ok class that is all for today. Remember you that you have exams next week. I want everybody to put aside your activities for the next week and study for it. You are not in elementary school anymore, you are young adults. I trust all of you to study hard, goodbye."

Wait a minute. What did my teacher just say. Exams?

Did I just screw up, I swear I read the timetable which said exams were 3 weeks away. I mean I should be fine for the math and sciences but maybe not so much for the humans subjects such as history. I was in Japan so all they taught was Japanese history. 1

I guess you could go on about all that learning from history crap but I feel history was just a waste of time. The only thing nice about it was that it was somewhat interesting, learning about all the wars and such. But it was anything but useful. It was easy to look back and criticize the mistakes people made but I'm sure if any of us were put into similar situations as them, we would be doing exactly the same.

Well, that was that. I'm not complaining, I have way less to study than others anyway.

"Yo Karma, are you going to study for the exams or are you just going to find a random guy to fight?" I turned to ask Karma.

"Relax, no one studies now man, we are too young for that." He replied coolly.

"Don't gimme that crap man. You obviously study, you act like you slack off in class but I know you are secretly paying attention. You do well in subjects such as Biology and History and it's pretty obvious you had to study to memorize all those facts."

Karma's face turned red." W-well, I guess you got me. But I'm willing to bet that I will do better than you this exams."

"Are you sure about that. Don't go regretting your decisions." I replied.

"Hey, Kaen. You are good at studying right, are you willing to teach us a little. My results aren't great and I'm trying to improve in my studies."

I turned around and say Raku with his two sidekicks Onodera and Shu. I mean this guy was literally a harem mc. He was so honest, innocent and gullible.

He also wasn't very smart, I would say maybe at best slightly above average in terms of intelligence. Not gonna lie, there are times where he is so dense that I think he is a retard but I guess some girls fall for that? I don't know how a smart girl like Chitoge could fall in love with him in the future but maybe Onodera made sense?

"Well, it shouldn't be a problem. I won't be teaching you guys the pure memorization topics such as Bio and History though. That fine with you guys?" I asked.

" Yeah no problem. I have been spending that past week or two trying to memorize those, it is just math and physics which I do not really understand." Raku replied.

Suddenly, I thought of an idea. I then spoke up:" Our study group should be fine but Onodera is the only girl, she may feel left out, should we invite another girl along with her?"

I'm a genius, I thought to myself.

" Sure, no problem. Which other girl do you have in mind though?" Raku answered.

"Hm, well I don't really know. How about Miku, she seems pretty interested in History, maybe she could teach us some tips and tricks to memorize it. Could you ask her for me though, I'm a little busy?" I said. 1

Raku: " Yeah, you are right. That seems like a pretty good idea. I'll ask her right after school, you can go ahead."

Nice, now it would not seem like I was the desperate one wanting her to come study with us. The blame would be put on Raku. Since he is so dense he can act as my shield and he won't notice a thing.

If this thing does not work out, there are still many ways to approach her. If I remember the anime correctly, she did not do well in her exams at all, except only history. She was probably going to flunk the exams and I remember the teacher talking about pairing us up to teach one another.

Well, I just hope that she is not stupid. Sometimes stupidity really puts someone off, it could ruin my entire impression of her. She can memorize history really well though, being able to remember the entire book just by reading it once. It shows that her memory is pretty exceptional.

"Karma, just to make sure you are going to come with us right?" I checked with my tablemate.

"Nah, don't want to." He quickly replied.

"Hey, just come. There's no way I can teach all of them at once, I need another teacher. How bout this, if you don't come, I'm gonna tell everybody your little secret about not studying." I said with a smirk.

Suddenly, he sat up, cleared his throat and asked: " So… when and where are we going to be studying again?"

I burst out laughing. "My house, this Saturday, come anytime you want."

I can't wait for Saturday, I thought to myself.

––

Give me your power stone or give me your liver.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

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Chapter 27: Studying

"What the hell am I doing here man. You didn't call me for like 2 weeks and when you call its to study. Kaen, have you given up on basketball already?" Aomine looked at me.

"Bro, our exams are next week and all you think about is balling. We actually gotta study or our parents are going to get pissed." I replied.

"Yeah Aomine, not everything is about basketball you know. If I remember correctly, your mother promised to buy you a new pair of shoes if you got an A." Satsuki added. 2

"Wait what. Aomine how spoiled are you, just a single A and you get a pair of shoes. This world just ain't fair man." I said exasperatedly.

"Like you are one to talk Kaen. You live in a mansion and every time I see you you have a new pair of sneakers on. I don't think I have seen you wearing a pair of shoes more than once." Said Satsuki.

"Nah. I'm sure I have the same number of shoes as Aomine. Its just that we have been seeing each other less recently. Oh I got good news for you Aomine, my body finally adjusted to the trainings. Tomorrow wanna meet at the old court to ball?"

"Wait Kaen, you serious. Let's goo man!" Aomine shouted excitedly.

"Kaen don't change the subject. How many shoes do you actually have?" Satsuki said narrowing her eyes at me.

Ding Dong*

"Oh I guess my friends are here, sorry Satsuki, I'm gonna have to answer your question another time." I said.

"Hey!"

I ran out of the room before she could continue. I then opened my main door and saw my group of friends. Everybody was here, even Karma.

"Sup guys, come on in. We are gonna be studying in the main room. There's quite a bit of space for everybody so get comfortable." I said as I invited them in.

I then brought them to the living room where they saw Aomine and Satsuki, after round of introductions we were ready to start studying.

"Ok, so who will be studying with who?" I asked.

"I suggest we split ourselves into groups. There can be a dumb group for people like Aomine, an average group and an elite group for people like Kaen and I." Satsuki suggested.

"Great Idea. Karma is also in the Elite group. Raku and his gang should be in the average group and Miku which group do you think you will fit in?" I asked.

"I-I think I am in the poor group." Said Miku nervously. Crap, I forgot that she was nervous around people she did not know well. To be honest she was not close to any of us. She didn't really talk to people in class and during recess she would sneak off, probably to be with her sisters. It was a miracle that Raku actually managed to get her to come.

"Hm, how about this then. Satsuki will teach Aomine. Karma you should be able to handle Raku and his gang since they are decent and I will teach Miku. Anybody have any objections?" I said.

I looked around and everybody shook their heads. Nicely played Kaen, I thought to myself.

We then sat down in our respective corners and started to study.

"Kaen, please teach me well. I'm not good in math and physics." Said Miku as she took out her textbooks. Damn she was pretty cute. Well, I was thirteen and starting to go through puberty, my hormones were getting the better of me.

" Alright, relax I got you. So shall we start with math?" I asked and she nodded her head.

"Ok so lets start with simple algebra. So we have an x variable and a y variable. These two form an equation…."

Damn this is easy to teach. I mean I have finished the entire curriculum until age 16. At that age we will be learning factorization of cubic equations, these simple simultaneous equations were nothing.

After an hour of studying we had more or less finished studying for math. Since this was the first exam of the year, the amount of content we actually had to study was pretty meagre.

"Ok so Miku, do you understand everything I just explained to you?" I asked.

"I remember everything." She replied.

Deciding to test her, I gave her a couple of math questions for her to do. The result was pretty shocking.

"Erm Miku, I see you can remember every formula and method I taught you, but why are you not applying it?" I wondered.

"I can't seem to see a way to use them, is there even a way to solve this question?" Miku asked.

What the hell is this. Don't tell me she is one of those people who have an insane memory but sucks in application skills. How the hell does that even happen. If I recall correctly, memory was directly related to IQ. So why the hell is she so slow. 2

This would take a while, I thought to myself.

"So can you do all the questions now?" I asked her. I had decided to use a brute force method to teach her. Basically I made her memorize the steps to solve every single type of question. We were still young so there was a pretty obvious pattern in the questions.

Miku nodded her head eagerly:" Thanks Kaen, this has never happened to me before. I can actually answer the questions now." 1

"Alright, now its time for physics, I'm going to teach you the formulas exactly the same way that I did for math." I said.

This is going to be a long day.

––

Power stone or your life. 2

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 28: Exploring the system

After studying, everybody went home. Exhausted, I lay down on my bed and called out my system.

[Host: Nakamura Kaen (Middle school player) Age: 12

Height: 35/100 (Projected height growth: 1.96 meters)

Close shot: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Driving layup: 600/800 (Level: 4)

Dunking: 0/100 (Level: 1)(Host has yet to meet required height and vertical)

Post hook: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Midrange shot: 0/1600 (Level: 5) (Signature shot: none)

Three-point shot: 0/1600 (Level: 5) (Signature shot: none)

Free throw: 0/1600 (Level: 5) (Signature shot: none)

Pass accuracy: 120/800 (Level: 4)

Ball handle: 120/800 (Level: 4)

Post control: 110/800 (Level: 4)

Interior defense: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Perimeter defense: 0/800 (Level: 4)

Steals: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Block: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Rebounding: 0/400 (Level: 3)

Speed: 200/800 (Level: 4)

Strength: 200/800 (Level: 4)

Vertical: 200/800 (Level: 4)

(Level 1 refers to the ability of an average middle school player)

Badges: Daily missions level 2

Shop:

General points: 0]

I looked at my system and just felt annoyed. Why are there so many god damn categories now, maybe I should not have taken the free system upgrade. Now everything is going to take a much longer time to upgrade. I guess the saying that there's no such thing as a free lunch is true.

