Number One
Satou Meiji was a new teacher at Serin High School, so he wasn't sure if it was normal for high school students to climb up to the roof and yell to the entire school. It was certainly a weird experience fore the new teacher.
"WE ARE GOING TO BE NUMBER ONE IN JAPAN!"
"IF WE DON'T BECOME NUMBER ONE, I AM GOING TO BE CONFESS TO THE GIRL I LIKE BUTT NAKED!"
All the students laughed as some of the teachers ran up to the roof of the school to punish the 1st year students who had yelled.
Satou heard stories from the other teachers that the insolent freshman wanted to form a basketball club. Even if he hadn't been that interested in basketball, Satou knew that for a newborn club to make it to the top was going to be near impossible.
Satou had always been a cynical person. He wasn't one to believe in dreams and pure talent. He knows that you have to work hard in order to make it big. He himself had worked for the job he has now. He wasn't going to believe that they were going to make to the top with pure spirit.
Well, he thinks, they are freshman after all. No prideful upperclassmen would join a club made by a bunch of first years. They probably wanted to make a basketball club as a spur of the moment idea. They would probably play a few matches, lose, and give up. Satou was sure that this basketball club wasn't going to be anything special much less make it to the top.
-o-
Satou was going home a little later when he noticed that the gym's light was on. He checked his watch and it was around 7:30 in the evening. Who would be in the gym at this time?
Satou decides to check and he sees the first years practicing basketball. Beads of sweat was dripping down their faces, but they were still working on passes and shooting without stopping.
Satou recognizes Kiyoshi, Aida, Izuki, and Hyuuga from his homeroom class and the rest from his class. With a start Satou realizes that Inter High Final League matches were the next day. He hadn't really believed that they had made it when he heard it from Takeda-sensei, the advisor for the basketball club.
The Serin High School basketball team composed purely of freshman after all. They were just kids, there would be no way they would practice that hard especially with a high school girl for a coach. They wouldn't stand a chance against professionally coached schools.
But as Satou looks at them, practicing long after the faculty members went home until they were sore, he thinks that maybe they might make it after all.
-o-
Satou hears that the basketball club lost incredibly badly against the Three King of Tokyo and he sighed. They were new after all. Their wins were probably what had been motivating them; and now that they lost they would be broken. No doubt some of them would be quitting.
Satou decides to pay a visit to the gym that day, maybe to cheer them up after their club's unenviable break up. To his surprise Satou finds them practicing just as hard as they did before the finals. When he came in, Aida had been passing out forms for a training camp and the entire group of basketball players was still there. He leaves without saying anything because he never seen children this determined before.
They won't make it, his mind tells him but his heart seems to disagree.
-o-
Satou knows that the Seirin High School Basketball Club had received some extremely strong players the next year. A red-haired boy dunks more than once during his trips to the gym and a ball always fly out of nowhere which Satou had theorize came from a nearly invisible teal-haired boy who accompanies the club.
Satou himself had gone to their game against Seiho High School. He wanted to see how they would match against the team that destroyed them last year.
He left with a tingle in chest, the kind you feel when you are experiencing a surge of pride.
He knows that they had lost Kiyoshi this year, but the fact that they were still so amazing made his heart pound.
When he hears they lost to Tōō Academy, Satou does not worry. Seirin Basketball Club was not so easily breakable. They merely put themselves back together stronger and harder than before. Satou wonders when had he become such an optimist. Well Seirin had never failed to prove him wrong before.
-o-
Satou was not embarrassed to say that he was one of the people screaming themselves hoarse during the match against Rakuzen.
That entire match showed how amazing his little students had became. Hyuga with his unwavering confidence had finally become the captain and leader he was destined to be. Kiyoshi in his endless optimism who held the team together while Hyuga led them forward. Aida with her quick thinking and passion for making her team plays to the best of their ability. Izuki with his calm, precise thinking and determination. All the other second years played and the first years who had work so hard to make it so far made it so far make Satou's heart pound with pride.
They were his students and they made it to the top. Seirin had fallen into gaping canyons and been faced with roaring mountains, but they pull themselves forward holding on to all their battle scars. He realizes that these second and first years in two short years made it to the top. Did what no school before had done before with blood, sweat, and tears.
Satou smiles. At least he won't have to issue any detentions for naked boys running around Seirin.
Sorry about the lack of humor in the chapter. I wanted to rant my feelings after rereading the manga finale. If you had been waiting for a funny chapter I am really sorry. The next chapter should be a little funnier. By the way, I will be posting a separate Kuroko no Basuke story called A Bedtime Story. If you want to read it, check my profile.
Special Thanks: Kaynx
Kaynx: No. Takao would probably have some articles about the rumor of the sixth member, but no definite data. Thanks for the review.
-SWP