Ari Toru had never realized how much he took movement for granted... until now, every part of him had just moulded into this bed. With no chance of taking control of his body.
The hospital room had become his prison. A comfortable, temperature-controlled, medically-supervised prison, but a prison nonetheless. His broken collarbone kept him painfully immobilized, the sling around his arm was a constant reminder of his body's fragility. Every slight shift sent little lightning hot bolts of pain through his shoulder and neck. The doctors said he was healing well, that everything was progressing normally, that he just needed to be patient.
Patient! *As if patience is something I have in abundance right now.*
Because all he could think aboutevery waking moment_ All he could think about every time he closed his eyes was basketball. The system had awakened something in him, a dormant fire that had been smoldering for three years, and now it had risen up like an inferno. His fingers had an angry itch just to hold a ball. His legs wanted to run. His entire body was screaming at him to move move move.
To test this, to see if this...this magical thing floating in his vision was reality or just a specific hallucination his damaged brain had conjured up.
The system itself seemed to find his predicament amusing.
[HOST STATUS: IMMOBILIZED]
[CURRENT ACTIVITY: LAYING IN BED LIKE A DEPRESSED POTATO]
[SUGGESTED ACTION: STOP BEING A DEPRESSED POTATO]
"That's very helpful," Ari muttered. It earned him a concerned look from the nurse who was changing his bandages.
"Did you say something, Toru-kun?"
"Just... talking to myself."
She gave him a worried smile. "That's normal after head trauma. Just let us know if you experience any confusion or—"
"I'm fine." Ari forced a smile like hers. "Really."
She didn't look convinced, but she left him alone after his bandages were changed.
The texts came back to his vision.
[LYING TO MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS: A BOLD STRATEGY]
[LET'S SEE IF IT PAYS OFF]
"Are you going to be like this all the time?" Ari whispered straining his head to see if the nurse was truly gone.
[WOULD YOU PREFER A BORING, EMOTIONLESS SYSTEM?]
[BECAUSE I CAN BE BORING]
[INITIALIZING BORING MODE...]
[HOST STATUS: RECOVERING. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL MOBILITY: 14-21 DAYS]
[JUST KIDDING, I AM NOT BORING]
[I'M GOING TO MAKE FUN OF YOU A LOT]
[GET USED TO IT]
Despite the insanity of his situation, Ari almost laughed. Whatever the system was, it had a personality. Completely Sentient.. That was either reassuring or deeply concerning to him.
The days crawled by and by like tortoise.
His parents visited him all the time. His mother brought him homemade meals and did her best to keep him company. His father arrived each evening with textbooks and study materials. Yes Ari's biggest concern right now was falling behind in chemistry.
"You'll need to catch up once you start at Yoshimura," his father said, when he swt down another stack of books on the rolling table beside Ari's bed. "The academic standards there are much higher than your previous school."
"Dad, I was in a bus accident."
"Which is exactly why we need to make sure you don't fall behind." Hideaki adjusted his reading glasses with a single finger.
He was a man who had never fallen behind on anything his entire life. "Education doesn't pause for inconvenience."
Michiko shot her husband look that could have curdled milk.
His own eyes opened up in recognition, "B...but of course you'll be focused on regaining your strength for now."
His mother won, as she usually did. His father retreated with his books, though he did leave one. A chemistry textbook that was thicker than Ari's weak forearms.
Once they were gone, Ari ignored the textbook entirely and pulled out his phone.
Yoshimura High School had an incredibly active social media presence.
Ari had known this. It was a prestigious school, of course they'd have sick marketing and top level photography. Bjt he hadn't quite grasped the scale of it until he started scrolling through their various accounts.
Instagram. Twitter. TikTok. Even YouTube. The school had accounts on everything, and they were all meticulously curated to project an image of pure .....fucking...status.
The official accounts posted things like campus tours. There was the crazy orientation Ari was forced to miss because of the accident. There were nice photos of diverse students of all sorts of ethnicities. That's cause almost half of Yoshimura students were not Japanese.
But the student accounts were something else entirely.
