Chapter 108 - Finals: #5 (1/2)

Teiko immediately called for a time-out, they wanted a minute of stop in the game to process what they just saw.

They were in shock after seeing Shun copying their team members.

Akashi turned to the expert in the field of copying and questioned him.

Akashi: ”Kise, what did you think after seeing that?”

Kise sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.

Kise: ”I... I can't do that. I didn't think what he did was possible. That was the last thing I was expecting seeing today.”

Kise took a pause, and everybody waited with bated breath for him to continue.

Kise: ”What he did out there, that was not copying.”

Shirogane was extremely interested in what Kise just said.

Shirogane: ”What do you mean by that? We all just saw him copying Aomine.”

Kise shook his head and explained his reasoning.

Kise: ”I noticed two things that were out of the norm.”

Kise raised his index finger and said.

Kise: ”First, if you looked closely, you would've noticed that Kageyama-cchi's shooting form and Midorima-cchi's shooting form looked similar, they were quite different.”

Midorima nodded at that and gave his opinion.

Midorima: ”Kageyama's shooting form may have looked similar to mine, but that wasn't my copy. He didn't use my high-arcs, and I think he had Mibuchi Reo's elements included in that shooting form.

His shooting form prioritizes speed of release over the range of the shot.”

Kise totally agreed at Midorima's observation.

Kise: ”Midorima-cchi's is right, what he did, that was not straight out copying.”

Murasakibara frowned as he pointed out.

Murasakibara: ”What about Mine-chin's formless shooting, that was completely copied.”

Kise g.r.o.a.n.e.d and took a moment to formulate his words.

Kise: ”Well, you see from what we all can agree is that Aomine-cchi doesn't have a form, his moves may be heavily influenced by street-ball, but at the base, he doesn't have any semblance of what we describe as a form.”

Kise: ”What we just saw was at another level from copying.”

Kuroko asked the question that everyone wanted to know the answer to.

Kuroko: ”Then, what was that?”

Kise took a deep breath and gave an explanation.

Kise: ”I think Kageyama-cchi memorized all your moves at times when he saw you guys play. I have done that too, I remember every single step you guys have taken on a court in front of me.

Now, what I do is just straight out copy the moves I see and copy.

What I think Kageyama-cchi did is that he integrated elements of your style in his own style. We saw elements of Midorima-cchi's shooting form in his shooting form.

He abandoned everything he didn't need or things he couldn't do. We saw that he abandoned the high-arc because he didn't need, and he couldn't imitate Midorima-cchi's perfect accuracy, so he didn't try that and just got what he could get out of it.”

Kise looked at Aomine and explained that case.

Kise: ”Aomine-cchi's formless shooting at it's the base is just randomly throwing the ball at the basket that goes inside the basket at high accuracy.

I think what Kageyama-cchi did was learn shooting like that from scratch. He didn't try to match Aomine-cchi's speed, so that was abandoned and he just took what he was able to do.

That is a lot of work. A. LOT. OF. WORK.

But, at the same time, I am willing to put money on Kageyama-cchi's formless shooting has limited range.

And, I don't know if you guys notice, but his dribbling skills are also not structured, I think he can freeform them as he wishes.”

Akashi nodded and gave his own experience.

Akashi: ”He used Aomine's change-of-pace in the first quarter.”

Satsuki asked a question that he had in her mind.

Satsuki: ”Kise-kun, can you do what Shun-kun does?”

Kise ruffled his hair and g.r.o.a.n.e.d.

Kise: ”I honestly don't know. Simply copying something is easy for me, but integrating as he did takes a lot of time and practice. I personally think that it is not worth the effort.

It just takes a lot of time to integrate things into your natural style. We can copy moves after seeing them once, but for the moves that we can't copy after seeing once, we need to put a lot of actual training and time to master them.

I have personally never tried to do that in my entire life, and I can't copy these people's moves no matter how much I try.”

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Akashi moved on to the second problem.

Akashi: ”Tokiwadai's first year, what is his name?”

Satsuki replied to that question.

Satsuki: ”Kurumatani Sora.”

Akashi continued after hearing his name.

Akashi: ”Kuruamata Sora, he blocked Kuroko from passing the ball.”

Aomine: ”It is last year all over again.”

Midorima pushed up his glasses and spoke.

Midorima: ”Just this time, it is not Kageyama not doing it, which means he will be free from Kuroko's bind.”

Akashi agreed and continued.

Akashi: ”We pulled out Midorima to give Kise and Aomine full-reign on the court, Kuroko stays outside as he is not useful on the inside except when passing, that would've kept Kageyama on the outside and furthermore Kuroko wouldn't need to run the full length of the court if he stayed outside.

If we kept Midorima on the floor, we would've given Kageyama ample chance to block Midorima.”

Coach Shirogane spoke for the first time in this conversation.

Shirogane: ”But know with Kageyama Shun free, there is no difference from before, he could defend Kise and Aomine at the same time.”

Akashi stayed silent for a moment and a plan formulated in his mind.

Akashi: ”When we go out of this time-out, we will take Midorima in, and Kise will move to the bench.

This way, Midorima would only have a single defender on him, and he can have more shooting opportunities and Kageyama, would have to sprint every time he wants to block him.”

Aomine looked at Kuroko and grinned.

Aomine: ”Tetsu somehow always end up making problems for Kageyama when we play against him. Even though this time, he isn't directly affecting Kageyama.”

Akashi stood up and declared.

Akashi: ”We will be going full-on offense, so be ready to get passes the moment you get are free.”

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

On the other hand, Tokiwadai's bench was not in a panic, and they were listening to Shun speculating about Teiko's strategy after this.

Shun played with a bottle in his hand as he spoke.

Shun: ”I wasn't surprised when they pulled out Midorima for Kuroko instead of Kise. That was a better choice for them offensively, but that was when they didn't know that Sora had the Hawk-Eyes.

Now, I think they will bring in Midorima instead of Kise.”

Yuki agreed and commented.

Yuki: ”Midorima Shintaro's double team would be eliminated with Kuroko Tetsuya on the court.”

Shun placed his bottle on the bench and stretched his feet.

Shun: ”The game will probably turn into a score out.”

Shun got up from the bench and head to the court.

Shun: ”Let's wreak some havoc.”

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The ball was in Teiko's possession with Akashi in control of the ball, thinking about the play he needed to score.

Akashi: 'Let's take advantage of the obvious.'

Akashi gave the signal, and Midorima ran away from Mibuchi for a shot.

Midorima ran from Akashi's left to his right, and when he crossed over to the right, Akashi passed the ball to him at the best time possible.

Midorima stopped at 7 meters (23.03 feet) from the basket and confidently shot the ball.