I'm sure that by the end of the year, all my stats would have reached level 5 and some may even be higher. However, I did not know if I was going to improve in time to face the generation of miracles during the nationals.

Ah, if only there was a tool which allowed me to see the levels of others as well. That would be insanely useful, at the moment all I can do is use the simple eye test. Now that I think of it, I haven't really explored what the shop function is about.

Shop, I called out in my mind and watched the screen change.

[ loading shop…]

[Temporary:

Energy boost : 50 general points (Temporarily gives you more energy)

Strength boost : 50 general points (Temporarily increases strength by 2 levels)

Vertical boost: 50 general points (Temporarily increases vertical by 2 levels)

Fatigue boost: 50 general points (Temporarily clears your mind of any fatigue)

Permanent:

Sticky fingers: 500 general points ( Improves grip on ball)

Increase wingspan: 1500 general points

Larger feet: 500 general points 3

Quick reflexes: 500 general points

Beast reflexes: 600 general points (Note: Quick reflexes must first be purchased) 1

God reflexes: 700 general points (Note: Quick reflexes and Beast reflexes must first be purchased) 1

Badges: (Note: there are special badges which cannot be bought)

Daily missions level 3: 500 general points (provides 30 general points a day)

Daily missions level 4: 1000 general points (provides 40 general points a day) (Note: Daily missions level 3 is required)

Daily missions level 5: 1500 general points (provides 50 general points a day) (Note: Daily missions level 4 is required)

Defensive monster: 1000 general points (When badge is activated, it improves defense by 2 levels)

Shooting specialist: 1000 general points (When badge is activated, it improves shooting by 2 levels)

Ankle breaker: 1000 general points (When badge is activated, it improves handles by 2 levels)

]

Holy crap, that is one hell of a shop. Alright so first there are some temporary boost. I guess I can use those when I'm running on fumes. It would be insanely useful during games which go into overtime or high intensity games. I would say the 50 general points are a little overpriced though. I would have to save up for 2 and a half days to afford one of those.

For the permanent features, everything there is definitely useful. Sticky fingers and Increased wingspan is pretty obvious but the larger feet is also a definite buy. Having larger feet would give me more balance and allow me to set my feet more quickly. It would also give me a larger surface to push off on so I definitely won't be surprised if my vertical increased as well.

Reflexes are important. I might even say that it is just behind height in terms of importance for basketball. Imagine having the reflexes to be able to react to a defender in mid air or while dribbling. Having extremely quick reflexes could make me unguardable on the court.

However, I see the little trick they pulled off there. They are making me purchase a reflex boost 3 times. It's basically trying to trick me into thinking that god reflexes are cheap but I would actually end up paying 1800 general points for it. 2

Lastly there are the badges. The daily missions level 5 is the next thing I'm going to buy. I just need about 3000 points till I manage to get it. What's more is that I get an increase of 30 to 40 points each day along the way. I'm sure if I start saving right now I can get it in about 2 months or so, just in time for the preliminaries.

The specialty badges are a no go for me at the moment. First is because they are too expensive and second is that there is confirm some cooldown to it. I doubt the badge would improve my levels by 2 permanently, it would probably give me a temporarily boost for about 2 minutes or so.

Man, I also did not find the badge I was looking for. I expected to see some badge which would give me the levels of other players. Isn't that what happens in all the other mangas or novels. I'm just gonna hope and pray that it is one of the badges that must be earned and cannot be bought.

Alright, now its time to go to sleep. I had made plans to meet Aomine at the court tomorrow, I couldn't wait to destroy him.

––

Hi guys, this novel is just a holiday project for me. I have recently started another side project which is to program a game. I have to do these 2 projects in addition to basketball so the amount of chapters each week would probably decrease. I would probably only post about 4 chapters each week. Thanks.

power stone or your kidney.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 29: Chilling with old friends

"Oh my god, Kaen, it has been so long since we have done this." Said Aomine as he dribbled the ball around the court. 1

"Relax bro, I'm pretty sure it has only been 2 months max." I replied.

"Yeah it has but it has been a while since the three of us have hung out together. If only you came to the same school as us Kaen, everything would have been perfect." Satsuki added.

"Eh. What can I do about the posting system. Well high school is a different matter though, we have options for that." I said.

"You are definitely going to be coming with us Kaen." Aomine said sternly.

Well, they may be going to Tou in the future. The atmosphere that team has is a nono for me.

"We shall see in the future, we are way too young right now. Wanna play some one on one? Let me see how much you have improved." I said, casually changing the topic.

Satsuki: "Ooh Aomine, you have to play with Kaen. It will give me some good data for when we meet him in the Nationals." 1

"Yo Satsuki, we are friends aren't we. Why you gotta do this to me." I said with a grin. I then passed the ball to Aomine and checked him up. Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of me.

[Sudden mission:

Win Aomine in a one on one, first to a hundred, and obtain a special badge.

Special Badge: The eye]

Woah, another freebie. But to a hundred! Isn't a normal one on one usually to eleven. I'm pretty sure going by the one on one rules its also playing ones and twos that means that even if I just shoot threes I will have to shoot at least 50 shots! This is going to kill me.

Wait why is this sounding really familiar. I swear I have heard a story with something similar before. Oh! I remember. Kobe used to play one on one with his teammates during trainings to a hundred. He even said that the closest his teammates ever got was 100-12. But it is Kobe, mans a legend.

"Yo Aomine wanna do something crazy?" I asked.

He looked at me with a puzzled expression.

I continued:" Lets play to a hundred. Loser has to treat us to lunch."

Aomine:"No way, No way. You are crazy man. What the hell are you even thinking…"

"What you scared or something?" I cut him off and passed him the ball. Reluctantly he passed the ball back and got into a defensive stance.

Ok I'm going against the one and only Aomine, I gotta be aggressive but also conserve my stamina at the same time.

I then lunged to my left, he bit the bait and shifted in that direction. I then did a quick crossover and stepped back behind the three point line and pulled up for a shot. The ball rattled through the hoop and dropped through.

"2-0. This is going to be too easy." I told Aomine.

"Wait till I get the ball." He replied.

I lunged to my left again, this round he stood his ground and did not move. Seeing the opportunity, I burst in that direction and blew pass him, scoring an easy layup.

I got the ball once more and did the exact same move. I lunged to the left and Aomine shifted too. I then did a crossover but he was prepared, and he tried to cut me off from advancing to the right. I then did a quick jab, and stepped back behind the arc scoring another 2 points.

I had many counter moves to my moves and counter moves to those counter moves. After a while, it would be a good idea to develop a new move but always having a go to move feels nice.

I continued doing the same move on Aomine, every time he reacted I would use another counter move and whenever he didn't react I would just burst to the basket.

"20-0" I said and passed Aomine the ball again.

I then lunged to the right and spun to the left and shot a fadeway jumper. The ball looked like it was going in but it hit the back of the rim.

Clang. The ball bounced off and landed right into Aomine's hands. My turn on defense.

Aomine started dribbling the ball while advancing towards me, lunged to the right and tried to bring the ball behind his back towards his left. I saw it coming and managed to poke at the ball causing him to lose control of it. He still managed to get it back though and put up a contested shot which banked in.

He was still a first year so he hadn't developed his streetball style of play. At the moment he was just a good player with really good handles.

I tried my best to shut him down, I constantly poked at the ball and contested all his shots but he still managed to find ways to score. Finally after he scored 10 points on me I found myself in a good position. Aomine had tried to back me down and turned to shoot a fadeaway. My knees were already bent and I jumped to contest the shot when he turned to shoot. I don't know if I had a really good jump or Aomine was shooting off an awkward position but I managed to get my hand on the ball and block his shot.

"Finally I stopped you, time to score another 20." I told Aomine.

"Try me."

I then stepped to the right with my left leg and lunged in that direction. Aomine assumed I was going to drive and stepped back. Seeing the opportunity I stepped back towards the right and drained the three.

The game continued in a similar fashion. I managed to score about 15 to 20 points in a go before missing the shot. Aomine would score around 10 points or so before turning over the ball to me. This way, the point gap between our scores slowly increased till it reached 98-60.

"Ready for me to win." I shot him a grin.

Aomine:" Don't be so overconfident. You haven't won till you score the last point."

I then started my attack. I dribbled towards my right going at a slow pace. Aomine got used to my pacing and relaxed slightly. Once I saw this, I burst towards the right stopping at the baseline and turned around to shoot a quick midrange jumper. Aomine had been caught off guard and was sprinting towards me at full speed.