Because Ari fell down a rabbit hole of hashtags: #YoshimuraLife, #YoshimuraFirstYear, #Yoshimura. Hundreds of posts from current students. All to document their ridiculously photogenic lives. This was the arrogance you got from attending such a world wide acclaimed school.
There Selfies in classrooms with the perfect vibe. Beautiful warm group photos at the cafeteria. It looked like a magazine cover. There were videos of students laughing together in the quad, everyone was so attractive and well-dressed.
"Oh my god," Ari muttered while he scrolled through what had to be the fiftieth post of students posing in their uniforms. "Do they do anything besides take pictures of themselves?"
[GENERATION Z]
[A COHORT SHAPED BY CONSTANT DIGITAL IMMERSION, RESULTING IN RAPID INFORMATION PROCESSING AND ADAPTIVE COMMUNICATION PATTERNS. THEY DISPLAY PRAGMATIC SKEPTICISM TOWARD INSTITUTIONS AFTER GROWING UP AMID GLOBAL INSTABILITY AND CONTRADICTORY INFORMATION STREAMS.
THEIR CULTURAL BEHAVIOR OPTIMIZES FOR VISIBILITY, SPEED, AND SELF-CURATION WITHIN ALGORITHM-DRIVEN ECOSYSTEMS]
[CONCLUSION: EXPERIENCES DON'T EXIST UNLESS DOCUMENTED]
[ALSO: YOU'RE GENERATION Z TOO, SO...]
"I don't do this."
[BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS]
[AND YOU'RE WEIRD]
Ari couldn't even argue with that.
The girls at Yoshimura were... well. Ari had thought the girls at his old school were cute. Atainable cute. The girls at Yoshimura did NOT look like people you met in real life. Serious. They looked like you only ever saw them in pictures. Perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect faces. Perfect .....
Some of them already had thousands of followers on Instagram. A few were clearly actual models, posting professional photoshoots alongside their school selfies.
One girl—username @MikaCecillia—had over 50,000 followers and looked like something out of Ari's own fantasies. Another, @AyaneNows, posted beautiful study notes that were so beautiful Ari forgot to actually read what they said.
"I'm so screwed," he whispered.
[CORRECT]
[YOU ARE A 6'6" AWKWARD BASKETBALL NERD]
[WITH CAT EYES AND TERRIBLE HAIR AND A GAP IN YOUR TEETH]
[WHO CANNOT PLAY BASKETBALL]
[YOUR DATING PROSPECTS ARE: BLEAK]
"Thanks for the confidence boost."
[I AM HERE TO PROVIDE REALITY, NOT COMFORT]
[ALSO: KEEP SCROLLING]
[YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE WORST OF IT YET]
Ari kept scrolling, and—it got worse.
The social hierarchy at Yoshimura wasn't subtle. The athletes—especially the basketball players—were treated like celebrities. People literally took pictures with them like they were famous.
And then Ari saw this.
The post appeared on his feed organically, boosted by the algorithm because apparently even Instagram knew what would psychologically devastate him: a photo of Yoshimura's basketball team, posed dramatically on their pristine indoor court, all wearing matching warm-up outfits.
Expensive....matching warm up outfits.
But the focus of the photo—the person standing center frame, ball in hand, with a kind of cocky expression—was their point guard.
@Akihiko Heishi - Draft tryouts coming. Ready to run it back. #YoshimuraBasketball #NationalChamps
Akihiko Heishi looked like he'd been genetically engineered to be a high school basketball star. He was probably 6'1 or higher", lean and athletic, with sharp pretty boy features and effortless hair.
And if you were a boy. You'd know.
Nothing about that hair cut was effortless.
He had a tooth paste commercial smile. He had his arm casually draped over another player's shoulder, the whole pose radiated easy charisma.
The post had 2,847 likes and 316 comments.
Ari scrolled through them:
"Akihiko senpai!!! 😍😍😍"
"Best PG in the prefecture don't @ me"
"Please notice me Tsukuda-kun"
"Going to every home game this year JUST for you"
"Marry me challenge"...*Marry fucking me challenge?!*
Ari stared at his cracked phone screen like what it was showing him was a joke
For god's sake their highschool basketball players not status symbols.
