Chapter 252

He threw out a harsh threat, then turned and left without giving Tendou a chance to respond, walking away quite decisively.

"We won, Shintaro."

With Tendou off the court, Haizaki was the team’s big boss.

He walked up to Midorima.

He had originally thought that taking down Midorima would make him feel great, but seeing Midorima with his head hung low, looking completely devastated, he didn't feel that way.

The pleasure he had imagined didn't well up in his heart.

"Tch, let's go." Haizaki walked away again.

"I never thought a jerk like you would care about the feelings of an old teammate." Hanamiya Makoto keenly noticed Haizaki’s actions and immediately mocked him.

"None of your damn business." Haizaki glared at Hanamiya Makoto immediately and said, "And I’m warning you, don't lump me in with them. I’m not like those idiots."

"Less nonsense. Pack up the gear, we’re heading back."

Tendou clapped his hands to have everyone organize their things, and amidst the cheers, he led the team into the player tunnel.

The Generation of Miracles dungeon had been cleared.

Next was only the Seirin that had evolved into its ultimate form.

The first round of the Winter Cup elimination tournament had officially ended.

Because of the number of teams, starting from this round, some teams would receive a bye.

The organizers would decide who the lucky ones were through a draw.

In any case, after the second round, only 16 teams would remain; this was the Sweet Sixteen of the Winter Cup.

After that, for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, there would be no more byes.

And so, Kirisaki Daiichi became one of these lucky ones.

Along with them was Rakuzan from the other half of the bracket.

It was hard not to suspect that the organizers were rigging the draw.

However, for many participating teams, this was actually a good thing.

One was the old king, the other the new king; losing to either was a given.

By having them receive a bye until the end, everyone else had a better chance of making it to the next round.

The next day.

Kirisaki Daiichi had no game.

But Tendou still arranged training tasks for the team members.

They had played too few games in this Winter Cup.

They hadn't played in the preliminaries and went straight to the elimination tournament, and once in the tournament, they had only played one game before getting a bye.

The benefit was that there were no issues with physical stamina; Kirisaki Daiichi had plenty of time to prepare for the next round.

The downside, of course, was that having played too few games, it was difficult for the players to maintain good game form.

In the NBA playoffs, the first game of a series is the most prone to upsets.

Especially for teams that swept their opponents in the previous series, the chance of crashing in the first game is the highest.

Players rest for too long and can't immediately get into game shape.

The team members had no objections; they had been idle for too long recently, so they were indeed bored.

And while Kirisaki Daiichi was training, the second round of the Winter Cup continued without pause.

The focus of this year’s Winter Cup was in the upper bracket.

Because this half of the bracket had a full 4 teams from the Generation of Miracles.

Shutoku had already been eliminated by Kirisaki Daiichi and was out early.

But the upper bracket still possessed 3 teams with championship potential: Kirisaki Daiichi, Yosen, and Seirin.

Very coincidentally, Yosen and Seirin met in the second round.

This was also the marquee matchup of the second round of the Winter Cup.

The current Seirin was long past being a group of nobodies.

Consecutive wins over Too and Shutoku had quickly brought them into the fans’ field of vision.

Some busybodies even gave them the title of "Giant Killers."

A team that had been established for less than two years had actually defeated strong enemies one after another, almost slaughtering all the powerhouses in the Tokyo region.

Seihou, Shutoku, Too—these traditional powerhouses, not one had escaped.

Where was Senshinkan?

They were unlucky; this year they were placed in the same group as Too and were sent off to "go fishing" early.

The saying "Three Kings of Tokyo" had already become a thing of the past.

Based on the current situation in the Tokyo region, fans collectively referred to Kirisaki Daiichi, Too, Shutoku, and Seirin as the "Four Emperors of Tokyo"!

It could be said to be quite "Little Japan" style!

The Four Emperors of Tokyo were now the signature of the Winter region.

However, Kirisaki Daiichi’s fans were quite dissatisfied with this nickname, feeling that their opponents were just trying to ride their coattails.

"We are the Inter-High champions; what kind of champions are you?"

"What qualifications do you have to be mentioned in the same breath as us?"

"If there’s any comparison to be made, it should be Rakuzan versus us, Kirisaki Daiichi!"

But it was all in vain; fans nationwide had accepted this term.

Although Kirisaki Daiichi was the newly crowned champion, they only had this one title, and their foundation wasn't deep enough yet.

If they wanted to break away from the Four Emperors and become the true "Pirate King," they still needed to reach Laugh Tale... er, win more championships.

Tendou wasn't interested in these messy topics.

On this day.

He rode his bike to the game venue alone.

Today, a "battle of brothers" was about to unfold.

Yosen versus Seirin: Himuro Tatsuya vs. Seeing Seeing Kagami Taiga.

Tendou arrived relatively late, and the spectator stands were already full.

So he walked to the stands, where he saw a man wearing casual clothes, sporting toad-eye sunglasses, and with bright green hair, standing there.

This clumsy disguise left Tendou not even knowing where to start with his roasting.

"Midorima?"

"!!!"

Midorima was startled, turned back to find it was Tendou, and immediately turned his head away.

"I don't know who you're talking about."

"......."

Tendou thought to himself, *In this anime, not every man is as groundbreaking as you, born with a whole grassland on his head.*

Midorima secretly looked back, saw Tendou was still watching him with a disdainful expression, and after a "Tch," he simply stopped pretending.

He asked, "How did you see through my disguise?"

Tendou didn't know how to answer that question.

He put the glasses back on Midorima, put a hat on him, patted the spectator next to them, and pointed at Midorima, asking, "Do you know who he is?"

"Midorima Shintaro, right? What’s wrong? I’ve been watching you guys play since middle school!"

"Do you guys need something?"

"No, sorry to bother you."

Midorima, "......"

He sighed helplessly, feeling like a failure; even a random passerby could recognize him. So he changed the glasses back to his original ones and took off that ridiculous hat.

"Ten~dou~"

At this moment, Satsuki also arrived, dragging out her tone as she flew over.

Along with her was Aomine.

The Generation of Miracles seemed to love grouping up to watch games from this spot in the stands.

"You guys got here pretty early." Aomine walked over, yawning.