Note from the author: Before you start, please be reminded that whenever you see passages with underlinesare delivered by the characters in English.
Wow… I'm really back in Japan. I swear, I really missed this place!
It had been almost two years since I suddenly left Japan and went back to my home country where I was born. Both of my parents are non-Japanese but we are still Asians. We lived in a province surrounded by mountain ranges, one of the longest in Southeast Asia. However, we are not the typical provincial bumpkins you imagine. We lived in a town near the borders of main cities of the country, hence, I could not really say I grew up in a normal provincial nature. After I graduated from elementary, my mother's best friend, who was working as a medical doctor in Japan, offered to provide me to continue my education in that country. But due to some circumstances, I wasn't able to finish my junior high there. I suddenly returned home in the middle of it.
So here I am again after almost two years, back to this country where the sakuras bloom best. It just felt so nostalgic.
It's the start of the school year and I got to be enrolled in Seirin High. It's the start of my year in Senior High School here in Japan and I will be wearing a Japanese uniform everyday! The atmosphere is a little tense with everyone so busy and very noisy blocking every first year student that pass by on each club's territory. A lot was forced to stop, look and listen to a club's propaganda to invoke me to join them. I rejected each one of them even though I have a little interest with something because the venue is really not comfortable. In fact, it was not just crowded but really messed up. Everything was so confusing which made me felt a little nauseous. I slowly stepped backward to avoid the students forcing their clubs on me and more steps backward until my back suddenly bumped on something big and as hard as a trunk of a tree.
"Ouch!" I said and massaged the back of my shoulders with my right hand. "Why is there a tree here?" I turned my back and saw someone. I slowly turned my head up until my chin aligned to my throat. I just let my mouth form a letter "O" with a silent "Wow" on it. It was a guy around six feet in height with eyes glaring but the best was his eyebrows which were shaped as "greater than" and "less than" symbols when in a mathematical equation. Wow…this is the first time I saw in real life eyebrows like the ones Dorothy of Gundam Wing had.
"Oi, you're blocking my way."
"Are those real?" I unconsciously said the words in English while my head still looking up and my eyes locked on his eyebrows.
His eyes began to form a little round and said, "Did you also come from America?" It was also in English. From that moment, I forgot I was in Japan.
I was a little irritated on his sudden query. "Hey, not all people who can speak English came from America. I'm an Asian just like you." And gave him a big smile. "Anyway, see you around, Dorothy-san!" and left him to continue my wandering.
He just stared at me.
"Dorothy… Dare?" Kagami spoke to himself.
"Oi… nani nani… I can't understand what they're talking about…"
"Are those foreigners?"
"I think they're arguing something about America."
"That's the only word I understood."
Kagami glared at the two male students which made the latter skipped by surprise. Kagami saw the flyer they were holding and got interested on them. Hence, he walked towards the two seniors and asked, "Are you from the Basketball Club?"
"Ah.. Hai!", said the smaller student with a mouth shaped like number 3 and looked like a rabbit being bullied by a tiger.
The next thing the rabbit knew, he was brought down by the tiger to the table where Coach Riku and Captain Hyuga are waiting. The coach was also a student of Seirin. She is a very energetic type of person. On the other hand, the captain was very manly in appearance and wears eyeglasses.
"Coach… this guy here wants to join our team…", the rabbit spoke while crying due to fear of being eaten by the tiger.
Riku handed the form to Kagami enthusiastically. "Just fill this out and we'll contact you for schedule of our meeting."
Kagami scribble on the upper boxes of the form. He was able to finish filling them out in just a minute and handed back the form to the young coach. When Riku received the form, she immediately saw the big box as blank. It was the place where one should write his reason why he is interested in joining the basketball team.
"Hey, Kagami Taiga. You forgot to write why you want to join our basketball team."
Kagami stood up, picked up his bag and replied, "There's no need for that. Basketball here in Japan are all the same." Then he left.
I loitered around the places to familiarize myself with the clubs of my new school.