His phone light turned a darker shade because he hadn't touched the screen and was just staring at it in irritated bewilderment. But then he saw his own reflection in the darkened phone. Injured. Currently living in a hospital bed.
"Yeah," he said to no one. "I'm definitely screwed."
[AKIHIKO HEISHI IS GOOD]
[BUT HE IS NOT YOUR AIM RIGHT NOW]
[IF IT ALL GOES WELL]
[THE GEAR SAYS TOO WILL END UP COMPETING]
Alright time to continued oogling Yoshimuras point guards Instagram.
He had 11,341 followers. Eleven thousand. For a high school student..
@Akihiko Heishi - Draft tryouts: April 20th. 30 spots. 200+ hopefuls. If you're a first-year thinking you'll make it... good luck. You'll need it. 😏 #YoshimuraDraft #EarnIt
April 20th.
Ari looked at the date on his phone: March 31st.
Twenty days. He had twenty days.
"System," he said quietly. "When do I get out of here?"
[ESTIMATED DISCHARGE: 7-10 DAYS]
[ESTIMATED FULL RECOVERY: 14-21 DAYS TOTAL]
[MATH: YOU ARE CUTTING IT CLOSE]
"How close?"
[DRAFT TRYOUTS ARE THE BIGGEST EVENT AT YOSHIMURA]
[OTHER THAN THEIR SEASONAL GAMES]
[IT IS NOT JUST BASKETBALL TEAM SELECTION]
[IT IS SOCIAL HIERARCHY DETERMINATION]
[IT IS STATUS ACQUISITION]
[IT IS LITERALLY CALLED 'DRAFT' TRYOUTS]
[BECAUSE THEY TREAT IT LIKE THE NBA DRAFT]
[RANKINGS, PUBLIC EVALUATIONS, AND HUMILIATION]
[IF YOU DON'T MAKE THE TEAM...]
The system paused. As if waiting for Ari to take in the first barrage of messages.
[...YOU'LL BE THE TALL KID WHO FAILED TO BE SIGNIFICANT. THEY WOULD ASK WHY YOU EVEN BOTHERED]
[AT A SCHOOL WHERE BASKETBALL IS EVERYTHING]
[FOR THREE YEARS]
What a sinking feeling Ari had. Twenty days to go from "can barely move" to "good enough to compete against 200 other students for 30 spots on a nationally-ranked team."
Such a difficult goal. It made Ari cover his face with both his hands, "....Well that's just unfair."
[CORRECT]
[T IS UNFAIR]
[BUT THAT IS WHY YOU HAVE ME]
[SO STOP LOOKING AT INSTAGRAM]
[AND START THE PREPARATION]
Ari's father kept bringing books.
Mathematics. English. Chemistry. Japanese literature. Even a physics textbook that Hideaki insisted would be "crucial for understanding force vectors, which applies to basketball if you think about it."
"Dad, I don't think—"
"Education is universal, it's not that hard. Everything connects." His father set down another stack with the finality of a judge's gavel. "Anyways, you'll need something to occupy your time during recovery."
*Oh I have plenty of something's to occupy my time Father* Ari thought whence he stared at the books like they a group of personal insult. But his father wasn't entirely wrong, Ari needed something healthy to do besides slowly lose his mind. So he started reading.
Chemistry was boring. Math was tolerable. English literature was actually kind of interesting, though Ari suspected that had more to do with his desperation for distraction than the actual content.
But it was during one particularly mind-numbing evening, while trying to understand chemical bonding and failing miserably, that Ari gave up and pulled out his phone to watch basketball instead.
He was smart when he wanted to be. Something Ari thought was among the few blessings god gave him. After all, being intelligent 24/7 was just a pain in the butt.
And right now Ari could barely feel his butt. So...it's time to be dumb.
