Black Basketball: A false start

Chapter 198 Illusion and Absolute

"Beep beep~"

As the basketball was thrown high into the sky by the referee, Koichirō Nango and Shigehiro Kabachi jumped up. Shigehiro Kabachi overpowered Koichirō Nango and easily pushed the basketball into Ken Kaneki's hands.

Just when Kaneki Ken got the ball, Akashi Seijuro opened his defensive area, stared at Kaneki Ken and said: "After today, I who defeated you will make everything go back to normal!"

"You're just a thief... How dare you say such a thing?" Kaneki Ken showed a mocking smile on his pale face, and pointed to the championship trophy on the workbench with his left hand. "Let me tell you what the future will be like! Two hours later, I will hold up the trophy in front of you as a gift to my old friend who has been away for a long time!"

……

"It feels like there's a strong smell of gunpowder... Is this the finals?" Kagami Daigo sighed softly.

At this time in the audience seats, the five eliminated members of the Miracle Generation and Kozo Platinum lined up in a row, with Kozo Platinum and Tetsuya Kuroko in the middle, and Taiga Kagami sitting behind Kozo Platinum, watching the game intently together.

"As expected, in the end it all depends on the duel between Akashi and Kaneki..." Shirogane Kozo sighed slowly as he looked at the two people who had entered into a confrontation at the very beginning.

"Yeah, although it's frustrating..." Murasakibara Atsushi muttered softly, "But Akazai and Kenzai are probably the strongest among us..."

"That's not necessarily true, Murasakibara-chan." Kise Ryota smiled meaningfully, "I have prepared a big gift for Kaneki~"

"You seem to say this every time, Huang Lai... You don't get tired of saying it, but I get tired of hearing it..." Aomine Daiki pouted speechlessly, "You say the most confident words, and you get the most severe beating... That's you, right?"

"Hey, hey, hey, you're going too far, Aomine-chan!" Huang Lai Ryota said somewhat dissatisfiedly, "I'm trying very hard now!"

"Is Huang Zai a Korean? He seems to be working hard, but the results of his efforts are so poor..." Murasakibara Atsushi made a precise complaint while eating a rice bran roll.

"You are such a bad guy, and you still have the nerve to criticize others?" Midorima Shintaro snorted.

"Ah, do you want to quarrel, Midorima?" Murasakibara Atsushi said to Midorima Shintaro with an unhappy look on his face.

"Okay, stop arguing. There are so many people watching." Shirogane Kozo smiled helplessly and said to the quarreling people, "Why don't we finish watching the game first?"

"Hmph..." Murasakibara Atsushi snorted coldly and glared at Midorima Shintaro fiercely.

"Tsk..." Midorima Shintaro sneered contemptuously, adjusted his glasses, and turned to look at the game on the field.

……

"Oi, your name is Kabachi Shigehiro, right? I'll kindly remind you because of your well-developed muscles..." Neya Takenagakichi, who was standing in the back line, looked at Akashi Seijuro and Kaneki Ken who were confronting each other, and said to Kabachi Shigehiro who was stuck in front of him, "Don't let your ace waste his energy. Akashi has been serious since the game hasn't even started. You have no hope!"

"It's because of idiots like you that people are prejudiced against us muscle men." Kabaji Shigehiro glanced at Netani Takeyoshi and said, "I have never seen a player stronger than Kaneki. There has never been one before, and there probably won't be one in the future."

As soon as Shigehiro Kabaji finished speaking, Takeyoshi Netani, who was about to refute, felt a chill running down his spine to his forehead.

"Baka!" Mibuchi Reo stared at Kaneki Ken in the backcourt with his mouth wide open. His voice broke from the shock. "How is it possible..."

"Bang... bang..."

Kaneki Ken was seen walking slowly towards the center line with the ball, and in front of everyone he stepped into Akashi Seijuro's defensive area as if he was nothing.

