Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basket. I don't make money from writing this fanfiction. The story contains spoiler for Kuroko no Basket. Also there are quotes from manga, anime, wiki and other sources. This fic isn't betaed yet. I'm not native speaker of English so you've been warned.
Rhapsody in Blue
Chapter II
Shirogane Eiji entered the biggest basketball gym in Rakuzan High. It was also the gym used by the regulars and the first string member. Since today was the first day the basketball practice resumed after holiday, every member of the club gathered there now. He looked at the new faces. Rakuzan basketball team got a lot of new members this year.
"Coach." Akashi greeted him.
"Akashi," he replied.
"I would like to propose practice match." Akashi said politely.
"A practice match?" he asked. That was unusual. In the beginning of the year, they usually would test new members' ability to decide the level that fit them. What was the point of Akashi suggesting this?
"Three on three," Akashi continued.
He looked at Akashi. He knew Akashi was planning something and yet... "Fine," he said.
Akashi turned to face the crowd. "We'll be having practice match today," he announced.
The regulars and the first string member exchanged confused look.
"Three on three. Tetsuya, Shota and I will be in the same team while Reo, Kotaro and Eikichi will be in the other team."
That was Akashi's weird habit, calling other students by their first name which was rare in Japan. Usually only best friend and family who did that. Eiji wasn't fooled into thinking that Akashi considered other people as his best friend except probably for Kuroko Tetsuya who called Akashi by his first name too. But that might be because they came from the same basket ball team in middle school.
"Oh! This will be fun!" Hayama Kotaro muttered gleefully. "Right, Reo-nee?"
"You're right, Kotaro." Mibuchi Reo replied.
"Come on, Akashi!" Nebuya Eikichi challenged.
Higuchi Shota on the other hand was puzzled. "Eh? Me?" He was to join Akashi team?
"Please get ready, Higuchi-senpai." Kuroko's monotone voice came.
"Argh!"
"Where did you come from?" Yagami Mashiro asked, clutching his heart.
"I've been here the whole time," Kuroko remarked with a blank expression, his signature face.
"You're no good for heart." Yagami muttered in resignation.
But Kuroko already left them to join Akashi in the court, followed by Higuchi.
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The match was begun. The ball was in Nebuya's possession who passed it to Mibuchi.
"Oh! Three point shoot."
It was Mibuchi's skill as shooting guard of Rakuzan.
When the opponent scored, Kuroko took the ball, spun it very fast and released the ball to fly across the whole court. The pass was very fast and powerful, and flew in a straight line from the start to the end of the course into Akashi's hand who then dunked the ball.
Shirogane Eiji wouldn't believe it if he didn't see it with his own eyes.
"They scored back in an instant!" a first string member said, wide eyes.
"But what the hell was that, just now..."
"It's crazy. The ball went all the way from one end of the court to the other!"
"Truly as expected from Phantom sixth man of Generation of Miracles."
"What is a sixth man?" a new first year member asked.
"Are you an idiot?" a second year member asked in disbelief. "How could you don't know what a sixth man is?"
"A sixth man in basketball is a player who is not a starter but comes off the bench much more often than other reserves, often being the first player to be substituted in," he explained. "The sixth man often plays minutes equal to or exceeding some of the starters and posts similar statistics. The presence of a good sixth man is often a sign of team excellence. It usually means that a team has excellent depth, as the sixth man is usually more than talented enough to start for most teams. A common strategy is to place a good scorer as a sixth man when the starting line up already has enough scorers. In this case, the sixth man will enter the game without the team suffering a drop-off in scoring."
The new first year members around him nodded in understanding.
"Akashi's dunk was amazing too!"
"Yeah! Isn't Akashi only 173 cm tall?"
"I can't believe it! Akashi can dunk!"
"Akashi must have trained himself to dunk the ball through rigorous strength training, as well as running and jumping exercises." Sato Takuo murmured. Millions of children worldwide grew up watching basketball and dreaming of someday being able to throw it down on a 10-foot hoop. Most would never realize this dream.
"Indeed," he agreed. "Average adult man has vertical leap of 50 centimetres. Akashi minimum vertical leap should be 104 centimetres to allow him to dunk."
He focused back his attention to the court. After that first score, Akashi didn't let his opponent score at all. He totally dominated the whole game.
"27-3."
"Even the Uncrowned Kings can't do anything against Akashi," someone commented.
