Rebirth in KurokoNoBasket

He decided not to bring in Kise back on the court.     

They were having difficulty keeping up with Shun, and if Midorima was once again double teamed, then closing, and crossing up the point-gap would take more effort and time.     

Akashi walked to Aomine and told him about the decision.     

Akashi: "Aomine, I will be joining you in defending Kageyama."     

Aomine wasn't happy when he heard that.     

Aomine: "No, I will defend him alone. You stay with your mark."     

Akashi understood Aomine's point of view, and he was expecting some resistance from Aomine.     

Akashi: "Aomine, I understand why you want to defend Kageyama alone, but if we don't slow him down, we will not be able to close the point-gap.     

I want the point-gap to close by the end of this quarter. So, please cooperate with me on this."     

Aomine shut his eyes close, put his hands on his waist, and thought while tapping his foot on the floor.     

He opened them after a couple of seconds and gave his decision.     

Aomine: "Okay, you can join me."     

Aomine had difficulty saying the words and had a really unwilling face.     

Akashi smiled slightly and spoke.     

Akashi: "Good, my mark is Yuki Tetsuya, and he is an inside player. So, Murasakibara will take him on as well.     

-*-*-*-*-*-*-     

Shun got the inbounded ball from Yuki.     

Shun nodded to Yuki, signaling him to go ahead and tie up his defender.     

Yuki went ahead and got into position. His defender was Akashi, and Akashi did get close to him, but he was giving Yuki some space.     

Yuki wasn't surprised. Tokiwadai hadn't been scoring with other members other than Shun and sometimes Mibuchi.     

So, Akashi giving him space didn't seem fishy to Yuki.     

Shun crossed the half-point line and a few steps in, Aomine was near Shun, to defend him.     

Shun slowed down near Aomine and stopped when Aomine was within Shun's range.     

Shun started to dribble slowly; he dribbled behind his back, he moved the ball between his legs and then brought the ball near his chest level, ready to use a change-of-pace to flash by Aomine from the left.     

But, then Shun saw something with his court vision that he thought could cause a whole new deal for him, so he decided to get out of there before the trouble reaches him.     

Shun, who was going to pass Aomine from the right, decided to change direction and pass him from the left.     

Shun did a right-to-left crossover, but Aomine knew about the incoming trouble and tightened up on the left.     

Aomine: "We will see how you escape this time."     

Shun clicked his tongue as the trouble was already here.     

-*-*-*-     

Kaitani rubbed his hands against his knees as he saw Akashi Seijuro running towards and arriving near Shun and Aomine to trap Shun in a double-team.     

Kaitani: "Isn't this bad. If they start double-teaming Kageyama, we won't be able to keep up that point-gap."     

The coach glanced at his student and spoke.     

Coach: "There had been times when other teams double-teamed Shun, but this time the players double-teaming him are quite skilled."     

Kaitani frowned as he worried about Kageyama on the court.     

-*-*-*-     

Shun wasn't able to escape in time, and Akashi arrived in a position to defend Shun with Aomine by his side.     

Shun got into a position where the ball was away from his defenders. He didn't want them to steal the ball from him.     

Shun grinned with a little frustration behind his smile.     

Shun: "Hoho, Dai-chan bringing back-up to defend this weak old me, eh?"     

Before Aomine could reply, Akashi spoke first.     

Akashi: "Kageyama-kun, provoking him will make no difference. The two of us ready to guard you, and will not let you pass us."     

Shun knew Aomine was going to be extremely serious as now he had to share his defense position with Akashi.     

Shun tried to pass his double-team, but they were already in position, so Shun wasn't able to escape them.     

Shun glanced at the shot clock.     

Shun: 'I don't want the shot clock to end on me. Let's try to get the ball to Mibuchi-san.'     

Shun scouted the position with his court vision and decided to pass the ball.     

Shun jumped up and threw the ball over Akashi's head. He threw it high enough that both Aomine and Akashi weren't able to put a hand on the ball.     

Shun: "Yuki!"     

Yuki, who was now free, ran towards the ball to catch it. He caught the ball and looked around to find Mibuchi.     

He ran towards Mibuchi, and Mibuchi also ran towards Yuki.     

Midorima followed Mibuchi as his defender.     

Yuki dropped the ball behind himself and then screened up fro Midorima.     

Mibuchi increased his speed and caught up to the ball.     

Yuki's screen slowed down Midorima, giving Mibuchi enough time to shoot the ball.     

Midorima got around Yuki's screen and tried to block Mibuchi, but he wasn't able to reach in time.     

The ball went to the hoop, but missed the center and bounced off the rim.     

Murasakibara and Aone jumped for the ball, and due to Aone's favorable position, he was able to get a hand on the ball.     

-*-*-*-     

On the bench, Hyakuzawa got up from his seat after seeing Aone getting to the ball first.     

Hyakuzawa: "Yes!"     

-*-*-*-     

But the celebration didn't last long as Murasakibara snatched the ball from Aone as he was bringing the ball down.     

