Twenty years old Kagami accepted the request from Kozo Shirogane, an old acquaintances he got to know in his basketball life, to help him watch over his former students, the Generation of Miracles. Kagami was not sure at first but it was never in him to turn down someone's plea so he accepted and went to apply to be a teacher in Teikou High School which honored the motto "Ever-Victorious" that Kagami soon found he hated. There he met these weird, annoying but unique rainbow heads and he knew he could not leave them alone, walking on destructive paths. Kagami struggled to achieve his mission while trying to hide the complicated matters of his family under cover but he is Kagami Taiga, he never gives up and anyone who knows him know how stubborn he is.
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Chapter 1: First Impression go deep
Kagami checked himself in front of the mirror for the umpteenth times, patting his white shirt, shifting his black ties, taming his unruly darkish red hair which was fruitless. He had spent about twenty minutes standing in front of the full-body length mirror, making sure what he wore was proper and only snapped out of it when he take a look at his watch and realized that he only had half an hour left before he was late on his first day.
"Oh shit.", he scolded himself for not looking at the time and for cursing. 'I am going to be a teacher, damn it, teacher should not curse!'
He quickly ran for his bag, making sure he had everything and then made a run for the door. It took Kagami five minutes to run to the train station and another fifteen minutes before the train stopped at his destination. He tried to move fast among the crowds which were hard because of his large body. It took him almost five minutes just to get out from the train station.
'Shit, five minutes left!',Kagami cursed in his mind and quickly set out toward the direction of the school with his highest speed.
When he arrived at the enormous Teikou high school where he would be teaching for the rest of the year, he could already hear the announcement being broadcasted all around the school for the students and teachers to gather at the auditorium for the opening ceremony.
Kagami stood still at his spot when he realized one thing, 'I don't know where the f, oh no, I mean, the auditorium is!',Kagami quickly looked around for any sign or anyone he could ask for. His darkish red eyes caught the sight of a tall boy with green hair walking on the hallway with his back to him. Recognizing the uniform the boy was wearing, Kagami knew he was a student.
"Hey, you over there!",Kagami ran to where the student continued to walk, not stopping even after he had called him. It was not hard to catch up to him, "Hey, you.", Kagami called again when he grabbed the boy's shoulders.
The boy turned around and red met green. "What is it?", the boy tapped his glasses up a bit while his eyes looked over Kagami.
"Ah, sorry.",Kagami suddenly got conscious and quickly stepped back to not invade the boy's personal space. "I, uhm-, I was wondering whether you could lead me the way to the auditorium, please?", Kagami was smiling at the front but inside, he was panicking whether the way he pronounced it was right, he even stuttered just now, well, he did not want to ruin his first impression as a teacher and it was not helping that he was sweating from all those running, making him had not cooled down yet from the work of adrenaline.
The student looked at me again, "Could you possibly be a new teacher?", he asked.
Kagami smiled and nodded, "Yes, you see, today is my first day here."
"So I assumed you were late on your first day.", the blunt remark from the boy caused Kagami to stiffen. But the boy just sighed and turned around, "I am on my way there, you could follow me there if you want to.", then he continued in a lower voice, "Not that I am intentionally helping you, nanodayo.", he mumbled.
Kagami was confused for a sec before he grinned almost sheepishly while catching up with the boy, walking beside the boy. "Thank you, uhm-… Could you tell me your name?"
"Midorima Shintarou, 1-A.", he shortly answered.
Kagami smiled and ruffled the boy's green hair lightly, "Thanks for helping me, Shintarou."
Midorima glared and grumbled about how he disliked Kagami's action just now and quickly walked away, turning his head away from Kagami.
Kagami laughed while observing the boy walking beside him, he was wearing his uniform properly and the way he stood showed that he was not some slouching boy, probably diligent student, Kagami guessed; though Kagami felt curious when he looked at the bandages wrapping around the boy's long fingers. 'Does he play some music?' Also, the boy was quite tall for a high school one's student, he was basically at the same height as Kagami was and Kagami was 20! Supposedly four years older than the boy!
