CHAPTER 8 - Reunion of the Miracles
Time passed, and before anyone knew it, it was only a week before the Summer Interhigh. For this year, the entire basketball community was extremely excited, because of the appearance of the Generation of Miracles playing in their Second Year, along with the other strong players within their tier. The Winter Cup last year had shown the abilities of all of them in their climatic matches, and it was sure that this year, none of them would have any reason to hold back anymore. It would be an all-out brawl between the strongest of the strongest. But before any of that, there was a basketball event that would take place before the Interhigh, hosted by a privileged sports company in Japan. Without a doubt, they invited the strongest players, mainly the Generation of Miracles, and naturally, they all accepted. On that fateful day, the Generation of Miracles would be meeting again, sparking some sort of glorious moment to be remembered.
"Dai-Chan! Hurry up, you'll be late you know!" Momoi called out to Aomine outside his home.
"Yea… yea..." the door flung opened, and Aomine strolled out lazily, wearing his casual black t-shirt, and long pants.
"Okay! Let's go!" Momoi beamed and made several steps ahead of Aomine, who ignored her.
"Why are you so happy?" Aomine asked, closing the gates to his house, and shuffling himself after the pink-haired secretary. He noticed that her lighthearted rhythm was unusual even by normal standards, and she was definitely more cheerful than her usual self.
"What do you mean, why?" Momoi turned her head, and smiled, "We are meeting the rest! Why wouldn't I be happy?" And she turned back and trotted off, humming to herself.
Aomine hid his smile, and walked on. Tetsu… Kagami… Kise… Midorima… Murasakibara… and Akashi, huh? How much better have you guys gotten?
"Doors are closing…"
Midorima stood near the opposite end of the closing doors in the train, silent with his serious expression as per usual. As if his green hair, tall height and taped fingers were not enough to attract stares from the public, he was holding a wooden horseshoe delicately in his hands, further worsening the mutterings and mumblings from others. Nevertheless, he completely ignored and stared at the outside.
Midorima Shintarou, the best shooter in Teiko, and the shooting guard of the Generation of Miracles. If one could describe his personality, it would really be a miracle that he was able to make friends with anyone, after all, his antisocial attitude and stern expression made talking to him relatively difficult. Nevertheless, he could be described as extremely hardworking, always believing in the merits of hard work. His motto, "Man proposes, God disposes" is the very essence of that, which means doing everything with best you can, and let God do the rest. Back in Teiko, even after Akashi changed and the team stopped practicing, Midorima did not waver, but continued to practice, honing his shots to a quality even further than perfection. As his teammate in Shutoku, Takao once said, "he was like a loner, always practicing… endlessly shooting…" In terms of skills, he was the best in shooting, be it three pointers or two pointers, and his accuracy was literally peerless. No one could match his accuracy naturally, and his greatest feat by far was making a full-court shot, from one end to another. Even Kise Ryota, known for his Perfect Copy, could only imitate a half-court at best, and because of this, Midorima often helped his team score with his three pointers. While he may be lacking in terms of other abilities, such as speed or raw power, he compensates by drastically raising the points of his team, shooting a three the instant he catches the ball, at any position on the court, and it goes into the hoop perfectly without a graze on the ring. To put in another perspective, all he needs is 10 shots to score 30 points, and in a game, he could easily put out more than 20 three pointers and even reach to 30 three pointers at his maximum before his legs give out, which equates to literally 90 points assuming if all the shots are successful, which they always are. This man, while he may not seem as much as compared to the other miracles, is definitely one to be reckoned with.
"Eh, Mido-chin?" a lazy voice called out. Midorima instantly felt his blood pumping through his veins and his irritation suddenly peaked. Damn… don't tell me it's…
He turned around, and saw an extremely tall man with purple hair covered by a cap behind him. He wore his usual attire, a white t-shirt and khakis. Naturally, he unintentionally attracted stares as well due to his 2.1 metre height.
"Murasakibara, huh?" Midorima said quietly, with a clear hint of aggression, although his former teammate did not even notice this as he was busy munching on his snacks as per usual.
