Chapter 138 : How It Ends
"You finally stopped playing the boring cat-and-mouse game, huh?" Aomine grinned widely, spreading his arms wide, a challenging gesture for Kise to go for isolation. "Let's see which is stronger, your perfect copy, or my zone?"
Kise snorted, trying to ignore Aomine's rambling. However, something stuck inside his head.
'So, this insane awakening is called zone, huh? Interesting.'
He took another glance at the scoreboard before sighing tiredly.
'66 – 72? What the hell is happening here? The 12-point lead vanished, and now it is us who need to chase down the score. Damn it. I reacted too late. If only I decided to face Aominecchi head-on straight after I saw his abnormal state, things wouldn't have this worse. I need to step up this time, or it will be over.'
He shook his head slightly, trying to put his focus back into the game. With the ball in his hand, he waved his other hand toward his teammates, asking them to give him some space.
"Good. Now this is the real game. Come on, Kise! Let's see how much stronger you are now!"
And right after Aomine said that Kise took a quick step back and launched the ball from way downtown. Aomine is a bit startled, not expecting that the space Kise's teammates created for a breakthrough would be used as bait for Kise to pull up a three. He reacted fast, jumping high while extending his arm upward, trying to disturb Kise's line of sight. However, it was useless, as the ball was already released before he could reach the highest point, and a second later,
*Splash!*
The ball went smoothly through the net without even touching the rim. A perfect three-point shoot!
Kise just stared at the ball coldly before he met Aomine's eyes and said, "You said something, Aominecchi?" This was the trick he learned from Furihata. While the opponent is busy with his trash-talking, hit him with something unexpected. And the shot itself, he copied it from the best shooter he had ever played with, Midorima. With the perfect shooting form and quick release, even though Aomine was enhanced with the zone, Kise didn't believe the tanned skin power forward would be able to stop it.
Meanwhile, on the Too side, Aomine is cursing himself for forgetting about the three-point shoot. However, it didn't waver his excitement, as he quickly raised his hand, asking for the ball from his teammates.
"Oi, give me the ball!"
Wakamatsu did as Aomine said reluctantly after receiving the nod from Imayoshi. When all of the players were already on Kaijo's side, Aomine did exactly as Kise did before, waving his hand away, signaling the other that he would go for isolation. Seeing that, Kise sends a subtle signal to his teammates behind, asking for a trap zone like before.
A second later, Aomine charged in without hesitation. Kise tried to follow his movement. However, Aomine's zone state is the perfect antithesis of his perfect copy, as his weakness suddenly gets exploited.
'Goddamnit!' Kise gritted his teeth. 'How in the hell could his physique get enhanced like that? If I don't know better, I would accuse him of doping!'
In this sequence, Aomine completely exposed the perfect copy's weakness. In defense, it could only read movement, so basically, any fancy attempts to get through his defense would be useless here. However, with his physique getting strengthened in the zone state, Aomine didn't have to do his usual formless dribbling. He only needs to use his strength and speed to get rid of Kise's defense, as the perfect copy couldn't copy the physical state.
But Kise himself had already prepared for this. When he saw his teammates were ready to help him, he shouted decisively.
"Bottom left! Shrink him in! Don't let him attack the rim!"
This was the tactic he came up with after understanding the state of the game. If the perfect copy couldn't stop the zone, that means his physique is getting overwhelmed by Aomine. If he let Aomine attack the rim, there was no way Kise could stop him. But with zone defense and the help of his teammates, he could entrap Aomine into an ugly spot to shoot, and the chance to stop him would be higher. It was the same strategy they did in the second quarter.
Unfortunately, he still underestimated Aomine's zone state. After glancing for a second, the blue lightning in Aomine's eyes intensified, and a moment later, he charged in with new vitality.
Kobori and Hayakawa who acted as the reinforcement tried to slow him down. However, with a quick spin move coupled with another crossover movement, Aomine split their defense easily, leaving them behind. And to make it worse, due to their failure to stop Aomine head-on, Kise also had a hard time following Aomine, as the route between them was blocked by those two Kaijo players.
Seeing no one could stop him, Aomine grinned as he took off from the ground, grabbing the ball with both hands before slamming it down through the rim.
*BAM!*
A powerful two-handed dunk! He hung on the rim for a while before landing on the floor, showing off his muscles to Kise. It was a provocative gesture to damage Kaijo's morale. However, Kise didn't dwell on it too much. He asked the ball again quickly, ready to attack once again.
"Senpai!"
Moriyama who grabbed the ball on the floor, hearing Kise's shout, threw it quickly to the blonde. Kobori and Wakamatsu who failed to hold Aomine before also started running to the other side of the court, startling Too's players. In a second, the situation on the court changes drastically, and now, Kise who held the ball is attacking the unprepared Too mercilessly.
"DAMN!"
"Slow him down!"
Although Susa and Imayoshi tried to double-team Kise, it was a futile attempt, as the strong screen from Hayakawa pushed those two aside, giving Kise enough space to break through.
"Go, Kise!"
Seeing the route was opened up, Kise didn't hesitate even for a second as he accelerated quickly, leaving everyone behind. Aomine who saw that sprinted immediately, trying to chase down the blonde. When they were already in Too's paint area, Aomine jumped at the same time as Kise as if he tried to block the shot attempt.
However, the confrontation between those two that was waited by all the people in the gymnasium didn't happen. Instead, Kise lowered his hand in the air and kicked the ball outside before starting to run again. And as if he had already predicted that, Aomine didn't jump with all his might. So, when Kise started running again, he was not that far behind to chase him down.
This was the tacit understanding between those two after playing with each other for two years in middle school. Just like Kise who knows Aomine too well, Aomine also knows about Kise like the back of his hand. That's why they both were not surprised that they could read each other well.
