The squeaking of shoes on the basketball court of Kaijo high echoed through the gym disturbing the peaceful spring evening. All the players on the court were soaked in sweat running around passing the ball. It was a fast paced 3 on 3 where regulars partnered with other first stringers. The ball was now on the hands of a first stringer who stopped for a split second to pass it to his teammate. That was his mistake. The second he stopped, the ball was gone…
"Heads up, Kise!" Kasamatsu Yukio yelled as he hauled the ball he's just stolen across the court to the blonde who just broke past his defender and caught the ball. Without missing a beat he drove past the only defender between him and the hoop and dunked it with ease.
"All right! Nice dunk, Kise!" the other teammate of Kise, Hayakawa Matsuhiro shouted as he jumped up and down with overly excitement. "Yeah, that's pretty nice drive you had there. It totally got me." Kobori Kouji, a regular, the Center of Kaijo basketball team, who happened to be the last defender on Kise's opposing team retorted.
"Thanks sempai!"Kise said with all smiles and wiped the sweat away from his forehead.
"Okay guys, that's enough for today" Kasamatsu, the Captain said as he walked towards them. He grabbed the ball that rolling on the floor after Kise's dunk and threw it to a first year on the bench, who caught it surprisingly after fumbling. "Freshmen, stack the balls and clean the court, others hit the showers" Kasamatsu ordered all the while walking to the bench and sat down with the water bottle in hand. The first years on the bench stood up as soon as the words escaped their captain's mouth. "Yes, sir!" And started running after balls. He lifted the bottle up to his mouth and stopped as he watched the guys who just played the 3 on 3 were dragging themselves slowly towards the shower rooms engraved in small chat, including Kise. Kasamatsu put down his bottle. "Oi, Kise!" the blonde jerked his head towards his captain and beamed. "Yes, Sempai?"
"I said, Freshmen clean the court." Kasamatsu pronounced it slowly as he wanted a 5 year old to understand what he was saying and emphasis on 'freshmen as he said that. Kise froze in his tracks and gawked at his captain. "Eh?!" Kasamatsu was twitching as Kise started saying "well, I thought…"
"You thought that you don't have to do things as the rest of the first years because you're one of those so called Generation of Miracles?"
"No, that's not…"
"Or maybe you thought that because you got to play in games, you can get off your responsibilities as a first year? Is that it?"
"Well, maybe… but…"
"Don't get so full of yourself, Freshman!" the next thing Kise knew was that he got hit by Kasamatsu's flying kick! "GHAAH! Don't hit me sempai! I'll do it!" Kise practically flew across the court to the storage room where all the cleaning materials were stored passing all the dumbstruck first years froze in place to watch the scene unfold between their captain and ace. "That brat…" Kasamatsu muttered, stomping across the court towards the showers, without noticing the amused looks on the other two 3rd years. Kobori chuckled quietly as Moriyama Yoshitaka fall on step with Kasamatsu. "Chill out man, at this rate, you'll never find a girlfriend you know." He said in a serious tone, giving a sidelong glance at his friend.
"aahhh!" Kasamatsu put both his hands on his head, now there's only him, Moriyama and Kobori inside the shower room. Hayakawa disappeared into locker room and nowhere to be seen. "It's just that kid pissing me off! Who does he think he is anyway! It's only been a month since he got here, but his behavior's stressing me out!" He leaned back and pressed his back against the cold wall of the shower room, sighing.
"Well, give the kid some time. As you said, it's only been a month right?" Kobori gave him a slight smile and a nod; he stepped in to the shower striping his shirt off. Kasamatsu sighed again and pulled himself up from the wall. "I hope he'll adapt to our system here, you know it'll be a problem otherwise… it'll make our team fall apart…" he trailed off kinda muttering the last part to himself. He took his shirt off and stepped in to the shower.
"ow cold!" Moriyama yelled shaking his hand which he put in to the cold running water before. "just relax man, and then we can all be happy with our girlfriends!" He said stepping carefully inside the shower.
"Neither of us has girlfriends you idiot! And that's way off the topic!" Kasamatsu yelled and threw soap at Moriyama which hit him square in the face. "hey!" he protested but couldn't do anything about it since all the other members including first years started coming inside to take their showers. Kasamatsu gave a toothy grin to Moriyama who just wiped off his face and glared in return.
The three 3rd years were the first ones to come out of the showers and waited in the locker room for others. One by one came and bid there farewells to their sempais and went their respective ways hurriedly since it was almost 6.30 in the evening. Hayakawa was hanging in the corner of the locker room longer than usual and pacing hurriedly back and forth muttering to himself.
"Oi, Hayakawa, if you mutter another word while pacing like that, I'm gonna shove a basketball down your throat in that instant." Kasamatsu said calmly without even looking at the 2nd year, who froze in mid pace and blinked at his captain. Moriyama stifled a yawn and Kobori was busy packing his bag to even notice anything around him. "Just say what's on your mind, damn it!" Kasamatsu snapped now fully giving his attention to Hayakawa who jumped out of his skin in shock.
"Yes, si(r)!"he yelled and stumbled in front of his captain trying to stand straight. "well?"
"Captain! We have ou(r) schoo(l) t(r)ip is schedu(l)ed to go on this weekend! If I attend that, I wi(l)(l) miss the p(r)actice! So I to(l)d my home(r)oom teache(r) that I can't come!" Hayakawa spit out all he was thinking in a one go confusing everyone around him.
"woah, woah, woah…. Slow down buddy." Kasamatsu had his hands covering his ears and wincing at Hayakawa who was literally in his face and yelling. "So you're saying that you can't come to practice this weekend because of the trip?" Kasamatsu just picked up words here and there and put together something that actually made some sense, since whatever Hayakawa was saying obviously sounded like gibberish.
