Chapter 140 : Conversation About Zone

"What is the zone state?"

"EH?!" Momoi was a bit panicked at the question. "Where did you hear that?"

"Well, Aominecchi said that during the game, and it stuck inside my head." Kise shrugged. "So, what is that?"

"I-I don't know about that at all. Haha…" A cold sweat rolled down Momoi's forehead as she threw away her face, trying to avoid Kise and Furihata's gaze. Inwardly though, she cursed her childhood friend for revealing this kind of information recklessly. "Are you sure you heard that correctly? I have never heard about that at all!!"

Furihata just rolled his eyes exasperatedly at Momoi's terrible lie attempt.

"You are a horrible liar, Momoi-san." He and Kise snickered as Momoi pouted at them. "You cannot lie even to save your life."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?!"

She pouted harder at first. However, seeing Kise and Furihata unfazed, even had the gall to laugh at her, she huffed, knowing that she couldn't get away from this conversation.

"This is supposed to be a secret, you know?" Momoi muttered under her breath. However, it was loud enough for the other two to hear that.

"Why is it a secret?" Kise asked curiously.

"Maybe because it was supposed to be a secret weapon for a crucial moment?" Furihata threw an idea nonchalantly. "I mean, sudden rapid improvement like that should be impossible in theory, right? There should be a drawback that would make the player have to be careful to activate it."

Kise snapped his head violently, taken aback at what Furihata said.

"You know about the zone, Furihatacchi?!"

In return, Furihata just rolled his eyes again. "Of course, I know. I mean, Aomine showed his zone the first against us. Moreover, don't you know that I accidentally entered the same state when I played against Yosen?"

"Eh?!" Now, not only Kise but even Momoi widened her eyes, astonished at the new revelation. "Really?!"

"Yeah." Furihata nodded. "I thought you would know about it, Momoi-san. I mean, for anyone who knows about the zone, it is pretty obvious, right?"

I had my suspicion." Momoi nodded solemnly. "But I never imagined the first one who would be able to enter the zone after Dai-chan is you, Kouki-kun. I thought it would be another Generation of Miracles like Midorin or Akashi-kun."

"Eh? Why?" Kise asked confusedly. "Is it because of the strength difference? But I know Furihatacchi's ability is not that far from us."

Momoi hesitated for a second before she let out a deep sigh.

"Well, since Kouki-kun already knows about it, this is not a secret anymore." She took a deep breath before beginning to explain. "Just like what Kouki-kun said, zone state allowed you to have sudden rapid improvement in your physical aspect. All the muscles on your body would work twice more efficiently than normal, your senses would be heightened, and more importantly, your focus would be strengthened to the point that all the movements around you seem like a slow motion in your eyes. At least that was what Dai-chan said."

"So powerful?" Kise was flabbergasted at the explanation. "Then, why is it not a lot of players could enter that state?"

"You think it was easy to achieve?" Momoi snorted unladylike. "Zone is just a temporary state. After you leave the zone, your body will be burdened far worse than usual. You will feel all the muscles on your body scream as it cramp, and you will feel dizzy after having your senses and focus heightened during the zone. There is a reason why this knowledge wasn't spread widely."

"I can attest that." Furihata nodded. "The after-effect is torturous for my body. I couldn't move even for an inch without myself getting hurt yesterday."

"Eh?!" Kise was surprised by Furihata's words. "Then, is that why your movement is sloppy today?"

"Yeah," Furihata replied wryly. "I haven't recovered to the fullest yet."

"Then why don't you tell me?!" Kise cried out loud. Furihata just shrugged as if there was nothing wrong at all.

"Well, let's forget about that." Furihata waved his hand nonchalantly before turning his attention to the girl next to him. "Do you mind telling me when did Aomine enter the zone for the first time?"

"Eh?" Momoi tilted her head confusedly.

"Well, besides the game against Kaijo, he also entered the zone against Seirin, right? It was twice a month, yet he didn't seem like he was affected by the physical burden after the game. He must have entered the zone a lot in the past, right?"

"Hmmm…. When you said it like that…." Kise hummed for a second before his eyes widened in realization. "Wait a second! Aominecchi is someone who would brag about something like this! If I don't know about the zone until now, it should be because of Akashicchi's instruction to keep it secret, right? That means he entered the zone for the first time when he was in the first year of middle school?!"

Furihata was stunned as well, and just like Kise, he turned his head to Momoi, silently asking for confirmation.

"Ding ding ding! You are correct!" Momoi clapped her hands happily as if she just announced a quiz winner' answer. "Dai-chan entered the zone state for the first time when he challenged Midorin and Mukkun in a 2v1 game when we were in the first year. He thought since no one could beat him, he might as well challenge two of the best players available. What he didn't know was no one took his arrogance seriously at that time. But when he insulted Midorin and Mukkun at the same time…."

