It was the last day of the first term as Shinako made her way to the gymnasium. The summer holidays had come around awfully fast, and during the time in-between, Shinako had managed to still keep her grade aggregate above 95 and her basketball was improving at a steady pace.
She retreated to the change rooms at the back, dressing out of her uniform and into her gym clothes as she arrived back in the court. She had heard rumours earlier in the day of practice being cancelled, but showed up anyway for club activities since Natsume had announced she would be leaving early; hence she was relieved of the task of tutoring her for the duration of the summer holiday.
She stretched - starting from her legs moving up to her shoulders and arms - and jogged a few laps around the court. Breathing heavily, she moved to grab the basketball from the centre of the room. She bounced it a few times, getting used to the feel of the ball before shooting some hoops.
'Shinako,' the voice; as usual; startled her.
She turned around, watching as Akashi walked toward her from the other side of the court in his uniform, and dropped his bag on the bench. 'Play one-on-one with me.'
They had somehow made the activity ritual. Akashi would in most cases give Shinako the ball to start with; however in that case, he would retrieve it again without much effort. The matches usually frustrated her. Despite how hard she trained over the last month being in the club, she still couldn't use her skills to her advantage.
That was it. Akashi played basketball just like he played shogi. He allowed his opponent no openings. He exuded confidence in his overwhelming intimidation.
And as much as Shinako tried, she could not fathom a way around his skill.
They had been playing for 30 minutes. 32-14. Well it was definitely an improvement. Even though she was tired from running so much during the game, she definitely hadn't felt as exhausted as she did the first time they played against each other like this.
She gathered from his position as point guard on the team that he was the most skilled at running. His sharp eyes were also the important tool in more serious matches, where she couldn't help take great notice of his ability to point out ridiculous details (there was even an instance when her shoelace was on the verge of untying, and he pointed this out to her, also giving her further detail that she could have injured her ankle rather badly if not the problem was sorted).
She despised how visibly conscious he was of her every single move. She wondered often what possibly got under the man's skin, but then only the thought of speaking against him had come to mind. And then the he-cut-my-hair-with-a-pair-of-scissors incident... she cringed at the thought. Even though she was dying a little - only a little - on the inside to beat him at something, she knew she couldn't expect a civil response out of him thereafter.
'You're not concentrating,' he said in an awfully accusing tone as he stole the ball from Shinako's hands.
She turned around, outstretching her arm for the ball again and winced as her ankle twisted mid-action. She lost balance, falling on her derriere painfully as her palms went flat on the ground simultaneously. Her ankle throbbed horridly and when she put her fingers against the inflamed area, she recoiled just as quickly.
'Ouch...' she winced, frowning in agony as she tested the leg.
She pretended to stand, applying pressure to her ankle as she folded her leg, but the pain was too much. 'Don't strain it; you'll make it worse.'
She looked up at Akashi as he knelt to her level, holding her leg gently just above the swollen area. She groaned uncontrollably at his cold touch against the inflamed skin as he inspected her sprained ankle.
The events that followed confused Shinako greatly. Just when she had imagined she got the redhead's personality right, she was suddenly proved wrong in this aspect when he threatened her to relax and stay seated for the ankle to seize swelling. She had a good thought in mind to say something against his horribly bossy attitude, but paired with his glaring was a threat somewhere along the lines of: 'disobey me and I'm going to make you regret it'.
Not to mention how he had walked away thereafter as if she were capable of standing on her own! Ah, the rage that made her nerve-endings flare! If it weren't for how far away the basketball was from her, she would have thrown it at the back of his head and laughed when the two empty spheres made contact.
The scissors. It was the only thing she could think of every time she had attended the short basketball sessions that were held over the summer holidays when Reo and Kotaro would goad her into joining their mock game. She had been prohibited by Akashi the following day during practice to engage in any strenuous activities. Instead she was only required to attend the sessions... for whatever reason though, she was unsure of, considering how useless her presence there would be.
Instead she would turn her attention to her study notes. And when skimming through her maths textbook would seize to hold her attention for long, she would instead turn to the shogi board in the clubroom.
