3.…
The Seirin basketball team tried desperately, not giving up.
2.…
They held onto that last hope for the win. Kagami went for a dunk to get those last two points that would let them win.
1.…
The ball was stolen away from Kagami's grasp before it could touch the basket as the buzzer went off. The buzz was louder than normal for it signalled the fate of the match.
"Rakuzan wins!"
Seirin was defeated. The entire team was shocked. They came so far, they worked so hard, and they couldn't do a thing against the captain of the Generation of Miracles, they could only maneuver around him. None of them, no matter how hard they tried could stop the tears from falling. Whether they were tears of sadness or frustration, they all knew exactly how the other was feeling.
"Now, all of you, don't just sit there with those long looks on your face. You made it to the finals of the Winter Cup! You'll just have to train harder and take it next year!" Riko cried out determinedly to her team as her own tears streamed down her face. The team admired their coach's words but nevertheless, Kiyoshi wouldn't play next year and Seirin's basketball couldn't defeat Akashi.
They lost.
*
It was time for a well deserved break for the Seirin basketball team, after the events that transpired at the Winter Cup. Now, the new year was about to begin. A time where dozens of new students would be flooding the halls and joining clubs that held their interests. The activities fair was going on outside the school and each club was trying to get more people. In the midst of all this, a very tall young man made his was through the crowd; a freshman. Some students turned their gazes in shock at the shear size of him. The young man had a causal air about him despite being stared at, but his looks alone would've made people stare. A majority of his hair was a perfectly dyed blond but it had black undertones and strands and it lay in a sweeping mess that, oddly enough, framed his face perfectly. His face was oval and held angled features along with the neutral expression he wore which was slightly intimidating to look at. Each of his ears held a couple piercings which shone against his lightly tanned skin and thick black lashes adorned bright turquoise eyes which were almost too bright to be normal. Overall, he had the looks and presence of model.
"Basketball! Join the basketball club!"
"Do you like basketball? Then join the basketball club!" A few of the, now third year students were yelling, trying to get people interested but they only had a bit of luck so far.
"We made it to the finals of the Winter Cup, you would think that maybe we'd get a few more people applying." Koganei mentioned to Izuki who, yet again, got assigned the job of handing out flyers along with Mitobe.
"Maybe they're intimidated." Izuki answered then started to hand out flyers again. "Join the basketball club, we won't bite but our coach might."
"Wow, that was a good one!" Koganei said as he started to laugh at his team-mate's joke. Suddenly, a shadow formed over his figure. Hasn't this happened before? He turned towards what was blocking the sunlight and there stood the black and blond haired male.
"Can I sign up for the basketball club?"
*
Riko and Hyuuga were sitting at their club table waiting for applicants along with Kiyoshi who would be their manager for the year. Close by was a new table where a few giggling girls were hanging around and handing out flyers for the newly established club.
"I still can't believe there's a girls basketball club now." Hyuuga said looking over at the giggling girls.
"Yeah, maybe we can have joint practices at some point this term." Kiyoshi suggested with his trademark smile.
"Lets not." Riko ordered. She turned her attention back to the sign up forms and sighed in frustration. "Uggh, we're barely getting any people signing up, this is even worse than last year."
"Calm down, the activities fair isn't over yet." Hyuuga said.
"Yeah, you know what they say, good things will come to those with patience." Kiyoshi added.
"Whoever said that?"
"Me, just now." Hyuuga sighed in mild frustration. Their words did ease the coach slightly but she couldn't help be worried since the less applicants, the less likely they were going to find someone to fill the hole left by Kiyoshi.
"Um…" A male's voice said. The trio looked towards the voice and became instantly shocked. The guy standing in front of them was huge, he was probably around two meters at least. The freshman's intensely turquoise eyes were filled with curiosity.
"Is this where I sign up for the basketball club?" The young man asked.
"Yes, it is." Riko finally said, stuttering a little. Holy crap, what do these kids eat nowadays?! A bit of giggling was heard by the blond and he looked towards it.
"And over there, is that the girl's basketball club?"
"Yeah…" Hyuuga replied. What happened next was sure to be engraved in their brains as the most confusing thing in existence. The intimidating, tall young man's angled face broke into a wide, close-eyed smile. A smile that would be considered cute, not at all like the model-like, flirtatious smile one would expect to come from him.
"Great~" he turned around and started waving towards something in the distance.
"Onee-chan! I found it!" A dark haired female looked up from her book and started to walk towards him, an annoyed expression adorned her petite features. She was really small, her limbs were long and lean but overall she was small. When she got closer, Riko saw that her uniform was big on her even though she was pretty sure she had the smallest size possible. Her facial features were angled but soft and her eyes were a deep shade of grey which held a glare that felt like it could possibly cut through diamonds. Her hair was shoulder length and a rich black.
She glared at the blond when she walk past him.
"Don't yell like that, I could've found it myself." She said darkly.
"I'm sure, I'm sure." He said with the smile still on his face, seemingly not affected by the glare he received. She headed towards the basketball sign-up.
"Do you still want to sign up?" Riko asked wearily.
"Hai!" He replied and sat down. Riko passed him an application.
"Just write your name, middle school and reasons you want to join, only your name and middle school are required though." He proceeded to write and from a distance Riko could see the girl who passed earlier signing up for girl's basketball.
"Ok, here you go~" The young man handed the paper back to Riko.
"Tryouts are after school today. Hope to see you there." Hyuuga said to the blond as he stood up to leave.
"Oh, I'll be there. See you!" The blonde waved as he walked off smiling and met with the girl, towering over her. Meanwhile, Riko took a look at the application.
"His name is Arashi Haru. He has two different middle schools listed, one is in America and the other is in Tokyo."
"He studied in America? No wonder. It seems like all players from America are monsters." Hyuuga muttered.
"You've only seen two!" Riko replied. "Plus, Arashi-kun doesn't seem very monster like."
"That guy's huge! He qualifies as a monster." After listening to his friends bicker, Kiyoshi picked up Haru's application form.
Reason for joining:
I love basketball.
Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the beginning of this story. Now before you continue, there are a few things i'd like to warn you about. This is going to be a really long story. This story takes place not even a full year and it might take awhile for me to upload the first few chapters since I'm still thinking about the characters and working out the kinks in their interactions. Another thing is that there are a lot of OC's (it's a new year after all) so basically all the freshman are OC's. Other than that I hope you enjoy (if you decide to stick around).
