Chapter 8: Semi-finals (I)

It was day 3 of the Tokyo preliminaries and the day for Kiyose junior high to fight for the qualifications to enter the semi-finals and, subsequently, the finals.

While the basketball team of Kiyose junior high was warming themselves up by following the quintuplets on their side of the court, the other team was doing nothing of sorts.

The absence of warming up was detrimental to any athletes, but it couldn't be helped that most junior high schools' sports clubs weren't formed to play competitively. Most of them were created to have fun, and it was rare to have schools like Teiko and Tokiwadai who ensured the competitive play of basketball and strived to excel in them.

While they were doing their layups, Seiya looked at the opponent that they were going to be facing in Round 3: Sagami was a school that played basketball for fun.

'Though they must be pretty good in their own right if they managed to reach all the way to this point.'

"But they are still weak," Asashi spoke as if knowing what Seiya was thinking about.

"Yes. This time around, since we would need to play a much more formidable team in the semi-finals, I'm letting our seniors continue getting more experience." Seiya decided, and Asashi had no problems with his decision until Seiya continued, "That's why you would be sitting out for at least three quarters if nothing goes wrong."

"What?! Hell no! I wanna play!"

"Relax, Asa-chan. We're still going to win without you." Tsukio smiled and said.

"I'm older than you! Stop calling me with -chan! And that is not the problem! I want to play..." Asashi retorted.

"It's fine. I'm sitting out as well, so we can accompany each other." Tsukumo yawned and said as he made his way towards the bench.

"There you go, you heard him. I'll let you play for one or two quarters, but that's the maximum. We might need you to go for a heavy offense, later on, so you need to conserve your stamina."

"Tch, who needs the stamina to play against these player-for-funs?"

"Don't look down on them, Asashi. Anyone who plays basketball is worthy of respect, especially those who don't have the talent to do so, yet continue to fight against their limits." Sora chimed in.

"Can someone get this hyper boy out of the court for a moment? The game hasn't even started, and he's sweating this much already!" Tsukio waved his hand, and the coach forced Sora to stop warming up for a bit.

"Noooo!"

Ignoring Sora's noise at the bench, Tsukio continued warming up his arms by dribbling the ball.

"Huddle!" A few minutes before the game started, the coach yelled out, and the team gathered at his side.

"Seiya, anything to say?"

"Yes, coach! Sagami is a school that focuses on defense. Their center is 181 cm tall, and as expected of a defensive team, almost all of their players focus on defense. Since their offense power is neglected, I don't want to waste our stamina to try and penetrate something useless.

So the seniors will be playing as starters along with me. Play to your hearts' content, and don't mind it too much if you miss the basket. Just get yourselves used to play on this court, as this is just a tiny taste of what would be going on in the nationals."

"Yes, captain!"

Although being in a little-known team meant that the quintuplets' skills and powers would stand out super highly, it also meant that they would only be the ones who would carry the entire team.

As soon as they went down, the entire team would crumble as well. Without many substitutions, everyone has to try their hardest to last as long as possible.

The game against Sagami wasn't that interesting. Many people had arrived to see how good Kiyose junior high actually was, but they were disappointed to see that the seniors were the ones who mostly played.

The final score was 70 - 20, and this was only because the quintuplet who entered the match didn't try to score actively; they just defended their seniors' back so they wouldn't have to play under both defense pressure and offense pressure.

Seiya was the center of the team, so there wasn't much scoring done when the first quarter started. The seniors were all between 178-181, so there wasn't too big of a height difference, but the skills of Sagami were slightly better than Kiyose's seniors. So, they couldn't score much during the first quarter.

But Sagami couldn't score much as well because Seiya's defense was the best amongst their brothers. Although he wasn't as tall as any of them, it didn't stop him from defending well.

No one could float in the air as Sora could, but they were still quintuplets in the end. If one of them could do it, the others could all do it as well, just not as good as the original.

In the second quarter, the going-to-explode Asashi was sent out to let off some steam from being benched the entire quarter.

The seniors continued playing, though they were now covering defense instead of offense since Asashi, opposite from his elder brother, focused more on offense.

The second quarter was also where most of the scores came from. Since the seniors now focused more on defense without Asashi batting an eyelid, this quarter is also where most of the scores against them came from.

The third and fourth quarters were relatively even. The other three brothers balanced defense and offense relatively well, and many points were scored during their quarters.

The third quarter was Tsukio's time to shine as the playmaking in this quarter was kicked up a notch with an actual decent point guard. Sagami, whose players were already tired from trying to defend Asashi, couldn't keep up with the ball flying everywhere.

And by the fourth quarter, Sagami could only watch as Kiyose pilled up points no matter how much they tried to defend. And seeing the point gap widen, they started to push themselves, and the game's pace became faster than what Sagami was used to, but something that Sora and Tsukumo was very used to.

After the game, the quintuplets and seniors rested for a while. After which, they moved to the other basketball court, where they were be playing their semi-finals.

Most junior high students, especially first years, if any, didn't have a body capable enough to play two games at full strength. So, to win the game, one had to have enough stamina to complete the game or have so many substitutes to reduce the burdens from the main team.

