Chapter 8 - The Provincial Finals Begin…
Shohoku's players were found sitting in a semicircle before Ayako and Haruko in the gym, a couple of weeks before the finals. Miyagi was standing beside their two managers.
"Minna-san, here is the schedule for the finals. Our first game is against Shoyo, second with Ryonan, and third with Kainan." Announced Ayako as she sent Haruko to pin up the schedule on the wall.
"Interesting lineup." Smiled Tsuki. "But guess I'm going to be hounded by someone at home everyday until the Shoyo match is over." She let out a mushroom breath in feebly.
"OK. Let's start today's practice now! Shohoku, fight!" Miyagi roared to everyone with extreme energy.
Everyone held their fists up in the air and replied energetically in unison, "Shohoku fight!"
With that the Shohoku team started the day's practice. Every player was eager to meet up with Shoyo, one of the strongest team in the prefecture, and determined to win their game.
When the players finished their routine jog around the courts, Ayako came up to Tsuki who was stretching herself in one corner.
"Tsuki-chan, can I ask you something?"
Tsuki stopped stretching and looked at Ayako. "Sure Ayako-san, wassup?"
"Oh, I'm just wondering why you came to Shohoku instead of Shoyo. I mean, your cousin Fujima sempai is the coach of the Shoyo high basketball team."
Tsuki grinned. "You've answered your question yourself, Ayako-san."
Ayako went blank for a moment before blurting out, "Huh?"
Tsuki grinned some more. "Like you say, Kenji-nii chan is the coach of Shoyo's basketball team."
"And that has something to do with you not wanting to go to Shoyo?"
Tsuki nodded. "Does the word 'favoritism' ring a bell?"
"You mean you're worried that people there won't acknowledge you for your skills but for you being Fujima sempai's cousin to be able to get into their team there?" Ayako stated with a disbelieving tone.
Tsuki shrugged. "That's just my worrying anyways, cause I really don't wanna get Kenji-nii chan into any awkward positions. But the main reason is that Shohoku has a higher standard in their science fields compared to Shoyo. Shoyo is stronger in the literature fields."
Ayako nodded in agreement. "So, guess you're planning to study in the science field when you get to university right?"
"Bingo!" Tsuki said with a click of her fingers. "I'm planning to study computer science in ToDai."
"Wow, you're must be really ambitious since you're planning to get into ToDai." Ayako said admiringly.
Tsuki laughed and waved it off. "It's not that big a deal."
"It is when you plan to get into the best university in the country!"
Tsuki just smiled. She didn't feel the need to say anymore, since she herself is not that certain about her plans for the future yet.
* * * * *
Time flew by quickly and as Tsuki expected, Kenji hassled her about their game in the finals constantly when ever he saw her at home. Tsuki finally gave in to Kenji's constant pestering and announced to everyone, both Shohoku and Shoyo that she would sit out of that game. This came as a shock to the Shohoku team much to the delight of the Shoyo team, especially their coach (^_^;).
Even though Tsuki did not play in that game, Shoyo still lost to Shohoku. Largely due to the fact that she was there to observe and explored the possible weaknesses in Shoyo's game. Not playing, but telling her teammates where Shoyo's weaknesses were, enabled them to attack their opponent effortlessly. Of course, at the end of all these, she was pestered by Kenji once more, saying that she killed his team, to which Tsuki sweat-dropped at, big time! And…she decided to ignore Kenji until the end of the finals (hehe… :P)
But for Ryonan and Kainan, their game ended with Kainan winning by one point, which was a last minute three pointer by Jin. The score was 66 – 65.
* * * * *
When they come up against Ryonan in the second game a week later however, Tsuki was met with a big surprise. Ryonan recruited one of the ace players from her old school's number one foe, Watanabe David, an American – Japanese.
Tsuki stalled upon seeing his face. She thought: What is he doing here? With him playing for Ryonan, we can't win that smoothly today. Guess I need to change the tactics a little then.
During the pre-game warm-ups, Watanabe came up to Tsuki. "Fancy seeing you here Fujima." He said smiling at her.
This of course got the attention of players from both sides immediately, also that of the watching Kainan and Shoyo players. One player from Shohoku in particular frowned at the meeting (guess who? Hehehe… :P).
Tsuki smiled in return. "Likewise, Watanabe-kun. I didn't know you were coming back to Japan."
"Yeah, was quite a sudden move actually. My dad got transferred back, so here I am." He said smiling. "How about you?"
