Miho moved first.

Not with speed.

Not with power.

With silence.

Miho moved first.

Not with speed.

Not with power.

With silence.

The moment he took the inbound, the arena felt like it inhaled.

His feet glided almost too smooth drawing a faint blur as if his outline flickered half a step ahead of itself.

The Mirage Play was beginning.

Armi Hassuf curled out of the wing like a whip, Davis Conner dragged Brandon deep into a false post-up, Kenji Takeda shifted angles with the ball like a surgeon, and Jun Seo—

Jun Seo hovered at the top of the arc, almost relaxed…

But Ethan's senses screamed.

"He's the detonator… he's the one who snaps their timing into place."

Miho stepped in.

Kenji delivered the ball back with a touch so soft it felt like the ball teleported.

Evan Cooper shivered.

"That pass… I didn't even see the moment he swung his wrist."

Ayumi in the stands whispered, breath trembling.

"Mirage Flow. It's not an illusion they overlap their rhythms. They move slightly off-beat from each other, so your eyes chase the wrong tempo."

Charlotte tightened her grip.

"It's deadly if Vorpal mistimes even one step."

Miho's Attack

Miho shifted his shoulder.

Just a tap.

Just a tilt.

But the entire Wildcats offense reacted as if he pulled puppet strings.

Armi slashed.

Jun Seo faded.

Kenji cut diagonally.

Davis sealed Brandon with a hip so heavy the floor shook.

Everything moved at once

no, at different times.

That's why it was impossible to track.

Lucas grit his teeth.

"Tch—three different rhythms colliding… they're forcing us to guess."

Miho read the floor like he owned it.

His gaze locked onto Ethan.

He stepped right.

Ethan slid with him

but Miho's shadow stepped left.

"A double-phase feint? Already?!" Ethan's pupils shrank.

Miho's voice was soft, low, almost musical.

"Your rhythm is clean, Ethan Albarado… but let's see how it handles distortion."

He vanished behind Davis' screen.

Not ran.

Vanished.

Ryan Taylor crashed into the screen too late, the timing had been twisted a quarter beat off.

Miho appeared on the right lane line, receiving a bounce pass from Kenji that curved like a serpent.

Brandon rotated late.

Lucas rotated too early.

The Mirage Flow had cracked their internal timing.

Miho rose for the layup

Ethan's Counter

Ethan arrived in front of him.

No warning.

No footsteps.

A burst of speed that snapped their overlapping rhythms like a dropped glass.

Ethan's eyes were sharp.

"Don't forget… I play off your tempo too."

He wasn't reading Miho's rhythm.

He was reading the gap between the rhythms.

Miho smirked mid-air, surprised.

"Oh? You slipped between my layers?"

Ethan jumped, hand extended.

Miho twisted, hanging his body in the air unnaturally long.

His knee floated sideways.

His torso bent backwards.

His wrist altered its release point mid-motion.

Armi shouted from the wing, "Miho! Drop phase!"

Miho's form compressed

He changed shots three times in one jump.

Ethan's eyes widened.

"Triple-shift release?!"

The ball flickered out of Miho's fingertips like a skipped heartbeat.

The Breakdown of Mirage Flow

Tap

Not swish.

Not clank.

Tap back rim.

The timing was off.

Their rhythm fractured.

Lucas crashed in first.

"Got it!"

But Jun Seo materialized in front of him like a ghost reflection.

Lucas' fingers brushed the ball

Jun Seo mirrored him perfectly, stealing it away mid-air.

"He copied my angle… down to the shoulder tilt?!"

Jun Seo landed, pivoted

and Evan blitzed him.

"Give me that!"

Evan jabbed twice, reading Jun Seo's copied balance.

He tapped the ball loose.

Ryan dove

Brandon boxed two men out

Lucas rolled through contact, recovering the ball with both hands

Ethan pointed forward.

"Go!"

Vorpal exploded.

Miho narrowed his eyes.

The cool, unshaken certainty in his voice returned.

"So you broke Phase Two… but can you break the Collapse Rhythm?"

He whistled sharply.

Armi, Davis, Kenji, and Jun Seo snapped to new positions, their rhythms now converging instead of overlapping

a single violent pulse of synchronized movement.

Ethan felt it.

A chill.

"This is the real Mirage Play…"

The second layer.

The one meant to crush counter-tempo players like him.

Vorpal possession incoming… but danger approaching

The ball was in Lucas' hands as Vorpal sprinted into transition.

But from behind him

from the left wing

from the corner

from the blindside

The Wildcats collapsed like a four-point vice, timing perfect, pressure suffocating.

Miho walked toward half-court slowly, confidently, as his teammates compressed the space around Ethan, Lucas, Evan, Ryan, and Brandon.

His voice cut through the air.

"Let's end your rhythm… before halftime even arrives."

The trap was closing.

Lucas held the ball at the wing, sweat flicking from the tips of his hair as he spun once, twice pressured from all four sides. The Wildcats tightened their jaws like predators cornering prey.

Armi's steps clicked like metal.

Jun Seo's shadow flickered unnervingly with each tilt of Lucas' torso.

Kenji's center of gravity dropped like he was about to pounce.

Davis' arms spread wide, cutting off the interior like an iron gate.

