A/N: So, it had been a very very long time since I've last updated, I've received messages about updating this and I'm sorry this is soooo late! My life has been very hectic lately and school—OMG!—school should be taken care of first right? Anyway, I've read some of the reviews as well and it flatters me how much you guys want an update (I'm sorry again!), so without further ado, this is it! SORRY FOR BEING SO LATE!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Chapter 7: The Prince and Three Kings

"Let the game between Seirin High School and Shinkyo Academy begin."

"Let's play a good game!" Hiroto sat beside Riko, holding his hands together as the game finally begins. Both Kagami and Dad jumped off for the ball after the loud blow of the whistle. Being the taller of the two, Dad easily got the ball to his side.

"Seriously? I don't believe it! Kagami lost to him in height!" Hyuuga gaped.

"This bastard!" Kagami growled to himself, running to guard Dad as the ball is passed upon him.

"Shinkyo's got the ball first!"His eyes narrowed immediately as Dad immediately jumped to shoot.

"A simple jump without faking? He's mocking me!" Kagami jumped, intending to stop him but Dad threw.

"H-He's huge!" Kagami thought as he heard the loud smack of the ball going through the net.

"Woah! There it is! He's so tall!"

"Shinkyo scores first!"

"This is too easy." Dad sighed.

"Don't worry about it." Hyuuga passed the ball to Izuki. "Let's get it back." Eager to make a score, Izuki avoided the defenders, passed the ball through Mitobe who immediately passed to Hyuuga as he stopped near the three-point lane.

"I got this!" Hyuuga confidently threw the ball to shoot. Dad effortlessly caught the ball in air when he jumped.

"Seriously?" Hyuuga twitched. "He can reach that? What can't he defend?" he thought bitterly.

"This is ridiculous." Furihata said, frowning.

"Having a foreign player isn't fair." Kawahara replied. Hiroto hummed, turning his attention back to the game.

"Are you guys one of those hard-working teams?" The other team's captain spoke to Hyuuga who turned to look at him in confusion.

"What?"

"We see a lot of those." The Shinkyo captain said haughtily. "Guys saying it's not fair we've got a foreign player. We're not breaking any rules." Hyuuga narrowed his eyes on him.

"Well, you can have up to two of them on your team."

"Right?" the brunette captain's brow rose. "What's wrong with getting strong players? It's real easy. All we have to do is pass the ball to him and we can't help but score." Hiroto's eyes narrowed, sighing heavily, in turn the two first years, Furihata and Kawahara turned to him in surprise.

"Hiroto-kun? What's the matter?" Furihata asked, silently observing the look upon their teammate's face.

"Nothing…" he replied, waiting for their captain to reply.

"I don't know how easy it is, but if that's your policy, you'd better not complain." Hyuuga shrugged.

"Huh?" the other captain's eyes narrowed.

"Besides, we've got our own ridiculous players. We didn't have to recruit them though." Hiroto's lips broke into a small smile at the look at the other captain's face, his eyes sweeping past the other players to Kagami and Kuroko who both looked quite powered up.

Six minutes and twenty-four seconds in, the score was 8-3 in favor of Shinkyo. The game continued off as Dad's shot missed.

"He missed! Get the rebound!" Mitobe caught the ball as it bounced off the hoop. A few shots later and already, Hiroto was feeling it. Finally. Oh, and that look on the other team's captain as he watched how Dad's accuracy was declining, confusion etched upon his face as Hiroto was starting to enjoy the look upon his face. Beside Hiroto, Riko was smiling.

"It won't be so easy to score, because Kagami-kun won't let Dad execute his own plays." As she said so, Dad looked pressured at being guarded to closely by Kagami.

"What plays?" asked Fukuda curiously, Riko turned towards them.

"Even if he can't reach, there's still a way. Mitobe's way." Hiroto nodded as he recalled what happened that day at practice.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Both Kagami and Hiroto were asked to stay together by Riko that day, Hiroto knew she asked him to stay and watch Kagami, observe him and his growth.

