okay, chapter 2 has finally updated xD
I was a bit distracted before, *cough* watching Darker Than BLACK *cough*. that anime had been on my dvd case for such a long time, and I can't believe that I actually enjoy it after so many times I've avoided that anime, lol.
ehem, anyway, thanks for those who had reviewed, favoured, and followed this story. your supports really gave me motivation to continue this story *sobs*
IMPORTANT NOTES: I make this story a bit different from its original story. so maybe you'll find Kuroko progressing faster than in the anime
enough chit-chat, so enjoy the story guys~
Chapter 2
It was raining heavily that afternoon after school, so Seirin's basketball club decided to having a match between seniors and juniors for their first official practice. Most of the juniors looked nervous, fidgeting here and there. Well, except two of them though.
"FINALLY! I CAN PLAY BASKETBALL!" screamed Kagami Taiga, feeling excited. He clenched both of his fists to held back his so much excitement that running through his veins.
"You really are a basketball-idiot, Kagami-kun," a voice suddenly could be heard from below him.
"GAAAAHHH!". Startled, Kagami stepped back and tripped on his own leg, making him fell back.
Kuroko just looked up to see the red-haired fell, her hands still fumbling to tie her shoelaces. Her usual deadpanned expression plastered on her face, but there was a bit amusement in her eyes.
Kagami immediately stood up, glaring down at the only female player. "You did that in purpose, didn't you, Kuroko?!"
Trying hard not to laugh, Kuroko looked back to her shoelaces, hiding a small smile that appeared on her lips. "Of course not, Kagami-kun. It's not my fault at all that Kagami-kun didn't notice my presence".
"You…" he hissed, but then his face brightened up, as if he realized something that made him happy. "Well, today I can see how strong you are, one of the Generation of Miracles! You can give all of your best, but I'm sure no one can beat me!" he grinned and left her to do some warming up.
"I can't wait to see how strong they are, Tetsu! But I'm sure that at the end, I'll always win!"
Kuroko scowled when she suddenly remembered one of her former teammates. She missed them dearly, but she also hated them. Anger started to filling her up, but she suppressed them back. It was no use for her to be angry with them when they didn't know what they have done. She'd just show it and rub it to their faces.
"I can see dark aura looming around you in this gloomy day. Are you angry?". Someone patted her head and sat down beside her.
Annoyed, Kuroko grabbed that hand away from her head. "I'm not angry at all, Izuki-senpai, but I'll be if Senpai pat me once again. I'm not a pet" told Kuroko with her flat tone.
Izuki only chuckled while Kuroko went back fumbling with her shoelaces. The laces kept getting loose whenever she tried to tied them and it almost make her snap. Almost.
"Took you long enough to tie that laces". Izuki reached down and took the laces from her grasp, tying them securely. "Okay, it's done. Join the others and do some warming up". He patted her one last time before joining the other seniors.
She touched her head, still felt annoyed, but muttered a soft thank you under her breath and joined the juniors for warming up.
… - … - … - … - …
The practice match went smoothly, with the juniors on the lead in the middle of second quarter. With Kagami's over-powered dunks, they scored points easily. But then at the beginning of third quarter, the seniors team started to show their skills and coordinators, closing the gap between their points. The juniors couldn't keep up with their seniors play, except for Kagami. And because of that, the seniors reached up on the lead in the middle of third quarter.
It surely made the juniors doubting their skills. They weren't sure if they could keep up much longer.
"I think it's useless, our seniors sure are strong. We won't win even with Kagami's dunks. I wanna give up…" said one of the juniors, Furihata Koki.
As hot-headed as ever, Kagami saw red on his eyes and snapped at the other juniors. "Give up?! You want to give up?! GIVE UP IS ONLY FOR WEAKLINGS, YOU SCU-.. GYAAAAAAAAA!". His shouting was cutted off because Kuroko tackled his knees with hers.
"Please refrain your anger, Kagami-kun"
"Shit, Kuroko! What the hell is that for, huh?! And where were you this long? I didn't see you at all during the match!"
Riko, who was watching their banter, just realized that she also not noticing Kuroko at all during the match, even if she was the judge. 'That's right, I didn't see her at all until now. Where was she all this time?'
"I'm in the court all the time, but yeah, I didn't do much all this time, sorry. I'll make up for it. But first, you have to apologize for snapping at them, Kagami-kun". Kuroko nodded to the other juniors while pulling her black wristbands on place.
Kagami slumped down, but did it anyway. "Yeah, right, sorry…"
"I-It's okay! It's m-my fault too, whined li-like that," stuttered Furihata.
