Mika hummed, her shoes clicking against the walkways, she was late. She hadn't meant to be late of course, however, the schools layout had played some nasty tricks on her memory and she'd gotten lost on more than one occasion that day. She knew she was headed in the right direction now, as she could hear the squeaking of basketball shoes against the gym floor.
She stopped outside the gym door, quick to pull her shoes off before making her way inside. She couldn't help but smile looking at the sight before her. She watched her new team practice for a few moments, trying to get a feel for them when something caught her eye.
"You are going to have to show them a little more if you want to play on the team, Kuroko"
That brought attention to her, the shock was clearly written across the blued haired boys face. It was odd to see such an expression on such a emotionless face.
A girl with short brown hair was suddenly in front of Mika, clipboard in hand. "Ah, you must be Kobayashi, Mikayla?" She glanced down at her board quickly to make sure she was pronouncing it correctly.
"Please, Mika is just fine. It's what I'm used to" Mika smile brightened, "Sorry I'm late, I got a little turned around"
"Don't worry about that," The girl brushed it off, "My names Riko, Aida. I'll be your coach"
Mika was a bit surprised at first but keen on the idea of a little more girl power in the league.
"It's nice to meet you" Mika spoke genuinely.
Mika followed Riko over to the bench where she dropped her bag off of her right shoulder, suddenly realizing how heavy it had been.
"It's been awhile, hey Kuroko" Mika said, extending her arms for a hug. He complied, wrapping his arms around the taller girl for a brief hug.
She was quickly introduced to the rest of the team, taking note of a few faces that looked unsure about her joining the team. It wasn't unusual and she was pretty used to having to prove herself to a team. She'd been playing basketball since she could remember and there was always those that had their doubts when she started to play in the guy's league.
"Alright, enough, let's get practice going again" A guy wearing glasses who's name Mika had already forgotten, said. "Kobayashi, you'll play with the first years. Do you need to warm up?"
She shook her head, more than ready, excited to feel the grip of the ball in her hands again. She pulled her ball shoes out of her bag, a combination of black and white, quickly slipping them on and lacing them up. Straitening up she unzipped her jacket and through it to the side.
Stepping onto the court she switched places with one of the kids.
"Where do you play?" One of the kids with brown hair. She noted that he was a bit smaller then her with a soft face. He'd been playing Point Guard before she'd come in.
"Shooting Guard is fine if you want to stay Point" She replied kindly while rolling her shoulders a bit to warm them up.
The kid started to dribble down the court towards the upperclassman. Mika shot Kuroko a glance as she jogged to her spot, he caught it and nodded. Time to put on a little bit of a show.
The guy with the glasses marked her, she figured he was the captain already by the way he organized the team. He had dropped off her a bit, playing it safe so he had time to judge her moves. Mika quickly analyzed the court, the upperclassman had a decent defense and didn't give much room to pass into the key.
"Hey," Mika called to her Point Guard. She did have a bit of an advantage at the moment. Her check wasn't going to play her too closely until he knew more of what she could do. It would be too risky for him to play a close D on her without knowing if she was fast enough to break by him. The pass easily came into her hands and the gap between players tightened a little too much. He underestimated her but that was okay because she was happy to show him up for it. She crossed over and back fluidly before slipping around the Captain. She was met with a wall made by two other players in the key. She yielded before swiftly passing to her left.
Mika didn't have to see the other player's confusion to know that it was there, she'd passed to a spot that wasn't being occupied by anyone, she knew it made her look stupid for the moment. Not bother however, Mika rolled off her defenders and behind them into the Key. Kuroko appeared into the spot she'd passed to, sending the ball back at her for an open layup.
Mika couldn't help but grin as the ball fell through the hoop. She looked over her shoulder at the scene behind her, the court was puzzled unsure of when Kuroko had gotten to that spot; and so it began.
Mika sat in class, the teacher droning on but her ears unhearing, her mind was somewhere else. She'd spoken to Kuroko after her first practice with the team. He'd told her everything that had happened. She hadn't come back expecting a fairy tale situation, but this sounded a lot worse then she'd originally expected.
