Kuroko's Basketball: I'm not the boss?

Imayoshi adjusted his glasses. He was probably the only one in the Touou team who didn't have any ill feelings towards Aomine. Before Aomine arrived, although the Touou team was united, they couldn't achieve any results. He had figured it out: as long as they could win, it didn't matter. Victory could cover up all the conflicts and problems.

"The manager is right. Qingfeng, you should rest for a while. Leave the rest to us."

Aomine glanced at Imayoshi without showing any emotion, then said seriously to Momoi, "Momoko, I can't rest. They're not to be trifled with."

"Besides, you want me to entrust the chance of victory to someone else? Don't be ridiculous. Without me, you'll only get crushed."

The next sentence was spoken by Aomine to Imakichi.

Before Imayoshi could speak, the hot-tempered Wakamatsu, who already disliked Aomine, shouted, "What did you say, you bastard?"

"Am I wrong? If you really want to win, be quiet and don't disturb my rest."

After saying that, Qingfeng closed his eyes.

Veins bulged on Wakasumi's forehead, but he couldn't refute it. In just a few rounds, he realized that Touou and Kaijo were not on the same level. If Aomine were taken down, they really wouldn't even have a chance to fight back.

Momoi looked at the group, who had fallen silent again, and bit her lip. It was precisely because she was afraid of this situation that she had chosen to come to Touou with Aomine. However, even with her present, the scenario she had anticipated still occurred.

I feel like I can't help at all... A deep sense of powerlessness gripped Momoi's heart, and she turned to look at Kise.

Why is it that Ryota can change things? Is it because of me that Dai is like this? Shouldn't I be with Dai...?

Chapter 17 Xiangyang's Surprising Move

The second quarter is about to begin. Players from both sides, please come onto the court.

"Oh? Kise isn't playing?"

Aomine couldn't help but ask Kise, who was sitting in the audience.

Xiang Yang adjusted the tightness of his wristband and replied, "Our ace is tired and needs to rest, and I'm very disappointed in him."

Xiangyang didn't even glance at Qingfeng, and said to himself, "To be able to suppress him like this in a one-on-one fight, well, for his level, it's not bad to do this."

"But your good days are coming to an end. I'm going to keep you under tight control from now on."

Aofeng's lips twitched, and a grid appeared on his face: "You really dare to say that."

Xiangyang flashed a bright smile at Qingfeng, then walked back to his own backcourt to prepare to serve.

Beep—

Xiang Yang took the serve and continued to advance slowly at his own pace. Even though he was down by 15 points, he didn't seem anxious at all.

As Xiang Yang dribbled at a slow pace, everyone at Haichang felt a sense of relief, as if they weren't the ones falling behind.

With Kise gone, even if Aomine isn't at his best, he's still a difficult opponent to deal with.

Xiangyang observed the situation on the court and thought to himself: Let's avoid Qingfeng. As long as we don't let him lead us by the nose, we can still score steadily on the offensive end.

Thinking of this, Xiangyang proactively passed the ball to Kasamatsu and ran to the baseline, with Aomine close behind. After Xiangyang's provocation earlier, Aomine decided to teach this foul-mouthed guy a lesson.

However, after Xiangyang ran to the corner, he rested with his knees on his hands, neither making any runs nor asking for the ball. Qingfeng glanced at him, said nothing, and rested with his knees on his hands as well. He had exerted too much force in the first quarter and had been entangled by Kise for a long time, so his stamina was already low.

After receiving possession of the ball, Kasamatsu glanced at the position of the sun and realized: I see. Bring Aomine to the corner so that he can't participate in the frontal defense. You really came up with a good idea.

After surveying the situation on the court, Kasamatsu immediately raised his hand to signal Kobori to set a screen. Having watched Hiyori play so much, his playing style was gradually becoming more like Hiyori's.

Seizing the opportunity, Kasamatsu discovered a defensive gap in Touou's interior defense and delivered a bounce pass to Kohori, who easily scored two points.

During the transition between offense and defense, Qingfeng needs to get past Xiangyang's defense.

Xiang Yang remained calm, feeling no pressure whatsoever. "I can't defend against it anyway, so why should I be nervous?" he thought, even pulling up his pants.

In an instant, Qingfeng felt an invisible pressure surrounding him. He licked his lips and said excitedly, "You're quite interesting, aren't you?"

