The third quarter ended with Fukuda Sogo ahead of Kaijo by twelve points. Both teams returned to their benches, and Takeuchi stared at Haizaki with an uneasy look. 'Physical aptitude on par with Kise, and his style that pillages moves.' he noted. 'He's a much more troublesome opponent than imagined.'
'Kasamatsu gets the ball rolling well, and Kise is doing his best.' thought Moriyama. 'But the deeper we get, our offence only decreases as our moves are plundered.'
'What do we do?' questioned Kasamatsu. 'At this rate, we're in serious trouble!'
The buzzer went off when the two-minute interval was up. Kasamatsu had the ball, and passed it to Kise, who attempted to dunk. "Another one-handed dunk." said Kagami. 'But his rhythm now...' he noted.
'His usual sharpness isn't there at all!' thought Kasamatsu.
Haizaki jumped up and smacked the ball of out Kise's hand, blocking the dunk. "I already took that from you back during the second quarter." he scoffed. "It's not your move anymore. It's mine." The captain took the ball, and passed it to the bald player. "Gimme!" The player caught the ball and was about to pass it to Haizaki, but he knocked it out of his hand and dribbled it towards the hoop.
"Damn it!" cussed Kise while running to catch up.
"I'll show you an example." said Haizaki. "It's like this!" He got around Kise and did the same one-handed dunk.
"The grove is completely with Fukuda Sogo..." trailed off Izuki.
"To think that this Haizaki guy was of this level..." added Hyuga.
"Im(poss)ible..." said Hayakawa with shock.
"He's this perfect up to now." said Kobori.
"Kise is moving strangely." noted Kagami when his gaze landed on the said boy, who was on the floor panting heavily. "It's not his usual self."
"Right." said Kuroko. "Even if his moves are pillaged, I wouldn't think that Kise-kun would crumble this much." Yasu didn't say anything, as she looked at Kise with worry.
"Not good." commented Aomine.
"Huh?" responded Momoi while looking at him.
"Kise can learn any move just by looking at it once, so he should have stockpiled quite a few by now." he explained. "But, of all those, not many are of a caliber that will work against Haizaki. And as soon as he uses it, it gets pillaged and becomes useless. He's been carefully picking from a limited selection, but it seems he's running out of stock."
"That can't be!" gasped Momoi.
'Furthermore, that's not the only problem you have, right, Kise?' questioned Aomine, looking at the said boy with furrowed brows.
"Overworked?" repeated Izuki when Riko explained the other problem to the team.
"Probably." she said. "The Kaijo and Touou game back at the Inter-High, I don't think Aomine-kun was the only one to injure himself in that battle. I'm afraid Kise-kun also... I'm afraid he also practised too hard before he could fully heal."
"That can't be!" gasped Kagami, who shot up from his seat. "But still, there's no way that he would lose! We made a promise... that we'd both win, and see each other in the semifinals. So I'm positive that he'll...!"
"Impossible." said Kobori when Haizaki scored another basket.
"Kise is completely powerless against him?" questioned Moriyama.
YOU ARE READING
That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 3)
Fanfic(Third Book of "That Manager") Yukimura Yasu was the manager of the Teiko Junior High basketball team, a team that consisted of six team players each with special skills and abilities. However, during her Senior year, she had to move to another coun...
