Two days had passed and it was now Wednesday, the qualifying rounds for the boys' basketball category. Seeded teams such as Seirai High School didn't need to go through this qualifier since they are already considered as one of the top teams in the district. For Tachibana Private High School however, they needed to participate in the qualifiers due to the poor performances of the past senior representatives.
In the qualifiers, teams were required to play in 8 groups of 5 where the top 2 teams of each group would be qualified for the knockout rounds where they would be required to play against seeded teams in the first round. On the other hand, seeded teams were not required to play against each other for the first round.
This year however, with Kei leading the team, the Tachibana Private High School team swept through their qualifying group with ease. In each of their games, they managed to win by a margin of at least 40 points or more. At the end of the qualifying stages, Tachibana High was the only team among the 8 groups to have qualified for the knockout stages without losing a single game with a score of 4-0.
In just the qualifying rounds, Tachibana had suddenly become the dark horse of the tournament. As such, scouts from seeded schools had come to watch their last few qualifying games after hearing they were beating their opponents with heavy margins. Kei was aware of this and gave his team almost identical instructions each game, asking them to play with similar formations and tactics so that they won't reveal too much to the other schools.
"Oyyyy, Kei. Are you coming? We are gonna celebrate reaching the knockout rounds." Maki said to Kei.
"Why are we celebrating like we won the tournament?"
"Because our school never got out of the qualifiers before."
'How pathetic was our school basketball team in the past?' Kei thought to himself.
It was true that in all the years that Tachibana Private High School had been established, they had never made it out of the qualifying rounds of the tournament. One can't blame them for wanting to celebrate this achievement.
"Well, you guys can go ahead. I'm going to stay for a bit."
"Hah? You're going home alone?"
"Yea, don't worry about it."
As he watched his teammates leave, he proceeded to walk back into the stadium up a flight of stairs that led to a door. The door led to an open spectator area where there were seats for them to sit and watch the games. Surrounded by the chairs of the spectator area of the huge stadium was the main basketball court where a game was being held. It was currently the finals of the girls' basketball category between Tachibana High and Seirai High. Although he didn't tell her, Kei had watched all of Chihaya's games up till now without her knowing. Letting her know would only lead her to her usual wild fantasies and assumptions.
It was the middle of the third quarter. When Kei looked at the scoreboard, he wasn't surprised.
'TACHIBANA 66 – 75 SEIRAI'
The girl's team was losing. In one of the previous competitions, Tachibana's girls' team had also lost to Seirai High's girls' team in the finals. Their coach was an ex-national player and Seirai High School was also a school known to have produced basketball players that ended up representing the national team. Kei was also acquainted with the coach. He started watching and analysing the game from the stands as he watched the game proceed. Just then, he caught a glimpse of Chihaya's face where she was trying her best to hold back her tears.
"Haah… Why are you crying during the third quarter?"
Kei stood up and left the stands. Down on the court, the third quarter had just ended and the Tachibana girls were discussing amongst themselves on what they should do.
'TACHIBANA 70 – 82 SEIRAI'
This was the current score. As they discussed, the team's discussion slowly turned into an argument.
"Tch, I told you to pass me the ball earlier! I was open!"
"You missed 4 shots in a row. The enemy thought you weren't a threat and just left you alone!"
"Everyone, please calm down."
Chitose was trying to de-escalate the situation before it got out of hand but it did not look like it was working. At the side, Chihaya was standing there silently and she was trying very hard to hold her tears in. She thought that they could at least work as a team but at the first sight of trouble, the team unity had collapsed. Just as she was about to start crying, she felt a small head pat from behind her.
"Haah… It's only the third quarter. Save it from when you win, okay?"
"Kei…chin…? Kei-chin! Kei-chin… Waaaaah!"
Chihaya couldn't hold it in anymore and hugged Kei as she started crying.
"There, there. You're not a kid anymore so stop crying." Kei said as he continued patting her head.
The other girls heard Chihaya calling out Kei's name and all gathered around him. They were all pushing each other to ask him for advice, showing not a shred of unity amongst themselves before Kei had finally had enough.
"Enough!" Kei said in a stern and commanding voice to get all the girls to quiet down.
"You were all happy and working together when you were winning and now when you're losing, instead of working together to catch up, you all start blaming each other?"
The girls were now looking guilty.
"When this is all over, you all had better hope Yanagi-sensei found you coach or I'm gonna have you training alongside the boys!"
As Kei said that, the girls started shivering. It was a mix of fear as well as disgust over the prospect of training with a bunch of starving hyenas.
"Chitose-senpai, Kanae-senpai, I thought I had taught you how to lead the team properly?"
"Sorry… Kei-kun… can you… please guide us…?"
"I will help you out this one more time. But if you make Chihaya cry again, then that's it. Coach or no coach, I will no longer lift a finger to help. Am I understood?"
""Yes!"" The girl's team said in unison.
"Here is what I want you to do…"
Chihaya felt touched and mesmerized as she looked at Kei saying those words. As she was distracted looking at Kei, she felt a sudden hand chop on her forehead from Kei.
"Oy, listen."
"Y-yes!"
As Kei gave his final instructions, the referee blew the whistle to signal the start of the final quarter. As the final quarter progressed, Tachibana High School slowly caught up to Seirai. When there was only 1 minute left in the quarter, Kei looked at the scoreboard once more.
'TACHIBANA 86 – 88 SEIRAI'
They managed to limit the shots that Seirai could make and managed to catch up. It was also thanks to a series of timeouts called by Kei that they managed to quickly catch up. In the final quarter of a basketball game, timeouts can be called any time the team is holding possession and the game will restart in the middle of the court, cutting the time taken. After a 40 second stalemate between the two teams thanks to Seirai High School focusing on defence, Kanae had suddenly found herself open and managed to hit a 3-point shot to take the lead.
'TACHIBANA 89 – 88 SEIRAI'
When the shot fell, Seirai's coach instantly called a timeout. Seeing this, Kei instantly knew what she was trying to do. He quickly gathered the team for a huddle.
"This will probably be the final possession of your tournament. I'm very sure that the other team is going to hold possession until the last possible second before making that shot. Any shot they take makes the lead. So, here's what I want you to do. Focus on defence around the 2-point areas."
"What about their 3-pointers?"
"Judging by their game so far, only their Number 6 has a high percentage of making 3-pointers. So, I want Chitose-senpai to mark her. Just get in close and don't let her make a proper shot."
When the whistle blew once more, the players returned to the court. They followed Kei's instructions and true to his words, the Seirai team was putting heavy focus into holding the ball, passing it around. When the clock ran down to 8 seconds, they became more active. Tachibana followed suit and the Seirai Number 6 had been passed the ball. Seeing this, Chitose went in close to give her more pressure. At 2 seconds on the clock, she made the shot under tremendous pressure and little room to move. Chitose, who was shocked that she could make the shot anxiously watched the ball. She rejoiced when she saw the ball's trajectory was too low and the ball ended up as an airball.
The referee blew the final whistle to signify the end of the game. The girls started screaming in joy and excitement as they had finally won their first ever Inter High School Championship. As they lined up once more to bow to each other as courtesy, Chihaya turned back to the stands to look for Kei. Once again, he was nowhere to be seen. When Chihaya wanted to look for him, she felt Kanae's hand wrapped around her and pulling her back to start celebrating once more. It was also to thank the supporters who had come out to support them.
"Kei…chin… baka…"