Slam Dunk: Sakuragi learned from Kawamura Eiki's experience

After school, at the Shohoku basketball gym.

But no one was training at the moment; everyone was huddled together, with one person standing in the middle.

"Look, I'm in the newspaper, and on the front page!" Sakuragi Hanamichi said, unfolding the newspaper and holding it up to his chest, showing his teammates how he had made it into the paper, like displaying a world-famous painting.

The angle of his head tilting back was just enough to align his chin with the light tube on the ceiling, and the curve of his lips could no longer be described as "upturned"—it was as if the Dragon King was about to return.

The basketball court door was pushed open, and Yuri Yanai walked in carrying her schoolbag. She glanced at the crowd gathered around her, and then saw the red-haired guy in the center holding a newspaper, posing, with a face that seemed to say "Hurry up and discover this genius." The corners of her mouth quickly curved into a smile.

Then she walked in.

"Why……?"

Yanai's exclamation echoed perfectly in the stadium.

She covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes wide open, her long eyelashes fluttering.

A tall girl, 172cm, stood on tiptoe and peeked over Sakuragi's shoulder to read the newspaper.

"Isn't this our flower arrangement?"

The emphasis on the word "our home" dramatically amplified the emotional impact on Sakuragi.

Sakuragi's ears turned bright red.

"It's just a newspaper!"

His words and facial expressions were completely mismatched... He said "that's all," but his face clearly said "please praise me a few more times."

He held the newspaper up a little higher to hide his burning cheeks. "It's perfectly normal for a genius like me to be in the newspaper, okay?"

"That's perfectly normal."

Yanai grabbed Sakuragi's arm, hanging on it, and looked up at the photo, her eyes sparkling. "This is a photo of a dunk over Shohoku's Twin Towers! Hanagata and Nagano combined to defend against it and they couldn't stop it. That's amazing!"

Sakuragi felt like he was about to float away. "Yuuri, you know so much! Hahaha!"

Standing on the other side, Ryota Miyagi, watching Sakuragi's smugness and public displays of affection, finally couldn't take it anymore: "Hey, you red-haired monkey, are you mistaken? This game was won by everyone, wasn't it?"

Mitsui Hisashi poked the newspaper with his index finger. "That's right, the point is, why is your picture on the cover alone? I made six three-pointers! Six! Are the reporters at Kanagawa Sports News blind?"

"No matter how accurate your three-point shooting is, is it as cool as this genius's dunk?"

Sakuragi flipped the newspaper over and waved it at Mitsui. "Look at this composition! The lighting! The muscle definition! Now that's what a cover looks like!"

"You chose the cover based on muscle definition?" Mitsui continued to taunt, "Then why not Akagi? His muscles are bigger than yours!"

When Takenori Akagi, who was standing on the sidelines, heard his name called, his face darkened for half a second.

"What does this have to do with me?" he spat out the words through gritted teeth.

The commotion was so loud it felt like it was going to tear the tin roof off the stadium.

Sakuragi was surrounded by a group of people, exchanging barbs with Miyagi Mitsui while Yanai clung to his arm, occasionally adding, "That's right, that's right, my Hanamichi is the best."

Rukawa Kaede stood on the outermost edge of the crowd, silently watching the drama unfold.

"gather."

As Coach Anzai walked in, Akagi's voice, like a hammer blow, shattered all the noise.

Ayako stood next to Coach Anzai with a folder in her hand: "The top four in the prefectural tournament have been decided."

"Besides us, the remaining teams are Ryonan, Hainan, and Buri. Hainan won by a landslide with a score of 150 points."

When Sakuragi heard Ayako mention Hainan, his ears twitched, because Hainan's opponent was none other than Takemaru, his old middle school teammate, and the team of Oda Ryusei.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Tian fell to Hainan, and I heard that Hainan didn't even field their full strength team.

Ayako's voice was crisp and clear: "Two weeks from now, on the 20th, Sunday, the semi-final round-robin tournament will officially begin."

She turned a page, looked up at everyone. "And our first rival from Shohoku..."

"...The champion of last year, the year before last, and the year before that, who has entered the national competition for 16 consecutive years, is the king of Hainan."

Upon hearing that their first opponent was Hainan, the team members were all taken aback. A semi-final round-robin tournament, starting with the fiercest opponent?

