Third person's point of view

At the next day. Y/n and Rukawa hasn't spoken about the little incident that had happened last night.

This is the fifth day of the tournament, and the seats are filled by the crowds because the four major areas are dunking it put here today. Separated into 4 areas; A, B, C, and D the championship from each group will get into the playoffs. Throughout the fierce competition, 2 team have already qualified for the Kanagawa Division. One team, which was last year's champion, is the first area champion Kainan High. The team from the second area Shoyo High.

Shoyo has the loudest cheer from the crowd. Today's match will be Shoyo vs Shohoku.

At the first change room.

"This is very important match." Akagi started. "Shoyo aren't like any other team that we have played before. Any motivation?"

Sakuragi made his way near Akagi. Narrowing his eyes and pointed his finger under Akagi's eyes. "You have black bags!"

"Shut up!" Akagi yelled at Sakuragi.

"Even Akagi was too nervous to sleep." Kogure stated. "I wasn't able to sleep until 4am in this morning."

"Shameful." Mitsui spoke his back facing them, he's looking over his shoulder. "It's only Shoyo and it's making you guys nervous."

"Uh?" Sakuragi said.

"Where are you going? We're about to start." Kogure asked Mitsui.

"Got to go to the toilet." Mitsui answered.

"Seems like Mitsui is the most nervous. How many times has he been already?" Sakuragi stated with a grin plastered in his face.

"Still pretending!" Akagi is disappointed.

Everyone at the change room, are nervous for their match with Shoyo.

"It's about time to play." Anzai-sensei greeted the team as he enters the change room.

Shohoku team made their way to the court and greeted by the shouting form the bleachers. Sakuragi heard familiar voices, he turns to the bleachers and saw his friend with Haruko and her friends.

"Are you going to try and break the record for getting kicked out of the game 5 times in a row?!" They shouted all at once. "We want to see how many points you can get before getting kicked out!"

"Did you guys come to laugh at me?! Hurry and leave!" Sakuragi shouted back while pointing his finger at them. He stops and became a blushing mess when he saw Haruko next to his friends.

"Sakuragi! Good luck!" Haruko shouted.

"Sakuragi! What are you doing!? Hurry up!" Akagi yelled at Sakuragi.

"Ye... Yes!" Sakuragi stuttered.

"Ayako-senpai, have Shohoku played with Shoyo before?" Y/n asked while arranging the players water bottle.

"Yeah, we've played Shoyo before... But we were fairly weak so we would lose before getting past here." Ayako answered her kohai.

"Yes. That's because they're all still kids." Anzai-sensei butted in the girls' conversation. "But Shoyo's team are all adults now. You should know, they're all seniors now."

The crowed cheers as Shoyo enters the court. Then the crowed also screamed when they saw Ryonan walking by the bleachers and come face-to-face with Kainan.

Only 3 minutes left for warm-up, Anzai-sensei assembles all of his players.

"Today's opponent is very strong." Anzai-sensei started. "Our starters are; Akagi, Mitsui, Miyagi, Rukawa, Sakuragi!" Sakuragi tensed when he heard his name. "It's you five. You guys are a strong team also. Sakuragi!"

"Yes, old man!" Sakuragi said.

"Your job is to secure under the basket. Control all rebounds." Anzai-sensei said to Sakuragi. "Akagi, Rukawa, Sakuragi! You guys have to go up against Shoyo's Height formation. The game is about to begin! Go out and play!"

They players made their way to the court to start the tip off.

"How can they send Sakuragi in as the starting player?! Does Shohoku wanna lose?!" Sakuragi's friends yelled.

"Sakuragi turned to them. "Idiots! I have skils! I'm tensai Sakuragi!" Sakuragi yelled back.

One of the Shohoku player suddenly asked. "Is that guy Shoyo's coach?" He looks at the old man sitting with Shoyo's players. "Kogure, doesn't look like a strong team's coach."

"No! that guy is just the team's adviser! He doesn't know anything about basketball." Kogure answer. "The real coach is him! A player and a coach, Kenji Fujima!"

"Play ball!" The referee shouts.

Shoyo's starters: Taku Itou (Sophomore), Shouichi Takano (Senior), Mitsuru Nagano (Senior), Kazushi Hasegawa (Senior), Tooru Hanagata (Senior).

As the players made their way inside the court Shoyo players has more cheers.

"They're so tall!" Y/n said with a wide-eyes and looking up.

As the captains shakes hand, the tip off begins. The referee releases the ball, Hanagata and Akagi jumps. Sakuragi got the ball but the referee blows his whistle.

"Jump ball violation! White (Shohoku) team number 4!" The referee shouts.

The gym is now once again filled with cheers for Shoyo. And now, the game begins.