Summary: Kaijou is going to practice, but there is one important thing missing. There are no basketballs left in the gym! Where are they?
"Alright class, that's it for today," the teacher said as the final bell rang, marking the end of the final lesson for today. Everyone let out sighs of relief. Today had been a really tough day, full of teachers talking endlessly about things that didn't seem to matter to any students. It was the final day of school for this week so nobody had the energy to concentrate.
Kise stretched his long body and let out a tired groan. All he wanted right now was just to go to practice and hope it would lighten the headache he was feeling over the endless talking from today.
"Kise-kun…," a shy girl walked up to Kise while holding her hands tightly. She was looking down at her feet as she spoke so Kise couldn't see her eyes. "A-Are… do you have time off today?"
Kise looked behind the girl. One of his classmates was standing there, another girl, this girl had probably encouraged her friend to speak to him because… maybe she had a crush on him or something, most girls had anyway.
"I'm sorry," Kise smiled. "I have practice today and I'm afraid Kasamatsu-senpai will yell at me if I skip," he said, smiling brighter at her than sunshine. The girl was completely blinded.
"T-t-t-then… c-can you… w-will… could we watch you practice?" the girl asked, taking time getting her words in place. She really was nervous about this situation.
Kise smiled even brighter, if that was possible. "Of course, I'm sure they won't mind," he said
And so he was tailed by almost every girl from his own year to the gym where he knew his team would already be waiting for him, Kasamatsu probably with an irritated expression, or would he be happy to see him? Kise couldn't figure that one out.
The part of changing went quickly. There were still a few left in the changing room and Kise actually managed to exit in the same time as the last one, not so bad if he had to say so. Of course Kasamatsu was already in the gym waiting for them. Practice had yet to start.
"Okay," Kasamatsu said. "We have to do a quick warm-up and then we get the basketballs, the one who is responsible for the girls hanging around upstairs is the one to get the basketballs," he send Kise a look that made the yellow-haired boy aware that he already knew who was responsible, as always.
The Kaijou basketball team started warming up, it was a routine they had all gotten used to doing by now. There was nothing new about this at all.
When the team finished and Kasamatsu declared so, Kise went to get the basketballs as they could get started on practice. He knew where to get them. It wasn't the first time Kasamatsu had asked him to do this and it won't be the last time either. Everybody knew, even Kise had realized it.
He opened the door to the room where they kept the basketballs and looked into the net that usually held them. However…
"Kasamatsu-senpai!" Kise exclaimed as he ran out of the room and up to his senpai.
"What, Kise?" Kasamatsu snapped. He was irritated by the fact that Kise was completely unable to get the balls. This wasn't like him in the first place. He would always get them when asked to. He wasn't one to deny a request.
"It's the basketballs," Kise said. "They're all missing!"
"Idiot!" Kasamatsu smacked Kise in the head before going back to check. He signaled for Kise to follow him back, and so the other did.
Kasamatsu entered the room first with Kise in toe. He looked down at the net and stood still for a short while, with his back turned to Kise as the younger couldn't see his expression.
"Why did you make them go missing!" Kasamatsu yelled while smacking Kise in the head for the second time within five minutes. Kise didn't know what to do.
"Why do you accuse me for this Kasamatsu-senpai!?" he whined with false tears running at the corner of each eye.
Kasamatsu sighed. "Because you're the most unlikely suspect, yet you were in the most likely position to do this. I wanted to make sure I can trust you," he said.
Kise smiled widely. "You can always trust me," he said.
Kasamatsu made his way past the overjoyed Kise and headed out. "Since I now know I can trust you, I might as well bring you along when searching for the basketballs," he said over his shoulder, causing Kise to become even happier as he followed his captain out of the room.
Kasamatsu demanded the team to gather around and informed them, along with their coach that their basketballs had all gone missing and therefore they couldn't start practicing yet.
The coach claimed that it wasn't true. The team would just have to use some other kind of balls to practice, but while most of the team did that, Kasamatsu and Kise would go to find the missing basketballs. Kasamatsu; because he was the team captain, and Kise; because he was the one who had to get the balls in the first place.
"And none of you guys would hide the basketballs?" Kasamatsu asked as a last resort before he and Kise left on their quest.
