Black Basketball: A false start

Chapter 271 Performance
"Buzz!"

At this time, on the other side of the ocean, in the coach's office of the University of North Carolina, Coach Smith's cell phone suddenly rang.

"Hello? Bane?" Coach Smith answered the phone with a puzzled look on his face. "It should be night time in Japan now, right? Why are you calling me all of a sudden?"

"Hurry up and look at the link I sent you, Coach Smith!" Chris Bane covered his ears and shouted loudly at the other end of the phone.

"Oh shit..." Coach Smith's ears were shocked by the huge volume coming from the other end of the phone. He couldn't help but hold the phone farther away. After he got used to the volume of the other end of the phone, he teased Chris Bain on the other end of the phone, "Damn, are you attending a party, Chris? I don't pay you to attend this~~"

"You're right, I am indeed attending a party, and this party is fucking awesome! It's fucking awesome, Coach Smith!" Chris Bane excitedly repeated twice, then said, "Hurry up and open the link, you'll be surprised!"

"Speaking of this..." Coach Smith seemed to have remembered something and asked Chris Bane on the other end of the phone, "Is the scouting report for that kid named Kaneki Ken out? Have you received a promise from this kid to join the University of North Carolina in the future?"

"It's out, Coach Smith. This kid's strength and talent are terrifying..." Chris Bane's face changed when he heard Smith mention Kaneki Ken. He said to Coach Smith on the other end of the phone with some lack of confidence, "It's just a promise to join North Carolina... I think it might be a bit difficult..."

"What's wrong?" Coach Smith frowned and said, "Are you going to tell me that you can't even handle an underage child, Chris?"

"The main reason is... that LA logo guy also has a crush on this kid..." Chris Bane explained with a guilty conscience, then quickly changed the subject, "But take a look at the link I sent you. The success rate of these Japanese kids is really high... As long as they can grow taller in the future, they will definitely be the pillars of the NCAA!"

"The future? What if? I don't like this uncontrollable feeling..." Coach Smith clicked on the link on his phone with an unhappy look on his face, and said to Chris Bain on the other end of the phone, "If these kids are not as good as you say, then you will lose all your bonus this year!"

"No..." Chris Bane wanted to say a few more words, but he only heard the click of Coach Smith hanging up the phone, followed by the beep of a busy tone.

"I want to see if these kids are as good as you say, Chris." Coach Smith muttered to himself as he looked at the game on the computer screen with some displeasure. The picture on the screen at this moment was the beginning of the fourth quarter of the game between Seirin High School and Rakusan High School.

……

"Kagami! Catch the ball!" Muji Teppei stood at the baseline and threw the ball to Kagami Daigo near the center line, then ran towards the front court.

"Come on, Kagami!" As soon as Kagami Daiga stepped over the midfield line, Akashi Seijuro blocked Kagami Daiga with a menacing look.

"This guy... his aura is a little different..." Kagami Taiga stared at Akashi Seijuro in front of him with his eyes blazing with lightning. He was startled at first, then he glanced at Kuroko Tetsuya not far away, and he felt relieved. "But with Kuroko and I working together, he can't stop us no matter what!"

After making up his mind, Kagami no longer hesitated. After a simple test step with the ball, he decisively passed the ball and broke through to the inside of Luoshan High School.

"boom!"

Just as Kagami Taiga and Akashi Seijuro passed by each other, the sound of basketball touching hands was heard, and the basketball in Kagami Taiga's hand was snatched away by Akashi Seijuro in the blink of an eye.

"It doesn't matter, the ball was just stolen. I expected this." There was no surprise in Kagami Daigo's eyes, and he continued to rush towards the inside with firm steps.

"Expected? So did you expect this? Kagami!" Akashi Seijuro looked at Kagami Taiga who took off into the air after cutting into the inside, a smile of "as expected" appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he said in a somewhat cold tone.

"What..." Kagami Daigo looked at his empty right hand with some confusion, as if he didn't quite understand why the pass came so slowly this time.

"Hurry back to defense, Kagami!"

