-Emiko POV-
It was finally time for the preliminaries again.
Kagami had gotten a lot better with using his left hand.
"You're getting pretty good with your left arm" said Furihata.
"Yeah, it's even gotten easier to eat with this hand lately" said Kagami.
"So, you still can't sleep the night before a tournament, huh?" I said when I saw his eyes.
Tetsuya was late, I didn't see him anywhere.
"We'd better get going" said Riko. "Is everyone here?"
"We're still missing one" said Hyuga. "Oh, Kuroko?"
"I'm here" I heard Tetsuya say.
"You are?!" shouted everyone.
"Yes, I've been here the whole time" he said and I snorted when I saw him take a breath.
"No, you're lying this time!" shouted Kagami. "You barely made it on time running here!"
Tetsuya didn't react, which made me laugh even harder.
"Silence?!" shouted Kagami.
"Let's go. We haven't forgotten anything, have we?" asked Hyuga.
"What are you talking about?" asked Riko. "We're on our way now to get it!"
~
"Ready guys?" asked Riko while going over the game plan. "I'm going to go over what we're doing at the Winter Cup again. Eight schools are participating in the preliminaries. Two of these schools will win the right to participate in the Winter Cup. After today's games, it'll be narrowed down to four schools. Those four schools will play a league series, and the top two schools will go on to the Winter Cup. However, this time the participating teams are the eight schools from the Inter-High preliminaries. In other words, they're powerful teams who had successful summers. Our opponent today is the 6th place team, Josei High School! Let's win!"
"Yeah!" they all shouted.
~
"Let's go!" shouted Hyuga when the signal to line up went off.
Kiyoshi looked happy, but it was kind of creepy...
Josei walked onto the field and their Centre began to cry...
'What's with him?'
"The Winter Cup preliminary game between Seirin High School and Josei High School will now begin" said the referee.
"You're so mean, Captain" I heard the centre say. "Why would you do that? 2 girls. You said the coach and manager of the other team were girls. I was looking for something bigger... something more exciting. They're not... sexy at all!"
'Excuse me?'
Riko and I were getting angry.
"Give back what you stole from me!" he shouted.
"Go slaughter them" said Riko in sign while emitting an evil aura.
I rolled up my sleeves in anger.
'Kick their buts' I thought and Tetsuya nodded, knowing what I thought.
They began double teaming Kagami. Who got angry because of it...
Kiyoshi patted Kagami's head.
"Kagami you look terrifying" said Kiyoshi.
"His hands" I whispered when I saw that his hands almost covered Kagami's entire head. "I thought I saw it before, but Kiyoshi-senpai has really big hands"
"You're right" said Riko.
I looked up and saw 2 people from Touou watching us.
"Coach" I said and I pointed at them.
The game was going really well...
But then, Kagami jumped way too high and against the hoop...
"Idiot" I whispered.
By the fourth quarter, we were ahead by 40 points.
We got a lot more rebounds than usual.
Seeing Kiyoshi play was amazing...
But Kagami was too angry, he wanted to make some shots.
I saw Tetsuya sigh and shot a wristband to Kagami's face.
"You!" shouted Kagami.
"That's enough" said Tetsuya calmly.
"What'd you say, Kuroko?!" shouted Kagami.
"It's easier for them to take shots, because you're drawing all the defenders to yourself" said Tetsuya. "You shouldn't pout about that. Also, can you see them?"
He pointed at the two players of Touou.
'Maybe not your best idea, Tetsu...'
"Aomine-kun will hear about this game" said Tetsuya. "Once you've calmed down, make a declaration of war"
"That's not something you do with a cool head" said Kagami. "Leave it to me though. I'll give it to them good"
Kagami was on fire...
'Mentioning Touou was really not the best idea...'
Kagami passed his double team and he jumped high...
"Throw it down, Kagami!" shouted Hyuga.
He made it this time, but still fell on his ass...
"Game over!" shouted the referee.
"All right!" shouted Riko and hugged me.
"We won!" I shouted happily.
~
"For better or for worse, we only have three games left" said Fukuda.
"The Winter Cup preliminaries went by in a flash" said Furihata.
"What are you idiots talking about?" asked Hyuga. "It's just the opposite. We're just getting started"
"Have you forgotten already?" asked Riko. "Only the top eight schools out of over three hundred from the summer have been allowed to participate. In other words, the Winter Cup preliminaries began with the Inter-High preliminaries. It's one long qualifier that's been going on since this summer"
"Our first opponent in the championship league is Shenshikan" said Hyuga. "We've lost to them twice already. Let's win this time!"
"Emiko" said Tetsuya.
"Hm? What's wrong?" I asked.
"Is it okay if you walk home alone today?" he asked. "I wanted to ask Kagami for his help to finish the drive"
I smiled and nodded.
"Sure, it's no problem" I said.
~
We played against Senshinkan, and we won...
We were all so happy, even Tetsuya threw me once in the air before catching me.
-Hanamiya POV-
I saw the team throwing up one of the pretty girls in the air.