"No! Captain!" the brown haired teen yelled and jumped in frustration. "I'm not going the t(r)ip, because we have p(r)actice!" He tried again a little slower than before and leaned towards Kasamatsu who raised an eyebrow and stared at the 2nd year. "Are you an idiot?" he asked quietly. "Eh?!"
And that's when Kasamatsu snapped, again. " What were you thinking, dumbass?! I mean, you only get the chance to go on the school trip once in this whole 3 years of high school! Basketball practice is important and so is the school trip. Because they are all part of your school life. Winning is important, but so is losing. You'll never get the experience you get in here in any other place again. You don't need any regrets when you graduate, do you?" Kasamatsu took a deep breath. "Now go, you're excused next Saturday."
All the individuals in the locker room were staring at their captain. That included Kise who just came out of the shower room to hear these words. It was foreign to him. He can't really comprehend his new captain's words. Because in Teiko, all he was taught was that winning is everything. If that's true, then what is Kasamatsu sempai saying? Isn't losing is as same as dying? How is that important? Isn't actual school life boring? What kind of experience can I get with that? He remembered how he was bored as hell before becoming basketball player. To him basketball was everything. If he can, he'll spend his whole day practicing. Kise wondered as he stared at his new captain and Hayakawa sempai, who now overwhelmed by those words with trembling lips and teary eyes flown himself at Kasamatsu sempai.
Kasamatsu planted his foot mercilessly in the 2nd year's face and send him a couple of meters away from him. "geez… you really wanted to go the trip, didn't you?" Kasamatsu smirked slightly. Hayakawa was nodding furiously, trying to come up with a reply, but his captain didn't wait. "go on already, Before I kick you out".
"yes, sir!" with that Hayakawa vanished.
"oh man, that reminds me of our trip last year…" Moriyama said smiling broadly. " when we were all in the same class, oh including that guy_"
"don't even think about starting it" Kasamatsu interrupted his friend turning around with a small smile playing across his lips. It vanished as soon as he saw Kise staring blankly. "Oi Kise! What the hell were you doing in there took you long enough!"
Kise snapped out of his train of thoughts and focused his golden eyes on his captain. "Oh, I couldn't find the hair conditioner to go with the shampoo I used. And when I finally find it, it had to wait 7 minutes before washing it away so_" Kasamatsu twitched. Once.
"hey, Kise maybe it's the aftershave you use that attracts girls… hmm, wait." Moriyama leaned towards Kise who was across the locker room. "Are you even growing facial hair yet?". "Sempai!" Kise protested.
Kasamatsu twitched. Twice.
" I'm almost 16 sempai!" Kise said with a pout making Moriyama's grin grew wider. " Okay, if you don't believe me, I'll tell you all about all the aftershaves I used till now, top brand.. " Kise was ranting off still pouting, Kobori just stood there watching his team mates with an n amusing look.
Kasamatsu twitched. For the third time. He couldn't listen to anymore of the bullshit Moriyama and Kise discussing, now that Kise started to list off every product he used and how they use to the greenish haired teen. He was about to tell them shut the fuck up and get going, his phone rang. And Kise's not stopping his rant about aftershave types. The phone was ringing. Kasamatsu took out his phone and checked the caller ID. Oh damn. Him of all people of all times. He tried to calm himself down before answering the phone. He sighed and pressed the answer button and put it in his ear. "Yo, 'sup dude." He talked quietly to the phone, ignoring the background chatter. Kobori looked at Kasamatsu to get an idea about who's calling, and witnessed his friend's face go blank to shock and finally to anger.
"Huh? Are you challenging me?!" Kasamatsu's voice was low and held an incredible edge to it, even Kise and Moriyama stopped their conversation and turned towards their captain. Kasamatsu listened for a moment. " What?! So you're saying that's an order?! Like I'd do that!" he yelled in to the phone. The three onlookers winced at the shrilling tone of him. Kise shuddered thinking who the hell would be that stupid enough to order Kasamatsu sempai around. He'll definitely get kicked or worse!. But when he looked at his captain, it seemed that whoever at the other side of the line had no effect of kasamatsu's words because now he's practically trembling with rage. But as he started to talk to the phone again his voice was incredibly calm it made electricity run down Kise's spine.
"If you insist, you piece of shit. You'll be laughing from your ass when I'm done with you." There was a pause, then he lowered his phone and snapped shut it. Nobody moved.
"AaaaaaaRRRRrrhhHH! I'm gonna shred him into pieces!" Kasamatsu screamed as he punched one of the lockers in frustration and the other three jumped out of their skin as the loud bang echoed through the gym. Kise was utterly shocked. Kobori looked amused for some reason. Moriyama was the first to break the silence. "Let me guess… Yamauchi Ryuu?" Kasamatsu jerked his head towards Moriyama and pointed at him. "Don't EVER say that freaking name in front of me again!" with that he stomped out of the locker room.
Kise regaining his senses after what happened, looked at his two remaining sempais for an explanation. "Sempai?... Who was that?"
"They're pretty interesting, those two.." Kobori stated still looking amused and grabbing his bag to leave. Moriyama thought for a second. " Well, it's kinda hard to believe, but Yamauchi and Kasamatsu are_"
"What the hell are you freaking morons still doing in there?! Do you want me to print invitations for you to come out? Get out now! Or I'll lock you inside!" Kasamatsu's yell prevented Moriyama from completing it, and all three of them came out quickly before their captain go crazy. Kise said his goodbyes to his sempais and hurried to catch his train since it was a bit late, all the while thinking about that guy who could drive Kasamatsu sempai nuts. He must be interesting. He thought with a grin, running towards the train station.