That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 1)

第8Q

It was evening when Seirin ended their practice. Yasu was wiping the last basketball before placing it in the cart with the rest of the clean basketballs, rolling it towards the backroom before switching off the gym lights. Just as she was about to leave, she forgot to hand Kuroko her Social Studies notes, and quickly went to the locker room with her notebook in her hand. When she opened the door, she saw Kagami and Kuroko standing in front of the rows of lockers.

"What are you doing here?!" asked the former, holding a towel in his hand. "When did you get here?!" Judging by the body language, Yasu guessed he was caught off guard by the latter's sudden presence next to him.

"I forgot something." replied Kuroko. "You're the one who came in after me."

"You should've said something!" scolded Kagami. "You scared me!"

Kuroko then noticed the girl standing by the door. "Yasu-san, what are you doing here?" he asked, making Kagami turn around to look at her as well.

"I forgot to pass you my notes, Kuroko." she said, passing the notebook to him when she stood in front of the two.

"Thank you." he said with a curt nod before putting the book into his bag. Once he zipped his bag, he noticed a CD on a stool. "Look at that."

Yasu went towards the stool and picked the CD up, which turned out to be a DVD. "Looks like Riko-senpai had left it behind." she said before reading the tag printed on the transparent cover.

Seiho vs. Kitawada
Preliminaries Round 5

They decided to play the video using the player inside the room and watched the match. When one of Kitawada's players had the ball, Seiho's defense was so tight that the player either couldn't move or had the ball smacked out of his hands, letting Seiho get the ball.

'Now I can see why Seiho is considered one of the Three Kings of Tokyo.' thought Yasu while watching the match. 'Their defense is especially strong. However, their movements are kind of odd. I mean, they're rhythm is different from the usual ones. What is it...?'

Kagami unwind the video a few seconds before playing it, watching how the bald player from Seiho defended the opposing team. "This bald guy's defense is especially tough." noted Kagami.

"I know him." said Kuroko, recognising the player. Kagami looked at him before he explained, "I played against him in middle school."

"Now that you mention it, he's that guy named Tsugawa." said Yasu when she got a closer look of the player's face. "They barely started playing, but he stopped Kise." Kagami looked at her with surprise at how the player was able to stop someone as strong as Kise.

~Time skip~

From the video, the buzzer went off when the fourth quarter ended. Seiho won the match with 71 points while Kitawada had only 12 points. The Seirin basketball team was watching the video in an empty classroom, feeling uneasy about their next opponent. "We already knew it would be, but this is going to be tough." commented Izuki with his arms folded over his chest.

"Sorry, but I feel like crying again." said Koganei downheartedly after watching the video.

"Frankly, we'd lose nine times out of ten against Seiho and Shutoku." said Riko. "We just have to bring that one win to our games."

"Hey, listen." called Hyuga, getting everyone's attention. "I wouldn't go so far as to call it a strategy, but I have an idea."

~Time skip~

Finally, it was the day Seirin would play against Seiho. Yasu was preparing the bottles of water and towels while the players warmed up. When she was done, she looked up to see Kagami glaring at Midorima, only to have his head turned away by Hyuga. "You're staring down the wrong guy, idiot!" he scolded before Kagami pulled away from the strain in his neck. "No matter how hard you stare, if we lose this next game, you'll look like an idiot."