Fallen Miracles

Basketball is like air to me - Prologue

Hinata Pov

Basketball has been a part of my life ever since I can remember. Every family event I went to at my old place in Tokyo there was always a game of basketball being played. My cousins and siblings would play heck even all the adults would play with us. Of course this ended up with arguments and injuries among the younger children who got stepped on by an uncle or something but I never seemed to be a victim of this. According to everyone back home I had this undeniable talent that I hadn't seemed to notice. I never took it seriously though I just enjoyed playing basketball. It was like air to me if I didn't have basketball, what would I do with my life?

I joined my first proper basketball team when I started elementary school and I'll be honest we weren't that good. I didn't really care, for me it was never about winning; playing with my friends was more than enough. As I got older though more and more people started recognising that I had this "talent" and I found as I grew there was more and more pressure being put on me. I was too young at the time to even realise it but when I would walk past teams in the gym they would all be whispering about me even groups of parents would go around talking about me behind my back glaring at me when I passed by. However, the young naive me never took any notice of it. I was too busy having fun. I wish that was still the case.

Two years ago I started Teiko middle school and two years ago is when I started to hate Basketball. For the first few months of my first year I didn't join any clubs so I could get settled in. My parents however were not too pleased with this. They really wanted me to try out for the basketball club of course they kept saying that I was wasting time and that there wouldn't be any spots left if I didn't hurry up and that I could potentially be wasting my future. In the end I went to the trials and when I say that that trial game was the best game I have ever played. I mean it. It was the most challenging game I had ever played. It felt weird playing with and against the 6 other first years because it was as if I had found people who were on the same level as me.

Teiko soon became the most well known middle school basketball team in Tokyo because of the 7 players they called the Generation of Miracles. Everything was seemingly going great until suddenly... it wasn't. Winning every game, practise game and tournament became the norm after my first year at Teiko. Long trainings, high expectations from my parents, coaches, captain and teammates hung around me like a suffocating blanket. I remember standing on the court during a semifinal looking around and realising that no one on the court was smiling, not one single person. And for the first time ever I remember thinking this isn't fun anymore. I lost a huge part of myself that day.

After that day I fell into a cycle. I started skipping school, practise, games, getting into fights which resulted in me getting suspended. I had no motivation for anything anymore.It felt like I was being controlled like a puppet. As if I was a walking shell of myself. Of course my parents were quickly on my case and when I tell you they were mad they were mad mad. In the end I got taken off the first string team, not that I cared they would be fine without me I mean they were only team mates. But for my parents well that was the last straw they absolutely lost their shit with me. In Fact they got so mad that they ended up sending me away to live with my aunt and cousin who lives in Miyagi.

Miyagi turned out to be the perfect place for me to start anew. I attended Yukigaoka middle school. I made friends and I even fell in love with a new sport. I had finally found my purpose again. From what I've heard, the memories of the 7th member of the Generation of miracles had faded and was nothing but an unspoken myth.

I'm happy with my life now although sometimes I do feel like I am putting on a facade. I'm now in my first year of highschool playing volleyball with a team that feels like family hah! I even have a boyfriend for goodness sake. But part of me still feels empty.