Finals: #6

The viewers in the stands were enjoying the game, but the television audience was also enjoying the game.

Shun's parents, who were busy today and were watching the game from their workplaces.

Shun's father has straight out occupied the biggest meeting room in his clinic and was watching the game on a big television screen installed in the meeting room.

Shun's father was enjoying watching his son play, but he also wondered why his son was the only one scoring on his team.

He would cheer whenever Shun would score, and his employees would look up every time and see him through the glass walls.

Shun's mother, on the other hand, was watching the game on a television screen installed in one of the patient rooms.

There were a couple of nurses and doctors also settled in the room during there lunch break.

[A/N: I know Doctors and Nurses are super busy, but ignore that and think they are having a slow day.]

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Akashi looked at his teammates and felt that he was ready.

He looked at the ball in his hands, moved forward, and crossed the half-court.

He took in the positions of all the people on the court, and a play formed in his mind.

Akashi: 'He needs a win to get going. Straight through the middle is his favorite route, let's give him that.'

Akashi ran through the court, waiting for his pass target to get into the optimal position.

As soon as he was in the middle of the court, Akashi passed the ball to him.

Aomine, who was passing through the middle of the court, got passed the ball from Akashi.

He felt that his position on the court, the timing of the pass, the ball's placement in his hand, and finally, his distance from the defenders were ...

Aomine: "Perfect."

Aomine dribbled the ball in front of him and saw that Shun was standing in front of him.

Aomine came to a stop, backed away by two steps, and then while jumping backward, he free-shot the ball towards the basket.

[A/N: Not Aomine's parallel fade away, this was more like a straight out throwing the ball towards the basket at a high-speed.]

Shun, who positioned himself in front of Aomine's path, was expecting him to charge ahead towards him.

So, when Aomine stopped and backed away, Shun felt the jolt of reflexes telling him to run forward, and so he did, but,

Shun: 'He is too far. I won't reach in time...'

And, that was the case. Shun reacted as fast as he could, but Aomine's backing away plus his backward jump made to much space between them for Shun to come in contact with the ball.

Shun clicked his tongue when he saw the ball beam towards the basket. The ball smashed into the backboard and went into the hoop at a high-speed.

Commentator A: "What a reckless shot! I am amazed at how such a flat arc went into the basket. Truly marvelous!"

Commentator B: "And that was all the while he was jumping backward. Truly a sight to be amazed at."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The scoring battle began as both sides targetted the baskets with hard aggressiveness.

Shun ran right through the middle of the court with the ball with him.

He arrived at the boundary of the Dee, and in front of him was Murasakibara was standing there is the Dee ready to stop him.

Shun performed a Euro-step to fake out Murasakibara with a left foot jump but was actually going to jump with his right foot.

But, Murasakibara didn't fall for the fake and jumped at the right moment.

Commentator A: "Murasakibara-kun shows excellent awareness and defensive skill. I would have fallen for that Euro-step, but he judged the move correctly."

Shun reflexes shown in the situation. He jumped and let his body come close to Murasakibara's, and just before contact, he moved his ball hand behind Murasakibara and chucked the ball upwards.

Murasakibara, who was expecting a layup from the front, couldn't do anything when the ball was behind him all the time.

The ball traveled up just to the height of the rim, and then slowly tipped inside the basket, securing another point for Tokiwadai and Shun.

Commentator B: "A pity, Murasakibara-kun had just evaded a fake to jump at the right moment, but he was outsmarted by Kageyama-kun the second time."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Akashi once again had the ball ready to perform his magic as he scoured the court for information and used it for the optimal pass route and target.

Akashi crossed the half-court, then increased his speed to the limit.

Tokiwadai players were expecting him to charge into the basket, but the just after Akashi increased his speed, he passed the ball to Midorima.

Commentator B: "Excellent pass timing from Akashi-kun."

Yuki wasn't expecting Akashi to pass at all and was away from him to prepare for a drive.

Yuki: 'I was completely sure that he was going drive.'

Midorima caught the ball and looked around the court to find Akashi entering the three-point arc into the inside area.

He passed the ball back to Akashi, who was now closer to the basket than before.

Commentator B: "Oh, a pass-back. Is Akashi-kun going to score on his own."

But, Akashi had withdrawn from the active offense and was only focusing on playmaking.

Moving according to his plan, he passed the ball to Murasakibara in the low post.

Murasakibara boxed out Aone in the post and caught the passed ball.

He stepped into the Dee and jumped for a dunk.

Shun was quick and arrived near Murasakibara and jumped for a block, but the moment he jumped, Shun thought,

Shun: 'Crap, I made a mistake!'

