"Who was that, Captain?"

Steel-blue eyes dazedly stared at the phone screen. "Kise's old teammate," he muttered.

"Then, probably someone from Teiko," Moriyama stated, a hand under his chin as he stroke one of his 'handsome poses.'

Coach Takeuchi grunted. "When will he get here?"

Kasamatsu blinked. "Ah, ten to fifteen minutes, Coach."

"Mmm, we'll begin without him then."

::

"—and then there's Moriyama-senpai, he's a third-year like Kasamatsu-senpai and Kobori-senpai, and he always asks me to introduce him to some girls," Kise ranted from beside the green on the passenger seat. "He says that he plays basketball for girls, all for the sake of cute girls and—"

"And isn't that your case too, Ryota-kun?" Mikaël cut with a teasing smile, his golden eyes sliding to give the blonde a sidelong glance. "After all, I'm sure you have many fans cheering and waiting for you during practice?"

"Mou, so mean Mikacchi-senpai!" Kise whined. "And if we're talking about fangirls, Senpai has just as many if not more!" he pouted.

"Ara, looks like I'm busted," Ryota sighed, a sly smirk dancing o his lips. "But still, you have a rather interesting team, Ryota-kun," he said, eyes gently narrowed as he reminisced in his memories of Kaijo. Since the GOM were in their first-year, it meant that the Kaijo players were much younger than when he last saw them. He hummed to himself, "Cute."

"Hm? 'You said anything Senpai?" Kise asked with a small tilt of his head. "I didn't hear you."

"Ah, cute," he reiterated. He noticed the slight confusion on Kise's face and chuckled. "Your team must be cute I mean, all of them sound pretty adorable to me," he grinned— though he would never have had the guts to say that to Kasamatsu's face in his former life.

The blond's jaw slacked open as he stared at the green head agape. "Cute?" he cried surprised. "That— I mean, I'm not saying that they aren't, but that's not the word I would have used to describe them," he mumbled, his voice growing smaller as he fell into a contemplative mood. Cute? As a joke maybe, but seriously? He wasn't sure.

Mikaël's laughter as he started his car again from the red light turning green pulled Kise out of his musings. "'S that so? Then how would you describe them, in a word?"

"Well, Kasamatsu-senpai would be scary, Moriyama-senpai, flirty—"

"No, no," Ryota cut, interrupting the enumeration. "I didn't mean a word to describe each one of your teammates. What I meant was a word to describe your whole team," he explained, a slight smile on his face.

"The whole team," he mumbled. "One word to describe the team, my team," he echoed.

Ryota silently nodded as silence settled in the car, leaving behind the low purring of the engine as he drove through Tokyo to Kaijo with practiced ease. He easily recognized the neighborhood, the tall buildings, the coffee shop at the angle of the street and the convenience store five minutes away from High School.

He narrowed his golden eyes, now that he noticed the convenience store it meant that they were close. He quickly spotted a place to park his car and with nimble movements, he parked himself before turning the motor off.

"Here we are," he said, unfastening his seat belt and tucking his car key in his pant pocket.

"Reliable," he mumbled.

"Hm? What did you say Ryota-kun?"

Kise blinked his golden eyes before hurriedly shaking his head. A hand went to rub his pierced earlobe before he unfastened his belt, his cheeks coating themselves with a light pink color.

"Nothing! Thanks for dropping me off, Senpai," he quickly bade as he opened the passenger door. "I'll see you at the Winter—"

"Hm? I'm coming right?" Ryota rhetorically asked as he followed the blond out. "You won't abandon me now that I dropped you off, will you?" noticing the uncomfortable look of the blond, he knew that the younger would probably agree to leave him behind. "Mou, I didn't know that you were the type to go for one night stands," he reprimanded.

Kise felt his voice get stuck in his throat, he choked, not expecting the green head's assumption. Although he knew deep down that the older didn't mean his words, he couldn't help but be affected. After all, Mikaël was someone he respected, his words didn't hold the same value as some stranger on the street.

"I— of course, you can come, Mikacchi-senpai. I was about to ask you if you didn't ask first," he lied through his teeth, an obviously fake smile plastered on his face.

Ryota noticed the younger's resigned appearance and couldn't help the snort from slipping past his lips, he beamed. "Good, good, lead the way then!" he enthusiastically encouraged as he pulled Kise's bag out of the car trunk.