He queued up an old NBA game—Spurs versus Lakers, Tim Duncan's prime—and was about halfway through the second quarter when—
[DETECTING: BASKETBALL ANALYSIS ACTIVITY]
A new window appeared in Ari's vision:
[BASKETBALL STUDY]
[CURRENT FOCUS: TIM DUNCAN - POWER FORWARD]
[ANALYZING TECHNIQUE...]
[BANK SHOT MECHANICS: OBSERVED]
[POST FOOTWORK: OBSERVED]
[DEFENSIVE INTELLIGENCE: OBSERVED]
After 5 more minutes passed. Ari just keep watching silently and eagerly.
[SKILL POINTS EARNED: +0.5]
Ari nearly dropped his phone.
"Wait. I can earn skill points from watching basketball?"
[NO]
[FROM STUDYING BASKETBALL, YES]
[PASSIVE WATCHING = NO POINTS]
[ACTIVE ANALYSIS = POINTS]
[YOU MUST TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE SEEING]
[NOT JUST CONSUME IT]
"System," Ari said slowly. "How many points can I earn from studying?"
[THAT DEPENDS ON QUALITY AND DEPTH OF STUDY]
[BASIC OBSERVATION: 0.1-0.5 POINTS]
[DETAILED ANALYSIS: 0.5-2 POINTS]
[BREAKTHROUGH UNDERSTANDING: 2-5 POINTS]
[NOTE: DIMINISHING RETURNS APPLY]
[SO IF YOU JUST WATCH THE SAME GAME 100 TIMES]
[YOU GET NADA]
Ari's mind went hot. Next came three days. And Ari watched basketball 24/7. He couldn't play it. But he understood it better than almost anyone.
And now that knowledge could translate into actual skill points.
He looked at the stack of textbooks his father had brought, then at his phone, then back at the textbooks.
"Dad," he called out the next time his father visited. "I need different books."
Hideaki looked pleased. "I knew you'd come around to—"
"Basketball books. Film analysis. Biographies of players. Anything about basketball technique, history, strategy."
His father's pleased expression faltered. "Ari, I really think you should focus on—"
"Dad." Ari met his father's eyes with an intense expectation. Times when you can just sense how much your child is asking you for something . "Please."
There was a long silence. His mother, who'd been quietly playing with flowers in the hospital vase, paused to watch them.
Finally, Hideaki sighed. "You're as stubborn as your mother."
"Oh I am not stubborn", Michiko protested with a laugh.
But his father pulled out his phone, already searching. "What specifically do you need?"
Over the next three days, Ari's hospital room transformed into a basketball study archive.
His father, once committed to something, approached it with the same cerebral intensity he brought to his accounting work and to taking care of his family. Oh did the books arrive alright: biographies of Jordan, Kobe, Duncan, Bird. Technical manuals on shooting form, footwork, defensive positioning. Even some obscure texts on basketball philosophy and the mental game.
( Because the system recommended physical hard copy reading and not eating up digital Wikipedia)
His mother brought her laptop so Ari could enjoy basketball on a larger screen than his phone which got a broken screen from the accident
And Ari studied like his life depended on it. Because, in a way, it did.
He started with power forwards—his supposed position. Tim Duncan first, the greatest power forward in history. Ari watched countless hours of Duncan film, analyzing his bank shot motion, his post footwork, his defensive positioning, his understated brilliance....that hairline
[STUDYING: TIM DUNCAN]
[BANK SHOT TECHNIQUE: ANALYZED]
[+1.2 SKILL POINTS]
[POST DEFENSE: ANALYZED]
[+0.8 SKILL POINTS]
But something felt off. Duncan was incredible, but he was also 6'11" and built like a truck. His game was predicated on size, strength, and fundamentals that worked because he could physically impose his will on opponents.
His nickname was of course Big Fundamental.
Ari was 6'6" and 78 kilograms. He was tall, but not that tall. And he was slender, lanky. He didn't have Duncan's physical tools.
He tried Karl Malone next—the Mailman, the second-greatest power forward ever and in Ari's opinion better than Duncan in raw basketball ability. Malone was more aggressive, more athletic than Duncan, a scoring machine who combined power with skill.
