That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 1)

第15Q

Yasu's eyes twitched when she felt light, forcing her to open them, and was surprised to find herself in her bedroom in broad daylight. 'How did I get here?' she questioned, confused at how she went from being carried by Kuroko to landing up in her own bed, wearing her pajamas.

Just then, someone gently knocked on the door. "Are you awake, imouto-chan?" asked a familiar voice muffled by the wooden door.

'That's onii-chan!' she noted. She was about to say something when she winced at the stabbing pain in her feet. "Y-Yes!" she called before slowly getting up. The door opened to reveal a young man, with one hand carrying a tray of food and the other holding a small bucket of ice with a towel hanging on the same arm. He had medium-long light brown hair of the same shade as hers and emerald eyes. "When did you get back, onii-chan?" she asked.

"Yesterday evening." he replied, playing the tray of food on her nightstand and the bucket on the floor. "I'm on leave for the next nine days, and I knew you were hanging out your teammates after the preliminaries, so I thought might as well come here by myself to surprise you. But in the end, I found my baby sister given a piggy-back ride by some dude."

Yasu rolled her eyes and chuckled. "He's not "some dude"." she corrected. She slowly turned to her nightstand with her feet dangling from the bed to have her breakfast while he sat on the ground, with her legs in front of him and the bucket beside. "His name is Kuroko Tetsuya. He and I are schoolmates since Teiko years, though I left during the third year."

Her brother's ears perked up at the familiar name. "Oh, that Phantom Sixth Player?" he asked, recognising his alias, while removing her arch supports. "I still don't know why you taught him the foundation of those passes. I mean, they're your signature moves back in elementary school years, and you easily gave them away to someone you weren't close to."

"I can't keep everything to myself when I no longer play basketball, right?" she shrugged before chewing on a piece of omelette.

"I see what the problem is, for last night's sudden pain." said her brother, looking at the arch supports in his hands. "The bands are loosening, and they stop giving your arches the support." He looked around the room until he saw the wastepaper bin and threw them inside without moving. "Luckily I brought spares."

"Thanks, onii-chan." said Yasu gratefully as she watched him giving her feet and calves a massage, sometimes having to use the ice cubes wrapped in the towel to reduce the swelling.

When she started having plantar fasciitis, her brother was there for her after the family had given up on the local doctors. While taking his Master's Degree in Sports Science, he took her condition as a reference for his thesis, and it pushed him to study harder to understand what it was all about; causes, symptoms, treatments and the available equipment that could provide some help in the patients' daily lives.

And with the knowledge he gained, he was able to ease the pain by providing her legs and feet reflexology, getting the right arch supports based on the shape of her feet that was proportioned to her built, advising her on the type of food she had to eat or avoid; Yasu had never been more gratefully.

Her brother strapped the supports to her feet before adjusting the tightness a few times. "Okay, I'm done!" he chirped before standing up and carried away the things he brought in earlier. "By the way, I called the school and said you'll be at home for a few days. In the meantime, let your feet have some good rest." He glanced at her and smirked teasingly, adding, "After all that jumping to celebrate with your teammates." Yasu only looked down with a flustered face, making him chuckle as he left her room.

She let out a sigh and reached out for her phone to check for any notifications, which mounted up to fifteen text messages. 'Oh my...' she thought before flipping the phone to read all of them.