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Chapter 15: A Little Help From Sendoh

Shohoku had a basketball match on Sunday and as usual Hiroko was forbidden to go. But this time, she wanted to go to the basketball game, badly. She wanted to see Kogure, for she missed him and she wanted to see him played in the game, just once.

So the day before the match, she called Sendoh for help. Sendoh agreed straight away and he came up with a plan.

"Don't know whether this will work, but I will try." said Sendoh on the phone.

Hiroko sat in her bedroom and prayed hard, hoping that the plan would work.

Fans of Shohoku and the other team, Ocean High gathered at the stadium to watch the match. The match had already started and the score was 18-20, Ocean High was in the lead.

"Go Shohoku go!" yelled the bench players of Shohoku.

Akagi did a rebound and he threw it to Rukawa, who was a distance away. Rukawa threw the ball without any hesitation and immediately the ball went through the hoop with 3 points.

"Nani!" said Hirata, Ocean High's captain, in shock as Shohoku's supporters cheered.

"Rukawa!" yelled Rukawa Brigade. "Go Rukawa, we love you!"

"It's 21-20!" said Ayako happily.

Kogure supported his friends absentmindedly, because he couldn't get the image of Hiroko out of his mind.

Ding dong.

Mr Gouhara went to open the door and found Sendoh at the door. "Akira, what a surprise, douzo ohairi kudasai!" said Mr Gouhara happily and he let Sendoh in.

"Konnichiwa, Ojiisan." said Sendoh in politeness. "Where's Hiroko?"

"In her room."

"But today is Sunday. Why isn't she out?" asked Sendoh innocently.

"I grounded her." said Mr Gouhara. "I don't want her to go out with that boy."

"Ara…" said Sendoh slowly. "But today is Shohoku's basketball match. She can't go out with Kogure even if you let her out."

"I know. She might go to the match and I don't want her to."

"I understand that, Ojiisan." said Sendoh, nodding. "But what if she's going out with me?"

"Eh?"

"I want to take her out for a day, she has been staying indoors for too long." said Sendoh kindly.

"But…"

"Ojiisan, onegai."said Sendoh. "Besides, I think it's good for me and Hiroko to go out more often, you know, we are getting married after all…"

"You promise that you won't take her to the amusement park?" asked Mr Gouhara.

"I promise. I know what the amusement park will do to her." said Sendoh, nodding.

"All right. Hiroko!"

Hiroko opened her door. "Nani?" she asked quietly.

"Akira is taking you out."

"Really?" asked Hiroko, looking rather pleased. "To where?"

"As long as it's not the amusement park or anywhere that could tire you out." said Mr Gouhara.

"Oh good, let me go and change…"

Hiroko closed the door and smiled. She walked to the cupboard and suddenly, she could feel a pain in her chest. Trying to ignore it, Hiroko opened her cupboard.
"Be back by 6pm!" called Mr Gouhara.

"Don't worry, Ojiisan, I will make sure that she will." said Sendoh cheerfully as Hiroko got onto his bicycle.

"Ja ne, Otousan." said Hiroko and Sendoh rode off.

As soon as they turned around the corner, Hiroko said to Sendoh. "Can we get to the match on time?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure the match is not over yet. Hang on, cousin." said Sendoh and he rode faster towards the direction of the stadium.

Hiroko hung onto her cousin tightly. She felt excited for she was going to a basketball match for the first time and she knew she was going to see Kogure again. She rubbed her chest, trying to ease the pain in her heart.

The match went on. The score was now 59 to 60. Shohoku was going to catch up with Ocean High in any moment.

"Mitsui!" yelled Sakuragi to the team's best three-point shooter and he passed the ball to him.

Mitsui caught hold of the ball and he was about to shoot when he felt pain in his left knee. He paused for a while, trying to get over the pain.

"Mitsui, what are you doing? Hurry up and throw!" called Akagi.