"Here we are.", Midorima's words brought Kagami back to his thought and he was awed at how huge the auditorium was and how the thousand seats seemed to be filled in by the students.
"Teacher goes over there.", Midorima's bandaged finger pointed at the front where the teachers were lining below the podium. "And I suggest you to be quick, because Teikou doesn't tolerate tardiness.", he said while pushing the rim of his glasses.
Kagami smiled and ruffled the boy's hair again, completely ignoring the protest from the boy, "Thank you, Shintarou. See you later~!", Kagami waved his hand and quickly approached the row of teachers Midorima had pointed out to him before.
A baldy, huge-sized teacher called Obita Sensei scolded Kagami for being late and quickly told him to stand at the last row and awaited the principal's speech which was going to start soon. Kagami later learned that Obita-Sensei was the head-teacher in Teikou High School section.
A female teacher with brown hair and petite sized body turned to Kagami who was standing behind her. "Hey, I am new here just like you. ", she stretched her hand out. "I am Riko Aida, let's get along here."
Kagami smiled, he grabbed the woman's smaller hand and shook it twice firmly, "I am Kagami Taiga, please take care of me , Riko-sensei."
Riko raised her eyebrows at the way Kagami called her by her small name but couldn't do anything about it because the principal had appeared on the stage.
The students all stood up by the appearance of the principal, the teachers straightened out, so did Kagami. Kagami sighed a bit when the principal began his speech, 'This is going to be long.'
Kagami was lectured later in the teacher's office by Obita-Sensei for the whole five minutes for his tardiness and was told that in Teikou, not only tardy students would be punished but it worked the same for the teacher and the punishment did not just come from the cut of the salary, it varied.
Then Kagami spent another ten minutes with Naomi-Sensei, another female teacher who taught History, about the rules in Teikou and the class Kagami would take and how the school system worked. It was quite hard to follow the ruthless explanation from Naomi-Sensei but Kagami tried to because he knew that Teikou was an elite school, now he did wondered why he even applied for such a high-standard school.
Kagami took his notebook and absence book and went to second floor where his class would be, he would be the homeroom teacher in class 1-A. Kagami faintly recalled that Shintarou was in that class and he had made sure of it from his list of students.
Finally, Kagami arrived at his class after taking a lot of turns in the huge labyrinth-liked building. He took a look at his watch, 'Great, I am five minutes late to my first class, so much for first impression' He took a deep breath to prepare himself 'Okay, here goes nothing.'
The sound of the door sliding open earned the attention of the students in the class. A tall man with conspicuous features came in. The man seemed fairly young and the athletic body, the height also the way the man held himself, let the students knew he was not some easy character despite his young features.
Kagami stood behind his desk and spared his glance around his class, almost immediately his eyes landed on the tallest boy in the class which was impossibly to be ignored. 'He is still sitting maybe he is not as tall as I thought he is and hey, is that… snack?'
Kagami cleared his throat and smiled, "Excuse me, I don't recall the rules in Teikou allowing its students to eat during the class or am I wrong?", every eyes turned to the one he was looking at.
The boy himself shrugged, "Sensei's late, you haven't come just now~", he said almost lazily.
Kagami smiled at his statement, "Now I am here, so keep your food for later and tidy up your desk now, boy."
The boy pouted, clearly disliking the idea, Kagami heard a short whispering command 'Atsushi' coming from somewhere and the boy immediately start to tidy up his snacks, albeit a bit too slowly. Kagami spared his gaze to the boy sitting beside and met with a pair of red eyes, Kagami instantly knew the whisper came from him.
Beside the boy was Midorima, who seemed to act like he had never seen him in his life before. In front of him was a blonde, handsome blonde. Beside the blonde was another boy with aquatic blue hair and beside the boy was a navy-haired boy whose head seemed to be swaying up and down.
"You, with the light blue hair.", Kagami pointed at the boy who seemed surprised being called. "Could you please wake the boy on your left?"
The boy blinked and nodded, it was not hard for him to do the task. A jab to the stomach and the sleeping boy had jumped up with a scream and glared at the culprit with a hushed 'Tetsu!'