I did a pump fake and expected him to fly past me, however when I was going into my shooting motion he crashed into me at full speed. I couldn't think of anything and just chucked the ball towards the basket, I then crashed into the ground heavily.

"Argghhhh. Aomine what the hell." I groaned.

"KAEN! KAEN! Are you okay!?" Satsuki started frantically asking me.

"KAEN! You alright bro? I'm so sorry I couldn't control my speed!" Aomine said panicking.

Seeing both of then panic was kind of heartwarming, seeing that I had 2 good friends who actually cared about me. I then saw the blue screen I knew all too well appear in front of me. I stuck out my hand and they both helped me up.

"So should we eat macdonalds? I won didn't I?" I looked at them with a smirk as I dusted off myself.

–—

Ok guys important question. Idk if I am going to add romance but if I am do you want it to be Miku or Satsuki? A lot of people have been saying they want it to be Satsuki so I might go along with that. 10

2 dollars for that power stone. 1

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

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Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 30: Birthday

At night, I checked my newly acquired badge.

[The Eye:

Allows host to read the levels of other players. However, host must see them physically for badge to work, it is not possible to read levels virtually.]

Oh yeah! I finally got the badge that I wanted. Makes sense that you must see then in real life. Videos could show a old game where the players in it are much better at the moment. Well, I got what I wanted, time for me to sleep.

2 weeks later_

"Hey Kaen, todays your birthday right? Wanna hang after school? Our exams just finished today too?" Karma asked.

"Nah sorry bro but not today, I have to go for training today. The preliminaries are coming in about 1 and a half months time." I replied sadly.

"Alright good luck in your training then, see ya tomorrow." Karma waved and exited the class.

I packed up my bag, grabbed my shoe bag and was about to leave the class as well when I noticed someone standing in front on my desk. Looking up I saw it was Miku.

"Hey what's up?" I asked.

"H-happy birthday Kaen. Thank you for everything, the exams were really easy because of you. T-this is a gift for you." She said and pushed something into my hands. I looked and saw it was an expensive looking box of chocolates.

"Thanks man, come to me if you need help next time alright. I gotta go now, bye." I thanked her and left.

Oh yeah, todays my birthday, I have been looking forward to this day forever. I had asked my parents for the latest collection of signature shoes available, I can't wait to go home and check them out. I thought to myself as I opened the gym to begin practice. The soles of my shoes wear out quickly, usually after about a month, so I need a ton of shoes.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAEN!" Everybody in the gym shouted as I entered. I was stunned, why was everybody looking so excited. They looked extra hyped for practice today for some reason.

"Finally your birthday came around, its time for us to update the rankings this year." Kiyoshi said to me. I shot him a confused look. Rankings? What the hell is he talking about.

Coach:" Okay since today is Kaen's birthday, it is time for us to hold our birthday tradition. Todays practice will be changed to a one on one tournament. We shall see who is the best among you since your seniors graduated last year."

Ohhhh, no wonder everybody is so excited today. So we get ranked huh, this is sounding exciting. I'm gonna aim for nothing but the top.

The coach then quickly drew up a tournament, since the team had 15 people the birthday boy, which was me, would get a bye.

The first round ended quickly, all the starters and 3 bench members, Yuto, Sota and Koki advanced to the second round. Lots were drawn and it ended with me getting put up against Yukio.

I used my eye badge to check out his stats.

[Player: Yukio Kasamatsu Age: 15

Height: 30/100 (Projected height growth: 1.90 meters)

Close shot: (Level: 3)

Driving layup: (Level: 4)

Dunking: (Level: 2)

Post hook: (Level: 3)

Midrange shot: (Level: 3)

Three-point shot: (Level: 2)

Free throw: (Level: 3)

Pass accuracy: (Level: 5)

Ball handle: (Level: 3)

Post control: (Level: 3)

Interior defense: (Level: 4)

Perimeter defense: (Level: 5)

Steals: (Level: 4)

Block: (Level: 4)

Rebounding: (Level: 4)

Speed: (Level: 4)

Strength: (Level: 5)

Vertical: (Level: 5)

(Level 1 refers to the ability of an average middle school player)

]

Yukio was a decent player. He was strong on defense and could put the ball in the hoop if he wanted to. He had a good jumper and was strong around the rim. However, he was not an exceptional scorer, he was an exceptional leader. He had a pass first playstyle causing him to not be very aggressive on offense, this was good news in a one on one for a player like me.

I got the ball and shifted into position. Jabbing my right foot forward, I tried to throw him off guard. Once he realized I was not going for the drive he relaxed slightly. Seeing this, I burst forward, using my elbow to prevent him from defending me and scored the easy layup.

I got the ball again and brought the ball between my legs while moving to the left. Yukio stepped left to block my advance, I then spun the the right and side stepped shooting a midrange shot.

Yukio gritted his teeth as the ball flew through the net. "Birthday luck." He said, checking me up and started guarding me tightly immediately. I stepped into him and pushed him back a little. I then jabbed to my left and stepped back to shoot a three. I thought I got a good look but as I was releasing the ball a hand came into view and threw the ball out of the court.

Crap, I gotta work on my stepback. My steps are still too small, the distance I create is not good enough.

I passed the ball to Yukio and started pressuring him. Yukio swung the ball around forcing me to step back to avoid getting hit. He then started driving to the basket. I tried to block his path but he pushed into me with sheer strength and scored the basket.

He got the ball and started driving again. But this round he stepped into the shot around the free throw line let the ball fly. It was a tough shot and the ball went in and out of the rim. Tough luck.

The game continued, I was clearly going to win this game as I was the better overall offensive player. However, Yukio's defense caused the game to drag on and by the time I scored the last basket, I had expended more energy than I had expected.

"You got me man, it was a good game. You better make it far maybe even beat Kotaro or Kiyoshi." Yukio said as he slapped me on the back. 1

"Yeah thanks man, I'm confident I stand a chance with Kotaro but Kiyoshi not so much." I said. Yukio opened his mouth and looked as if he was about to say something but the coach spoke up.

"Ok we are done with the second round of the tournament. Kotaro, Kiyoshi, Haru and Kaen have made it through. Now it is time to see where you guys rank in the top four."

––

Ok so Miku or Satsuki if I decide to add a love interest?

The current score is 14 for Satsuki and 3 for Miku, anybody who wants Miku better speak up or you are gonna be disappointed. 13

If you want the love interest to happen give me your power stone.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 31: Birthday: Part 2

"For the next round, Kaen will be playing against Kotaro and Haru will be playing against Kiyoshi. Good luck." The coach said.

Nice, at least I won't be playing against Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi and Kotaro may both be considered uncrowned kings but at the moment it was quite clear that Kiyoshi was the better player. Well, height matters a lot in basketball, especially for players in our age group. I took a look at Kotaro's stats.

[Player: Kotaro Hayama Age: 14

Height: 25/100 (Projected height growth: 1.85 meters)

Close shot: (Level: 4)

Driving layup: (Level: 5)

Dunking: (Level: 1)

Post hook: (Level: 3)

Midrange shot: (Level: 5)

Three-point shot: (Level: 2)

Free throw: (Level: 4)

Pass accuracy: (Level: 6)

Ball handle: (Level: 6)

Post control: (Level: 3)

Interior defense: (Level: 2)

Perimeter defense: (Level: 3)

Steals: (Level: 3)

Block: (Level: 2)

Rebounding: (Level: 3)

Speed: (Level: 5)

Strength: (Level: 3)

Vertical: (Level: 3)

(Level 1 refers to the ability of an average middle school player)

]

"Since its your birthday I'm gonna be kind and let you start." Kotaro said to me.

"Thanks but don't underestimate me." I replied.

Kotaro just smiled and passed me the ball. Okay take this easy and target his weak points I thought to myself. Kotaro was a skilled offensive player, he was proficient in the paint and could shoot pretty well from midrange. The only downside to his playstyle was that he could not shoot threes.

Kotaro wasn't good on defense, he actually kinda sucked. Luckily the team had some pretty good defenders who could cover for him. He wasn't very athletic, he was fast but he was not strong nor did he have a high vertical. His stats would probably increase in his third year but I think I stood a good shot at him at the moment.

I dribbled to the right and Kotaro followed me, matching my pace. Suddenly, I threw the ball forward and burst towards the rim. Kotaro couldn't keep up with my speed and left me wide open for an easy lay in.

Oh yeah, just stay efficient and winning shouldn't be a problem.

I got the ball and went into a triple threat position. I jabbed to the right then spun on my pivot foot so my back was facing Kotaro. I then jabbed to the left which Kotaro fell for, seeing my opportunity, I spun back and pulled up for a quick jumper.

"Alright, I ain't slacking no more. You ain't gonna be scoring in the next possession." Kotaro said.

"Oh, you better work on your defense man cause it's feeling too easy right now." I said.

