Update! Lookie! An update!

No big deal here. I had written this along with the first chapter.

But no guarantees. This story I started simply on a whim.

Let's see how far I can take it.

The referee walked up with the ball cradled in his arm.

This was it. The final match she would ever play.

The other center also awaited, with bated breath.

It wasn't a question of athleticism. Her opponent was far taller and stronger than her.

It all came down to timing.

Whistling once to signal the start of the match, the official released the ball vertically upwards.

She waited. Noticed her opponent elevate.

Wrong. A split second later, she jumped, stretching her hand out.

Reaching the falling ball faster than her surprised counterpart, she smiled.

Tipping it to her point guard was a piece of cake.

Now that the quick intros were over, the team began their warm-up. Or so Suzuha thought.

Midorima-san handed her the ball he had been holding. She looked back at him, confused.

"Shoot."

HUH?

She didn't understand what was happening. The rest of the team was silent as a rock, some of them stony-faced as well. Holding the basketball in careful hands, she spun it in her fingers, feeling the texture of the entire ball. It had been polished well, and there were no irregularities or bumps at all.

She walked up awkwardly to the free throw line, and set her feet. It was the average distance a jump shot was made from. She was reasonably confident in her mid-range shooting, but making one right off the bat, without a proper warm-up? She wasn't very sure about her chances.

She jumped, taking her shot. As the ball left her palm, she cringed inside. Her form was off, her jump was a disaster, and her palm wasn't even facing the right way. As it clattered off the rim and out, she looked back, her face red. Even for these apathetic people, a show as bad as that had to evoke some...

Reaction. She stared back, completely flabbergasted.

The team had begun their practice. Midorima-san was dishing out lead passes as they all stepped up one by one and took catch-and-shoot jumpers from the wing. The pace at which they took shots was frightening. As soon as the shooter had left the ground, the next girl took her place behind her. They all had different release timings, different stances, different jump heights, and different shot arcs.

The only thing that was constant was their shooting percentage. Every girl was making whatever she took. It was like a fluid machine, the continuous conveyor belt of shooters, taking perfect eighteen-footers off the catch.

Midorima-san drew out his whistle, and blew it in the middle of his throw. Matsuzaka-san was up next. She received the next pass right in stride, dribbled once, and took a flawless step back. Jumping back on her pivot foot, she took a fadeaway, right from the three-point line. The ball sailed in from twenty one feet the same way it did from eighteen. Swish.

What amazed her was that every player was taking long range shots, regardless of their playing position. Yui-san was taking them with the same confidence and dexterity as Shiki-san. Simply amazing.

And all of a sudden, the perfection was broken. Kosaki-san's foot slipped just a little too far on her step-back jumper. Releasing it well, she still managed to push it through to the rim, but it bounced right out.

As the practice went on, everyone else's flaws became apparent, as they too began to miss the mark. After a whole ten minutes of various types of shots, including half and full-spin jumpers, their overall accuracy still held at an impressive sixty percent or so. Besides the good shooting, Suzuha had noticed one other thing. No one on the team was even close to being tall. She'd been a center in her previous schools because there had been no one taller until her second year of high school. She'd quickly been eclipsed by even shooting guards, but she'd remained competitive by refining every aspect of her game.

Not that that had done her much good. She'd still remained aggressively average with her skills. But here, on this team of college students, there was no one who looked anything above five feet four inches. She was the tallest here, without a doubt. Something felt off about this.

But the greatest surprise was the sheer lack of interest any single one of them showed towards doing better. Sure, they were disciplined to a fault, but they seemed mechanical, machine-like. It was very helpful towards eventual efficiency, but they all looked so bored.

It seems like basketball has nothing more to offer them.

The coach, too, seemed disinterested in whether or not his team performed the drills well or not. It was not like they needed disciplining, but even the green-haired man seemed to have given up in life.

The shooting rhythmically continued until Midorima blew his whistle, whereupon the team switched to layup drills. Left and right-handed layups, followed by standard passing, rebounding, and fitness drills. That was then followed by a long, drawn out whistle. The five on the court looked up, pausing their motions, and walked slowly back to the baseline. Making a line like before, they stood there, all looking at Suzuha.