Murasakibara Atsushi, another member of the Generation of Miracles, who plays the center role. Out of all of the miracles, he is the tallest, and his raw natural power easily triumphs all the other miracles. However, compared to the intimidating pressure that he often exudes, his laziness and child-like behavior will definitely make a first impression. As Kise once stated, Murasakibara "may be the most naturally talented out of us five (Miracles)", and this was true, evident by his lack of effort or enthusiasm in games, but yet somehow managing to block out almost every single attempt to score by his opponents. Despite this, raw power and height is not the only he has that makes him an excellent center, but his reflexes and speed: his long arms and legs easily allow him to cover the paint in one or two steps in a split of a second, and his reflexes allow him to appear right in front of any player as he teleported. Even he could not reach him, an arm out would easily suffice. Furthermore, all of this can be enhanced by jumping. With his 2.10m height, and an arm out, he literally did not have to jump to make a simple layup, but rather just tip the ball into the hoop, and he wanted to, he could make a dunk without any effort. His jumping also made him almost impossible to get by in defense, and his raw power made defending futile as well, with him overpowering three defenders at once during the Winter Cup while performing a 360dunk, and also breaking the entire backboard. To top it off, he too has the uncanny ability to enter the ZONE, as seen in his Winter Cup match with Seirin, although at that point, he was too tired to do anything, and Kagami's Meteor Jam had already ended the game. Despite all these magnificent abilities that this man has, it all depends if he would actually make the effort, and he did, opponents would experience true hopelessness as attacking and defending are made obsolete by this very man.
"Yo… what are you doing here?" Murasakibara asked, his voice sounding as lazy as ever.
"What do you mean what? Weren't you invited for the match?" Midorima replied while looking away. To be quite honest, if there was one person that he did not get along well with in the Generation of Miracles, it was this man standing right in front of him, and the Osaka predictions said his fortune would be "not bad" today.
"Oh yea… this means we will get to see the rest right?" Murasakibara asked again and he continued munching away on his snacks.
"Of course… and please chew with your mouth close…" Midorima concluded sternly, causing Murasakibara to give pouty look. He looked out of the windows as the trained moved past several blocks of apartments. Meeting them again… huh…
Somewhere far away, Kagami and Kuroko were too making their way towards the streetball tournament, and as per usual, Kagami was pumped to be able to face the Generation of Miracles once again. Meanwhile, Kuroko maintain his usual stoic demeanour.
"Why are you so excited, Kagami-kun?" Kuroko asked curiously. "Didn't you play with Akashi-kun a week ago?"
"Yeah… but this time I will be able to meet the others too!" Kagami replied excitedly, "It's a good chance to test all of their strength…" And with that, he unknowingly grinned to himself, while Kuroko sighed and No.2 looked up.
"Always this competitive eh…" Kuroko sighed to himself, causing Kagami to face him.
"Hey, what's that sigh for?" Kagami asked.
"I mean, it's good to be competitive and all, but sometimes I think Kagami-kun may get a little too competitive…" Kuroko replied, and his irises shifted to observe him. "Hasn't that always been the case?"
Kagami looked away, as Kuroko did make a strong point. At times, he would get so competitive that he himself would not even notice it, which often leads to his more-than-usual- aggressive self, something he had been trying to water down.
"Well… it's not like it's a bad thing though," Kuroko continued, "but sometimes I worry a little of what might happen if you get too strong."
"You are referring to Aomine, aren't you?"
Kuroko nodded his head. No.2 looked up concernly, and Kagami's brows furrowed.
"I… won't," Kagami blurted out.
"Huh?"
"Like I said, I won't become like Aomine… It's part of my code that I play my best and enjoy basketball. I won't hold back ever… it's the minimum respect I have for all my opponents…" Kagami said firmly, causing Kuroko's eyes to widen; after all, Kagami was never this serious or level-headed at that.
"Also, I won't ever abandon my shadow…" He added, causing Kuroko to smile, and No.2 to wag his tail even more.
