"What?!"
Kishimoto Minori's entire body jolted.
His eyes widened to their absolute limit.
He suddenly turned his head and followed Minami's gaze, urgently looking toward the roaring stands.
In an inconspicuous corner high up in the arena...
Coach Kitano sat quietly.
His hair was completely silver, and his face carried the same kind, gentle expression as always.
He wore a faded jacket that had been washed so many times its original color was almost gone, and an old, battered tactics notebook rested in his hands.
A dozen or so boys around seven or eight years old surrounded him.
They wore basketball jerseys several sizes too large and leaned over the railing, chattering excitedly as they watched the game.
"Whoa! Look! Shohoku's No. 4 is like a gorilla! He's ridiculously strong!"
A chubby little boy waved his fleshy fists excitedly.
"When I grow up, I want to be a center like him and knock everyone flying!"
"No way! Centers are too clumsy!"
A skinny boy wearing a Jordan jersey immediately argued back.
"I want to be No. 11!"
"His crossovers are so damn cool! He can even score with his eyes closed! He's amazing!"
"Me too! I want to be No. 11!"
The other children immediately joined in.
The chubby boy grew anxious and scratched his head.
Then he pointed toward Sakuragi, who was swaggering around on the court.
"But if I want to grab rebounds, don't I have to be like that No. 10?"
"He jumps so high!"
"Huh?"
The skinny boy curled his lips dismissively.
"But he was laughing like an idiot just now. And that red hair makes him look like a delinquent. His mom would definitely yell at him."
"Hahahaha…"
Hearing the children's innocent, unfiltered comments, Coach Kitano couldn't help bursting into laughter.
He reached out with his calloused hand and affectionately ruffled the skinny boy's hair.
"Hey, hey, you little ungrateful brats."
Coach Kitano pretended to be angry.
"Have you already forgotten who taught you how to play basketball?"
"I used to coach Toyotama, you know. And now you're all cheering for the other team. You're making me look bad."
The children looked at one another before sticking out their tongues.
The skinny boy's eyes suddenly lit up, and he raised his hand.
"Okay, okay! Don't be angry, Coach Kitano!"
"Then let's at least give Toyotama some polite encouragement!"
"Yeah! Yeah! Let's politely cheer for them!"
The children all joined in, clapping excitedly.
Coach Kitano was both amused and exasperated by the little rascals. He could only shake his head helplessly.
"You little brats… What do you mean, 'politely cheer for them'?"
"You're impossible."
"Go, Toyotama! Go, Toyotama! Don't lose!"
A dozen or so childish, clear voices rang out.
Amid the deafening noise of the arena, they were barely noticeable.
Soon, they were completely drowned out by the cheers of the Shohoku fans.
But Coach Kitano's smile gradually disappeared.
He rested both hands on his knees, his gaze passing through the sea of spectators as he watched Minami and Kishimoto on the court with quiet warmth.
"There isn't much time left, and the score gap is already desperate."
Coach Kitano sighed silently in his heart, yet there was still a faint light in his eyes.
"But Minami, Kishimoto… it's still too early to give up."
"Winning and losing certainly matter."
"But the end of basketball has never been just the numbers on the scoreboard."
"Feel the ball dancing across your fingertips."
"Listen to the sound of your shoes scraping against the court."
"You two need to learn how to enjoy basketball."
…
On the court, the referee tossed the ball to a Toyotama player, and the game resumed.
Kishimoto and Minami retreated toward their own half together.
Kishimoto pulled his gaze away, his heart pounding.
The heavy shackle pressing against his chest seemed to have cracked.
Minami watched Miyagi advance with the ball and spoke softly to Kishimoto.
"Kishimoto…"
"The moment I woke up in the infirmary, I realized that I'd been wrong all along."
Kishimoto froze for a moment and turned toward him.
There was an unprecedented brightness in Minami's eyes.
"Ever since the day Coach Kitano left, we got ourselves stuck in a dead end."