"Mitobe-sensei's a veteran when it comes to defense. From now on, you'll practice with Mitobe every day. You'll learn firsthand how to stop someone bigger than yourself."

"Someone bigger?" Kagami asked.

"Listen up. Blocking's not the only way to stop a shot. You can make them miss." So then, Hiroto watched on as Kagami and Mitobe practiced on, he watched as Kagami's shot missed and snickered at the look of surprise on his face.

'He can't get it in.' Hiroto thought.

'A normal one-on-one wouldn't be so bad,' Kagami thought. 'But when he won't let me inside, I can't make any shots. This is freaking hard. And also…' the redhead turned to the side, eyes landing upon him who watched on silently as if assessing the situation carefully like the coach.

'Gah, it's so pressuring with him watching.' He thought before the thought finally came to him. "This is…"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Do not let him do what he wants to do, Taiga."Hiroto thought, watching as Kagami pressured Dad so intensely that he looked clearly uncomfortable.

"Don't let him go where he wants to go." Kagami followed closely, hands raised and moving left and right to stop wherever Dad want to go.

"Force him out of his comfort zone." Dad's eyes narrowed, can't take it anymore and jumped, invading Kagami's outstretched hands to threw a shot, the ball missing just the edge of the hoop.

"He missed again. He's been missing a lot."

"He can't make any shots."

"This foreigner's no big deal!"

'Geez, shut your mouths! There's ton of pressure on the court.' Shinkyo's captain looked out of breath, watching as Kagami jumped again to intercept Dad.

'He can almost block him with those jumps. The intensity of his focus could kill.'

"What's your problem?!" Dad's eyes narrowed at the redhead.

'This is some serious pressure.' And there it was again. Dad missed another shot.

"What the hell is this? I'm pissed!" Dad growled.

"Don't let it get to you. He's not blocking you. Defense!" Dad's captain shouted. Kagami panted heavily, swiping his sweat with his shirt.

"This method is stressful for me too." His weirdly split brows twitch. 'I've gotta take him down more directly than this. I'll do it!' Kagami followed Dad, his back against him.

"Hey, let me tell you two things." Kagami started. "First, I'll block one of your shots in this game."

"There's no way you can do that." Dad's eyes narrowed, his eyes flashing. "I will not lose to a team with a child on it." Brushing past him, Kagami said. "And secondly…" Dad eyes widened at the sight of the ball being passed in his direction.

'Lucky!' He smirked as he reached out his hands—to find the ball—where had it gone?

The ball landed perfectly towards Kagami's awaiting hands, he jumped, scoring off a dunk.

"This kid might give you some trouble." Kagami smirked over his shoulder, glowing red eyes catching the blue-hair of Kuroko as blue orbs narrowed just slightly.

"Could you please stop calling me a child?" Kuroko said with a bit of a pout. The ball landed with a loud thud against the ground and soon Kagami followed.

"What? What just happened?" Dad couldn't help but just gape. Shinkyo's captain caught the ball, passing towards Dad.

"Let's get them back." He passed the ball towards a teammate—before the ball just got knocked off towards the ground and bounced up as it met the hard surface. Kagami jumped and caught the ball in mid-air and slammed the ball inside the hoop, scoring. Dad turned to look over his shoulder in shock and surprise.

'You're kidding right?!'

'Who are these guys?'

"Seriously?!" the spectators muttered to themselves disbelievingly.

"They dunked the ball directly from stealing it."

"That's two dunks in a row."

"This is still the first round of the preliminaries."

'This was amazing.' Kagami eyed his shadow's back. 'Has Kuroko always been this good?'

"Are you really that mad about being called a kid?" Hyuuga asked.

"Yeah." Kagami remembered what Dad just said about the Generation of Miracles.

"I'm disappointed they're so weak. Are all the Generation of Miracles children?"

"It's like, don't talk until you've played them."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The blow of the whistle ended the first quarter, with the score 8-23 in favor of Seirin. The team clustered close, waiting for Riko's instructions, first she turned towards the blue-haired teen.