Kuroko Tetsuya, the phantom sixth member of the Generation of Miracles. His stoic and calm personality befits his title the phantom, due to his expertise in the use of Misdirection: A variation of the sleight of hand tactic that magicians use to fool their audiences. This allows Kuroko to mainly redirect his opponent's gaze onto the ball and away from himself by initiating many passes and rarely touching the ball itself. Coupled with his natural lack of presence, he naturally gives of the vibe on an invisible passer that can causes the ball's motion to curve and inexplicably end up in the hoop. In a normal fast-paced basketball game, it is almost impossible to track and follow Kuroko, who constantly moves around, and one has to also concentrate on the ball, and that Imayoshi of Too Academy once said, "the more you look at him, the more he disappears". Furthermore, Kuroko too has a natural skill for observing, where his court awareness is good enough to be a point guard, and even members of Kirisaki Daichi Academy claimed that Kuroko observes their blinking timings to execute drives (although the truth is not far from that either), and this exceptional skill in observation led him to develop the Quasi-Emperor Eye, a variation of the Emperor Eye that allows him to predict the movements of his teammates, which could easily control any basketball game. In essence, Kuroko is the player that supports his teammates to victory from the shadows.
"Also, I won't ever abandon my shadow…" a deep voice repeated after Kagami, causing him to spun around in shock. This voice-!
"KISE!" Kagami screamed, and nearly threw a punch at the cheerful blonde, who was giggling uncontrollably to himself.
"Oh man, Kagami-cchi, you sound like a total bag of cliché…" Kise giggled, causing Kagami to blush uncontrollably as well.
"So, you guys going to the match, too huh?" He asked.
"Yea, is Kise-kun invited to?" Kuroko asked, appearing behind Kise. Naturally, he turned around in shock for not noticing him, and then again, these kinds of occurrences often occur with Kuroko.
"Woah!" Kise gasped, "Didn't see you there Kuroko-cchi!" And Kuroko nodded in recognition.
"Yep, I'm heading there now! Didn't expect to meet you on the way though," Kise answered cheerfully.
"Wait –" Kagami interjected, "So does that mean all the other Generation of Miracles are going too?!"
Kise and Kuroko looked at each other, then turned back to face him. " Um, you didn't know?"
Kagami mouth widened. So that means I'll get to play with them even before the Interhigh huh… And with that, he quickly fastened his steps to follow Kise and Kuroko.
Soon enough, the trio representing the primary colours reached the basketball court, filled with many players and audiences alike: mostly teenagers like themselves, some older and younger, as well as several adults overseeing the event. The location was near some sort of recreational park, so the basketball court, or rather courts adjacent to each other, were located kind of in the middle of a clearing beside the local park, spanning over a few 50 metres in length; and tents were pitched up at the sides which included some medical aid centres and refreshments stands. There was also a big banner near the entrance which said, "INTERNATIONAL YOUTH BASKETBALL GAMES", along with a few tables for registration and administration businesses. It seems the news of the Generation of Miracles playing was the main reason for such a big crowd, and many eyes turned to the trio when they entered the playing field.
"Woah… so many people…" Kise mumbled, despite being used to attention as a part-time model.
"Yeah…" Kagami muttered, feeling somewhat hot in his face as they waded through the crowd. Meanwhile, Kuroko smoothly sailed through without attracting much attention as per usual.
They reached from the table that was labelled "Registration", and the person tending to them looked immensely excited that he was tending to one of Generation of Miracles.
"Names, please?" the young lady asked.
Kise naturally replied first. "Kise Ryota ~desu," he said in his usual cheery voice, placing the emphasis of his "cutesey" voice on his "desu", with a hint of a wink that caused the attendant to blush.
"Ahh… yes, your name is here… your registered position is a small forward, right?"
"Mmm hmm…"
"Okay, attached this sticker to your shirt so that we know you're a player…"
Kagami went next, and unlike the previous player that gave off a sense of playfulness, this one was plain scary, literally. The lady gulped as she had to look even further up at Kagami's imposing height.
"Erm… name, please?"
"Kagami Taiga… desu…" Kagami said roughly with the air of a spartan, although his attempt at copying Kise failed rather miserably, coming out more awkward than polite.
"Ahh… okay, power-forward?" Kagami nodded.
