Disclaimer: I do not own kuroko no basket.

Chapter 3

One beautiful day in spring people got up to prepare for their day as usual, however one could feel the anticipation in the air. This particular day was the start of the new school year for students. In one peculiar school students were buzzing with excitement. The entrance path to the school which was surrounded by beautiful sakura trees in full bloom was crowded all the way to the building. It was almost like a festival as older students went out handing out flyers and recruiting the freshmen for the various clubs.

"You got to play baseball if you are Japanese!"

"Join the swimming club! It feels great!"

"Basketball club! Join the basketball club! How'd you like to join the basketball club!" called out a second year named Shinji Koganei. He is about 5'5'' with normal, spiky, dark brown hair. One could say his most distinctive feature is his cat like smile which never leaves his face.

"Koganei, you can't be serious. You are not saying it right. It's supposed to be like this. New kids, Join the basketball club! The basketball club needs some serious help!" proclaimed a determined looking Shun Izuki who is also a second year. He is around 5'7'' and has straight black hair which reaches his narrow eagle like eyes. Koganei just sighed at him and turned to the third member of their small group. "Mitobe, make sure they hear you!" Rinnosuke Mitobe just nodded his head and continued to quietly hand out flyers with a smile on his face. The other two just sweat dropped at this. Mitobe standing at 6'1'' is one of the taller members of the club and has long black hair parted to the sides with some bangs in the front. One could always remember him as the quietest person on the team because he almost never talks.

Near the end of the row of club tables which were lined parallel to the sakura trees, two bored looking second years could be found complaining about the low number of recruits. One was an average looking male standing at 5'8'' with short black hair and glasses framing his narrow eyes. His name is Junpei Hyuuga. The other was a female named Riko Aida who has short hazel hair and is the Coach for the basketball club. Suddenly a looming shadow falls on them. They look up to see a tall figure about 6'2'' in height, with dark red hair and red eyes that seems to have the intensity of a wild tiger considering how he scared poor Koganei to tears. "Is this the basketball club?" he asked, wanting to join the club.

"Ah! Welcome, welcome." Said Riko, handing him a drink. "I'm sure you know, but our school just formed last year. We only have second years to compete with so I'm sure someone of your build would be…"

"I don't care," the freshman interrupted. The second years were stunned as he wrote down his name and simply left after giving them an intense glare.

"Scary! Is he supposed to be a freshman?'' fretted Koganei. After a moment of staring Hyuuga took the sheet and started reading from it. "Kagami Taiga, he went to middle school in America. Must have learned from the source huh."

"Either way, I'm sure he'll be extraordinary." Exclaimed Riko. "Alright! I want everybody to meet me in the gym after school, don't forget."

One boy in particular was standing in front of a huge board looking for his class. He stood at 5'5'' with a small build. He had light blue hair which covered his left eye and his only visible eye is also blue in color. His skin is fairly pale and his face has a blank look which betrayed no emotion. He was so average looking that one would mistake his blank look as a declaration that the world is a boring place and holds nothing of interest to him. Maybe this hold true for him, who knows. The only thing that somewhat stood out was a slightly worn out black wristband with a basketball embroidered on it which he wore on his left wrist. As soon as he found his class, he quietly headed towards the doors of the building slipping by the people. He was stopped by no one, noticed by no one. If one looked closely they could have noticed the small upward quirk of the lips which graced the boy's face for a fraction of a second when the boy heard the comical shout about the basketball club needing some serious help. (1)

"-"-"-"-"-"-"

It was windy despite it being a beautiful sunny morning. Tapping of shoes, fluttering of clothes and irritated noises was what could be heard from the roof of Seirin high school. One could just imagine the orchestra playing an epic music in the background for moments such as these. A group of first years, more precisely, the new basketball recruits were standing in front of the basketball coach who stood there, hands on her hips, wearing a smug grin. The ticking of the school clock indicated it was 8:40 am and…

"WHY THE HELL ARE WE UP HERE WHEN THE MORNING ASSEMBLY STARTS IN 5 MINS DOWN THERE?'' yelled an extremely irritated Kagami ending the epic music.

"I have been waiting for you, ho ho ho ho!"

"Is it a duel?" someone asked. "Are you an idiot?" replied Kagami. "Hurry it up with the test. We need to get down there before we get busted because of you."

