Looking for a Miracle
Chapter Sixteen
Small Observations

The holidays passed quicker than I liked to think.

Sei and I ensured to spend many days together, just the two of us, enjoying each other's company while we still could. We didn't know if we'd be placed in different classes when we returned, since we'd be starting a new year.

We saw quite a bit of the others, too, but we did see each other more often. Every time he came around, I found myself smiling more and looking forward to our next meeting with even more excitement and enthusiasm.

We had been having so much fun and not caring about the time that, before we knew it, holidays were over and we were purchasing books and checking to see if uniforms still fit and desperately trying to correct sleeping schedules (I was ashamed to admit the number of late nights I'd had, simply texting Momoi, or Sei, into the early hours of the morning).

Then the dreaded day was upon us. Sei picked me up again, and we headed to school together. To our delight, we found we in the same class again, this time with Momoi and Aomine as well. It was the best class I could ask for; all three of my close friends. If only Kuroko could be in our class as well, or Midorima or Murasakibara, it really would be the best class.

Even though we were in the same class, we didn't have much time to interact. We were thrown into studying straight away, introduced to new content and expected to work hard as soon as we entered the classroom.

Training had picked up in the basketball club, as well. Right from the first week, they were all being pushed hard. 

So far, life as a second year had been hectic. Even when I got to sit back for a minute and breathe with my friends, it didn't feel like very long.

"Have six weeks really passed?" I asked Satsuki one night. It was Friday, and we'd agreed to have a study session, just the two of us. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed Momoi until we were right in front of each other, and spent the first quarter of an hour talking about fashion and anything else that took our fancy. I loved talking with Sei, and we always had discussion about books and things we liked, but I had come to miss good old girl's talks with Momoi.

Momoi sighed. "The way they're throwing homework at us, it sure doesn't feel like it. I've been so busy with the club and helping Aomine-kun that time feels like it's blurred together or something." She scribbled something down on her paper then threw her pen down, pushing the paper away from her. "There. Done."

I looked over at her neat work. Biology. I stretched out my hand. "Do you want me to read it over for you?"

"How can I say no to the biology expert?" Momoi handed the paper over at once and sent me a bright smile. "Thank you so much, Akane-chan."

"No problem, Satsuki." I found myself staring at my friend a little before I looked down at her work and began to read through it. Like our friends, Momoi had developed over the holidays, though in a different way. It was like she was turning from cute to beautiful and stunning. There was definitely a charm to her, and she was already causing heads to turn at school. Her figure was starting to develop too, I noticed with a small scowl.

Not only was she beautiful, but she was smart as well. I doubted that she needed me to correct her answers, but there was probably something I could add. Anything to help my friend out, especially since she'd just helped me with History.

I paused, keeping a finger on the place I'd stopped. So far, I'd only needed to elaborate on one point my friend had made. "Say, how is Aomine keeping up with all this?" I asked. "I imagine it must be hard for him, especially with the increased expectations at the club."

Momoi bit her lip. "You noticed it too?"

No first years had been admitted into the first string during trials this year, which wasn't a surprise, but it still meant that our friends were the youngest there. Despite this, they were playing in practice matches more often than the third years, including Nijimura. Higher expectations had been placed on them over these last few weeks, and I couldn't help but notice that training had increased to try and bring out

I sighed and nodded. "Their performances have all stepped up a notch after the holidays. They were good before, but they're only getting better." I licked lips. "Did you hear the name that's been floating around?"

Momoi frowned. "The Generation of Miracles?"

"Yeah." I shuddered. I couldn't help but feel nervous whenever I heard the name. My friends were only second years, but already being dubbed as miracles? "It's almost scary, isn't it?" I asked in a whisper. "It's only the second year of middle school. They've still got the rest of their lives to develop... they're going to turn into scarily good players, all of them."

A few days ago, I had tried imagining just how good they'd get. I'd taken in their current strengths and physics and calculated how that was likely to develop over the years, and affect their game as a result. What I had thought of made me feel a little apprehensive.

"Tetsu-kun, too," Momoi hummed. "He's only to become better at misdirection the more he practices it, and he's really commanding respect from everyone at the moment."

"I heard the coach talking with Nijimura. They're going to officially make Kuroko a member of the team soon."

Momoi beamed. "That's great! He's been wearing that borrowed shirt for too long. He's long since proved his worth."

"Agreed." I thought the wait to announce Kuroko as an official member of the first string was ridiculous. The only thing holding the coaches back had to be his less-than-average performances in practices. But his play style was vastly different to everyone else; when he was brought on to court during practice matches, he greatly baffled and confused to opposition, and made play easier for everyone.

I sighed and returned to looking at my friend's homework, like I'd promised. "This is looking really good so far, Satsuki."

"Thanks."

There was silence between us for a while, exempting Momoi's occasional drum of her fingers on the desk and the one time I brought my pen down to cross out a sentence and rewrite it.

"Say, Akane?" my friend asked.

"Mm?" I responded, still paying attention to the final part of her answer.

"Is there anything going on between you and Akashi-kun?" my friend asked curiously.