"He got smacked, right?" Kise said with a flat face.

"Yeah, Mukkun and Midorin destroyed him brutally." Momoi nodded, confirming Kise's words. "But at the end of the day, it was Dai-chan who had the last laugh. On the verge of the death, he entered the zone state accidentally, and since then, he kept experimenting with it against everyone else until Akashi-kun stopped him from doing so."

Furihata's sweat dropped at Momoi's ability to undermine the story. There are a lot of details that were skipped by the girl, such as what was the result of the 2v1 game, how the relationship between the team went after that, and why Akashi decided to stop Aomine at the end of the day. At first, he thought Aomine saved the zone as the secret weapon in a dire situation. However, when he heard it was Akashi who proposed the idea, he doubted the generation of miracles' captain would have a pure intention like that.

But since Momoi decided not to tell them the details, he could only shrug it off for now.

"Ahh.. So that's why you thought it would be another generation of miracles who entered the zone first, not Furihatacchi…" Kise suddenly got enlightened. Seeing Furihata's curious gaze, he continued to explain. "Although I don't know what is the specific requirement to enter that state, I doubt accidentally entering like what Aominecchi did is quite rare. But since Midorimacchi, Akashicchi, and Murasakibaracchi know about the zone firsthand, it would be quite easy to make a specific training plan for them to aim that state."

Furihata couldn't help but nod at Kise's words. Sometimes he forgot that behind the blonde's childishness, he was still a smart guy and could provide brilliant ideas like this.

"Yeah, that was also my thought," Momoi confirmed Kise's words. "But since Kouki-kun managed to enter the zone too, that means you also have the information about it, right? Is that from Alex Garcia? She should know about it since her former teammates were able to enter the zone."

Furihata's mouth twitched a little before he chided, "You even searched about her former teammates? Your stalking ability is creepy, Momoi-san."

"It is gathering information, not stalking!" Momoi pouted.

"You both acted like an old couple, you know that?" The blonde boy suddenly chimed in as he watched his two friends bickering again. He snickered when he saw Furihata and Momoi snapped their heads quickly, glaring at him fiercely.

"What?" He shrugged innocently.

"You are so rude, Ki-chan!" Momoi slapped his back. "You know Tetsu-kun is the only one for me. And don't you dare to roll your eyes, Kouki-kun!" The boys held a laugh at Momoi's sassiness.

"Well, back to the zone topic again," Kise spoke again. "Who is this Alex Garcia?"

Furihata rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "If Momoi-san is a stalker, you are a clueless old man who is always out of the news, Kise-kun."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?!"

"That is exactly what I mean! Who doesn't know Alex Garcia, Seirin's new head coach from America?"

"Wait!" Kise suddenly widened his eyes. "You mean the beautiful blonde woman with big br-"

*BONK!*

"Ouch!" Kise covered his head as if it had just been bonked by Momoi. "Why do you hit me, Momoicchi?!" He cried out loud. However, his voice suddenly disappeared as he saw the creepy smile with a dark aura emerge from the pink-haired girl, sending a shiver down his spine.

"Are you going to say something rude, Ki-chan?" She smiles knowingly, a dark aura surrounding her petite body.

"No, of course not!" Kise shook his head quickly, fear and panic could be heard in his voice. Furihata himself gulped as he saw the creepy and intimidating smile on Momoi's face

"Hmm…."

Momoi narrowed her eyes on Kise, still with a creepy smile pestered on her face. A cold sweat rolled down the blonde's temple as he threw away his face to avoid Momoi's gaze. After pondering for a while, the creepy smile turned into a normal one as the dark aura suddenly vanished, letting Kise breathe out of relief.

"Well, good. Don't let me hear that type of rude comment again, okay? You know I hate that, right?"

Kise suddenly turned solemn as if he just realized something. "Sorry, Momoicchi. I forgot about that-"

"Forget it." The girl cut in, waved her hand nonchalantly. "Let's change the topic before it could ruin our mood."

Kise nodded, agreeing with Momoi's words. No one spoke for a moment as the air suddenly got heavier. Even though Furihata didn't know what those two former Teiko members talked about, he could guess based on their expression and how badly Momoi reacted whenever someone leered at a woman's body that it would relate to sexual harassment. And considering Momoi's overdeveloped body, it was easy to guess that she is a former victim. The latest topic probably triggered a bad memory from her past.

"Well, back to the last topic, Alex-san is our new head coach." Furihata threw the topic back, not wanting to open up an old wound. "She is also a former women's NBA star and all of my knowledge about zone was told by her."

"Eh? A former WNBA star? But is she really that powerful?" Kise asked skeptically. Well, it is understandable why he asked that. No matter in which era, people would always look down on women's basketball, either due to the lack of athleticism or the failure to attract a bigger audience.

