Chapter 1- Enter Kiddi!
Kiddi stood at the gate of Seirin Academy with a slight frown.
First off, the sight of cherry blossom trees dropping pretty pink petals onto the large crowd made it look way too dramatic and way too troublesome. Her messy mop of shortish dark brown hair was also collecting petals and Kiddi had to continuously brush her fingers through her hair to keep them out. On top of that, there was the whole mishap with her registration papers...
Dad really shouldn't have filled mine out at the same time as Lori's.
Still, as Kiddi looked at the sailor uniforms, she really couldn't bring herself to regret the mishap that had allowed her to wear pants.
Thank kami.
Although, Kiddi wasn't exactly sure she was ready for whatever Riko had planned for her. Beyond being the manager of the basketball team- which already wasn't a thrilling idea- there was the ever-mysterious reason for it. Riko had seemed so sure in her decision to appoint Kiddi as manager and while it made her curious…
The effort it would take to find out would be way too much.
Kiddi sighed and dug through her bag, pulling out...a mini magic 8 ball. "Okay, so is it too late to turn back?" She shook the magic 8 ball. "My sources say no." Kiddi read off and then grinned, "Well alright, then!"
Unfortunately, as she turned around, she ended up bumping into someone.
Kiddi looked down in surprise at the boy she'd bumped into- and damn he was pretty short. She knew she was tall for a girl, but this kid was only only 5'5 or 5'6. She also noted his unusual light blue hair and impassive eyes that were slightly darker- pretty much the shade of the sky. How had she not noticed someone that unusual looking?
He looked up at her with unaffected eyes, a book in his hand. "I believe you are walking in the wrong direction."
"Nope." Kiddi admitted bluntly. "I was fully intending to leave before I bumped into you. Sorry about that, by the way, but you kind of appeared like some supernatural being or oddly short ninja."
That earned her another impassive look- although, it probably couldn't be considered earned, since that seemed to be his default.
"Anyway…" Kiddi spoke, "I'm just gonna-"
"Kiddi!" A familiar female voice interrupted her from what sounded like not too far away.
"Shit." Kiddi looked down to her magic 8 ball. "I'm doomed, aren't I?"
The magic 8 ball only confirmed her fears with a solemn, 'It is decidedly so.'
"I do not think that is especially effective." The bluenette- you know, like brunette, but blue?- added in.
"It really isn't." Kiddi sighed resignedly and then yelped when a hand grabbed the back of her collar and yanked.
"Which direction do you think you're facing?"
The question was hissed out threateningly and Kiddi chuckled awkwardly. "Uh..home?"
As Riko began to drag her off while hissing threats with a pleasant smile and Kiddi desperately tried to break free while begging for mercy, Kuroko stared. Once they were lost in the crowd, he merely shrugged, although he did quirk a millimeter smile at the thought of the magic 8 ball.
"Argh! Ri-chan, you're choking me!" Kiddi gasped out as she was dragged through the sea of students. None of them looked particularly interested in helping her with her predicament, the jerks.
In reality, it was because she was dressed in the boy's uniform and Riko was a tiny girl. That left only two possibilities in the minds of the crowd. One) Kiddi was Riko's boyfriend and had severely pissed her off or two) Kiddi was being dragged to recruitment for a club- which was true- and she was a boy, so he could handle it- which wasn't true. Besides, nobody could handle Riko, female, male, alien, or otherwise.
"I brought our manager!" Riko announced cheerily and Kiddi froze in her grip, sweating bullets as she realized any chances of turning back had fallen through her fingers.
Kiddi let her feet finally stand firmly on the ground and stood to her full height, though Riko didn't seem willing to release her collar just yet. Nervously, Kiddi turned to the familiar face sitting at the basketball club sign up booth.
"Hey Hyuuga." The glare he shot her had Kiddi putting a hand to the back of her head and adding, "...Senpai."
"What are you wearing?" Hyuuga sighed, an irritated scowl on his face.
"Well, you see-"
"The new students are here." Interrupted a terrified sounding voice.
