The Progression

Once the game ended we made our way to the visitor locker room of the Hida Junior High school gym. Everyone was in high spirits and all I was among them. Even with my mood now evened out I could only smile at thinking about how I crushed that number 8. We definitely got Katagiri on the map as well, even the Teiko squad didn't crush teams like that until near their 2nd and 3rd year.

They did however play against way better teams, all the bad teams got played against by their 2nd and 3rd string, so I can't really compare.

"Good game guys, and thanks for letting me be selfish in the first quarter. From now on we'll be playing more team based basketball as you guys improve. Just these last 2 weeks you guys have shown massive improvements, I look forward to the future." I say

Obviously Teshima immediately starts crying, not that he ever stopped throughout the whole match, but it started fall with renewed vigor. The rest give a thankful nod as we all put on our tracksuits and make our way back. I actually like our school colors, it's a dark blue for the main, and it's highlighted with white at the shoulders and the numbers. Our school name is written in a glossy gold. Oh ya my number is 31, it was my past life dad's high school number, so obviously I found my own way to honor that.

We all split off to head to our own homes, their parents here to pick them up and I could feel the stares from them. I guess it's not every day you see a 12 year old completely dominate another team like that. Riko was there waiting for me as well, sadly dad had his own work he couldn't get away from.

"That was insane Ryo! I've never seen you play like that before. Why were you so angry, and how did you raise you—!!" Riko rapid fired questions until I finally had to cover her mouth. Once she started to flail and her face getting red in anger I finally let go. She punched my shoulder to show her displeasure before she spoke again.

"Ugh you know I hate when you do that! Now explain yourself!" She yells annoyed.

"Sigh, we'll number 8 was trash talking and I didn't like it, so I showed him the difference in our skill. As for the stats thing, I can't tell you." I finish with a foxy grin, and Riko just huffs and turns her head away from me.

"Fine."

"Where are they?" I ask

She glances at me and my innocent aloof face with slightly sad eyes, and all she can do is sigh. She grabs her bag and hands me a box with lemons and honey. Yes it's exactly as you remember from the show, full lemons soaking in honey. I know she tries hard to be of help, so I happily eat them.

Seeing the smile on her face made it worth it, as I took bites out of the lemon, the only downside is the honey coating my hand while I eat them.

Time passed easily for the next month and a half until it was time for the preliminary tournament. We had won all our games of the season, only playing one "tough" team being Komagi Junior High. The same team that Kise and Kuroko helped the second string beat. While they won 83-81 in their second year we beat them 92-63, so I'm still not sure how my teammates will do against Teiko.

We got placed in Block B while Teiko was placed in Block A, so even if we can't beat Teiko this time we can still get our spot in the nationals by beating Kamata West who is the most likely team we'll meet in the finals of B block.

Everyone has shown massive improvements in this past month and a half. Teshima has become our secondary 3 point shooter, he's not as good as some but I would say he's a slightly better Koganei from Seirin in the show. Kawahara has increased his jump height as well as his defense abilities, he could become as good as Kiyoshi with this kind of progress.

Otake has also become a lockdown defender inside the arc, while Kawahara gets under the rim he protects the edges of the arc. Arata has become proficient in his ball handling as well as his shot make percentage has steadily increased. While he won't be taking as many shot in the 3 point range he will hit most of 2s.

Last but not least we have Ikehara who has really thrives under my training. He's our leading rebounder and our best defend after me, his high energy lets him jump nonstop to come up with huge rebounds.

Oh me? Well I'm almost averaging a quadruple double. Obviously my points are high, averaging 40 points a game. It could definitely be higher but my teammates would never get better if I completely took over the game like our first. The only reason I'm not averaging a quadruple double is rebounds, but that's okay I'm not that mad about it. Damn it.

These are all individual improvements, but as a team it's been even more insane. Every practice is spent practicing passing for half the practice, everyone has to carry a basketball with them and keep it moving in their hands through out the day. If they see a teammate they have to pass to each other without hitting anyone. If they do it's suicides, push ups and lunges. They learned fast that they can't lie either as I doubled the usual when they got to practice.

Now everyone felt immensely comfortable with the ball bouncing around that it felt weird not having one. Which has made our passing be honestly the best in the league if you forget about Kuroko. They can't do misdirection or anything like that but they can't pass it nearly every way possible. They can't do super flash tap passes or through opponents legs or obviously the elbow pass, but the fundamentals of passing have been nearly perfected.

This allows us to completely put our opponents in the blender when everyone is hitting their passes. Which has led to our team being able to win games without me having to try too much. I have also increased my own personal workout and conditioning, to hopefully be able to last a whole game against Teiko. But I don't have any teams that I can go 100% against, to give that much I need someone to at least almost match me, and so far I haven't found that.

Anyways tomorrow we travel to the venue of the preliminary tournament, my teammates are nervous, but honestly I think we're ready. Ahhh I can't wait to play against some truly great opponents, I haven't went 50% since that first game and the highest I've had to push since was 40% against Komagi. Well, time to sleep. Big day tomorrow we have 2 matches.

Tournament is 4 days long with each day except the last being a double header, only the seeded teams getting a bye in the first round. Even with us going undefeated we didn't get a seed because of the strength of the teams we played. Which doesn't bother me because we will only get better as the tournament goes on.

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Author's Note

Bit of a filler chapter, just give everyone an idea of what's happened in the last month and a half. Nothing too crazy.

Hope you enjoyed