Teiko's basketball

Chess and invisible guys

Chapter 3:

Chess and invisible guys

Sora had reached school early that day. Too early. She wondered what had taken possession of her and deluded her into thinking that she would be late. She had considered Tokyo traffic to be misleading and ended up coming to school nearly two hours early! Now she wondered how she was going to kill time. Sora decided that she might as well clean out her locker. She was entering the combination when she heard a slight scratching sound next to her. Sora froze. She had been almost cent percent sure that she had been alone. She slowly tightened her grip on her bag. It was quite heavy and one good hit could be easily very painful. She slowly turned and blindly swung her bag. A boy with light-blue hair barely ducked out of her way and fell pitifully on the floor. Sora was shocked. She felt had almost killed him because of her nervousness! She went and helped him up.

"Please forgive me! I'm so sorry. I sort of assumed you were a ghost or something."

"It's alright. I have a really weak presence and people usually take me for a ghost. I'm Kuroko Tetsuya."

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Himeji Sora. You scared me! Why are you here so early? I came at this time by accident..."

"I'm practicing basketball. I'm in the third string, so practice starts late. So I can usually have the whole court to myself. Only the first string practices around this time. Do you play basketball?"

"Nah, but I have a friend who is really enthusiastic... I guess I shouldn't hold you up any longer. Good luck!"

"Thank you. And wish you the same."

Kuroko proceeded to the court while Sora picked up a book and went to her class. When she entered, she saw the red-head and green-head immersed in a game of chess. And here she was hoping for a bit of sanity...

When Sora went to get a closer look, she found that both of them were really good players. She knew a quite a bit about chess and could judge the situation accurately.

The game had just started. The red-head had started with an a3. This was a sort of unconventional approach and this move either meant he was really experienced or was an amateur risk-taker. The green-head had gone with the really convectional and safe e5. Sora remembered his manner of speech earlier. Putting the two together, she could safely say that the green-head was a person who followed rules to the letter and was really a traditional sort of guy. This time he had a raccoon! But he didn't look like someone who would indulge amateurs by playing with them. So this match had to be interesting. Sora abandoned her book and decided to watch the game. The two boys glanced at her but continued playing as if she wasn't there.

The match was intense and ended with the green-head being defeated by the red-head.

"Nice one, Midorima. But you know, I always win," said the red-head with a merry chuckle.

The green-head shook his head. "There's always the next time, Akashi."

"And the time after that, and after that..." said Akashi in a merry tone. Midorima was going to leave the class, when Sora's curiosity reached it's pinnacle.

"Umm... Excuse me, but what's with the raccoon?" she said.

"You're Himeji Sora right? Nowadays no one follows the principles of fate. Such a question--"

"Principle of what?"

"Fate. It influences all but remains unseen or rather ignored. This is the lucky item of cancer. It will change the fate of whoever owns it--"

"I should have expected this," muttered Sora, "Especially after that e5, nf6, nc6--"

The red-head looked up with sudden interest. "Do you play chess?"

"To some extent," answered Sora carefully, though she was quite a decent player.

"Shall we have a game? Midorima wants to go and well, I'm bored... But, where are my manners! I'm Akashi Seijuro. And you?"

"Himeji Sora. And I might as well since I have plenty of time to kill..."

Midorima left the class and Sora and Akashi settled down to play.

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Akira found Sora leaning on her locker and rushed up to her friend. "What the hell! You look like you were attacked by a ghost!"

"Five times in a row--" Sora muttered.

" Eh?!"

"That damn red-head! I nearly got him the fourth time... If only I wasn't so airheaded! He even had the guts to admit that... Next time..."

" What..."

Meanwhile at the court, Midorima looked at Akashi warily. He was smiling suspiciously. "You are late, Akashi. What held you up?"

"Ah, I ended up playing five times in a row."

"Have mercy on people. What happened? Did you make her say I'll never play again?"

"Nah. On the contrary, she actually challenged me."

Midorima shook his head. " Anyway, you are late for practice..."