CHAPTER 6 – Tiger, Snake & White Dragon

"Kagami… Taiga?"

There was a short pause, as Kagami looked smugly at Shiro as if to savor his epic moment of grand badassery: The sunlight shone down on him, shadowing his eyes, as if he was posing in some sort of Hollywood movie where there would be a low angle of shot of him right now, while he looked down as his new enemy. However, Shiro easily broke his moment when his startled expression upon seeing Kagami's height quickly transition into one of pure confusion.

"Umm… who is this man?" Shiro asked nervously, pointing at Kagami.

Ding, as though someone just rang a bell counter. Kagami's wild look became even more rigid as a trickle of sweat rolled down his forehead in the moment of silence. He quickly flinched, when he realized how much better his moment played out in his head.

"Ah! Err… Right! My name is… Err… Kagami Taiga!" Kagami said coarsely, trying to sound as though nothing had happened. He quickly turned his head back to look at the red players, and called out, "Hey! You… err mind if I joined your game?" to which one of the red players whom looked exhausted nodded his head. They were obviously intimidated by Kagami's presence, despite being only slightly shorter than him, although apart of from basketball players, having a height like that is uncommon. Kagami swiftly regained his composure and he turned to face Akashi, whom still looked disoriented.

"Yo," Kagami smirked, and he turned his attention to Shiro, whose soft expression quickly hardened, losing all trace of his former cowardice.

"What are you doing here?" Akashi asked, slowly returning to his usual calm manner of speaking. Kagami shrugged his shoulders amusingly.

"What's wrong? I used to play streetball back in America too ya know," he said, "And I heard of this real strong player, so I wanna test him out," pointing at Shiro. For some reason, Kagami's presence and casual way of speaking managed to calm Akashi down, and he was glad of it.

Akashi smiled. "Then prepare yourself, Kagami-kun, this guy is stronger than you think."

"Heh, I wouldn't have it any other way!" Kagami's grin widened and the fire in his eyes grew bigger than ever. He put down his bag and took of his Seirin coat, and then took the red sash from one of the players, who gave it to him without any question. Certainly, Kagami's 193cm height made him look rather imposing and intimidating. As he made his way to the court, the crowd started muttering and mumbling about the new player.

"Hey, who's that guy…?"

"Isn't that Kagami Taiga?"

"The jumper?! Whoa…"

"I heard he could reach way above the backboard…"

"Seriously?! That's crazy…"

Kagami couldn't help but feel the pit of excitement exploding in his stomach right now. Currently, he will be playing against a crazy strong guy, which from what he noticed, has a similar playing style to Akashi, but even more so, he would be playing with his former opponent Akashi Seijuuro. From what he recalled, Akashi was literally one of the strongest players he had faced, up there along with Aomine, but unlike Aomine, Akashi was radically different in his own way. In the case of Aomine, when they were both in the ZONE back then in the Winter Cup, Kagami could feel the overwhelming power of Aomine as he struggled and pushed to keep up with the Generation of Miracle's Ace, he could also sense a certain feeling of fun during their battle: they were playing to win, and neither wanted to give up; and they were going all out, with zero intentions of losing, and in its own way, there was fun. However, with Akashi, or rather the other Akashi back then, there was no sense of fun, as all he wanted to do was to crush whoever that does not "obey" him. It was like a "good vs evil" kind of scenario, where Kagami was fighting to win without any desire to enjoy it, which was a first for him since he had always enjoyed battling any sort of opponents. Furthermore, unlike Aomine, he wasn't simply fighting an Ace, but rather the entire Rakuzan High, which consisted of extremely strong players too, and them being further enhanced with the normal Akashi's Perfect Rhythm Plays really made things difficult. But right now, that same Akashi is playing together with him? Kagami couldn't wait.

The other red players looked in awe as Kagami approached them. Two Aces on their team, one of the school that won the Winter Cup, and another which won the 2nd place, as well as known for being one of the oldest powerhouse schools; seriously, how could they lose? Kagami went over and shook hands with all of them, and his firm grip assured them greatly, as though a large animal was guarding them. As Kagami moved to Akashi, the red players also noted how potent both of their auras are: For Kagami, his red aura was gushing out fiercely and wildly with passion, as though ready to take on any challenge, whereas for Akashi, it felt as though his darkish red aura was like steam, slowly rising from his body; unlike Kagami, Akashi's aura felt cool and calculated, reptilian-like compared to Kagami's mammalian-like aura, but nevertheless extremely overwhelming as well.