I then did a hard jab to the right and pulled up straight away for a three. I watched the ball fly through the air.

Come on, come on please go in, I thought to myself.

It seems like my wishes were heard cause the ball rattled through the hoop. "LEGGO!"

However, my confidence turned against me. Once I got the ball, I thought I was feeling it and pulled up for another three. However, this one bounced off the back rim and landed in the hands of Kotaro.

"You had the ball for too long, now let me show you how to truly play offense." Kotaro said with a serious face. I knew he wasn't joking and got into my defensive stance.

Kotaro pounded the ball and lunged towards the right. I through he was going to do a crossover to the left but I was wrong. He jabbed his foot and side stepped, shooting a sweet mid range jumper.

Focus Kaen, don't over react. Just concentrate on where the ball is. I thought to myself.

Kotaro got the ball and pounded the ball. I knew he was going to go into another one of his moves but I continued following the ball. His body was moving to the right but the ball was moving to his left. I knew he was going to go into a crossover and reached for the ball.

BOOM!

All I heard was this sound and the ball disappeared. Kotaro burst pass me and did a lay up.

Crap. I forgot how quick his handles were. He isn't an uncrowned king for nothing. They are still the second best players in their respective positions behind the generation of miracles. Ok how am I going to defend this. My reflexes aren't fast enough.

Wait reflexes? Should I get the quick reflexes now? I had recently gotten the daily missions level 3 badge and was soon going to get the level 4 one. Should I spend the point I have right now on my reflexes instead. My mind was telling me no but my heart was telling me yes. I'm a baller, what's the point of balling if I don't try to win. Screw it, imma upgrade my reflexes, I'll earn the point back in about 2 to 3 weeks.

I called out my system and did a quick purchase of the quick reflexes. I expected to feel something course through me but I felt nothing. Eh, did the upgrade even happen?

"Yo Kaen, you alright? What you doing spacing out for?" Kotaro asked as he waved his hand in front of my face.

"Oh nothing. I was just thinking that with your offensive skills, combined with the abilities of the rest of the team, winning the championship this year shouldn't be a problem." I replied.

" Well obviously, Yukio ain't going to be graduating without that trophy in his hands. Well screw the small talk, we got a 1v1 to continue." Kotaro said with a grin.

I got into my defensive stance and Kotaro started dribbling. I focused on the ball and realized it was travelling slower than before. Did Kotaro usually dribble this slowly? Kotaro then got into position for a crossover and started bringing the ball to his right.

Usually, the ball was vanish but this round was different. This round I could see the ball and it was right in front of me. I reached out and poked the ball, I then ran after it and gained control of the ball. Kotaro was stunned, and could not react in time for defense. I just pulled up for an open three which I knocked down with ease.

I grinned and knew it was over. I was definitely going to win.

Beep* The coach blew his whistle.

"Ok so Kaen has beaten Kotaro 11-6 while Kiyoshi has beaten Haru 11-3, we will take a quick water break and then the finals will begin, good luck."

Yukio slapped me on the back:" That's our super rookie for you. I knew you could do it, you didn't let me down!"

"Yeah he got me good. I couldn't defend him at all." Kotaro added.

"Nah your defense is just trash." Haru said.

Well, I'm gonna be at least second place on this team. This means something, it has quashed anybody's frustrations about a first year being a starter. But now I gotta go against the best player here, I just pray I put up a fight.

power stones right now.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 32: Awkward situation

"Argghhhh." I groaned as I got out of bed. My body was battered from the 1v1 matches yesterday, especially the last one. Memories of it flashed through my mind.

Kiyoshi backing me down into the paint, ramming into me with his overwhelming size and strength advantage. Once he got down low, he would pump fake, get me in the air and score an easy basket.

I tried my best to defend him, I really did. I used all the strength I could muster in my body to stand against him but to no avail. There really was a huge difference between levels 4 and 7 in strength. It felt like going up against a wall. Luckily I don't play at the center position or I will just get bullied.

The crazy thing was that Kiyoshi was not the strongest center among the uncrowned kings. If I remember correctly there was another player called Eikichi Nebuya who was much stronger than Kiyoshi. I'm pretty sure he's going to be a level 9 or something for strength.

Well, all in all I got trashed in the finals yesterday. The score was 11-4. I only got the ball for about 3 possessions. Kiyoshi scored so efficiently yesterday that he missed only once. Screw this, once I get my daily missions level 5 badge I'm going to go on an upgrading spree. All my levels are going to increase so fast that no one would be able to stand in my way.

I did my daily morning routine of brushing my teeth and taking a quick bath before heading downstairs to eat my breakfast with my parents.

"So Kaen, what are you planning to do today?" My mother asked me while I was woofing down a couple of pancakes.

"Hm, I don't know. I guess I'm going to read my manga, play some games then hit the court in the evening." I replied.

"Stop doing such unproductive things like reading your manga. You should be spending your time studying instead…" My mother started to nag about studying like all parents do. I knew that she was concerned about my future but my goddamn exams just ended like a day ago.

"Well, since you are so free why don't you go look after Satsuki today." My father said.

"What? What happened to her?" I asked and immediately checked my phone.

I looked and immediately saw a string on whatsapp messages which I forgot to check. Some were from Aomine and some were from Satsuki.

Apparently Satsuki had fallen sick and was resting at home by herself at the moment. Aomine had to attend training so there was no one at home to take care of her. Well, I guess no one but me.

"Alright, I guess I'll go to her house today then." I sighed reluctantly. All my plans for today had gone down the drain, instead of watching anime I had to take care of Satsuki now.

About an hour later, I was standing outside Satsuki's house and rung the doorbell. A tired looking Satsuki opened the door and let me in.

"Here you go I brought you some snacks." I said putting a bag of snacks on the floor.

"Hey Kaen! You do know that I'm sick right and can't possibly eat snacks! Why the hell did you bring snacks for? Shouldn't you be bringing me medicine instead!" Satsuki started grumbling at me.

Crap, she's really moody when she's sick huh.

"Hold up, hold up, relax man. You could always eat the snacks when you recover. And I ain't a doctor man, there's no way I'm going to buy medicine for you. I could have bought you the wrong one and made your condition worse. Anyway, you already visited the doctor so why do you need more medicine?" I said smoothly, managing to get her to calm down.

"Hmph, fine. I guess your reasons are fine, well come to my room now and take care of me." She said, grabbing my hand and dragging me to her room.

Woah, woah, woah. This is wrong. I'm a freaking teenager man, this is just sending wrong signals all over the place.

Satsuki lead me to her room and lay on her bed. She then started taking off her shirt.

Shit.

"SATSUKI! STOP!" I yelled and she looked at me in bewilderment.

"IM A BOY AND YOU ARE A GIRL! YOU DON'T STRIP IN FRONT OF ME!" I continued.

Satsuki then realized what had happened. Her face turned bright red in embarrassment and she hit under her bedsheets.

Shit this is awkward. This is damn freaking awkward. The images of Satsuki taking off her shirt stuck in my mind.

"U-mm-mm. S-orr-yy." Satsuki mumbled. Crap how do I diffuse the situation now.

"I-it's okay. I-i only saw up to your belly, y-you can relax." I stuttered out a crappy excuse. It was the best one that I could think of off the top of my head. 1

"Y-you sure?"

"Yeah"

Silence, there was nothing but silence for the next 5 minutes. I just stood there next to her bed while she hid herself under her sheets. I really wish I was at home watching some anime right about now.

"S-so how you'd fall sick?" I asked. I tried my best, I wracked my brain and this was the best question that I came up with.

"I-i don't know? Maybe its because I was too stressed out from the exams, maybe I was overworked from club or maybe I caught it randomly down the street. I don't know?" She replied.

"Oh exams huh. You studied pretty hard for that right. I remember seeing your instagram story where you were studying at like 12am. How do you even work so hard?" I continued, sensing an opportunity to finally get rid of the awkwardness.

Satsuki: "Not everyone is like you Kaen. I don't know how you do it but I doubt there are many people as smart as you. Normal people like me, we actually got to work hard to achieve something good you know."

"Don't give me that man, I'm pretty sure you are just as smart as me or maybe even smarter. I couldn't even think of one of those basketball plays you draw up. But do you want to bet on the exams though?" I said. 1

"How much you wanna bet?" She asked.

"Hm, how about the loser has to buy the winner a free lunch. Alright?" I asked.

"yeah."

There was silence once again but this round much shorter.

"Hey Kaen, I'm going to trust that you didn't see anything alright. But even if you did this changes nothing right?" Satsuki asked.

"Yeah, I'm still one of your good friends. One small thing like this changes nothing." I said.

Satsuki then turned around and faced me for the first time in what felt like ages and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment pass through me.

"Now could you help me get my medicine, I feel like crap"

At night_

I lay on my bed thinking of what happened today. Suddenly, the image of what happened today flashed through my mind. If it wasn't obvious, I had lied. I didn't just see her belly, I saw everything.

