Shadow's Might (Kuroko no Basket Fanfiction)

Chapter 5

The ball was in the air as the two tall players fought for dominance, both strong and both willing to give it their all, but one of them wanted it more than the other. That resulted in the Elite's capture of the ball. Jack passed the ball to Tomlinson, a six foot tall shooting guard with more than a few tricks up his sleeve, but his speed was nothing to take lightly, and although he is a shooting guard his agile body and ability to control the ball allowed him to penetrate into the free throw area. He came face to face with the concentrated purple haired giant.

Murasakibara's hair loosely brushed his shoulder as his eyes narrowed at the smaller man before him. In his mind he couldn't see how the foreigner thought he could go against him. He remained focused, but uninterested, expecting the attack to come from another direction.

Tomlinson dribbled in front of the giant, he remembered what Kuroko had told the team about his ex-teammates, the fact that Murasakibara had his hair loose mad him angry, but the uninterested face made his blood boil. As the other circled in, Jack passed behind him on his left side, he shifted his eyes. Murasakibara followed the shift of his opponents eyes for less than a second, but it was enough. Tomlinson was in the air, the ball leaving his fingers as he fell into the perfect form. It was a smooth transformation into the shooting position, graceful but powerful.    

"If you take us lightly, you will lose this game, kid." Tomlinson said in Japanese as he turned around to defend. Murasakibara felt his blood turn hot. He was not a kid.

Akashi had been watching what happened between them. He narrowed his eyes in a frown. Murasakibara hadn't noticed, but that player wasn't looking at the basket when he made the shot. When he tricked Murasakibara into looking at the other team captain, Jack was the name, the player was looking at his captain when he jumped and shot. But that wasn't what bothered him, it was the grace, the smoothness of the shot that bothered him, it meant that something like that was easy.

Murasakibara passed the ball to Akashi, before going into offense. Akashi dribbled the ball in an easy jog. This time although they wanted to score, they must first test the other team. This first quarter is precisly for that. To test. To examine. Akashi faced off with a tan green eyed man. He was taller than Akashi, but not by much. He stood with his arms opened wide at his side a knowing glint in his eyes. Akashi remained cool and calm, there was nothing to worry about, since nothing could stop Akashi. He, after all, was absolute.

Just as swiftly as the Elite had scored the Yokai, the National Junior Basketball team's name, scored as Akashi easily got through the green eyed player making a perfect pass to Midorima, who scored a beautiful three point basket.

The first quarter went on like that. Each team scored one basket after another in a close neck and neck battle with the Yokai surprisingly taking the lead. It made the Yokai team excited, they were all pumped as the score slowly got wider to their advantage.

Akashi looked over at the Elite, all the members were huddled up in front of the bench with towels over their heads, they looked down. The Elite's shoulders sagged, almost as if something was wrong, but their bodies were completely tense. He got the image of a bow string being pulled back little by little until it was released, but they weren't released yet. It bothered him. It also bothered him the fact that their beloved Dark Prince hadn't even touched the court since the game started. The Prince merely sat on the bench watching, he didn't even cheer for his teammates. Despicable, Akashi thought.

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Jack leaned over Kuroko with a bottle of water in his hands and a towel over his head. He looked like the rest of the team really. He leaned in closer as the coach started to explain the new play they were going to use. He didn't really pay much attention given the fact that it was all just for show since they had gone over this more than ten times. It was all just a beautifully elaborate act. One that had the entire team holding back and very frustrated.