A/N: Hey guys new chapter. I was planning to put another 2/3 scenes in this but the game ended up taking up far more words than I intended so they're ready to go for next chapter. Also I will endeavour to update this every week but there are no guarantees as I have three fanfics going at once and school to deal with. When I have the opportunity I write chapters in advance but inevitably I will get behind with updating at least once though I will try not to leave you guys hanging for more than a month. Anyway, on with the show

-Chapter 4-

"Captain, catch" She caught the ball on instinct diving into a dribble instantaneously zipping across the caught as a blur of black and red. Her 11-year-old body is so tiny compared to everyone else on the court purple and white shoes squeaking harshly against the hard wood floor. Jade green meets mahogany as she makes eye contact with Masaru before passing the ball across with ease through one of their opponent's legs. The older boy (12 or 13 by the looks of it) startles for a second before chasing after the taller Miyazaki. Masaru just laughs radiating glee as he leaps into the air accurately landing a three pointer beaming as he lands afterwards.

It hadn't been difficult to find a mixed children's basketball team in the area. The hard task had been finding one that would accept Kisa as a high-level player. Most coaches simply discarded her talent only seeing her tiny build and severe lack of height as obstacles. Now the twins despite being the youngest two members of their team by nearly a year were solid regulars, Kisa having even been chosen as Captain for the year mostly thanks to being the team's Point Guard and undoubtedly the best strategist of the ragtag group. Masaru to his credit was a very solid Shooting Guard with a talent for quick-release shots. Unusual speed and agility had apparently been gifted to both twins, Kisa more so than her brother thanks to her small stature.

"Nice shot, 'Saru" Skylar Heywood the team's Small forward and second female member of the regulars called from her position guarding their opponent's ace a pocket rocket blond by the name of Tyler Jameson. It was annoying playing against glass cannon style players like him because as advantageous for a team having one was. When you had one on your own team it posed problems, players like that are horrible at defence and hard to defend against resulting in high scoring, fast paced and none the less exhausting games with only one on the court let alone two.

"Number 4 and number 7 are problematic." The opposing team's coach grumbled just loud enough for Kisa to hear from her position on the very edge of the court. She let a breathy chuckle escape her lips eyes sweeping over the court locating every player with ease pinpointing her teammates positions in order to create a logical pass course. Masaru was number 7 and 4 her own playing number thanks to being captain, so the vaguely high looking coach had managed to notice their double-team skills. Sometimes being twins had an advantage, they could read each other easily with brisk glances and barely noticeable hand signals leaving opponents and teammates alike confused when the ball would be with Kisa one moment and Masaru the next despite seemingly impossible passing conditions.

Suddenly there's a large shadow looming before her in the form of their opponent's captain. Jace Wilson a large 13-year-old with a powerful build and infinite potential. One of Kisa's nemeses, being a glass cannon she couldn't cope very well with defenders having no real defensive skill herself aside from steals (which she executed with reasonable proficiency mind you.) She dodged to one side and he would block with ease before flicking to the other his longer legs catching up in an instant. Now she was stuck blocked into a corner away from her teammates out of the pass line. Even though there wasn't enough time for the opposing team to bring on a comeback their lead would decrees significantly without her.

"You can win girly, but we won't settle for complete defeat." Jace growls. They've begun to edge towards the court's centre still locked in the endless repeat loop of dodging to the side only to be blocked by the other. The ball zipping between the other players, goals being scored behind their backs.
"Well, that's what you're going to get anyway." Kisa smirks making a break for it with a burst of speed that even surprises herself. She ducked under Jace's arm the older player having forgotten about the advantage her height gave her when dodging defenders snatching the ball out of the air as it flew between the opposing Point Guard and Small Forward.