"No need to scare him like that, I was the one who asked him to wake you up.", Kagami commented from the front.
The boy had the nerve to glare at Kagami. If Kagami was who he was in the past, he would absolutely glared back at him but no, Kagami knew he was a teacher, he had to be more mature than his students were.
"And who might you be, Mister Splitted-Eyebrows?", the boy growled, still glaring.
Ah, Kagami felt something snapped and when he looked down, he realized it was the wooden pencil he was holding. Luckily, judging from the confusion on his students' face instead of a scared one, they seemed to not realize it. Kagami sighed in relief and hid the evidence under the desk and looked up again with a smile.
"Oh yes, I forgot to introduce myself.", Kagami said, looking over all his students. "Hey, my name is Kagami Taiga, I am going to be your homeroom teacher for the rest of your year.", Kagami said, all the while smiling confidently.
Kagami leaned on the desk. "I am a new teacher myself and today is my first day.", Kagami could almost feel the glint in his students' eyes but still continued anyway. "I am still trying to get myself used to around here but I would like you to remember four rules in my class.", Kagami showed the number four by his fingers.
"First. ", Kagami bent one of his fingers. "No eating in my class.", Kagami looked at the purple-haired boy.
"Second.", Kagami bent another one of his fingers. "No sleeping in my class.", Kagami looked at the navy-haired boy.
"Third. ", Kagami bent another finger. "Respect me and I will respect you.",Kagami smiled at all of them softly, making some looked at him in confusion and surprise.
"And fourth also the most important one.", Kagami's voice dropped, making all of them unconsciously straightened. "No hostility between classmates.", many blinked at his statement so Kagami gave an explanation. "By that, I meant any kind of hostile fighting whether physically or mentally like fighting, bullying, etc."
"If I ever found out…", Kagami let the sentences unfinished and he saw many gulped at his sentences. Honestly he did not know what he would do if it really happened but he just knew he really disliked the idea of it so it was good if most of them interpreted it in the wrong way.
Kagami clapped his hand, smiling. "Okay, now let's get on with your introductions~", Kagami looked at the navy-haired boy who was still standing. "You, the handsome one who is still standing over there, go first."
The navy-haired seemed to jolt, seemingly surprised that he had been called handsome which was never, "Tch. Ao-"
"Sensei!", the blonde boy in front of Shintarou raised his hand.
"Yes?", Kagami answered.
"If the handsome one should go first, shouldn't I go first?", the blonde smiled confidently. "I am handsomer than Aominecchi-ssu."
"Kise, teme-…", the navy-haired one growled.
"Alright, alright.", Kagami quickly said to prevent any argument and looked at the blonde, "I did not say that boy is the handsomest in this class so don't worry, you can go after him.", the blonde seemed pleased with it.
Kagami moved his attention back to the impatient boy.
"Tsk. Aomine Daiki.", the boy grumbled.
"No, no, no. I don't want to hear such a boring introduction like that. Please state your name and tell us some about yourself, what you like and what you dislike, Daiki.", Kagami said.
Daiki glared, "Don't call my small name, I don't like it!"
"Okay, that's one thing you dislike.", Kagami nodded his head twice, "And then, Daiki?"
Daiki grumbled, "He is not listening."
"Hey, I am listening to you now, Dai-ki.", Kagami intentionally pronounced his name that way, making the boy angrier. Well, maybe Kagami was enjoying himself by teasing these teenagers.
"Tsk. Whatever. Aomine Daiki is my name, what I like is not your business and I dislike people who annoyed me, for example you.", he was basically growling.
Kagami chuckled, "I see. Okay, you can sit down now.", he looked at the eager blonde. "You go next."
The blonde stood up, a confident almost cocky smile on his face, "My name is Kise Ryouta, I am a part-time model and I play basketball-"
"You do?", Kagami couldn't help the grin showing on his face "You play basketball?"
Kise quickly dismissed the fact that his teacher just cut him off which was rude and answered easily, "I do, in fact the six of us do.", he gestured at colorful-haired students around him, his smile confident, albeit a little too proud.
