Sorry for taking so long to update but in the past weeks, I've been having my midterms exams so basically, I've been going through hell. Papers just keeps on coming, questions which means nothing to me! And my last exam is History, my worst subject! *cry

To my wonderful reviewers...

madluv: True, but I think Kise calls him "Murasakicchi" because nobody's got the time to call Murasakibara that xD Thank you for your review and support.

wildarms17: It would be sometime before I even think about a pairing but Akashi is an interesting fellow.

YoruKakei: It was really nice talking to you and thank you for understanding my busy schedule.

Shuusui11-11 Blade: Japan sure loves their heartless coaches from hell :)

CherryPop0120: Tsukiyo's Queen Eye and Akashi's Emperor Eye, so different and also quite similar.

Ninja99: Poor Kise, haha. Thank you for your sweet review.

XxxEriYumelchikawaxxX: Thank you for your support. I'm truly grateful.

khudeejyuhahaha: I hope you're ok. Thank you for reviewing!

To all my readers, sorry for waiting so long to update. I truly feel guilty for wasting so many days.

Also, stick around for an important news in the author's note after the chapter (meaning it's way down at the bottom of the page)

I DO NOT OWN KUROKO NO BASKET ...aww :(


After the 'backboard' incident, Kaijou's coach, Takeuchi-sensei, reluctantly called off the basketball training and prepared the whole court of the practice match between Kaijou and Seirin.

The older coach was seriously pissed off. After little consideration, he immediately call Kise to join in the practice match to Kise and the Seirin team's joy. This is what they wanted; a chance to prove who's the true winner. Tsukiyo was really happy that her plan worked but it was short-lived when Kuroko mentioned one thing.

"How much... does a backboard cost?"

"Eh! We've got to pay for it?!"

Needless to say, Tsukiyo and Kagami's faces went paled as they imagine the cost for the repairs. Kagami imagined he had to pay seeing he was the cause of the damages and Tsukiyo because she was technically the mastermind behind it.

"My brother will kill me if he found out!" the Japanese albino panicked in her head as she imagine how furious her older brother would be of the cost of repairs. "I'm so dead!"

Leaving those worries aside, the practice match was about to begin. As everyone was warming up, Riko and Tsukiyo were watching from the sidelines along with the bench-warmers. As Riko analyzed the blond model, her eyebrows furrowed in slight intimidation of Kise's powers. Even under his clothes, Kise's abilities were almost off the charts.

"Kise was constantly getting better during middle school. It's no wonder how he got this good by this time" Tsukiyo commented, observing her team's opponents. "And everyone else in Kaijou is no slouch either. They are truly a worthy opponent"

"KYYAAA, KISE-KUN!"

Loud, squealing yells broke Riko and Tsukiyo's concentration as they turned to the directions of the screams. Similar to what happened back at Seirin, a large group of screaming females were cheering for the handsome blond model with flying hearts around. With every loudening squeal, Tsukiyo's temper snap a little inside and her tolerance was slowly wearing out.

"What a shameless playboy!" Tsukiyo's shoulders shook lightly in disgust and annoyance.

Thud!

The teal-eyed freshman then turned her attention to the court where Kise had mysteriously fallen onto the floor with a strange foot mark on his back. She saw that the shorter male was angrily punching the taller but younger player to get them into the game. You saw the number 4 on his jersey indicating he must be the captain and Kise's senior.

"I feel a little bad for Kise-kun" The assistant coach muttered under her breath. It must be pretty tough for her blond-haired friend.


When the whistle blew, Kaijou had the upper hand hand first as the ball was quickly passed on to Kise who made a mad dash to the basket. Just like Kagami, he went for a dunk and Tsukiyo saw the hoop bending dangerously but it stuck its ground as Kise released his grip. Still, Tsukiyo noticed Kise's dunk was faster and stronger than Kagami's dunk. If it were the same hoop as before, Kise would have broken it clean off its bolts.