She wasn't particularly high-strung, but this kind of treatment sent a weird chill down her spine. What is this crazy crap? Fuck me, I should have just walked back home like a normal person, not giving this bunch of psychopaths another glance.

Haruno-san walked up to her. With a start, Suzuha realized she was still holding the ball, standing awkwardly on the other half of the court. She moved a little, and dropped the ball to one side, brushing the front of her gym shorts awkwardly.

As the captain stood and stared at her, she stared back, not willing to give an inch. She had chosen to come here, and she was going to fight it out till the end.

"This is the kind of practice we do here," her voice was flat and emotionless. "No more, and no less. Unlike the various middle school and high school teams you have undoubtedly played for, the aim here is not improvement, but maintenance."

"We are players who have long since hit their peak. A level above which it has become impossible for us to rise." She moved her hand, sweeping across the entire team behind her.

"For us, the only reason we entered the girls' basketball team was because we have nothing else," she said with a finality to her tone that made Suzuha wince internally. Just how defeatist is this team's mentality? Do they even WANT to win?

She looked at everyone else in turn. Her teammates had the same dead eyes as the captain's; they all had also lost interest, too disinterested to get themselves out of the rut they had fallen into. Suzuha felt utter dread take over her heart. What if this is my fate too? Will I also end up like them?

As she scanned the dull, lifeless faces, she travelled diagonally upwards to meet the coach's green eyes. They too, at first glance, seemed aloof and distant. But as she looked into them, she noticed a flame, concealed under all those layers of apathy. It was a small flame, nearly on the brink of winking out, but she saw it. The determination to make a difference.

Suddenly, her mind went back to the beautiful shot she'd seen, just an hour back. It was just as technically perfect as the ones the girls took, but it had something different in it. It had a fluidity and grace the others simply didn't. It was a shot perfected over months of hard work, efforts towards accomplishing a goal. And the yearning of that effort to be fruitful was what made the release so eye-catching, the follow-through so jaw-dropping.

She wanted to shoot like that. To be technically perfect, yet feel the same enthusiasm about her thousandth shot as she felt for the first. And Midorima-san looked like her last chance to learn how to do it. College was going to be her last four years in the sport, after all.

"So, do you think you can reach here? Can you manage to catch up before our first game next month?" the question was as much asked as gazed; the captain's eyes seemed to bore holes in hers.

"Yes!" she shouted. The team seemed startled at her sudden outburst. Suzuha smiled, pleased that she could exact some sort of emotion from their laconic faces. This was going to be interesting, and freaking enjoyable. This was an opportunity rife with possibilities. She could practice whenever she wanted, without the fear of ever being replaced for under-performing.

Midorima suddenly shook his head, as if waking from a trance. He carefully observed Suzuha, then nodded, as if he'd reached some sort of conclusion. Turning to Yui-san, he gestured at the ball in her hands.

"Yui. Throw me the ball. I think our freshman's training needs to begin now."

Yui passed him the ball; a well-aimed one that landed squarely in his hands without him having to move his hands one inch. Turning back to Suzuha, he threw the ball to her. Catching it awkwardly, she held it tightly, and transferred it into a holding, triple-threat pose, by sheer force of habit. It was only after she'd posted up an imaginary defender for a second that she realized what she was doing subconsciously, and stop, face red with embarrassment.

The green-haired coach smiled. Limping up to her, he stood, face very much like an impressionable child's when it chances upon a new toy.

"Let's see what you can do."

Suzuha's eyes shone with determination. She was going to pass this test, and everything else that Midorima-san chose to throw at her. She did have six years' worth of experience, and she wasn't half bad at what she did. She spun the ball ferociously between her palms, then caught it with a satisfying snap.

Let me see how much I can achieve here.

Chapters are going to be this short, I'm afraid.

I don't have much material stored up for this, so updates will be infrequent and small.

Not like I've been lightning quick in my other stories, but I digress.

Thanks for reading, and tell me what you think.

Cheers!