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3: manager

A few days later, Riko and Kirika were walking towards the gym after putting their school things in the club room. “Excuse me, Riko..” The ginger spoke up, gaining the other’s attention. “When do you plan to have a practice game? From what I can see, it would greatly benefit the team..” She explained, causing Riko to sigh.

“I want to, but I haven’t had time to go scout anyone for us to play,” She pushed her hair out of her face before it suddenly lit up. “I know! You could go! Only if you’re comfortably with doing that, of course,” The coach sparkled, causing Kirika to almost freeze.

“Um, sure,” She hesitantly smiled. “I’d be glad to help!” With that, Riko sent her off immediately with a list of schools to call and check out. Several declined her request to visit and discuss the possibility of a practice game, while only two schools accepted.

The next day, Kirika visited one of the two schools, and left unsuccessfully. Her hopes for the next school plummeted, since it was Kaijo—a well known school that’s nationally recognized—whereas the school she’d talked to that day was barely in the rankings at all.

Sighing, Kirika headed back to report her efforts to Riko. On her way back, she passed a fast-food joint and noticed Kagami and Kuroko sitting together. That’s nice, she smiled softly. I’m glad they’re getting along.

Or not, she grimaced as Kagami attempted to intimidate the blue haired male, to no avail.

After texting Riko, Kirika headed to bed. Morning came, and it was finally time to visit Kaijo. There she was, walking over in her school uniform with her hands folded together meekly. “Excuse me,” She called out to one of the students there. “Do you know where the basketball gym is?”

“Huh? Oh,” The girl’s eyes widened before she frowned slightly. “Yeah, do you need an escort?”

“That would be nice,” Kirika smiled sheepishly.

“Follow me,” She jerked her head, turning and walking off as Kirika trailed behind her, looking around. The campus was really nice, she had to admit. After walking for a while, the girl stopped and turned to her again.

“Here you go,” She gestured with her hand at the building in front of them.

“Thank you very much,” Kirika bowed before going in. A few eyes turned to her as she opened the door, stepping inside and letting it close behind her.

“Oh,” An older man that seemed to have let himself go greeted her. “Welcome. Ichinose, right?”

“Yes,” She bowed. “Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice, coach!”

“Sure,” He waved the comment off. “Let’s go to my office, we can talk in detail there,” Takeuchi gestured with his hand for them to go elsewhere, so with a smile, Kirika followed after him. They spent a good hour in his office, going over their plans and setting up a time for a practice game that would work for them both.

Reaching an agreement, they shook hands. “It’s been a pleasure, Ichinose,” Takeuchi saw her off, and she bowed again.

“I feel the same,” she told him, then turned to leave. Someone came out of nowhere and slammed into her just then, causing them both to stumble and Kirika to land on her bottom. “Ah!”

“Shoot,” The person breathed, “Hey, are you okay?” He reached down to help her up. "I'm so sorry--"

“Kise, where the hell were you?!” Takeuchi demanded.

“Sorry coach!” The person in question said sheepishly. “I had a last minute modeling gig, I swear it wasn’t on purpose!”

“Tch, fine, just get in there and warm up,” He grumbled.

“Just a second,” Kise glanced at the girl next to him, only to realize that she was long gone. “Huh. Who was that?” He thought out loud.

“She’s the manager for Seirin, we’ll be playing them in a practice match in a week,” Takeuchi informed, causing the blond’s eyes to sparkle and his lips to twitch upwards.

“Is that so..”

~*~

"Gather round, everyone!" The coach called during practice the day after. Everyone came running and circled around her, so she explained the situation with Kirika at her side.

"A practice game against Kaijo high school?" Hyuuga reeled back, his eyes wide and he seemed to be sweating more than usual at that comment.

"That's right! They won't disappoint us," Riko grinned, ecstatic at how efficient Kirika had been in organizing the practice game. It made everyone’s lives easier to have a person like that around, and it put her mind at ease. "We'll put a lot of first years on the court. Make sure to thank Ichinose for her hard work!"

"Disappoint us? They're way better than us.." Koganei grimaced. “Wait, Ichinose did this?”

“Yep!” Riko gripped, gripping Kirika’s shoulders and shaking her slightly. “Isn’t having a manager the best? No, not just a manager—isn’t having Ichinose the best?!”

"But wait, are they really that good?" Kawahara asked.

"Kaijo’s strong at the national level," Hyuuga answered, "they play in the inter high every year."

"And this year," Riko butted in, having stopped shaking the poor girl. "Kaijo got their hands on one of the generation of miracles, Ryouta Kise."

“Right,” Kirika’s face suddenly took on an expression of recollection, holding up her hand. “Can I go grab something from my bag real quick?”

“Sure,” Riko raised an eyebrow. Quickly doing so, the ginger returned with a stack of papers and handed them out. “Here’s everything I could find on Kaijo, their players, and their plays in general,” Kirika told them as everyone looked through everything on the papers.

“This is..” Riko’s eyes widened. “So thorough… How’d you manage to--?!”

“Huh?” Kirika seemed confused. “To be able to win, we need to know as much about the opposition as possible, right? Wait,” Her eyes widened. “Did I overstep?”

“Wha—No! Of course not! This is great!” Riko shook her hands in front of her. “Amazing, even! I’m just impressed, it must have taken you a few days to dig up this much information.”

“It was just a spur of the moment thing last night,” The ginger admitted, and only then did everyone realize that she had bags under her eyes, barely noticeable unless you were looking for them.

“Thank you,” Riko clasped her shoulder as she looked at the ground. The others on the team were clutching their hearts or covering their faces, which made Kirika incredibly confused. “Your efforts won’t be in vain!”

“I’m glad to be of help!” She shook her head, “So please rely on me anytime.”

“Angel—she’s an angel!”

~*~

Dear Diary,
High school coaches can be so stuck up. That's really all I want to say on the matter. Well, Coach Takeuchi wasn't terrible, but he was the only one to accept having a practice game with us so I guess that may be my bais talking. Anyway, I'm planning on staying up a bit to gather more info on them, so that I can be more helpful to the team! I hope they don't mind.
Sincerely,
Kirika Ichinose