Like a demon walking out of hell.
Every step Yuuto took forward left a patch of white steam in his wake. His short snow-white hair symbolized loneliness, like the earth covered by heavy snow in winter.
That posture, that power, commanded involuntary awe.
The game continued.
Being attacked like that, even Aomine, who was endowed with absolute focus and calm by the Zone, couldn't help but feel a surge of anger in his heart.
He snatched the ball directly from the backcourt and killed his way forward, aiming straight for Yuuto.
Daiki Aomine was never a good kid who wouldn't hit back.
Seeing this, Yuuto actively went to meet him, engaging in a super-high-speed dogfight with Aomine at the three-point line.
At this moment.
The entire half-court seemed to become their battlefield.
The two moved too fast; their interactions even produced afterimages and high heat effects.
The high school teams watching this game looked as if they had seen a ghost.
This wasn't the middle school basketball game they knew.
In fact, this wasn't the basketball game they knew at all.
"What a scary atmosphere!"
Kotaro Hayama, who had already gone to Rakuzan, could feel that tension even across the screen.
"Hayama, you've played against Yuuto. Do you know about the changes in him?" Reo Mibuchi asked curiously.
The current Yuuto was practically a different person from before.
"How should I know?" Kotaro Hayama scratched his head, thought for a moment, and added, "But that guy's Wildness is brutal. It's the kind of suffocating feeling you can sense just by standing on the court."
"At first, I thought I was going to be killed by him. Who knew that during the game, he was surprisingly able to maintain absolute calm."
In other words, he had been suppressing himself before?
Only when the game's momentum shifted to Teiko did he completely release his Wildness?
Momoi realized this layer as well.
She stood on the sidelines, staring intently at Yuuto.
This boy with a poison tongue and a fanatical obsession with victory had actually been suppressing his innate ability all along, only releasing it completely now.
She didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
She just couldn't ask Yuuto to give up victory; no one had the right to ask that of him.
10 seconds of the shot clock had passed.
The dogfight between Yuuto and Aomine was still ongoing.
Like dancers dancing on blade tips, shrouded in a cloud of white mist, only the blue light and the occasionally flashing crimson pupils proved the intensity of the battle.
"Can't intervene at all...!" Kise swallowed his saliva. "The actions of those two have surpassed the reaction speed of my brain."
This was a characteristic of players with the Wildness talent.
They would think a little while playing, but they trusted their instincts and intuition more than ordinary players.
This made their actions appear faster than normal people.
Even more so when they fully activated their body's potential; their actions exceeded the speed of others' thoughts.
Just then.
The two burst out from the white mist.
Aomine manipulated the basketball to crash directly toward Yuuto's face. Yuuto tilted his head to dodge. Aomine seized the opportunity to explode at full speed, rushing behind Yuuto in one breath, catching the ball, gathering it, and jumping.
He was about to complete a powerful dunk.
However.
A second before the basketball was about to be smashed into the hoop, Yuuto's figure soared rapidly from below.
First his arm, then his white hair, and finally that face Aomine hated incomparably.
SMACK!
Yuuto's five fingers hit the front of the ball. The two wrestled in mid-air once again.
The result was predictable.
Yuuto, who had pumped iron all summer, compared to Aomine who had wasted over a year, was superior in strength.
He exerted force suddenly, smashing the ball down.
The basketball smashed toward Aomine's face—that face that made one want to vomit upon seeing it.
Aomine dodged again.
If he got hit and then fell to the floor, it wouldn't be a joke.
ZZZT!
He flipped and landed, twisting his ankle to rush toward the ball's landing spot.
Yuuto did the same, rushing out of the steam straight for the basketball.
"Truly a monster through and through!"
Shoichi Imayoshi of Touou smiled without humor.
He dared not imagine what would happen if he faced Yuuto.
Probably would be carried off the court on a stretcher within two rounds, right?
"Captain, I feel that if Yuuto faced you, he wouldn't need to go through so much trouble."
Has anyone ever told you that you speak very harshly?
Imayoshi looked at his teammate Kosuke Wakamatsu beside him.
The latter felt inexplicable chills from the stare and obediently shut up.
Snap!
On the court.
Aomine, being faster, picked up the ball a step earlier. Following the momentum, he turned around and hit an extreme fadeaway jumper.
"...Good shot!"
"Beautiful!"
"As expected of Aomine, Teiko's Ace!"
"As long as he wants to score, no one can stop him!"
Yuuto's pressure was too great.
Especially since the start of the fourth quarter, the people of Tokyo felt like they were facing a demon from hell.
Fortunately.
Aomine could still score; Teiko still held the advantage.
But.
"Can this advantage really be maintained until the end?" Akashi's heart was heavy.
Compared to the ability to break the 80% limit, Yuuto's talent to correct his own weaknesses at any moment was equally threatening.
While he was thinking.
Yuuto, having stayed in place for a moment, stepped out of the steam.
[Weakness]
[Correction]
Whether it was an illusion or not...
Akashi felt the ferocity on Yuuto's face had diminished a bit.
Subsequently.
Yuuto received a pass from Kuroko and hit a mid-range jumper.
His actions began to become concise again, lacking those excessively aggressive movements.
Then Aomine received the ball and pushed from the backcourt.
He was blocked by Yuuto at the free-throw line for a full ten seconds.
Forced, Aomine attempted a fadeaway jumper again.
But this time, Yuuto took a step forward before jumping, raising his right arm high to intercept the ball.
Furthermore.
He didn't smash the ball toward Aomine's face again, but used force to swat the ball toward the front court.
Seeing this scene, Akashi's pupils contracted violently again.
"As long as it is deemed a weakness, even emotions can be corrected in time!?"
This was too shocking.
Such a talent truly seemed to have no limit.
If this continued.
Yuuto would sooner or later become that nearly perfect player again—and a perfect player who had activated all his potential!
...
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