"Here you go…" and she handed him his sticker.
"That's all, right?" and the lady sighed as she took out her phone to indulge in her social media.
"Um… I would like to register," Kuroko said stoically, causing the lady to drop her phone in shock. When did this guy appear? Has he been standing in front of me the entire time? She raised her eyebrows, as almost all the players that registered were over a certain height, apart from one other redhead. Nevertheless, she asked anyway, as that "appearing" phenomenon did occur before as well.
"Name?" she asked.
"Kuroko Tetsuya…" and the lady looked through her list. True enough, there was a name like that listed there, although his position was blank, just like the other few players. But she was told not to really question this as the position was not really that important apart from deciding the teams later.
"Here you go…" as she handed the sticker to Kuroko, who thanked her politely. The lady watched as the trio strolled off, before returning to her phone.
"So… where are the rest…" Kise asked, looking rather uncomfortable. From what he could see, there were over twenty players with stickers, but clearly over fifty for the audiences, but what made him uncomfortable was how there were many foreign players. While he did not have any issues with foreigners, he had never been this close with them like this before. There were players of varying heights, of different ethnicity, hair and skin colour. They weren't kidding when they said international, huh…
However, to Kagami, it did not bother him much as he spent a good portion of his life in America, and thus had played with many foreigners before. In fact, he felt a familiar sense of nostalgia and home-sickness and he walked past a few Americans talking about streetball. On the other hand, Kuroko did not bother hiding his obvious curiosity as he observed the other players. Just at this moment, all three of them heard a familiar voice nearby. A distinct voice, that if there was one word to describe it: Lazy, and among the people they know, there was only two people that had this trait.
The trio turned around, and true enough, they saw Aomine and Momoi. They quickly shuffled forward to greet them.
"I don't get this stupid sticker… this thing will come off anyway during the match so what's the point…" Aomine grumbled, half annoyed and half amused.
"Oh stop whining Dai-Chan… If you want to complain, at least complain about finding the others…" Momoi said distractedly as she looked around to find the other Generation of Miracles.
"Oh? Hey, there's Tetsu!" she squeaked excitedly, and dashed forward towards Kuroko, completely ignoring Kise and Kagami, while Aomine followed lazily.
"TETSU!" Momoi screamed as she jumped onto Kuroko and hugged him tightly, who stood motionless. Naturally, many players turned at first to observe the commotion, and then to admire Momoi's beauty.
"Momoi… you're squeezing me…" Kuroko mumbled, although Momoi was too happy to care.
"Kagamin, Ki-chan! Goood morning~!" Momoi said happily when she finally noticed the other two, to which Kise giggled, while Kagami looked repulsed as per usual.
"Yo," Aomine smiled as he reached the two players he wanted a rematch with. "It's been a while, huh?"
"Haha… only for Kagami-cchi," Kise grinned, clearly glad to see his former teammate once again.
"Huh, what do you mean?" Kagami asked.
"Oh… I played with Aomine-cchi abit a few weeks ago…", causing Kagami's eyes to flare with jealousy. Obviously, if he could, he would have wanted to practice with the Ace of the Generation of Miracles. Aomine then turned to Kuroko, whom barely got out Momoi's hug.
"Yo… Tetsu… long time no see…"
"Yes, Aomine-kun, it has really been a long time," Kuroko replied, and smiled sincerely.
"Well… if all of you are gathering here, I guess we don't have a choice but to join you…" a voice said loudly, and the group all turned.
Midorima and Murasakibara approached them, attracting stares from even the basketball players as the two tallest members of the Generation of Miracles waded through the crowd towards them. Midorima carried his wooden horseshoe delicately, ensuring that no harm would fall upon it, while Murasakibara was munching on a bag of potato chips as per usual.
"Ohh! Mukkun, Mido-chin, you came!" Momoi said, greeting and waving at them.
"Yo, Sa-chin… yo Kise-chin… Mine-chin… Kuro-chin…" Murasakibara greeted lamely as he looked at each of them, although when he reached Kagami, he paused for a while, and then mumbled, "yo… Kagami…" causing him to yell "What was that pause for?!"