She dribbled down the court at top speed zigzagging around defenders effortlessly using her unusual agility and speed to its absolute maximum. There were only seconds left of the match and even if they were going to win anyway threats such as the one Jace had issued were never taken lightly. Kisa desperately needed to make a statement about not just the team's strength but her own. No one, and she means no one doubts her abilities. Female or not, short or absolute freakin' giant didn't matter. Leaping into a three pointer just as the ball is about to leave her fingertips everything comes crashing down. Jace's body collided with her own and before she can think the ball is flying towards the out of bounds line and her back makes a very unhappy meeting with the floor. There's a sickeningly loud snap as Jace's foot 'accidentally' connects with her left wrist already sprained from trying to break her fall. She lets out a tiny almost pitiful whimper as the pain washes over her body before everything goes numb, senses overloading from the shock and pain..

"Kisa/Nee-chan/Captain!" The names they call her are different but the horror in the shared exclamation is evident. Masaru gently running his fingers through her hair in a comforting gesture is the last thing she recalls before the world turns black and she's floating in a void of numb silence.

Kisa fiddled irritably with the thick black band on her left wrist watching the intricate silver vine pattern distort and reform as she tugged at the soft fabric. Kaijou is easily pulling ahead of Seirin, Kise doing most of the work, landing dunk after dunk, copy after copy. The blond continues to steal Kagami's shots only to perform them at a higher level than the redhead much to the Power Forward's lack of amusement.

Kagami responds to Kise's taunting by playing harder using every single skill up his sleeve. "You don't want to do that." She chuckles under her breath smirking pale eyes twinkling mischievously. "The more skills you give out for free, the better Ryou will play idiot." The smirk beings to form into a full on Cheshire cat style grin as Kise forces another dunk through the basket copying Kagami's technique exactly just adding more speed and pizazz. The copycat never really stopped showing off no matter what he did, excluding academic endeavours that is.

"Quarter time." She yells blowing the whistle with more force than necessary, shrill ringing echoing around the gym in an obnoxious manner. Kisa resists the temptation to block her ears. Sensitive hearing the gift it may be when actually playing not even having to look for the ball very hard to know where it is. In other situations such as loud classrooms and buzzers going off the ability is more of a nuisance sounds being amplified compared to normal. Honestly, it's surprising she hasn't lost the noise sensitivity yet, spending a lot of time growing up around basketball courts and other loud noises must have done some damage, right?

Players trail back to their benches grabbing towels and water bottles in a hurry before sitting down in a less than graceful manner. The Kaijou team all regard each other with somewhat weary yet determined gazes. They can deal with fast paced games they're a national-level high school. Loosing to a newcomer like Seirin isn't an option. Kisa briefly glances over her shoulder at the Seirin bench as she jogs towards her own team. The will to fight blazes in their eyes determination painted on their faces. A barely noticeable smile creeps it's way onto her features yet again, she was correct in accepting Riko's offer. Even though Seirin is new and inexperienced compared to Kaijou their hunger for victory is impressive on its own.

"Listen up." Takeuchi growls glaring down the entire team with fire in his eyes. Kisa stands at his side arms crossed critical gaze sweeping over the players. Strategies circulate her mind at high speed falling into place easily. If only she was confident one of them would work. Seirin is an interesting team and she hasn't yet figured out what they're going to pull out next. Kagami and Kuroko the 'rookie duo' as Riko had written on the team profile sheet were her biggest worry. Kagami's infinite potential and Kuroko's niche specialisation put together was more than a little dangerous. She didn't want to raise the point for fear of angering the coach but there was a possibility the pair could shut down Kise given the right strategy and timing, it had happened before ( all be it when the blond had been very new to the Miracle team but still, it had happened.)

