Inter-High Preliminary Finals

On the day of the Finals, everybody was excited and their games are the first one, since the second scheduled game was for the Middle School preliminaries.

Then that morning as they were preparing from their homes, Hideki shot a random text at Riko asking 'So you're dating him huh?' Riko then replied immediately 'Who?' Hideki quickly texted back 'Teppei, come on now Riko fess up cat's outta the bag' Riko took a while before replying, 'Yeah, but just dating, he's not my boyfriend yet Hideki, we're not yet official' Hideki smirked and texted 'Good, because he has to get through me, uncle Kagetora doesn't have to know or we'll search at the river nearby if Teppei's mysteriously missing' Riko just texted him 'Yeah I know, and I don't want to get your help if it come to that.' Then both childhood friend laughed at that.

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At the gymnasium outside the team was gathered and they saw there were many people outside, they tought it's for the Finals but Benjie said, "Well, the Middle School's preliminaries are also playing here, so I think it's also because of that." everybody nodded at that information in amazement. 

Koga was looking at the gym in front of them and said "Wow we're playing at this place?" Izuki said, "Nope, but we're playing on that one" then he pointed at another gym, which was also as big as the one they're in front of right now. Hideki saw that his team was now complete, he said to them, "Okay, we're complete let's enter the stadium now." Everybody nodded and proceeded to enter the gym. 

As they are near the gym, they saw the schedule and saw that the Middle School Preliminaries are also held here and it is the second match in the morning, and those who played or cared about the Middle School basketball saw a familiar name "Teiko Middle School" they are playing in the same gym as them for the second game.

Then as soon as they finished reading the schedule, they saw the whole Generation of Miracles going out of the gym and some wer eawestruck some were looking at them with sharp eyes and the Captain was looking at the whole team as he had unfinished business with them, but afterwards he was looking for a certain someone.

As he saw Momoi, he waved at her and everybody as Seirin were shocked that Hideki was waving at Teiko, like some old friends. Then they saw a Middle School Girl, probably Teiko's Manager walked to Hideki to hug him and told him "Sorry, can't be too long here we'll have a meeting later. But good luck to your game." Momoi gave Hideki a good luck kiss.

Everybody was shocked to see this and the single boys were asking several questions to Hideki as soon as Momoi was back with the Teiko boys.

After that barrage of question that became a Q&A session before their game the team got into their locker room and were idly waiting for their turn for the shootaround and warmups. 

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It was their turn for the shootaround and warmups and they were doing it with a little nervousness so their shots rattled around the ring before going in and some jump shots didn't go in at first and most shots got in when the shootaround was at its later stages.

After the shootaround, they proceeded to the bench 5 minutes before the game to plan things out, and Riko was lashing out at Hideki now since they haven't have any set strategy and are planning at the fly.

Riko is now saying loudly "Guys! Concentrate we have a match coming up, you know that right?" The others got quiet to listen to Riko and then she said "Oh gosh, our opponents is Kirisaki Daiichi. As a brand new team, we didn't have much time, so we focused most of our practice in offence. So as a result, we managed to get here with the Run & Gun style. They're that strong of an opponent."

Hideki looked at her and said "Don't worry about defence, I got that covered, I've learned about their offence last night, they're a mid team but they have all the basics covered. I'll guide you guys on the fly and on screens I'll tell you if you have to go under or over." 

Riko said "Okay, that covers our defense Hideki. You do that." Then she looked at everyone and said "First, give them everything we've got right from the start and trap them in our pace! Is it understood?" Everybody replied "Yeah!"

A second later Teppei raised his hand and said "About offense. Uhm…" Teppei looked at Riko seriously and said "In this match. There's something I want to test. Although it's going to be a sudden test run."

Hideki looked at Teppei and asked "Oh, you're going to use it Teppei?" Teppei smiled and told him "Yeah, we might need it today" Hideki chuckled and said "Sure, I'll be ready." And Hideki told the team "Okay guys, on offense if me or Teppei has the ball, just have your eyes to the ball and be ready." 

Everybody was confused and didn't get what Hideki wanted to say so Teppei cut the silence and said "Well. Let's go and have fun" Hideki stood up and saw that there's one minute remaining and told the team to stand including Benjie and Megumi and told them to join the huddle.

In the huddle Hideki told the team, "Okay guys, some of you may be nervous as this is your first Finals. I'll tell you this, just don't overthink things and do what we did on practice, or a more brutal one, think of this as an extended practice match against Kirisaki Daiichi." 

Benjie laughed ad Hideki's comment.

Then Hideki told them, "But no matter what happens, trust yourselves to do things the right way and more importantly trust your teammates to guide you in the right thing. Okay, we don't have enough time left. I want everybody including Riko and the managers to shout in the huddle" Riko and the managers nodded.

Hideki then said, "Okay, 'Seirin Win' on three! One! Two! Three! SEIRIN"

Everybody shouted with Hideki "WIIIN"

This pumped everybody up and proceeded to head to the court.