Chapter 53

Heeere we goo~!
Also, I'm switching things up a bit, I'll explain further at the bottom~

I apologize for any grammar errors that I have made! Read and Review!
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, the man formerly known as 'Slowpoke' and the other one formerly known as 'Abra' have yet to hand their stories over to me. They haven't realized what a great opportunity that would be. For me.

Earth~

Lucy's eyes suddenly fluttered open from where she was lying. Taking a moment to fully wake up, she looked around, taking in her surroundings. Not so surprisingly, she was at the Winter Cup building, right outside of it. What was surprising though, was that there was not a single person in sight, who she knew.

Usually, as she had experiences these past few days, at least one person she knew was nearby. But not this time, for some reason.

Princess. She heard Loke's voice echo in her mind.

Her eyes widened in surprise, still facing the sky, dotted only by a few clouds. "Loke? Is that you?" She asked out loud, though she had no doubt it was him.

Yeah. There's something we need to talk about. He said in a very serious tone, which was so unlike him.

Lucy sat up properly on the bench she had been lying on, nodding despite knowing he couldn't see it anyway. "Yeah, of course." She replied, this time in her mind, as to not attract the many weird looks she was getting.

It's about what happened a few days ago. He told her vaguely. Back during the first day of the Winter Cup. He elaborated.

A few days had come and passed since that one 'fateful' day. The first few rounds had passed without much trouble. Everyone had made it through. Except Tōō , of course, for obvious reasons. Seirin had stumbled a bit, but made it in the end.

Not counting Akashi, she hadn't had any trouble conversing with everyone, who had been there, or their teams for that matter. Ever since, she hadn't really had the chance to talk with the redhead a lot. It wasn't like she couldn't have, but she hadn't run away from him either. Simply because she hadn't had the chance.

She really had to talk to him soon… This couldn't continue…

Either way, Loke completely disregarded the mental thought-stream she had - not that he knew she had it - and continued. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Did you mean what you said back then? He asked her.

She actually wasn't quite sure what he was speaking of at all, seeing as the situation she remembered the clearest was fluttering about in her head at the mere mention of that day.

Feeling her hesitation to answer and figuring it was because she was confused, he spelled it out for her. Do you truly believe you are weak, Lucy? He asked, everything around her silencing completely, so she could only hear his words. He didn't even use her nickname.

She sighed exasperatedly. This was really not something she wanted to talk about. Especially not now, where someone she knew could and probably would find her at any moment.

Can't we talk about this later, Loke? She groaned in her mind, practically begging him, really.

Likewise, the Lion Spirit also sighed. No, we have to talk about this. He firmly told her. Besides, it's either here or with Natsu eavesdropping on us. He reasoned with her, knowing she'd absolutely hate that. Natsu was so over geared sometimes, and with this, it would spell hell for the blonde.

She sighed deeply. Fine. She replied, defeated. However before she got the chance to actually tell him anything, someone slid in on the seat next to her, on the wide bench, closer than they had to be.

Well, actually she didn't really notice the other person's presence until an arm had found its way around her shoulders. Though, when she did notice, she also almost jumped a meter into the air, squeaking in surprise.

Her sudden companion chuckled at her reaction. "Two years and this is as easy as it's always been." The person said, the voice generally unfamiliar, but with a tingle of familiarity to it. It sent a shiver down her spine.

The blonde looked at the surprise intruder, trying to recognize him in any way. His hair was a dark, dark gray, basically black, pulled back in cornrow braids, reaching down to tickle the base of his neck. His ears were decorated by a pair of gray steel piercings on each and his eyes were dark and with an amused but almost evil glint in them. His features were strong and from what he was wearing and how he looked, it was clear he was one of the - many - basketball players around here. She couldn't see the name of the school on his shirt, it seemed to be on the back.

She couldn't recognize this person at all.

She frowned a little, confused. "Sorry, do I know you?" She curiously asked him. He sure acted as if he knew her. She was hyper-aware of the arm around her shoulders.

Unexpectedly, the guy just began smirking, as if her not recognizing him was nothing but entertaining to him. "You don't recognize me?" He said with mock disappointment. Then the cocky smirk sneaked its way to his face again. "Well, better remind you then." He said, his voice making her blood run cold.

When she felt the guy lean in closer, she scooted over to the other end of the bench quickly, away from him. This only made him smirk further, probably finding the situation funny. And in retaliation of her moving, he moved right with her, cornering her on the bench, between the armrest and the back of it.

She frowned at the guy who continued to invade her personal space, wondering what exactly it was he wanted with her. "Who are you?" She asked him, keeping at least a little distance between the two of them, with a hand on his shoulder. What was he hoping to achieve with this?

