Chapter 3 – Aomine Daiki vs Kise Ryota

Kise noted how Aomine's aura seemed to change all of a sudden. He's serious, Kise thought, and he readied himself. Aomine stood right in front of Kise, dribbling the ball on the spot, but at the same time he gave a bored expression. Kise noted that unlike before, Aomine's body was somehow much more relaxed and much less tense now. Without looking down, Aomine unknowingly did a crossover, and then in between his legs, and while dribbling on the spot, the ball seemed to be moving at different heights. What's more shocking is that it all seemed too natural, too free-flowing, despite its difficulty, and yet Aomine looks so calm analyzing the situation in front of him.

"Left… or right…" They both thought. But Aomine seemed to have made his decision first.

Without warning, he suddenly dashed forward, leaving a trail of dust behind him. Kise activated his skill, and predicted his position the next second. His hand once again reached out for the ball, but then noticed the ball moving away from his fingers. Aomine was already close to passing him, with the ball already on the other hand. He completely caught Kise by surprise with this sudden burst of speed.

"What the—" Kise muttered, but the ball was already in the hoop. As the ball fell onto the ground, Aomine turned back to face Kise, still disturbed at the sudden change in Aomine's play style.

"Oi, Kise, stop playing around. I'm going serious, and I know you're faster than this." Aomine stated, looking somewhat disappointed at Kise.

"Heh…" Kise attempted to laugh. "Hahaha, alright then. No more bullshit…" He stated cheerfully. "Don't expect anything nice now" Kise said, still smiling, although this time the smile was more dangerous than ever.

As Aomine repositioned himself back at the free throw line, Kise started to stretch his arm, before going back into a defensive stance. This time, Kise did not deactivate his perfect copy.

"I thought you were going to use it sparingly," Aomine said.

"Since we are both going all out now, we can surely finish this in less than 30 minutes…" Kise said.

Aomine smirked and once again drove forward. This time, Kise's reaction was much faster, and his hand was already there before Aomine realized it. However, he managed to evade Kise's steal, and made a behind the back crossover. He dribbled sideways to near the side of the backboard and wasted no movements in the raising his hand out with the ball.

"Don't bother with your formless shot, Aomine-cchi!" Kise said mockingly. "I can see it!" And just as Aomine was about to release the ball, Kise was already in front of him reaching out of the ball without any warning. Aomine's eyes widened but he managed to evade Kise once again by bring the ball down in one swift motion and slowly dribbling back. He was rather taken aback at Kise's improvement of his skills, and could tell he was really going all out. In that moment, he could tell Kise had copied Akashi's Emperor Eye, his agility, and Kuroko's misdirection.

But Aomine felt a surge of excitement. A real challenge…

And so with that, the training match continued. Whenever a player lost control of his ball, the other player will then start with it. Aomine vs Kise, this matchup occurred last year during the Too vs Kaijo Match. It had occurred to Aomine how amusing it was when people attempted to compare the skills of individual players of the Generation of Miracles: Could Akashi win Kise? Could Murasakibara block out Aomine? Questions like that just simply sounded too … stupid, right? I mean, in basketball, you play as a team, not as individuals, so of course you cannot just compare it like that, Aomine thought. Funnily enough, his last-year self would have never thought of "fighting as a team." Perhaps it was because of how he started to practice with his team more often than before.

Aomine's streetball handles were executed fluidly with rapid and unpredictable speed, but Kise's reactions were not too shabby either. Any attempts to drive pass Kise would always wind up getting blocked, and because he could copy all five skills of the Generation of Miracles, Aomine had to keep forcing himself back, and rethink of another strategy. It wasn't long before it became a game of cat and mouse, where Kise was chasing the Aomine. At one point, Aomine managed to catch Kise off-guard and made a formless shot, finally scoring his first score. Despite this, he still wasn't satisfied. After all, a year ago, both of them would keep scoring above each other, but yet now, literally nobody was scoring. This stalemate made Aomine somewhat regret not taking practice seriously last year. After a minute, Kise suddenly stopped. His irises stopped glowing.

"Alright Aomine-cchi, let's change," Kise said, slightly panting, although his face was shining with sweat despite the one minute exchange.

Aomine sighed grumpily, and threw Kise the ball. He was also sweating, although not as much as Kise. They both got into their stances.

Kise copied Aomine's speed and drove forward. Aomine wasn't exactly surprised when he witnessed his very own moves right in front of him; in fact, he was admiring how it looked from the outside rather than inside. He easily got in front of Kise, and they both knew now was the moment of truth; the very move that may or may not cause Aomine's defeat against Akashi: The Ankle Break, a speedy dribbling technique that causes the opponent to fall when their centre of gravity is on their pivot while turning. With the Emperor Eye that could easily predict the future, Akashi could easily execute the Ankle Break with absolute ease.

Kise's eyes glowed, and observed Aomine's calves. He smiled and dribbled on the spot, performing between-the-legs and behind-the-back crossovers interchangeably while swaying left and right. Aomine easily followed these movements, although he was wary of when Kise would suddenly cut back. His movements became more erratic, swaying forward and backwards as well, and then all the sudden when Aomine took a step back, Kise suddenly did cut back, causing Aomine to fall on his behind, whilst Kise easily scored a two pointer while Aomine was on the floor. For a moment, Aomine could see a shadow Akashi beside Kise, causing him to suddenly shudder. He gritted his teeth, and got back up. Even though that was the first time he experienced that, Aomine got the feeling that he might not be able to avoid that at his current state.

