Slam Dunk: Sakuragi learned from Kawamura Eiki's experience

April 1991, Kanagawa, Japan.

In the last row of Class 6, Grade 3 at Heguang Middle School, a tall boy with red hair was resting his chin on his hand, staring blankly out the window.

Sakuragi Hanamichi, 15 years old, 1.86 meters tall, is a notorious problem student at Wako Junior High School. He has never lost a fight, but has never been successful in confessing his love. His current record is 0 wins and 34 losses.

Shouts came from the direction of the playground.

He squinted and looked over. On the basketball court, several boys were dribbling the ball and rushing towards the basket. The basketball bounced loudly on the concrete.

"cut."

Sakuragi pursed his lips, turned his gaze back to the few leaves that had fallen on the windowsill.

But the tangled mess in my mind came back again; it was that dream again.

He's been having the same dream for the past few days. In the dream, he's playing basketball.

It was a huge stadium, the lights were blindingly bright, and the stands were packed with people, mostly foreign freaks, whose cheers were deafening.

In his dream, he was running on a track called something like N something A.

But… he scratched his head in frustration. Why was he always sitting on a bench in his dreams?

They only get to play occasionally, and even then, it's always during "garbage time".

Although he didn't quite understand what the word meant, everyone around him in the dream said it, with a tone that implied "just fight it casually."

What annoyed him most was that in his dream he was shorter, shrunk to a mere 1.7 meters tall. That was such a huge difference!

What's even stranger is, what was my name again in the dream...?

Sakuragi frowned and thought hard.

He... Hecun...

Oh, right, Eiki Kawamura.

In my dream, I had this name, and I was short, but I could dribble the ball incredibly fast. The sound of my fingers tapping the ball was so clear in my dream that it felt like I was right next to my ear.

His shooting is incredibly accurate, especially that thing called "three-pointer," which he can throw from a great distance and it goes in.

"Am I going crazy?" Sakuragi muttered to himself. Another gust of wind blew in from outside the window, and cherry blossom petals drifted into the windowsill.

This dream is so strange.

Who is he? He is Sakuragi Hanamichi! The invincible Sakuragi Hanamichi in a fight! How could he possibly be a short basketball player?

But the dream felt so real. When I woke up, the feeling of the basketball still lingered in my palms, and my fingers could remember the texture of the small particles on the surface of the ball.

Just as I was lost in thought, a voice suddenly rang in my ears.

"Feed...Sakuragi!"

The bell for recess rang at some point.

He suddenly turned his head, and a familiar face was right in front of him, with that "I've been watching you for a long time" smile on its lips.

Yohei Mito. His best friend, and one of the few people who dared to get this close when he was lost in thought.

"What?" Sakuragi said irritably.

"I was about to ask you what you were doing."

Yohei pulled out the chair next to him, sat down, draped his arm over the back of the chair, and tilted his head to look at him. "The bell has been ringing for ages, didn't you hear it?"

"Huh?" Sakuragi blinked. "Really?"

"Yes," Yohei said with a smile, "You stayed in this position for the entire class, without moving an inch."

Just as Sakuragi was about to retort, three more people rushed over from the side.

Nozomi Takamiya, Yuji Oonan, and Tadashi Noma, the "Wait Trio" of the Sakuragi Army, all gathered around.

Takamiya squeezed in with his round face, his eyes almost disappearing from his grin: "Hey, Sakuragi, you don't look too good."

Da Nan nodded in agreement: "You're not still thinking about yesterday, are you?"

Noma was the most direct: "So what if you failed your thirty-fourth confession? It's okay, just try again!"

Takamiya immediately chimed in, "Right, right, break the record again! Let's aim for a 50-game losing streak before we enter high school!"

Da Nan chimed in, "Hey, Ye Zi from the next class is pretty cool, how about we go confess to her during lunch break? We'll come cheer you on!"

"Exactly!" Noma grinned mischievously. "Remember to take us to witness your record-breaking confession!"

Sakuragi felt something throbbing in the middle of his forehead.

"You guys..."

He slowly stood up, his right fist clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked.

