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Girls?!

"Kiyoshi Teppei—let's see, 17 years old, 193 cm tall, blood type O—this is you right?"

Kiyoshi nodded, affirming the doctor's words.

"I see—sorry for asking all these obvious questions. There was a mix up earlier so we're kind of disorganized right now."

The doctor noticed Kiyoshi's growing apprehension. "No, no don't worry—I have your X-ray scan right here, see? Don't worry about a thing Kiyoshi-kun!"

"Okay doc. So please tell me. How does it look?"

"I'm sorry," the doctor said, as he carefully scanned Kiyoshi's X-ray scans, "but it seems like your knees aren't completely healed yet. You shouldn't have risked it by playing basketball—"

"Is there any way that we can speed up the process?" Kiyoshi, despite his gentle nature, was getting quite impatient. He'd been waiting for his results since morning, and due to the mix-up, he'd been waiting a total of 5 hours to see his results.

"No, Kiyoshi-kun. It's already a miracle that you lasted this long. Let's not test fate shall we?"

Fate. Kiyoshi didn't like that word. He believed that an individual could control his destiny if he tried hard enough. He didn't become 'Iron Heart' by believing in such a whimsical thing like fate.

"I know that you want to keep playing basketball, Kiyoshi-kun, but it's impossible for you now. Don't get me wrong, it's not as bad as you may think. You'll be fully recovered to play College ball. Isn't that your goal to begin with? I heard that you were already getting scholarship offers and whatnot."

Kiyoshi didn't really care about that. College or high school, it was all the same. As long as he was having fun playing basketball then he was content.

And he was having a lot of fun at Seirin.

"I'm sorry Kiyoshi-kun, but these are the cards you've been dealt. Now, if you'll excuse me—I have to attend to the next patient."

"So, Kiyoshi, how was it?" Hyuga asked. The entire Seirin team was with him, and Kiyoshi was pleasantly surprised that they all waited for him in the lobby.

"Of course we would wait for you moron. So, how was it?"

His teammates looked at him expectantly, and Kiyoshi hated being the bearer of bad news.

"Well, it's not looking good guys. I have to officially retire the number 7 jersey for now."

They were all shocked, but they tried their best to hide their disappointment.

It was Riko who took the initiative. She came up to Kiyoshi and gave him a hearty slap on the back."Well, at least you came out with a blast—I mean, we're the champions you know! And it's all thanks to you!"

Kiyoshi expressed his gratitude by giving Riko his best smile.

Upon seeing Kiyoshi's warm smile, Riko found it difficult to hold in the tears, and it didn't long for the tears to flow. "It's not fair! Why you?"

Soon the other players expressed their sympathies. Izuki and Koganei tried to cheer Kiyoshi up with some bad puns and jokes. The freshman duo, Kuroko and Kagami tried to cheer him up, but they just ended up arguing about the best way to cheer their senpai up. Well, it was mostly Kagami who did the arguing as the eerily complacent Kuroko was more reserved compared to his loud counterpart.

And the rest of the Seirin players all tried their best to cheer Kiyoshi up in their own unique ways and Kiyoshi appreciated their efforts, he really did. However, all their attempts only reminded Kiyoshi that he wouldn't really be seeing much of Seirin anymore.

He could watch their games, and he knew that Riko would be more than happy to let Kiyoshi be the assistant coach, but all of that wasn't enough to fill the void. It couldn't compare to wearing that number 7 jersey, and playing on the court with his friends.

Kiyoshi would miss it all, and the thought of being a bystander just made him feel worse.

The Seirin High Boys Basketball Team was officially on a break. They just won the Winter High Championships so no one could blame them for wanting to take some time off. Or at least, that was the original plan, but nobody in the team could sit still for long. Normal practice resumed after a short two day break.

Kiyoshi watched the team as they practiced some new strategies to counteract the 'Generation of Miracles'. Even though Seirin managed to beat the miracles and their respective teams in the previous tournament, the Seirin players weren't foolish enough to let those victories get to their heads.

The miracles were undoubtedly getting stronger by the second, and no one could accurately gauge their evolutionary limit. The miracles already displayed astounding growth in the last tournament. Midorima formed a deadly shadow/light combo with Takao, Muraskibara learned how to use the zone, Kise displayed his ever growing perfect copy, Aomine finally regained his love for the sport, and of course there was the captain of the miracles himself, Akashi, who recently rediscovered his true self.

Kiyoshi also speculated that some of the miracles already figured out the secret to 'the zone that surpasses the zone' as they've all seen Kagami entering it during the Rakuzan game. Kiyoshi couldn't even fathom what that would look like, if the miracles also found entry into that godly zone.