Hmmm… I really dream to be mangaka but I also want to try archery and learn tea ceremony. Gaaaah… why is it so hard to choose just a club…
My self-reflecting moment was suddenly interrupted by a name very familiar to me. At first I thought I only confused some Nihonggo words with that name but the students started to make a havoc by learning the name: Kuroko Tetsu of Teiko Junior High.
"AAAAH! He was a member of the team where the Generation Miracles used to be!" the girl with short hair exclaimed. "Why didn't I notice him? It's impossible that I neglected this kind of opportunity!"
"Eeeeeh? Kuroko's here, too?" I barged in to their conversation due to my great excitement that the cute Kuroko is here in my school, too.
The female and his two male companions looked at me which made me felt a little embarrassed.
"Do you know this Kuroko?" the girl asked.
"Kuroko Tetsu? Mm! We used to study in Teiko Junior High." I replied. "So I bet this is the Basketball team. Am I right?"
They just stared at me and stared back at Kuroko's form.
"Oi oi…" the glasses guy reacted with a smile on his lips. "I bet this year will be a lot more energetic. Nee, coach?"
"Yeah… I can't wait to see our new members."
As I saw their anticipating faces, my heart skipped a beat knowing how Kuroko can make their team more fun. I just gave them a big smile.
The female member of the group turned her way towards me and placed his right arm over my shoulder. She gave me a suspicious look from her eyes and said, "Nee.. Kimi… would you like to be our manager? Coz ours is too.." She paused. "Just join us, okay?"
"Ahahaha…". I gave them a fake laughing. "I kinda lost my interest from basketball so I might just be a hindrance. Let me just watch your practice games."
"Aww… that's a bad news…" Riku answered disappointedly.
The next morning, I passed by the area near the basketball court. It was larger than I expected. Well, it was as large as the one we had in Teiko Junior High which is something to be expected. Teiko's team had brought home not just bacons but wolves' meats. So it is just incumbent upon the school to develop and maintain the facilities for the basketball team.
As I wandered near the building, I saw a few boys, in shirts, shorts, and sneakers, walking towards it.
Eh? It's too early for a club to start, right? Hmmm, they might be the new members of the club.
"Ah, Chieto-san?"
Without me realizing it, someone spoke behind me. I gasped and my body leaped a step forward before I faced the person behind me.
With my face still flustered, I saw the face of the person. It was someone very familiar to me. It has been almost 2 years since I last saw that face and it made me truly happy.
I immediately jumped towards the person and gave him a big hug. "Kyaa! Kuro-chan! Hisashiburi!"
I couldn't see what expression Kuroko made but I just hugged him as if he was a teddy bear. He was a bit shorter than me and skinny as if he was still a junior high school boy.
I released him from my arms and asked, "So how are you doing now? Still into basketball, right?"
"Yup. I am on my way to the assembly of Seirin's basketball team. How are you doing? You suddenly vanished from our school."
"Ah! That's a long story. Hehe. Anyway, can I go with you there?"
"I don't think there's a problem with that."
"Yosh!"
As Kuroko and I entered the gym, I saw a big trunk blocking my view again. It was the same one I encountered yesterday.
"Ah, Dorothy!"
The big trunk, ah, sorry, it was a human, a big guy and he was glaring at me.
"Who the hell is Dorothy, HAAA?"
"Ah eh-" A whistle suddenly echoed in the whole court.
"All new members gather around and line up. Hurry!", a male in glasses, wearing plain white shirt, shorts, and sneakers, announced. It was Hyuga, the captain of Seirin's team, and beside him was Riku, the coach. I already met them yesterday during their recruitment.
The new members, which included the big guy who was just glaring at me, went towards Riku and Hyuga. The newbies lined up in one row while Riku and Hyuga positioned themselves in the center facing them, as if they were commanders of the platoon.
"Okay, people, introduce yourselves." Riku said.
One by one, the boys introduced themselves. At the turn of the guy I called Dorothy, he said, "I am Kagami Taiga, and I will be the number 1 in Japan!"