Kuroko tied her short blue hair into a high-ponytail. Some of her front-hair framing her face, so that people could see her face clearer. She turned her gaze to the other juniors, making them blushed a bit because they all realized how cute she was.
"Please pass the ball to me"
"E-Eh?". The juniors could only stared at her, curious.
Sighing, she stepped back into the court without glancing back. "Just trust me".
Kagami grinned madly, understanding that the girl in front of him would be showing some or all of her capabilities. "Show me what you've got, Kuroko!"
She saw the juniors stepped back into the court, and noticed that something would be happened. 'It maybe become more interesting'.
… - … - … - … - …
Strange passes started to appear in the middle of third quarter. One second that the seniors succeed to steal the ball, seconds later the ball disappeared from their grasp, coming back to the juniors. It was as if something or someone kept avoiding them to take the ball.
"YOSHAAAAA!". Kagami dunked again after receiving the ball that came out of nowhere.
Hyuuga didn't believe that they couldn't steal the ball from the juniors. His friends also kept saying that the ball disappeared from their sight. It made him more frustrated because he didn't know what was going on.
"Izuki! Why did you pass the ball to Kagami!" shouted Hyuuga.
"I wasn't, Hyuuga! Like I said, the ball disappeared when I passed it to you and Kagami got it instead. And where the hell is the junior that you're marking?"
He looked down and realized that Kuroko disappeared again from his marking. 'Where the hell does she disappear again? Shit! Don't tell me,'.
Furihata passed the ball to Kuroko, that had stood in the middle of the court, and she swung her left hand, making fast pass to Kagami who immediately dunked it into the ring.
'Misdirection?!' Riko stared wide-eyed at the strange phenomenon in the court. 'Diverting people focus to something else beside herself so that she'll look like disappear. This technique usually used by magician for their magic tricks. I can't believe she use it in the court'. Her gaze then shifted into the only female player in the court. 'She really is brilliant, the phantom sixth player of Teikou'.
Only mere seconds until the end of fourth quarter, Kuroko dribbled alone to the ring while her other teammates were marking their seniors.
"Go, Kuroko!" one of the shouted.
She reached the ring and preparing for a shoot. Holding the ball with both of her hands, she bend her knees and jumped, shooting the ball to the ring.
'This is it, the phantom sixth player's shoot!' everyone thought while seeing how the shoot of one of Generation of Miracles would be.
But alas, instead of going into the ring, the ball hitted the ring and bounced back. Kuroko only tilted her head. "Ah, I missed again…" she claimed out loud. Everyone that saw that sweatdropped, not expecting that she'd missed.
"Really…"
Kagami jumped and dunk the ball into the ring. "If you shoot the ball, make sure that it'd go in!" he shouted at Kuroko, grinning.
And with that last dunk, the juniors won that day's practice match.
… - … - … - … - …
"Kuroko-chan, you're going back now?" asked Koganei, seeing the blue-haired girl had came out from her curtain, clad in her school uniform.
Because Kuroko was the only female player in the team, she had to share the changing room with everyone with only curtains that separated her side with the boys. Kuroko didn't mind at all, even when she saw the half naked boys changing clothes. It seemed that she had been used to it.
"Yes. I have an appointment with someone, so I better be off now," she answered, pulling off the ribbon that she had used to tie her hair.
"Okay, be careful on the way. Nice work today," said Hyuuga with a soft smile to their female player.
Kuroko bowed and prepared to leave the changing room. But something thrown to her and she reflex to caught it. She looked at a bottle of energy drink that had been thrown at her and turned her blank gaze to Kagami, who smirked at her with the same energy drink in his hand.
"Take it, you deserve it"
She nodded and smilling a little, before disappeared out from the changing room.
"Is it just me or I saw Kuroko smiled?"
… - … - … - … - …
She walked along the street full of people, with her bag on her left hand and her phone on the other. Slipping past throng of people, she managed to keep her phone on her hand.
"I told you that I'm on the way there"
"But, Tsuya-chan, I'm so bored already. I've been waiting for you all day!" whined someone on the other side of her phone.
"Today is our club's first practice afterschool, remember?". She reached hospital and got in.
"Oh yeah, that's right! How was it? It was fun, ne~"
"It was…" she paused for a while, recognizing someone that she really didn't want to meet at all. Hurriedly, she got into the lift, hoping that person didn't see her.
"Tsuya, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, Senpai. I'll tell you later. I'm in the lift already"
"If you say so. Come, hurry~!"
