Chapter 119 : Half Time Break
It was the end of the second quarter when Furihata found himself sitting among the other players while wiping the sweat all over his face. Unlike before, the atmosphere there is quite good. Several players threw jokes at each other, while the others just smiled silently while hearing that. And all of this good atmosphere was because of the good result in the second quarter.
"Good job, everyone!" Alex is full of smiles right now, not being stingy about the praise she gave to her players. "This score is far better than I could imagine. Only down by 6 points at the halftime break, you did a really good job!"
When Alex turned around and took a glance at the scoreboard, it showed a big number there.
Yosen High 48 – 42 Seirin High
Hearing that, all the Seirin players grinned at each other, happy with what they achieved before the break.
"But don't be too happy yet." Alex suddenly turned serious. "The game is not over, and we are still down to 6 points. Also, you all know that Murasakibara didn't do anything during the last 5 minutes of the second quarter, right? It is likely that he also tried to save his energy to survive in the second half. So, I want you all to not lower your guard and treat every play cautiously. Do you understand?"
Being reminded of that, all the players nodded solemnly, the playful atmosphere there suddenly vanished in a blink.
"Thank you for the reminder, Alex-san." Hyuga acted as the spoke person of his teammates. "What do you think we should do next?"
Seeing the change of attitude from the other players, Alex nodded slightly in approval. Even though Hyuga is not the type of captain who talks a lot, he is still the most respected player on the team, and he is also a role model for everyone. When he said one thing, the other would follow his words willingly, even though it was not proven to be good or not.
Having him as a captain is probably the best thing any head coach would want when they start taking over a team.
"Okay, first thing first." Alex started speaking. "I want to know how is your condition. Besides being tired, are there any of you who feel uncomfortable with your body? Does your shoulder feel stiff? Does your ankle feel a slight pain whenever you walk? Anything! I want you to be honest here. Your health is far more important than winning the game."
This is what Alex found as the biggest difference between the professional players and youngsters in high school like all the Seirin players in front of her.
With the professional players, they all have self-awareness of their bodies and they know when to stop and avoid unnecessary injuries. It is because they have their contract and their future money to protect. Once they fell into the pit called injury, no one knew what would happen in the future.
But unlike them, the high school players here didn't have any big stakes to risk. This is Japan, and not America, after all. Even though they played well, there is no guarantee for them to go to the professional in the future. And with no money or contract to risk, well, the crazy ones like Kagami or the Generation of Miracles maybe would be willing to risk their health just to play one more minute.
Moreover, it was in their nature as teenagers to always hide from the adult, so, Alex has to emphasize this several times to get her point through their heads.
"Anyone? Really? No one feels uncomfortable?" Alex asked once again, a hint of skepticism could be heard in her tone. "What about you, Tiger-chan? You had a lot of physical confrontations with their center. Are you okay?"
Kagami who was suddenly in the spotlight scowled disdainfully. "Yeah, I am okay. Can we just get over with this stupid inspection?" He asked his old coach impatiently.
However, Alex ignored that and gave him a look that said 'I don't believe you'. After being abused for so long by a center far bigger than you, it is either your recovery state is good, the adrenaline still overwhelms the pain and discomfort, or you are the biggest liar on the planet right now. And considering Kagami's personality, Alex is more inclined to believe the last part.
However, she knows how stubborn Kagami is, especially regarding basketball. So, seeing him didn't bulge even under her and Riko's fierce glares, Alex sighed in defeat before addressing another matter.
"Okay, let's move on to the other part. But whenever you feel something wrong with your body, I want you to say it to me before it is too late. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Coach!"
And after that, the tactical session on Seirin's bench finally began, with Alex as the speaker talking about what should they do in the second half.
-------------------
Meanwhile, the contrasting atmosphere could be found on Yosen's side. From leading 18 points at the beginning of the game until getting chased down like this, no one has experienced such a fierce offensive from their opponent. That's why other than Murasakibara (who decided to ignore everyone and ate his snacks), Masako could see the grim expression on her players' faces.
"Okay, everyone! Listen up!" She started speaking. "I know this is hard to accept. Usually, this time, you would have two digits lead and play comfortably in the second half. However, why would you expect something like that here? This is the national tournament! Only the best of the best were able to play here! So, any fantasy of you winning easily, wipe it out from your thick head and start growing a new mindset!"