As Kagami approached Akashi, the latter quickly asked him about the game. "Did you see the match just now?" He asked, while observing Shiro, who was discussing with his blue teammates.

"Hmm, kinda. I came when the blue team was scoring their 35th point or something," Kagami replied.

"Then you must have noticed too," Akashi continued sternly, "that man also has an emperor eye." Kagami looked down in surprise.

"Seriously? I mean I knew he was fast and all, and he plays like you but what are the odds of another Emperor Eye user on this court…" Kagami mumbled in surprise.

"Actually… It is unlikely I will be using my Emperor Eye at all…" Akashi said, avoiding Kagami's eyes.

"Huh? Why?"

"It's because there is a risk I will let the other me out, and I have not fully reconciled with him yet," Akashi confessed. He noticed that he himself felt uneasy when he said this to Kagami, despite trying as much as possible to hide this.

"Oh well, then I guess I won't be seeing much of that, huh?" Kagami smiled nonchalantly and made his way to his position. Akashi's eyes widened. He had expected Kagami to look disappointed or something similar, but yet he did not care? And without noticing, he smiled to himself, and moved to his position.

A few twenty meters away, the blue players started positioning themselves. Initially, they all wanted to Shiro to start with the ball, but he declined. They all noted that he felt different from before, and that his aura was also starting to show. If Kagami and Akashi were likened to a fierce tiger and a cool snake respectively, Shiro was that of a sleeping white dragon that was about to awaken from its millennia of slumber. The crowd's noise started to softened and the referee blew the whistle to signal the start of a new set. Currently, the point from red to blue is 39-40, and Shiro did not have any intention of letting them win.

The blue player passed the ball to another player, and they started moving. The red players moved accordingly, adopting the man-to-man defense strategy. Kagami and Akashi moved in accordingly, and marked their respective players. However before one of their red players could guard the blue player with the ball, he quickly passed the basketball to Shiro, whom easily slipped out of his defender's guard and caught the ball. In an instant, he sped forward and already reached the half court line, with the other red players attempting to catch up. Shiro smiled to himself, too slow, he thought, but then was caught off guard when Kagami suddenly appeared in front of him with his hands spread out. It was as though an imposing giant had suddenly materialized in front of him.

When did he appear? Shiro thought. No matter, I can get pass him easily…

Bring it on! Kagami thought.

Shiro's eyes glowed brightly, and in a fraction of a second, every single movement right in front of him could be seen; the muscle contractions, the blood flowing… All at once, and from that he could see a blurred version of his opponent moving from its original position, in all direction. He could move left, right, diagonally in either direction, move backwards… Shiro considered all the possibilities and looked even further into his own visions to predict the future. The blurred images all at once converged into a single being that moved to his right, and Shiro smirked to himself. Time flowed back to normal, and Shiro made a crossover to his right, to which Kagami too shifted as he predicted, but without warning, he cut back to the left just right when all of Kagami's weight was on his left foot, causing Kagami to fall to his left sideways, and on his back, looking shocked. Despite experiencing the ankle break move more than a few times by both Akashi and Aomine, he could never really overcome the moment of fright and shock. Shiro's paused for a moment in his dribbling and made eye contact with Kagami, before quickly dribbling forward. He quickly drove through a red player by once again predicting his moves, and made a layup effortlessly.

The crowd roared at this sight, while Shiro stood below the hoop with his right arm still rose as the ball fell onto ground, as though trying to admire and appreciate the moment. Kagami's double brows furrowed, as he got up, while Akashi, who was near the three-point line simply stood their silently. Shiro then caught the ball and threw it over to Kagami, who caught it single-handedly.

"It's your possession now, right?" Shiro gave an innocent smile, while making his way back, causing Kagami to become extremely irritated. He's fast, and the Emperor Eye is no joke… he thought, and he instantly knew that if he held back against him, it would be an instant loss for him in a one-on-one. It had only been the first basket, but Kagami was extremely tempted to go into the ZONE now, despite knowing the consequences of using the ZONE this early in the game. He clicked his tongue irritably and moved back to his starting position, as Akashi watched.