Tsuki nodded. "I came back in spring this year, and I'm here to stay, for now at least."
"I see. We should catch up some time."
"Sure, why not?" Tsuki said with a shrug.
"Hey David, how come you didn't tell us you know the vice-captain of Shohoku?" Sendoh strolled over to join their conversation.
Tsuki looked at Sendoh and said, "You must be Sendoh Akira, Ryonan's ace and captain. Yoroshiku, Sendoh sempai."
Hearing this, Sendoh overjoyed. Flashing his brilliant smiles, "To be known by a beautiful young lady such as yourself is a great pleasure of mine, Fujima-san." He finished with a gentlemanly bow.
Tsuki laughed at this, while Watanabe had his face all twisted upon hearing this. "You've such humor, Sendoh sempai."
"Oh please! Stop making a fool out of yourself again Sendoh sempai!" Chided Watanabe.
"Jealous of me Watanabe? Can't help it if I've got such charismatic charms." Sendoh said proudly.
"Oh please! I think I'm gonna puke!" Protested Watanabe.
Tsuki cracked herself laughing at the little squabble between the two, while a pair of icy blue eyes was glaring icicles at the threesome.
"Itai!" Sendoh exclaimed suddenly and held up a hand to his sore head that was just hit by a basketball.
The threesome turned around and was Rukawa shaking his hand a little, whilst everyone else who saw him threw the ball at Sendoh froze in action and sweat-dropped (^_^;).
"What did you do that for Rukawa!?" Demanded a yelping Sendoh.
Rukawa shrugged. "I slipped."
Everyone sweat-dropped some more (^_^;;).
"Oi Rukawa! I accept your challenge, on both issues." Sendoh shouted to Rukawa suddenly.
The later turned around and glared at Sendoh more icily than before. "I'm going to win, no matter which 'issue' it is."
Everyone gapped and thought simultaneously: Rukawa spoke more than three syllables today! Sugoi~
As for the 'issues' that Sendoh and Rukawa mentioned, no one knew what they were other than themselves.
"Ano… May I ask what are you two talking about?" Asked a confused Tsuki.
Sendoh turned and smiled at her. "Iie. Nandamonai."
"K…" Tsuki blurted, still puzzled. But she soon waved that away. "Anyways, nice meeting you again Watanabe-kun and nice to meet you too Sendoh sempai. We'll meet on court later." And she walked off and rejoined her teammates.
Surprisingly, as she walked pass Rukawa, he said softly, "Don't be fooled by that smiling idiot."
Tsuki stopped and looked at him. "Huh? Come again?"
Rukawa did not reply her and continue to shooting at the hoop leaving a very curious and baffled Tsuki.
As the game progressed, it was as Tsuki predicted. They're not going to win that easily with Watanabe playing with Ryonan. Tsuki sat out for the first fifteen minutes of the game like she did in the Ryofuku game and observed Ryonan's play carefully, trying to find flaws in their game. She frowned as she watched.
Wracking her brains out to find solutions to the current problems: Sendoh's a handful for Rukawa, so he can't deal with Watanabe. Sakuragi's got his handful with Fukuda as well. Hmm… Uekusa, Goto can handle him easily. Miyagi sempai can deal with Koshino easily also. But matching Kakuta against Watanabe is definitely a mistake. Guess we'll just have fix this little mismatch then.
She looked up at the score board. Shohoku was trailing Ryonan 5 points. She signaled to Miyagi and Goto, asking them to block Watanabe. Of course they also have to be aware of the movements of Uekusa and Koshino. The little strategy worked rather well for the next five minutes, so Tsuki did not enter the game.
However, when the second half of the game started, Tsuki entered the game and went against Watanabe herself. Watanabe wasn't able to loose Tsuki when she guarded him. This cost Ryonan dearly since their winning advantage from earlier was now gone. To the surprise of everyone, Tsuki managed to play for the whole of the second half without difficulty in her breathing or showing any signs of being unwell physically.
The game ended with Shohoku winning, 71 – 64. Players from both teams gathered in the center of the court to bit their well-wishes for their forthcoming game and dispersed.
"I told you I'd win." Said Rukawa to Sendoh in his cold, low voice as he brushed pass Sendoh.
Sendoh raised an eyebrow at him, "Don't be so sure Rukawa. You may have won the ball game, but you haven't won the other game yet." He ended his statement with his trademark grin.
