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

Listening to the sounds coming from inside the stadium

The sound of a basketball hitting the floor made the freshman take a breath to calm himself down. After imagining all sorts of things that might happen after he entered the stadium, he stretched out his right hand and slowly pushed open the stadium door.

"Excuse me... I'm a freshman this year and I'd like to join the basketball team..."

The new students had just poked their heads into the room when they were stunned by what they saw.

In a corner of the stadium, a large group of people stood in a line whispering, while on the adjacent court, two players were doing one-on-one training. The sound of basketballs bouncing that had been heard outside the door was coming from them.

The freshman stood there blankly, clearly not yet recovered, when he suddenly felt someone pat him on the shoulder.

The freshman turned his head and saw a crumpled club application form. His gaze swept upwards, and a tall, square-faced man pointed towards the queue.

"Fill out the form and wait in line."

Hiroshi Ohara succinctly handed him the application form and then walked out of the stadium, disappearing without a trace.

The freshman stood there stunned for a while, until Hiroshi Ohara walked away before he reacted and exclaimed, "That was Hiroshi Ohara, the champion power forward from Kaijo last year!"

"Oh no! Oh no, I forgot to ask him for an autograph! No, no! Calm down, there will be plenty of opportunities like this after joining the basketball club!"

He pressed his philtrum a few times to calm himself down, then looked at the long queue not far away. Recalling what Hiroshi Ohara had just said, he walked straight to the end of the line.

"Excuse me... what's going on here?"

The new student patted the person in front of him on the shoulder and asked with a curious look.

Due to the large number of people queuing, even though the Haichang Stadium is quite large, it was still a bit crowded at the moment. Standing at the back of the line, you couldn't see what was happening in front of you at all.

The person glanced back and, noticing the application form in the new student's hand, replied, "They're conducting interviews here. I'm also a new student who just joined Haichang. Here you go."

As he spoke, the man raised his left hand, which also held a club application form.

The new student paused for a moment, then nodded and greeted, "Hello, classmate, my name is Shimamura Toshihiro."

"Could you please tell me what an interview is like?"

As Shimamura spoke, he glanced toward the court. Although it was too far away to see clearly, he could still vaguely make out that one of the players on the court was none other than Kaijo's starting championship-winning shooting guard, Hashimoto Yuki!

As for the other person, Shimamura had never met him before, but he was probably a new student who had just joined Kaijo this year.

"My name is Fukuhara Toshihide, you can just call me Fukuhara."

Fukuhara gestured towards Yuki and the other person who were playing bullfighting and explained, "Do you see Yuki-senpai over there? According to the people who have already been interviewed, as long as you can beat Yuki-senpai in bullfighting, you can directly be promoted to the Kaijo regulars!"

"If you choose not to participate in the bullfight, you will be admitted to the club normally, and your performance will determine whether you can join the regular team."

Fukuhara paused for a moment, then added, "By the way, the person being interviewed right now is Senior Xiangyang."

……

……

The view is focused on the front of the line, on Xiangyang's face.

Wearing sunglasses and sitting with his legs crossed, he called out, as if he were casting a movie, "Next!"

As soon as Xiangyang shouted, a freshman at the front of the line immediately stepped forward and respectfully handed over his club application form with both hands.

Xiang Yang glanced at the student briefly, then looked up at the freshman and, noticing his nervousness, smiled and said, "Why are you so serious? Why don't you smile?"

Upon hearing Xiang Yang's words, the freshman smiled obediently, but due to excessive nervousness, his tense face appeared very stiff after he smiled.

Xiangyang: ...

"Forget it, you'd better stop laughing."

Xiang Yang snapped his fingers and asked, "May I ask what position you play, and what your special skills are? Oh, sorry, I should have asked your name first. What's your name?"

Newcomer: "Ikegami Masahiro, reporting to senior Xiangyang, I play position 3."

Xiang Yang nodded: "Okay, Chi Shang, what are your special skills?"

Ikegami thought for a moment, then said somewhat uncertainly, "My shooting is alright..."

Xiangyang looked Ikegami up and down, assessing his physical attributes. After confirming that he was an outside player, he put away the application form, pointed to the court next to him, and said, "Go over there and play one-on-one with Yuki. If you win, the starting position is yours. If you lose or don't want to play, it doesn't matter. Just come to the basketball gym as usual after school starts."

Chi Shang nodded repeatedly and replied, "Okay, okay, thank you, Senior Xiangyang!"

After saying that, Ikegami turned around and left the stadium, showing no intention of playing one-on-one with Yuki.

Xiangyang watched his departing figure and shook his head helplessly.

He doesn't even dare to fight Yuki, so it's clear that this junior can't become a pillar of Kaijo's future.

Of course, it could also be because Yuuki has already shut out more than twenty new students...

A thunderous slam rang out!

Yuki's two-handed dunk drew gasps of amazement, and she also shut out another freshman.

A commotion arose among the crowd watching from the sidelines.

"Is this the strength of Kaijo's starting lineup...? It's terrifying..."

"How many people were we talking about just now? There are already more than thirty! Did Yuuki-senpai not even use up much of her stamina?"

On the court, Yuuki wiped the sweat from his face with the corner of his shirt. After playing nearly thirty consecutive one-on-one matches, even he was starting to feel the strain. Fortunately, as his shutouts increased, the number of freshmen daring to challenge him to one-on-one matches also decreased sharply.

Suddenly, Ohara appeared at the sidelines carrying a case of water.

"Yuki, would you like some water?"

