Chapter 126

Kuroko Tetsuya, who was on the side, heard Hanakage Ryo’s words and, where no one noticed, raised his eyebrows slightly, thinking that Takenaka-san’s 717 score was exactly the same as his own.

However...

Kuroko turned his head to look at Kagami, who was looking awkward and suddenly raised his hand. "Um... are exams important?"

"Of course."

"The bottom 100 students in the grade need to attend remedial classes, and it’s very likely they will miss the round-robin finals!"

Kagami’s face changed drastically upon hearing this.

"Oh no..."

Aida Riko turned her head and looked at this year’s newcomers, the veins on her neck visibly bulging and congested. "You guys, report your last test scores to me!"

A moment later...

"Kagami Taiga!!"

"Math..."

"0 points?!"

"English is also failing?!"

"Are you kidding me? Aren't you a returnee?!"

While Seirin was preparing to set up the 'Idiot Kagami Grade Assault Team', Yukimiya Kazuma also turned to look at his teammates from Quanzhen Hall.

"How about you guys?"

"Do you need me to help with tutoring?"

Kagami, who was being criticized, heard Yukimiya Kazuma’s words and, still jumping on the minefield, asked: "Eh? Yukimiya’s grades are actually good enough to teach others?"

Takenaka Masaki and Hanakage Ryo’s faces both darkened.

Sure enough...

The next second, they heard Yukimiya Kazuma answer calmly: "I suppose so. After all... I am the first-place student in this year’s entrance exam at Quanzhen Hall~"

Kagami: "...?"

Seirin group: "!?"

Group A Seirin, Group B Touou, Group C Meisei, Group D Quanzhen Hall.

The four teams for the I.H. Tokyo district preliminary round-robin finals had all been decided.

Following that.

To deal with the 'Idiot Kagami Grade Assault Team' for the exams, the assault on Kagami went relatively smoothly in other subjects during that period.

Only the final Japanese literature was impossible to break through, making Aida Riko so angry that she simply gave up. Anyway, since the test was done by filling in bubbles with a 4-choose-1 method, guessing randomly should get about 25 points, and then the remaining points could be made up by the other 4 subjects.

However...

The final result left everyone dumbfounded.

Kagami, who held the treasure 'Rolling Pencil' gifted by Kuroko and spent the entire exam rolling the pencil to guess the answers, scored a high score of 98 in Japanese literature.

Just like that, amidst the shock of Hyuga Junpei and others regarding the 'Rolling Pencil', all of Seirin successfully escaped the crisis of remedial classes.

Next.

Was the intensive training for the round-robin finals.

Whether in time or density, Seirin’s training volume was not inferior to high schools known as powerhouses.

The training went very smoothly.

And Kagami was very depressed because when he was playing basketball at an outdoor court, he accidentally ran into Aomine Daiki, and because of the recent high-intensity training, he was easily defeated while exhausted.

Taking this as an opportunity, Kagami learned the story of the 'light and shadow' of Aomine and Kuroko during middle school.

"Because you became too strong, it’s boring?"

"'Generation of Miracles' are such idiots?"

"Well..."

"If I have to say one thing."

"I would say, don't get carried away, you idiot!"

"Just beat him once cleanly and wake him up, Kuroko."

"Yeah."

Then, the day of the finals finally arrived. Just as Aida Riko was rejoicing at Seirin’s smoothness during this period, what greeted them was Seirin’s biggest Waterloo.

Aida Riko had been unable to sit still on the bench on the sidelines since the first quarter, her eyes full of shock.

With the combined strength of the whole team, they couldn't stop Aomine’s offense alone, and on the offensive end, the phantom sixth man that Seirin relied on was also easily cracked by Aomine Daiki.

The tactics Aida Riko had painstakingly arranged were almost useless under Aomine Daiki’s super-strong personal offense; instead, the other side broke all methods with one force, completely defeating Kagami and Kuroko on the defensive end, and defeating the entire Seirin team with his own strength on the offensive end, including the famous scene of going through five people alone.

The match went to the fourth quarter.

The score on the court was 129:41.

The ones who scored the most were actually Takenaka Masaki and Hanakage Ryo, who relied on team offense and had the least direct matchups with Aomine, but the opponents they faced, Wakamatsu Kosuke and Susa Yoshinori, were not weaklings either. With their strength alone, they couldn't save the decline.

Even compared to Aomine’s scoring rate, their scoring could only be described as a drop in the bucket, and they couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions in their hearts.

Aomine had become stronger; there was no doubt about that. Just looking at his height of 192 cm and the sturdiness of his build, one could see the difference in physical ability compared to middle school.

In the past at Baishui Hall, there was Yukimiya Kazuma to back them up on the defensive end.

And now...

Kagami was not Aomine’s opponent in any aspect.

The two of them were the second barrier for Seirin to defend against Aomine, however, every time Aomine got the ball, that terrifying 'wild' pressure made them feel like they couldn't breathe.

During the Teiko period, the Generation of Miracles still needed to distribute the ball among themselves.

But after entering high school, Aomine, who was supreme in the team and could fully let go and fire at will, made Takenaka Masaki and Hanakage Ryo feel even more terrifying than facing that Teiko team.

In the spectator stands.

Naga Xiuyang and Long Tianzhang were all stunned.

Aomine had already scored at least 60 or 70 points by now, and looking at the Seirin players on the court with miserable faces, the two finally had their mouths slightly open, but were speechless.

At this time.

Tsuchiya Taiga suddenly sighed: "It’s over. It was actually over from the first quarter."

Yukimiya Kazuma nodded.

Indeed.

It was actually over from the first quarter.

Unlike the original timeline, because of Yukimiya Kazuma’s existence, Aomine had locked onto his target early in the preliminary round.

This match didn't wait until the end of the second quarter to play like in the original timeline, but went full throttle and scored frantically from the very beginning of the match.

It felt like he was treating this match as a warm-up to find his feel before the match with Yukimiya Kazuma, or because of that training match, he was treating Seirin, the same opponent, as part of the victory or defeat with Yukimiya Kazuma.

Aida Riko bit her lip hard, forcing herself not to show panic.

But looking at everyone on the court who was helpless against Aomine, she couldn't say anything.

"It’s over..."

"It was one-sided from the beginning; I can't bear to watch anymore."

"A difference of nearly 90 points..."

"No matter how much they struggle, it’s useless, right?"

The noisy discussions around them kept reaching the ears of the Quanzhen Hall players, but looking at Seirin, who were still trying hard to defend, even though they knew it was impossible, they had an urge to speak up and refute.

On the court.

Aomine Daiki, with his dance-like super-high-speed dribbling, looked at Kuroko Tetsuya, who was still persistently standing in front of him, and suddenly said:

"Much faster than I expected. The outcome has already been decided, hasn't it?"

"The proud passing doesn't work, and the stamina is already exhausted."

"Kagami isn't here."

"Your presence has already been adapted to by everyone. You are now not even as good as a bench player."

"I won."