He could smell the metallic tang of blood, he could taste it in his throat, bubbling up, making him chock for air. The pain, the pain was everywhere. He wanted to move but his body refused to listen, he wanted to scream but nothing would come out. He was all alone, everything was dark… and cold…and empty… He didn't want to be alone! He was scared, so scared! Some on help me!
"Tetsuya! Time to get up!" Kagami Taiga bellowed bursting into his brother's room quite noisily, waking Kagami Tetsuya with a jolt then crashing to the floor as a result. At this Tagia just laughed good-naturedly as he went to help the other boy up. "Well at least your really awake now, we've got school in a hour or so so get dressed quick while I make breakfa- Hey what's wrong?!" The slightly older boy suddenly exclaimed noticing the tear trails down Tetsuya's cheeks.
"It's nothing… just that old dream again." He dismissed flatly, wiping away the traitorous tears quickly.
"Okay…" Taiga said with a accepting but sad sigh, nothing more needing to be said. After a moment he just patted the smaller boy's shoulder fondly before exiting the room, closing the door with a soft click. Now Tetsuya was the one to sigh, he hated making Taiga worry about him, why couldn't he stop having that stupid dream? Today was suppose to be a good day, it was the first day of school back in Japan and on their own too. Or at least until their father, or in Tetsuya's case, adopted father, finished up his job in America to come join them, but it would more then likely be later rather then sooner.
"You almost finished?! Food's done!" Taiga shouted from the kitchen. Tetsuya didn't shout back, but simply walked into the small dining room at sat down to eat just as larger boy was putting the food on the table.
"Itakiamasu." Tetsuya said, polite as always, before they both ate hurriedly and ran out the door in order to make it to their new school on time. After all, today was the recruitment day for the school's different clubs, including the Basketball Club.
"Hey, Taiga-nii do you really have any clue at all where the basketball club's table is?" Tetsuya questioned the larger boy beside him with a very skeptical look.
"Sure I do! It's… um…" The larger Kagami sibling swung his head around in an attempt to save his pride but was having no luck seeing anything through the ocean of students that surrounded them. With a exasperated sigh the smaller, teal-haired boy held up a single hand signaling for Taiga to wait and began weaving through the massive crowd fairly easily and soon spotted a group of second year students promoting the Basketball club. But Taiga had apparently gotten impatient and had plowed his way through the crowd using his massive hight and size to follow after Tetsuya. He didn't pause for a second, coming to tower over the sempais' easily.
"Um…" Was all a sempai with a cat shaped mouth managed to squeak at the sight of him.
"Where do we sign up for the Basketball Club?" Taiga growled, but not angrily.
"We?" The cat sempai managed to get out.
"Yeah, me and my brother!" Taiga growled again but obviously had no patience, hinted by the fact that he lifted the older boy by the back of his collar, before telling him to lead the way. The boy just nodded rapidly, apparently now fearing for his life.
"Taiga-nii that's rude, you should put him down." Tetsuya reprimanded bluntly. To this Taiga just rolled his eyes but released the cat boy who now realized Tetsuya's presence with surprise.
"Thank you." He whispered to Tetsuya gratefully. "I'm Koganei by the way." He told both of them his voice back to the normal volume. "The Basketball club's table is just over here…" He pointed in a direction and the two brothers followed him as he lead them onward.
"Riko-san, Hyuga-kun, brought us some new recruits!" The boy, Koganei shouted to the two students, a boy and a girl, who were sitting at a table labeled for the Basketball club leading the Kagami brothers over to them. For a few moments both sempai's were stunned silent by the overpowering persona that was Kagami Taiga. But they recovered from their shock fairly quickly.
"Only one Koganei? I thought you had more?" The boy at the table with dark hair and glasses asked in a puzzled tone.
"Ano… I am Kagami Tetsuya and I would like to apply for the manager's position…"
"GHOST!" The girl at the table shrieked, falling backwards in her chair in shock. But she wasn't alone the boy at the table with her also cried out in shock when Tetsuya spoke as well.
"Oi! That's my brother,and he's not a ghost!" Taiga growled indignantly, but his words held no bite, as if he was use to this sort of reaction, which he was mostly likely.
"Its fine, Taiga-nii. Um, miss…?"
"ah, gomen, gomen, I'm Riko Aida. And the boy next to me is Hyuga Juppei. Nice to meet you."
