Volume 2

Hanamichi in the heat of the moment left the Basketball team. Akagi is disappointed by Hanamichi's lack of perseverance. In a café, Hanamichi is accompanied by his friends but lacks the appetite to eat. In his mind the words of Akagi loom constantly 'No perseverance!'. Ookusu notices a bunch of dropouts, from another school, who are make rude gestures at them. Unknowingly Hanamichi tags along with his friends and end up face to face with the dropouts. One of them remark about Hanamichi's bad choice of hair color and is floored by a kick in the groin (by Hanamichi). He leaves his friends (Sakuragi Guntai) to finish off the rest of the bunch. Guilt leads Hanamichi to go back to the gym. With help from Ayako and Kiminobu Kogure, Akagi is persuaded to let Hanamichi go one stage further in his basics to ball passing training. Rukawa is most popular with the girls in Shohoku, in fact a fan club has been made. These three girls shamelessly cheer Rukawa, he on the other hand gives them little notice. A fat old man walks into the gym. Hanamichi doesn't know the identity of this man and gives the man a lecture about fitness and proceeds to stretch the chin and stomach of the man. Akagi knuckles Hanamichi for disrespect to Anzei sensei. Ayako tells Hanamichi that Anzei sensei was once a player of the All Japan Basketball team. Anzei sensei has already organized a match against Ryonan, but before that he would like to see a practice match, 1st years Versus 2nd and 3rd years. Obviously the highlight of the match is the challenge between Akagi and Rukawa. Hanamichi isn't sufficiently skilled enough to play (only one week's training) and ends up on the side line watching. The captivating performance of Rukawa entrances Haruko. Hanamichi has had enough, he cannot stand the way Rukawa is showing off and goes about trying to get himself in the match. In the end he manages to get his way, with help from Kogure and Anzai sensei. Akagi doesn't understand why everyone is helping Hanamichi. There is only 5 minutes when Hanamichi joins the game, one reason for letting him in is that he will not have really enough time to cause any trouble and also it will be good experience for him. With explosive speed he manages to grab the ball and drive his way to the where Akagi stands. Everyone is surprised at how fast Hanamichi is progressing, his ball control is not that of a beginner. Akagi isn't going to let Hanamichi score so easily and goes to defend. However Hanamichi's slam dunk misses the ring and slams on Akagi's head. Akagi lies motionless on the floor much to Hanamichi's horror. Akagi gets up and is furious and goes about throttling Hanamichi. The next day Aota Tasuika from the Judo department is interested in Hanamichi. He wants Hanamichi to join the Judo department and tries to persuade Hanamichi using Haruko's photographs. But Hanamichi doesn't join, Aota asks why, the only reason he joined the Basketball team is due to the fact that Haruko is there. Hanamichi in reply says 'I want to play Basketball because I am a Basketball player.