Final, Pre-Game

Day 6. Finals, Tokyo preliminaries, Tokyo Metropolitan Arena.

The stadium was more crowded than usual, with today being a Sunday and the finals of the Middle School preliminaries, more people had come to watch the two games.

The games were Tokiwadai Middle School vs. Shoei Middle School from Block A and Teiko Middle School vs. Kaio Middle School from Block B.

Block A's game was before lunch, and Block B's game was following lunch.

Tokiwadai Middle School and Shoei Middle School were already on the court warming up and preparing themselves for the game.

Shun looked at the part of the stadium where the members of the Tokiwadai basketball club were sitting and saw his parents, he smiled widely and waved his hands towards them.

Shun's parents saw their child smiling, and they too smiled and waved back. Shun's parents knew how much Shun loved basketball, he had been playing the sport since he was four years old.

Shun's mother adored the look on Shun's face, and the light in his eyes when he talked about basketball.

To Shun's mother, her child was too mature for his age. Only when he talked about the sport would he seem like a child his age.

Shun's father was also glad that his son had something he loved from the bottom of his heart and the sport did bring the father and son closer as him and Shun would frequently talk about how to take care of the body and he enjoyed the look on his child's face when he looked at him when telling him something new.

It was the face of a child looking up to his father. Shun did like to talk to his father; he was very happy to learn about new things, and his father was a good conversationalist, and they both would always forget about time while talking.

Shun looked at his teammates and thought about how he could conduct his team and work together with them.

Aone and Mibuchi were scoring monsters, Aone scored from the inside, and Mibuchi from the outside. They were the spears of the team.

If they were the spears, then Otsubo was the shield of the team, even, Shun was sometimes amazed at how he by himself could pressurize the opposition's offense.

Then there was Ishida, to Shun, Ishida wasn't as 'special' in one particular field but an all-round player.

He could supplement either defense or offense when in time of need. Before Shun had entered the team, Ishida was restricted to support, but now with Shun capable of handling support, he could spread his wings wider on the court.

Announcer: **The game for Block A, Finals, Tokiwadai Middle School vs. Shoei Middle School, will begin shortly.**

Coach: "Huddle!"

Team: "Yes, Sir!" [A/N: Deja vu?]

Coach: "Shoei Middle School is strong; they won every game they played in these preliminaries with at least a ten-point lead. I know we won games with more than a thirty point lead, but that doesn't mean this will be an easy match. Shoei has a strong center, and well-rounded team, they work well together, and don't make any many mistakes."

Coach: "Kiyoshi Teppei is the cornerstone of Shoei's defense as well as offense, he works well in the paint, and coordinates well with his teammates. Otsubo-kun, I am counting on you to hinder the support and stability granted by Kiyoshi-kun."

Otsubo: "Yes, Sir!"

Coach: "Mibuchi-kun, I want you to be on offense today, don't hesitate to call for passes. I want to see you lead in scoring today."

Mibuchi: "Yes, Sir!"

Coach: "Aone-kun, play aggressively today, gather as much attention you can away from Mibuchi-kun so that he can score more easily."

Aone: *Nods*

Coach: "Ishida-kun! I want you to help out on offense from outside and blocks today. Help out anywhere you can."

Ishida: "Yes, Sir!"

Coach: "Kageyama-kun, you will be playing point guard today, make sure to set plays to be more offensive, don't bother focusing more on support today, we will be trying to outscore Shoei in an offensive showdown."

Shun: "Yes, Sir!"

Shun was satisfied with the coach's strategy today, stealing and blocking were good ways to bring down the opposition's morale, but sometimes it was more fun to turn the game into an offensive brawl.

Shun also knew that against Shoei, a balanced strategy would be more effective, but that was if no other factors were included, but Tokiwadai had an extra factor that made the offensive strategy more viable in this game, which was momentum.

Tokiwadai's high scoring season this year had resulted in the team to have more confidence in their scoring ability, and they played more freely while on offense.

Coach knew that and decided to go with an offensive strategy.

Coach: "If we win this match we will be going to the Nationals, and the teams there would be as strong as Shoei, so don't think I am exaggerating when I say that Shoei is strong, but we are stronger, and that is all there is to it. So go to win this match, and then we will conquer Nationals once again."

Team: "Yes, Sir!"

Somewhere in the gallery, there was a group that was waiting to see the game between Tokiwadai and Shoei. All of them wore the same white tracksuit with a sky-blue outline.

The group was the Teiko Middle School basketball club, and they had come to observe the final match for Block A.

Nijimura: "So, who do you guys think will the finals."

Nijimura looked at the first-years sitting with him, ever since they had joined the regular lineup he had a feeling that they would surpass him in no time and the feeling of being chased by these little prodigies had motivated him to work harder.

The person with the red-head spoke,

Akashi: "Both teams are strong, Shoei is an offensive team with their center providing them with the inside strength to function properly. Whereas Tokiwadai is a balanced team, they have tall members and can switch between offense and defense quickly if the situation demands it."

Midorima: "Their outside shooting is strong, Mibuchi Reo and Ishida Hideki provide with more than enough firepower, and Otsubo Taisuke is a great player in the post."

Kuroko: "They have good teamwork and compensate for each other's weaknesses. They are a good team."

Murasakibara: *Munch* *Munch* *Munch* *Gulp* *Slurp* *Munch* *Munch*

Aomine: "There power forward seems strong I wonder how would it be to go against him."

Akashi: "They are all strong, but the person who attracts my attention the most is Kageyama Shun. He has shown a different kind of performance every game, and I don't know how to rate him."

Midorima: "He is a decent shooter."

Murasakibara: "I can crush him any time I want."

Aomine: "I want to fight him one-on-one."

Kuroko: "He is a good all-round player and is good at supporting his team."

Nijimura: "We don't have much data on Kageyama Shun, and he did play different roles every game. Maybe we will know what kind of player he is."

Knowingly or unknowingly, Kageyama Shun had attracted the attention of the Generation of Miracles to him.