"Yes-ssu."

Mikaël chuckled, following behind the blond he couldn't help his eyes from softening as he thought back on the teen's answer. Although it had been a very low whisper, for Ryota who carefully listened to the blond it wasn't hard to catch on.

Reliable.

True, for Kise Ryota at the time, Kaijo's basketball team was truly reliable. It was a kind of second family. While the GOM was a group with whom he shared a type of brotherhood, Kaijo was a haven where he finally found both peace and his place.

While Teiko is the place where he was born, Kaijo was the place where he grew. Where he learned and matured.

Ryota hummed to himself, reliable. Kaijo's team truly was, but for Kise Ryota in the latter part of his life, the best word to describe the team would have been: Family.

Family.

He smiled to himself, his eyes falling on Kaijo's entrance gate, memories rushing back to his mind.

Yeah, Kaijo was his second family, once.

::

Kise silently cleared his throat, his golden eyes carefully slid to rest on Mikaël's excited figure before going back to the gym door before them. He wasn't sure about how late he was, but he knew for sure that he wasn't early. Without a doubt, Kasamatsu-senpai would skin him alive.

He stole another glance at the carefree Mikaël, psyching himself up. He couldn't allow himself to appear too lame in front of his old Captain and Mentor figure. Mentor, the notion made him somewhat bashful, after all, Mikaël had never recognized him as his pupil.

"You're not going in Ryota-kun?"

The question pulled Kise out of his musings, he wondered if one-day Mikaël would call him 'Ryotacchi' or something along those lines. "Ah, I'm preparing myself," he answered, absentmindedly rubbing his pierced earlobe.

Ryota hummed, cheerfully waltzing around the stressed blond he took in the nostalgic view that was Kaijo's gymnasium. When was the last time he came there? Was it for their last graduate meeting or club get-together?

His golden eyes were crinkled in silent reminiscence, the muffled voices from the gymnasium only served to make his daydream clearer. That was such a long time ago.

Ryota's eyes momentarily flickered to look at Kise's figure, he snorted. Why so stressed? "Either way, let's go in, Ryota-kun!" he chirped, a bright grin etched on his face as he pushed the door to the gym open.

Kise barely registered the older's action before the green head stepped into the gym as if he owned it. His stupor lasted less than five seconds before he remembered that: yes, Mikacchi-senpai was that kind of weirdo. The type to know everything and anyone and always act as if he had been there or met people countless times.

The loud sound of the door opening brought most of the players' attention to the entry— some wondered when Kise grew the guts to so dramatically enter the training ground when he would get a beating. There was a sharp appreciative whistle, and an unknown yet familiar looking green head proudly standing as he observed their sport structure.

Ryota's eyes narrowed in appreciation as he nonchalantly strolled around the still gym, nothing had changed, it was still the same— well, perhaps the last time he came some things had been renovated, but the overall feeling hadn't budged one bit.

"K-i-s-e," said blond shivered, feeling an ominous aura creeping closer to himself he barely lifted his head to meet it that a basketball squarely hit him in the face. He crouched down, rubbing his now red nose as he observed the orange ball roll away and to the feet of his obviously annoyed captain.

"Ka-Kasamatsu-senpai!"

Ryota ignored the blond's wails and the raven's scolding, peacefully making his way around he didn't miss the inquiring glances other players sent him. Unlike when he met the Seirin first-years, Ryota knew every Kaijo members and had no troubles smiling and greeting them when their eyes met.

His eyes quickly left the curious first-years to meet the second-years. After all, this time around Ryota wasn't a first-year but second-year. Speaking of which, he could see the always fired up Hayakawa decisively marching toward him.

"You!" the attention previously focused on Kise's beating shifted to them. "Who're ya to walk 'round he'e!" as always, his speech was fragmented and almost unintelligible.

Ryota kept his sham smile in place, uncaring of the hostility the brown head displayed as he searched for Coach Takeuchi with his eyes. Not finding the chubby male around, he deduced that he must have gone to fetch some template for their training.

"Me?" he rhetorically answered at last, from the corner of his eyes he could see Yukio glaring daggers at Kise before sighing in what appeared to be resignation and dragging he blond closer to them. He mentally winced, feeling sorry for his former underclassman's ear. "I'm Mikaël Lamarre, Ryota-kun's old captain," he introduced.