Riko and Kiddi both looked Hyuuga's shocked face in mild confusion before turning to see what the deal was. That was when they caught sight of a very tall and muscular redhead with some pretty funky looking eyebrows- how did they just fork out like that?- with a completely terrified Koganei, tears streaming down his cat-like face as the redhead held onto the back of his collar like- well, kind of like one would roughly hold a cat by its scruff.
"What?" Riko asked, now sporting the same surprise as Hyuuga.
Kiddi just blinked and looked to Koganei. "Hey Koga-senpai."
Koganei's terrified expression morphed into a confused one as he squinted at her and then it shifted to surprise. "Ki-"
"Is this the basketball club?" All attentions were turned back to the tall redhead as he spoke, staring them down with intense red eyes.
Whoa, that's intense. It's like staring down some wild beast.
Kiddi eyed the male in thought as Riko answered with a dumbstruck, "Yeah."
"I want to join." Split-brows stated.
"What?"
"The basketball club." He clarified, sitting down and dropping Koganei gracelessly. Koganei just let his head rest on the table, not even having the mental energy to move after what had just occurred. Maybe he was traumatized...
Meanwhile, Riko's face split into a deceptively kind and welcoming smile and sat down across from the redhead. Kiddi moved to stand beside her, offering Koganei a look of sympathy as Riko cheered, "Um, welcome! Welcome! Wait a minute!" She even went as far as to have Hyuuga hand her a cup of water which she placed in front of him, next to the sign up sheet.
"I hope you know what you're getting yourself into." Kiddi sighed but yelped when her side was met with Riko's elbow.
Split-brows ignored her and just as Riko was about to lapse into her informational speech, bluntly stated, "I don't care." Hyuuga looked annoyed while Riko looked mildly intrigued and Kiddi shrugged but felt her own twinge of irritation rise at the blatant dismissal of her childhood friend. Riko's worked really hard with this team. "I'm going after I leave my name."
"Hey," Kiddi spoke up as he finished writing and Riko looked it over. The redhead turned his intense gaze up to meet her, but Kiddi's light grey eyes didn't waver, "If you really want to join, couldn't you try being less rude?"
The redhead- Kiddi spared a glance down at the paper and found his name to be Kagami Taiga- looked mildly annoyed at her statement. It was said as a question, but the implication was still there and Kagami scoffed.
"You're one to talk." Hyuuga stated, but looked slightly appreciative at Kiddi's intervention, quickly hiding it when she offered him a grin.
"You don't have a reason for joining?" All attention was back on Riko at the question.
"Not really." Kagami stated, gulping down the glass of water before crushing it.
He has to know that isn't actually that impressive, right? It's only paper.
Kagami stood with a bored expression, crushed cup in hand as he continued, "Basketball's the same no matter where you go in Japan." With that extremely biased statement, Kagami threw the paper cup over his shoulder and it landed squarely in one of the trash cans.
Despite herself, Kiddi whistled, "Alright, then." She looked over at Riko, who stared in troubled shock over at the crushed object before looking back over and catching Kagami's gaze before he turned it forward.
Kiddi took this moment to finally let her irritation overwhelm her and shout, "Show some respect, split-brows!"
She swore she saw Kagami trip before glowering at her over his shoulder and then stomping off. Kiddi would be lying if she said she wasn't proud of herself, and since that wasn't really in her nature, she smirked and turned to Riko.
"Serves him ri-"
She crouched down as she covered her head, rubbing at the painful bump that had formed from Riko's furious punch. Hyuuga showed no sympathy for her situation while Koganei just stared after Kagami with nervous sweat on his face.
"He's terrifying. Is he really a first-year high school student?"
"He's one in a million." A new voice chimed in.
Koganei's, "You, where have you been hiding?!" was drowned out by Kiddi's loud, "Izu-senpai!"
Izuki looked over at Kiddi, seeming surprised to see her there at all. This was only confirmed when he said, "Riko was actually able to convince you to come here?"
Before Kiddi could answer, Riko snorted and answered for her, "I found her at the gate two seconds away from turning back home."
