Preparations And Thoughts

After the match between Kyōsen and Kishiyamoto ended, Itou Yamato invited Chu Lin to drink some sake in his house. The two of them knows each other quite well, that's why Yamato extended an invitation to him. While they are drinking, their topic of conversation arrived to Seiji.

"Your kid is really an absolute monster, dropping down points like that so casually without breaking a sweat. Are ya sure he is human?"

"You don't have to say it like that old coot. We've seen people drop a hundred points and up during yours and my time in IBA."

At Chu Lin's nonchalant answer, Yamato got slightly angry as he bellowed.

"Who do ya think ya are foolin'!? Ya think I'm blind not to see him make use of 「Balor's View」 better than it's other wielders!? Also, what's with that boy's mental strength? He's been using those eyes for half an hour during that game but he never showed any fatigue!"

In response to his angry bellows, Chu Lin just calmly stroked his beard.

"I don't even know myself. He awakened those eyes just the other day so I haven't asked him myself. As for his mental strength, I think it's in a similar situation with his stamina, it's almost inexhaustible.*

"Ya really picked up a gem this time, ya lucky bastard."

The two continued to converse with each other while sometimes hurling some verbal insults at each other. Even though it is like that, the two still enjoyed their time until they are almost drunk. Chu Lin have a match tomorrow so Yamato didn't want to make him dead drunk.

※・※・※・※

At Tokyo, inside the gym for the first string members of Teikō Middle School, everyone on the team was gathered by none other than their coach, Shirogane Kōzō. These people were Nijimura Shūzō, Akashi Seijūrō, Midorima Shintarō, Aomine Daiki, Murasakibara Atsushi, Haizaki Shōgo, Momoi Satsuki, Sanada Naoto, and a new face with light blue hair.

"A news just came from Nara Prefecture and it seems like it is almost confirmed that the current basketball team of Kyōsen Private Middle School is as strong as, if not stronger than, Shiratorizawa Middle School from Miyagi Prefecture, the current defending champions. Major contenders like Tsubakihara Middle School from Kannagawa Prefecture can't be ignored so we need to be on our heels in this upcoming Nationals if we want to win the championship!"

As Shirogane dropped bombs at everyone's faces, he soon relaxed and gestures for Momoi to step forward.

"Momoi, tell them what you've gathered so far about Kyōsen."

"Hai! Ku-hum! Kyōsen Private Middle School have a basketball team coached by the previous IBA League regular seasons MVP and Hall of Famer, Chu Lin. He is known in his youth for his extremely polished to the core fundamentals and his fakes that are bordering realism, crafted to near perfection. No one could stop him once he starts to do his thing inside the court, a real monster despite his height being only 6'3."

Other than Sanada and Shirogane, everyone inside the gym was amazed by what they just heard. Such an amazing player in his youth, turned into a coach in his later days. He is quite similar to their coach right now.

"Coach Chu Lin had been invited by the management of Kyōsen four years ago and he's been training Kyōsen's basketball team ever since. His talent as a coach was seen when he led the then very poor team of Kyōsen into the top eight of the Nationals for four years in a row. Now, in just four short years, Kyōsen managed to build a reputation similar to ours, an elite school for basketball players."

This news came as no surprise for everyone as they all knew about Kyōsen even before they joined Teiko as first years. In fact, some of them even considered the school as the third option after Shiratorizawa and Teikō. This goes to show just how great is the reputation that Kyōsen managed to build in just four short years.

"Their managers are Aida Riko, the daughter of the famous Aida Kagetora of Japan's National team in IBA, and Fujiwara Neko, daughter of the CEO of the Fujiwara Group of Companies. Their abilities remain as a mystery as they never showed any signs of awakening or using any at the time I gathered this data."

Once again, everyone was amazed at the star studded managerial team of Kyōsen. The daughter of a former national player and the daughter of a business tycoon. Seriously, where did Kyōsen get all of them?

"Moving on to the players, they have Akagi Takenori, the center and captain of the team. His ability is known as 「Gorilla Power」 and it grants him inhuman power, strength, and senses like no other. His strength inside the paint is huge but this also resulted in him having a small array of post moves… Then we have Kiminobu Kogure, the starting shooting guard and vice captain of the team. He have no notable traits except his shooting which is not even close to our team's shooting guard. His defense is also great, only coming fourth within his team."

Midorima snorted slightly when he heard the subtle praise from Momoi's words. He didn't mind getting a praise or two though.

