"So… Shutoku, huh?" Jumbo made his usual visit to the Koiwai household and Yotsuba was in the middle of telling her story about her day with the Shutoku basketball team.

"He said I was his lucky item! And because of me his shoots don't miss!"

Jumbo looked at Koiwai, making a face. "Lucky item?"

Koiwai waved his hand dismissively. "Don't ask."

"You... You guys went to Shutoku's game and didn't invite me?!"

"How are we going to call you in that amount of time?!" Koiwai retorted, surprised. "They invite us because of Yotsuba!"

YEAH! I WAS THE LUCKY ITEM!" Yotsuba added excitedly.

Koiwai looked over at Jumbo, annoyed with the look on his face. "What's that look for!?"

The doorbell rang and Yotsuba perked up. "Someone's at the door!"

"I'll get it!" Koiwai replied as he got up from the floor to answer the door. Fortunately, he was wearing pants this time. He opened the door and saw Midorima standing outside, with only the front gate separating them both.

"Ah, Shintarou." Koiwai approached him. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon."

"What brings you here?"

"I have something for Yotsuba. And you as well." Midorima said as he dug through a plastic bag.

"Wow, you got us something? I hope it's not too expensive."

"For Yotsuba," Midorima said as he handed Koiwai a recorder.

"That's cute." Koiwai replied, "She's never had an instrument before."

"Today's lucky item for Gemini is a recorder."

"Not this again!" Koiwai snapped.

"I have one for Taurus." He held up an egg-shaped object with a smiling face dressed in bright red.

"What is it?" Koiwai asked as Midorima handed it to him and grunted as he got his hands on it. "Oh, it's heavy!"

He was surprised the younger man had been able to carry it all the way here. But he figured since Midorima must work out, it wasn't a problem.

"Be careful. They are nesting dolls."

"Please tell me you don't have anymore!" Koiwai wheezed, keeping his grip on the porcelain doll.

"I don't," He blinked. "Are you alright?"

"Never better!" Koiwai responded. "Just how much are in here?"

"Ten."

"EH?!"

"You can keep those. I will not be needing them."

"Th-Thanks…!"

Midorima nodded. "Goodbye."

Koiwai watched him walk away before struggling back inside, waddling. Yotsuba ran up to him and stared curiously. "What's that?"

"Where on earth did you get that?" Jumbo interjected as he saw what Koiwai was carrying and took it from him since he saw his friend struggling.

Koiwai sighed in relief before handing Yotsuba the recorder.

"Wow! What's this; a blow dart?"

"It's a recorder."

Yotsuba took the recorder and blew hard, causing a loud, rustic whistling like nails on a chalkboard.

"Yotsuba, stop!" Her dad commanded.

Yotsuba smiled and held her recorder close, she loved her new recorder. She placed one of her fingers against a note and blew again only harder.

"Yotsuba!" Jumbo and Koiwai cried.

She stopped and looked up at them, smiling.

"Yotsuba, why don't you play that outside?" Koiwai said, his ears still ringing from the recorder screeching. Jumbo had pulled up every single doll and they were all set on the table in a row by size.

"I had no idea they had nesting dolls this size."

"Me neither." Koiwai responded. "But whatever comes from Shintarou is the strangest thing."

Yotsuba arrived at the park as usual. She was holding onto her recorder and had forgotten all about playing it and went to play on the playground. She slid down the slide and swung on the swings, then played on her recorder for a bit as some of her park friends had asked her to. It was fun, but then she grew bored and sat on the bench. As she looked over at the basketball courts, there were several guys playing basketball as there was a lone female with short, brown hair watching them go up and down the court. She went a bit closer out of curiosity and noticed the girl had a pink whistle in her mouth. She looked back at the court and spotted someone familiar, a tall, red-haired man was making slam dunks on the court. Apparently, he had committed a foul since the man in front of him had fallen over and the girl blew the whistle.

"Bakagami!" The girl scowled. "That nearly cost us the game last time!"

The man that had just fallen over, stood up rubbing his head. He had brown hair and a cat-shaped curve on his lips. "I'm fine!" He spoke up. "Just a flesh wound!"

"Ughh… Kagami-kun…" The girl facepalmed. "Alright, start again. And, don't mess this up, Kagami!"

