“Honor?”
“Of course.”
Aizen nodded matter-of-factly.
“Basketball has never been just a simple sport.
When you’re a junior high student, you play in the national tournament for the honor of your school.
When you become a professional player, you play for the honor of your city.
And when you become a national team player, you represent the honor of your entire country—even its dignity and pride.”
Basketball was never just a simple game of shooting and dunking.
If a nation produced a player who could dominate the basketball world, it would be an enormous morale boost for that entire nation.
Take Yao Ming, for example.
One single person helped the NBA break into the Chinese market and completely transformed China’s basketball culture.
During the years when Yao Ming was playing in the NBA, school basketball courts were always packed with people.
If you didn’t live through that era, you couldn’t possibly imagine just how massive Yao Ming’s influence truly was.
Seeing the Rockets win would bring you immense satisfaction.
Countless fans were rooting for him to succeed because they all shared the same blood running through their veins.
If he could succeed, it meant that their nation could also succeed, and people would work hard and strive toward that very goal.
Of course, even putting aside all those noble and righteous ideals…
The benefits of becoming a professional player were obvious—wealth, women, fame—everything you could ever want.
How many children from poor families had completely changed their lives through basketball, becoming millionaires that everyone envied?
Most of what Aizen said went over Sakuragi’s head, but he did catch the part about basketball attracting girls’ attention.
“Playing basketball can really get girls to notice you?”
‘Your intentions are far from pure, aren’t they?’
Aizen was internally complaining, but he still said, “Of course.
There have always been a lot of girls who like basketball.
And if you happen to be really good at it, that’s definitely a plus in their eyes.”
‘I see…’
“Aizen, I want to play basketball.”
‘What a simple-minded guy.’
Aizen naturally wasn’t going to refuse.
He needed exactly this kind of easy target like Sakuragi.
“Sure.
If you really want to play basketball, meet me at that court where we first met tomorrow.
But I’m warning you—learning basketball is going to be really tough.”
“As long as I can successfully confess to a girl, I’m not afraid of hard work.”
…
The next day.
After finishing basketball club practice, Aizen arrived at the streetball court and saw that Sakuragi had already warmed up and was waiting for him.
This genius has been waiting for half an hour!” Sakuragi boasted shamelessly.
“Do you think I’m like you—free to leave as soon as school ends?” Aizen walked over with a smile.
“Since you’re ready, let’s get started.”
“Bring it on!
What do we do first?” Sakuragi had done some basic research on basketball the night before and asked, “Should we start with the fundamentals?”
‘Fundamentals?’
‘That would take forever!’
Aizen shook his head.
“We’re not messing around with that stuff.
Real men go straight to the good stuff—let’s go at it for real.”
Sakuragi’s face lit up when he heard that.
He also felt that all that fundamental nonsense was a waste of his precious time.
He was a genius after all.
He could pick things up just by looking at them a few times.
Why waste time on fundamentals?
That was for mediocre people, nothing to do with a genius like him.
“How do we start?”
“Straight up one-on-one.”
Aizen couldn’t wait.
His time was limited because he had to go to his part-time job later.
But against a complete novice like Sakuragi, getting some proficiency points should be a piece of cake, right?
No more talking—let’s go.
Aizen immediately went hard against Sakuragi, hitting him with a completely convincing crossover that sent Sakuragi flying into the Pacific Ocean.
Just as he was secretly celebrating the easy proficiency point, that infuriating redhead grabbed his arm from behind, stole the ball, and without even dribbling, charged straight to the basket and threw down a thunderous dunk.
“I win!”
‘You win my ass!
Why aren’t you following the rules?’
Watching his hard-earned proficiency point fly away, Aizen’s face turned green.
Before he could farm any EXP, he clearly needed to teach this idiot the actual rules of basketball.
“I can’t believe Sakuragi is really going to play basketball with Aizen.”
“What do we do now?
Are we just going to watch the two of them play?
That’s so boring.”
“It’s not boring at all.
This is actually pretty entertaining!”
Just as Mito Yohei finished speaking, Sakuragi launched a “nuclear-powered twelve-yard kick” and sent the basketball flying into someone’s second-floor window, shattering the glass completely. You are reading on NovelPing, the official source.
This enraged the resident so much that he came charging out with a kitchen knife!
“IDIOT!
You absolute idiot!
This is basketball—what do you think you’re doing, playing soccer?!” Aizen was beside himself with rage.
…
A full hour passed.
Aizen hadn’t collected much proficiency at all—he’d spent more time talking than playing, constantly explaining basketball rules to Sakuragi.
He’d barely scraped together a few proficiency points before it was almost time for his part-time job, so he had no choice but to call it quits.
But strangely enough, in the eyes of Mito Yohei and the others, Sakuragi—who they expected to give up quickly—had endured an entire hour of Aizen’s verbal abuse without saying a word.
“I need to go to work now.
We’ll continue tomorrow.” Aizen packed up his things and was about to leave, but he couldn’t help giving Sakuragi one last piece of advice.
“You’d better join your school’s basketball club.”
‘That way, I won’t have to work so hard either.’
Aizen left without any hesitation.
Mito Yohei and the others immediately walked up to Sakuragi and asked, “Sakuragi, are you really going to play basketball with Aizen?”
“Yeah.” Sakuragi’s expression was unusually serious as he nodded firmly.
“I don’t want my dad to worry about me anymore.”
He came from a single-parent family.
At home, it was just him and his father.
His mother’s face?
He’d long since forgotten it.
He couldn’t even remember when she’d abandoned him and his father.
In his memories, his mother’s face had become incredibly blurry.
His grades were terrible.
He loved fighting.
He didn’t respect his teachers.
But he had a deep and genuine affection for his old man.
It was his father who worked hard to raise him.
That day when he’d rushed his father to the hospital and watched him successfully wake up after treatment, the old man—ignoring the concern on his son’s face and his own physical weakness—got up and slapped Sakuragi across the face.
“When are you ever going to grow up?”
It wasn’t the first time his father had hit him, but it was the most painful Sakuragi had ever felt.
The look of disappointment on his father’s face pierced through Sakuragi’s heart—even more painful than getting beaten up by eight guys.
So after listening to Aizen’s words yesterday, Sakuragi suddenly found himself longing to be like those guys he saw on the basketball tapes.
He wanted to become a hero for his city, and even for his entire nation—and of course, for his father!