Chapter 184 - The Last Season Begins (1/2)

Every basketball player from every middle school wanted to participate in the Nationals. The stage that allowed teams to showcase their mettle to the fullest. A stage where the strongest of teams from all around the country converged to compete. But, how could every team be allowed to play at the Nationals? Weaker ones had to be eliminated for the strong teams to rise from the survivors. And thus, preliminaries were held in every prefecture of Japan to weed out the weak, unprepared ones.

Middle School teams around Tokyo had patiently waited for the day to come. Today was the day when Tokyo preliminaries were going to begin. The tournament that granted two schools from Tokyo the ticket to the glorious Nationals as representatives of Tokyo prefecture.

Two middle school teams, one from each block of the Tokyo preliminaries, would advance to Nationals. And this year, only two teams were elected by the youth sports media to be the favorites for winning the Nationals. Only two teams from the myriads of teams from all over the country of Japan.

Both teams were based in Tokyo; One was the defending champion and two-time consecutive winner of the Nationals, Tokyo's Teiko Middle School. The second was the champion before Teiko and the rival school of the current champions, Tokyo's Tokiwadai Middle School.

The first school hosted a team that consisted of five prodigies, the team that had no apparent weakness to exploit, a unit that excelled in all areas of the basketball court, the team that was known as the Generation Of Miracles. The second school hosted a team that every year produced National level players, and this year was no different except for one, which was that the team was led by The King Of The Court.

Last year, both teams were placed in the same block of the Tokyo preliminaries tournament bracket, causing only one of the teams to advance to the Nationals. But this year, both teams were placed in separate blocks, which meant that if both teams were to meet, then it would be in the Nationals. And, as it was to be expected, the rest of Tokyo schools weren't happy to see the tournament bracket.

But, this wasn't just any other prefecture. This was the Tokyo prefecture in the time when both Generation Of Miracles and King Of The Court were active in the middle school scene and were in their third year. The atmosphere and vibe of Tokyo preliminaries were not the joyous, competitive that one would expect from a competition of the prefectural level. The atmosphere was one of resignation coming from all of the teams other than Teiko and Tokiwadai. Such was the reputation of Teiko and Tokiwadai in Tokyo.

It was a depressing time for the Tokyo Middle School basketball scene.

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

On the first day of the Tokyo preliminaries, teams sorted in Block-A, half of the total number of teams participating in the preliminaries arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Arena for Block-A's Round-1 and Round-2 games of the preliminaries. In the lobby, many players from different gathered, looking at the court assignments, mingling with players from other teams, having a jolly time before the competition started.

It was that time when a club dressed in black and purple entered the lobby. For a moment, the lobby went silent before the sound returned in the form of murmurs and discussions. All the people in the hall watched as a single person separate from the group dressed in black and jog towards the court assignments, and then return to the group. The group didn't stop to greet anyone and exited the lobby leaving the people with a topic to discuss.

A first-year member from a low-level school turned to his seniors and asked.

First-Year: ”Senpai. That was Tokiwadai Middle School, wasn't it?”

The second-year member of the team glanced at his junior and nodded to show that he was right.

Second-Year: ”Yeah, that was Tokiwadai.”

First-Year remembered the number of people in Tokiwadai's group and chatted.

First-Year: ”They have a deep team, don't they?”

The second-year hummed in response before opening his mouth to speak.

Second-Year: ”They are a famous school, it isn't a surprise for them to have a deep bench. I heard that Teiko Middle School has over a hundred members in their club.”