I smiled at myself upon hearing his declaration. So, he's name is Taiga as in "tiger". Well, he is one, really :p
"Okay, so that's it. This is Seirin's Basketball Team and you are about to contribute to this team's honor. But before we proceed, I would like-"
"Ano… Sumimasen…"
Riku suddenly jumped off her feet. She got surprised when a frail-looking boy interrupted Riku's speech and was right in front of her. Even the other members got surprised.
"Hyaaa! Where the hell did you come from?!"
"Ano… I was here the whole time but you suddenly skipped me so I thought I should call your attention," said the frail-looking boy.
I giggled at myself and then I realized, everyone was looking at me.
"Hehehe.. Sorry..Sorry… it's been years since the last time I saw a scene like that with Kuroko", I said while wiping the tears of joy from my eyes.
"Eh? This is Tetsuya Kuroko of Teiko Junior High?", Riku exclaimed and stared at Kuroko from toe to head.
"Anyway, let's proceed. All of you," Riku continued, "strip."
The boys awkwardly stared at each other as if they did not understand what Riku had said. Even I froze and smiled at Riku. Fanservice mode. Itadakimasu! :p
"Did you not hear me? I said, strip!"
At the second command of Riku, everyone began to pull off their shirts and showed their flat stomachs. Wow, all of them have abs!
Riku walked towards them one-by-one, as if she was examining something on their bodies. Well, I heard that Riku was the daughter of a gym instructor who was once related to some famous basketball team in America, which I was not really sure what team it was. It was said that through observation on her father's work, she learned how to criticize the bodies of the players just by looking at them.
Her expressions looked to be amazed when she checked Taiga's physical traits. Well, it was really amazing. He had six-packs and a bikini-line. If one would illustrate my expression in a manga, I might now be giving off expressions like a fujoshi would have now.
However, as she went through to check Kuroko's physical traits, her bright expressions began to fade. Well, as expected, Kuroko was a frail-looking boy. Just with one look, he obviously had no enough stamina compared to the others. Riku thought the same thing. But as people would say: Do not judge a book, by its cover.
The basketball team's assembly just lasted for half an hour. It was just like an orientation before the their classes start. According to Riku, she wanted to check the unstrained physiological status of the new members in order for her to know what best routines she may provide them to develop their skills and how to mend their possible weaknesses. With that, I am now her fan. But even though I am her fan, I still rejected her offer to be a manager of the team. As much as possible, I don't want anything to do with basketball. It started a few years ago when something triggered me to avoid basketball. But still, I don't hate it. In fact, I love this sport. If given a life and death situation whether to play basketball or not, I will gladly play until I die. But I will only play if it's a life and death situation.
Kuroko and I walked towards our classroom since we realized we are on the same class. We just walked side by side but without uttering any words. However, I wanted to ask him how was he and how was our school back then and how was our team back then, but I chose not to speak about them.
As I was about to enter our room, Kuroko suddenly uttered, "Aren't you going to ask about him?".
I clearly heard those words but I chose to pretend I did not, and continued my steps towards the interior of the classroom.
When I realized that Kuroko was still standing outside, I gave him a big smile and said, "Hey, what are you still doing there? Let's go."
"Oi, kimi."
A shadow casted behind me which also uttered those Japanese words.
I looked behind and said, "Eh? Dorothy! Ah, jyanakutte, Taiga. You don't mind me calling you without the honorifics, right? Since you grew up in the US."
" Ah…you're too frail to be cheeky with me, you know. " Taiga said.
The students in the classroom were whispering with each other who were too scared to interrupt our English conversation.
"Ano…" It was Kuroko. "Our class will be starting anytime by now and the students are already getting scared of your English. Please mind that you're now in Japan."
"Ah! Gomen… gomen… I got carried away. Hehe" I told Kuroko. But before I went to my chair, I looked back to Taiga and showed him my tongue. "Bleh!" But I still gave him a big smile afterwards. "Jya~"
It was the beginning of our cat fight.