Slam Dunk: Sakuragi learned from Kawamura Eiki's experience

Chapter 106 Mitsui's Sleep Talk... Tetsuo

On the day the final exam results were released, Sakuragi Hanamichi sat in the window seat in his classroom, with his report card spread out in front of him.

The face beneath the red buzz cut changed from normal skin tone to red, from red to white, and from white to an indescribable gray.

Four people were standing around the table.

Takamiya Nozomi's chubby face jiggled with laughter: "I only failed three subjects this time!" His tone was as proud as if he were announcing that he had won the third prize in the lottery.

Oonan Yuji and Noma Chuichiro gave each other a high five and said in unison, "We failed two subjects!" Their pride was even greater than that of Takamiya.

Yohei Mito folded his report card in half and put it in his pocket, shrugging: "I didn't fail any subjects; I passed them all."

Four pairs of eyes turned to Sakuragi at the same time. Sakuragi Hanamichi stuffed the report card into the drawer with such speed that it looked like he was hiding some contraband.

Takamiya, quick as a flash, snatched it and unfolded it, then burst into laughter: "Flower arrangement, failed seven subjects! Seven subjects! Hahaha—"

Da Nan leaned closer to confirm the number, then burst into laughter, slapping his thigh and squeezing tears from the corners of his eyes. Noma squatted down, leaning on the table, laughing so hard he curled up into a ball.

"You bunch of people—" Sakuragi's forehead veins bulged, and just as he was about to stand up, a voice drifted in from the front door of the classroom.

"ikebana----"

Yuuri Yanai walked in. She saw the four members of Sakuragi's gang laughing together, then looked at Sakuragi's face, which was flushed red to the roots of his neck: "What's wrong?"

Takamiya wiped away tears of laughter, held up Sakuragi's report card and waved it at Yanai, his voice so loud it could be heard throughout the entire floor: "Hanamichi—failed seven subjects!"

Yanai took the report card, glanced at it, raised her eyebrows slightly, and then looked up at Sakuragi.

Sakuragi turned his face away, the tips of his ears under his red buzz cut were so red they looked like they were about to bleed, and his expression was as if he wanted to stomp a hole in the floor and crawl into it.

Being exposed by Yanai for failing seven subjects was a blow ten thousand times heavier than failing seven subjects itself.

When Takenori Akagi pushed open the door and walked into the teachers' office in the teaching building, several teachers in the office simultaneously looked up.

His tall frame completely filled the doorway, and his expression was the standard Akagi-style seriousness, with his lips pressed into a line and his brows slightly furrowed.

Then he stepped to the side, and behind him, Sakuragi Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede, Mitsui Hisashi, and Miyagi Ryota filed in, like four prisoners being escorted.

Sakuragi and Miyagi exchanged a glance and lowered their heads, Mitsui turned his face away and pretended to look at the clock on the wall, while Rukawa remained expressionless.

Akagi walked to the desks of several teachers, placed his hands on the seams of his trousers, and bowed deeply.

The 197cm tall man bent over so deeply in the office that he almost folded himself up. His voice was low and earnest, each word squeezed from the depths of his throat, carrying a humility that was completely incongruous with his poker face: "Teachers, please give these four idiots a chance to retake the exam. The national competition can't do without them."

Sakuragi glanced at Rukawa next to him, then at Mitsui and Miyagi. Well! He wasn't the only one who failed; it turned out he had someone else in to blame.

Outside the office door, Kiminobu Kogure and Ayako both sighed deeply, while Yanai stood beside them with a helpless, bitter smile on his lips.

Four key players, the team's absolute mainstays, if they fail their courses and can't participate in the national tournament, then Shohoku won't even make it past the first round. Shohoku's dream of dominating the national tournament will become a joke.

"You four idiots, all of you, lower your heads!" Akagi's roar exploded from the office, making the air in the corridor tremble.

Inside the office, four problem children stood in a row under Akagi's suppression, all bowing over.

The grade head took off his reading glasses, rubbed his nose, exchanged a glance with the math teacher next to him, and then looked at the county competition championship trophy standing in the display case next to his desk.

When this trophy was brought back, it caused quite a stir at the school. After some back and forth between the teaching staff and the principal, it was eventually placed in this display case.

After all, this is the first basketball championship trophy the school has won since its founding.

The head of the grade finally sighed, picked up the stamp on the table, and stamped it on the four make-up exam application forms.

After leaving the office, Akagi turned around in the corridor, his face full of disappointment: "The basketball team will have a week of training after summer vacation, but before that, tonight, you four idiots will have to go to my house for tutoring."