Completely skipping over her question, he grinned a bit wider. "Unlike back then, the age difference won't have aaaanything to say~" He said, drawing out the 'a' as he leaned in further, though found that her hold on his shoulder was tougher than it looked.

Lucy finally realized who this man was, and while her eyes widened in surprise, the very same surprise slackened her hold on him. "Haizaki…" She muttered, hearing Loke growl at the mention of the guy. That one really wasn't the Lion Spirit's favorite. And as if it mattered anything, he continued to growl like an angry dog at Haizaki, though he could not hear it at all.

Haizaki's eyes lit up. "You got me." He said in an uncomfortably low and husky tone. Having noticed the slackening of her grip, he took advantage of her momentary weakness, approaching her further. With nothing there to stop him any longer, he buried his nose in the crook of her neck. "You always were a challenge…" He trailed off as he began tracing disgustingly warm and wet kisses on her skin.

Now being in an awkward position, as opposed to before, she couldn't muster the same strength to push him back. All she could do was lean away from him, but even that was limited, with him having trapped her where he had. "Haizaki, please.. Stop." She said.

Though he heard her first two words, the last one was drowned by the sound of yelling. "HAIZAKI! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" One the two only could define as a male voice yelled, before the guy was yanked off Lucy, much to her relief, as she also sunk a little in her seat, releasing the tension she'd had.

I told you to watch out for them now, Lucy! Loke snarled in her mind angrily. He wasn't so much angry with her as he was worried she still didn't quite think they could do something like that. Hopefully, this would change that.

Haizaki simply chuckled at his capturer. "Oh, don't give me that." He said, eyeing the blonde girl again, amused. "She liked it." He said, smirking widely at the look she returned him with. She felt nothing but disgust at what had just happened.

She glanced up at her savior of the day, seeing a blonde mane, similar in color to her own, and caramel eyes glaring coldly at Haizaki. "I don't care how you want to think of yourself as high and mighty, just leave Lucchi out of it." He coldly stated, much different from the Kise she knew. Keeping the eye-contact, the blonde guy moved a little closer to Haizaki menacingly. "If I ever find you doing this again, I will make sure you regret it." He promised the other guy.

Haizaki wasn't fazed by it at all though, he didn't blink or even flinch the slightest at the animosity Kise sent towards him, he only licked his thumb while grinning, finding the situation entertaining. "Wanna take this somewhere else, Ryota?" He suggested, standing up, nose to nose with the blonde guy.

Kise narrowed his eyes at the guy. "We're taking it to the court." He told him sternly. 'The court and nowhere else' was what he was warning the other guy.

The black haired guy shrugged at the Miracle. "How boring." He said and began walking off, towards the Winter Cup building. He stopped up again, and looked at Kise with a gleeful look over his shoulder. "Especially 'cause you got no chance against me, and you know it." He finished off, before casually strolling off.

Meanwhile, Kise's team had caught up with their blonde teammate and Moriyama gently placed a hand on her shoulder, shocking her out of the conversation she'd been watching so intently, while Hayakawa yelled intelligibly after Haizaki. "Are you all right, Lucy?" He asked her, having, though from a distance, seen that guy force himself on her.

In a split second, she collected her composure, smiled and nodded at the Kaijo player. "Yeah, I'm fine." She reassured him, though she was still beyond shocked at what had just happened. Earlier, Haizaki had also been quite… Well, pushy, but not quite as much as he was just now… She hadn't thought he'd bring it this far.

Kise looked at his fellow blonde, brows furrowed in concern, but also confusion. "Why did you just let him do that?" He asked her almost accusingly, though confusion was what dominated his expression.

Lucy tilted her head a little as Moriyama quickly came to her defense. "What are you talking about, Kise? She couldn't have done anything in that situation!" He argued against his teammate.

Said teammate looked at the tall ladies' man. "Don't underestimate her, she's stronger than she looks." He said, turning to Lucy again, giving her a questioningly raised brow.

She sighed and nodded. "He took me by surprise and-"

"And she just can't hit someone she cares about." She was cut off, by someone who was most definitely not from Kaijo. "Isn't that about right, Heartfilia?" Aomine asked, approaching with his hands buried in his pockets, a bored look on his face as Momoi skipped right past him.

"Yeah… Something like that." She just barely got to agree, before she was attacked by Momoi, who had no qualms jumping over the back of the bench and landing on top of her.

The pinkette, completely forgetting their spectators and how this must be looking to them, she strangled the blonde in a tight hug. "Oh! That must have been so awful!" She squealed in worry for her blonde friend.

Instantly, Aomine hauled the pinkette off the blonde, seeing the looks her strutting ass was getting. "You just never learn, do you?" He asked, annoyed he had to do this every time.