"Kuroko-kun, you've got a time limit, so we're swapping you out here." Kuroko nodded in understanding. "Because we have to start reserving Kuroko-kun's strength, we'll lose power through the middle of the game. Don't let them close the gap. They don't have any dangerous players aside from Dad. Ultimately, it all comes down to how well Kagami can handle Dad. Are you up for it?" She turned towards the redhead, who seemed glowing with overconfidence.

"Just leave it to me—Ack!" Kagami winced, clutching his aching head and turned to glare at the person who dared to hit smack his head.

"Geh! Hiroto! What are you doing?" he growled in annoyance, swatting the fingers that persistently poked his cheeks.

"Do not worry, Riko-san. Taiga may be an idiot but he's reliable." Hiroto smiled, as if there was nothing wrong with his wording. Kagami looked proud at being called reliable before his face scrunched up, finally realizing Hiroto was definitely teasing him again.

"Who you are you calling idiot, bastard!?" He grabbed the orange-haired teen's collar and shook him. Hiroto merely laughed. There's the usual Taiga.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The game shortly resumed, it started off with Dad having the ball. Kagami guarded him again, following him as closely as possible.

"I—I will not lose!" Dad jumped. Kagami followed, hand reaching out to stop the shot. "Ah!" he gasped as Dad threw the ball. Hyuuga and Izuki watched in awe as the ball went through the hoop.

"He really is amazing." Izuki said.

"Has he gotten event taller?" Hyuuga inserted disbelievingly.

"I'm serious now! I will not lose!" Dad glared hard towards the redhead in front of him.

"I couldn't ask for more." Kagami replied with a smirk. "I'm started to get excited, Otou-san!"

'It's good to see Taiga enjoying himself.' Hiroto thought amusedly, his eyes turned towards the scoreboard. Seven minutes and fifty-one seconds in the second quarter. The score was now 12-24, still in favor of their team.

As the game continued on and on, Hiroto was starting to observe that something strange was happening. First off, he watched as Hyuuga shot a three-pointer. 'It's too short.' As he had expected, the ball bounced off the rim of the ring. Both Kagami and Dad jumped, the redhead luckily caught the ball and went ahead to shoot.

"Okay, nice shot!" Kawahara shouted at the side.

"Nice rebound!" Furihata cheered. Kagami grinned at Dad who clicked his tongue in annoyance. Even Riko seem to notice something strange as her eyes remained focused upon the redhead's plays.

"Papa, don't let it bother you. We'll give you the ball." Their captain encouraged passing the ball towards a teammate who evaded Hyuuga and passed the ball to Dad. He jumped, attempting to shoot when Kagami viciously stared at him, jumping with him. His eyes widened, before long, he passed the ball back to a teammate.

"What's wrong, Papa? You had that!" Hiroto blinked, his head tilting a bit to the side.

"Huh?" Riko's brows narrowed the slightest bit.

"One more time, Papa!" As quickly as before, Dad caught the ball, moving from side to side with Kagami guarding him. He jumped again, with Kagami following him, giving him another determined glare at made him strangely uncomfortable.

'Why?' Dad thought over and over. Hiroto's eyes gradually shined. Don't tell me…!

'Why!?' Dad frowned. 'He's gradually…he's gradually getting higher and higher!'

"Kagami's amazing." Fukuda started, earning Hiroto's attention. "He's more than keeping him in check. He's not losing to him at all. Looks like his practice is paying off." Hiroto snickered, earning both their attention.

"Taiga is the kind of person who refuses to lose, he can be quite a handful."

"Ah, but don't you think he's trying too hard?" Kuroko silently eyed the game as it progresses, recalling what Kise had said about the redhead.

"Someday he will achieve the level of the Generation of Miracles and grow apart from his team. When he does, do you really believe Kagami won't be a different person?" Kuroko hummed.

"What's wrong, Kuroko-kun?" Blue orbs met glinting orange and he realized Hiroto was staring at him, brows furrowed in concern.

