CHARITY BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT EVENT

Starting in a month's time, a basketball tournament for charity will take place. Each team will choose their own charity to support and raise fund for. The team that emerges as the final winner will be granted a large sum of money (amount to be confirm) for their charity.

Shutoku had visited a local hospital with the flyers for the charity event under Midorima's suggestion. While their coach was having a meeting with the director to arrange and talk about the details, the players were told to volunteer in the children's ward. "Hey, Midorima, didn't you want to be a doctor?" Takao asked, naturally playing with the children while Midorima sat by the side.

"My horoscope on the day I chose my career said that it was more favourable to choose a physical career so I chose basketball. And it was right," Midorima stated.

"You chose your career based on your horoscope?" Takao frowned a little.

"Natsuki-nee-chan!"

The basketball players were instantly ignored by the children as a girl walked in and they began swarming around her. "Hai, hai," the girl smiled, sitting down on the floor in the middle of the room. Even the basketball players were focusing on her. The normally cool and collected Midorima was stunned too. "Did you guys behave while I was gone?" she asked but the children were all eyeing the huge bag she had with her. "Answer me and I will show you what's in here."

"YES!" the children shouted.

Midorima couldn't help but smile a little himself. He didn't know who this girl was but she was beautiful in his eyes. It wasn't her looks that caught Midorima's eyes but rather the aura she emitted. If anything, this girl was rather ordinary looking. It was her motherly nature that really captured everyone. "I shall believe you then," Natsuki smiled and poured out the toys that were in the bag she brought with her. "These are for you. Make sure you share them with the other children, okay?"

"Thank you, Natsuki-nee-chan!"

The children took a toy each and dispersed, returning to the basketball players. "Are you interested?" Takao asked, looking at Midorima who still hadn't looked away from Natsuki. "Just go and talk to her then."

"My horoscope states that today is not the day to start a relationship," Midorima stated.

"Oh?! You're already thinking of starting a relationship with her?" Takao gasped.

"Relationship as in any kind of relationships. Friendships or even just acquaintances," Midorima glared.

Takao was about to tease him further when Natsuki suddenly came up to them and smiled brightly. "I heard the children saying that you're basketball players coming to volunteer. I'm Yagami Natsuki, I volunteer here once a week."

"How nice of you. I'm Takao Kazunari and this is our ace, Midorima Shintaro. We're players from Shutoku. We're actually here to talk about the next basketball tournament coming up."

"Tournament?"

"Yeah," Takao smiled brightly. "We have a tournament coming up and we're raising money for a charity we want to support through this tournament. Midorima here chose to support this hospital instead. Did you know that he wanted to be a doctor?"

Midorima elbowed Takao before he sat too much but Natsuki heard the very last comment and looked at Midorima with awe. "Wow...so you're smart and athletic? I wish I'm like you..." she smiled a little. "But I'm glad you chose this hospital. They have a charity here that helps children in hospital," she said, looking to the children playing in the room. "Some of them are here their entire life."

Midorima looked at Natsuki and smiled a little to himself. He didn't choose the wrong place after all.

~.~

"Eh? Tournament for charity?" Kise asked, frowning a little.

"It's for a good cause so I don't see why we shouldn't join," Genta said. "All we need to do now is choose a charity we want to support and talk to them about it. That's why we're having a meeting now. Does anyone have a charity they want to support?"

Everyone were chipping in ideas, discussing which charity they wanted to support. Kise pouted a little, trying to think of a charity to contribute in as well. While looking on his phone for a charity, Kise somehow ended on Kiyomi's blog again. He read through her posts and smiled softly to himself. "What about the cancer research?" he asked, looking at his team. "It's something everyone talks about and I think it's meaningful enough."

"Kise is finally saying something humane," Kasamatsu muttered. "Fine then, let's support cancer research then," he said. "Anyone has any objections?"

With no objections, the meeting ended along with practice and all the players were allowed to go. With a photo shoot coming up, Kise left the guys and showered and changed, going out to his car where his manager and Kiyoko was waiting. "Hello," Kise greeted them, closing the door and smiled. "So, we have a tournament for charity coming up. We chose a cancer research charity to support."

"Cancer research? Why that particular charity?" Kiyoko asked.

"Because it's the charity that Ki-chan supports," Kise smiled brightly and showed Kiyoko the blog post. "She wrote here that she attended an event by this charity and hopes that all her followers would support cancer research too."