And Miho?

Miho did not run.

He did not sprint.

He simply walked.

Slow, controlled, patient.

Every step a countdown.

Every breath a promise.

His voice was soft but merciless.

"This is where your rhythm collapses."

Ethan saw it.

Felt it.

The Collapse Rhythm wasn't fast.

It wasn't complex.

It was perfect.

A single unified tempo, five players breathing as one heartbeat

and that heartbeat was suffocating Vorpal piece by piece.

Lucas braced himself, chest rising and falling rapidly.

His thoughts burned through the pressure.

I can't break this alone… Ethan, I need your

A blur cut across his vision.

Ethan.

Cutting through the collapsing space like he was slicing through a knot.

He didn't call for the ball.

He didn't gesture.

He just arrived beside Lucas' shoulder, hand open only in the final microsecond.

Lucas exhaled shaking

and released.

A short shovel pass.

Perfect length.

Perfect angle.

Because Ethan was already moving.

The Collapse Hits

Jun Seo's eyes sharpened like knives.

Armi sprinted to the lane with predatory speed.

Kenji cracked the floor with his burst.

Davis rotated to choke the paint.

All four of them converged on Ethan in the space of a single breath.

Ayumi in the stands clutched her chest.

"H-He can't pass… they've sealed everything—"

But Charlotte shook her head.

Her voice was calm, but her eyes trembled with excitement.

"No. That's what they think. The Collapse Rhythm assumes the offense will panic…

But Ethan's rhythm doesn't panic. It mutates."

Ethan's Perspective

His heart wasn't pounding.

It wasn't racing.

It was clear.

This isn't rhythm anymore.

This is geometry.

If they collapse in a single tempo…

I'll break it by stepping outside tempo itself.

He planted his foot

hard.

A motion ripped from every film study, every instinct, every moment spent copying and breaking rhythms all season.

A zero-beat step.

Not fast.

Not slow.

Just…

not part of their world.

Armi blinked, losing half a second.

Kenji's reaction stuttered.

Jun Seo's mirrored posture faltered just enough.

And Davis

The big man over-rotated.

A crack in the cage.

Ethan slipped through.

The arena gasped.

He broke the Collapse Rhythm… with a step that wasn't on the timeline.

Miho's next breath caught.

Only for a fraction of a second but he felt it.

That unnatural displacement.

That refusal to exist inside the beat.

"A zero-state movement…" Miho whispered, pupils narrowing. "You're rewriting your tempo again."

He stepped in

but now he was late.

Ethan lifted off the ground.

Not a dunk.

Not a floater.

Not a runner.

Something between all three.

A no-form shot, designed with no identity

so Miho couldn't mirror it.

So Jun Seo couldn't time it.

So Armi couldn't block it.

So Davis couldn't track it.

So Kenji couldn't steal it.

The ball rolled off Ethan's fingertips

aimlessly yet with purpose.

Weightless.

Untethered.

Unbound by rhythm.

A shot that didn't belong to any system.

A shot that belonged only to this moment.

Miho leapt

But even he couldn't fully read something that refused to exist on the beat.

The ball hit the backboard

Softly

kissed the rim

one spin

two

Ayumi's breath froze.

Charlotte's fingers crushed the edge of her notebook.

Lucas' knuckles whitened.

Ryan bit down on his lip.

Brandon leaned forward like the earth tilted.

The Wildcats held their breath

and Miho's eyes narrowed, sensing the shift

until the ball

dropped.

Straight through.

Swish.

VORPAL 41 – WILDCATS 27

The arena detonated.

Screams crashed like thunder.

The bleachers vibrated.

Signs fell from hands.

People jumped to their feet.

Ryan threw both fists into the air, roaring.

Brandon grabbed Evan by the shoulder and shook him wildly.

Lucas screamed out

Not words.

Pure adrenaline.

Ethan landed, breath steady, sweat sliding down his chin, eyes blazing.

Miho touched the floor softly when he landed.

His expression?

Still calm.

But something else simmered beneath the surface

a heat that hadn't been there before.

Interest.

Acknowledgment.

And the slightest flicker of danger.

He whispered

"So… you pierced the Collapse Rhythm."

Ethan met his gaze.

His voice was low, unwavering.

"I told you.

Your rhythm won't decide this game."

Miho's smile was small.

Cold.

Thrilled.

"Then show me the one that will."

He gestured sharply.

The ball was inbounded instantly.

The Wildcats snapped into a new shape.

Charlotte stood from her seat, eyes widening.

"No way. They're going straight to Cataclysm Sync?

Before halftime?!"

Ayumi grabbed her arm.

"What does that mean?"

Charlotte's voice trembled with excitement and fear.

"It means… Miho is done playing.

It means Ethan has pushed him to open the final layer.

It means the next possession…

will be the most dangerous of the half."

The Wildcats formed a formation Vorpal had never seen.

Ethan's breath slowed.

Lucas' pulse hammered.

Evan swallowed hard.

Ryan cracked his neck.

Brandon lowered his stance with a grim growl.

Miho lifted his chin.

His voice fell like a blade.

"Now then…

Vorpal.

Let's see if you can survive the Cataclysm."

The arena roared.

The atmosphere warped.

To be continue

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