Rebirth in KurokoNoBasket

In the evening of Day-Two, Coach Albert Hamilton and Coach Sarah Snow sat down with Hattori Akira to see how Shun usually played back in Japan. [1]     

Hattori loaded a CD into the player, and before playing it, he turned to Sarah and Albert and said.     

Hattori: "The game we are about to see is actually a recent game. It is at most a month old."     

Sarah and Albert nodded, and Sarah spoke.     

Sarah: "That is good news, which means we could get an accurate sense of Shun's level."     

Albert opened his mouth and asked.     

Albert: "Before we watch the video, tell me about Shun, what do you know about him?"     

Hattori took a moment to collect his thoughts and started.     

Hattori: "Kageyama Shun studies and plays for Tokiwadai Middle School based in Tokyo. He is a second-year student and plays as the Point Guard for the team."     

He paused for a moment and added.     

Hattori: "Actually, in his first year, he played as the small forward."     

Hattori looked at both to see if they were with him, both of them nodded, so he continued. He chuckled while saying.     

Hattori: "Around the start of this year, he was dubbed as the King Of The Court by a leading youth sports magazine. He scored seventy-seven points in his first-year National finals, and has scored one hundred points in a game."     

Albert and Sarah's brows raised hearing that.     

Albert: "That is high praise for a player, but with such numbers would certainly back up that title."     

Sarah looked at Hattori and asked.     

Sarah: "Tell me about Shun's playstyle."     

Hattori thought for a moment and said.     

Hattori: "He is an all-round player that excels in every part of the court. I can't specify a single field for him.     

Though in the video we are about to see, I would say that he didn't play as support and went all-out on the active attack."     

Albert nodded and asked.     

Albert: "So, what game is this?"     

Hattori replied to the question.     

Hattori: "It is the Tokyo Preliminary Finals, you could say, that this game would be equivalent to the state championship here in America."     

Sarah furrowed her brows and asked.     

Sarah: "What about a game from the National championship?"     

Hattori shook his head and said.     

Hattori: "We still haven't gotten to this year's National, but you don't have to worry, this game could as well be the National Finals, and no one would complain."     

Albert questioned that statement.     

Albert: "What do you mean?"     

Hattori looked at Shun and said.     

Hattori: "Even though Shun has been called King Of The Court, he didn't win the last year's Nationals, and this year his team isn't even going to the Nationals.     

And, both times, the same team has stopped Shun from proceeding forward."     

Albert and Sarah felt shocked by hearing that. Shun had made it to this camp at the age of thirteen, and they too were satisfied with Shun and thought that he deserved to be there.     

Sarah asked the question that Hattori was expecting.     

Sarah: "What kind of team are they?"     

Hattori immediately answered the question.     

Hattori: "Teiko Middle School, one of the two behemoths of Tokyo and last year's National champions, and the team that is called the Generation Of Miracles."     

Sarah wanted to ask about Teiko, but Hattori raised his hand and said.     

Hattori: "Watch the game, and you would understand all you need to know."     

Hattori picked up the remote and played the game video, Albert and Sarah immediately became focused on the screen.     

-*-*-*-*-*-*-     

After watching the game, Albert and Sarah remained silent for a while and remained lost in their thoughts.     

Hattori didn't say anything and waited for the coaches to speak first. He had watched the game, so he understood what they were thinking.     

Even today, he enjoyed the game as much as he did when he saw it the first time.     

Albert took a deep breath, and the first thing that came out his mouth was.     

Albert: "Generation Of Miracles, was it? To think that players of that caliber would gather on the same team, and all of them are the same age as Shun."     

Sarah nodded and said.     

Sarah: "Everyone single one of them was unique in their own way, and all of them knew what field they wanted to play. Even the weakest of them, the blonde-haired player, he was a great player."     

Hattori added a piece of information about Kise Ryouta.     

Hattori: "His name is Kise Ryouta, and from what I have heard, he has only started playing basketball from this year."     

Albert and Sarah were once again shocked hearing that and had to raise Kise's impression in their mind.     

Albert stroked his chin and said.     

Albert: "Let's get to the main point. What we just saw was simply ridiculous. I can't believe Shun could play like that."     

Sarah nodded and said.     

Sarah: "So, our suspicions about him were correct, weren't they?"     

Albert hummed in response in response and said.     

Albert: "Shun is trying to copy the players in the camp. We just saw the proof in the video."     

Albert stared at the TV screen and begun.     