At the deadpan stares from Izuki, Koganei, Hyuuga, and surprisingly even Mitobe, Kiddi chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of her head. "...My magic 8 ball seemed to approve." Apparently, her magic 8 ball was the only one who approved of her, because the looks she got in response to that ranged from reprimanding to deadly. Kiddi let out a defeated sigh, "I know…"
Kiddi went on to completely ignore Hyuuga and Riko's review of Kagami's half-assed application- who cared if he was from America? He was rude. Although, her interest did spark when Koganei drew their attention to another application.
"Huh?" Riko seemed surprised. "I was here the whole time, but I don't remember him at all…"
"Well, that's mysterious."
Riko seemed to catch something on the paper as she let out a noise of surprise and brought it up to her face, squinting at the paper.
Hyuuga took her reaction in stride, simply looking over and asking, "What's wrong?"
"H-he's from the Teiko basketball club!"
"Teiko?" Hyuuga's eyes widened and he grabbed the paper from Riko. "You mean the Teiko?"
"Right, Teiko." Kiddi cut in end everyone looked to her. "Who are they again?" Everyone let their mouths drop- save Mitobe- at her ignorance.
"Teiko!" Riko shouted, as if that explained everything. "The school with that legendary team, the Generation of Miracles!"
"Oh." Kiddi said and they all breathed sighs of relief. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell."
"Don't you listen to anything at all?!" Riko yelled and pulled Kiddi into a painful, suffocating headlock. "We only talk about them all the time!"
"Ri-chan-" Kiddi gasped. "Dying…" She received absolutely no sympathy from Riko or the other second years around her. Traitors!
"...Ano?" Riko was distracted from her choking of Kiddi when Koganei spoke up. They turned to him and he pointed to Kiddi. "Is no one else wondering why she's wearing the boy's uniform?"
To his exasperation, almost everyone else seemed to just notice. He nearly fell flat at their collective- save Mitobe, who didn't talk and Hyuuga, who had attempted to question her about it earlier, only to be cut off- "Oh."
"Yeah, why is that exactly?"
"Well…"
And thus came the long explanation of how her sleep-deprived dad had tried to fill out her and her younger brother Lori's registration forms at the same time and mixed up their genders among other things. Her father was actually in the process of fixing things, though it had been amusing when Lori had been sent a female uniform instead of a male one. Her poor younger brother had been mortified, but he was allowed to wear normal clothes until a new uniform could be ordered. How awkward that must be for him...
It turned out that classes didn't seem to run nearly as long as they actually were when you just doodled or dozed through all of it. At least, that had been Kiddi's experience through all of her school career. She had never really been any good at paying attention. Anyhow, the day had passed by in a flash and it was time to go to basketball practice.
Or not?
Kiddi tapped her chin as she made her way down the halls. After a moment, she pulled out her mini magic 8 ball questioned aloud, "Should I be nice to Ri-chan and attend practice?"
The 'without a doubt' sealed her fate and Kiddi changed her direction to the gym as she tucked the ball back into her bag. It wasn't long before she came upon a large set of doors.
Kiddi entered the gym just in time to hear the loud shout of, "Alright, looks like the first years are here!"
"Oh?" Kiddi questioned in surprise. "I'm not late…" Seeing that no one had noticed her, yet, Kiddi turned around. "If that's the case, might as well-"
"Not so fast!"
Kiddi jumped at least a foot into the air at the menacing hiss before landing on shaky legs. She looked over her shoulder with poorly hidden dread as she met the glare of Seirin's coach. Realizing another opportunity to run away had slipped away from her, Kiddi slowly turned to face the brunette.
"Ah, Ri-chan…"
She didn't get to say anything else before Riko yanked her collar and proceeded to drag her over to stand in front of the other first years, who sweat-dropped at the scene.
"I'm the boy's basketball coach, Aida Riko." Riko announced as she released Kiddi's collar, causing the tall girl to stumble back a bit.
"What?!"
Kiddi chuckled slightly at the shouts, even as she rubbed her throat from where her collar had basically been choking her seconds prior.
"It's not him?" The first year with brown hair, who was a couple inches shorter than Kiddi, pointed over at the old man seated over on the side of the gym with a cane between his hands.
"That's our advisor, Takeda-sensei." Riko answered and Takeda sensei seemed to rise from near death to give them a smile.
The shouts of surprise were both mildly amusing and unnecessary. Although, what happened next had Kiddi successfully folding over laughing.