As she was about to blow the whistle for the players to continue, Yotsuba blew hard on her recorder, playing a rough note shot through to their ears. They all turned their attention to the small, green-haired girl in pigtails who was smiling up at them. It wasn't until Kagami realized who this child was.

"Yotsuba-chan?" he said.

Yotsuba turned her attention to him. "Kagami!"

"EH?!" The group said in unison as they watched the small girl run over to the red head, arms spread out wide as if to embrace him and leapt at him.

Kagami picked her up and embraced her as she hugged his neck. "Kagami!"

He chuckled and set her down. "Funny seeing you here."

"I live here!" Yotsuba said cheerfully. "What are you doing?"

"Well, would you look at that? Kagami-kun has a girlfriend." The brown-haired girl, who went by the name of Riko Aido, teased. "Kagami, it's cute that you've reunited with your friend, but we have some training to do."

"Come to think of it, why are we in this park, anyway?"

One of Kagami's teammates, Teppei Kiyoshi wondered.

"You haven't been paying attention, have you, Kiyoshi?" Shinji Koganei replied as he recovered from the fall.

"I figured since this court was a lot bigger."

"Hey, little girl, where are you from?" Riko said as she bent down slightly, talking to Yotsuba.

Yotsuba pointed and said, "To the left."

"Huh?"

"I live to the left!"

"The left of what...?" She looked at Kagami for a straight answer.

Kagami shrugged in response, unsure of how to explain since he hadn't asked.

"So is your dad or someone else here with you?" Riko said, looking around.

"Oh! My dad said I can come here! He's at home with Jumbo!"

"J-Jumbo…?"

Yotsuba blew hard on the recorder again until Kagami stopped her. "Aww…"

"So what's your name, little girl?" Riko asked.

"I'm Yotsuba Koiwai!"

"Well, Yotsuba, wanna be our team manager for the day?"

"Yeah!" Yotsuba cheered. "What's that?

"Hmm… well, the next game isn't until… You can pass out snacks!"

"Yay! Can I pass out the snacks now?"

"Not yet!" Riko replied. "Alright, boys! Training starts now!" She blew her whistle and the entire team started to make their run around the park. Sure enough, Yotsuba joined them. She managed to run past a few of the first years, Koki Furihata, Koichi Kawahara, and Hiroshi Fukuda, then she passed Koganei who was cheering for her.

"Yotsuba-chan! GO!" His friend, Rinnosuke Mitobe smiled. She caught up to the basketball team's Captain, Junpei Hyuga who was running alongside Teppei.

"Eh?!"

"Hello!" She said, running past.

"Wh-What… just happened?"

"Aw, she's cute."

"There's something wrong if a kindergartener can pass us!"

Yotsuba ran past the entire team so she can catch up to Kagami.

"Kagami!" She cheered and waved at him.

"Y-Yotsuba-chan!"

He was trying to tell her to watch out, but a huge dog ran across from her she ran into it before falling over and stumbling onto the concrete. The entire team watched it happen and ran as fast as they could.

"Yotsuba! Yotsuba!" Koganei shouted.

"Are you okay?" Koki added.

It wasn't until Riko ran in. Apparently, Yotsuba had disappeared and she was trying to look for her. "What happened?"

Yotsuba was face down; she had landed in the sandbox.

"Where's Kagami?" Teppei asked looking around. "He was here when it happened."

"Yotsuba tumbled. Tumble leaf." Izuki said amusingly.

"Kill yourself already." Hyuga grumbled.

Mitobe made a face and saw Kagami hiding behind a tree as the dog was trying to follow him.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Riko sighed, helping Yotsuba out of the sandbox.

"Bleh!" Yotsuba spat out some sand that landed in her mouth from the fall.

"The sand pit turned into sand spit."

"Izuki, quit the basketball team right now." Junpei was not amused.

"Why don't you stay with me for now?" Riko said as she looked Yotsuba over, trying to see if there were any cuts or scrapes she had to clean up. She didn't think a girl like Yotsuba could have so much energy, it was overwhelming.

As the boys continued their workout, Yotsuba and Riko were watching them from the park bench.

"So how do you know Kagami-kun so well?" Riko asked after a long, comfortable silence watching her team go back and forth on the court, scoring and running after the ball.

"I met him in the park a few days ago!" Yotsuba explained. "He taught me how to play basketball and he let me dunk!"