Albert: "He took the circus shots from the dark-blue haired player from the other team. His range was much shorter than the original, but he used it efficiently.     

Shun's rim-finishing skills are already on a high level with those shots."     

Sarah continued from there and added.     

Sarah: "Shun's ball-handling is also similar to the blue-haired player. Both of them can dribble the ball any way they like, but the streetball style has heavily influenced the original, whereas Shun is much more balanced in his approach."     

Albert nodded at that assessment.     

Both of them moved to another aspect of Shun's game.     

Albert: "We saw both of inspirations for Shun's shooting in that video.     

Both of the shooting guards in the game influenced Shun's shooting style.     

Shun's Team's shooting guard provided with diversity and the green-haired shooting guard provided, Shun with stability and accuracy."     

Sarah nodded and elaborated.     

Sarah: "He got the foul-drawing shot from his teammate, and the stable form and high release point from the green-haired shooting guard.     

But, he abandoned that ridiculous high-arc and focused on speed over the range."     

Albert rubbed his hand over his face and said.     

Albert: "From that, I can tell Shun didn't straight copy them, and he made those moves his own."     

Sarah agreed and said her opinion.     

Sarah: "Unlike today and yesterday, his moves didn't completely resemble the originals. Those moves were his own."     

Albert moved on to the next topic and the most important topic in his mind.     

Albert: "I still can't understand what happened in the confrontation between Shun and the red-haired point guard.     

The red-haired point guard was moving before even Shun started his move, and Shun was changing moves with unbelievable timing."     

Albert massaged his temple when he thought about all the confrontations he saw in that video.     

Sarah sighed as she concluded from what she gathered from the video.     

Sarah: "Shun can copy moves, and he has incredible reaction time. I think his reaction time is faster than Leonal Claude. We saw him react as fast as Leonal does, even though their bodies are on different levels."     

She looked at Albert and asked.     

Sarah: "How do we proceed with his training here?"     

Albert stayed silent for a while and said.     

Albert: "Shun had me change his workout menu to a more balanced one, which was the right thing to do. He needs a balanced physique for his playstyle.     

I would slip in some endurance exercises on his menu to increase his stamina. We don't want him to collapse mid-game."     

He looked at Sarah and said.     

Albert: "You can't tell anyone in Division-One about Shun's copying ability."     

Sarah was surprised and asked in a hurry.     

Sarah: "Eh, but why?!"     

Albert sighed and answered.     

Albert: "The players would find out on their own, Shun is copying them, so of course they would find it out sooner or later. I want the players to decide what they show Shun when they do find about his ability.     

What we would do is deliberately put Shun against all of them in some so he could experience their playstyle first-hand.     

I am pretty sure, after seeing him, some will approach him actively to help him out, some wouldn't, but they would show their diversity from away."     

Sarah frowned and asked.     

Sarah: "What is stopping them from not showing their full capabilities? To protect their secrets and moves."     

Albert scoffed and answered.     

Albert: "The answer is Pride. Some of them might not show it, but all the players in Division-One are players full of pride and confidence, they would see Shun's attempt to copy them as a challenge and would show him more moves, like saying,     

'Try to copy this.'     

And, on the other side, Shun is no exception to the prideful player category, he too has pride. You saw it in the clip, right? At the end of the third quarter, he tried to crush the opposite team.     

The more moves they show Shun, the more he would try to one-up them by trying harder to copy them. This would create a cycle of competition between them."     

Albert laughed as a wild grin appeared on his face.     

Albert: "I have to run these guys to the bone before this camp ends. They need to gain as much experience as they can gain by the time they leave.     

I will make sure that all of them get the best of this camp."     

Sarah felt nervous and was worried about the players under her.     

Sarah: "Just don't go full-on Sparta mode on them, they are children, especially Young Shun."     

Albert quirked his eyebrow and said.     

Albert: "Hey! I am not that bad. I treat my charges with the utmost care and gentleness."     

Sarah sighed and spoke.     

Sarah: "If your method is called gentle, then I don't want to know what is considered harsh in your book."     

-*-*-*-*-*-*-     

It was decided that the coaches would help Shun in his quest to copy players.     

Shun didn't know it, but even though he had gotten coaches' support, but at the same time, his days in the camp were going to become much harder, as the coaches were going to put him against the others, and he would end up responding to the challenges.     

Egos were going to clash, and the summer camp was going to heat up.     

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-     

[A/N: Hattori Akira is a character from one of my favorite series, Bakuman. The link to his profile would be in the comments. Use it for his photo and nothing else.]