[STUDYING: KARL MALONE]
[PICK AND ROLL EXECUTION: OBSERVED]
[+0.6 SKILL POINTS]
[PHYSICAL PLAY STYLE: OBSERVED]
[COMPATIBILITY: LOW]
[REASONING: HOST PHYSIQUE INSUFFICIENT FOR THIS PLAYSTYLE]
"What?" Ari frowned at the system display. "Why is compatibility low?"
[KARL MALONE: 6'9", 250 LBS OF MUSCLE]
[HIS GAME REQUIRED OVERWHELMING PHYSICALITY]
[YOU?: 6'6", 172 LBS OF... OPTIMISM]
[YOU COULD STUDY HIM FOR YEARS]
[YOU'LL NEVER BE PHYSICALLY CAPABLE OF PLAYING LIKE HIM]
Ari sat back against his pillows, frustrated. The system was right, of course. He'd been so focused on studying power forwards because that's what his height suggested he should be, he hadn't considered whether their playstyles actually fit him.
He needed to think differently.
That night, after his parents had left and the hospital had settled into its quiet evening rhythm, Ari opened mom's laptop and started researching basketball positions and archetypes more broadly.
Point guards. Shooting guards. Small forwards. Power forwards. Centers.
But beyond positions, there were roles. Playstyles. The way different players approached the sport regardless of their official designation.
Playmakers. Defenders. Rebounders. Slashers.
And then: Scorers.
Ari had always loved scorers. The players who could get a bucket from anywhere, who made offense look like art. Michael Jordan, the greatest scorer ever. Kobe Bryant, who'd modeled his entire game after Jordan and made it his own. Kevin Durant, who at 6'10" moved like a guard and made people feel helpless.
James Harden. George Gervin. Larry Bird.
Players who weren't necessarily the strongest or the fastest, but who could score on anyone through pure skill, creativity, and an unshakeable confidence in their own ability.
"System," Ari said quietly. "What if I don't want to be a traditional power forward?"
[ELABORATE BOY]
"What if I want to be a scorer? Pure scorer. Someone whose focus is scoring."
The servant was quiet for a moment. The Gear indeed has chosen a terrifying host. It was the longest pause Ari had experienced from it.
[INTERESTING CHOICE]
[ANALYSIS: YOUR PHYSICAL STATS ARE TERRIBLE]
[BUT YOUR IQ IS ALREADY 67/100]
[YOU UNDERSTAND BASKETBALL INTELLECTUALLY]
[YOU JUST CAN'T EXECUTE IT... YET]
[A SCORING-FOCUSED BUILD WOULD PRIORITIZE:]
[BALL HANDLING]
[FOOTWORK]
[MID RANGE OR ISOLATION SKILL]
[SCORING CREATIVITY]
[A WIDE ARRAY OF USABLE MOVESETS OR A VERSITILE MULTI SITUATIONAL MOVE OVER PURE PHYSICALITY]
[IT WOULD TAKE LONGER TO DEVELOP]
[BUT IT WOULD FIT YOUR BUILD BETTER]
[IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT THEN THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT]
"Thanks."
"So I should just study scorers?"
[YOU SHOULD STUDY THE RIGHT SCORERS]
[PLAYERS WHO SUCCEEDED WITH BASKETBALL ARTISTRY OVER PHYSICALITY]
[PLAYERS WHO DOMINATED THROUGH TECHNIQUE]
Ari's fingers flew across his keyboard, pulling up footage. Michael Jordan first...but not the dunking, athletic side of the GOAT we all knew. Not the one who dunked from the free throw line in the 1988 Slam Dunk contest.
No it was the Jordan who used footwork, fadeaways, post moves and jumpers to kill every single opponent that came his way.
[STUDYING: MICHAEL JORDAN]
[FADEAWAY MECHANICS: ANALYZING...]
[MID-RANGE MASTERY: ANALYZING...]
[+2.1 SKILL POINTS]
It was around 2 skill points per three hours of continuous study.
