Chapter 3

"Where is that Sendoh!" Taoka-sensei burst out finally, unable to hold back his anger any longer. His head looked slightly enlarged, and his eyes looked as if they were spurting out fire.

Hikoichi cowered at the sight of his team-coach, but managed to answer, "Er, I think he'll be here any minute now. And Yuki-san, too."

"Who cares about that good-for-nothing self-appointed team manager? It's Sendoh I want, Sendoh! Now where is he!" Taoka-sensei continued ranting, not caring at the least that the Shohoku High School basketball team was present in the gym, preparing for their pre-arranged practice match with Ryonan.

"Well-" Hikoichi started, but broke off when the door to the gym suddenly opened. And who could be standing there other than Sendoh himself.

"I'm sorry I'm late guys," he began, but before he could continue, Taoka-sensei appeared before him and started screaming his head off at the sophomore.

"Where have you been, Sendoh! Why are you late?"

Sendoh gave the middle-aged man an apologetic smile and said, "I'm sorry, sensei. I overslept."

Faced with Sendoh's obviously honest and straight answer, Taoka-sensei couldn't bring himself to scold the boy any further. Instead, he turned his attention to the person behind Sendoh.

"And you? Why are you late? As the team manager, you should be here before everyone else to make sure everything is in order," he demanded.

Shiroyuki looked at him nonchalantly. "I had to wait for Akira, sensei." Alright, Taoka. You had better lay off before I lose my temper.

"Why didn't you make sure he arrived on time then? I knew I shouldn't have listened to him and appoint you as the team manager. You're a total-"

All of a sudden, Taoka-sensei stopped his ranting, but for no apparent reason. Nobody had interrupted him; nobody would dare to do so. In fact, it seemed like Taoka-sensei had cut short himself. The others watched as he opened his mouth to continue, but nothing came out. Not a sound could be heard from him, not even a croak.

While Taoka-sensei opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish, Shiroyuki took one last look at him and walked away. Instantly, Taoka-sensei started coughing and spurting.

"Sensei, daijoubu ka?" Hikoichi asked, concerned.

Taoka-sensei just continued coughing.

Meanwhile, Shiroyuki was making his way towards Sendoh when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around, his attention focused on the Shohoku basketball team. For a moment, he stood where he was standing, unmoving, his blue eyes locked with another pair of equally blue eyes, however cold it may be.

"Yuki-kun?"

Shiroyuki tore his gaze away from the owner of the cold blue eyes and looked at Sendoh. "Akira?"

"What are you looking at?" asked Sendoh.

Shiroyuki shrugged. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Ok."

"You'd better get ready for the game. Taoka-sensei looked like he was going to swallow someone whole right about now," said Shiroyuki, jerking his head a little in the direction of the obviously fuming coach.

"Yeah. I'm ready." That said, he walked onto the court, only to be confronted by a slightly shorter but tough-looking guy with flaming red hair.

Shiroyuki's eyes widened at the sight of the redhead. What the... ?

He watched as the guy introduced himself to Sendoh as Sakuragi Hanamichi, before finishing off as arrogantly as one could possibly be by declaring that he was going to beat Sendoh. Sendoh, being Sendoh, merely smiled and replied casually that he would be looking forward to it, though Shiroyuki knew better.

Not only was the Ryonan Ace excited by the challenge, he was very, very, interested with the redhead himself.

And Shiroyuki knew that he wasn't the only one, who could see, or rather, read that.

-

Ryonan's timeout…

"What's wrong with you guys!" Taoka-sensei screamed at his players. "I told you to win by 30 points! You guys look so pathetic playing against Shohoku!"

"Hey, Hikoichi, hand me a bottle of drink will you?" said Sendoh to the first-year. Shiroyuki handed him a towel.

"You really disappoint me!" Taoka ranted on. "Do you guys want to win or not!"

Sendoh finished drinking from the bottle and passed it to Shiroyuki.

"This is the team that's going to be the champions this year! You guys are one of the top 4! Shohoku's nothing! Shohoku is a weak team that can't even get through the first round!"

