Kuroko and His Siblings: Athletic Royals [1rst version]

Ch. 2: A White Tigeress "Pounces" In

Bold-English
Italics-thoughts

@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-

Everyone in Seirin basketball club was extremely out of breath by the time they had finished 100 laps. Kuroko and the other three freshman puked and fainted the moment they arrived at the door. Some of the seniors rushed to get their juniors something to revive them.

"Hey, what's this?" Koganei pointed to a lone, innocent blue drink cooler and lines of cups filled with lemonade on a stranded table.

"It's lemonade," Hyuuga said, reading a sign. "Let's use it."

They both grabbed two cups each and ran back to the freshmen where Aida was fanning them. Hyuuga and Koganei handed one of the drinks to Kagami and Mitobe. Each of them took a freshman and gently poured the drink into their mouths, except for Kagami, who just dumped the whole thing into Kuroko's mouth.

Kuroko spat out the lemonade. What happened next was extremely rare-his face turned sour. Kuroko turned to his coach.

"Did you check to see what you put in the drink before you made it?"

"What do you mean?" Aida questioned, looking bewildered. "I didn't make anything."

"Oh." Kuroko's face paled. "They can't be here yet. Yes-they are not here yet. It's just a coincidence that there is sour lemonade."

He raised his hand. "May I be excused for a while? I would like to recover in the locker room for a bit."

"Sure." Aida waved Kuroko off. So Kuroko left.

She turned to the rest of the basketball club members. "What are you waiting for? Summer break? Go do your drills!"

The boys hurried inside. Once they set foot on the court, all of them slipped and fell flat on each other.

Aida blinked. "What happened?"

"I don't know, Riko," the captain replied as he got up. He slipped and fell flat on his butt. Everyone else tried to get up, but they all ended up like their captain. One freshman tried crawling around the court, but he landed on his face.

"The entire court is extremely well polished!" Izuki exclaimed.

"We don't have time for your puns," Aida told him. "We need to get to the bottom of this."

"No! No!" Izuki said. "I'm not saying anything punny this time. There's a bucket that says 'Wooden Basketball Court Polish' over there!"

Aida twitched. "Izuki, what did I sa-oh. Never mind."

True to Izuki's words, a big, opened bucket was sitting innocently by the hoop. Aida took the bucket and held it up to high enough to read what it said.

"This polish is for indoor basketball courts only," she read. " Directions: 1. Pour 1 cup into 1 gallon of water and mop the entire basketball court. 2. Buff the whole basketball court. 3. Train your basketball players! Hint: when you start using this product, please have your trainees play barefoot or with socks on, as they will slip and fall until they regain their balance by the end of the second month. 4. For removal, train for two weeks or buy our polish remover. (Training is highly recommended. It is cheaper than buying the polish remover. The polish remover takes a week to dissolve the indoor basketball court polish.)

"Do not use before official games or unofficial games against other school(unless otherwise agreed upon by other school for training purpose only). It is illegal to use this product against when having an official/unofficial game against another school. Our company will not be held responsible."

"Ok, then just play bear foot." Aida stated after she read the whole thing. "We're going to lose a weeks worth of practice if we go buy the remover and wait now. Don't just stand there. Go or I'll quadruple your training menus!"

Everybody rushed for fear of Aida's wrath. Shoes flew off from their feet as they scrambled to get a basketball. The first senior grabbed a ball and stared at it, confused.

Kagami dumped the whole container.

"These are nothing but soccer balls!" he shouted. "How do we shoot a kicking ball?!"

"This does not even make sense." Hyuuga grumbled.

"What happened to all the basketballs?!"

"They're here," murmured Kuroko loudly.

Everyone jumped in fright.

"When did you arrive?!!" They yelped.

"What do you mean?" Kuroko asked, turning his face quite slightly. "I've been here since you've all decided to make a human pile. Though I am not sure what prompted you to do so."

"Human pi-you know what? Why are you doing here instead of the locker room?" Hyuuga asked. "I thought you were going to rest?"

"Would you enter a room when there is a suspicious tape attached to a door?" The blunt question flowed in the air.

"No. Why?"

"Because this will happen." Kuroko stated as he pushed the locker room door, which was right next to the container which was suppose to hold basketballs, opened. A crash was heard, and marbles started to flow out to the door.

"After quite a few experiences, you would be very observant." Kuroko deadpanned. "I wasn't quite sure who was coming, but with all these pranks happening, I know for sure now."

"Who-" Aida was cut off by a girl flying towards them from the boys locker room.

"'Tsuya-chan!" she shouted as she pounced onto Kuroko. "You didn't have to be so mean!"

"And you didn't have to ruin Seirin's practice with your silly pranks." replied Kuroko back in perfect English.

"But 'Tsuya, their faces and reactions were so funny!"

All of the basketball members looked at each other before Hyuuga raised up his hand. "Excuse me, why you here?"

The girl looked them, then at Kuroko. "I'm still talking in English, aren't I 'Tsyua-chan?"

Kuroko nodded.

"Oh-ok." The girl rolled her eyes. "Is this better for you guys? I swear English have been deteriorating in Japanese boys lately. Just the other day I had to reprimand my Student Council President-who by the way has a ridiculous shade of red hair-from Rakuzan for misusing 'shall' and 'should' when I was tutoring him for English. And the fact it was Grandfather who made me have lunch with him! I mean who uses 'shall' when they're speaking in past tense?"

"The red-hair sounds familiar." everyone thought. "Poor girl. We'll bring flowers to your-" No one finished the trail of thought as Kuroko glared at them.

"Are you done with your rant?" Kuroko asked the girl. The girl nodded. "Then introduce yourself."

"Sorry about that," the girl said unapologetically. "I'm Kuroko Tora- pranking extraordinaire! My Cap'n sent to check on 'Tsuya-chan over here. Don't want the cap'n to worry about his grades and stuff. Oh yeah! I'm very good at basketball."

A basketball suddenly flew towards her. She caught it effortlessly.

"If you say you're really that good, then play me!" Kagami exclaimed.

"Kay." Tora turned to Aida. "Can I use the court, Coach-san?"

Aida nodded. She wanted to see the girl's skills.

With Aida's permission, Tora proceeded to kick off her shoes. She tied her sweater around her waist. "First one to shoot 10 point wins. I'll do defense first."

"That's alright with me. This will be an easy win." said Kagami as he got into an attack mode.