Ah, the memory attached to that board. She couldn't help but ponder over how wrong she had been to ever think the boy was perhaps even slightly human. He had a ridiculously unpredictable personality for someone who could predict everything, which in turn, baffled Shinako. Over time being in the club, she had been thinking of things she could possibly better the fellow at. Grades were out of the picture. Nobody could score over a 100% grade aggregate; however the thought never left her mind of somehow achieving an equal rank in that respect.
Then there was basketball. She honestly didn't have that much interest in the sport to want to improve at it, and she knew she wouldn't find any sort of enjoyment in surprising the Akashi when it came to his sport.
But then Reo had mentioned something rather peculiar one day when they sat together on the field; of course, in the absence of their captain, that is. She had mentioned her plan to him (with slight difficulty in bringing up the subject) when she decided she could trust his views and opinions on the matter (even though she could have done without his help).
'What? You want to beat Sei-chan at something? Shin-chan, I'm sorry to say this, but that's just a waste of time.'
Shinako's eyes narrowed. 'Mibuchi, explain yourself.'
Reo's eyes widened, showing genuine surprise at Shinako's puzzlement. 'Sei-chan doesn't lose. He never, ever loses. To anybody at anything.'
He said it so matter-of-fact-ly that Shinako couldn't help but feel the vein on her forehead pulse slightly... Only slightly though. 'That's so stupid. None of what you said makes any sense at all.'
Reo gave her a level look. It was odd seeing him making even slightly serious expressions considering how laid-back he usually always was about things. 'It's a fact. He's a genius... But then again, you're a genius too, huh.'
She didn't comment on this observation of his, and instead harrumphed a response. He chuckled at her. 'Well, I suppose I could let you in on a little something,' his smile became a little wider, 'if you beat him at shogi, that'll definitely prove something to him, however I highly doubt this. Although remember that time you whacked him across the face? Ha-ha, backhand? That was the first time I ever saw him so surprised! And then when you swore him, ha-ha, I couldn't believe how sullied he was.'
His words were peculiar indeed! Even now that she dwelled on what he'd said to her that day, none of it seemed to aid her in her quest of finding a suitable field to crush the Akashi in. And unable to remove the gnawing question from her mind, the thought in turn made her grow immensely vexed.
She re-arranged the chess pieces on either side neatly and as if on cue, the redhead entered the classroom. Shinako was unsure if this too was perhaps a ritual of theirs like the one-on-one basketball matches. However she could only imagine he challenged her in shogi because he enjoyed the victory. And considering she was unable to play the sport, he resorted to the board game to make up for their habitual game on the court.
Shinako had taken great care in dissecting his tactics in shogi. She sub-consciously noted his moves in the game and on few occasions attempted them herself; however the games would still be in favor of the Akashi.
'Let's play again,' he announced on winning the first match after 35 minutes, and moved to re-arranging the board when he noted her apathetic response to his victory.
Somehow he would have found playing against her easier if perhaps she reacted to his winning streak. However she simply sat with calculating eyes, taking in every detail of the board game. It was completely unlike the first time they had played against one another, whereas she actually spent more time considering her moves, but lost within only a matter of time.
He could sense her improvement; however his predictions of her skill level still remained. She still hadn't proved problematic and she never will in future... However the next day, Akashi found himself somehow questioning this assumption.
A/N: Hello once again, minna-san! ^.^ I hope you're all enjoying the fan-fiction so far, and I want to thank the few people that have dropped off some lovely reviews for me. Ah, what a pleasure it was to read such things! Feedback is my motivation. YOU are my motivation for following/fav'ing/reviewing this story!
Also, in response to Boxenofdonuts review: the haiku's I've used in the story so far are not my own, hence I've placed credit where it is due after every short compilation. The '5 7 5' pattern is in fact a Western means of constructing haiku, as the Japanese do not have the same 'syllable' structure. I've taken the haikus from a published book, and I have not adjusted the construction in any way. The translations directly from Japanese will always however be very different from the raw poem itself, yet I'm in no position to translate these wonderful works myself. ^.^
'A haiku is a short Japanese poem, mostly of just three lines, often capturing the fleeting moment in a spirit of Zen-like immediacy - the falling of a plum blossom, the splash of a frog as it leaps into a pond.' - as quoted by Tom Lowenstein who explains this magnificently in his novel 'Haiku Inspirations'. :) I hope this explanation is sufficient!
