It was another day for Shintarou Midorima, he was sitting on a rickshaw as his teammate, Takao Kazunari was riding up front. Takao was always the one in charge of lugging it around wherever they went. One thing's for sure, though, something was different about Midorima; he was missing his lucky item.

It was a common sight that Midorima carried a certain item from a little bear to a potted plant, he never left home without it. And today he was rather cranky about not being able to have one today. It was a first world problem if he didn't have it. Shutoku was having a home game today against another school. It wasn't exactly well-known but the team was only starting out. Without Midorima's precious, lucky item, their team was doomed. Unfortunately for Midorima, it was a fairly rare item he needed for today's horoscope.

"Takao," he said.

"Yeah, what is it?" The dark-haired man responded.

"Find me a four-leaf." Midorima demanded more than asked.

"Eh?! Where on earth am I going to find one in that amount of time?!" Takao said. "Shin-chan, you know we have a game today."

"I know, but without my lucky item, my shots will miss."

Takao let out an exasperated sigh. Was he seriously acting like it meant that much to the team? They were better off without. One of the other teammates were planning on breaking it since it was always in the way.

"Shin-chan," Takao began. "I'm not really sure you'll be getting a lucky item today. I mean, it's not like you'll die without it. Besides, it won't miraculously appear out of the clear, blue sky."

And with that, a scream rang out, breaking the comfortable silence from the quiet neighborhood.

"AAAHH!"

Takao jumped, suddenly skidding on the brakes, causing Midorima to stumble over in the back. "Takao, you idiot!" He yelled.

Then, a small, green-haired girl ran out of the house nearby screaming, "GET IT OFF! DADDY, GET IT OFF!"

"Yotsuba, I WAS JUST KIDDING! THERE'S NO SPIDER!" The dark-haired man shouted to his daughter. He stopped when he saw Midorima standing by the gate.

"C-Can I help you?" He asked, confused.

"I would like to borrow Yotsuba for today's game." Midorima said urgently.

"Eh?! Shin-chan!" Takao was surprised at how straight-forward his teammate was being. Wait… the lucky item wasn't an object, but… a person? And, a small child at that.

"You'll have to forgive him, he's-"

"Today's lucky item for Cancers is 'Yotsuba'."

The man stared as if he were crazy, which he probably sounded like with his explanation about horoscopes. "Why don't you go find a four-leaf clover?" he said.

"You don't understand! I need her! Nanodayo!"

This took Takao by surprise. His friend was actually… begging?! Today was an interesting day indeed.

On close inspection the two men who were standing at his house both had on matching orange tracksuits that had black letters on the side which read 'Shutoku' on the left side of their jackets.

Shutoku… It was a famous high school in Tokyo. So this was the basketball team Jumbo was talking about. Before he could speak up, his daughter cut him off with an excited, yet curious tone in her voice.

"I'm a lucky item? What's that?!" She looked up at the man with dark-green hair. "Hey, Mister! We both have green hair! We're matching!" she shouted. "What's your name?"

The green-haired man twitched and pushed back his glasses. "Shintarou Midorima." He said. "You're today's lucky item. I would like to borrow you."

"Shin-chan…" The other said a bit nervously.

"I'm a lucky item? Cool! Where are we going?" Yotsuba asked him.

"Shutoku," Midorima replied. "There's a game today and I need my lucky item."

Yotsuba didn't know what on earth he was talking about. But, being a lucky item sounded like a lot of fun.

"A lucky item…" Yotsuba repeated to herself, her eyes gleaming. "Can we go, Daddy?"

Koiwai looked at his daughter. Her expectant eyes were just waiting for him to say, 'yes'. He was done with work for today and they had nothing else to do. Also, it was probably going to be Yotsuba's first ever trip to seeing a basketball game and they haven't really stepped out of the house together for a long time. There was no harm in tagging along with a couple of high school students.

"I don't see why not. Sure, let's go!"

"Yay! You hear that? I get to go!" Yotsuba said to Takao.

"Yeah! You get to watch! Basketball's really cool!" Takao replied.

"It is!" she piped up. "I learned how to do a slam dunk the other day!"

"Wow, really?!"

Koiwai looked up at Midorima. "Please give us a few minutes." He said, opening the gate. "Cone inside if you'd like. Come on, Yotsuba, let's get ready."

"Yay!" She cheered again before following her dad back into the house.

"Well, well, Shin-chan. Guess today is your lucky day."

"Of course it is. It's a good day for Cancers."

Several minutes later, Koiwai and his daughter were ready to go. Yotsuba was wearing a white shirt with long, orange sleeves. She had on her shoulder bag with Juralumin safely on the pouch. Koiwai had pants on this time and wore a grey cardigan.