Kiyoko read the blog post and smiled softly to herself, looking out of the car window. She herself had forgotten that blog post already but Kise made a decision after reading it. She remembered going to the event organised by that charity but she didn't go as Kiyomi, she went as herself, Kiyoko. She just decided to share the experience with everyone and sincerely hoped that more people would support it.

Now that Kise was supporting it too, that was all that mattered to Kiyoko at the moment.

"Hm...now that our team is supporting her charity, do you think Ki-chan will come and watch our games?" Kise asked, looking at Kiyoko. "It would be great if she could. I played so well the last time she came to watch! I think I might even be able to beat Akashicchi if she comes to all my games!"

"Akashicchi? Are you talking about Rakuzan's Akashi Seijuro-san?" Kiyoko asked. "I've seen his games before. He rarely gets on the court. But even so, I don't think Kise-san can win..."

"What?! Are you looking down on me, Kiyoko-san?" Kise frowned. "I will win against Akashicchi, just you wait and see."

"I'm sure your Ki-chan will really look forward to it too," Kiyoko smiled.

~.~

Murasakibara hunched over the small table in the café he often visited, reading the flyer over and over again. Just that morning, his coach had informed their team about the charity tournament and told them to think about a charity to support so they could play in the tournament. Having no interest in that field, Murasakibara had nothing to contribute. He didn't think that the tournament was necessary either but he had no other choice but to participate.

Just as he was putting the flyer away, a strawberry cake was placed in front of him. Murasakibara looked up and saw Kaoru smiling at him. "I didn't order this," he said. This was something that happened often whenever Murasakibara visited the café. He always thought that it was the café's way of promoting by giving out free cakes to customers but gradually, Murasakibara realised that he was the only one getting the free cakes.

"Um...it's on the house," Kaoru said. Murasakibara simply nodded and was waiting for her to leave but Kaoru stood still in her spot next to his table. "Murasakibara-kun...I know this might be too much to ask but could you just take a look at this?" she asked, handing him a leaflet. "It's a charity that I volunteer at. I don't know if you like animals but it'll be great if you can just take a look at it."

Murasakibara took the leaflet from her and opened it, scanning through. "Will there be crows?" he asked rather seriously which surprised Kaoru a little.

"Um...these animals are usually abandoned puppies or kittens. Crows aren't normally on the list but I suppose we do get them if they are found injured on the road," Kaoru mumbled. "Do you like crows?"

"I hate them," Murasakibara stated. "They make weird noises. No one likes them."

Kaoru giggled a little and smiled at him. "Enjoy your cake, Murasakibara-kun. And um...I'll come and support you at your tournament," she smiled, pointing to the flyer that Murasakibara put away. "Have you chosen a charity to support then?"

"Not yet but we might have," Murasakibara said. "No one said that we must support a charity that has something to do with people, right? Maybe an animal charity might attract more people to donate."

"I didn't mean to ask for your team to support this charity!" Kaoru gasped. "I'm sorry, Murasakibara-kun! I'm sure that there are a lot more charities out there that you can choose from. You don't have to support this one. I um...I'll go back to work now. Sorry about this."

Murasakibara watched as Kaoru became flustered and went back to the kitchen to collect her orders but tripped on her way back. He smirked a little to himself and looked down at the leaflet. "If only you were a few inches taller," he said, putting the leaflet away and picked up the spoon, enjoying his free strawberry cake.

~.~

"I'm starting to think the organisation has nothing better to do," Aomine frowned, throwing the tournament flyer away.

"Well...don't you think it's quite meaningful?" Sakurai asked. Aomine gave him a look and Sakurai freaked out. "I'm sorry! I mean...we have enough players, don't we? I'm sure Aomine-kun doesn't have to play if he doesn't want to play! Or...maybe we don't necessarily has to join at all! Just...I'm sorry!"

"What are you apologising for? That's annoying..." Aomine grumbled. "And we have to choose our own charity to support..."

"Doesn't Chinatsu-san volunteer at a charity for the homeless? Maybe we could support her charity instead..." Sakurai mumbled but felt someone looking at him. He shivered as he slowly looked to his side to see Aomine staring at him. "I'm sorry! We shouldn't bother Chinatsu-san! I'm sorry for suggesting that!"