"Aominecchi, Momocchi, what are you doing here?" Kise asked them curiously.

Momoi was the one to answer. "Well, we saw Haizaki sitting on the bench next to Lu-chan and knew what would happen. So we came!" She explained, before breathing out deeply. "I'm glad you made it in time, though." She said. Kise just nodded silently in response.

"That guy, Haizaki, he was from Fukuda Sogo, our next opponent." Kasamatsu commented, looking off towards the building, which he'd disappeared into. He turned his gaze to the two Miracles and the two girls. "You know him?" He said, mostly directed at Kise, his teammate.

Momoi nodded. "Yeah, he went to Teiko and played on the 1st string with us." She explained.

Aomine, keeping his hand in his pockets, looked up from Momoi and at the captain of Kaijo. "Around the second year, he was kicked off the team in favor of blondie over there." He told him, jabbing his thumb towards Kise.

The blonde guy sent a light glare in the blue haired guy's direction, before agreeing with his words. "He used to be on the one of the starting members too." He added.

Momoi looked down at her hands, as if ashamed of what happened. "He was very skilled, but…" She trailed off.

Lucy had a feeling of where the pinkette was going with that. "He was too violent, both off court and on it, wasn't he?" She asked with a sigh. "And he never showed up to practice if he could get around it.." She added.

Aomine nodded. "Exactly. Whereas Ryota showed up to training every time and kept getting better at the same rate as the rest of us. It was an easy choice." He concluded.

"I see…" Kasamatsu muttered, taking in everything he had just been told. "So if you know about him, Kise, you should brief us all on how to counter him." He said.

"Herr [yeah]! We'[rr] win thi[s]!" Hayakawa exclaimed, pumping his fist down as Kasamatsu gestured for his team to follow him.

"Be careful, Ryo-kun." The blonde girl ordered Kaijo's ace. "And kick Haizaki's ass for me." She added, furrowing her brows in irritation as the previous event once again bloomed in her mind.

Aomine eyed Lucy for a moment, then turned his dark, blue eyes to the blonde guy. "What she said. Don't underestimate him though." He added.

The pinkette pouted a little. "Yeah… Especially since you never won against him…" She said in a low mutter, only barely enough for Kise to actually catch.

He just smiled and laughed though. "Don't worry guys, I'll take care of him. I promise!" He promised them, waved and hurried off after his team, as Kasamatsu yelled for him.

"Well, we should probably go in and get some of the good seats before they're all taken." Momoi said, jumping up from the bench energetically, smiling at the blonde. "You're coming too, right Lu-chan?" She offered the blonde.

She simply just smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that'd be nice." She agreed, getting up from her seat as well, though it wasn't as bouncy as it had been with Momoi.

So with that, the three made their way inside the building, walking in silence before Aomine decided to break it. "Are you really all right, Heartfilia?" He asked her in a low voice, as if it was embarrassing for him to even ask a question such as that.

Lucy smiled a little, looking up at him, though he wasn't even looking at her in the slightest. "Yeah, a bit surprised is all." She reassured him. She should have really not have just dismissed Loke's, Kise's and Momoi's words when they all mentioned she should be wary of Haizaki. Though Loke's were more based on all of them. Damn overprotective Lion.

He nodded, accepting her answer even if he wasn't sure he entirely believed it. "I'm sure others have told you already, and that you know by now, but watch out for that guy. He never means good business." He said, still not looking at her at all.

"I know, I'll do my best." She reassured him. And next time, she'd know what to expect and have her guard up.

With that, the three found some seats which were just short of perfect, sitting at the front row where there was most leg-space and right next to the stairs, giving them a relatively easy escape at the end of the match. And, unlike with the Seirin versus Tōō match, this time it seemed they'd actually be able to hear some of the conversation going on between the players.

It didn't take long before the two teams were out on the court, warming up for the match, which was about to begin. Though it seemed Haizaki wasn't there in the beginning. He came right about when they were done with warming up. The blonde girl sighed internally. How typical of him, he wasn't taking this seriously at all. He had no doubt that he would win this whatsoever.

"All right! Are you ready?" The Kaijo coach, Takeuchi asked the players, aiming to fire them up, obviously, as they left to do the line-ups. "All that's left is to win! Go get 'em!" He called to the white and blue clad team, who entered the court, having a very determined aura about them.

Meanwhile, the other end of the court was suspiciously quiet as they also entered, clad in their red jerseys. Their atmosphere was silent but so, so heavy. It was strange.

The speakers whined for a moment, blasting everyone's eardrums, before they finally, after way too long, settled down again. "The 3rd match of the Winter Cup quarter finals: Kaijo High School vs Fukuda Sogo Academy will commence now." They announced.

