Special Abilities And Choosing A Middle School

During the age of technology where technology reigns supreme, esports started to dominate all sorts of media as a go to for everyone who's looking for some entertainment. This made the physical sports/outdoor sports to get less and less popular all over the world.

However, just when every sports enthusiasts started loosing hope, a sudden age of transformation or evolution occurred to babies all over the world. It was less apparent at the time but people eventually discovered this huge and sudden change after many years passed.

Special Talents/Abilities, these are things that appeared one by one on special people who live in this world. An indicator of that is their hair color but it isn't usually the case as some with normal hair colors have special talents as well.

These special talents range from extremely useful to extremely useless in everyone's daily life, some even remained untapped for a period of time. That was all until everyone noticed the uncanny usefulness of these special talents on sports related stuffs. During that time period, many people joined other sports and showcased their talent.

Unlike the other sports where they turned a blind eye to the sudden increase of players with great talents, a group of professional basketball coaches from different parts of the world pooled their own money and established the now undisputed number 1 league of basketball, the International Basketball Association. At first, they only gathered talented players from their own country, coaching them on their own before arranging matches against the other coach's teams.

It was on its experimental phase at that time but the IBA eventually took shape and other countries slowly started to join in as well. They even made their own games, commonly known as the IBA3K and added an intricately designed Battle Pass system that would reward gamers for their purchases. Almost 75% goes to the price pool of the league, 5% goes to the game company that ensures the quality of the game, and 20% goes to the IBA itself.

The price pool was low at first but it immediately ballooned into billions after the basketball fever caught many people from all around the world. Normal people wanted to feel how it was like to play like those superstar level players while those people who have special talents within them immediately joined the league. Things got way out of hand when even the leaders of different nations started to dip their hands onto the big pie known as IBA.

However, it was not like everyone could just make a move rashly. Leaders of those big countries support IBA and even sends their national teams to compete every year to gain experience. Eventually, it came to light that those who wins the IBA every year have a very high chance of winning the Olympics gold medal. Drove by their 'national pride' as a citizen of their nation, other countries also made their national teams join the IBA. It came to a point where the Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medals became equivalent to the champion, the 1st runner up, and the 2nd runner up of the IBA league.

Now, as to how players of the league gets paid, it is quite the funny story. During the inception of the IBA league, no player actually gets paid from joining it. They were like an esports team that would only get money if they win the entire tournament or gets a proper placing.

However, as time goes on, the player's own countries started to offer signing contracts of exclusivity with their own players. Some countries started to play the nationality card and the emotional card in order to make the player play for their national team. Some players even changed their citizenship and got into a dispute with their former fellow countrymen for joining another country's team.

Now, why would the countries even resort to such underhanded tricks just to make a player stay in their country? Well, it is actually quite simple. It's because if they are able to retain great players, they'll be able to host more games during the regular season or even the playoffs.

If they're able to host many games, tourists will flock to visit their country to watch games. If tourists visit their country, the tourism of their country will flourish. If the tourism flourish, the country's whole economy will also flourish. If the economic condition of the country flourish, the government will be able to proceed with many of their projects. If the projects were to finish, their countrymen will be happy. If the countrymen are happy, productivity will rise, resulting in a sharp rise in the country's economy. Simple, right?

It's actually quite funny how a game of basketball was able to influence countries in such a way. Well, the smart leadership of each leaders of their own nation is partly to be praised but you get the point. Basketball successfully became a part of everyone's lives.

From people awakening special talents to sports being a part of everyone's lives, the lives of everyone in this planet really changed over the course of a few decades. Now, how did it happen that a human could awaken special talents? Well, researchers hypothesized, after gathering an ample amount of data, that this phenomenon called 'Athletic Talent Awakening' most probably stemmed from our ancestral roots. It is yet to be proven, however.

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As Seiji read related articles to special talents and awakening, he came to recognize a few things. First is that, there really is a wide array of abilities that was discovered in recent times. From normal sounding once like Increased Vertical Jump to a weird sounding name like Sticky Fingers.

