A/N : I've had my share of fun writing this chapter. Maybe because I inserted more Yuuki moments instead of basketball scenes? Hahahaha. Anyways, sorry for the late update. I'm just on my way of recovering from my fever, so, yeah.
TI : Glad to have ya back here~
"It's starting." Everyone's attention was back onto the court. "That...!"
"A 2-3 zone," Aomine finished Momoi's hanging words. A formation that Yosen used before, with Murasakibara's covering all of the the inside as the center. Except this time, Seirin used Kagami as a center since Kiyoshi's already out for the count. They're running out of tall players.
Yuuki knitted her eyebrows. "Just because he has the same potential as Miracles doesn't mean he has the same build as Atsushi." There was already a noticeable difference in their height. With Murasakibara in crushing mode, the power and speed just added more to the odds' side.
Aomine sighed. "If it's any mediocre teams. But, it's the Seirin we're talking about." They really ignored everything regarding the inside and went protective like hell on the outside. 'They really trusted that Bakagami.'
Yuuki's lips twitched when she heard Aomine's. "Isn't that a bit of an overstatement?" Yosen's number 5 was making a high pass to Murasakibara for him to make an alley-oop. "Look. He couldn't even budge Atsushi." Instead, Kagami was pushed aside with Murasakibara's overwhelming strength.
"The reason Seirin could hold up up until now is because of Tetsu-kun's Phantom Shot." Just as Momoi finished saying that, Kuroko returned the points they lost back using his shot.
"I think I'm beat." Momoi and Aomine looked at Yuuki, both were raising their eyebrows. "I'm tired watching this match."
"You're leaving?"
Aomine's question was left unanswered when the three of them heard the announcer announced the one-on-one between Himuro and Kagami. Once again, their attention returned to the court.
For a moment their gaze left the court, Seirin's all-man defense crumbled when Himuro managed to break into the formation and was dribbling all the way to score, but Kuroko stopped his track. Himuro, instinctively retracted back and composing his gaze after the sudden failed attempted steal from Kuroko.
"I saw Ki-chan!" Momoi's eyes locked onto a blonde, standout-looking hair colour. "Ah! Kaijou's here too!"
Yuuki reached for the cellphone to browse the net. "Kaijou's match is next."
"Against who?"
"Fukuda Sogo Academy." Yuuki flipped shut her cell and shoved it back in her pocket coat.
"And if they won, the winner of this match will be their opponent?"
Yuuki nodded. "Another clash of Generation of Miracles."
Flashback
"So, why did you dislike me?" Kagami asked when he shared a table with Yuuki at Maji Burger, due to the place was crowded.
Yuuki choked on her piece of chicken nugget. Immediately, she reached for her drink, washed the piece down, and rubbed her chest in pain. "Did? I still dislike you. Please don't use a past tense."
It's Kagami's turn to choke. Now he knew what it felt like to be on the verge of being unable to breathe
"Just tell me the reason why already!"
"This won't go to Tetsu, right?" Yuuki's insensitive at times, but she wouldn't like to severe the friendship with Kuroko because of one petty, imbecile idiot who couldn't keep secrets.
Kagami just nodded. Curiosity really got the best of him.
"You called it teamwork, but I don't see it as that. For me, it just looks like you're using Tetsu."
"Hah?" His face looked more idiotic by each seconds passed. "That's all? That's cheap!"
"I know that basketball ain't a sport of one person. And it's the sport that utilizes everyone's abilities and functions." She slurped her drinks some more. "But, just admit it, without Tetsu, Seirin is hopeless even if they had you in the team."
"So, that means, you hate Seirin as well?"
Yuuki nodded. "Just not as much as I hate you. Oh, by hate, I mean dislike."
"The hell?!" Kagami's cursing words earned them a bad reputation, especially from the parents who were busy covering their children's ears.
"You lost to Aomine, who played basketball like he's the only one matters. But, the difference between you and him is he does it because he can, but you!" Yuuki pointer her fingers rudely at Kagami. "You need Tetsu in order to do it."
Kagami was silenced. Either Yuuki was right, or he just refused to admit the fact. It's probably both.
End flashback
Himuro's already scored using his Mirage Shot. "He did it again." Yuuki's already face-palming. 'That idiot really learns nothing – from his past or from our conversation.'
"What do you mean?"
"The trick to Mirage Shot is the timing. And speaking of timing..."
"That bastard knows about his shot better than Bakagami." Because of that, Himuro could easily decided whether to create a shadow using the first shot and throw it later or just throw it without creating any fake.
Kuroko tried to gain the lost points using his Phantom Shot, but...
"If you add that counter attack from Himuro-san and Tetsu-kun's failed shot just now..."
"Seirin's gradually falling in terms of offense and defense."
"Still, I don't understand what you mean by Kagamin doing it again, Yuuki-chan."
Yuuki took a deep breath. "To cover the whole inside with that build, either you have a plan or just plain stupid." If the opponents managed to break the outside's defense, scoring a basket with just one-man defending it would be easy.
"Judging from how Bakagami reacted, his plan would probably..."
