章 8: Meeting for the 1st time
It's finally here, the first day of the preliminary tournament. Me and the rest of the team were currently huddled up outside as they tore through some boxes my dad helped me bring. These boxes held our new jerseys.
The color scheme stayed the same except now we had a mainly white jersey and a mainly dark blue jersey. Both jerseys had the schools name in gold lettering and pattern of the secondary color wrapping around the cutoff.
(AN: imagine Seirin's black jersey for the dark blue and their white jersey for our white jersey. Just to make it easier to visualize.)
While they were tearing through the boxes like piranhas, something else managed to catch my attention and that just so happened to be Teiko. All of the Generation of Miracles except Kise were walking in their Teiko tracksuits. What caught my eye however was Kuroko splitting off from the group to the outside basketball court.
Well I guess it's time to meet a main character.
Shouldering my bag, I slipped away from my team and followed Kuroko to the basketball court. When I arrived I could see him shooting the ball and failing miserably, but the smile never leaves his face. This causes a small smile to form on my face as well, I knew from the show he loved basketball but seeing it in person you can feel it.
Well I guess most people wouldn't be able to with his low presence, but I bet everyone that's ever been on his team could feel this fire coming from him. I have to be honest while I enjoy Kuroko's team oriented style, when I was watching I always expected him to become better when he got serious.
That's something that kind of disappointed me in the show. He would have these badass or cool moments, but he couldn't back it up with basketball skills. I know that would defeat the purpose of his style, but sheesh if it didn't seem to hype you up for nothing. Not that it matters, I always related to Kise or Aomine more anyways.
Getting bored of something once you reach a certain point where it feels like there is no competition. Teams giving up before the game even starts. A frown starts to form on my face and eyes gain a sharpness from thinking about back then. Oops seems I've been noticed by Kuroko, he really does have sharp senses to feel that brief bit of anger.
"Uh who are you?" Kuroko asks from across the court.
I step onto the court and make my way closer to him.
"Aida Ryosei, but don't you know it's not polite to ask someone their name before giving your own."
"Kuroko Tetsuya, nice to meet you Aida."
"Bah, just call me Ryosei. My teammates only call me Aida and it makes me feel old." I wave my hand towards him to toss me the ball.
I take a lazy shot and it goes in, and as I'm grabbing the rebound I hear Kuroko clapping.
"Nice shot Aida."
Tsk this guy, should have known he would still call me Aida. I pass the ball to him and frown deeply as I watch him go through his shooting motion and release a small sigh as it bounces off the rim. Kuroko gives a nervous chuckle while scratching his cheek.
"Sorry Aida, I'm not very strong at shooting."
"Yes I know, you specialize in passing." I say while grabbing the basketball. I can see Kuroko stiffen out of the corner of my eye.
"What? You think nobody knows about Teiko and their monster freshmen? Or did you think I wouldn't know about you specifically?"
"Well uhm, nobody has noticed me before on the team, even when I'm playing in matches against other teams they don't seem to notice me until the end."
"Ahh I really shouldn't help out an opposing player, but what would be the fun in not playing you at your best."
I only hope I get to see Akashi's expression when Kuroko pulls up for a basket hehehe. Kuroko takes an unconscious step back, he doesn't know what he felt but for a split second he felt like he was standing next to Aomine.
Tossing the ball to Kuroko I stand with my arms crossed.
"Shoot." With a nod Kuroko begins to shoot.
"Stop, your form is terrible. Your body is stiff all over. Are telling me when you pass the ball you keep your body this stiff? No your misdirection works so well because it's loose. You could almost say it's why you and Aomine work so well together, your passing could almost be called formless passing."
I stop to see Kuroko staring at me with wide eyes, and I let a little smirk show.
"Momoi is not the only one that's good at data collection. You probably don't know my team yet if you didn't know my name, but you'll see us at nationals that's for sure.
Now shoot again, but relax your whole body and rest the ball on the pad of your hand and your fingertips. Release at the apex of your jump and flicking the ball off your fingers like you would your tap pass."
Kuroko gets in his stance, but now it's a lot looser and doesn't look as forced or constrained. He almost seems bored as he winds up and his arms get into a shooting position. He seems to be going in slow motion and if I hadn't been so focused on his movement I wouldn't have noticed the ball leaving his hand and sinking in the net.
Kuroko looked astonished and I could only laugh. Of course this guy turns a normal shot into a talent almost on par to his vanishing shot he gets in high school. Any other person would have accidentally jumped to early before he ever left the ground or they would have been frozen and jumped after he had already shot the ball.