They caught her carefully.
'Hm... interesting' I smiled.
She looked like an easy target, she was precious to them.
'It'll be a shame to ruin such a pretty face, but oh well... it'll crush them'
-Emiko POV-
I felt someone watching me.
It gave me a bad feeling... I looked up and saw one of the players of Kirisaki Daichi watching me.
'Isn't that...' I remembered who the guy was... the Bad Boy from the Uncrowned Kings...
"Emi?" I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me out of my thoughts.
"I'm fine" I said. "I just had a bad feeling about that team that was watching us"
"Looks like Shutoku won too" said Izuki.
"We both have one win" said Riko.
"If we win another game, we'll secure a spot in the Winter Cup" I said.
"If we lose, our chance will fall far out of reach" said Riko.
Shutoku was watching us, but this time... they weren't looking down on us.
~
"Our next game is sure to be a difficult one" said Hyuga in the locker room.
"But we have Kiyoshi-senpai" said Furihata.
"We're better than we were before" said Kawahara. "We beat them last time"
"I wouldn't be so sure" said Tetsuya. "That's precisely why I think the next game will be difficult"
"Tetsuya's right" I said.
"Our previous victory was too good to be true" said Riko. "They're absolutely better than us"
"But they don't think so" said Hyuga. "They should be looking down on us as the superior team, but they'll be coming at us with everything they have. On top of that, we'll be facing a member of the Generation of Miracles. This won't be easy"
-Kiyoshi POV-
I saw Hanamiya in a hallway.
"Sorry everyone" I said. "You guys go on ahead"
"Okay" said Hyuga.
I saw Maeda looking at me and I smiled.
She nodded before turning to Kuroko who was watching her closely.
'When will those two realise?'
"It's been a while, Hanamiya" I said.
"Hey" he said. "I've been dying to see you"
"I saw you during our game" I said. "You chose not to participate in the Shutoku game"
"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" he asked.
"I'm not saying it's wrong. I just don't like it" I said.
"You're as honest as ever. It's disgusting" he said. "If I'd played today and shown all my cards, that'd make all three games serious pains in the ass. I don't care about the victory right in front of me. You'll lose the remaining two games on your own. And your pretty manager..."
I froze and looked at him with anger.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Whoops, I've said too much" he said and stood up. "You're playing Shutoku first, right? Good luck, I'm rooting for you. By the way, I hope your manager is as good as they say. That you won't have too much pain from your injuries"
~
-Emiko POV-
It was raining again... and time... for our game against Shutoku.
"Kagami-kun" said Tetsuya. "Did you see Midorima-kun's face when he came in?"
"Yeah, he seems like a different person now" said Kagami.
"The members of the Generation of Miracles we've played until now were undefeated and intelligent" said Kiyoshi. "They say some defeats are meaningful and losing makes you stronger. Do you understand what that means? For living creatures, victory is life, and defeat means death. It's an extreme example, but humans retain that instinct. Those who know the terror of defeat hunger for victory"
"They're not the only ones who've suffered a terrible loss" said Hyuga.
"Yeah, you're right" said Kiyoshi.
"One defeat is enough for me" said Kagami. "They're not the only ones..."
"Who are starving" finished Tetsuya, who put on the wristband that matched with mine.
I held his hand and smiled.
"Go kick his ass, Tetsu" I whispered and he nodded.
He squeezed my hand and walked onto the field.
Midorima was watching Kagami closely.
'It seems like he finally accepted Kagami as his rival'
"Just as we expected, they're not showing any signs of carelessness" I said.
"If Shutoku's strategy hasn't changed, we'll need to shut down Midorima-kun to win" said Riko.
"Well, there's most likely a limit on how many times he can shoot super long three-pointers" I said. "I mean, you've seen how long they are. Just making the ball reach the net requires his entire body's strength"
"You're right, and furthermore, after reviewing our last game, I noticed he spends a little more time winding up with each shot he takes" said Riko. "Even if we can't block all his shots, if we push him to his limit, we'll reduce his accuracy drastically"
"If that's the case, we've got someone on our team who gave Midorima one hell of a hard time" said Koganei. "And this time, he's at full power"
"The second championship league game of the Winter Cup preliminaries between Seirin High and Shutoku High will now begin" said the referee.
Otsubo and Kiyoshi got the ball at the same time.
"It's close" I said.
"Where's the ball?" asked Furihata.
Izuki managed to get the ball, but Takao stole it.
But Tetsuya soon stole the ball back... but Midorima shot the ball, but Kagami managed to block it.
"S-Sparks are flying already" said Koganei.
"I forgot to breathe" said Furihata.
"Not the smartest thing, Furihata" I said.
Something was bothering me...
'Midorima's not doing any different... but... what is this feeling...'
"Kagami's amazing" said Furihata.
"He blocked Midorima again" said Fukuda.
"Endurance training" I whispered and Riko looked at me. "Midorima, he didn't pick up any new trick, he just did endurance training... he's planning to shoot until Kagami can't jump anymore"