The law faculty team, with the exception of Sendoh, all shrank back a little from the Wildcat player - this one Rukawa Kaede. Up close, he was even more intimidating than from afar. He had a raw intensity about him. His whole body seemed to thrum with power, as if his whole being were an engine revved and ready to go.

He was in fact a little shorter than both Sendoh and Aota. But even so he seemed larger. Like there was more in him, somehow. A coiled spring.

The stands went deathly silent, each spectator leaning forward to see what would happen.

Rukawa's eyes moved dismissively over everyone on the court, and settled right on Sendoh. The two of them stepped up opposite one another for the toss up. Rukawa didn't blink. Sendoh carried on smiling.

The whistle. The throw.

Sendoh jumped high but Rukawa went higher. A sympathetic groan went up as Sendoh failed to get his fingers to the ball, and that was how Haruko finally knew that the crowd was still behind the law faculty underdog. Their small-time hero.

No one wanted to see his plucky enthusiasm beaten down.

Rukawa laid the ball up silkily into the net. But what normally would have elicited cheers and roars from supporters was met only with rather subdued applause.

Down on the bench, Myagi noticed the strange atmosphere and couldn't help looking around in discomfort.

But the cat - much like the dog - heard nothing. It was as if the world outside the boundary of the court's printed lines had ceased to exist.

The cheering and the opinions of the spectators had no relevance for him.

There was only the ball. The net. The score. And this opponent.

It was hard to see emotion in Rukawa Kaede. He had never been one to smile. Certainly the crowds, observing from a distance, would only see his violence. The spearhead of his attack. His strength, and the blood he left splattered across the court in his wake.

But inside, his heart was beating fast. His feet felt light. His whole body tingling with energy. He felt as if this were the final in some protracted tournament, and the thrill had risen within his chest so high that every fibre of his concentration was stretched tight. These kind of moments. An all or nothing. An impossible race against an unforgiving clock and a challenging opponent. Exactly the sort of moments that he dreamed of. The whole reason for playing.

And when he turned back to find Sendoh already before him, low in a crouch, his soft eyes turned hard by his concentration, Rukawa Kaede snorted air from his nostrils dismissively.

But it was there, secreted there beneath the brilliant cold orbs of his eyes. His excitement.

I'll not only beat you, his expression seemed to say. I'll destroy you.

And still, Sendoh only smiled right back.

"Oh my god," Ayako groaned, clutching at her ears in agony. "That Rukawa looks like he wants to murder him." She leaned forward and began to holler. "Go! Sendoh! Get past him! Don't be scared!"

Haruko watched the two adversaries confront each other outside the key.

Oblivious to the calls of the crowd, Sendoh Akira was not scared.

He wiped the sweat from his brow and he grinned. He just could not seem to stop smiling, to the point that his cheeks were starting to ache. A buzz was running through him, like electric pleasure through his limbs. "Ah-!" he exclaimed compulsively, delight in his voice as the freshman ace attempted a lunge and Sendoh managed to flick the ball out of the reach of his strike with one snap of his wrist.

He spun then, turning on a penny, his body and arm shielding the ball as he tried to break to the right. Rukawa followed him, balancing perfectly on lightning quick feet, ready to burst right or left without delay.

The crowd cheered in approval of Sendoh's clever plays, but their joy broke the next moment as Rukawa's quick motion nudged the ball out of Sendoh's control and set it careering across the court. In raw bursts of speed, Sendoh lagged behind the Wildcat.

The ball was back in Rukawa's possession in one lightning dash and then he was gone. Back up the court like a shooting arrow. Sendoh ran hard along behind but he knew he had no chance of catching him. Too many years out of the game had left him slower than he used to be. Even so, he didn't mind at all.

This is amazing, he thought blissfully to himself, following the freshman up the court as hard as he could run. I can't believe I have been so lucky as to play with him.

The only thing that could make this better, he knew, eyes fixed on the back of the cat before him, would be the chance to talk to him.

After the game, he vowed to himself. I'm going to introduce myself. No matter what. I'm going to do it!

When the last twenty seconds came, four points separated the teams. The law faculty had done everything in their power to delay Rukawa Kaede. Getting in his way. Wasting time. Dragging out the shot clock to the last possible second. Frustrating every move he made. It had been a race against the clock, and this was the final dash.

It was the humanities team's turn to attack.

Sendoh was there, of course. He seemed to have good instincts. Knowing which side Rukawa would go. Anticipating his attack with uncanny accuracy.

He is observant, Rukawa had realised. And experienced too.

He tried to bluff his way past, but his feint was read and Sendoh did not take his bait.

Damn.

The crowd was thundering in excitement as the clock wound down the lingering seconds. Still four points to go.

I have to score. Now.

Rukawa weighed up his options.

The situation called for something outrageous.

He jumped up, and finally managed to take Sendoh by surprise. Going for the three with just ten seconds left was sheer arrogance. A miss would be the end of the game. Sendoh, too late to block him, apparently had not taken his supreme confidence into account, and was only left staring with the rest, waiting to see if the ball flew true.

It sunk without a sound. The net opening and closing around it in a silent gasp, Rukawa barely breaking a sweat under the intense pressure of the clock.

The crowd groaned. Sendoh straightened from his crouch. Rukawa turned on his heel.

One more point, he thought.

Possession went back to the law team. But not for long. Rukawa was there at once, moving fast, intercepting the tired and inaccurate pass that was all Koshino could manage after so many minutes.

One more point.

He tried to drive into the basket, but the key was crowded with defenders desperate to keep him out.

