Kuroko's Basketball template: the king of slacking off, Shohoku's strongest sixth man.

Mu Shen frowned.

Just as I was about to ask what that meant, the passageway ahead suddenly descended into chaos.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!!"

"Stretcher! Where's the doctor?! Call an ambulance!!"

A fierce roar, accompanied by chaotic footsteps, surged from the depths of the passage.

The group of people were taken aback.

Calling an ambulance before even entering the venue?

"What's wrong?"

Kiyota stood on tiptoe to look around. "A fight?"

Staff members rushed out carrying a stretcher, and the crowd parted like a tide.

Mu Shen glanced at it subconsciously.

The next second, he froze on the spot, his eyelids twitching violently twice.

"Moroboshi?!"

The usually composed Emperor Mu cried out in surprise.

The man on the stretcher was deathly pale, his features contorted in agony.

It is none other than Dai Moroboshi, the "Star of Aichi"!

He clutched his waist tightly, his hair soaked with cold sweat.

He looked like a flattened shrimp, with no trace of his former ace.

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Moroboshi Dai struggled to open his eyes, and a hint of humiliation flashed in his eyes the moment he saw Maki Shinichi.

"Mu..."

He struggled to get up, not wanting to lose face in front of his old rival.

But as soon as the body moved...

"hiss--!!"

The excruciating pain made him gasp and fall heavily back onto the stretcher.

"What's going on?!"

Shinichi Maki ran alongside the stretcher, his face full of disbelief.

Moroboshi Daishi gritted his teeth, the veins on the back of his hand bulging as he gripped the edge of the stretcher.

"That guy..."

His voice trembled, filled with the fear of encountering a monster.

"I will absolutely not let that guy get away with this..."

"That... first-grader brat!!"

These words were like a depth charge, exploding in the ears of the group.

"First grade?!"

Kiyota and Sakuragi spoke in unison, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

The ace player who sent one of the top four teams in the country to the ambulance was actually a first-grader?!

The stretcher was loaded onto the ambulance, the red lights were flashing, and the siren was blaring.

Maki Shinichi stood there, a chill running down his spine.

An unprecedented sense of crisis made his scalp tingle.

"First grade..."

"Looks like this trip wasn't a waste of time."

Lin Bei's voice rang out at the right moment, carrying a hint of schadenfreude.

He took off his sunglasses, and his dark eyes gleamed with the excitement of a hunter spotting his prey.

"Let's go see what that monster that smashed the 'Star of Aichi' looks like."

……

Anxi House.

The courtyard was eerily quiet in the afternoon.

Only the bamboo tube used to startle the deer was filled with water.

With a loud "bang," it slammed heavily against the edge of the stone bowl.

This crisp, desolate sound brought a refreshing coolness to the midsummer cicada chirping, but it couldn't quell the sweltering heat inside the room.

The aroma of tea wafts through the air.

Anzai Mitsuyoshi sat cross-legged in front of the low table, his round face revealing neither joy nor anger.

The thick-rimmed glasses were glared white by the sunlight, obscuring his eyes.

Across from him, Rukawa Kaede stood ramrod straight.

His usually sleepy, dead fish eyes now seemed to be burning with fire, revealing a resolute determination to gamble everything.

"USA……?"

Coach Anzai's hand, which was about to put down his teacup, paused in mid-air, the bottom of the cup tapping on the table with a soft "thud".

The ever-smiling "white-haired Buddha" mask cracked slightly, revealing a rare look of astonishment.

Not far away, Lady Anzai flicked her wrist.

A few drops of amber-colored tea splashed onto the tatami mat.

She turned her head slightly.

Her gaze darted back and forth between her husband and the taciturn young man.

Rukawa Kaede did not dodge.

He nodded, his voice not loud, but like a nail squeezed out from between his teeth:

"I want to go to America."

The room fell into a deathly silence.

"Bang—!"

The frightened deer in the courtyard sounded its alarm again.

It was like an alarm bell, or a sudden, sharp blow.

……

Nagoya.

The preliminary round venue in Aichi Prefecture.

The tsunami-like cheers almost knocked the heads off the first few people who had just entered.

But this wave lacked the fervor of playing on home turf; instead, it was mixed with a kind of panic that was almost like seeing ghosts and gods.

All eyes were fixed on the scoreboard above the court, as if drawn by a magnet.

The bright red numbers were so glaring they made one's scalp tingle.

Aiwa Academy 17:37 Mingpeng Industry.

"this……"

Mu Shenyi abruptly stopped, and the corner of his eye twitched violently on his usually calm and composed "middle-aged" face.

He stared at the score, unconsciously holding his breath for a moment.

"Love and Academy...are they getting utterly thrashed?"

"A difference of... a full twenty points?!"

As the emperor of Kanagawa, Shinichi Maki knew all too well the prestige of Aiwa Academy.

They are a regular in the top four nationwide, and a top powerhouse with "Aichi Star" Moroboshi Dai.

In county-level competitions at this level, they are always the ones slaughtering others.

But now, has the script been reversed?

"Hey, you're kidding, right?"

"That group that carried Moroboshi out on a stretcher... was it this group?"

Kiyota Nobunaga's mouth was agape, wide enough to fit an egg, and his finger pointing at the scoreboard was trembling.

Sakuragi Hanamichi stood at the entrance to the stands, hands in his pockets.

He surveyed the entire scene from his elevated position, like a lion patrolling its territory.

Those sharp eyes scanned the field like radar.

"Which grade were you referring to, the first grade you just mentioned?"

Sakuragi's brows furrowed, and he looked very unhappy.

"How dare you be even more arrogant than this genius, actually running someone over and sending them to the hospital?"

Lin Bei stood at the back, his fingertips gently hooking down the sunglasses on his nose, revealing a pair of deep, playful eyes.

He didn't look at the scoreboard.

His gaze pierced through the chaotic crowd and locked onto the massive mountain of flesh that was slowly retreating to defend in Mingpeng Industrial's half of the court.

"There it is."

Lin Bei slightly raised his chin and nodded in the center of the court.

A smirk played on his lips, as if he were watching a show unfold.

"That... brown bear wearing a jersey."

Kiyota Nobunaga followed the gaze and let out a strange cry:

"That number 15?!"

"The one who beat up the first-year student from Aichi Star High School, was that the big guy?"

Mu Shen narrowed his eyes, his gaze sharp as a hawk's.

The number 15 on the field was as broad and generous as a moving wall of sighs.

Even among a field of towering giants in the paint, he stood out like a crane among chickens.

The overwhelming sense of oppression made one's chest feel tight even from dozens of meters away in the stands.

"That's right."

Maki Shinichi's voice deepened, carrying a rare hint of apprehension.

"No one but this kind of monster could create a disaster-level scene."

……

Anxi House.

The tea had gone completely cold.

"Going to America..."

Coach Anzai murmured those three words repeatedly, his tone unsteady.

It was like touching a festering wound deep in my memory.

Rukawa Kaede remained motionless, like a sculpture.

The air inside was so thick it was suffocating.

Lady Anxi quietly withdrew, gently closing the paper door and leaving the master and apprentice alone.

"Is it... going to study abroad?"

Anzai pushed up his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses unfathomable.

Rukawa Kaede was silent for a few seconds. He was organizing his thoughts.

For this single-celled organism whose brain circuits consist of nothing but sleeping and playing basketball, expressing one's inner thoughts is harder than entering a 'Zone'.

"I want to play basketball better."

Rukawa raised his head, his gaze piercing Coach Anzai's heart, each word resounding.

That's all.