To caffeine-san and Burato-kun: Domo arigato! It's so heartening to have constant reviews even though my writing skills are obviously under-par... I'll improve and sharpen my writing as we go on!
To Burato-kun: Umm, actually, I've done a slight modification to Rukawa's character. It's OOC if related to I.T.'s SD but somewhere along the road, I am going to reveal the reason why Rukawa had this change. For some reason he will only reveal that "giggling" part of himself as and when he likes it – which is once in a blue moon. He kind of has a reason why he does things the way he did, which I'll be explaining in the later chapters. As for Mai and Rukawa... well, if MaiRu occurs then, HINT, what about "Kanaga-sama"? Heheh... All shall be revealed so be patient...
Side note: Sigh... I lost my original Chapter 2 document thanks to a com crash... so I'm rewriting it all over again... sorry for the slight delay...
Chapter 2: Setbacks
A tiny figure was seen sprawled on the floor, motionless. Above him, the red headed was still hanging onto the rim limply.
"Uh-oh..." Gasped Mai, hiding her wide-open mouth from view with her palms.
"What's wrong with him, Mai?" Quizzed Rukawa, though he knew the answer very well. After all, Arashi's reaction is quite similar to a certain red-headed do-aho...
"Masaka... naze? Naze? NAZE?"
"...My brother had been floored by numerous rough players in Tokyo, whether or not the rough actions were deliberate. And every time he gives these players an "explosion"... Be prepared, Rukawa, your ears will hurt."
"Huh?"
Too late, as everyone's ears were assaulted by a battle howl that seemed almost beastly. A roar like a mighty lion. It miffed everyone else but Sakuragi and Rukawa.
"YOU! YOOOOOOOOOOOOU! YOU FLOORED ME! THE NEXT THREE POINTS IS MINE! IT'S GAME OVER, BAKEERO!"
Hanamichi was not one bit impressed. In his gangster's past life he had met up with louder – and lousier - squids than this. However, the fighting spirit in Arashi is noticeably present. Sakuragi didn't say much, but instead, concentrated on the game. Now, he didn't want to lose like he did to Rukawa 8 months ago...
Flashback...
"Train a few more years... maybe you'll be better by then. But, I'll be in the US already, and I doubt you'll be able to follow me to the States..."
Just a mere second later...
Arashi took a few steps back and let his ball loose from way beyond the three-point line. Sakuragi was about to prepare for the rebound when he literally heard a whooshing sound coming up from behind.
By the time he heard the whoosh it was too late. Arashi took off from somewhere just after the free-throw line and had his hands outstretched for the ball, which was rebounding off the right side of the rim.
"Way too fast! Watch out, Sakuragi!" Warned Ayako.
The ball ended up in Sakuragi's grasp, but Arashi was not about to have a "no" for an answer. Using his own momentum, the 1.8m brown-haired literally dragged Sakuragi along with the aid of inertia, and forced a dunk even with Sakuragi's fierce and firm grip on the ball. The board shook with so much force that it was close to dropping down on the two battlers.
They were, by now, sprawled in a tangle on the floor half a second after the dunk had went through. A crashing down to earth, so to speak.
"Nani!" Yelped the spectators, unable to believe that Arashi had actually managed to floor Sakuragi. There was only one other guy who could have floored Sakuragi like Arashi did, and that was Rukawa, but even Rukawa found it a more-than-mammoth task to accomplish. This kid made it seem like something he did everyday!
"Nice one," mused Hanamichi as he picked himself up from the floor, extending his hands to a still-ballistic Arashi. Arashi promptly slapped it away and glared at Hanamichi as if he was his greatest enemy. Obviously pissed.
"Arashi... still showing no sportsmanship..." Sighed Mai as she looked on to the drama that unfolded.
"You're a good one, Arashi," admitted Rukawa as he witnessed the chaos, "but you'll need to know that passion is the enemy of efficiency..."
"My ball now," announced Sakuragi as he began in a shooting stance. Fearing for a shot, Arashi immediately raised his arms to defend, to which Sakuragi responded by slipping right under his outstreched arms, ball deftly dribbled past the quickster.
"Fake! What the..."
Sakuragi had already laid the shot up by the time Arashi regained his composure and senses.
"Fake...! Sakuragi, your basketball techniques have improved tremendously," thought Ayako. "It is much more refined then when you used it against Toyotama!" She turned around to look at Anzai sensei, who was chuckling away with his trademark "ho, ho, ho".
"Sensei..."
"Sakuragi is a natural, a natural." Grinned Anzai, as he took off his glasses and wiped it clean with his shirt's cloth. All to take a clearer look at the gem he had uncovered by accident just a year ago...
Back onto the courts again...
