Finals: #10

Shun and Akashi faced-each other, both in each other's range.

The rings in Akashi's eyes glowed brighter than before. He concentrated on Shun's body and the ball, taking in every piece of information that his eyes gave him.

The Shun's future became clear in his mind.

He could see the move Shun was about to make, he could see the moment Shun would move, the direction Shun would move, Shun's breathing, and every muscle contraction that occurred in Shun's body.

On the other hand, Shun's focus was completely on Akashi and any movement he would make.

The passive God-Speed Impulse that helped Shun in every move he made on the court was now being used actively, as Shun was on the lookout for any move that Akashi made.

The tension between them increased until Shun made his move.

He moved the ball behind his back for a back change from right to the left hand.

Akashi had already seen that future and moved towards Shun's left hand to steal the ball.

Akashi: 'A back change to the left.'

Shun saw Akashi's hand moving towards his left, and a jolt traveled from his eyes to his brain and then to his right arm.

Shun rotated his wrist so that he could change the direction of the ball back to the right, and moved his arm back to its original position, canceling the back change.

He didn't stop there, seeing that Akashi was leaning to the left side from his steal attempt, Shun moved towards the right, passing Akashi and not giving Akashi a chance to stop him.

-*-*-*-

Kaitani was so ecstatic and excited seeing Shun pass Akashi that he jumped from his bench and shouted to the limit.

Kaitani: "YEAH!!!"

Tokiwadai's bench felt the power return to them as they say Shun passing Akashi.

Coach Koetsuji smiled as he saw the excited faces of his student.

-*-*-*-

Shun wasn't out of the clear yet. To halt Teiko's momentum and once again start increasing the point-gap, he needed to score and complete this play.

He ran forward towards the free-throw line where Kise stepped in his path to stop him.

Kise: "Oh, no. You don't."

Shun didn't say anything, and with utter confidence, stepped into Kise's range.

Kise saw Shun leaning to the left.

Kise: 'He is going to pass me from the left.'

But, just before he turned to the left, Kise saw Shun passing the ball to the right in a bounce pass to Yuki.

Kise was startled as he wasn't expecting a pass.

Kise: "Wait, a pass. Wha-!"

Shun, who now didn't have to worry about a ball steal from Kise, increased his speed, and with a swift spin from the left, he passed Kise.

Kise was confused about where to look and who to follow and was quite late when he did decide to follow Shun.

Yuki passed the ball back to Shun as soon as he passed Kise.

Shun caught the ball ready to score, but there was one more obstacle in his way.

Aomine was in the Dee, standing there to stop Shun from scoring.

Shun stopped a little on the right of the basket and jumped.

Aomine also jumped to block Shun by getting a hand on the ball, but he was shocked when he saw Shun.

Shun had jumped, but the jump was not straight up and forward, but sideways parallel to the backboard.

Aomine knew Shun was able to use formless shooting from this shot range and cursed.

Aomine: "Shit."

Shun, forty-five degrees to the floor, extended his left, and free-shot the ball into the basket.

Commentator A: "Tokiwadai finally scores the first point of this quarter. After those three turnovers, I was worrying that Tokiwadai would fall behind in this quarter."

Commentator B: "Yeah, but know the point-gap is back to double-digit ten points. But, we have to see if they can keep up this lead."

Shun slid on the floor after the floor with a smile on his face.

Hyakuzawa and Yuki came to him and extended one hand each towards him with a smile on their faces. Shun grinned, sat up and grabbed their hands, letting himself pulled up by them.

-*-*-*-

Akashi looked at Shun with a cold and calculative look in his eyes.

Akashi: 'How did he change his move. I saw it correctly, he was going to do a back change, but he changed it at the last moment.'

Akashi played the scene in his mind and concluded,

Akashi: "I need more information. Kageyama Shun... what more secrets do you hide?"

Akashi moved to his position for Teiko's attack, with many thoughts formulating in his mind.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Shun took his position directly in front of the basket, just behind the free-throw line.

Shun knew that it was impossible to steal the ball from 'True' Akashi's perfect court vision, but even 'Other' Akashi's Hawk-Eye vision, made it near-impossible for Shun to steal the ball.

But, that wasn't going to stop him from trying to steal passes.

Shun: 'Midorima is covered by Hyakuzawa and Mibuchi-san if he somehow can score against them, then I can't do anything against that.

Kise is guarded by Yuki. Yuki will be able to hinder Kise's moment by a considerable margin.

Murasakibara is tough, he has been pushing Aone-san around without any problems. I need to be at a lookout for him.

Aomine is free, but if I react fast enough, I would be able to reach him, but if I am even a step late, he will end up scoring.

Akashi... Sigh. Let's just hope that he comes straight to me and doesn't pass the ball.'

In the first half, Shun stuck to the inside area near the basket, and that was because he was guarding Aomine, Kise, and even partially Murasakibara. Even if Akashi passed the ball to any of the three of them, he was able to reach them in time.

But, now that he was guarding Akashi, he couldn't stick to Akashi as if Akashi passed the ball while Shun was moving towards Akashi, then Shun would be late to guard any of the inside scorers of Teiko.

He couldn't go back to Aomine, because Akashi would ankle break his way to the basket and score every single time.

He had to stay in his current position, at an equal distance from everybody, to have a chance at defending all of them.

Shun: 'The area to defend has increased, but I can do it.'

Shun nodded and slapped his thighs and said to himself.

Shun: "I can do it."

He readied his legs for a sprint to any player that had the ball.

