Kuroko no Basket: Honored One

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WHAM!

The basketball slammed into the wall and rebounded with a boom.

The sheer force of it made the bench players flinch in fear. If that had hit a person… they might've been heading straight to see their ancestors.

Step, step—

Aomine and Tendou landed simultaneously.

The other eight players on the court finally snapped out of their daze.

Immediately, they all charged toward where the ball had landed.

Ultimately, Kirisaki Daiichi's bad boys had the edge.

Their teamwork was unusually coordinated—some yanked at jerseys, some outright held opponents' arms to stop them. It was chaos, but it worked.

The referees, entirely focused on Tendou and Aomine, didn't notice the dirty tricks being pulled.

Yamazaki Hiroshi recovered the ball and looked up to find Tendou.

Before he could raise his head fully—

Zzzzt!

A streak of white lightning sliced past Yamazaki's face, and the ball vanished from his hands.

Tendou had taken it himself.

He'd snatched it right out of his own teammate's grip.

"So you've completely cut out the passing phase now? You maniac."

Yamazaki could only shake his head helplessly.

They couldn't read Tendou's thought process anymore. The level gap was too wide—he wasn't even playing the same game. He might as well be from another dimension.

Or rather, without Tendou's Six Eyes, they simply couldn't see the world he saw.

Tendou surged forward with the ball.

Every corner of the court lit up in his mind's eye—his Six Eyes analyzed everyone's movement, predicting their next steps before they even took them.

Aomine darted in from behind to intercept.

Slap!

Tendou pounded the ball into the floor, slipping just out of reach—his movements were getting more and more unreal.

"A full 360-degree view with no blind spots…"

"Plus the ability to foresee the future…"

This kind of combination, this kind of vision, left no weaknesses to exploit.

Every move Tendou made was flawless.

Even Imayoshi, who once had unwavering faith in Aomine, now couldn't feel so confident.

To the naked eye, the two bolts of lightning—white and blue—were still clashing, still evenly matched.

But if you watched closely, you'd realize that Aomine couldn't even get near Tendou anymore.

Every attempt was anticipated, countered before it could land.

Tendou controlled the tempo, the ball, and the game.

Still, Aomine didn't give up.

Driven by instinct and freakish coordination, he stayed on him like glue, never letting himself fall too far behind.

Spectators in the real world were stunned.

All they could see were two young men moving like monsters—lightning crackled in their eyes, and their shadows danced wildly across the screen.

It was clear Tendou had the upper hand.

But despite that, there was still no clear winner.

This wasn't like the match against Rakuzan, where Kagami entered Zone only to be overpowered by Akashi.

Aomine wasn't Kagami.

His coordination, flexibility, and balance were superior in every way.

Combined with the fastest first step in the country, he could recover even after being forced off balance.

...

"In that case…"

Tendou's eyes flickered.

Without realizing it, the two had drifted all the way to the top of the arc.

Aomine tensed up, fully focused—he was at his peak, every nerve alight, his senses sharpened to their limits.

But the Six Eyes were still suppressing his every move.

This was the strongest opponent he had ever faced—bar none.

Tendou didn't give him time to think.

Suddenly, the muscles across his body tensed, coiling like springs.

Aomine sensed the danger. He raised both arms, creating a defensive barrier in front of himself.

His instincts were screaming—something dangerous was coming.

Tendou's dribble was the fastest in the nation. That was already terrifying enough.

But this time—it wasn't a simple "Dismantle."

It was something else entirely.

Tendou gathered power, his Six Eyes controlling every micro-movement of his body with precision.

He stepped forward.

His arm drove the ball into the floor, and from his lips came a single syllable:

"Cleave!"

Everyone in the gym—including Aomine—snapped their eyes wide open.

In the real world, the screen went completely dark.

Then, a familiar slash of light cut across the black.

Fans began spamming "Dismantle!" in the live chat, thinking it was the usual move.

But then—

Another flash.

Then another.

Then another.

Three, four, five…

The screen became a storm of sword-light, slashes crisscrossing like a fruit-ninja frenzy.

All the audience could hear was the rapid swish swish swish swish of slicing air.

The screen didn't recover for a long time—until it was entirely shredded, as though someone had sliced the darkness itself into bits.

Then—

It returned.

All they saw was Aomine's stunned expression.

And Tendou's back, already past him.

In that moment, the echo of his word finally reached the audience's ears:

"Cleave."

THUNK!

The ball went in.

Tendou finished the move with a powerful slam.

...

On the sidelines, everyone from Tōō Academy stood with mouths agape.

Even Imayoshi and Momoi looked completely stunned.

Their star player…

Her childhood friend…

Had been completely broken through.

He hadn't even had time to react.

...

"What… what the hell was that?!" Kagami shouted, his voice trembling.

He had just seen something unthinkable.

Tendou had used a ridiculously fast, chaotic series of dribbles to blow past Aomine.

Each dribble was as powerful as a "Dismantle."

Left, right, left, right—ten cuts in the blink of an eye.

So fast, so intricate, that even Aomine couldn't react.

Meanwhile—

In a quiet dojo far away, a man named Yagyu Jūdai stared at the television, dumbstruck.

For years, he'd been searching for the boy who once shook him to his core.

But how was he supposed to find a nameless child he'd met so long ago?

Then came the rise of the Generation of Miracles. That's when he realized—

"That little punk who challenged me back then… turned to basketball?!"

To him, it was a disgrace.

A waste of genius.

With his raw talent, that child could have become a sword saint—someone to surpass even him.

His own son, just seven years old, had nowhere near the potential that boy showed.

His daughter had talent, yes—but tradition would never allow her to inherit the school.

That was why he had made a decision:

He would make Tendou Kageyoshi… his final disciple.