"Mika" She startled a little, looking to her left to see Kuroko. Class had ended without her even noticing, good start to the term.
"Hey Kuroko" She said with a smile, standing up and grabbing her books.
"Riko wants the new recruits to go to the roof this hour" Mika looked her Kuroko to the door of her classroom to see Kagami leaning against the wall. She shrugged, it made no sense, but okay.
Mika rubbed the back of her neck, standing as she stood on the roof between Kagami and Kuroko. Riko stood in front of them spouting something about how they had to announce they're reason or goal for playing on the team. Mika's pursed her lips together and raised an eyebrow as the punishment of nakedness was brought forth. Not a situation she hoped to find herself in, but she gave Riko props on the scare tactic – fear was, after all, a powerful emotion.
"I am going to beat the Generation of Miracles and become the best player in Japan" Kagami yelled out over the railing the classes gathered below. Mika couldn't help but be a little shocked at his words, she hadn't really spoken to him much since joining the team. Kuroko had mentioned a bit about him the other day, but this was, well, unexpected.
As he walked back to his spot beside her, she couldn't help but watch him. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she tried to read his face. She'd seen him play obviously and he was a good player with a lot of potential. But could he really be at that level yet? He either had a lot of will power or he was incompetent in some way that wasn't immediately obvious.
"What." Kagami broke her thoughts, realizing she'd been staring at him.
She shook her head and looked away, "it's nothing- I just wasn't expecting you to say something like that"
Mika stretched her arms behind her back as she listened to the conversation.
"Wait..she was skipping? ARE YOU SURE!?" Hyuuga piped up suddenly from beside her, there was genuine concern in his voice. When the information was confirmed with a nod he continued, a dark aura surrounding him "Everyone. Prepare yourselves, this can only mean that our next opponent is going to be really strong."
Mika crossed her arms as the gym doors opened to revel an overly cheerful Riko. She was quite excited to inform everyone that she'd set up a practice match with Kaijo High. This of course meant little to Mika, until Izuki mentioned a name the she knew all too well.
"Wait, doesn't Kaijo have one of the Generation of Miracles?"
Riko nodded, "Kise, Ryota"
Mika glanced down at Kuroko, who didn't seem too phased, but still didn't look too happy about it. Kagami on the other hand, looked ecstatic to be playing the one of the GOM so soon.
The team was suddenly interrupted by a horde of fangirling - speak of the devil.
"Sorry about this!" The blond spoke, completely surround, "Can you just give me a second"
It took a bit but Kise was eventually free to make his way over.
"Kuro-iichi, Mia-iichi!" He sounded like his usual cheerful self, but something was off about him, even if Mika couldn't pinpoint it, she knew he wasn't the same.
He'd gotten taller since Mika had least seen him and their height difference had her biting her tongue to suppress her Napoleon syndrome.
"When I found out who we would be playing next I just had to come check it out when I remember that Kuro-iichi was going to be here. And how nice to see Mia-iichi playing again too!" He draped an arm heavily around her shoulders, leaning on her slightly. "We were all really good friends back in middle school"
Kuroko was quick to shut him down, as Mika gently shoved his arm off of her shoulders. It wasn't long before Kagami challenge Kise to a match, one-on-one. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea, but at the very least, maybe she could get a little taste at how much the GOM's talent had increased.
Kuroko watched as Mika made her way out of the gym after saying goodnight to everyone. It had taken him a while to gather and maybe part of that was from denial, but she wasn't that same. She certainly wasn't to the extent of the GOM's personality transformation, it was far more subtle, but maybe that's why he found it so concerning.
He just couldn't remember her eyes being quite so dark.
Hi there, thank you for reading. I'll apologize for the fact that I wrote this really quickly because I wanted to see how the story would be received before continuing. It's an idea that I've had for a while and I was excited to finally write a chapter for it. I'm still trying to figure out how to do time skips in the chapters, I'm not sure if I like the line thing or not yet, but I don't want to drag out scenes too much either. Anyways, let me know what you think and I'll start working on a new chapter in the meantime.