After a few seconds of silence, Kuroko cooly answered, "...What a coincidence.", staring to the ground, "I was thinking of playing against you as well.", looking up to Kagami's eyes she said, "A one-on-one."

So they played.

Kagami tossing the ball, after a while Kuroko finally caught it and tried to shoot, Kagami jumped to block the shot, which he did. '...Wait', his eyes widening, 'Ha?!'. Kuroko passed him and did a shot, but the ball missed, 'She...', then the girl tried to block him from shooting, but Kagami easily passed her, '...She..!'. Then Kuroko grabbed the ball and once again shot it, but as she was in position to shoot, Kagami intersected and slapped the ball from her, 'She's desperately weak!' Looking at the girl who was chasing after the rolling ball, the boy thought, 'Even with that body size, there are people who become first-class players thank to their skills!', as he thought this, the girl finally got hold on the ball and started jogging back to him, 'But that girl. Her dribbles and shoot are that of an amateur!', finishing his thought, at the same time, Kuroko finally reached him and started to play again. 'She's got nothing redeeming.', assessing the girls body. 'Except that.', he thought with a blush. 'But she's not even worth playing against!' "Don't mess with me! Did you hear what I said!?", Kagami snapped, glaring at the girl, "You're overestimating yourself if you think you can win against me like that!" Kuroko turned around to meet his eyes stoically. "Of course not.", she said. "To think you left a nice impression when you challenged me!"

"Isn't it obvious that Kagami-kun is the strongest?", Kuroko question, exasperated, "I knew that from the beginning." Irritated, Kagami glared at the girl, "Are you picking a fight...!", he bit out, "What's your goal..." "I wanted to see Kagami-kun's strength directly", Kuroko answered. "...Haaa?!" "Ah, and your dunks too.", she said with a mysterious glint beneath her eyes. Looking like he was ridiculed, Kagami face-plamed. "Geez...what the hell am I doing...she's just weak to the point that she doesn't smell like anything at all...', sweatdropping to himself, 'I feel like an idiot...' "Err...", the sound cut off Kagami's internal monologue. Looking back at the girl who looked like she was still willing to play, he walked off, "It's alright already." Picking up his jacket and bag he continued, "I'm not interested in weak guys." He stopped looking back at the (unaffected) girl, "I'll give you one last advice." Looking back at her, "It's better if you give up basketball." Kuroko stood still, seemingly, Kagami's words didn't really affect her. She let him finish. "No matter what kind of beautiful things you can say about effort. It's an undeniable fact that you need talent in society." The girl's expression slowly turned darker by his harsh words. "You have no talent for basketball." Bangs covering her eyes, Kuroko inhaled to relax. Finally having gathered some sense to calm down, she said, "I have to say no to that." Kagami was stunned. "To begin with , I love basketball." Closing her eyes, she continued. "On top of that...", looking at Kagami's eyes, "It's a matter of point of view. I don't care about who's the strongest."

"What did you..."

"I am different from you", the girl cut Kagami off. Spinning the ball, she said, "I am a Shadow." Tossing it to the stunned boy.

The next day, after school, the team was staying inside the gym because of the heavy rain. Inside, Riko and Hyuuga were discussing on the activity for the afternoon, the sophomores were walking to the court. "Since we can't go for road-work, we still have time left in our training...what should we do coach?" Hyuuga asked. Riko contemplated, 'I wanted to see the strength of the freshmen, especially that Kagami...and Tetsuna.'

"It might be a good opportunity." Looking at Hyuuga. "Let's have a 5 vs. 5 mini game! With the freshmen against the second years."

At the court, the freshmen were playing for fun. "A match?! Against the seniors? That means..!", Kawahara, a freshman, said. "Do you remember what they told us when we joined the club?" Kagami tuned to look at them, curious. "Last year, with only freshmen, they made it until the final league...!" Kagami was surprised and looked at Hyuuga's direction. "Seriously?!" The freshmen looked pale. "That's completely out of the ordinary..." After a while, Riko walked in, blowing a whistle, calling all the freshmen to gather. '...Well then, I wonder how good our rookies are', the coach thought.

Kagami looked over at the nervous freshmen, stood tall and ready, "It's not the time to be scared." The other boys looked at him, surprised at his confidence. Kuroko, meanwhile, looked indifferent at him.

Riko blew the whistle, making all the players line up and waiting for her to toss the ball. When she did, Kagami and Hyuuga jumped to get it, however, it was Kagami who reached the ball first.

"...Whoooo!"

Kagami ran to their goal, his teammates not far behind, and did a dunk, Hyuuga tried to block him but was surpassed. "Oooohhh!" Everyone was amazed at Kagami. The dunk he did wasn't normal (at least to them). "Whaaaa! What was that dunk!", Izuki wheezed out. "Awesome!"

