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

Kise, holding the ball, stood high up, looking at Kuroko who had lowered his center of gravity and had a serious expression: "I don't know what you guys are up to, but Kuroko, you can't stop me."

"Come on." Kuroko's cool voice reached Kise's ears.

Kise frowned, feeling somewhat uncomfortable: "Then I won't stand on ceremony."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Kise made his move. As expected, Kuroko was caught off guard by Kise's breakthrough and barely managed to turn around after being completely outmaneuvered.

"So, Kuroko, you are... um?"

Kise was laughing when suddenly a figure blocked his way—it was Kagami.

He grinned and said, "I let you pass him on purpose, my goal was... to steal the ball."

Kise was startled and suddenly realized that the ball in his hand was gone.

Kuroko, who had just been beaten, used Kagami to delay the defense and, relying on his low profile, turned around and stole Kise's ball.

Kagami immediately grabbed the loose ball and made a powerful pass forward to Hyuga Junpei, who had been lurking in the frontcourt. Hyuga took a mid-range shot.

Shiro Rin's two points are valid.

Kise clenched his fist and muttered to himself: Damn it, next time I'll definitely...

He stared intently at Vulcan, determined to defeat him personally in front of Kuroko and make him understand that his choice was wrong.

"Pass it to me!" Kasamatsu had just dribbled past half-court when he saw Kise reaching out for the ball, and passed it to him without thinking.

Kise looked at Kuroko in front of him and laughed, "I have to say you guys have a knack for it, but there's no rule that says you can't shoot three-pointers."

After making a threatening feint, Kise suddenly jumped up on the spot, leaving Kuroko, who lacked athletic ability, to watch him leap.

"So you've underestimated me!"

It was Kagami again! Standing behind Kuroko early on, he guessed that Kise would shoot. He jumped up with both feet, pressed one hand on Kuroko's head, and blocked Kise's shot with an exaggerated height.

"Oh no!" Kise watched the ball fly towards his own half and hurriedly swung his arm to return to defense.

"Snapped!"

A sudden change occurred.

Kise turned around in surprise, not noticing that Kuroko was standing so close to him.

Hei Zi was knocked to the ground by the blow, covering his face with his right hand.

"Kuroko!"

Kagami, who had just run to the frontcourt and was about to jump for a dunk, heard a strange noise, turned around and saw Kuroko sitting on the ground. He quickly dropped the basketball and rushed to check on Kuroko's injury.

The rest of the Shiro Rin team rushed to Kuroko's side, while Kise stood there blankly. Hinata glanced back at him and said, "Let's pause the match for now." They could tell that Kise hadn't done it on purpose.

Kasamatsu walked up to Kise and delivered a karate chop to his wrist.

Kise snapped out of his daze and looked at Kasamatsu, who wiped the sweat from his face with his collar and interrupted, "It's over. It wasn't what I wanted, but without that low-profile kid, the score difference will only get bigger."

Kise didn't reply, but just stared intently at Kagami, who had blocked his shot.

Xiangyang sat on the sidelines with his arm under his head, looking at Kise and couldn't help but say, "Ryota, he's having mental problems. An ace like that is very dangerous."

The coach heard Xiang Yang's words, glanced back at him, but did not react.

sound.

.

"I'm sorry, everyone, this is a crucial moment..."

Aida Riko interrupted Kuroko: "What are you saying? These things are unpredictable, and you underestimate your seniors too much."

"They're very reliable, so you should get some rest. Your senior isn't a slacker either."

On the field, Vulcan couldn't help but mutter, "This is troublesome, Kuroko isn't here..."

"What are you saying, kid? You think we can't function without you guys? Honestly, all the first-year students these days are freaks like this. Show some respect to your seniors, you idiot."

Hinata heard Kagami's words, grumbled as she walked past him, and then looked down to wipe her glasses.

Vulcan looked bewildered. Had he said something wrong? Izumi walked over and patted Vulcan on the shoulder, laughing, "Don't mind him. That's just how he is. He can't help but speak his mind at crucial moments. But when he's speaking his mind, his shooting accuracy is surprisingly good."

"Don't worry, seniors, we're not pushovers either."

Seeing Izuki's serious expression, Kagami couldn't help but nod.

Shiro Rin makes a substitution, and the match continues.

"Kids, don't let the first graders look down on us!"

Hinata shouted loudly, and at the same time received Izuki's handoff pass, and took advantage of his teammate's screen to hit a three-pointer that wasn't in good space.

Kasamatsu, who thought the match was over, was surprised to find that, under the leadership of the bespectacled captain on the other side, Shirorin's offensive, although not as strong as when Kuroko was on the field, was still able to pose a threat to Kaijo and score points steadily.

Meanwhile, Kise also got into a contest with Kagami, focusing solely on one-on-one attacks and showing no intention of connecting the team's offense. Although Kise could now easily outmaneuver Kagami, Kagami wouldn't be easily controlled by him. From the start of the first half until the end, the two sides didn't pull away by a large margin.

First half ends—

55-48, Haichang leads

Kasamatsu drank water while looking at the scoreboard, thinking to himself: Although it's not as I initially expected, I'm still in the lead despite the opponent's strong strength, so I must have performed well.

