The next day.
The moment the afternoon bell rang, Aomine groggily opened his eyes and woke up from his nap.
He never paid much attention in class anyway.
How many basketball players could actually be good students?
Instead of wasting time studying, he’d rather grab a ball and hit the court.
This was perfect—he’d slept well and could head straight to the basketball club for practice.
Couldn’t ask for better.
‘Oh right, the basketball club.
Training.’
“Crap, I overslept!”
Aomine cursed under his breath, grabbed his bag, and sprinted toward the basketball club like his life depended on it, kicking up dust in the hallway.
“Hey, Aomine, you’re on cleaning duty today!”
“Cover for me today!
I’ll make it up to you next time!”
What he said yesterday about cleaning duty was just a lie.
Today, he was actually supposed to do it, but he dumped that responsibility on his classmate.
There was no way around it—if he showed up any later, that Aizen guy would never shut up about it.
BAM!
Sure enough, when Aomine burst into the basketball club, Aizen was already there, drenched in sweat.
Clearly, he’d been training for quite a while.
“Oh, if it isn’t Aomine.
You look out of breath.
You didn’t actually run all the way here, did you?”
“Come on now, it’s just training.
Why are you in such a rush?
And you ran here?
You don’t actually think you could beat me here, do you?
No way, no way?”
Aizen burst out laughing the moment he saw Aomine in that state.
“What’s the rush?
Even if you’re the last one to show up, I won’t make fun of you.”
Aizen kept teasing Aomine.
The assistant coach watching from the sidelines shook his head repeatedly.
In just two days, his impression of Aizen had completely flipped.
No wonder this kid had won the national junior high judo championship three times in a row—his discipline and work ethic were unlike anything he’d ever seen.
‘This bastard…’
Aomine was furious.
It was all that boring teacher’s fault for being so hypnotic during class.
“Shut up, Aizen.
Training hasn’t even started yet.”
Aomine immediately threw himself into the practice routine.
Then, exactly the same thing that happened yesterday happened again.
The two of them were at each other’s throats throughout the entire training session—and even managed to escalate things. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
They locked heads together, trash-talking each other while sprinting around the court.
“Get out of my way, bastard!”
“If you can’t keep up, then step aside, second place!”
The assistant coach was helpless.
Shirogane Kozo, on the other hand, watched with great amusement.
Thanks to their fierce competition, the other club members also started taking training much more seriously.
“What was the time for today’s running drill?”
“Three minutes faster than yesterday.”
Nijimura Shuzo smiled bitterly, ‘These two first-years were absolute beasts.’
‘They’d been in the club for less than two weeks and had already broken Teiko’s existing records.’
‘That wasn’t good news.’
“Alright, this is the new standard from now on.
Anyone who can’t finish on time stays after club activities for an extra half-hour of shooting practice.
That includes you too, Nijimura.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean ‘huh’?
Don’t think you can slack off just because you’re the captain.
Get your butt back on the court.”
‘You two are seriously going to be the death of me.’
Nijimura Shuzo laughed—but it looked more painful than crying.
Teiko’s training was already grueling.
Now that the intensity had increased, it would be even tougher.
And he had a feeling those two would pull even more insane stunts in the future.
…
Another day passed.
Same time, same place.
This time, Aomine didn’t dare to sleep in class—or rather, the clever little devil had slept through all his earlier classes instead.
As a result, he was wide awake during the last period.
He watched the clock, bouncing his foot impatiently against the floor.
The moment the bell rang, before the teacher could even dismiss the class, Aomine shot out of his seat like a bullet, sprinting toward the basketball club with every ounce of strength he had.
Everyone else just felt a gust of wind blow past, and Aomine was gone.
“Just you wait, you pale-faced tofu!
I’ll beat you there this time!”
As it turned out, he actually did beat Aizen today.
When he passed by Aizen’s classroom, he could even see him getting up from his seat.
“Oh, if it isn’t Aizen.
And where might you be going in such a leisurely manner?”
‘Aomine?!’
‘Damn!’
Seeing Aomine shout that and keep running, Aizen instantly knew where that dark-skinned guy was heading.
Together, they put on a sprinting spectacle through the school hallways.
“Aizen-kun!
Aizen-kun!”
Behind him, a female classmate was calling out desperately, only to watch Aizen disappear in a cloud of dust.
She muttered in frustration, “I finally managed to get paired with you for cleaning duty!”
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE~
The two of them pushed themselves with all their might, their faces twisted in effort.
To claim the title of first place, they would’ve grown an extra pair of legs if they could.
“Akashi-kun, are those two your basketball club teammates?”
In Akashi’s classroom, his classmates had also noticed Aizen and Aomine.
Those two were making so much noise you couldn’t miss them—they were literally creating wind as they ran.
“Yeah, that’s Aomine and Aizen.”
“Those are their names?
What are they doing?”
“They’re probably heading to basketball club practice.” Akashi smiled, packed up his bag, and stood up.
“Could you do me a favor and turn in these assignments to the teacher?”
“Assignments?
Sure, no problem.
You’ve got something to do?”
“Yeah, I need to get to basketball club training.”
‘Can’t let them leave me behind.’
Akashi grabbed his bag and walked toward the basketball club.
He didn’t run.
Coming from a distinguished family, he always minded his manners.
He couldn’t afford to bring shame to the Akashi Conglomerate.
As he walked, he saw Midorima also stepping out of his classroom.
“Shintaro.”
“Akashi.
You’re leaving early today.”
“Seeing those two working so hard makes me want to put in more effort too.
Are you the same?”
“Hmph, it has nothing to do with them.
I’m just doing my duty!”
‘You say that, but there are literal flames burning in your eyes.’
Turning his head, Akashi looked across from Midorima’s classroom and called out, “Atsushi, we’re leaving.”
“Aww, I know, how annoying.
It’s just training, why do we have to take it so seriously?” Murasakibara said with extreme reluctance.
‘It was all Aizen-cchi’s fault.
Ever since he showed up, the basketball club had become completely deranged.’