Twisted Destiny

Chapter 3

Ever since the new term starts, I'm always worried that everything will remain in a plateau. All this time, I don't do anything much other than practicing together with Hideki after our usual training. That's the only thing we do and I'm worried that what we do may not be enough for us to prepare ourselves for the upcoming preliminaries.

I'm glad that Senior Takahashi has decided to have a practice match between the senior team and the junior team. Otherwise, I doubt that I can keep my sanity if things are progressing slowly. That's more than enough for me to rot in the corner.

Even until now, I still can't forget the adrenaline rush that I've experienced during the practice match. If only we can have another match but with a different school instead. That would be awesome. "Practice match with another school? That would be awesome!" Hideki says, feeling anticipated with the thought of having another practice match.

"Have you organized a practice match with a different school before?" I ask Hideki, wondering if he had any experience doing something like that. "Nope, we only do rigorous training. I think it's difficult to do something like that in the middle school." Neither I nor Hideki has any clue on how to get the other school to have a practice match with us. I guess we can only propose this to Chiyu when we go to the basketball practice.

As soon as we're in the gym, I make a quick proposal to Chiyu about the practice match. "Well, you're in luck today. I was about to announce to everyone that we'll be having a practice match with another school. So, let's keep this as a surprise until the captain is here, okay?" Chiyu says to me while making a gesture to keep this as a secret until Senior Takahashi is here.

Whoa, is that for real? It looks like we're going to have a practice match with another school. I know that Chiyu won't tell me more which school we will have a practice match with, but I'm curious how strong the school is. It's meaningless to have a practice match with a school that is almost equal to our strength.

Chiyu seems annoyed when I look skeptical about the school that we're going to have a practice match with. "Of course the school is a strong school. In fact, they're one of the Best 8 in Japan and they're always participating Inter High without fail every year. You can say that we're just like them in the past."

Now, that's what I'd like to hear. The rest of the team isn't that enthusiastic though. They feel anxious only by a minimal clue that Chiyu gave me just now. I bet they may have asked the same thing before both of us were here. Senior Takahashi comes later with the rest of the third and second-year students. He seems composed when he enters the gym.

"I think you're already aware that we'll be having a practice match next month. We will have a practice match with Echizen High so they'll come all the way from Osaka to have a practice match with us." Everyone suddenly becomes even more anxious when they hear about Echizen High. They find it hard to believe that they will have a practice match with a school like Echizen High.

"Now, we only have about a month to get ourselves ready for the practice match. So, those who are on the starting team will have a different training menu than the benchwarmers for the obvious reason. So, I'd like to begin announcing the name that will be on the starting team."

We already knew that we'll be in the starting team. But still, it feels amazing when Senior Takahashi announces our names before the practice begins. The rest of my junior teammates don't even bicker at all because they know their own potential well enough. If they want to be in the starting team so badly, then they should work hard towards it. Maybe I'll give them a chance if they really are an amazing player.

So, besides me, Hideki and Senior Takahashi, Senior Miura and Senior Yamada are also in the starting team. Before our training begins, Chiyu will be talking to us about our stats and her analysis for the best play for the team. She seems contemplating to tell us about what she had discovered.