“Hiss, that hurts like hell.
That idiot.”
After leaving the basketball court, Aizen held his forehead in pain.
Getting attacked for no reason at all really pissed him off.
The bleeding had stopped, but it still hurt quite a bit.
He was starting to wonder if that Sakuragi Hanamichi guy had trained at the Shaolin Temple or something.
After all, he’s using the Iron Head technique.
“Why did Shaolin Soccer suddenly pop into my head?” Aizen cursed under his breath as he walked toward his home.
Well, calling it a ‘home’ was being generous—it was actually just a very shabby apartment.
Aizen took one look at it and estimated it was only about 50 square meters total.
Extremely cramped.
He’d have to be careful about any ‘girls falling from the ceiling’ scenarios trying to ambush him.
As a single guy living alone, of course he had to protect himself.
But there was no helping it—this was Tokyo, the capital of Japan, where land was worth more than gold.
This rental apartment was already the absolute limit of what Aizen’s budget could afford.
His dad only ran a small convenience store, after all.
How much money could they possibly have?
Just as he was thinking about that, his phone started ringing.
Aizen checked and saw that it was his father calling.
This was probably one of the few merciful things about the system—even though he’d been transported to another world, his parents were still alive and well.
If he’d woken up as an orphan, he probably would have completely lost it.
Because he truly loved his mom and dad with all his heart.
“Yo, old man, what are you calling me for?
Don’t you know long-distance calls are expensive?”
“You ungrateful brat, watch your mouth!
Call me ‘Dad,’ you hear me?”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you, old man.”
“Good, you little punk.”
Aizen held the phone up to his ear and grinned widely.
This was definitely his biological father who had ‘shot’ him into existence, no question about it.
The flavor was way too authentic!
“Are you getting used to life in junior high?
Are you practicing judo properly?
Let me make this clear—your mother and I scrimped and saved to send you over to Japan for advanced training, so you better train hard.
If you ever get a chance to represent the country someday, your mom and I will be able to hold our heads up high when we go out—”
Aizen’s father rambled on endlessly on the other end of the line.
According to his current background setting, he’d been sent to Japan back in fourth grade of elementary school, and had won the national championship three years in a row since arriving.
Aizen also had relatives here—his mother’s younger brother, his uncle, who had looked after him for three years.
But after Aizen chose Teiko, he’d left Gunma Prefecture and moved to Tokyo on his own.
“Oh, judo?
Funny you should mention that, because I was just about to tell you something.” Aizen shouted into the phone.
“Old man, your son has made up his mind—I’m done with judo from now on.
I’m going to play basketball!”
“What?!
On the other end of the line, predictably, came his father’s furious, outraged voice.
Aizen cleverly hung up the phone right away.
He’d wait until his dad cooled down before explaining things properly.
“It’s not that your son is being disobedient—it’s just that playing basketball has some serious earning potential!”
Speaking of money, Aizen opened his wallet and immediately felt a wave of despair wash over him.
“This much money is barely enough to survive on.” Aizen was already getting a headache.
Since he’d decided to play basketball, he definitely needed proper basketball shoes.
He’d have to find a way to make some money.
‘Stocks?’
‘Forget it—Alibaba, Tencent, and Apple had already taken off.
Buying in now wouldn’t give much return, and besides, I didn’t even have starting capital anyway.’
‘Sports betting?
The World Cup had just ended, so I’d have to wait another four years.’
‘Maybe I should just find a part-time job.’
Aizen sighed.
No matter which world he was in, he was still broke and had to work for a living.
Fortunately, Japan had a strong culture of student part-time work.
Many students started living independently from a young age, so finding a job shouldn’t be too difficult.
“I’ll ask that girl tomorrow—I think her name was April or something?
I’ll ask her to help me look for work.
Wait, did I forget something?” (T/N: This is actually a Language joke.
The Satsuki from Momoi Satsuki’s name means the month of May in Japanese, so now, Aizen thought it was April instead of May.)
