August 25th 2015 – Second day of the National Sports Competition in Niigata Prefecture – in the morning
As the sun rose from dawn, the shadows of surrounding buildings of Niigata Keihin hotel followed along the sun. There were two extra shadows in a bird's eye view. One was running back to the hotel, as the other one waited with his baby blue flippers.
"KUROKO! I'VE GOT—YOURRR… VANILLA SHAKE!" Hinata needed to catch his breath.
"And here are the flippers you asked." Kuroko replied unemotionally as they both exchanged their items.
"Thanks Kuro— uhhh!" Hinata stopped midway in his gratefulness because Kuroko's expression was magical. No one would be allowed to see how happy Kuroko was. He thought; Great! Today's gonna be a good day!
Hinata thought that maybe getting a vanilla shake from a new friend made Kuroko prideful.
"Kuro-?"
"Thanks again Hinata-kun. I'll see you later." Kuroko left Hinata alone outside. Huh?
At the center of the Festival a few hours later, Kise was walking with Midorima as they both listened to Oha Asa's Horoscope.
"Today's best luck is for Aquarius. Gemini and Aries should stay low… Cancer and Scorpio have moderate luck; just remember the lucky item is a vanilla milkshake. The earlier you drink it, the better luck you have." When Kise and Midorima heard that, they both looked at each other and ran to a drink booth to order vanilla milkshake. It was already 8 o'clock and the particular drink booth ran out of vanilla milkshake right after the two got theirs. They both sighed when they heard what Oha Asa said:
"Ahh! Aquarius should also be careful when interacting with Leo and Capricorn." Kise and Midorima looked at each other for the second time and both of their minds went to the same conclusion: We gotta warn Kuroko!
Meanwhile, Seirin team gathered together near a fast-food Resto booth. Riko spoke:
"So, let's revise what we learned late last night—"
"Tennis is a sport like ping pong but with bigger rackets and a bigger ball." Fukuda summarized proudly. The others looked at him strangely. But Riko broke the silence.
"Exactly. But could you please explain the rules?" The captain coughed to get everyone's attention.
"The rules to what we will be playing are basically: to use the racket and hit the tennis ball; which is 2.70 inches in diameter to the net, but remember, it has to go over the net to the other side. To get a point; actually it's called 15 love, the ball needs to bounce twice on the other side of the net. This goes on until one team gets two points above the other after 45."
"Huh? I-don't-get-it." Kagami's voice was mixed in with eating his morning burger.
"Kagami! Don't ask stupid questions now." The captain responded.
" 'Do what we can do; without doing it.' ooh! that's a good one." Izuki said confidently as he wrote down his pun in a notebook. His teammates didn't find it amusing and Riko continued.
"So, there will be two doubled-player team games, and one single-player game." Riko took a deep breath.
"For me, I think this will be harder than anything we've seen before because the opponent is no other than a National Champion; the high school, Seishun Academy. Be careful." The atmosphere was a bit intense. But Kagami sipped his large drink and gulped his food down as he exclaimed haughtily:
"This is great! New challenges spark up new beginnings. And new beginnings mean defeating those in front of you." One of the new first years responded:
"No no no. Do you know what you are talking about? They are professional tennis players, they will annihilate us. Right?" Kagami stared darkly at the first year as the Year 2 and 3 students (which were previously the Champions of the Winter cup) grimaced. The first year student was confused.
""What? what are you all smiling about?"
"We just realized that this also happened at the Winter cup, where some of us didn't think we'd had the chance to win. And now we are a National Champion of Basketball!" There were sparks in Kuroko's eyes and in his expression. That statement released the tension in the air and Kiyoshi placed his huge hand on Kagami's head as he stated his famous line:
"Let's have fun, shall we?" After that, Riko announced the players who would be playing, and the team went to their bench for warm up practices.
The speaker boomed in announcing: "Seishun Team vs. Seirin Team in Tennis will now commence. First match, double team: Echizen Ryoma and Momoshiro Takeshi vs. Kuroko Tetsuya and Kagami Taiga." The first four players got on to the tennis court while the rest watched from the sidelines.
"Hey! You there, tall red haired dude, where's your partner?" Momoshiro asked.
"Momoshiro, look carefully." Echizen stared at Kuroko, while Kuroko was trying to find a good grip as his head lay low. Seems like he's ready for game.
"Even without a partner, I can still beat you, not sweat!" Kagami exclaimed. The Seirin team members and coach all wanted to bang their heads; What a stupid thing to say at a time like this. Suddenly, Kagami's shin was kicked.
"Oww! KU-RO-KO!" Kagami grabbed his partner's collar. But Kuroko's wasn't surprised.
"Kagami-kun. We've already been through this kind of situation. Please let go." From Kuroko's dark tone in voice, Kagami knew that Kuroko was also on fire. He can't wait to play against Echizen Ryoma.
"If everyone is ready! Let's flip the coin to see which team serves first. Which?" The referee in the middle of the two sides blew a whistle and flipped the coin.
"HEADS/TAILS!" both sides called out. As the coin landed, it was heads. Seirin's double team started. Kuroko was to serve the tennis ball to the other side. He looked at the two corners of the other side and bounced the tennis ball a few times before hitting it. The form... the swing... the jump... Seigaku team couldn't believe their eyes. Everything looked so familiar... As Kuroko hit the tennis ball with all his might, the tennis ball didn't get so much power... but luckily it bounced twice on the opponent's side of the net. The referee called out:
"love 15." Echizen Ryoma couldn't believe how powerless the mysterious blue boy's swing was: I have never seen a player like this before... This will be interesting...
A/N: I know that the match has just started... but who do you think will win? - Who do you want the winners to be in this double team tennis game? - Kuroko or Echizen? Please write your answer in a review. I'll take everything into considerations. Thanks.