"We haven't," Moriyama said. Kasamatsu only nodded at his answer.
Then he signaled to Kise that they were getting out to look for something, clues or anything like it, and left the gym. Kise kept on following him.
Outside there was nothing. A few girls were standing around in little groups while whispering, probably about Kise and his appearance. However, Kise had no time to stop and allow the girls to admire him or have awkward conversations with them, seeing as Kasamatsu was already way ahead of him, and he had to keep up.
"Wait up, Kasamatsu-senpai!" Kise yelled before running after the older student to catch up. Kasamatsu was walking at the fastest pace one could walk at while still calling it walking. He didn't slow down to make it easier for Kise to catch up.
"Kise," he said once the other had caught up. "What do you think could've happened to the basketballs if nobody from the team took them?"
Kise tried to think which wasn't such an easy task in Kise's case. "Maybe someone else was in need of them?" he suggested.
Kasamatsu nodded. "That could be," he said. "I can't come up with any better reason at the moment,"
Kise was surprised. He had really counted on Kasamatsu to come up with something good. If he couldn't come up with anything, then who could?
"Now we just need to figure out who took them…" Kasamatsu said.
Kise smiled as he got a bright idea, it had hit him as quick as a strike of lightning. "We could ask the girls if they have seen anything," he suggested happily.
Kasamatsu looked at Kise's face with a shocked expression which later changed to terrified. He grabbed Kise by the collar and pulled his face down as their eyes were on the exact same level before he started whispering. "Are you nuts, I don't talk to girls," he said lowly.
Kise blinked. "Oh yeah, that's right," he said. "Then you should just leave the talking to me, Kasamatsu-senpai," he said calmly.
Kasamatsu wasn't so sure he felt confident with that idea either, but as long as it didn't involve him talking to the girls in person, he figured it would have to do for the time being, unless Kise said something stupid. The question was if Kasamatsu could even manage to step in and stop Kise if he did? After all, it was girls they were gonna talk to. Girls…
Kasamatsu found that he was lost in thoughts while Kise had already made his way up to the first little group of girls like it was no big deal and started talking to them. The senior student quickly followed him knowing full well that all Kise could keep in his head was stuff that involved only himself and his own interests.
"Excuse me, but our basketballs have gone missing and I was wondering if you girls had seen someone carrying a basketball somewhere around here?" Kise asked the group of girls, politely.
The shortest girl of the group, who seemed to be the one to talk the most, was the one who spoke.
"No, I'm sorry Kise-sama, we haven't seen any kind of balls outside the gym," she answered.
"I see," Kise nodded with a smile on his face. "Thank you for your time," he briefly let his gaze trail over the girls as he started making his way somewhere else, leaving the entire group breathless for a few seconds. Kasamatsu was still following him, unnoticed.
The two continued on their quest, they asked group after group of girls if they had seen anyone with basketballs. Most hadn't, some were too obsessed with being talking to Kise to even give an answer, one even fainted from him looking at her, her friend excused her by saying it happened a lot, which caused Kise to calm down, but Kasamatsu to get really worried about the girl. To faint so much that one could say it happened a lot with such ease wasn't normal. There were even some girls who asked what a basketball looked like, these girls had no clue of who Kise was either.
Finally the duo walked upstairs from the gym, where the others were practicing, using any other kind of ball they could find. They could see them, but they were busy doing other stuff, such as making their way through the hoard of girls standing up there.
"Excuse me," Kise said to a second year girl. "Have you seen anyone remove the basketballs from this gym?" he asked.
The girl blushed slightly. "No, sorry, I haven't," she said quickly before her face turned tomato-red and she had to turn away.
Kise sighed and looked at Kasamatsu. "I'm afraid nobody has seen anything, Kasamatsu-senpai,"
"E-e-excuse me," a shy girl spoke while grabbing Kasamatsu's arm. The senior jumped and turned to look at the girl. He couldn't even find the words to ask her to go on. Why would this girl talk to him in the first place?
"E-e-excuse me, I-I… I saw someone running back and forth with the basketballs," the girl said.
Kise now looked at her. "Aren't you that girl who came into my class just after school and asked if you could watch us practice?" he asked.
The girl's face heated up even worse than the second-year girl's face from a bit earlier. "I… I am!" she exclaimed, her voice rising to a pitch that was beyond human reach.
