The Wager (Kuroko no Basket)

Phase 11: Have an Argument

I stifle my yawn as I get out of class. I spent all of yesterday watching all the recordings of Tōō's games that I could get my hands on in order to prepare for the quarter-finals for Inter-High. In addition, I went and found all the games from last year and watched Aomine play. I didn't finish watching and taking notes until this morning. I feel so lethargic right now, it's not even remotely funny. I head into the club room and pass Kasamatsu all of my notes without a word. "What is this?" Kasamatsu asks. He opens the notebook up and starts to skim through it. "You made notes on everyone on their starting team?" he asks. His eyes are wide. I nod.

I walk over to Kise. "You don't look so well, are you okay?" he asks, his eyes wide with concern. I can't even gather enough energy and will to deal with that right now. I take another notebook out of my bag and pass it to Kise without a word. "H-Huh? What is it, Kimikocchi?" Kise asks.

"You want to Aomine him, don't you?" I reply. "I wrote everything I could think of. It was a pain. It's hard to predict what he'll do, so they're not entirely reliable, but they're the best predictions I could come up with. I know that he was one of your former teammates, but still."

"Kimikocchi..." Kise begins. I get the feeling that he might try to hug me again.

I decide to cut him off before he can do anything. "I really don't have the energy to deal with that today," I reply. "I've already asked Coach for the day off so I can sleep, so if you'll excuse me..." I head out of club room and stumble to the station to get home. All I want to do is sleep right now.

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I wake up to the sound of my cellphone going off. My room is pitch black. Damn it. I overslept... I glance at my cell. It's Kise again. I pick up, still drowsy from sleep. It's pretty amazing that I managed to stumble back home safely. "Hello?" I greet.

"Kimikocchi? Sorry did I wake you?" he asks. Oh geez, I must have sounded drowsy just now...

"Doesn't matter. I should start doing homework anyways," I reply. "What is it?"

"The guide you gave me is extremely detailed and the one you gave to Kasamatsu-senpai is just as good. Did you stay up all night writing those?" he asks, his voice filled with concern.

"Yeah. Don't read too much into it though. I'm just doing my job," I reply, "Besides, it's not that I worked particularly hard on those- it's about the usual amount of effort. My lack of sleep is mostly my fault since I only started to work on it two days ago."

"Kimikocchi..." he begins hesitantly. "If you don't want to date me, then why are you working so hard to help us win?"

"Assumptions aside, I'm just doing my job. I wouldn't be doing it properly if I didn't do everything that I could to help the team," I reply. "It wouldn't be fair otherwise."

Kise chuckles. "You're so strange, Kimikocchi," he says. "I'll talk to you again tomorrow. Get some sleep, okay?"

"Yeah," I reply. I hang up. Kise's going to have difficulties tomorrow... I fall back asleep quickly.

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The next day, I wait around in the locker rooms before the game. They start to head out, so I call, "Kise, there's something I have to talk to you about." Kise nods and hangs back while the others file out of the locker room. I look him in the eyes, and my answer is clear already. Damn it. I figured this would happen, but still... "Kise, in your current state, I don't think that you can beat Aomine-san."

For the first time, he looks upset with me. Almost furious, actually. His eyes narrow. "What are you saying?" he asks. "I don't want to hear this kind of stuff from you right now. I thought that you would do your best to help everyone," he says. There's a certain edge to his voice. To be honest, it catches me off guard.