That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 2)

第27Q

With the big hand lowering to his head, Fukuda and Furihata began to panic, worried about the giant hurting their teammate. 'What is he trying to do?' thought Fukuda.

But instead, Murasakibara placed his hand on Kuroko's head and ruffled his hair playfully, messing up his hair. "I'm just kidding." he said.

Kuroko was annoyed at the gesture, as an vein throbbed under his eye, swatting the giant's hand away. "Please don't do that." he scolded.

"Oh, are you mad?" he said. "I'm sorry."

'This guy...' thought Kagami when he recognised the tall boy. 'I walked by him at the Inter-High. This is the Generation of Miracles' center, Murasakibara!'

"Atsushi, do you know Yasu-san?" asked Himuro with his gaze focused on the said girl.

"I went to the same middle-school as her." replied the said boy. "How did you know Ya-chin?"

"I knew about her back in America." replied his schoolmate, his eyes still fixated on the girl. She looked at him with a raised brow, and he responded by smiling at her before looking back at the giant. "I thought you weren't coming."

"Actually, it's your fault for changing our meeting place at the last second." said Murasakibara as he passed the raven-haired boy the ball. "I only came because you said you wanted to go sightseeing around Tokyo since you came back to Japan." He took out a bag of chips and opened it before taking out a piece to eat. "But you're playing street ball."

"Sorry, sorry." said Himuro before looking over at the team he was playing with. "They said they were down a player, and it sounded like fun."

"Yosen played into Inter-High, didn't they?" asked Furihata.

"What?" asked Fukuda. "You mean he played in the Inter-High, too?"

Murasakibara heard their conversation while putting the girl down and turned to them. "No, I didn't play." he replied lazily. Kuroko gently grabbed Yasu's hand and pulled her behind him, standing in front of her protectively.

"What?" responded Yasu, confused. "Why not, Murasakibara?"

"I don't know." he said. "I mean, the only reason I didn't play is because Aka-chin told me not to."

"Who's Aka-chin?" asked Furihata.

"It's Akashi-kun." replied Kuroko. "He's talking about the former captain of the Generation of Miracles." Kagami's eyes widened while Kiyoshi's brow furrowed as they look at the Phantom Player.

"Oh, I forgot." said the giant suddenly as he turned to Himuro. "Muro-chin, we can't play in unofficial games. That's why I came here to stop you."

"I see." said Himuro understandingly. "That's a shame."

"Let's go." said the tall boy before waving at Yasu while smiling lazily at her. "Bye bye, Ya-chin."

As soon as Murasakibara guided him away, Kagami placed his hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Hey, wait." he interrupted. "You can't just barge in here and leave like that. Stay a while and play."

'Kagami?!' thought Fukuda and Furihata worriedly, wondering what was going through the said boy's mind when he told Murasakibara to stay.

'I can't keep my mouth shut with a member of the Generation of Miracles in front of me!' thought Kagami. 'Besides, I won't let him interfere with my game against Tatsuya!'

But the giant looked at him and his finger pointed at his eyebrow. "What's going on with your eyebrows?" he asked about the one thing that piqued his curiosity. "Why are they split into two?" Unexpectedly, he plucked out a part of Kagami's eyebrow and stared at it.