Thinking of this, Kasamatsu looked up at the coach, who was just staring at the tactics board writing and drawing, without saying anything.

Kasamatsu glanced at Xiangyang, who was warming up. Xiangyang noticed Kasamatsu's gaze and turned around: "Well then, I'm going up, Captain."

Kasamatsu clenched his fist as he watched Xiangyang's retreating figure.

The coach, who was standing nearby with his arms crossed, watched this scene and secretly shook his head.

Xiangyang walked towards the serving point, recalling what the coach had said to him earlier: "Xiangyang, can you help Kise?"

"Huh? Coach, you mean..."

"He's not mature enough yet, can you help him?"

"I think I understand what you mean... Don't worry, Coach, I will train him well."

……

Back to the game.

Xiang Yang received the serve and slowly advanced the ball to the frontcourt. As he dribbled, the entire Haichang team felt a sense of relief, as if the pace of the game had slowed down.

Kise perked up and immediately raised his hand to signal for the ball. Xiangyang ignored Kise and turned to look at his other teammates, signaling them to make their runs.

Seeing that Xiangyang wasn't passing the ball to him, Kise panicked and quickly clapped his hands to signal Xiangyang that he absolutely had to get the ball.

攻！

Xiangyang glanced at Kise, sighed, and thought to himself: This can't be blamed on me, Ryota. The coach also instructed me, and I was doing this for your own good.

Thinking of this, Xiangyang tossed the ball to Kise, who was delighted to receive it and immediately charged toward the penalty area.

In the following points, Xiangyang passed the ball to Kise for a one-on-one play as soon as it crossed half-court. Although Kise found it a bit strange, he was eager to compete with Kagami and didn't pay much attention. Gradually, even Seirin and Kasamatsu below noticed the problem. Even though every ball was passed to Kise, Kagami was able to limit him. Compared to Kise's constant one-on-one play, Seirin's offense was more team-oriented and conserved more energy. At this point, Kagami was in much better form than Kise, and the score wasn't widening; Kaijo was only leading by nine points.

Why... does he give every single ball to Kise?

Kasamatsu, sitting in the audience, exclaimed, "Is this guy going to exhaust Kise to death?"

Kasamatsu was puzzled, but also a little happy. Although he didn't know what was wrong with Hikaru, this kind of performance was clearly not what a point guard should be like. In this contest... I won.

.

Kise was already panting heavily, but he still stared at Kagami, secretly pleased: I won this match! Kuroko, did you see that? You made the wrong choice.

Xiangyang, who was dribbling the ball next to him, glanced at the scoreboard, dribbled for about ten seconds on his own, and then passed the ball to Kise.

Huh? Why did it take you over ten seconds to pass it to me? There wasn't enough time left for the attack.

Kise received the ball looking bewildered, but time was running out and he couldn't afford to be stunned. The 24-second shot clock was almost up. He hastily took a shot against Kagami's defense, but Kagami, who still had energy, jumped up and easily blocked the shot.

Kise, panting heavily with his knees on his hands, then looked up and glared at Xiang Yang: "What are you doing? You passed the ball to me with so little time left?"

Xiangyang was slowly returning to defense when he heard Kise's roar. He turned to look at him with a mocking smile and said, "Have you had enough, genius?"

Chapter 7 Team is more important than individual

"Have you had enough, genius?"

.

Xiangyang took the towel and water bottle, ignoring the shocked looks of his teammates, and plopped down next to the coach to wipe the sweat from his face.

The coach scratched his head, glared at Xiangyang, and couldn't help but complain in his heart: I asked you to help Kise find the problem, not to be so aggressive. There are clearly gentler methods.

Xiangyang spread his hands innocently: "You made me do this, Coach. This is the best solution I could think of."

Kise sat on the edge of the bench, a towel draped over his body, head down, not saying a word.

Xiangyang unscrewed the water bottle, took a sip, and winked at the coach.

The coach sighed: "Kise, you should rest for a while. You played the entire third quarter, you must be tired."

Upon hearing this, Kise immediately looked up: "Coach! I can still play, I..."

"Kasamatsu, you go up. Hikaru, control the ball. And I'll repeat what I said to you guys on the defense..."

The coach glanced at Kise and interrupted him; he knew perfectly well what his "ace" was thinking. But the best solution right now was to let Kise sit down and see his teammates for himself.

A few minutes ago—

Hearing Xiangyang's sarcasm, Kise couldn't help but step forward, grab Xiangyang's collar, and glare at him angrily.

"Look back at your teammates, they're practically freezing on the field. If you want someone to run the shuttle run with you, don't ask me, you genius."

Kise's expression froze for a moment, then he turned to look at his teammates and released his grip on Xiangyang's hand.

Xiang Yang wasn't annoyed. He straightened his jersey and walked to the sideline to prepare to serve.

"If you can't realize the existence of a team, you won't go far. If you can't understand what I'm saying, it just means you're nothing special. In that case, just pretend I didn't say anything to you last night."

.

"Come on, boys, let our ace see if his people are worthy of his favor."

Xiangyang's words made Kise, who was staring blankly with his head down, bite his lip, pull off the towel on his body, and look at the court with a serious expression.

The coach smiled slightly: It seems you've realized the problem too, Kise.