Damn, she's hot. She's got some decent assets.

What the hell are you thinking Kaen. She's your childhood friend, this clich crap isn't supposed to happen.

This was when I realized this was my first time seeing Satsuki as a woman.

Alright so the voting was over and it was an overwhelmingly in favor of Satsuki. So here is the teaser. But just saying, I have never dated anyone before so there is quick a high chance there will be no love interest. Ballislyfe. 5

If you touched a basketball before, gimme your power stone.

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Chapter 33: Preliminaries in a week

[Sudden mission:

win against Aomine in a one on one game, first to a hundred and receive 400 general points]

Damn. I currently have about 1200 general points, once I get 400 more I have enough to buy the daily missions level 5 badge. Finally, all that saving up was worth it. For the past 2 months I had done nothing but save up my points. Seeing the thousands of points stack up, it was so tempting to just spend some of them. But I held back and now I'm going to reap the benefits.

"Yo Aomine, you wanna do another 1v1 game first to a hundred?" I asked.

Aomine groaned:" What are you playing at Kaen, did you watch one of those Kobe work ethic videos. Just so you know, we are probably never gonna be as good as him."

"Well, you never know if you never try, you know what I'm saying. Come on, lets play to a hundred."

I passed him the ball and checked him up. Ok try to remember that youtube video I saw this morning. The one on how to drive to the rim. I then shifted towards my left. Aomine followed and I did a hard crossover to my left. Seeing that my path was now open I drove towards the basket. Aomine attempted to stop me and push me off course but I held my ground.

Once I neared the basket, I picked up the ball and cradled it with both hands just like how it was in the video. I then jumped into Aomine and drew a significant amount of contact before tossing it into the basket.

"AND ONE!" I hyped myself up.

"Dude why'd you even take such a shot? this is a one on one, not a match. You don't get any free throws here." Aomine asked.

"Eh well, the preliminaries are coming out next week, I'm trying to practice these shots as much as possible." I replied.

I got the ball again and the match continued.

After about an hour of playing, I won the game as usual. The score was 100-60 in my favor. Aomine was still a really good player, its just that he hadn't mastered him streetball style, making his current style of play very inefficient.

I assume this was the same for the rest of the generation of miracles. They were all still good players but they had not perfected their crafts. However, I don't know whether I'll be able to handle all of them in time for the preliminaries. I just have to pray and hope that the daily missions level 5 badge really helps.

"Argghh, you got me good Kaen. How'd you get so good so fast. I swear when we first entered middle school you were only slightly better than me." Aomine asked.

"Well Aomine, maybe its because Kaen relies a lot on his fundamentals. You mostly spend practice playing around, how do you expect to improve as fast as him." Satsuki said.

"I kept telling Aomine that but he doesn't seem to believe me. Oh yeah Satsuki, do you have the schedule for the preliminaries?" I wondered.

"Yeah I have it but shouldn't you already know, the preliminaries are in a weeks time!" She exclaimed

"Erm, I wasn't really paying attention to the briefing. Anyway, I'm pretty sure you know every single team that is playing, I'm sure I'll learn more from you than my coach."

"Kaen, you do know we are on different teams right. Why should I share my info with you that could help you win." she said rolling her eyes.

"Come on, we are friends aren't we. A little information won't kill. If you don't tell me I'm gonna tell Aomine about what happened the other day." I said.

"KAEN! We agreed to keep that a secret!" Satsuki shrieked and started blushing.

"What secret?" Aomine asked curiously.

"Nothing." We replied in unison.

"Hey, don't leave me out of this. Kaen we are friends right, you don't gotta do this to me man." Aomine begged.

"I mean its nothing much, Satsuki just did something stupid that's all." I said eyeing Satsuki.

"Fine, I give in. Our teams are placed in separate blocks so we will not be playing against each other in the preliminaries. We will only play if you make it to the Nationals."

"Of course we will" I butted in.

Satsuki continued:" You will be playing against 8 teams in total. It was easy to predict which teams are going to go far or not based on the star players on the teams. First you will be playing against Chiben middle school. They have no star players but they have some really good third year role players you might want to watch out for.

Your second and third matches shouldn't be a problem. You fourth match will be going against Fukuokada middle school which has a deadly duo. They are one of the favourites to win this year.

If you make it though them, you should have a free run all the way to the preliminary finals where you will meet this duo known as the genius twins. They the same age as us, but from what I have heard from practice matches, they will piss you off damn badly." 1

Genuis twins? I think I have heard of them before, they were in the manga for Kuroko no basket. But that's all I know though, I only watched the anime so I have no information on them. This is gonna be new to me.

"Damn, Satsuki, that's a lot of research. I was only expecting the names of the schools nothing more." I said.

"Hah. You think that's a lot. You should see her during practice man. There was a whole training session where she made us do film study, it was hell." Aomine said.

"I mean I'm not complaining about free information though. Well, I guess I gotta go now. I don't think I will be coming from now on, the training is gonna get amped up again." I said, starting to pack my stuff.

"Good luck." Satsuki said.

Aomine walked over to me, stuck out his fist and said:" See you in the nationals dawg. You gotta win."

I smiled and bumped his fist:" Of course I'm going to win, it's what I do."

Power stone right now.

Oh and give me some interesting ideas for slice of life chapters. It would really help.

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Chapter 34: Grinding 1

At night I lay in bed and called out my system. the usual blue screen appeared in front of my face. I immediately went to the store and spent 1500 general points to buy the converted daily missions level 5 badge.

[Daily missions level 5:

1.Run 10 km Reward: 10 general points

2.Make 500 free throws Reward: 10 general points

3.Make 500 layups Reward: 10 general points

4.Make 400 three-pointers Reward: 10 general points

5.Dribble the ball for 2 hours Reward: 10 general points]

Shit. Maybe it might not have been such a good idea to have upgraded daily missions to level 5 now. Training would be able to complete it but this means that I'm going to have to do a similar level of training on my off days.

Well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If I don't die or get injured, I'm gonna be strong. Strong enough to face the generation of miracles by myself.

Next Day_

Coach:" Our first preliminary match is starting next week, I'm sure everybody listened to the briefing I gave the other day and know which schools we are going to be playing against."

"YES SIR!" We chanted.

Coach:" In our first match we are going to be going against Chiben middle school. The players we need to watch out for is Shoichi Imayoshi their point guard, K suke Wakamatsu their center, Mitsuhiro Hayakawa their power forward, Kiyoshi Miyaji their small forward and Makoto Hanamiya their shooting guard."

Woah. Satsuki said to watch out for their role players but I did not expect their entire starting team to be such good ones. Shoichi Imayoshi was the third year captain of Too High school. He was the real creepy glasses guy. If I remember correctly, he loved to do stuff that people feared.

Kosuke Wakamatsu also went to Too and was their center, he was the quiet and mature guy if I remember correctly. Although he wasn't the best center, he sometimes gave Kiyoshi trouble.

Mitsuhiro Hayakawa played the power forward position in Kaijo. He was the loud and autistic guy in the anime who only focused on catching rebounds. Something like Dennis Rodman. 1

I can barely remember who Kiyoshi Miyakji was, but he was a player at Shutoku. He barely had any screen time so that's all I know about him.

Oh and Makoto Hanamiya was not considered an uncrowned king yet huh. I remember he only really started gaining fame after Shoichi Imayoshi graduated and he took control of the team. But before that, the team was not his, it was Shoichi's.

Coach:" I know our team feels especially strong this year due to the addition of talent but I want everybody to be ready for next week. Overconfidence could destroy us and I for sure do not want to get kicked out in the first round.

We lost to our rivals Teiko last year, so this year it is time for our revenge. I have heard rumors that 4 positions in the starting 5 are taken up by first years, so we may be able to crush them this year."

Hah, that was what all the other teams thought as well. I remember in the anime that there were many teams that laughed at them for starting 4 first years but after their multiple victories, only Teiko was laughing.

Coach:" Today is going to be the first day of our annual training camp, I want everybody to give it their 110%. If you do not collapse at night, you did not try hard enough during the day. Our club manages have worked very hard to prepare the logistics for everyone, breakfast, lunch and dinner would be cooked by them so you can devote all your attention to basketball.

In this camp, you would shed your blood sweat and tears. It might be painful, you might want to give up. But I assure you, when you hold the trophy, it will all be worth it. Is that clear?"

"YESSIR!" We chanted.

Leggoo. One whole week of pure basketball. I could use this time to practice all the new moves I want to try. Whenever I upgrade my system, I think what it does is increase my efficiency on certain kinds of shots. Lets just say I upgrade my shooting, what is does is make me more efficient when I shoot.

However, it does not give me any shooting moves. I have to work on those on my own, practice them and integrate it into my arsenal. Having a system is not a definite victory, I still have to work towards that victory even though I still hold an advantage over the others.

