That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 2)

第45Q

Izuki had the ball, and passed it to Hyuga, who made a three-point shot. "Go!" cheered the boys on the bench. "Three-pointer!" But their smiles faltered when the ball bounced off the rim. Mitobe tried to get the rebound, but the Nakamiya center got it, and passed to to his teammate.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Koganei, who was worried about the team captain.

Izuki bounced the ball, but his opponent knocked the ball out of his hand, making it head towards the panel. 'I can't catch up!' he thought. But the Nakamiya player ran after the ball and hit it towards his teammates, while managing to avoid crashing into the panel. The Nakamiya captain caught the ball and scored a basket with a three-point shot. With fifty seconds left, Nakamiya South was ahead of Seirin by seven points.

'I should've known this would happen.' thought Yasu seriously. 'We are far from hitting our stride today. Against Touou, all five of our regulars gave 100%, no, 120%. But that hardly ever happens. One couldn't keep that up with every game. Another thing is we let our guard down after our victory against Touou. Confidence and arrogance are two sides of the same coins. In other words, our enemy today is not Nakamiya South, but ourselves.'

Kuroko looked at Yasu, who seemed to be aware of what was happening, and then at Riko. "Coach." he called. "I think you should call a time out."

The said girl looked over at the manager as well before her gaze went back to the court. "You're right." she said, then going off to the panel.

"Seirin High, time out!" announced the panel after the buzzer went off. The five players looked over with surprise, all of them panting and sweating hard.

"Listen closely, guys." said Riko, who was standing in front of them.

"Coach, hold up." interrupted Hyuga before holding out the tournament bracket. "Look." Everyone gathered around him to look at it. "I'm sure everyone knows, but this is what we're aiming for." He then pointed to the center, that indicated the finals. "Every one of the fifty schools here fought tooth and nail through their preliminaries to represent their prefectures. Every school is carrying the wishes of the teams they defeated in the preliminaries. They practised until they were puking up blood and survived desperate battles. Only one school can beat them all."

He then looked at everyone around him with determination. "Of course being the best in Japan isn't easy! Everyone's desperate. Letting your guard down for a second is fatal. I know it makes sense in your heads, but I think we still have weaknesses in our hearts." Hyuga looked at Riko and said, "Anyway, coach, hit me with your best shot so I can get my head on straight."

But Riko was already swinging her dominant arm with her sleeve rolled up, and Yasu could see sparkles dancing all around her. "What?" she asked gleefully. "But I'm so weak."

"You seem really excited." noted Hyuga, who had a drip of cold sweat on his cheek. "Hurry up and get it over with." Riko not only slapped him, but the other boys as well, including the benchwarmers. The buzzer went off, and the game resumed with the five players, all having a red handprint on the left side of their faces. "Okay, let's go!"

"Yeah!" cheered the rest.

Their opponents stared with confusion upon noticing the red marks on the Seirin players' faces. "Why do they all have handprints on their faces?" asked the captain.

"Who knows?" said his teammate.

"Captain." called Kagami before Hyuga stepped out. "Kuroko and I are ready to go any time. If things get bad, put us in sooner rather than later."

"What?" growled Hyuga. He turned around and gave the junior a knifehand strike on his head. "Don't worry about us, idiot!"

"Ow!" responded Kagami at the impact.