Seeing that Kagami Daiga still hadn't reacted, Katsume Ichiro behind him shouted quickly, then turned around and ran towards the backcourt.

"Return to defense?" Kagami Daigo, who realized it belatedly, froze in his tracks, then looked in the direction of Kuroko Tetsuya's ambush with a look of surprise, but he only saw Kuroko Tetsuya with the same look of surprise.

"Could it be..." The surprise on Kagami Daigo's face turned into horror, his brain went blank, and only his body's instinct was still driving him to chase after Akashi Seijuro's back.

"Are you surprised? I admit that I did underestimate Tetsuya's misdirection zone, but playing such tricks in front of me again and again... You are underestimating the bond between me and... him."

As he finished speaking, Akashi Seijuro dribbled the ball behind his back to avoid Katsume Ichiro's steal, then stopped in front of the three-point line of Seirin High School, put the ball together with both hands, and after a fake shot to send Koganei Shinji flying, he gently flicked the basketball away with his right hand.

"Don't even think about scoring a goal!" Kagami Daigo roared, jumped up from behind Akashi Seijuro, and slapped the basketball that was about to be shot with his big hand.

"I expected that you would be able to come back!" Looking at the figure of Kagami Taiga rising into the air in his peripheral vision, Akashi Seijuro's mouth curled up slightly. The basketball slipped away from Akashi Seijuro's palm at the moment when Kagami Taiga was about to block it, and flew straight into the hands of Mibuchi Reo who was standing aside.

"That's a great pass, Xiao Zheng!" After receiving the ball, Mibuchi Reo secretly praised it, posed a triple threat posture, looked at Koganei Shinji who came to help defend in front of him and said with a smile, "This opponent you found for me is also delicious and tasty!"

"Damn it! Does this guy treat me as a plaything?" Shinji Koganei muttered somewhat dissatisfiedly, staring at Reo Mibuchi with his eyes fixed, with an expression as if he was facing a formidable enemy.

"Smile, little cat, otherwise the photos after losing will be too ugly." Reo Mibuchi smiled slightly, then squatted down with her legs slightly bent.

"Although I have no idea, I don't know why, my intuition tells me that when Mibuchi Reo shows this rhythm... the next one should be Ame's shot, right?" Shinji Koganei muttered uncertainly, and before he had time to think carefully, he jumped up along with Mibuchi Reo's movements.

"What?" Mibuchi Reio looked at the hand that appeared in front of him in disbelief, his heart skipped a beat, but the long-term hard training allowed him to maintain a good feel for the ball, and he slowly threw the ball out with his body's instinct. "Shua!"

As the sound of the ball hitting the net was heard, the faces of Shinji Koganei and Reo Mibuchi became extremely ugly after they landed.

"Damn it... I don't know why, but I always feel like I've missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity..." Shinji Koganei muttered to himself, gritting his teeth as he looked at the basketball bouncing on the ground.

"You scared me... But it doesn't matter, he won't have such an opportunity again." Mibuchi Reo thought with a cold look at Shinji Koganei's back.

"He was so close... He was so imposing, this guy!" Midorima Shintaro said with a hint of regret in his tone, "It's a pity that he won't have such an opportunity again."

"What are you talking about, Xiaozhen?" Takao Kazunari looked at Midorima Shintaro with a puzzled look and asked.

"I don't know how he did it, but Seirin, who has been on the bench for a long time, did find a way to distinguish the three shooting styles of Mibuchi Reo." Midorima Shintaro explained softly, "That's why Mibuchi Reo's face turned so ugly just now."

"But in the final analysis, didn't Koganei still fail to defend against Mibuchi Reio?" Takao Kazunari asked back with some confusion.

"That's the problem." Midorima Shintaro pushed up his glasses and said, "There's only one chance like this. When Mibuchi Reo finds out that Koganei Shinji can't effectively interfere with her, no matter what defensive moves Koganei Shinji makes, Mibuchi Reo will ignore them."