Riko was surprised to hear Kagami was good with kids. He didn't have any patience on the court let alone babysitting. Maybe he wasn't always rough around the edges after all. "That's nice of him." She said. "So what do you do here with them?" Yotsuba asked, pointing to the guys on the court.

"Well, I'm their coach." Riko explained. "I keep them in good shape and I make sure they don't slack off. Like, right now." She stood up and shouted. "Furihata-kun! Kawahara-kun! I know you're benched players but mind the ball!"

"Yes, ma'am!" They both said in unison.

"A coach… what does that mean?"

"You sure ask a lot of questions." Riko chuckled, thinking of an answer. "It's kind of like a boss. For sports."

"Ooh…" Yotsuba was amazed. "My dad doesn't have a sport but he works. I have never seen his boss before."

'I wonder who he works for.' Riko wondered.

"A coach… so Kagami has a job and a boss." Yotsuba said, fantasizing. "Wow." She looked at Riko with a dreamy look in her eyes. "I want to be just like you when I grow up!"

'I want to be just like you when I grow up… when I grow up… when I grow up..'

Riko's heart was shot by a bullet as the words echoed in her mind. She had never heard anyone, any child, say that to her at all. Never! She had never felt so happy before in her life. She was a role model in another person's eyes. She felt her eyes well up with tears. "I'll work very hard!" Riko said, crying.

"You can do it!" Yotsuba cheered.

'What's going on over there?' The team wondered in their minds.

Afternoon had eventually passed and it was already noon. It was during the middle of another round of basketball, Yotsuba wanted to play.

"Are you sure?" Kagami asked, skeptical about the idea. He remembered accidentally hitting her in the face the other day, he couldn't imagine what a whole team could do if they had gotten clumsy on the court.

"I think it's a great idea!" Teppei replied.

Riko and Kagami were surprised. "What?!"

"You're not kidding with us, are you?" Riko said. "She's still a kid! What if you guys squish her?"

"We're a basketball team, no giants."

"I think it's a good idea!" Koganei spoke up. "We've been doing practice games all day, I think we can play with Yotsuba-chan for a bit."

"Alright, but if she starts crying you're taking care of her." Riko replied, shrugging.

"I can play?!"

"Yup!" Teppei smiled.

"To make this game a bit easier for Yotsuba, I'm cutting it down on the number of people. It's going to be a three-on-three game."

"Who's on my team?!" Yotsuba cried.

Teppei and Koganei shouted happily. "Me!"

"What are you, kids?!" Hyuga was shouting at his two teammates.

"Is Kagami playing?" Yotsuba was looking up at them expectantly.

"You sure? He might accidentally squish you." Riko replied.

"That's okay! He hit me in the face with the basketball and I turned out just fine!"

"That's not something to feel good about!" Kagami put in.

"Wow, Kagami, you really did that? I didn't think you were that rough!" Koganei teased.

"It was an accident!"

Riko blew her whistle to get them back on topic as Yotsuba blew her recorder as well.

"Let's just play before I go deaf at the end of the damned day!" Hyuga shouted.

During their little game, the rest of the team was watching them from the side as Teppei, Koganei, Kagami, Koki and Hiroshi were on the court playing with Yotsuba. It wasn't anything competitive, but at least Yotsuba was entertained. Koki passed the ball to Kagami but Yotsuba jumped in and took the ball.

"Nice, Yotsuba!" Koganei cried.

Thanks to Kagami showing her the ropes, and watching Midorima's game; she dribbled the ball and looked around. She noticed Teppei nor Koganei were open. She remembered seeing Midorima in the same situation, she wondered if she could do that, too. Riko was the first to notice.

'Is that… is she trying to make a three-pointer? Can she be able to make that…?!'

Of course for her height, the ball did feel a bit heavy but she managed to shoot the ball from half court. They were all surprised to see the ball go flying; they were expecting it to go over or bounce off the rim, but it landed with a flawless, FWOOSH! into the met.

"The…what is she?! Another one of the Generation of Miracles? Then she's probably the youngest of them all!" Hyuga was surprised that she had done that so flawlessly.

"Who's that?" Yotsuba asked, unsure who the Generation of Miracles were.

"You've got a lot to learn, kid." Hyuga said to her.