We started the training camp of strong. In the morning we did drills, a lot of drills. Half court drills, full court drills, many different varieties of it. At first, you go all out, trying to outdo everybody around you. Then, as you start to get tired you begin to slow down. But this is where you can tell the difference between those who were going to be great and those who will forever remain average.

The greats pushed through, going as strong as they started despite their obvious fatigue. The average, well they slowed down to a level of play unacceptable in a real game.

As for me, I obviously wanted to be great. I made it my goal to keep up with Kotaro and Kiyoshi for all the drills, trying to best them in everything.

"Ahhhhhh. Finally we get to eat. I think I'm gonna eat a horse. I'm so goddamn tired." Kotaro said.

"Dude, the training just started, its only the morning right now. This afternoon we got weights then we get to do practice matches." Yukio said.

"Oh then what is in the evening?" I asked.

Haru:" Oh yeah you guys don't know yet since you just joined the team. Evenings is our free time but that's just bullshit. Everybody spends that time working on their game and practicing their personal skills."

Man, this is sounding like I'm living a dream. Living my life in the world of anime.

Power stones or yall trash

Idk whether Japan does it through preliminaries and nationals or season and playoffs in other countries. But it was preliminaries and nationals in the anime so I'm just gonna go with that.

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Chapter 35: Learning new moves

I pulled open the gym door and found Kiyoshi, Kotaro and a few other players already here practicing on their moves.

Ok, the free time has finally started. I'm gonna use this time to learn some moves from some players. I have 2 uncrowned kings here with me, I'm gonna make the best of it. I then put my stuff on the bench, laced up and went to approach Kotaro.

"Yo Kotaro. You got a minute, can you explain to me the technique behind your dribble?" I asked.

"Sure, but I'm telling you, there's actually very little technique behind it. What I do is just pound the ball extremely hard, and flick my wrist as I dribble. This adds extra momentum which makes the ball travel faster." Kotaro said.

"That's… all? Then why is it when you use fewer fingers, the speed at which you dribble is slower" I asked, unsure. No way it can be that simple. Although I would say it is actually pretty hard to fully flick your wrist when dribbling.

Kotaro: "Oh the fingers just improve my grip on the ball. Basically the fewer fingers I have on the ball, the less force I transfer from my hand to the ball. Oh and if you want it to appear really fast, just bring the ball closer to the ground. The ball is actually travelling at the same speed but it takes a shorter time to travel from hand to ground to hand which tricks your opponent."

"Woah, I did not know it was that simple." I replied. It was pretty shocking, I thought all the good players in the anime might have some sort of special technique but it seems pretty simple when Kotaro put it that way.

"Then do you have any tips I can use to improve my handles?" I questioned.

Kotaro: " Yeah, I have a few. You can do additional weights. The stronger your arms, the harder you can dribble the ball. Bringing your hands closer together also improves control of the ball. There is also less chance of the ball getting stolen as it spends more time in the palm of your hand.

Well, I personally think you should work more on your post moves. Your handles are pretty decent already, you could probably dribble as fast as a three for me."

Weights huh. Arrggghhh, I hate weights, after I do them I feel like I can barely lift my arms properly. My arms also feel so stiff that I can't shoot a basketball for a while after doing them. But its all for the basketball man, no pain no gain.

"I'll take note of that, Imma go ask Kiyoshi for some tips now." I said.

"Aight, try to learn as much as you can from him." Kotaro replied.

I then proceeded over to Kiyoshi who was working on his jump shot. I stood at the side and watched him get his reps in. As I watched him, the more I realized how fundamentally sound he was.

He never tried any highlight moves, he just did the same thing over and over again. Every move he did was exactly the same and if he did something wrongly he would repeat.

"Hey Kiyoshi, you done with your reps?" I asked when Kiyoshi stopped shooting.

"Yeah. You wanna play 1v1 or something? I saw you standing at the side earlier waiting for me." Kiyoshi asked.

"Nah. You are a pretty bad match up for me at the moment. Give me a few months to grow then we can go again. Can you give me some tips for playing in the post?"

Kiyoshi: " Sure. I can give you a few basic tips. First of all every move you have must always be in a package. That way your defender will never know what you are going to do. I recommend every package move to have at least 3 or 4 moves. If there is 1 or 2 it will get way too predictable way too quickly.

Next, you should keep pump faking. Try to get your defender up in the air. Once he gets into the air, jump into him and draw the foul. If you want to play in the paint you gotta be able to take contact. A lot of it. I recommend you bulk up a little bit more. The more muscles you have, the better you are protected.

Lastly, once you learn a move, you must keep practicing it. Get so good at it till it feels natural. if not, in a game you might mess up your footwork and end up taking an extremely though shot."

"Damn that's a lot of information. But could you teach me some of your moves though, you seem like the perfect guy to ask for that." I said.

"Sure, now listen carefully…"

As I listened to Kiyoshi explain his moves, I had a sudden thought. In my previous world, these are college level moves, for Kiyoshi to be able to do them really says something about how good players actually are.

At night

At night, I collapsed into my sleeping bag too tired to move. Suddenly, I heard my phone vibrate and I reach over to read the message.

Miku: Are you sleeping?

Me: Nope. Gonna sleep soon though.

Miku: You have a game next week right? Do you want me to go over and support you?

Me: Sure. Do you wanna go out after that?

Miku: I don't mind, I need to ask my father first though so I cannot confirm now.

No way. Finally all my efforts to get to know Miku is finally paying off. After our study sessions together, we had been on texting term but none of us really initiated going out or something like that.

The world of anime is the best. 1

Power stone or a kidney stone.

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Chapter 36: Azabu vs Chiben Part 1

I tried to get myself to focus and ignore everything around me, preparing myself for the game ahead but it was difficult to contain my excitement.

Finally, after nearly 12 years, I get to play in an official match again! Holy crap, I have been waiting forever for this moment.

We had arrived at the stadium about 2 hours before the match to warm up and rest. I grabbed a ball from the rack and went to join the guys who were getting some shots in. After that, I went back to the locker room to take a quick shower and change into my jersey and jacket before heading back onto the court for the match.

When I stepped out, there was a flurry of activity around me. The stadium was packed to the brim and nearly all the seats were filled.

Woah, were people always this into sports. Why the hell would so many people show up to watch a middle school basketball match. This isn't even the finals. In my previous life, in a top high school program in the country but never for a middle school basketball match.

Coach:" The usual starters will be going onto the court. Be prepared to go all out from the start. Their team is strong and they are going to try get as much of a headstart as possible."

"YESSIR!"

The buzzer then sounded, signaling for the game to start and we made our way onto the basketball court.

Yukio:" Yo Kaen, I know this is your first official basketball match but you gotta stay calm. Just ignore the crowds and pretend that this is just a regular practice match.

Kiyoshi and Kotaro. I know you guys have played in official matches in the second team last year but just remember that the first team is nothing like the second team. The matches here will be way tougher than before."

We nodded our heads to acknowledge what he said. Man he really gotta relax, I'm pretty sure I have the most match experience out of anyone here considering that I played 3 years worth of middle school basketball before this.

Kiyoshi and Kosuke Wakamatsu, lets just go with Kosuke, positioned themselves in the center of the court. Both of them were about 190 cm and looked like freaking giants compared to the rest of us.

The ref threw the ball and they both jumped for the tip. But this round, something I had never seen happened. Kiyoshi lost the tip and the ball landed in the hands of Shoichi Imayoshi or Shoichi.

Shoichi grinned and pushed up his glasses and started making his way up the court. I started to pressure him but the maneuvered the ball around my hands, always making sure to keep it a distance a way from me.

Once he passed half court, he swung a pass to Makato Hanamiya or Hanamiya who then lunged forward as if he was going to drive. It was a good attempt but any experienced basketball player would know it was a fake, thus Kotaro did not fall for it.

Hanamiya, seeing that Kotaro did not take the bait burst foward, blowing past Kotaro and making a floater. To a normal person watching, it might have seemed like he blew past but I saw everything. When Hanamiya started driving, he reached down and grabbed Kotaro's ankle to prevent him from turning.

"What a bitch." I mumbled.

"What are you talking about. The refs did not see anything so nothing must have happened."Shoichi replied with a grin before turning back for defense.

Creepy bastard I thought to myself before receiving the ball and making my way up the court. Hm, gotta do something to get my teammates going.

I passed the ball to Kotaro, who swung a pass to Yukio. Yukio then started cutting to the basket and some of my teammates started cutting while others moved into open lanes to get the pass. I called for Kiyoshi to set a screen for me and I cut to the corner, my defender getting trapped in Kiyoshi's screen.

"BALL!" I yelled. Yukio heard me and kicked the ball out to my direction, I caught it and let the ball fly. I knew it was going in before it even reached the net, it just felt so natural to me. I turned around and started running back on defense.

Please go in. Please go in, if it doesn't I'm going to the bench. I then heard the ball swish through the net, the referee blow the whistle and the crowd start cheering. Oh yeah, I'm just getting started.

