Chapter 23 : The Talk About the Generation of Miracles II

"Okay, let's start with the most basic information, the name," Furihata spoke while trying to make himself as comfortable as he can.

"You have already known Ryota Kise, the small forward when we played against Kaijo. And you already have the basic images of Daiki Aomine, the power forward, and Shintaro Midorima, the shooting guard, from the earlier discussion. The only two lefts are their point guard, Seijuro Akashi, and their center, Atsushi Murasakibara. Just remember their names, okay?"

All of them nodded, making a note on their heads to remember the names.

"Once again, I will tell you it is just based on my research and observation, so I need Phantom to correct me if I am wrong or if something is left behind, okay?" Seeing Kuroko nod, he continued his speech.

"We have already talked about Aomine, so let's talk about the other. First, their center, Atsushi Murasakibara. He is 208 cm and his wingspan is 217 cm, according to the data from the official website. Basically, he is the far better version of Papa Mbaye Shiki that we would face in the next game.

He has the strength to crush everyone under the rim, he could reach the highest jump shoot release point with his long arm, and he also has a monstrous reflex just like Kagami. He is a defensive beast. Honestly, out of five of them, I would rate him the strongest. He could destroy everyone if he has the motivation."

Everyone gulped nervously, imagining the scary Murasakibara from the information Furihata just provided.

"However," Furihata spoke again before everyone's mind wandered wildly. "I said he could destroy everyone if he has the motivation. However, no one really knows how to motivate him except with snacks or just letting him sleep. In other words, he is a lazy bastard and a glutton."

"Seriously?" His teammates sweatdropped comically at the last comment and wanted to laugh, yet when they saw Furihata is serious, they all turned around to Kuroko for confirmation.

"He is right." Kuroko nodded. "Whenever Aomine-kun decided to walk out from the game because it was too boring, Murasakibara-kun would also excuse himself. He would find any excuses to get away from training. And in our last year, Akashi-kun finally let him do whatever he wanted as long as he was ready for the game. He didn't go to practice even once that year."

"Once again, seriously?" His audience said the same, yet with a different reaction. Now, they looked at Kuroko with disbelief.

"How about your coach? What did he say?" Izuki decided to ask before Furihata continued his explanation, looking at Kuroko with a face full of curiosity. However, Kuroko shrugged a little and said,

"Well, our coach just let Akashi-kun run the team. He said, as long as the team wins the championship, he doesn't care how we behaved. That is why Aomine-kun and Murasakibara-kun could get away from the game without any consequence."

"That is not how you should coach a middle school team." Hyuga shook his head, disapproving of the method. "You need to set the rule straight so they wouldn't carry that bad behavior when they become adults. I mean, their basketball talent could be taken away from them with injuries or something like that. If that happened and they keep slacking like in middle school, I don't know how they could survive in society."

Riko nodded her head in agreement with Hyuga's opinion. At the middle school level, what you need is not just a coach. You need an educator. People who can train them in basketball and teach them how to behave properly in society. However, Kuroko just looked at them with helpless eyes.

"I also think the same. However, that was what happened. And it didn't change anything we still won the championship. So, no one could deny the direct result of his 'coaching style'."

There is a hint of sarcastic remark in Kuroko's tone when he speaks the last part, something that surprised everyone as Kuroko is not a person who shows expression so often.

"Well, you get the image of him." Furihata interfered before they breach the topics once again. "Let's move on to their point guard, the leader and the most dangerous player on that team, Seijuro Akashi."

"The most dangerous? With Aomine and Murasakibara on the team, how could someone be more dangerous than them?" Someone muttered loudly from behind, not expecting any serious answer from everyone.

However, Furihata turned around and replied to that supposed rhetorical question seriously.

"I know based on his stats he is not as impressive as the other. But he was their leader, and everyone obeyed his words. That should tell you something, right?" Even if he didn't know who is the one asked the question, he could see everyone nodded at his answer.

"I couldn't find a lot about him, but I draw a conclusion that he is the son of a wealthy and influential family. I have this suspicion because I couldn't find anything about him. Even though he was the leader of the infamous Generation of Miracles, there is no news about him except for his achievement as a team. Nothing personal. I know basketball scouts tweeted a lot about talented players who would graduate from middle school every year, yet there is no single tweet related to him. Is that weird?"

