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An old man with a huge bouncing and onomatopoeia-able beer belly approached the gymnasium from the internal door. Sadly, Rukawa's fangirls moved there, annoyed by the Sakuragi gang on the other door. They were squealing and the old man could not get in. He tried his best—only to roll like a ball every time he was accidentally pushed back.

Eventually, he succeeded and the older players greeted him energetically.

"GOOD AFTERNOON, COACH!"

The old man laughed like a santa, and looked around. He could see the unfamiliar faces were quite surprised at his title. Honestly, he would be too. And he laughed (again) at the thought. He focused on his team, though, and ignored the gapes of spectators directed at him.

Staaaaaaaaare

Hanamichi (who literally just arrived) was one of those spectators, but more accurately... she was looking at his huge collection of flab. She seriously wanted to make it bounce, much like how children played with jellies. And the image made her scoff and mused why he suddenly appeared.

"He probably heard about the free sushi."

"Pfft—" Nozomi cackled. "HAAHA—you're right."

"Look at who's talking." Noma added patting the flap of skin in his neck, and Hanamichi joined in playing with his tummy.

"HAHAHAHA." She laughed—rather noisily, and continued insulting her friend like they usually did with each other. "Darn. I can't imagine how it would look like when you're 60."

"Yohoho." The coach ignored all the noise and Akagi's growing vein. "How was practice?"

Akagi let out a deep breath, ignorethemignorethemignorethem. "We're doing great, coach." He managed to say, and the coach nodded in approval. Akagi watched the coach's movement as he passed by and headed for his chair. However, he stopped a few steps in, eyeglasses shimmering.

"I just scheduled a practice game with Ryonan."

Silence

A few people there wondered why everyone else was so tense, until a few players started whispering how much chance they had... in gaining at least half the opponent's score. Hanamichi almost scoffed, until someone mentioned Ryonan was one of the top 4 teams.

Hanamichi shrugged. Apparently the opponent team was strong. She watched Gorilla clap his hand and yelled that the practice game was about to start.

'Whatever.' She mused. Basketball had nothing to do with her anymore. A slight thump on her chest appeared (not that she'd admit that) and, unconsciously, she opened her right hand... and closed it again.

Hmph

They said she was lucky she could still use it every day. Sure, she can. Just not on the thing she loved most.

Loved,she repeated. Past tense.

Someone patted her back and pulled her back slightly, so they were a little far from everyone else. It was Yohei, and thankfully everyone was busy watching the game between the brewing freshmen and seniors so no one noticed.

"You alright?" he asked, as always.

"Of course." was all she replied. They stayed there for a while... until some of their friends noticed, so they walked back to watch the game.

It was then a showdown between the high-level Gori and SUPER-baka-Kitsune (And the super being the adjective for the 'Baka' of course), with Kawamura also showing off here and there. He was pretty meek, but when the ball got passed to him—he got fired up and basically only Akagi could hold him off.