Kuroko looked over at Kagami, who was still hanging from the ring, panting and sweaty but nonetheless, unimpressed. Riko, meanwhile, had sweat trickling down her face by just watching Kagami's stunt. 'It's more that I could ever imagine!' Looking at Kagami who finally landed. 'With that yet unpolished sense of play and destructive power...!' Riko thought. "Hey, that's insane...", Hyuuga panted, wiping his sweat. 'His fire power in seriously that of a monster...!'

After recovering from what happened, the game proceeded, the score was now 11-8, freshmen leading.

"The freshmen are in the lead?!" Koganei screamed, seemingly not believing his eyes. "But well...Kagami's the only one scoring!"

Meanwhile, Kagami was having his own internal problems. 'Rather that that...', he thought, twitching, 'Shit! This can't help getting on my nerves...' Looking over at Kuroko, who just had the ball she held, stolen by Izuki. The girl chased after the older player, trying to do a steal. "The ball was stolen?! From that girl again!" The other players yelled out. "Focus!"

Kuroko didn't seem to mind what the others thought of her. Running with them, she just made them think what they thought. In the meantime, Kagami was steadily getting more and more irritated by the girl. 'Compared to the big things she said, she's just a shitty player...People who talk big despite being small fries', the boy thought, chasing after the seniors. "Piss me off the most!" He finished, jumping to block and hit the ball so Izuki couldn't score.

"So high!", one of the freshmen said, watching the other first year jump. "They can't stop Kagami at all!" The seniors, on the other hand, tried to compromise their situation. "...We can't let this go that way." Hyuuga panted. "I think it's about time we calm you down!" Three players from the seniors' side teamed up to try to stop Kagami from scoring another ball. The trapped boy looked at them shocked. The freshmen too. "If they go that far, Kagami...", they said, gaping, "On top of that" looking at Kagami's situation, "Even when he doesn't have the ball, still two guys..." In the court, Mitobe and Izuki were screening Kagami as Hyuuga scored for them. "They don't feel like letting him touch the ball at all!"

Hyuuga shot the ball, gaining 3 points. Kagami immediately took the rebound and ran to their side of the court, scoring for the freshmen. 15-31, Second Years on the lead.

Looking at the sore board, most of the freshmen got discouraged. "They're really strong after all." Gritted one. "Actually, there was no way for us to win from the start..", said another. "It's enough already...", suddenly Kagami grabbed the shirt of the boy who was talking. "Enough already..? What the hell is with that!", the enraged boy yelled, looking down at his teammate. Suddenly, he felt a pressure at the back of his knees, making him bend and let go of the guy he was lifting. Looking back, he saw Kuroko staring blankly at him and saw her bending her knees too. "Please calm down." During that interaction, the other teammates look dreadful and scared for the girl, turning white as sheets and having sweat-drops. "You bastard...", Kagami gritted out, tick marks forming on his face, glaring at the girl.

On the other side of the court, the seniors saw the whole happening. Looking at the Kagami who was trying to hit Kuroko, but said girl kept on dodging his assaults, and the other freshmen who tried to hold back Kagami, the one that tried to help Kuroko and the on who acted like a referee. "It seems like there's a disputed." Hyuuga casually said. "Kuroko...now that I think about it she was there too..." Izuki uttered.

Over at the bench, Riko looked blankly at the scene. 'Even I, the referee and her cousin, completely forgot her at some point...', she thought. A few seconds later, Riko felt that something was about to happen, and goosebumps appeared on her arms. 'Huh? Seriously, since when?!", sweat trickled down her face as she thought, "...It can't be..." Back at the court, the freshmen managed to pry ad calm Kagami down. After which the continued with the game. Fukuda held the ball as they started running to court, "Excuse me.", the voice surprised the freshmen. Looking for the source of the the voice, his eyes landed on the girl running in front of him, "Could you pass me the ball?", she asked.

"Do your best!"

"Still 3 minutes!"

The players were rounding in the court. Fukuda, still thinking about Kuroko's request thought, 'But it's not like you'll be able to do anything even if you get it.' But still, he passed the ball to the girl, 'At least don't lose it...' Kuroko saw the ball heading towards her, glad that her teammate listened to her request, dribbling across the court to their ring. At the scoring table, Riko felt something stirring in her as she watched her cousin play. 'What is this feeling...? Could it be...she recovered back?' Suddenly, Kuroko tossed the ball behind her, ending up in one of her teammates' hand. "Eh?", the boy wondered where the ball came from. None the less, he did not let the opportunity to score pass. The boy immediately shot the ball to the net. Meanwhile, the seniors looked at the freshman baffled. "...Eh...Wha..." It took them a while to process what happened. "It's in?! How did he get that pass through just now?!" Hyuuga quipped. "I don't know! I didn't see!", his teammate answered. Kuroko just cooly looked at them and proceeded to get to position to receive and pass. For a while, the girl has been doing her strange passes, gaining their score quickly to reach the score of the second years. All the other players were looking at her, amazed at her ability. "How the hell does she do that!?", Izuki screamed out. "Before you even notice it, the pass goes through and they score!"

