Song of Victory:
Prologue
"Hey Shige-kun, who is person you want to introduce me too?"
"Don't be so impatient, Suzu," the boy groaned at the girl's question. "You've already asked me three times already."
"I'm not impatient," the brown-haired girl pouted and was promptly ignored by her companion, "Its just that you haven't told me anything."
"That's the point of a surprise, isn't it?"
"Well at least give me one clue, Shige-kun."
"Excuse me."
The girl shrieked and jumped up as she turned sideways facing a small blue-haired boy that clearly wasn't there a moment before.
"Hey, Kuroko!" The orange-haired boy waved with a grin.
"Hello, Ogiwara-kun."
"Oh my god, you almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Don't be so overdramatic, Suzu."
"Shut up! You know how much I hate jump scares!"
"I'm sorry for scaring you."
"No," the girl rushed to apologize to the blue-haired boy, "It's not your fault. It's Shige-kun's fault for not warning me."
The boy rolled his eyes,"Suzu, this is who I wanted to introduce you to. This is Kuroko Tetsuya."
The girl faced the teal-haired boy once more who now was staring at her curiously with round teal eyes. She bowed her head slight before giving him a bright smile.
"I'm sorry for how I acted before. I'm Yamauchi Suzume, nice to meet you!"
"I'm Kuroko Tetsuya, Yamauchi-san."
"You don't have to call me that, it makes me feel so old. Just call me Suzume, Tet-kun!"
"Tet-kun?"
"Yeah, we are friends right? We don't have to be so formal with each other. Right, Shige-kun?"
The orange-haired boy gave the smaller boy a pitying look and whispered, "Suzu can be really hard-headed and weird. She gives everyone she knows nicknames even if they don't want them."
"I can hear that Shige-kun!"
The teal-haired boy gave a small smile as the brown-haired girl started chasing the taller boy around waving her arms wildly. The orange-haired boy was clearly faster, evading all of her attempts to hit him with a grin.
"Would you like to play basketball with me and Ogiwara-kun, Suzume-san?"
"Of course, Tet-kun!" The girl smiled before dive-bombing and landing the orange-haired boy pulling both of them down to the group.
". . . you are a demon, Suzu."
"You only know this now, Shige-kun?" She answered sweetly.
And little did they know that the workings of fate were already being set into motion.
-o-
"The school year is almost over isn't it?"
"Yeah, I can't believe that we are all going to middle school already."
It was a late evening, the last one of their primary school years, but Suzume feels like the world is ending before her eyes. Everything that she has ever known crumbling into non-existence.
"All of us are going to different schools, but we'll still be friends right?"
Kuroko gives her a small smile, "Of course, Suzume-san."
Ogiwara puts his hands on his head, "Stop talking about such depressing things. We are all friends and nothing is going to change that."
Suzume sniffles. "But, everything is changing and I'm scared."
"Stop being such a baby, Suzu."
With one last sniff, the brown-haired girl bursts in tears. Kuroko gives Ogiwara a displeased look, "Please have a little more tact, Ogiwara-kun. You are really terrible with girls."
"I'm just saying the truth!"
Suzume tries to contain her tears, "I'm sorry."
"It's alright."
"We'll make a promise."
Both Suzume and Kuroko looked at Ogiwara whose eyes gleamed with excitement, "We are all going to join the basketball club and play each other. I can see it now. We'll have an amazing championship match just like in those sports manga!"
"Shige-kun, you are so dramatic," Suzume hiccuped as she laughed.
"Well then I'll look forward to that match, Ogiwara-kun."
"You are so dramatic too, Tet-kun."
Suzume dries the last drops of her tears and flings her arms across both of them, grinning broadly.
"Well don't leave me out, Shige-kun!"
"But you can't join a basketball club, Suzu."
"I can still be a manager, Shige-kun you idiot."
"Hey!"
The three of them collapsed in fits of giggles and at that moment the future seemed so bright it was blinding.
-o-
"Hello! Are you by any chance Kiyoshi Teppei?"
"Yes, and you are?"
"I'm Yamauchi Suzume! I'm applying for the manager position."