"How to enter the Zone." Kagami sure got himself a plan, but he probably forgot that Zone is not a place where you could enter and leave as you wish. "So, practically, he's an idiot." A big one to top it off.
Momoi just let the two did the talking as the Seirin's ball went out of bounds, which was caught by Kise who was standing there. It looked like they were chatting about something serious, because it got Kagami to have that why-didn't-I-do-this-sooner sort of face.
"Looks like the idiot you two were talking about is finally back to himself." Seirin even called a time-out to regroup and reform their strategies.
"Hm." Aomine's looked at the remaining time left. About six minutes or so. "About time."
"I think I'm gonna get some air."
"But, it's the climax, Yuuki-chan!" Momoi's asking frantically without a reason.
"Don't worry. I'll be back in a minute or so." Yuuki turned around, but not before she glanced at Aomine, and then at Kise. Finally, she let her feet walked their way out. 'Does it really bother you two about Seirin's losing?'
Her face was blank. Until, when she reached somewhere along the hallway with a junction, she heard someone screaming like hell.
'The heck?!'
Without any instruction from her brain, she was walking briskly to the direction where the voice came from. She finally arrived at the doorstep when she was about to twist the doorknob.
'That voice..?'
Yuuki found herself to be standing dumbfoundedly, eavesdropping at the conversation between Kiyoshi and Riko. Her grip on the doorknob tighten even more when she heard the last bit of their conversation. Turning around, she left the two and made her way back to the court.
"What did I miss?" Yuuki placed herself between Momoi and Aomine. The score's still siding with Yosen.
"That was fast."
"Kagamin's entering the zone and he blocked Muk-kun's dunk." Momoi answered it with complete seriousness in her voice.
"Well, that's quite a thing there."
"Whatever. Since he's in zone, I'm curious to see how he'll play from now on."
Yuuki rolled her eyes. "You've played against him last time."
"That's different, idiot!" Aomine hit Yuuki's head. "I've wanted to see him from this point-of-view instead of the opponent's point-of-view.
Yuuki just scoffed. "Whatever you said, aho! Just don't forget one thing." Yuuki focused on Himuro. "Kagami's not the only one awakening."
Using consecutive fakes to free himself from the triple team by Izuki, Hyuuga and Kuroko, Himuro's finally in a one-on-one with Kagami once again. Aiming to shoot using his Mirage Shot, Kagami jumped to block it. Himuro changed the timing by creating a shadow from the first shot to bait Kagami, hoping that Kagami would probably landed on his feet by the time the real ball will be released from Himuro's hand. But, it didn't happen. To everyone's eyes, it looked like Kagami was flying and thus, he easily block Himuro's shot.
It's Seirin's time to counter-attack. When Kuroko's finally got the free ball in his hand, he dribbled it all the way to Yosen's basket, which was already guarded by its players. Hearing Kagami's call from his right side, Kuroko passed to him, enabling Kagami to score a three-pointer.
"With him being in the zone, it changed the atmostphere completely." The match that seemed hopeless had been lighted up again. Nobody could really predict the outcome. It wouldn't really surprise anyone if one of the two won.
"It's incredible." Momoi looked disbelief. She knew that Kise and Midorima acknowledged Kagami's potential, thought the latter refuse to admit it. But now, she totally could see why they said that.
"To be flying is one thing." Murasakibara planned to dunk using his signature move, the Thor's Hammer, but Kagami blocked not only the ball, he even caused Murasakibara to fall down. "And to stop that insane power from Atsushi is another thing."
"In order for Yosen to win, they need someone who can enter the Zone too. Mukkun or probably Himuro-san..."
"Maybe." Aomine's voice was flat. "But I doubt that would happen."
"Eh?"
"Minimal requirements to enter the zone would be, you have to bet everything on the game. Something like a death-game. And for someone like Murasakibara, who never ever really takes basketball seriously and is only playing it just because he's good at it, he would probably never open the door to the Zone."
"What about Himuro-san, then?"
Yuuki and Aomine didn't answer. But, Aomine knew that Himuro was a special case.
Each second felt like eternity for Yosen as they witnessed the rise of Seirin, thanks to Kagami-in-the-Zone, but those eternity-seconds were temporarily paused when their coach asked for an urgent timeout.
"Three minutes left."
"And there's only six-point difference." That shouldn't be hard to catch up with this current flow.
"Quite naïve if we really think that." Aomine and Momoi looked at Yuuki. "Atsushi – spare all of love for basketball aside, he's still one of the Generation of Miracles. It would be a mistake to be too overconfident."
"Even if you said that, Yuuki-chan..." Momoi pointed out the Yosen's bench. From where they were standing, high tension could be felt. Their coach could be seen holding a shinai - a sword used in kendo - and she's ready to kill someone with it, too. "I wonder what they're arguing about." The high pressure rose up even more when Himuro punched Murasakibara.
"That's gotta be a serious internal fight."
"I'll admit it." Yuuki and Momoi turned to the tanned. "Himuro is good. His skills are on par with us. But, he's not at that level where the prodigies reside. In short, even if he resembled one, he would never be one."
"Dai-chan. Yuuki-chan."
"Hm?"
"Have you ever seen Mukkun's tying his hair?"