Mitsui looked up and saw Hirata running towards him, ready to hit the ball off his hands. So he aimed and threw the ball before he took two steps backward, rubbing his kneecap. The ball didn't go in and Sugimoto, Ocean High's ace player, got the ball. Ocean High's supporters cheered as Sugimoto ran with the ball. Mitsui stared and scowled before he got up and ran after Sugimoto.

"What the…" Ayako muttered. "Sensei, do you think Mitsui should get off the court?"

"No, if I haven't known Mitsui better, he won't get off until he falls down." said Anzai.

Sugimoto scored and the score was now 59- 62.

"Dou shita no, Mit-chin?" asked Sakuragi.

"Nothing." said Mitsui and tried to concentrate and ignore the pain.

"Do you want to take a rest?" asked Akagi.

"No!" said Mitsui immediately. "Daijoubu!"

The match continued. Mitsui tried to show that he was all right, but at the 17th minute of the game, the pain was just too much and Mitsui couldn't even run as fast as usual.

Miyagi got the ball and immediately, he threw it to Mitsui. Mitsui aimed for the hoop and suddenly, Sugimoto ran and pushed the ball away from his hands with a huge force from behind. His hand hit Mitsui and Mitsui, who was already not able to stand straight, fell to the floor.

"Mit-chin!" yelled Sakuragi in horror.

"Mitsui!"

The referee blew the whistle. "Foul!"

Mitsui tried to get up, but his knee was too painful for him to get up. "Itai…" he managed to say.

"Referee Time!" announced the referee, and the game was stopped for a while.

"Mitsui, are you all right?" asked Ayako as she rushed to him with a first-aid kit.

"Hai, I'm… ah!" yelled Mitsui in pain as he tried to bend his knee.

"Kogure, get ready to take over Mitsui." said Anzai.

"But Sensei, I…" started Mitsui.

"Don't force yourself, Mitsui." said Anzai as the stretcher was brought in.

Mitsui stared at the stretcher and said fiercely, "I don't want a stretcher! I want to stay here and watch the game!"

"Very well, Sakuragi, Akagi, carry Mitsui to the bench…" said Anzai

Kogure took off his shirt, revealing his red Shohoku No. 5 jersey. He did a little warm-up and swallowed nervously.

"Yoshi, Kogure, you better concentrate on the game, stop thinking about Hiroko and Sendoh…" he said to himself.

"All right everyone, Mitsui is one of our best players and now even he is out of the team. We must now work harder to win this game." said Akagi to his team mates.

"Don't worry, we can win even if Mitsui is out, I'm the tensai, you know…" said Sakuragi.

Everyone decided to ignore him.

"Yare yare, Mitsui is out. Now it's going to be hard for Shohoku to win…" Sendoh muttered. "And there's only 3 minutes left in the game…"

"Can't Kogure help?" asked Hiroko worriedly.

"If he is good enough, he won't be sitting on the bench." said Sendoh. "His three-points shots are good, but comparing to the rest of the team…"

Hiroko frowned, then she had made up her mind. As soon as Shohoku returned to the court, she got up and yelled, "Gambate Kiminobu!"

Everyone in Shohoku team turned around.

"Ah, it's Hiroko-san!" said Sakuragi in surprise.

"What is she doing here? I thought she's not coming since she has dumped Kogure." said Miyagi.

"Maybe they kiss and make up?" suggested Sakuragi.

"Chotto, is that Sendoh over there? What is he doing beside Hiroko-san?" asked Miyagi.

Kogure didn't hear them, instead he looked at Hiroko and smiled in delight.

"How did she come here…" he said in amazement.

Then he saw Sendoh, who winked at him. He pointed at himself, then made a bicycle pose and pointed at Hiroko.

Kogure understood the message. "Arigato, Sendoh."

Kogure raised his hand at Hiroko and waved slightly. Hiroko smiled back and sat down.

