Misaki: Beautiful Blossom

[A/N]: Hiya! This is my first fanfiction and thank you for being curious enough to click on this! Please read and review to help me improve in my writing. Sorry for any grammar errors present.

Rakuzan High. That prestigious high school where all the clever ones were said to have gone. A dark indigo-haired high-schooler plodded through the gleaming gates, still rubbing her eyes and frowning to herself. Kyoto was such a far journey from her home back in Tokyo. Pity her brother Shouichi decided to go to nearby Touou Academy instead… Imayoshi Misaki sighed as she thought of her Teikou friends. Tetsu-some obscure new high school she had never heard of. Ki-kun went to Kaijou, that well-rounded sports school. And Satsuki and… Aomine… To Touou. She winced at the thought of the tanned ganguro. How he had changed…

Misaki stared at the paper she was clutching in her hand. Class 1A for the other scholarship students huh… She lugged a large suitcase carrying practically all her belongings and headed for the Rakuzan dormitories first. Being a student from faraway Tokyo, she had to board there, or be up near dawn just to travel to school. Hopefully, there would be other cool people staying there too. Plonking down her belongings, Misaki looked around at her room and nodded in approval, her piercing indigo eyes softening for an instant. Pretty high-class for a school dorm, huh. After unpacking hurriedly, Misaki facepalmed as she looked at the clock on the wall. Shoot, she was going to be late, on the first day of school! Flinging some books into her schoolbag, Misaki ran towards the main school building and almost collapsed again. Where on earth was her classroom?

Panting heavily, she finally reached her class. Misaki stared at the sea of faces before her. Practically all the seats were occupied, since she was just on time… She should have come earlier! There was only one or two seats left, and the first she spotted was beside a redhead who was avidly staring at a shogi board, who seemed to be playing all by himself.

Misaki frowned to herself. He seemed strangely familiar, especially with that focused stance. It was obvious that he was focusing all his attention on the board.

"Erm… Is this seat occupied?" Akashi Seijuurou looked up to a pair of piercing indigo eyes, and a girl with long bangs brushing the front of her face that had a really awkward grin, as she frantically tried to swipe them away. Her eyes looked straight into his heterochromatic ones. Akashi frowned. Why did she look so familiar? And besides, she was one of the first to look directly into his eyes. What an unusual girl. "No. Sit down." As the girl exhaled somewhat obviously, Akashi felt her eyes reading his nametag. Akashi Seijuurou. Akashi was mildly amused as her eyes widened in recognition. What a dramatic person. "Aren't you… From the Teikou Middle School Basketball Club?"

He blinked. Was this girl also from Teikou? He scanned her face and her nametag. Imayoshi Misaki. Oh… that girl who clinched the Integrated Sciences Prize last year at Teikou. "Yes. And how do you know?" Her gaze faltered a little at hearing the interrogative tone, as she smiled once again a little awkwardly. "Urm… I was in the second string of that club. I knew Momoi Satsuki, Kise Ryouta, Kuroko Tetsuya and… Aomine Daiki." At the last name, she seemed to hesitate a little, her face twitching slightly. There must be some history there. Akashi gestured for her to sit down first. "So I gather you will join the Rakuzan club as well?" Misaki shook her head slightly. "No. Actually, I wish to join the team as a manager, since there is a lack of one. The Rakuzan team would require higher-standard players like you, and I think I would be of better use to the team as a manager, supporting the players." Akashi stared at her a little more, her shoulder-length hair swaying in the breeze beautifully. Now this was a tactical and suitable manager for the team.

"Hello, would you like to join the Literature Club? We read really interesting books!"

"Football is definitely for you, you get to compete a lot!"

"Come to Rakuzan Judo! Learn some cool moves!"

Akashi Seijuurou walked past all the booths, heading for a single one- Basketball. A lively blonde, a moody black-haired girlish-looking boy and a tanned large-framed giant were in front of the booth, sighing as a distinguished-looking man stood behind supervising as many came to sign up. He smirked. The 3 Uncrowned Kings in one school, huh… Suddenly, a hand tapped his shoulder. Akashi turned around, only to face a smiling Misaki, jumping with boundless energy. "Akashi-kun, can I go with you to sign up for the Basketball Club?" Akashi blinked, startled, then nodded. As they walked, Misaki continued to chatter about school work with him. Compared to those idle chatty girls in his class who simply giggled and fangirled about anime characters and likewise trivial things, Akashi found Misaki refreshing, and although she was hyper, reminding him of a certain blonde from his middle school days.

"Nanodayo~ Hey, Big Sis Reo, we got so many application forms already! We're gonna have an epic team this year!" Mibuchi Reo nodded nonchalantly as Hayama Kotaro grinned, holding up all the application forms. "Are you crazy? Put that stack down!" A third-year nearly screamed in exasperation, as some of the papers flew with the light breeze, scattering all over. "Oops~" Hayama grinned again as he bent to pick them up. Then a hand bumped into his.

A pair of heterochromatic eyes stared at him. Hayama averted his gaze slightly, feeling fear and apprehension at the same time. "Hey... Are you Akashi Seijuurou, the recruit we saw last year? Yay~ Please write your name down here and you'll automatically be allocated to 1st string!" Nodding, the redhead solemnly moved forward and starting penning down his information. Hayama sighed in relief. The first-year freaked him out a little, with that strange demeanour of his and that scary gaze. It had been decided unanimously that this kid would be the captain of the team, since he was about the only one who seemed to possess any leadership skill at all along with exceptional talent when they recruited him.

