That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 1)

第7Q

'What?' thought Papa, not sure of what had happened that let Kagami score a basket. 'What just happened?'

"Let's get them back!" said the team captain, passing the ball back to his teammate, only to have Kuroko slam the ball away. Kagami caught the ball and did another dunk, surprising everyone in the stadium about the two dunks in a row.

"That was good." praised Hyuga as he stared at Kuroko's back while they and Kagami ran back to the court to defend. 'Has Kuroko always been this good?' he thought. "Are you really that mad about being called a kid?"

"Yeah." agreed Kagami, thinking that was the reason for his spark of fire. "Its like, don't talk until you've played them."

The buzzer rang throughout the stadium, followed by the referee blowing the whistle to end the first quarter, with Seirin ahead of Shinkyo by fifteen points. Yasu passed each player a water bottle and towel before they sat on the bench to rest while listening to their coach's strategy.

"Kuroko-kun, you've got a time limit, so we're swapping you out here." she said, earning a nod from him. "Because we have to start reserving Kuroko-kun's strength, we'll lose some power during the mid-game, so don't let them close the point gap. They don't have any dangerous players aside from Dad. Ultimately, it all comes down to how well Kagami-kun can handle Dad."

"Just leave it to me." assured the said boy.

The game resumed with the start of the second quarter. Papa received the ball and turned around, trying to shoot it while avoiding Kagami's tight defense. This time, Kagami failed to reach the ball, and Papa took this opportunity to shoot, scoring a basket.

"He really is amazing." said Izuki, surprised by how the foreign player was able to avoid Kagami's block.

"Has he gotten even taller?" asked Hyuga.

"I'm serious now!" declared Papa. "I will not lose!"

Kagami humphed. "I couldn't ask for more." he scoffed. "I'm started to get excited, Dad!"

With seven minutes and fifty seconds left, Seirin's points were two times the point scored by Shinkyo. Hyuga received the ball and shot a three-pointer, which he realised the distance was too short and would miss. The ball bounced off the rim, prompting Papa and Kagami to leap up at the same time, only the latter caught the ball first and did an alley-oop. Yasu watched the game went on until she realised something odd about Kagami. Tanimura passed the ball to his teammate, who then passed it to Papa. He turned around and tried to shoot but Kagami jumped with his arm stretched up high to block, forcing him to pass the ball to his teammate, much to their confusion. He received the ball again and tried to score, but Kagami was in his way as he jumped up to block the shot.

'Is it just me, or Kagami's jumping higher and higher?' pondered Yasu, noticing the whole thing repeated with Kagami jumping up to block Papa from shooting.

"Kagami's amazing." commented Tsuchida when the said boy continuously blocked Papa. "He's more than keeping him in check. He's not losing to him at all. Looks like his practice is paying off."

"But don't you think he's trying too hard?" questioned Riko, noticing the boy doing continuous jumps.

Yasu glanced at Kuroko, who stared at Kagami while remembering what Kise had told him in the park few weeks ago. "What's wrong?" she asked out of concern.

"Nothing." he assured.

~Time skip~

There were five minutes left for the fourth quarter to end, and Seirin was ahead of Seirin by nine points. That was when Yasu realised the gap was starting to shrink. "Riko-senpai, I think it's best we put Kuroko on the court." she suggested, not wanting to have the risk of Shinkyo catching up until the end of the game.