The Puppet Master

Kiyabu Yuichi was a child who grew up with a tough past. His entire life was controlled by his parents and he couldn't do what he wanted and when. They always made him organize his day saying that it was for his own good and that he would go to Harvard University someday. He was always forced to do stuff that he didn't like to build his resume for the future and was among the top three in his class every time. He wasn't even allowed to have more than four friends because they were a 'distraction'. His life was sad. His parents relied on him to dig them out of their own dump and so he was forced into doing things in hopes of him becoming someone

Yuichi started playing basketball because his mom believed that he needed more sports for his applications. Basketball was the second challenge in his life, but it was a fun challenge. The court was where he was away from his mother's constant nagging. He loved how it felt when he wasn't with his mother so he dove into the sport more. He was skilled at being a point guard. His whole life he had been controlled, but he didn't know how fun it was to control others. Point guards controlled the game on the court. He loved that feeling of telling someone to do something and them actually doing him so basketball quickly became his number one focus. "Scrap going to Harvard," he said, "I want to go to the NBA".

Yuichi became known as the puppet master because he controlled people and enjoyed doing so. Some called him a hypocrite, but that never stopped his enjoyment when he was on the court. High school came and his parents wanted him to stop playing basketball so that he can focus on his grades. They made up a lie that they had money problems so he had to go to a school nearby and that school just happened to have no basketball team. He went there and heard of the HBI from Kiyoshi, (see chapter fourteen for his story) and joined without his parents knowing. He told them that he was staying after hours in school and working for money since they had money problems. He knew that it was a lie. Just to make the story more believable, he participated in tournaments for money and always brought back a grand prize.

In the HBI, he wasn't the puppet master anymore. He was an ally. He couldn't control them and their wacky plays because they were too unpredictable and wouldn't listen to him, but he still kept the title.