Aomine smirked and grabbed Sakurai, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and ruffled his hair. "That's the best idea you've ever had! You go and tell the coach that and I'm going to go home to talk to Chinatsu about it." As he finished his sentence, Aomine jumped up and grabbed his bag, leaving the court without warning.

Aomine went home and just as he reached the front door, Chinatsu got home at the same time. "You're home early," Chinatsu said, walking up to him as Aomine opened the door. They both got in and took their shoes off, putting on their slippers before going into their house. "Don't you have basketball practice today? It's not good if you skip all the time."

"It's fine, the coach is used to it," Aomine smiled. "I came home early to talk to you about a tournament coming up. It's for charity and each team gets to decide which charity they want to support. I told Sakurai to tell the coach that we're going to support your charity for the homeless."

"My charity?" Chinatsu asked. "You never care about my charity work."

"Don't put it that way," Aomine frowned. "It never interested me but aren't you happy now that I'm doing something for you?"

Chinatsu smiled a little. "Well, Saint Aomine, since you've done something for me, should I do something for you too? What would you like for dinner?"

"Actually...can we go out for dinner instead? You know your cooking skills..."

"Aomine Daiki!"

~.~

"Ah...this is the charity we're going to support?" Kotaro asked as the team arrived outside a church. "Eh...but it's just a church..."

"It's an orphanage," Shirogane explained. "I've done some research on them and it seems that they are lacking a little in their funds. I've talked to the sister who works at the church and she's very happy for us to raise money for the orphanage."

"Why does it look so familiar here?" Kotaro frowned as they entered the church.

They went to the back where there was a garden and children were running about, playing in the playground built in the garden. The sister came up to them and greeted them. "Thank you very much for coming and for choosing this orphanage to support. The children are all very grateful for this. Follow me and I'll show you around. This is the playground and the children come out here when they have a break."

The players followed behind the nun with their coach as they were brought on a tour around the orphanage. They stopped outside what looked like a classroom and the sister stopped, smiling a little.

"This is our one and only classroom. Every week, our very dedicated volunteer come in for a day and she teaches all the children here some extra classes. They children get to choose if they want to do something they don't learn in school or they can learn more about a subject that they are particularly interested in. Let me introduce you to her. Haruka-san, can you please come out for a moment?"

"I'm only going to be gone for a little while so behave while I'm not here." Haruka came out from the classroom and smiled a little. "Oh hello," she smiled, nodding to the basketball players, not noticing the shorter red-head at first. "Who are they?"

"This is the basketball team I told you about," the sister said. "This is their coach, Shirogane Eiji-san. This is Matsuoka Haruka-san."

Shirogane shook Haruka's hand and gave her a little smile. "I know who she is. This is my team, Rakuzan. Mayuzumi Chihiro, Nebuya Eikichi, Mibuchi Reo, Hayama Kotaro and our captain-"

"Akashi Seijuro," Haruka smiled. She shook every player's hand and looked at Akashi, giving him a fake smile and held her hand in front of him, waiting for a handshake. Akashi looked down at her hand and shook it gently.

"That's not fair...she knows Akashi but not us!" Kotaro pouted. "How do you know Akashi but not us? We're on the same team!"

"I'm a bit of a basketball fan and Akashi-san is a big star in the basketball world, isn't he?" Haruka smiled. "But I shall remember you from now on. Do you mind if I call you Kotaro-kun?"

"I don't mind at all!" Kotaro grinned. "Uwah! Haruka-san knows my name now! It sounds so sweet when Haruka-san says my name~"

Haruka smiled at Kotaro, glancing at Akashi who was trying his best to control his emotions in front of the sister. "Well um, if that's it, I shall be getting back to my class," she said and bowed to the team. "Nice to meet you."

"Well then, I guess we should be on our way too," Shirogane said. "Thank you for showing us around. We'll let you know when the tournament begins."

"Thank you."

As soon as the team was out of the church, Akashi grabbed Kotaro's shirt and slammed him against their car. "You're a little too happy being around her, aren't you, Kotaro?"

"What's with you, Akashi? Who isn't happy to meet the ultimate star, Matsuoka Haruka-san?"

"I don't like it. Stay away from her from now on."

"I didn't know that Akashi is her fan too...but isn't this a little too extreme? Haruka-san has a lot of fans."

Akashi slammed him against the car once again, gripping his shirt tighter. "Stop calling her by her name. And I'm not her fan, she's more than that to me but that's none of your business. Do you understand me, Kotaro?"

"H-hai..."