"Any bright ideas Miyazaki?" Coach Takeuchi regards her sternly. Kisa just nods sweeping her gaze over the team again before speaking.
"Going as we are, Kuroko's misdirection will wear out soon enough for us to pull ahead even further." The team nods Kasamatsu boring holes into her as if trying to find holes in her plan by reading her mind. Kise just smirks golden eyes narrowed in a catlike fashion. He's serious, an unusual occurrence yet it says a lot about Seirin's strength. The copy master doesn't get serious without a very good reason.
"So, basically we don't change a thing." Kasamatsu offers breaking the tense silence that had fallen over the small group.
"Basically, although there are some things we need to watch." Kisa replies eyes landing on Kise. The blond recoils slightly. It's a rare occasion for Kisa to regard him with absolutely no fondness in her eyes but now her gaze is ice-cold making him feel as if he's just been dunked in an oversized bucket of iced water.

"Yes Kisacchi?" Kise queries tilting his head to the side in a manner very much like a kicked puppy.
"Double-team." Is Kisa's only reply balling her hands into fists and placing one above the other in front of her chest. It's a signal she'd come up with at Teikou to save taking up precious time by having to explain what she meant entirely.
"You think?" Kise asks. She nods in reply eyes wondering over to the Seirin bench where Kagami and Kuroko appear to be locked in an incredibly one-sided argument on the redhead's part.
"No guarantee, but quite likely just watch out for it." She sighs exasperatedly glancing at her watch noting that the 2-minute break is well and truly over. "No more time to explain, move." She raises the whistle to her lips blowing harshly prompting both teams into motion. Nothing else she does will be helpful, now she just has to watch and wait for something to happen.

Golden-hazel eyes sweep over the court analytical mind working overtime to keep an extra critical eye on Kagami and Kuroko in an attempt to thwart any possible double-teaming. Kise knows he's not strong enough to completely break through a double-team, not yet anyway. His only hope is to see one coming and attempt to signal one of his teammates onto the other player before both can converge on him. Even that has slim chances of happening though, none of the other regulars trust his judgement yet. Only seeing him as a famous player rather than someone who can actually strategize and see through openings. Apparently the fact his main skill of copying relied on reasonably high intelligence to be able to analyse and learn skills impossibly quickly.

Kasamatsu passes to him through Seirin's centres legs. Kise grabs the ball out of the air effortlessly slipping into a dribble only to be blocked by Kuroko. Being superior in speed and agility the blond slipped past the passing specialist with ease to find Kagami looming in his path effectively stalling his progress. In the moment he was stalled Kuroko lunges backwards stealing the ball with a tap pass towards Kagami who catches it with ease diving into a dribble before leaping into a dunk forcing the ball through the net.

The game continued as normal for about 30 seconds before Kise attempts to make a shot over Kuroko's head being blocked in on all sides by players of both teams leaving no room to move. Kagami smacks the ball out of his hands before he's even in proper shooting form. Kise whirls around in annoyance hand flying out subconsciously only to feel his nails digging into something soft. The unmistakable thwack of a body hitting the floor ring's through the gym before all eyes land on Kuroko.

Seirin's trump card just sits there looking dazed blood dripping down the right side of his face from a cut just above his eye Kise looks between his hand, flecks of blood coating the tips of his fingers and Kuroko's face. The passing specialist slowly struggles to his feet quaking slightly yet regards his worried teammates with a calm gaze.

"Are you okay Kuroko?" glasses captain asks concern evident in his usually harsh voice.
"Yes, there is no need to worry." Kuroko states blandly swaying on his feet before promptly falling again in a dead faint.
"KUROKO!" The entire Seirin team exclaimed. Mitobe picking up the small teen like he weighed nothing and placing him on a mat Riko had lain out behind Seirin's bench. She immediately moved to wash and sterilise the room before wrapping Kuroko's head in bandages to keep the gauze patch covering the cut secure.

