20 More Interruptions

Heading back into the stadium, I run into none other than Momoi as I step through the door. Or rather she ran into me, headfirst into my chest. I used my quick reflexes to grab her by her arm with my left while my right supported her weight around her waist. I fix a cheeky grin on my face before speaking.

"I didn't know you were so bold Momoi, to just run into my arms like this."

I finish as I pull her up closer until she can stand on her own. Throughout the incident her face changed from surprise to fear of falling and then a heavy blush crossed her face when she realized how close she was to me before shaking her head and pulling herself away.

"U-uh sorry Aida I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Thank you for catching me."

"No worries Momoi, if you're looking for Kuroko hes outside by the cherry blossom bench." I say while pointing over my shoulder back outside.

She feels her arm where I had grabbed her and then at my hands before another but smaller blush spreads before looking at me.

"Ah, thank you Aida. I was looking for him."

With a nod I step passed her before stopping and looking over my shoulder.

"Ah, Momoi."

"Yes?"

"I already told Kuroko, but I should tell you as well. As a… favor for teasing you just now." She looks confused before settling into a pout, but she waved for me to continue.

"Aomine and the others are only going to get better in the weeks leading up to the National Tournament, not to mention the following years. Especially when they are chasing someone like me, they don't realize themselves yet, but they already see themselves as inferior to me. They feel it on an instinctual level, Midorima may be the only one not arrogant enough to realize it."

I pause to gauge her reaction, though it's only her normal calculative stare.

"I see that either like my sister you can't see my potential or stats, or you're trying to deny it. However I didn't say this all as an ego boost for myself, it's a warning for you. Once the others start blooming, and they start crushing every match rifts will begin to form. None of them will want to admit they need one of the others to compete against me.

Team chemistry will break down, relationships will become strained. The only thing you won't have to worry about is their determination to get stronger to try and take me down. I say all this, but I really have no solution for you, or rather not a reliable one."

"What do you mean an unreliable solution? Surely it's better than nothing!" She says semi desperately. I give a faint smile in response.

"It's not reliable because it's me." She goes wide eyed, and I give one last brief smile before turning back around and heading to the locker rooms. There's only a couple of minutes before the 3rd quarter starts anyway.

I walk into the locker room to find everyone standing around waiting on me.

"Where have you been Captain?!" Ikehara screams out

"Ya, the match starts soon." Kawahara

"Sorry everyone, I ran into some acquaintances on my way and had to talk to them for a bit. If we are all ready let's head out to the court and do some light warmups."

"""Yes Captain!"""

With that they filed in behind me as we made our way to the court, light warmups and a concentrated breathing to get the blood pumping. I had mostly calmed down after talking to Kuroko and Momoi, but a promise is a promise. I called for a huddle right before the quarter was set to start.

"Alright guys bring it in. It's time to pay them back for the annoyances they caused us in the first half, I'm still going to be on the court but I want you guys to focus on defense. Pressure them, force turnovers and get rebounds. Lets run up the score." I say finishing with a big grin on my face.

"""Yes Captain!"""

"Good! Lets go."

They all nod and we take our positions, since we had won the tip off it was Kamata who would in bound the ball to start the half. They all had tense and nervous expressions. The twins not so much, but they were still wary of me and always kept me in their sights. Which worked perfectly for us as Ikehara immediately stole the ball and tossed in a layup.

The nervousness of Kamata rose even higher, and the hesitation in their play grew. Shota got the inbound and brought it to half court where Sota came and set up a screen on me to give his brother an opening. I just spun around him and tipped the ball out of Shota's hand and began to dribble down the court.

However I noticed I wasn't being followed by the Kamata West players, or at least not with any urgency. Hmph so much talk just to give up already, fine then. I bounced the ball hard on the floor to hoop and grabbed it as it came down and slammed it into the basket. Sota had made it back by this point for the inbound.

"Seems at the end of the day your talk was for nothing. I would say "at least fight till the end", but without your fouls your team is nothing." I say with cold eyes glaring at the hardwood floor of the court, but out of the corner of my eye I can see Sota gritting his teeth as he stares at the ball in his hands.