Yohei reacted the fastest, pulling his chair back to create distance in an instant, and spreading his hands: "I didn't say anything."

But the three of them, including Takamiya, were still unaware of the danger and were laughing and joking around.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

Three headbutts, delivered cleanly and decisively in a single second.

Takamiya, Oonan, and Noma's foreheads simultaneously made intimate contact with Sakuragi's forehead, and then the three of them collapsed to the ground limply as if their bones had been removed.

Yohei could see it clearly from the side; all three of them had smoke rising from their foreheads.

The surrounding students were startled by the sudden commotion. Several girls covered their mouths and hid behind them, while the boys in the back row sighed as if it were nothing new. Here we go again.

"Sakuragi seems to be in a particularly bad mood today," someone whispered.

"That's normal. You were rejected after confessing your feelings yesterday."

"Is this the thirty-fourth time? I thought he was used to it by now."

"Shh... keep your voice down!"

Sakuragi plopped back down in his chair, the chair leg scraping against the floor with a screeching sound.

Yohei pulled the chair back, sat down next to him, glanced at the three guys on the ground who couldn't get up, and then turned to look at Sakuragi.

"Seriously, what were you spacing out about just now?" Yohei's tone became a little more serious. "It wasn't because you got rejected, was it? You've been rejected so many times, but never like this before."

Sakuragi remained silent for a while.

"Yohei."

"Um?"

"I have something to tell you, but don't laugh."

"you say."

Sakuragi took a deep breath: "I've been having this strange dream lately."

"Dream?"

"Hmm. I dreamt I was playing basketball."

Sakuragi frowned, struggling to organize his thoughts, "It was in a huge stadium, the lights were so bright you could see your shadow on the floor. The stands were packed with people, and the shouts were so loud they hurt my ears."

Yohei listened quietly.

"In that dream... my name was Kawamura Eiki."

Sakuragi's expression twisted a little as he said this, "He's very short, but he dribbles incredibly fast and shoots incredibly accurately. There's a kind of shot called a three-pointer, which he can just throw up from a great distance and it goes in."

"NBA?" Yohei suddenly said.

Sakuragi was taken aback: "What?"

"The N something A you mentioned, is it the NBA?"

Yohei gestured with his hands, "The American basketball league, the one that's often shown on TV."

Sakuragi slapped his thigh: "Yes, yes, that's it! The NBA!"

Yohei thought for a moment and asked, "Have you been watching basketball games on TV lately?"

Sakuragi opened his mouth, then stopped.

He recalled that he had been working at the convenience store after school for the past few days, and the boss always kept the small TV next to the cashier on.

It seems... they really have been broadcasting some kind of basketball game. Foreigners in brightly colored jerseys are running around on the screen, their sneakers squeaking on the wooden floor, and the commentator's voice is babbling incoherently.

"Yes." He nodded honestly, "When I was working at the convenience store, the boss's TV was always playing it."

Yohei's smile carried a sense of relief, as if to say, "That settles it."

"That's more like it."

Yohei patted him on the shoulder. "What you think about during the day, you dream about at night. You watched a basketball game during the day, so it's perfectly normal to dream about playing basketball at night."

"But that dream felt so real..."

Sakuragi was still a little unwilling, "I remember even the name I was called in my dream clearly, Kawamura Eiki, I can even feel it, the vibration of the racket on the ground can be transmitted from my fingers to my shoulder."

"Did you dream about winning the game?"

Sakuragi thought for a moment.

The memories in the dream faded here, like words soaked in water, leaving only fragmented pieces. The coldness of the bench, the roar of the audience, and the coach's reluctant tone when he called him onto the field.

"...No," he muttered. "I've been sitting on the sidelines the whole time."

Yohei couldn't help but laugh out loud: "That dream is too tragic."

"Exactly!" Sakuragi slammed his hand on the table. "How could I, Sakuragi Hanamichi, possibly sit on the bench? Even when playing basketball, I should be the most dazzling genius on the court!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Takamiya, who was lying dead on the ground, suddenly blurted out, "A genius, huh... confessed his feelings thirty-four times and still failed..."

"Bang!"

The fourth headbutt.

Takamiya Momo became completely silent.