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

Xiangyang rested his left hand on his head, looking at the four teams playing on the field: Seirin vs. Masakazumi, and Shutoku vs. Ginno.

Kise glanced at the score and sighed, "I didn't expect Kuroko's team to still be behind. Oh? There's a really annoying bald guy on the other side."

"That annoying bald guy?"

Xiang Yang asked in surprise, "Are there any acquaintances of yours here?"

Kise nodded, gloating, "That bald guy's defense is pretty good. When I first started playing basketball in middle school..."

"He's got me completely shut down! Vulcan's in trouble this time, hahaha!"

Xiang Yang glanced at the match between Shiro Rin and Masakazu, then turned his attention to Shutoku High School. He saw a bespectacled man with a full head of green hair and spoke.

"Is that your teammate from junior high? The number one shooter of the Generation of Miracles, Midorima Shintaro?"

Kise nodded in agreement: "Yeah, that guy's shooting is really freakish. If someone could force him to use his full strength, you would see a different kind of shooting."

Kise thought for a moment and then added, "He's also a very superstitious person. He listens to horoscope readings every day. Oh, right, he even let me listen to one last time. I even brought a radio with me."

Xiangyang stared in shock at Kise pulling out a radio from who-knows-where, and couldn't help but complain.

"So even geniuses can be superstitious."

Kise shrugged, neither confirming nor denying. Then he turned on the radio and muttered to himself.

"I remember Midorima was a Cancer..."

"Congratulations! As a Cancer, you have the best luck today! And with Cancer's lucky charm today—Mr. Raccoon—no one can stop you!"

Xiang Yang, somewhat speechless, pointed to the doll on Xiu De's bench and asked.

"That...it wouldn't be Mr. Raccoon, would it?"

Kise nodded. He was used to Midorima being like that. Back in junior high, when he was competing, he would carry a lucky charm around with him every day.

"And then... Xiao Heizi is an Aquarius."

"Oh dear! As an Aquarius, your luck is the worst today. It's best to stay home and do nothing!"

Chapter 31 Shiro Rin's Potential

"It sounds like things aren't going well for Shiro Rin right now."

Xiang Yang was somewhat gloating; Cheng Lin's current situation was indeed not optimistic.

There are 6 minutes left in the first half.

32:25, Shirorin is behind.

On the other hand, Shutoku was substituted by the coach after Midorima hit three three-pointers. However, even without Midorima, Shutoku's overall strength was still superior to the opponent's.

Seeing Midorima leave the court, Xiangyang was somewhat disappointed. His purpose in coming today was to see how Midorima actually played, but it ended before he saw anything.

Kise saw through Xiangyang's thoughts, patted him on the shoulder, and laughed, "It's okay, I believe in Kuroko. He won't lose to Masakuni. He'll definitely force out Midorima's true strength. You won't have come for nothing."

Xiangyang glanced at Kise with a strange expression, pointed in Shiro Rin's direction, and spoke.

"Kuroko and Kagami...it seems like they've been eliminated."

"Huh??? What's Shiro Rin up to?"

.

Shiorin applies for suspension

"Damn it, that bald guy..."

Kagami was really frustrated. He hadn't expected to be contained by Zheng Bang's first-year students and only scored six points in the entire quarter.

The bald man felt a surge of pleasure when he saw Vulcan's expression, which looked as if he wanted to kill him: This is the expression! Torturing someone feels so good!

Suddenly, the bald man thought of something interesting. He grinned and walked over to Vulcan, saying something to him.

"Your seniors also made it to the round-robin stage in last year's competition, but they were beaten by three times the score by our Zheng Bang... What? Don't believe me? You can ask your seniors, hahaha."

Seeing the incredulous look on Vulcan's face, the bald man laughed even louder.

Hinata heard the commotion and came over to check what was going on.

"What's wrong, Vulcan?"

Before Vulcan could speak, the bald man spoke first.

"Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing. I'm just briefly telling your junior about the story of last year's preliminary round-robin tournament. It was very exciting, but you should know more about it than I do, so I won't tell you."

After saying that, the bald man hummed a little tune and walked away.

Hinata adjusted his glasses, and seeing Kagami's expression, he roughly knew what had happened.

"Vulcan, go back to the bench and rest for a while."

Kagami didn't say anything, and followed Hyuga back to the bench with his head down.

Riko Aida bit her nails, pondering a way to break the deadlock. With Kagami restricted, the entire offensive end of Seirin was also restricted. If it weren't for Kuroko being able to pass out chance balls, Seirin would have collapsed by now.

Hinata glanced at Kagami and Kuroko, then winked at Reiko.

Reiko took a deep breath. There was no other way; this was the only option.

"Vulcan, Kuroko, you two go off the field and rest for a bit."

Hei Zi looked up in surprise. Was he going to replace them?

Kagami looked shocked and immediately asked, "What? Coach, what are you talking about? If Kuroko and I come down, what will happen to the game?"

Before Reiko could speak, Hinata interrupted, "Are you looking down on your seniors? You're a first-year! Listen up, in the next match against Shutoku, your and Kuroko's strength is indispensable. Midorima has already gone to rest and conserve his energy. Even if you two continue to play in this match, what about the next one?"