"Really? You too, Shintarou?", Kagami asked in surprise. So those bandages were not for music then?
Everyone in the class was surprised, not only because Kagami somehow knew one of the prodigies in Teikou but the fact that he called the Midorima Shintarou by his small name. Now that they thought about it, he also did the same to the other students too.
Midorima's eyebrows twitched, "Yes, and Sensei…?"
"Yes?"
"I would prefer you call me Midorima."
Kagami blinked, his face clearly showing the big question mark, he was about to ask why when suddenly he 'ah' and hit his fist on his palm. "Oh yeah, I forgot that you Japanese don't call each other by small name unless you are close."
Now it was the students' turn to have big question mark showing on their faces.
Kagami rubbed his neck sheepishly, "You see… I have just come back from America. I'm still not used to Japan's culture here. Sorry."
"Okay, so let's go on with our introduction.", Kagami gestured for Kise to continue.
Kagami sighed when the day was finally over, he did not know that teaching was such a tiring job, not to mention boring. He was just here for one day yet he had immediately realized something about Teikou's students and that was that they were all so… so serious and had no humor sense at all.
He had tried to attempt some jokes in his class 1-A and another in class 2-B but it was like he was talking to a brick wall and no one laughed at all, not even chuckling or even a smile! They just kind of stared at him like he was some kind of an alien being sent to their school and… and, it was so infuriating!
He knew they were that way because Teikou was an elite, high-standard school but this was hilarious. He was not going to let his students experienced their high school without having fun, absolutely not, he had to think of some plan for this one year.
Kagami heard the sound of shoes scrubbing against floor and the sounds of the balls and he stopped in his track. He realized his feet had unconsciously brought him to the gymnasium. Kagami then remembered his main reason for agreeing to apply for this impossible job.
'They are all talented but the last time I saw them, they are growing too rapidly, I am afraid they might get into trouble in the future. But my condition got worse and I had to go to America for treatment, leaving the basketball club and them. I am worried for them, Taiga. The last time I was there, one of them has started to undergone change, I don't know how they are now, they should be the freshmen in high school now.', Kozo-san had said, sounding so troubled.
'But… I don't understand, why me, Kozo-san? I just graduated from high school a year ago and I have never been a material for teacher. What can I do for them?',Kagami remembered himself asking the obvious, feeling utterly confused.
But the older man had smiled and his answer was simple
"Because you are a basketball idiot."
Kagami could not help the excitement and curiosity to take a look into the supposedly famous basketball team and maybe found the students that Kozo-san was worrying about.
The gymnasium was gigantic, huge and well taken care of. There were four courts in it and LOTS of students were practicing in each. It seemed like basketball team was favored in Teikou.
Kagami heard noises of someone arguing from the deeper part of the gymnasium and on the second court, he saw blue and yellow.
"Aomine and Kise? So they do play basketball. Hohh, the court they were playing at had the least number of players, so they are… first string?", Kagami grinned, excitement flowing in his vein at the prospect of a good player.
"Aomine!", Midorima's scolding voice shouted through the entire of gymnasium, now every eyes were directed to the commotion between the rainbow heads.
Kagami could not hear what they were arguing, but from what Kagami could read from their expressions and mouths, it seemed to be something serious, very serious.
"It's not my fault that no one could keep up with me! Damn you all, really, why still I bothered to continue my high school here. It's just the same story with the middle high…", it was Aomine.
"You know what I have been thinking? I think the six of us should have separated and compete each other in the matches.", that was also Aomine.
While Aomine was talking, everyone in that court was silent, even the coach still kept his serious mask and said nothing. The members from the other courts turned their eyes away to continue with their practice with solemn expression, trying to act like nothing happened.
What? Is this how basketball practices should feel like? It's so damn gloomy, it's like we are in middle of a war.
"Dai-chan!", a girl, maybe the manager, shouted, earning Kagami's attention back.
He saw Aomine grabbing his bag and left without as much a word to his coach or his teammates, and none of them, except the girl bothered to try stopping him.