Shun: "Come."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Akashi looked at Shun, standing in the middle looking at him, and everybody on the court, looking ready to defend a major portion of the court by himself.

He immediately thought the most optimal solution for scoring.

Akashi: 'I should bait him to me, and when he just outside of my range, I would pass the ball. Yes, that is the best solution.'

Akashi was going to follow this plan, but then the memory of Shun looking at him with a mocking smile flashed through his mind.

Akashi narrowed his eyes and thought.

Akashi: 'I need more information about him. I should postpone passing for a few plays and accumulate more information Kageyama Shun.'

Akashi's pride plagued his decision. He couldn't believe that his eyes had been defied and used the excuse of collecting information on Shun to have a one-on-one against Shun.

Akashi moved towards Shun, ready to have a direct exchange with him.

-*-*-*-

Shirogane Kozo sighed as he saw Akashi moving towards Shun.

Satsuki and Kuroko looked at their coach. Kuroko decided to ask the reason behind the sigh.

Kuroko: "Coach, what is it. Why do you sigh?"

Coach Shirogane glanced at his student and replied after a pause.

Shirogane: "Did you notice the change in Akashi?"

Kuroko and Satsuki thought of the break after the first half and Akashi's change.

Kuroko nodded and replied.

Kuroko: "His speech pattern and mannerism changed. Even the way he held himself changed."

Kuroko was a master of observation, so he noticed the changes in Akashi clearly.

Satsuki may have noted such minute changes, but she did notice something else.

Satsuki: "Akashi-kun's playstyle has changed. It's like he is a different player. Those ankle breakers and ball-handling skills weren't in Akashi-kun's before this game.

He used to make use of fakes and made space before passing the ball. Direct confrontations aren't Akashi-kun's style."

Shirogane nodded as he directed his gaze back to Akashi.

Shirogane: "Just now Akashi could've waited for Kageyama move towards him, and then passed the ball to any of the others, for a great chance to score, but he didn't."

He pointed at Akashi and continued.

Shirogane: "Look at him. He is obviously going for a direct confrontation with Kageyama. Now, this might turn out great, and he could score on his own, but it might turn out for the worse and end up in a turnover.

Akashi should've used the bait-and-pass strategy here. Direct confrontations against Kageyama are a poor choice before the point-gap is closed.

Akashi wouldn't have done that if he was playing the same as he did in the first half. He has definitely changed."

-*-*-*-

Akashi dribbled towards Shun, and as soon as they were in each other's range. Akashi's Emperor-Eyes glowed into life, and Shun's focus concentrated on Akashi, ready to let his body to flow to where his reflexes guided him.

Both of them had to temporarily cut out their court vision to focus on each other. Both of them didn't want to lose out just because they were focusing somewhere else.

Akashi's eyes showed him Shun's muscle contraction, his center of mass, and his defensive form.

Bio-electricity ran rampant inside Shun's body, his nervous system primed to relay any signal that Shun received through his senses.

The eyes of all people, including the players on the court, were on the pair.

The people in the stands were silent, all of them were too busy watching the pair for talking much less cheering.

The first one to make a move was Akashi. He leaned to his left.

Shun's reflexes blared, but he had to restrain them from moving his body.

Shun: 'Left... no, it's a fake.'

This was the weakness of Shun's God-Speed Impulse. If Shun reacted to every reflex, then he would be falling for every single fake.

This is where Shun's second ability came to work. Shun's copy ability recorded every piece of play that he ever saw, it didn't matter if he wanted to use it or not, they were stored in his memory.

Just like Kise, who had just begun to develop the sense/intuition for the game, Shun too possessed the intuition, but Shun's was on an entirely different level.

Shun had studied a lot of the moves and plays from his memories, his copy ability, and the long time history with basketball had pushed that intuition to the limit.

Shun used this intuition to filter any reflexive actions that may cause him to fall for a fake.

Just like, Akashi was not strong because he had the Emperor-Eyes. It's because someone like Akashi was the one with Emperor-Eyes.

Shun was not strong because he possessed the God-Speed Impulse, he was strong because he knew how to use it.

Shun waited for Akashi to make his next move, and as he predicted, Akashi used a left-to-right crossover.

Shun smiled as he felt the familiar jolt of reaction, he raised his left hand to speared the ball the moment it arrived in Akashi's right hand.

Akashi came to a startled stop as the rings in his eyes disappeared from shock.

-*-*-*-

The silent crowd came to life as cheers for Shun sounded throughout the stands.

Kaitani once again jumped from his seat, and this time pulled Sora with him.

Kaitani: "Woohoo!!"

Sora: "Whoa! Senpai! Be careful!"

-*-*-*-

Shun passed Akashi and grabbed the ball. Then it was a straight road to the basket.

Shun arrived at the basket and rammed the ball into the rim with a two-hand dunk, grabbed the rim of the basket, and let the momentum swing before landing on the ground.

-*-*-*-

Tokiwadai students and club members began chanting in unison.

Tokiwadai: "Shun! Shun! Shun! Shun! Shun! Shun!"

Teiko, who thought that the third quarter would be in their favor, but seeing the return of Shun's previous performance made them think otherwise.

Shun had stopped Teiko's increasing momentum on his own and returned Tokiwadai on the map.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

[

AN: The reason Akashi isn't having a nervous breakdown is that in the original, he had two years' worth of time for his pride and ego to develop.

Currently, he hasn't developed the 'Emperor' mentality to that level.

]