[Slam Dunk/Hanafuji] The Past Under Their Gaze

Many years later, Hanagata had long since left high school, basketball, and Fujima behind. No one stays seventeen forever, but someone is always seventeen. Watching those kids, Hanagata felt as though he were gazing into the past. Only at the end of life can you know what percentage it occupied. But in his heart, Hanagata murmured that it was his brightest memory, like a flower that had finally bloomed in the past he gazed upon. At reunions, he could still hear about Fujima's life now: a glorious life, with no trace of high school left in it. Fujima now seemed more like a legend than ever. The past Fujima would look back on one day would never bloom into the same flower as his own. Hanagata smiled. It had taken him many years to understand: what he felt was a kind of love born of admiration. Admiration without distance, and love with distance. Many years later, in a dream, he saw that figure wearing a green basketball jersey. Smiling gently in his sleep. Just as he had when gazing into the past. Theme: