Kuroko: Mahoraga - Chapter 34: Next Time, I’ll Be the One to Win! (Patreon)

The teammate who had returned to the gym came sprinting toward the group with a rolled-up newspaper in his hand.

His voice was loud enough for everyone gathered around Masato to hear him clearly.

The others turned toward him in curiosity when they saw how excited he was.

“I just bought the latest sports paper outside the school. Masato-senpai is in the news again!”

“Holy crap, seriously?”

“Come on, let us see!”

For the moment, everyone forgot about the one-on-one games and crowded around the paper instead.

Heads practically pressed together as they passed it around as fast as they could.

Before long, everyone had finished reading it.

“He’s really in the paper again. This is unreal.”

“Yeah. Has anyone from our team ever gotten this kind of media attention before?”

“No way. Kawari Basketball has never had a player like this in its entire history.”

“What else is there to say? He’s insane!”

“But aren’t you guys curious about what the article says?”

“Of course we are. So are you brave enough to go ask Masato-senpai about it?”

“...”

Everyone was excited. Having a teammate this impressive made them feel proud by association.

At the same time, their emotions were a little complicated.

They were all around the same age. So why was Masato this ridiculous?

He kept crushing everyone on an entirely different level. It was enough to make people question their own lives.

Masato was curious too. After all, the article was about him.

Still, with his teammates packed around the paper, he did not bother rushing over.

Only after the crowd dispersed did he walk up and pick it up for himself.

The article came from a local Kanagawa newspaper.

Compared with the report he had received in Tokyo, this one carried a little less weight.

That made sense. Teiko naturally attracted much more attention.

There was plenty of content throughout the paper, but the article about Masato was not difficult to find.

The headline was absurdly dramatic.

Printed in large bold red letters, it read:

“SHOCK!!! GENERATION OF MIRACLES STAR ARRIVES IN KANAGAWA. EXPLOSIVE DEBUT STATS!”

Masato stared at the headline in silence.

Generation of Miracles?

Who, him?

As far as he remembered, the Tokyo media had only described him as a player with Miracle-level ability.

No one had ever directly called him a member of the Generation of Miracles before.

At that moment, Masato looked like one of those baffled reaction memes he remembered from his previous life.

The clickbait had genuinely left him speechless.

Sure enough, no matter the world, people chasing traffic always used the same tricks.

Masato had no idea who wrote the article.

Even so, Masami Ishihara’s face immediately came to mind.

“She was the only reporter I saw that day, wasn’t she?”

Masato shook his head and muttered to himself.

Then he continued reading.

The actual article was much more reasonable.

After explaining the details of the game, it moved on to Masato’s personal statistics.

His outrageous triple-double became one of the main focuses.

The article even pointed out that Masato had clearly held something back.

Because the game had turned into a blowout, he had been pulled early. Otherwise, his numbers could have been even more absurd.

After covering the statistics, the paper followed with another piece about Masato’s background.

It included two photos of him on the court.

The first had been taken during the Teiko qualifiers.

Masato was attacking freely, playing with all the intensity of someone pouring everything into the game.

The second showed him in a green Kawari jersey.

He was controlling the ball with one hand and directing his teammates with the other.

His entire posture looked calm and experienced, as though every part of the game was under his control.

The same player appeared in both photos, yet the impression could not have been more different.

The second image made it look as though Masato had undergone some unknown transformation, becoming calmer and more restrained.

The article deliberately leaned into that contrast.

It offered several theories about why Masato had transferred.

None of them were presented as fact. The writer only laid out possible explanations.

The first theory was that Teiko had problems with its internal atmosphere and the way resources were distributed.

That was not exactly a new idea. People outside the school had speculated about it before.

After all, the team was filled with geniuses. Every one of them was proud, and none liked yielding to anyone else.

The members of the Generation of Miracles had also begun interacting less and less on the court.

Then there was Shogo Haizaki, another former prodigy who had mysteriously left the team.

Using those points to suggest that Masato’s departure might have been related to Teiko’s internal problems was not an unreasonable leap.