The referee blew his whistle once again, and the red player passed the ball to another player. As Akashi noted, the pacing of the game currently was much faster as compared to before he was playing, and undoubtedly, it would spike up once again with Kagami. The red player dribbled for some ways, before passing to Akashi, who caught the ball easily. He noticed Kagami with a blue player, near the half court line, ready to receive the ball. The other players shifted restlessly, and a blue player attempted to screen him. Meanwhile, Shiro stood near the paint, unguarded. In a fluid motion, he dribbled forward, and easily passed the blue player by doing a couple of complex crossovers, and threw the ball to an unguarded player, who dribbled all the way to the three point line. At this moment, Kagami suddenly felt a rush of cold air in the direction of Shiro, and the entire landscape seemed to darken in a hue of blackish purple, and the snowy haired player darted forward without any warning. In a split second as the ball was in the motion of bouncing off the ground, Shiro's frosty eyes glowed as he grinned.

Calculating the position of the basketball or player in the next second was an easy task with his Emperor Eye, but actually executing the move is definitely no easy feat, especially if the action that you predict occurs in a very short timeframe like in a fraction of a second. However, with Shiro's natural agility, he easily lowered and body and flicked the ball just before it contacted the red player's palms. All at once, the landscape seemed to return to normal, as Shiro is caught the ball and left the red player's blank expression at his wake.

This is Kuroko-?! Kagami screamed furiously in his mind. After all, while Shiro's movements do resemble Akashi, the steal that he executed just now was exactly the same as Kuroko's, more specifically back last year during their practice match against Kaijo when Kuroko stole the first ball from Kasamatsu, although Shiro's movements were more fluid and precise. Without anytime to think, he quickly brushed past his defenders back to the red's paint along with Akashi, whereas the other players took a full second to regain their senses and react. However, upon reaching the wing, Shiro was already near the free-throw line.

Shit! I won't make it! Kagami's eyes widened and he gritted his teeth. However, before the White Emperor could make it further, he was stopped by appearance of his red-headed counterpart.

"You won't get any further," Akashi commanded him, but Shiro's expression turned even more malicious.

"You seriously think a commoner like you can win against an Emperor Eye user like me? Dream on," Shiro whispered. His eyes glowed, and he instantly perceived the movements of Akashi's legs. He quickly regained his motion, and made a crossover to his left, to which Akashi instantly noticed and reached out for the ball. However, his cat-like pupils widened when Shiro caught the ball, and spun around in one fluid motion, easily passing Akashi. During that one short moment of shock, Shiro's glowing eyes narrowed as he leaned in and whispered to Akashi. "It feels different when you can't predict anything right? That's right, learn your place, and appreciate how lucky we are to have these eyes…" Akashi stood at his position in shock, as Shiro's distance from him grew wider and wider. What did he say? – But before he knew it, he quickly turned around to see Shiro already right below the hoop. He grinned, and threw the ball up for a layup, and while in mid-air muttered, "You lose… Akashi…"

However, a huge shadow suddenly loomed over Shiro, causing him to look up in awe. Even though Shiro himself was in mid-air, Kagami near the front of the hoop, was at least over a meter higher than he was, allowing him to easily reach the ball that was about to enter the hoop. The crowd held their breath.

"Don't say…" – As Kagami's left palm reached the ball – "… that you have…" – his hands contacted the basketball – "…WON YET!" Kagami screamed at the top of his lungs as he rejected the ball down to the paint with all his might.

The crowd roared even louder than before as Kagami landed, with Shiro's mouth wide opened. Akashi wasted no time and swiftly caught the ball, looking visibly impressed: It seems that Kagami's jump height has once again improved, and it was maddeningly impressive for basketball players to even jump that height. Kagami's red fierce eyes made contact with Shiro's briefly as he glared at him, before quickly following Akashi. Despite this, it only took Shiro a full second to regain his composure and quickly sprinted back to his half of the court, his white hair flowing smoothly with the wind. While running, Shiro couldn't help but feel upset and annoyed at what just transpired. How can he jump so high…!

As Akashi noticed two blue players running to guard him when he reached the half-court line, he quickly scanned the court and found the super Ace from Seirin catching up to him from behind. He smiled, and quickly shifted his direction slightly to right, causing the blue players to foolishly leave a small opening in the middle of the court.

"Kagami!" Akashi called out, and he flicked the ball behind his back towards him, who caught it easily.

Alright, let's keep this up! Kagami thought to himself. After all, thanks to Akashi, even if there is a small opening, he could easily take the ball directly to the hoop. He quickly sped up and dribbled even more intensely, grinning, passing the two blue players instantly. For a second, Kagami's eyes met Akashi, and they both smiled. It seems Akashi's perfect rhythm plays really did work in sync with Kagami's aggressive play style. All at once, Kagami felt something powerful rising in his chest. However, he was stunned by the appearance of Shiro, who managed to catch up to him at the paint, and he held his arms apart. At this point, there was no trace of laziness or cowardice in Shiro's expression, instead, his eyes glared fiercely at Kagami with zero intention of stopping him. Its fine, Kagami thought to himself, in fact, it's even better this way. He would rather face the true power of Shiro with all he got, and it suited him.