"Well.. When you put it like that.." His idea was planted inside everyone's mind, and once again, they looked at Kuroko for confirmation.

"I don't know anything about it. The only thing I can confirm is true, he is coming from a well-off family."

"Tsk," Izuki clicked his tongue in annoyance, for the first time showing expressions other than depressed and helpless. "A talented player from a wealthy family and captaining the strongest team in middle school? Sometimes, life is really unfair."

Everyone nodded, agreeing with the sentiment.

"Well, I cannot do anything about that." Furihata shrugged helplessly at the sudden agitated reaction from his teammates. He decided to ignore it and started talking again before thing getting escalated once more time.

"I couldn't find anything useful from the news, so I looked out to Youtube to observe how he played. And well, I was really shocked by what I saw." He paused for a bit and looked at his teammates.

"Just tell us what you see, Brat! No need to do this dramatic pause." Hyuga growled in annoyance, slapping his shoulder hard. It seems his dramatic pause really riled up his teammates.

"Okay, okay! Jeez.. why is it that all of you are rather violent today?" Furihata grumbled while rubbing his shoulder. But seeing the glare from his senpai and his coach, he decided to drop this matter.

"Well, to put it simply, he had never shown anything special except for his well-known passing ability, very high basketball IQ, and spatial awareness that I think the best out of the other four. He didn't do fancy moves, yet his game is still perfect. If you just look at the stats, he is the least impressive Generation of Miracles. Yet, he is their leader, and everyone obeyed his words. Strange, isn't it?"

All of them couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"After observing some of his highlights on Youtube, I can make a guess. He is a control freak."

"Again, another weird yet insulting analogy from Furihata, ladies and gents," Izuki muttered under his breath, resulting in a stiffened laugh from the other.

"Well, if you watched the game, you will understand what I said. He played like a conductor in an orchestra or a puppet master who controls his four powerful puppets to crush his opponent. I think he thought of himself as a general. He didn't need to show off his skill. As long as his team wins, he will get the credit as their leader. But if something out of control happened, he will not hesitate to get rid of it. Can you tell us about Shogo Haizaki, Phantom?"

Now, everyone turned their focus on Kuroko.

"He is my senpai, our small forward before Kise-kun joined the team."

"Teiko's small forward before Kise? Is he strong?" Kagami who hasn't shown any interest in this discussion suddenly asked, interested in the prospect of someone better than Kise.

"Well, I don't really know about it. He has the same ability as Kise-kun, can copy everyone's movement. I would think that he is better due to his experience. Yet Akashi-kun said Kise has better talent and wouldn't have any problem catching up."

The revelation from Kuroko made everyone widen their eyes in shock.

"Really? Other than the Generation of Miracles, they still had that kind of monster?"

"But what happened to him? Why is it that Akashi decided to use the inexperienced Kise rather than him? Can you tell us?" The urged tone from Furihata couldn't be missed by his teammates, making all of them interested.

"Well, to put it simply, Haizaki-san was a yakuza-wannabe. He is a person who loves getting himself involved in violence. And he is a very toxic person. He got away without any punishment for his first two years because of his parents, who is the member of the parent committee.

But when Akashi-kun was chosen as a captain, Haizaki-san's parents suddenly got fired from his position, leaving Haizaki-san powerless in the school. Nobody knows why or how, but all of the players had a suspicion that Akashi-kun was somehow involved in this matter. Not that anyone could prove it, of course. After that, Akashi-kun found Kise-kun and get rid of Haizaki-san from the team. And, well, you know the rest."

His teammates looked at Kuroko with deadpanned faces.

'What the hell is that story? Too much plot hole there! And if you want to tell a story, at least, show more expression!'

However, all of them had necessary images of how ruthless Akashi is to the one who didn't obey him.

"Wait, if Akashi threw Haizaki from the team because of the attitude problem, why didn't he do that for Murasakibara and Aomine? Were they the same?" Izuki voiced his curiosity. Well, once again, he got the helpless shrug from Kuroko as the answer.

"It was because he couldn't find anyone better than Aomine-kun and Murasakibara-kun. Like it or not, the two of them were the core of our team. Even if we could still win without them, it would not be a crushing win for us, and Akashi-kun didn't like something like that. If Akashi-kun could find someone better and obedient, he wouldn't hesitate to get rid of them both."

