Chapter 38

I am so SO sorry for the late upload guys! I've been very busy lately getting my driver's license, doing school and life and the one chapter I always have had in advance disappeared somewhere along the ride. I hope to get everything back into order soon, one way or another, but please bear with me as I figure everything out!

Sooo~ The 6th day!

I apologize for any grammar errors that I have made! Read and Review!
Disclaimer: Mmh, you guessed it. None of these characters or all the arcs belong to me, they belong with their respective owners!

Earth~

"Ah, Kuroko. Is something wrong?" Lucy asked the little, blue haired boy, who was sitting on the sand, not participating in training, and sweating like a waterfall after the run. After all, he and Murasakibara had joined the rest of them, now they just needed Haizaki, but he was probably a lost cause.

His somewhat pained, blue eyes met hers and he quickly wiped some sweat off his forged, before feigning ignorance. "Oh, I'm fine." He said with a strange attempt at a smile.

She simply raised an eyebrow. "This doesn't have anything to do with you having to speed down halfway, does it?" She asked him. During the run they'd just had, where Murasakibara and he had joined, Kuroko had to go and run the ordinary pace, the one Haizaki was going at - if not a little slower - about halfway, a little after maybe.

When she heard this morning that the little boy wanted to join, she expected it already, that he'd not be able to hold out the entire way. It was no secret he wasn't the most fit person on the team.

When Kuroko looked away to the side, she had her answer. She sighed lightly and smiled a little, soft smile. "Don't think too much about it, Kuro-kun. No one else does." She reassured him.

Drawing circles in the warm sand, he replied with a mumble. "But I couldn't keep up at all." He said lowly, his breathing still slightly challenged from the recent run.

Lucy, in a sort of gesture of solidarity, also began drawing in the sand. "No, you didn't." She bluntly said, making the younger boy look up at her confusedly, wondering what she was getting at. "And that was to be expected." She added as she finished the Fairy Tail insignia she'd been drawing before looking at him and his even more confused expression. "Your strengths and weaknesses have a much sharper contrast than many others' do." She explained.

His expression adapted into a frown. "More sharply contrasted…?" He slowly repeated in an asking tone.

Seeing he still didn't quite understand, she figured she should elaborate on what she meant. "You see, let's take Sei-kun for example. Outwardly he doesn't seem like he has any weaknesses, right?" She asked the boy next to her. He shook his head and she smiled, that was the answer she'd been expecting. "Of course, he does." She said. "His problems lie in his height, for example. He has to be quick on his feet if he wants to steal a ball, because he doesn't have the long limbs Midorima does, for example and he tends to disappear behind the other and taller opponents. On top of tht, he can't always muster as much power as some can." She explained to the blue haired boy.

Kuroko nodded slowly, processing what he'd been told. "I see…" he mumbled.

Lucy continued when she figured he'd had enough time to absorb the information. "Then there's also the other end, Atsushi-kun." She said. "Now, of course he doesn't have the problems in terms of heights and power. Or, well… He actually does." She corrected herself. "Sometimes when he passes the ball to his teammates, he puts too much force into it - you must have experienced that too." To which he nodded silently again, listening intently to what she said. "So it can sometimes be difficult to receive and catch a pass from him," She explained. "On top of that, his height is very intimidating to others, especially with his long arms and sometimes somewhat visible muscles, so he often gets double-teamed and can be hard to pass a ball to." She explained as he nodded along.

It seemed the blue haired teen thought back on the matches they'd had so far and seemed to recognized what she'd explained and with a nod urged her to continue.

"Now." She said with a smile. "Your weakness lies in you endurance." She said. "You're simply not the type, who runs long routes and stays on the court throughout the entire match." She said, to which he responded by restarting his drawing in the sand. "But." She said, getting his attention back from the small grains. "Your strengths are quite noteworthy." She reassured him as she watched practice go on in front of her. "More so than anyone else on the team, you have your speed." She said and giggled when she saw him getting all flustered and embarrassed by her words. "If I'm not keeping an eye on you, it seems as if you teleport from one place to the other." She told him. And she wasn't even exaggerating.