As Yotsuba stepped out of the house, she noticed the rickshaw first thing. "What's that?" she asked.

"We came all this way here in that." Takao explained. "And I'm driving it."

"WOOOOW! Can I go in?"

"Of course," Midorima replied. "You are the lucky item after all."

"Koiwai-san?" Takao nodded over to the back. "You can jump in if you want."

"Thanks, but… I'd rather bike there myself." He said. "It looks pretty small and you're better off with just those two."

"That's good to hear." Takao said, but was actually relieved to hear Koiwai decline his offer.

Yotsuba was trying to climb onto the rickshaw but was having a hard time. Still, she kept trying to get in on her own and continued to struggle.

"Would you like some help?"

Takao looked rather worried as she had hard time getting on. After what seemed to be a long time, Koiwai eventually helped her get in.

"Let's go!" Yotsuba shouted as Midorima hopped in after her. Koiwai pulled out his bike ahead of time and had just sat down.

It was Yotsuba's first time riding in a rickshaw and her first of anything in almost a long time since her days without the Ayases. Koiwai was happy Yotsuba was having load of fun this week. Just the other day she befriended a redhead she had just met at the park, now she was about to go see a real basketball match in person. She was a very lucky girl indeed.

It was at least half an hour later and still no sign of Midorima or Takao anywhere. Their team captain, Taisuke Otsubo, was not impressed.

"Game's about to start, we'll have just have to start without them." He said, rubbing his temples.

One of his teammates had already gotten annoyed by this and finally snapped. "That's it. Someone get me a pineapple so I can throw it in Midorima's face when they get here."

"I'll give you all the pineapples you need." His friend, Kimura added, as if that was going to better the situation.

"And, maybe another pineapple to that little item of his."

One by one, each player paused and stared at him and the locker room began to slowly quiet down. The blond was beginning to feel uncomfortable when he noticed Kimura staring at him as well. Confused, he looked around at his teammates, realizing it wasn't him they were looking at but behind him.

He turned and saw a small, green-haired girl with four-pigtails holding a teddy bear in her arms. She kept a happy smiled on her face, not noticing the glances that came her way and shouted, "I'M THE LUCKY ITEM!"

The whole locker room was shot down with silence and grew pale with the expression as if they had seen a ghost.

Miyaji had his face buried in his hands in remorse, slumping onto a nearby bench as his friend sat next to him, patting his back. "How could I have said that, I'd never harm a child."

"We can still give her a pineapple, for a fruit salad."

"There you two are. Hurry and change into your uniforms." Their captain said as Midorima and Takao stepped into the locker room. "Game's about to start."

"I'm Yotsuba Koiwai!" Yotsuba shouted to the other teammates.

"What's today's lucky item, a child?" Otsubo gave Midorima a look. "I didn't think you'd stoop so low as to kidnap a child."

"Her father is in the stands. We didn't steal her." Takao explained, defending his friend. "You could even ask him…"

Their coach, Masaaki Nakatani, was a middle-aged man in his forties. He may not look it, but he was formerly part of Japan's national basketball team. He was obviously ignoring the outbursts from earlier but he was fully aware of Yotsuba's presence.

"It's almost time," He said to his team.

They had a quick recap about their strategy, every one of them, inattentively listened as their coach explained the situation. It wasn't until a small sound broke them from their train of thought.

"Maaaa!"

They looked down at Yotsuba who was sitting crossed-legged on the floor by Midorima's feet. The girl giggled and hugged Juralumin.

It's impossible to get mad at someone this cute!' The whole team thought in unison. Midorima merely pushed back his glasses, saying nothing. "…."

They continued their discussion for another while before it was time to head out.

For the most part, Yotsuba was excited. And she had no idea what basketball was about or what it even was. All she knew was that she couldn't wait to watch and obliged to be a lucky item. As they headed out, Yotsuba had noticed something about Midorima which she hadn't earlier: his fingers on his left hand was taped with bandages.

"What happened to your hand, did you hurt yourself?" she asked.

The male looked at his taped fingers. "I must not influence them. "My shots depend on my nails."

"Wooow," Yotsuba was intrigued. "So that's what nails do."

'No, they don't.' The team thought, unamused.

At the bench, they all huddled together, with Yotsuba including herself somehow. Otsubo looked at her and said, "Want to wish us good luck?"

"Yeah!" She cheered. "Let's do this thing!"

"YEAH!" They shouted and stepped out to the court, facing the opposing team. Both sides lined up with a somewhat slightly larger difference in number.

Kimura glanced down saw Yotsuba standing right next to him. "Hey! Y-You shouldn't be here!"

Both sides laughed at what they had just witnessed.