"Lineup!" One of the judges yelled. "Let's have a good match!" He said ceremoniously. And with that, the match had officially begun.

Everyone took their spots, though not without a comment from Haizaki. "So.. At least don't pull my leg, you dumbasses." He said, directed at his teammates.

Lucy could do nothing but gape, especially as the person who seemed to be the captain just closed his eyes for a moment, then opening them again with a defeated look. Just what kind of team was this? Was it a team at all?

"TIP OFF!" The godforsaken commentator yelled as the judge threw the ball up in the air and the two tallest members of each team jumped after it. Luckily, it was Kaijo's center, who caught the ball, sending it right into his captain's waiting hands. "It starts with Kaijo's ball!" The commentator added, as if everyone didn't already know that.

If she had a choice to could mute one person, a single person, she was in no doubt who she would mute. On the spot.

Kasamatsu looked to Kise, to see he was strongly defended by Haizaki and that it therefore would be absolutely idiotic to pass the ball to him as it was right now.

Instead, he crouched down low and did a series of quick dribbles before driving past his defender. However instead of continuing to the goal, he sent the ball to Moriyama. "Nice pass!" The tall, narrow-eyed guy said, before he made one of his ridiculous unorthodox shots. It really was a wonder how he could actually land a hit with that, that he'd even have control of the ball with a throw like that.

"Here it is!" The commentator screeched into his poor, poor mic. "Kaijo started off with a sudden 3-pointer!"

Lucy barely heard any of his last words as she saw the dark look on Haizaki's face as he followed Moriyama with his eyes.

The ball was soon set into motion again, much faster than initially expected. "Fukuda's counter attack!" The commentator named it. "They're fast too!" He commented.

A bald guy on Fukuda Sogo's team received the ball and made a scoop shot, a shot with one hand, right over Hayakawa, who, of course, got pissed.

"As expected Fukuda returned it!" He yelled.

"Seems like it's finally Ryota's turn." Aomine commented as he leaned back in his seat, watching as Kise now held the ball and using his momentum, jumped right up quicker than Haizaki had expected it and completely copied the bald guy's shot, sending the ball of with one hand.

"SCOOP SHOT!" The commentator screeched into his mic.

Meanwhile Momoi pumped a fist into the air. "Whoooo! Way to go Ki-chan!" She cheered for the blonde guy, though her yell was basically drowned in the roar of the crowd and commentator.

"Wow, for real?!" One guest behind them exclaimed. "Right after he just saw the move… It's really amazing!" He said. Sounded like he had never actually seen Kise in action, because this was only the brunt of what he could do with his copying ability.

As Kise landed on the ground again, he sent a glare Haizaki's way. "Be more serious." He told the basically black haired guy. "Or was all that talk for nothing?" He taunted the other guy.

Haizaki smiled darkly and said something she couldn't hear from where she was sitting. Only the last part was she able to catch. "'Cause your style and mine are so annoyingly similar." He darkly replied. From that, Lucy concluded he'd probably said something along the lines of 'I really can't stand you' before and that he now would go and copy Moriyama's unorthodox shot.

And right as she was, when Haizaki got the ball down in the attack, he held it in both of his hands, jumped up and fired the ball off unorthodoxly.

The commentator went wild though. "That's… MORIYAMA'S UNORTHODOX SHOT?!" He asked, almost freaking out, you could literally hear how the chair he'd been sitting in scraped and fell again the floor at the sheer speed he got up from it. "It went in!" He yelled a moment later, when the goal was scored.

"Don't worry about it!" Kasamatsu quickly called to his team. "We'll take it back!" Unfortunately, when they reached the other end of the court and the ball was passed to Moriyama, as he attempted his signature shot, it was off rhythm.

"Ah~ no, no." Haizaki almost sang in glee. "That's no longer yours, buddy." He told Moriyama, who was just shell-shocked at what had happened, though Kise had hopefully told them that that was how Haizaki's power worked. That he stole the moves, rather than copying them, in a very literal sense of the word.

And like that… Gradually throughout the match, Kaijo's trademark moves were stolen from them and the basic movements were simply not enough at this level. This difference in amount of moves to be done, in the firepower alone, made the gap between the two teams continually grow throughout the first three quarters.

"The 3rd quarter is now over." The speakers announced as the crowd went into muttering to each other.

"Well…" Aomine trailed off, keeping a calm gaze at the match underneath him. "Shit." He simply said.

Momoi nodded. "This is going to be really tough for Ki-chan to catch up to…" She agreed, looking softly down at where Kise was kneeling on the ground in front of Haizaki, like he had in the matches they'd once played against each other.