"Kagami Tetsuya, nice to meet you. As I said before Riko-sempai, I would like to apply for the manager position if it's available."
"Ah, um, yes it is… but are you sure? It's usually seen as a more feminine position…"
"It's fine, it doesn't matter. And I promise I will not disappoint you." At that Riko didn't try dissuading the boy any further and handed him a form to fill out.
"Well okay, glad to have you. And I'm assuming you want to be a player?" She asked turned to address the other recruit now.
"Yeah." Was his one syllable answer, as both he and Tetsuya filled their respective forms fairly quickly and turned to leave.
"Hey wait! You didn't give a goal or a reason why you play!" Hyuga called after them.
"Japanese basketball is the same everywhere, I really only joined cause Tetsuya had wanted to." And with that cryptic reasoning both Taiga and Tetsuya Kagami were gone.
"Those two are defiantly not normal… Transfers from america, one a wild tiger and the other a almost invisible ghost. "This year's first years are ridiculous, that's for sure." Riko said slyly to no one in particular.
It was a early evening the next day when the first years who wanted to join the basketball team arrived to meet their new captain and coach. Kagami Taiga was there next to the other first years but his brother had apparently not come with him. "Neh, isn't the manager cute?" One of the new recruits whispered to another.
"Yeah if only she was a bit more feminine…"
"Wrong, morons!" Hyuga-sempai chided bluntly, bashing them from behind with his fists.
"I am Riko Aida, the team's coach." The girl announced happily with a smile.
"Eh?! We thought it was the old man over there!" At this they pointed to the elderly man sitting in a chair against the gym wall.
"Oh that's Takeo-senesi, He's our club's Sponsor." Hyuga clarified with a wave.
"Good, now that you all have met Takeo-sensei… Take off your shirts!" Riko ordered with a pleased smirk.
"WHAT?!" The first years exclaimed in shock, but all did as they were told. Once they had the girl coach began walking down the line of them listing effortlessly exercise info about every one of them as well as things they could work on.
"How is she doing that?!"
"He father's a prominent sports trainer, being surrounded by that sort of things everyday as a kid, she developed an ability to see one's body in stats and numbers." Just as Hyuga finished his explanation Riko reached Kagami Taiga and was staring at his body in utter shock. His numbers were through the roof! These were not the kind of stats a first year in high school should have!
'There is no way of telling how much potential he has! Such raw talent!' She thought to herself with awe.
"Coach!" Hyuga called out snapping Riko out of her daze. "You got them all right? Kagami was the last one."
"Oh okay! But wait, where is Kagami Tetsuya? If he's going to be the manager he's going to have to be more on time!"
"Coach! He'll be here any minute, there is some people he had to see before coming today." Taiga declared loudly.
"Gomenasai, I am sorry I'm late. It won't happen again."
"Wah! Riko shrieked when the said boy practically materialized right next to her. The boy was wearing casual, but actually quite stylish clothing. A white, tight fitting tee with a V collar with a lightweight black jacket over it and matching black pants, all in all Tetsuya looked quite handsome. But that wasn't what caught Riko's eyes, it was the body that was visible from under the said clothing that peaked her curiosity. "Nice to meet you again, Kagami-kun?" She paused realizing the problem she now had with having two people with the same last name. "This going to become confusing… Would it be alright if I called you Tetsuya-kun?"
"I don't mind." Tetsuya said in his usual monotone manner.
"Well good to have you Tetsuya-kun. We were just getting started. But.. Tetsuya-kun… would it be alright if you took your shirt off for me?" At this Hyuga looked surprised that she had ask him to strip as well, after all he was just going to be a manager, not play in games. "We can do it later if you don't want to do it here." Riko offered in a serious manner, obviously aware of something the rest of them weren't.
"It's fine, I'm not ashamed." Taiga looked like he wanted to protest but was quickly silence with a look from Tetsuya. The small teal-haired boy removed his shirt and the body she was greeted with made her eyes go wide in surprise.
"Alright, thank you Tetsuya-kun." The female coach said quickly returning her gaze to the rest of the first years. If Kagami Tetsuya didn't want to play she really didn't have the right to force him but it was obvious that the small boy did love the sport and could have been a true prodigy if he had not been injured.
Yup, this year's defiantly going to be a ridiculous one.