Chapter One: Your Name
Spring—the season of new beginnings—had finally arrived.
Cherry blossoms fluttered in the warm breeze to welcome the season, their petals dancing gently around incoming and returning students of Teikō Junior High, a school that prided itself on its excellence in both physical and mental sports.
Strangely, there was one thing that did not seem to belong in this peaceful scenery—a black limousine that was parked outside the school entrance. After all, Teikō was a normal public school despite its reputation. Students who were walking towards the gates caught themselves glancing at the limousine, wondering who would make such a grand entrance to the first day of school, some secretly hoping that this rich kid would be as good-looking as the ones they had read in shōjo manga.
A chauffeur exited the vehicle and opened passenger side door, making a formal bow.
"But Akashi-sama, is this spot really fine to stop?"
A red-haired boy stepped out of the limousine; his overwhelming presence gathered all eyes on him. Everyone in the scene started whispering in each other's ears: the girls were giggling, all excited and elated about the fact that such a cool and attractive teenager would be studying in the same school as them; the boys, too, could not deny that they were curiously attracted to this mysterious first year.
"Yes," Akashi replied to his chauffeur. "Also, I won't need a chauffeur tomorrow."
"But your father will…"
"It's not about father." He flickered his scarlet eyes to his uninvited audience. "Besides, if every morning were like this, I'll be mocked."
Akashi shifted his attention back his chauffeur, his lips forming a soft smile. "Let school at least be somewhere I have freedom."
Freedom and failure were two concepts that Akashi had not been, or rather, could not afford to fully understand until now. He had always been curious about the two words, especially the former. That was why he had successfully persuaded his father to allow him to attend a normal junior high school with a strong winning-philosophy that aligned with that of his family. As long as he managed to meet his father's expectations, he would be able to gain the freedom that he had always wanted: freedom to spend more time on the only thing his mother had left him—basketball.
"#8, Aomine Daiki, #11, Midorima Shintarō, #23, Murasakibara Atsushi, and #29, Akashi Seijūrō. You four are assigned to first-string."
A short period of murmuring among the startled first years erupted following the announcement from the tryout all newcomers of the basketball club had just taken. The basketball club was one of the, if not the, best sports clubs in Teikō Junior High and so their infamous physical tests were rumoured to be designed so that no one could ever be assigned to first-string through first trial. The fact that not one but four new members were immediately placed into first-string meant a new wave was approaching—a big, ominous one.
Akashi drew his eyes to the other three first-stringers. What they had displayed in the tryout was beyond his expectations: Midorima had never missed a shot from the three-point line; Murasakibara had an agility that allowed him to get all the rebounds and crush anyone trying to make a shot within the three-point line with his abnormally large body frame; and Aomine was...well, a mere wild beast who relied on his instincts to dominate the court with his limitless plays and skills he had honed. Akashi smiled at the opportunity of observing and assisting these three extremely potential players grow; together they would be able to form an invisible team that he would guide and bring the Teikō Junior High Basketball Team to triumph for the next three years.
The last remaining petals of the withering cherry blossoms flew past the windows of Teikō's gym where the groans of the basketball club members could be heard. Another long, strenuous practice session had barely started when the first-stringers noticed the absence of a usual dominating presence.
"Mido-chin~ I can't seem to find Aka-chin. Is he slacking off?"
"Of course he isn't, you idiot. He would be the last person to be slacking off," Midorima grudgingly replied to Murasakibara. "Akashi is a class representative and so is having a meeting with the student council right now. Also, Murasakibara." Midorima diverted his eyes to the crumbs falling from the bag of chips Murasakibara was holding. "Stop snacking in the middle of our practice."
"Huh? No way, not when Aka-chin is not here." Murasakibara's sluggish eyes turned away from Midorima's direction. "Anyway, how did you know exactly where Aka-chin is right now? You guys aren't in the same class, right?"
"He's secretly Akashi's stalker." Aomine broke into the conversation, a mischievous grin hanging on his face. His loud voice caused everyone around the three teenagers to start whispering into each other's ears about the surprising but plausible news they had just heard.
Midorima exploded with rage, his eyebrows furrowing and his teeth gritting harshly.
"A-O-MI-NEEEEE."
Following Midorima's cry that echoed in the entire gym was a furious chase between him and Aomine, along with twenty punishment laps shared among all the first-stringers.
Ahchoo!
It was rare of Akashi to sneeze, especially not when he was delivering his notes in a student council meeting. Not that it was because people who knew him would not dare talk behind his back, but rather he had been raised to hold in his sneeze as a general rule of etiquette.
"Please excuse me."
Another silence enveloped the meeting room; Akashi had got used to this complete silence whenever all eyes were on him.
