Chapter 10 - VS Kaijo I - Coming from the Bench & Shocking Kaijo

Kaijo's coach is growling in anger at this humiliation. For all the talk he gives before the game about being unfair, now they paid it by destroying the board.

"OI! PREPARE THE OTHER HALF! WE WILL PLAY FOR A FULL COURT!" He turned around and said, "Kise-kun! Go warm up! You will go after the court is ready."

"Really, Sensei?!" The blonde could not help but get excited as he would play against Kuroko. However, seeing the evil smile his coach has makes him restrain his excitement.

"Yes, Kise-kun. You are up. Give them hell." He said with a dark aura surrounding him, sending a shiver toward Kise's back.

"HAI, SENSEI!"

This is the only way he could think to pay back what Seirin did. Give them a live demonstration of why they are far below Kaijo. Send them to hell. He smiles menacingly, and cannot wait to see the rest of the match.

Meanwhile, on the Seirin bench, Kagami is still grinning smugly. That is until he heard what Kuroko said.

"Kagami-kun.. How much do you think a backboard like this costs?"

"Wait, we need to pay for this?" Kagami asked with a panicked tone.

"Of course, we do. Besides, the last play also cost us a technical foul." Furihata muttered loud enough so that the entire team could hear what he said. Kagami turned around immediately at him and said,

"What do you mean?" Some people snickered at the comically panicked expression on Kagami's face. But several of them could see the dire consequence of what Kagami did.

"Furihata is right," Riko spoke. "Breaking a backboard like what you did is considered a technical foul since Shaquille O'Neil did that in 1995 because it will cost a lot of time to change it. Moreover, Kaijo would definitely demand a new one from us, as we broke their property. But don't worry about it. This works better than we hope. We only need one play to convince them, and now the real match will begin. Be ready!"

"HAI, COACH!"

"And Kagami-kun?" Riko turned around to Kagami who step back a little at the sweet smile on Riko's face that promised pain. "Control your emotion. You already have one technical foul, so if you get another because you cannot hold your outburst of anger, you can say goodbye to the match, and say hello to hell. Do you understand?"

"Hai, Coach!" That is the only answer he could give right now before he went back to the court with the team. Then, he could feel someone pat his back, and when he turned around, he could see his senpai looking at him with pity.

"Do as she said. We learned the hard way when she said to say hello to hell last year. Trust me, you don't want to be there." Hyuga said with a serious tone, Making Kagami gulp nervously.

"What happened?" Kagami is not someone who is afraid of hard work. But seeing his senpai shuddered at the question, he knows it was had.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Koganei replied with a blank face.

"Yeah, Kagami-kun. Just leave it like that."

Before Kagami could say anything, a cheer suddenly erupted on the court.

"KYAA!! KISE-KUN!!!"

"LOOK AT HERE, KISE-KUN!!"

"GANBATTE, KISE-KUN!!"

Seirin's players were surprised that suddenly a lot of female students were there, cheering for Kaijo. But seeing as the blonde model is warming up, their expression shifted into the serious one.

"So, the mighty Generation of Miracles will play too, eh? Can you handle him?" Hyuga asked to Kagami. Surprisingly, Kagami didn't give the confident answer they are expecting. Instead, he gives a calculated answer.

"I will try, but it would be difficult." He observed Kise for a while, thinking about what to do. His teammates nodded, satisfied that Kagami is not stupid enough to face Kise without a plan.

"Don't worry, I will be there to help you." A voice suddenly came, startling Kagami and the others.

"Kuroko?! Since when are you here?!"

"I have been here with you all since the beginning," Kuroko replied once again with his poker face, irritating Hyuga.

"Oi, Brat! Do you think it is funny?!"

"What do you mean, Senpai?" A vein popped on Hyuga's temple after hearing Kuroko's reply as he smiles with a dark aura behind him. Izuki just sighed before saying,

"Okay, that's enough, Junpei. The match will be started again soon, let's prepare ourselves." Hyuga clicked his tongue in annoyance and just leave.

"I am sorry about him, but he really doesn't like surprises. So, Kuroko-kun, please restrain yourself around him, okay?"

"Just like what I said to Hyuga-senpai earlier, I don't know what you mean, Izuki-senpai."

"Sure, you don't know. Just think about it, okay?"

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The game started again with a free throw for Kaijo. Yes, the last play from Kagami is indeed a technical foul.

Kasamatsu took the free throw easily, an easy bucket.

1-2

The ball is still for Kaijo. Now, Kasamatsu is facing Izuki one-on-one. On the other side of the court, Kagami is facing Kise, ready to stop the blonde. But what Kagami doesn't prepare for is when Kise starts cutting inside, Kagami suddenly found himself being blocked by Kaijo's power forward, Mitsuhiro Hayakawa.

