The Lightning Beast: Hayama Kōtaro

Hearing someone else laugh other than Izuki, the senior members of the team couldn't help but look behind their backs in horror.

There's actually someone who finds Izuki's corny jokes as funny!?

Is the world going to end tomorrow!?

In what parallel world is there a person who would actually laugh at Izuki's puns!?

As stupid thoughts revolved around their heads, the person who they are all looking at finally stopped laughing. Wiping the tears that formed on the corners of his eyes, the guy directed his gaze at Izuki before addressing him.

"Hahaha! That was funny man! You're Izuki, right? The one from last year's quarter finals?"

"You are…"

The whole team of Kyōsen, excluding the first years like Seiji, Takeo, and the others, had a look of pure horror on their faces as if they saw the worst nightmares of their childhood. Heck, you could even argue that they look exactly like someone who saw his abusive stepfather out and about in the streets.

Simply put, their PTSD-like symptoms is triggered and they are now showing such reactions.

Since nobody seems to be able to say the guy's name, Seiji was the one to address the dude who is currently sporting a toothy grin, showing off his fangs.

"The Lightning Beast of Shiratorizawa, Hayama Kōtaro…"

The blonde guy seems to be genuinely surprised by how Seiji immediately recognized him as he widened his eyes in complete astonishment.

"Oh? So the superstar rookie of this generation recognizes me? That's a surprise my man!"

"That's because I often watch notable players in the league. You know? There's always a lot I could learn from you guys who are my seniors, after all."

"Hahaha! Really? I see, I see. That's a good habit, yeah." Hayama seems to be pleased at Seiji's words as he once again laughed in a boisterous manner, even clutching his stomach while he's at it.

"Uh-huh. It's a good learning experience for me. There will come a time when me and my team have to me wipe the floor with your team, after all…"

Hayama was taken aback by Seiji's bold remark. His expression then turned into a serious one as he eyed Seiji with squinted eyes.

"Are you being serious?"

"Hmm? You mean, about wiping the floor with your team? Pretty much, yeah. I've seen how you guys toyed with your enemies so I thought I'd do the same to you guys as well when the time comes."

"Hee… You really have some balls for a rookie, ah?" Hayama seems to be annoyed, a tick mark visible on his temples.

"Not really. I only trash talk people who deserve it. By the way, for an ace of your team, your defense sure is crappy. I'm pretty sure I could drop threes on top of your head all night…"

That's right. Seiji isn't much of a trashtalker but he sure as hell don't like people with inflated egos. Based on what he observed from watching the games of Shiratorizawa, their Center and Power Forward are the only decent individuals in their team.

Their captain and Point Guard, Fujima Kenji, likes to leave no room for error, thoroughly destroying a team if given the chance. As for the others like Hayama, they are resting on their laurels because they were crowned as the champions this year.

'I guess winning a championship in an overly competitive era of middle school basketball got inside their heads,' Seiji thought.

"H-Heee… You're quite arrogant rookie, ain't ya? We'll see about that when we play against each other." Hayama was basically trembling in anger, so much so that he even stuttered while saying this.

Looking at the guy who's basically trembling in anger due to his remarks, Seiji just smiled slightly. If he would become this hot headed during the match for even a few minutes, it's gonna be advantageous for them.

While the conversation between Seiji and Hayama was going on, the senior members of his team was just sitting on their own seats motionless. Remembering that time when they got clapped so hard that they even had nightmares about it, they stared at Hayama like that until Seiji started provoking the guy.

However, after he provoked Hayama, Seiji just nonchalantly went back to watching the game as if nothing happened. This made his teammates dumbfounded as they didn't expect this to happen.

※・※・※・※

「Nationals (Junior High Division), Day 2, Group Stage, Round 3: Round-robin」

Inside the court of group 14, the match between Mujinazaki Middle School and Shōei Middle School just entered its fourth and final quarter. Although the match seems to be pretty one-sided, the fans on the audience seats doesn't seem to mind it and was still cheering for their favorite teams.

During the start of this quarter, Shōei Middle School managed to pull a significant lead against Mujinazaki, 89-45. This huge lead was mainly due to their center, Kiyoshi Teppei.

He was toying with Mujinazaki's defense as if it was nothing, changing his attacks at the last moment. He could change his initial attack at the very last moment, his unique ability called the 「Right of Postponement」.

'He reminds me so much of Michael Jordan… Michael's success was mainly due to his large hands, after all…' Seiji thought.

Maybe, if Kiyoshi Teppei could learn more post-up moves like a jumpshot, he'd be more deadly inside the post. Unknown to Seiji, the author of KnB must've chopped Jordan's talents and gave it to different players like Kagami Taiga and Kiyoshi Teppei. The high vertical and hang time to Kagami and the large hands to Kiyoshi.

'I wonder which psychopath would imitate his mentality though? Purposely creating some sort of challenge to yourself so that you could bring out your A game isn't something that a normal person would do, after all.'

There were many available articles about GOATs of his era, Michael Jordan, but many other great players like James Harden and such, one of the All-time Greats, became rather unknown in today's basketball. It's probably due to the fact that much more flashy individuals became well-known after that dawn of special ability users though.

While Seiji was deep in thought, he heard an angry holler from behind him.

"Oi! Are you listening to me!?" It came from none other than the Lightning 'Beast' of Shiratorizawa, Hayama Kōtaro.

"What is it? You're disturbing me, you know?"

To his teammates, Seiji seems to have become a different person from his usual self when facing Hayama.

'Wait, wasn't he also like this when we faced against Nada Junior High?' They all thought.

"You! You're really getting on my nerves right now, punk! I'll be sure to thoroughly crush you and your team when we meet on the court!—"

As if he remembered something, Hayama stopped speaking. Then, his face showed an '∆' shape as he immediately laughed out loud, gathering the attention of some of the people in the audience seats.

"Hahaha! Right, right. How could I forget. Hahaha! You'll meet Shōei on the Quarter Finals of the playoffs. Guess I just have to watch that match to see you guys suffer!"

"You're too loud. You could go watch the match. By then, maybe you'll have an idea as to how we'll crush your team when we face against each other."

While laughing boisterously, totally ignoring what Seiji has said. Hayama walked out on a happy note.

※・※・※・※

To be continued…

[A/N¹: Whelp. Not much I can write here. Maybe because the ideas doesn't come as often as when I started writing this, or maybe I just lack the motivation since I just got out of a grueling overnight work while writing this? I apologize, you guys. Every time I try to write this novel, something else would crop up so I'm really getting quite frustrated. With that said though, I still want to continue it.]