Beforehand I would like to leave an apology to everyone who continue to read from here on, to the end. I am terrible at explaining games when it comes to basketball since I do not get the things visually (or often don't) And when I wrote this, last time I held a ball of any kind was probably at least three years ago. I have never even played basketball in gym class. So what I'm saying is, please bare with me. I'm very sorry if this sucks!
And just to be sure I mentioned it. I had yet to finish the anime of KnB upon writing this. There WILL be incorrect facts in this. I just found myself unable to correct them.
"Hey! Over here!" Everyone turned their heads. They had been standing outside Seirin High School, all wondering where to go, but now they noticed Riko who had just called out to them.
"Riko!" Kisumi smiled. "Hey," he walked up to her and stopped in front of her.
"No hand holding?" Riko asked, slightly confused.
Kisumi smiled. "Today we are facing your team in basketball, I'm not gonna do anything like that until afterwards,"
Riko smiled. "Then maybe we should face each other some more," she suggested.
"No way," Kisumi said. "I've got a feeling that I'm not getting any of them to play basketball more than this once,"
"Don't worry," Rin grinned while wrapping an arm around Haruka's shoulder. "I'll convince Haru it's a good idea," he smiled encouraging at Kisumi.
"I'm not gonna do it," Haruka said stubbornly while turning his head away from Rin, causing Makoto to smile at the scene.
"What if we race each other afterwards?" Rin asked.
"I only swim free," was the only response Rin earned from that.
"Haru, you know how boring you are when you're in character?" Rin asked, Haruka didn't respond to this. He didn't care what people, especially Rin, thought about him anyway.
"Let's go," Riko said, interrupting the little conversation. "The game is starting in half an hour you don't have much time to warm up if you just stand around here," she said.
Kisumi nodded. "Okay, let's go!" he said.
The team had arrived in regular clothes so they had to change into gym clothes before they could get started on warming up, so that shortened the time even more, but they managed anyway and were ready to play Seirin's team on time.
Seirin went with the usual starting lineup. This was also what Kisumi had expected. The amateur team went with the planned starting lineup of Kisumi, Haruka, Makoto, Sousuke and Rin. The others were benched for the time being.
"Okay," Kisumi said, just before they were to start. "Please remember we are just here to show that you guys know how to play basketball. We don't need to win so don't push yourselves too hard. Just do your best."
"We want to win," Rin said with an encouraging smile. "If we don't, how do you think we'll look in their eyes. If we don't win, you have lost your bet,"
"That's not-" Kisumi was cut off by Makoto.
"Rin's right, Kisumi. If we don't win, then the bet is lost, and if we lose, I think I'd feel like I've lost the bet as well," He explained.
"We only need to win one game, we should be able to pull it off," Sousuke smiled too.
Haruka just nodded, for once agreeing with everyone, even Sousuke. He even went as far as sending Kisumi a look that emphasized all the points the others had.
"Thanks," Kisumi smiled at all of them. "Good game everyone,"
The game got started. Seirin got the ball first. According to Gou's calculations and information (which she got from Momoi) Team Amateur's average height was actually a bit taller, but Seirin had a bigger variation. And then of course the small detail that two of the players on Seirin's starting lineup were taller than Sousuke. But then again, two of the others in the starting lineup were shorter than Haruka. One of those was Kuroko.
Seirin managed to score first. This was within expectations of course.
"We need to regain those points!" Kisumi yelled as he, Rin and Sousuke ran back across the court. Haruka nodded at Kisumi while receiving the ball from Makoto. He dribbled after the other three while watching out for every player on Seirin's team. He took in the situation. Kagami was on Rin, which could be troublesome. Hyuga was on Kisumi. Makoto was near the net along with Kiyoshi. Haruka wasn't even sure if he could pass the ball that far. Sousuke was free, or so it appeared. Izuki was standing in front of Haruka, and blocking the way over to Sousuke. Kuroko was nowhere to be found for the time being. All these observations were made in less than a second and it only took Haruka another second to plan out what to do.
He looked at Rin and attempted to avoid Izuki by dribbling a few steps closer to Rin. Izuki moved as Haruka couldn't pass to Rin, but that wasn't what Haruka did. He dribbled the other way around Izuki and passed to Sousuke, who was now wide open. Sousuke got the ball, ran forward, shot, and scored their first two points.
"Fine, I admit it," Hyuga said, only looking at Kisumi through the corner of his eye. "I guess you have taught them how to play basketball,"
Kisumi smiled widely. "Of course I have," he said. "We didn't' spend our time doing nothing,"
"I'm mostly impressed by your center and point guard," Hyuga added. "I never thought Tachibana could become that good after seeing him the first time,"
Kisumi nearly laughed, remembering the first time. Makoto had been next to hopeless back then compared to his current abilities. It was true. He sure had improved a lot.
