JSWGAS Chapter 61

“Um, Kokonoe-senpai, is Nijimura-senpai… not here?”

Akashi Seijuro trotted over from the entrance, looking up to ask the second-year senior who was shooting baskets. The latter whistled nonchalantly, “Hmm… him…” Unfortunately, the junior’s gaze was too persistent to brush off. Kokonoe Taka bounced the basketball a few times, feeling inexplicably guilty. “…Uh, Maki took him away.”

The story began when Nijimura Shuzo stole Maki’s motorcycle and took Kokonoe Taka for a spin.

Maki’s motorcycle was a heavy one to begin with, and even heavier and completely useless once it ran out of gas. Nijimura Shuzo, on a whim, had driven it to a very remote place. In the end, Kokonoe Taka, under Nijimura Shuzo’s disbelieving gaze, called Maki and asked him to bring some gasoline and pick them up.

But clearly, in Maki’s eyes, the motorcycle was more important than the people. Half an hour later, Kokonoe Taka and Shiraiwa stood side by side in the cold wind, watching Maki waving the gasoline in his hand like a weapon, pointing at the scratches on the motorcycle in utter grief. The target of his accusations was naturally Nijimura Shuzo, who had stolen his beloved wife.

“How could you do this to my wife! She’s my treasure!” he shouted, landing a heavy blow!

Nijimura Shuzo deftly dodged, yelling in protest, “It wasn’t just me who rode your wife!” He hopped around, using the motorcycle as a shield, relying on Maki not daring to damage it, and shouted loudly, “Kokonoe rode it too! Why aren’t you going after him!”

“Do you think I’d believe you, you habitual delinquent! Kokonoe’s credit is much better than yours!!”

“I’ve reformed long ago, don’t slander me!!”

Maki didn’t listen, tears welling up in his eyes, “It’s fine if you use her, but why did you have to hurt her!”

“…Wait, isn’t it an ‘it’! Why are you using ‘she’ to refer to this motorcycle!”

Shiraiwa said coolly, “Because Maki treasures it so much that he doesn’t even let me touch it, he might as well sleep with it.”

Nijimura Shuzo: “…Maki, are you some new kind of pervert?”

Maki: “I’ll die together with you!!!!!!”

Shiraiwa couldn’t bear to watch and stopped looking at the two bickering idiots.

He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and, as he lit one, belatedly asked the person next to him, “Do you mind?” Before the mumbled question could be answered, a crisp sound of friction was heard, and the lighter had already lit the tobacco.

“You have a lot of free time to be messing around with Nijimura late at night,” he said, taking a deep drag of nicotine and deliberately blowing the smoke in the other person’s face.

“I didn’t expect you to come along either.” Kokonoe Taka waved his hand, the breeze scattering the white smoke. “I’ve never seen you smoke before.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know.” Shiraiwa retorted skillfully. “Maki found out as soon as you guys rode his motorcycle away. He chased after you on a bicycle, but couldn’t catch up. Maki almost called the police in a panic.”

“You stopped him?”

Shiraiwa hummed in agreement, “I saw the figure from behind and thought it was someone I knew.”

“Thank…”

“Don’t thank me.” Shiraiwa interrupted, “I always get creeped out when you thank me. Maki is dumb, but I’m not. Only idiots like those guys would be played around by you.”

Kokonoe Taka was unmoved, “Thank you, Shiraiwa-senpai.” He smiled humbly, pleased to see Shiraiwa’s hand holding the cigarette tremble.

“…I’m going to die young.”

“I’m being very sincere, it hurts my feelings when you say that.”

“…Stop, don’t deliberately try to disgust me.” Shiraiwa sighed speechlessly. He narrowed his eyes and glanced at Kokonoe Taka, “Why isn’t Habamoki here? You two aren’t hiding it from him and going crazy, are you?”

Kokonoe Taka frowned, “Shuzo and I just happened to meet. This was just a coincidence.”

Shiraiwa snorted, “Say whatever you want. Anyway, the basketball team’s problems have nothing to do with me anymore. Aren’t the new kids supposed to be very capable?”

The acrid smoke was scattered by the sea breeze. Shiraiwa glanced backward, Maki having won the battle against Nijimura, was forcing the latter to sign an unequal treaty. He turned his gaze back, raising the corner of his mouth meaningfully.

“Kokonoe, you have to keep winning.”

Kokonoe Taka was stunned. He stared at Shiraiwa in confusion for a moment. The latter had returned to his usual carefree facade, meeting his gaze with a flawless compliment, “Just consider it a teammate’s blessing.”

Whether Shiraiwa was being sincere was unknown. Perhaps the answer to this question would never be found, even far into the future. Many thoughts swirled in his mind, and that night filled with roars, gales, laughter, silence, and a little light in the darkness was shrouded in a blurry veil.

