37- We Are All In This Together

*Whistle!

"Shotclock violation! Ousai's ball!" the referee announced loudly, the Ousai players stopped surrounding Akashi and returned to their positions, Akashi stood in his position devastated by what just happened. (I mean, in the anime, they looked like they lost someone because of a foul)

Akashi looked at his hands, 'When did I become so weak?' he thought, his family prioritize winning over everything else, but this time, he was losing, not just by a bit but by a huge margin, Akashi clenched his fist and went back to defense.

The match continued with the Ousai focusing on defense and Teiko struggling to get a score, at the end of the 1st quarter the score was 80 - 28, with, of course, Ousai leading the score, everyone sat on the bench resting their tired body.

Tanaka looked at his teammates and shook his head, they all entered the zone, yes, that is great, but entering the zone is like doing push-ups at a very fast speed and not stopping at all, it meant that the players of Ousai are all burnt out tired, they don't have any energy anymore.

Tanaka also felt that he was tired of being in the zone for a long time, his body is after all, still weak, if he was given 2 more years then he was sure he will be able to use the last hidden stage of the zone, but that is for another time.

Tanaka turned his head to the two players who weren't tired, Kuro and Kenma, these two seemed to have been itching to play, they are restless in their seats, "Okay, you two can play in the second quarter, Hiruma and Asahi will sit out" Tanaka smiled at these two.

They are mostly the ones who seemed lazy but the most hard working in the group, Tanaka was also excited if they could surpass their limits here and also reach the state of the zone.

Tanaka then turned his head towards the crowd and saw they didn't leave to take a break but we're still cheering, he was happy for the love they were giving him, "Is this the power of friendship?" he chuckled, but Tanaka waved towards everyone in which he receives loud cheers.

Just as he was about to turn his head, he noticed Aisaka was sitting with another woman in which he recognized as her mom, "Eh? What is she doing here?" Tanaka looked confusedly, Aisaka and her family didn't have a good relationship with each other, you can even say they are a family who hated each other.

Only Aisaka's father was the one who Tanaka had the good impression of since he was really an outgoing guy, but for her mom, well, the way she looked at Tanaka was like how a cat stares at a dog, full of disgust and hatred.

"What is her problem? did we have a one-night stand or something?" Tanaka was very confused at that time even until now, well, as the Son-in-law Tanaka gave the two a greeting wave in which he got another cheer from the crowd.

"Sheesh, it's hard to be popular" Tanaka chuckled as he saw people waving banners with [I love you Tanaka] signs, the Ousai members gave a hate glare towards this popular guy, Sora picked up a bottle of water and threw it towards Tanaka, "Die, popular guy!" he yelled,

Tanaka with a smooth motion spun his body and caught the water bottle, "What can I do? I'm handsome"

"Die!"

"Handsome your toe!"

"What a F*ckin playboy!"

"keep toothing your own horn!"

"You lack muscles"

Everyone immediately cussed him, but Tanaka just laughed along with them, in the past they were very stiff with everything and doesn't even reply with his jokes, they were reserved but now, Tanaka was happy, very very happy, this is what a real team is like.

Tanaka knew, they always felt inferior to him, that is why they didn't complain even when training and acted according to his instructions, just like the readers said, they act like robots, but it can't be helped, will you act proud and arrogant in front of a king? no, it's like flaunting your commoner status to a king. (This is what I call character development of side character boys! sorry, not really)

Now that they had entered the zone, they felt they have finally reached the toes of Tanaka, which is enough, they trained hard, they did their best, and the results were something they were proud of, they become powerful enough to even stomp down the Teiko which is known as the strongest team for this year.

They couldn't help but think, they were just invited to play basketball out of the blue with no knowledge about it or so anything, they just played and played, to think they were already this far. They couldn't help but laugh at the events that were happening, this was all because of the influence of one person

"Okay, you lot! huddle up! we will win this match and go home as champions!" Tanaka roared loudly that everyone in the court heard it, the Ousai Team looked at each other and all stood at the same time, they all gathered together and formed a circle, "We will make something! and engrave our names in this place! Tell me what is it!?"

"THIS OUR LEGEND IN THE MAKING!"

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! WHAT IS IT!?"

"OUR LEGEND IN THE MAKING!"

Mark suddenly looked up and pointed at the stands where the Ousai Academy students were sitting, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU WHAT IS IT!?"

The Ousai Academy students were surprised at first but they felt their blood boil as Tanaka pointed at them, they immediately knew what he meant, this is not the legend of the boy's basketball team, but a legend of the Ousai!

"I'M GOING TO ASK AGAIN! WE WILL MAKE SOMETHING AND ENGRAVE OUR NAMES IN THIS PLACE! TELL ME WHAT IS IT!?"

And with a loud shout, everyone replied with all their power at the same time "THIS IS OUR LEGEND IN THE MAKING!"

-=-=-=-=-=-

Well.... it is cringe I know anyway, Covid cases are coming out near our place and I can't get inspiration since I play basketball to get some inspirations but Naah, anyway, check out my new book [God To Machine] at least go add it to your library so I get motivated.

Anyway, that is all peace out!

Quotes:

You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.