Kuroko, although blushing and embarrassed, still managed to furrow his eyebrows, not quite believing what she told him. "I'm not that fast." He responded.

She raised a blonde brow at that. "It may not seem that way for you, but believe me when I say you are." She told him and looked back over the horizon again. "But speed isn't your only strength, you also have incredibly precise passes and unforeseen steals, which of course are aided by your speed, but also by your third strength - your low presence." She told him and raised her hands in the universal sign of giving up. "I know you hate it, but if you didn't have it, what would have happened to your basketball career?" She asked, urging him to think a little.

He didn't actually need to though, he already knew the answer. "It wouldn't have existed." He simply stated. The way he said it, it seemed like something he had told himself thousands of times in front of a mirror.

She nodded. "Exactly. Without your low presence those passes and steals would be as good and almost magical as they are, the effect simply wouldn't be the same." She followed up from where he left off. "Even your misdirection, which is the foundation of your playing style would be difficult if your presence wasn't as it is." She added. His whole style relied on unpredictability, which would disappear if his presence and speed combined didn't make it seem like he just appeared and disappeared like it did.

He nodded, the sweat and breathlessness had vanished sometime during the now quite long rant she had embarked on and he was actually physically ready to begin practice with everyone.

But she wasn't quite done with him yet. "Even though you know all this, it doesn't always help so much." She said, now speaking from experience. "Yeah, you can work on your weak points, but they can only get so much better." She said and smiled at hm. "Those 'so much' may actually make a big difference though." She reassured him. "But even if they don't, if you just help and assist, doing the best you can, no one can complain." She said.

"So I just have to do my best?" Kuroko asked, probably for clarification and reaching a conclusion.

She nodded. "Do your best at what you're good at." She told him. "And show everybody you'll never give up, no matter what cards life deals you." She added as an afterthought.

With a little smile, he nodded determinedly. "All right." He said in a way that didn't make her doubt he'd remember those words. He stood up from his seat and brushed sand off his clothes. "I'll never give up, I promise." He said and then ran out towards the court and everyone, who received him with smiles - when they realized he was there.

She smiled tenderly after the boy as he went away, not physically giving any signs of recognition of Kozo coming to stand next to her, although she'd registered it in her mind.

The Shirogane was also looking after the boy with a similar smile. "Remind you of yourself, doesn't he?" He asked.

She nodded, not taking her gaze from her previous conversation partner. "Yeah, he really does." After all, some of the thoughts he had, she had too, though it was more concerning magic than basketball for her. "It's the same for you, right?"

The adult man nodded in agreement. "A lot." He simply replied.

Later~

"Heartfilia! I've got an idea!" Aomine said from inside the building as he came running out after having been in the baths, looking around with a grand smile on his face, trying to find her.

Momoi next to her giggled at his slight stupidity. Lucy just smiled at it and shook her head. "Let me hear it then, Daisuki-chan." She called out to him, alerting him of where she was.

The grand smiled turned to them in an instant, making drops of water he hadn't bothered to dry off in his rush fly out in every direction. In this heat it probably wouldn't take long before it dried by itself anyway.

Now he'd spotted them and found their location, he set into a run to reach them. "I've got an idea!" He said again, just as ecstatically as before.

The blonde nodded. "Yes, we heard." She replied. "Spit it out then." She added.

"What if we do a tournament?!" He almost yelled, standing right in front of them and blowing up their eardrums. Almost.

"A tournament?" Momoi repeated questioningly. "Here?" She asked.

Lucy nodded to the hidden implication of her words. "I don't think we're enough people for a tournament, Daisuki-chan. We can barely manage two teams with just us here." She reasoned. "Well, unless you know someone around here." She added.

"I don't." He said, which made her do a shrug, which said 'Told you so'. But Aomine didn't have any intentions of giving up just because of that. "But it's not going to be a team-tournament either!" He said, clearly convinced this tournament of his would be a thing. "It's just going to be one on ones." He explained.

The blonde smiled at his refusal to give up, which was incredibly alike a certain pinkette she knew. And it wasn't the one next to her.

She gave him a single nod. "All right, that actually sounds like a good plan." She said as she stood up from the ground.