"A screen?! Damn!" He cursed inwardly as he saw Kise escape from his guard.

Kasamatsu who saw Kise's movement suddenly throw a lob near the backboard. Without hesitation, Kise jumped, catch the ball in the air, and throw a two-handed dunk to the rim.

*BAAAMM!!*

3-2

Although everyone is stunned, nobody is getting more irritated than Kagami. Even though the pass is different, he knows that Kise imitated his first dunk perfectly or even better. He doubts that even if he didn't face the screen, he would be able to stop that dunk.

'What a monster.'

Then when he saw Kise, the blonde smirked at him as if saying that it is his reply to Seirin's greeting.

"Oh, I will repay this favor ten times better. Just wait, you blonde bastard." Kagami muttered as he feels his blood boiling from the excitement. But before he could do anything, he was smacked on his back by Hyuga.

"Calm down! Control your emotion, or you will get sloppy. Now, run!" Kagami couldn't even register what his senpai said before he starts running instinctively right after the last words. That was Seirin's code play to go with run-and-gun.

Kaijo's players who saw Kagami sprinting are confused. But it changed quickly after the ball suddenly passed through their defense to Kagami's hand.

"WHAT?!"

"This is my payback, you blonde bastard!" Without anyone guarding the rim, Kagami did a windmill dunk, showing off his athleticism.

"White, #10! Stop cursing or it will be another technical foul!" The referee gives Kagami a warning. Hyuga grabbed Kagami before the red hair could make any rash decision.

"I am sorry. It will not happen again." Hyuga replied to the referee before going back for defense. But not before he scolded Kagami.

"What the hell, Brat! You hear what Riko said earlier. If you get another technical foul, you can say goodbye to this match! Now, control yourself and be ready for the defense!"

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The game resumed again, but now at a very high pace with Kagami and Kise are in the center of the attention. Kagami would do everything he could to score, be it from a dunk, a fade away, a pull-up jump shot, and even a three-point shot. But Kise would always be there, copying what Kagami did and taking it to another level, making the moves unguardable.

At the Seirin bench, Riko frowned as she saw the flow of the game is completely on Kaijo's hand. She was thinking about what to do before Furihata spoke to her.

"Coach, I think you should call a time-out."

"What? Why?" Not only she, everyone on the bench was taken aback by the sudden suggestion.

"The game is way too fast for our like. Look, even Hyuga-senpai has already sweated a lot, and it is still the first quarter. Offensive-wise, Kagami is the only one who can score. But Kise is getting on Kagami's offensive rhyme, and Kagami is starting to get frustrated by Kise's copy ability. And on the defense, we are giving them too much space to exploit. We need to cut Kaijo's momentum."

Furihata paused his explanation and turned around to see Kuroko on the court.

"Moreover, you need to rest Phantom there."

"Wait, I can understand the first reason. But why Kuroko-kun?" This time, it was Furihata's turn to look surprised.

"What do you mean why? You said after our test that you talked to Phantom about his ability, so you should know his limitation right?"

Seeing as Riko didn't have a single clue about what he is talking about, Furihata cursed as he knows already what Kuroko would say as his reason.

'You didn't ask me about it."

Yeah, that would be Kuroko's answer.

"We don't have much time, call the timeout first. Trust me on this."

Riko decided to believe in Furihata and called for a timeout.

What she saw is a bit worrying. Her players are sweating a lot and he could see Izuki is panting a bit, couldn't keep up with the pace. She planned to substitute him with Furihata, but she needs to know about Kuroko's condition too.

"Kuroko-kun, Furihata-kun mentioned about limitation of your ability. What is that and why didn't you tell me about it in our discussion?"

The other players were surprised at the mention of limitation, so they decided to hear what Kuroko said. After a quick explanation about the weakness of misdirection and why he didn't tell her about it (as Furihata's guess, Kuroko said 'You didn't ask me about it.'), Riko couldn't help but gritted her teeth, cursing inwardly at Kuroko and herself.

"We need to adjust our strategy. Furihata-kun, you will go for Izuki-kun. Koganei-kun, try to fill Kuroko-kun's position. Just hold yourself on defense. Let Furihata-kun set the tempo. We are way too fast, so we need to stabilize our position first. And Kagami-kun?"

"Yeah, I know, I know! Don't get provoked, don't curse, don't provoke anyone, and more importantly, don't get another technical foul. Is that all?" Kagami replied to the unasked question while grumbling in annoyance. Riko nodded, satisfied with Kagami's self-awareness.

