Tiger's Goddess

Chapter 4 Kagami

I was thinking about the conversation I had with Kuroko as I shot some hoops at the street court. Oh, man. I'm so excited I can't sit still. I thought before I stopped and shot the ball with a small smile on my face. I don't care if it's not an official match. I just wanna play them! I thought before the ball went into the net cleanly.

"A game? You can't play yet."

"Wha-What? Why, Captain? How am I not good enough?" I asked.

"You're still a trial member. You're not an official member yet." He said.

"Huh?" I said before I ran to go to Coach's classroom.

"Coach" I said as I slammed my hands onto her desk making her spit her drink out all over my face. I wiped it off before looking at her.

"Coach, give me an official club membership form." I said.

"What is it with today? You, too?" She asked.

"Too?" I asked and she explained that Kuroko had came before me.

"That bastard." I said in a low voice.

"Just how impatient are you rascals?" She asked.

"What'd you call me?" I asked her.

"Well, you both have potential, and we've got room on the bench, so we'd be happy to have you." She said before she handed me a paper.

"Now I can play in a game, right?" I asked and went to walk away.

"Hold it right there." She said making me turn around to face her.

"I'll only accept your form on Monday at eight-forty on the roof." She said and I said nothing just started walking back down the hall, when I saw an old newspaper clipping of the team from last year.

"He wasn't kidding." I said after I read some of the article.

"Yes, they're strong." I heard someone say making me react.

"Why can't you show up normally?! Stop coming out of nowhere!" I yelled at him only for him to shush me and point to the library sign. I grabbed his head, as I nearly popped a vein.

"You making fun of me? You're making fun of me, aren't you?!" I asked him as I squeezed his head some.

"No." He said and I let him go.

"That hurt." he said.

I don't believe it. How could anyone call an invisible guy like him the sixth phantom member? How did that happen, anyway? The rest of the Generation of Miracles all went to play for strong schools. Why didn't he go with them? I thought.

"Hey, Kuroko." I said only to see he was no longer there. Where the fuck did he go?! I thought as I looked at the hall to see no one was around.

I went home and plopped down on my bed, when I felt my phone go off. I pulled it out to see I had a text from Snow.

"You should stop being mean. Also, the new magazine will be coming out in a couple days. Also, I'm having to find a new member for my team. Charlie's ACL in his right knee tore, when he was playing for his school." She said and I imagined her nearly pulling her hair out in frustration.

"I'll take a look at the magazine when it prints. I'm sorry to hear about Charlie. Why don't you ask Gabriel. If I remember correctly, he's been playing by himself to train, you could help him with that." I replied back.

"That's a good idea. I'll do that later. Anyway, did you sign up?"

"Yeah. I'm still a trial member, until I give I give coach, the form Monday on the roof. She's a second year, student."

"A girl coach? I wanna get to know her!"

"You live in L.A. still." I pointed out.

"And? I'll find a way!" she said back making me chuckle some.

"Ah crap! I forgot I told Shelby, I would do a photo shoot with that other guy. I gotta go. Keep me posted. I miss you!" She said.

"Make sure he doesn't get to handsy or anything. Will do. I miss you, too." I texted back before I threw my phone down and got up, to get some food.

Monday, I was on the roof with the rest of the first years, looking at Coach. She had her arms crossed before she did a weird laugh, like thing.

"I've been waiting for you." She said.

"Are you stupid?" I asked.

"Is this  a duel?"

"I forgot all about it, but Monday...The morning assembly is in five minutes!" I yelled some before I pulled out the request form from my pocket.

"Hurry up and take it." I said.

"Before that, I have something to tell you." She said shocking all of us.

"I made a promise when the captain asked me to be his coach last year. I promised to focus solely on pushing the team towards the national championship. If you don't think you're ready for that, there are other clubs better suited to you." She said.

"What? Of course I'm-" I started to say but she cut me off.

"I know you're strong. But I need to know you have something even more important. No matter how hard you practice, 'someday' and 'maybe' aren't good enough. I need to know you have ambitious goals and the will to accomplish them. Give me your year, class, and name. Announce your goals here and now. If you fail to achieve them, you'll come back here, strip naked, and confess your feelings for the girl you love." She said and I just gave her a blank look.

