Chapter 154 ~ Versus Kaijo
<span style="font-weight:400">With some sort of “normalcy” returning to his life, which for Yuuji simply meant that no missions came to the group chat or various problems happening in his friends’ worlds, Yuuji enjoyed his time with his family and friends, and also enjoyed his high school life.
<span style="font-weight:400">Spending his time in school with his friends was a nice change of pace after living a double life as a terrorist in Lelouch’s world. And after school, he’d either tutor the quintuplet or participate in the Basketball Club’s activities.
<span style="font-weight:400">Though… After just one club session, it was already clear to everyone that there wasn’t a need for him to go through their training or any of their drills.
<span style="font-weight:400">With Yuuji’s physical prowess, he wasn''t even sweating when the rest of the club members wereying down on the ground in their own pool of sweat.
<span style="font-weight:400">And with his learning speed, he had already far surpassed the skill of the captain and ace of the basketball club.
<span style="font-weight:400">Even when going against a whole team in a match meant to try and measure how absurd he truly was, the result shocked even onlookers frozen…
<span style="font-weight:400">No one was able to stop him from scoring. And… no one was able to score against him.
<span style="font-weight:400">And from then on, Yuuji was tasked to help the others improve and practice teamwork instead.
<span style="font-weight:400">Days passed by in a breeze, and thest day of school was finally about to end.
<span style="font-weight:400">The school bell rang, and Shuu immediately turned to Yuuji the moment the teacher exited the room.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yuuji! It’s time for your match, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hm? Ah, yes it is.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright~! Then what are we waiting for~?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...You’reing?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Of course I am!!! Raku, Ai, you’reing too, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Shuu turned towards the two, who were busy cleaning up their desks and putting their books and stationeries into their bags.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, I’d like to watch.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Me too. Will that be okay, Yuuji?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Yuuji nodded with a smile.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Of course. Let’s go together.”
<span style="font-weight:400">As they were about to exit the ss, Viktoriya, Chitoge, and Yotsuba quickly came up to join them.
<span style="font-weight:400">Then, Yuna and Nina also came from their ss, and the group made their way to the gym where the friendly basketball match between their highschool and Kaijo would be held.
<span style="font-weight:400">--------------------------------X--------------------------------
<span style="font-weight:400">Upon arriving at their destination, the Kaijo Basketball club members alighted from their bus.
<span style="font-weight:400">One of the first people to alight was a rotund, middle-aged man with roughly shaved beard named Takeuchi Genta that is their coach, and a young, young man with short, spiky hair and a pair of sharp stern eyes named Kasamatsu Yukio that is their captain, made their way to the gym building of Bonyari High School.
<span style="font-weight:400">And following them, a group of tall highschool boys, dressed in track jackets and pants with their school color, blue and white, alighted from the bus and followed after the two.
<span style="font-weight:400">With their coach, a total of 10 people were present, with 5 being the core and starting members of their team, and the other four being substitutes.
<span style="font-weight:400">All ten seemed rtively calm as they made their way rxedly to the building.
<span style="font-weight:400">The Bonyari High School basketball team was… never one to be in the news within the high school basketball world in Japan, to put it lightly. They had never stood out amongst the high school basketball teams; simply average.
<span style="font-weight:400">On the other hand, Kaijo’s basketball team was a rtively famous powerhouse, especially with one of the extremely famous generation of miracles joining their team at the start of this school year.
<span style="font-weight:400">Considering the disparity between their respective strengths, there shouldn’t have been a spar between the two high schools.
<span style="font-weight:400">Originally, Coach Takeuchi wanted to arrange a spar with one of the more established high school basketball teams within the province to measure the skill level of the new first-year students in their ranks. However, most were unavable, leading him to one of thest options, which was Bonyari High School.
<span style="font-weight:400">He didn’t expect much, and had already nned on simply moving the date to a monthter. After all, he doubted Bonyari high school’s basketball team would ept an invitation to a spa where they would, most likely, be decimated.
<span style="font-weight:400">But to his surprise… they epted. Which led to this situation.
<span style="font-weight:400">He turned his head slightly and nced at his students. They all seemed rxed and… bored. Perhaps aside from the captain, the hot-blooded Mitsuhiro, or the quiet Kobori who were the most serious members of the team, they were all quiteid back.
<span style="font-weight:400">The first year students seemed slightly nervous, but he could see that they seemed to be more nervous about making sure they would perform their best rather than their opponents.
<span style="font-weight:400">And the most rxed of them all… was the golden-haired generation of miracle members, Kise Ryota, who was ying with his phone and yawning from time to time.