Aomine narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you mean with 'actually'?" He asked her suspiciously.

She completely ignored his question and continued with one of her own. "You haven't told the others, right?" She asked and didn't give him a chance to reply before continuing on. "We need to tell them so that we know who wants to join and can make a roster." She said, slowly getting as hyped as her blue haired friend.

"There is no need to worry about that." Midorima reassured her as he and basically the rest of the team approached them. How they had made it outside and so far without anyone noticing, no one could explain. "That has already been taken care of." He said as he handed her a piece of paper.

She read it over as Aomine and Momoi looked at it over her shoulder. On it was a roster, neatly lined up and all.

Akashi vs Kise
Lucy vs Haizaki
Midorima vs Aomine
Murasakibara vs Nijimura

"First one who gets three goals wins." The green haired teen explained. "Then the winners play against each other, and in the end there's only one left." He told them.

She nodded absentmindedly as she handed him the paper back thinking about her match-up, wondering who made hem. She didn't hate Haizaki - that wasn't it. He just.. Well, he was becoming too much, especially recently. But he was probably different when you play against him in a match.

The blonde looked up when she felt a hand land on her shoulder. "I'm sorry about the match-ups, Lucy." Nijimura said with a low voice as to not draw attention to the two of them while everyone walked towards the court, gathering around it. "It was arranged with wishes and… He wished for you, so…"He trailed off.

Lucy nodded and smiled reassuringly at the Captain. "It's all right, Niji-kun. I'll beat him for sure." She promised him.

"That's not exactly what I meant…" he mumbled incorrigibly. She knew that, but… "Give it your all and win, though." He said.

She nodded. "Yeah, you too." She replied as they reached everyone else, coming to a stop next to Akashi and Midorima. Momoi and Kuroko were sitting together on the other side. If she remembered correctly, none of them were going to be playing any matches. Which wasn't weird seeing as Kuroko wasn't an offensive, scoring type and Momoi really didn't play basketball at all.

So, the first to play against each other were Akashi and Kise. The two stepped out to face each other, at each of their sides of the court.

Momoi, who'd gotten up from where she sat, was walking towards the center of the court, moving along the mid-court line, ball in hand. She came to a stop in front of the two, who were ready to jump for the ball. Receiving a nod from each of the two, the pinkette threw the ball up in the air and quickly ran out of the court and out to her seat next to Kuroko.

Meanwhile, Kise and Akashi had already begun the match. Perfectly timed, something the blonde had learned through watching practice the first few days, he jumped just as the ball reached the top of its ascension.

Akashi, on the other hand, seemed to realize he had no chance to get the ball in this tipoff and stayed on the ground so he was ready to either defend or steal it once the blonde landed on the ground again.

Said blonde had seen through the redhead's plans though and with a quick crossover got the ball out of his reach, dribbling with his left hand and keeping it away with his longer arms.

But, as she had told Kuroko earlier, Akashi was quick on his feet and quickly me around and stole Kise's ball, already then being in motion and therefore having an easy time speeding up, whereas Kise first had to stop up, turn around and then he could finally speed up. However by then, Akashi had already passed the mid-court.

So now it was 1-0 to Akashi.

Kise ran up, grabbing the orange and black piece of rubber before it got too far away as Akashi retuned to his own side of the court.

The blonde's expression was determined as he looked at the redhead's unchanging one. "Tch, I wanted to see why you are the Vice Cap. Hope there's more to it than this." He told his opponent.

Akashi rolled his shoulders almost nonchalantly. "Do not worry. You have seen nothing yet." He reassured him. Besides, Akashi's strengths were most clear when he played with the team.

The blonde crouched a little, almost like a predator in the middle of its hunt. He began dribbling more forcefully as he waited for the time he'd get an opportunity, when Akashi's defense was getting a little lax. That was when he would strike.

Only problem with that was that he hadn't taken Akashi's stubbornness into account. She doubted that boy ever had his guard down in a match, he was always on guard, ready for every move, his mind spinning with possibilities.

Alas, Kise got impatient and in a move of impatience and aggressiveness charged forward. Akashi, ready as always, defended well against the blonde. He pressured his opponent, infuriating him, while ever letting him through either, which only served to frustrate the blonde further.