Aizen couldn’t remember, so he decided not to bother.
He opened his mini-fridge, took out some food, and started cooking.
That was when the little bobtail cat jumped onto the table and said to him, “There’s no cat food at home.
I need cat food.”
“…”
Fair enough.
She was his system butler, and he’d need her help plenty in the future.
He couldn’t afford to offend her.
“My financial burden just keeps getting heavier!”
…
The next day.
As soon as school let out, Aizen arrived at the basketball club bright and early.
Aside from leveling up through the system, his only path to improvement was through hard training.
The little bobtail had said that the so-called Generation of Miracles were all exceptionally talented individuals with pleasant personalities, each one a once-in-a-decade prodigy.
She’d also said that with his current abilities, he had the qualifications to compete with them—which meant he was also a genius among geniuses, right?
So there was no question—he absolutely had to put in the practice and not waste the opportunity god had given him.
He arrived so early that when he opened the club doors, there wasn’t a single soul inside.
“Nice.
Looks like I’m the first one here.
I’ve always loved being number one.”
After changing into his practice clothes and a pair of cloth sneakers, Aizen began working on what he needed most right now—shooting practice.
By the time Aomine showed up at the basketball club, Aizen was already drenched in sweat.
When Aizen spotted him, he grinned and said, “Yo, you’re pretty diligent, huh?
‘Twenty minutes?’
‘You ran straight here right after school without even cleaning the classroom, didn’t you?’
Aomine couldn’t let that slide.
There was no way he was going to take that beating yesterday lying down—he’d come prepared today to get his revenge.
‘Yesterday was under the coach’s orders.
This time, there was no such restriction.
Let’s see how you handle me now.’
But before he could even confront Aizen, he’d already been put on the defensive—this guy had actually arrived earlier than he did.
This was a provocation!
Absolutely a provocation!
“Hmph, big deal.
I was on cleaning duty today, otherwise I could’ve been here half an hour earlier.” Aomine was lying through his teeth.
‘Half an hour?
School hadn’t even let out half an hour ago.’
Seeing the look of contempt on Aizen’s face only made Aomine feel worse.
But he didn’t complain much.
After warming up, he got straight into his own training routine.
And so, when the other club members finally showed up after finishing their classroom duties and homework, they found Aizen and Aomine both drenched in sweat, going at it like rivals.
“You two didn’t show up early, did you?” Midorima asked uncertainly.
“Of course!
I was the first one here—twenty minutes earlier than Aomine!”
“Big deal, it’s only twenty minutes.
I’ll definitely beat you here tomorrow.”
One looked smug, the other looked annoyed, and everyone else was completely speechless.
Nijimura Shuzo saw this and knew that the basketball club was definitely going to get a whole lot livelier from now on.
Sure enough, during the group training run, Aizen and Aomine had already started going at it—there was no need to wait for later.
Aomine was still bothered about being the second one to arrive, so during the run, he pushed himself extra hard, determined to be first no matter what.
Aizen knew exactly what he was thinking and picked up the pace too.
But this guy was just too fast—he couldn’t quite keep up.
Seeing Aomine’s smug expression that practically screamed “I win,” Aizen decided to take matters into his own hands.
He just rammed straight into Aomine, sending him stumbling, and snatched back the lead.
And he kept running his mouth the whole time: “You’re running way too slow.
You made me crash into you.”
‘Seriously?!’
Aomine’s temper flared up instantly.
He accelerated and took the lead again.
Aizen tried the same trick, but Aomine had learned his lesson.
Instead of backing down, he bumped right back.
And so the players and coaches of Teiko witnessed the two of them circling the court while locked in a constant shoving match.
“Get out of my way, pretty boy!”
“Then run faster, you burnt cinder block!”
Momoi slapped her palm against her forehead, her cute eyes rolling so far back they nearly disappeared into her skull.
“These two idiots!”