Chapter 69: Make Me Enjoy This More, Yukimiya Kazuma!

If the whole Chuunibyou preliminaries were compared to a level-clearing game, then this Bai Shui team would be Yukimiya Kazuma, one veteran player, carrying four newbies.

Originally, the level-clearing difficulty for Yukimiya Kazuma's Bai Shui team should have increased little by little, from easy to normal to hard… all the way to the final hell.

But now, aside from Yukimiya Kazuma, the others were still far from having gone through hard mode, yet they had already been pulled straight into hell itself, face to face with the most terrifying demon king.

"Sorry, my bad."

Yukimiya Kazuma clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention to himself, then continued: "Everyone, relax a little. If my passes stay like this next time, just pass it back to me and we'll run the offense once more."

"Next time I won't slow the tempo. I'll leave more time and run a few more sets."

"On defense…"

"We'll stick to the plan we set."

Hearing this, the others nodded, and their tension eased a little.

……

Even though Teikou's mode was one-man offense and four-man spectating, clearly that lone "one" couldn't all be defended by Yukimiya Kazuma alone.

Defending like that would be the same as putting Yukimiya Kazuma at the very front and letting the five Generation of Miracles kick him around in a circle.

So…

The defensive assignments Shin Matsuharu had given everyone before the game—

—under Yukimiya Kazuma's suggestion, were basically to play man-up, but to commit hard to the double-team.

When Murasakibara attacks, Takefu Masaki guards him head-on, while the two nearest teammates on either side provide a double-team.

When Kise and Akashi attack, Liang Huayin and Teruyama Daisuke guard them head-on respectively; the on-ball defender focuses on the shot, the helper focuses on the drive.

Midorima is a special case. Because Takefu Masaki and Midorima are basically the same height, once Midorima starts attacking, the interior Takefu Masaki abandons Murasakibara, steps out to guard the three, and forms a double-team with Liang Huayin. The now unguarded Murasakibara inside is then helped on by Yukimiya Kazuma, but mainly to take away one passing lane.

The last one left, Aomine Daiki, works on the same principle: Yukimiya Kazuma guards the drive, and the shot is double-teamed by the two players on either side.

And from the arrangement above, you can see that the helper limit each time is at most two people, because Yukimiya Kazuma knows very well that at this stage, the Generation of Miracles, while certainly playing one-on-one as the main style—

—still have to follow the basic rules of basketball. If the opponent is being quadrupled and still won't pass, they're either an idiot or brain-dead. If that's really the case, it'd be simple—everyone on the team swarms whoever has the ball.

Based on Yukimiya Kazuma's experience in meditation training, three people is the limit; maybe some could go crazy and take four, but beyond that, even the Generation of Miracles wouldn't keep blindly iso-ing.

……

Teikou's offensive possession.

Sure enough, right from the start it was the ferocious Aomine Daiki.

Aomine's dribbling was exaggerated in range and blistering in frequency. Yukimiya Kazuma faced Aomine head-on, his eyes locked tight on the opponent's movements!

Then the next second!

Inside, Takefu Masaki—who had been pulled aside by Murasakibara Atsushi to open up attacking space for Aomine—suddenly widened his eyes.

He actually…

Kazuma… got broken past that easily?!

Seeing Yukimiya Kazuma get beat, Takefu Masaki immediately stepped up to help, but Aomine Daiki's ultra-high-speed ball-handling was something he couldn't keep up with at all!

Aomine's eyes, cold and fierce like a leopard's, suddenly stopped on a dime—speed dropping from 100 to 0—then an exaggerated between-the-legs crossover sent him rocketing from 0 back to 100 in a blink, blowing past Takefu Masaki's side!

So…

So fast!

Takefu Masaki tried to turn and catch up, but his body just wouldn't move!

Yet Aomine Daiki, as if sensing his intent, suddenly chained into a spin move, crossing him up to the other side of his body.

And so…

Takefu Masaki's line of sight suddenly dropped!

Continuous, wide-range shifts of his center of gravity left Takefu Masaki swaying on the verge of collapse; he stumbled and nearly got shaken off his feet!

And by then, Aomine Already had driven into the paint!

Boom~!

His right foot stomped down hard, his body exploded upward, one hand cradling the ball straight at the rim—and at that very moment, Yukimiya Kazuma, relying on his extraordinary spatial awareness, had quietly tailed into Aomine's blind spot!

Letting himself get crossed so easily earlier was all for this instant!

One in green, one in white—the two leapt up in succession!

However…

Just as the "I Love Blocking Dunks" in Yukimiya Kazuma's system began to flicker with purple light, Aomine Daiki before him suddenly changed his move!

His airborne posture shifted from a raised-fire-to-the-sky dunk into a tucked-in, scooped layup!

And even…

As Aomine's body tilted exaggeratedly to the right…

Whoosh~!

The basketball dodged Yukimiya Kazuma's outstretched block from afar and dropped cleanly through the hoop!

Thud~

*clack*

Thud~

Yukimiya Kazuma landed, looked down at the ball rolling to his feet, and sighed inwardly.

He'd blocked Aomine once and was counting on him getting fired up and trying to dunk on him again—sure enough, that wasn't realistic.

This guy, while not exactly a calm type on the court, was definitely no hot-blooded idiot either. When he got serious, his basketball… was pure instinct.

In Yukimiya Kazuma's silence, Aomine Daiki turned and brushed past him, his cold voice reaching his ears at the same time:

"So that's all you've got?"

"Make me enjoy this more…"

"Yukimiya Kazuma."