[COMPATIBILITY: HIGH]
[THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING]
Ari felt a surge of excitement. He moved on to Kevin Durant. 7 feet tall but moved like a guard, could shoot over anyone. He had one of the purest shooting forms in basketball history.
[STUDYING: KEVIN DURANT]
[SHOOTING FORM: ANALYZING...]
[PULL-UP JUMPER: ANALYZING...]
[+1.8 SKILL POINTS]
[COMPATIBILITY: HIGH]
Kobe Bryant. Tracy McGrady with his relentless rim pressure.. George Gervin's finger roll and mid-range game. Larry Bird's basketball IQ and shooting.
Hours passed. Ari barely noticed. His parents would have been horrified at how little he'd slept, but Ari was possessed by something he hadn't felt in years: purpose.
Modern players didn't escape his film assault. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with flexible automatic ultra instinct isolation bag.
Luka Dončić, who forced defenders to follow the pace he demanded. "Gosh I love Luka".
Even Austin Reaves, who was a fearless shot maker other could score from practically anywhere other than the typical aggressive dunk on the rim.
[CURRENT SKILL POINTS: 23.7]
[YOU'VE BEEN STUDYING FOR 47 HOURS STRAIGHT]
[WITH BREAKS FOR FOOD AND BATHROOM]
[THIS IS EITHER DEDICATION OR INSANITY]
[OF COURSE]
[I HAVE AN INSANE HOST]
"I need to spend these points," Ari said with a grin that exposed his open teeth his system interface. "Show me what I can upgrade."
[CURRENT OPTIONS AVAILABLE:]
The system displayed a menu:
[PHYSICAL STATS:]
[POWER: 23/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
[STAMINA: 31/100 [COST: 1.5 POINTS PER +1]
[VERTICAL: 18/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
[SPEED: 35/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
[BASKETBALL STATS:]
[SHOOTING: 12/100 [COST: 3 POINTS PER +1]
[DEFENSE: 15/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
[ATHLETICISM: 22/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
[IQ: 67/100 [COST: 4 POINTS PER +1]
[PASSING: 28/100 [COST: 2 POINTS PER +1]
SKILL: 8/100 [COST: 3 POINTS PER +1]
[SPECIAL OPTIONS:]
ACCELERATED RECOVERY [COST: 15 POINTS] [REDUCES REMAINING RECOVERY TIME BY 60%]
Ari stared at this..... special option. Fifteen points would take most of what he'd earned, but if it cut his recovery time by 60%...
The doctors had said another 7-10 days in the hospital, then probably another week of rest at home. That was 14 to 17 days total. If he could cut that by 60%, he'd be recovered in maybe 6 days.
April 20th was in 20 days. If he recovered in 6, that gave him 14 days to actually train before tryouts.
"System, if I buy accelerated recovery, will it be noticeable? Will the doctors get suspicious"
[IT WILL APPEAR AS NATURALLY ACCELERATED HEALING]
[FASTER THAN EXPECTED, BUT NOT SUPERNATURAL]
[DOCTORS WILL BE SURPRISED BUT WILL ATTRIBUTE IT TO:]
[YOUTH, GOOD GENETICS, POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MEDICAL MYSTERIES]
[HUMANS ARE VERY GOOD AT RATIONALIZING]
Ari took a deep breath. This was it. The moment he committed to this insanity.
"Do it. Purchase accelerated recovery."
[CONFIRMING PURCHASE...]
[ACCELERATED RECOVERY: ACTIVATED]
[REMAINING SKILL POINTS: 8.7]
[INITIATING ENHANCED HEALING PROTOCOL...]
The change overwhelming. Warmth flooded through Ari's body, starting from his broken collarbone and radiating outward. It wasn't painful, exactly, but it was certainly intense. Like his bones and muscles were suddenly working overtime. Cells divided and knitted together at accelerated rates.
He gasped, and his hands gripped the bed sheets.
[RELAX]
[HEALING IN PROGRESS]
[ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL RECOVERY: 5 DAYS, 17 HOURS]
[TRY NOT TO FREAK OUT ANYMORE]
[OR DO, THAT'S ENTERTAINING TOO]
"Holy shit."