"What did you see?" Kise asked.
"There was this boy who ran in and out of the gym countless times, each time he ran out he would carry about three basketballs. He waved at us once while running past us, telling us not to tell you," she said in a feverish tone.
Kise nodded. "Do you know where he took the balls or what he looked like?" he asked.
"He took them behind the gym, I didn't see what was holding there, but I passed him," the shy girl's friend said, that one who was in Kise's class. "He was wearing a school uniform. I don't remember the school it belongs to, but it was black, so was his hair," she explained.
"Kurokocchi's uniform is black," Kise recalled, so is either Aominecchi or Midorimacchi's," he continued while a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. "I don't remember who though,"
"I highly doubt our basketballs are in Tokyo," Kasamatsu mumbled irritated before dragging Kise out to behind the gym. Kise only barely got the time to thank the girls for their helpfulness.
What they saw behind the gym was… nothing. There was nothing there at all but emptiness and what they could usually see. No trace of anything. No car tracks, no bike, no evidence of anyone ever being there in the first place.
"Is that it?" Kise asked, sounding almost disappointed.
Kasamatsu didn't say a word. With determination he went on to take a look at the scene. There could still be evidence here that they just were unable to see. Kise was left behind to just stand until Kasamatsu came back, carrying what looked to be a student ID.
"I think we just found our guy," he said while showing the student ID to Kise.
Kise took a quick look. "Huh?" he said in wonder as he looked at it. "I know the name of that school, but I don't recognize the face,"
"Neither do I," Kasamatsu said. "But we are going to Tokyo right now," he demanded.
"Why would we need so many basketballs?" Otsubo asked in amazement while looking at all the basketballs his teammate had gathered.
"I just figured more basketballs would make practice more effective," Takao said.
"Where did you get these from anyway?" Miyaji picked one up and threw it up in the air before dribbling with it a couple of times. "Did you rob a bank or something?"
Takao grinned. "Far from it," he said. "They were just lying around somewhere,"
Midorima entered the gym. "Where have you been, Takao?" he snapped.
"Ah Shin-chan!" Takao smiled. "I was just out collecting some extra basketballs for practice today,"
Midorima had his suspicion that he didn't really want to know where all these basketballs came from, but despite him not wanting so, his team sure would get to figure out where they came from shortly.
The door opened then and another first year entered the room. "Excuse me," he said. "Someone is here to see our team about something, they say they need to hand back a student ID," he proclaimed.
Otsubo nodded. "Let them in," he said calmly before the first year left and quickly returned with the visitors.
"Wow, this is the school that Midorimacchi goes to?" they could hear someone exclaim. "I never imagined it would be like this!"
Midorima send Takao a quick look with irritation and disbelief as Kise and Kasamatsu entered the gym, right behind the first year.
"You are from Kaijou," Otsubo said before turning to face the two.
Kasamatsu nodded. "Our basketballs went missing and in their place we found this student ID," he made a short break while showing them the backside of the student ID. "Tell me, are any of you named Takao Kazunari?" he asked.
Takao didn't know what to do at first, but decided to play it cool. "That'd be me, thanks for returning that," he said, quickly figuring there was no way around the matter.
"Could we have the basketballs back? Kise has to bring them to the gym," Kasamatsu asked.
"Aw, you're still going on about that, Kasamatsu-senpai?" Kise asked in a slightly whiny tone.
Kasamatsu ignored him while counting exactly how many basketballs he could see. It added perfectly up to the number of basketballs that had gone missing, and the number of basketballs Kaijou owned (which was the same number).
"We will just take those balls back," Kasamatsu said. "Kise, get to work,"
Otsubo nodded. "He won't be doing it alone though, I think it is suitable to hold the team responsible, Takao, you help him out,"
Takao put up a whiny expression but ended up helping out anyway. Therefore Kasamatsu managed to make it back to Kaijou in time to finish practice with everyone else. He had brought one ball as they could play a match. Kise came just after practice along with Takao and the remaining balls, and Takao returned way after Shuutoku's practice was over, deciding that stealing another team's basketballs was something he probably shouldn't try again any time soon.
I also hope you liked this one.
Thank you for reading!
Jackie