"You guys are too noisy…" Midorima said sternly, adjusting his glasses with his free hand.
"Oh Midorima-cchi, is that today's good luck charm?" Kise asked curiously, eyeing his wooden horseshoe.
"Heh, they say horseshoe brings luck, but you think it really works?" Aomine scoffed, causing Kagami to grin.
"Idiots, you guys don't truly understand the true worth of a good luck charm like this, in fact," Midorima concluded, causing the rest to shrug their shoulders.
Momoi beamed throughout the conversation. Despite not meeting for some time, they still spoke so naturally just like back in the Teiko days, and to see the team coming back together made her heart melt.
"But what's this basketball event about anyway?" Kagami asked, "They didn't exactly give us any information, did they?" to which Kuroko nodded.
"Yeah… they didn't…" Aomine said.
"I wonder…" Kise mumbled.
They all stared at the other foreign players in silence. After all, they were only informed of "playing basketball with other strong players to promote some company", and not much else was given to them. If anything, they probably guessed that they would be playing with these people, but other than that, all of them were really clueless about this event. They looked around in silence, although Murasakibara's munching kind of ruined the suspense.
"Long time no see, everyone." A voice said, and everyone knew who it was.
"Akashi…" they all said in unison to the former captain of the Generation of Miracles, who smiled at them.
"It's been a really long time… How's everyone doing?" Akashi smiled as he walked towards the group. He was wearing a usual grey jacket with his sleeves rolled up and a red shirt inside, along with a black pants and sneakers.
The Generation of Miracles slightly hesitated. Despite them being in the same year, he was their captain for a time, and that authoritative feeling did not subside one bit. Nevertheless, all of them could feel something about Akashi that changed. Perhaps it was the slightly more relaxed atmosphere around him.
"Ah… Akashi-kun! It's been a long time!" Momoi broke the silence cheerfully, though she sounded rather awkward, but at least this allowed the other members to talk to Akashi more properly.
"Akashi… It certainly has been a while…" Midorima muttered, glaring at him behind his glasses. Even if Akashi had changed, the appearance of the man who made him lower his head back at the Winter Cup did not change. Naturally, all of them, apart from maybe Kagami and Kuroko had a reason to feel a little tense nonetheless.
Akashi turned to face him, and said, "Midorima… it's nice to see you again…"
The other members started warming up to him.
"Aka-chin, long time no see~" Murasakibara said lazily, offering Akashi a snack, to which Akashi accepted generously.
"Akashi-kun, it's nice to meet you again," Kuroko said softly while nodding to him.
"Yo, it looks like we get to play again," Kagami grinned.
"Akashi-cchi, long time no see!" Kise grinned while closing one eye.
"It's… been a while, Akashi…" Aomine muttered.
Akashi beamed as he greeted all of them. When was the last time they had gathered like this? His heart melted as he looked at each of them properly, as after all, the last time he had seen them up close like this was back in their days at Teiko Middle School. Naturally, his eyes lingered on Aomine, his opponent for the Summer Interhigh, as he wondered how much they all improved.
A loud screech suddenly sounded from the edge of the court, and everybody turned in its direction. They could see a man with a microphone standing on a makeshift stage, under the "INTERNATIONAL YOUTH BASKETBALL GAMES" banner, causing Kagami and Aomine to raise their eyebrows.
"Everybody, I humbly welcome you all here today!" the announcer said in English, causing Aomine and Murasakibara's expressions to harden.
"Huh, what's this shit…" Murasakibara pouted as Aomine's expression looked uncomfortable.
"Today is a day for all of us to remember! This event, the "International Youth Basketball games" invites players from countries all around the world, youths like you, to play with each other. No doubt, all of you are strong! After all, we scouted and picked the best of the best from different countries, and as part of the international trip for the schools non inclusive of Japan, we are very grateful that your individual schools have allowed us to squeeze this event right here!"
"International…" Kagami muttered as his eyes shifted around the court.
"This guy is loud… someone tell him to shut up…" Aomine grumbled, causing Momoi to hiss at him.