They got back into their positions, with Kise holding the ball. Aomine frowned. Is he gonna try that again… He thought.

But Kise smirked. "My turn to score," he muttered.

His irises glowed brighter, and he jumped. Aomine's eyes widened. This is… Midorima's high projectile three? He thought. This would easily ensure a score for Kise. After all, blocking a jump shot requires a lot of height and size as well, and while Aomine may have that to reject him, he won't be fast enough to react to this, Kise thought. He smiled, ready to release the ball to follow the perfect trajectory, but then –

A hand suddenly reached out and hit the basketball out of Kise's palms.

"What the– ?!" Kise exclaimed.

Aomine had already reached for the ball with his speed, and took the ball. Usually, he would mock his opponent by saying "Oh, my bad. I took it 'cause you were too slow", but he decided to keep that comment to himself for now. He smiled at Kise, who looked clearly fazed at his sudden rejection. After all, he really did not expect Aomine to reach him from there.

"Wanna try again?" Aomine asked in a mocking manner, and he threw the ball at Kise without waiting for an answer.

Kise caught it with one hand, and frowned. "Alright…" He mumbled to himself. They both got back into their positions, ready for another exchange. Aomine noticed how Kise seemed to have gotten quieter, which meant he was concocting some sort of plan. After a few seconds, Kise looked up and smiled, surprising Aomine.

"Okay, let's try this again!" And Kise leapt of the ground, clearly trying to perform the same jump shot as before.

Midorima's three, again? Tsk, Aomine thought, and quickly dashed in front of Kise and jumped, reaching his hand out. Kise's feet were off the ground, which meant if he tried to land and drive, it would be a violation, which also meant that he had to score this shot or else the ball would go back to Aomine. Aomine was around the same height as Kise at the peak of his jump, and his hand was like a large hammer, ready to slam down at Kise, but he grinned. "Emperor Eye, Activate!"

"?!" Aomine's eyes widened as Kise observed Aomine's forearm. As though time had suddenly stopped, Kise observed every single muscle contractions, blood vessels, slight changes in skin tension, and predicted Aomine's hand movement. In a sweeping motion, Kise's hands shifted slightly to the left out of Aomine's path, still maintaining his pinpoint accuracy. Aomine could not stop his right arm from slamming down, while at the same time Kise released the ball. The result was that Aomine missed, contacting thin air inches before Kise's right shoulder, while he heard the basketball enter the hoop behind him, without a hint of grazing the ring. They both landed, although the emotions going through both of their minds were worlds apart.

Aomine looked down, shocked. He did not expect that at all. Not even once, despite being a street baller that uses unconventional tricks.

Kise smiled as he deactivated his eyes, and said, "What? You weren't expecting that?" And when Aomine didn't answer, he continued, "Well, if I could use it, Akashi-cchi definitely can as well ya know." Aomine looked down as his feet, thinking hard. Damn it… This may be harder than I thought…

"But don't sweat it haha…" Kise attempted to cheer Aomine up upon seeing his disgruntled face, although this clearly did not work.

"Oi, Kise. I'm gonna get real serious, or else I wouldn't find out anything," Aomine said seriously. It had only been three minutes, but Aomine could not take it anymore. It was clear that during those three minutes, he did not have a clear advantage against the Emperor Eye, and he was starting to get pissed.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kise enquired, looking rather nervous. Aomine looked up to face in the eye.

"ZONE," He muttered, "and you'll need more than just the Emperor Eye."

Kise looked slightly amazed for a moment, and then replied, "You're on."

They stood before each other, with Aomine now holding the ball. So far, an unbelievable ten minutes have passed since they started, but yet an intense battle in the aspects of the physical and mental had just taken place. The sun was shining brightly and the heat was starting to rise, although both Aomine and Kise did not notice this at all. At this moment, the intensity of their concentration and focus were nothing like before. Their surroundings seemed to grow quieter, and a gust of wind blew. They both opened their eyes.

"ZONE, Activate!" And blue streaks of lighting shot out from Aomine's eyes.

"Perfect Copy, Activate!" And Kise's irises glowed brighter than before.

The true battle between Aomine and Kise starts now.

Yo, a much shorter chapter at close to 2k words. It had occurred to me while writing this chapter that the entire story may possibly last longer than I thought because I thought of ways to introduce other characters and all, but at this point, while I have a main idea of how the story's gonna go, I will just leave out the side stuff for now. So, this chapter is all Aomine and Kise, and I'll finish their match next chapter and add some stuff too i guess. After that, Im probably gonna go on to Akashi's side of the story. For those of y'all wondering like when the actual match's gonna start, well jus don't expect it anytime soon cos I gonna focus on stuff like development and training that kind of stuff for now. Also, for those of y'all saying like Aomine or Akashi will surely win, again, I want to emphasise that the ending is how I would see it, so yea, hopefully not to many outrages. Jus chill while I try to reason everything out. So, yeaps. I may posting less frequently (my bad) due to exams and that kind soon, so I need to study and things like that.

Oh yea, if you don't know, this is my first time writing a legit story. So, my story writing and bullshiting skills may not be so good (like deus ex machina, idk). Jus a heads up and all. Review it as always.

-kkkdragon123