"That was sick bro. Let's lock them up now" Kotaro gave me five as he came back on defense. Shoichi went on offense, he stutter stepped to the right and did a crossover to the left. I saw it and reached my hand in, managing to poke it free.

I then ran after the ball and got control of it. Shoichi chased after me, trying to redeem himself after his mistake. Looking around, I saw that none of my teammates were about the catch up with me. Screw this, Imma just score on my own. I then stopped at the three point line and pulled up right in Shoichi's face.

The ball flew in a low arc and rattled home.

Next possession, I got the ball once again and squared up my defender. I was really feeling it about now and felt that every shot I took would go in. I then pumped fake and shot the ball about 2 meters behind the arc, only for the ball to hit nothing but net.

"LET'S GOOOO! THIS GAME'S GONNA BE TOO EASY!" I yelled, hyping myself and my teammates up.

Your power stone looking real tasty

This chapter was pretty trash not gonna lie.

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Chapter 37: Chiben vs Azabu Part 2

After my hot start to the game, Chiben quickly called a timeout and we started heading back to the bench.

Haru:" Damn Kaen, that was insane. I expected nothing less from our super rookie."

"Today's a good shooting day. This might be a one time thing though, just saying." I replied. I didn't want to make any promises and put pressure on myself. I hadn't played in a official match in a while and was still a little rusty during the game.

"That was a good start. We started the game quick and managed to pull away with a 9 point lead. I want you to continue maintaining this lead and increase it if possible. Kaen, you made those 3 shots so I won't say anything about it but I want you to now play as a team. So no more highlight plays, is that clear."

"Yes coach." I said meekly. Damn, the coach ain't giving me any slack for those shots huh.

The timeout then ended and we headed back onto the floor, Shoichi got the inbounded pass and started heading up the court. When I started pressuring him, he passed the ball too Hanamiya who then did a quick crossover on Kotaro. Mitsuhiro Hayakawa or Mitsuhiro set a screen which Kotaro got caught in, leaving Hanamiya wide open.

Yukio tried to step forward to contest but it was too late. Hanamiya released the ball and it fell through the net. Well, no matter how good your defense it, you can't stop every shot.

I then got the ball and went on offense.

"Yo Kotaro, lets get them back." I said.

"Yeah" He replied.

I then swung a pass to Kotaro who did a quick crossover on Hanamiya. Kotaro drove to the basket and when Kosuke stepped forward to defend, Kotaro threw the ball into the air.

At first, Kosuke looked confused as it was quite clear the ball was heading away from the basket. But when he turned behind and saw Kiyoshi looming over him, it was quite clear what was going to happen. Kiyoshi caught the lob from Kotaro and jammed it down hard on top of Kosuke. The crowd went wild and it was another highlight play for our team.

Next possession Shoichi had the ball in hands once again. He stepped to the side and faked a shot. I tried to reach it but missed the ball. Shit, I thought to myself. Shoichi saw his opportunity and started driving. Yukio came over to help on defense and Shoichi kicked the ball to Yukio's man, Kiyoshi Miyaki (We shall go with Miyaki to avoid confusion), who drained a three.

I got the ball and started attacking the basket aggressively. Shoichi tried to push into me as much as possible but I kept my head low and continued attacking. Once Mitsuhiro came over to double team me I dropped a pass to Haru who tossed the ball into the basket.

Then passed the ball to Misuhiro who started backing down Yukio to the basket. Yukio tried to push into him as much as possible but Misuhiro backed him down a sizable amount. He then turned around to shoot a fadeaway but Kiyoshi jumped and swatted the ball out of the air.

I ran after the ball and got control of it before it went our of bounds. I looked up and saw Kotaro running towards the basket, without anyone around him. I tossed the ball to him across half court and he layed it in easily. 1

Hanamiya started with the ball this round and passed the ball to Miyaki once he crossed half court. Shoichi went over to set a screen and Miyaki drove to the left.

"SWITCH!" I yelled and switched with Yukio. Miyaki was bigger than me and bodied me to the basket. Once he got there he tried to toss the ball in but I saw the ball in his hands and poked it loose.

I got control of the ball and passed the ball to Kiyoshi who then passed the ball to Yukio. Yukio put his head down and drove towards our basket. Once he got into the paint it was just him and Kosuke defending him. Yukio hooked his arm around Kosuke's and jumped into the air. He waited till the ref called blew his whistle before tossing the ball towards the basket. The ball rolled around the rim a few times before falling off.

Damn, that's though luck, that was nearly a three point play. But he still got the free throws anyway. Yukio made both free throws and we headed back to our basket.

Shoichi got the ball and called for a screen. I tried to fight through the screen but Shoichi managed to get a sizable distance on me. Yukio tried to contest his shot but Shoichi managed to shoot it in time.

When the ball was still in the air, the buzzer sounded signaling the end of the first half. Everybody's eyes were now on the ball, shining with anticipation. The ball then swished through the net and the crowd started cheering. Damn, he really does what you don't want him to do, I thought to myself.

"Good defense Kaen but it was still better offense, get him next time eh." Haru said to me.

"Yeah, it was just three points anyway. The score is not 67-43. If we don't choke or something we got this game in the bag."

Kiyoshi:" Dude, Kaen you have like 20 points by the first half. Tell me, how the hell did you do that in your first game."

"Wait I do? I swear I was passing the ball most of the time. I don't recall scoring that much." I asked. I had been trying to find the open man as much as possible to get the general points for assists. They were the ones that gave the most for every shot taken.

Kiyoshi:" Well, after your 9 point explosion at the start of the game scoring 11 more points shouldn't have been that difficult for you."

The more power stones I get the faster I will release the next chapter.

Actually nah, I don't want to make any promises.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 38: Chiben vs Azabu Part 3

Coach:" Well done guys, we as a team managed to build up a sizable difference against our opponents in the first half. In the second, I want us to maintain the difference but try to conserve your energy and focus your attention on defense. Remember, this is only the first game of the preliminaries, we still have many more matches to go, I don't want you to regret this later on.

Yukio, Haru and Kotaro will sit out for the rest of the game Yuki, Koki and Yuto will sub with you . Kaen and Kiyoshi will continue playing, I want you guys to use the pick and roll when you can."

"Yes coach." We said. The 10 minute half time break then ended and we headed back out onto the court to continue the match.

When I stepped back onto the court, I saw Shoichi, Hanamiya and the rest of their team standing in the corner discussing something. I looked closer and saw that they were gesturing looking as though they were going to elbow somebody.

I narrowed my eyes. What the hell was going on, I knew there was something wrong with Shoichi but I did not expect him to go along with Hanamiya. This was not what happened in the anime as far as I can remember. Well, if they are going to play rough, so am I.

"Eh Kiyoshi, look over there in the corner. I think the game is gonna get physical pretty quickly." I pointed out to Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi looked at the corner and didn't take long to figure out what was going on. He gathered the rest of the team and told them what was going on.

"So…What are we going to do?" Asked Yuto.

"Well expect to be beaten up later. But when someone shoves you, don't be a pussy, shove them back. Show that we ain't scared of them." I declared.

Kiyoshi:" Yeah Kaen's right, once we back down they know they got us, but when you fight back try to do it when the ref isn't looking."

Kiyoshi then got the ball and inbounded it to me. I started making my way up the court deciding what to do. Once I crossed half court, I called for a screen from Koki and went around him. I thought my Shoichi got caught in the screen and started to pull up for a three. Suddenly I felt a tug from behind and my form got screwed up, causing me to shoot a shot that bounced of the rim and getting rebounded by Kosuke.

I turned and saw Shoichi grinning, shaking my head, I ran past him going back on defense. This bitch just grabbed my shirt, he's gonna pay.

Kosuke then pushed the pace and brought the ball up the court, he passed the ball to Miyakji who pulled up behind the arc. His shot was kinda flat and bounced off the rim. I ran forward and prepared to catch the rebound. I then felt nudge into my side and step on my foot.

I looked and saw that it was Hanamiya holding me down. Seeing that the ref was not focusing on me, I brought my shoulder down low and rammed it into his chest, the momentum caused him to back away a step allowing me to catch the rebound easily.

As I dribbled the ball past him, I whispered in his ear:" Watch where you step or you may get hurt."

I passed the ball to Koki who shot the ball and went in.

Shoichi then brought the ball up and passed it to Mitsuhiro we drove to the basket. When he was about to reach the paint, he put a hand on Koki and gave him a push. Giving him a wide open space to make the floater.

On offense I drove to the basket, I bodied my way into the paint and did a quick pump fake. Shoichi took and bait and jumped, I waited and jumped right into him, my elbow slamming into his chest. The ref blew the whistle and I tossed the ball into the basket getting the and 1. I then went to the free throw line and made the shot.