After an entire day of playing, it was time to call it a day. They were all walking out the park until Yotsuba suggested they get ice cream and followed her back all the way to her place, Koiwai was not amused.

"Yotsuba, what is this?" he asked as he saw her from the door and the entire basketball team outside.

"Ice cream!" She cried.

"Yotsuba, we don't have ice cream. Besides, you ate the last one, remember?"

"But…"

"We don't have any…"

Yotsuba looked at them with a shocked expression on her face, not believing what she is hearing.

"That's okay, Yotsuba." Riko said. "Maybe next time."

Yotsuba looked at Riko then back at her father.

"We'll come back next time, okay?" Riko said as she turned to walk away. She almost tripped as she felt a grab at her leg.

"No, no, no! Don't go!"

"Yotsuba!" Koiwai shouted as he tried to pry her off. "I'm sorry."

"No. no. no. no, nooo!"

"Yotsuba, please! Not now!"

Yotsuba began crying as soon as her dad managed to pull Riko out of her grip. "I'm really sorry about all this."

"That's alright, she wasn't a handful."

Yotsuba was still crying even after the entire team was leaving. "Hey, what's the matter, Yotsuba?" Jumbo had come back several minutes after they had left. "Look! I got ice cream!" She sniffled and looked up at him. "Ice cream…?"

"Yup!" he said. "Just enough to feed an entire basketball team! See?" He held up a huge cardboard tray of mini tubs of ice cream that had chocolate and strawberry. Of course, he was only saying this metaphorically. He had no idea the Seiren basketball team had dropped by.

"Basketball team..?" Yotsuba spoke up behind her tears.

"Yeah!"

She ran out her porch, screaming out. "COME BACK! COME BACK! ICE CREAM!"

"It was a figure of speech, Yotsuba!" Jumbo yelled out to her.

It took a few minutes before the entire team came back. "Hooray!" The team cheered.

"Holy cow!" Jumbo shouted. "I was just kidding when I said that." From that point on, it became an ice cream party and Yotsuba couldn't be happier. They were all excited about how Yotsuba scored the three-pointer so nicely.

"Although, it's a bit sad that Kuroko couldn't be here." Teppei said.

"Who's that?"

"He's one of our team members. He got food poisoning so he couldn't come today." Hyuga responded. "I'm pretty sure you'll like him. He's got a dog, too."

Ooh, a dog!"

Riko was sitting on the porch with Koiwai, watching her team socializing with Jumbo and Yotsuba as she ate her strawberry-marble ice cream.

"It's been a while since Yotsuba's had anyone to talk to." Koiwai said, breaking the long silence.

"Did something happen?"

"No. Just our neighbors went to go visit their grandparents' house over the summer." He explained. "So it was me and Yotsuba for a while. It wasn't until Kagami came along. She's taken a shine to him ever since they met."

"I see."

"She doesn't have any other siblings and I'm her only parent." He said. "So I'm glad she's met all these people this week. I'm sorry; you probably don't want to hear me blab on about Yotsuba's life."

"Oh, no. It's alright. I'm my dad's only daughter." Riko replied. "By the way, Koiwai-san. Do you know what size shirt Yotsuba is?"

"Small. Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

She looked back at Yotsuba, smiling. This was the day she officially made Yotsuba part of the team.

-END-

Think I left you guys hanging now, did I? Well, sorry this took weeks to update. I was under a lot of stress and I didn't really have time to continue this for weeks. Christmas is coming up. Merry Christmas, you guys! This chapter is probably a lot longer than the last. But, what can you do? I was improvising throughout the ending half. I've also been distracted a lot with wasting my time watching youtube videos, playing video games while doing absolutely nothing productive with my life. It's thanks to you guys' reviews that I was motivated in finishing it. Btw, who here has seen Season 2 yet? Omg. So intense. Atsushi is my spirit animal and Teppei is my husband. Askldfhsadfh I'm not sorry. I love Midorima and Junpei, too! I'm just a sucker for anime guys in glasses. w

P.S. I am fully aware that in this chapter, Junpei's name switched from Junpei to Hyuga. I just got lazy trying to fix it. I wrote these chapters in a notebook and also made some changes. Sorry this chapter is a bit choppy; otherwise, enjoy! :3

Next Chapter: Yotsuba & Kise