Qingfeng immediately began his signature move: street style dribbling.

However, Xiang Yang remained as steady as a mountain in the face of Qingfeng's dazzling dribbling, his center of gravity completely unaffected.

Qingfeng frowned. "He's not falling for this fake?" Qingfeng pushed the ball to the left, instantly outmaneuvering Xiangyang like a Sam Gold, followed by a layup for two points. Qingfeng's lips curled into a smile. "Even with a stable center of gravity, I still managed to get past him."

Xiang Yang remained expressionless, while Qing Feng secretly rejoiced: This kid has been beaten so badly he can't even laugh anymore.

However, as time went on, Qingfeng could no longer laugh.

Why does this kid always stand in the bottom corner during the attack rounds?

Aomine stood next to Xiangyang with a twitching mouth. He had been standing in the bottom corner for most of the time. At first, Aomine was happy because Xiangyang didn't attack, so he didn't have to defend and could save his energy. However, Xiangyang didn't attack, and he just stood there with Xiangyang in the bottom corner, staring blankly. The four pairs of Shikaijo were almost making Touou unable to take care of himself.

That's not a big deal. After all, Touou is an offensive team. Every time Aomine has the ball and goes one-on-one, he can score over Hikaru. But this guy always looks very imposing and won't be fooled. No matter if Aomine fakes a move or makes a real breakthrough, he always stands still. It's like he's not attacking or defending on the court. On the other hand, every time Aomine attacks, he dribbles around in a fancy way, exhausting himself.

Qingfeng dribbled the ball while looking at Xiangyang, still with a serious expression. He lowered his center of gravity and pulled up his pants again. This time, Qingfeng didn't use any special moves and directly broke through on the right side with the ball. Xiangyang still stood still, just turned his head to look at Qingfeng in confusion, as if to say: Why aren't you dribbling anymore?

Qingfeng felt his blood surging; he knew he had been tricked and thoroughly outmaneuvered by this guy.

At this moment, Qingfeng jumped on one foot, determined to vent his anger with this dunk.

Huh? Why am I so far from the basket?

The prolonged high-intensity offense had exhausted Aomine's stamina. Realizing he had been tricked, Aomine, in a fit of rage, recklessly jumped up without paying attention to his physical condition, attempting a dunk. However, due to his physical crisis, he could no longer perform the terrifying dunking moves he had in the first quarter.

Kobo rushed over and jumped up with all his might, blocking Aomine's dunk with a volleyball-style block. Since Xiangyang had been standing still, he was now the closest person to the frontcourt basket. Kasamatsu picked up the rebound and threw it hard to Xiangyang, who had already run to the frontcourt.

Xiangyang turned around and smiled at Qingfeng, then stood on tiptoe and scored a layup with ease.

At this moment, Qingfeng sat on the ground looking completely bewildered. Xiaoju's block earlier had dealt him a heavy blow, but more so because he had actually been tricked by Xiangyang for so long.

Momoi was terrified by what she saw and quickly signaled the referee to stop.

Kobo scratched his head and looked at Aomine, thinking to himself: Is this guy crazy? Is he really that affected by my one blunder?

Thinking of this, Kobo reached out to Aomine, wanting to help him up, but Aomine did not react at all.

Just as Kohori felt embarrassed and withdrew his hand, Momoi hurriedly ran into the arena.

"Ah Da! Are you alright?"

Seeing Momoi's worried look, Aomine reacted and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm fine, Momoi, help me up."

Xiangyang watched as Qingfeng, supported by Momoi, walked to the bench and couldn't help but stroke his chin: "Why does he look so sad?"

Upon hearing his words, everyone else in the venue rolled their eyes and couldn't help but complain: "After being made to look like this by you and getting a big slap on the wrist, anyone would be depressed."

Kise glared at him with dead fish eyes: "You've gone too far! What if you ruin Aomine?"

Xiangyang helplessly shrugged and started arguing with Kise.

With the timeout ending, Aomine did not play, while on Kaijo's side, both Hikaru and Kise took to the court.

They went on a 12-0 run in the last two minutes of the second quarter.

At halftime, the score was 51-49, with Haichang leading.