"Don't worry to much Ryou, Kuroko'll be fine, he's strong." The blond startles ever so slightly breaking his state of staring between his hand and Kuroko. Kisa seemingly materialises at his side voice barely loud enough for him to hear let alone the rest of the gym.
"I know, it's just…Kurokocchi." Kise whined shaking his head afterwards in an attempt to get his head back in order. Kisa sighed, the blond really did care just a little too much about Kuroko, everyone really. He had a naturally empathetic nature and an innate ability to read people's emotional states.
"Get your head back in the game, you can check on him later idiot. Just try to be more careful." Kisa ran a hand through her bangs brushing the strands out of her eye for a moment before shaking her head letting them fall back into her face.
"Yeah, got it Kisacchi." He offered her a reassuring smile, ruffling the younger teen's hair before jogging away towards the other Kaijou regulars.

Kisa paused for a second looking over at Seirin one last time to ensure Kuroko was being taken care of. Seeing everything was going to be A. ok she ran after Kise joining the huddle of Kaijou players. Kasamatsu loop an arm over her shoulders dragging her into the circle easily. Kise stood on her other side Kobori next to him followed by Hayakawa with Moriyama brining the group back to Kasamatsu. Takeuchi stood off to the side having an in depth discussion with Riko about something or other whilst the two teams huddled. Kisa assumed Seirin was discussing how the game would work with Kuroko down. Kaijou on the other hand said nothing all choosing to stare down Kise.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do anything." Kise cries meeting each team member's eyes with a remorseful gaze.
"We understand, but be careful. More mistakes like this and I won't hold back from kicking your ass." Kasamatsu says exasperatedly. The other seniors nod in approval at their captain's words.
"I already gave him a warning, everything's under control Captain." Kisa reassures the older teen before breaking away from the huddle walking towards the centre of the court ball under one arm whistle clutched between her teeth.

The next 15 minutes of gameplay pass smoothly after that. Al the players are notably tenser than usual particularly Kise and Kagami who take every opportunity to glare at each other. Koganei, Mitobe, Hyuuga and Izuki show off the second year's team work skills often leaving Kagami out of the pass course. Instead the redhead just took his job of guarding Kise incredibly seriously. His strange split eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

Meanwhile, the copycat continued to evade Kagami's blocking attempts scoring shot after shot borrowing the moves of others. In return the redhead would dunk with animalistic ferocity. The bolts holding the hoop in place creaked under the two ace's abuse from swinging on the net when dunking. It's a never-ending vicious circle with Kaijou extending their lead by at least a point each revolution.

Kisa stands to the side signalling to a pair of second-string players whenever a point is scored. Endless loops of repeated plays are incredibly uninteresting to watch. A quick glance over at the Seirin bench shows that Kuroko has begun to stir recovering from the head injury surprisingly quickly as per usual. Despite the passing master's lack of stamina he was surprisingly robust, recovering from injuries in days that cost the other miracles a week or two out. The worst injury he'd sustained (to Kisa's knowledge anyway) had been a badly sprained wrist early in second year, which has only kept him down for a week and out of games for two.

"Player change please, Miyazaki-san." Riko requested using a far more forceful tone than her polite wording would imply. The fourth quarter had just begun and the request for a player change surprised Kisa greatly. Even if Kuroko said he was up to playing surely the brunette wouldn't allow him right? She didn't seem like that kind of person.
"On it, Aida-san." Kisa replied eyes narrowing slightly as she watched Kuroko straighten his top. "Seirin player change!" She yelled Riko blowing her pale pink whistle before darting away towards Seirin's bench.

Koganei trailed towards the edge of the court hi-fiving Kuroko with a modicum of enthusiasm and whispered words of good luck. Once the shadow was in place play began again.

The addition of Kuroko to Seirin's team particularly with his misdirection working at full force bought the game back to an even playing field. With only 2 minutes of gameplay left to go the scores were playing on a seesaw for who was in the lead. Seirin kept up with Kaijou point for point like it had been in the first quarter after Kise had been subbed in. The speed of play was nearly fast enough for Kisa to concentrate so hard on keeping score she stopped enjoying being a spectator all together.