In reality, only a few dozen seconds had passed. The red-haired boy was still waiting quietly for his explanation. Kokonoe Taka sighed, ultimately deciding not to shatter Nijimura Captain’s image in his junior’s mind. “He went to help a friend, he’ll be late today. Is there something you need?”

Akashi Seijuro’s long eyelashes hid the emotions that flashed in his red eyes.

“Before, I mentioned a very interesting person to Nijimura-senpai. I think he might become a player who is different from all of us.” He slightly raised his chin towards the entrance. “It’s him.”

Kokonoe Taka followed the direction he pointed, scrutinizing the person uncertainly for a moment. A slender figure, a faint aura, and slightly childish eyes were quietly looking over here. “Him?”

Akashi Seijuro was considered one of the tactical players in the team, alongside Habamoki Suzume, each occupying half the field. Naturally, he wouldn’t joke about the qualifications of a regular team member. Kokonoe Taka called out twice, summoning Habamoki. The latter, after consulting the coach, obtained permission.

“To see the effect through a match,” he said, “how about the third string and the second string playing a game? Let that Kuroko guy join the third string team.”

Kokonoe Taka put his arm around Habamoki Suzume’s shoulders, “Eh, I thought I could try it out on the court.”

“If Kokonoe-senpai goes up, it’ll be over from the start, right?” Akashi Seijuro said. He and Habamoki exchanged glances. The latter unceremoniously slapped Kokonoe Taka’s hand away, “That’s what Akashi said. Be honest, don’t cause trouble.”

But not long after the match started, the few were struck speechless, seriously staring at the court. Nijimura Shuzo, who had been dragged by Maki to be a laborer, joined the watching team halfway through the match. After a brief exchange of words, he also stared in astonishment and incomprehension at the basketball flying across the court.

The boy who disappeared from the court using a magic-like method of vision redirection undoubtedly showed them a new possibility.

Habamoki Suzume listened to the discussion of the people around him, slightly distracted.

“Suzume?”

He took a deep breath, “Yeah, what is it?”

Kokonoe Taka observed hesitantly for a moment. Habamoki Suzume raised his eyebrows at him, looking relaxed as if to say ‘spit it out’, the same as usual. “It’s nothing…” he hesitated, “I just suddenly thought of a new way to play, want to try it out?”

“Of course I’ll accompany you on Taka’s proposal.”

……

…………

The starting members of Teiko Middle School’s matches weren’t fixed. The coach preferred to only send out two or three main players in a match, or have different main players rotate. No other school would change players so frequently in a match. Only Teiko Middle School had the confidence and strength to take on the risk.

The players with the highest appearance rates were Aomine Daiki and Haizaki Shogo, followed by Akashi, Midorima, and Murasakibara. Recently, Kuroko Tetsuya was added. Coach Kiyota of the first string clearly wanted to use the second-year seniors as trump cards, to cover for the basketball team while they experimented with new blood. Although the tables compiled by the manager digitized everything, in reality, the difference in the number of appearances of the regular players wasn’t that big.

“Then, today’s starting members…” Coach Kiyota looked at the data in thought during the assembly, “Akashi, Aomine, and Haizaki will play the first half. In the second half, Kokonoe will replace Haizaki, and Kuroko will replace Aomine.”

“I don’t have a problem with that.” Haizaki Shogo lazily shook his arms, yawning sleepily. “But Kokonoe-san isn’t here.” Their first match of the morning was around ten o’clock. But the basketball team was required to arrive at the gymnasium early in the morning. Right now, several people in the team were tilting their heads, wishing they could fall asleep immediately.

The familiar figure was indeed missing from the team. The coach frowned and looked at Nijimura.

“Taka has some personal matters,” Nijimura explained, “he’ll be here in a bit, he can make it for the second half of the match.”

The middle school league that started in January actually included sports projects other than track and field, the only difference was in the scheduling. The preliminary round of the basketball tournament ended a week ago. Today’s matches would determine the final four, followed by the finals to compete for the championship.

Meanwhile, the volleyball league had just started. Kokonoe Taka looked down at the news pushed on his phone. This year, the representative of Miyagi Prefecture was still Shiratorizawa. All communication software was quiet, and only when the train was about to arrive at the station, a message from Habamoki Suzume popped up, informing him of today’s match schedule.

He quickly pressed the keyboard a few times to reply, then followed the crowd out of the train. During the morning rush hour, the station wasn’t empty. People were hurrying along wrapped in coats, their exhaled white breath occupying a large part of the space. He barely squeezed to the agreed location, then took out his phone again, skipping the blank conversation box at the top and opening one of the ones below.

「I’m here.」

The message was quickly marked as read, and a reply was received five minutes later. Long paragraphs of text, interspersed with meaningless symbols, the tone and pronouns changing almost every sentence. Kokonoe Taka felt a faint ache in his temples. He forced himself to ignore the wrong words appearing in the sentences, using the careful attitude of reading to find the key information.

