Another Manager (Akashi Seijuro x OC)

(((3 Years Ago - April)))

THE FOLLOWING ARE FLASHBACK CHAPTERS!

PLEASE SKIP TO Chapter 1.1 Endings and Beginnings TO START READING THE STORY!

(You can read these first for chronological order, but they're all in the main story.)

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(Second-year at Teikō)

"I look forward to working with you." Ai bowed her head deeply to the group before her.
Standing next to her were Momoi and the first-string coaches of the Teikō Junior High Basketball Club, Coach Shirogane and Coach Sanada. Nijimura and Haizaki were absent for the meeting.

"This is Akatsuki-san, a transfer student from America. She'll be serving as your second manager for the first-string group." Coach Shirogane smiled serenely at the players, quite pleased with the arrangement.

The guys stiffened. The demon coach only smiled like that on rare occasions.

Ai surveyed the crowd, reminding herself to get a roster of the players so she could work on remembering names. There weren't as many people in the first-string, but it was still a sizable group, including the starting members.

The only person she knew so far was Kuroko, because they were in the same class, and barely Momoi. Ai recognized Akashi, but only because he had been present at her interview with the coaches.

"Ai-chan, this is the team," Momoi explained to her. "Akashi-kun's the captain, and there's Midorin, Mukkun, Ki-chan, Dai-chan, and Tetsu-kun!"

"Momoi-san, those aren't our full names. She'll get confused," Kuroko calmly objected.

"It's okay! Ki-chan only joined the first-string a couple of days ago, and look how well he's doing!"

Kise laughed nervously. "Thanks."

The tallest of them all had purple hair, and he looked tired with droopy eyes. A tan, blue-haired guy, on the other hand, seemed restless to get back to practice.

"We're still missing two people. Haizaki and Nijimura-san." Midorima pushed up his glasses; Ai could tell that he was watching her judgementally.

"I'm sure you'll meet them soon," the head coach said to her.

Kuroko nodded toward her, his classmate from Class 2-D. "I look forward to working with you too, Akatsuki-san."

She nodded shortly to acknowledge him.

Akashi stepped forward. "In any case, welcome to the team, Akatsuki." He had a fiery look of ambition and determination in his maroon red eyes.

***

Author's Note:

I wrote "second-year at Teikō" as in she is a second-year student in middle school. Ai is a transfer student, and she's only at Teikō for two years. So, this is technically her first year (space, no hyphen) to be a student at Teikō.

In other words, she missed the first year at Teikō (7th grade), because she was in Vermont, USA. But, she spent her second and third years at Teikō Junior High (8th and 9th grades).

(Ai goes to Karasuno High School for the entire three years: 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.)