"Ah, it's nothing." He said.

"Is it about Taiga?" Kuroko twitched a bit. Dead on. Hiroto sure was sharp.

"Ah, Well, I just recalled what Kise-kun said about Kagami-kun." Kuroko watched as Hiroto nodded, grasping his chin with his hand in thought.

"Ah. Are you worried?" Kuroko blinked, but didn't answer. Hiroto smiled, and to the other's surprise ruffled his hair. Kuroko's eyes widened at the gesture.

"Do not worry. I'll make sure to knock some sense into the idiot if he ever gets out of hand." Hiroto beamed with a raised fist. Kuroko blinked and he opened his mouth, before he could say anything else, Hiroto had already turned towards the on-going game. He stared at the Prince for the few more minutes, realizing how much he cared for the redhead and he can't help but think.

'But what if you aren't there, Ichinose-kun? Who's going to keep him in check?'

"Ah! Shinkyo Academy hit a three!" Kuroko turned his attention back to the game and true. The other team's number 4 managed to shot a three. It was only five minutes and eight seconds left in the four quarter and the score was 51-60 still in favor to their team.

"It's a single digit difference! They aren't out of this game yet!"

'Ah! We can't afford to cut this one close.' Riko's eyes widened before she turned towards Kuroko on her left. "Kuroko-kun, can you go the last five minutes?"

"Actually, I've been ready for a while." Kuroko replied.

"Ah! Sorry. Then, go!"

Then, with Kuroko back into the game, the other players can move easily and Kuroko made a lot of steals for the team and his abnormal passes cut through easily.

"Damn it, there he is again." Growled a Shinkyo player.

"What's going on with those passes?" their captain snapped.

"Don't let your guard down until it's over!" Hyuuga shouted, as it was their turn to defend. "Let's get them!"

"No! I won't lose!" Dad growled, dribbling the ball, his face scrunched up in both annoyance and desperation. He quickly jumped for a shot.

"You said you were disappointed in the Generation of Miracles," Kagami started. "but you overestimated yourself! Compared to you," Kagami readied himself and jumped with his hand up in the air. "They're way stronger!" He smacked the ball right off Dad's hands and the loud beeping sound ending the time and the game. The whistle blew and the score 67-79, Seirin wins the game.

"Game over!"

"We did it!"

"All right!" The freshmen trio cheered, while Hiroto smiled clapping his hands together as he watched the team lined up.

"67-79, Seirin!"

"Thank you!" They bow towards each other.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Well played, Taiga." Hiroto smiled at the redhead who was zipping his bag up and turned to him. He grinned, obviously happy at the compliment.

"Well, it was nothing." Kagami scratched the back of his head in embarrassment; after all, it was quite rare that Hiroto threw compliments at him.

"But too bad you weren't allowed to play." Kagami said.

"Maa, it's fine. You and Kuroko-kun handled that just fine." Hiroto smiled with teeth, enjoying how Kagami shake a bit at the sight of it. "Well, if I did play, then it wouldn't be a game now would it?" Kagami's brow twitched.

"Why are you always so full of yourself?" he said which earned him a loud smack in the cheek, courtesy of Hiroto's palms hitting it.

"Aren't we the same? Tai-ga!" Hiroto grasped both his cheeks and massaged them. Kuroko watched at the side amusedly as the redhead let out a loud protest and smacked the hands away from his face.

"Stop it! That hurts!" he glowered as Hiroto merely laughed. 'There he is again! Making fun of me!' Kagami thought angrily then he stopped rubbing his cheeks when he noticed Dad had come towards him. He stood and they stared with each other.

"I lost." Dad started.

"Eh?" Kagami answered lamely. Kuroko and Hiroto silently watched.

"Please play hard for me in your next game." Dad continued robotically and Hiroto raised a brow at the strange way he was acting.

"Huh? Uh, sure." Kagami dazedly answered. Before they know it, Dad's face turned into that of a sneer.

