Sakuragi turned his head so fast he almost strained his neck.
"Stinking Fox, what did you just say?"
Given how the two of them had interacted over the past few months, Sakuragi should have stood up, grabbed Rukawa by the collar, and started a fight.
However, things were no longer what they used to be.
Right now, Sakuragi could only ignite a fire in his heart and on his face; his physical body simply refused to keep up.
This added fuel to an already fuming blaze, burning his face bright red.
Rukawa Kaede was wearing his school uniform with his backpack slung over one shoulder—he clearly had just come straight from school.
His expression and tone were no different from usual, at least to anyone else.
Yet Sakuragi Hanamichi was utterly convinced that this guy was showing off something today.
"Big Idiot, looking like that, you're dreaming if you think you can get back on the court anytime soon."
Veins throbbed visibly on Sakuragi's forehead.
He finally managed to grab Rukawa by the collar, nearly ripping off a button of his uniform, and sent Rukawa's backpack sliding off his shoulder down onto the sand.
"Damn Fox, don't get so full of yourself. Even when this genius is doing rehabilitation for an injury, it's genius-level rehab! Just wait until I get back on the court, I'll beat you to a pulp!"
Rukawa looked at him quietly. After a moment, he raised a hand and caught Sakuragi's wrist, prying his hand away from his collar.
Before Rukawa could pull his hand completely free, Sakuragi jerked back as if he had been electrocuted, releasing Rukawa and taking two steps back. His face, already flushed with anger, now turned red all the way to his ears.
Rukawa brushed down his lapel, bent down to pick up his backpack from the sand, patted the sand off it, and slung it over his shoulder again.
"Big Idiot, didn't you read those magazines?"
That topic changed so abruptly that Sakuragi had to blink a few times just to process it.
"Of course I read—" Sakuragi choked. "What magazines?!"
Rukawa tilted his head slightly. "If you'd read the magazines, you'd know that plenty of great basketball stars have suffered injuries. But afterwards, they all stood at the pinnacle of the basketball world." He paused; since he wasn't really used to talking this much, Rukawa gathered his thoughts. "Although you're a long way from being like them, you should still believe you can return to the court. Big Idiot, if you keep wallowing in self-pity like this, don't ever expect to beat me in this lifetime!"
With that, Rukawa turned and walked away without looking back, leaving a long trail of footprints in the sand.
When Miyagi came to visit and listened to a vivid, furious retelling of this episode by a hopping-mad Sakuragi, he was thoroughly astonished.
He laughed helplessly and said, "What on earth did that Rukawa come here for anyway? To pump you up? I was wondering why he vanished right after school yesterday and didn't even come to practice—that's a rare sight!"
Sakuragi was so angry he was stamping his feet. "What good could a stinking fox like that possibly do?! He definitely came just to laugh at me! Definitely!"
After angrily gulping down a huge mouthful of water, Sakuragi began to puzzle over it. "Why on earth would that damn fox say I'm wallowing in self-pity? Where am I slacking off? I'm working really hard on my rehab, thank you very much!"
Miyagi rubbed his chin. "Speaking of which, the whole basketball team has been worried about you."
Sakuragi's attention was instantly diverted. "Worried about me? What's there to worry about?"
Miyagi chuckled. "Well, that's because Kogure Kiminobu saw you looking so depressed."
Sakuragi sat in his usual spot on the beach as the sunset spilled over the sand, lost in thought. What Miyagi had said during his visit earlier that day had left him silent for a long time.
A bizarre suspicion made his skin crawl a little.
Could it be that the stinking fox came all the way here to cheer him up because Kogure Kiminobu had reported back on his condition?
The moment that thought popped into his head, he shook it violently to banish it.
No way!
Who would ever believe that?
That fox Rukawa Kaede must have finally seen a chance to mock him, skipped basketball practice right after school, and ridden his bike all this way just to lecture him before running off.
Yeah, that has to be it.
Once he figured that out, Sakuragi felt even more disgruntled.
That damn fox! He already knew there was a gap in skill between them—though admitting it went entirely against his conscience—yet old man Anzai had once told him he would have to train twice as hard if he wanted to catch up to Rukawa before graduating high school.
Because of this injury, the road to catching up was going to be even longer.
He was seriously furious!
Yet having a clear target made Sakuragi much stronger when facing the excruciating rehabilitation.
When he gritted his teeth and broke through a difficult milestone, alongside the excitement and joy, he suddenly had a strong desire to let someone know about his hard work and achievements—to know that he was one step closer to returning to the court.
However, who should that someone be?
He had excitedly and exaggeratedly described his progress to everyone who came to visit him during this time. To his bewilderment, none of their praise made him feel relieved; instead, his heart felt increasingly hollow.
Another week passed just like that.
Even when Miss Haruko cheered for his progress, Sakuragi found that he still wasn't truly happy, which made him somewhat restless once more.
It felt like someone searching for a way out in a labyrinth, thinking they saw the exit, only to sprint toward it and discover it was just another dead end.
Sakuragi Hanamichi sat on the beach, carefully reading a letter Haruko had sent him.
Since school had started, everyone couldn't visit him as frequently, so Haruko had taken to writing letters to tell Sakuragi about recent events.
Today's letter mentioned that Haruko had joined the basketball team as a manager, Miyagi had officially taken over as team captain, Akagi Takenori and Kogure Kiminobu had completely retired to focus on their college entrance exams, Mitsui Hisashi had chosen to stay on the team, and Rukawa...
The moment Sakuragi saw the characters for "Rukawa-kun," his heart skipped a beat, and his eyelid twitched.
Haruko wrote that Rukawa-kun had been summoned by the National Youth Team to join a training camp.
