Chapter 5 - The Big Game
Warm spring day with not a cloud in the sky. Cheers could be heard coming from young men and women surrounding a single basketball court. The cheers were so loud that one would think the Vikings were attacking. There were no deaths in this war but the blood lust was just as strong if not stronger.
Currently on the battlefield were a young man and woman. They were sweating profusely but neither of them cared much. The ball was in the hand of the female. She was lightweight yet carried powerful legs making her fast, agile, and ferocious. The tall man she was trying to get passed had an enormous stature. When compared to the slender and beautiful girl, the man was a large giant. His face was handsome but his expression was dead serious mirroring hers. This in itself displayed that both competitors refused to lose without a fight.
The attraction for the basketball club was none other than this. The game was a 1v1 tournament-style exhibition. Where the best basketball players compete to determine who is the best in the school. Outsiders may also participate in the match. To add even more tension, the kind coach Hasegawa created another penalty. For every member of the basketball team that loses to someone, not on the team, they have to run while dribbling the ball for 5 miles. Just running 5 miles was tuff enough but to do while dribbling the ball was pure torture.
Kuro was smiling watching the two youths playing as if their very lives depended on it.
Kuro has used this attraction every year while he has been coaching at Rising Sun. But this year there was a competition that has never before been seen on this court. Not only is his daughter who is his pride and joy playing this time. But also his protege and nephew was fully displaying his skills. And they made swift work of everyone else in the tournament. Just remembering the faces of the two captains who are the same height as Saito struggle to even make a point in front of his eagle-like eyes and claw-like fingers. Still made him laugh. Sayori also had no mercy for her enemies.
She usually plays against women as of course being part of the women's division, but in this 1v1 many egotistical men thought they can capture the beauty's heart if they won. Little did they know that this lioness will pounce on them and knock them over. Many young men on the basketball team were taller than her height of 5'7, but this did not matter at all. Her speed was more than enough to leave the juniors and seniors in the dust. Along with her speed, she had another powerful weapon. Her ball control was so perfect that it look like an extension of herself. She dribbled between her legs, behind herself, and even under her opponents. She kept the ball in the enemy's blindsight so they never knew which way she was going to run. But what left these national champions breathless was one fact,
SHE. DOES. NOT. MISS.
If she ever gets a clear view of the basket she would shoot and turn around, not even waiting for the ball to go in. As if it would be a predetermined fact. As if the ball itself was afraid of upsetting this tyrannical lioness, it would obediently enter the basket every time. In this way, she devastated all her enemies.
The only one to match her level of dominance was the tall freshman. They knew him very well because even when he was in middle school, he was the reason why the two teams had to run 5 miles. Saito joined his middle school basketball team but he never practiced with them. He would always practice with his uncle. He would also come here every year since entering middle school to join this tournament. When his coach and other players asked why he does not practice with them, his response would leave them upset and helpless.
Saito - "I am not allowed to practice without my uncle because he says I need someone to point out my mistakes. I am not smart."
He, unfortunately, was right for 2 reasons. The first was that even his middle school coach could not find any fault with his performance. The other was that it is almost impossible to find mistakes in your own performances at his level. He does not want to embed mistakes in himself so he needed the best set of eyes to find his mistakes. And the best set of eyes in Japan is Kuro's.
Now a new question would be asked here: why would Saito be allowed to join Kuro's practice but not Sayori?
This answer too would leave others without room for debate.
Sayori - "If Saito, sees me practice, I can't beat him."
When Saito says he is not smart, he indeed is correct, but the method he uses to beat his enemy is instinctual. He is not an intellectual hunter that stalks his prey and attacks like Sayori. He is a monstrous beast that only knows to rampage. Almost as if his body knows how to react itself, without his conscious mind. The more powerful the enemy the more his body learns to devour their techniques, and then it creates countermeasures to defeat them.
Sayori, whose second mission in life is to beat Saito, never allows anyone, but her father to watch her practice. This is also why no matter how close Sayori and Saito are they have never practiced together after elementary school. Not to say they are not together when they train. Lionesses are known to stalk their prey and pounce on their weaknesses after all…
Saito practices from evening to night and then only work on building more speed and endurance in the morning.
Sayori does the opposite; she practices early in the morning and builds more speed and endurance during the evening and at night.
As the tournament continued these two were unstoppable. Many opponents could not find a chance to score a single point against the lioness and rampaging bear. This led them to finally meet at the end of the tourney.
This was the current scene presenting itself in front of nearly every teacher and student of Rising Sun Academy. The most intense match that has ever taken place in the history of this tournament.
The score was 18-20. Sayori was in the lead for the first time. Both in this game and in life. They are neck and neck. In 1v1 basketball matches, it is normal to use half a court, and the first person to 21 points would win. However, the kind coach said this would make build bad habits in the players. So instead each match was 5 minutes long, which is half the time of a quarter in a real game. Then the final was 10 minutes which was a full quarter. This would make the players (and the audience) feel the same pressure they would feel in the final quarter of the final game. This would push their potential to the limit making each player grow better during the tournament itself. However, the audience members were still shocked. The level of intensity that these two youths displayed was much more intense. It resembled two people that were on the brink of death and the loser would be executed.
