Josh's Amazingly Festive Simping Adventure: A Christmas Story

Part 4: The King's Court

"Hmm..." Thomas crosses his arms while considering the possibilities.

At first I thought maybe we would have a trial to plead our case but then why would we have been giving tasks to do in the first place? Besides, I didn't see any court rooms inside of the mansion.

"Have a ball in court..." Thoma mumbled.

My eyes lit up as I connected the dots. With so many kinds of rooms in this estate it almost felt more like some kind of grand hotel or mall. One of those rooms was a basketball court. When I looked at Thoma, I knew he was thinking the same thing.

He smiled and grabbed my hand as we ran out of the room, eager to complete our first task.

"Have fun kiddos!" DC shouted from behind us.

"You any good at basketball?" Thoma asked as we ran through the halls. I tried to ignore how he was still holding my hand. I had to focus. but his hands were so soft. and- no. Focus, Josh.

"I honestly have no idea what I'm good at," I admitted, "I can't remember any of my hobbies."

"Oh," Thomas said, "sorry to hear that."

I nodded.

We made it to double doors with a basketball painted onto them. I admit, I was a little out of breath from running through the halls and down a flight of stairs. Glass half full, it was a good warm up if what I thought about our trial was correct.

Thoma and I looked at each other as he brushed his hand against his forehead, wiping off glittering sweat- the only indication that had just ran with me for like 8 minutes.

"Ready?" he asked.

I tried my best to catch my breath without seeming winded. How was it that Thoma barely even broke a sweat? This man was magical.

I nodded with as much determination as I could muster. Together, we pushed open the doors to what looked like a highschool gym. It even had a mascot painted around the court and both walls where there were bleachers, Rudolph. Strangely, the room was void of any occupants. All except for a single man leaning against the basketball hoop opposite of us. He had this cocky grin plastered around his face. He was tan with dark blue hair cut close to his face. He was wearing a black school basketball uniform. It had some writing in japanese on it that I couldn't make out. I did however recognize some english letters that spelled out 'Gakuen. and the number 5 was even more recognizable of course.

"So you two are the ones I'm here to beat, huh?" he said with this laid back tone that dripped with mockery.

Thoma laughed.

"Sorry sir," he spoke at equal volume, "but unfortunately, I think you're mistaken. Its two against one, you're the one who is going to be beat."

Our blue haired opponent pushed himself off of the hoop's pole and began to dribble to ball.

He chuckled before grinning.

"The only one who can beat me," he said, "Is me."

A buzzard went off.

I directed my attention towards the clock where the noise had come from. From it, a blue light shined down to create this weird hologram of a smiley face wearing a santa hat.

The smiley face... cleared its throat? and then it began to speak.

"Welcome to trial one!" The smiley face said with enthusiasm. Its voice was feminine and and bright.

I looked around the room to see Thoma equally as confused as astonished as I was. The blue haired man looked almost uninterested.

"Looks like you three have already busted out the trash talk. Allow me to formally introduce everyone." The Smiley face said.

"Thoma here is a striking warrior, don't underestimate him...."

I looked over at Thoma. His face was a little flustered. A warrior? that sounded amazing. and hot. WHAT AM I SAYING????

"And the lanky blue haired pimp is Daiki Aomine, a master of basketball.... I think."

I heard Aomine scoff at that last remark.

"Of course my personal favorite is Josh! A super talented and optimistic Artist!"

I caught Thoma's eye and began to share that same flustered expression he had only a few moments ago.

"Artist huh?"

I blushed and smiled, "I guess so... Warrior?"

Thoma shot two finger guns in my direction while wearing a somewhat awkward smile.

"Oh I should introduce myself too" said the smiley face, "I am Sophia Claus! Your personal computer and totally not real assistant who will debrief you on your trials."

"um.. nice to meet you?" I declared back.

The smiley face projection grinned brighter.

"Ok," She continued, "For this trial all you two boys by the door have to do is score a point against Aomine. Easy right? well if you ever find that its too hard, you can summon a wooden elf in exchange for a point being added to what you need to obtain to win. Summon one elf and you then have to score two points in order to win and so on... Aomine on the other hand wins if he scores 30 times against the two of you... again, easy right?"

Thoma was smiling as I looked back at him, sure that we could make quick work of this. I glanced toward the other side of the court. Aomine was smirking too, only his lazy grin was malicious enough to send a shiver down my spine.

"Goodluck!" Sophia said as another buzzard went off.

"BEGIN."