Chapter 17 : VS Kaijo VIII - The End

"Kise, be careful of their number 15" Kasamatsu spoke to the blonde before they started the game again.

"I know." Kise nodded solemnly, his eyes are already on Furihata. "He is sneaky and a bit troublesome. I still don't know how he was able to stop me twice, but as long as I am careful, I will be alright."

"Good. Don't underestimate him."

"Don't worry. Besides, he is a point guard. It is you who needs to be careful of him, Senpai. Moreover, you didn't play well today, right?" Kasamatsu's face darkened at the comment.

"I know. Sensei would definitely evaluate me after this game, and I probably would end up on a bench for a few games. But that is not important right now. We need to win this game first."

"Yeah."

At this time, when they put their full attention on Furihata, they forgot the presence of the one who is the most dangerous when he is forgotten. They forgot the presence of Kuroko, and they will pay for it dearly.

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The game started again, and now Kise is holding the ball, doing an isolation game against Kagami. After five seconds passed, Kise leaned his body forward, ready to drive in. Kagami followed his movement quickly, didn't let himself get left by the Blonde once again.

But Kise is already prepared for this. When he went into the free-throw area, he took a pause in his dribble, making Kagami slow down for a moment. The small moment of Kagami slowed down is enough for Kise to change his pace once again to a full-speed, before he took a step forward and flies for a dunk.

However, when he is hanging on the air, he feels a collision with someone that didn't jump. He ignored it and continued to slam the ball to the rim. However, when he landed, he could hear the referee blow his whistle.

"Kaijo #7 Offensive foul. Seirin ball."

Silence descended into the court before Kagami and Hyuga roared together.

"YOSSHAAA!!"

"NICE ONE, KUROKO!!"

When Kise looked down, his eyes widened as he saw Kuroko is on the floor and he just realized what happened.

"Shit! I was too preoccupied with the number 15 that I forgot about Kurokocchi, and they use his thin appearance to trick me! Damn!" He cursed himself inwardly.

The game started again, and now the ball is on Furihata's hand. But now, he feels the pressure from Kasamatsu who is defending him. He frowned a little before signaling Kagami to set a screen for him.

However, when they saw Kagami trying to get closer to Furihata, they know Seirin's intention to do a pick-and-roll play. Kasamatsu makes a quick sign for Kise to switch defense with him. But because of the difference in height and power, Kasamatsu decided to ask for help as he shouted,

"HAYAKAWA!"

The power forward didn't need to get told twice before he runs toward his captain and do a double-team to Kagami.

Furihata noticed this, and before Kise could pressure him more, he quickly sends the ball back to the three-point area. At first, nobody in Kaijo knows what Furihata did, as Moriyama is guarding Hyuga tightly. However, their eyes widened in surprise as they saw suddenly the ball was redirected to the corner area where Tsuchida is wide-open without Hayakawa guarding him.

"Shit! That is Kurokocchi!" Kise cursed as he just realized what happened. However, the same couldn't be said for his teammates who seems to forget about Kuroko and didn't have any idea what just happened. They couldn't react quickly as Tsuchida pulled up a three-point jump shoot from the corner area.

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"Nice shoot, Tsuchida!"

"Good assist, Phantom!"

"Two points more! Come on!"

Seirin's players celebrate these three points as they get closer to Kaijo once again. However, on Kaijo's side, the atmosphere is getting heavier.

"We forget about Kurokocchi," Kise spoke out of his mind. Kasamatsu nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we completely forget about him. He is the player who gets more annoying when you forget him the most, right?" Kise nodded silently. "But that is not only our mistake. We also forget about the presence of their number 9. We didn't see him participating in the offense before, so we just thought he is just a defensive player. Our assumption cost us three points."

They all sighed when they heard what their captain said.

"Let's forget about it now. We will definitely receive harsh punishment from Sensei tomorrow. But at least, let's close this game with a win."

Every Kaijo players shuddered a little at the mention of punishment.

The game started again with the ball in Kise's hand. But now, the blonde has wariness in his eyes and he was tracking Kuroko's whereabouts. And right to his wary feeling, Kuroko is always in the blind spot behind Kagami, so whenever he escaped the redhead's guard, Kuroko will be ready to pull his trick again.

Kise took a deep breath before he muttered, "Okay, let's do it."

