Kuroko: Mahoraga - Chapter 56: The Tournament Begins. Absolute Power! (Patreon)

Three days after the draw ceremony, the National Tournament officially began.

For the opening day, the organizers had deliberately scheduled two marquee games. The first was Kawari Junior High School against Butai Junior High School, while Teiko would take the court in the final game of the day.

Both matchups had drawn enormous attention from the public. Scalpers were even driving up ticket prices.

Kawari had spent the past few days getting themselves into excellent condition. As usual, the team gathered in Kanagawa and took the train to the tournament venue in Tokyo.

The moment they arrived, the atmosphere hit them far harder than it had during the draw ceremony.

There were already long lines at the ticket checkpoints outside the arena, with even more people scattered throughout the surrounding area. And with plenty of time still left before tipoff, this was only a fraction of the crowd that would be there today.

As Masato led Kawari toward the entrance, quite a few members of the media immediately noticed them.

“Look! Kawari’s here!”

“Masato-kun, over here!”

“...”

Cameras went up from a distance, and several reporters called out to Masato.

He merely nodded without saying much, quickening his pace and keeping his eyes forward. The last thing he wanted was to cause a commotion and disrupt the team’s focus.

There really was a different feeling once you reached the national stage. Now that the games had moved to Tokyo, the attention surrounding them had risen another level as well.

Every player on the team could feel it.

...

After changing into their jerseys in the locker room, Kawari headed out to the court together.

When they arrived, they found that Butai had already been warming up for quite a while. Judging from how warmed up they looked, they had clearly arrived early. They were taking this game seriously.

A large section of the stands was already filled too, and more spectators were pouring in by the minute.

Masato led Kawari to their half of the court and began warming up.

But before they had taken more than a few shots, the commotion from the other side caught their attention.

“BOOM!”

“BOOM!”

Butai’s players were lined up, taking turns throwing down dunks.

One glance was enough to see how explosive their athleticism was. The string of slams drew wave after wave of cheers from the stands.

The game had not even started, yet the atmosphere was already heating up. Naturally, the spectacle only made the crowd look forward to the matchup even more.

Compared with Butai, Kawari’s warm-up looked almost dull. They were doing nothing more than simple jumpers and layups.

The contrast immediately became a topic in the stands.

“Who do you think wins today?”

“Hard to say, but just looking at the warm-ups, I feel like Butai has the edge.”

“Yeah. They’re stronger athletically across the board.”

“You don’t know a damn thing. Kawari’s definitely winning!”

“Exactly. Masato beat Makoto Hanamiya, one of the Uncrowned Kings, head-on.”

“Not all of the Uncrowned Kings are the same. Eikichi Nebuya is going to prove that today...”

“Right. Tokyo basketball is simply a level above Kanagawa!”

“...”

...

Masato paid no attention to the noise from Butai’s dunks and continued his own warm-up.

Ishida, on the other hand, had his competitive spirit set off immediately.

His athleticism was already one of his strengths, so there was no way he could watch that display without getting fired up.

“Like they’re the only ones who can dunk. I’ll show you one too!” Ishida grabbed a ball and flashed a grin.

Starting from beyond the three-point line, he charged in and hammered home a powerful two-handed dunk.

Instead of dropping right away, he held onto the rim and let his whole body swing beneath it.

The energetic display earned cheers from the Kawari players.

“Ishida, you’re getting more bounce by the day.”

“Seriously. Your athleticism is ridiculous.”

“...”

Masato nodded in agreement.

Ishida’s technique was still rough, but his physical tools were exactly why he had managed to hold onto a starting spot. If he could polish the technical side of his game, there was plenty of room for him to grow.

Hearing the praise from his teammates and feeling the energy in the arena, Ishida became even more enthusiastic. He grabbed the ball and threw down several more dunks in a row, letting out some ridiculous yell after each one.

Quite a few spectators began looking his way.

More importantly, the display caught Butai’s attention as well.

Their players frowned. To them, Ishida was clearly provoking them.

This game meant a great deal to Butai. Over the past few days, they had practically burned Kawari into their minds, and the media had spent that entire time hyping the matchup like a rivalry.

It did not take long for hostility to spread across Butai’s side of the court.

Their captain, Eikichi Nebuya, looked especially grim.

Still, as captain, he was not about to waste his time arguing with a role player.

Nebuya set down his ball, walked to the sideline, and simply stood there staring at Masato.

Masato noticed, of course.

He ignored him and kept shooting.

One shot. Two shots...

Yet the stare never went away.

Masato finally turned around and found Nebuya still planted in the same spot, watching him without moving.

The whole thing honestly left him confused.

What was this supposed to be? Intimidation?

Looking at Nebuya like that, another figure suddenly came to mind.

“Why does this guy remind me so much of Dillon Brooks?” Masato muttered, speechless. “I’m not LeBron, you know.”

He waved Ishida over just as the forward was getting ready for another dunk.

Ishida walked over with a puzzled look.

Masato pointed toward Nebuya. “That guy’s being kind of weird. You deal with him.”

Ishida followed his finger and looked over.

He was surprised for a second, then broke into a grin.

“Heh. Leave it to me, Masa!”

Ishida walked to the sideline and started staring right back at Nebuya, deliberately copying him.

Nebuya’s gaze finally shifted away from Masato.

The two stood there glaring at each other, creating such a bizarre atmosphere that it became hard not to notice.

Nebuya quickly realized how ridiculous the situation had become and wanted to stop.

But with so many people watching, backing down first against some unknown player would be far too embarrassing.

So he gritted his teeth and kept the staring contest going.

Several reporters in the stands noticed and immediately started snapping pictures.

The two kept at it until the head referee finally blew the whistle to signal that the game was about to begin.

The instant Nebuya heard it, he turned around and walked away without wasting another second.

His face was dark. All he wanted now was for the game to start so he could pour all that pent-up force into this nobody and into Masato.

Ishida, meanwhile, had no idea how seriously Nebuya had taken the whole thing.

“I just went one-on-one with an Uncrowned King.”

He chuckled to himself and headed back toward the team.

...

Both teams returned to the players’ tunnel.

As the announcer introduced the lineups one by one, the players took the court.

The game officially began.

The centers from both teams headed to midcourt for the opening tip.

“Smack!”

As expected, Kawari’s former captain lost the tip again.

Butai ball.

Even the direction of the tip had clearly been planned. Butai must have been completely confident they would win it before the game even started.

The ball flew straight toward their point guard.

But that was not the important part.

At the exact same moment, Nebuya exploded forward from the power forward spot.

Ishida, his defender, immediately gave chase.

Butai’s point guard launched a long pass, lobbing the ball high toward Nebuya.

Nebuya secured it cleanly and stormed into the paint with long strides.

As he leaped, he pulled the ball behind his head with both hands, his entire body bending into an inverted C in midair.

Ishida jumped desperately from the side to contest him.

But the difference between them was simply too great. For a moment, Ishida felt like he was being straight-up violated in midair.

“BOOM!!!”

Nebuya ignored the contest and smashed the ball through the rim.

The force of the dunk knocked Ishida off balance and sent him crashing to the floor.

After landing, Nebuya threw his head back and roared.

“AAAH!!!”

Then he lowered his gaze to Ishida.

“Trash like you thinks you’re worthy of staring me down?”

He left Ishida on the floor without another glance and immediately searched for Masato.

“I’m winning this game with absolute power!”