Which was all probably according to Akashi's plan, as the blonde made rash moves. Moves which made it easy for Akashi to once again steal the ball and score another goal for himself.

2-0 to Akashi.

Gritting his teeth together, Kise once again went to pick up the ball, holding it so forcefully his knuckles turned white. From where she was, she could almost see the gears turning in his head, as he tried to figure out a way to beat the redhead, score a single goal.

He adopted a little smirk as he seemed to figure something out. Once again he charged forward rashly, not even thinking about the fact that the hand he was dribbling the ball in made it much easier for Akashi to take it right out of his hands. And so he did when Kise made a strange move which almost made him stop up and run backwards.

Though the redhead stole the ball, he didn't get very far, before the ball was once again out of his hands and in the blonde's. Lucy raised a brow at what she'd just seen. So basically Kise had planned for Akashi to steal the ball and make him think he had the last goal in the bag, only to take it right out of his hands and speeding off to score his first goal. It was the exact same as with the first goal of Akashi's

So now it was 2-1 between the two of them. Though it was a strange way to score a goal…

And as Akashi went to the ball to pick it up, he also looked slightly impressed, though confused, but said nothing as he handled it with precision from one hand to another, probably weighing his choices. Suddenly, very alike what Kise had done earlier, the little boy shot into motion, dribbling the ball quickly into the ground and as he reached his opponent, he made three dizzyingly fast crossovers before rolling past the blonde, never even losing an ounce of his speed. He kept running towards the net, jumped up when he was close and used the board to land the ball in the net.

And so was their match concluded. 3-1 to Akashi. Well, honestly, as he was the Vice Captain and had much more experienced than the blonde was.

She saw Midorima cross Kise's name out and look up at her, his usually somewhat hard eyes softer than usual as he signaled she could enter the court. She looked back with a smile to the ones she'd been standing with, before turning, with the same smile, to Haizaki on the other side of the court. He was standing there confidently, with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

"Ready to get your ass beat, Haizaki?" She asked him as she approached the mid-court line, which was where he was standing at the ready.

His smirk only widened at that. "Yeah, if you'll do it, I'm all in for it." He said lecherously, which only resulted in her rolling her eyes and getting a sympathetic look from the pinkette, who was approaching with the ball. "Well, it's not like a girl like you can beat me anyway." He said haughtily.

Lucy straightened her back and looked at him offended. "Excuse me?" She said with a higher pitch than anticipated.

Meanwhile Aomine snorted from the sidelines. "Shouldn't've said that." He said as Kuroko nodded.

The blonde girl glared at Haizaki, who looked back at Aomine as if he was stupid, for a moment longer before turning to Momoi, who was ready to throw the ball with a determined gaze. She'd beat this guy no matter what it took now, she wouldn't even care if her inner Gajeels showed their ugly heads.

Standing side by side, they nodded for Momoi to throw it up in the air. Deciding it was time for some payback - an idea the Gajeel on her right shoulder got - she moved her own foot to hover over Haizaki's and without any hesitation, she stepped on it when she saw the target was nearing its peak and that her opponent was getting ready to jump.

While her opponent looked from his foot to her with a surprised yelp, probably shocked she'd do something like that. But she definitely would under the influence of her inner Gajeels, and before he'd returned to the game, she had already jumped and grabbed the ball. She landed with her back to Haizaki, whose foot was now hurting from her pushing off from it.

Without giving him any chances, she sped past him, doing a pirouette-roll and dribbling off towards his goal, scoring herself the first goal.

She turned to her opponent who was still complaining about his foot and smiled devilishly - completely taken over. "Aww, can't poor, little Hai-chan take some payback?" She asked him tauntingly.

The gray haired teen looked at her with wide, uncomprehending eyes. Probably both from her earlier actions, her words and how she so easily scored a goal. He turned to Aomine for help, but the guy only shrugged carelessly. "Told ya so, she ain't taking any insults." He told him, shuddering from the memories he had of the very same situations.