"We fought desperately to prove that run-and-gun was the right way to play, and we even started hurting other people just to win…"
Minami lowered his head and looked at his hands before suddenly clenching them into fists.
"Somewhere along the way, I forgot the most important thing."
"The question Coach Kitano used to ask us all the time…"
Minami turned and looked directly into Kishimoto's eyes, speaking each word slowly.
"Do you like basketball?"
Kishimoto Minori's pupils suddenly contracted.
The memories he had buried deep inside came rushing back like a dam bursting open.
It was the summer of their first year of high school.
Sunlight spilled across the wooden court.
Coach Kitano held an old basketball in his hands and looked at the exhausted pair with a warm smile.
"Minami, Kishimoto, run-and-gun is exhausting, isn't it?"
"But do you like basketball?"
"If you do, then go out there and enjoy the fun of basketball to your heart's content!"
The past and present overlapped.
Minami's voice continued beside him, carrying a faint, choked note of relief.
"A game should have been about enjoying the fun of basketball in the first place…"
"For the sake of that damn pride, I somehow forgot all of it…"
Kishimoto Minori stood there in a daze.
His eyes began to burn.
Everything he had suppressed for two years shattered completely in that moment.
That's right.
What the hell had they been doing all this time?
Playing basketball through fouls and dirty tricks?
How could that still be the basketball they loved?
It was nothing more than a set of shackles they'd put on themselves!
Kishimoto suddenly sucked in a deep breath of slightly salty air.
The intense burning sensation brought on by his exhausted body somehow felt strangely refreshing now.
He vigorously wiped the sweat and tears from his face.
The twisted, furious expression that had plagued him for so long suddenly transformed into a wild smile, pure and untainted.
"Hey! Iwata! Itakura!"
Kishimoto suddenly turned around and roared at his dispirited teammates.
That roar no longer contained arrogance.
Nor did it contain despair.
It was nothing but the pure release of his burning passion.
The Toyotama players raised their heads in astonishment.
Kishimoto clenched his fist and slammed it against his sweat-soaked chest, his eyes blazing.
"Forget the score! Forget the tactics!"
"Throw all that stupid pressure into the trash!"
He turned his head and exchanged a smile with Minami.
Two boys who had lost themselves in the darkness had finally found their way back to the reason they started playing in the final two minutes.
"Come on, guys! Wake up!"
"Let's go out there and enjoy basketball together!"
Kishimoto laughed as he spread his arms wide.
Facing the gaze of more than ten thousand spectators, he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Defense! Don't let them cross half court so easily!"
Akagi Takenori stood like an iron tower in the middle of the paint and unleashed a thunderous roar.
There were only two minutes left.
Toyotama High School should have been completely crushed beneath a thirty-point deficit.
Yet now, they seemed to have been reborn.
Minami gasped for breath, sweat trickling down from the bandages around his forehead.
But the venomous calculation that had once filled his eyes was gone.
All that remained was a pure desire for basketball.
He moved quickly, using a rock-solid screen from Kishimoto Minori to shake free of Rukawa's tight defense at the right-wing.
"Give me the ball!" Minami shouted.
Itakura Daijiro fired a bounce pass that traveled nearly half the court before landing securely in Minami's hands.
Rukawa endured the discomfort of his blind left side and his severely depleted stamina, then lunged forward with one arm raised, trying to block the shot.
Ten minutes ago, Minami might have instinctively raised an elbow and used the dirtiest possible method to force his opponent away.
But now, he simply smiled.
His knees dipped in a smooth, rhythmic motion.
Facing the fierce pressure coming from Rukawa, he calmly rose from the floor.
"Go out there and enjoy basketball…"
Coach Kitano's words echoed in his ears.
Minami gave the ball a gentle flick of his wrist.
The basketball traced an extremely high arc through the air.
"Swish!"
Nothing but net.
The sound was crisp and beautiful.
END OF CHAPTER
The King Of Slacking Off - MrBehringer's Secret
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