Rukawa glared at him colder than ever before. "You WILL NOT win, I WILL NOT LET YOU!" He said in a demanding tone, and walked away to catch up with his teammates who were headed for the locker rooms.
Sendoh was left rather dumbfounded by Rukawa's suddenly drastically augmented hostility towards him. But he soon smiled to himself: Well, well, well, the ice prince's in love. Now that's definitely the news of the century. But… I also want that girl, so Rukawa, I'm certainly not going to back out and give you a fight you asked for! (akane sweat-dropped ^_^;)
As the Shohoku players were exiting the stadium, they were met up with Akida Hiroshi and some members of the Strikers, and a few members of Project D.
Tsuki came up to them and hugged her cousin, Fujiwara Takumi. "Takumi-nii chan, what are you guys doing in Kanagawa?"
At the same time, a certain blue-eyed fox was staring daggers at Takumi through his almost shut eyes, while everyone thought he was asleep as he stood.
"You're not happy to see me?" Takumi questioned Tsuki instead of answering her with a pretended hurt look on his face.
Tsuki let out a small laugh and punched Takumi friendlily. "Of course I'm happy to see you, I'm just curious about your presence here that's all."
Takumi smiled at her and ruffled her silky brown hair playfully. "Curiosity kills the cat you know?"
Tsuki rolled her eyes and turned to the Takahashi brothers. "One of you liked to tell me?"
Akida spoke instead of the either of the Takahashi brothers. "They're here to challenge us to a race."
Tsuki raised an eyebrow at the news, then asked excitedly, "When and where?"
"Tonight at 10pm, on our home turf." Akida replied in a cool tone Tsuki had not heard from him before.
"Ooh… Can I go and watch?" Tsuki asked all keyed up.
Akida was surprised by her. "And here I thought someone told me that she's not into racing anymore." He stated with a teasing grin.
"I'm not." Tsuki shrugged and disregard Akida's teasing. "But I never said that I'd give up watching a good race if there's one."
Akida was lost for words to tease her further. She smiled at him triumphantly.
"Tsuki-chan, care to introduce us to your friends here?" Haruko came up to Tsuki and asked.
Tsuki smiled and introduced Takumi and the Takahashi brothers to her teammates. After the introduction, everyone decided that it was time to leave and go home to rest, for they still have a final game against Kainan tomorrow. So, the players dispersed and Tsuki led Takumi and the Takahashi brothers to the Fujima mansion.
On the same day, Shoyo was playing against Kainan across town, a game which Kenji and Maki bickered about whenever they saw each other before the game. To everyone's shock, Kainan, the reigning champion of Kanagawa for seventeen years lost to Shoyo by one point when the game ran over timed! A really big bombshell! The score was 75 – 74. (akane runs and hides from all the readers who are Kainan supporters ^_^;;;)
That night, Tsuki went to watch the race between Project D and Akida's Strikers. Akida himself, leader and ace of their team raced against Takumi on the downhill run and Kuno against Keisuke Takahashi on the uphill run. Tsuki stayed with Ryosuke to watch the game at the bottom of the mountain pass, they discussed the mountain pass's condition as Ryosuke opened his simulation program on his laptop. They also talked about the modifications Tsuki had on her N1 and how to improve it further bla, bla, bla…
Both races finished with Project D winning, and Akida was teased about it by Tsuki.
"Yare, yare…" Akida grumbled in replied to Tsuki's friendly teasing.
* * * * *
Sunday morning was a bright and sunny one, not to mention warm. In the local sporting complex, the final two games of the summer basketball season was about to be played. The first game was between Shoyo and Ryonan, and the second between Shohoku and Kainan.
Shoyo lacked the abilities to constrain the teaming of Sendoh, Watanabe and Fukuda. It became a one-sided game by ten minutes before the end of the match. Ryonan won the game by eleven points, 89 – 78.
Tsuki hugged Kenji in effort to comfort him from the lost when he walked pass her going to the locker rooms. He smiled rather weakly at her, but thanked her for her kindness.
When the court was thoroughly cleaned for the next game, Shohoku and Kainan entered with the crowd cheering loudly. In the pre-game warm-ups, Tsuki met the other female player, Hashima Senko in the league officially.
"Nice too meet you finally Fujima sempai, yoroshiku." Said Senko as she dribbled the ball up to Tsuki.
Tsuki smiled at her supposedly kohai. "You're Hashima Senko right?"