I broke out into a violent fit of coughing. My eyes flew open and my head snapped up, shaking my head at my friend. "What kind of question is that?" I spluttered, massaging my throat as I recovered from my coughing fit.

At my reaction, a bright grin had spread across my friend's face, making her eyes sparkle.

"You two look closer, ever since the holidays ended," she hummed. "I mean, you've always been close, but ever since you returned... it's like you're connected or something. I know he's nearby just by seeing you, and vice versa."

I shrugged. "Well, we did do a lot on the holidays together."

"Such as?" she probed, leaning forward eagerly.

I frowned. "Why are you so interested? We're just best friends, and have been since childhood. Of course we're going to do a lot of things together." Even still, I felt funny as I spoke, like I was telling a lie and knew it.

"But I don't know much about Akashi-kun!" Momoi protested innocently. "I want to know more about what he's like outside of school!"

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Fine," I conceded with a sigh. I put the pen down and clasped my hands in front of me. "Well, we did go out to the movies once. We played basketball under the pretended of shopping. And then we actually did go shopping. If you could call it shopping, really, we spent most of our time in a book cafe looking at books together and drinking hot chocolate." I laughed at the memory. We'd been browsing for so long, keeping so close together our shoulders continued to brush against each other, discussing the books that grabbed our attention. It had been a good day.

"He also visited me and we spent the day watching movies," I added, as though an afterthought. That had been another good day, the two of us lounging in front of the television like two normal kids and debating over which movie we should watch next. I shrugged. "Nothing unusual."

Momoi seemed to disagree. She sat straighter throughout my entire recount, her eyes sparkling and her grin widening.

"Nothing unusual?" she repeated incredulously. "It sounds like you've been on multiple dates or something!"

I gaped at her.

"No we haven't!" I squealed. "Best friends do that sort of thing all the time. Don't we go shopping and watch movies together? Just because Sei is a boy doesn't mean I'm interested in him that way - what would you say if I told you I thought you and Aomine were in love?"

Momoi let this comment fly right over her head, she was too caught up in teasing me. She winked. "You're in denial, Akane-chan," she sang.

I froze, and glared at her. "You know what? Your notes are fine," I snapped, and threw her homework back at her. I had to resist the temptation to crumple it into a little ball.

Momoi laughed. "Someone's a little touchy. It's a sign you know, Akane."

I rolled my eyes and threw one of my pens at her. "Oh shut up, Satsuki."

*          *          *

Momoi and I stood shoulder to shoulder the next day, overseeing a practice. I watched on with a critical eye as I was prone to, taking in everything in the gym.

For the past five minutes, my eyes had lingered on a particular figure in the gym. I frowned. There was something off about his performance.

"Wouldn't he do better if he increased his leg strength?" I mused.

I spoke more to myself, but Momoi must have overheard, for she looked across at me and tipped her head to the side. "Hmm?"

I pointed at the boy in question as he performed his exercises. ""Look at him. He's not jumping as high as someone his height should. Also, he takes too long to jump. He spends a fraction of a second too long gaining power, which allows opponents a chance to get to the ball first." I cupped my chin thoughtfully. "Increasing leg strength could help with that. Say, if he followed a training regimen..."

I talked a little more, making suggestions to a possible training regimen. When I finished, Momoi's jaw had fallen open.

"Where did that come from?" my friend squeaked.

I frowned. Where had that come from? "Observation, I guess."

I had been having little thoughts like that over the past few weeks, though. I'd started paying more attention to practices, and began noticing small details and weaknesses in a player's play, and thought about ways to fix them with what I knew about the human body.

Momoi shook her head. "That wasn't normal observation."

I flushed.

"Well about you, predicting how people's games are going to develop?" I retorted.

That was also something that had started in the last few weeks. I always knew Momoi had good intuition, but over the past few weeks she was proving just how smart she was, using data she had available to predict how someone's game would develop. She truly was incredible.

She laughed. "Fair point."

"Akane, Momoi."

I grinned as I heard the voice. "Hey, Sei," I greeted cheerily, as he and the others traipsed off court for a quick break. I handed him his drink bottle, which he accepted with a small, grateful smile.

"Thanks." He started to chug the water down.

"You're performing really well today," I said, when he finished. "All of you are."

"Thank you, Akane." He paused. "I wanted to ask, I know our chef is making your favourite meal tonight. I was going to ask father if he wouldn't mind if you visited, since he'll be out late tonight. I doubt he'll have a problem with it, so, I was hoping you where avaliable?

I beamed. "I am free tonight, and I'd love to."

Sei smiled back, and then was called back on to the court. My eyes lingered on his back, and then sighed, knowing I'd have to return to my manager duties. I turned, only to see that Momoi was looking at me, a knowing smirk on her lips.

"What's that look for?" I demanded.

Momoi winked. "You know what I'm thinking."

"Oh, Satsuki," I groaned.

She only giggled. I rolled my eyes and returned to helping out at practice.

Though, I was distracted the entire time, since my mind was really hours in the future, when I'd get to spend more time with Sei.  

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so this book is now off hold! i'm sorry for the delay in updating everything, school was just hectic, i had no time to focus on so many stories at once. i promise you'll be getting a lot of updates in the future to make up for it!