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

"Then you might be disappointed. After today, you won't be the only one who can defeat you."

Xiang Yang walked up to Qingfeng, a mocking smile on his lips: "You've already been suppressed by us for two quarters, huh, the ace of the Generation of Miracles..."

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Beep—End of the third quarter

Kise walked off the court listlessly. He really felt like crying. He had struggled with Aomine for most of the day and finally managed to imitate Aomine's playing style. But then, Hikaru provoked him, and Aomine got angry and immediately switched to the zone.

Kise, who had just regained some confidence after being beaten so badly, was crushed again by Aomine. He was really tired now, both mentally and physically exhausted.

Xiangyang took a sip of water and, seeing Kise's suicidal look, patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, "It's okay, it's just that we conceded a few goals, don't be upset, here, have some water."

Kise took the water bottle from Xiangyang, took a vicious gulp, and then glared at Xiangyang: "You make it sound so easy! You're not the one getting bullied! Why is it always you who talks tough, but I'm the one who gets beaten up?!"

Xiangyang gave a perfunctory reply, then put his arm around Kise's shoulder, pointed to the scoreboard and said, "Look, it's 82:81 now. Aomine is playing so hard, and Touou is still one point behind us. What does that mean? The situation is under my control~ Relax!"

"And didn't you hear what Qingfeng just said? He originally planned to save it for the final moment, but he exposed it. He's really at his last gasp now."

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Tonghuang bench

No one spoke; the atmosphere remained eerily quiet, almost suffocating.

Momoi bit her fingernails, pondering how to begin. She felt that if she didn't say something soon, Touou would truly be finished today.

Just as Momoi was racking her brains to come up with a topic, Aomine broke the silence: "In the fourth quarter, pass the ball to me the whole time."

After saying this, Aomine closed his eyes. The Touou members didn't react at all to Aomine's words. If it weren't for Aomine, they would be finished by now. Even Wakamatsu, who was at odds with Aomine, didn't question Aomine's decision. Handing the ball to Aomine and being a good spectator was the best choice for Touou at the moment.

Chapter 20 Haichang's Backup Plan

Beep—

The fourth quarter is about to begin. Players from both teams, please enter the court.

Aomine wiped his face; the prolonged, high-intensity match had indeed pushed him to his limit. He took a deep breath; even he—the ace of the Generation of Miracles—felt the current situation was extremely difficult.

Without using his zone, Kise is now almost evenly matched with Touou. Furthermore, the other members of Kaijo are generally stronger than Touou, especially with Hikaru's "Horns" attack, which Touou hasn't figured out how to counter yet, only managing to forcefully break through using Aomine's zone. However, if Aomine uses all his energy on defense, they might as well not even bother playing. It's fair to say Touou is now on the brink of elimination; if they make any further mistakes, they're truly finished.

As Qingfeng walked onto the field, he pondered a solution, but ultimately came to the conclusion…

Is it really possible that I, Aomine Daiki, am going to lose...?

Strangely, despite the extremely urgent and dangerous situation, Qingfeng was laughing; he even laughed out loud.

"Hahaha, this is really interesting. So this is what it feels like to have an opponent."

Xiangyang watched Qingfeng laughing loudly on the court and couldn't help but wonder: What's wrong with this guy?

"Damn, does he still have a backup plan?" Xiangyang's face stiffened at the thought. If Qingfeng really did have a backup plan, then Haichang was the one in danger now.

Kise saw through his thoughts, walked over and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Don't worry, I roughly know what Aomine is thinking right now. He's smiling not because he still has the strength, but because he's found someone who can defeat him."

Xiang Yang touched his nose. The Generation of Miracles really are a strange bunch of people.

Just like Kise thought, Aomine was filled with a sense of powerlessness, a feeling he hadn't experienced since awakening his talent in middle school. Could he really lose? Just thinking about it made him want to laugh.

"Come on! Don't let me down at the very last moment!"

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Xiangyang first glanced at Qingfeng to make sure he hadn't activated his zone as soon as he entered the game, and then confidently signaled his teammates to move into position. Although Qingfeng was a strong point on the field without activating his zone, he couldn't stop their tactical movement.

As Kise and Kasamatsu both created an opportunity, Hikaru delivered a precise cross pass directly in front of Kasamatsu, hitting him perfectly at his cross-court point.