Accustomed to playing one-on-one, how could Touou possibly defend against the well-coordinated Kaijo team? Especially without Aomine anchoring the paint, Kasamatsu could easily find opportunities to pass the ball well to his teammates. On offense, Aomine's scoring efficiency remained high, but with both sides able to score, how could one person's firepower compare to that of a team? As Aomine's stamina dwindled, he played slower and slower, needing to recover after each attack. While Aomine was still on the court, Kaijo had already slowly closed the gap. When Aomine left the court, they went on a scoring run and took the lead in one fell swoop.

.

During halftime, Touou remained completely silent.

Momoi picked up the Kaijo intelligence she had just recorded, glanced at Aomine, and casually said, "Through the first half of the game, I found that Kaijo's core point guard is Xiangyang, but Kaijo's captain, Kasamatsu Yukio, can also connect the team. Kaijo is a dual point guard team, so our main task next is to cut off Kasamatsu and Xiangyang's organization, at least to prevent them from scoring so easily."

"Xiangyang is a very smart player with a high basketball IQ, but his defensive ability is not outstanding..."

At this point, Momoi secretly glanced at Aomine and found that he didn't react at all. Instead, he was listening to her attentively. She breathed a sigh of relief. She was afraid that Aomine would lose his desire to win because of the stimulation from Xiangyang. Now it seemed that the opposite was true. Aomine in the past would never listen to her in meetings.

Momoi thought for a moment, then continued, "In the second half, we can look for Xiangyang more on offense. Our advantage is that everyone can score one-on-one, but our disadvantage is that our teamwork isn't as good as theirs. So we need to play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses, and play more one-on-one games..."

Momoi hesitated for a moment, then seemed to have made up her mind and said, "O-Da, why don't you sit down and rest for a while? You're already very tired."

Chapter 18 A Flawless Imitation?

The timeout is over. Players from both teams, please enter the field.

"Hey? Aren't your ace player going to play?"

This time it was Xiangyang's turn to ask a question. He looked at Jinji with a puzzled expression, as if he wasn't the one who had tricked Qingfeng just now.

Imyoshi adjusted his glasses and said helplessly, "There's nothing I can do. Even the ace needs a rest. Our next opponent is us, so please go easy on us."

"What?! Xiao Qingfeng isn't coming??"

Kise's eyes widened; he was still waiting to continue his duel with Aomine.

Xiangyang walked over and patted Kise on the shoulder: "Don't worry about the genius. As long as we widen the score gap, that guy won't be able to sit still."

Kasamatsu stood behind, listening silently to their conversation. He thought they were both crazy. Kasamatsu was actually hoping Aomine would stay on the sidelines a little longer, yet these two wanted him to get on the field soon? They were addicted to beating Aomine!

A few minutes ago

"Little Xiangyang~"

Hearing this disgusting tone, Xiangyang couldn't help but freeze, turning to look at Kise without saying a word.

Kise chuckled and said in a flattering tone, "Little Xiangyang, can I continue to play one-on-one with Aomine in the second half?"

Xiang Yang gave him a strange look: "Of course you'll go one-on-one with him. You don't really think any of us can match up against him, do you? We'll get completely crushed."

Kise touched his nose and continued to laugh, "No, I mean one-on-one like in the first round."

Xiangyang didn't speak, but calmly looked at Kise.

Kise panicked and quickly waved his hands, saying, "I didn't mean to monopolize possession of the ball! It's just that I think I'm starting to get a feel for it."

"Feeling?" Xiang Yang asked thoughtfully. "What do you mean?"

"Because Aomine's weapons are speed and unpredictable shooting, when he enters the zone, his speed and shooting threat can be brought to 100%. So I was thinking, my weapon is imitation, if I can bring imitation to 100%, then maybe I can also enter the zone."

Seeing Kise's confident expression, Xiangyang stroked his chin and asked, "So you want to imitate Aomine? But at best, you can only become Aomine, right?"

"Ah, I know, but you have to find your way forward, right? Otherwise, how can you become Haichang's ace and your Jordan?"

Seeing Kise's serious expression, Xiangyang was momentarily lost in thought, then smiled slightly.

Do you know who Jordan is?

"...I don't know, but since Xiao Xiangyang asked me to be it, I'll take it."

.

Tonghuang bench

Momoi looked at Aomine with concern: "Big Brother..."