The distance of one train stop wasn't far. The Seiho team quickly arrived at the venue for the A-Block finals by subway.
By the time they got there, the match had already entered the middle of the fourth quarter. But when the Seiho players looked up at the scoreboard, they froze mid-step.
"Whoa, whoa, why do I feel like the result of this match… isn't as certain as we thought?"
The scoreboard in the center of the arena read 80–71.
Although Shutoku was still in the lead, the gap was far smaller than what Seiho's players had expected.
"Seirin's… that strong?" Tsugawa Tomoki's face showed clear disbelief.
If he remembered correctly, last year Seirin had been crushed by Seiho with nearly triple the score!
Tsutomu Iwamura and Kasuga Ryuhei didn't respond. Their expressions, however, had turned from relaxed to serious.
Was Seirin strong?
If you asked Tsutomu Iwamura, his answer would be "Yes, very."
After all, in Tokyo's competitive scene, any team that made it to the finals couldn't possibly be weak.
But in his mind, Seirin's "strength" was conditional, only when Kiyoshi Teppei was still on the team.
With him, Seirin absolutely had the power to contend for a national tournament slot.
Without him, their strength would plummet, dropping to the level where the "Three Kings of Tokyo" could crush them with triple-digit differences.
Yet now, despite Kiyoshi still being absent, Seirin was keeping pace with Shutoku.
Even Iwamura hadn't seen this coming.
Is it because of that rookie?
His gaze instinctively shifted toward the court, toward Kagami Taiga, who was facing off against Midorima Shintaro.
The two shone brightest on the court, stealing all attention without even trying.
And right then, Kasuga Ryuhei spoke from beside him.
"Looks like Seirin's recruited quite an incredible rookie this year."
Clearly, Kasuga's thoughts mirrored Iwamura's.
Losing Kiyoshi didn't make Seirin weak, per se, but most of their players still lacked the polish of national-level elites like Seiho or Shutoku.
Part of that was talent.
But the bigger reason was that Seirin was still a new school.
Their oldest players were only second-years.
When two players had similar talent, the difference between a second-year and a third-year could be enormous, physically and mentally.
Second-years were still developing…
But the third-years' bodies were nearly fully matured.
Over the past year, Seirin's members might have improved a lot but Shutoku hadn't been standing still either.
So for Seirin to be holding their own against a Shutoku led by a member of the Generation of Miracles, there could only be one explanation: the rookie changed everything.
============
As the Seiho team discussed, the court suddenly erupted in motion.
Shutoku passed the ball to Midorima at midcourt.
He went for a shot.
But the moment the ball left his fingertips,
Kagami Taiga lunged forward like a tiger unleashed, leaping high into the air, and with a resounding smack, blocked the shot clean.
"Holy crap! He jumped that high?!" Sakamoto Kenjiro couldn't stop himself from blurting out.
The others were just as stunned.
"I think I get why Seirin can stand toe-to-toe with Shutoku now. Who is that guy? That kind of vertical jump is insane!"
"Yeah, 'jump' doesn't even describe it. He flew!"
With such explosive jumping ability, even if Seirin was still behind Shutoku in overall strength, they finally had a way to counter Midorima Shintaro.
A smirk of interest crossed Akashi Asuka's face.
Even though the matchup of Seirin vs. Shutoku was the same as in the original timeline, the current versions of both teams had changed significantly.
Seirin hadn't faced the draining back-to-back battles against Seiho and Shutoku like before. Their stamina was still intact.
Meanwhile, Shutoku, though unchanged on the surface, had Midorima carrying the weight of a previous loss to Seiho. Whether or not that had affected him... only he himself knew.
"Seirin's launching a counterattack!"
After Kagami's block, Seirin immediately went on the offensive.
That was one of the downsides of Midorima's long-range shots: The farther you shoot, the closer you are to your own basket, and the easier it is for the opponent to fast-break once they intercept.
Within seconds, Kagami was already driving into Shutoku's paint.
At that moment, Shutoku's other players were still only halfway across the court, the only one in position to defend was Midorima himself.
"I remember Midorima's defense is supposed to be top-notch too," said Kasuga Ryuhei.
"Yeah. He's got solid fundamentals on both ends, offense and defense," replied Omuro Yoshikasu.
During their scrimmages, aside from Akashi and Tsugawa, Omuro was the one who'd faced Midorima the most directly. He knew exactly how sharp the guy could be.
"So that means Seirin's rookie might be in trouble…"
Before Kasuga could finish, Kagami suddenly passed the ball inside the three-point line and together with his teammate, broke past Midorima's defense effortlessly for a dunk.
"Huh?" Kasuga froze.
"Eh?" The others were equally stunned.
"That's it? He broke through that easily?"
"Idiot, of course! Midorima's just one person, how could he defend against a two-man combo by himself?"
"Oh... right!"
No matter how skilled you were, you couldn't guard two players at once.
That was one of basketball's most basic truths.
So while Seiho's players were surprised by the play, none of them were shocked beyond reason.
And yet... there was still this nagging feeling like something about the whole sequence was off.
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