Teiko's basketball II: Second miracle

58: Hierarchy

Chapter 58:

Hierarchy

Akashi scanned the crowd a bit anxiously. So Aomine hadn't come afterall. Akashi knew that it was a really long shot anyway. Aomine seemed to be despising practice of late. He resigned himself to the fact and asked others to resume practice. The mood seemed to be a bit dull that day. It was raining.

He turned a ball over in his hand meditatively. One of the second years came up to him. "Hey captain, I feel a bit down today. I don't think I can practice. Can I go home?" Akashi surveyed him. There didn't seem to be anything majorly wrong with him. At the worst case, he was probably in the starting stages of a cold. "Fine. Just run ten laps. And then you can go."

"But..... I think I'm sick." he said running his hand through his hair.

"Which is why you can go after ten laps." said Akashi patiently.

"I don't think I'll be able to run."

"It'll be fine."

The second year muttered something before going of. Akashi's gaze hardened. He had heard what he had said. Too clearly, infact. But he didn't think it was worth confronting him. It would achieve nothing but create more ill-will. Besides, some part of him seemed to whisper that there was a grain of truth in what he said.

He saw Murasakibara in one side of the court. He was defending for a team, but he was clearly not quite into it. He was letting people pass him easily without any sort of retaliation. Consequently, his team mates were struggling a bit.

"Murasakibara, please pay attention." he said.

Murasakibara opened his mouth to say something and then shrugged. Someone came towards the hoop he was defending without too much caution because he hadn't been defending for so long. Murasakibara suddenly lashed out at the ball. It bounced on open court. However, he made no effort to take it. One of his team mates did it for him.

Akashi found something a bit disturbing about this scene but he couldn't quite put a finger on it. He looked over at rest of the team. He was approached again by the second year. This time, one of his friends came along.

"He's sick." pointed out the friend.

"I'm aware that he's not in the best of spirits." said Akashi.

"Then why did you ask him to do laps?" demanded the friend.

"Your friend seems to be coming down with a cold. In all probability, he might absent himself for the next few days. If that is the case, then this will be the last time he can exercise. This way, he won't lose touch." explained Akashi patiently.

The one who was not feeling well seemed to accept it a bit. He tugged at his friend's sleeve and turned to go. His friend stopped him however. "This is so unfair. Why should he work so hard when some are so lax?"

"Your point being?" said Akashi.

"You know, there are people who hardly turn up and they get away with it....." he said heatedly.

"What?"

"Shouldn't this team be having an ace? Where is he?"

Akashi's mouth twisted. So that's what this was all about. "As you can see, he's not here at the moment." he replied.

"And you're going to do nothing?" demanded the guy.

"And where is the small forward?" demanded someone else, who probably didn't know what they were fighting about in the first place. "Looks like half the starting line-up is missing. God knows whether we'll make it through to the finals."

Akashi clenched his fists controlling his anger. "The small forward has permission from the coach to not attend practice for a few days. He has his profession to take care of."

"And so he gets off scott free." commented someone else. "What about our ace."

"Our ace..... doesn't have official permission." said Akashi addressing one of the hoops so that his anger wouldn't burst out. He had gone after Aomine. Requested, threatened, pleaded, coaxed and bargained. All to no useful end. And here he was standing trial for crimes he hadn't committed. Ever since both Kise and Aomine had started bunking often, this mood was quite prevalent. Every other guy kept accusing him of partiality. They never did it openly like this ofcourse. But he could see it in their expressions. Kise had official permission, so nothing could be done. And there was no way that he could babysit Aomine continuously. He had an entire club to look after.

"Why bother...." muttered someone. "Our captain doesn't care enough to grow a backbone."

Akashi snapped. "Enough! Everyone back to positions. If I see anyone who isn't practicing, they'll do ten times the usual drill. That's final." Something in his tone reached them all.

The small crowd quickly dispersed. All that were left were the two who had originally come to talk to him. Akashi was fighting to keep his temper in check. "Go." he said to no one in particular and started to walk away.

"Wait. Can he go home?" questioned the friend again meekly. But Akashi left without giving any concrete answer.

Akashi kept clenching and unclenching his fists in a desperate attempt to calm himself. Something had to be done. The words the sick guy muttered kept echoing in his head.

"........afterall, I'm worth sh*t ain't I. Not like one of your star players......"