"Ohhhh! It's starting!" Thankfully God still loved her. All eyes were now on court for the second half. Yuuki still felt the awkwardness from Murasakibara's last question.
"What will you do if Kuro-chin confessed to you naked?"
Yuuki shook her head vigorously, trying to push away the image of naked Kuroko handing her a vanilla milkshake with those empty eyes and blank face while confessing.
Damn Murasakibara!
Kise was holding his ice pack closely to his knee. The pain subsided but it's still there. He couldn't believe his knee was still in so much pain even though he was benched during the Kaijo-Shuutoku match to decide the second-runner up.
"I must say, they're doing a great job to still have that much fighting spirit in them," Kasamatsu complimented. Anyone would have been broken and already lost their fighting spirit with how the things were going at this pace.
"Fighting spirit is not enough." Koganei was creating a screen in order for Hyuuga to pull a three-pointer. "Well, that's a great start that the ball went in."
"But still, that's a reckless move." Trying to catch up from where they were left off, that's not even funny to begin with. "Don't they realize this by now?"
Kise smiled. "Sometimes, talent alone is not enough to win." He flashed back to how Yuuki drilled some sense into him during their Teikou years. "In certain cases, hard work beats talent."
As long as they're not giving up, the probability for them to win was still there, even if it's thin.
Kasamatsu listened to his freshman, before hitting him on the head purposely. "You're annoying! Enough with your philosophy talk!"
"Ehhhhh?!" Kise whined. "But, that was Yuukicchi's words!"
Naïve – That was the word that crossed her mind.
All those pretty talks about how Seirin could still pull off a miracle was nothing but a comfort to the ears and hearts.
"You really don't get it?" Yuuki rhetorically asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Let's put aside the Uncrowned Generals for a moment." Yuuki imaginarily drew in air. "Their biggest problem is Akashi."
"Aka-chin didn't battle sloppily. Even if he's ahead, he would still proceed cautiously, leaving no space for a slight mistake. He oversees the match until the end."
"We don't call him the Supreme Commander just for show. If you're not blind, you can see clearly the coach had not once call for time-out to give instructions."
"Wait, wait..." Okamura stopped Murasakibara from continuing. "Are you suggesting he had some more tricks to pull?"
Neither Murasakibara nor Yuuki admitted or denied it. Their silence itself told the answer to the question.
Nijimura touched his forehead. 'Sweat? In this cold stadium? I'm sweating? All that just by watching this match?'
"What's wrong, captain?" Momoi asked in a whisper.
"I never thought Akashi would be capable of this. No - I know he's capable of a lot of great things, but this Akashi – he's like a different person." Nijimura said after Mibuchi fouled Hyuuga into his third foul.
"Be grateful you're left before the demon awakens." Aomine said. 'While we all had three years to spend with this unpredictable, absolute emperor.'
"Uh-oh." Momoi tugged on Aomine's shirt. "What is he doing?!"
"He's losing it." Imayoshi shook his head as he watched Hyuuga reluctantly accepted his foul. "Seirin is doom." Right after he said that, Hyuuga received a technical foul – making that his fourth foul.
"Idiot."
Yuuki sighed. Her eyes left the court and travelled to the rest of Generation of Miracles. She could see Aomine and Momoi, Kise and Midorima. All of them were wearing the same expression – hopelessness.
She knew it. Apparently, from everyone's eyes, they were all thinking the same.
"Yuuki-chin."
"I know what you're going to say, but I wouldn't place my money much on him."
"What are you two talking about?" Himuro butted in. He can't help but be curious at how the two sometimes communicated telepathically.
"The zone." The purplette and orangette simultaneously said. "Every one of us thought the same thing."
.:.
"It's understandable. Akashicchi is so strong, and add three Uncrowned Generals to that – the pressure had quadruple. It's too much on Seirin's plate."
.:.
"It's the same as with Yosen match. The door won't open when you force it to open. It's a cruel place to wish for right now."
Yuuki and the Miracles could only share their sentiments in an inaudible manner as they watched how Akashi stole the ball from a helpless Kagami and scored Rakuzan another basket.
Takao looked to his left and right. "People are leaving the audience already."
"As expected." With that difference in points and skills, watching any further will just be purely pointless.
"But..."
"Seirin's player substitution! Black no. 11!"
That announcement struck the Miracles like a lightning. Their mouths dropped inches to the floor.
'Is he serious?!'
Momoi looked at her crush with almost-teary eyes. "Tetsu-kun..."
"I wonder what Kuroko is going to do now." Nijimura looked at his former teammate. The reliable phantom that helped Teikou several times in a pinch. "You said he lost his misdirection, right?"
