"108–61?"
Having just lost the final round of the preliminaries, Aida Riko hadn't even had time to feel disappointed when she suddenly heard Seiho's final score against Tōō Academy. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"How… how is this possible? Did both Akashi and Aomine play?"
"One hundred percent. Both Seiho and Tōō Academy sent their starters, but Seiho's Akashi Asuka was completely overwhelmed by Aomine during the match."
A Seirin substitute recounted what they had witnessed on the court. The rest of the team listened, mouths agape.
Hyuga Junpei's throat went dry as he struggled to speak. "Even Akashi… isn't a match for Aomine? How strong is that monster?!"
The Seirin players had personally felt the overwhelming strength Akashi brought to their match. They had assumed that the final game between Seiho and Seirin would at least be a hard-fought battle.
But they never imagined that even Seiho, with Akashi, would lose by more than forty points to Tōō Academy. It was simply unfathomable.
"Oh, and I heard Aomine only played three quarters, much like when we faced Tōō Academy. So maybe Seirin isn't that far behind Seiho after all!" a substitute said, a spark of excitement in their voice.
"Huh?"
Everyone froze again.
Riko, already puzzled by the score, now blurted out: "This is impossible! Seiho and Tōō Academy shouldn't have such a score gap!"
Earlier, she had been unsure, but now, hearing that Aomine left after only three quarters, she could be certain: something about this match's outcome was off.
With Seiho's ability and style, a loss to Tōō Academy was conceivable, but not by such a massive margin.
"That guy… what scheme is he playing this time?"
ACHOO!
In the locker room, Akashi suddenly sneezed violently.
Omuro Yoshikasu quickly stepped aside. "Whoa, you've caught a cold? In this heat?"
Sakamoto Kenjiro added, "Maybe the arena's AC was too strong… it did feel colder than usual during the match against Tōō Academy."
Kasuga Ryuhei rolled his eyes. "Sakamoto, don't lump us in with you. You didn't even play today, of course you felt cold."
Sakamoto scoffed. "Tch~ Makes it sound like you actually tried today."
Kasuga muttered, "Seiho really embarrassed themselves this time… nearly a double-score defeat. Since I joined, I've never lost this badly. Akashi, if you don't beat Tōō Academy in nationals, I won't let it slide…"
Sakamoto's words trailed off as the room suddenly fell silent.
Everyone fell into a strange, shared silence.
Sakamoto froze. "What's wrong with you guys? You're not actually upset about losing, are you? Don't forget, our plan today was to lose."
Kasuga fell silent for a moment. Then he said, "We all know that, but… even if we didn't go full power, we didn't throw the game either."
Sakamoto stiffened.
Kasuga continued, "Satsuki Momoi's Predictive Defense is incredible. Akashi, letting us hide our true strength today was the right call."
Against Tōō Academy, aside from Akashi performing well and hiding his abilities, most of the other players had already given their all. Even then, Seiho still lost by nearly double the points. This wasn't solely due to hiding their true power.
Satsuki Momoi's intelligence-gathering didn't just focus on basketball. Personal interests, height, weight, birthdate, zodiac, everything fell within her scope.
By compiling and analyzing all this data, she could even predict each player's style: whether they favored attacking left or right, defending high or low…
Clearly, without Akashi's guidance today, Seiho alone would have taken a massive hit just from Satsuki Momoi's intelligence gathering and Predictive Defense.
"By the way… if Satsuki Momoi is that smart, are you sure our little performance today fooled her?" Kasuga asked, frowning.
"No way we fooled her," Akashi replied, a bemused look on his face. "Seiho's performance today, don't even talk about Satsuki Momoi. By the end of the game, even Tōō Academy's other players would see through it…"
Kasuga froze, then furiously exclaimed, "Then why make us put on an act?"
Akashi smiled mysteriously. "Because they weren't the target. From start to finish, Seiho's little performance was aimed at one person only."
"What? If we can't fool the rest of Tōō Academy, what's the point in tricking just one person?"
"Of course it matters. For certain people, the other four are just there to fill out the team. As long as he falls for it, it doesn't matter what the others say."
Kasuga was silent. After a while, he muttered, "You… you're way too devious for a Seiho player."
============
After today's game, Seiho didn't go home immediately like yesterday. For one, it was still early. For another, they needed to make the most of the time for final strength training.
The preliminaries ended, but the Summer Nationals wouldn't start immediately. There would be roughly a two-week gap.
During this period, all teams qualified for nationals would undergo final adjustments, and Seiho was no exception.
In Japan, there's a tradition: whatever training or practice is conducted, they like to do it as a training camp.
After a simple vote, between the options of mountains and beach, Akashi's single decisive vote won, setting the team up for a three-day, two-night training camp by the sea.
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