Sakuragi Hanamichi felt ready to explode. If this letter hadn't been written by Haruko, he would have ripped it to pieces right then and there.
A summons to the National Youth Team—even a novice like Sakuragi knew what that represented.
It was the ultimate recognition of ability. Every year, only a handful of people qualified to enter that training camp, and those who came out of it experienced a massive surge in skill.
These were things Mitsui had endlessly nagged him about in the past.
Undoubtedly, everyone yearned for it.
Yet who would have thought that the first player in Shohoku Basketball Team history to be called up would be a first-year like Rukawa?
Of course, even if Sakuragi wanted to deny it, he couldn't pretend not to see it; Rukawa's performance during the national tournament had indeed been remarkable.
"But I played great too!" Sakuragi felt like stamping his feet.
Ultimately, he attributed his failure to be called up to the National Youth Team to his injury; even if he had been summoned, he wouldn't have been able to participate.
Thinking along these lines made him feel at least a little better.
However, the very next scene made the mood that had just improved slightly flare up into a blazing fire all over again.
For a split second, Sakuragi thought he was losing his mind from anger and hallucinating.
Because someone was running toward him from far down the beach, getting closer and closer, until that person's face resolved into Rukawa's.
It wasn't until Rukawa stood right in front of him, unzipped his jacket with a zip-tag clatter, and revealed his team uniform underneath—blazoned boldly with the National Youth Team logo—that Sakuragi realized this really was that shameless stinking fox!
Realizing Sakuragi hadn't returned after such a long time, the doctor came out to the beach to look for him.
Most of the time, this boy cooperated like a model patient, and with his cheerful personality, both doctors and nurses loved him. Yet when he was stubborn, he was truly a headache; coupled with his towering height, if anyone tried to use force, no one in the entire sanatorium could handle him.
Because of these combined reasons, the doctor always paid special attention to Sakuragi.
She knew the boy liked to sit on the beach for a while every day and fully supported it, especially since Sakuragi always returned on time, giving her all the more reason not to stop him.
It was rare indeed for him to be missing long after the sun had set, as he was today, and the doctor grew somewhat concerned.
Fortunately, seeing that broad back still sitting far off on the beach, the doctor sighed in relief. She walked over and said with a smile, "Sakuragi-kun, it's time for us to head back and get ready for dinner."
Sakuragi kept his head down, clutching the letter paper. It took a long time before he finally looked up. His expression was intensely complicated—part plea, part self-determination, yet tinged with anxiety and hope. "Doctor, I want to return to the court as soon as possible."
The doctor watched as the boy dropped his head again, looking like a pitiful, oversized dog, his muffled voice coming from beneath his crossed arms: "Otherwise, I'll never catch up to him."
In the days that followed, Sakuragi would see Rukawa running toward him from the far end of the beach at the exact same time and place every day. Even after the National Youth Team's training camp ended, this routine never stopped.
They acted like complete strangers, exchanging nothing more than a passing glance between random pedestrians, with no further communication whatsoever.
Except for that very first day, when Rukawa had flaunted his National Youth Team uniform and looked down at him from above, casting a long shadow in the setting sun that enveloped Sakuragi entirely.
"Big Idiot, if you don't push yourself harder, I'm going to run further and further away, and you'll never catch up to me."
That was the last conversation between the two of them during Sakuragi's stay at the sanatorium. From then on, although they saw each other every day, they never spoke another word.
And so, one month after Rukawa's training camp ended, Sakuragi Hanamichi was finally discharged from the hospital.
The Sakuragi Legion had originally planned to come pick him up, but on the day of his discharge, the bunch of them got caught by the school for playing pachinko and couldn't break away.
With no other choice, Sakuragi had to leave the hospital by himself.
Thanks to the formidable practical skills he had developed living alone, Sakuragi had packed up the massive pile of belongings in his hospital room into neat bundles—though it was fortunate Yohei had carried away quite a bit of his stuff like an ant moving grains over the past few weeks, otherwise there was no way he could have carried it all by himself.
As he dragged his countless bags out of the sanatorium, the crowd of people who came to see him off exceeded anything Sakuragi could have imagined.
Doctors, nurses, and patients from several rooms over formed a bustling crowd to wave goodbye. For a moment, Sakuragi was flustered by the unexpected affection; standing out head and shoulders above the crowd, he scratched the back of his head, grinned broadly, and didn't even know what to say.
Thus, when Sakuragi successfully passed through the gates of the sanatorium, he was burdened not only with his original luggage but also with an extra-large bag of farewell gifts from everyone.
In a sanatorium like this, Sakuragi—this warm, fiery little sun—had always been everyone's darling. Although the time spent together was short, Sakuragi had successfully risen to become the most popular patient in the sanatorium's history.
Sakuragi was dragging so much stuff that he was almost barred from boarding the train. Intimidated by his towering, look-down-upon-you height and that fierce-looking head of red hair, the staff ultimately let him pass.
After getting off the train, he still had quite a way to go to get home. Just as he was eyeing the end of this infuriatingly small-scale move, one of his bags finally gave up the ghost and laid down on the job, spilling all its miscellaneous contents across the ground.
Sakuragi watched in horror as a cup rolled down the downhill slope, followed by a whole clatter of smaller items like a mother duck trailing ducklings. In the blink of an eye, the slope behind him was littered with his belongings.
And that cup showed no intention of braking; it rolled along with gleeful velocity, its trajectory clearly signaling a final farewell to its owner.
It didn't stop until it was blocked by a bicycle that cut in halfway.
When Sakuragi saw the person on that bicycle plant one very long leg against the ground, his glare shifted instantly from the runaway cup to the rider.
Could someone please explain to him why Rukawa Kaede was showing up at this time and in this place?!