He shifted the ball very quickly from his left to his right and back to his left hand again, and when Kagami tried to poke the ball from his left hand, he shifted again, but now with behind-the-back crossover. And before Kagami could recover from his sudden movement, he leaned his body and drive forward, escaping from the left side.

"Shit!"

However, Kise didn't stop his move. When he saw Kuroko approach him, he turned around and used Kuroko's body to spin around 360 degrees and successfully evade Kuroko his own guard. Without hesitation, he pulled up a mid-range jump shoot from the free throw area.

*Splash!*

"Nice shoot, Kise!"

"Let's go!!"

Even though they were celebrating, all of Kaijo's players were ready to defend. They learned their lesson about Seirin's quick attack and didn't want to suffer from it again.

Now, the ball is in Furihata's hand. He dribbled the ball slowly, looking for his teammates while still guarding the ball against Kasamatsu. When he saw Hyuga makes a small sign with his hand, Furihata turned his eyes quickly to Tsuchida who is approaching Kise and Kagami from behind.

The sign was the basic strategy from the senpai to create more open space for them. The basic idea is the center had to set a screen, but not for the ball handler. Instead, the screen is set for any scorer to escape from their guard and score. However, with Kuroko being here, Furihata knows he can use Kagami to attract Kaijo's attention.

When he saw Kagami barely escaped from Kise's guard, he shouted,

"OUTSIDE!"

And sends the ball to the paint area. Nobody knows what Furihata means by outside, as the ball went straight to Kagami. However, right before Kagami grabbed the ball, the craziest thing happened.

Right before Kagami grabbed the ball, it changed direction to the three-point area, where Hyuga is being guarded by Moriyama. The one who changes the direction of the ball is Kuroko, who somehow managed to sneak into the paint area between Hayakawa and Kobori, the duo of big men from Kaijo, and send the ball directly to the outside just like Furihata shouted.

Hyuga was taken aback by the sudden ball that comes to him. But he managed to react quickly and takes a shoot before Moriyama could close him down, resulting in another three points for Seirin.

"LET'S GOO!!"

Everyone at Seirin's bench screamed, celebrating the play like crazy. But the players who are on the court didn't even smile, let alone celebrate. They still have wariness in their eyes, looking at the scoreboard with tense faces.

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01:12

Only 72 seconds left, and it could be said the fate of this game lay in this sequence. Kise grabbed the ball, starting Kaijo's attack. Considering Kise's behavior, Furihata decided to move slightly in his direction, so if Kagami was beaten, he could cover it anytime. It was a gamble he was willing to take, as if Kise suddenly chooses to pass the ball to Kasamatsu, Furihata wouldn't be able to catch him.

Fortunately, his gamble paid off as Kise, as he predicted, was able to escape from Kagami's guard. Furihata put himself in front of Kise quickly, stopping the blonde from penetrating forward.

Kise, seeing the new player guarding him, didn't budge for a second as he shifted the ball between his legs from right to left back to his right hand again. Seeing Furihata lean his body toward his right side, he makes a spin move to get away from the left side.

However, that was what Furihata waiting for.

Guarding Kise is not his task. No, it is Kagami and Kuroko's job. So, Furihata lures Kise to escape to the free-throw area where Kuroko is waiting. Kise who saw Kuroko's movement at the last second gritted his teeth and forced him to take a shoot. However, while Kise is forced to take a mid-range shoot, he is still confident that he could make this shoot go in.

But that is when the strategy to shut down Kise finally work. With how he escaped from three guards, he forgot the presence of his first guard, and that is the mistake he had to pay.

Kagami managed to recover his position and when he saw Kise was about to take a shoot, he jumped at the same time.

"NOT THIS TIME, YOU BASTARD!"

He swatted the ball from Kise's hand, and God really favored Seirin in this game, as the ball landed in front of Furihata.

"FAST BREAK!"

"DEFENSE, FAST!"

Kasamatsu who is the second fastest even among Kaijo's players beside Kise wanted to chase Furihata. However, his path was blocked by the screen Tsuchida set for him.

"Damn!"

Unfortunately for Seirin, Kise didn't take a long time to recover and he is already chasing Furihata. It could be said that while Furihata's speed could be compared to Kasamatsu, Kise is still faster considering he runs without dribbling the ball.

However, right when Kise arrived beside him, Furihata bounced the ball through his legs, sending the ball behind where Kagami is waiting.

