Looking for a Miracle | Kuroko no Basket

05. Plans and Shopping

Looking for a Miracle

Chapter Five

Plans and Shopping

Midorima's eyes narrowed as he glared at the mark on his paper. A beautiful eighty-five percent was marked in red ink, but it still wasn't enough for him, it seemed.

"He's taken top of the class for the last six tests," the green-haired shooter grumbled. He placed the paper down on the table, glaring at it as though it contained some contagious disease.

I shrugged, though inwardly I was just about dying with laughter. Midorima looked so frustrated. 

"I know," I said with a light shrug, taking a bite of my meal. The food served at the school cafeteria wasn't as good than what I got back home, but I still enjoyed it. At least I'd been able to get in before the queue got too big. All the others were currently stuck in it.

I thought back to my own result - a decent eighty-two percent, and the third-highest mark in the class. Our Literature teacher had handed our tests results back today, I was only behind two of the boys in my class; Midorima and Sei.

Sei had breezed through each test with astonishing high marks - none of us had even come close to his scores. While I didn't mind (since I understood why Sei excelled in everything), and felt more than happy to settled for second or third, the fact that he couldn't beat Sei frustrated Midorima greatly.

I could understand why. Midorima was exceptionally smart, and he studied long and hard; maybe even longer than me. But no matter how many hours into the night he spent looking over his notes, 

Midorima was still frowning. "How can I not get better marks than him? No matter how hard I study..."

I placed my fork down. "It's not just Sei being smart," I murmured. "It's his upbringing..." The thought alone made me cringe. Sei had described to me the gruelling training his father had put him through. I thought that if I had been forced to sit tight and study as much as Sei, I would've gone insane.

"Akane?" Midorima asked, dragging me from my thoughts.

I shook myself, but my eyes remained glued to my food. "Let's just say his father was very strict on him," I said quietly. "He was learning the stuff we're doing in class years ago, probably." And he still is. Knowing Sei's father, Sei was probably at two years ahead of us academically.

Midorima sighed. "I see. But that doesn't mean he's impossible to defeat."

I don't think that's possible.

"You can try," I muttered, but my voice lacked conviction. Sei had grown up being repetitively told that anything less than perfect or victory was a failure. Second was never good enough in the Akashi household. Sei had grown up striving and achieving victory from a young age. It was just about second nature to him.