Without bothering to stop, Kagami instead brushed off all unnecessary feelings and instead took Shiro head-on, looking clearly unfazed. The crowd seemed to hold their breath at the current match-off: Kagami vs Shiro.

You may the will, but it's not enough—Emperor Eye! Shiro's glowed once again to signal the use of his magnificent eyes. Time seemed to slow down and the landscape darkened like before once again, as he observed every single muscle contractions and twitching his legs, as well as Kagami's to determine his direction. There was some distance between him and Kagami, and therefore could easily plan his next move to counter against him. He observed his hands, his dribbling – it seems he is going to charge forward? It means a lay-up or dunk then, which I can easily stop. He could also pass… no, there's nobody near him at the moment from what I can see… and it doesn't look like he has any intention of passing anyway… Kagami's foot stomped the ground in slow motion, and Shiro readied himself, but yet despite him being able to defend against Kagami, he could not help but feel uneasy. Then, something sparked in his mind as he observed Kagami's toned calves. Legs… Strength… Jump… as he remembered how he rejected him, a dunk, yes, but with that jumping power… And his irises shifted to the space between him and Kagami: there was some space, but he was almost one step from free-throw line. Dunk… no… He had not accounted for this, and this space which he purposely put to prepare himself would be his downfall. … Lane up –?! Time seemed to flow back to normal with such sudden forcefulness as Shiro's consciousness returned to the plane of reality, and Kagami's right foot touched the free-throw line. Shiro's eyes widened in shock and unbelievably, fear.

"TAKE THIS SHIROO!" Kagami shouted and he jumped, with the dust and air being blown away from the impact. Kagami's height in mid-air grew increasingly larger, and Shiro had to take this chance. With all his might, Shiro took flight in attempt to defend the hoop, but as expectedly, despite his overall skills, with his height, he could never fully reach the basketball at Kagami's height. Before he knew it, he was already falling whereas Kagami was still ascending, reaching the hoop. In a single breath, he jammed the ball into the hoop and made a perfect single-handed lane up.

The crowd was silent for a moment, trying to comprehend what had happened. Akashi stood there, smiling, as he was clearly even more impressed at the visual impact of Kagami's lane up. The sound of the ball being jammed into the hoop resonated throughout the court as the crowd held their breath, and Shiro landed on his back, his expression a mixture of awe and shock. As Kagami landed, the court roared even louder than before. After all, seeing a dunk from the super Jumper from afar during the Winter Cup was already impressive enough, but seeing it up close like this on a streetball court was nothing short of perfection and pure bliss. In his grandeur moment of epicness, Kagami looked at Shiro, who returned him with an expression of pure awe. At this point, he was more excited than upset at his loss, but felt something in him burning. He looked away trying to hide his smile. Meanwhile, Kagami quickly made his way back to his starting position, and bumped into Akashi, who shocked him when he complemented his score.

"Nice dunk, Kagami," Akashi commented serenely before moving back to his position. Kagami somewhat blushed, as to be complemented by the captain of the Generation of Miracles was truly an honor. Due to this, the points once again shifted to 41-40, red to blue. Amazingly, despite this being Akashi's third turnover, and Kagami's second turnover, the entire exchange truly felt like ages.

The sky started to darkened somewhat, with clouds starting to arrive above them. As the players once again took their positions, Kagami and Akashi noticed something about Shiro, who stood there lamely like before, although this time, his aura was quite different from before. He looked at the red hair duo, and said to them seriously, "You guys are stronger than I thought… Guess I'm more motivated than ever huh…" Kagami and Akashi frowned. They knew that at this point, the real match would begin, and readied themselves.

