Duck's Sky City: From the Bench to the Championship Podium

When Lin Ye transmigrated into the world of Ahiru no Sora, he was standing in the gym at Kuzuryu High, watching Sora Kurumatani awkwardly practice his dunks. The team had just been eliminated in the first round of the prefectural tournament, and its bench was even emptier than the court. An ordinary basketball fan who could only make open shots in real life, he was so bad at dribbling that he sometimes stumbled, and his teammates privately called him “the guy who’s just here to make up the numbers” during tryouts. No one expected that this transfer student, who couldn’t even get close to a starting spot, would join this “ugly duckling” team and go from losing in the autumn practice games to the winter qualifiers, turning from the laughingstock of the local papers into the focus of national media. He saw Sora Kurumatani cry with red eyes over being unable to stop an opponent, helped Chiaki wear through three pairs of shoes practicing corner threes, and stayed up with their half-baked coach, Tanaka, drawing plays on the board until dawn. They suffered crushing losses by 20 points and won buzzer-beaters in the final five seconds; they were dismantled by zone defense and then used a 1-3-1 zone to suffocate formidable opponents. They were eliminated in the first round of the Spring High tournament, yet in their third year they gritted their teeth and made it through the tournament’s toughest bracket. There were no godlike talents or miraculous comebacks, only shots practiced until their fingertips were callused, plays honed until they could run them correctly with their eyes closed, and the lesson of “how to pass the ball to a teammate,” learned after seventeen failures. When the final whistle blew, Lin Ye gripped the national championship trophy, his palms slick with sweat. He suddenly remembered the first day after transmigrating, when he had sat on the bench and secretly thought, “It’d be nice if we could win just one game.” Now, the school uniforms tossed into the air above the stands were like white waves. It turned out that every “finally” really did begin with “I can’t do it.”