The Generation of Miracles Reincarnated

Chapter 13

The Generation of Miracles Reincarnated

Chapter 13

"SHIROGANE-KANTOKU?" everyone yelled in unison upon seeing the grey-haired, well-dressed man who was in his forties walking into the locker room doors. Save Akashi though. He was smirking.

Nigō padded up to Teikō's former basketball coach and yapped happily at the man. He smiled kindly and picked up the fluffy bunch of fur and Nigō happily licked his face.

Recovering from the shock first, Kise pointed at the man and stuttered, "K-kantoku! Aren't you s-supposed to b-be in the hospital?" Shirogane Kōzō was Teikō's first-string coach but he suddenly fell ill after the Generation of Miracles' second championships and was replaced by Sanada.

Midorima pushed up his spectacles. As calmly as he could after almost receiving a heart attack from seeing his former coach, he said, "Kise! It is rude to point fingers! Kantoku, are you well?"

"Ahaha! Yes, I'm fine now thanks to treatments and rehabilitation! I was about to live a happy and carefree life until one day, Akashi here sent me an email to be your coach! How nice was that?" Shirogane laughed. Truth be told, most of them were silently cursing said redhead.

They would die from Shirogane's training regiment. Everyone had thought that this aging man was a kind and serene coach on first glance, but those who he trained knew he was just plain ruthless. If Akashi's training regiment was bad enough, this coach's ones were worse. He had even made the first-string do warm-ups for the whole practice before. It was a horrendous three hundred of each.

At the end of the practice, they could still remember everyone lying on the court for about half an hour more before being able to move. Kuroko had vomited numerous times during that practice. Even the mighty Akashi who had tons of stamina had lain on the court panting for about ten minutes before going to hit the showers.

Apparently Akashi seemed to like them experiencing Hell all over again since he had even personally asked Shirogane to be their coach. Everyone groaned. They would interrogate their captain later.

"E-eh! Kurokocchi! That's not fair!" Kise wailed.

Shirogane raised an eyebrow to find the youngest member of the Generation of Miracles only to see that he had a blue cast on his right wrist. "What happened to you, Kuroko?" he asked.

"We were against Kirisaki Daīchi yesterday and one of their members stepped on my wrist and it got fractured," Kuroko replied with a blank face. The wound still throbbed occasionally but it was bearable now. Unfortunately, he had to try and resist the itchiness of the cast, which, on the other hand, was unbearable.

"Oh. Recover fast then! We need you on the court!" Shirogane gave Kuroko a smile. Most translated that smile as: Recover fast and then I can torture you to increase your oh-so-bad stamina! Kuroko shuddered internally but nodded nonetheless. "It's going to be my first time in a long time training you guys, so I'll just be watching today. When your reserves come next Friday, then I'll start the training!"

"Yes!" everyone internally cheered.

"Wait, wait, wait. We have reserves?" Aomine asked stupidly.

That earned him a whack from Momoi. "Duh! The team will need twelve people! We've only got six here! Akashi-kun, who are our reserves?"

Akashi smirked and replied, "You'll see. Now, get to practice. We are going to steadily increase each warm-up by five each time." Obediently, everyone followed their captain to the courts to run, leaving Momoi, Shirogane and Kuroko to watch them.

"They seem to be working together better than when I left you guys," Shirogane observed, scratching his beard.

"Yeah! And it's thanks to Tetsu-kun!" Momoi chirped happily. "He beat them all with teamwork and now each one of them loves basketball more than anything, right Tetsu-kun?" Kuroko just blushed at the compliment.

"Oh? Then I must thank you, Kuroko! When I left, I feared that those five would become arrogant and stuff, but you changed them back! I guess including you on the team really helped!" Shirogane grinned. He continued looking at his team. Most of them had just finished their runs around the court and were lying down on the floor to catch their breaths.

Shirogane started chuckling and said, "All of your stamina has decreased by so much! Friday's warm-ups shall be for stamina!" Everyone's jaw dropped. Stamina training was the worst. If they could choose between Akashi and Shirogane to put together their training regimen, it would most certainly be Akashi. Nigō happily yapped, looking like he wanted them to experience Hell.

"Tetsu! Don't tell me you are thinking the exact same thing as your doppelganger!" Aomine yelled.

"Eh? Doppelganger?" Shirogane asked, staring at Nigō.

"Yeah! Kuro-chin and Nigō look exactly the same! Especially the eyes!" Murasakibara piped up. "Aka-chin~ I want my snacks!"

"No," came the stoic reply. "After the warm-ups we will be going for lunch, so bear with it." Murasakibara pouted as Akashi smirked at the 'baby' of the Generation of Miracles. As Kuroko had put it, he really was a kid with a lose screw in everything other than basketball.

The team finished up with their torturous warm-ups and then proceeded to go for lunch. "Can we go to a fast food restaurant?" Murasakibara asked.

"No. It's unhealthy and besides, you have been eating chips often enough," Akashi said.

"Oh! Here comes Akashi's Mother Personality!" Aomine exclaimed.

"Kantoku, double training for Daiki on Friday," Akashi requested. The said coach smiled and nodded his head. Aomine, on the other hand, was gravely regretting his choice of teasing his captain.

They decided on going to a nearby ramen stall. While walking there, everyone was chatting happily with each other, Kise and Momoi trying to cheer up Aomine. "Akashi-kun," Kuroko said, catching his captain's attention.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I'm sorry that I can't participate in practice anymore for the month and a half ahead. I was just thinking that it would be nice if there were two phantoms on court…" The last sentence was said as more of a mumble but Akashi heard it nevertheless.

"Mm, yeah that would be nice," Akashi replied. He wondered if Kuroko already knew some of the reserve players he was going to pick as there was another phantom waiting to play.

Unbeknownst to the captain, Kuroko did not know. Instead, he was thinking about how he could improve on his misdirection once his wrist heals. During practice while looking at them train had given Kuroko an idea as to a new technique he could master.

The day went on smoothly ahead and at night, Kuroko and Akashi sent the former's parents off to their business trip. Akashi had made a healthy dinner for Kuroko and his grandmother and gave Kuroko an especially big (to him) portion to eat. His reason was that Kuroko was to skinny and ordered him to eat everything on the plate.

After dinner, Akashi had helped Kuroko to try and use his left hand to write. It was hilarious as the first few times, Kuroko's handwriting was totally illegible. Though after a night of practice, Akashi could at least read some of what he wrote. The weekend passed by quickly.