Chapter 3 : The Game

Finally, the long awaited day came! The qualifying round for Shohoku’s top 2 teams. When An-Sei was choosing the first five players, Kotori was - OUT! What? Bench player again?! Mitsui was feeling very unjust for Kotori. Thinking to himself ; if An-Sei do not let Kotori play by second half, we will surely lose and … I will go and talk to that old muddle head!

However, after about 5 minutes when the game had started, Shohoku seemed to lag behind by about 14 points. Upon seeing that Yuki could no longer managed with the game, An-Sei instructed Kotori to warm up. Finally, my chance came to prove my skills. Kotori thought.

(Beep!) The whistle goes off. " Member changing for Shohoku." the referee signaled.

And Kotori went in. Once she entered the court, she became alert to the surroundings. Having being on the bench for sometime, she had roughly guessed what the opponent team are playing. On that spot, she had decided to play 1-on-1. After greeting her team members she whispered to them to use 1-on-1 and even suggested who they should ‘nail’. The only person who questioned Kotori message was on one other then the captain Yuki!

She tried to protested but being quick-willed, Kotori said it was An-Sei’s decision and thus kept Yuki’s mouth shut for the time being. Then the game went on. After using Kotori’s tactics, the scored margin began to narrow down. In about 7 minutes time both the team were par.

Another 8 minutes of hit and chase game continued. Once either side scores, the other even it out. This continues till the game ended at half time with both teams scoring 38-38.

(During the half time break)

An-Sei spoke, " Kotori, now you take charge of the field. Tell me what should we do next to struggle free from this tail boat chase."

" Nothing! " replied Kotori.

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Written by Jance

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