Kiyoshi Teppei, second-year captain of the Shoei basketball club, looked down at the overly excited first-year with a seemingly boundless abundance of energy. She was hopping up and down with her fluffy twin pigtails giving her the look of an little kid on a sugar rush.
"Well I'm sorry but the manager position is already filled by a third-year."
"Just give me a chance, senpai! I promise that I will be do an amazing job!"
Kiyoshi can't help but smile at the girl who didn't seem to let anything deter her. Her gray eyes were gleaming with excitement and Kiyoshi chuckled slightly.
"I'll talk to the coach about it, but you are welcome to come watch us at practice."
"Thank you, Kiyoshi-senpai! Oh no, I'm late for class! See you later!"
-o-
Suzume was watching the practice match with a fierce intensity when Coach Fujimoto comes over.
"You are the girl applying for the manager position, correct."
"Yes! I'm Yamauchi Suzume, Coach Fujimoto," Suzume replied bowing her head and gaining an approving nod from the elderly coach.
"Why do you believe that you will be a good manager? Our current manager, Kentaro Tomoya, has been with this club for two years already, do you believe you can replace her?"
The girl blushes and shakes her head fevently, "I cannot say that I can replace Kentaro-senpai, because I have not met her. But I'm pretty good at figuring out strengths and weakness of players that I watch, so maybe I could help in some way?"
Coach Fujimoto raises an eyebrow, "You can? Can you give me an example?"
"Well when I was watching the practice match I noticed that Kiyoshi-senpai favors using his right leg which puts a lot of pressure on his left leg. I suggest that he when practices guarding that he lowers both knees to get into a good habit. Amano-senpai is a very good shooting guard, but he has a habit of looking around to pass before taking a shot. This can be easily taken advantage off by a fast opponent . . ."
Coach Fujimoto listens in disbelief as the girl speaks without any hesitation and is shocked to see that everything the girl said was true.
"That was very impressive, Yamauchi."
"Thank you, Coach Fujimoto."
"May I ask how you know so much about basketball?"
"Oh I've been playing and watching street basketball games since I was a little kid. My best friends absolutely love it."
Suzume smiles thinking of all those hours spent showing Tet-kun different shooting styles in hopes of finding one that would fit him, teaching Shige-kun how to dribble properly so that he wouldn't keep traveling, and just watching basketball matches on television with the two boys.
Who knew that it would pay off right now?
Coach Fujimoto smiles at the girl's enthusiasm. "Well consider yourself a part of Shoei's basketball club, Yamauchi."
"Yes!" The girl grins as Kiyoshi comes over to patting her hair while laughing. "You are certainly very hyperactive, Yamauchi-chan."
"I'm just so excited! Basketball is going to be so fun!"
-o-
Shoei lost to Teiko.
It wasn't even a close match with Teiko leading with a double score and Suzume's heart is pounding through her chest.
It was Kiyoshi-senpai's last match in middle school and he looks so . . . broken by end. His usually cheerful grin and voice was muted as he dragged himself to the locker room.
"Kiyoshi-senpai . . ."
The older boy gives her a smile and ruffles her hair affectionately like he would to his little sister.
"Well I guess that is the end for me."
"Don't say that Kiyoshi-senpai, you can play again in high school."
"Of course, don't worry about your senpai so much Yamauchi-chan. It was a good last game and I had so much fun with this team."
But it wasn't, Suzume may be melodramatic and childish but she is in no way stupid. She knows that that game had been anything but good. She thinks of Teiko and the Generation of Miracles and shudders wondering how long that much talent can be contained before it explodes.
Kuroko was there though, and from what she had seen briefly, Teiko treated him with the respect that he deserved. Suzume just hopes that he knows what he is doing.
-o-
"Yamauchi, I am quitting basketball."
Suzume is frantic with worry, running from house to house trying to knock some common sense into her teammates. Everytime she had been faced by the same look. The look of someone loosing all hope and it is like a dagger piercing through her heart.
After that match with Teiko, her teammates broke. Their scored had been tripled, brutally without care or compassion. Aomine Daiki even left half way through to sit on the bench because as he pronounced loudly, "They are too boring to play against. There is no point."
Kuroko had stepped onto the court then but Suzume couldn't even look at him in the eye.