Masato found himself amused as he read.

Whoever wrote this actually had some talent.

In a certain sense, part of the speculation was correct.

Teiko’s internal atmosphere really had deteriorated.

But when it came to Masato leaving, resource allocation had been one of the smallest reasons.

No one would ever know the most important reason.

And Masato had no intention of telling them.

By the time he finished, he had to admit that the article was pretty good for a small local paper.

When he raised his head, though, he found all of his teammates staring at him.

Their eyes were full of curiosity.

Masato obviously knew what kind of gossip was running through their heads.

It was not as if no one had asked him before.

Ishida and Kenji alone had brought it up more than once.

“Masa, so why did you really transfer?”

Sure enough, Ishida could not hold back and asked again.

Everyone else immediately perked up, hoping they were about to hear something huge.

Masato spread his hands.

“Didn’t I tell you already? I transferred so I could get stronger.”

He looked around at their faces and added, “See? I tell you the truth and none of you believe me.”

“...”

Everyone fell silent, their expressions practically screaming, Do we look that stupid?

...

Meanwhile, at Teiko Middle School, evening had already begun to settle in.

Regular Basketball Club practice had ended long ago, yet quite a few players were still in the gym training on their own.

Ever since Masato’s emergence, that had become normal.

Many players now treated him as a goal to chase, hoping that one day they too might experience a transformation like his.

On the court, Daiki Aomine dribbled in place, his entire body loose and relaxed.

Then, in the next instant, he shot forward like a thunderbolt.

The acceleration from zero to full speed was terrifying no matter how many times anyone saw it.

Aomine burst into the paint and launched himself high into the air.

The momentum from his extreme speed carried him forward in a long glide.

As he approached the rim, the ball in his right hand came crashing down.

“BOOM!”

The thunderous dunk echoed through the gym.

After landing, Aomine stayed where he was, breathing heavily.

He had changed completely over the past few weeks.

It was almost as if he had returned to the version of himself from his first year.

The Aomine who had trained lazily and sometimes barely showed up at all was gone.

Naturally, everyone noticed the change, especially the other members of the Generation of Miracles.

Aomine never bothered explaining it.

His goal was simple now.

Get stronger, then get revenge on Masato.

Masato leaving without saying goodbye still annoyed him, but more than anything, it filled him with anticipation.

He had originally assumed their real showdown would not happen until after middle school.

Instead, the opportunity had come much sooner.

After resting for a moment, Aomine threw himself into another round of training.

Just then, the gym door opened and Satsuki Momoi ran inside, visibly excited.

“Masa’s already played his qualifying match, and he’s in the news again!”

Satsuki sounded delighted.

She had actually gone home already, but after seeing the newspaper, she had been too restless to stay there and had come all the way back to school.

Lately, she had found herself thinking again and again about the hug they shared before Masato left.

Her curiosity about him was starting to feel like something else.

Aomine had been fully absorbed in training, but the moment he heard Masato’s name, he stopped.

He was not the only one. Quite a few players around him paused what they were doing too.

Masato might have left Teiko, but his place in the minds of the players had not diminished.

To them, Masato was someone who had relied on relentless effort and eventually defeated Kise.

That story had become so legendary that his reputation had actually grown after he left Teiko.

“Oh. Is that so?” Aomine replied, pretending not to care.

The fact that he had stopped training said otherwise.

Satsuki saw through him immediately.

She tossed the newspaper over.

“Here. Read it yourself.”

A moment later, Aomine wore an expression that said the result was exactly what he had expected.

Masato winning did not surprise him in the slightest.

If Masato had lost, that would have been real news.

Seeing how dominant his performance had been only made Aomine more impatient.

He wished their teams could meet in the very next game.

Since returning to serious training, Aomine’s own level had risen dramatically.

As he was now, he was confident he could beat anyone.

That confidence was as strong as ever.

The difference was that this time, he had not lost himself in it.

“Next time we meet, I’ll be the one who wins.”

Aomine was absolutely certain.

Then he turned around and threw himself back into training.