Midorima ran ahead to get into a position for a shoot.     

Muraskibara ran outside of the Teiko's three-point arc and immediately passed the ball to Akashi, who relayed it to Midorima as Aomine blocked Shun from interfering with Akashi's pass.     

Midorima got the ball, and with the absence of any defender near him, he took a shot with his patented perfect accuracy and high-arcing locus.     

-*-*-*-     

Commentator A: "It looks like Teiko is going to use the double-team strategy against Kageyama-kun."     

Commentator B: "And, from the looks of it, they were able to stop him from scoring."     

Commentator A: "Both teams have deployed double-teams on each other. Midorima-kun has been active in this quarter, where the double-team was disabled."     

-*-*-*-*-*-*-     

Sora was the one who was taking the ball past the half-court, and just at the half-court line, he passed the ball to Shun, who was already defended by Aomine and Akashi.     

Shun caught the ball and looked at both of his defenders with a plan brewing in his eyes.     

He glanced at Aomine, who was near the sideline, and Akashi, who was at the open-side of the court.     

He moved the ball as far he could do from his defenders and then waited for the only condition of his tactic to come to completion.     

Shun tried to fake them with fake-charges, to keep them active.     

The moment he was waiting for came, and he saw the visual confirmation from both sides.     

He saw Sora come near them to receive a pass, and simultaneously he saw Akashi shift his weight towards the side to steal a pass.     

Shun internally smiled as he saw Akashi falling for his scheme.     

Shun immediately got into a pass motion to Sora, and as he expected, Akashi jumped in the pass-trajectory.     

Akashi, who had the perfect court vision knew Sora was open for a pass, and Shun's realistic fake made Akashi, move to steal the pass.     

Shun: 'He sees too much.'     

Akashi moving made space for Shun to move between the double-team.     

Shun moved the moment he saw Akashi move, and Aomine still in his initial position, not having reacted to the creation of a hole in their defense.     

Shun grinned as he got flashed between Aomine and Akashi.     

Shun: "Take that!"     

Aomine and Akashi turned their head and chased after Shun. Akashi fell behind, but Aomine chased after Shun full-force.     

Shun glanced back and saw Aomine chasing him.     

Shun: 'Hmm...'     

Shun looked at the position of Murasakibara and moved in the direction away from him to avoid facing him and Aomine and him at the same time.     

Aone saw Shun moving away from them and moved to hinder Murasakibara as much as possible.     

Then at mid-range, Shun came to a stop and got into shooting position.     

Aomine caught up in the time of the stop and jumped for the shot, but as he glided above Shun, Shun brought his hands down in a pump-fake and took another shot as soon aa Aomine cleared above him.     

Commentator B: "Kageyama-kun is showing his command and skill on fakes. He completely fooled Akashi-kun with the pass-fake, and Aomine-kun with a pump-fake."     

Commentator A: "Fakes are a powerful weapon in a player's arsenal if they know how to use them properly."     

-*-*-*-*-*-*-     

Akashi looked thoughtful as he moved towards Tieko's basket to inbound the ball.     

Midorima, who was running along with him, asked his pensive teammate.     

Midorima: "What happened?"     

Akashi glanced at his teammate and replied.     

Akashi: "Kageyama may have gotten past us this time, but that strategy will not work all the time, plus he just gave away an important detail in the previous play."     

Midorima thought back to the last play, but couldn't think of anything of importance.     

Midorima: "Which part? If you're talking about Kageyama's fake, then it was already in Momoi's report."     

Akashi shook his head and explained.     

Akashi: "I am talking about Kise's guess about Kageyama's formless shooting range. As he said, Kageyama can't use formless shooting from the mid-range. He needs to be close to the basket for it to work."     

Midorima looked at Akashi with a surprised expression.     

Midorima: 'He remembers that small thing?'     

Akashi sighed as he added.     

Akashi: "But, I have no idea what to do with that information. His mid-range shooting percentage is extremely high. He hasn't missed a single shot from that range in this game."     

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-     

Akashi jogged to the half-court line and decided to go with the simplest option available to him for the offense.     

He called out to Midorima and signaled him to come closer.     

Midorima understood the meaning behind Akashi's instruction. He jogged to the eight-meter line and stopped there.     

Akashi smiled and passed the ball to his trusted shooting guard.     

The people who were watching the game were confused when they saw Midorima not move a single step from his position.     

But, Shun knew what was happening. His eyes widened as he shouted.     

Shun: "Block him! He is going to shoot the ball from there!"     

But, alas Shun was too far away, and the rest of them, they were too slow to react to follow Shun's instruction.     

Midorima focused his eyes on the prize and shot the ball with absolute confidence.     

The people saw with utter fascination, awe, and disbelief as the ball followed the high-arc that looked like it was trying to reach the sky, they gawked at the ball, that was shot from a distance of eight-meters from the basket, drop into the net.     

The cheers that followed filled the stadium and leaked outside to grace the ears of the people passing by.     

Midorima Shintaro had won the hearts of people with just one shot, one single shot of perfection to the finest.