Disclaimer: Kuroko no Basuke belongs to Fujimaki Tadatoshi.

Shapers of Miracles

Summary: Before the Generation of Miracles could reach the level of unbeatable as individuals, they needed opponents who could take them down and make them reach for higher. This is the unknown story behind the few individuals who would, in the end, help push them through the gate beyond being geniuses.


It was during the end of the second year in middle school, when the Generation of Miracles had already been firmly established. Basketball training has been tougher than ever, in order not to let the reputation of being the strongest falter. Not that anyone believed for a moment that the Generation of Miracles could be defeated, not after the last tournament where every other school was crushed without fail.

Because of this newly amplified fame, the basketball courts and training areas were out of bounds to all but the basketball team. The irritating reporters were stopped at the gates after the school increased its security measures, but spies from other schools often infiltrated by dressing as Teikou's students, resulting in the basketball team banning all students not involved in basketball from the training grounds.

Of course, this pleased the manager of the team most, because she could finally get some peace and privacy for her team. True, she could counter most teams with her strategies and foresight, but Satsuki Momoi was not one to be over complacent. Even if it would not do any harm to their team, she still didn't like to have the team's training disrupted by spies or interviews. The coach occasionally allowed one or two interviews 'for publicity sake', but Satsuki knew that he only intended to give others hope, before crushing them utterly.

Satsuki was always able to understand the actions of their coach usually. It could be said that she was the only one who managed to comprehend the complex thinking of their coach, the only one whom he would actually listen to at times because she thought as far as he did. But for some reason, she could not agree with him on that one point. It was actually worse for the team now known as the Generation of Miracles excluding Kise.

From the start, there had been plenty of clashes between the team and the coach. First off was his decision to not let the first years play when they first entered Teikou, even though some of them were already better than the current starters. Aomine was furious, for he had looked forward playing ever since he discovered that he was stronger than the current power forward. It didn't help that the coach picked on him the most, especially when the team he was assigned to was not fast enough to match his pace. ('You did not watch out for your team mates, your teammates can't catch your pass, you can't shoot until your teammates scored at least once…')

And then, Murasakibara was forbidden to snack during trainings. At the height of 186cm in middle school, he was way too big for a first year middle-schooler. It did not help that the school did not allow him a bigger lunch serving, for all the school lunches were ready-packed and each student could only get one. He was a growing boy, for heaven's sake! He had to snack in order to keep active, but the rules were rules and the coach did not want any bad examples in the team. And with that lack of sugar, Murasakibara was sluggish and inattentive at most times, causing him to be punished with even more training and resulting in a vicious cycle of sluggishness and bad temper.

Midorima had a surprisingly normal conflict with the coach. Due to his budding talent as a pianist, Midorima could not afford to injure his fingers. He did take up basketball as recreation, because the elder sister next door once told him not to become fat. But basketball was a rough sport, and Midorima had to take better care of his fingers or else his mother would be upset. The solution young Midorima came to was to bandage his fingers at all times, only removing them for piano recitals. From the first moment the coach saw him, he decided that Midorima unsuited for basketball, going as far as to encourage him to quit the sport in various ways. He even refused to let Midorima in for their trainings, on the account that he would never let an 'injured' student train.

Haizaki's problem with the coach was simple. He wanted to play however he liked, and he often distracted the others from their training just because he was bored of training. The coach would have none of that, and because Haizaki was the most vocal and violent first year, they had heated arguments and Haizaki was often banned from the gym, being forced to do his basic training outside without any team play. Besides, the coach was wary of letting him practice with other players in matches, because for some reason those players could never perform as well again once he mimicked their plays. And Haizaki was certain to do it, if he thought it would be fun to mess with the other players.

The coach had his hands full with these four pig-headed first years, great potential or not. Since he was busy with the third years, he dumped them on Satsuki, a relatively well groomed basketball manager and the then mild-mannered Akashi. It took the combined efforts of the two to make a team out of those four.

To this day, Satsuki had never figured out if picking Akashi as part of the team was an intentional act or not. Regardless of how it happened, by the time the team had their first official match with other schools, Satsuki gained a new appreciation for the coach. Aomine had started passing balls around, Midorima had consented to keeping the bandages off during matches, and Murasakibara would only eat during breaks, consuming only quick snacks. Haizaki learned some measure of calmness, and Akashi…

Akashi became the respected leader who could get the team to move where he wanted them, by hook or crook. By the half year mark, even Satsuki was in awe of Akashi, because he noticed things that people usually would not, and used them to move others as he wished to, when he wished to. After all, he was the one who connected Midorima's obsession of bandaging fingers to his piano lessons, and even traced it further back to Midorima's small crush on the elder sister next door who did the taping for him. Midorima would not say anything, of course, but he did listen to Akashi, especially once Akashi pointed out that it was easier to impress people if he did well in basketball.

Satsuki could only connect as far as the piano lessons before shutting off, because piano had nothing to do with basketball. It was only because Akashi had to leave the team in her hands while he trained another newcomer in a special style of basketball that she got the full story of how to handle Midorima. And because it was Akashi who told her, Midorima did not protest as much as he would have wanted to. After all, Akashi always had his reasons. The others had similar experience with the team leader, but that was a story for another day.

The team would never openly admit it, but they too, started to see things from the coach's point of view after awhile, even if they would not accept it. Because if there was one thing the team had in common with the coach, it was to win.

The coach might have known that his direct involvement in their training would be detrimental to their unstable relationship, and hence ever since the start of the second year, Satsuki had full control over the team's training. She had proved her worth during the first year, according to the coach, and she was probably the only one who knew how to grow the individual members as well as he did.

As for the coach and her… well, they both had the passion for basketball, and the same passion to win. But the coach's way of doing things were sometimes too extreme for her tastes, and Satsuki often find herself using her own initiative to soften the measures and keep things in check. It was good that she had full control over the team's training, because she was certain that the coach would not have allowed that many oddities of the team to surface. Well, as long as it did not interfere with her plans for the individuals members, she could negotiate.

Satsuki would often find different ways of training and then compared the results against that of the coach's. One might called it her rebellious phase, but Satsuki merely wanted to show the coach that there was more than one way of doing things, and a softer approach might work better actually. She often bet her pride on the new training regimes, and the coach had acknowledged her methods at times.

The tightening of the security was a good move, extreme measure or not. It had the additional effect of allowing her to conduct her training trials in private, especially since the coach had to leave the country for three months to fulfill his duties to the association worldwide. Not just the starters' team she had up until now, but the whole basketball club consisting of a hundred over basketball players was hers to play with until the coach came back.

Her team actually cringed when they saw her excitement at the prospect of being the replacement coach, because they had tasted first hand just how bad training could be with her in charge. Aomine actually considered encouraging the others to skip practice for a good cause, but one look from Satsuki stopped him. Basketball maniac or not, he did not think he could survive if his training was tripled. And Satsuki would definitely do it if he was to spoil her fun. Anyway, it was none of his business what happened to the others, as long as he could escape being the guinea pig for Satsuki. He already had enough throughout childhood, thank you very much.

Regardless of what they thought, everyone in the basketball club could tell that Satsuki was most happy with the recent turn of events. And given just how strongly she advocated for the privacy of their training, they were all mildly surprised when Satsuki showed up at the gym three days after the coach left, with a big smile and two strangers in tow.