傷 Scar // Midotaka Fic

試合 The Match

The bright lights from the stadium shone directly at their eyes, as they walked out into the court, making them squint their eyes in reflects. They all took a deep breath to steady their nerves; having lost to Seirin in the inter-high tournament had Shuutoku hungry for a victory. They set their jackets down and prepared for their warm up. The other team - Kirisaki Daiichi - also did the same.

Warm up was done and everyone was in their destinated positions for the match, with Ootsubo leading the tip off. As the first whistle for the day resonated throughout the stadium and the ball thrown in the air, marking the start of the winter cup for Shuutoku.

They were down to the 2nd half of the 2nd set, leading at a 44 to 36. So far nothing major happened, except for a few foot-stepping and rough plays. Everything was going smoothly, and Midorima scored another smooth 3-pointer. That was when Hanamiya - the point guard - made a suspicious movement. What was that? Takao, having the hawk eye, realised the weird movement; like a signal of some sort, but decided that he was just overthinking this, and set it aside.

When the referee's whistle blew to resume the game, the members of Kirisaki Daiichi shifted into their one-to-one defence, standing even closer to each of their opponents then before.

Takao had the ball, and bounced it while analyzing the situation. Who should I pass to? But from what he could tell, Kirisaki Daiichi's defence was pretty tight, and didn't leave much of an opening for Takao to pass to anyone on the court. On the other hand, he wasn't so sure if he could just do a drive, after all his defender was Hanamiya; one who was really good at stealing.

At this moment, Hanamiya backed up a little bit, so little that most normal people wouldn't have noticed it. But Takao wasn't normal - he had the hawk eye, which was also his flaw; the moment he noticed that Hanamiya moved backwards, his body jumped at the opportunity for a drive, even though in his mind he knew that it maybe a trap.

Sure enough, the moment Takao tried for a drive, Hanamiya stepped back in and knocked into Takao, elbowing his sides. Ouch! That hurt. The ball went to the opponent's team. Takao shot Hanamiya the look, but knew he couldn't do anything because the referee hadn't noticed anything, and it would only earn him a yellow card if he were to fight it. He grit his teeth and continued the game.

Even though Hanamiya didn't possess the hawk eye like Takao did, he had a knack for noticing irregularities. The moment Hanamiya elbowed Takao, he noticed the pained expression that flashed across the male's face. He knew something was up with Takao, he just didn't quite had the same edge he always had when he played, unless - of course - if he wasn't feeling well somehow.

A smile played on Hanamiya's face. He couldn't contain the excitement of toying with others, especially when it was because it was he that discovered a weakness. He knew very well how he would exploit it, make his opponent feel hopeless.

He caught one of his team mate's eyes and signal for them to focus on Takao, indicating the area they should target. He nodded back, when he got the signal, and moved into double-teaming Takao, when the ball was back into Takao's hands.

They knocked into him purposefully even when he didn't have the ball, and Takao felt his wound re-opening with every little shove they did. His right side hurt, alot. He clenched his teeth and continued playing, trying not to let the pain slow down his movements, but that only made the situation worst.

Not 2 minutes into the game, he felt something drip down the right side of his thigh. He knew what it was, but ignored it and continued the game.

Midorima could tell - could see - that Takao's wound had reopened. He needed to end this game, and fast. He turned his head, finding his coach. He needed to tell him to stop the game, call for medics. But he didn't need to, coach was already standing up, having sense that Takao wasn't playing right. Now we just need to knock the ball out-of bounds.

Takao had the ball again; bouncing the ball, while trying to look for a way to get past these two foul-playing idiots. As soon as he saw that Hanamiya had left his right side unguarded, he went for it. Midorima saw that. It was obvious when you saw it from afar, especially if you knew Takao was injured, that Hanamiya has purposely let his right side unguarded so that Takao would use that chance to break through their defences from the right.

"Takao!" Midorima shouted, in attempt to stop Takao, but it was too late. Takao had went for it, and Hanamiya let him pass from the left, before pretending to fall sideways and into Takao.

Hanamiya elbowed Takao right into his wound, using the force of gravity to land an even greater blow on Takao.