The lift had reached her destination floor. Putting her phone back to her bag, she got out of the lift and walked down the corridor, until she reached a room. She knocked for a while, letting the patient knew her presence.
"Come in" a voice said from inside the room.
She opened the door and saw a certain brunette sitting on the bed near the window. He had tall and big figure, a figure that's so fit for athletes, but he also had warm brown eyes. He was smilling at her, gesturing her to sit down beside him.
"Finally! I thought it'd be forever until you reach here, Tsuya-chan~" the brunette exclaimed, putting his black phone on the drawer beside him.
"I told you already, Kiyoshi-senpai, I had practice" she scolded, but a smile forming on her face. She sat down on the chair beside his bed. "How was your day, Senpai? You didn't sneak out from your room, did you?"
He only laughed for his response. Really, even if he told her he didn't, she'd still know that he did sneak out from his room.
"Senpai…"
"Teppei-kun, I come to take some checking" A nurse came in, cutting off whatever Kuroko was about to say.
"Ah, Kirisawa-san! Thank God, you just saved me from Tsuya's lecture time!". Kiyoshi chuckled, making Kuroko glaring daggers to him.
But then Kuroko shook her head, and smile politely at the nurse. "Good afternoon, Kirisawa-san".
The older female noticed Kuroko and smiled back at her. "Ara~ Tsuya-chan is coming again today! I'm still doubting that you two aren't going out~".
"Kirisawa-san, we've told you many times that we aren't. Tsuya is a cute sister of mi~ne," Kiyoshi answered with mocking pout on his face.
"Hai, hai, I believe you~ Now, give me your hand, Teppei-kun". The nurse took Kiyoshi's arm and began the checking.
Kuroko only smiled seeing the nurse did her checking. She met Kiyoshi about two years ago at the basketball court in the street. He helped her when someone bumped into her and making her vanilla shake poured all over her uniform. Kiyoshi lent her his shirt so that she didn't have to wear drenched uniform all the way to her house. Ever since then they met regulary and became friends. She told him many things, about basketball, her teammates, and many other things. He also told her everything, about his school, his new-formed basketball club, and so on. Even when he was injured in the middle of the match in his freshman year, Kuroko diligently came to visit him at the hospital.
Kiyoshi was like a brother to her, a place that she could poured down all of her emotions. That's why Kiyoshi was the only one who knew everything about her, even better than her own family. He also knew about her former teammates, and why she hated them so much. Kiyoshi was the one who informed her about Seirin beforehand, and he's also the reason why she went to Seirin.
"Okay, I'm done with the checking. I'll leave you two lovebirds now~" she teased them and out of the room quickly.
"Haa… Kirisawa-san is always like that," he chuckled. Kuroko giggled too, used by the antique of the older female. "Ne, Tsuya-chan, come come sit here~". Kiyoshi patted on the space on his bed.
"Senpai, I can't sit on patient's bed. Besides, I've enjoyed sitting on this chair already"
"Aaaawww, Tsuya~~ Come on, sit here besides Onii-chan~"
But then Kuroko's phone rang loudly, indicating an incoming call. She reached inside her bag and pulled out her phone. Seeing the caller id, she sighed loudly. Kiyoshi saw her expression and could tell immediately who was calling her.
"Is it him again?" he asked. His playful expression gone, replaced with seriousness.
"Yes. He called me many times everyday, even after I ignored it all the times. At this rate, I won't be surprised if someday I'd find him waiting in front of my house…"
"Give the phone to me, Tsuya"
"What do you want to do about it? Don't tell me you're going to answer it". She handed her phone to Kiyoshi. Not really caring what the older male would do with it.
"Of course not". He plugged out the battery, making the ringing sound died down abruptly. After satisfied with the silent phone, he smiled again and patted his bed again, signaling Kuroko to come sit beside him. "Now, come here, Imouto. Give Onii-chan a story to tell~".
Shaking her head, she finally gave in and sat on the bed beside him. "Okay. What story should I tell you, now?"
"Tell me how was your first practice going~"
… - … - … - … - …
Kiyoshi finally let her go after she convinced him many times that she had to get home already. She didn't really mind staying at the hospital though, she sometimes staying over there, but she had homework that she had to submit the next day and she was sure she wouldn't be able to finish it if she stay beside Kiyoshi.
Kuroko got out from the hospital, ready to coming back home. But she halted her steps when she saw someone leaning on the hospital gate. His eyes pierced sharply to her.
"I've been waiting for you to come out, Kuroko. It has been a while"
