Teiko's basketball

Showdown

Chapter 11:

Showdown!

Sora looked calmly at Akira. "I'm sure Akira-san. I'm going to play."

For the second quarter, Sora was going to play for the girl's team along with Akira and Honami. Akira had tried her best to prevent Sora from playing.

"Sora-chan! You know how your stamina currently is! You might get hurt and quit liking basketball. Any other match. I'll even try to get you to play in the prelims-"

But Sora seemed to have made up her mind. The second quarter started.

Again, the ball was taken by Aomine during the tipoff. Akira blocked Aomine and when he tried to go around her Sora took the ball from him by using a backtip. But Haizaki regained the ball and scored.

Akira noticed Sora looking thoughtfully at Haizaki and shuddered. Sora had an almost evil smile on her face.

Aomine got the ball again and this time, much to everyone's surprise Sora stepped around Aomine to block him. She managed to take the ball from Aomine. And to the shock of everyone in the court, started to crudely imitate Aomine's style of playing. Haizaki took the ball from her with a loud laugh.

"That's not how you do it!" he said as he tried out the same thing and came out with a definitely passable imitation. Akira got the ball from him and passed it to Sora, who went in Aomine's direction. And Aomine naturally got the ball. But when he tried to dribble past, he found that his rhythm was slightly off. He had been watching Haizaki's imitation. Sora took the ball and barely managed to make a shot.

Akira looked at Sora in amazement. Sora shrugged. "There's too much of a difference in their skill level for this to work completely, but this can buy us some time. Besides, no one is going to fall for this again."

Sora threw the ball to Honami who quickly passed it to Akira. But the pass was intercepted by Haizaki, who seemed to be in a really foul mood. As he went towards the post, he was blocked by Honami and threw the ball to Aomine. Aomine surged forward and passed it to Akashi, who passed it to Haizaki. Honami and Akira double teamed Haizaki. So he passed to Aomine. Sora, who had predicted the direction of the pass, back tipped Aomine again. But this time, Akashi came to Aomine's aid and took the ball from her and scored.

Aomine started this time. He threw the ball to Akashi, who passed it again to Haizaki. But Akira managed to take the ball and score a two pointer. Unfortunately, this caused Haizaki to reach the height of his irritation. So, when Akira got the ball a two minutes from that time, she was unable to score, because Haizaku had 'stolen' her shooting ability. So, Akira passed to Sora who tried to shoot and missed. Haizaki had apparently stolen her shooting skills too. Akashi immediately took the rebound and passed it to Aomine.

But the next time Sora got the ball, she actually scored, much to everyone's surprise. She had remained unaffected by Haizaki's style.

Akira came up to Sora. "Sora-chan! What did you-"

"Haizaki is the weakest link."

"Eh?"

"In this condition, he'll make moves without thinking. But remember, don't focus when he plays."

When the game resumed, Sora marked Haizaki. She managed to take the ball from Haizaki, but was taken off-guard by a backtip. Akashi had anticipated her move. And then he switched marks with Haizaki.

"You know, maybe I'll not let you touch the ball after all..." he said. Sora looked at him.

"Have you considered the fact that this can go both ways?" she said.

And the match continued with the same pace until the second and final quarter came to an end.