Riko, on the other hand, was also wondering about Kuroko, but not the same topic as her batch-mates. 'I thought she wouldn't be able to do that anymore. Considering what happened a few months ago... I guess she moved on from the incident. I hope.', continuing her thought, ' "Mis-direction" She's using that magic-like technique to fool the senses of the opponent. A prominent weapon. But I thought she lost it...', observing her cousin. '...hmmm. She did deserve to belong to that group.'

In the court, Kagami looked wide eyed at Kuroko. Impressed by the skill she showed, 'This is Kuroko's..!', cutting his thought was the ball roughly passed to him by Kuroko. "Ah!" 'Damn...We're to focusing too much on Kuroko's passes!' Hyuuga thought, gritting his teeth. "Kagami!" He yelled, as he saw Kagami take a shot. "Waahh! I can't believe it! One point difference!?" The First Years pointed out. Currently, the score was 36-37, Seniors on the lead.

"Damn! Each of them would be bothersome on their own, but..." Hyuuga gritted out, Izuki standing next to him, defending. 'The two of the playing together, we have no way to stop there attacks!' "Tch!" Izuki tried to block the interception of the freshmen by screening one of them not noticing someone moving next to him. Fortunately, Hyuuga saw the plan, "Idiot!" But, too late! Kuroko managed to grab the ball, dribbling down the court. Sweat was trailing down the girl's face as she stopped and positioned herself to take the shot. "Win!", all the freshmen thought, looking at the girl who took the shot.

.

.

.

.

.

And missed.

Everyone was silent and looked deadpanned at her. "That's why guys like you", taking the rebound, "Piss me off!", dunking the ball. "Score properly!" Looking at the girl below the ring, not seeing her expression. Kuroko, expecting the reaction, looked at him, smiling gently. "Waaah?! The freshmen won?!"

"Haha! Those guys.." Hyuuga panted. 'Well...as allies, they'll be reliable.." Heading to the locker room to take their showers after the game.

It was evening already, and as usual, Kagami headed to Maji Burgers. Kagami looked dismayed at the person in front of him. "..why are you here again...?" He asked, leaning his chair. "You are the one who came to sit at my table." She said, sipping her drink. "And it's because I like the vanilla shake here."

"Go sit somewhere else", Kagami glared.

"No."

"People'll think we're a couple", he said, blushing.

"You're the only one whose thinking that.", Kuroko said, looking unimpressed.

"Don't think we're friends now", he ticked.

"Like I said, I was the first one to sit here."

Kagami glared at the girl who was still sipping her shake and reading her book. Eating one of his burgers, he looked at the girl curiously. "Here." Giving the girl a burger. "?", catching it, she looked curiously at Kagami. "I'll give you one," he said, looking away, hiding his creeping blush, "I'll acknowledge you with that." Kuroko looked down at the burger in her hand, smiling softly, "Thank you." Kagami looked at the smiling girl and blushed harder, looking away, "Y-yeah..no problem."

A while longer, Kagami finished all his food and both he and Kuroko got out of the establishment together. "...How strong is the "Generation of Miracles"?" Kuroko turned to the boy who asked, not really surprised at his question. "Say, if I go against them right now, what would happen?", the boy grinned. "...You would be instantly killed.", Kuroko answered, going back to her book. "Can't you say that in a different way?", Kagami glared at her. "On top of that, the five geniuses have all joined different veteran schools this year.", the girl continued, her face getting darker with regret from each word she uttered. "There is no mistaking that one of them would end up at the top.", she finished.

"Ha..Hahahahahaha!", the laugh getting the girls attention, Kuroko looked at Kagami surprised. "Nice! I'm burning! I've decided!", looking up ahead with a grin, "I'll take all there guys down and become the number one in Japan!", he declared. The girl looked up to him for a second then went back to sipping her drink, "I think it's impossible.", she bluntly said. "Hey!" Before Kagami could continue, she added. "I don't know about the potential of your abilities.", looking up to the dark, star filled sky, she continued, "But with your current level, you can't hold candle to any of them." Then, she averted her eyes from the sky to look at Kagami's expression. "It's impossible...alone." Sighing, she looked down at the pavement. "I have decided as well.", looking at Kagami, "I am a supporting actor, a shadow...But", smiling, she continued, "A shadow will become darker if the light is stronger. And it will make the white of the light stand out. As the shadow of the main actor, I will make you, the light, the number one in Japan." Kagami's eyes widened, then he suddenly laughed, "..Ha! Nice words there. Just do what you want."

"I will do my best."