Suddenly the two got other things to think about as Izuki managed to pass the ball to Hyuga. Hyuga stepped back and jumped to make the shot. Kisumi jumped, attempting to reach the ball, but found himself falling back down before he could even scratch it with the tip of his finger.
"You're not so bad yourself, Hyuga," he said as both had landed back down on the floor.
"You shouldn't compare me to the amateurs," Hyuga said as Makoto faked a dribble and passed to Haruka.
Hyuga then turned around and started running for the other end and Kisumi did the same. He felt slightly hurt. He had only tried to complement Hyuga's play but the Seirin shooting guard had interpreted it the wrong way.
The first quarter ended with Team Amateur only four points behind. Riko met up with the Seirin team at their bench.
"There won't be any changes in our plans," she said. "Even if Shigino-kun got a better team than expected we will just continue the way we have until now,"
Everyone on Seirin's team nodded in agreement. There was no reason to make a change of plans.
"Kuroko-kun," Riko said. "Maybe you should guard Matsuoka-kun instead and let Kagami-kun guard Yamasaki-kun, that would be the only change I would suggest since Nanase-kun passes a lot to Yamasaki-kun,"
By the other bench, Kisumi was looking at his team. "We are doing way better than I expected," he said. "Let's keep this up, though, I might want to make the member change before the second quarter is over,"
"I'm not sure if I can do it, Kisumi-san," Rei said, slightly nervous.
Kisumi placed a hand on Rei's shoulder. "Relax, you'll be fine," he said. "At least there is a 99% guarantee that you hit your target and a 100% chance you do it more beautifully than Hyuga," To Kisumi these things didn't matter. But having practiced shooting technique with Rei for the past few months had taught him that there was nothing Rei cared more about than a beautiful form. But this time, it didn't seem to work as well as usual.
"I'm still not sure," Rei said, doubtfully.
"I wasn't sure I could play either," Makoto said. "But I'm managing fine, even if Kiyoshi-kun is better than me by far,"
Kisumi nodded. "It would surprise me if he wasn't. When we were in middle school there was this talk about both the Generation of Miracles and the Uncrowned Kings. If I remember correctly, Kiyoshi Teppei was one of the Uncrowned Kings,"
"What's the difference between the two?" Makoto asked, getting a bit paler than usual.
"The Generation of Miracles are one year below us, while the Uncrowned Kings are on the same year, and I have heard talk about the Generation of Miracles being a bit better than the Uncrowned Kings," Kisumi explained. "Don't be afraid just because you know he's good," he added. "You've done fine until now,"
Haruka placed a hand on Makoto's shoulder to comfort him as well, and maybe that was it, or maybe it was Kisumi's words, or maybe even both, but Makoto got back to normal and nodded with a determined smile on his face.
"You're right," he said. "Thanks,"
The break ended and the second quarter began. On orders from Kisumi, Haruka passed a lot to him. There were a lot of one-on-ones between Hyuga and Kisumi then. The Amateurs caught up to Seirin, if you could call it that when being so little behind, and even overtook them just for a bit. Then, half way through Gou called the member change, and Kisumi was subbed out and replaced by a nervous Rei.
"This is unexpected," Riko mumbled from the sidelines as she watched Kisumi leave the court.
Rei was sending Hyuga nervous looks every now and then before the game got started again. He had spent the entire second quarter, up until now, on observing Hyuga as he knew what he was up against. Kisumi was wearing a proud smile as he prepared to watch Rei play against Hyuga. When Rei noticed this, he wondered if Kisumi had a sadistic side behind the friendliness.
They started again. The first thing Haruka did as soon as he got the ball was passing to Rei. It wasn't like Rei was his only option, but seeing as how nervous Rei was, he knew, if Rei got started the nervousness would completely disappear.
Rei dribbled around Hyuga and prepared to make a shot, but Hyuga was quick, and about to hit the ball as it would fly directly out of Rei's grip. Rei quickly changed his mind, took a small step back as Hyuga just came an inch too short to reach the ball, and then he shot quickly, before anyone had the time to react. He made it perfectly.
"Nice Rei," Rin cheered him on as he ran by. Rei allowed himself to smile proudly. Everything about Kisumi supposedly being a sadist was long forgotten.
Flowering Lotus: Thanks for explaining it to me and thanks for the compliment :)
I think I've said enough at the top of this chapter so...This is all for now
Jackie
