Tetsuya Nigō Drabbles Part 1

Day 140 - Reading movements

That was it. The last ten minutes of the match. Touou was behind with twelve points. Rakuzan was on the defense, not really pushing for an attack. But whenever they got the ball from Touou they scored. So the gap could get bigger at any moment.

Touou couldn't waste a second but also couldn't make any mistakes.

Akashi was still not marking anyone in particular, running around and stealing or passing the ball when he had to. He wasn't even focusing on Aomine that much anymore. This infuriated the blue-haired boy. Did Akashi really think this Shadow 2.0 could stop him for much longer?

Aomine had played with Kuroko the most, knew his tactics, saw them used against himself last year. This Chihiro boy was nothing. Aomine could pass him. Or at least should've been able to. But somehow he couldn't do it. Why?! Did this boy learn a new trick? Everyone else sure did.

Meanwhile Akashi watched as Aomine was slowly getting angrier and angrier by the second. This wouldn't help him much. It would only result in faults and more points for Rakuzan. Chihiro knew what he had to do.

The trick was simple, really. Akashi just didn't run around randomly. He was always where the ball was. Or more like he was where the player from Touou who held the ball in the moment was. Unless that was Aomine. And with his movements and power to predict the other's next step, Akashi guided the passes around the court. Not only his teammates' were passing better thanks to him, but Touou too was passing just as Akashi wanted them to.

The Rakuzan captain had trained this power of his more than anything else this last year but only the other Rakuzan players knew about it. No one from Teiko knew, not even Kuroko had noticed it yet. It was subtle but still needed a lot of thinking and planning ahead. It was difficult even for the absolute Akashi. That's why he didn't use it until the second half of the match.

He had trained this power of his the most with Chihiro. Especially with Chihiro. He was the trump card now. Because, just as Akashi predicted, Aomine thought Chihiro was doing something. But he wasn't. It was all Akashi. Of course Chihiro's job was still hard and he had to train his speed and stamina a lot, just as he had to train reading people's movements. It was a lot of work but Akashi was a good and strict teacher. And so the plan was a success so far.

But the match against Seirin would be the final test, Akashi was sure of this.

Especially when the final buzzer sounded and Rakuzan was deemed winner. The point difference was up to twenty points. And Aomine couldn't believe Akashi had shut him down so completely only with a Kuroko copy.