"Izuki Shun, the point guard. He's a second year who just awakened his gift last year, the 「Eagle Eye」. This allows him to have a different perspective of viewing the court but it has some notable blindspots here and there…"

Momoi then proceeded to walk everyone through Kyōsen's players and their entire line up, telling them the team's notable traits, strengths, and weaknesses. Shirogane have to admit that if he didn't have his current lineup of talents, he wouldn't be as confident of beating them right now.

Once Momoi is done talking about the rest of the team's roster like Wakamatsu, Fukuda, Hyuuga, Nagata, Saeki, and Morita, she then proceeded to talk about Seiji, the main reason why they started this meeting to begin with.

"…Then we have the main firepower and the ace of Kyōsen, Arisugawa Seiji. I have little information about him as of yet but it is almost certain that he and his team will be the ones who will be blocking us from taking that championship. His speed and agility rivals Aomine-kun's, his power and strength is similar to Murasakibara-kun's, his shooting percentage is as perfect as Midorima-kun's, his ball handling skills is on par, if not better than, Akashi-kun's. Everything our team can do, he can do too, or maybe even better. He's almost a perfect all-rounder without any visible flaws."

Everyone took a deep breath once they heard Momoi's words. Every player was shell shocked as, from the time they gathered and formed this team, they thought that they are already the strongest out there.

"Even faster than me… I'm so excited to face him!"

"Stronger than me. I'm gonna crush him when I meet him nonetheless."

"He can shoot as well as me, huh. I guess I need to practice more."

Unlike Daiki, Murasakibara, and Midorima, Akashi just smiled slightly, waiting for Momoi to continue. However, before Momoi could continue, a brazen and slightly sleepy voice interrupted her.

"*yawn*! 'Scuse me? Can you just tell us if he have special abilities or not? I'm getting quite bored here."

Momoi was slightly taken aback but when she saw that it was just Haizaki, she just shrugged it off like it was nothing. However, as expected, she is still quite mad about his interruption so Momoi couldn't help but spit out some barbed words that she never usually do.

"Well, if you really are in a hurry to learn about it that much, I guess I'll tell you. However, let me just tell you this beforehand, if you get to guard him in a match, I don't think you'll ever be able to even move a muscle before he either drive past you or embarass you in front of the whole crowd."

"Hee… try me, then."

"Hmph… His known special abilities, take note, special ABILITIES, are 「Eagle Eye」 and 「Balor's View」. Some say that he also have his teammate, Fukuda's, ability but there's no telling it for sure."

The one who interrupted her, Haizaki, was left speechless when he heard the ability that Seiji posses. He is not scared of the first and last one but the second one is an ability well known for being wielded by the players who owns the top one to three spots of IBA's Greatest Scorers of All Time.

These three are in the whole 'Who is the GOAT?' conversation so it speaks volume of how scary those eyes are.

Silence ensued inside the gym as it took some time for the news to sink in to everyone's mind.

"As you all have heard, Arisugawa Seiji owns the eyes considered to be the eyes of a God in one on one, 「Balor's View」. However, he is just one man. Our team, if we all combine our strength, can defeat him and win the championship!"

"""OSU!"""

※・※・※・※

After the meeting was over, Daiki started to immerse himself in his own world. However, he was taken by surprise, nearly having a heart attack, when he felt someone tap him on the shoulders when everyone supposedly left already after that meeting.

"Aomine-kun!"

"Huwaaah! What the heck Kuroko! Don't freakin' appear out of nowhere like that!"

Upon seeing who it was, Daiki let out a sigh of relief.

"I was here all this time, Aomine-kun. I was calling out to you the whole time but you never responded."

"So? What is it that you want?"

"Well, I just want to ask more about this Arisugawa Seiji. Is he really as great as what Momoi-san describes?"

Daiki nonchalantly stood in his position while listening to Kuroko before saying his piece.

"I haven't seen him yet except for when I was a kid but I just know that he is a strong one!"

"How did you know that? From the data and videos we watched?"

"Nope. It's just a feeling."

※・※・※・※

To be continued…

[A/N¹: Another transition chapter before a match. This match's gonna be quite intense, I think?]

[A/N²: Well, although Seiji is depicted as a kind of raid boss in this chapter that the party of Teikō has to beat, don't forget that Seiji is our MC here! Honestly, I have no choice but to depict him as such since he is just too OP. If I didn't want him to be like so, I could have nerfed him but noooo… we ain't doing that kinda stuff here. I just can't wait to see where I could take this. Basketball is a team sport after all.]