After Daiki Aomine's basket, the arena went completely silent. A full two and a half seconds later, the crowd finally exploded.
"Hey, did you see that? He scored from behind the backboard!"
"I did! That kind of double-clutch is insane. No wonder he's the ace of the Generation of Miracles!"
"That was way too cool. Who even scores like that?"
In the stands.
Everyone from Yōsen turned to look at Atsushi Murasakibara on the court.
Masako Araki clicked her tongue in irritation.
"That guy… so this is how he's playing after transferring?"
On the court.
Dicky Anthony was stunned as well. It was the first time he'd seen a shot like that.
And he hadn't expected Daiki Aomine's style to be streetball.
Wasn't that exactly his specialty?
On the next possession, Dicky Anthony didn't go straight into a shot. Instead, he started to play with the ball.
His dribble shifted into a clear streetball rhythm.
The tempo kept changing, unpredictable and fluid.
Streetball?!
Aomine's eyes lit up with interest.
He hadn't expected Dicky Anthony to play that way too.
Aomine tightened his defense, but he still didn't dare drop his center of gravity too low.
He was wary of the drive into a pull-up. He knew he could barely block Dicky Anthony's jumper, but he had to at least contest it.
So he kept his stance balanced—ready to react in any direction.
Dicky Anthony kept manipulating Aomine's balance, then suddenly burst to the right.
Aomine slid with him, staying in front.
Dicky Anthony smirked, then slammed on the brakes, pulled the ball back, and rose for a jumper.
For most players, that kind of sudden stop would have been impossible to recover against.
But Dicky Anthony had underestimated Aomine.
Aomine was someone who could go from full speed to a dead stop in an instant.
He planted hard, stopped on a dime, and lunged back to contest, jumping up.
He knew he couldn't block the shot.
So he used another method.
Blindfold.
Aomine raised his right hand directly in front of Dicky Anthony's face, cutting off his view of the rim and throwing off his aim.
It was a trick he had learned from Miyamoto.
Specifically designed to deal with opponents he couldn't block—in other words, a move he had originally prepared for… Murasakibara.
But instead, he ended up using it on someone else.
Dicky Anthony had never faced something like this before. The moment the rim disappeared from his sight, his heart skipped.
Clang.
The ball struck the rim and bounced up.
Murasakibara had always assumed Dicky Anthony wouldn't miss under normal circumstances.
So he hadn't even prepared to grab the rebound.
Kosuke Wakamatsu, on the other hand, had locked Murasakibara in place and jumped first.
Murasakibara blinked.
"Huh? There's a rebound?"
Even so, he jumped as well.
And then an absurd scene unfolded.
Despite having inside position and leaping first… Wakamatsu still lost the board.
Murasakibara reacted instantly after him, exploding upward from behind and snatching the rebound one-handed like plucking fruit.
After securing the ball, Murasakibara remembered Miyamoto's tactics. In the first quarter, he had absolutely no intention of attacking.
Instead of going straight up for the easy score, he kicked the ball out to Dicky Anthony on the perimeter.
That decision left players from other schools completely dumbfounded.
In the stands.
Shinji Koganei blurted out first.
"Why didn't he just score? That was practically guaranteed!"
Junpei Hyuga frowned.
"I don't really get it either. From that position, attacking himself was the best option."
Seirin was confused.
And they weren't the only ones—many players from other schools couldn't understand it either.
A perfect scoring opportunity, and he passed it up?
It felt absurd.
On the court.
Dicky Anthony caught the ball and went right back into attack mode. This time, he cut out the flashy moves.
He tested with his right foot. The moment he saw Aomine's center shift slightly backward, he drove left off that same foot.
At the same time, he dribbled low near his left leg, shielding the ball from a steal.
Using his body and off-hand perfectly to protect it.
It was textbook.
He gained half a step on Aomine and completely shut down any chance of a strip.
With that half-step advantage, he didn't hesitate.
He rose straight into his signature pull-up.
[Venomous Fang]!
Aomine tried to repeat the blindfold trick, but being half a step behind from the side made all the difference.
By the time he blocked Dicky Anthony's sightline, the ball had already left his hands.
Aomine clenched his teeth, hoping for a miss.
Swish.
The ball dropped cleanly through the net.
After scoring, Dicky Anthony showed no emotion. He simply turned and ran back on defense.
While retreating, Shuzo Nijimura smiled at Aomine.
"So, Aomine? Anthony's Venomous Fang isn't easy to stop, right?"
Aomine grinned.
"Yeah, it's tough. But I'm not losing to him."
With that, he moved to receive the inbound.
There was no denying it—Venomous Fang was difficult to guard.
But Daiki Aomine…
Was just as hard to defend.
Possession switched.
Wakamatsu immediately passed to Aomine. At this point, he was the only one who could reliably score for Tōō.
It was almost ironic. The rest of Tōō's roster were standouts from middle schools all over the region, yet against Kirisaki Daiichi, even getting a basket had become difficult.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Aomine dribbled slowly up the court.
As he crossed the three-point line, Dicky Anthony stepped up, eyes sharp.
Aomine met his gaze and smirked.
"Streetball? I grew up on that."
...
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