That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 1)

第1Q

With a tug on her shoelace, Yasu stood and grabbed her shoulder bag from the floor before leaving the house. She was wearing a school uniform that consisted of a white shirt with a white sweater over it, along with a white short skirt and a sailor necktie.

'My first day of school, huh?' she thought with a smile as she walked to school, occasionally looking at the cherry blossom trees in full bloom. 'I hope there is a basketball club in my new school.'

The first thing that greeted her wasn't the school gate, nor Seirin Private High's signboard. It was the noise of sophomores and seniors doing their best to promote their clubs for the juniors to join, as counters of registration lined up along the next walkway. Holding up banners, handing out flyers, using handmade megaphones made out of paper or cards; the place was literally a sea of people.

"Interested in ruby?" shouted a male student.

"Have you ever played shogi?" asked another to a junior.

"You gotta play baseball if you're Japanese!" said another.

"Swimming!" promoted a student. "It's great!"

Yasu could only stare from the main gate with a sweat drop on the back of her forehead. 'I think it's too early to have such noise on a first day of school.' she thought, heaving a soft sigh.

"Yasu-san?" a familiar voice in a soft-spoken manner called her from her left.

She recognised the voice, turning her head to see a friend she hadn't seen for almost a year. "Kuroko?" she called, unsure of herself. The pale-skinned boy had light blue hair styled to his left, blue eyes and his signature blank gaze. Kuroko wore the standard Japanese gakuran, with the top piece black and long-sleeved and had a standing collar which he zipped up to his chin. It also had blue trimming on the sleeves and vertically in the middle. He also wore regular black pants that matched the top.

"It has been a while, Yasu-san." he greeted with a very small smile.

The said girl smiled back and said, "Yes, it has."

After the two reunited, they began making their way into the school compound with the crowd pushing them, having to dodge some of the people who extended their arms to hand other juniors the flyers. Unlike Kuroko, who was invisible to everyone due to his lack of presence, Yasu wasn't spared by the upperclassmen bombarding her with their clubs. Reading club, swimming club, tennis club; all of them weren't the club she wanted to join.

Kuroko saw a directory on the signboard, and his gaze landed on the basketball club's registration table, which was between the baseball club and American football club. He turned to his friend, who had just escaped from the crowd, and held her wrist to lead her to the counter. "Let's go." he said, walking through the crowd. "I've found the basketball club."

"Oh?" said the girl, surprised that such club existed in the school. "They have a basketball club? That's good!" She then smiled at her friend. "And maybe we could be in the same team with new people, like we did back in middle school!" Kuroko glanced at her with a smile and nodded, agreeing with her.

Soon, the two got away from the crowd and arrived at the registration table of the basketball club, where two sophomores were waiting for newcomers to join, with a clipboard holding the registration forms on the table and a bottle of sweet tea next to the boy.

The girl looked up and noticed Yasu walking towards them, which made her smile widely. "Hi!" she greeted. "Are you here for the manager position?"

"Yes." replied Yasu while Kuroko had taken a form for himself and started filling it up, without the two noticing him. "My name is Yukimura Yasu."