"Idiot! I mean, you're an idiot! An idio—AH!" They watched as he was grabbed by the collar by his teammate. But Dad continued to raise his hand and shout.

"You moron, I won't lose next time!" Dad choked out. Hiroto snickered, at the pissed look on the tiger's face. He just got totally played!

"Stop laughing! Hiroto, you bastard!"

"Hahahaha!" Cue in the grab of the collar and shaking of the orange-haired teen's person.

In this way, Seirin High successfully made it through their first game of the preliminaries. The second game was against Jitsuzen High. As with Kuroko and Hiroto remained in the bench for the whole game, the team crushed them, 118-51.

The third game was against Kinga High, from last year's top 16, they were a strong team with a good balance of offense and defense. But surprisingly, the match was going too smoothly than expected and the team even managed to reserve Kuroko's strength. Hiroto to everyone's surprise was never allowed on any game, he just watched on, giving advices and stuff Riko asked him to do. Despite the fact that he didn't manage to play, Hiroto took it in quite peacefully meanwhile Kuroko would usually twitch a lot in the bench in an effort to hold himself back. He looked really eager to play despite that almost permanent blank look on his face.

And so on the fourth game…

The team was warming up as they waited for the other team to arrive, Hiroto was with Kuroko and Kagami as he helped them warm up.

"It's the fourth round." Hiroto turned towards the sound of footsteps and his eyes landed towards the door where the opposing team came in. They all wore green jerseys and he can't help but think they all looked strangely familiar.

"We might actually have a tough game for once." A player said.

"Hey, hey, we're playing against Seirin today." Another player added.

"This should be easy." Another player arrogantly said.

"They got destroyed in the championship league last year. They're nothing but a new school that made it through with sheer luck."

"Huh?" Hiroto cocked his head to the side, they really are familiar—oh! Those guys were from that time!

"We'll destroy them this…" Hiroto watched as Kagami purposely bumped against the player. He stumbled back and stared at the person blocking his path.

"So, we meet again." Kagami said. Hiroto dropped his hands on the redhead's shoulder and smiled, waving the guys happily.

"Hey!"

"Hello." Kuroko greeted from the side, he had the ball spinning on his forefinger.

"GEH!" The players immediately went pale at the sight of the three.

They are going to destroy us!

So, the fourth game against Meijo Academy ended. For some reason the opponents were terrified the whole time, and the team destroyed them 108-41.

"We're doing well." Kawahara stated.

"At this rate, maybe we'll breeze through the preliminaries and move onto the championship league." Fukuda said.

"How naïve." Izuki laughed.

"It must be nice being so young and carefree." Koganei shook his head.

"For the last ten years," Hyuuga started. "the same three schools have moved onto the championship league from Tokyo. King of the East, Shutoku. King of the West, Senshinkan. King of the North, Seiho. They're evenly matched, so the top team changes every year, but they never let anyone else get better than fourth place. They're the three undisputed Kings of Tokyo. After our fifth match is the semifinals, then the finals. In the finals, we'll most likely face…" Hiroto eyed the name of the team on the sheet of paper he was holding.

"…The school that acquired the Generation of Miracles' Midorima Shintaro and the King of the East, Shutoku High."

"But you guys made it to the championship league last year," Kawahara said. "didn't you?"

"Yeah, but we didn't stand a chance."

'For sure, the team before wasn't weak, but…' Hiroto frowned at his trail of thought.

"The three kings." Kagami muttered.

"Look."

"They're here." Hiroto and the others turned to look at the commotion as they strolled inside the courts.

"Looks like they came." Hyuuga's eyes narrowed.

"It's better to see something for yourself than hear about it." The others watched on as the team in orange walked together. Riko stood from the bench.

"First years, prepare yourselves." She started, smiling. "You're going to see something amazing today. They're supposed to be even more amazing this year. One of the three kings of Tokyo, Shutoku High." Hiroto's landed upon the team, clearly they were on a different league than the others they've fought before.

