Victory

In the corner of the auditorium, Takenori Akagi sat with his younger sister, Haruko.

Kitamura Middle School, where Akagi Takenori had successfully entered the semi-finals, was the reason for Haruko's happiness. She had proposed the idea of coming to watch Akagi's game. However, since it wasn't Kitamura Middle School's turn to play yet, Akagi pulled Haruko to watch Takeishi and Shoyo's game.

As for why they sat in the corner? It may seem nonsensical, but it was because Akagi thought Haruko was so cute and he was concerned about her being kidnapped by a bad guy in the opposing team.

"Awesome!" Takenori Akagi stood up, his blood boiling, as he witnessed Mitsui's three-pointer.

"Brother, is this No. 4 very powerful?" Akagi Haruko asked, not understanding her brother's excitement. "It's just two three-pointers."

"Haruko, you don't know how difficult it is to make a pull-up three-pointer like that just now. Mitsui is... so amazing. He could have scored directly with a layup. No one could have done it anyway. Defense, but he was so confident that he didn't even make any adjustments and just shot it and scored," Takenori Akagi explained as he clenched his fists.

"Oh!" Haruko, who had not yet touched a basketball, was still confused. Seeing her puzzled expression, Akagi realized his sister still didn't understand and said, "Haruko, you will know in the future. In short, Mitsui Hisashi is the most powerful player in our region."

"Is he better than my brother?" Haruko inquired.

"Ahem, we are not players in the same position," Takenori replied.

"Oh." Haruko didn't say anything, but from Akagi's slightly respectful words and attitude, she understood that Mitsui was better than she had thought and much better than her brother.

"Oh my God, Mitsui-senpai is so powerful. If he can team up with my brother, can they dominate the country?" Haruko silently prayed in her heart.

On the court, Mitsui's emergency three-pointer crushed Shiyo's morale. Seeing his teammates' expressions, Hanagata secretly groaned. Although he admired Mitsui's skills and confidence, as the captain, Hanagata knew that he should say something.

"Don't be fooled by Takeshi. Except for Hisashi Mitsui, Takeshi is a weak team. You see, except for Mitsui, none of Takeshi's four players scored too much. The steal just now was just the luck of the second-year kid. Next, play more aggressively, focus on the inside, and rely on the height advantage to overpower Takeshi's players."

Shoyo High School brought the ball into Takeshi's basket, Nagano Mitsuru held the ball and played Ryouji Ikegami in a post-up single, and the difference between the two was 20 centimeters. Ikegami had no power to fight back and couldn't hold his position at all. After pushing hard from behind and knocking Ikegami away, Nagano turned around and shot the basket, scoring and tying the score for Shoyo.

"Very good, that's it," Tokiomi Tosaka on the sidelines and Hanagata on the court were quite satisfied. But before they could be happy for a while, with the shout of "fast break," it was Mitsui's turn to strike hard this time. The ball was thrown downfield, and Katsumi became the receiver.

Unlike Mitsui, Katsumi scored a layup steadily, and the attack time from beginning to end was even less than seven seconds.

Next, no matter what Shoyo Middle School do, Mitsui wants Takeshi to speed up like crazy. He will retreat directly without regard to whether he goes in or not. If he grabs the rebound, he will push forward with all his strength. If he doesn't grab it, he will directly serve the baseline ball. If he has the chance, he will score directly. Without a chance, it was left to Mitsui to take action. Takashima was also replaced by Kobayashi, who ran faster, while Shoyo was tired of catching up.

"Is this, run and gun? I didn't expect a junior high school student to be able to play such a smooth run and gun." The discerning fans in the audience recognized the tactics used by Takeishi Middle School.

Yes, this is Mitsui's plan. As long as they run, the opponent has no way to break it, and there is no need to think about how to reduce Shoyo's score. As long as they use their full firepower, the opponent can score as many points as they are willing to. Offense is the best defense!

With Takeshi's rapid attack, Shoyo had no choice but to run with Takeshi, especially Takano Nagano, who often made unnecessary turns and runs. Even Hanagata showed signs of declining physical strength. Compared with these, Shoyo was even more worried. What weighed heavily on everyone's minds was that the score was getting bigger and bigger.

At the end of the half-time break, Takeishi Middle School led Shoyo by 22 points with a score of 46:24. Even a person who does not understand basketball can come to the conclusion that "Takeshi will win this game." It was clear that Shoyo was also confused by the data.

On the sidelines, Coach Tosaka was sweating profusely. Faced with a huge 22-point difference and the significant physical exertion of his players, Tokiomi Tosaka couldn't think of a solution even if he scratched his scalp. He could only try to console his team members, hinting that the opponent was just junior high school students, and that they too must be feeling tired.

At the beginning of the second half, Mitsui directly stole the ball and relied on his strength to break through Takano and Nagano, who were double-teaming him. The two men were deformed due to excessive physical exertion and allowed Mitsui to make a layup.

Mitsui Hisashi's movements didn't seem to have changed at all compared to the first half. When everyone else was panting, a Mitsui with sufficient physical strength had undoubtedly sentenced Shoyo to defeat.

This was natural. In the third year of high school, Shohoku fell in the third round due to physical exhaustion. In junior high school, Mitsui had also started practicing his physical strength and had led his team members to practice together. What Tosaka Tokiomi didn't know was that, in the second half, it was not because the players were too tired to play, but because he planned to give the new students some practice. Coach Yamada substituted three of the starting players.

Of course, even with these substitutions, Shoyo was unable to defeat Takeshi and could only suffer defeat. After easily defeating Shoyo Junior High School, Takeishi faced Kitamura Middle School, who had experienced a tough match with Yokota the previous day.

---

"Beep. White No. 5, offensive foul, fifth foul, and ejection from the field."

"Damn it, Mitsui, you guy!" Yes, Akagi faced the experienced Mitsui, who directly exploited his rough offensive skills and competitiveness. The strong emotions stirred by the confrontation were dismissed once more. Without Akagi, Kitamura soon revealed his true strength and was defeated by Takeshi.

Mitsui's original intention was to relax. After all, despite practicing for three days and playing three matches, it was only a month, and he could still feel very tired with the risk of injury. However, he did not anticipate that his easy victory over Akagi would draw the attention of Takasago, planting the seed of the Takasago in his heart. Of course, that's a story for another time; let's not dwell on it for now.

After winning the match against Kitamura, everyone in Takeishi was thrilled. Takeishi had now triumphed in all of its regional matches. Today, Yokota lost to Shoyo, indicating that Kitamura and Shoyo would both have wins and losses. Even if Takeshi lost to Yokota tomorrow, Yokota had already lost to Shoyo, and Takeshi was clearly ahead in terms of victories or defeats.

In other words, even before tomorrow's game started, it was certain that Takeshi would be the champion middle school of Kanagawa this year. Not to mention, they didn't believe they would lose at all.