Just. What. The…
When the scowling blue-haired teen got to the entrance, Kagami moved to stand in his way, effectively blocking his way. Without looking, Aomine stepped to the right which followed by Kagami, he stepped again to the left which also followed by Kagami.
"Damn it, did you do this on purpose?!", finally, he raised his eyes and saw Kagami. "Oh, it's you.", he said boringly, and tried to step away again but this time Kagami reached his hand out to grab his shoulder.
"What-", before Daiki could even finish his sentence, suddenly he was flipping on the air and he ended up laying on his back, looking upside down at his new teacher.
The entire gymnasium suddenly went silent, most of them shocked at the fact that a teacher just flipped a student over the shoulder, and not just any student but their basketball ace.
"Hey!", the coach and the managers finally came to their senses and started making their way to them. "What are you doing! You know how dangerous your action is?! What if you injured him?! He is an athlete !"
"I know.", Kagami cut him off, his voice stern and his eyes darkened. Of course he knew about the consequences of an athlete having an injury. He was once an athlete and had lost his chance by an injury. He knew so he did not put any force just now, making sure the boy was unharmed, "I apologize, Coach … Sanada, isn't it? "
"Do I know you?", Naoto Sanada, Teikou's coach asked in confusion.
"I know Coach Kozo Shirogane, I heard a lot from him.", Kagami explained shortly, ignoring the surprises showing on many faces. "Now, Aomine, apologize to your -"
Finally, coming over his shock, Aomine immediately got up and utmost his most heated glare, "What the fuck do you mean?! You were the one attacking me, you apologize!"
"Fine. Sorry for flipping you just now, Aomine. I lost my temper.", Kagami shortly said, his face calm. "Now, your turn, apologize."
"Why should I apologize to you?!"
"Not to me, but to your coach and teammates, fool."
"Wh-wha-…", Aomine was caught off guard.
"Apologize for your attitude just now. You were being disrespectful to them. Not just that, you are disturbing the atmosphere of the whole practice."
Aomine's face darkened and he stepped up right to Kagami's face, "Don't act like you are the boss here, you are just a new homeroom teacher, what do you know about basketball? About our team? About 'me'?!"
Kagami smiled, "You know? You are lucky that I am your teacher."
"Like hell I do.", Aomine cut in.
"Because if I am not, I might have punched you just now.", Kagami finished his sentence, a smile still on his face.
"Wha-?!", Aomine stepped back, shocked for such violence from the seemingly harmless teacher. Well, Kagami was huge, he looked scary but from the impression Aomine got during the class, he was not violent at all, actually it was the opposite, he kept on smiling, making silly jokes here and there and seemed to have saint's patience. 'Was he joking?'
"So Aomine, go on and apologize.", Kagami gestured to the shocked coach and the rainbow heads who had come over and heard what Kagami said about punching.
Aomine fisted both his hands and shouted, "Why should I apologize! I have done nothing wrong! I bet you don't even know what happened!"
Immediately after Aomine finished his words, he saw Kagami's hand coming, he thought he really was going to punch him so he closed his eyes and waited for the upcoming fist. But he was surprised when that huge palm landed on top of his head and pushed his head down into bowing.
"Well, since this immature brat refused to apologize, then I, as his homeroom teacher, would like to apologize in his regard.", the figure beside Aomine said. "He seemed to be off today so please excuse him to go cool his head. Sorry if he has somehow affected the team, do continue with your practice.", Kagami bowed and pulled Aomine away by the back of his shirt.
"What… Who is that?", Coach Sanada asked in confusion, not understanding anything.
"He is our new homeroom teacher, Coach Sanada.", Akashi offered an explanation, looking at the direction his homeroom teacher dragged Aomine to. 'He is such an… unusual teacher.'
At first, Akashi did not think much of his homeroom teacher. In his eyes, he was just another silly and probably incompetent teacher, especially considering how young he looked like. But after what happened just now, Akashi could not help but feel a bit… intrigued with this seemingly inexperienced teacher. 'This might be… interesting.', he thought to himself, smirking a bit.
-To be Continued-
Enjoy reading ... :)