~Second Quarter – Kuroko's Basketball~

第二季: 黑子的篮球

Through My Heart

Chapter 9: 新－ New

Kuroko thought about all the words that Aomine, Miho and his childhood friend had told him. Letting out a small sigh, he snapped open his eyes.

He was ready. This was his show now.

"And now, we will start the match between the second and third strings!"

"Huh? Where'd my mark go?" a second string looked around, confused. His mark was number eight and now he had disappeared...!

Successfully losing his guard, Kuroko ran over and met the eyes of a teammate that was struggling with the ball. He opened his arms to receive the pass and his teammate passed to him.

After that, a surprising scene happened. With the tips of his fingers, the ball zoomed pass all the opponents and right into a third stringer's hands. Surprised, eh quickly shot the basket and score a point.

With that, Nanase, Akashi, Nijimura, and Sanada sat there completely stunned.

"...No way...I can't believe he added something like misdirection into basketball..." Miho gasped aloud. This was way beyond her original expectations. And from the startled look on the captain, vice captain, and coach's faces, she knew the same was for them as well.

"Miho's right. Misdirection. It's a technique that people use when performing magic tricks to manipulate the audience's gaze," Akashi explained, watching the match with interest.

"...Magic tricks?!" Nijimura questioned.

Miho replied, "Yeah...for example, if they make flashy movements with one hand to draw the audience's attention towards it, the can prepare for their next trick with their other hand. These techniques clearly aren't limited to magic tricks. The human eye has a variety of quirks as well. If something moving fast and something moving slowly enters our field of view, we will naturally follow the faster one. If a person in front of you looks somewhere else, we will also turn in that direction. Misdirection is the general term that refers to taking advantage of these slips to control how the opponent sees."

"And he has applied this affectively to basketball. For example, right before he makes a cut, he uses the movements of his own eyes and body to shift his mark's attention to the ball or other players. The final result combined with his own lack of presence makes him seem to disappear on the court like a phantom," Akashi finished.

Nijimura stared for a while, "I...see... So, both you and Nanase already knew if would turn out like this?"

"Not exactly. He went in the direction I had predicted, but I didn't think he would incorporate misdirection," Akashi told the captain.

"Same. He went beyond both of our expectations," Miho stared at the match with serious eyes.

That boy was as amazing as she thought.

.-.-.-.

"And that is the whole report. Your opinions, coach?" Sanada and Miho stood in front of Shirogane's desk, explaining the details of the match with Kuroko.

"...Hm. I see. I'll approve of this player's promotion to the first string," Shirogane nodded.

Before Sanada could protest, Miho did so herself, "Sir...do you think it would be alright? It is true that he is a very interesting player, but his basic abilities are below average."

Shirogane raised an eyebrow, "Miho, was it not you that first mentioned him and requested to go monitor him in the third string?"

"...I was naïve back then. All I thought was about helping him as my friend. I was just being rash back then," Miho stated.

Shirogane gave the girl a smile, "It is fine, as long as you understand that victory is everything. As for Kuroko Tetsuya's usefulness...we'll just have to test it out in a real match. If we can't use him, that's all there is to it. It's as you say, Nanase—what we desire is change. I can't deny that this player has the potential to be what we need. In the end, it all comes down to whether or not he'll be able to lead the team to victory. That's all."

.-.-.-.

"Shinta. That's all for the players promoted to the second string. And finally, Kuroko Tetsuya. You'll be joining the first string from today on," Watanabe stated after the winter test in early December.

"The first string...?! How?"

"Are you serious...? How could Kuroko...?!"

"It was a decision made by the coach. There will be no objections. Dismissed," Watanabe stated before turning to Kuroko, "Kuroko. I heard from the coach. I know you've worked harder than anyone, and when the opportunity was presented, you took it. So of course, I have no objections either. Do your best."

The boy gave a smile, "...Yes!"

At that moment, Momoi walked into the gym. She was sent here to look for the boy that Miho and Aomine had talked to her about continuously non-stop, every single day—Kuroko Tetsuya.