Two-thirds of the message, which was almost at the maximum character limit, was mutual blame and buck-passing. Another two-thirds of the remaining third was complaining about the complexity of the Tokyo environment. Only a pitiful sentence was left to express the truly useful information: he was lost, didn’t know where he was now, and righteously urged the other person to pick him up.

Kokonoe Taka squeezed his phone, speechless and choked up. Just as he was beginning to contemplate the possibility of abandoning the task, the phone rang urgently, aggressively, implying that it would keep ringing until he answered.

He reluctantly answered, “…Hello?”

Almost the next second after he spoke, a particularly loud voice complained, “Taka! Where are you?! Come pick me and Osamu up!”

Then another, slightly smaller voice: “Who’s fault is it that we’re lost! I told you the stop to get off at when we were on the train!”

Kokonoe Taka hadn’t even said a word or two, and the two on the other end of the phone began to bicker: “If you know the way, then why didn’t you pay attention! You were the one who fell asleep as soon as you got on the train!”

“If you hadn’t been making a fuss in the middle of the night, saying you couldn’t sleep and woke me up, insisting on playing two games of Pro Evolution Soccer, how could I have been so sleepy!”

Chatter, clatter, the two of them forgot about the phone call and simply had a great quarrel first. The only thing to be thankful for was that the two of them were mindful of the unfamiliar environment and hadn’t escalated to a physical fight.

Even so, Kokonoe Taka squeezed the phone until it creaked: “If you two make any more noise, I’ll abandon you both in Tokyo to fend for yourselves,” he threatened coldly.

That slowly calmed them down.

Half an hour later, the reliable underage person who had run three blocks finally found the two wild foxes who had come from afar. When he found them, the two were sitting in a breakfast shop, one staring listlessly at the stray cat at the shop’s entrance, and the other gobbling down food without looking up. “You’re just in time.” The one watching the stray cat perked up instantly, “We didn’t bring any money.”

The one holding the bowl added coolly, “He did, but he saw some sports shoes he wanted when he passed a sporting goods store and spent it all.”

Miya Atsumu exposed him without turning his head, “You bought wristbands too.” Meaning, don’t you dare slander anyone else.

Kokonoe Taka paid the breakfast bill with a cold face before glancing sideways at the brothers following behind him: “The volleyball schedule is in the afternoon, right?”

This year’s representative school for the middle school league in Hyogo Prefecture was Nohebi Academy. Miya Atsumu and Miya Osamu should have come with the school in the afternoon, not calling him at four in the morning and demanding righteously that Kokonoe Taka pick them up.

“It doesn’t matter if we come a little early,” Miya Atsumu said, “And you have a match in the morning, right? Coming early, we can also watch the fun.”

Miya Osamu exposed his brother’s little thoughts, “He’s just jealous.” He said this without any politeness. Miya Atsumu immediately glared at Miya Osamu, “After seeing your interview in the magazine, I wanted to run to Tokyo and see why you got the interview before me.”

Kokonoe Taka could tell from Miya Atsumu’s expression that he had been hit hard by Miya Osamu.

He was unmoved and asked back, “Then, what about you, Osamu?”

Miya Osamu paused slightly, not immediately explaining the reason for coming along. Miya Atsumu immediately backstabbed him, “He’s craving Tokyo’s specialties and wants to rip you off.”

Kokonoe Taka: “…” As expected of you two.

Kokonoe Taka couldn’t really send the two away, so he simply took them to the gymnasium by train. After all that commotion, the first half of the match was almost over when they arrived at the gymnasium. He pushed the two into the audience seats before glancing back every few steps as he returned to the team below.

Habamoki was the first to notice the person sneaking over from behind: “What did you go do? You’re so slow.” He helped Kokonoe Taka block the coach’s line of sight, asking in a low voice.

“I picked up some friends who came to Tokyo,” Kokonoe Taka hid behind him, changing clothes and shoes with neat movements. “They… came to watch me play the match?” Saying this, he himself felt uncertain, so he simply gave up, “Did the coach arrange anything else?”

Habamoki shook his head, “We played pretty well in the first half. In the second half, he should let you adjust the rhythm and get familiar with Kuroko’s cooperation in practice. Recently, your condition seems to be pretty good?”

“Is it?” Kokonoe Taka straightened up, shrugging his shoulders. “I feel like it’s about the same as before.”

……

…………

The two Miya brothers sat in the back row, in front of them was Teiko Middle School’s grand cheerleading squad.

In some ways, Teiko Middle School’s cheerleading squad had a complex composition: reserve members of the second and third strings occupied half the seats, followed by students who came to watch the match. Of course, there were also fans of the regular basketball team members.

“Akashi-sama—good luck!”

“Aomine, crush them!”