Glad that Snow, isn't here then. I thought as the three were freaking out.

"All the second years did it last year." She said.

"What? No one told me about this."

"I heard about it when they recruited me."

"But I didn't think they'd actually..."

"Like  I said before, I'm looking for something concrete and reasonably ambitious. You'll have to do better than 'play my first game' or 'do my best.'" She said.

"This'll be easy. This isn't even a test." I said before I walked forward. I jumped onto the rail and got balanced.

"Class 1-B, number five, Kagami Taiga. I will defeat the Generation of Miracles and become the best player in Japan!" I yelled. And tell Snow, my feels for her, whenever I see her again. I thought before I jumped down.

"Who's next?" Coach asked while I walked back to my previous spot.

"If you don't hurry up, the teachers will get here." Coach said.

"Excuse me. Could I say I want a girlfriend?"

"No. What else do you have?"

"I...I've got one."

"Okay. You can do it."

"Class 1-A, Kawahara Koichi, from Chuo-ku, Tokyo. I was a sickly kid, so I couldn't play sports. Things started to change for me in kindergarten..." I tuned out the rest of his dream because I figured it would be long. Everyone else went until a teacher threw the doors open.

"Hey! The basketball club, again?!"

"Crap, we were almost finished."

"I warned you last year. Didn't you say you'd never do this again?" the teacher asked before he launched into a long lecture.

After school, and practice, I was getting dinner at Maji Burger again.

"I can't believe he got so mad over a little shouting." I said before I opened a burger.

"I didn't even finish,  and I got in trouble, too." Kuroko said and I choked on my food when I realized I had sat with him again.

"You again? Maybe I should start going somewhere else." I said after I swallowed my food.

"We aren't allowed on the roof anymore. What will we do if we can't join the basketball team?" He asked and I smiled some.

"That's not gonna happen." I said.

"We'll see." He said and I remembered what I was going to ask him.

By the way, why didn't you go to some big name school like the other five guys? You were good enough to be known as the phantom sixth member. Is there some reason you play basketball?" I asked.

"My middle school's basketball team had one core principle. Winning is everything. Instead of teamwork, we needed to push the individual talents of the Generation of Miracles to win. Nothing could beat us, but we weren't a team. The five of them approved, but I felt we lacked something important." he said. Snow, wouldn't like them, then. I thought.

"So, what? Are you gonna beat the Generation of Miracles your own way?" I asked.

"That's what I was thinking." he said.

"Seriously?"  I asked.

"Your words and the coach's words really stuck me. Now my biggest reason to play is trying to make you and our team the best in Japan." he said.

"We're not gonna try." I said as I stood up so I could look down at him

"We're gonna be the best." I said and he smiled some. I sat back down and started eating, when my phone went off.

"Excuse me." I said before I pulled it out. I saw that it was Snow calling.

"What the- It's not time for our weekly call? Did something happen?" I asked softly before I answered it.

"I don't care! I'm not working with him ever again!" She yelled making me hold my phone away from my ear.

"Yukik-" I heard someone start to say only for her to cut them off.

"Don't 'Yukiko, it's for the company, and views.' or whatever bullshit you were going to give me! I'm not working with a misogynistic pig who tried to grab my breast!" Snow yelled making me nearly dropped my drink in shock.

"Snow." I said and I heard her gasp.

"E-Eh! Taiga! How much of that did you hear?" She asked me.

"Enough, that I want to break him." I said making Kuroko give me a weird look.

"Please don't. I don't want to see my best friend in jail. Besides, I've already got something else planned for that misogynistic pig. Anyway, I'm sorry. I must have pressed your name instead of Alex's." She said.

"It's fine. Just don't over do whatever it is you have planned. I'll talk to you soon." I said.

"Mou! That doesn't give me much to work with! Anyway, I'll text you later. Got to go! I miss you!" She said before she hung up. I put my phone away and went back to eating. Luckily Kuroko, didn't ask me what that was about.