"Before that there is one thing I have to say. Last year I made a promise when the captain asked me to become the coach. We are playing basketball to aim for the nationals! If you are not ready for this, feel free to go to another club!" Riko exclaimed.

Kagami ended up with a tick mark on his forehead by the end of her small speech. He couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "Get a life woman! I wouldn't be here if I wasn't serious."

"HOOO, let's see if you still retain that confidence of yours after this," said Riko with an eerie glint in her eyes.

"No matter how seriously you practice, you'll always stay weak if you're thinking 'maybe one day, I'll do it' or 'as long as I can'. I want you to have a big concrete objective and the will to achieve it no matter what." So pointing towards the edge where she proudly represented the view of the student assembly she shouted, "That's why now! From here! You will shout your class number! Your name! And your goal for this year!"

"By the way, all second years including me did the same last year," she said in a tone that meant there's no getting out of this. "On top of that, if you fail to achieve it, next time I'll have you strip naked and confess your feelings to the girl you love!''

"EEH?!" came the simultaneous shout from most of the first years. Kagami just had this bewildered look on his face. Everybody was thinking of their retorts but bit their tongues to stop in fear of her majestic wrath.

'I didn't hear about that.'

'But to think you'd have to go that far, just how desperate are you?' thought another first year.

'What should we do? Wait, she's really serious, isn't she?!'

'The teachers will be angry after that!'

"What? That's it? Isn't that too easy? It won't even be a test." Kagami just had this look of utter boredom on his face as he said that. He walked forward and jumped onto the railing, ignoring the shocked expressions of rest of the recruits and the coach.

"CLASS 1-B, SEAT 5, KAGAMI TAIGA! I WILL DEFEAT THE GENERATION OF MRACLES AND BECOME THE NUMBER ONE PLAYER IN JAPAN!" He shouted, startling all the students down there.

"That surprised me." "What's that about?" the students started whispering.

'Waah! They are doing that this year too after all,' thought the captain of the basketball team, Junpei Hyuuga, who looked slightly torn between being embarrassed and laughing at their predicament.

Kuroko Tetsuya's eyes slightly widened after hearing the unexpected declaration. Surprisingly enough, he was in the same class as him. Now somebody has caught his interest. He would need to observe this student more who so boldly declared that he would beat the generation of miracles. His team…. Kuroko shook his head, willing the unwanted thought to go away. They weren't his team anymore. In fact he has nothing to do with them and would like it to remain that way. After all the chances of meeting them are less if he stays away from basketball, right? He looked up to catch a glimpse of the teen that caught his attention. He was taken aback slightly to see that the teen was gazing back at him.

Kagami began looking around after his declaration as if waiting for a challenger to come and oppose him. His gaze landed on a boy who looked like a first year.

'What weird hair color, almost white, but then again I've seen weirder things in the states.' He slightly frowned noticing the boy was looking back at him as if answering his challenge. Even though he was looking up as if looking at a king, his gaze held no fear, shock or respect just blunt determination on that expressionless face. He then looked away, jumping back off when Riko called for the next person, losing his train of thought.

"Hurry it up or the teacher will come!"

"Excuse me but can I say that I want a girlfriend?"

"Request denied," Riko cheerfully said. "I'll go next" said someone.

"MY NAME IS FUKUDA HIROSHI! CLASS 1-C! I LIKE HELPING PEOPLE SO WHEN AN UPPERCLASSMAN REQUESTED FOR HELP, I IMMEDIATELY OFFERED MY ASSISTANCE!"

"Who knew he would take my joke seriously," said Shun Izuki to his friend Koganei who was trying to muffle his laughter. Wiping his eyes he replied, "He must not have understood your joke."

'Poor kid, does he even know what he's getting himself into?' Thought kuroko.

"Alright next!"

MY NAME IS KOKI FURIHATA! CLASS 1-D! THE GIRL I LIKE SAID SHE WOULD GO OUT WITH ME IF I BECOME THE BEST AT SOMETHING. I JOINED THE BASKETBALL TEAM TO BECOME NUMBER ONE!"

'What a shallow girl. You're better off looking for another girl dude.' Kuroko thought keeping his gaze upward.

'Doing this really helped us focus last year. This could be a good tradition for our school basketball club.' thought Hyuuga.

It was right then the door opened with a loud bang and a teacher came out, a very angry one at that. "Hey! Not the basketball club again! I warned you guys last year too!" and he proceeded to lecture them about appropriate student behavior in a school.