"Kise...he's gotten a lot better" the stunned albino said in a breathless mutter as she watched as the game progressed. It was true that out of the Generation of Miracles, Kise would not be considered the best but seeing him now, Tsukiyo could help but watch in awe as Kise played.

The first minutes were truly intense. Both teams were playing with such intense strength. It was like stabbing a marshmallow with a butcher knife. Nobody would have believed this was going on for only 5 minutes.

The 1st quarter was completely life-draining and everyone was nearly at their limit. Tsukiyo noticed Kuroko was already heavily breathing and Kagami's short temper was starting to become more obvious. The green-eyed freshman looked to see that Riko must come to the same conclusion.

"Aida-senpai, we should call a time-out" Tsukiyo suggested as the chocolate-haired senior nodded her head in agreement.

"You're right" Riko stood up and walked to time-keepers and requested a time-out for her team. Tsukiyo slightly feared for what's to come for the next 3 quarters of the game.

As all the members came back, Tsukiyo and Riko could finally see up close how tired they were. They gave so much in the 1st quarter. Tsukiyo looked to Kuroko with a worried expression.

"How long can you keep this up, Kuroko-kun?" she asked. Tsukiyo knew the technique to Kuroko's misdirections and the weakness that comes with it. In such a tough match as this, neither of them were sure how long it could stay effective.

Kuroko stayed silent, not too sure of the answer himself.

"Our main problem is Kise" Riko said, going over the plan on her board. "I never imagine Kise to give Kagami a hard time"

"Should we get one more player on him?" Tsukiyo suggested but Kagami immediately cut in.

"Wait a damn second...please!"

"Please?" As polite as he meant, it sounded pretty odd coming from him. Tsukiyo believed this is the first time she ever seen Kagami being polite...well as polite as he can get.

"There is a way of this" Kuroko said. "This guy has a weakness"

"A weakness?!"

"Well...honestly it isn't something you can call a weakness but..." Kuroko trailed off before starting a new conversation. "More important, I'm sorry but there is one more problem"

After explaining Kuroko's weakness, it was obvious the brunette coach did not take it very well.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING THAT IMPORTANT FROM THE START?!" Riko screamed angrily as she held Kuroko in a deadly chock hold.

"I-I'm sorry, you didn't ask" Kuroko could barely gasped out his words as his airway was being disrupted.

"SO, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TOLD US IF WE DIDN'T ASKED?!"

"A-Ahh! Aida-senpai, please calm down!" Tsukiyo tried to help Kuroko by desperately trying to pry Riko away from the poor aqua-haired player but Riko was seriously pissed off.

"YOU KEPT THIS FROM ME TOO!" Riko pointed at Tsukiyo who in response, cowered a little at the chocolate-haired coach's fury.

"Eep!"

"Timeout is over!"

"Huh?! I only got to strangle Kuroko-kun for a little while!"

"How long were you planning to choke him?" Tsukiyo thought in fear of her scary senior coach. But Tsukiyo assumed it was probably due to the stress of the game that Riko started taking her anger out of the defenseless player.

As the team went back onto the court, Tsukiyo noticed that Riko was panicking in her head based on her body language.

"Aah, I've made a fool of myself" she muttered, adding a tear at the corner of her eye. "We're only halfway through the first quarter so I can't call a second timeout now..."

"It's alright, Aida-senpai" Tsukiyo tried her best to comfort the teary coach. "Everything will eventually work out"

But as the game processed, it didn't look too good for Seirin as the gap was increasing bit by bit. Even without Kise, the Kaijou regulars are a real handful. Tsukiyo found it difficult to spot any openings useful for her team. At this point, the albino girl felt quite useless to her team.

"Can we really overcome this?" Tsukiyo uttered, anxiety in her fragile heart.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!"

The flow of the game took a pause as everyone looked to see where did that loud laughter was coming from. Tsukiyo recognized it to be the same laugh she heard from Kagami when he got excited over the strength of the Generation of Miracles. Her suspicions were on the mark as she saw Kagami looking like he's literally gonna laugh his head off.