He tossed the ball to the side with barely a glance, into the hands of one of his humanities teammates, his eyes still fixed on the prize.

One more point.

The crowd gasped as the literature major received his pass and then robotically bounced it right back. The exchange was fast enough to disorientate some of the more sluggish defenders.

But not Sendoh.

He was right there, his hands reaching, his lips still smiling. Smiling! Rukawa grit his teeth and set his eyes on the basket.

One more point.

There was no time left. Three seconds.

He feigned a charge but Sendoh wasn't going to let him get away, sticking to him persistently. Two seconds. And no options.

Rukawa pumped the ball, faking a shot. For a moment, he thought he'd succeeded. Sendoh rose in anticipation of the shot and Rukawa moved right. A side-step. Barely that. Lightning quick he lifted, barely even sighted, the basket was clear in his vision for less than a moment before he launched the deciding shot of the game.

He moved and jumped in the same instant. The ball flying from his fingers. No flaw in his form. A perfect quick release.

But the dog.

He leapt again, from the side, not even a pace away. The desperate reach of his fingers making a single-minded swipe, barely there. Barely touching the ball. But nudging it just enough.

Rukawa and Sendoh knew before their feet even hit the floor.

But still the spectators and teammates as one all watched the ball spin through the air in fascination. Curious. Breaths held. Tensions high to see whether the ball would fly true.

But the dog and the cat only looked at one another. Barely a pace of space between them. The ball was irrelevant to them now. Sendoh's eyes were warm and his smile genuine, panting hard and sweat dripping from his fringe. Rukawa's gaze was frigid cold.

It's a strange thing, that when two souls crash into one another it isn't always obvious how they will fall. People who seem destined to be friends at first might later turn out to be wholly incompatible with one another. Likewise, people who appear to be the very opposites of one another, a relationship unbalanced, turbulent, problematic, can with the passage of time be worn down into something fine and elegant. Like the rocks and boulders on the plains, exposed to the wind and rain, sitting for a thousand years unchanging. It is easy to believe that they must have been there forever, smooth sides never changing. Hard to remember a time long ago when those same rocks had been jagged and rough.

And so some people come together, and fall apart again, ricocheting from one another, disappointing one another.

Others fall down together into an untidy mismatched heap, and somehow stay there, until time makes one no longer distinguishable from the other. As if it had always been so.

Sendoh wanted to say something. There was something there, on the tip of his tongue. In that tiny second, while the ball was still in free fall, heading towards the basket. The world seemed to hang on the moment. Waiting to fall, one way or the other. Unknown and unknowable. And there, lost in that second of suspended time, he so badly wanted to speak.

If he could just say the right thing then maybe... maybe... this would be… the beginning of something.

But for the first time in his life, he didn't know what to say.

The ball hit the rim with a boom that shook the room. The moment vanished. Rukawa clicked his tongue in agitation, and turned away. Leaving Sendoh only to stare after him once again.

And then the noise rose from the spectators like a wave.

"Woooooooow!"

"They won!"

"They won!"

"Law!"

"Law won!"

"Sendoh!"

"Sendoh!"

"Oh my god!" the law team were already crowding round Sendoh in euphoric excitement. "You did it! You did it!"

"Huh?" Sendoh was confused by all the sudden attention, as if he'd completely forgotten about the rest of the team and entire stadium. And then he was surprised when they bodily lifted him up and starting parading around the court to the roaring approval of the crowd. "Woah, wait-!"

"You beat him! You beat the Wildcat ace!" they shouted at him, overwhelmed and excited.

The… ace? Sendoh craned his neck trying to look, but he could not see where Rukawa had gone. He had simply vanished. Wait I - I promised I was going to talk to him after the game...!

"You did it!" His teammates jostled him a little roughly, carrying him inelegantly around the court. "You beat Rukawa Kaede!"

"I didn't really beat him," Sendoh tried to protest, but no one was listening at all. He managed to glance up at the scoreboard as they jostled him around. Only one point separated the two teams.

Just one point.

Rukawa Kaede had stepped onto the court forty five points down, and had closed it to nothing at all in mere minutes.

He had played like an absolute monster. No one in their right mind would really think that Sendoh had actually beaten him. But still the crowd wanted nothing except their lucky underdog.

"You were amazing!" his teammates were still cheering into his ear. "You really showed him. He must be absolutely fuming!"

"Ha! He was totally humiliated!"

"What?" Sendoh looked around again, suddenly feeling distressed. He had not intended to make Rukawa angry. He'd wanted to…

"His face when he realised he'd lost." He teammate were still euphoric. "You should have seen it!"

"Yeah!"

Sendoh frowned in bafflement. But I... I did see it. I was looking at him. I didn't... I didn't notice that...? Was he... angry? But I didn't-

I... I wanted... to talk to him...

Sendoh looked around anxiously, hoping to spot even a glimpse of him, but Rukawa was nowhere to be seen.

Two souls, quite apart from colliding together, it seemed that they had missed one another completely.

-tbc

ANs: posting this from prison! ahahaha. ok not prison. enforced quarantine centre hell! basically prison. it is prison with wi-fi. locked away in a small room with one of my kids. separated from the rest of my family "just incase" we "might" "maybe" be sick all because ONE of us was on a bus with ONE Covid positive person for about 10 minutes last week. wish me luck getting out when my quarantine order expires in two weeks cos it's administrative chaos over here. woooo! this shit is so fucking 2020 come on. authoritarian governments go brrr. human rights? WHAT ARE THOSE?