"It feels so good to receive this guy's pass!" Kasamatsu thought to himself, his face expressionless.

He then decisively took the shot, and the three-pointer swished through the net, scoring the first goal of the fourth quarter for the Haichang team!

The score at this point is 85-81.

Qingfeng sighed and muttered, "We really can't relax for even a moment."

The words had barely left his mouth when a glint of lightning flashed in Aomine's eyes. Xiangyang, who had been watching Aomine's condition closely, immediately warned, "Watch out! He's unleashing his ultimate move!"

But it was all for naught. Aomine in his zone state was undoubtedly the best player on the court. A few quick crossovers, followed by an incredibly exaggerated crossover, instantly left Kise behind. This swift first step...

It's absolutely phenomenal in the NBA!

Xiang Yang rubbed his temples and said in a deep voice, "He can't hold on for long, hold on for me!"

To be honest, Xiangyang didn't perform to his full potential in today's game. First, Aomine, who entered the zone, was simply too overpowered. Xiangyang, who is good at orchestrating the team's offense, couldn't use his skills effectively. Second, Touou played a very one-on-one game and rarely passed the ball during their offense, which made it very difficult for Xiangyang. He has a high basketball IQ and can often anticipate the opponent's passing position to make a steal. However, Touou simply doesn't have the mindset of organizing an offense as a team. In their minds, it's the most reasonable way to play basketball: one person takes turns attacking the ball.

Xiangyang took a deep breath. Aomine was in zone mode, and it would be a waste to let Kise exhaust himself fighting Aomine in the crucial fourth quarter. Kise's condition was no better than Aomine's; both of them had fought hard from the first quarter to the fourth. He couldn't guarantee whether Aomine or Kise would fall first. The best solution right now was to hold out until Aomine ran out of energy, and then use Kise to turn the tide.

However, the horn attack, such a powerful weapon, is not very effective against a super player like Aomine who can influence the course of the game, because you never know when that freak will disrupt your pass.

So now, it's clear that there's only one way to break this deadlock. You see, Xiang Yang is not only a great playmaker, but also a pick-and-roll expert.

Xiangyang waved to Xiaojue, who was standing inside. Xiaojue immediately understood and stepped up to set a screen for Xiangyang. Xiangyang took the screen, glanced at the opposing team's positioning, and found that he had a lot of space, even some room.

Xiang Yang immediately pulled up, stopped abruptly, and jumped to shoot, the ball swishing through the net.

Jinji, who had been defending Xiangyang, was stunned. "This kid has this level of skill?"

Since Xiangyang only directed the team to run tactics in the first half and then passed the ball to Kise to play around with, and in the second half he kept chatting with me, Imayoshi thought that this guy was a team-oriented point guard and did not have much independent offensive ability.

"Looks like I've been slacking off. You guys aren't even putting in the effort to guard me? As a good point guard, this really hurts my feelings."

Xiangyang pretended to cry, and Kasamatsu, seeing that he was just fooling around again, walked over and kicked him, angrily scolding, "Get back to defense now! If you mess up at the last minute, I'll kill you!"

Xiangyang sniffed, looking aggrieved, and gave Lisong a resentful look, daring not to speak out.

As Aomine returned to defense after breaking through a triple-team, he frowned. If he couldn't contain Xiangyang, all the points he scored would be in vain. Moreover, Kise would definitely exert his strength after Aomine ran out of energy. If he couldn't widen the score gap before then, he would lose!

Imayoshi saw through Aomine's thoughts and took the initiative to walk over and say, "Don't worry, leave that kid to us. You can focus on your duel with Kise."

Aomine glanced at him and slowly nodded. Imayoshi was overjoyed; this was the first time Aomine had entrusted a mission to someone else!

Therefore, for the sake of my ace, I must guard against you!

Imakichi made a silent vow, while intently staring at the rising sun.

Xiangyang continued to wave at Xiaojue; this same move had many variations.

This time, Imakichi kept up with Xiangyang's rhythm of combining the balls. Just as Xiangyang was about to raise his hand to combine the balls, Imakichi jumped up. Xiangyang smiled slightly and took the initiative to combine the balls to meet him.

Beep—Haichang team's number 2 player committed a shooting foul, two free throws.