"Maa, that's the first time I ever hear you yell, Hiroko." said Sendoh, grinning.

Hiroko smiled at her cousin and her smile faded when she felt the pain in her chest again.

"Yoshi, let's go everyone!" said Akagi.

"Hai!" yelled the Shohoku team, including Kogure.

Now that Kogure had seen Hiroko, he seemed to be able to concentrate on the game.

Since Mitsui was out, Kogure had to take over and do Mitsui's 3 penalty shots. Closing his eyes, Kogure concentrated before he threw the ball.

"Get in!" thought of all the Shohoku members.

The ball went in. And the crowd cheered, including Hiroko and Sendoh.

Smiling, Kogure's confidence increased and he helped Shohoku gained another two points with his next shots.

"Go, Kogure sempai!" yelled the juniors at the bench happily. The score now was 67-68.

"We need to get one more point in order to catch up with them!" called Ayako.

Sugimoto got the ball and Akagi hit it away from him. Rukawa caught the ball and immediately, 4 players from Ocean High started to block him, for they realized how powerful Rukawa was.

Feeling trapped, Rukawa just threw the ball towards anyone he saw with a red jersey and Kogure caught the ball.

"Throw, Kogure, throw!" shouted Akagi.

Hiroko looked up and she forgot about her chest for a moment as she watched Kogure threw the ball through the air and it went into the hoop. Now the score was 70-68.

The audience went wild.

"3 points!" said Sakuragi happily. "Good one, Megane-kun!"

"We now have more points than Ocean High!" said Miyagi and he gave Kogure a high-five.

Hiroko jumped up and screamed in delight. Hiroko could now feel all the excitement around her. This was the first time she had been to a basketball match and she never knew how fantastic it could be… It was wonderful to see the one you loved to score…

Hiroko bit her lower lip and clutched her chest as the pain grew stronger. She sat back down, breathing heavily.

"Hiroko, are you all right?" asked Sendoh in concern.

Hiroko nodded and tried to concentrate on the game.

On the last 20 seconds of the game, Sakuragi did a rebound and he passed the ball to Miyagi. "Go Ryota, show them your speed!" he yelled.

Miyagi ran in a top speed and while he was still running, he passed the ball to Rukawa, who threw the ball in and gained 3 points. The score was now 73-70.

"Go Shohoku, go!" yelled Ayako.

"Defence, everyone, defence!" called Mitsui.

Shohoku's supporters cheered.

"Let me bring you home, Hiroko…" said Sendoh.

"No, I want to watch the match, it's ending soon anyway…"

Rukawa tried to throw the ball from a distance, but he was too far away and the ball bounced off the rim. Hirata did a rebound and he threw it to another player. The player caught it and Akagi slapped it off his hands. The ball flew out and Sakuragi jumped to catch the ball.

Hiroko shook her head, trying to clear the sliver spots she saw in front of her. She felt like passing out any moment…

Sakuragi aimed and threw the ball. The ball went in just before the buzzer sounded. The score was 75-70, Shohoku won.

"We won! Yeah!" said the Shohoku players. Mitsui sat up and smiled.

"We are the best, oh yeah!" sang Sakuragi and Miyagi and they then did a victory dance.

"Baka." said Rukawa.

Akagi and Kogure gave each other high fives.

Hiroko smiled at the sight of Kogure's happy face weakly, then she couldn't hold out much longer and she fainted.

"Hiroko!" said Sendoh in horror. "Kogure, get over here!"

"Huh?" asked Kogure in confusion.

"Hiroko has fainted!"

Kogure went pale. "Hiroko!" Instantly, he ran out of the court, then to the audience's seats.

Hiroko's face was white and her eyes were closed. It was like she was dead. Kogure caught hold of her. "Hiroko, Hiroko, wake up!"

"Someone call the ambulance!" shouted Sendoh.

"Open your eyes, Hiroko!" called Kogure.

But Hiroko didn't wake up.