Princess of Miracles (Kuroko no Basuke FanFic)

Together We Stand

Tamaki listened with interest as Hyuuga told his story. Somehow, his story really reminds her of how the Teiko Basketball Club had been formed back during her freshman year. The Seirin upperclassmen seemed to have better luck and less difficulty than them at least. At the very least, they didn't have to worry about the school politics getting in their way, or even upperclassmen who tried to hurt them.

"And Coach?" Kagami asked when Hyuuga didn't continue. "How did you get her to join?"

Hyuuga was quiet for several moments. "...I hadn't agreed to join them at that time," he said at last. "And from what I heard from Izuki later on, Kiyoshi asked Riko to join them as a coach, but she turned him down. And honestly, with how the middle school basketball circuit had been with the Generation of Miracles' appearance, I can't blame her. Probably, part of the reason why she'd refused had been because of me." He admitted. "Because I quit basketball. I had been a regular patron at her father's gym ever since our early middle school years, and she had often helped me to train, drawing up training regimes for me. But when I quit, she started to hate basketball as well. And it wasn't until Kiyoshi dragged the lot of us up to the rooftop to shout our dreams and aspirations before Riko agreed to join the basketball team as our coach."

Kagami sweat dropped. So the shouting at the top of the rooftop that they did earlier that year that ended up in all of them (save for Tamaki) having detention stems from that 'tradition'?

Tamaki picked up the silver photo frame sitting by her bedside. It was a two part photo frame that Satsuki had gotten for her birthday during her second year of middle school. On the right side of the photo frame was a photo of her and Daiki taken not long after they have started dating. On the left side was a photo of the Teiko regulars after Kise had made the team.

Come to think of it, the formation of the Seirin basketball club back then... They're really a lot like the Teiko of old when they have first started rebuilding the club, and before victory and the pressure placed on them by the school had gotten to the team the way that it did.

"We're a relatively new team. Thus all the other teams weren't expecting much from us when the Inter High begun." Hyuuga restrained a grin as he remembered those days. "We simply breezed through the first few rounds of the Inter High at that time mainly because of Kiyoshi's overwhelming support as a Center. He is strong. He is one of the five that were overshadowed by the overwhelming talent of the Generation of Miracles. A member of the Crownless Generals. And Seirin's play at that time mainly revolves around mine and Kiyoshi's inside and outside play."

"But you went to the championship league, right?" Kagami asked curiously, recalling the newspaper clipping that he had read earlier that year about how Seirin had made it to the final round of the Inter High, doing quite well for a team that had barely a year's experience on them.

"Yes, but you've probably heard that we got ourselves slaughtered by Shutoku and Seiho at that time as Kiyoshi was in the hospital then." Hyuuga sighed, and his face darkened considerably as he remembered what had happened during their game with Kirisaki Dai Ichi. "We played Kirisaki Dai Ichi during the Inter High preliminaries."

"Kirisaki Dai Ichi?" Kagami frowned. "Isn't that our next opponent?" He asked Tamaki who nodded, a dark look on her face—one that Kagami wondered at.

"We got all the way to the Inter High preliminaries relying on our run-and-gun style. But when we were told that our next opponent is Kirisaki Dai Ichi, all of us knew that our run-and-gun style wouldn't work on them." Hyuuga almost growled as he remembered how that match had gone. It still left a bad taste in his mouth.

"What happened, Captain?" Kagami asked, unable to bear it any longer.

The look on Hyuuga's face almost scared him for a moment, as Hyuuga had never looked that furious or even murderous before. Even during their first match with Shutoku when Kagami had selfishly hogged the ball all to himself, believing that he is the only one who can help Seirin to win, Hyuuga had never been that angry.