"Yamauchi-senpai, I don't think it is possible for me to touch a basketball right now without throwing up."
This cannot be happening. Suzume feels like she is in a living nightmare.
"I give up basketball, there is no way I can compete with the Generation of Miracles."
Suzume is cursing and can barely breathe but she doesn't stop running. Hoping against hope that she might be able to convince at least one of them to keep fighting.
"Please don't stop me. I'm turning in my resignation form tomorrow."
"Tet-kun."
Suzume could barely hear Kuroko's voice at the other side of the call, but she doesn't end phone call.
"Suzume-san."
"Everyone on my team quit basketball, Tet-kun and I don't know what to do," her words are barely audible through her tears.
The silence is ice-cold.
"I'm sorry, Suzume-san."
Suzume turns off her phone and cries, but she knows that right now she is powerless.
-o-
Kuroko's eyes look dead, as if all life has been drained out of them, and Ogiwara sees it too, if his clenched fists were any indication.
What has Teiko done to twist children into monsters bent on victory? The Generation of Miracles had nothing but arrogance in their eyes while Kuroko looks like an empty shell of his former self.
Suzume knows that look far too well and it makes her feel like vomiting to see it on her childhood friend.
-o-
"Do you like to play basketball?"
It is a simple question. A yes or no answer that even a child could answer, but at that moment Akashi Seijuro looks at her like she had asked him the meaning of life.
"Basketball is a way to achieve victory."
Suzume knows at that moment that Teiko's opponents aren't the only ones who are broken to the core.
-o-
11 to 111. Tears are streaming down Suzume's face before she could even understand the meaning of the score. There was no way that had been coincidental when Murasakibara Atsushi had just slammed the ball into the basket to score against themselves.
"Shige-kun!"
Suzume's voice was lost in the crowd of chatter, but she had seen Ogiwara's eyes.
Damn it. How could something shatter so hard that it can't be fixed? At that moment Kuroko managed to find his way onto the court and his eyes were identical to Ogiwara's. There was no doubt that he had recognized what his teammates did.
How strange that the first time their heart's connected it was on a basketball court and now their heart's were broken, shattered to pieces on a court with all three of them unable to stop it.
The universe certainly liked its irony.
-o-
"Shige-kun!"
Suzume managed to corner the orange-haired boy after the match, but she didn't know what to say. Comfort him? Encourage him? None of it would help now after what had just happened.
There was a moment of silence before Ogiwara spoke.
"Suzu, Kuroko's eyes haven't lost their warmth. Can you please give him a message from me? Tell him to never quit basketball because of what happened."
"You idiot! Why can't you tell him yourself?"
Ogiwara's eyes met hers and they were so pathetically sad that she couldn't even be mad at him.
"I'm a coward, Suzu. I can't face Kuroko like this and I'm moving again tonight. I don't have a second chance."
He handed her his sweatband and Suzume clutches it like a lifeline.
". . . just give this to Kuroko for me please and tell him I'm sorry."
With those parting words, Ogiwara left.
-o-
"Tet-kun, I'm going to help you."
Kuroko looked at her desolately as he held onto Shige-kun's sweatband.
"Why? I was the one who let them do those horrible things to Ogiwara-kun, your teammates, and everyone who has ever played against them," the boy managed to choke out.
Suzume pulls Kuroko in, hugging him and for once he doesn't pull away from the physical contact. She could feel his tears on her shoulders, but she kept holding him, making sure that he won't break. Not in the way she had left Shige-kun and her teammates slip through her fingertips.
"You shouldn't be the only one to carry this burden and we are friends are we not?"
She gave a sharp laugh.
"I don't know these Generation of Miracle guys, but think of me as a representative of everyone they beat when we defeat them."
"You never know how to back down, Suzume."
Suzume smiled at the lack of usual suffix behind her name and pulled Kuroko in a little closer.
"I may not be a good basketball player, but I'm going to support you all the way Tet-kun."
Suzume looks him straight in the eyes. Gray eyes on teal ones.
"And I don't plan on breaking that promise."
Thank you so much for reading! This is my first OC fic so any advice or criticism will be much appreciated. The beginning might seem a little angsty, but I promise the following chapters will have some more humor to it. Please review if you enjoyed!