"Excuse me...! Is Kuroko-kun here?" Momoi shouted.

"Um, that's me," Kuorko appeared before the girl, which made her jump.

"Eh? Er...ah... Wait, what?! You'll...You'll be joining the first string staring today..." Momoi's words wandered off, "...Eh? Really?"

She was pretty confused, "Is this really the guy that Micchan and Dai-chan told me about?! You've got to be kidding me! He's seriously got no presence! I didn't make a mistake, did I?"

Recomposing herself, Momoi took a deep breath, "L-Like I said, you'll be joining the first string, starting from today. I'll guide you to the first gymnasium. Okay?"

"Yes," Kuroko replied.

.-.-.-.

"He's really coming today?" Aomine asked Miho again during their break.

"Yes...! I'm not sure what's taking Sa-chan so long..." just as Miho finished her sentence, the door opened.

"Excuse me, I brought Kuroko Tetsuya-kun," Momoi announced.

Nijimura and everyone else turned, "Cool, thanks."

"Hey, you finally made it! Tetsu!" Aomine flashed the boy a grin.

Akashi also gave him a smile, "Hey...I was waiting for you."

Miho got up and gave the boy a hug, "Te-chan! You're finally here! I missed you! Welcome to the Teiko Basketball Club's first string. Engrave this into your very being. From this moment on, you have but one mission. To win."

While the people who knew him greeted Kuroko, the other stared at him skeptically.

"Huh? He actually came?" Murasakibara asked.

Midorima stared at him and Miho, raising an eyebrow, "He's caught her eye and he apparently passed the special test and was even approved by the coach, but...I still can't believe it. Besides...she seems awfully close to him..."

"Yo~!" a gray haired boy bounced into the gym after Kuroko arrived.

"You're late, Haizaki," Akashi stated with an annoyed look on his face.

"Yeah, I'll be more prompt next time," Haizaki walked forward and then bumped into Kuroko, "Yowch!"

"Excuse me," Kuroko said.

"What the... Who the fuck are you?!" Haizaki jumped and exclaimed once he saw the small boy in front of him.

"I'm Kuroko Tetsuya. I joined the first string today. It's a pleasure to meet you," Kuroko introduced.

"Are you...fucking kidding me?! A kid like you...?" Haizaki widened his eyes.

Miho saw the late boy and immediately switched into her trainer mode, "Haizaki-kun. Please show more respect to your fellow teammates. Also, you're late!"

Haizkai slowly turned around and twitched at the sight of Miho, "A-Ah! Nanase-chan!"

"Fifty laps around the gym, now!" the girl ordered and Haizaki scampered away.

Kuroko sweat dropped at the sight before him. He made a mental note to never be late.

"Alright, we're starting practice. After stretches, we'll go into footwork," Miho shouted and blew the whistle.

Thus, Kuroko's first practice in the first string commenced.

.-.-.-.

"Alright! We'll now take a five-minute break! Kuroko, go see Nanase for your individual stat report!" Sanada ordered.

As the players panted and chugged their water, Kuroko collapsed on the ground, "Aomine-kun. Are the first string practices always this hard?"

"Eh? They are? Yes...there's a lot on the menu, and because there aren't as many players, rotations are fast as well...Not to mention Miho gives us individual stat training as well..." Aomine turned to look at Kuroko.

"It's much harder than the third stri—," Kuroko managed out, while barfing.

"Whoa, Tetsu, don't throw up! Hey, Satsuki! Bring a bucket and towel...!" Aomine gasped.

"Eh? Aaah!"

Miho and Sanada raised an eyebrow at the commotion around them.

"What's happening?" Sanada narrowed his eyes.

Miho shook her head, "I have a feeling..."

The girl quickly ran over to where Kuroko was and then panicked at the sight before her, "Te-chan! Are you okay?!"

The blue haired boy was crouched over a bucket and Momoi was cleaning up the mess before her with a startled expression.

The boy turned slightly, "No..."

Letting out a worried sigh, Miho patted his back gently and played with his hair, "Sa-chan, I'll take him to the bathroom. Tell Sanada-san to start practice without us. I'll be doing individual stat training with him after this."