The blonde's opponent scoffed as the crowd watched on curiously at the development. It was certainly a side of Lucy none - except Kuroko and Aomine - had ever seen before now. The confused, gray haired teen went to pick up the ball, which had ended at the feet of Murasakibara, who handed it to him with one gigantic hand.

He turned around to face the blonde, which seemed to have flames raging behind her, almost as if they were reaching out to him angrily, wanting to burn him to ashes. The sight made him gulp somewhat nervously. As he began dribbling forward, suddenly that fiery aura seemed to disappear suspiciously and instead she looked at him with a look with a strange look.

When he came close enough, she out of nowhere ran at him, but not with the intention he'd thought. Instead of ramming him down like a bull would, she stuck to him, leaning in close as a hand ran down from his shoulder and down the arm which now held the ball completely still as he was shocked to the core of what was happening. Though also excited seeing as this was what he'd been aiming for since forever.

Figuring the tournament could wait, he looked at her face, which was incredibly close, and wearing one of those expressions he loved to see on girls. "Finally gave in to the attraction, huh?" He asked her somewhat huskily, not caring who heard.

She smiled at him. "Idiot." She then said frostily as she took the ball right out of his hands and ran towards the goal once again, not minding how her opponent suddenly was hit by the frosty blizzard of rejection. She threw the ball in the middle of her run, letting it hit the backboard before going down through the net.

She could hear Aomine laughing loudly in the little crowd they'd gathered along with a few snickers and chuckles here and there, all of which just boosted her and her Gajeels' confidence.

It seemed Haizaki now realized that maybe she was a bit tougher than he had first expected, what with her having scored two consecutive goals without any trouble whatsoever.

So as soon as he picked up the ball, he began charging towards the blonde and the goal behind her, intent on scoring at least one goal for himself, otherwise his dignity as a man would be completely gone. Of course he knew that she was much faster than he was, but he was stronger physically than she was and bigger, so he just had to use that to force his way through her defenses.

Well, he would learn a lot of new things that day, such as the blonde girl being much stronger than you would think. This he found out when he tried to just force his way through her, and she just continued to defend like she hadn't just been run into by someone, like he was just a fly and she was a window.

He gritted his teeth, if she could defend against him and his apparently not so superior strength with her very much superior speed, then there was only one thing he could do to score a goal. Unfortunately he couldn't steal Midorima's longshots, he could follow it though.

So he raised the ball above his head quickly, preparing to throw it toward the goal. Right as he threw it though, Lucy managed, in an effort to get the ball, to blow his throw out of its original direction just so that it hit the backboard instead. When they both ran for the ball, her speed once again showed its superiority as she easily caught the ball and ran down the court with him trying to follow after with what he got. And seemingly just to add insult to injury, she made a perfect 3-point goal from the three-point arc.

The blonde, with a bright smile, turned to her opponent victoriously. "Well, thanks for the match, Haizaki." She thanked him, seemingly back to herself again.

He just grunted in reply and made it out to the sidelines, sulking like a kid who hadn't been allowed to get a cookie from the can. Meanwhile, as she returned to her side, she was greeted by Aomine who was grinning widely at her, his hand raised in the air for a high five.

She delivered that high five and they both laughed. "Awesome match, Heartfilia." He told her. "You should'a given him a chance though." He laughed.

"Maybe I should have…" She admitted. "But this felt better." She grinned, to which he replied with an agreeing nod.

"I'm pretty sure some of the things you did out there wouldn't have been accepted if it had been a real match." Nijimura commented next to her.

She shrugged. "Probably, but he deserved it." She said without a doubt. She turned to Aomine, who was the next one to go play, against Midorima. "Come on Daisuki-chan, it's your turn." She said and pushed him out on the court.

Though this was a match-up of opposites, what with Aomine always staying near the ground and Midorima throwing the ball high into the air, and a very difficult match for the both of them, in the end Aomine came out victorious. And it was only because he caught the ball at the tip-off. None of them could take each other's balls, it just went unhindered from one goal to the other each time.

So that was a match quickly passed with the ace of the team the winner.