He finally decides to throw it in, just for it to get stolen by Teshima this time who shoots a 3 and makes it. The whole of Kamata West is moving at half speed, and a fury rises in my chest. Even this team proved no challenge, and no fun to play against. Well I guess I'll have to make my own fun.

"Guys pass me the ball when you steal it. We're going to play until the end or they forfeit." My teammates looked at me surprised for a second before giving a nod. The refs looked like they wanted to stop the match but for some reason the coach of Kamata wasn't forfeiting.

"This guy is a demon." I hear one of the Kamata players say.

(AN: No he's not really demon, just a metaphor like the GoM being called monsters. This is probably obvious, but I didn't want anyone thinking this just took a crossover turn with some other anime lol.)

"Yes, yes I am." As I say that the pressure increases and my eyes grow even colder. My pitch black eyes gain a glint to them that makes it feel like they are staring into your soul while all you can see is a never ending depth. Transparent feathers seemed to gather around my body and I felt lighter, this is 100% for my middle school body.

Even though I commanded everyone's attention, it was like they couldn't keep their eyes actually on me. They would see me but then their eyes would lose focus and I would be somewhere else. What people don't understand is that misdirection is also as effective if not more if all attention is on you.

Because then it's easier to redirect their attention, sort of like a state of Kuroko's misdirection overflow. And the hazy feathers that seem to be constantly falling from my body add to the effect. No I'm not in the Zone, this is something different. While Zone you have to sink further and further into your instincts, making it perfect for people like Kagami and Aomine.

This is more like taking flight, releasing the restrictions of the zone. My domain covers anything inside my Raven's eye field of view, I can read my opponents and teammates movements with precision. But this is just the entrance of my "zone" any further will have harsh repercussions on even my body. This state allows me to use 100% of my muscles, nerves, and brain, they all seem sluggish to me now.

That's also why it's damaging if over used, it will be fine since I'm just showing off and not actually going to be using it to its full potential. The only people who have been able to play against me like this is the retired college players that go to my dad's gym and my dad. Their years of experience helped them and not to mention their more developed bodies compared to my still immature body.

[3rd Person POV]

People in the stands, players and staff on the court alike were in awe of what they were witnessing. One second Kamata would be passing and then the ball would disappear, only for them to follow a sudden trail of feathers either to the basket or the 3 point arc. When they tried to follow Ryosei, for some reason their eyes would lose focus like they were in deep thought and they would have to give a slight shake to refocus.

Only for Ryosei to no longer be where he was before it happened. Ryosei's dad Kagetora had a grim expression on his face. Throughout Ryosei's childhood, he was always a willful kid. Once he decided something there was not much that could change his mind. So while he was disappointed that Ryosei was playing like this, theres not much even he could do to stop him at this point.

From a young age he obviously noticed Ryosei's drive to get better at basketball. At first he thought it was because he played for the Japanese National team, but as time went on he wasn't sure if that was the case. Ryosei always seemed focused on something else, and practiced harder than anyone could imagine a kid practicing.

Always dribbling no matter what he was doing, practicing his shooting until he physically couldn't move his arms anymore. Dribbling drills over and over until they were beyond perfect, but for some reason he still strived for more. Kagetora couldn't even reprimand him because it's not like he neglected anything else because of basketball.

He stuck to the training routines, he attended the martial arts classes he asked for and excelled in those as well. The kendo class, regular schoolwork as well mundane stuff such as keeping his room clean and doing chores. Ryosei just seemed driven by a force Kagetora couldn't figure out.

Even his attitude, while rather off putting just because of his age, was refined and respectful. Never getting upset at anyone besides one time that he could remember. He had never seen his son as angry as he was the day Riko accidentally ripped the picture of their mom that he always kept. He never knew why Ryosei felt such attachment to his late wife even though she died just year after he was born.

Ryosei had gained a dark and angry look in his eyes, that you could almost call pure hatred when he saw the picture. Poor Riko had completely frozen upon seeing her little brother look from the picture to her with those eyes. Kagetora was alerted to it first by the sound of Riko crying, and second by the sound of Ryosei yelling.

"How could you!?!"

When Kagetora had entered the room he found Riko on the floor crying and apologizing over and over while Ryosei held the picture close to his chest. Light tear tracks could be seen running down his cheeks, but the anger was clear i his eyes. Had it not been his sister that had ripped it, Kagetora could only imagine what would have happened and he didn't like it.