Seeing that the match was almost over and they hadn't scored again, Nebuya, Hayama and Mibuchi went all out to guard Akashi. But it was no use.
Akashi shot the ball and it fell gracefully into the loop.
"30-3!"
"Akashi's team win!"
Hayama, Nebuya and Mibuchi were sprawled on the floor with disbelief expression on their faces.
"What was that?" a first year student asked in a low voice.
"Ankle break," he replied. In basketball, this was a crossover dribble in which the sudden change of direction caused the defender guarding the ball handler to fall down. The ball handler then took advantage of the fallen defender and drove past him to the basket. Eiji didn't know that Akashi was capable of that.
"He's truly a monster," Sato muttered.
Eiji glanced at his assistant. The Generation of Miracles were treated as monsters in the court, amazing and talented players with overwhelming strength. Everyone was equally envious and scared of them. Eiji didn't miss the way every club member seemed to stiffen and stand a little straighter as Akashi walked past them earlier.
Eiji suspected that Akashi only let that three point score because he wanted to show off Kuroko's skill. Displaying his power at the beginning to assert his dominance over the basketball club. Akashi was truly terrifying.
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Two weeks had passed since the practice match. Every member in the basketball club had adapted to the new captain and the way he ran the club. Kuroko Tetsuya too, had gotten used with the school and the club. He even got along with the other regular on the team. Mibuchi Reo called him Tet-chan and called Seijūrō 'Sei-chan'. Hayama Kotaro was very energetic. Nebuya Eikichi was Nebuya Eikichi. Aside of the three Uncrowned Kings, they had Yagami Mashiro and Higuchi Shota, who was also the club manager. With the addition of him and Seijūrō, there were seven regulars now on the team.
"Kurokocchi!"
That nickname and that voice...He turned over and saw Kise Ryōta running towards him. What was Kise doing in Kyoto?
"Kurokocchi!" Kise squealed in delight and proceeded to hug him.
"Please let go of me, Kise-kun," he muttered after a few minutes. "You're heavy."
"How mean!" Kise started to cried.
The entire gym occupants were staring at them now.
"What are you doing in here, Kise-kun?" he questioned.
"I missed you, Kurokocchi!" Kise replied loudly. "I haven't seen you for months!"
"I saw you about a month ago," he corrected. Kise was always exaggerating. "You also text me every day with unimportant information." Tetsuya supposed by now he knew more about Kaijo than Rakuzan because of those nonstop messages.
"Kurokocchi!" Kise wailed.
Tetsuya rolled his eyes inwardly. Kise always acted like a five year old boys whenever he wanted to, which was when he didn't get what he wished for.
"I was looking around for you at the other gyms." Kise said. "But they said that you're here."
"I help supervising the second and the third string members," he explained.
Rakuzan's basketball team was even bigger than Teikō's with almost 200 members. As such, the club has three separate strings, labelled the first, second and third string. However, while each string in Teikō's had their own coach with the head coach, Rakuzan only had one coach plus one assistant coach. Therefore, he had to help overseeing the basketball practice.
"Congratulations for being vice captain, Kurokocchi." Kise said and looked at the second string members who had given up any pretence of basket ball practice and now were staring at them openly. "All you of should learn from Kurokocchi when you have this opportunity," he declared.
"What do you mean by that, Kise-san?" Osakada, the bravest one of the second string members asked. No one was surprised that he recognized Kise Ryota.
Tetsuya groaned inwardly. He knew where this was going.
"Kurokocchi was my personal instructor in Teikō," Kise announced.
"Eh?" Osakada looked surprised to hear that. "Kuroko was your personal instructor?"
"Yes." Kise replied. "I only started playing basketball in my second year."
"Seriously?" someone muttered in disbelief.
"I didn't know about that," the other added.
"Generation of Miracles are really amazing."
"Kurokocchi taught me everything I know," Kise added proudly.
The first year members were staring at him in amazement now. Urgh. Great. This new piece of information would spread to the entire basketball team in no time. "I actually didn't teach you anything about basketball, you know," he muttered in annoyance. "And you disliked me at the beginning."
"Details, details," Kise waved his hand easily.
Then he remembered that if Kise went looking for him at the other gyms, it meant that Kise already seen the three Uncrowned Kings.
"Did you see something interesting?" he asked.