Sweat was pouring out both teens that littered the ground. Their bodies were shaking. Their muscles were twitching. The tall giant was hunched over. The elegant beauty was nearly tripping on her own feet.
The on-looks were excited to watch such a display of skill and desire to win, but still could not help but ask themselves. "Why are they trying so hard?" The only person, besides the two players, who knew the answer to this question was the tall man. Kuro was currently looking at them both with the eyes of a proud father.
Kuro turned and looked at the clock with 1 minute 35 seconds remaining. He sighed and thought "It will be over soon".
Sayori has the ball. She was much slower than she had been. She used up 98% of her body's energy in these short 8 and half minutes. She knew her advantage was that she was slightly fast than Saito. However, this advantage was not by much. And he was much taller than her. But this too has some advantages that she was able to exploit. At the cost of using more energy, she moved her slender body at various angles to run around him. Nevertheless, the cost is her current state. Her vision was fading, and her steps were unsteady. She looked at the clock. She thought this was the end.
Saito was feeling exhausted. He knew he was slower than Sayori. This is why he had to run at his fastest speed from the beginning. He was like a sprinter running a marathon. Regardless of his level of endurance, he was at his limit. His height and instincts were his only advantages at this point. His height made it difficult for the exhausted Sayori to shoot. And his instincts made his body move to where the ball would be going. The message his body was giving him mirrored his mentor and beloved's analysis, this game will end soon.
Sayori dribbled the ball as she made the plan for her last shot. Finally formulating the path to her opponent's defeat. She speeds up towards the basket. She hurriedly moved forward and back multiple times trying to find space to shoot. Saito's body was large, large enough to block even the sun's light from reaching Sayori. So she needs to expand more energy to get into the perfect spot that would leave her room to shoot. Even though she knew how tired she was; she knew that bear was at his last breath. Matching her speed with his large body was no easy feat. She also had full faith that if she had room she would not miss. This faith was also present in her opponent. Saito knew he could not let her and the ball out of his reach. But it happened.
Just as Sayori bent forward. She jumped back. This odd, nearly physics-breaking move she held back until now. She wanted to surprise the beast and win. She used every bit of strength in her legs to jump as high as she could, while she was in the motion of moving back. She jumped 4 feet in the air. From this elevation, David became Goliath.
Sayori's and Saito's positions were reversed. And as she was towering over him she was about to shoot. Saito seeing her rising also jumped. But his body which always knew where the ball would be going moved forward while jumping. He jumped 3 and a half feet in the air while moving closer to Sayori. As the ball was released from her sweaty hands she started her descent. She did not need to see the basket because it would end up passing through the net just like it always did. But she kept staring at the ball as she was descending from her world record-breaking vertical jump. Then she saw him…
Saito was not jumping vertically as she did but diagonally. The ball was obediently going to the basket and was about to go over his head, but alas…
Jessie would often joke that Saito was made to play sports because of his arms. His arms were not just long, but his wingspan was horrifying. His arms were longer than his legs. His fingers could even reach his knees when his back was straight.
And this was the problem, if it was anyone else Sayori would have won. But not against him.
He had unbelievably large arms. And he…
He caught the ball.
Not only did he catch the ball while still in the air. He brought his right arm back.
Sayori saw her perfect shot get caught in the air by the floating giant. Gravity seemed to have stopped as he was floating above her. Time seemed to have stopped as well because she couldn't hear anything else.
Then…
To her horror, she saw that muscular arm start to fill with tension. She didn't want to believe it. All her hard work for 10 years was about to go to waste. With the pull of that arm. Her sweat, her tears, and her blood: all it was going to be wasted from the pull of that arm.
Tears well up in her glass-like pure eyes.
Sayori tearfully begged- "NO. STOP. NO!!!"
But the cruel man did not stop. With his body in the air, with his arm pulled back full of tension. He smiled at her.
Saito always has a goofy smile on his charming face. Regardless of what happens in his life. Nothing can change his goofy smile. But this smile he was showing her, was different. This sincere smile was filled with love and longing. The only time he has this smile on his face was when he proposes to her. Every day, when their eyes met for the first time, she would see this smile, and he would ask her to marry him. Then she would say no and his smile would turn goofy again.
Looking at his beloved, with his face full of the smile he only ever showed her, Saito shot the ball with all his remaining strength.
He never moved his eyes away from hers; he never even looked at the basket.
But everyone he played against knew, all his teammates knew, his coach knew, and above all the woman he loved knew. This dominating right arm…
DOES NOT MISS.
A/N
Thank you so much for reading this chapter. IT WAS SO FUN TO WRITE!!! Until now this has to be my favorite. Hopefully, you liked it too. My Paypal and Ko-fi are below if you would like to show your support. Please let me know if I can make this chapter or any of my other chapters better. You can leave a comment or message me directly on scribblehub. Thanks again !!!
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