His gaze swept across the four faces, his eyes filled with murderous intent: "Whoever fails the makeup exam tomorrow and is unable to participate in the national competition will be expelled from the basketball team."

Sakuragi and Miyagi swallowed simultaneously. Mitsui looked up at the ceiling, but his throat visibly twitched. Rukawa didn't say anything, but his eyelids twitched.

That evening, the Akagi family's living room was converted into a temporary tutoring room.

The coffee table was pushed to the corner, and a low table was placed in the center, piled with open textbooks, notebooks, test papers and sharpened pencils.

Akagi, Ayako, Kogure, and Yanai, four top students, sat side by side at a low table. Opposite them sat Sakuragi, Rukawa, Mitsui, and Miyagi, four star players who dominated the basketball court but failed their exams. The expressions on their faces were more like those of someone facing a formidable enemy than the other.

Akagi shoved a math problem set in front of Mitsui, tapping his fingers on the cover, his voice sounding like he was setting up a defensive tactic: "Go through all the examples in Chapter Two first. Don't even think about sleeping until you've finished."

Mitsui opened the problem set, his brow furrowing as he looked at the densely packed calculations.

Across the street, Haruko Akagi was carrying a plate of sliced ​​fruit into the living room when her eyes met Rukawa's. She froze on the spot, her fingers almost crushing the plate.

She lowered her head, her cheeks flushed, and covered her eyes with her bangs. After placing the fruit on the table, she quickly retreated to the kitchen doorway, then leaned against the door frame and secretly and cautiously glanced at Rukawa Kaede again.

Sakuragi and Yanai sat facing each other at the corner of a low table.

Yanai spread out the English vocabulary list, pointed to the first unit with his finger, and said in a calm and unhurried voice, "Memorize the first unit first. I'll read the Japanese, and you spell the English."

Miyagi and Ayako were also having a one-on-one session. Ayako slapped a sheet of mathematical formulas in front of Miyagi, and he immediately sat up straight, writing furiously. He dared not slack off in front of Ayako.

Kogure and Rukawa faced each other. Kogure adjusted his glasses, unfolded a world history timeline, and spoke in a gentle voice as if explaining basketball rules to a first-year student: "Rukawa-kun, let's start with the Warring States period—"

Rukawa Kaede opened his notebook expressionlessly, his eyes glazed over for a moment, then slowly focused, and picked up his pen.

During a break, Mitsui went to get some water and picked up the landline microphone from the Akagi family's house.

After a few rings, a middle-aged woman's voice came from the other end of the phone.

Mitsui immediately stood up straight, lowered his voice by a full eight octaves, and explained that he had been taking extra lessons at Akagi's house that night and hadn't gone to fight or fool around.

Mitsui hung up the phone and let out a long sigh.

Sakuragi glanced back at him, a smug grin spreading across his face: "Who told you to be a delinquent in the past?"

Mitsui clenched his fist immediately, but when he caught a glimpse of Akagi staring at him from the direction of the living room, he slowly unclenched his fist.

Meanwhile, Yanai borrowed the Akagi family's phone. When she dialed their number, her tone was completely different from her usual voice—polite, obedient, and articulate.

Sakuragi heard her say into the microphone from afar in the living room, "I'm tutoring the basketball team members at the captain's house, so please don't worry," in a proper and generous tone.

After hanging up the phone, Yanai turned to meet Sakuragi's gaze, blinked, and made an extremely practiced expression of a well-behaved young lady.

The tutoring session continued late into the night, and the light in the living room was the only window still lit in the entire building. The clock struck three in the morning, and textbooks and test papers were scattered all over the low table.

Sakuragi Hanamichi was hunched over the table, his red buzz cut buried in a math test paper, pen in his left hand and notebook under his right, muttering to himself about tense changes.

His eyelids were drooping, and he nodded his head down several times before suddenly lifting it again. But with Yanai sitting opposite him, tapping the table lightly with his fingertip every few minutes to remind him of the next question, he dared not fall asleep.

On the sofa next to them, Mitsui and Miyagi, who had finished their tutoring, were covered with blankets and drifted off to sleep.

The two were still talking in their sleep. Miyagi called out Ayako, while Mitsui called out Tetsuo.

After a night of hard work, the four who had failed their exams walked out of the classroom and office the next day. Seeing that they had all passed their make-up exams, Akagi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If these four guys fail their courses and can't participate in the national competition, not only will his dream of dominating the country and his dream of being specially recruited by Fukasawa Sports University be shattered, but if he is eliminated in the first round of the national competition, he will be laughed to death by Uozumi.

>