"If there are no more comments regarding this matter, I'll be taking my leave as I have other matters to attend to. Thank you for your hard work, everyone." Akashi gave a slight smile and a bow after rising from his chair.
"A-aa!" The president of the student council nodded vigorously to Akashi's statement. "Thank you for taking your time participating in this...trivial meeting!"
The only person to which the third-year president would describe the weekly student council meeting as trivial was Akashi, a first year whom he had met less than a month ago, a person that had already earned the respect from all the student representatives in the room after he had logically pointed out all the flaws of the current policies the student council was enforcing and the possible solutions to them. This was why everyone stood up and unanimously cried "Thank you for your hard work!" as the first year left the classroom.
The balmy wind blew past Akashi tenderly, caressing his red hair as he entered the empty corridor in which the sound of his footsteps echoed. Since the head coach would be overseeing the first-stringers in today's practice, Akashi did not have to worry that his fellow first-stringers would not be putting maximum effort into their training. This meant he could finally spend the remaining of the evening playing shōgi alone; the last time he had played shōgi was the first week of school, in a small, unused room he had found containing a long desk, a few chairs, and dusty shelves stocked with unread books. He would prefer a proper classroom, though; perhaps he could have the president of the shōgi club lend him his clubroom by winning matches against the whole club, but that opportunity would not come until next year.
Pa-chi.
The familiar sound of wooden pieces clicking against the board travelled to Akashi's ears. He stood in front of the room where the sound was coming from, the same room where he had played shōgi a few weeks ago, and slowly slided the door. In the far back of the room sat a girl by the window, her slender back facing towards him, her ash-brown hair and pale skin shimmering in the evening's warm rays. The stranger turned her head upon the noise, only to find a pair of scarlet eyes locked on her hazelnut ones.
"Ah, I'm sorry. Is this room already reserved for a club?" Her soft voice filled in the silent air between them.
Akashi answered with a slight head-shake and a gentle smile. "No, I apologise for intruding. I was just finding a room that I could spend some time in."
"That you could spend some time to…?"
"To play shōgi."
The young girl's face glittered with delight. "Oh! If that's the case, would you like to play shōgi with me? Maybe a quick match?"
Akashi was startled by the offer of a stranger he had barely met. People had always been careful with their words and actions when they approached him. Yet this stranger did not show the slightest unease that Akashi had sensed all too often with the people he had met. She was merely excited by the prospect of someone who could play shōgi with her.
"Aa. I don't mind."
"Yay!" The girl exclaimed with a huge grin. "That's wonderful! Thank you!"
Akashi realised that he was intrigued by the freshness of such pure excitement she was displaying.
The young girl rearranged the wooden pieces back to their original places as Akashi took a seat opposite of her.
"Shall we start?"
The game began after the two students had bowed and greeted to each other formally.
To Akashi's surprise once again, the same pair of hazelnut eyes that had been gleefully sparkling with excitement just a second ago turned into serious ones focused intensely on the pawns.
She was good, no, really good. Almost every course that Akashi had planned out was halted by her swift but elegant responses, with neither player being able to draw closer to their opponent's king and wield the flow of the game.
From her pure excitement to her calm seriousness towards the game, along with her artful moves that smartly defended his attacks, this girl was an unpredictable existence that Akashi embraced and enjoyed.
However, to win a game one would have to go beyond reading ahead the opponent's moves; one would have to outplay his opponent and aggressively attack to capture the king, a skill that she seemed to lack. And there was something fundamentally different between the two players—their desire and determination to win.
"Ōte."
Akashi's firm declaration of victory was welcomed by a genuine smile on the teenage girl's face, a smile that Akashi had never seen from opponents who had just lost to him.
"Thank you for the game." The girl still had her eyes fixed at the shōgi board, her mind processing the moves her opponent had outmaneuvered. "It's been a while since I last had a game this exciting."
"The same for me," Akashi replied with a warm smile and his eyelids closed. "Thank you for the game."
"Are you a member of the shōgi club?"
That was the same assumption Akashi had of her; she would not have asked if she had belonged to the shōgi club.
"No, I'm not. I suppose you're not either?"
She shook her head as she started piling up the wedge-shaped pieces into the wooden box. "I'm not allowed to."
It must be her family then, Akashi assumed, to not allow her join the shōgi club. Her moves were far more advanced than those of players who would occasionally play shōgi as a side hobby—but she was a mere shadow of a seasoned player: her skills, not perfectly refined and polished, lacked a certain flair of their own.
"Is your father perhaps a professional shōgi player?"
"Eh?" The young girl tilted her head up, startled by his accurate assumption. "Y-yes, how did you—." She ended the sentence with a chuckle. "You're quite a keen observer, aren't you? No wonder why you managed to outsmart all my moves."
"It was not an easy task to outsmart your moves though," commented Akashi as he started tidying up the wooden pieces on the shōgi board. "You managed to block most of my attempts to capture your pieces."