"Roar~~~~~"

Just as Kaneki Ken stepped over the center line, a ferocious roar of a wild beast was heard, and Kaneki Ken's wildness was revived on the court again. Four huge phantoms of red tails suddenly opened up, like blood-red thunderclouds covering the sky and the sun, completely sealing off the entire stadium and the space above it. Everyone present at Rakusan High School felt as if they had turned into unarmed gladiators in the arena, and Kaneki Ken in front of them was walking towards them like an awakened dragon.

"Well... this state... makes me feel good!" As his wildness was activated, Kaneki Ken felt that his weakness was relieved a lot.

"Is it really okay to turn on the wildness right from the start?" Kagami Daiwo asked doubtfully, "Although it can greatly improve the body's reaction rate, it will also correspondingly weaken the ability to think on the court, right?"

"Kaneki doesn't need to think..." Huang Lai Ryouta sighed, "He is like the sun, and the rest of us just need to revolve around him..."

"It's time to go, Akashi!" Kaneki Ken narrowed his pupils slightly, and the basketball collided with the floor with a loud noise under his huge force. He took a step forward with his long legs, and the golden light wrapped in black and red aura turned into a stream of light and killed into Akashi Seijuro's defensive area.

"Don't you take me seriously at all? Kaneki Ken!" Akashi Seijuro's eyes opened wide, and the Eye of the Emperor was fully activated at this moment, but the scene in his eyes made him tremble uncontrollably.

"How can... I can't see?" What Akashi Seijuro saw at this moment was nothingness. Kaneki Ken was like an unpredictable thick fog in his eyes.

"Are you scared now?" Kaneki Ken's voice sounded beside Akashi Seijuro, "Without the Eye of the Emperor...there's nothing you can do?"

"What a great first step!" Tashiro Heihachi said in surprise, "Kaneki-san successfully got rid of Akashi-san's defense! Since the national competition, this is the first time that Akashi-san's defense has been broken through so simply and violently!"

"Is this true? Akashi's eyes have no effect on him!" Kotaro Hayama was terrified and hurried forward to defend himself.

"Long time no see, Hayama." Kaneki Ken said to Hayama Kotaro with a smile, "You've only just made up for the defense now. I'm so sleepy that I almost fell asleep~" "What..." Before Hayama Kotaro understood the meaning of Kaneki Ken's words, he felt as if he was in the eye of a tornado. The strong airflow caused by Kaneki Ken's turning around made him squint his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, Kaneki Ken had already reached the inside and jumped up.

"Muscle block!!!" Takeyoshi Netani, who had been waiting in the interior for a long time, decisively left behind Shigehiro Kabaji and jumped in front of Ken Kaneki.

"Are you still planning on building your muscles as before? I never expected that three years have passed and you still haven't made any progress..." Kaneki Ken's eyes flashed with disappointment, "Then I'll say it again, in my eyes, your muscles are absolutely as ridiculous as Akashi's!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

With a dull sound of body collision, Takeyoshi Netani was knocked out of the court by Ken Kaneki, followed by the wailing sound of the basket.

"Muscle block, nothing more than that." Kaneki Ken, who was hanging on the basket, looked down at Netani Takeyoshi lying on the ground and said coldly.

"Ohhhhh!! It appears!! Kaneki-sama's Storm Hammer!!"

Seeing Kaneki Ken come on and give Rakuzan High School and Akashi Seijuro a warning with a violent dunk after passing two people, all the Shonan fans present cheered with excitement.

"Are you okay, Yongji?" Reio Mibuchi walked up and helped Takeshi Netani up and asked.

"I'm fine..." Takeyoshi Netani looked at Kaneki Ken with a hint of fear in his eyes.

After losing to Kaneki Ken and Kiyoshi Teppei in junior high school, he felt that the reason for his defeat was that he lacked absolute strength. In the past three years, Netani Takenagakichi has been honing his body, but when he stood in front of Kaneki Ken again, he found that he was still as insignificant as he was three years ago.

"Even if it's just a warning from me, you can also regard it as my last mercy." Kaneki Ken loosened his hand and gently dropped it to the ground. He turned his head and looked at Akashi Seijuro and said, "In front of me, it's best to do what a mortal can do before considering other things... Just like Akashi did back then!"