Imakichi frowned; he'd been tricked. Higashi had deliberately slowed down his shot, waiting for Imakichi to jump and block. He noticed Aomine watching him intently from not far away…

Imaki hurriedly adjusted his glasses: I must defend the next ball!

however

Half of the fourth quarter has passed, and the score remains 96-94, with Haichang still in the lead.

Aomine stared silently at Imakichi, who was almost in tears. He couldn't defend against it! He really couldn't defend against it!

From the moment Xiangyang finished his free throw, Jinji has been playing serious defense.

Screened behind him, Xiangyang took a shot directly. He jumped around the screen but was fouled. He didn't jump after getting around the screen and Xiangyang pulled one over his head. He forced his way around the screen but didn't jump. Xiangyang then dribbled past him with a backflip. He called for Ruo Song to double-team him, and Xiangyang passed the ball to Xiaoju in the paint for an easy score.

In just a few minutes, Xiangyang used almost every small-scale pick-and-roll technique available to Jinji.

Imaji was so frustrated he almost questioned his existence. I treated you like a like-minded chat partner, and you were actually hiding your true strength?

Momoi, sitting on the sidelines, had been frowning the whole time. Her brows hadn't relaxed since Kaijo started to gain momentum in the second quarter.

At this moment, Aomine drove into Kaijo's paint with the ball and made a floater despite being guarded by three people. However, this difficult shot seemed to have drained Aomine of his last bit of energy. After landing, he staggered and almost fell. The electric light in his eyes disappeared. His stamina could no longer support him to maintain his zone state.

Touou requests a pause

With three minutes remaining in the game, the score was 108:

Haichang leads the way.

Chapter 21 Qingfeng's Change

"There are still three minutes left. We can't afford to be careless at all."

Xiangyang glanced at Qingfeng, then turned to Kise and said, "That guy's eyes show no sign of giving up. He's going to fight tooth and nail at the last moment. But he probably won't be able to cause any trouble now."

He then kicked Kise's leg: "The rest is up to you. You've been resting for so long, which ace team is as relaxed as you?"

Kise was completely bewildered and couldn't help but retort, "How could I be idle? I got beaten in the first quarter, caught up in the second quarter, got beaten again in the third quarter, and now I have to go up and play one-on-one in the fourth quarter!"

"It's all your fault, slacking off for so long, otherwise it would have ended long ago..."

Kise's voice trailed off as he saw Xiangyang's smile, a bright and cheerful one.

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Oh no, has my body reached its limit...?

Sitting on the bench, Qingfeng spat. His legs had been aching since earlier, and even his fingers felt sluggish when he drank water. This was a sign that his body had reached its limit.

"Ah-da..." Momoi looked at Aomine with worry in her eyes.

I was just about to advise Qingfeng not to participate in the next match, since it was just a training match and winning or losing didn't matter.

Just as Momoi had organized her thoughts and was about to speak, she suddenly saw Aomine's smile. She pursed her lips, knowing that Aomine would never listen to her; she knew her childhood friend too well. Aomine had now found an opponent worth fighting tooth and nail to defeat, and in this decisive moment, he would rather die than be absent.

And most importantly, Aomine is very happy now; Momoi hasn't seen Aomine smile like that in a long time.

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Phew... There's no need to conserve energy in the last three minutes.

Kise's eyes are now shining brightly. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, he did not participate much in the offense, but handed it over to Xiangyang. On the defensive end, he did not fight Aomine to the death, but cooperated with his teammates to limit Aomine, just to make it less comfortable for him to score. So his stamina is still on point. It is no exaggeration to say that Kise is currently the player with the best stamina on the court.

On the other hand, Aomine, who had been on edge helping Touou keep the score close, relaxed as the timeout came. He couldn't even get into the zone anymore, and his stamina was completely depleted.

He was no match for Kise at this point, and it could be said that Touou had already lost. However, Aomine did not give up running, even though he knew in his heart that his chances of winning were almost zero. Moreover, as Kise began to exert his strength, the exhausted Aomine could not stop Kise at all and could only watch him score on his head. But Aomine still fought tenaciously to the end.

Xiangyang didn't continue his trash talk. Instead, he felt a deep respect for Qingfeng, even though they had just argued and quarreled not long ago. No one has the right to ridicule someone who is working hard.

The match is over, 112:

Haichang wins

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