The mistake was to jump in front of Murasakibara.

Murasakibara brought the ball down, both of Shun's hands were pushed away by brute force, and the ball crashed into the basket.

Shun could feel the strength of Murasakibara as he jammed the ball into the basket.

Shun: 'So Heavy!'

-*-*-*-

Hikigaya winced as he saw Shun stumble backward and almost crashing into the poll of the basket.

Hikigaya: "That guy is so powerful. Did you see the rim bend when he dunked the ball."

Shikamaru nodded and added.

Shikamaru: "I wouldn't have gone near him, much less try to stop him as Kageyama did."

-*-*-*-

Shun looked at Akashi and then glanced over every other player on Teiko.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead as he thought.

Shun: 'He is pulling out the Non-zone 80% from all three of them. Keeping a lead on them is really a pain in the ass.'

[A/N: Changed Pre-zone to Non-zone to avoid any misunderstandings.]

Shun was also thankful for a few things.

Shun: 'Akashi won't pull everyone in the zone. Akashi himself can't enter the zone, so pulling others is out of the question.

Plus, it is good that Kuroko is bound up by Sora, or else we would've been in deep trouble.'

Shun straightened his back as he got ready to score to keep up Tokiwadai's lead.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Shun closed in on the basket, as he ran along a path that free without any defenders.

Aomine, who had stuck beside Shun the whole game, once again came into Shun's way to obstruct him.

Shun had no problem with Aomine trying to guard him he tried to score, but,

Shun: 'He is sticking too close to me. He is forcing me to score from away and miss.'

Shun didn't like his options restricted, so he decided to try to remedy that.

Shun closed in on Aomine, stopped, and proceeded to jump for an overhand layup.

Aomine immediately jumped for a block.

Aomine: "You must be underestimating me if you think you can score with that."

Shun smiled and showed that he didn't actually jump.

Mibuchi smiled from his position on the court and spoke.

Mibuchi: "Earth."

Aomine was startled with the new revelation.

Aomine: "A fake!"

Shun jumped for real this time and drew in a foul from Aomine, and while doing that, he free-shot the ball from the side.

Shun and Aomine got to the ground. Shun spoke to Aomine,

Shun: "You should keep doing that and get fouled out of the game. I will be free of one of the problems."

Shun walked to the free-throw line without waiting for Aomine's reply.

A vein bulged on Aomine's head, and he stomped to his position on the rebound setup.

There Midorima frowned at him and said.

Midorima: "Stop throwing a tantrum like a child and calm down. If you remain hot-headed, Kageyama will again take advantage of you."

Aomine closed his eyes and took in deep breaths to calm himself.

He calmed down and got ready to rebound the ball.

Shun took his position on the free-throw line and received the ball from the referee.

He spun the ball in his hand once and got into his shooting form.

Shun regulated his breathing and shot the ball.

Midorima sighed as he declared.

Midorima: "That is going in."

And as he spoke, the ball went into the net with a swish.

Shun had scored three-points and drew in a foul from Aomine.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Akashi once again went with Murasakibara for scoring.

But this time, Shun wasn't going to make the mistake of facing him head-on.

Shun ran towards Murasakibara, who had just gotten the ball from Akashi.

And, as Murasakibara jumped for a dunk, Shun jumped from the side and slapped the ball from the side.

Rather than stopping the ball in its path, Shun dislodged the ball from Murasakibara's hands and made him miss the dunk.

The ball, which was now not firm in Murasakibara's grasp, contacted the rim and missed the center of the basket.

Commentator A: "A good block by Kageyama-kun. He made Murasakibara-kun's grip on the ball loosen up, and caused him to miss."

-*-*-*-

In his seat, Shikamaru smiled and commented.

Shikamaru: "He played smart this time. He chose not to face that dude head-on."

-*-*-*-

Akashi looked at the scoreboard and saw that Teiko was trailing behind by eleven points.

Akashi was in a quandary as he wondered what to do in this situation.

He had tried every possible offensive strategy to outscore Shun, but he increased the gap by ten points in this quarter, and there were still two and a half minutes left in the quarter.

Akashi: 'I tried to outscore him by keeping Midorima free by keeping Kuroko on the court, but he is still outscoring us.

Aomine can't stop him on the ground despite the speed advantage.

Murasakibara is also not successful in defending the rim against him.'

Akashi closed his eyes as he thought of any other solution to stop or even slow down Shun.

After a few seconds of thinking of solutions, he concluded.

Akashi: 'If the offense isn't giving any results, then increasing defense would be the right choice. We need to double team Kageyama Shun.'