10.
"And Number thirty-one, Kuroko Tetsuya. That's all."
As if a barrel of bricks had overturned on his head, Kuroko's face falls. His hand, reaching over to Aisaka's shirt, whiteknuckled.
In a painfully evident contrast, Aisaka isn't too surprised.
Fists clenched at his sides, Aisaka can't bring himself to look at Kuroko. But he manages a forced smile as he winds an arm around the boy's shoulder.
"It'll be fine, Tetsuya!" he assures in a way he can't really believe, "you heard the coach. There'll be periodical tests, so you'll always have the chance to come up to the second string with me! Then we can go to the first string togeth--"
"And now I'll announce the first string members."
Aisaka stops short.
There it is-- the horrifying worst case scenario he's been imagining for two years. It's happening, right at this moment, and he's hearing it.
"...number twenty-nine, Akashi Seijuurou... and number thirty-two, Aisaka Hiroto. That's all. You five will be training under me with the rest of your seniors in the first string."
Ah, Aisaka thinks.
This is officially fucked up. This was that kind of story, eh?
He doesn't hear Kuroko congratulate him. He can't bring himself to do something about the way Kuroko looks at him, mildly feeling betrayed but honestly overjoyed by it all the same.
Kuroko was a very kind person. He didn't let jealousy take him. He pouts and maybe makes Aisaka buy him milkshakes as a retaliation, but there was a real competitive underlying intent underneath.
"I'll wait for you, no matter how long it takes," Aisaka holds out his fist, and he doesn't like how it's going at all, "playing without you wouldn't be any fun, after all!"
Kuroko bumps their fists together.
"See you after practice," he promises, because they'll walk home together. They split to their separate gyms-- and only looked back once.
-
"Aisaka, you made it!"
Maybe Aisaka should've been surprised to see Aomine there, but he can't bring himself to do anything like it.
It's obvious that Aomine would be there.
After all, he's one of the Generation of Miracles. Everything's just going according to the script plotted out far before this story even began.
The only thorn in the page was Aisaka.
He's an intruder.
"Why the long face? You made it in, right?"
Aomine's in front of him now, something like two seconds away from grinding his knuckles through the boy's knuckles.
Aisaka shakes away his depressed pout and slaps the discomposure out of his mind. This wasn't the time to be trying to remember the plotline of a story he's only watched out of spite.
"It's nothing," he decides, "thanks, Aomine. I'm glad there's a familiar face around... ah, Midorima!"
There's only five people in that corner of the gym, and they were all a strikingly colourful gang. Aisaka expertly doesn't point that out as he finds the green-haired boy, stepping in beside him.
Instantly, Aisaka can tell that this atmosphere had been dead before he arrived. The shorter-than-him redhead had a permanent scowl in his features. Midorima had a resting bitch face. The purple giant looked like he had much better things to do.
He sees Aomine sink into his hunting face, and Aisaka has had enough.
This was a basketball club, not the prologue of a death game manga!
"You're in the first string too? Amazing!" he speaks to Midorima, "I saw your shots, they're crazy high! Could you teach me how to shoot like that too?"
He knows the exact moment Midorima shuffles away uncomfortably, but Aisaka simply steps closer. He doesn't break eye contact until Midorima looks away to fix his glasses.
"Uh- oh, yeah, sure," the boy stumbles over his words, "maybe later."
"Yay!" he cheers, "hey, Aomine, don't you suck at three pointers too? Maybe you can join me if you want--"
"Hah?!" the boy explodes, "I don't need three pointers to win against you, Aisaka!"
And like a beautifully concocted delayed bomb, Midorima snaps, "hold on, are you underestimating three-pointers?"
"Dunks are cooler!" Aomine fights, "and, faster too."
"Three-pointers obtain better scores-- it's simple math."
"Then I just have to score twice as much!"
"And you will exhaust twice as much energy as well. It is not efficient."
Aisaka turns to Aomine, then Midorima, then Aomine. At some point they began to bicker about the importance of glasses, so Aisaka tunes them out with a sort of victory in his veins.
A warmth approaches him from behind, a shadow uncomfortably looming over him. Aisaka cranes his head and looks up. And up. And up.
He hasn't felt this tiny in ages.
"This is scary, how tall are you?"
"Huh?" the purple-haired giant has a slur, but he speaks like he's not sure how the creature under him is capable of speech, "hundred eighty-six," he answers, "why?"
"You're not that much taller!" Aisaka beams optimistically, "just about sixteen centimeters. Hey, hey, can you touch the rim without jumping?"
Purple blinks. "You can't?" he asks.
Aisaka's worldview officially blows up.
"That's not normal!" he accuses. Officially now, the world is unfair, "I can barely touch it if I jump!"
"You must be quite a jumper, then," the red-haired one observes out loud.
When Aisaka turns to him, he's a little surprised to see those eyes so red. He's had his fair share of odd eye colours-- but blue and green, in hindsight, weren't too strange after all.