Momoi paled, "But isn't that even more gruesome...? Will he be okay?"

"I believe he'll get tougher after a while. Also, keep the bucket here," Miho replied and started walking away with Kuroko.

Both Aomine and Momoi sweat dropped, "I think...I feel really bad for Tetsu..."

"Yeah..." Momoi replied.

.-.-.-.

"Okay, Te-chan. Usually I only do this with the regulars, but Coach Sanada told me to do this with you as well. Before we start, we'll have to familiarize with each other. Call me by my first name," Miho ordered.

Kuroko tilted his head, "Huh...? Miho...-chan?"

"That'll do. Alright. From now on, you'll address me by my first name. First of all, let me tell you the current condition of all of your stats as a basketball player."

"...Yes."

"Currently, your special ability is at a ten out of ten. Your mental strength is at around an eight out of then. Your technique is around a four out of ten. And your physical abilities and your stamina...is around a one or two out of ten. We'll need to greatly improve your stamina and physical ability if you want to play in matches for a long period of time. I understand that those aspects are not something you specialize in, however you must improve there. Of course, these are just the rough stats I picked up from the footwork and basic practice exercises we did during the first half of the practice. I will be testing you again right now. Please do your best, Te-chan," Miho finished before jotting some things down on her notebook.

"Yes..." Kuroko responded, gulping slightly.

"Let's start with the sprints. This will be a test to test your agility, reflexes, and speed. From this pylon to the to the next one is a fifteen meter difference. Run over there, grab the badminton shuttle, come back, exchange it with the one on this side, and then run back and exchange with the other one on the other side, and then finally run back again. Do not stop and try not to spend too much time with the shuttle. Throw them down, they do not need to be exchanged in an orderly fashion," Miho explained and demonstrated once before motioning for Kuroko to start the test.

The boy nodded and started running on the whistle. Miho's eyes darted after the boy as he sprinted. He was slow. So excruciatingly slow, compared to someone like Aomine or Midorima. His running form needed some work and so did his footwork and leg movement.

Eventually, the seconds ended and Kuroko finally managed to run back to Miho.

Click.

"Twenty one seconds and fifty three milliseconds..." Miho let out a small sigh.

They were going to have to work on this for a bit...

.-.-.-.

"Alright, we'll end here for today! Good work!" the captain shouted and the members of the first string filed out of the gym.

Aomine caught the ball and turned towards Kuroko, who was panting heavily and leaning against a wall, "Hey, Tetsu! You're staying behind to practice today too, right?"

Kuroko turned, "I'm sorry, I think I'll go home today."

Aomine sweat dropped, "Ah, right. Got it. Miho, are you coming?"

The girl turned as she handed Kuroko a water bottle and towel, "Ah, no. I've got some reporting and analyzing to do. And as well as a load of unfinished homework."

"Ah... I see..." Aomine laughed sheepishly as both of his practice partners strode out of the gym.

Momoi turned to her childhood friend, "Do you think he's going to be alright...?"

"He'll be fine. He managed to survive Miho's stat test today. He'll get used to it pretty soon."

.-.-.-.

"How is he, Nanase?" Shirogane asked.

Miho tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, "Ah...his physical stats are horrendous. A one out of ten—two at most. His speed is also horrifyingly slow although his instincts and reaction time are pretty good—an eight out of ten or nine. Observation and sports IQ wise, he's excellent. All that he really needs to improve are his physical stats."

Shirogane nodded, "First, we'll have to test to see if we can use him in a real match. This time of the year, our district always has the top ten schools participate in a tournament together. It's an informal competition, but the games get more heated than a normal practice match. This is coming up next week. Teiko usually stakes out two strong players—we place limiters on ourselves to make the competition more exciting. Our restraint this year is 'first years only.' Up until now, we've always rotated upper classmen into the starting members, but this time, it'll just be the five first year regulars playing. The second and third years will be on the bench, so if worst comes to worst, they'll be subbed in. However, if that happens, we'll demote any of the first years. And since he's a freshman, I'm going to have Kuroko play as the sixth man. However, if we can't use him, he'll be demoted immediately."

