Another Manager (Akashi Seijuro x OC)

Teikō Junior High Basketball Club Managers

"Teikō Junior High School Basketball Club. A super-strong school with more than 100 club members, boasting several successive championship wins. But even within that glorious history, there is still a team that can without fail be called the 'strongest' - a generation of five players with talents that you would see once every ten years called the 'Generation of Miracles.'"

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Transferring schools was always full of new things. Life at Teikō Junior High was especially unpredictable because Ai was moving from America to Tokyo, a place where she didn't know anyone.

After the first few days of wondering where she could belong, Ai visited the gymnasium where the various levels of basketball players were practicing. She had heard that it was the biggest club in the school, and Ai thought she could meet new people if she joined.

As she watched from outside, Ai was quickly found by a bright girl with light pink hair. They chatted together for a bit, and the girl told her that she had joined the club with her childhood friend, but as a manager.

As for Momoi, she had heard about a transfer student in one of the other classes, and she thought that Ai was very easy to talk to. They became friends that day, and Momoi went to tell Akashi about her.

A few days later, Momoi brought her to see the team captain and coaches. When Akashi saw her and listened to her speak for a minute, he knew that the new girl would become a valuable asset to the team. He didn't even need to hear the entire interview with the coach. Right away, the Generation of Miracles' captain recommended that she be chosen for the first-string players along with Momoi.

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Her skills were apparent from the first day she joined. Everyone was appalled, dumbfounded even, at her attentiveness. Her thoughtfulness was remarkable at such a young age. Ai was the ideal manager, other than Momoi's expertise in analysis. With each passing day, she seemed to get better at caring for the team, and it left the coaches in awe. Ai would additionally look for ways to improve. Her work ethic was unbelievable and unprecedented by any other nameless managers.

Ai didn't have a particular interest in sports until then, so she had to learn about basketball from the very beginning. Momoi was a great help with that, teaching her the rules and why the boys did certain training methods. The new manager gladly absorbed and retained the information like a sponge.

Ai had never expected to meet her future boyfriend by joining Teikō's basketball club, but every day since then, she was thankful to have become their manager.

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And so, Teikō had two main managers: Momoi the Analyst and Ai the Caretaker.

That was her title. Although it seemed like a submissive role, and she didn't particularly prefer being called it, Ai worked with confidence and pride. She made sure the athletes were in optimal shape and kept track of their emotional conditions. While Momoi focused on data analysis, the athletes' abilities, and their physical potential and growth, Ai took care of the rest. Her specialty was interpersonal connections and psychology; very ironic considering it was the very thing she avoided in middle school. Ai was skilled, also being able to do some of the data-gathering that Momoi taught her how to do, but not much of the analyses.

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Fall
2 Years Ago

One normal school day, Momoi had come to Ai's class during lunch to eat together and discuss some things about the club. As they sat across from each other with their pink and orange notebooks open, the girls began to get whispers from other students.