The Trump Card - Kuroko no Basket Season 2 (Akashi x Reader)

EP 24

    The final quarter started and Kiyoshi decided to ask Riko to let him in on the last minute or two of the game. He felt like he could try again, but because his body was spent and sore, he asked Riko to help him with that. Riko had to give him a full body massage to get his muscles to stop being so stiff. It was going to be painful. Riko accepted and both of them left to the infirmary room. 

    Riko left (Y/N), Tsuchida and Koganei in charge while she was gone.

    At the court, the game was going tensely. Kagami had been trying to defend all the two-point area by himself and Murasakibara was angry that the red haired thought he alone would be enough to stop him. 

    The truth was Kagami was having trouble. He kept trying, he kept jumping, he kept pushing, but Murasakibara was always scoring.

    Okamura had the ball and passed it to Himuro. Himuro ran with it and stopped when Kagami was marking him. This was what the dark haired wanted, a one-on-one with Kagami. Himuro did a fake and got past Kagami, who was taken aback with his speed. Himuro kept going and if it wasn't for Murasakibara noticing Kuroko approaching him to steal the ball from him, he would have lost it to the blue haired boy.

    Himuro still had the ball and Hyuuga was marking him. Himuro was angry, he thought Kagami was underestimating him by believing he could defend the inside area by himself. He would show him, then. Himuro did another fake and got past Hyuuga. 

    Kagami got in front of him. The red haired didn't waver, he already knew how Himuro did his Mirage Shot, and all he had to do was stop him.

    The trick was: Himuro released the ball twice, the first time he would just throw it up in the air, and after that he would grab the ball and release it again, shooting it towards the basket. 

    But stopping him from doing this proved to be more difficult than Kagami initially expected.

    Kagami delayed his jump, counting that Himuro would first do the fake release, but Himuro surprised him by shooting the ball on the first release. It turned out that it didn't matter if the opponent knew how Himuro did it. Himuro just had to adjust his movement depending on what his opponent decided to do. If the opponent jumped on the first release, Himuro would do the fake and then when he released the ball for real, the opponent would already be too late to block it. If the opponent decided to wait before jumping to catch the ball on the second release, Himuro would just shoot the ball on the first instead and his opponent would miss it. Because Himuro's moves were so fluid and he was so good at faking, his opponents had no way of predicting him, seen that the dark haired could just change what he was doing in a second.

    Himuro was angry that Kagami thought he would be able to stop him just because he knew how it worked, the dark haired boy was confident no one would ever be able to defend against his trick. 

    Just like that, Himuro scored.

    Kagami started to get angry, more with himself of course. He just kept failing! If only he got it right, if only he could be stronger again, if only he could enter the Zone again! He would have the focus and speed to stop not only Himuro but Murasakibara as well. He told his team he would defend the inside area alone, but up until now he was failing. If only he could get that extra strength he needed.

    (Y/N)'s eyes widened when she looked at Kagami and realized what he was trying to do.

    "I can't believe him. What is he thinking?" she asked out loud. Was Kagami seriously trying to get into the Zone?

    At the stands, Aomine had realized the same thing. Kagami was trying to enter the Zone.

    "What's that idiot doing?" he asked, sounding unimpressed and Momoi looked up at him curiously.