The point difference was 'only' at 12 points… It could have been much, much more if Haizaki had really taken it seriously. So far, he had only played around with Kise, but made sure to show who was the top dog.

Lucy narrowed her eyes at the guy. "That bastard." In the duration of this match, she had truly come to understand why Momoi and Kise both had tried to prevent her from seeing Haizaki, which she hadn't either. And she was glad she hadn't.

"You sure talk big with that sort of skill." Haizaki patronized Kise, who was staring at the floor, seemingly at the verge of surrendering to defeat. "You're so bad that it isn't even worth trying." Which was the scary part.

Haizaki wasn't even trying. Yet, he was beating Kise so thoroughly, and his team as well. What kind of monster would he be if he actually tried? Went for the win?

Not much time passed, with the teams taking a momentary break between the quarters, until the match started again. "The 4th quarter is starting." The speakers stoically announced.

Kaijo started with the ball and as they ran down the court, Kasamatsu passed the ball to Kise, who was facing off against Haizaki again. In a desperate attempt to just do something, the blonde first began driving to the right of his opponent, but then rolled around him to the left at a high speed, before jumping up to finish it with a dunk.

"That's supposed to be the move Kagami used against him when they played their first match against each other at the beginning of the years, during a practice match." Momoi explained, perfectly timed with Lucy's confusion at where the blonde had gotten that move from.

Aomine grunted. "It lacks his usual sharpness, it won't land." He said, crossing his arms. "It's also idiotic of him to use it now, when he's already used it in the 2nd quarter." He added, to which the blonde could only agree as Haizaki effortlessly jumped up and pushed the ball out of Kise's hands, stating the very same thing.

"I'll show you an example of the move you just used." He promised Kise. And when the roles were reversed, Haizaki did just that, without a hitch.

"Damn it, this really isn't looking good." Lucy stated the obvious. Today she had just found that unless Haizaki changed, she really wanted nothing to do with that guy.

"Mhm… Although Ryota's career is still short, he's been collecting skills left and right just by looking at them once. His stock should be of a fair size by now." Aomine said, keeping his eyes on the two teams. "But there shouldn't be that many among those that can work on Haizaki and on top of that, that bastard steals it as soon as he has used it once." He said, probably mostly to himself. "He has been carefully picking his limited options and has finally started to hit the bottom." He said.

"And you deduced all this just from the fact that he used the same move twice?" Lucy asked, a little incredulously.

He looked at her with an amused and half-proud look in his eyes and shrugged. "I've known the idiot for a pair of years now, I know a thing or two about him." He reminded her. When he once again returned his eyes to Kise, that look in his eyes dropped. "But that's not the main problem here…" He trailed off, his voice dropping in volume with every word.

"Are you thinking of your match back then?" Momoi asked almost timidly, her voice light, but deep with worry.

Aomine nodded. "Yeah, I was pretty beaten up after that match, and there's no way Ryota wasn't too." He said and frowned. "And that idiot's probably just been working hard instead of letting his body heal completely." He said as Haizaki dunked the ball in over Kise, adding to the dramatic feeling of the mood between the three.

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows. Was Kise really not taking care of himself properly? She knew she could be a bit of a mother-hen with these guys, but she'd definitely make sure he'd take better care of himself, whether he win or lose this match.

"Two consecutive dunks!" The commentator screeched, pushing her violently out of her thoughts. "That's guy's incredible! He's totally dominating Kise!" He told everyone, though that had been quite obvious these past three quarters. Increasingly so, actually. "Doesn't that mean he's on par or above the Generation of Miracles?!" He screamed as if he'd really made a great discovery.

Meanwhile, Haizaki found it was about time to also mentally break Kise, now he was at it. "Oh, that's right. Even back then you were on the ground like that too. Right, Ryota?" He asked menacingly. "That's right, that's right. Didn't I also take your woman? What a pitiful sight, really." He smirked wider. "Well~ I just threw her away right after doing her." He turned around and looked at Kise with an expression that told her had just gotten the best idea in the world. "This time, maybe I should go for your precious 'sister', eh? I never quite finished earlier." He said and broke right into a maniacal laugh.

"Fucking animal." Aomine growled as he leaned a little further forward in his seat, as if ready to pounce should Haizaki even dare hint one more time at getting close to the three of them.

While the judge called out for Haizaki to stop his little rant, Momoi took a hold of Lucy's hand in both of her own, squeezing it tightly, offering her comfort. "Don't worry, Lucy-chan, we'll make sure he stays away from you." She promised her friend.

