Teiko's basketball III: Three's a charm

Akashi Seijuro

Sora was weary by the time the last of the players exited the court. It was hard enough to collect data, even without having problems of your own. To add to her frustration, the second string of the boys' team had actually won and she had a feeling that she would hear a lot about that soon from coach. Miyu was quiet and studiously writing down something on her scratchpad.

"Hey! We won the bet you know. What do you have to say to that captain--"

"Shut up! Sorry, senpai..."

Sora ignored both the voices and studied the court carefully. Luckily, most of her team-mates except Miyu had dispersed, which gave her no real reason to refrain from being openly upset about the outcome.

"You okay?" said Miyu suspiciously.

"Umm," said Sora.

"You shouldn't  blame yourself. They put more effort into the boys' team and so they probably should also expect better results from there."

"They get better results there, so there is a better chance that we'll be called sore losers for anything that we may say," said Sora grouchily and then blinked, "I'm sorry, Miyu-san. I appreciate your concern. My bad really."

"You need to calm down," said Miyu wearily.

"I'll try," said Sora, managing a weak smile before staring off into the distance again. Miyu quietly gathered her things and went back to the dorm, leaving Sora to stew in regret in peace.

The day was decidedly not in her favour. Soon, the court was nearly empty. Sora's thoughts kept fluctuating between her personal problems and her woes as a captain. Sora knew she hadn't given her all in the previous match. Perhaps Akashi had done the right thing there. He had set a good example, at the least. Sora had often spoken to him against playing solely for winning. But now, after all the matches, she began to feel that it would be good to have someone like that on her side. Even though that someone probably didn't care.

Sora glanced to her side, to find that Akashi was sitting a few seats away from her. She quickly turned away in turmoil. Sora had turned over the day's events a couple of times in her mind. She was pretty sure that Akashi hadn't pushed her on purpose. He didn't need to win that way. What really annoyed her was his reaction to the situation. He was probably too proud to admit that he had slipped.

Sora's phone buzzed and she reached into her pocket. She was surprised to receive a text from the very person in question.

'It's late, do you want to get locked in?'

Sora paused and typed out a reply.

So you're staying too? Fine then.'

Sora glanced at him to find him looking at the screen in confusion.

'I don't understand.'

Sora had been expecting something of the sort.

Oh, sorry. My bad, Akashi. I thought this was someone else.'

Sora was wondering if he would understand the joke or worse, get mad at her current bad sense of humour, when he ditched his phone and turned around.

"Akashi? Did you just call me Akashi?"

Sora glanced at the sequence of texts on her screen and shrugged.

"I'm disappointed," he said, with his lips curling slightly in anger, "What did you expect me to do? Beg for your forgiveness? Tell you that your team's abysmal performance was quite okay? But don't worry. Judging from what I've seen from the other teams this year, you'll probably get through."