The referee blew his whistle, and the blue team started. To be honest, at this point, the other players that were not on par with the skills of Shiro, Kagami or Akashi, really did not matter to anyone anymore. In fact, even the players themselves along with the crowd were more interested in seeing the red-haired duo battle the white-haired soloist. The match soon continued with the points slowly rising, although albeit slowly; it often ends with Shiro battling against Kagami assisted by Akashi, though Akashi didn't score most of the points. However, the Emperor Eye still proved to be too much for duo, and it usually ended with Shiro winning in the battle of the Aces. Furthermore, at this point in time, Shiro was starting to play more seriously and aggressively, putting the red players at a severe disadvantage when he easily ankle broke three consecutive players. In fact, the ways for the red team to score is to somehow isolate or distract Shiro so that Kagami could score, and this was dependent on Akashi's point guard skills; even an Emperor Eye user can't teleport or guard two players at once. In a span of over fifteen minutes full of crossovers, ankle breaks, dunks and complex passes, the points rose to 50-51, red to blue, in a tight battle where neither players would allow each other to score. Currently, it was the red team's turn to start the ball, and by this time, there were several changes to the players on both teams due to being unable to cope with the extremely fast and aggressive play. Kagami and Akashi were already sweating profusely, although neither of them felt like backing down.

"Damn… just who is that guy…?" Kagami panted audibly.

"I'm not sure… his play style and skills seem to be reminiscent of the Generation of Miracles… He is definitely nowhere below that…" Akashi replied.

The sky started to darken even more and there were some faint sounds of thunder. After some consideration, Kagami was sure he could continue for another 10 minutes before passing out. At this point in time, the crowd grew even larger than before to witness such an incredible game, and he would not be surprised if Kuroko or Hyuga heard about his match. Since he had only some time left, he was thinking of going into the ZONE to truly test his abilities against Shiro; after all, having able to fight such a strong opponent along with Akashi was more than enough motivation to enter to the state of the ZONE, and moreover, this match would not go anywhere if they remained like this.

Akashi placed his hands on Kagami's shoulder, causing him to turn around.

"I know what you're thinking, and personally…" Akashi said. What, he's probably going to tell me to conserve my energy at this point in time? Kagami thought lazily to himself and rolled his eyes. "No, you should go all out." Kagami's eyes widened, and Akashi smiled.

"What?! You serious?" Kagami snapped. Even if he actually wanted to go into the ZONE, actually hearing the words coming out of Akashi's mouth felt incredulous.

"Very. With this guy, it's unlikely to battle him fairly without you being in the ZONE. Your capabilities cannot match him now on a one-on-one after all," causing Kagami too utter a "tsk" while looking annoyed. "But don't worry, If I lend you my strength, I'm sure we can defeat him with my Perfect Rhythm Plays even without my Emperor Eye," Akashi continued. "Anyway, I too want to his the full extent of his abilities, and we both can feel the end of this game nearing, so there's not a need to conserve your energy anyway."

Kagami smiled, and then closed his eyes, and channeled his inner thoughts: his will and desire to defeat the new enemy before him right now… An image of him standing in front of a large decorated door appeared in his consciousness. Kagami opened his eyes and widened his eyes in the surrounding darkness. He placed his right hand on the smooth surface of the door that felt like it would not ever budge, and then pushed it, focusing on his previous thoughts. It still would not budge, and Kagami closed his eyes once again and concentrated even harder. He may not be my friend, but right now he's a fellow comrade, and with his help, I can… The door budged slightly. No… It's not whether I can… It's I WILL…! Kagami opened his eyes and pushed the door resolutely, which opened and bright reddish orange light flowed from the opening.

Red streaks of lightning flowed out from his now blank looking red eyes, causing Shiro to take notice of him, frowning. Akashi on the other hand, who was standing beside him, smiled. Kagami's voice sounded much calmer but retained the same intensity as before.

"Let's do this… Shiro…"

Hey guys, back with another chapter. This chapter was about 4.5k words, longest so far, and for some reason it took me a long time to write. Nevertheless, I'll try my best to make chapters longer in the future so ya guys will have more content to read and all. I'm also thinking of doing some remaking of my previous chapters if I have the time to make them longer or maybe combine them due to 1) length, well some I felt may be too short for a chapter (1~2k plus words), and 2) continuity errors, which i realise do exist in my chapters when 1 character suddenly teleports and disappears here and there. So maybe in the future I'll do that, and hence change the chapter numbers and names accordingly and also try and add content where I can.

This chapter was about Kagami and Akashi vs Shiro, and I'll end the battle next chapter, as I've planned some Akashi moments (sorry not really much this chapter) and all. I'll try to keep it entertaining, and I honestly hope you guys enjoy the story (apart from the shitty writing...). As I've said, there's probably one more event before I move on to the actual Interhigh, and I'm actually considering writing other teams like Yosen or Shutoku so there's that. And that's about it I guess. About the frequency of chapters, I try my best to make a chapter every week, but it probably will be longer cause I'm real busy studying and all.

COMMENT RATE REVIEW so i know what I can improve or maybe add suggestions!

-kkkdragon123