"Oh, don't worry Sat-chan." The blonde said and it was only now the pinkette turned to look at her friend, only to see a fierce, demonic, black aura around her friend, completely coating her in shadow, including her hair, which acted like Medusa's, except a pair of glowing eyes and a big, white Cheshire grin. The people around the formerly blonde girl also leaned away in fear, one even ran. "I can't ever forgive someone like him…!" She snarled, cracking her neck dangerously, her glare directed only at Haizaki, who also visibly shivered at it.

Though before any more could come of it, a distinct voice yelled his encouragement across the room. "KISE-KUN! I BELIEVE IN YOU!" Kuroko yelled from somewhere no one could find, due to Kuroko being Kuroko.

Lucy jumped up from her seat and pointed her finger accusingly at Haizaki. "YEAH RYO-KUN! YOU BETTER FUCKING BEAT THIS ASSHOLE'S ASS!" She yelled at him, dragging the blonde's attention away from the little, blue haired guy, who hid who knows where.

Kise looked alternately at Lucy and in the direction of where she could only guess Kuroko was. "Lucchi… Kurokocchi…" With a newfound determined smile on his mouth as he rose from the ground. "Let me say a pair of things before I beat you, Haizaki. You're misunderstanding about that girl." He said, bravely meeting Haizaki's dark gaze. "She kept bugging me and forced me to go out with her, but honestly, she was pretty annoying. She only ever talked about herself, all she wanted was probably just the status saying 'I'm going out with a model'." Kise admitted.

Haizaki looked at him with a raised brow. "And?" He asked challengingly.

The blonde's smirk only widened. "And I'm not worried about my sister at all." He told him, much to the whole court and audience's surprise. "You can try, but she'll take you down every time. Don't get so cocky." He said, before the ball was delivered straight to him.

Lucy still hadn't seated herself since yelling, and would have bounced right up again when she saw what Kise was doing. "No.. It can't be…" She muttered, her eyes widening almost comically.

Slowly, the blonde ace jumped up from where he stood, on the other end of the mid-court line, and pushed the ball right out of his hands and in a basically vertical angle. In true Midorima-fashion.

Within a second, the ball slammed right through the hoop without even as much as gracing it.

"No way! I thought he couldn't copy you guys' moves!" Momoi exclaimed in surprise, looking at Aomine with a wild look.

However the ace of Tōō was just as surprised by the turn of events. "He must have overcome it just now…" He simply, sort of answered her.

While the Celestial mage's mind was spinning around in surprise, she calmed herself down enough to come to a conclusion. "But moves from you Miracles carry restrictions due to their heavy toll, even for you, the original users. 5 minutes is what Ryo-kun's got at best." She said, more to herself than anyone else.

"I don't care what the hell you do with yourself or who you go after, right now I have a much more important promise to keep!" He told his former teammate. "I'll definitely get there… So don't get in my way!" He stressed the last sentence, his eyes glowing with whatever he had gotten into. It was not the Zone, but the step right before it.

"Perfect Copy." That was what she would call it, it was easy on the tongue.

Once again, Kise was given the ball from his teammates and without much hesitation, he leaned backwards and to the side, firing a formless shot right underneath Haizaki's attempted block.

"Uwooooah! Kise's amazing… No! He's too amazing!" The commentator yelled. "Kaijo's on a rapid comeback!"

"Don't give me this crap.." Haizaki growled before he zoomed right into motion, stealing the ball right out of his own teammate's hand and ran right for the goal, attempting another scoop shot.

"Dumbass, he lost it. What's the point of stealing from your own team?" Aomine voiced his thoughts out loud as Kise jumped up, making up for the height he lacked as he copied Murasakibara's reaction-time, intensity and last but not least, his block by hitting the ball out of his opponent's hands.

It was amazing really, this wasn't just a skill he could blindly rely on, to make it work, he changed some smaller things to make it possible. Jumping to make up for his lack of height and foreseeing what Haizaki would do, spending a little extra time to increase the shooting range, getting the same change-of-pace as Aomine by lowering the minimum speed.

But 'everyone' could make up for that, it wasn't enough to could perform the Generation of Miracles' moves, and this was where his little ability kicked in. Kise basically had a bottomless talent in basketball, especially now he found out how to do these moves.

And with another 3-pointer made by copying Midorima, Kaijo was once again the leading team in scores.

"Fuck." Aomine said, seeing the look of pure desperation in Haizaki's expression. And more specifically the smirk he sported when he once again had the ball, facing off against Kise.

In a fraction of a moment, Haizaki took advantage of the fact that Kise was hurting his leg from his match against Tōō in the Interhighs, stepping on it as he drove past the blonde, and aiming to dunk the ball.