Ohara asked Yuki, who nodded and replied, "Okay, thank you, Ohara."

Upon hearing Yuki's words, Ohara pulled a bottle of water from the box and placed it on the ground. Then, he carried the box of water to Xiangyang's side.

"Senior Xiangyang, please have some water."

Ohara placed the water at Xiangyang's feet, then stood behind him, as if he were going to have an interview with Xiangyang.

Xiangyang rubbed his eyes. Sitting here for a long time had made him a little tired. He patted Dayuan's stomach and said, "You've really worked hard. Find a place to rest. Next time, just ask someone else to do the water-carrying. Look at this gym, there are so many freshmen waiting for you to do things. It would be a waste not to use them."

Ohara didn't speak, but simply stood quietly behind Xiangyang.

Having long been familiar with Ohara's personality, Xiangyang didn't mind and called out, "Next," while stretching his neck.

"Nice to meet you, senior Xiangyang. My name is Fukuhara Toshihide, and I play the number three or four position!"

Xiang Yang took the club application form from the person and casually asked, "What special skills do you have?"

Fukuhara: "My shooting isn't very accurate, but I'm quite fast and have a decent jumping ability!"

Chapter 226 Haichang has no center forward

"He's pretty fast...and his jumping ability is decent too?"

Xiangyang hesitated for two seconds, pointed in Yuki's direction, and was about to speak when he saw Fukuhara rush over.

"Senior Yuuki! Please fight a bull with me!"

Xiangyang stared in astonishment at Fukuhara's retreating figure, then shook his head with amusement: "Next."

As he spoke, Xiangyang made a subtle mark on Fukuhara Toshihide's application.

Regardless of Fukuhara's actual abilities, his courage to confront Yuki directly is enough to warrant Xiangyang's attention.

"Hello, senior Xiangyang, my name is Shimamura Toshio."

Shimamura took two steps forward, stood at a somewhat awkward military posture, and looked at Xiangyang with a nervous expression.

Xiangyang twirled the black pen in his hand, looked at Shimamura and said, "Relax, don't be so nervous. This is just a club activity."

Shimamura took a deep breath and said seriously, "Hi!"

Seeing that Shimamura had calmed down, Xiangyang put on a kind smile and asked, "What position do you play? What are your special skills?"

"Reporting to Senior Xiangyang, I play point guard. My shooting consistency is excellent, and my court vision is also outstanding. I never slack off when scoring in open play. If I were on the court, I would definitely give it my all!"

Shimamura pressed his hands tightly against the seams of his trousers, like a new recruit joining the army, and his confident words caught Xiangyang's attention.

He took Shimamura's club application form and glanced at it subconsciously. Just as he was about to put it away, he caught a glimpse of a familiar name out of the corner of his eye.

"Shimizu Middle School...you're a graduate of Shimizu Middle School?"

Xiang Yang was somewhat surprised, because in his memory, the "bad boy" Hanamichi Makoto also graduated from this middle school.

As expected, when Xiangyang asked that question, Shimamura's expression suddenly turned somewhat frightened.

"Yes, Hikari-senpai... Um, Hanamiya-senpai was my senior, and she taught me a lot..."

Shimamura hesitated, and just to avoid making Xiangyang resentful, he added, "I can testify! Hanamiya-senpai is actually a very good person! It's just that during the last match against Kaijo, for some reason..."

As the conversation progressed, Shimamura's voice grew softer. After all, regardless of the circumstances, Hanamichi's act of attacking Hikaru on the court was wrong, even if Hanamichi was the one who ended up getting hit.

Xiangyang didn't have any particular reaction. After all, Hanamichi's move against him was, in a sense, catalyzed by him. However, since this person came from Shimizu High School and learned a lot from Hanamichi, Xiangyang felt that, whether for the sake of the team's strength or Kaijo's reputation, it was still necessary to increase the observation of Shimamura.

"Don't worry about it, I was just asking casually. Besides, my relationship with Hua Gong is actually quite good."

Xiangyang reminisced about the scene of pressing Huagong down and rubbing against her, a look of reminiscence on his face.

"Alright, I've taken the application form. See those two bullfighters over there? Go line up there. It doesn't matter if you win or not, the important thing is to observe your strength."

Xiangyang clapped his hands to send Shimamura off, then looked up and called out to the next freshman.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the neon lights

Inside a closed basketball court in the suburbs

Kise sat cross-legged on the bench, tossing a basketball back and forth between his hands, looking up at the ceiling with a bored expression on his face.

"This place is so boring... Why aren't Feng and Xiaohushen here yet? Seriously, I'm going crazy waiting here."

Kise shook his head and sighed, while behind him, several active Japanese national team players were slumped on the ground in various poses, each of them wearing an expression of lingering fear.

Kise tossed the basketball towards the basket, rubbed his nose, stood up, and said, "Have you rested enough, senpai? Isn't it time we started a new round of one-on-one training? It was really awkward having you all sitting on the floor like that~"

Given Kise's personality, his tone of voice is usually somewhat playful. However, his demeanor caused several Japanese national team players, who were sitting on the ground panting, to retreat in fear, crying out, "No! Don't come any closer!"

"You...you've already won. We'll give you our starting positions, please, please stop dragging us into one-on-one matches!"

Kise: ...

Realizing he might have gone too far, Kise looked up dejectedly and muttered, "At this point... shouldn't all the new Kaijo members have already joined the club?"

"Seriously... I'd love to participate in the recruitment too! I wonder what interesting guys will join this year?"