Chapter 204: We've Gathered the National Champion and Runner-Up!

Aizawa Riko stared in shock, while beside her, Koganei Shinji's eyes widened just as much, though the source of their inner astonishment was clearly entirely different.

"So..."

"So tall!!"

This was the second time Koganei Shinji had seen someone this tall in reality; the first was last year's Inter-High qualifiers, where he had seen Shutoku's center, Tsubota Taisho.

Back then, due to Teppei's injury, they had lost to Shutoku by a margin of more than three times the score.

This person...

Is almost as tall as Tsubota Taisho!

198 centimeters!?

Eh?

Is this person also joining the basketball club?

No!

Rather, we must make him join. Wait, the person beside him is also very tall; he just looks ordinary standing next to someone nearly two meters tall, but he's at least 185!

"Ara, this is the guy. The day before the All-Japan qualifiers, I met him with Kazuma, and he was easily defeated by Kazuma in three rounds~"

Whenever Takefuji Masaki recalled the journey of his third year of middle school at the All-Japan tournament, every moment of memory felt as if it were yesterday.

Liang Huayin turned his head to glance at Kagami Taiga, silently noting his impressive physique, but from his perspective, the focus wasn't on Kagami Taiga at all. "Was it the day we encountered the Phantom Sixth Man of Teiko?"

"Mm."

"Kazuma made quite a lot of preparations targeting that Kuroko Tetsu... Tetsuya-kun, but when that guy played against us, he didn't get to appear at all... What a pity."

"Indeed. Just hearing Kazuma describe that Phantom Sixth Man's ability makes it sound incredibly miraculous."

Kagami, watching the two talk to themselves, his forked eyebrows twitching violently, shouted, "Takefuji Masaki!"

"Three rounds... I was just careless! If you hadn't used the excuse of having a match the next day and we had played a few more rounds, I definitely would have won!"

Hearing this, Liang Huayin looked at Kagami Taiga strangely. "Win against Yukimiya? Are you not awake yet?"

And when Takefuji Masaki heard Kagami's words, he was also very strange. "You actually know my name?"

The day we met...

This guy clearly ignored me, focusing only on that Phantom Sixth Man and Kazuma.

Precisely because of this, he felt his hairstyle might have been too unremarkable, so on the eve of the All-Japan qualifiers, he hurriedly changed his look, which was actually just wildly sweeping his hair back.

Kagami snorted. "I went to watch your match..."

Just one match.

Kagami added this thoughtfully in his heart.

Actually, after finally finding the venue, he only watched Bai Shui vs. Zuo Jia, and afterward, he was forcibly dragged away by school teachers for make-up classes.

"Riko, do you know who those two are?" Koganei Shinji, from the conversation of the few people just now, rapidly extracted several keywords. Although he still wasn't quite clear on the situation, 'All-Japan', 'Teiko', and 'Phantom Sixth Man' sounded incredibly impressive.

Aizawa Riko's attention was completely focused on Takefuji Masaki and Liang Huayin. Hearing Koganei's words, she immediately whispered excitedly: "Last year's middle school national runners-up, Bai Shui! The only team that could compete evenly with the 'Generation of Miracles'!"

"These two, one is Bai Shui's starting center, Takefuji Masaki, and the other should be the small forward, Liang Huayin!"

"You..."

"Hurry!"

"Two application forms. We absolutely cannot let these two go!"

Aizawa Riko's mouth chattered out words at high speed. Before Koganei Shinji could even speak, he suddenly heard Kagami Taiga say: "You only got second place?!"

Hearing this, Takefuji Masaki and Liang Huayin's faces turned dark. They hadn't considered the possibility that the other party hadn't watched or paid attention to the final championship outcome, and they thought the other party was being sarcastic.

"Is the basketball club application form filled out here?"

"Ah! Yes!"

The application forms Koganei Shinji had secretly prepared were thrust right in front of the two with a 'swish', the pen cap already removed.

"Write your name and student ID here."

"Next is..."

"Graduated middle school..."

"Motivation for joining the club?"

"Ah, for that, just write whatever."

Takefuji Masaki and Liang Huayin instinctively exchanged a glance, and the words they wrote on the last line were largely similar.

'Although failure always runs through life, the winner will never remain unchanged. Since someone will win, I hope that person is me.'

"This is...?"

Seeing this familiar opening phrase, Aizawa Riko quietly flipped open the basketball weekly magazine beside her. Takefuji Masaki and Liang Huayin noticed the other's action; while finding it amusing in their hearts, they also knew the other's inner confusion.

"Pass basketball?"

"Kazuma hates this weekly magazine the most. It always... how should I put it? Ah, clickbait. With Kazuma's strength and personality, how could he possibly say words that sound like admitting defeat?"

"This sentence is his actual original words."

"Alright~"