Kise quickly got over it though. "I told you already… Don't you get in my way!" He yelled as he jumped up, once again pushing the ball out of his opponent's hands. "You're not the one who's going to win. It's me!" He yelled as he continued to speed down the court again, accepting the ball Moriyama sent his way and just barely managing to dunk it in before the buzzer sounded.

"Time's up!" The judge yelled right as Kise landed on the ground once again, leaving the score to be 75/72 in Kaijo's favor. He didn't even have time to completely get his balance back, before he was showered with hair-ruffles and high-fives from his teammates.

Momoi too jumped up and loudly voiced her happiness and congratulations, jumping around right next to Lucy hyperactively, her voice somehow overdoing all the others' in the room, drawing Kise's attention to the two ladies who were standing up, and Aomine, who was still lazing around in his chair.

The blonde girl immediately gave him a thumbs up and a wink, letting him know he passed quite perfectly. Though the moment was short, before Kise was once again attacked by his teammates, who all came rushing from the benches.

Lucy smiled. "Two down, three to go." She muttered herself softly.

Momoi turned to her, having heard what the blonde said, but not understanding in the slightest. "Huh? What was that, Lucy?" She asked the blonde.

Said blonde looked at the pinkette as the movement of a certain Fukuda Sogo player caught her attention. "Oh, it's just that I'll be getting myself some air, it's all really heavy in here." She excused herself, and ran away and up the stairs before she could get any complaints from the pinkette.

She quickly weaved her way through the halls, having gotten quite used to the over the last few days of being here. She knew exactly where that Fukuda Sogo player was headed, though he would get there first. And he was up to no good, wanting to blow off some steam probably.

She ran till she reached the door, behind which she could hear commotion that was definitely not the good kind. She burst through the doors and half expectedly saw Haizaki with a quite gorgeous blonde woman held by the throat while Himuro held Kagami back from doing anything, reminding him it'd be trouble for him if he did.

Once again, Lucy saw red. "Haizaki!" She yelled in the same manner Makarov did when he wanted to have attention from everyone in the boisterous noise of the guild. Her voice commanded total attention.

"Hah?" He asked, not even acting interested. "Oh, you." He said, when he saw her, a grin forming on his mouth again. "What do you want?" He asked her.

"Let go of that woman and abandon your plans of revenge against Ryo-kun!" She ordered him, making a cutting motion with her hand through the air.

He raised a brow at her challengingly, tightening his grip around the woman's neck further, making her cough. "What're you gonna do if I say no?" He asked her.

Himuro quickly tried to step in front of Lucy. "Please, Lucy! You don't need to be a part of this!" He quickly reassured her, not wanting any harm to come to her, having also heard Haizaki's malicious words on the court.

But this time, it was Kagami to hold Himuro back. "Believe me, Tatsuya, she can handle this better than any of us can." He said, remembering the incident not long ago and seeing her expression was as, if not more intense than it was back then.

Lucy mentally thanked Kagami a billion times for not making this difficult for her, before she in a flash of movement pulled her whip out and whipped the arm which was holding the woman up and collecting it by her side again before any of them really realized what had happened.

"I told you to let go of her." She told Haizaki sternly as he released the woman in a cry of pain from her whip. Thanks to Gajeel, her little weapon had been upgraded with barbs running all along the length of the whip, though she had complete control, magically, of when she'd use them. Here, she used a few to get her point across but at the same time not hurt him drastically.

While Haizaki clutched his arm in pain, the woman fell to the floor, her feet collapsing under her at the sudden drop and the lack of oxygen in her system. Himuro quickly was at her side, pulling her away though.

The Fukuda Sogo player looked up from his arm and glared at Lucy. "You crazy bitch… How dare you?!" He said, before he charged obviously at her. She let him catch her by her throat, just as he had the woman a moment ago.

"Lucy!" Kagami yelled, but by that time, Lucy had already dealt the much bigger guy a rough punch to the stomach, punching all the air out of his lungs.

While Haizaki's lungs were still emptied from air, she leaned in a little closer. "I will not tolerate you treating girls the way you have up until now." She told him with a dangerously cold voice. "Much less than that do I that your treated my 'brother' the way you did today." She said and pushed him away from her, where he landed on the ground, getting what little air he'd collected while she spoke pushed out of him once again.

"Holy…" Himuro muttered, to which Kagami only nodded numbly. This was even more surprising than the display she showed back at that get-together. Right now, she was effortlessly beating this much bigger guy to a pulp.

Without a flicker of hesitation she stepped down with one foot on his chest, close to his face, so he could see what she was doing. She put her weight over on the foot on top of him. "If I ever see or even hear of you doing something like this again, you will wish I'd be as merciful as I am today." She told him, her demons raging around inside of her, fueling her actions. "Do you understand?" She told him, pronouncing each word clearly.