"Shutoku! Shutoku! Shutoku!" They jumped at the loud shout of the students cheering for the team on the upper box.

"They're really here." Hiroto heard Izuki whisper, then he noticed at the corner of his eyes, something red stood. He turned to his side to see Kagami stand with a smile on his face.

"I'm gonna go say hi." What?

"Oh, sure." Hyuuga gave his consent absentmindedly before the rest of the team turned towards him with looks of confusion on their faces.

"Hey!" Hyuuga stood, reaching out a hand before Hiroto stood and stopped him.

"I'll go, captain." Hiroto smiled sheepishly, going after the redhead. The redhead stood in front of the tall green-haired player of Shutoku, stopping him in his tracks.

"Hey, you're Midorima Shintaro, aren't you?" he asked. Hiroto felt a throb on his temple. Taiga, you idiot...!

"Yes, but who are you?" The tall teen asked back with his brows narrowed. His teammate on his side, a black-haired one snickered silently on the background.

'You know exactly who he is. Why are you being so proud?' he thought.

Kagami raised his left hand out, smirking.

"You want to shake hands?" Midorima eyed the hand cautiously before he sighed, taking the little teddy bear from his left hand, he grasped the redhead's hand. But to his and Hiroto's surprise — because seriously, where the heck did Kagami get that marker? The redhead wrote his uniform number and name at the green-haired teen's hand.

"Wha?" Midorima let out a noise of surprise as Kagami's eyes narrowed.

"You look like the kind of guy who'd claim he doesn't remember me if I introduced myself—OUCH!" He said. Kagami flinched at the pain emitted from his head; everyone gaped at the person who was actually brave enough to smack the head of the scary tiger.

"HI-RO-TO! BASTARD! What'd you do that for?!" Kagami glowered; his face looked incredibly murderous as he turned towards the Prince who was frowning in displeasure.

"Taiga, you shouldn't be rude. Haven't I taught you some manners?" Hiroto flicked his forehead, and the redhead grabbed his head, rubbing the stinging pain away. Hiroto then turned towards Midorima, whose eyes have narrowed at him.

"Ah, forgive Taiga for being so excited." Hiroto smiled, reaching out his hand. "I'm Ichinose Hiroto and that idiot—"

"I'm not an idiot!" yowled Kagami.

"—over there is Kagami Taiga. It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Hiroto's voice dropped an octave lower as he continued. "Midorima Shintaro-kun."

Midorima's eyes narrowed at the teen in front of him. He's shorter than him, heck, he's a bit shorter than Kagami—but for some strange reason he's giving off such a strong aura. There is something strange about this person.

And also — where had he seen this person before?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The faint smell of medicines invaded his nostrils as he absentmindedly nodded at the doctor's lecture.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" He smiled sheepishly as the doctor dropped his pen on the table, sending an annoyed glare towards him.

"…Yes I am, Dr. Midorima." The doctor twitched, ignoring the happy-go-lucky smile on his patient's face and continued to tell him about his condition.

"You can take it easy right now; just do not strain it so much." He nodded in understanding, realizing that it was finally time to go.

"Remember to come back for check-up if you feel any more pain, okay?" He smiled, slinging his back over his shoulder.

"Yes, I understand. Thank you doctor." He turned to leave, and didn't notice the concerned frown on the doctor's face. He strolled around the hallway; ignoring the awed looks upon the nurse's face he passed by. On his way out the exit, his shoulder bumped against the person who just entered.

"I'm sorry." He turned to his side, bowing his head a bit. His eyes met green orbs.

"Hm. Do not worry about it."

"Then," he turned to leave, not sparing him another glance. Green eyes narrowed at retreating back, his eyes reading the bold letters glaring off his back saying. 'Seirin.'

"That person is…" he trailed off.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.tbc...


Sorry, to those who were looking forward to see Hiroto play again! XD I assure you he'll play real soon. And sorry if this chapter seemed like a filler-oh wait-it is! :D

Sooo, what do you think? Leave them reviews!