Shoichi was now clearly in pain but didn't show it, he passed the ball to Hanamiya who fed the ball to Kosuke down low. Kosuke then started backing into Kiyoshi. He then turned and jumped up, gripping the ball tightly. The ball hit Kiyoshi in the chin and he backed down allowing Kosuke to make the layup.

Once I got the ball I looked and Kiyoshi and saw the fire in his eyes. I gave him the ball and he went to work. He brought his shoulder into Kosuke and backed into him. He then did a hop step, bypassing Kosuke and slammed the ball into the basket.

The game continued in a similar fashion and by the time the buzzer sounded, we were all bruised and battered. The score was now 90-70. Chiben hadn't managed to close the score and we were barely hanging on the the point difference. Everybody on both sides had some sort of bruise or scratch on their body and was exhausted.

But this was not enough, I knew that we couldn't continue this for another quarter or someone was going to get injured. I went over to Shoichi and said:" How's your body feeling? Before you say anything, it was you who started this."

Shoichi:" I'm sure I'm feeling the same as you. Wanna go at this for another quarter."

"Dude. I don't understand why you are still gonna try, we got a 20 point lead on you. The game is over, give up. Just go to the bench and send out your starters." I said trying to demoralize him.

Shoichi:" Here's the thing you don't understand. I'm a third year, this is my last year playing middle school basketball. If I lose now, its over there is no second chance…"

"Blah blah blah, so touching. Do you still not get it, you will never win us no matter how hard you try. The players on your team are good but they are just role players, you have no star. On the other hand my team is full of stars, no matter how hard you try you will never beat the talented. Give up." I said. 1

I'm feeling like a real asshole right now but he the message is gonna get to him. Looking at Shoichi's downtrodden face, I knew I had achieved my goal and went back to my bench.

Kiyoshi:" Hey Kaen, why were you talking to that point guard just now. He's an ass, stay away from him."

"Relax man. I know you pissed about earlier but from now on the game is going to be easier. I caan promise you we got this W in the bag."

Feed me your power stone

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 39: Date with Miku

The game was over and the crowd started streaming out of the arena, I strained my neck to try to spot Miku but all I saw was a sea of people. Eh, I'm going to be meeting her later anyway, doesn't matter if I don't spot her right now.

We then lined up in the center, bowed and shouted:" Thank you for the game." It looked pretty formal and I don't know why they do that here in Japan, but in my previous life we just shook hands and maybe a quick hug.

Well, I'm not gonna complain, living in this anime world has been great. The only thing that irks me is why are Japanese people so damn formal. Like we gotta bow and be extremely polite to people we just went toe to toe against. This would definitely not be happening in other countries.

Haru:" Arghhh, the game in finally over, I don't know what got into our opponents but my body is super sore right now, wanna grab a bite after this or something?"

Yuto:" Yeah sure, I'm down. You want to go get some Korean bbq, I'm feeling real hungry right now."

"Sorry guys, you can go on ahead but I got something planned after this." I said, feeling a little guilty for ditching them but I promised myself that this will be the only time where it will be hoes over bros.

"Oh did your parents come to watch the game? " Kotaro asked.

"Erm no, its just that I arranged to meet someone after this." I replied trying to avoid the topic.

"Let me guess, its a girl right. Well if it is, I'm sure you impressed her tonight with your performance." Kotaro said with a grin.

"Dude Kaen, you gotta focus on basketball man, don't let these girls distract you. And you are only 13, are you sure you wanna start dating?" Yukio started lecturing me.

"Woah, woah chill guys. I'm nowhere close to dating her, she's just a friend at the moment, don't get the wrong ideas." I said, my face blushing red.

Haru: "Yeah sure Kaen. I totally believe you. Well, good luck on your little date then." 1

About 15 minutes later, I stood outside the arena all feeling all freshened up after a quick shower. I then felt a poke from behind.

Turing around I saw that it was Miku, looking around shyly. "Hey, thanks for coming to support me today. It really helped."

"Don't lie to me Kaen. I doubt you could even see me in the stands." Miku replied.

"Well, you got me there. So… what you wanna do now?" I asked.

Miku: "You… didn't plan anything?"

"Erm no…" Shit did I just screw up real bad. Now what should I do, really gotta think of a idea quick.

How about walking around the park? Nah that sounds way too clich and romantic. Gotta think of something that is fun and cool but isn't too suggestive and awkward. An amusement park or the aquarium? Wait but I think I only brought like 20 dollars today, that's like half the cost of a ticket.

Miku: "How…how about we get lunch first?"

"Oh yeah, you are a genius. How did I forget about that. Lets go get some lunch and plan at the same time. You got anything in mind?" I asked.

Miku: "Hm, since you asked me out you have to choose."

"Well, I'm simple and broke. How about we just get some MacDonalds then?" I asked.

Miku giggled cutely and agreed.

We then went to the nearest Macs which was only about a 5 minutes walk away from the arena, after taking a while to find free seats, we then put down our stuff and went to order our food. After ordering, I was about to head back to my seat and I felt someone call my name. Turning around, I saw the guys ordering as well.

Why the hell are they here. What happened to the Korean bbq that they were talking about. This is bad, can't let them see Miku or I'm never gonna hear the end of it.

"Sup Kaen, didn't expect to meet you here. Where's your girl, can you introduce her to us?" Kotaro said with a smile.

Ignore them, pretend I heard nothing and saw nothing. I then sat back at my seat where Miku was waiting for me for her food.

"Here's your fillet o fish burger." I said as I passed the burger to her.

"Hey Kaen, aren't those your teammates sitting over there. How did you not notice them?"

"Nope they aren't. They are probably some random school who copied our jackets. I don't know why they look a lot like my teammates though." I said, trying to ignore them.

What was worse is that another group just finished their meal and left. The guys then sat at that table which was facing us.

Miku: " Kaen, are sure they are not your teammates, cause why are they pointing at us and giving us a thumbs up sign."

"Just ignore them." I said, burying my head into the table.

"Well, they are taking pictures of us right now. I'm convinced that they are your teammates. But what are you so embarrassed about? Aren't we just two friends enjoying a quick meal together?"Miku said.

Friends huh. Yeah we aren't dating but it kinda hurts to hurt her say that.

"Well, lets just quickly eat our food. I've had enough of public places, wanna come over to my place then. We can play some ps5, I just bought NBA 2k21, I could teach you?" I asked.

"Sure, lets quickly get this over with then."

We then woofed down our food and quickly made our way out of there. After that it was a pretty uneventful, we just went to my house and played video games. I guess the only thing else was that both my parents weren't home. This was both good and bad news to me, if I brought a girl home in front of my parents, they were going to interrogate. The bad news was that it was slightly awkward when Miku realised that there was no one else home.

Apart from that we enjoyed ourselves and Miku caught on to 2k pretty quicky. The hours went by pretty quickly and I had to have Miku leave by 6 before my parents came home putting an end to this eventful day.

Relax guys, this ain't going to be a harem. I don't know about you but I kinda hate harems, way too unrealistic unless you are a mega chad. 3

IF I decide to include romance, IF, it will be done in a pretty interesting way.

Power stone or grave stone.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS

JW_Ngiam JW_Ngiam

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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Chapter 40: Hiatus

Sorry guys, I'm sure you noticed that the rate at which I post chapters have gone down drastically. I kinda screwed up and started too many things this holidays. Some of then I did to myself and some of them were requested by my parents.

I'm trying to learn like 3 programming languages, Python, C# and Javascript for those who know . Practice for my grade 8 piano exam. Writing a separate book with my friend ,we are trying to publish this in a book store if we can, its about chess if you want to know. Set time aside to hang with my friends and the most important thing, balling. So yeah I kinda have a lot on my plate at the moment and have a limited amount of time. I don't mean to flex though, I have been doing most of this for a long time already so I don't actually work as much as you think.

I also sleep like 12 hours a day and need time to watch anime and read manga.

So this novel is going to go on haitus for a while. I will still be writing but I won't post it. I will save it up till I get like 50 or 60 chapters or so then I will do a mass release.

Please expect to wait for about 2 months or so for this to happen. So in the meantime just leave this novel in your library and forget about it. I'm sure in about 2 months you will receive a notification of a mass release for this novel. 5

If you have any Ideas for this story and things you want me to include please tell me about it and leave it in the comments. You don't know this but I have plans to incorporate most of the ideas you guys have suggested in the past so just leave a comment and you may be reading about your idea in the near future.

Sorry if you looked forward to reading this novel but just take it as a 2 month break. It will come back new, fresh and exciting for you to dive into the world of Kuroko no Basket once again. Or more like my world since I plan to make quite a few changes later on, a few character additions and stuff…. 2

Well, all in all thank you for reading this novel, I never expected it to be this successful. I thought it would be like the other KNB fanfics that you see which the author just gives up on. Thanks for giving me all those power stones, they are very much appreciated. Save your power stones after this chapter though, there's no point giving them to me at the moment.

I know it sounds like you will never read this novel again and this is goodbye but relax, I have given up on many things but I don't plan to give up on this one.