Next up; Murasakibara and Nijimura. Now this was a longer match. Though Nijimura was strong with drives and much faster than Murasakibara, the tall guy's defense was practically impenetrable. Fortunately - for Nijimura - Murasakibara didn't feel like going all out on his Captain today, so his usually actually impenetrable defense was not quite as impenetrable as usual. Likewise, his strong offense wasn't as critical either. That way, Nijimura got some goals in and thereby won the match.

So now the match-ups were as following:

Akashi vs Lucy
Aomine vs Nijimura

And so she found herself out on the court again, ready to face off against Akashi. She didn't doubt this'd be hard. As Kise tested out for everyone, it wasn't without reason the redhead had been chosen as Vice Captain of their team.

When Momoi threw the ball up, the blonde found that this time, the redhead aimed to go for the ball as well, so she wouldn't have to think twice about going for it herself.

Using a bit extra force, like she had when she played against Gray a while ago, she shot off from the ground and caught the ball before Akashi. During this match, it wasn't likely many words would be exchanged, both of them were focusing hard on the match they were playing.

She landed on the ground with her back to her opponent, who landed a fraction of a second after her, already on the defense. Feigning to go to the left, she quickly did a crossover and instead went right, running ahead towards the goal and barely scoring the goal with Akashi right at her heels.

Both of them were the speedy types with not as much power in their play as some, which was why this was quite difficult. Their playing style was quite similar.

As she quickly returned to her end, the redhead picked up the ball and faced her. Without a moment's hesitation, he set into motion, dribbling the ball swiftly as he ran towards her just as fast. When he was close enough, she also began moving forward, pushing the ball out of his hands and behind him, where she caught it and ran forward, back where he came from.

Unfortunately Akashi had already read what she had wanted to do and was prepared, so she didn't get very far before he took it back from her and proceeded to score himself a goal so they had an equal amount of goals. For now.

She went to pick the ball up and calmly dribbled it as she tried to develop some sort of strategy as to what she'd do. Figuring she could go for a three-pointer, she sped up into a run, going straight for the redhead. When she was just a few steps in front of him, she used her momentum to fuel her jump.

But with a force she had not known he had, Akashi set off from the ground and slammed the ball out of her hands, sending it bouncing on the ground behind her. He landed before she did and quickly went for the ball and a second later she landed too, turning around to find him having the ball under his control already.

Knowing she could still make it, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. And miraculously almost she ran fast enough to could catch up to, pass and be ready to defend against her opponent, who was running towards her.

He wasn't fazed at all with her sudden burst of speed, and as he approached her began doing confusing crossovers from hand to hand, between the leg around and behind himself, going faster and faster each time the ball bounced off the ground.

Trying to follow what was going on, Lucy tried to predict what he was going to do, watching out for his movements and how the ball moved. However as he was dribbling as intricately as he was, it was bound to make her stumble across her own feet and fall down on her butt, allowing him free passage to score the goal.

While she found herself surprised with what had happened, she suddenly saw a hand in front of her face. Grabbing what turned out to be Akashi's hand, he helped her up in a show of genuine and true show of sportsmanship. She gave him a quick thanks and a smile as they each went their way, Lucy to pick up the ball.

She had to really play her A-game now if she wanted to win. Akashi couldn't even score a single goal, then he would win. And she still needed to score two before she won. She'd probably have to draw in hints of the basket Gajeel wanted her to play…

Like him, this time she didn't hesitate as she charged down the court and all the way to where he was defending - or rather a little in front of that, seeing as he intended to pressure her. However, with what she had in mind, moving a mater backwards didn't mean much. A few steps in front of him, she jumped into the air and hurled the ball towards the net with no arc at all on the ball's route. That was the first out of the two goals she had to score… This was the deciding ball in their match.

He picked the ball up and got it under control as he dribbled the ball almost determinedly from where he stood underneath his net. Both knew they had to put their all into this one.

Their eyes locked and then both ran towards each other. When they were within three steps of each other, Akashi suddenly rolled to the right, but she had seen that one coming, so she snuck it out of his hands while he spun around and continued forward. He quickly caught up to her, running alongside her, before he passed her - just as she had him earlier - and stood defense right in front of her.

She had to think unpredictably, Akashi figured everyone out. What'd Natsu do in this situation - the most unpredictable person she knew? Right… She knew what to do.

