That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 1)

第6Q

It was lunchtime. Along with Yasu, the first-years were called out by their seniors to meet up in a corridor. "What do you want?" asked Kagami with a hand in his pocket.

"Go buy some bread." said Riko, smiling like the other upperclassmen.

"Huh?" blinked Yasu owlishly. "Bread?"

"On the 27th of every month, the Seirin High cafeteria sells a limited quantity of a very special bread." explained Riko. "Supposedly, eating this fantastic bread will bring you great success in love, clubs, or anything else. The triple delicacy Iberian pork cutlet sandwich with caviar, foie gras and truffles! It's 2,800 yen!"

"It's so expensive!" commented Furihata.

"And there's so much on there, it must be trash." added Fukuda.

'Couldn't I have done the same with my own version of pork cutler sandwich?' wondered Yasu. 'All I have to do is be appreciative of my food.'

"We beat Kaijo, and practice is coming along well." said Hyuga. "We're asking you to get this fantastic bread so you can continue building momentum."

"But we're not the only ones with our eyes on it." warned Riko. "It always gets a little busier than usual."

"We just have to go buy some bread, right?" asked Kagami, accepting the challenge. "That's easy as pie... ma'am."

"Here." said Hyuga, passing him a sealed envelope. "The second years will pay for this. Buy lunch for everyone else while you're there, too. But if you fail..." Dark aura started to shroud him, though he kept his closed-eye smile. "I don't need any change. Instead, you'll be doing three times as much strength training and footwork." The first-years became scared of him, with Kuroko staring blankly at him.

"If you don't hurry, they'll be sold out." warned Izuki.

"Izuki-senpai..." said Yasu, trailing off.

The said boy smiled at her. "It's okay." he assured. "We managed to buy some last year, and you're just going to buy some bread." She smiled back and nodded before leaving with the other first-years.

"See you later." they said.

"Kuroko, I have a bad feeling about this." said Yasu worriedly.

The said boy gave her an assuring smile and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be fine, Yasu-san." he said.

But when they arrived at the cafeteria, all of them stared with wide eyes and mouths agape, with the exception of Kuroko. "Are you serious...?" asked Yasu. "This reminds me of Black Friday sales back in America..."

The cafeteria was filled with students lining up, more like crowding around the counter, all demanding for the special bread. It was so crowded that some of them had to push another student away to get near the counter. It was definitely busier than what they had seen.

"Th-This is chaos." commented Fukuda, feeling uneasy about having to go through the crowd to buy some bread.

"We have to go." said Kagami determinedly. "Three times the strength training and footwork will kill us."

"Okay, I'll go first." volunteered Kawahara as he started to warm up. "I might not be as strong as Kagami, but I'm pretty confident in my power."

"Don't die!" shouted Fukuda.

Kawahara ran towards the crowd and tried to at least taking a step forward, only to be kicked out. "It's useless!" commented Furihata.

"Now that I take a better look, this is going to take more than a little power." said Fukuda.