"Ugh, I'm beat after that game." Koga complained.
"...sumimasen but didn't you only play for 5 minutes Koga-San?" Kuroko asked emotionlessly.
Koga clutched at his chest and said wept in embarrassment
"That hurts Kuroko!" Kagami rolled his eyes at the two while the rest of the team laughed at their usual antics. It hadn't been a particularly hard game, they had crushed their opponents in a practice game 82-45. The teams defense had been much stronger than their offense, so Kagami, Kuroko, and Hyuga were especially worn out, while everyone else was relatively energized. Especially coach. She was literally skipping with joy over their annihilation of a supposedly good team.
"Let's get something to eat!" She chirped as they walked slowly away from the campus of the opposing team's high school. Suddenly something caught her eye on the field.
"Mite, mite! Looks guys, a football game!" (A/N football, also known as soccer)She exclaimed excitedly pointing at the field.
"So?" Kagami asked, bored with this topic. If it wasn't basketball, it didn't really interest him.
"What do you mean 'so?' You can learn something new from any athlete of any sport. Besides, I've heard that this school's girl football team is undefeated. Apparently they've got this amazing foreign player from America."
Kagami rolled his eyes and appeared indifferent, but this girl was starting to interest him, well her talent at least. Just how good was she? Could she play basketball too? Was she a bulky defense player that could knock over all the other girls? Or perhaps she was like Kuroko, Someone small and skinny that could sneak up and make goals easily?
"C'mon lets go see what this team's all about!"Riko yelled excitedly grabbing both Hyuga and Shun by the arms and dragging them with her.
The rest of the team followed suit, except for Kagami who stubbornly stayed behind.
What did it matter anyway, football had hardly anything to do with basketball. How hard could it be?
All you had to do was kick the ball into the big net. To him, it seemed much easier than basketball.
Suddenly he felt cold water running down his back.
"What the hell?!" He exclaimed angrily while spinning around. There stood Kuroko with a half full bottle of water in his hands, looking up at Kagami innocently.
"Please come with us." Kuroko requested simply.
"Teme-kuroko!" Kagami growled while grabbing Kuroko by his collar and lifting him off the ground.
"I think it will be a good experience." Kuroko said calmly. A vein twitched on Kagami's forehead in annoyance. But he slowly put Kuroko back on the ground.
"Fine let's go." He said as he and Kuroko mad their way over to the football field and stood with their teammates along the sideline.
Kagami could tell right away who the foreign player was. She had light brown hair, blue eyes, and a lean but muscular physique. But her appearance wasn't what gave her away so quickly. She had 3 girls guarding her at her position at center forward. Hyuga let out a low whistle.
"They must really not want her anywhere close to the ball."
'You could say that again.' Kagami thought as he watched the American girl being surrounded by defenders.
"Alex it's yours!" They heard one of the girl's teammates shout and watched in amazement as she practically danced her way out of protective huddle the opposing teams defenders had made around her.
'Fast!' Kagami though as he watched her move agilely down the field using her incredible footwork to pass every opponent that came in her way. She continued to pass to her teammates, who passed it back to her, and she quickly made her way up the goal. She came up against the last defender, and quickly passed to a teammate on her right. Her teammate knew exactly what to do, she kicked the ball so it formed a perfect arc toward the goal. It was the perfect pass that allowed the foreign girl to head it into the goal. The keeper stood no chance and could not lunge at the ball fast enough. It sunk into the goal with the satisfied cheer of the girls on the team. The American girl smiled and high-fived her teammates as they walked back to the midline.
"Sugoi!" Koga said what everyone else as thinking internally. "Her footwork is so fast you can barely see her legs when she's moving!"
"Not to mention that she passes the ball regularly despite the fact that she could probably make the goal on her own." Hyuga added.
The entire team shot a glance at Kagami.
"What the hell are you looking at me for?! I pass the ball too!"
"Hai, hai." They said unenthusiastically.
"Nani!?" Kagami growled angrily clenching his fists. He did pass the ball! ...sometimes. Hey, some times it was easier to just go and dunk he ball himself!
They watched time after time throughout the game as the girl, Alex, broke away from the defenders that were constantly guarding her and made her way up the field. Passing to her teammates to shoot as well as shooting, herself. They were currently tied with their opponents 4-4. Out of the three girls guarding the American girl, two had seemed to have given up hope and barely tried to stop her now, but one with black hair and piercing green eyes grew more and more agitated every time Alex broke away.
"You can practically see the waves of fury coming off of that dark-haired girl." Riko noted.
The whole team looked at Kagami.
"What?! That only happens to me sometimes!"
"Hai, hai."
"Shut up!"