As she approached, she didn't even consider doing any faints, rolls or strange dribbles to get past Akashi, instead she picked the ball up in her left hand and as she began moving to the right, she threw the ball up in the air, high above Akashi, passing to herself that way, as it came right down into her hands on the other hand of the poor, confused redhead. She immediately jumped up before he got to terms with her strange pass to herself and scored her final goal.

Landing back on the ground again, she found this match truly had been quite exhausting on her. And her opponent too it appeared as she looked at him, where his red bangs were clinging to his forehead. "Thanks for the match, Sei-kun." She said, her voice affected with the tinge of breathlessness she had after all the fast running.

He nodded. "Yes, indeed." He agreed, looking down as he seemed to catch his breath, before looking back up at her again. "I was not aware you could play basketball so well, that practice you do with Daiki and Tetsuya must is paying off." He commented.

She nodded as they both made it back to the sidelines. "Yes, well. I guess it does." She agreed. That, the basketball she did on Earthland and even the training she did with Gajeel. Probably a mix of all that.

Next up were Aomine and Nijimura. And as was expected of a match between the Ace of the team and the Captain of the very same team, the match was an exciting one. They were almost evenly matched, throughout it all, and it was very long too, stealing the ball from each other, good defenses. But ultimately the winner was named, and it was the Ace.

Lucy vs Aomine

So now she was to play against said Ace. They grinned at each other when they met at the center of it, Aomine still sweating and ready after the match he'd just had. This was going to be tough, especially because she and he knew how each other played after having played against each other so many times when after practice had ended back at Teiko. But just like it always was then, this would be fun to do.

Momoi threw the ball up in the air and left the two alone on the court. They both jumped at the same time after the ball - just as it reached the peak - but with Aomine already being warmed up and all, he was the one who caught the ball. Not to forget his annoyingly long arms.

Lucy quickly ran after him as he hurried towards her goal, coming to defend in front of him. When he moved to feint to the right, she read it and moved to the left, blocking whatever he had in mind to do. Then he moved to the left again, hoping to create an opening there, but once again, she followed. Expecting he would go back right, she wouldn't fall for the feint he gave. But to her surprise he went left again and drove past her.

She wouldn't let it be there though, so she quickly reached out and hit the ball out of his hands and towards herself. She then proceeded to speed up, going down the court. Hearing the blue haired boy right behind her, she jumped up and threw the ball, a little away from the three-point arc. Her first goal of the match.

Now he started with the ball again and all she could see in the way he was holding it and the fire burning in his eyes, was that he was thoroughly excited with what was going on. He shot forward in a burst of speed while she wasn't entirely prepared, blowing right past her and scoring a goal for himself.

She scoffed as she went to pick up the ball. That was rude of him, just going on ahead while she wasn't ready. She turned around to see him smirking at her. He was fully aware what he'd just done was rude as hell.

She glared halfassedly at him, setting into motion towards him. If he could do it, so could she. With that, she sped up even more, approaching him faster. Trying to do evasive actions to get around his defenses, she did an ocean of different dribble-combinations, but none of them worked. His defense was firm. Finally, getting irritated with him, she jumped backwards as she threw the ball at the net.

However Aomine reacted faster than she had expected and jumped up, catching the ball in one hand. Landing roughly on the ground, he began running forward, her right beside him, towards her net. She tried to fish for the ball several times, but he always got it out of her reach right as she thought she had it - as if he was teasing her. Which he probably was, knowing him.

As soon as they came within the arc, she began pressing him as far away from the net as possible - he usually didn't even attempt to score outside it. The pressure went as far as to the very edge of the court, almost, as she continued to press him down towards the edge of the court. He, realizing he probably wouldn't get through her, and that getting all the way down to the edge would mean he didn't have any chances at scoring, threw the ball from the already impossible angle he was at.

When the ball began circling around the hoop, they both ran to stand right underneath it to hopefully get the rebound themselves. Luckily for Aomine, that wasn't necessary and Lucy caught the ball as it fell right down into her hands, through the hoop.

