"That play... was cool!" The audience began to cheer.
Mitch snorted in laughter, covering her snorts with her fist as Natasha glared at Stephanie.
"What did I say about making such useless movements?"
"But... Michi-Michi said we needed to entertain everyone!"
"Not like that." Natasha assured.
Stephanie rubbed the back of her head, and smiled unsurely back at Team Japan, shrugging as she looked at them. Kagami chuckled.
"Steph made that showy play just for us."
"She went around all five players twice just to make sure they all started to defend from the inside. It left their outside defense weaker than it should have been." Riko analyzed quickly.
Kagami nodded, "Nat doesn't like making things that chaotic. And usually they can do that without Steph playing around. But that's the Gemini Twins for you. You never know what you're gonna get."
"Michelle-chan didn't even hesitate with that blind, behind-the-back pass." Kuroko couldn't help but admire that, and remembered how many times he had done something with complete faith in his teammates. There were times in his games with Seirin where advanced opponents like Aomine, Kise, or Akashi could tell where he was going to pass because of his very subtle eye movements. But Michelle didn't even look when she passed.
The only time he or his team had experienced something like that was in their final Winter Cup game, when they had broken through the second door of the Zone.
"This team of girls played against former college stars about half a year ago." Alex approached the group from behind, "Michelle was the one who had gotten in the Zone, going up against my old friend who played in UCLA longer than me. The team adjusted well to her."
"Che, so she's already that far?" Kagami asked.
Alex nodded, "My little sisters opened a door for themselves, one that I haven't seen before. The ultimate duo level. Mitch must have pushed them to start it at this match, because Natasha was saving it for the last rounds of the tournament."
"Steph was the one who showed off."
Alex chuckled, "That's it then. They're showing off for all of you here."
The second quarter started, and as the team headed out on the bench Izuki noted something odd.
"Where are the rest of their players?" He asked.
No one was at the girl's bench, not even a coach.
"Their school has been having a bit of drama about the second string, but the men's coach doubles as the women's coach, and he's overseas with the men's team." Alex replied.
The Russian team was fighting hard to close the gap between them, starting off strong and using their captain's shooting ability to it's utmost potential. After the first shot though, Mitch's smirk had already shown the game was over, despite the 27-all score.
She crossed the ball under her legs as she went head to head with the captain, waiting for her team to set up position. After one particularly hard bounce of the ball Mitch rushed forward, moving past the captain on the left as the ball went to the right. Natasha caught the ball, dribbling it as she walked round the three point arc, calming down the fast tempo from the first quarter.
She passed the ball to Stephanie and rushed inside the key, catching the ball Stephanie passed back to her and laying it up, passing it when two defenders blocked her and having Stephanie catch it and lay it up behind the three people.
Mitch jogged backwards after whistling, "Now they're getting back into it."
"Are we really gonna drag this out?" Ashley stretched as the other team approached.
Mitch shrugged, "After this play, wanna break?"
"Hells yah." Ash grinned, slapping a high five with Mitch as they went into defense. Maria was quick to recover the captain's rebound, after Natasha had made sure to make the captain miss, and Maria passed it to Mitch.
Mitch was calmer, more laid back, and grinned as Natasha and Stephanie began to zig zag- an indication to the Russian team and the audience that they were about to pull off another fast paced, duo play.
Mitch crossed over multiple times, and when the ball was in her right hand she crossed over once more, not catching it with her left as she turned round to her right and circled around. Natasha suddenly appeared, catching the ball while Mitch screened Natasha's mark, and Natasha pivot round towards Mitch, dribbling the ball as Stephanie came up from behind the two, hands outstretched for the ball.
The team followed Natasha's pass to Stephanie, and Stephanie grinned, passing it blindly back as Natasha freed herself at the three point line and shot the ball.
There was a moment of silence as everyone realized the door that had been opened. Natasha and Stephanie might as well have been in a world of their own, where each pass of theirs was directed to movements only they knew and where they accommodated their team. The blinding speed blew people away because the direction of plays or passes were given without hand signals or eye contact. It was pure trust and instinct. The second quarter breezed by with these types of plays, and the crowd, after cheering for each shot, would quiet down back into silence to watch with anticipation.
It was that silence that made Ashley, Maria, and Mitch start laughing in their own corner of the court, returning from the locker rooms after half time ended and giggling to themsves.
"Why was everyone so dramatic?" Mitch held her sides as she laughed.
Ashley bent down on her knees as she jabbed a thumb back at the Russian team, "Did you see their faces?! It was like 'whoa~'" Ashley pretended to go off balance and laughed again.
Maria laughed at the two, "But Steph was in a whole other zone! She wasn't even giggling in the past few plays!"
The three looked at each other, then at the sister duo that was joining them, "Ooo she's serious!" They chorused, teasing the younger blonde by crowding around her and laughing, who was now very confused.
"You three are training tonight."
Natasha's threat made the three players go wide eyed, and they immediately protested.
"What!" "No way!" "Why?!"
"Get us to 120, and I'll cancel your extra training."
"Where are we now?" Mitch glanced at the scoreboard, eyes scanning over the crowd that watched them before landing on the red numbers above.
The score was 59-27, with the third quarter beginning in a minute. Mitch grinned, and nodded at Ashley and Maria.
"Does this mean we get full reign?" Mitch turned her glance from the scoreboard to Natasha.
Maria's fist went up as she jumped high, "Finally!"
"Stephanie and I will screen and provide defense." Natasha nodded as she drank water.
"Hey, this time we'll break." Mitch nodded to Ashley.
"Good, I wanna let that Russian captain know who the real shooter is here." Ashley smiled as the third quarter buzzer rang.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/plot/etc., of the KnB manga/anime.