And Kagami, without anyone guarding him, pulled up a shoot from the three-point area.

*Splash!*

The first three-point shoot Kagami makes today.

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00:40

"Let's go!"

"Defense!"

Now, the ball is in Kasamatsu's hand. But unlike before, now the captain chooses to ignore his teammates and decided to go for a one-on-one against Furihata.

They both danced for a while, with Kasamatsu dribbling from left to right to the left trying to escape from Furihata, and Furihata following his movements without getting tricked.

When the shot clock is getting closer to 00:00, Kasamatsu makes a sudden stop and lobs the ball near the basket.

Hayakawa who didn't play well in this game suddenly jumped behind Tsuchida, grabbed the ball in the air, and slammed it to the basket.

*BANG!!*

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00:16

"YOSSHAAA!!!"

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE KAIJO, BASTARD!"

Sixteen seconds left, no timeout for both of them. Furihata dribbled the ball, guarding it against Kasamatsu's poking hand. He tried to steady his breath, thinking about the best action to take. This is the last play, and fortunately enough, all Seirin players on the court right now are clutch players.

He could go with Hyuga who has already made eight three-point shots in this game. He could also go to Kagami who has already scored 35 points. And if both of them are being guarded tightly, he could send the ball to Kuroko who tries to sneak between Tsuchida and Hyuga, creating more space for all of them to score.

The question is, what to choose now?

After ten seconds passed, he took a deep breath and makes a sign for Tsuchida to set a screen.

"This is the last play, and we only need to score one more point. Let's keep it simple." Furihata muttered under his breath.

When Tsuchida is already behind Kasamatsu, Furihata dribbled the ball forward, escaping from their guard.

"Shit! Another one? Hayakawa!"

"I know!"

The best thing about the pick-and-roll play is to force the enemy to switch their guard. Now, Hayakawa, the 185 cm power forward, had to stop Furihata, the point guard who is smaller, faster, and more agile than him from driving forward.

However, while Furihata has more advantages here, he didn't have a lot of space to take a shoot. If he takes it right now, Hayakawa would block it easily. But if he dribbled more to create space, the time would run out. So, he decided to take the best action, keep driving forward right in Kise's direction, forcing the blonde to abandon Kagami.

"Senpai! Switch with me!"

When he heard Kise, Kobori who is waiting to block any shot from the paint area moves quickly to guard Kagami. Now, Kise is waiting for the confrontation against Furihata.

While Kobori is no match for Kagami's power, Kise believes that in this close area, his team could stop Seirin's next movement. If Furihata shoots the ball, he or Hayakawa could block him easily. If the ball goes to Kagami, he could double-team the red hair with Kobori. Either way, this game would go overtime.

However, Kise is way too focused on both Furihata and Kagami, that once again, he forgets about Kuroko's presence.

Furihata who keeps his eyes on Kuroko's movement suddenly kicked out the ball to the outside, where Hyuga is being guarded by Moriyama. Moriyama looked at the ball who is coming in his direction with a weird gaze, as he thinks it is strange for Furihata who played well for the entire game to make a mistake at this crucial moment.

However, Kise's shout snapped him from his thought.

"SENPAI! SAVE THE BALL!"

It is unfortunate for Kaijo's shooting guard that before he could process what happened, his eyes catch a sudden movement in front of him, and when the movement registered through his mind, his eyes widened.

"Blue-hair? Shit!"

It is too late for him to stop Kuroko, as the ball is already moving toward the basket where Kagami is already hanging in the air. Kise did the same, trying to stop Kagami to score. However, he jumped way too late as the ball is already in Kagami's hand.

"TAKE IT, BASTARD!"

*BANG!*

The ball went in, and at the same time, the referee blew his whistle, ending the game in the most dramatic way.

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Kagami scores a buzzer-beater, and Seirin overturned the score at the last second.

"LET'S FUCKING GOOO!!!!"

At the end of the game, Kagami's roar echoed throughout the gym, as he led Seirin to win against Kaijo and one of the Generation of Miracles, Ryota Kise.

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Author note: The final score is way TOO HIGH for a high school game. This is my first try to write a basketball game, so I took NBA standard games as the reference. I will adjust it in the future so it would be more realistic.

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You can also read this fanfiction up to chapter 30 on that page. Thank you! :)