<span style="font-weight:400">At first, Kise was quite excited to y in a game against another school so soon after entering high school. But after hearing about the opponent, he deted quite quickly. In fact, he wanted to skip this sparring match and go have a modeling shoot or something instead. But, he was forced to join by his coach and had no choice but to go.
<span style="font-weight:400">So… he could only hope the match would end faster so he could just go home and rest for the weekend.
<span style="font-weight:400">They slowly approached the gym building, and as they got near it, they could hear sounds and voicesing from within it.
<span style="font-weight:400">It… sounded like people. But not just a few… many. It was strange.
<span style="font-weight:400">They soon arrived at the gym building, and the moment they opened the door, all of them widened their eyes in shock.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What the…”
<span style="font-weight:400">The gym building they thought would be empty of people aside from Bonyari High School’s basketball team… was instead packed.
<span style="font-weight:400">The outer sides of the basketball court. The stands on the second floor of the building. They were all filled with students.
<span style="font-weight:400">They did not expect this small sparring match, which they believed they could easily, to have so many people watching… Was Bonyari High School’s basketball team that popr?
<span style="font-weight:400">Moriyama Yoshitaka, one of the third year students currently still in the team and a shooting guard, couldn’t help but look at the crowd in shock, just like the rest of his team.
<span style="font-weight:400">But soon, he noticed something that made his eyes lit up and enthusiasm returned.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ooohh! Oi, Kise! Look at that! There’s so many beautiful girls! Ooooh, there are also foreign beauties too! I didn’t know there’s this many beauties in Bonyari! If I knew, I would’ve asked for a spar match here long ago!!!”
<span style="font-weight:400">He slung his arm around the blonde-haired former member of the Generation of Miracles and forced him to look at the direction he pointed at.
<span style="font-weight:400">And Kise’s eyes widened in shock as well.
<span style="font-weight:400">“W-Wow… I didn’t expect it either…”
<span style="font-weight:400">As a popr high school model, Kise had met and worked with plenty of beautiful female models in his career.
<span style="font-weight:400">But… he could truthfully say, most of them wouldn’t even hold a candle to the beauties he saw gathered on the stands above.
<span style="font-weight:400">The mature, sisterly beauty with ck hair and ck headband would’ve been enough to put him in awe… But now, there were also foreign beauties, twin beauties, and even five beautiful girls who looked simr to each other, all gathered in one ce.
<span style="font-weight:400">How could he never have heard of such beautiful girls…?
<span style="font-weight:400">Kise looked around… and although there weren’t more beauties on their level, he could still find a few beauties that would be extremely popr in their school.
<span style="font-weight:400">The rest of the first year students, who heard Moriyama and began looking around, also became even more enthusiastic to show off their skills. Now, they didn’t want to only impress their coach, but also the beauties. Perhaps if they’re lucky, they could get one of them to be their girlfriends!
<span style="font-weight:400">“O-Oi, I-I didn’t expect I’ll be ying in front of girls that beautiful!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright! I’ll do my best for this!!!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hey hey, do you think I can get one of them as my girl?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I call dibs on that sexy senpai!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’ll go for the twins!!!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hehe, then I’ll take that blonde girl with a bombshell of a body!”
<span style="font-weight:400">Being so near, although they were “whispering” to each other, Kise could still hear them clearly, and he couldn’t help scrunched his face at their words…
<i><span style="font-weight:400">‘Seriously… this is why you guys are still single… stop being disgusting…’</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">He shook his head. But then, his body jolted from a sudden shock to the stomach.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Gufuu!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oi, Kise…”
<span style="font-weight:400">He held his stomach where his captain had elbowed him, which although didn’t hurt, still shocked him quite a bit.
<span style="font-weight:400">“W-What is it…?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“There… Do you see him? Have you ever seen that handsome kid there?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Huh…?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Kise turned towards where the direction his captain was pointing at.
<span style="font-weight:400">His finger pointed at a certain figure in the midst of a group of people in skyblue and white colored basketball uniform, which he assumed to be Bonyari High school’s basketball team, and saw a super handsome man with an otherworldly radiance around him.
<span style="font-weight:400">Kise had seen plenty of handsome men before. Models, artists, singers… Many had beautiful appearances, but few had charisma that attracted people, which ultimately separates the average, and the sessful models and artists.
<span style="font-weight:400">But that guy… He had both an unmatched appearance and charisma…
<span style="font-weight:400">Even when he was in the midst of a crowd, all his attention simply went to him as if there were no one else there with him. His presence overshadowed the rest, just like the sun.
<span style="font-weight:400">“N-No… I’ve never seen him…”
<span style="font-weight:400">With his face alone, he could easily be a top model all majorpanies, not only fashion, would fight tooth and nail for. Sparing none of their budget to hire him as their model and ambassador. And his clearly muscr physique and tall stature could also easily make him the poster child to any sport-rted brand in the world.