She could only sigh when all she received were grunts from her players. To be honest, she is not the best at consoling her players. Usually, at a time like this, it would be Okumura who speaks as the captain, raising the spirit of the team. However, when she saw the state of the power forward, she sighed inwardly, decided to throw away that idea.
'If even the captain is so down like this, how should I carry up their spirit? This is a mess…'
Unexpectedly, it was Murasakibara who breaks the tension.
"Masako-chin, do you have any hair ties?"
"Eh?" Masako was startled a bit, not knowing what to say. Usually, she would scold the giant for joking in such an important situation like this. However, she had a hunch that it was not a joke from him. "Here. Why? Do you finally want to get rid of that annoying long hair? Couldn't see what was in front of you clearly?"
Even if she didn't scold him, that doesn't mean she wouldn't throw any sarcasm toward her center, though. That was not her style.
Shockingly enough, Murasakibara nodded his head, admitting that she is right. "Yeah. My hair prevents me to look behind clearly, and it was exploited pretty well by Kuro-chin. I will not let that happen again." He said it casually while tying his hair into a bun as if he was just talking about the weather today.
Masako and everyone else just nodded dumbfoundedly at his statement.
"Oh yeah, Captain." Murasakibara suddenly turned around at Okumura. "You can go outside too in the second half. I will protect the perimeter area alone."
If Masako thinks she couldn't be more surprised than before, she was proven to be wrong by the bomb that Murasakibara just dropped casually.
"By doing that, you know what it means, right, Murasakibara-kun?" She couldn't help but ask. "With you alone inside the perimeter area, you need to cover everything there. If you accept this role, I wouldn't expect you to be lazy anymore, or we would suffer things worse than what we experience now. Do you understand that?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Murasakibara dismissed her concern, still with his lazy attitude. "But by doing so, Captain would also be free to help guard the outside, and our chance to stop that number #12 would be higher."
Well, Masako couldn't fault his logic. With Okumura guarding the outside, it would help cover the spot Fukui or Tatsuya has to defend when they were about to double-team Furihata. And by doing so, it would also reduce the number of tricks Furihata could throw against them.
However, she is still a bit comfortable putting the big burden on Murasakibara's shoulders.
"Don't worry, Masako-chin." Murasakibara tried to reassure her. "You know even though I am lazy, I would never run away from my responsibility, right? Moreover, they are starting to become annoying pests. I really want to kill them as quickly as possible now."
Facing the sudden killing intent from the pink-haired center, Masako couldn't help but shudder a little. It was quite rare to find anyone who could annoy Murasakibara this much, so she didn't know whether it was a good thing or not.
After pondering for a second, Masako took a deep breath, finally taking her decision.
"Okay, since Murasakibara-kun decided to do this, let's maximize it to our benefit. Here is what we should do….."
-----------------------------
In the audience seat, a red-haired boy could be spotted sitting alone, a creepy smile formed on his face.
Yeah, that boy is none other than Seijuro Akashi.
"Hmmm…." The boy hummed calculatingly. "Kouki Furihata. 15 years old. A former student at Kariya Middle School. Has never joined any official team before, but is quite often spotted training with the local club near his home. A son of Anzaki Furihata, a flight attendant, and deceased Hori Furihata, a pilot of Japan Airlines. Always the top student in the school and liked by the teacher. Know how to be on the good side of the authority, but still have several rebellious strikes. I wonder.. Would he be obedient or not?"
Honestly, it was quite creepy how Akashi recalled all of the information regarding Furihata in just five seconds, and that is not to mention the violation of privacy that he does right now. However, as long as the subject of his information didn't know about it, he wouldn't bother collecting any information about him.
And having people in the higher-ups would also help him a lot if somehow, he was discovered collecting information (Stalking) about the other people.
"Hmm…." He pondered once again, before opening up his phone and calling someone. "Hello? Yes? Go to Yosen's bench and wait until Murasakibara is alone and tell him to go all out. Tell him it was from me. Do you understand? Yes? Okay, thank you."
He closed his eyes as the one on the other side of the call cut it off. His mind is wandering around, recalling every tiny detail of what happened during the game earlier, especially regarding Furihata.
"Kouki Furihata…. What would you do next? Show me all you got…"
-------------------------------------------
Author note :
If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes
You can also read this fanfiction up to chapter 139 on that page. Thank you! :)
-Zeta Faes-