"Alright, let's continue training. Remember our goal: county championship, advance to the national championship, and dominate the nation..." Akagi concluded.

"good!"

After announcing the schedule, the Shohoku basketball team began training with great enthusiasm. After the game against Shoyo, Miyagi realized his shooting weakness and has been practicing shooting every day since then, just like Sakuragi, doing 1000 shots a day.

Rukawa and Mitsui continued their physical training, striving to play for one more minute on the court.

Spurred on by Hanagata, Akagi also joined the team that practiced mid-range shots to improve his offensive skills.

Everyone in Shohoku is working hard to make up for their weaknesses.

Yuri Yanai sat on a bench by the court, holding Sakuragi's newspaper. She folded it carefully and put it into her bag, intending to cut out that headline and keep it as a keepsake when she got back.

...............

At the same time, on the other side, in the Ryonan High School Gymnasium.

The schedule in Taoka Shigeichi's hand was already wrinkled from being crumpled.

The lamplight cast a long shadow on the wall, and with his furrowed brow, the shadow looked like an old tree bent by the wind.

On the schedule:

20th: Xiangbuk vs. Hainan/Lingnan vs. Buri

26th: Lingnan vs Hainan/Xiangbuk vs Buri

27th: Xiangbuk vs Lingnan/Hainan vs Buri

Taoka looked at the paper over and over again no less than twenty times, and each time he looked at it, he felt a headache coming on.

The sound of basketballs hitting the floor echoed behind him. Sendoh and Uozumi were leading the team in a scrimmage, but Taoka had no interest in watching the training.

"Playing Hainan and Xiangbei back-to-back..."

He muttered to himself, his voice so soft that only he could hear it. The first match on the 20th is against Buri; winning shouldn't be a problem, it's a piece of cake.

The crucial issue comes later.

Play Hainan on the 26th, and Xiangbei on the 27th.

Two tough matches in two consecutive days, against the two strongest teams in Kanagawa: Hainan's three-time champion pedigree and Shohoku's monster duo that emerged this year.

Even if he exhausted Sendoh and Uozumi on the field, their physical strength wouldn't be enough to sustain them for two consecutive days of top-intensity matches at their full potential.

Taoka took a deep breath, then squinted and wrote two lines on the whiteboard.

20th: Shohoku defeats Hainan

26th: Lingnan defeats Hainan

He stared at those two lines of text for a full five seconds.

If Shohoku can defeat Hainan on the 20th, and Ryonan can finish them off on the 26th... Hainan will have lost two games. Even if Hainan wins against Takezato, who is an easy opponent, they will still be eliminated.

The outcome of the match between Ryonan and Shohoku on the 27th will not affect their qualification; both teams have already secured their tickets to the national tournament.

This is the safest path, and also the only path.

Taoka turned around and looked at the players who were training on the field.

After breaking through Fukuda's defense, Sendoh Akira made a delicate behind-the-back pass to Uozumi, who was cutting in. Uozumi received the ball and immediately slammed it down with both hands, making the rim vibrate loudly.

"Stop right there, all of you."

The team members stopped and turned to look at their coach.

"The first match on the 20th is against Buri, just win it normally." Taoka paused, his gaze sweeping across everyone's faces, "The trouble is in the later matches."

"We'll attack Hainan on the 26th."

The team members' expressions simultaneously turned somber.

"We'll play against Shohoku on the 27th."

It's gotten heavier.

"Playing two of the strongest teams back-to-back will take a toll on your stamina. You all know whether number 27 can give his all."

"So in the game on the 20th, Shohoku vs. Hainan... we can only hope that Shohoku can beat Hainan."

"As long as Hainan loses to Shohoku on the 20th, and we beat them again on the 26th, Hainan will be out of the game. The outcome of the match against Shohoku on the 27th won't be a matter of life and death for us."

He paused, then clenched his fist.

"So from now on, give it your all in every training session. On the 26th, fight to the last drop of sweat, until your last breath..."

Taoka Shigeichi's expression was almost ferocious under the stark white light.

"...We must take Hainan!"

The stadium floor shook.

"Yes...!!" Ryonan's response shook the dust off the ceiling.

The sounds of breathing, sneakers, and basketballs hitting the ground filled the Lingnan Gymnasium.

Taoka stood in front of the tactics board, watching his players get back into training, his gaze fixed on the two characters for "Hainan" like a knife.

Great! It's my turn now.