"Hahaha, you are one interesting guy Kuroko!"
"Uh, what do you mean?"
"What do I mean? Couldn't you feel it?" I asked
His only reply was to shake his head, and I sighed mentally. Looking around the court for a victim I spotted the perfect person, Aomine Daiki. I turn back to Kuroko.
"Go get him, you should be able to score against him with this shot." I said while pointing towards Aomine."
Kuroko's eyes widened briefly, but he took off towards Aomine. I could only snicker to myself as I saw Aomine jump when Kuroko tapped him on the shoulder. A few seconds later they are both stepping into the court. It's nice to still see a light in Aomine's eyes, it means that he still loves basketball. However I imagine by the end of this tournament is when he starts to not like it anymore.
"Hurry up Kuroko, Akashi sent me to look for you. The opening ceremony is going to begin soon."
With a nod Kuroko goes to the free throw line and they both get in their positions. Before they could start Aomine glances over at me, and his eyes widen briefly. Hmm does he recognize me, or did he just not notice me until now?
"When did you get there?" Well that answers that question, might as well play along. It's not surprising though, when I have my aloof expression it dulls my "aura" and makes me seem weaker than I actually am.
Meaning people like Momoi and my sister have a hard time reading my stats. My dad is still much better than me, so he knows my stats but that's also because of how hard I try whenever I practice or play against him. Sorry Riko, maybe one day.
"That's Aida Ryosei, he taught me what I'm about to show you." Kuroko responded while I was thinking. Finally with a slight tilt of my head and a confused expression I say.
"I've been here the whole time?"
Aomine gains a tick mark as he looks back and forth between me and Kuroko with an annoyed expression.
"Gah! Why are there 2 of you! Anyways just go Kuroko we have to hurry back."
Kuroko nods and starts to dribble, however he immediately stops and starts his new shooting form. Aomine's eyes widen and he jumps, though Kuroko hasn't left the ground yet and I can only smile. Seeing it from further away and used against an opponent along with my Raven eyes has allowed me to fully copy it.
Before I was focused entirely on the stiffness of his body and not his form or actual shot so I missed it, but now I know the trick and can replicate it with some practice. Aomine seems to notice that he jumped too soon and tries to get back down quicker while still reaching out with his hand.
As he touches back down Kuroko is now at the peak of his jump and releasing the ball, unfortunately he missed. Seems he will have to work on it some more before he can use it reliably in a game. Aomine still has a surprised expression and can only stare at Kuroko in disbelief. Meanwhile Kuroko just looks sad that he didn't make it.
"Hahaha!"
They both look towards me and Aomine seems to have forgot I was even still here.
"Hahaha! Kuroko is sad that he missed the shot, but he still doesn't realize the absurdity of the shot he just took, while Aomine seems to have realized it."
"What do you mean Aida?" Kuroko asks innocently.
"What does he mean? Do you seriously not know what you just did?"
Kuroko shakes his head in response.
"Ugghhh! We don't have time for this! Akashi said he would sit me for the whole first half if we're late. Let's go!" With that he picks up Kuroko like a sack of potatoes and takes off, Kuroko flapping in the wind but I can see him waving goodbye to me. So I return the favor.
Ahh I guess I better find my team and head towards the stadium myself, i just can't wait to play Teiko. I could feel how strong Aomine was and I wasn't completely impressed. I could handle him 1-on-1 with about 60-65% right now and that's being generous in predicting he would get better.
Did I get too strong too fast? Lets hope that their whole team will be able to provide a challenge if that's the case. Because without being generous I would say I could beat him with just 50%, it would be competitive but I would beat him. Maybe it's just too early, they haven't bloomed into their skills yet.
Honestly I expected him to be able to stop Kuroko's shot until he stepped on the court. Oh well what can I expect it's only the 4th month of their first year of middle school. Hopefully after the preliminaries and when we meet them at Nationals he will have improved.
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Author's Note
Upload schedule: I have today and tomorrow off of work, so I'm going to try and pump out some chapters. Today and tomorrow will definitely have chapters, and hopefully I write enough to time upload until my next days off. If there isn't an upload on those days, I apologize in advance.
Another slice of life style chapter. I hope I'm doing okay with these conversations and as well as portraying the characters accurately enough. I always feel like dialogue is my weakest point as a writer, so I'm trying to write more of it to get better.
Expect little bits of basketball in the next chapter. It's only the first rounds of the preliminarys so I don't plan on going to in depth. Expect more slice of life scenes sprinkled into the next few chapters, day 3 and 4 should have more basketball content as we will be playing against some familiar faces :)
Hope you enjoyed.
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