"Hello! Can I sign up to be a manager…?" A chirpy voice broke Hayama's thoughts. Abruptly, he turned around and came face-to-face with yet another pair of piercing eyes. Hayama jumped once again. Why did all the sign-ups have such scary eyes?! Scratching his head and still feeling nervous, he responded. "I guess since we don't have a manager yet, you just gotta prove yourself worthy of kantoku… I'll go with you to ask I guess?" A smile broke out on her face, and the pair walked over to Eiji Shirogane, who was discussing with Mibuchi about certain matters.

"Kantoku~~ Can we have a manager? This girl here, ummmm…" Hayama faltered, realising he didn't know her name. "Imayoshi Misaki. Can I be your manager? After you test me first, naturally." Misaki bowed formally to a grey-haired, serious looking coach. She had to admit, she was nervous. Eiji Shirogane certainly was a person to be respected. She thought of him in the Japan National Basketball Team. Impressive. She could feel his eyes on her face, thinking and examining what potential she had. Now Misaki wanted to be selected as the manager even more.

Beside the kantoku stood three imposing figures. The blonde, mischievous-looking with green eyes and vampire teeth who brought her just now, that girly-looking skinny tall player with an amused glance seemed like one of those typical shooters with eccentric habits, and the last one with strapping big muscles who looked as if he could devour a hundred bowls of rice at one go. That blonde particularly bothered her. He seemed a little too familiar- that stance of his, that relaxed attitude… Those traits made her think of someone that she had forgotten. Without thinking, Misaki popped a question, instinctively. "Are you a Power Forward?"

He looked at Misaki, startled, before hesitating and then nodding earnestly. Misaki sucked in her breath. So that was why this guy had seemed so familiar. There was another person like him who also played Power Forward- the same chill guys attitude, the slight slouch- Misaki bit her lip involuntarily. Stop thinking about him again. He's in your past. Forget him and move on already. She still felt spasms of pain whenever she thought about how he had changed, how he deserted his teammates and declared himself to be the best of the best. And Misaki never could understand his pain, his longing to have another rival. She thought of his shadow suddenly. Tetsu… If he had gone to Seirin, surely he must have had a plan to defeat his old friends and partner. Perhaps he had another light to guide Seirin to victory after battling the other Kiseki no Sedai members. But how strong would this light be? Misaki mentally reminded herself to text Tetsu later on to ask about him. She essentially was the only one who understood and felt his pain among all his friends from Teikou. Surely she would be able to help in some way. After all, Misaki also felt the same way as him, but in a slightly different way. Misaki hadn't known all the Kiseki no Sedai members well, but she mainly thought of a certain bluenette who was the first one of all to change for the worse. Satsuki had also gotten herself into a mess worrying about her childhood friend's state, so she had followed him to Touou to ensure he didn't get into any trouble.

Misaki sat in class apprehensively the next day, paying zero attention to whatever her English teacher was teaching. After all, her English was one of the best in class, so she did not have to actually listen to score. But Misaki was thinking of her basketball club trial that afternoon right after school ended. She drummed her pencil on the table, impatiently and a little nervously. She badly did want to be the Rakuzan basketball team's manager, and play her old middle school friends. Since Satsuki was already the manager of the Touou team, she could be her opponent and test out her rusty tactical skills. Misaki grinned at the thought. Perhaps, finally she could prove Aomine Daiki wrong, that basketball ought to be loved, not only played.

Misaki didn't know how the split had happened between the both of them. Since meeting in one of Teikou's gyms on the first day of attending the basketball club practices, they were best friends. They laughed, ate, talked, breathed and played basketball together, usually with Satsuki. In first year, Aomine was a basketball-loving boy, a basketball idiot, but he was Misaki's type of basketball idiot. Sure, his academics might have been super poor, but he was talented and passionate about basketball. His pet quote made her smile. If you love basketball, you can't be a bad person. Aomine always loved basketball more than anything else. Before he changed drastically in second year.

She still couldn't fully understand his attitude. Sure, Aomine Daiki was the best at basketball among his rivals and teammates. But that didn't give him an excuse to stop practising, and grumble about the lack of so-called worthy opponents he had. Misaki had reminded him again and again, that one day there definitely would be a person better than him, and one that he would have to put in his utmost effort to beat. So far there were none, though. Misaki still firmly believed that one day, someone would surpass Aomine. Yet he had brushed that off with a scowl. Misaki, don't be so innocent. The only one who can beat me is me. She flinched a bit, recalling his superior drawl that day. The day they broke apart.

But maybe Misaki could undersand him just a little, but not enough. She hurt for him, hurt for his lack of a suitable opponent on the court. Misaki could put herself in Aomine's shoes, and she was able to get his genius in basketball, his unbeatable natural talent and experience. Most of all, she managed to understand his feeling of standing on the basketball court, facing opponents that you knew that you would crush and defeat by a large margin. For him, basketball became just a game. Just a silly little thing where you were the strongest among all, and no matter what people did, you still remained the best of the best. So naturally it got boring for him.

Misaki got a little offended and pained, however, when the ganguro had said she couldn't understand him at all. She was trying her best, feeling for him, accompanying him to the bus stop as often as she could and asking him about it, although she knew very well that it would hurt him. Misaki was trying to help him, to get him to return to his old self, to get him to start loving basketball again. Satsuki also put in much effort to understand her childhood friend. A little voice started whispering at the back of her head. It was no use. He is gone. Misaki still remembered very clearly the day both of them broke apart. It was raining, and the sun was hidden behind grey clouds. The day Aomine Daiki told her he could no longer receive Tetsu's passes, and when Misaki had shouted at him to stop it, to stop being so self-centred and egoistical. She was partially wrong for being so impatient at him, yes, but… she could hardly bear it. The boy she once liked and laughed with was replaced by a monster.