Like Dominos The Chain Effect Began

On different parts of Teiko's first-string gym, three players were working harder than they have ever before.

Kise Ryota was extremely motivated by witnessing Aomine's overwhelming performance against Harada Middle School.

Kise Ryota, who in his entire life hadn't faced a challenge when it came to sports, was now so far behind a person his age, that he was thriving under the pressure that it brought.

His ability to copy moves was truly showing results as the moves that he had copied were now begun to be used properly by the person himself.

The lack of experience that plagued Kise's playstyle was now being filled drop by drop with tremendous Kise's growth potential.

Far away from one of the hoops, Midorima Shintaro stood beside a basketball cage. He stood at the three-point arc drawn for that basket.

He would shoot ten shots from one position on the arc then he would shift positions on the arc. Helping him collect the balls were many two of the first-string members who would feed the ball back into the basketball cage.

Nobody noticed, but Midorima's shots had a slightly higher arc than before, it wasn't enough to make a difference, but Midorima was shooting slower than before.

Midorima's idealistic style of shooting from away had become even more prominent when he saw Aomine wreaking havoc from the inside.

Midorima: 'If he can score that many points from when scoring two-points at a time, then I can score more than him when I can score three-points at a time.'

An idea formed in his mind to take the ball to the sky so that it wouldn't ever be contested, to develop a skill so devastating that it would change the way the game was played.

Midorima took the ball in his hands, got into his shooting form, and Midorima's form allowed him to shot the ball from the highest point his arms could reach.

On another part of the court, Murasakibara was training hard for his standards as he was blocking other first-string members as they were trying to get past Murasakibara's block and score.

Murasakibara was having a bad time for one week. It all started when Aomine started to score on him continuously. Aomine would come close to the basket and would score on Murasakibara.

The balance of fifty-fifty they had before was now broken as Murasakibara could only block Aomine twenty-five percent of the time.

It was the second-time in Murasakibara's life that he had been beaten so badly by a single player. First was Kageyama Shun, who had scored seventy-plus points on their team in the finals last year, and the second was his own teammate, Aomine Daiki, who some had gotten so bizarre in his way of playing that Murasakibara had trouble stopping him from scoring.

When Murasakibara would think that he had stopped Aomine from scoring, Aomine would move his hand to evade his block and throw the ball without any form, and those damn shots would go in every single time.

His frustrations were pilling with each day he saw Aomine score more and more points against him.

With that frustration, Murasakibara began to hustle more as he started to move more actively in the low post region. Unlike before where he would wait for the attacker to come to him, Murasakibara began to chase down the ball.

The other first-stringers were getting shut down at a higher rate than before. Murasakibara's presence was becoming more and more dominant as players began to hesitate more in scoring near the rim.

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

Shirogane Kozo, the head coach, had finally decided to take an active role in the training of the first-string.

Due to his old age and unstable health, he had been out of active duty for some time. Now that he was back to the school for training the first-string, he wanted to see the progress of the players in the first-string before giving any input.

He looked at Kise, Midorima, and Murasakibara training, giving their all to catch up to the rising star on the court, Aomine.

Shirogane: 'While they might be teammates, they are also the closest rivals they see progress every day.'

Shirogane chuckled as he thought.

Shirogane: 'Kids, no matter from what time, hate to lose, but this is good, they are progressing faster than what I expected.'

He looked at Akashi playing a game on one end of the court, separated by netting.

Shirogane: 'With him leading the team, he will be able to pull out most of the team.'

He thought about Tokiwadai Middle School and their team.

Shirogane: 'Captain Mibuchi Reo, he is a fearsome shooter. He is different from Midorima, but his two shooting styles are difficult to block. He must have improved from the last time.'

Shirogane sighed as he thought about the other threat they had to face once again this year.

Shirogane: 'Then there is Kageyama Shun, the tales about his skill are running rampant through the scene. I can't tell how much is fact and how much are rumor and exaggeration. I only hope with the talent in our team and the hard work they are putting; we will be able to stop him.'

Shirogane was also worried about the man who was coaching them.

Shirogane smiled as he remembered the man he had a rivalry in his high school and university team, and ended up playing with him in the Olympics team.

They even played against each other for years in japan's basketball league; the B.League.

Shirogane: 'Koetsuji will go wild with such promising seedlings in his reach. That man was always good at instructing others, and after all, he was the captain of the national team.'

Tokiwadai Middle School's basketball coach Koetsuji was a master at basketball, and he knew how to train young youth to get better at the game. Tokiwadai's success was the constant nurturing which Koetsuji provided to his players.

Shirogane smiled as he thought that the future of japan's basketball future.