Chapter 3 "Unsuspected Turn"
I never came back to the basketball court… I never came back to my team! I got rid of the crutches but my injury's still there. My injury… yes, my injury… it didn't hurt… what hurt was the fact that I couldn't play basketball anymore. Bring this team to the to the national tournaments? How funny… now look at me! I had so much ahead of me and now… now they are all gone!
I led a new life from the day I left the court. Throughout the school, the once known MVP Mitsui Hisashi is now known as the infamous school gangster. No one dared to go near us… yes us… I have formed a group! A group that everyone feared. For two years we feared no one… riding our motorcycles around the Kanagawa district… yes… this is the way to live… you don't have to fear anybody… the way to live? What am I saying?!?!
I saw a bunch of kids playing basketball today… somewhere… something inside me yearned to play but… NO! I have given that sport up! I turned back and saw my gang. They were all staring at me. The ball rolled towards my foot… looking down I stared at it… I picked it up. I have forgotten what it feels like to hold a basketball again… one of the kids came up to me and asked for the ball back. I looked at the ball I was holding and threw it far away 'You want it? Go get it.' I laughed and faced my friends… friends? No… I never considered them my friends… only acquaintances… or maybe not even. Tetsuo looked at me weirdly. Taking a last fleeting glance at the court… I left. I left not knowing if those so-called-friends of mine were behind me… I left alone.
Under this tough image I built… lies sadness and loneliness… loneliness? NO! There is no such thing existing within me… I don't need anybody… and I guess nobody… nobody needs me…
I'm al alone in the darkness… nobody on my side. A failure… that's what I am… a failure in everything. I try to hide the sorrow growing in my heart… but everything is reflected upon these deep blue orbs of mine… my sorrow… my hatred… everything. Alone… I chose this… I isolated myself from everything and everyone… what was the reason again? Oh yeah… I was… and maybe forever will be… a failure…
I passed by the basketball court today… they were recruiting new members… I saw, there, crouched outside the door was this face I have never seen before. I stopped and listened for a while. 'I don't care if we only have a few members… as long as I am here we'll win!' The new face said. I sneered at this. That was my exact attitude… but that was a long time ago… two years… The sophomore, I learned was Miyagi Ryota… a point guard. I felt something burning deep inside me… what was it? Hatred… or maybe jealousy… jealousy…? Why?
Sometime that week, I saw that cocky sophomore yet again… Tetsuo learned of how I loathed him… I don't really care… all I cared about now was destroying him along with the rest of the team. As expected we got into a fight and he… he knocked two of my teeth out. My hatred burned more than ever! Why am I doing this? Is it because I was just like him before? Am I envious of him? What?! NO! Shut up! The past has nothing to do with this… but… why?
a/n hey! Thanks to all the people who reviewed! The story's not yet done so hope you keep reading and reviewing! Ja ne!