Miho let out a small gulp, "Alright. I understand. I'll train him to the best of my ability for this one week."

"No. He will be doing the same training as everyone else for half of the time and then training with you for the other half. It will be unfair if you train him full time. We'll be giving him too much of a chance. He'll need to learn and improve on his own as well," Shirogane stated.

Miho nodded, "I understand."

"Alright, dismissed."

.-.-.-.

"He's no good," Murasakibara stated, "even though it was his first day, wasn't that pathetic? I kept thinking about crushing him."

Haizaki agreed to this, "Ah, me too. Watching him pissed me off. He was obviously sucking up to Nanase so that she would baby him. Did you see her patting his back every time he threw up? Disgusting."

Murasakibara grumbled as he chewed on a snack, "I wasn't really talking to Zaki-chin, you know."

"What?! You picking a fight, fucker?" Haizaki glared and the two started their usual squabbling.

Midorima fixed his tie and let out a sigh, "Stop it you guys. But I can't help but agree with them when it comes to Kuroko. Is he really going to be alright, Akashi?"

Akashi threw on his shirt and closed the buttons, "Well, I thought if might turn out like this... Although it's true that there'll be problems if he can't keep up with the minimum practice. We'll just have to work him hard. Miho's going to be training him most of the time until he can prove himself in real matches."

"He'll be doing Miho's training regimes?! And you are actually planning on letting him play?" Midorima inquired further.

The captain, Nijimura, turned, "What? Akashi, have you not told them yet?"

.-.-.-.

Inside a small music café, Miho sighed and collapsed on the table after she finished her homework, "Ah...I'm completely exhausted... I can't believe I piled up so much homework..."

The bluenette barely managed to take out her basketball notebook as she placed her face flat against the café table with her glasses on. After finally finding the familiar leather cover of the notebook, she sat up and pulled it out. Flipping through the pages, she found Kuroko's section and then opened it.

"Ugh, there are barely any pages left in this thing. I'll ask Coach Sanada to give me another one tomorrow..." Miho made a mental note before reading her notes.

"Kuroko Tetsuya, height 155 centimeters, position...ugh...this is a lot more difficult than I thought," Miho grumbled and gripped her blue hair in annoyance. There just was too much mystery about that blue haired boy. She wasn't even sure how to start training him.

At first, her original plan was to finish the training menu first, before moving on to her homework. However, her mind drew a blank on how to help him. As far as she knew, he was almost at his limits in his physical ability area. It was difficult to create anything useful as a training menu.

"Welcome!" the café owner announced to a new customer.

Miho looked up tiredly and then widened her eyes. The boy that entered was none other than Midorima Shintarou.

Miho honestly thought that she was the only one who would actually come to a music café—a classical music café at that. Usually it would only be the old people that came here. However, because the place was usually quiet, she would prefer to study and do her homework here instead of at home, where the atmosphere was always depressing.

The boy turned and his eyes met the ones of the blue haired girl for a brief second before he turned away.

"I'd like a cup of coffee," Miho heard Midorima say to the café owner.

Strange, she didn't think that he would be the kind of person to drink coffee.

Annoyed that her thoughts were directed towards the boy again, Miho looked back at the notebook and was on the verge of ripping her hair out again.

"Well I guess he could just do some of the basic exercises... His footwork isn't actually that bad, his speed is just excruciatingly slow... Maybe it's because he's short...? But no, Sei-chan's short as well. God, he would kill me if he heard that..." Miho muttered to herself as she clicked the end of her mechanical pencil.

"Yes, he would," a voice confirmed and Miho snapped her head up to look.

"S-Shin-chan...why are you here?" the bluenette asked as the boy pulled the chair across from hers and sat down, placing the coffee by Miho.

"I like the music they play here," he stated before taking out some books from his bag, "it helps me concentrate."

