Ｌｉｇｈｔ

ninety five - and they had fun

Sasaki made his way over to the bench and sat down with a water bottle in his hand. “Kise’s extending the limit of his Perfect Copy?” Izuki repeated what Riko had just said, this time in question form.

“It’s likely,” She murmured into her hand, her expression suggesting she was deep in thought. “That would mean our lead isn’t safe anymore. If we don’t do something, we’re screwed.”

“You did do something, though,” Sasaki piped up, pointing at himself. “I can take Kisecchi on, no problem.”

“Are you sure, Sasaki?” Kagami questioned.

“Yeah,” He tapped the side of his head. “Get it?”

“Are you saying you’ll use your ability to keep up with his copies?” Hyuuga reiterated, causing the azurette to nod.

“Yep, exactly right Captain!”

“The way you said that pissed me off. You’re too happy.”

“Uhhhh,” he frowned, furrowing his eyebrows. “Should I not be happy?”

“It’s fine, Hyuuga-kun,” Riko butted in, giving Sasaki a nod. “I don’t like it, but we’ll be counting on you, Sasaki-kun.”

“Leave it to me,” He beamed, not showing how her words hurt him.

“It’ll be hard, but with your reflexes and agility,” Izuki mumbled, “It should be possible.”

“Okay!” Hyuuga stood up, facing the bench with a new fire in his eyes. “We can’t afford any mistakes! Focus guys,” Everyone gathered around in another huddle as the captain continued. “Even if our plan succeeds, Kaijo’s team isn’t just Kise. Don’t stop until the final buzzer sounds. Be even more careful with passes and teamwork. Don’t miss any easy shots. Do everything you can to keep our lead! Let’s go Seirin! FIGHT!”

“YEAH!”

“Ah, that never gets old,” Sasaki grinned as he flexed his arm, walking onto the alongside the other starters. Throwing the ball in, Kagami caught it. Kise stood in front of him, and Sasaki could already hear exactly what he was going to do.

“Thanks Ryouta!” He called as the Kaijo ace jabbed the ball out of Kagami’s hands using his copied Emperor Eye, right into Sasaki’s. Shooting a three from there, all of Kaijo stood in shock at what had just occurred.

“That’s dirty, Ayacchi,” Kise narrowed his eyes at him, causing the person in question to shrug.

“Maybe. But my job here is to stop you, so what other choice do I have?” Sasaki mused, cocking his head slightly with a smirk.

“Dammit, you’re too cute,” The ace buried his face in his hands for a moment before making eye contact once again. “Ayacchi, please play me seriously.”

“Am I not?” He questioned.

“I guess it’s too early to tell.”

Soon, it turned into an all out battle between the two teams’ aces: Kise and Sasaki. With each copy the former did, the latter would respond accordingly the second he thought it. Not one shot from Kise was allowed through, not one pass, not anything.

The ace felt useless even in his ultimate form. However, he learned something. Sasaki wasn’t beating him because of his ability to read his mind; he was beating Kise because of how fast his body could respond. He didn’t need the Zone, Sasaki himself was already a monster. Much more than Aomine ever was.

That thought made Kise wonder why the azurette didn’t end up like the Touou ace.

“I might,” Kise heard in passing, but he thought it was a figment of his imagination.

Even while they battled it out, the score gap was closing in. The others on Seirin were making more mistakes than normal. The crowd was cheering solely for Kaijo, which meant less focus on Seirin’s side. The more the crowd shouted their support for Kaijo, the more pressure Seirin fell under.

Eventually, the gap was reduced to two points. However, both Sasaki and Kise were smiling as they went head to head. The clock slowly ticked down. They were having fun. And then they were tied with 30 seconds left.

“They’re tied!”

“Kaijo made a comeback!”

“Don’t let up!” Kise yelled, guarding Sasaki as the azurette had the ball. “We’ll win, Ayacchi.”

“We’ll see about that, Ryouta,” He returned, passing behind him to Kuroko who ignite pass kai’d it to Hyuuga who was wide open. That drew Kise away from Sasaki, jumping with a copy of Murasakibara to block the ball.

Kuroko and Sasaki had predicted that, so the phantom caught the ball that the Kaijo ace slapped out of the air and shot it towards the azurette, who was standing on the center line. “Bing,” He jumped. “Bang,” He shot. “Boom,” the ball swooshed through the hoop, three points being added to Seirin’s score and breaking the tie.

“Oh no!”

“They scored!”

“Come on Kaijo!”

“Oh my gawd, my head is gonna explode,” Sasaki grumbled, taking a second to rub his temples to alleviate some of the pain. It didn’t help all that much. Soon, with 17 seconds to spare, Kaijo made another basket. The gap in scores closed to one, meaning if Kaijo took one more shot, they would win.

“Full court press, huh?” Sasaki hummed as he held the ball, needing to throw in. Kise guarded him closely, his eyes raging with his desire to win. “Nice thought, but it’s a bit late,” He mused, using his speed to move to the side of Kise and throw in to Kuroko.

“Don’t let them through!” Kasamatsu roared.

“I don’t remember asking for your permission,” Sasaki was suddenly on the other side of the court, Kise keeping up relatively well. “Oh wait,” He stopped, backtracked to the center line and smirked as his lover’s eyes widened. “Another three should do the trick.”

“I won’t let you!” Kise roared as he tried to intercept the ball heading towards the azurette.

“I love you, Ryouta, but,” Sasaki slapped the ball towards the awaiting Kagami, “I’m not the only threat. I’m with my team.”

“Shit!”

“No!” The Kaijo ace was suddenly in front of Kagami, stopping him in his tracks. “THIS IS MY WIN!” He roared, taking the ball like taking candy from a baby and ignite passing it to the other side. Kasamatsu caught it. “GO!”

“GOOOO!” The crowd screamed along with Kaijo’s bench as the captain jumped.

“Damn, not bad you guys,” Sasaki smirked. “Too bad I predicted it.”

He had stopped using his ability long before that, having gotten Kise’s patterns down to a T already and he didn’t feel like having to deal with both the crowd’s yelling and their thoughts at the same time.

With only milliseconds left, Sasaki blocked Kasamatsu’s shot. Those milliseconds ran down until, finally, the end of game buzzer went off. With scores of 80 to 79, Seirin walked away as the victor and the second finalist.

As Sasaki walked towards the exit of the gym, his eyes were drawn to a figure in the crowd. Tomorrow, we’ll go head to head, he thought as his expression went grim. Seiji.

(Comment goal is 51 as always, but I won't update again until after noon EDT [new york time if you're confused] so enjoy the chapter!)