Both teams quickly finished warming up and took the court to get ready for the game.
In the stands.
Shintaro Midorima noticed something was off and muttered,
"Hm? That's strange."
Kazunari Takao looked at him in confusion.
"What's wrong, Shin-chan? Something up?"
Shintaro Midorima frowned slightly, irritation creeping into his voice.
"Aomine isn't here."
Kazunari Takao froze, shock evident in his tone.
"What? Aomine's not here? Isn't he Tōō's ace???"
Over at Kaijō.
"I'm not sure why either, but Aomine really isn't here."
Ryota Kise said, clearly puzzled.
Yukio Kasamatsu immediately scowled.
"What's wrong with your classmate? He won't even show up for a game!"
Ryota Kise sighed helplessly and pulled out his phone to ask Daiki Aomine what was going on.
Beep… beep… beep…
Click.
"Yeah? What is it?"
The call connected almost immediately. Daiki Aomine's voice came through—
along with the rhythmic thud of a basketball.
Ryota Kise instantly understood what he was doing.
"Aominecchi, you're still practicing?"
On the other end.
In the empty school gym, Daiki Aomine held his phone in his left hand while dribbling with his right.
"Yeah. Still practicing."
As he spoke, he flicked his wrist. The ball struck the backboard and dropped cleanly through the hoop.
Ryota Kise's confused voice came through the phone.
"Aominecchi, you have a game today! Did you forget?"
Daiki Aomine walked over to where the ball had rolled, scooped it up easily, and spun it on his index finger with a casual twist of his wrist.
"I know."
Ryota Kise pressed on.
"Then why aren't you coming?"
Aomine sounded annoyed.
"Can't be bothered. I'd rather train."
Ryota Kise was starting to get irritated too.
"Aominecchi, Seirin has Kagami and Kuroko! Aren't you worried your team might lose?"
Daiki Aomine paused for a moment before replying,
"Tetsu's at Seirin? So that Kagami guy you mentioned is his new light?"
Ryota Kise was stunned. After all that, he didn't even know which school Kuroko was at?
But it wasn't entirely surprising. Without Momoi feeding him information, Aomine basically shut himself off from everything. He spent every day training alone and barely paid attention to anything outside the court.
He genuinely hadn't known which team Tetsuya Kuroko had joined.
Now that he learned Kuroko was at Seirin, Aomine found himself interested in the new light Kuroko had chosen.
Back at Teikō, Kuroko had been overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance of the others, leaving him with no room to exist.
But there was no denying it—
as a shadow, Kuroko was more than qualified.
After a moment of thought, Aomine spoke again.
"Got it. I'll head over later."
"About when?"
He considered briefly before giving a conservative estimate.
"Second half. Doesn't matter though. Even if there are only five minutes left, I won't lose."
"I… can only lose to Miyamoto."
With that, he hung up.
Dribbling once more, he stopped at the three-point line and casually launched the ball. It dropped straight through the net.
Thud… thud…
After the shot, he didn't hesitate. Grabbing his jacket, he walked out of the gym.
"Let's see this new light. Maybe he'll get my blood pumping."
"Though that's probably impossible. The only one who can do that now is Miyamoto."
"Actually… there's one more. Senior Nijimura counts too."
Muttering to himself, Aomine headed toward the arena.
At the court.
"Beep! End of the first quarter!"
The referee's whistle echoed through the gym.
25–21.
Both teams returned to their benches.
Shoichi Imayoshi wiped the sweat from his face as he sat down, sounding slightly surprised.
"Only a four-point lead? Seirin's more troublesome than I thought."
Kosuke Wakamatsu frowned at the scoreboard.
"The score's that close? Hey, are we really not calling Aomine?"
Katsunori Harasawa crossed his arms calmly.
"No need. Aomine's already on his way."a
Everyone froze for a second.
Shoichi Imayoshi blinked.
"Coach, but didn't Aomine say—"
"He just called me," Katsunori Harasawa cut in. "Said he's on his way."
"Oh, and he told me you can play however you want. He'll take care of closing it out."
Imayoshi's expression relaxed.
"Well now, that's a reassuring promise."
Wakamatsu clenched his fists, annoyed.
"What a cocky brat! But if he's saying that, I'm just gonna play however I feel like!"
Ryo Sakurai looked uneasy.
"S-Sorry, but are we really going to do that? If the gap gets too big, even Aomine-kun might…"
Wakamatsu cut him off immediately.
"What are you saying, Sakurai? Even if we don't go all out, there's no way Seirin's blowing us out!"
Sakurai shrank back slightly.
"S-Sorry… but Seirin's number 10 and number 11 really are a bit…"
Imayoshi quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
"Alright, let's just stick to the original plan. Wouldn't want Aomine showing up, seeing a huge deficit, and laughing at us."
Wakamatsu instantly imagined Aomine mocking him and bristled.
"Damn it! Everyone take this seriously! Getting laughed at by Aomine is the worst!"
As coach, Katsunori Harasawa began giving instructions.
"Those two were troublesome last quarter, but it's clear their main scoring threat is still number 10."
"In the second half, double-team him. Leave Seirin's number 11 open."
The Tōō players nodded and headed back onto the court.
Meanwhile, after leaving the gym, Aomine made his way toward the arena.
On the way, he ran into a foreigner.
'Tall.'
Aomine's pupils narrowed slightly.
'Taller than Murasakibara.'
He was genuinely shocked. The man in front of him was even noticeably taller than Atsushi Murasakibara.
This person was Dicky Anthony.
Dicky Anthony had gotten lost. With no other choice, he stopped someone to ask for directions.
"Excuse me, do you know how to get to the Tōō vs. Seirin game venue?" (in English)
Daiki Aomine, who was terrible at academics, froze on the spot.
This is… English?
...
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