"I see... Um...the coffee..." Miho pointed at the cup beside her

"They gave me the wrong order and you look like you're going to fall asleep. Anyways are you planning tomorrow's training regime?" Midorima asked as he started on his math.

"Ah... Thanks. And not quite...I'm planning Te-chan's regime for this week. It's not going too well," Miho smiled as she sipped the coffee. She knew that the boy had actually ordered the coffee—it wasn't a wrong order.

"Hm," Midorima simply replied and looked up to review the contents of Miho's notebook, "His stats are unsurprisingly low."

"He's an interesting player," Miho replied, knowing that the green haired boy didn't accept Kuroko that much.

"He's going to play in a match during the District Competition. If he proves to be unusable, he'll be demoted."

"I know that. I...was the one who suggested that," Miho replied.

Midorima raised an eyebrow at that, "...? I thought that you were the fondest of him."

"Yes, he's a really good friend of mine, but I can't let friendship dominate over victory..." Miho whispered, "I've actually been thinking about this for a while now. What is the meaning to victory? Why does everyone want to win? Is the purpose of our life to succeed and to win? I honestly don't get it much."

Midorima stayed silent as he listened to the girl's questions before slowly opening his mouth, "It doesn't matter. Humans should always put all their effort into something and never stop halfway. That is what I believe."

Miho's heart thumped as she watched Midorima speak his thoughts. She really liked this part about him. No matter what kind of thing it was, he would always try to do his absolute best. Sure, he was a weirdo with all those horoscopes and stuff. And sure, she would often disagree on many things with him, yet she still admired and loved so many aspects of the boy.

Smiling gently, Miho replied, "Yes. But, it is good to take a break sometimes as well. Don't overwork yourself, right?"

The green haired boy simply turned away at this, leaving Miho to smile to herself as she continued Kuroko's training regime and sipped the coffee that Midorima had bought her.

Ah, coffee always tasted the best when someone else bought it for you.

.-.-.-.

"You won't get lost if I don't bring you back home?" Midorima asked as the two stood at the train station platform.

"Shin-chan! I won't! I'm not that bad at directions!" Miho complained.

"You are."

Annoyed, the girl shook her head, "I've been here a million times already! Geez."

With that, Midorima let out a sigh before hesitantly voicing a question, "Miho, about Kuroko..."

"Hm, yes?"

"Do you...l-l-like him?"

Miho stared blankly at the flushing boy before blinking, "P-Pardon me...what?"

Shaking his head, Midorima sighed, "It's nothing. Forget I said anything."

Just then, Miho's train came whizzing by.

Getting on the train, Miho smiled, "Shin-chan...! The one I like—"

Midorima never got to hear the end of the sentence as the train doors closed and the train started moving away.

The green haired shooter just stood there as he wondered what she had said.

"That damn train..."

A/N: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke or any of the characters.

LOL. The super cliche train scene ahahahahaha. Okay. Sorry guys, I ran out of ideas, okay? Anyways, thank you guys so much for your reviews on the last chapter! They made me super happy and so this chapter came...kinda faster? Well, I definitely tried to write it faster for you guys! But seriously, those reviews were so sweet so thank you all so much!

As for the storyline of this prequel, the second quarter will soon come to an end, with a dramatic (not really) conclusion. There is only going to be one chapter left! Woot! I'm so excited to start writing the third quarter! Kise's finally going to appear. I'm going to really try and develop the relationship between Miho and Kise in the third quarter as well as the relationship of all the Generation of Miracles. So...expect lots of chapters there! And then the final quarter is going to be pretty short and it's mostly going to be the 'breaking apart' arc for the GoM. *sobs.

Okay, so I'm going to update this chapter, and maybe chapter ten, over christmas break. And then I'm going to spend two weeks studying for finals. After I get all my finals over with, I'll have another two weeks to write! Yay! So, I guess I'll see you guys then!

Once again, please, please review! I really love reading them and I definitely write faster with a lot of reviews! I really thank all of my constant reviewers-I love you guys so much! So thank you all for reviewing and please keep supporting me!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Please review and I love you all! 3

~Yuvi