"But in the end you still checkmated my king without me realising it." The edges of the teenage girl's lips lowered. She stared at the shōgi pieces, her small hands surrounding the box that contained the pieces. "It must be lonely to be someone as strong as you, isn't?"
Akashi had lost count the number of times he had been taken aback by this stranger. Never would anyone who knew him remark about his feelings, let alone a stranger he had just met. Emotions were the last thing with which people would associate Akashi, a person who was always deemed rational and right. But had there been times when he actually felt lonely playing shōgi? Had this been the reason why he joined the basketball club and and took basketball far more seriously than shōgi? For the first time in his life, Akashi did not know the answer.
"Rather than being lonely, I've always been expected to be strong, to stay victorious."
"To stay victorious…?" She raised her head up, her bewildered eyes staring at his calm ones.
"I have not lost before."
"Not even once?"
"No, not even once."
"That's…" The corners of her thin lips turned slightly upwards. "Ah, I see…"
Another short silence engulfed the tiny room. Outside the windows, the last rays of the sun faded behind the streaks of clouds that glimmered gently in firelight colours, paving the way for the moon to cast its own radiance in the darkening sky.
"Anyway, it is getting late. We should leave before it gets too dark outside," said Akashi as he stood up from his chair. "Please excuse me as I'd have to leave first." He had just changed his mind; he wanted to visit the gym and check on his fellow first-stringers, making sure that their practice had gone smoothly as he had expected.
"It was a nice change of pace from how I usually spend my time playing shōgi," the teenage boy remarked as he headed towards the door, his bag clung to his right shoulder. "Thank you, Itō-san."
"E-eh?"
"Your notebook on the desk—it's written there."
Itō turned to her notebook that had her name and class written down, a slight chuckle slipping through her lips. "You really are a keen observer."
Before she could ask for Akashi's name, he had already left the room, a rare smile on his face.
It was the last day of Spring when Akashi got promoted to vice-captain under the recommendation of Nijimura, the captain of Teikō's basketball team, who had been observing the exceptional leadership skills Akashi had displayed the past two months. Not long after, Momoi, Aomine's childhood friend, became the manager of the basketball team under Akashi's request; he knew her expertise in data-collection and talent in analysing sports players' abilities and moves would prove to be an incredibly valuable asset to the team.
The screeching of cicadas began to disperse into the warm, humid air that seeped through the green trees surrounding Teikō Junior High. Two months had flown by since Akashi had last played shōgi, the last time being his encounter with Itō.
"Akashi-kun!"
Akashi turned around upon hearing Momoi's bubbly voice that rang in the crowded corridor.
"What's wrong, Momoi?"
"A-about the summer training camp..." Momoi could barely finish her sentence as she panted heavily after catching up with Akashi.
"What about the training camp?"
Her pink eyes glittered with delight. "I've found an assistant manager for the training camp!"
"Ah, yes."
However much Akashi trusted Momoi's data-analysis of their opponents, he gave himself the benefit of doubt when it came to her cooking skills. He had tested the water last week, asking Momoi to host a training camp menu tasting session for the first-stringers despite Aomine's strong opposition. All first-stringers had suffered from severe stomach pain after tasting Momoi's "specialised" curry, leaving Akashi the only option of requesting Momoi to find an assistant manager who would be in charge of their meals. He needed everyone to be on top of their game in the training camp to prepare for the Nationals that would take place in August, and would not allow her horrible cooking to ruin the schedule he had been devising with Nijimura the past weeks.
"That's wonderful news. Who would that person be?"
Regardless of who this person would be, Akashi knew that another menu tasting session would be needed to ensure that the basketball club members would be well fed in the summer training camp.
"Her name's Itō Saya. She's the same year as us!"
Momoi's sharp eyes instantly caught the flicker of surprise across his face upon hearing the name.
"Akashi-kun, don't tell me you already know her!"
Akashi smiled. "You could say I know her name."
Author's Note:
Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! Phew. It took me a while to figure out how to introduce you lovely readers to the lives of the GoM at Teikō and the first encounter between Akashi and Itō.
A big thank you to Wikked for your review and kind words! I'm really glad that you found the OC interesting and managed to find the few hints that I gave away in the prologue. The hints mean I already have the story planned out (in my mind) so all that's left is writing it down, haha. Don't worry, I intend to complete the story but I'm not sure how long it would take~ Please look forward to the future chapters and I hope I won't disappoint! :)
As always, thank you so much for the follows and favourites, and reviews are greatly appreciated!
Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke written by Fujimaki Tadatoshi-san. All credit to the wonderful people that contributed to the creation of the manga and anime for this series, and to the translation team for their hard work in putting on subtitles for the anime that are used in this fanfiction.