Seeing Senko nodding, Tsuki added smiling, "You know, I'm actually the same age as you are, so you don't have to call me sempai, just call me Tsuki will do."
Senko beamed. "Alright then, Tsuki-chan. It's really nice to meet you finally."
"Likewise." Tsuki smiling.
The two girls quickly became good friends with a few lines of chatting. Then out of the blue Senko's eyes twinkled and she blushed furiously. Confused by Senko, Tsuki followed her gaze, which fell on a certain red-headed teammate of hers.
Tsuki grinned and eyed Senko devilishly, "I see someone's got the hots for Sakuragi-kun."
Senko blushed redden further. "Tsuki-chan… "
Tsuki broke out laughing when she saw Senko turned redder than a tomato. "Well, how do you expect me to react anyways Senko-chan? Hehehe… "
Once Senko regained her composure from being teased, she said happily, "Don't you think he's really cook? I mean, he's an extremely good basketballer and he's got a really hot bod!"
Tsuki can see Senko's eyes changing into heart shapes instantly. She sighed, "Whatever… If you like him, tell him! Speaking of which… "
Tsuki walked away from the still love-struck, heart-shape-eyed Senko and strolled toward Haruko. She pulled Haruko to a corner of their benches and said, "For goodness sake Haruko-chan, stop drooling over Rukawa and go tell him how you feel about him already! You're not going to get anywhere by just admiring him from afar!"
Haruko looked at Tsuki wide-eyed. "Demo… de… "
"Stop demo-ing. Just tell him!" Tsuki said firmly and turned to return to her warm-ups.
After the warm-up session, both teams returned to their benches awaiting instructions from their coaches.
"Sensei, I wonder if you can put me in as one of the starting players today." Tsuki asked Anzai sensei.
Everyone was rather stunned by her request.
"Tsuki-chan, but you, your physical condition… " Ayako started with her voice filled with concern.
"Daijoubu, Fujima?" A cold, stoic voice interjected suddenly.
Everyone turned to stare at Rukawa. His speaking out of the blue definitely was a shock to everyone's system.
Tsuki smiled at him and her other teammates. "Daijoubu. I'm fine. If you guys haven't noticed, I was playing for the whole of the second half in yesterday's game." She said lightheartedly.
"Hn." Came the trademark reply from our dear ice-prince.
"Aah! That's right! You were playing for the full twenty minutes yesterday! No wonder I felt something was rather amiss then." Exclaimed an overjoyed Ayako.
Tsuki's smile broadened. "Sensei?"
Anzai sensei nodded. "Ho. Ho. Ho. Very well then Fujima kondachi, you will join Miyagi, Rukawa, Sakuragi and Goto when the game starts today. And, you're Kainan counterpart will be their captain, Jin Soichiro."
Tsuki nodded. "I understand sensei. He will not have any successes at shooting his perfect three-pointers today."
Anzai sensei smiled and continued nodding.
As the buzzer sounded, signaling the start of the game, the starting players from both schools piled onto the center of the court. At the toss of the ball into the air, the game began.
Just as Tsuki promised, Jin was so tightly guarded by her that he couldn't attempt at shooting any of his well-known three-pointers. However, being the captain of their team, Jin had to hold back all his frustration in order to not disrupt his team's concentration.
Rukawa and Sakuragi also showed no mercy to their opponents. The two made such an amazing team that Kainan's coach, Takato kept breaking his fan (I think everyone know about his fan rite?) in frustration and anger. He was totally overwhelmed by the dramatic improvements of Rukawa and Sakuragi.
The game finally ended with Rukawa and Sakuragi both jumping up to reach for the rebound, both hung onto the hoop and shouting insults at each other (like they did in one of the scenes in the anime/comic). That, of course made everyone on court and off court sweat-dropped (^_^;;). The final score was 88 – 79, with Shohoku exited as the winners.
With Ryonan and Kainan both winning two games and loosing one game each, their competition for second place was done by their score's calculation. Therefore, after all the calculations were done, the judges announced Ryonan as the winner of second place.
At the award ceremony, Rukawa and Sendoh tied for MVP that year. Tsuki was a considered contender for the MVP race, but her participation in the games throughout the finals was too little. Thus, it was not convincing enough for the judges to name her as MVP although she was extremely skilled at the sport. The top five players of the prefecture were Rukawa, Sendoh, Sakuragi, Nobunaga, and Tsuki (well… she's still too good to be neglected :P hehehe… ).