Hayakawa seemed to pause, searching his mind as if to understand, grasp what the green meant. Ryota's smile stretched, Mitsuhiro might have been his captain when he was in his second-year at Kaijo, but it didn't mean that he always was the brightest.

"And you must be Hayakawa Mitsuhiro?" Ryota resumed, not letting the brown head the chance to retort. "Ryota-kun told me about you, you're as explosive as he made it out to be, really energetic," he complimented. "Thank you for taking care of Ryota-kun, I know how much of a handful he can be," he ended with an apologetic smile before bowing, formally cutting way to Hayakawa's flow of words.

"A-ah, yes, you are welcome," the brown head articulated in a mumble, surprising both himself and his teammates at his unusually clear and slow speech.

Mikaël merely smiled. Of course, he knew how to deal with Mitsuhiro. His years as the male's underclassman hadn't gone to waste, it was only after years of hard work from every member of the team that they found the way to calm the boy's flow of words.

Kasamatsu was the quickest to regain his wits— as expected of his former captain, Ryota acknowledged, feeling somewhat proud. The raven cleared his throat, extending his hand for a handshake he cleverly positioned himself between Mikaël and Hayakawa as if to protect him from the destabilizing green head. Ryota felt his heart turn into mush at the display, Yuki-chan was such a great captain.

"Kasamatsu Yukio, I'm Kise's captain, thank you for dropping him off. I'm sorry for the troubles he may have caused you," the raven diplomatically introduced before bowing and forcing the nearby blond to bow too by grabbing his head and forcing him down.

Ryota felt himself fall into a momentary stupor but he quickly composed himself. As sad as it may be, his experience with the Mafia had made him that much faster when it came to accepting and coping with unplanned things. Instead, seeing his former self in the current Kise Ryota, his golden eyes softened.

He dismissively hummed, waving his hand to show he didn't care as he watched the two teens stand up. "No troubles at all, Yuki-chan!" he chirped.

Kasamatsu choked on the cutesy name, momentarily blushing. Because no matter how one saw it, Mikaël as much of a manly man he was couldn't shake off the slightly androgynous air around him. Everyone knew that Kasamatsu couldn't deal with girls. Combining the misleading air and girlish nickname, Yukio couldn't help the embarrassment from bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

"Yu-ki? I-I-I— what?" he stuttered out, eliciting a crisp laugh from the green head.

Kise stared agape at his usually angry captain. His golden eyes shifted to Mikaël with some newfound admiration. Not only did he tame Hayakawa's fast speech, but he also managed to make the strict Kasamatsu blush!

It was like that: if one took Kaijo on for a verbal fight, Kasamatsu and Hayakawa (if you excluded Kise) were both the vanguards and only fighters. Yet, there was Mikaël who flippantly took both of them out in a matter of seconds.

"What is all this noise about?" Coach Takeuchi's voice brought both players back to their senses— there he is, thought Kise with some amusement, Kaijo's last rampart. Will Mikacchi-senpai beat him?

Watching with rapt attention the last fight, the last battle, the ultimate confrontation—

"Coach Takeuchi!" Mikaël's crisp voice pulled Kise out of his musings.

The adult's eyes shifted to Mikaël, his eyes opening wide in mild surprise. "Lamarre," he greeted surprised before a smile overtook his lips as he ushered the green head to come closer. "I didn't know that you would visit, Headmaster didn't tell me."

Ryota shook his head in used practice, shaking the older male's hand he took a seat next to him. "I only came to watch Ryota-kun play, nothing else. 'Hope I'm not intruding," he beamed.

"Ryota-kun?" Coach Takeuchi echoed. "You mean Kise? Sure, no problem, if you don't get bored you can stay here, see how we use your money!" he good-naturedly laughed.

This day, Kise much like the rest of the Kaijo basketball team, learned that Mikaël Lamarre, the one dubbed the Wizard was one of the biggest sponsors of both their basketball team and high school.

Kise felt that against this grand Overlord it was normal for his team to fall K.O..

::

"Say, I've been wondering for some time now. But this 'dream,' it wasn't really one, right?"

He tilted his head, eyes gently narrowed as they glinted with hidden mirth. He merely smiled.

Thanks for reading, until next time^^

Kaijo Team recap: (from left to right)

Hayakawa Mitsuhiro; Moriyama Yoshitaka; Kasamatsu Yukio (captain); Kobori Koji (vice-captain); Nakamura Shinya