"You underestimated women's basketball, Ki-chan." It was Momoi who answered his doubt. "Even though they cannot be compared with the NBA players, they are still professionals from the biggest women's league in the world. They are grossly underestimated because women's sports didn't have a big audience. But trust me, the majority of the WNBA players are still better compared to the most professional male players outside of The United States."

"Sure…." Kise still looked unconvinced but didn't want to argue more. "So, what did she say about the zone?"

"Hmm…" Furihata pondered for a second, trying to recall his conversation with Alex. "Well, she didn't really talk about it too much at that time, because we didn't expect I would enter that state in the game against Yosen. She only told me a little about its advantages and drawbacks. But she promised she would explain about it more in the next training, especially after being pestered by Red."

"Oh, yeah. Of course, Kagamicchi wanted to know the method to get stronger quickly." Kise said wryly. "But entering that state wouldn't be easy, or the other generation of miracles would be able to do that since a long time ago."

"Yeah."

Silence descended between those three as they enjoyed the snacks Momoi brought for them. They spent the next few minutes busy with their thought, not minding the silence at all. Even though the sun started to climb high, the wind breezes quite nicely today, making it comfortable for those three to stay there.

"By the way, Momoi-san," Furihata suddenly spoke, snapping the other two teenagers from their thoughts. "What happened with Aomine? You sound unhappy even after winning the game yesterday."

"Oh, Dai-chan…" The happy mood was deflated from the girl when she heard Aomiine's name. "He picked up a fight again, calling the other players useless and saying something rude to the coach. Wakamatsu-kun is unhappy with that, and the situation on the team was pretty tense right now."

"Aah… Just Aominecchi being Aominecchi?" Kise nodded in understanding.

"Yeah…."

"Wait!" Furihata chimed in, turning his head to Kise. "Did he do the same in the middle school too? Even with the generation of miracles?"

Kise looked at Momoi for a second before he shook his head. "Well, not with the generation of miracles directly. But when I joined the team for the first time, he picked a fight with the senpai who played small forward and drifted him apart to open up my way to enter the first team. I heard he also did the same when he was in the first year?"

"Yeah…" Momoi replied wanly. "His mouth really had no filter. Sometimes I thought would it be better if I just sew that damn mouth of him so that he could stop insulting someone. I mean, he is not a child anymore! I hope he got the karma he deserved."

"Be careful with your hope, Momoi-san." Furihata smiles wryly at the fuming girl. But he could also understand Momoi's mood. He also had a friend with a single brain cell like Aomine, and he even asked Tatsuya from Yosen to help him bring his friend down to earth. "Well, if you met Akashi or Murasakibara's team, there is a chance he would lose, right? Maybe it would bring him down to earth."

"That is the problem…" Momoi groaned. "Dai-chan refused to participate for the rest of the tournament, saying he wanted the rest of the team to know without him, they wouldn't be able to go far."

"And your coach allowed that?"

"He couldn't do anything about it. Dai-chan is the star that the headmaster introduced to the school, so as long as he could help the team reach the target, it would be alright. Unfortunately, the headmaster only asked us to go to the semifinal for this inter-high, so he is allowed to leave in advance."

A sweat dropped from Furihata's forehead as he thought about how strange Too high school is. To allow a student to act like that just because he is the star of the team…

'Well, this is a luxurious private school. Maybe they had their thought regarding students like Aomine. It is not my business to think about it.'

Furihata shook his head, turning his attention back to his two friends. They talked for a while until the sun was getting pretty high when a buzzing sound could be heard from Kise's side. After checking his phone, Kise widened his eyes and stood up quickly.

"Aaah! I forgot to tell the team I would go out today, and they are all looking for me now! I need to go back!"

Furihata twitched his mouth a little at his friend.

'I should have expected something like this from him, right?'

Fortunately, the court is not that far from the hotel where the Kaijo players stayed, so they didn't have to walk for too long. They picked up the trash from the ground around to keep the place clean before walking out of the court together.

After arriving at Kaijo's hotel, Kise ran quickly, leaving Furihata and Momoi behind. Before the blonde entered the door though, he stopped and turned around. "Thank you for today, Furihatacchi! Momoicchi! Let's hang out again in the near future!"

Seeing Kise waving his hand energetically, Furihata could only twitch his mouth in annoyance as he thought, 'How in the hell is he still having that much energy? Did he play a crucial game yesterday? Is perfect copy not consuming his stamina at all?!'

But after thinking about that, Furihata's expression turned solemn.

'Well, compared to Kise and Aomine's outstanding physique, mine was too poor to support the team in the clutch moment. Coupled with my playing style which requires a lot of running, it seems I need to train harder to improve my endurance. There are still three months before the winter tournament begins. Let's see what Alex-san and Riko-senpai said first.'

Furihata clenched his fists tightly, couldn't wait for the next training session.

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Author note :

If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes

You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 160 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 21 too.

Thank you! :)

-Zeta Faes-