"So! What would you be doing today? Of course, play! We will be dividing you guys into teams, after all this IS an international event, so we gotta mingle abit! What's in it for you, you ask? The team that wins gets these very vouchers!" the announcer exclaimed, causing some commotion among the crowd.
"Just vouchers…. What a load of crap…"
"International, my ass… what a waste of time…"
"Now, now, don't be too hasty, as these vouchers are worth over about a hundred dollars, which you can exchange it when you get home…" the announcer continued. "For a basketball game, I'd say that's a pretty good offer…" which caused the commotion to die down.
"So… without further ado! Let's start! We'll sort you into your teams now! And then the matchups, by random, of course, begins!" the announcer finished, to which he picked up a basketball and made a three pointer from his position easily, causing the crowd to cheer.
"Well… can someone translate what he just said?" Aomine said as he turned to face the rest.
"Idiot, just how competent is your English…" Midorima sighed, and he proceeded to summarise what the announcer said.
"Mix with the other team? I don't really speak English…" Murasakibara sighed as he finished the last of his snacks.
"Oh well, let's just see where we go, okay?" Kise smiled.
From what Kagami could see, there were about thirty players including them, so divide that amount by five would equal to six teams. If anything, the shirts they provide did consist of six colours. In other words, they would all be playing against each other, huh? Interesting, Kagami thought.
In no time, they all received their team allocations, and of course, all of them were on different teams, with the exception of Kagami and Murasakibara, who were on the same team.
"Kagami, huh? Nice to meet…"
"Didn't you already greet me just now?!" Kagami snapped.
"Oh… hmm…" Murasakibara looked dazed, although in reality, he was trying to get his mind warmed up. After all, he hadn't played seriously for a while, and thought this might not be a bad idea to warm up again.
The respective Generation of Miracles went to put on their shirts, and funnily enough, the colours matched the respective miracles. Midorima – Dark Green, Kise – Brownish Gold, Aomine – Dark Blue, Akashi – Red, Murasakibara and Kagami – Black, Kuroko – Grey. And with that, they went off to the respective areas to interact with their teams. In terms of English Competency, Akashi, Midorima, Momoi and Kagami were the best at it (Kagami due to living in the US for some time while the rest studied hard for it) being able to speak fluently like a native, followed by Kise and Kuroko (Kise as model, while Kuroko is naturally better) who could speak normally, no difficult vocabulary, but nonetheless still sound normal and maybe just slightly broken, and finally Aomine and Murasakibara, who generally failed their English at school and barely speak in broken sentences. Hence, for most of them, they were generally (and luckily) fine with their situation since there were International players who probably could not speak that well either. On the other hand, Aomine had to be tagged along with Momoi as a translator, whose natural beauty attracted much stares.
The Generation of Miracles had just gathered, but in a short span of time, they were to be enemies once again. Even then, they were going to play each other in a week, so they would surely not be showing out all their cards now, but even, this would be a good opportunity so see the fruits of their training. And no doubt, one thing was on all of their minds right now.
How strong did the rest get?
Hey, a new chapter here with about 4k words. No basketball playing I'm afraid, this chapter is more of interactions and stuff like that. In this chapter I introduced all the GOMs to kind of set up the Interhigh. So, in the next chapter, it's basketball playing, although albeit not so intense, since it's just meant to like show off a little and to see how much they improved, and as stated, they won't be showing all their cards (saved for Interhigh, i thought of some ideas and improvements... so we'll see where that goes...). This arc in my opinion shouldn't be treated so seriously yaknow, its just a basketball game and all with the GOM again along with the other International players and what not. Basically, what i want is to really focus alot on the interaction before the actual Interhigh. Also, i made a poll so y'all can just vote to gimme an idea on the matchups (i roughly have an idea, but to see what my readers want also helps, right?) but yeah i was also curious to see if your matchups match mine. So that;s about it! Comment Review and favourite if you like!
one of the reviews why i don't use Nash Gold, is because 1) admit it, he's abit too OP to use, especially when Akashi is just trying to regain his Emperor Eye and all, 2) this takes place before EXTRA GAME, so i try not to add in future characters, only maybe as cameo. Hope you understand!
-kkkdragon123