Finally with only 10 seconds to go the scores were tied 98-98 with Kaijou in possession of the ball. Moriyama being guarded passed off to Kasamatsu who evaded Izuki's block in order to receive the ball. The Point Guard used his superior speed to drive past both Izuki and Mitobe only to have the ball stolen from right under his nose by Kuroko who tap passed it to Kagami. Kagami drove down the court breaking through Kaijou's line of defence with ease before being intercepted by Kise.

The redhead fakes to the side Kise following him before abruptly switching to the other only to find the blond blocking his way yet again. He spots Kuroko out the corner of his eye completely open for a pass. Kagami sends a pass towards Kuroko who stands just outside the three-point line using Kise's brief moment of distraction to break past the blond.

Kise pivots blond hair forming an angelic golden halo around his head as he does. But by the time he's sprinting after Kagami it's already too late. Kuroko shoots ball bouncing off the rim as expected and then Kagami's just there. The redhead forces the ball through the net with a lion like roar just as Kisa lets the final whistle loose shrill noise echoing around the silent room.

Time stops for a moment only the sound of the ball bouncing into a shadowy corner can be heard. No one dares to so much as breath afraid of upsetting whatever deity chose this moment to give Seirin good fortune. Then as if someone had simply pressed the play button Seirin erupts into cheers players drawing each other into hugs other's hi-fiving their teammates. Kagami and Kuroko are at the centre of it all being showered in adoration and praise. The redhead drinks up every second of it whilst Kuroko modestly rebuts the comments. He doesn't need praise, just friendship and a strong team bond. Something the Generation of Miracles had lost.

As Seirin celebrates Kaijou consolidates. The second and third year regulars huddle together discussing what they could have done better whilst Kise just stands there. Tears stream down his face sobs racking his chest. It's not fake melodramatic crocodile tears like usual. This is honest painful crying, and it's also the moment that makes Kisa realise the blond has never known defeat. Not like this anyway. Friendly one-one-one games against Aomine are nothing compared to a game practice or competition. Loosing as someone who knows the bitter taste of defeat on their tongue is still unpleasant, for someone who has only known the sinful sweetness of victory, Kisa doesn't know how it feels and will never understand. She's always lost at something, there always a fight she can't quite win.

"Ryo…."
"Leave it to me, hopefully this knocks him off that high horse." Kasamatsu cuts her off. Kisa blinks letting the hand she had been raising towards the blond's shoulder fall back to her side.
"Yeah, thank you Kasamatsu-sempai." She turns away watching Seirin leave still filled with joy after their win. Kisa can't exactly blame them; winning against a national level school would be a huge morale boost for anyone let alone a newly formed team.
"Don't worry Miyazaki, you know as well as I do that he needs to learn." Kasamatsu states ominously watching Kise's breakdown with no remorse in his steely-blue eyes.
"I forgot he didn't know what loosing is like. Things changed a lot after I left, he wouldn't have acted like this before and Kuroko…. Something strange is going on." Kisa trails off observing her childhood friend's emotional catastrophe with a forlorn expression. Kasamatsu just sighs shaking his head before walking over to the blond and kicking him in the small of the back.

Kisa chuckled quietly lips turning up at the corner into a fond smile. Kise whirled around to face Kasamatsu after going flying from being kicked melodramatic crocodile tears streaming down his face forming a small puddle at his feet. If his usual antics were intact the blond was absolutely fine. He wasn't broken yet and hopefully wouldn't be any time soon. Kaijou would get their revenge on Seirin one day. Be it at the Inter-High or Winter Cup, it was going to happen.

A/N: Please follow, favourite and review if you enjoyed as it helps keep me motivated to write. I don't like to beg for reviews but currently some constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated particularly about Kisa, as I'm really nervous about her becoming a Mary-sue.

Next chapter, Kise antagonises Kuroko about why he left after the Championship match and Kagami has a rather awkward yet entertaining run-in with Kisa. Our little manager's past also begins to unravel further and the reasons she nearly gave up on the sport she loves so dearly being to come clear.

Thankyou for reading and don't forget to review
-Angel