"Thanks to you, I finally found your weakness, pretty boy" Kagami said, which raised interest of everyone in the gym. What sort of weakness could he find?

"It's the one technique you can't copy, in other words..." suddenly Kagami grabbed Kuroko and patted down on the cyan-haired boy's head. "It's this guy, right?"

"Kise's weakness...is Kuroko?" Tsukiyo thought confusedly. She knew Kise couldn't copy the basketball styles of the Generation of Miracles but to call that a weakness...Tsukiyo wasn't too sure.

Finally the whistle blew, indicating the end of the first half of the game and a two minute break. This time, Seirin just might have plan to overcome Kise.

"I see...this might work" Riko uttered as she thought through her plan. "I'm glad Kagami-kun has finally cooled down"

"Huh, I was calm from the beginning..."

"You were completely pissed off!" the seniors begged the differ.

"What an idiot" Tsukiyo thought as she sighed as the albino sighed exasperatedly.

"The cooperation between Kuroko-kun and Kagami-kun is really important for that" Riko reminded as she looked to the two hopes of Seirin right now. "Can you do it?"

"Uh...I...guess..." Kagami said uncertainly which came to a shock to Tsukiyo. The redhead never seemed to be the uncertain type to her. And honestly, it doesn't suit Kagami at all.

Jab!

Surprises kept on coming as Kuroko suddenly jabbed Kagami in the ribs, surprising everyone.

"We gotta beat Kise-kun, right?"

Kagami and Tsukiyo looked to the shorter player and a smiled marred Tsukiyo's face and Kagami's confidence returned. In response, Kagami gave Kuroko a jab of his on sending shocks to the smaller boy's body.

"...Please stop it" Tsukiyo lightly begged. She really didn't want that to escalate.

The game resumed and Seirin's new tactic worked like a charm. With Kise's inability to copy Kuroko's misdirection and the whole team's coordination, it looks good for Seirin. If this keeps up might win the game!

"We'll...maybe just barely make it" Riko said as she and Tsukiyo watched Kagami fumbled with some of the passes.

"Ahaha..." Tsukiyo laughed nervously in response.


Everything was looking great. The teamwork between Kuroko and Kagami were going great but Tsukiyo had a sinking feeling. Did it seems that Kuroko was standing too close behind Kise? Tsukiyo's Queen Eye caught the small distance between the two players and with the intensity of the game steadily increasing, accidents tend to happen in these situations.

"Kise was never the type to focus on his surroundings...I hope nothing bad is gonna happen" Tsukiyo muttered as she saw the building anger in Kise's golden eyes.

Then, everything went wrong.

Horribly, horribly wrong.

It was the worst thing Tsukiyo never wanted to see. Kise, too focused on stealing the ball from Kagami, turned his body too rapidly and his arm swung dangerously harsh and struck Kuroko just above his eye.

"AH!?"

It was as if time itself had paused when Kise's flying arm made contact with Kuroko's forehead and the poor aqua-haired player fell to the ground. The referee called for immediate time-out.

"Kuroko-kun!" Riko yelled out in shock but Tsukiyo's face told more fear and terror than the shocked senior next to her.

"Kuroko!" Tsukiyo screamed in fear, her weak heart pumping abnormally fast for it. Did she just see blood?!


I honestly freaked out when I saw this scene. This is a sports manga, why must they show blood?! I mean yes, accidents are bound to happen and there's not exactly a lot of blood but this manga is pretty dramatic for a manga about basketball.

So, how was this chapter? Sorry for making you wait this long for an update. Gomen nasai! I promise to update way sooner next time! And it'd be totally better than this boring one.

*Anyway, since my author's notes are getting pretty long, I made a tumblr page where my readers can ask anything about the story, my OC and/or me, the author. You don't have to follow me or make a blog yourself, you can ask as an anonymous. Find my blog address in my profile.

In short,

Fanfiction: Please leave a review (very appreciated)
Tumblr: Ask me anything!

See You Soon!