"Midorima," Otsubo scolded him. "Please tell your precious lucky item to go sit with the coach and the others.

The green-haired player sighed and went to retrieve Yotsuba and brought her over to the miscellaneous teammates sitting on the bench.

"Stay here until we're finished." Midorima told her sternly. "Nanodayo." Then he walked back to the court.

In the stands somewhere, Koiwai let out an exasperated sigh. He felt worried, hoping she wouldn't cause any more trouble for the team. Otherwise, he'd try to find a way down there to get her.

During the first quarter of the game, Yotsuba watched as the ball was moving all around the court being passed, shot and bounced around as both teams were chasing it and jumping to reach it, wanting to score. It was pretty intense and she cheered along with the benched players as Midorima shot a three-pointer, the fall flawlessly making a loud, swoosh sound as it flew into the hoop.

"Wooow…" Yotsuba was amazed by how swiftly the ball landed into the hoop, scoring three more points for Shutoku. She didn't know why but she felt like she knew the name of the opposing team but had forgotten the name. It sounded oddly familiar, though.

"This is very interesting…" She pulled on the sleeves of one of the players sitting right next to her and pointed at the court.

"Hey, how does he make that board thing change numbers?"

"Uh? Well, that was a three-pointer." The player explained. "We get three points more than the other team when the ball goes into the hoop. Especially, behind the three-point line."

"So was he standing on it?"

"He's pretty annoying but he managed to make it in even when he was really far."

"Ohh! I see!" Yotsuba replied, nodding. "I understand now."

"Do you…?" The player asked, a sweat drop sliding down his head.

It wasn't until the second quarter that Yotsuba started to dose off. It had gotten harder and harder for her to keep her eyes open.

Koiwai was about to stand. He knew the look on her face and the actions she did meant it was nap time. As he got up, one of the players noticed and began talking to her. She rubbed her eyes and exchanged a few words with him and nodded, rubbing her eyes. Koiwai wanted to know what they were talking about but realized as soon as he saw his daughter lay down on the bench, the player she was just talking to, brought out his jacket and placed it over her body as she was starting to nap. Yotsuba may have asked something of him because he nodded and pat her head. She smiled and nuzzled her stuffed bear before falling asleep.

Koiwai smiled, seeing as how that was handled nicely. He would have to thank that team member for taking good care of Yotsuba later.

It was nearly the end of the fourth quarter and Yotsuba was still asleep. The captain had just finished speaking to his team, time out was almost over.

In unison, the team cheered. "YEAH!"

Yotsuba jolted up from her nap. "AAAH!" She screamed. "DID WE WIN?!"

The whole team laughed, their nerves cooling down a bit. Now they were ready to win this match.

"I see you're awake," Takao said. "The game's not over, but look! We're winning!"

He pointed at the scoreboard it read, 175-77. Shutoku was clearly in the lead being the victor.

"Time-out over!" The ref called out. It was time for the players to head back to the court.

Yotsuba watched as the team walked back to the court. She jumped down from the bench and shouted, "GOOD LUCK, SHIN-CHAN!"

"Eh? Shin-chan?" One of the team members wondered as they all looked at Midorima. Takao flashed a smile. As for Midorima, he scoffed and turned away, pushing his glasses back. "Hmph."

Yotsuba waved as they continued the final quarter of the game to victory.

After the game, Koiwai waited patiently outside for Takao or Midorima to walk out with his daughter. What he didn't expect was the entire basketball team walking out. Yotsuba was sitting on a team member's shoulders as they were all still very excited even as the game had long ended.

Takao was the first to greet him. "Koiwai-san! How'd you like the game? Isn't Shin-chan pretty impressive?"

"I guess so," Koiwai replied. "Who I was really worried about was Yotsuba."

"She wasn't any trouble, at the start of the game that was pretty funny."

Koiwai chuckled, "I have to admit that was pretty funny."

"We're heading out for some ramen to celebrate." Takao said. "Wanna come along? The players really seem to like Yotsuba."

"Ramen sounds great, congrats on the victory."

"Thanks."

"Come on, Daddy, let's go!" Yotsuba cheered as the player ran ahead. Her father walked along with the rest of the team.

Takao stopped in his tracks, noticing his friend was still standing in the back. "Shin-chan? You know, if we don't hurry, we'll be left behind."

"I'm coming." He said, and his friend rushed after the others. Midorima let a smile form along his lips as he looked down at a drawing Yotsuba had given to him. "Tsh."

She was more than just a lucky item.

-END-

Just some side notes, 'four-leaf' translates to 'Yotsuba' which is part of the phrase, yotsuba no kuroba or 'four-leaf clover' which is what Midorima was referring to.

Next Chapter: Yotsuba and Riko