Kuroko: Mahoraga - Chapter 63: Don't Be Afraid. Have Fun Playing! (Patreon)

When Coach Nakamura said the name Teiko, several players' first reaction was that they must have misheard him.

Then they looked at one another and realized they had all heard the same thing.

A strange atmosphere spread through the gym.

Disbelief. Tension.

Everyone found themselves remembering Teiko's previous game and the sight of their opponent getting beaten so badly they had been reduced to running back and forth across the court.

The moment the Kawari players imagined themselves in that position, several of them shuddered.

It was not as if nobody had ever considered the possibility of drawing Teiko.

But thinking about it was one thing.

Now that it had actually happened, they were nowhere near as calm as they had imagined they would be.

After a brief silence, the gym gradually grew noisy again.

“Seriously? We're playing Teiko?”

“Yeah. Coach's luck is awful!”

“Man, we should've let Captain do the draw. So much for Coach's famous luck...”

“...”

Ishida and Kenji looked just as grave as everyone else.

“If I told you I had a feeling this was coming, would you believe me?” Ishida sighed and looked at Kenji.

Kenji curled his lip. “You really never miss a chance to act cool, huh?”

His voice was flat.

After learning that Teiko was next, Kenji was in a bad mood and had little interest in indulging his friend's nonsense.

Seeing that Kenji did not believe him, Ishida lowered his voice.

“Think about how I've changed these last few days. It's because I realized we were going to have to face Teiko sooner or later.”

He clenched his fist, frustration filling his expression.

“I just wasn't given enough time.”

The way he said it made it sound like a few more days would have changed everything.

Even Kenji, depressed as he was, stared at him in disbelief.

“This is really the time for jokes?”

He looked at Ishida as though he had gone insane.

“Do you seriously think more time would let you reach the level of the Generation of Miracles?”

Ishida realized immediately that Kenji had misunderstood him and shook his head.

“I'm not saying I'd reach Miracle level. I'd just be stronger than I am now. If I can make things a little harder on the opponent, that's enough. Going up against an Uncrowned King really made me realize how much I was holding the team back.”

Then Ishida seemed to remember something and clicked his tongue.

“You were saying before that you never got to match up with Reo Mibuchi. Well, congratulations. We skipped straight past the Uncrowned Kings and now you've got Shintaro Midorima.”

“...”

The moment Midorima's name came up, Kenji's body tightened.

As a player at the same position, Midorima had been the one who left the deepest impression on him when they watched Teiko play.

His off-ball movement was elite.

His defense was elite.

And then there was that absurdly accurate shooting.

Kenji fell silent again.

Neither of them spoke for a while.

Eventually, Kenji forced himself back under control.

“No matter what happens, we've got Masa leading us.”

Just thinking about Masato helped settle him down.

Ishida nodded seriously as well.

But when his gaze swept across the rest of Kawari's starters, he pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Coach Nakamura made no attempt to stop the players from whispering among themselves.

Mostly because Masaki Nakamura was feeling pretty low himself.

Ever since the draw, he had been unable to stop thinking that maybe things would have been different if Masato had gone instead.

...

Masato saw everything happening around the team.

He did not speak right away.

These emotions had to be processed sooner or later.

It was probably better to let everyone get them out now.

When Masato first heard that Teiko was their next opponent, he had been surprised too.

The odds of selecting Teiko from more than ten possible teams had been relatively low.

But he stopped worrying about it almost immediately.

Teiko was Teiko.

They were going to meet eventually.

The only question had been when.

...

Another few dozen seconds passed, and the murmurs around the team grew louder instead of fading away.

Masato glanced at Coach Nakamura.

The coach did not seem interested in speaking.

In that case, Masato was not going to keep waiting for everyone to work through it on their own.

Standing in the front row, he turned to face the team.

He clapped his hands sharply.

The sound drew every eye toward him.

Once the players realized it was their captain, the conversations stopped one after another until the gym quieted down.

Masato looked across his teammates.

“Looks like everyone's pretty nervous about Teiko.”

A faint smile sat on his lips, his entire demeanor calm and steady.

The moment he spoke, that distinctive presence of his seemed to spread through the team.

The players who had been tense only seconds earlier found themselves calming down for no obvious reason.

A few of them answered him.

“Captain, it's Teiko.”

“Yeah. We really didn't get a good draw.”

“...”

Now that Masato had brought the subject into the open, everyone stopped whispering and started speaking normally.

He let them talk for a moment, listening to what they were actually thinking.

Then Masato raised a hand.

As the noise gradually faded, he spoke again.

“I know. Our next opponent is Teiko, the team that's been dominating the entire country. Being nervous is normal.”

His smile disappeared as he looked across the group.

“But if we're going to stand on this stage, then we don't get to bring fear onto the court with us. We didn't fight all the way to the Nationals just to find out what being terrified feels like.”

His voice remained even.

“Remember this. A real strong player is someone willing to charge at another strong player, not someone who only knows how to bully weak teams.”

The words immediately stirred something in the players.

Seeing their expressions grow more serious, Masato continued.

“Haven't all of you wondered why I left Teiko?”

He lifted his chin slightly, confidence filling his eyes.

“There were a lot of reasons. One of them was that I wanted the chance to compete against them on the same stage.”

“I've never been afraid of the name Generation of Miracles. If anything, every time I think about facing them, I get excited. I want all of you to feel the same way.”

“Remember this too. Anyone who's afraid of the mountain will spend their entire life standing at its foot.”

Under the effect of [Leader's Aura], Masato's presence seemed to swell through the entire gym.

Every player felt their blood begin to heat up.

The anxiety, worry, and all the other negative emotions surrounding Teiko vanished almost instantly.

At that moment, Masato's charisma in their eyes was practically at its peak.

Seeing the atmosphere turn around, his smile widened.

“Look forward to it. I'll take all of you out there and let you experience firsthand just how good the so-called Generation of Miracles really are.”

The players answered one after another.

“That's what I'm talking about, Captain!”

“With Captain leading us, we're not afraid of anybody!”

“Exactly! Nobody in this tournament has scared us yet!”

“Let's keep playing Kawari basketball!”

“Yeah! I've wanted to see what Teiko's really like for ages!”

“...”

The team's transformation happened so quickly that even Coach Nakamura had not expected it.

Somehow, Masato's words had fired him up too.

The gloom that had weighed on him since the draw disappeared.

Nakamura looked at Masato and marveled again.

This player kept forcing him to redefine what a genius could be.

Masato felt the passion radiating through the team and nodded in satisfaction.

“That's more like it. Basketball's supposed to be fun.”

None of them realized that the cameras mounted high above the gym had recorded the entire scene.

One day, that footage would make its way into the public eye.

...

After Masato finished, the team broke up for the day.

He did not plan to stay behind for extra practice either.

Masato boarded the train back to Tokyo and spent the ride sitting quietly with his eyes closed.

Then, without warning, his phone started ringing.