By the end of the third quarter, Sagami was being run down by Kiyose junior high, who still had quite a bit of stamina as the training made by the quintuplets focused primarily on that.

So while the quintuplets were just slightly sweating, everyone else was panting hard and was severely exhausted.

The semi-finals started at 12:00 sharp, and by that time, both Shoei and Kiyose were already present. This time, both teams didn't have to warm up so actively as they had already played one game before. They just needed to shoot some balls and dribble a bit before their condition was back at their prime.

Warming up might be good, but exhausting oneself because of warm-ups would just be plain stupid.

"The game for Block A's semi-finals, Kiyose Junior High vs. Shoei Junior High, will begin shortly."

An announcement was made, and the coach immediately huddled the team once more.

Previously, they were in their away jersey, which sported a majority of white, but they were currently in their home jersey, which had a majority of navy blue.

Kiyose was now famous as a dark house and was currently receiving a lot of attention from others. Beating three teams consecutively with a point gap of at least 50 with only 9 members was enough to bring their reputation up by a notch or two.

"Seiya?"

"We have only one problem with the other team, Kiyoshi Teppei, the cornerstone of Shoei's defense as well as offense due to his large build and dexterity. My brothers and I will be fighting against them to start off the game. Any questions?"

Seiya didn't bother explaining any tactics or plan. He didn't need to.

He and his brothers were just going to do what they do best.

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Players from both teams gathered midcourt, with Kiyoshi and, surprisingly, Seiya, in the middle for the tipoff.

Being one year taller and in the middle of puberty, Kiyoshi was two heads taller than Seiya.

"You guys are really talented for five first-years to reach here all by themselves." Kiyoshi smiled and spoke as he waited for the tipoff.

"Thank you. But our seniors helped as well." Seeing that the opponent wasn't being sarcastic or anything, Seiya replied in an equally cordial manner.

"I've seen your games, and you're just being humble. If not for you and your brothers, Kiyose might not have gotten out of the first day. Ah! I apologize if I sounded offensive."

"No problem."

"But are you guys really quintuplets?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Seiya raised an eyebrow and asked. Why did everybody have to comment on them being quintuplets?

Raising one of his hands, the referee of the game shouted, "Let the semi-finals of Block A, game 2, begin!"

Signaling both jumpers to prepare themselves to jump, the referee approached the middle of the court, and at the sound of his own whistle, he tossed the ball up.

This sprung both players into action as they attempted to slap the ball towards one of their team members.

Unlike the formation they had against their first opponent, they didn't dare to do it this time. After all, the standard was now completely different, and Seiya didn't have the confidence to get the ball from the towering brown-haired guy.

As expected, the tipoff resulted in Seiya losing the ball. Having gotten the ball to his teammate, Kiyoshi didn't wait for a single second before sprinting towards his goal.

Taichi, the power-forward of Shoei, immediately dribbled it past the half-court and passed it high towards Kiyoshi, who was already at the free-throw line.

Jumping and securing the ball, Kiyoshi immediately tried to lay up towards the basket, but Tsukumo and Tsukio were present there, waiting for him to drive past.

"Double-teaming at the first minute? You gotta be kidding me." He passed it towards Kenya, giving up on driving past two defenders, the shooting guard of his team, and the only empty mark available.

Without anyone marking him, Kenya shot the ball easily, resulting in the game's first score.

The quintuplets didn't show any sign of irritation or anger at the score and just smiled at Kiyoshi.

"Good pass. If you had tried to go past us, we would have scored instead." Sora sincerely praised Kiyoshi as he patted his back, causing Kiyoshi to raise an eyebrow.

"Sorry for my brother's action. He didn't mean it."

"Oh, no. It's nothing. Just didn't expect you guys to be so cool after losing a point."

"Oh, don't worry about us. You should worry more about yourselves instead."

The whistle blew, and Tsukio got the ball from Seiya and started to dribble.

His half of the court was empty, and Tsukio took his time dribbling, causing Asashi to be slightly irritated.

"Tsukio! Get your ass here faster!"

"Shut up, Asashi-chan."

As Tsukio got past the half-court line, he scanned the court and decided what to do. His mark had already started to pressure him, but Tsukio did a simple crossover dribble to the right and got past him with ease.

But the moment he passed him, another player was waiting for him in his way.

"So it's my turn to get double-teamed? Is it revenge?"

Tsukio's smile didn't waver in the face of the two defenders and did another crossover, this time, to the left instead.

The sudden change in direction of the crossover caused both defenders to clash with each other for a moment, but that moment was all Tsukio needed to take a step back, creating a small space for himself before executing a spin move, ditching both defenders behind him.

"Shit." Two voices rang out synchronized as both defenders chased after Tsukio into the free-throw line.

"Wait, no! Get back to your mark!" Kiyoshi realized something was wrong and immediately warned the two defenders, but it was too late.

As soon as three of the opposing team were near the rim trying to stop Tsukio, he immediately did a bounce pass between his legs behind him.

And Tsukumo, who was free from any defenders, caught the ball and did a simple three-pointer, resulting in a score of 3-2.

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A/N: Hm...now this is what I call an actual basketball scene writing.

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