Six miracles: Crossed paths

Chapter 21 || Seirin High and Rakuzan High

Rakuzan High

"Screw you, Akira-san!" yelled Sora, frustrated.

"Oro? Was that you, kouhai?" enquired Honami.

"Umm, sorry senpai," said Sora, turning red, "I didn't mean to shout."

"It's fine, kouhai. I know we may seem highly competitive, but the place is just like Teiko. You have nothing to be nervous about," said Honami, gently.

"I won't let you down," said Sora.

"Get a grip,"said Ayumi, who had come for her water-bottle.

"Senpai, I wasn't—never mind,"said Sora.

Honami gave her a reassuring smile and went to talk to the other two starters.

Sora took a deep breath and looked at her phone again. Akira could be infuriating at the worst of times. Akira had sent her a picture of a guy in a uniform which said 'Shinkyo'. He was huge. After Murasakibara, Sora had thought she would never be surprised at how tall some players were. This happened to be an exception. He looked like he was some sort of foreigner. What really irritated Sora was that Akira had accompanied the picture with a couple of laugh emojis and text which said'#goals'.

Sora shook her head to clear her thoughts. She would give Akira an earful later. But right now, she had a match.

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Seirin High

"Nae, senpai..." said Akira,"Are you sure they will turn up in time? Wouldn't it have been easier if we had all met at school and then come together?"

Akira had had a vivid nightmare the day before. In her dream, the team members had not turned up, even when the warm-up had started. Coach, who was wearing a pink cloak for some reason, had then begged Akira to play on behalf of Seirin. All her team members from Teiko were there in the gallery, cheering her on. The referee had refused to let Akira play when the alarm clock blared, waking her up. In addition to this, Midorima had sent her the day's Oha-asa, and Aquarius was eleventh. As a result, Akira was feeling really jumpy.

"Oh, they'll turn up," said Riko, confidently.

Riko took out her phone and Akira saw that the screen saver was a guy playing basketball with an enormous teddy bear. It's colour and size reminded Akira of Murasakibara, and she spaced out. The guys did turn up well before time, despite Akira's qualms. Kuroko and Kagami arrived, and Akira saw that Kagami's eyes looked puffed up.

"Look at what the cat dragged in."

"Shut up."

"Seriously though... Can you play in this condition?"

"Can I play? Yes. Am I in the mood for chitchat? No."

They found the Shinkyo players already doing laps around the court. The boys quickly changed into their uniforms and joined them.

"Where is he?" muttered coach.

"Hmm? Yeah... Now that you mention it..." said Akira, scanning the court.

The elusive 'otou-san'  was nowhere to be found. The starters had were well into the warm-up now.Akira knew it would be difficult to miss the guy in a crowd. He was certainly no Kuroko. But this meant that he was late. The opponents seemed to be living her nightmare. Akira glanced towards the team to study their mood, and didn't find them too fazed by papa's absence.On the contrary, their captain was talking to Hyuuga. Riko followed Akira's line of sight and frowned.