Their Kouhai | KnB

| chapter 6- after practice revelations

In the school gym, the sound of a whistle was heard and some of the basketball team members collapsed from exhaustion while others were standing up but were hunched over, panting, and sweating profusely. Howaito was one of the few standing up yet he was hunched over. 'This is worse than the training at Teiko! However, it shouldn't be too bad to handle or else my individual training is going to kill me!' the silvernette thought. The third and second years were more used to the training by their coach now, but she made it harder for them as they got stronger as well.

"Now that practice is over, why don't we all get to know each other?" Riko stated more than questioned.

"Alright... let us just... catch our breathes first... coach," Koganei replied in between pants of breathe. The third and second years were the first to recover and were quickly followed by Howaito and the triplets.

"Let's start by getting to know our new freshmen! What school are you guys from?" Riko asked.

"Teiko Middle School!" Howaito enthusiastically replied.

'Where does he get that energy from?!' The whole team thought; some in aggravation, some in wonder, and others in amusement.

"Kamata West*," the Amachi triplets answered in sync.

"How do you know Kuroko?" Kagami ased, not beating around the bush whatsoever.

'Way to be subtle Kagami,' the third and second years thought.
"I was on the basketball team in Teiko with Kuroko but I was in second string while he was in first when I joined as a first year," Howaito explained, "When I saw him practicing after school while others went home, I decided to join him to become a first string member like he was."

"Well them how come Kise knew you if you were in second string?" Izuki inquired.

"Well apparently, I got the attention of Sei-chou when he saw me notice Kuroko-senpai when I practiced with him, so he told the GoM to give me some pointers when they had the time, and eventually I was able to join first string," Howaito answered, seemingly unsure of the exact reason why Akashi took an interest to him. The team was shocked to hear that the GoM actually might have indirectly taught another fellow basketball player.

"Wait... who's 'Sei-chou'?" Takumi questioned Howaito.
"It's what he called Akashi-kun," Kuroko answered for him, "Since he was our captain at that time he just combined heichou and Akashi's first name Seijuuro and came up with his nickname 'Sei-chou'."

"What do you call the rest of the members?" Izuki asked, waning to see if he could make any puns out of it. Hyuuga quickly knew what he was up to and quickly shouted, "Don't say it Howaito!" while covering Izuki's mouth, whom was flailing his arms in an attempt to escape his captain's hold. They all sweat-dropped at the situation and quickly went back to asking questions to their freshmen.

"What would be your individual strengths Amachi triplets?" Riko directed her question to the triplets this time.

"Takeshi is a pretty good power forward with a strong dunk, Takuma is good at pressuring his opponent while defending, and Takumi is good at making three-pointers while causing the opposing players to get fouls or that's what they told me and that's what I saw during the match," Howaito answered causing Riko to raise her eyebrows at the silvernette's detailed observations of the Amachi triplets in a short amount of time.

"It seems you never really forgot my pointers, Howaito-kun," Kuroko said with a hint of pride in his eyes although he kept his usually blank face.

"Of course Kuroko-senpai!" Howaito cheerily said with obvious admiration in his eyes, but they quickly widened in slight panic at the sight of the time on the clock behind Kuroko.

"Ah! I have to go before Sensei quadruples my training for tonight!" Howaito panicked and in a blink of an eye, he was flying out of the locker room in his clothes before and dashed away out of the gym. They all blinked in disbelief at the disappearing figure of the silvernette.

"Do you know what that was about, Kuroko?" Kagami asked.

"Probably something to do with his family training," Kuroko vaguely answered. When the team just gave him blank looks, he just sighed and merely said, "Search his surname 'Howaito' up."
That night, each of the members looked 'Howaito' up and a scream of, "EEEHHH?!" could be heard throughout the area. A certain bluenette slightly gave a ghost of a smile in amusement while a certain red-haired emperor gave a slight smirk as he felt that his "surprise" was discovered. 'A wildcard player is now in our midst. This year is going to be even more interesting with the White Falcon joining us,' thought Akashi.

*Kamata West is an actual middle school in the KNB universe that went against Meiko, the school Ogiwara attended.

☆彡 EDITED