He feels his sons sometimes vicious personality on the basketball court spawned from that moment. Or maybe even earlier he didn't really know. As he came out of the memory he focused back in on the game as the 3rd quarter buzzer went off and it seemed like the whole stadium collectively took in a breath.

It had been abnormally silent in the stands and even on the court, as no shoes squeaked and only ever so often would you hear the ball hit the floor. As the audience calmed down from what they just witnessed everyone's eyes gravitated to the scoreboard and the entire audience erupted. The clamor of conversation sent what felt like mini tremors through the packed stadium.

They called for recounts and the official scorers could only shake their heads as all of them had the same thing, no matter how absurd it was. The score at the end of the 2nd quarter had been 62-24, now the score was something nobody had expected.

While they had been completely engrossed in the match. Watching surely what all of them would remember for a really long time, they had all forgotten to keep track of the scores. So it's not surprising to see them all deeply confused. Ryosei himself just had a villainous grin on his face as he felt the energy in the stadium freak out over everything.

It's one part of sports he will never get tired of, feeling the excitement from the crowd over something absurd. It made even the blow out wins in other sports worth it, and now he could add another memory to that collection.

""End of Quarter 3. Their will be a short break while the officials confirm the score of the current match, please be patient. As of right now the unofficial score is 152-24, please note this may change after review.""

Both teams sat on their respective benches, but all eyes were on Ryosei who sitting with his hands behind his head and an aloof expression on his face like he didn't just do something that shouldn't be possible. Ryosei feels someone softly elbowing him on his right and finds Kawahara sitting there.

"What is it?" He asks

"Is that score right?" Kawahara asks in return and all the Katagiri members scoot in closer to hear the answer. Ryosei turns and looks at the scoreboard before giving a slight frown and then closing his eyes.

"No. It's too low." Ryosei hums to himself as all the Katagiri members' jaws drop. That's when the official comes back on the mic.

""After review it seems that indeed the score was not completely correct.""

Everyone in the audience gives a sigh in relief to know that it was just a mistake on the score keepers side, and not some ridiculous score. Kagetora sweat dropped at this as he along with Ryosei knew the actual score, and he was plugging his ears and told Riko who was sitting beside him to do the same.

She had been in a trance since the start of the 3rd quarter as she had never been there when Ryosei played at his full potential. Her scan ability had been going haywire through the quarter. It seemed to fluctuate and wouldn't give a definite reading, and the ones she was getting were too insane to believe.

She could only look at her dad bewildered before she eventually plugged her hears as well.

""The new and official score has been set at 162-24, and we have received word from the Kamata West coach that they are forfeiting the remainder of the match. The winner of Block B and going on to play in the National tournament is Katagiri Junior High.""

The stadium exploded after they heard that and the tremors came back in full force. The official began to calm them down so he could give his final announcement.

""With both Blocks finals finished, the award ceremony for the Tokyo Middle School National Preliminary Tournament will begin in 30 minutes. All teams that made the top 4 please stay and make your way to the court. Katagiri and Kamata can use this time to go to the locker rooms and changed before the awards.""

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Authors Note

LONG chapter as a thanks for the support this novel has been receiving as well as a sorry for the back to back short chapters.

We got to see the effects of Ryosei going 100%, and also sorry for the Momoi teasing. I didn't want to make her the love interest, but unless I do OC or bring a character from another show (both I don't really want to do.) there's not any other choice. So if enough people want the romance I will have Ryosei pursue Momoi as a love interest.

Ryosei's severe reaction to Riko tearing the picture of his "this world" birth mom will be explained more later. I hope that little mini story was somewhat interesting. I had mentioned it in a previous chapter, that Riko had only seen Ryosei truly mad one time but didn't expand upon it. Now I have.

Also I really really wanted to go the cringey edge lord route and have people call him the Demon Lord while GoM stays GoM, but I just couldn't do it lol. So for now he'll just stay The Raven.

The next few chapters (not sure how many) will be mostly slice of life. Some practice scenes from both them and Teiko leading up to Nationals, but mostly not basketball scenes will be written. Might start pursuing the love interest side more, show a little school and home life. Not sure yet.

Hope you enjoyed.