"Probably," Kise replied, smirking. "Can I borrow the ball?" the teen asked.
"Of course," Osakada replied instantly.
Kise dribbled the ball and then shoot it.
"Mibuchi-senpai's three point shoot," he commented.
Kise's smirk widened.
Rakuzan third string members stared at him in amazement.
"He's quite good," Kise said. "Not as good as Midorimacchi though."
Such arrogance. Kise had it. Every member of Generation of Miracles had it. The arrogance that came from never losing in the basketball match.
Then Kise brightened suddenly. "Kurokocchi, I got something for you!" The blond went to the bleacher, where he had put his satchel bag, and took out a box.
Tetsuya recognized the box immediately. It was box from Pierre Herme, a famous bakery with branch in Tokyo.
"Your favourite vanilla macaron!" Kise said proudly.
"Thank you, Kise-kun."
Kise smiled happily. "You're welcome, Kurokocchi."
He opened the box. Tetsuya could smell the divine vanilla. The crème brulee macaroon had a vanilla and caramel macaroon with a smooth creamy vanilla filling and a caramel layer smeared onto one of the macaroons. Next to the crème brulee macaroon, he spotted the infiniment vanille macaroon that was his favourite. Tetsuya always had weakness for any vanilla dessert.
The gym's door opened and Akashi Seijūrō walked in.
"Hiii Akashicchi!" Kise waved his hand madly at his former captain.
"Ryōta."
Seijūrō made his way over to them but not without giving the club members a look that snapped them out of their staring and went back to practice.
"Ryōta, may I ask the reason for your sudden visit?" Seijūrō drawled out.
"I have photo shoot today at Gion for spring fashion spread," Kise explained. "When they offered it me, I say yes immediately because I want to see Kurokocchi, and you too Akashicchi."
Seijūrō looked at the box in his hand. "Tetsuya's favourite vanilla macaroon," he said. "How very thoughtful of you."
Kise smiled sheepishly at him. "How are you, Akashicchi?"
"I'm fine," Seijūrō replied.
Kise's phone rang at the moment. "Ah, sorry," he gave them apologizing look. "Hello? Ah." Kise looked shocked. "But I-" the blond tried to protest. "Yes, I understand." Kise ended the call. "The photographer called. They changed the photo shoot schedule. I have to leave now." Kise said forlornly.
"I'll walk you to the front gate, Kise-kun." He offered.
"EHHH?" Kise was surprised. "You're so kind but you don't need to, Kurokocchi," Kise replied, giving a small smile.
"I don't mind," he turned to look at Seijūrō. "Please excuse us."
Seijūrō inclined his head at both of them.
"Come, Kise-kun."
"Aah..." Kise looked at him and then at Seijūrō and then back at him again. "Alright. See you again, Akashicchi!"
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They walked in silence but Tetsuya knew Kise would be the first one who broke it. He always did.
"Akashicchi, Kurokocchi and three Uncrowned Kings," Kise muttered. "It's cheating," he pouted and then he turned serious. "This is like Teikō all over again."
Tetsuya didn't reply. It was true. In many ways, Rakuzan High reminded him of Teikō and Rakuzan basketball club reminded him of Teikō's basketball club. All of them had left Teikō but it seemed that Teikō hadn't left them yet.
They arrived at the front gate.
"I must leave now," Kise said and sighed. "And to think, I came all the way to Kyoto to see you."
"I'm going to Tokyo next week," he said.
"Eh? Seriously?"
"Yes." Tetsuya replied. He promised his mother to return home at least once a month. It was the only thing his mother required when she found out that he was going to live in Kyoto during his high school.
"That's great Kurokocchi!" Kise claimed happily. "You should come and watch my practice match with Seirin!"
He looked at Kise. "Seirin?"
"Yes! Please say that you'll come. Please..."
"Fine." His voice came out flat as usual even though he was very excited in reality.
"Yes!" Kise exclaimed. "Kurokocchi is the best."
Seirin...the school he originally chose. That would be interesting to see how Kaijo fare against Seirin.
Author's Note:
Hi, everyone!
The match is my head canon of how Akashi gain his team obedience so soon even though he is only first year student as commented by Shutoku team.
I'm wondering if I should make Mayuzumi Chihiro as Seirin student or Mayuzumi as Rakuzan student but not the phantom player or as if he didn't exist. Any ideas?
Thank you for reading and please review.