He finds himself staring.
Red eyes are always the mark of something ominous. These-- although sharp, are narrowed in something akin to a gentle interest. Something infinitely calculating shines in the way he blinks and looks around-- kind of like Momoi.
He closes his eyes, and opens them a little more composed.
"You're a point guard," Aisaka says, and it's as much a guess as it is a statement.
Red's lips curl upward, and there's a surprise he can't quite hide in his eyes.
"That is a rather intriguing conclusion you've come to," he says. Aisaka wonders why his speech is formal, but dismisses the thought, "how could you tell?"
How could you tell?
Aisaka hums. How do you nicely tell someone you've cultivated a skill for talent-seeking in your past life because you were a veteran coach and player and you've spent more than half of your life scouting newbies in basketball videos--
"Instinct," he summarises.
Red looks fairly satisfied by that answer. His arms folded, he stalks up to Aisaka-- and they have a rather decent height difference. Aisaka is faintly reminded of Kuroko's own miserable height, so he makes no mention of it.
This boy may be small where he stands, but he has the presence of someone so much bigger. Aisaka's learned enough from his past about tiny towers and little giants. He isn't taking any chances by underestimating this one before him.
Maybe Aisaka's set up for failure already. After all-- this guy brims with the charisma of a natural born leader. He must have been the captain of the generation of miracles.
"Hey, Aisaka! One on One!" suddenly there's a tanned arm around his shoulders, and a disturbingly loud voice by his ears. "I'm gonna prove to that nutjob that dunks are way cooler than three-pointers."
He points rudely at Midorima, who physically winces and points right back, "No, I'll take you on! I'll prove it to you myself."
Aisaka considers the strange nanodayo he's hearing before looking between them, not really understanding how their new chemistry happened. Maybe it's his fault?
-
"So, you five are the new first years... oh, it's you!"
The Captain, Nijimura Shuuzo, is pleasantly surprised to see the indigo-haired boy here. In fact, his vice-captain is fairly sure he's never seen Nijimura smile so widely before.
Aisaka lets a bashful laugh escape him before bowing, "I'm Aisaka Hiroto."
"What, you know him?" Aomine has that frown set on him like he's trying to conclude between friend and foe. He slings an arm around Aisaka's shoulders and looks the (only slightly) taller male up and down.
A crunch noise came from behind (wait no, above) him, and Aisaka sees Nijimura snap and flip a new switch.
"Hey, don't eat in here!" there's a hint of disbelief in Nijimura's voice as he yells at the boy behind Aisaka.
"Eh, why?"
"You'll get crumbs around the place!"
There's a splendid amount of chaos in this group that somehow never allows a moment of peace. Aisaka misses the serious demeanor of an actual team, but maybe this isn't so bad either. Less stressful.
"I'm Nijimura Shuzo," the Captain finally introduces himself, "and this is Coach Sanada, who will be overseeing the first string, which includes you guys, from now on. I'm sure you've heard the talk about our motto and policy around here. I look forward to working with you five from now on."
Their motto and policy? A hundred battles, a hundred victories; to attain absolute supremacy. And yeah, Aisaka could live with that. That was an ambitious goal that matched so perfectly well with his competitive spirit.
"Yes, sir!"
The echo rings loud and clear through the gym. Aisaka feels the excited smiles on his senior's faces as they see their new, potential-filled rookies.
-
The longer Aisaka lived here, the harder it was to realize that this world wasn't so real after all.
He doesn't care, after all, that his new teammates are overpowered junkies that will soon take the world by storm. He can't bring himself to care if he tries.
"It does worry me," he says out loud, mumbling to himself without even noticing-- Kuroko thinks Aisaka is talking to him, but realizes he isn't and stays silent, because that's normal for his friend. It's normal for him to suddenly talk about things that don't make much sense.
They are intriguing to listen to, though.
"Tetsuya will get stronger," Aisaka says, and something about the stars makes him look up, "and so will the rest of them in the first string. And when Tetsuya makes it to the first string, things will get so much better from there."
Kuroko pauses when Aisaka stops walking.
"I can't remember why... they all broke up," he says, "it's not because of Tetsuya..."
Kuroko's eyes widen.
Aisaka blinks, suddenly realizing they've stopped walking.
Kuroko responds expertly, casting his concern back into his neutral expression, "what's wrong, Hiroto-kun? Is the first string too hard for you? You've been blanking out for a while now."
Kuroko speaks as if he hadn't heard a thing Aisaka said. And that's how it should be-- if Kuroko mentions it, he knows that Aisaka will be more conscious in trying to stop them, and Kuroko's curiosity will never be sated.
"Oh!" Aisaka laughs, embarrassed, "my bad! It's just... there's a lot of weirdos in the first string... no worries, though, they're pretty nice on their own! Oh, Aomine and Midorima are both with me, which is a really cool coincidence."
When they begin walking again, Kuroko's heart never settles.
What did Aisaka mean by they all broke up?
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