"What are we going to do? We have two games to play today, you idiot."

As she spoke, Hinata pointed to Shutoku, who was playing a match on the next court. Midorima was indeed sitting on the bench with a raccoon plush toy next to him.

(Two matches will be played on the last day of the national tournament qualifiers.)

Hearing Hinata's words, Kagami was speechless for a moment, but he still insisted, "But if we lose this match, there won't be a next one."

After saying that, Vulcan stared at Reiko, hoping she would change her mind.

Kuroko glanced at Kagami and said, "Kagami-kun, I also think we should conserve our energy. If we don't have enough energy to win against Midorima-kun, we won't have a chance. Besides, I trust my seniors."

Upon hearing Kuroko's words, Kagami frowned, but ultimately agreed to leave the field. However, he stipulated that if the team was significantly behind at the end of the first half, he would still have to play in the second half.

Hinata accepted Kagami's suggestion and turned to walk towards the court.

"Let's go, it's time for us to face this. If we keep relying on others, we'll always be like this."

Izuki followed behind Hinata and joked, "What if we get beaten up again? Kiyoshi isn't here this time either. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if we lost?"

Last year, a large part of the reason why Seirin was able to enter the round-robin tournament was because of their previous ace, the five uncrowned generals - Kiyoshi Teppei. However, due to a serious injury, Kiyoshi ultimately missed the round-robin tournament, which caused Seirin to be thrashed by the other three teams in the round-robin tournament. This is also a pain that will never be forgotten by Hyuga.

Hinata took off his glasses and wiped them a few times, then slowly said, "A year... This year will definitely not be like last time. We can do it even without Kiyoshi. If we don't even have this much skill, how can we call ourselves upperclassmen in front of first-year students?"

Yi Yue smiled knowingly. Yes, last year it was Muji who led them all the way, and this year it's also because of Kagami and Kuroko. As for the seniors, they seem to be of little use.

"What happened? Those two first-year students went down."

Captain Zheng Bang asked in surprise, "We're clearly at a disadvantage, why are we sending our main force down to rest?"

"Are they trying to conserve their energy to deal with Xiude? They're underestimating us."

The bald man walked directly to Hinata's side, pretending to be looking for someone, and provocatively said.

"Where's your first-year team? Did they think they couldn't beat us and just run away, huh? Hahaha. Is that okay? Without them, you're going to lose by three times the margin again."

"Shut up, you noisy monk."

Hinata turned around and glared fiercely at the bald man. His past as a thug still gave him a strong sense of intimidation when he was angry.

The bald man was so frightened that he took a step back, thinking to himself: How can this bespectacled man have such an intimidating aura?

"You first-year students really don't know how to respect your seniors at all."

Hinata exhaled: Just watch, Kiyoshi, this year will definitely not be like before. This year it's our turn to lead you forward.

.

"The seniors from Shiro Rin have made great progress."

Kise was somewhat surprised, considering that in the last training match, they had completely dominated Seirin, even though Hikaru and Kise hadn't fully gelled yet. Yet this time, against Masakuni, they were able to put up a good fight, without even Kagami or Kuroko playing.

Xiang Yang stroked his chin without saying a word. He was mentally prepared for the great progress made by Cheng Lin. After all, in less than a year, Cheng Lin had transformed from a bottom-feeder team into a national champion. It was truly a case of the protagonist's halo.

At this moment, Hyuga was running around frantically, looking for an opportunity to shoot. Izuki's passing was also excellent. Whenever Hyuga made an open run, Izuki's pass always arrived immediately.

Izuki made another long pass to Hyuga on the other side of the court. Hyuga took a breath, launched a three-pointer, and scored another three points.

Xiang Yang couldn't help but exclaim, "The point guard from Cheng Lin has excellent vision. I didn't even notice it in the last practice match."

Kise nodded in response: "That bespectacled guy from Shiro Rin is also very accurate with his three-pointers. When we're behind, he seems to become a completely different person."

The key archer with dual personalities is Hyuga Junpei, along with the Eagle Eyes' Shun Izuki, and the yet-to-return Uncrowned Five, Kiyoshi Teppei. There's also Kagami Taiga, who's reached the level of the Generation of Miracles, and the most unique sixth man of the Generation of Miracles, Kuroko Tetsuya.

A hint of seriousness flashed in Xiangyang's eyes. This year's Shiro Rin is still too inexperienced, but next year... no, by the time of the Winter Cup, they will be the sixth "Generation of Miracles".

But...

Xiang Yang glanced at the score and shook his head regretfully.

If you're having this much trouble even against Zheng Bang, you might as well give up on this tournament.

The first half ended with a score of 58:

Shiro Rin fell behind.

Chapter 32 Success Doesn't Have to Be Mine

"Jungbang's individual defense is indeed quite good, but their support defense is terrible. If I were in charge of organizing, Jungbang would have been completely destroyed."

Xiang Yang was speechless. So, apart from the Generation of Miracles, all the other teams were just weaklings? The only difference was which weakling was bigger.

Kise wholeheartedly agreed, saying, "If Kuroko were with me, we wouldn't need to worry about opponents of this level at all. Kagami is just too weak."

Just as the two were busy selling their wares, a clear voice came from behind them.

"Hida-kun! Ryota!"