Momoi nodded. Kuroko set up a screen as to free Koga from Mibuchi and he scored two points for Seirin.
"What could be the plan, I wonder?~" Imayoshi cooed, something that Aomine hated. It meant that his senpai knew more than he should.
"Shut up, four-eyed creep."
None of the Miracles would want to admit, but they actually gave Kuroko less credit than what he deserved.
"That's quite a plan."
Using Kuroko-Kagami combination as their base, Kuroko was pitted against Mayuzumi in order to make the latter, who was also the weakest in Rakuzan as the only shooter with the hope he would miss sometimes.
"Except that now it has reverse side effect." Yuuki pointed at the furious Mayuzumi. "No one likes to be made fool of."
Mayuzumi did score one after another. He had no intention to stop at all. Seirin fought back, just enough to not give up completely from this despair.
"That isn't the only outcome, silly girl." Masako eyed Kuroko carefully. "Look at him better."
Yosen and Yuuki obeyed. 'Huh?' Their eyes were wandering all over the court.
"Don't tell me..." Hayama was about to pass the ball to Eikichi, but the path was averted.
"He's back!" Yuuki hugged Murasakibara in joy, making the teen spilled his chips on the floor. "Tetsu's misdirection come back!"
Seirin went with a fast break right after Kuroko's steal. Kagami and Kuroko were running the two-man play all the way to Rakuzan's basket. Hayama marked Kuroko and ready with the possibility of Kuroko using his Vanishing Drive. Instead, Kuroko passed the ball to Kagami and the latter dunked it in, smashing all his pent-up feelings into it.
"Tetsu's amazing!"
"Yuuki-chin..." Murasakibara pulled one of her hairs gently, reminding Yuuki of her position.
'Uh-oh.' "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Yuuki immediately let go of the giant and frantically apologize. "I'll replace the snack! Don't kill me!" Yuuki bowed up and down with prayers from her heart. Murasakibara had never been super-forgiving when it came to someone messing with his snacks.
"Yuuki-chin..." Yuuki raised her head up finally. To her surprise, Murasakibara's face was glowing and rather...kind. She was utterly shock that she forgot Yosen was watching with a sly, mischievous grin on their face – the kind of grin that said 'I know your dirty little secret'.
'Oh shit.'
Aomine's eyes were twitching. Somehow, he accidentally looked at Yuuki's direction and the atmosphere around her really ticked him off.
More importantly, he didn't know why.
"Aomine-kun?" Momoi called. She received no response. "Aomine-kun!" This time, she yelled louder in his ear.
"What, Satsuki?!"
"Your thoughts, please?" Nijimura asked politely. "You know him better. He's your former shadow, after all."
Aomine sighed, not feeling the mood to comment. Therefore, Imayoshi took his place in explaining. "To be precise, he didn't get his misdirection back. Remember the Misdirection Overflow? The technique Seirin used to beat us in the first Winter Cup round? By making himself visible, he granted his whole team invisibility."
"In other words..."
"Kuroko was a dim light. As he learned how to drive and shoot, his light becomes brighter. Paired that up with Mayuzumi's misdirection, Kuroko stood out more than he should have in the first place."
"So, if he wanted to gain his specialty, he only needs to make the latest model of the phantom player stand out more than him. Simple as that, isn't it?" Imayoshi pushed his glasses up. His lips were curled into an amusing smirk.
"And with that in mind..." Nijimura left his sentence hanging.
It was the time to catch up to Rakuzan!
Midorima glanced over at Takao. Kuroko must be learning a thing or two from Takao, judging by how he charged at Mayuzumi.
"Is it just me or Kuroko didn't use his passing or drive?"
"That was on purpose." Midorima answered. "Passing aside, his drive will make him visible again." His eyes focused on Akashi. 'Did he already foresee this when he discovered Kuroko's talent?' "And that is not desirable for Seirin."
.:.
"Not to mention that both Kurokocchi and Mayuzumi had built-up resistance against misdirection because they already know the trick to it." It's a competition on who deserved the phantom-man title.
"Is that why he's switching to a pattern that Mayuzumi's not used to?"
.:.
"Even is they make it, and Kuro-chin is able to make something small, just with that, they won't be able to beat Aka-chin."
"What if, there's something to it?" Yuuki huffed. "Like, the zone's guardian just smiled upon him?"
Before their very eyes, Akashi was faced with an in-the-zone Kagami, who was determined to make this a win for Seirin no matter what.
A/N : Well, that's that. To CherryPop0120, thank you for the compliment ^^ AkaNeko-chan : Err...let's not get too imaginative, shall we? Lady Syndra : Yeah, jealous GOM is quite overrated, but never gets old hahaha