Teiko's basketball III: Three's a charm

The vow

Sora trudged through the empty corridors. She now had the unpleasant task of clearing out her locker. The job had both its ups and downs. As Sora began to uncharacteristically cram her things into her bag instead of arranging them, she was hit by a wave of nostalgia. She remembered her first two years in the basketball team. They were the times when everyone just assumed 'team equals family'. Teiko had won the championship this year too but whenever Sora tried to talk about it, she felt like her mouth was full of sawdust, making her choke.

If it was like this for the girls, it was probably much worse for the guys. Despite all her prayers, Kuroko had been very offended when he had heard about the final match. Sora couldn't blame him. The g.o.m had simply gone out of their way to make it bad. They had engineered both the teams' scores and there was probably no better way of offending an opponent.

'Every single point they took... Was shoved down their throats. I can't play anymore, even if I try to. I... I quit basketball.'

That was the last thing he had said to her before he had started consciously avoiding them all, and being the phantom player, he was very good at it. Sora shut her locker with a snap and headed outside. She found that a couple of girls were playing and that made her nauseous for some reason. She hurried out and almost ran past the courts, until finally stopping before one. The court seemed empty but Sora could hear a series of rhythmic sounds coming from inside.

Thwack... Thwack... Thwack.

Sora pushed open to find that it was Kuroko. He was actually shooting hoops! Sora was not sure whether he was concentrating because some of his shots even missed the board.

"You might want to calm down, Kuroko-kun," she said, finally.

Kuroko seemed to snap out of a daze and looked around quickly. "Oh. Sora-san, I didn't see you standing there."

"That's usually my line," said Sora with a weak smile.

"You'd probably think I'm an idiot... Standing here with a ball, after all that talk."

"No, no," said Sora, hastily, "I'm relieved."

"It isn't what you think, Sora-san," said Kuroko, "I went to visit him at Meiko, only to find that he was gone. He had quit basketball for good. One of his friends urged me not to quit. And then I realized..."

"Realized what?" said Sora slowly.

"That it is up to me to make them taste defeat. To bring them back to what they once were."

"Kuroko-kun..." said Sora.

"You think that I can't do it?"

Sora hesitated. "I would say that that is almost impossible now... But... If anyone can do it, it should be you. Who knows..."

"You could play your part too, Sora-san," said Kuroko.

"Kuroko-kun, are you sure we can go back to what we were?"

"No," said Kuroko, "But the least we can do is try."

Sora decided to leave Kuroko to his own devices and headed back to class. There were a lot of people there, so Sora left her bag beside her locker. She desperately needed to clear her head.

Sora chose the roof as her retreat. From there, she had a fair view of the entire school. Sora had been in the place only for three years, but she had become attached to it. She hated to leave with all those good memories tainted with a few bad ones.

"Enjoying the view, Sora?"

Sora found that Akashi was standing next to her, with his hands in his pockets.

"Nae, perhaps on some counts, you were right. After all these years together... Are we going to just walk out of each other's lives? I don't like it... I don't like it at all!"

"You know, Sora, you'll probably get this doubt every time you are on the verge of something new. And I hope to God, that I'll be there next to you to tell you that you don't have to leave everything behind," he said, with a small smile, "Being sentimental isn't going to do you any good, you know."

"Seijuro..." muttered Sora, the tears she had been holding back for a long time finally beginning to fall. Sora felt his arms around her, pulling her closer.

"Hush, woman. You have no real reason to cry."