Kuroko's Basketball template: the king of slacking off, Shohoku's strongest sixth man.

"What?!"

Maki Shinichi's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

The novice, riddled with flaws, vanished from sight.

Instead, a red afterimage appeared.

fast!

It's ridiculously fast!

It's so fast it defies the laws of physics!

Maki Shinichi had just jumped, before the ball was even above his head.

A large hand.

A massive, muscular hand descended, blotting out the sky.

There were no unnecessary movements.

It was just a simple slap.

"Smack!!!"

A crisp sound rang out, shattering the atmosphere.

The basketball, like a poor fly, was swatted directly into the stands.

"Bang!"

The ball hits the wall, bounces, and lands.

The entire room fell silent.

Maki Shinichi remained frozen in mid-air in his shooting posture, and was completely dumbfounded after landing.

He looked at Sakuragi Hanamichi in front of him.

The red-haired boy lowered his head slightly.

In those exposed eyes, there was neither Lin Bei's indifference nor Rukawa Kaede's stubbornness.

There is only a sense of self-righteous arrogance.

A red electric current crackled and jumped wildly in the corner of his eye.

It sounded like cheering, yet also like mocking.

Sakuragi slowly raised his head, pointing his thumb at his nose.

A smile, which he considered to be both wicked and arrogant, curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Hey, middle-aged man."

"What are you doing running wild on this genius's turf?"

Sakuragi turned to look at Rukawa, who was staring blankly, and curled his lip in disdain.

"What are you whining about?"

"Talent is something..."

Sakuragi shrugged, his eyes glowing brightly red.

"Wasn't it a natural progression?"

"I really don't understand you mortals."

At this moment.

Lin Bei, sitting on the bench, watched the red-haired monkey radiating an ominous red light and frantically showing off, his lips twitching.

"This is ridiculous..."

"Even more outrageous than mine."

"Is this what they call... the ultimate in perfection?"

"They went astray; that's called being a fool with good fortune."

Lin Bei lay back down, closed his eyes, and a smile appeared on his lips.

……

The world has been muted.

This was Sakuragi Hanamichi's first impression upon landing.

The stadium was originally as noisy as boiling water.

At this moment, the roars, screams, and whistles seemed to be shut out by the thick bulletproof glass.

It became dull, distant, and even somewhat distorted.

Only one voice remained in my ears.

"Thump, thump, thump."

The heartbeat was steady like a war drum, each pump delivering hot blood to every part of the body.

Sakuragi looked down at his hands.

Just now, those hands swatted away the Kanagawa Emperor's sure-kill ball.

His fingertips were slightly hot, but he couldn't feel the slightest tremor.

There was only one unprecedented... absolute sense of control.

"Hey, red-haired monkey!!"

A roar from Kiyota Nobunaga came from the side, sounding like a cassette tape played at twice the speed.

Funny, tedious, even a little ridiculous.

Sakuragi glanced at it out of the corner of his eye.

too slow.

That guy who used to jump around like a wild monkey in his eyes.

The trajectory of his movements at that moment was as clear as the white chalk lines on a blackboard.

Muscle contraction, shift of center of gravity, focus of gaze...

Everything was "seen".

Not with the eyes.

Instead, it uses the skin, the pores, and the instinctive radar of a wild beast.

The basketball bounced and landed on the ground, rolling towards the edge of the court.

Sakuragi moved.

Before the "save the ball" command even appeared in my mind, my body had already reacted.

A red lightning bolt instantly tore through half the field!

Amidst the stunned silence of the entire audience.

With terrifying speed, the red-haired figure caught the basketball with one hand just as it was about to go out of bounds.

"Smack."

The ball was held in his palm, as docile as a pet.

I used to think that basketball was a disobedient troublemaker, and dribbling it was like fighting with it.

But now... this ball seems to have grown onto my hand, becoming an extension of my limbs.

Sakuragi turned around.

Facing Hainan in the second half, a cruel smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Back up and defend!!!"

Maki Shinichi's hoarse roar exploded.

He struggled desperately to move his leaden legs.

My lungs gasped for breath like bellows, trying to catch up with that red figure.

Sakuragi did not turn around.

But he could feel it.

Behind him, a purple flame was dying out.

That was the scent of that middle-aged man.

Weak, heavy, and filled with despair.

"Why is he so slow?"

Sakuragi began dribbling forward.

No fancy crossovers, no unnecessary changes of direction, just the simplest straight-line sprint.

But with the added speed, simplicity becomes a brutal aesthetic.

"Stop him!!"

Kazuma Takasago desperately spread his arms, trying to build a last line of defense.

Sakuragi looked at the man in front of him who had once been as big as a mountain.

now.

It's full of flaws.

His left foot was unsteady, leaving his right ribs vulnerable defensively.

His eyes were filled with the fear of "Don't come any closer."

"Get out of the way."

Sakuragi didn't even slow down.

While moving at high speed, he suddenly executed an extremely smooth back-to-the-basket dribble.

He had only ever seen Lin Bei use this move before; when he practiced it himself, he always ended up hitting his heel.

But at this moment.

The moment the thought of "bad luck" flashed through my mind, my body perfectly replicated the movement, even more accurately than the textbook.

The basketball, like a clever elf, loops around the back of the right hand and bounces precisely to the left hand.

Kazuma Takasago only saw a flash of red light before he was gone.

"boom!!!"

There is no suspense.

Sakuragi Hanamichi leaped into the air, his red sneakers seemingly stepping on air steps.

He caught the ball with one hand, like a battle axe, and slammed it into the basket!

The basketball hoop groaned in pain, as if begging for mercy.

56: 44.

Sakuragi landed with a thud, looked at the still violently shaking net, tilted his head, and had a blank look on his face.

"strangeness."

He muttered to himself, his voice not loud, but it carried throughout the entire venue through the loudspeaker.

"Why is this basketball hoop... so low?"

……

Hainan's offensive round.

Shinichi Maki has the ball.

Sweat dripped from his strong chin onto the floor, shattering into pieces.

tired.

I'm more tired than ever before.

That deep-seated fatigue stemmed not only from physical exhaustion but also from a devastating blow to the mind.

That last shot, that novice...

No, they were not laymen at all.

Shinichi Maki stared intently at the boy in front of him, who had his arms outstretched and was radiating a scarlet aura.

That's a monster.

Give me the ball!

Jin Soichiro attempted to make a run to receive the pass.

But Rukawa Kaede was like an unremovable plaster, clinging to him tightly and not giving him any room to breathe.

Maki Shinichi had to do it himself.

He is the emperor, the pillar of Hainan, and he cannot back down.

"call……"

Adjust your breathing and lower your center of gravity.

Maki Shinichi forcibly mobilized the last bit of power in his body.

He tried to use his best physical strength to overpower Sakuragi.

"Bang!"

Shoulder strikes chest.

The expected breach was not created.

Maki Shinichi felt as if he had crashed into a red wall made of cast iron, and the shock made his shoulders go numb.

Not moving at all!

The Sakuragi Hanamichi of the past, who could fly away with a single collision and whose defense was full of loopholes, is gone.

The force of that impact was like a mud ox entering the sea, instantly neutralized by the opponent's terrifying core power.

"You're so weak."

"Middle-aged people."

Sakuragi's voice was very soft.

With a sense of self-righteous doubt, his eyes were clear and foolish.

Are you hungry?