Cruising Through
The basketball club had many shortcomings, and this is a matter that Jun couldn't touch or rectify in any way.
Jun dreamed of being the best, standing at the top of the food chain. For that, he would have to eventually come face to face with the champions, the Generation Of Miracles. He still wasn't at their level, and playing against the 5 of them would prove to be a headache especially because if Jun remembered, the 2nd Year was their strongest year as a team.
And their link was Kuroko Tetsuya, if he wanted to beat them he needed to block this player. For that, he needed more visualization. He needed to bring his awareness of the field to the next level. But even if he had been at it for a long time, no conclusive answer could be found.
The other method would be having reliable teammates to stop any oncoming attacks. To not have the gap widening too early, but his teammates are ordinary people, they are far from the GoM level.
Jun was in a dilemma, he felt troubled by what the future awaited him. So he practiced as hard as he could, in order to close the gap, because every day matters when you are competing against geniuses.
Quickly the second game of the Regional Tournament came. The game was against a team that was by no means near the level of the Kamata West.
Completely different from the Kamata game, the players were laughing and were quite relaxed. Something which made Jun frown, but he didn't comment since Yoshi was the one who voiced out his thoughts which reflected Jun's.
Jun retained his job as a small forward, as the game began Yukio won the tip-off, and the ball moved toward Jun who quickly dribbled toward the 3-point line, and made a clean-only net 1st shot. (3-0)
The opposing team didn't seem to linger much on this, as they quickly moved toward their half of the court to return the favor. Maybe, thinking they could make a 3 point too, one of their players tried his luck and missed, completely missing the basket.
'...' Jun was silent as he saw this awful shot. But he didn't linger on this as he quickly saw that he wasn't marked tightly so he asked for the ball from Yoshi who quickly gave a reliable pass to his position.
What followed was Jun maneuvering around his opposition and scoring yet another 3. (6-0)
Soon the opposing team moved again, they were on the offense, with the one Jun was marking being the one dribbling, Jun closed down on the youth as he observed him. So Jun took a defensive stance, neither being too far nor too close, making sure to see how the youth would deal with different scenarios.
The youth quickly concluded he couldn't crack Jun as such he passed the ball hastily to the right, where Jun's hand appeared right as he did the pass motion. Jun counterattacked giving the ball to a teammate who made an easy lay-up. (8-0)
The game unfolded as usual, this time Kibito was the dominant team, and Jun was the spearhead, they slaughtered the opposing school in the first quarter. (32-15)
While Jun was staring at his opponent's expressions he felt, himself infuriated. The players were being casual, still cracking jokes and laughing. They didn't seem to be losing at all.
'Casuals or they have something up their sleeve.' Jun thought as he drafted a rough two paths for their actions. 'Just in case we will widen the gap in the next round, if they have something they will have to use it.'
''Yoshi-senpai could you give me all the balls in the next quarter?'' Jun asked as he focused on the opponent's bench.
Yoshi just nodded as he saw the focused Jun, he didn't quite understand why the request but it didn't matter no one was as reliable as Jun when it came to scoring.
The second quarter unfolded and the easygoing team crumbled as their smiles solidified. Jun was ruthless on the court. It didn't matter if they double-teamed him or triple-teamed him, the outcome was the same Jun would find a way to shoot, and if he missed Yukio or the rest of the teammates would be there to get the ball, with the numbers advantage it was easy work.
Jun stared at the other side of the court and the slowly demoralized opponent team. Jun sighed. 'Was I expecting too much? I should start researching about my opponents... But this is quite unfortunate for them.'
Jun decided to bench for the remainder of the game allowing his teammates to gain experience and confidence.
The game was easy, at the end of the fourth and final quarter the score finished at 83-48 with the Kibito team winning through out the entirety of the game, surprisingly the opposing team managed to score quite a lot after Jun was on the bench.
Jun had scored 43 points against Kamata West and in 2 quarters Jun scored 36 points this game. He was a very attack-orientated player. He won the match so he didn't feel anything about it. What mattered is that at the end of the day, he won, although slightly disappointed in the opposing team players Jun didn't dwell on it as it is something that would happen sooner or later.
Not every team took the club activity seriously, and these first few games were to weed out the casual teams and slowly the difficulty would improve. They just were unlucky to match against Kamata West so early.
After the game Jun arrived home, and quickly was met by his beloved family. Ayako his mother, had begun researching basketball, all to have yet another topic to speak to her son. Jun found her attempt adorable, same with Hina who began to dribble the ball around the house too, although not a big ball she made work, and slowly she improved.
From time to time she would come to him and would be an energetic cutiepie.
''Nii-chan nii-chan look.'' She would yell out to him and then perform an awkward between-the-legs. ''You know what this is? Beween Da Legs.''
The reason she did is, it is because each time he did a skill in front of her he would voice out what it was so Hina could get used to the terms and what was each thing.
Jun found it adorable although, and it was funny to see, so he started looking forward for these moments so he could shower her with praise and kisses.
The following week's game wasn't as easy as the previous one but it wasn't hard, especially for Kibito school which had a monster of a scorer, namely Jun.
They won the game with an 18-point advantage and moved forward in the bracket stage. With Jun yet again hammering the opposing school's rim scoring 38 points while playing 3 quarters.