"Are you okay, Koganei?" Kagami Daiga came to Koganei Shinji, patted his shoulder with concern and said, "It's just a lost ball, don't worry about it."

"I don't care about that, Kagami..." Koganei Shinji said with red eyes, "What I care about is... I clearly have the opportunity to do something for the team..."

"You were just scared by that boy, right, Sister Reio?" Kotaro Hayama came to Reio Mibuchi and asked with a smile.

"Stop talking nonsense." Mibuchi Reio rolled his eyes in dissatisfaction and said, "I'm just a little surprised. He won't have such an opportunity again in the future."

"Hey, let me tell you..." Netani Takeyoshi suddenly said, "Did you notice that Seirin High School's No. 4 suddenly became excited after seeing that ball just now?"

"So that's how it is... So that's it!" Hinata Junpei took off the towel covering his head, rushed to the sidelines as if no one was around, and muttered to himself like a madman.

"What's wrong, Hinata?" Aida Reiko came to Hinata Junpei and asked with some surprise.

"I don't know how to explain this, Reiko." Hinata Junpei turned his head to look at Aida Reiko who was standing beside him, and holding her shoulders with both hands, he spoke word by word, "Anyway, it's my turn in the next round! I've found a way to limit Mibuchi Reo!"

"Really? Don't force yourself just to play in the game!" Aida Reiko looked into Hinata Junpei's eyes with concern and confirmed.

"Don't worry, Reiko." Hinata Junpei turned his head and looked at Koganei Shinji on the court and said, "Thanks to Koganei, I have successfully uncovered Mibuchi Reo's shooting magic!"

"Snapped!"

At this moment, Akashi Seijuro on the court once again cut the basketball from Kagami Taiga's hand with a palm. Seeing this, Kagami Taiga immediately moved sideways to block Akashi Seijuro and buy time for Kuroko Tetsuya to grab the basketball. However, due to physical limitations, Kuroko Tetsuya was unable to catch up with the basketball shot by Akashi Seijuro, and could only watch him fly out of the court.

"Beep! The ball is out of bounds, the black team has the ball!"

The referee on the side blew the whistle.

"Substitution!" Reiko Aida finally decided to trust Junpei Hinata. She gestured to the referee on the sidelines and replaced Shinji Koganei with Junpei Hinata.

"Thank you for your hard work, Koganei." Hinata Junpei patted Koganei Shinji on the shoulder before going on the court and said, "If we can win this time, you will be credited with the first achievement!"

"Thank you, captain..." Shinji Koganei, who was trying hard not to fall down on the court, had a blank mind at this moment. The moment he walked off the court, his legs could no longer support him and he fell to his knees in front of the bench with a thud.

"Koganei, are you okay?" Mitsuki Furihata on the side hurriedly stepped forward to support Shinji Koganei.

"I'm fine..." Koganei Shinji subconsciously waved his hands and tried to stand up with the help of the bench, but then he was startled by the weak feeling on his arms. He muttered to himself in disbelief, "Hey, what's going on? Why... I can't stand up all of a sudden?"

"Is he exhausted?" Furihata Mitsuki looked at the disheveled Koganei Shinji and suddenly fell silent. With complicated eyes, he looked at Kagami Taiga and Kuroko Tetsuya who were fighting hard on the field and muttered to himself, "Koganei was only on the field for a few minutes, and he was only assisting Kagami from the side in facing Akashi... Is he exhausted just by this? Then how strong are Kagami and Kuroko who were facing Akashi throughout the game?"

"You're back, Captain!" Kagami Daiga looked at Hinata Junpei excitedly and said, "It seems that everything is fine now?"

"Mind your own business first, first-year." Hinata Junpei said with a smile and teased, "I will handle my own grudges by myself!"

"Of course, Captain!" Kagami Taiga understood what Hinata Junpei meant, nodded heavily and said, "Our outer line is now in your hands!"

"It's not nice to brag like that, little brother Hinata!" Mibuchi Reo narrowed his eyes and said to Hinata Junpei, "So far, you haven't stopped me from shooting a single goal!"

(End of this chapter)