BOOM~
Aomine felt the world spin around him, and then his entire body was sent flying from the impact.
A full three meters away.
This was absolutely outrageous.
The assistant coach couldn’t take it anymore.
Coach Shirogane Kozo had clearly warned Aizen and given him a chance, yet this guy kept making the same mistakes over and over.
“Stop right there!
This isn’t basketball—this is attempted murder!
The Teiko basketball club does not welcome—”
“GREAT DEFENSE!”
Before the assistant could even finish saying ‘you’, Shirogane Kozo clapped his hands together with even more force than before.
The watching players swallowed hard, ‘This judo black belt was absolutely terrifying—he’d completely dominated Aomine in just a couple of exchanges.’
‘Seriously, what exactly was the coach looking for by recruiting a guy like this?’
“Hahaha, excellent defense!
I’m extremely satisfied with that stop.”
Shirogane Kozo ignored the assistant’s dumbfounded expression and walked excitedly over to Aizen.
This beast was exactly the player he needed.
He’d told Aizen to dial back the aggression, and Aizen had indeed toned it down—he stopped using his hands and switched to using his shoulder instead.
Granted, it was still a foul, but if he could refine it a little more, and with a less strict referee, that kind of move would just be a regular foul at worst.
‘Quick learner.
This kid understood basketball!’
“I hereby declare, Aizen, starting from this moment, you are officially a member of the Teiko basketball team!”
Aizen’s mind went completely blank.
He couldn’t tell if the coach was being serious or just messing with him.
Something about this whole situation felt incredibly off.
But hey, he’d passed.
Who cared about the details?
The mission was what mattered right now.
If he completed the mission, he’d get his beginner gift pack.
Aizen turned and walked away with a completely blank expression, leaving behind a thoroughly confused Aomine who was seriously questioning his existence.
“Getting beaten up by a complete beginner—how embarrassing, Aomine-cchi.” Murasakibara Atsushi mocked Aomine with a completely deadpan expression.
Aomine’s face turned bright red in an instant.
“Alright, Atsushi, stop laughing.
That wasn’t a real game.” Akashi Seijuro shook his head.
He was pondering what Shirogane Kozo’s true intentions were.
Also, he noticed something else.
“Did you see that, Shintaro?
Aizen.”
“Yeah, I saw it clearly.
He caught up to Aomine with ease, and he was barefoot the entire time.” Midorima Shintaro’s expression was unusually serious.
Aomine’s talent was visible to everyone—he’d shocked the entire club on his very first day.
They’d never seen a player with such incredible speed, combined with such absurd body control and flexibility.
Unless they had absolute certainty, their speed simply wouldn’t be enough to keep up.
And yet that Aizen, despite having been completely shaken off by Aomine, had still managed to catch up at the very last moment.
“What the coach values is probably his physical attributes.”
…
On the other side.
Aizen followed Shirogane Kozo into the office to complete his club registration.
The process was actually quite simple—sign his name, submit his documents, and they gave Aizen a number 10 jersey.
With that, Aizen was officially a club member.
One noteworthy detail: jersey numbers in Japan were strictly regulated.
A team’s 15-man roster could only select numbers from 1 to 15.
Aizen was now holding the number 10 jersey, which meant that Shirogane Kozo had directly promoted him to the first string.
The assistant coach watched Aizen casually playing with the number 10 jersey that symbolized Teiko’s first team, and the feeling in his chest was absolutely dreadful.
He genuinely couldn’t figure out what the coach was planning.
After Aizen left, he couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Coach Shirogane, why did you let that kid join the basketball club?
His talents are clearly better suited for judo!”
“Did you not see how his speed was nearly comparable to Aomine’s?”
“Huh?”
The assistant paused upon hearing this, finally realizing what the coach meant.
Sure, Aizen’s movements had been brutal—more like fighting than playing basketball.
But he had indeed chased down Teiko’s fastest player, Aomine, without much difficulty.
“Pay attention.
This kid is going to be our secret weapon this year.” Shirogane Kozo’s eyes burned with excitement.
Aizen’s basketball skills were indeed incredibly rough.
But as long as he wasn’t completely hopeless, with two or three years of development, given Aizen’s physical attributes, he could easily reach a national-level skill ceiling.
“But he doesn’t know how to play basketball at all!
If it had been any other club member instead of Aomine, they might have gotten seriously injured!”
“So what?
Basketball is a physical sport—it’s completely normal for there to be a little extra contact here and there.”
‘So that’s your excuse for turning the basketball court into a battlefield?’
“Basketball courts ARE battlefields.” Shirogane Kozo clenched his fist.
“And this war wasn’t started by us!”
‘Ah…
so this is all because of last year’s game against Meiko Junior High?’
The assistant coach fell silent.
With an absolute beast like Aizen, who could effortlessly handle even Aomine, Hanamiya Makoto wouldn’t stand a chance either.
It was just unfortunate that the kid had to give up his judo talent.
He hoped Aizen could still find success on the basketball court.
[Beginner mission complete.
Completion rating: Perfect—decisively defeated Aomine Daiki head-on.
Rewards have been distributed.]
Meanwhile, Aizen just wanted to hurry back and see what kind of rewards this beginner mission had given him.
After saying goodbye to the coach, Aizen sprinted excitedly back to the judo club to retrieve his belongings and change out of his uniform.
He moved fast.
“First, let me find somewhere private.”
Aizen looked up, spotted a restroom, and ducked inside.
“You’re disgusting.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Of all the places you could have chosen, you picked a toilet?”
The little bobtail cat was still perched on his head, so naturally she’d followed him in.
“I’m in a hurry, alright?
For opening a gift pack—who cares where you do it?”
Aizen opened his inventory directly.
A flash of white light appeared, and from the gift pack emerged an object engraved with a symbol that looked like ‘shattered glass’.
‘What on earth is this?’
Aizen held it in his hands, weighing it, and when he saw the ‘Inspect’ option, he clicked on it.
[Feint Master.
Item Grade: Diamond.
Item Type: Skill Badge.
Item Description: Greatly increases success rate of feints.
Provides a certain degree of improvement to basketball fundamentals.
Your movements are flawless, dreamlike, indistinguishable from reality, and utterly captivating.
Proficiency: 0/30000.]
‘Feint Master?’
Aizen let out an “uhhh” sound.
This looked like a technical skill badge, which didn’t exactly match his brutish playing style.
He checked his stat sheet again:
[Name: Aizen.
Gender: Male.
Age: 13 years old.
Height: 175 cm.
Wingspan: 197 cm.
Weight: 61 kg.
Strength: 87.
Speed: 77.
Stamina: 89.
Spirit/Mental: 96.
Offense: Contested Layup 50, Uncontested Layup 60, Post Moves 43.
Shooting: Close Range 56, Mid-Range 50, Three-Point 42.
Ball Handling: Dribbling 56, Passing 66.
Defense: Lateral Quickness 60, Steals 53, Blocks 58, Rebounds 60.
Note: These stats are calculated based on junior high basketball player standards, with 100 being the maximum.
Acquired Skills: Feint Master, Judo Black Belt 5th Dan, National-Level Layup (Junior High), National-Level Shooting (Junior High), National-Level Driving (Junior High), National-Level Dribbling (Junior High), National-Level Crossover (Junior High), National-Level Passing (Junior High).]
“WHOA!”
Aizen sucked in a sharp breath.
His physical attributes and technical skills hadn’t improved much at all, but his previously basic-level skills like layups had all been upgraded to national-level standards in one fell swoop.
Even though it was only at the junior high level, the fact that a single badge could elevate all his fundamentals to a national level was absolutely insane, wasn’t it?