I Hate Basketball (Kuroko No Basuke)

Run

Chapter 19 ~ Run

"Shinako, come here for a second." Nakatani Masaaki called Shinako as she sat far away from the gym, scared to be targeted by a basketball again. She stood up and walked towards the basketball Coach.

"Yes, Coach Nakatani?" She asked, flipping her green hair off her shoulder.

"I see you are always watching them practice. And Takao has told me that you are knowledgeable about basketball." Her cheeks showed a faint blush when Coach mentioned Takao. It was quite weird after he confessed her. Shintaro interrogated her about it and she had to tell him every single detail. "How would you like to be Shutoku's manager?" He asked.

She fiddled with her green hair. "I'm not so sure. I'm already in the track&field club..." She trailed off, pursing her lips.

Coach nodded. "There aren't many track&field competitions every year. And you can run with the boys if you want to."

She thought about it and weighed the positive and negative.

She could get hit by a basketball.

Though none of the boys would probably let that happen.

So far, that was the only negative she thought of and she most likely wouldn't get hit.

"OK. I'll tell Coach Tsukino about it." She said, nodding.

"Oh, I already told Tsukino about it. She said she was fine with it if you were." He explained.

"OK. Well, when do I start?" She asked with a small smile on her face.

"Now?" He chuckled and she nodded before taking her bag and pulling out a red and black notebook.

She sat a little nearer, on the bench, and began to write down notes. She's seen them play. She knows how they play. It would be easy.

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"Shina-chan!" Takao ran to her, sweat dripping from the tips of his hair. "I heard you became the manager!"

Yuya walked over to the two of them with a bottle in his hand. "I thought you hated basketball, Midori?"

She chuckled. "I hate basketball not the people playing it. As long as I don't get hit by anything them I'm fine." Yuya laughed before running back to court.

Otsube nodded -appearing put of nowhere- and pulled Takao's shirt. "Get back to practice! We still have to run 10km before you can go home!"

She heard their grumbles and chuckled again before calling out to Otsube.

"Otsube-kun, can I run too?" She asked, standing up.

He furrowed his eyebrows at her. "We're going to run 10km, you know?"

"I'm fine with it." She shrugged.

"You're in a skirt." He pointed out.

"I can change into my PE clothes. I'll just take a second." Before Otsube can answer, she was gone.

"How fast can she run?" Otsube sweat dropped and turned to Shintaro. "Is she always like that?"

He shot a three pointer before answering. "Yes. Don't hold back when you're running. She might be faster than us."

All of them sweat dropped.

"Let's go." She said, appearing beside Yuya in her PE clothes that were too loose for her thin body.

Takao had a sweatdrop on his face as he looked at her. "Shin-chan. She became like Kuroko."

But Shintaro ignored him instead he looked carefully at the shirt. "Shinako," Shinako's head snapped to him. "Is that my shirt?"

She looked down at her shirt. "Yeah it is."

It looked like Shintaro was about to blow but Otsubo cut him off. "Hurry up if you want to get home before dark!"

Shinako flinched as a shiver ran through her body. She didn't want to go home at night.

"At least you should be able to keep up Midori! If not..." Otsubo trailed off. "Training will be tripled!"

As soon as the sentence ended they ran out of the gym, Shinako behind them all.

After 6km, all of the boys were panting -because they ran 5km before the start of training- and they slowed down. They were surprised when she overtook them.

However, Shintaro didn't want to lose to his sister and caught up with her running side by side.

But...

Let's face it.

Shinako was in the track and filed team.

But Shintaro has more experience in running. And, he has long legs. Long legs mean sprint faster.

She was thirty seconds slower than Shintaro, and twenty-six seconds faster than Kimura and the rest of the boys.

"Shina-chan! Why do you run so fast! Now training will be tripled!" Takao whined, hands on his knees, panting.

She chuckled before throwing each of them a water bottle. And as basketball players, they caught it with ease even though her coordination sucks.

"That was fast? Really?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Shinako, why were you so slow just now?" Shintaro asked, pushing his glasses up and wiping the sweat on his forehead with his palm.

A tick mark appeared on Kiyoshi's forehead. That was slow?

She looked at him blankly. "I sprained my ankle."

Their heads snapped up to her and she looked at them with a confused expression on her face.

Takao's mouth was open. She sprained her ankle yet she was still faster than us?!

"Go to the infirmary," Shintaro ordered, pushing her to the direction of the infirmary.

"I'm fine." She stepped to the side and Shintaro almost tripped and fell.

A tick mark appeared on Shintaro's forehead before they started bickering with each other.

"When are they going to stop?"

Kiyoshi shrugged, "Leave them be unless you want to shout at Midori."

None of them wanted to shout at the gentle girl so they turned and walked away.