"Good. There are still about three minutes left before the first quarter end. You know Furihata's capability as a point guard, right?" Kagami nodded, remembering the scrimmage. "Good. The offense will be centered on him. Your main task is not to let Kise do whatever he wants. Can you do that?"

"Sure," Kagami replied. While he is not happy about the offensive decision, he knows firsthand Furihata's capability. Moreover, this would give him time to rest before he can go crazy in the next quarter.

"Junpei, even though it is still the first quarter, I need you to treat it like a clutch time. We need every three points we can take."

"Sure."

Riko saw the score before she took a deep breath.

30-20

"Okay, we are down by 10 points. Our mission right now is to get close to their score as much as we can while controlling the pace of the game. Can you do that?" She stares at five players who are ready to go. They looked at each other before they nodded in determination and shouted,

"Yes, Coach!"

"Good! Now, go and do your job!"

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Before the game continues, Furihata spoke, gaining the attention of the others.

"Mitobe-senpai, do you remember my first play in the test?" Seeing Mitobe nod, Furihata has a small grin on her face. "Do you want to recreate it?"

Now, not only Mitobe, but the other players share the same grin as Furihata.

"Seeing as Phantom is not here, they would expect us to give the ball to Red to go isolation against Blondie. Let's surprise them a bit." Koganei snickered at the nickname Furihata gives while Kagami is still annoyed about it. But they agreed to do what he said.

The game is starting again with Seirin's ball on Kaijo's side. Mitobe is on the ball while Furihata is being guarded by Kasamatsu.

"So, they send a rookie, huh?" Kasamatsu muttered. Furihata could hear it, but he decided to ignore it for now. When the referee blew the whistle, he started running, approaching Mitobe.

"Shit!" Kasamatsu was caught off guard. But speed is his main weapon, so he followed Furihata without any problem.

When he saw Mitobe running quickly to the paint area after he gives the ball to Furihata, Kasamatsu can make a guess about Furihata's intention.

"Don't underestimate Kaijo, rookie!"

Kaijo showed their capability as the national team by reacting to Furihata and Mitobe's sudden movement very quickly. Hayakawa is ready to defend Mitobe while Furihata is now guarded by Kasamatsu.

"I will not let you go!" Hayakawa screamed, guarding Mitobe while being ready for a rebound or a post-up situation.

However, to Kaijo's surprise, Furihata didn't pass the ball. From his position which is having his back facing the rim, he turned around, took a step back to create a space between himself and Kasamatsu, and pull up a three-point shot. The ball went in smoothly without anyone could stop it.

30-23

"Nice shoot, Furihata-kun!"

"What the hell, Brat! You didn't do what you say!"

Furihata sighed as he saw two different reactions, praise from Izuki and annoyance from Hyuga.

"Aah.. But it worked perfectly, Senpai! Besides, their defense is quick, they closed down Mitobe-senpai before he could get into a good position to score, so let's just forget about it, okay?"

"You!!"

Now the ball is in Kaijo's possession. Kasamatsu is holding the ball, observing the position of his teammates. When he saw Kise grinning in a position similar to Furihata's last play, Kasamatsu knows what Kise's intention, so he doesn't have a problem giving the ball to him.

Right after Kise catches the ball, he turned around before he took a step back, creating a space between himself and Kagami, and is ready to launch a three-point shooter.

"Crap!" Kagami cursed, getting thrown off guard once again by Kise.

The blonde smirked in satisfaction and mocking manner at Kagami's reaction as he is going to shoot the ball. But to his surprise, a voice suddenly came from behind,

"Sorry, Blondie, but not today!"

Kise didn't know what happened. But suddenly, he could feel the ball is not in his hand anymore.

"SHIT!"

That was the only word Kise could say as he didn't really know what is really happening. But one thing is for sure, the ball is still on the court, and now. it is in Furihata's possession.

"STEAL!"

Kasamatsu is running, trying to chase down Furihata. He didn't know how he could lose sight of Furihata when a second before the first year was still guarding him. But one thing is for sure, he needs to stop this rookie.

When he saw Furihata makes an attempt for a lay-up, he jumped from behind, trying to block the ball. But while hanging in the air, Furihata lowered his hand and changed the decision from a lay-up to a pass. He kicked out the ball to the three-point area where Hyuga is waiting for the ball.

"SHIT! MORIYAMA!"

Yoshitaka Moriyama, Kaijo's shooting guard is still out of position, so no one is guarding Hyuga. Without hesitation, Hyuga catches the ball and releases it quickly, resulting in another three points for Seirin and a timeout for Kaijo.

30-26