But when Aomine was about to reach Kise, he was blocked once again by Moriyama. Even though it couldn't hold Aomine for too long, it was enough to give Kise space to shoot. Seeing that, Kasamatsu who received the ball earlier sent it again, and after catching the pass, Kise pulled up the shoot without hesitation, resulting in another three points for Kaijo.
*Splash!*
"YOSSHAAAAA!"
"Only 4 points left! We still had a chance!"
"Come on, Kaijo! Defense!"
But when everyone was still hyping up the latest play, the ball had already moved into the other half, as Aomine caught the long pass from Susa. Since he knows he can't stop Kise, Aomine makes a quick decision to run early and initiate the fastbreak. And it worked quite well, as no one was there to stop him.
*BAAAAM!*
Another powerful dunk! This is Aomine's silent statement, that no matter how hard Kise tried, Kaijo wouldn't be able to stop him from scoring. And Kise knows about it too.
For the next several minutes, the game entered a stalemate situation, as every time Kise scored, Aomine would do the same. They both couldn't stop the massive wave of offense from each other. Just like Kise who was inferior to Aomine's physicality, Aomine had no answer to Kise who always used all of his teammates to avoid his defense.
However, this stalemate was broken right one minute before the game ended, when Kise asked Hayakawa to set a screen for him again. Wakamatsu who saw that gave up his defense on Hayakawa and decided to face Kise directly.
"Ha! Don't think you can always make a fool of us, bastard!"
Seeing that Wakamatsu had his eyes on him, Kise clicked his tongue in annoyance. With one sweep, he broke through Wakamatsu's defense easily as if the center was not there. However, even though Wakamatsu couldn't hold him for too long, it was enough for Aomine to recover from Hayakawa's screen and chase him down again.
"You bunch of useless idiots finally do something useful, huh?"
"Hah?! What do you mean, bastard!"
Imayoshi who saw Wakamatsu and Aomine bickering in the middle of the game suddenly showed a smirk, startling Kasamatsu in front of him. His decision to give up the zone defense that was completely exposed by Kaijo and change into man-to-man marking worked. When facing Kaijo's off-ball movement, even though it didn't bother Kise too much, at least it provided Aomine time to recover.
And Kise could feel it too. Unlike before, no matter how many times he asked his teammates to provide him space to shoot, Aomine would always be able to follow easily, which made him struggle to escape. The other Kaijo players just followed Kise's movement anxiously, don't know what they could do to help.
And when only 4 seconds left for this sequence, Kise took a decision he thought was the best.
'If I forced to shoot, Aominecchi would just block it away easily. But if I don't do anything, the possession would change and our chance to win would be slim. The only thing I could do right now is….. There!'
At this moment, Kise suddenly stopped dribbling and bounced the ball to the floor as if it was a pass. However, he didn't aim for the floor. Instead, he wanted to hit Aomine's arm. If it was hit, it would result in a kickball violation, and he would have another 14 seconds to start the offense again.
However, he didn't expect that Aomine could read his desperate attempt in the last second.
"Heh, as expected. You are still a coward, Kise."
The tanned-skinned boy stretched his arms down quickly, shielding his legs from the ball. And before Kise could realize what happened, Aomine vanished from his sight, dribbling the ball already toward the other side.
"GODDAMNIT!"
Even though Kise tried his best, he couldn't chase Aomine from behind, and his former teammates just smirked mockingly at his desperate attempt.
"It's over, Kise!"
*BAAAAAAMMMM!!!!*
Another powerful dunk! With only 20 seconds left, Kaijo needs a miracle to overturn the 4-point gap between them and Too. Kise knows about it too. That's why he asked for the ball quickly, ready to attack again.
'4 points in 20 seconds? I need to score within the next 5 seconds, or it would be over for us.
After thinking about that, seeing the scattered position all over the court, right after he crossed the half-court line, he stopped quickly, ready to pull up another three. Everyone else looked at Kise with dumbfounded faces, not believing Kise would be brave to shoot from that spot.
"Holly shit! There are still 20 seconds left, why in the hell would he shoot from there?!"
"If he couldn't score this, it would be over for Kaijo!"
"Shut up, you idiot! He had already done this several times this game! He could do it!"
While all the eyes are on the ball, Kise himself feels confident. With Midorima's three-point technique, even though Too players could recover, it would be too late for them to stop him. However, right before he could release the shoot, a whisper suddenly came from behind, sending a chill through his spine.
"If I could stop Midorima head-on, why do you think I couldn't stop your cheap imitation?"
Aomine suddenly jumped from behind, extending one of his arms high into the air, and snatched the ball from Kise's hand like a claw right before it could be released. If it was Midorima, Aomine wouldn't dare to do something like this, or it would end up as a foul. However, even though with Midorima's technique, there is one thing that Kise didn't have.
That is height.
That's why in an aerial battle, Aomine who had a similar height with Kise could do something outrageous like snatching the ball in the air right before it could be released. Kise himself cursed inwardly, not expecting the ball would be snatched from behind. He tried to manipulate the ball so it could get out of bounds and stop the clock. However, it was no use, as Aomine had a run-up advantage and overpowered him in the air.
And right after they both landed on the floor, there was only one thing that came into his mind.
"FOUL HIM! STOP THE CLOCK!"
However, even though three players came to foul him, with his quick movement, Aomine got rid of them easily, and instead of taking a shoot or dunk like he usually did, this time, he just dribbled around while avoiding the opponent to waste the time.
And when the clock finally hits 00:00, and when the buzzer rings loudly, that's when Kise knows, all the hope was buried, and their inter-high is over.
Kaijo High 78 – 82 Too Academy
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Author note :
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You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 158 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 19 too.
Thank you! :)
-Zeta Faes-