"You are too arrogant, Kaneki Ken. The strength you have shown is probably not enough for you to tell me what to do." Akashi Seijuro said to Kaneki Ken with a cold expression.

"This is not a command, but a piece of advice for you." Kaneki Ken walked past Akashi Seijuro with an expressionless face, "Otherwise, not only will you lose this game, but even your last bit of confidence will be ruthlessly crushed by me."

"I'll wait and see." Akashi Seijuro's eyes became somewhat dangerous. He turned around silently, took the ball from the baseline, and began to organize the first attack of Rakusan High School in this game.

"Xiao Zheng, don't worry about the ball just now, just hit it back." Mibuchi Reo quickly walked over to Akashi Seijuro and comforted him.

"Yeah." There was no expression of joy or anger on Akashi Seijuro's face. He nodded slightly as a response to Mibuchi Reo's encouragement.

"I admit that your little trick surprised me, Kaneki Ken." Akashi Seijuro said faintly as he stepped across the center line, "Although I don't know how you deceived my Emperor's Eye, this kind of competition is interesting."

"The more interesting things are yet to come!"

As Kaneki Ken's words fell, a big hand that stole the ball became clearer and clearer in Akashi Seijuro's eyes.

"What's going on?... Was it a steal? But this is too crude..." Akashi Seijuro looked at the scene in front of him that seemed to be replayed in slow motion and was a little confused. "It stands to reason that this doesn't seem like Kaneki Ken's level..."

While Akashi Seijuro was still thinking in his mind, his body's instinct had already guided him to turn around and dodge the hand that was trying to steal the ball.

"Is it such a simple breakthrough?" Akashi Seijuro looked back at Kaneki Ken's panicked expression. He was about to continue dribbling the ball into the penalty area, but the uncomfortable feeling in his hand made him feel as if he was frozen in place.

"Strange... this feeling of disobedience..." Akashi Seijuro's eyelids kept trembling, and a terrible thought flashed through his mind like thunder, "Could it be...!"

"Click~"

The sound of glass breaking rang in Akashi Seijuro's ears, followed by a flash of white light, which made Akashi Seijuro feel dizzy. When he regained consciousness, his hand with the ball was empty, and everyone at Rakusan High School was looking at him strangely.

"What's going on? Didn't I just get rid of Kaneki Ken? Why are they all looking at me like that?" Akashi Seijuro's heart suddenly sank when he looked at his teammates' eyes. His original bad premonition became even stronger.

"I originally thought you wouldn't be fooled, but I didn't expect it to be so easy..." Kaneki Ken's slightly mocking voice came from behind Akashi Seijuro, "Don't you think about why you can see my 'future'?"

"Kaneki Ken!! Stop right there!" Feeling mocked, Akashi Seijuro turned around with a distorted face and rushed towards Kaneki Ken's back. An uncontrollable anger burst out from his heart, making him almost crazy.

"Hear the panic in your words... You are no match for Akashi..." Kaneki Ken felt the roar coming from behind him and said with some disinterest, "So after losing the Eye of the Emperor of Heaven, you would lose your composure to this extent when facing the unknown? You really don't deserve Murasakibara's fear of you!"

As the words fell, Kaneki Ken stepped hard on the free throw line, jumped up with the ball, and flew towards the basket under the angry eyes of Akashi Seijuro.

"What happened to Akashi's shot just now? It's too weird, isn't it?" Kise Ryota asked on the sidelines, a little puzzled, "Obviously, Kaneki had already stolen the ball, so why did it feel like he still wanted to break through? It felt like..."

"It feels like entering some kind of illusion." Huang Lai Ryota was still thinking about how to describe the scene just now, and Qingfeng Daiki said it directly, "Akagi was deceived... or rather... even the Eye of the Emperor was deceived!"

"It's just that I can see the future in a moment... can that be considered absolute?" After completing the slam dunk, Kaneki Ken hung on the basket leisurely for a few times, let go of his hands and fell to the ground, looking at Akashi Seijuro with a hint of mockery in his eyes, "Let me tell you, Akashi Seijuro! The me who can guide the future is absolute!"

(End of this chapter)