If she wanted to win this… Aomine wasn't the same as Akashi, she knew that. As the game proceeded, he would continue to get better and better, therefore she couldn't just do as she did with the redhead. Aomine loved the game more than anyone else, he'd never tire out. She needed to do something more than that to beat him.

"Well.." She mumbled to herself. "It's about time I showed you my trump card, isn't it, Daisuki-chan?" She asked him, planning her battle plan already.

"Your trump card?" He asked her confusedly as he returned to the other side of the midcourt. "You have a trump card?" He continued.

"This'll make you proud, Gajeel." She mumbled to herself. In a moment's notice, she adapted 100% to the aggressive playing style which plagued her guild. She crouched low, lower than she usually would, her mind completely in the game - more so than it was before.

In what to Aomine seemed like a flash of speed, Lucy set off the ground and towards him, dribbling the ball furiously between her hands, taking a page from Akashi's book. She first made a feint to the right, then to the left, approaching her opponent all the while. He tried to follow the best he could and when he recognized the move she did with picking the ball up in her left hand, thinking she'd throw it above him like she did the redhead earlier, he was surprised to find she instead passed to herself by throwing the ball into the ground between his legs and catching it on the other side.

She was almost right underneath the net, when she threw the ball up, let it run by the backboard and then down through the net cleanly.

The blonde ran back to her half as the baffled blue haired boy went to pick the ball up again. While he was surprised, when he turned to her again, it seemed he had just accepted it for now, as that was the best he could do in the middle of the match, to up his chances of scoring the final, deciding goal. If he didn't, then she did after all.

When he spurred into movement, running towards her and her goal, she ran to meet him somewhere around the midcourt line, a little behind it. She put as much pressure on him as she could muster, pushing him further and further back. With quick and precise movements, he managed to get past her though, running towards her goal.

She was quicker though, and quickly stole the ball, running towards his goal instead. With this, he sprinted as fast as he could - which was fast with the running in the sand he'd been doing with her - and came to stand in front of her.

She wasn't fazed in the least though. Even though he stood steadily there, protecting his goal, she didn't move to any of the sides. She had a plan. When she got so close she would have normally done something to come around his defenses, she continued forward a few steps more before she with the momentum she acquired from her run and with a powerful push into the ground with her whole body, she jumped high into the air, above Aomine, and all the way to the net, where she slammed the ball down through.

She landed on the ground with a smile, as she looked to Aomine. "Guess it's my win." She said as she unceremoniously dumped all the way down to lie on the ground, more exhausted than she'd been for a while now.

Aomine took quick steps towards her, looking down at her with wide, impressed yet shocked eyes. "Where… In the hell… Did you… Learn to play… Like that… Heartfilia?!" He asked her breathlessly, which made it lose some of its otherwise quite strong effect.

She looked up at him with a raised brow. "What? You expect me to… Just twiddle my thumbs… When I'm not with you?" She asked him sarcastically, somewhat less breathless than him.

The words made him fall to the ground as well, lying next to her. "Guess not." He said. Though all she could see was his feet.

And smell them too. "Your feet stink, idiot." She said. Which sent the both of them out into a fit of laughter, for absolutely no reason at all. Does exhaustion rob you of humor?

'Kay, 'kay I'm ending it here.

All right, so first, let me apologize again for the late chapter, I'm so sorry! I will first reply to your reviews from the previous, and this one if there are any, tomorrow, I am simply too tired to do it today. This chapter isn't proofread either.
Well, I guess that's what writing 3.300+ words in a school day does to you…

Either way, I hope you liked this little tournament and her chat with Kuroko! I've been wanting to do something like this for a while, and now I finally got the chance. It got a little longer than expected - which is why I skipped over some of the matches. Especially Nijimura and Aomine's match, I'm annoyed I had to cut that one short too :/
Either way, hope you liked it~
And of course, for now the only reason she beat them so 'easily' is because none of them really have developed the skills they do when they get older yet (Forgetting Kuroko). Aomine, Kise and Midorima are well on their way, likewise with Akashi, Murasakibara and I guess Haizaki too.

But yeah, I'll end it off here. Hope you liked the extended chapter though it's late~

Thank you to all who has read, followed, favorited and reviewed! You're awesome support, guys!

~Line464d