"Now that you're acquainted with Takeda-sensei...take off your shirts!"
The shouts of absolute shock echoed back loudly through the gym, giving the boys a pitch they couldn't have reached on their own. Ah, the acoustics in this room...so wonderfully dramatic. Of course, any protests were silenced by a threatening look from Riko and the boys compliantly stripped their tops off.
I wonder if it would be more polite to avert my eyes...
"Why doesn't he have to take off his shirt?!"
Kiddi blinked in surprise as one of the first years pointed an accusing finger at her. "Me?" Kiddi pointed at herself in surprise, sweat-dropping. "Actually, I'm-"
"He," Riko smirked deviously, "is the manager."
Kiddi gaped and then tugged Riko over to the side. "What are you doing, Ri-chan?" She whispered to the shorter girl.
"Shush, teasing the first years is so fun." Riko giggled evilly- Kiddi winced- never trust a giggling Ri-chan. "This is one time when your use of male pronouns comes in handy."
"Are you saying I'm boyish?"
Riko avoided answering that question in favor of shouting at the half-naked first years to, "line up!" Once they were all in a line, Riko began eying them. Kiddi was sure they all thought she was just a pervert until she began to give them all a good, analytic dressing down. They marveled at the accuracy of her assessments and wondered about how she knew all of it.
"Her dad's a sports trainer." Hyuuga explained. "Collecting data and creating a training regimen. It's a skill she learned from observing bodies and data every day at his workplace. When she looks at your bodies, she sees all your physical abilities in numbers." Which still sounded mildly inappropriate when taken out of context.
Kiddi didn't bother listening any more as she saw Riko look over the split-browed Kagami Taiga, the older girl gaping slightly. Kiddi raised a brow at her. Is the rude dude really that impressive...also puns. Crude rude dude. Man, Izuki has been a bad influence. As Kiddi came up beside Riko, she would admit to being impressed, letting a low whistle leave through her teeth. It sure as heck was a lot of muscle, she'd give split-brow's that much. Which is great, so long as he knows how to use it on the court.
Hyuuga snapped Riko out of her daze and said girl apologized, but Riko looked down at her clipboard in confusion after he told her she had looked at all of the applicants.
"Really? Huh?" Riko looked up from her clipboard and looked around. "Is Kuroko-kun here?"
The mystery applicant?
"I guess he's not here today." Riko said after a moment. "Alright, let's get started with practice!"
Riko's mouth was still open when a familiar blue-haired figure stepped right in front of her. "Um, excuse me." The figure spoke, raising his hand lightly. "I'm Kuroko."
Kiddi nearly jumped out of her skin, but at least her dramatic jerk wasn't as intense as Riko's loud shriek. Seriously, the kid appeared out of nowhere. While Kiddi had been fine with it the first time, figuring she just hadn't been paying quite so much attention, this was ridiculous, especially when he announced he'd been there the whole time.
Seconds later, the first years were questioning him on his status on the Teiko team. Well, she said questioning, but it was a little more like dismissing any possibility of him being someone important to the team.
"I played in games." Kuroko stated, and if there was any annoyance at being doubted, he didn't show it.
The shocked reactions were starting to get old to Kiddi. "Don't you guys think you're being too doubtful? Haven't you ever been told not to judge a book by its cover?"
"And when's the last time you even picked up a book, Kiddi?" Hyuuga questioned and Kiddi chuckled nervously.
"Take off your shirt!" Riko ordered and while Kuroko seemed mildly surprised, he quickly complied.
Kiddi watched Riko's reaction closely. She was surprised, like she had been with Kagami...but not like she had been with Kagami.
His stats are that disappointing?
By the time all of it was over Kiddi sighed in agitation. Dammit, despite everything...she was intrigued. That was the final nail her coffin, there was no way she'd be able to ditch this team.
Stupid Riko and her insistence that I become a stupid manager and stupid me for coming to this stupid school.
So everyone thinks Kiddi's a boy. That happened wholly for my real life and Riko's in story amusement.
There are actually going to be a lot of OCs and some of them will even have their own connections to the story, but the main focus will be Kiddi and Seirin.
Review?