"2-1 down... one more point and I am done for..." Arashi gritted his teeth, of an uncontrolled nervousness. The last time he felt like that was against a 2 metre tall player in Tokyo, who would already be a sophomore already by now. Arashi pulled through that game after a mighty-huge struggle, and he was determined that nothing of the sort will happen again.
Arashi ran the ball swiftly into the paint, to which Sakuragi responds by preparing for the attack in a defense pose that would make even Sawakita Eiji of Sannoh get frightened of. However, Arashi was very confident in his ball-play.
"Loopholes aplenty. Wide-open gap. Perfect."
Rushing headlong into the defence, Sakuragi was forced to back up as Arashi tried to nudge his way through the red-head's defence. During that one moment when Arashi spotted a chance in the form of an exposed back, he grabbed the chance. By the ball.
He swung his body right behind Sakuragi and went cruising under the basket. He then swerved around and laid the ball upwards and behind him, where the basket is.
"Now I've got you," Arashi grinned, expecting to see the ball go down the basket with a thump and a whoosh.
Instead, he heard the sound of meat crashing forcefully against the ball, which made Arashi's heart sank. The ball had been rejected, out of that more-in-a-million chances that it would have been a basket.
"What the... The ball's deflected? How can it..."
"You're too careless and reckless," announced Sakuragi as he picked up the loose ball. "That manuever is nothing new to me and I know the way to make your devil-may-care style of basketball fail."
Arashi bit his lip in frustration. It was true, even his sister said that his reckless style is way over the head at times, and that it was because his game is a street game, that's why reckless actions were approved.
"Sis, I should have kind of listened to you when you said street basketball is so much more different..."
"It's ok, Arashi, just give it your best shot..."
"I'll not give up, sis, watch me!"
Sakuragi eyed Arashi carefully as the check went through. Then he began to run the ball in as well, only with lesser speed. Suddenly he took a leap way before the free-throw line, arms outstretched as if laying up for a shot.
"Impossible! This is a... Lay-up!"
Arashi leaped in utter shock but it was way too late. The ball was already cruising over Arashi's head when he jumped up for a pathetic show of defence, while narrowly avoiding a third crash with Sakuragi.
Rukawa instantly recognised that move; The move he had used against Gori number two from Sannoh... The "long-distance lay-up"... or the "soft sissy ball" as Sakuragi had dubbed it.
The sound of whoosh had made its final judgement on the game.
Afterwards...
Arashi howled in utter defeat, dropping to his knees as it went marshmallow. He kept pounding on the floor, tears flowing as freely as a river might, as an obvious struggle to his defeat begins on the first day in a new school...
"My brother's first... first ever defeat..." Sweated Mai, unable to believe that, at long last, there is one person who can finally tame his wild monkey of a brother. The shocked reaction was followed by a sigh of relief.
"Congrats, Arashi, you've finally experienced the first of many setbacks that would make you much more stronger... It all starts from January the 3rd, 2004... six twenty-four..."
At the same time...
"Cool. Didn't expect Shohoku to have such good players. I did watch a few of their qualifying round matches last year but I didn't know Shohoku was this good."
Uchiro was at a hidden part of the arena, trying to hide from the crowd in order to conceal the fact that he was having a few puffs while watching the red-headed sophomore defeat his slightly shorter but strong-willed opponent.
How Uchiro's alert senses didn't alert him from the fact that this particular old man with a pudgy body, standing besides a curled-hair senior, had noticed his presence was unclear, but afterwards Uchiro was shuffling uncomfortably. He didn't like to be noticed, and neither did he want the others to know that secret, though he suspects the old man knew him from somewhere else. Strangely, this old man looked familiar too.
Pushing the chaos away from his mind, he flung his cancer stick out of a nearby window and started walking towards the canteen, along the long, monotonous corridor...
As he walked on with his hands shuffling in his pockets, memories of the old days began flowing through his thoughts, but dismissing those memories as nothing more than a one-off illusion in his life, he continued walking on – and somehow crashed into a shorty in front of him.
"Argh! Watch it!" Gagged the shorty as he picked himself up from the floor. Taking a closer look at the careless dude, the shorty instantly recognised the tall figure in front of him.
"Uchiro! Aoiyama Uchiro! I thought you were in Takezono High School! What brings you... hey, something's not right. Where's your sis?"
"Missing. Just 3 months ago. I suspected that it had something to do with Kami-X, but he swore that he was innocent, and whenever he swears about something it is almost always untrue. Yet I don't know how to prove X otherwise. Heck, she could be enjoying life somewhere in the United States, forgetting about my existence."
"Kami-X? You mean that purse-robbing rape-threatening downright sickening bastard?"