"Well, you got the images of him, right now. But let's continue our discussion first." Furihata chimed in. "The last one is Midorima, the shooting guard. He is also a very dangerous player, yet you will find something odd in his stats. You will find there is a lot of fluctuation in his total shot attempt. Sometimes he would shoot eight times, and sometimes he would shoot once in a game. Am I right?"

"That's right!" Riko nodded while checking her phone.

"At first, I didn't really know why. But after I dived into his Twitter, I found something weird, funny, yet interesting. He is a strong believer in astrology, and his Twitter page is full of Oha Asa Horoscopes he retweeted. Hell, I even found a hate tweet from a girl, I think his ex, on his page that said they broke up because Midorima believed a blood type A person like him would not get along with a blood type B person like her. And it is serious." He added the last part when he got a disbelief reaction from his teammates.

"I would say it again, but seriously? Are all strong players have this kind of weird quirk?" Izuki muttered, breaking the silence. He wanted to laugh, but seeing the atmosphere is heavy, he didn't dare to do it.

"Well, just like I said, they all kinda have some weird quirk. But back to the discussion, all of the game when he attempted less than three three-point shots could be linked to the Oha Asa Horoscopes. Whenever they said Cancer would have a bad day, he wouldn't dare to take any shoot except if he is in a wide-open position. No one noticed this because his teammates could step up the game whenever he had this 'bad day'."

He emphasized the last part with a sarcastic remark, causing chuckles from his teammates. Well, it also broke the heavy tension between them, so Furihata was glad he did that.

"This is good yet useless information," Riko muttered after a while. "It only explained why and not how we could exploit it. I mean, it basically depends on our luck. We can't just hope Oha Asa would release a bad prediction for Cancer on the day we play against them."

Now, almost all of them laughed out loud at that. A player that has his performance affected by his horoscope, is that ridiculous?

"Riko-senpai is right." Furihata nodded after the laughter died down. "Moreover, I think Midorima is the smartest out of the five. He knows his weird quirk, and he knows he wouldn't get away with excuses like horoscopes if he didn't perform well in high school, so he joined the team that will be benefited the most even if he had this bad day. He joined Shutoku. Senpai, can you tell us what Shutoku's main strength is?" He turned around to Riko for the answer.

"Well, their main strength lay in both Okubo-san and Kimura-san, the twin tower under the rim. Both combined were enough to make Shutoku have the strongest interior defense in Kanto. They are also very powerful rebounders. No matter how badly their shooter missed, they would be ready inside the paint area to clean up the mess. Also, they both have a very good post-up game, making them almost unstoppable under the rim. Well, the senior members here have the basic idea, as they were one of Shutoku's victims in the last inter-high."

All of the senior members looked at each other with bitter smiles on their faces, yet they didn't have anything to say. They know Riko said that to remind them of their strong desire to get revenge, so they couldn't be afraid even though they have one of the Generation of Miracles on their team.

"Thank you, Senpai." Furihata nodded at his senpai before continuing his speech. "Back to Midorima, he didn't choose Shutoku just because they are strong. No, he chooses it because they complemented each other. Shutoku needed someone who can score from the outside, and when Midorima has a bad day, he could just abandon his three and play with their style, low-post game."

"Wait, Midorima is also good at that?" Furihata rolled his eyes at the question that interrupt his explanation. However, it is Kuroko who gives the answer.

"Of course, he is. Midorima-kun is 195 cm and has a 205 cm wingspan, and he knows it was his advantages, so he trained a lot in the post-up situations, rebounding, defending, and anything else. When everyone on the team slacked off, he was the only one who keep training even though with the second team. Honestly, he is the most diligent player that I have ever known. Just because he is obsessed with three-point doesn't mean he is not good at anything, you know?"

"Thank you, Phantom. Just as you imagine, he found the perfect team for himself. It is my opinion, but I think they would be one the biggest title contenders for the inter-high this year." Furihata finished his explanation, leaving his teammates speechless at the revelation.

"Thank you, Furihata-kun." Riko took over the discussion before anyone could speak. "I know it is a lot, but this discussion is necessary to know our enemy and to begin our preparation if we play against them. I hope it would not discourage you. That is for today. Meeting adjourned!"

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Author note:

NEXT CHAPTER: Kagami VS Furihata !

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