DISCLAIMER: Slam Dunk and all its characters belongs to Takehiko Inoue, I am just borrowing them for a while here...

CHAPTER 1
Perfect Mismatch

It was a hot summer's day as it had been for the past few days. Removing his eyeglasses to wipe off the sweat off his face, Kogure looked outside the classroom window. Blurred scenery greeted him, overwhelmed by the midday brightness. He rubbed his eyes and replaced the eyeglasses.

"Ok! Class dismissed!" the teacher said, breaking Kogure's reverie.

He then proceeded to put his things inside his bag, glancing once more at the document coach Anzai had asked him to produce.

"I guess this will be a long afternoon...," he said to himself.

By the time he arrived at the school gym, it was already bustling with activity. The sound of basketballs bouncing off hardwood floor and boisterous laughter radiated from the gym, providing a sense of relief to him.

Kogure stared at the players doing their warm-up exercises. Mitsui and Rukawa, already finished with their warm-up, sat on the benches, both asleep. Sakuragi was discussing something loudly with Miyagi. As usual, Sakuragi was causing trouble for the other players, but Kogure was in no mood to intervene.

"Sempai!" a female voice said, as someone tapped his shoulder.

"Ayako..." he said as he turned around.

Ayako's cheerful smile turned into a concerned frown. "Kogure-sempai, is something wrong? You seem to be out of it."

"Iie," he replied, managing to smile a little, "nandemonai desu."

"Hontou desu ka?" she asked, trying to see beyond his eyeglasses.

Kogure replied with a smile, "Hai... hontou desu."

Ayako did not believe what her sempai said, but she thought that Kogure is worried about something, but also thought that it would be futile to ask him more about it.

"By the way, Kogure-sempai, what's that document in your hand for?" Ayako asked, referring, of course, to the document Kogure was holding.

Kogure straightened and faced Ayako.

"You would know that soon enough" he said, "But before that..."

Ayako raised her eyebrow.

"I'd better move it," he continued, "Akagi is going to arrive any minute now..."

Ayako followed her sempai with her eyes until he disappeared into the locker room.

"What's wrong with him?" Ayako muttered to herself.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the gym, Sakuragi and Miyagi were already practicing free throws. Miyagi had just made an attempt at one when Sakuragi suddenly elbowed him.

"ITAI!" Miyagi exclaimed. "THAT'S CHEATING Y'KNOW!"

"OH YEAH?!" Sakuragi replied, "You already made your shot when I elbowed you... Besides, I am already leading, why should I cheat at this point?"

Miyagi looked at Sakuragi and prepared himself for a fistfight. However, Sakuragi's face turned serious when he looked at the direction of the gates.

"Ok, ok... What is it about?" Miyagi dropped the subject as he noticed that Sakuragi was not in the mood for an argument.

"Look..." Sakuragi said as he pointed towards Ayako and Kogure.

Miyagi turned to see what Sakuragi was pointing to. "Now what about them...?" Miyagi asked Sakuragi.

"Are you blind?" Sakuragi said, in his most mocking tone, "Megane-kun and your Aya-chan are getting too close."

"C'mon..." Miyagi shrugged off the observation, "This is Kogure-sempai we are talking about. He is just not interested in girls, let alone my Aya-chan."

"What makes you think that?" Sakuragi's reply reverberated thru Miyagi's brain.

Miyagi had always regarded Kogure as someone who is very much occupied with something else to go after girls. Besides, Kogure knew that Miyagi liked Ayako, and so would not take any steps that would endanger the well-being of the team.

"I don't think Kogure-sempai would do that... Besides, he is too geeky for her" Miyagi said, almost to himself.

"If you say so..." Sakuragi said.

Miyagi saw Kogure walk off towards the locker room with Ayako still standing there, looking at Kogure.

"By the way, the score's 10-5" he continued.

"OI!! The score is 7-5!!" Miyagi yelled.

"Yeah, but that was before you blanked out like that" Sakuragi said, grinning.

"WHY YOU?!?! CHEATER!!!"Miyagi snarled as he started to chase Sakuragi.

"ASSEMBLE!!!!" a growl echoed through the gym, signaling the start of another grueling practice session. Almost immediately, the players lined up in front of their captain. Kogure took his place beside Akagi, still holding the document, while Ayako sat on the benches.

"Uus!" Akagi bowed upon seeing Anzai-sensei enter the gym, the others did the same.

The old man just smiled and sat beside Ayako, placing a heavy bag on his other side. Kogure then handed the document to the coach. He browsed the document and stood up.

"Ok... Akagi, Rukawa, Miyagi, Mitsui and Sakuragi form one team. Kogure, Kakuta, Shiozaki, Yasuda and the others, you form another."

"Oi... oi... Oyaji..." Sakuragi said as he dribbled Anzai-sensei's chin, "Are you sure about this? I could easily defeat Megane-kun's team all by myself you know?"

Kogure sighed, while the other benchwarmers gave each other a worried look. They all knew too well that they did not stand a chance against the starting five.

They were too surprised at what their coach said that even Akagi forgot to give Sakuragi a gori-punch.

"Anou... Anzai-sensei, I'd hate to admit this, but Sakuragi has a point..." Akagi said, giving Kogure a worried look.

The old man smiled, "I'm giving you fifteen minutes to prepare...," he said, ignoring Sakuragi and Akagi's objections. The coach then turned to Ayako, "You'll be the referee for this game."

Ayako never had doubts about their coach's wisdom, not until now. "But... Sensei... The result of this game is obvious..." she tried to reason out.

"Thanks for the concern, Ayako," Kogure said, "but, we are not as useless as we may seem to be..." Kogure looked into the worried faces of the benchwarmers, "Right?"

They were worried, but convinced themselves that their vice-captain was right. "Yes..." Yasuda nodded, the others quickly followed his lead.

"C'mon then," he said to them, "we still have to devise our strategy."

With that, Kogure led the others to one side of the gym.

"I kind of feel bad for them..." Mitsui said.

"Yeah..." Miyagi and Sakuragi said together. "I almost don't feel like playing seriously right now," Miyagi continued.

"Baka..." Akagi said solemnly, "You'd be insulting Kogure if you would just let him off easily"