"Yes, that weakling, Ryota. Too bad I don't know how to stop him from causing further harm, he's always smarter than me in the art of cloaking oneself from human sight."
"Well, that can be dealt with over tea on any other day. Now, about basketball..."
"No. Please, you know I lost all my interest in basketball following that incident. So why bother convincing me again?"
Ryota sighed. That incident was a very huge blow on Uchiro's confidence, and that was where the once great player fell. Why did the story sound so familiar? It's because such things always happen, thought Ryota.
"Hey, Ryota, I'll catch you later. I got some administrative duties to sort out with my I/C."
"Ok, I'll see you around. My mobile's still the same number, call me if you need my help."
"Sure." Uchiro walked off, happy to know that at least there is someone here in Shohoku he can turn to if he needs help and that is Ryota. Always dependable.
Back at the courts...
Ayako noticed Rukawa chatting away with another girl, drawing huge stares from his fans who were trying to take a better look at the girl who stole their boy's heart. He was behavingly oddly for a guy famed for being a reserved individual.
"Hey, who's that girl Rukawa is chatting with?" Asked Haruko as she started to warm up for her own morning training session, decked out in red-and-white basketball gear.
"Beats me," shrugged Ayako as she starts setting up the basketball courts for the morning practices. "But if my guess weren't wrong, she could be related to the guy whom Sakuragi just beat. Now, it's time to announce something to those boys."
"Oh..." Haruko felt quite uncomfortable all of a sudden, unsure if it was just a case of love lost from unrequited romance.
"Players, please gather here for the morning announcement!" Shouted Ayako as the players – including a still-sobbing Arashi – gathered at the sidelines for a briefing that was unduly delayed by the duel between the two hot-heads.
"Ho, ho, ho," began Anzai as he starts inspecting his players. "All of you have grown up in terms of both your physical, and mental state. Sakuragi... he possesses the same agility and power, and he has certainly grown up mentally in terms of playing this beautiful game."
"Nyahahahahahaha! But of course, oyaji! I am the tensai, you know! Nyahahahahaha...!"
"Do-aho," sneered Rukawa. "You kind of forgot how you made that air-ball, didn't you?"
"I was about to talk about YOU, Rukawa! Your personality has gone through a... rather... substantial change, hasn't it!"
"...I think you'd do better practising more," replied Rukawa, obviously avoiding the question. Who the hell was Sakuragi to interefere, he thought.
Sakuragi was about to protest about Rukawa's statement when Anzai sensei started clearing his throat.
"Rukawa has improved upon his game, finally choosing a multi-pronged approach and trusting his team-mates. Ryota... speedier and firmer dribbles, getting on the opponents' behind quicker than he did during the Championship matches... Yasuda, now not so reliant upon the rest of the team and opening up his game well against tough opposition. Kuwata and Kakuta... a great pairing now with improved teamwork and aggressive defences. On the whole, Shohoku will have a chance to enter the Inter-High for the second year running."
The Shohoku second years were grinning from ear to ear. It was something welcome for them, to tell the Shohoku people that they are now regulars for the Inter-High.
"In addition, we have a few new players, I suppose. Ah, young man, what's your name?"
"Yu...Yukigawa Arashi..." choked Arashi as he tried to clear the sobbing.
"Arashi, you remind me of someone from a long long time ago. You certainly have the makes for great basketball. I hope this loss can help you learn a thing or two. Remember, that even the most powerful of players fails from time to time."
"O...ok..."
"The morning announcement is intended for a few things. First, I will be handing over coaching duties for the next two weeks, to Ayako. I will be heading for the HQ of the Japanese High-School Sports Association for a nine-day forum. Second thing, is that this year, we might have three Kanagawa teams going to the Inter-High instead of two. That does not mean that the competition has shrunken, so working smart and hard is the key."
Just then...
There was a commotion outside the corridor as something really huge grabbed everyone's attention. When that something finally arrived at the basketball court, he was already having a really flushed-red face, made even more obvious by his extremely tall stature, and his tanned skin.
"May I know who you are, young man?" Enquired Ayako, secretly hoping that this will be a powerful replacement after Takenori's absence.
"He... hello everyone... my name is Goston Yamir, freshman, 2.1 metres, from Yokoro Junior High. I played center position as a starter."
"Yokoro Junior High? Isn't that in Nagoya?" Pondered Sakuragi. Why would someone of his stature opt for Shohoku when Kainan and Shoyo were better choices? Everyone else, however, have a different take on the new player...
"The star center of Yokoro! Goston Yamir the "Giant of Yokoro"! Didn't Yokoro win both the Junior High Summer and Winter Championships last year?"
"That... that was through my teammates' efforts..."
Suddenly, the future of Shohoku looked as bright as the sun itself.
"Ho, ho, ho."
To be continued...