Second is the fact that in order for people in this world to access their full potential or maybe even surpass it, they have to first have access to the illusive state known as 'The Zone' or just Zone. Zone is a term referring to a player's state when they reach their maximum potential. It is a superlative of regular concentration and focus. The conditions to enter this state vary from each person.

One fundamental requirement to enter the zone is also to have an extreme amount of love and passion towards the game. Furthermore, the player must be highly talented, rejecting the possibility of players who got good due to hardwork and dedication the possibility of entering this illusive state.

Third and the final thing that Seiji noticed is that, his abilities that were given to him by that entity are not fully awakened yet. Certainly, even though he felt like he is already above and beyond what a normal human should be, he still wasn't in the realm of 'superhuman'.

Further research on this topic led him to the conclusion that he just weren't fully developed yet. If his hypothesis is correct, the key to awakening his latent potential will be the first ability that he got 'Advanced Growth Rate'.

After arriving to that conclusion, Seiji just put this idea at the back of his mind and no longer bothered about it. This is something that is out of his grasp right now. He cannot do anything about it so might as well move on and focus on what's important at the moment.

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Inside a gorgeous looking mansion located in the city of Nara, Arisugawa Seiji could be seen having a conversation with two teenage girls. A woman who looks like she's in her mid 20's is also nearby, carrying what seems to be a melon juice on a pitcher. Along with some glasses, she carried the tray with all the things on top of it with poise.

"So, you're saying that you want to transfer to a private middle school in this city? Aren't you studying on a pretty good middle school back in Tokyo?"

Seiji looked at the caramel haired girl while asking this question with a curious expression on his face.

"We-Well, Mom said that I could study where ever I want so I chose to transfer here. I heard that the basketball club in this school is quite good so I wanted to be a manager there. I like the sport and everything and I also want to learn more about it through this."

Riko, the girl in question, answered Seiji's inquiry after a bit of a stutter. She even nodded to herself like she is trying to convince herself.

"Hee… that's news to me. Although, I do think you'll make a great manager, albeit a brute at times."

Seeing the smirk on Seiji's face, Riko didn't say anything in rebuttal. She knew that if she said something, Seiji would just get even more riled up and tease her to no end. She inwardly cursed Kosaki's mother, Nanako, for making Seiji pick up her habit of teasing others.

Seeing that Riko wouldn't say anything in response to his teasing, Seiji just sighed and inwardly thought that Riko is no fun before deciding to continue the conversation.

"So, you want us two, me and Saki-chan, to enter that school too?"

"Yep! The more, the merrier, right? Besides, this school is basically the best basketball team in the whole Nara Prefecture! Except for when their notorious choking curse during every quarter finals kicks in…"

Riko tried her best to advertise the good points about the school. She said her latter words in a barely audible whisper, thinking that Seiji wouldn't be able to hear her muttering.

'A great team that's prone to choking? Hmm… I'm curious. Besides, it's about time I enter a middle school, too,' Seiji thought inwardly. He then looked at Kosaki who is also a part of this entire conversation.

Looking at her who just remained quiet this entire time, Seiji couldn't help but ask her himself. Of course, he didn't forget to tease her while he's at it.

"So, what do you think Saki-chan? Want to go to the same school together? You did say something about going to the same school as me just a couple of days ago."

"Wha-Wha-What are you saying Seiji-kun! I… I definitely didn't say anything like that… probably…" Kosaki said, rather unsure about it herself.

"A-Anyway! Where is this school even? If you're talking about the school that is rather infamous for choking, I think there's only one school that fit the description. It's Kyōsen Private Middle School, right Riko?"

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To be continued…

[A/N¹: I think the infodumps are enough already as you guys probably have a clue as to how this world works. There are still some things that are left unsaid but we'll just leave it at that for now.]

[A/N²: Yep, it's Kyōsen. I was thinking of making up a new name but saw this one when I was browsing through the names of middle schools that was introduced. Something clicked inside my head and I chose this school out of impulse. Ahh, fun things are about to start and I can't wait.]