The play was simple. Get the ball to Riki and let him create.
He received the inbound pass near mid-court, turned, and faced up against Fujima. He used a behind-the-back dribble to create a sliver of space, then took two hard dribbles to his right, pulling up from just inside the three-point line.
It was a difficult, contested, fading jumper. The kind of shot Sannoh would never take. The kind of shot born from pure instinct.
The ball arced high, its flight path feeling like an eternity. It hit the back of the rim, bounced straight up, and dropped through the net as the red light illuminated the backboard.
Flowstate 78, Sannoh 76.
The arena exploded. They had done it. They had beaten the champions. There was no wild celebration, just a collective, stunned exhaustion. They had climbed the mountain.
As they walked off the court, the giant bracket board didn't just update their standing. It shifted entirely. The "Slam Dunk Bracket" faded, replaced by a new, ominous header: "CROSSOVER EXHIBITION SERIES."
The first name to materialize under it was not a high school. It was a name that carried a different kind of weight, a name from a higher tier of The City's strange hierarchy.
VORPAL SWORDS.
The view from the top of the mountain revealed an even higher peak, one shrouded in the clouds of legend. The rhythm of the game was about to change once more.