“Haizaki-kun is so handsome!”

Miya Atsumu glared angrily at the screaming girls, “So noisy!” He pushed the listless Miya Osamu next to him.

“Don’t you get such cheers when you’re on the court?” Miya Osamu replied reluctantly.

Miya Atsumu snorted twice.

Although the two played volleyball, they sometimes played a few basketball games with classmates in school during PE class. Even so, Miya Osamu thought it was incredible that Miya Atsumu came to watch a basketball match. He stared at the court for a long time and suddenly asked, “I say, Atsumu, why did you suddenly want to come? Although you had a stupid look on your face when you saw the magazine, like ‘this guy actually got interviewed before me’…”

“Huh? You wanna fight?” Miya Atsumu glared at Miya Osamu, who rolled his eyes indifferently.

A burst of cheers suddenly erupted in the front, the cheerleading squad shouted the names of their acquaintances, attracting the attention of the two. On the court, a black-haired boy wearing the number 12 jersey straightened the wristband he was wearing and exchanged high-fives with a smirking gray-haired player.

“It’s Kokonoe! He’s finally on the court! We’ve been waiting too long!”

“Ooh ooh ooh! How many points will he get today? I bet he can get twenty points!”

“Kokonoe-kun—good luck—!”

“Let them see how awesome you are!”

Miya Atsumu listened to the occasional sounds coming from his ears, muttering softly, “He’s really popular.”

But he had to admit that there was a reason why Kokonoe Taka was so popular. Especially when the basketball miraculously came into his hands from an impossible angle, and he easily scored a layup on the undefended inner court, the screams from the audience almost deafened him.

At this time, Miya Atsumu no longer fussed, narrowing his eyes: “He jumps really high.” He smiled meaningfully, “How tall is he now?”

Miya Osamu: “How would I know.”

“I was curious and searched for his match videos before,” Miya Atsumu dragged out his voice. “Um, that height, he needs a vertical reach of at least 325cm to do that. But I see that he still has energy to spare.”

“…That’s exaggerated.”

Miya Osamu understood.

Miya Atsumu: “Moreover, this guy is in really good condition.”

This was a fact that only people with keen observation could notice: the atmosphere was different when he wasn’t on the court and when he was on the court. The opponents visibly tensed up, but Kokonoe Taka’s entire set of movements was smooth and fluid, without any awkwardness.

The gradually increasing point difference also proved this point.

“That red-haired guy…” Miya Osamu was a little unsure, “isn’t he constantly giving the ball to Taka?”

The point guard in basketball is similar in positioning to the setter in volleyball, both being the center of the team’s offense. However, in volleyball, it is rare to constantly give the offensive opportunity to the same player—considering the player’s stamina and the opponent’s targeting, this approach is wise.

But sports competitions are never short of geniuses, like that very famous left-handed spiker recently, and the small forward who is constantly scoring now.

“That’s why I said he’s in good condition,” Miya Atsumu spread his hands, “Every ball that gets to him goes in. That red-haired guy must have realized this and is constantly giving him assists, right?” Saying that, he became resentful, “I also want a good attacker like that… Osamu, you’re so useless.”

Miya Osamu: “You wanna fight?”

Miya Atsumu: “Come on!”

It wasn’t just Miya Atsumu who noticed this.

Habamoki Suzume passed over a water cup when he called a timeout, asking with some concern: “Taka, can your stamina keep up?” Several gazes looked over at the same time, which was also what the others were concerned about.

There were 4 minutes left in the match, and the point difference with the opposing school had already reached 50 points, two-thirds of which were scored by Kokonoe Taka. The more ball possessions he got, the more stamina he consumed with each score—Kokonoe Taka took two gulps of water, wiping off the sweat, “I can.”

“Akashi’s passes are positioned well, so I don’t have to worry too much about the follow-up,” he explained. “If you’re worried, it’s okay to switch me out.”

Coach Kiyota nodded, looking at Akashi, who was also a little out of breath: “How do you feel on the court? Can you continue?”

Akashi Seijuro steadied his breathing, saying calmly: “Kokonoe-senpai’s condition is very good, there’s no problem continuing.”

He inconspicuously looked toward Kokonoe, his eyes meeting with Habamoki Suzume, who was slightly frowning next to him. The latter hesitated, but in the end, he silently took the water bottle in Kokonoe Taka’s hand, watching them go back on the court again after the whistle blew.

Nijimura Shuzo noticed his distraction, tilting his head to ask: “What’s wrong?”

Habamoki Suzume murmured: “I just feel like… something is not quite right.”

This was just a sense of awkwardness and unease. Clearly, they had a huge advantage on the court, Taka was doing well on offense, and Akashi’s passes were handled perfectly… but he just felt that something was strange.

What exactly was it?

He pressed his forehead, “No, maybe it’s just my imagination.”