Shiroyuki noticed something, but decided to keep quiet about it, since Taoka-sensei was too busy scolding the players anyway. He reached for a Tupperware he had brought from home and opened it to reveal many slices of lemon contained in it between ice cubes.

"Uozumi! You let Akagi get 17 points! You want to lose to him again this year!"

Sendoh gleefully reached for a slice, sucking on it with the delight of a 6-year-old.

"No! I will win for sure!" Uozumi shouted at the top of his lungs.

Sendoh was still sucking on the same slice of lemon, while Shiroyuki felt amused, not just because Sendoh was doing a perfect imitation of a 6-year-old.

"Listen up! You should be ashamed of yourselves to have let Shohoku get this many points back! Isn't it embarrassing to be beaten by a freshman! You guys have to gain a 30-point lead in the next round. Do you understand!"

Sendoh threw the slice of lemon aside and reached out to take another one.

"Sendoh! Did you hear me!" came Taoka-sensei's booming voice.

Sendoh was taken a little by surprised, but that didn't stop him from putting the slice of lemon into his mouth and sucking on it. In between, he said, "No, I don't think Shohoku's a weak team. Center Akagi can easily get the team to enter the quarterfinals. They're good."

Faster than you can say fast, Taoka-sensei charged up to Sendoh like a raging bulldozer, causing the second-year to drop his slice of lemon and stuck his fingers into his ears. "YOU FOOL! You're the star of the team! How can you say such a thing!"

Shiroyuki bit on his lip to prevent himself from laughing. Obviously, neither Taoka nor the players had noticed it yet.

"Listen up everyone! We're using the man-to-man strategy. Uozumi, you watch Akagi. Sendoh, you've got to stop Rukawa," Taoka-sensei instructed. "If we can stop Akagi and Rukawa, then Shohoku's offense will be weakened."

It was at that moment that Koshino and Ikegami finally noticed what Shiroyuki had noticed earlier and they hadn't, but should've noticed before.

A bandanna-clad, megaphone-bearing Sakuragi Hanamichi.

"AAAHHH! A spy! An enemy spy!"

Shiroyuki placed a hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh out loud.

Koshino took a step forward and held Sakuragi's jersey by the collar. "You had better not push it, you bastard!"

Sakuragi narrowed his eyes at the gesture. "Hmm? What's the meaning of this?"

"Even though this is a practice game, to us this is our first important game of the year. You've been a nuisance from the beginning. If you don't want to play then please leave!" Koshino said angrily.

"I don't want to play? I was getting impatient about not being able to play, but because I'm the secret weapon, I forced myself to tolerate this… and you say I don't want to play!" Sakuragi replied, his tone getting angrier and angrier as each word is uttered.

Hikoichi tried to intervene. "Sakuragi-sempai! Koshino-sempai! Please stop fighting!" he pleaded, only to be picked up by Sakuragi with one hand and thrown to the far end of the gym.

Taoka-sensei then tried to intervene himself, but was shouted at rudely by Sakuragi, which made things turn from bad to worse, until…

"Hahahahahaha!"

To everyone's surprise, Sendoh began to laugh to his hearts content.

Instantly, Sakuragi turned on him. "What are you laughing at Sendoh? Have you forgotten that I'm going to beat you, huh?" he demanded.

Sendoh stopped laughing and said, "Of course I still remember."

In the meantime, Shiroyuki took the opportunity to scrutinise the redhead's face, since he's standing right in front of Sendoh, and Shiroyuki himself was standing next to Sendoh. He hasn't changed one bit after so many years…

It wasn't long before the captain of the Shohoku basketball team, Akagi Takenori came over and knocked the redhead on the head, apologising to Sendoh and Taoka-sensei at the same time, while his team-mates worked together to drag the highly energetic boy back to their side of the bench.

Shiroyuki smiled to himself as he watched Sakuragi being tied to the chair and sprayed with cold water by the other team's manager.

Still as hot-tempered and full of energy as ever, aren't you, Florus?

Tbc...