"Fucking hell if I will listen to a crazy fucking bitch like you." He said with a hoarse voice, meeting her eyes fearlessly. "You're worth nothing more than taking home and thoroughly fucki-" He was cut off when her foot made it down to his neck, putting pressure there instead.

It probably wasn't a good thing, but she was feeling an insane boost, doing this. A power and confidence boost. "Do you understand, Haizaki?" She asked him again, her patience wearing thin.

"What… Ever.. Get… Off me… Bitch." He croaked under her foot and she removed it, seeing he had accepted it, though not so clearly verbally.

She looked down at him the way you would an insect. "Good." She said, stepping over him and giving him a kick to the side when he reached out after her ankle, just for good measure. He rolled over to the other side, coughing.

"Man, Heartfilia, why do you always have to take the spotlight with these kinds of things?" Aomine asked, coming forth from the shadows he'd been hiding in. He'd been coming this way, wanting to do something not quite as violent as Lucy, but something similar, but ended up seeing - once again - just how good his dubbed sister was at kicking ass.

It did surprise him that she would go so far for him and the others to beat another person up, but then again, she'd always been like that. Which was why she was dubbed their sister by Haizaki as well.

And surprisingly to all of them, Lucy did a complete one-eighty in her personality. She smiled almost cheerfully at Aomine again. "Ah, sorry Daisuki-chan~ I'll make sure to save some for you next time." She promised him.

He just shook his head at her and at the fact that Haizaki was now literally running away from the petite blonde.

Nonetheless, the blonde turned to the other three present. "I'm really sorry you had to see this… Less than charming side of me - again for you Kagami and Daisuki-chan - and I apologize for the interruption." She said and bowed to all four just slightly.

They all just looked at her, dumbfounded. All these personality-changes. Finally, the woman stepped forward and held the other blonde girl by her shoulders, looking at her with wide eyes. "You aren't seriously apologizing for that, are you?" She asked her incredulously, her throat still throbbing, the evidence of that was in her voice. "You might've just saved me and those two from some quite decisive injuries, and now you're apologizing?" She asked. "Who are you even?" She asked, releasing the girl's shoulders and transitioning over to an exaggerated shrug.

Kagami also shook his head while Aomine chuckled and Lucy just smiled. "That's Kise's 'sister', the one Haizaki threatened him with." The redhead explained.

Aomine tilted his head a little to the side. "It'd probably be more accurate to say she's the Generation of Miracles' long lost sister having returned from the dead." He corrected the redhead, throwing an arm around his blonde 'sister's shoulders.

"…What?" The woman asked confusedly, as Lucy just shrugged.

Himuro sighed. "Basically she was with all the Miracles, and Haizaki I guess, during their first year, but then disappeared." He summed up for his teacher.

The woman just remained silent, staring at the blonde girl. Lucy smiled and offered her hand for a handshake. "My name's Lucy Heartfilia, but everyone just calls me Lucy." She introduced herself.

She was taken by surprise though, as the woman with the speed of a cobra snake striking out placed a peck of a kiss on her cheek, close to her eye. "I'm Alexandra Garcia, those two's personal trainer, it's a pleasure to meet you Lucy, and it most certainly won't be the last time." She told the blonde, who was just confused with what was going on.

Though her confusion was quickly overshadowed by the feeling she had. The feeling that she would soon be going back to Earthland.

She quickly twirled out of Aomine's arm and smiled at all present. "I'm sure it won't, Alexandra. Well, see you all later!" She quickly said, before running off, into the building, aiming to find a toilet to hide in.

They all looked questioningly after her, wondering what was up with her. Kagami then turned to Aomine, who didn't seem the least bit surprised by her sudden disappearance. "What happened there?" He asked, expecting him to know.

Aomine just grinned and shrugged. "That's the usual for that girl." He stated, putting his hands in his pockets and also moving towards the inside, aiming to find Momoi, who was still waiting somewhere for him. Probably.

Before he left completely though, Kagami called out after him. "You were right, Aomine. She is the most badass woman I have ever met."

The ace of Tōō grinned right back at him. "I know, right?"

So, I will end it off with that this time. Hope it's satisfactory!
And look at that! Haizaki finally got the ass-kicking he deserved!

Also, the thing I shifted around was just that apparently the Seirin vs Yosen match comes first and then it's the Kaijo vs Fukuda Sogo. Not much of a change, but one nonetheless. Just wanted to point out I know and that there is actually not much reason for me to switch it around other than that it was getting a little late for Haizaki's re-introduction. That's all.

As always, thanks to you who have read, favorited, followed and of course reviewed! I know I'm behind on answering on replies and pm's it's just been a busy couple of weeks for me, sorry!

~Line464d