"There she goes again!" Koga exclaimed as Alex prepared to break away from the defenders again. The two unenthusiastic defenders backed away from her, believing there was nothing more they could do to stop her. However the dark haired girl quickly stomped on Alex's foot with her cleat, locking it in place. Alex looked up at the girl in shock. Then the girl reached out her arms and shoved Alex hard onto the ground. The whole team watched in horror as the foreign girl tried to move her foot in order to not fall on it, but the defender had it locked solidly beneath her cleat. Alex fell hard onto her ankle and let out a painful yelp as she felt a snap within it. All the Seirin players sucked in a breath in sympathy for her pain. Many of them had done similar things to their bones at one point it another.
"Ow, that looked like a really painful sprain." Koga said with sympathy.
"No, it's broken." Riko said matter-of-factly. "She did not fall on it correctly at all. Definitely broken in several places."
Kagami watched as the girl, Alex, clutched at the ground in agony for a few seconds before popping up quickly, pretending to be fine.
But he saw it.
he definitely saw all of the pain that flashed on her face for those few seconds.
She was not all right.
Not at all.
The ref blew the whistle and called a red-card on the aggressive defender, who looked quite pleased with herself as she walked off the field.
"Why does she look so cocky?" Kagami said angrily and loud enough for the girl to hear. "If you can't defeat your opponent fairly, the what's the point in playing against them in the first place. It's not winning if you cheat."
The girl shot daggers at Kagami but chose not to say anything. Kagami turned his attention back to he field.
The American girl's teammates seemed to be in an arguement wit the ref.
"But ref, she can't take the penalty kick! You saw how she fell on her ankle. She has to go to the hospital, or at least sit out for right now."
The ref shook his head stubbornly.
"Sorry you have already used all of your substitutions for this game. Either she makes the penalty kick, or you guys don't take it at all."
"Really, I'm fine you guys. It's fourth quarter, we have to take this kick in order to win. I can do it, I know I can." Alex pleaded.
Her teammate with chestnut hair and brown eyes frowned unhappily and glanced at her ankle, which was already swelling.
"Alright but don't come crying to me when your ankle is killing you."
"Hai, arigatou."Alex said and limped up to where the ball was set up for a penalty shot.
She stopped a few feet shy and slowly put her injured foot on the ground. She grimaced in excruciating pain.
"Ahh, I can't watch!" Koga whimpered hiding his eyes.
"It must be extremely painful." Kuroko said with a small sympathetic frown.
"This takes 'taking one for the team' to a whole new level." Hyuga muttered. Kagami didn't say it outloud, but he was extremely impressed with the girl too. It took a very dedicated player to do something like that. He felt admiration as he watched her set up for the penalty kick.
Alex took a deep breath and prepared herself for the pain. And there would be lots if it. She had barely placed her foot on the ground and it had shot white-hot flames of pain shooting up her ankle. She sucked in air and jogged up to the ball.
ow. Ow. OW. GODDAMMIT OW!
Ever step sent the fire coursing through her injury.
She connected her injured foot with the ball in a solid kick. Alex dropped to the ground in indescribable pain. She had had her fair share of injuries, but nothing this serious before. And she had never had to play on a broken bone. It was unbelievably painful.
She heard the cheers of her teammates and knew that her shot went in.
Well, really she knew it was going to go in the moment her foot connected with the ball, but that was beside the point.
The whistle blew signaling the end of the game. Alex remained on the ground clutching her ankle and finally let the tears leak out of her eyes as the adrenaline wore off and she could now feel the full pain of her injury.
She heard somebody approach her and quickly glanced up, expecting to see the captain, the chestnut haired girl, coming to help her up and take her to the hospital.
But to her surprise she met the deep burgundy eyes of a tall, stocky guy around her age. He looked just as shocked as she was and awkwardly scratched his head.
"Ummm..." He started, not really quite sure what to say. Normally, Alex would be flattered at a hot guy coming up to her to introduce himself, but a sharp pain in her ankle reminded her of her priorities.
"Ankle. Broken. Need. Doctor." Alex somehow managed to grind out.
Kagami looked surprised and realized his stupidity.
"Of course." He said quickly and unthinkingly bent down and picked her up easily.
What am I doing. What am I doing? What am I doing?! Why did I walk over to her? Why did I pick her up? Kagami thought desperately.
What had he been thinking? He was no good with girls! Better yet, when did this happen? All Kagami remembered was watching her collapse onto the ground after a spectacular shot. At first he thought she was okay after all, like she had so convincingly told her teammate. But then he saw the tears leak out of her eyes and he knew she was in no way alright. And then without even realizing it his body carried him over to her where he then scooped her up and was now walking back to his team. Should he take her to the doctor? Should he carry her the whole way? Should he get a cab? Urgh why did he get himself involved?
But as he looked down at the small girl in his arms, silently crying into his jersey, he couldn't be mad at himself for helping her.
He was glad he did.