"-"-"-"-"-"-"-"-"-"-"-"-"-"

The bell rang signaling the end of school for the day. Students rushed out eager to go home or to club activities. Kuroko Tetsuya slowly packed his bag before he too stood up to leave. He had observed the new guy who had caught his interest. It seems he is from the states and his body build was good, very good. He could probably be in the second string of the Teiko middle school basketball club had he gone there or more if Akashi became interested in him. Who was he kidding? Akashi would definitely take interest in this guy. He held his bag over his shoulder with one hand and proceeded to leave through the door with his other hand stuffed into his pant pocket. He had to stop thinking about them; now that he was back it was becoming difficult to do so. To distract himself he decided to reward himself with a little tour of the school campus. As he passed by the gym, he noticed a message on the closed door, obviously meant for the basketball club since it stated that club activities would take place on the outdoor courts, signed by someone named Riko.

Riko decided to head by the gym on her way to the outdoor courts in case some dimwit didn't understand her message. As she got closer, she noticed a student standing there staring at the door. He wasn't someone she knew, so maybe a new recruit? She studied him closely. He had a small and lean built but his stance was of someone who had all his muscles and movements in control. She was proven right when she tapped his shoulder and he proceeded to turn around, pivoting on only one foot while simultaneously jumping back on said foot and keeping his hands where they were. He landed back perfectly on his foot balanced and proceeded to bring down his other foot which was slightly above the ground; though an average person wouldn't notice but Riko wasn't someone average; and looked up at her. All done in the span of a second. Riko was shocked but didn't show it. She wanted information and she didn't want to scare the kid away.

"Hey," she started. "Yes?" said the boy in a trembling voice and started to take a few steps back. This time her eyes did widen. She then looked at him up close. He had light blue hair and eyes with some bangs covering his left eye. He held his bag over his shoulder with his left hand and she could see the edges of a black wristband there. Was he slightly trembling? He looked like a frightened sheep! Was what happened earlier a fluke? Or were her eyes playing a trick on her? "Do you want to join the club?" she asked. He just shook her head and said, "I was just touring the campus."

'Brrr it's c-cold! I should have brought an extra sweater.' Kuroko thought as he turned around after answering her questioned, leaving her standing there, determined to complete his tour.

Riko decided to ponder about this mystery later and headed out towards the courts.

They were all gathered on the outdoor courts because someone apparently woke up in an extremely good mood and on top of that the weather had stolen her heart.

"OK, now that everyone is finally here, we can begin today's activities."

'WHO WAS THE ONE WHO WAS REALLY LATE?' was the shared thought of everybody as they listened to her.

"You will be divided into two team, juniors vs. freshman. I would like to see you play so that I could make individual training programs for each of you. The juniors will be wearing red and freshmen will be wearing yellow. Now hurry up and grab your colors from the boxes, we don't have any more time to waste.

With the whistle from Riko, the match had begun.

Kagami caught the ball before Mitobe could and proceeded to dribble across the court at a fast pace. He sped past players and jumped high to make a slam dunk, scoring the first points for the yellow team.

'He's fast!' was what everybody thought. While most were staring at Kagami, Izuki immediately caught the ball and passed it to Hyuuga before any of the freshmen could react. Hyuuga jumped scored a three-pointer while smirking and said, "Fast but not fast enough."

Outside the court, a group of students were passing by, having finished with their club activities.

This time Furihata, being the point guard, caught the ball and decided to pass to Kagami.

'Man! He's surrounded. I better pass the ball fast but to whom?' He searched around for a free player or one who could break free.

'There!' He had spotted his team mate about to break free close to where the coach was sitting and he threw the ball with all his might towards Koichi Kawahara, a freshmen who couldn't give his introduction on the roof because of the teacher.

Koichi was about to break free but failed, resulting in the ball passing by. Riko saw this and when she turned her head in the direction the ball flew by, her eyes widened and she gasped as the ball, instead of hitting the crowd, bounced once by her feet and rolled a little way to a stop. She looked up and saw a flash of something black with an orange circle on it.

"Coach could you pass the ball?"

Startled, she turned her head back, the moment forgotten, "sure."


That's it for this chapter. I needed to get the introductions done. I think the match isn't well written so please do review and tell.

(1) The joke made him smile. It's not anticipation for joining the club. In fact he doesn't join the club yet.