"You're not seriously thinking about sitting out just because HE told you to?" I asked Aomine, who read out a text message that Akashi wrote to him.
"Of course not. Hell no."
"Ok good. Why does he want you and the purple giant to sit out anyways? Is he really that stupid?"
"I'm not sure what he's planning. He expects us to sit out though."
"Do you think Murisakibara will sit it out?"
"Well yeah, he probably will." Aomine said.
"What! Seriously!! Why?"
"He respects the hell out of Akashi, out of all the times he's ever went up against him, Akashi has won every single time."
My eyes widened. "You're joking. That GIANT lost to a shrimp? The guys barely taller than me? I don't understand."
"He's got the emperor eye." Aomine said all mysteriously.
"Oh shut up we both know he's just really good at ankle breaking!" I said smacking his head.
"Ow!" Aomine laughed. "well yeah that's not all though."
"Yeah, yeah, he's super good at predicting your next move, there's ways around that too you know? I can teach you though I don't know why I should have to.. you're literally supposed to be one of the best basketball players in the country and you don't know how to avoid an ankle break? Embarrassing."
"Well when you put it that way.." He said rubbing the back of his neck.
"Do you think you're inferior to Akashi in any way?" I asked suspiciously.
"What? No?"
"I think you do!"
"I just said no!"
"Look, the only reason any of the generation of miracles could ever fall for an ankle break is if they psyched themselves into believing that they would fall. If you THINK you'll fall then you WILL fall."
"Yeah? What's your point."
"Why do you think you'll fall?"
Aomine thought about it for a moment then shrugged his shoulders, I can see there's very deep psychological ties to why they think they must be inferior to Akashi.
"Going into a battle and expecting loss will never lead to winning." I think Oprah said that once(no she didn't I'm jk)
"You're saying that we.. expect to lose when we face him?"
"Exactly. You're all amazing at the basics of basketball so you shouldn't be psyching yourselves into thinking Akashi can always get the best of you, here stand up real quick, I said jumping up, we were currently on the rooftop wasting our free period.
He got up, and faced me. "Now try and predict my next movement." I said, I took a fighting position and kicked up my right leg, which he blocked easily.
"Good, now try to predict it this time." This time I did I left jab, Aomine couldn't react in time, I stopped right before hitting his face, he stood there eyes wide open.
"Wait- I don't get it, what did you do differently?"
"Ahhh so you noticed? The first time I was very lax and lazy with my movements. Therefore it was easy to read my fighting patterns and predict me. The second time I was less jittery and didn't make any unnecessary movements, therefore it's basically impossible to predict my next move."
"So basically you're saying quit being so.. obvious with my movements?"
"Exactly!! when we fight we look at the belly button and the shoulders, it tells us everything we need to know about where the opponents next attack will be. That same logic can be applied to any contact sport, OH and when he's trying to ankle break for the love of Bhudda don't look at his feet, the ball, or his eyes. LOOK AT HIS TORSO OR YOU'LL LOSE!!"
"Ahh, it's hard not to look into his eyes when he has such a big presence.."
"Don't care. Watch his torso, it'll tell you what his next move is."
"Got it."
"We're not done here, we have five days until the finals are here. We're gonna work constantly until you get it down! Even if he says he's not playing there's always a chance he'll change his mind!"
"I'm fine with hanging out with you non stop" Aomine said smirking, I smacked him.
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For the past five days I've been preparing Aomine to go up against Akashi and his emperor eye, I have to say it went quite well. He learns fast, I already had on my mascot suit. Like Aomine said, Murisakibara sat out the game against Tōō and Yōsen, and we won pretty easily. It wasn't like they were a bad team, but they weren't nearly as impressive without their giant.
"Heyy Kessachin." Murisakibara said, as he spotted me in the line for concessions. I whipped my panther head around.
"Howd you know it was me?"
"I'm not stupid and I have two eyes, I can see the way Minachin was laughing with you. He doesn't do that with anyone else."
"Ha. I feel so special." I rolled my eyes, "By the way are you really satisfied with that game?"
He looked slightly annoyed I asked. "I don't care either way. It's not like I actually like this stupid game."
"Sure." I said turning back around.
"Hey. Don't make me mad." he threatened, I slowly turned around.
"Let's get something clear you overgrown purple yeti. I'm not stupid and I have eyes too. You think I couldn't tell how angry you were seeing Aomine out there while you had to stay on the bench? Clearly you wanted to play so don't try to act cool. It's embarrassing,"
Murisakibara looked surprised, then that surprised turned into anger, then it turned into admiration. The man really went through all five stages of grief.
He picked me up by my armpits and held me up high, I screamed as everyone watched us in confusion.
"Put me down or I swear I'll kick your balls!" I yelled.
"You're kinda crazy Kessachin. But I like that about you." He said putting me down.
"Tch." I said ignoring him out of anger, as soon as I got to the front of the line I ordered my hotdog and disappeared, Tōō's next game didn't start from another 1:45ish minutes, currently Rakuzan was playing Shutoko to see who would play against us in the finals.
I decided to eat my hotdog in the bathroom to avoid people seeing my face. Once I was done I sat down by my team to watch the rest of the game.
Well Rakuzan won.. looks like we're gonna have to play them next.
Kaijo vs Seirin for the fourth and fifth place was right before the finals game.
Kaijo won, and something happened that shocked us all, during the game Kise managed to copy bits and pieces of each of the generation of miracles moves. It wasn't perfect, but it looks like I was right about him having the capability. Ha. What have I done.
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Akashi and his team walked off the court and head towards the Lockeroom, but not before they made a sidetrack to where our team was sitting,
"So you're going against my orders and playing anyway?" Akashi asked in a cool tone, his voice might have been kind, but his eyes could burn holes through Aomine's head.
"I don't take orders from you." Aomine said cautiously, looks like my intuition was right, he feels inferior. But why?
Akashi chuckled and then looked straight at me with eyes full of rage, after a split second the gaze disappeared leaving me wondering if he ever looked at me at all.. scary
"I see you're still around." He said smiling at me, but I knew that behind that smile was malicious intent.
I nodded my head.
"You guys should start warming up, our game starts soon." He said as him and his team walked away.
"Do you think he'll play?" I asked nervously.
"I'm not sure. I went against him which clearly made him mad but.. I've also never seen him break his word, we'll have to see which of the two things takes over."