There was also the question of Seirin. Sure, their pillar Kiyoshi wouldn't be there for the next season, but would that really slow them down at all? They've all grown so much over the past year alone, and it was hard for Kiyoshi to admit, but they might do just fine even with Kiyoshi out of the picture.

In practice, they were already finding ways to fill in the void that Kiyoshi left. For the past few days, Kagami had been practicing the in-and-out game with Hyuga. Kagami looked very comfortable in the post, as he used his strength and agility to back his opponent down and create opportunities for himself, and most importantly, his teammates.

Kagami didn't possess Kiyoshi's point guard sense, but his undeniable trust in his teammates, as well as his natural leadership potential as the ace more than made up for it. And besides, Kagami didn't need the 'right of postponement' to be the team's post-playmaker. Kagami already had that animal instinct and he had an uncanny ability to read his teammate's plays.

In fact, if Kiyoshi had the fundamental point-guard sense, then Kagami had a new breed of play-sense, one that would make use of his overwhelming unpredictability. And there was also the shadow that accompanied him, the specialist, Kuroko. The shadow who became the light. The freshman duo had officially taken down all the Generation of Miracles. They were officially the best players in Japan and they achieved all that in their freshman year. Truly frightening.

The upcoming year would be full of surprises, and Kiyoshi would miss it all.

Practice was over, and even though the whole team expressed their gratitude for Kiyoshi's support, he was well aware of his redundancy. Sure, he gave Kagami some pointers about passing from the post, and sure, he gave the silent Mitobe, who was a sure fire to take over Kiyoshi's starting role, some tips on screening and rebounding, but Kiyoshi knew that they were all capable enough to stand on their own.

Still, Kiyoshi indulged himself in his newfound supporting role. It was the only basketball related thing he could do. Well, he could coach, but Riko was already light years ahead of him in that regard. So he had to settle with his current ambiguous position as an assistant of sorts.

He found it very amusing, how he stepped down from the 'team's pillar' to the team's petty assistant. Well, he was the one who graciously accepted the role, so there wasn't any point in complaining was there? Still, Kiyoshi found himself increasingly frustrated by the unfair turn of events. If the basketball gods were spiting him so be it, but Kiyoshi knew that this was just a consequence of his decisions.

And they seemed like good decisions at the time but were they really worth it in the long run? Of course, Kiyoshi thought, the previous year was the best chance they had for a championship. The seniors, Hyuga, Izuki, and Kiyoshi himself were at the peak of their careers. Kagami, and Kuroko, as freshmen were hungry for victory and full of potential. And they were lucky to face the miracles in their incomplete, undeveloped forms. They were all selfish, and egotistic at the time, but lately the miracles developed into true basketball players. In the upcoming year, Kiyoshi thought, Seirin might not stand a chance.

So the previous year was really the right time to go all out.

And the result was this, Kiyoshi lamented, a busted up and completely useless knee.

Kiyoshi looked around at the empty school grounds. Everyone already left, but Kiyoshi decided to stay awhile. He walked around the school grounds for a good thirty minutes until he ended up back where he started, at the basketball gym.

However, something was amiss.

The lock had been hastily cast aside and the gym's front door was slightly ajar. An intruder? Kiyoshi considered calling the police, but what if it was just the school janitor or something?

Then Kiyoshi heard the familiar sound of a basketball thumping against the gym floor.

Kiyoshi determined that there were three people in there. He'd been playing basketball for so long that his ears have developed an innate sense for these things. Kiyoshi thought that some Seirin players decided to come back, and while Kiyoshi commended their dedication, he had to reprimand them for breaking school rules. No one was allowed at the gym at that hour.

And so, like any good senpai would have done, Kiyoshi stepped into the gym to chase out the intruders.

"Hey, kiddies!" Kiyoshi bellowed out in a loud voice and he heard a female voice gasp out. Was Riko there? Kiyoshi didn't peg her for a troublemaker, but he didn't think too deeply about it. "You guys—you know that I'm an advocate for some fun and all, but don't you think it's too late for this?"

Silence. No one was answering. Kiyoshi found it a little odd but, again, he didn't really pay it much heed. He looked for the light switch and only when his vision got better did Kiyoshi realize who he was talking to.

"G-Girls?!" Kiyoshi exclaimed. In the gym were three girls that he didn't know. They all looked like underclassmen and they were clad in gym attire. They were all drenched in sweat and they each had a basketball.

The girls looked backed at him, and they were equally shocked to see him there.

And that was their first encounter. That was how Kiyoshi met his new basketball team.