Both shook their head. "It's not like it's necessary, right?" Yuuki immediately regretted those words. "Or maybe I'm wrong this time."
"He looked different." His aura was far more serious than anyone's could ever imagine.
"He actually looks kinda handsome." Aomine and Momoi gave Yuuki a look. "What?"
"Did you actually said that?"
"You have a crush on Muk-kun?!"
"Duh. Who doesn't?" He's tall, strong and fluffy – well, at least his childish behaviours when it comes to his snacks are. "More importantly, who doesn't have at least one crush on the famous Generation of Miracles?"
Hearing that, Momoi and Aomine blushed. Probably because one did have a crush on the phantom sixth man and another was one of the Miracles itself.
Yosen went with a screen play after the time-out ended, thus giving Himuro a chance to penetrate Seirin's inside and was about to shoot his Mirage Shot. Unknown to everyone else, he actually just used his shot as a bait to lure Kagami and then passed the ball to Murasakibara. Kagami, who was still in the Zone, jumped to block Murasakibara, who was changing his ball path and passed it back to Himuro when he saw Kagami's reaction.
And then...!
"Finally they got their shit together." That was quite a comment from Aomine. He did look amused too.
"Kagamin as a PG?" Momoi's shook her head. "He doesn't have a talent for that." He's not Kiyoshi, that's for sure!
"No." Aomine looked at the court intensely. "He's just a decoy." The Touou's ace was right. Seirin returned the favor by copying Yosen's play. "With Kuroko losing his touch, they're depending on Kagami to make all the shots."
"Which basically means, they're useless without their rookie duo." And to think the fame was showered on the team itself, instead of the players.
Less than two minutes left, but both teams showed no sign of giving up. They're going into a point war.
"Seirin's going to lose, right?" Yuuki flatly mentioned. "They've been at two-points gap since back then. Kagami looks like he's at his limit, too."
That's what everyone thought, until they heard the announcement for Seirin's subs.
"Don't tell me...!"
"Ah. The losing dog's back."
Aomine gave Yuuki an increduous look. "Do you hate him that much?" Aomine really couldn't shrug the feeling that sometimes Yuuki have multiple personality disorder. One time she could encourage and another time, she could just insult people with no guilt found on her face.
"What do you think?"
The teen didn't answer. He didn't want to know the answer anyways.
The last fifty seconds were starting with the same play which was Himuro and Murasakibara exchanging passes to bypass Kagami, except this time, Kiyoshi was there to mark Himuro. The raven-haired boy had already jumped to shoot his Mirage Shot, thinking he outsmarted Kiyoshi, but not realizing the latter's purposefully missed the first timing. This had given Hyuuga the time to block the shot successfully.
"It's a free ball." Seirin's already back on their feet for the counter attack. Kagami shot the ball once he felt the distance to shoot was close enough. Unfortunately, it didn't go in. But, lady luck was stll on their side. Despite all that, Kiyoshi managed to secure the rebound, who then made a pass to Hyuuga to score a three-pointer.
"Only one point difference." And the time's 20 seconds.
Both Yosen's and Seirin's not giving up. Murasakibara's even tried to force a dunk on Kiyoshi and Kagami now, but it went futile. Seirin, of course, went for a direct counter attack, but Murasakibara's already there to stop them.
"What's wrong with you?!" Aomine scolded Yuuki when he saw her shivering out of nowhere.
"I just got a sudden chill." 'What's this feeling?'
Apparently, Aomine just realized what she said. The goosebumps that he also got. He knew the feelings.
"You can't be serious." Murasakibara's finally entering the zone, making the last point to be even more valuable and a hundred million yen now.
"And what is that?!" Kagami jumped from the free-throw line to avoid Murasakibara's reach and smashed the ball in. This meant Seirin's finally took the lead with the score of 73 to 72.
"I know this is a drama, but this one is an overrated scene, don't you think?" Momoi's still unable to close her mouth.
Yosen's tried to make a comeback by Himuro's passing to Murasakibara who went straight for the goal. However, having a knee strain since he didn't stop jumping earlier, he couldn't even jump anymore. Hence, giving Kuroko the time to snatch the ball away and thus, completely sealed Seirin's winning with the last whistle blown.
"That was a close call." Aomine turned his head at the Yuuki. "Where are you going? Kise's match is next."
"Fulfilling a promise. And I highly doubt Kise'll lose." She replied shortly before disappering from his sight.
Murasakibara was about to turn away when he spotted an orangette coming to his way. "Atsushi!" That call stopped his track.
"You are...?" The rest of the teams asked, just for some manners.
"We went to Teiko together. May I have a moment with him?" The coach nodded and signaled everyone to leave, except for the lavender and the girl to leave.
"What?" Murasakibara asked half-heartedly.
"You lost."
"Hm." Suddenly, the tears wanted to come out again. "Is that all?"
"Tomorrow. 10 am. My place." Yuuki turned away from Murasakibara. "Don't be late."
"Why should I?"
"Strawberry shortcake. One more thing, you did look cool with your hair tied like that." Yuuki didn't have to see, but she knew Murasakibara was smiling after she said that.