<span style="font-weight:400">Adding to it his charisma… How could such a person not be known to the world?
<i><span style="font-weight:400">‘What a waste of a face…!’</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">If he bes a model, he could instantly make it big!!!
<span style="font-weight:400">Kise couldn’t help but clench his fist in frustration and disappointment as he continued to stare and re at the stupidly handsome guy.
<span style="font-weight:400">And then to his shock, he actually turned towards him and met his gaze.
<span style="font-weight:400">He tilted his head confusedly, before giving a nod in a greeting.
<span style="font-weight:400">Kise panicked and flustered for a moment. And before he could nod back in greeting, a tall,rge-built, muscr man in the sky blue and white basketball uniform approached them.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ah, good afternoon! You must be Coach Takeuchi. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am the captain of Bonyari’s High School Basketball team, Yanagi Kenjiro.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Coach Takeuchi nodded with a small smile, which was already considered courteous for a man of few expressions such as himself, and took therge, young man’s hand in a handshake.
<span style="font-weight:400">“A pleasure. Thank you for the wee. Though, I seem to not see Coach Haguchi…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Unfortunately, Coach Haguchi had fallen ill recently and couldn’t make it for this match. He had left this matter to me. I hope you won’t mind.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I understand. I hope he recovers quickly.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Coach Takeuchi simply nodded his head understandingly.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thank you. Please,e this way. We’ve prepared a locker room for you to use.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thank you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Yanagi led the members of Kaijo’s basketball team to the locker room to get change. And as they followed after him, Kise still had his eyes locked on the stupidly handsome dude until he could no longer see him.
<span style="font-weight:400">They all got changed, and Yanagi was once again there to lead them back to their bench.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well then, I suppose we can start the match after a brief warm up?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Yanagi asked Coach Takeuchi.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Very well. Then, we shall begin the match in 20 minutes. Please feel free to use your side of the court to warm up.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thank you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Yanagi bowed courteously to Takeuchi before leaving them to their own devices, and as he did, Takeuchi turned towards his team.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright. You guys go ahead and warm up. And remember, although this is a sparring match, I’ll be watching and observing all of you closely. Don’t be distracted.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Takeuchi emphasized his words with a re, and especially emphasized hisst three words and directed his gaze towards the first years, who he clearly heard wanted to use this chance to pick up girls.
<span style="font-weight:400">And his re was tremendously effective, as the first years all tensed up and stood stiff like a rod.
<span style="font-weight:400">““Y-Yes!!!””
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good… And one more thing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Takeuchi shifted his gaze towards Kasamatsu, the third-year team captain of the team.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Kasamatsu… Be careful of that guy. Keep a close eye on him.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That guy…?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“The stupidly handsome one.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh…”
<span style="font-weight:400">They all turned to look at the only guy who would be appropriate for that term. After all, if he wasn’t the handsome one, then no one is.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Is he a prodigy we’ve never heard of?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...No. I know nothing about him as well. I’ve never heard of Bonyari having a yer like him. But… My gut feeling tells me to be careful of him.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...I understand. We’ll keep a close eye on him.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Takeuchi nodded and crossed his arms.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Good. Now go and warm up.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Kasamatsu, Kise, and the others all began to stretch and head to their half of the court to begin doingyup and shooting drills.
<span style="font-weight:400">And as they did, they soon heard the cheering and shrieking of girls from all around them, and looked to the other side of the field.
<span style="font-weight:400">There… as if they were looking at a promotional video of a high school drama show revolving around basketball, they saw the handsome guy their coach told them to be careful of, shooting a basketball with perfect form in mid-air.
<span style="font-weight:400">The ball traveled through the air in a beautiful arc as time seemed to slow down, and when it reached the ring, it hit nothing but.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was… mesmerizing to watch.
<span style="font-weight:400">His form… was the ideal form they would imagine in their heads when shooting. It was the form they’re trying to replicate in real life.
<span style="font-weight:400">And the moment it went into the ring, they were violently snapped out of their daze from the deafening cheers and shrieks of female students in the crowd.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...Hey, Yukio. Did you see that…?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Koji slowly walked up to his close friend and captain, and asked. Their eyes still not leaving the figure that made that mesmerizing shot.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah… I did…”<span style="font-weight:400">
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I have never seen someone shoot so perfectly. He’s even better than that shooting guard from the Generation of Miracles”
<span style="font-weight:400">Kasamatsu clenched his hands into fists and let out a deep sigh.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Guess the coach’s guts were right. We need to keep a close eye on him.”