That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 3)

第65Q

Though he couldn't find a formidable opponent on the court, Aomine reluctantly continued playing with the team in the nationals. Yasu expected this to happen, but it seemed to have concerned his teammates, as they spoke to Shirogane in the locker room when he wasn't around. But the head coach, too, knew about the ace's situation, and said that he would talk to Aomine while they played like usual.

Few days later, after a succession of victories, Teiko reached the finals where they were against Kamata Nishi. "We are now starting the final match of the main tournament." announced the referee. "Teiko Middle School versus Kamata Nishi Middle School. Everyone, bow!"

"Let's have a good game!" said the players.

"This is it." said Akashi to the rest of the Generation of Miracles when they huddled in a circle before the first quarter began. "If we win, we're national champions... Back-to-back champs, even. Do you have anything to say?"

"I'll make as many threes as possible." said Midorima. "In fact, that is all."

"Not really." said Aomine dully. "I don't have anything."

Murasakibara hummed before adding, "I want to end this quick and eat Ya-chin's cookies."

"Isn't everyone like totally off on their own right now?" asked Kise, looking at his teammates with surprise.

"That doesn't matter." said Akashi. "We're strong when the separate individuals engage with each other. There's only one thing we need to share - we're gonna win!"

"Yeah!" responded the other four.

~Time skip~

The buzzer went off when the game ended, and Teiko won the finals. They were slightly behind the opposing team at first due to the slump in Aomine, but he recovered after Shirogane had talked to him during the ten-minute break. "We did it!" cheered Kise while slinging an arm around Kuroko's shoulder.

"Now I can eat Ya-chin's cookies, right?" asked Murasakibara before turning to Midorima. "Hey, you want some?"

The latter pushed up his glasses to his nose bridge. "Yeah, I'll have some." he said.

"Eh?" responded Murasakibara, who wasn't expecting such a reply from Midorima. "Seriously?"

Nijimura noticed Aomine staring into space and walked up to him from behind, placing a hand on his head to interrupted his chain of thoughts. "Why are you spacing out?" he asked. "You can be a bit happier." He stood next to him, and the two watched the other Generation of Miracles talking to each other about the match. "Go ahead. At the least, you can be honest with yourself just for now." Aomine looked down with a small smile, and went over to celebrate with his teammates.

While the Teiko basketball team players went to receive the medals and trophy, Yasu stared at them and smiled wanly, recalling her parents breaking a shocking news to her earlier that morning.

~Flashback~

With a tug on her white stockings, Yasu grabbed her shoulder bag and went downstairs to have breakfast with her parents. Placing the bag on the floor, she went over to take a seat across where her parents were sitting at the dining table where three bowls of rice, cups of hot green tea, and side dishes consisting of okra aemono, wakame salad, oden eggs, and miso soup.

Kai put away the newspaper upon noticing his daughter, and smiled at her after taking off his reading glasses. "Good morning, Yasu." he greeted.

"Good morning, father." she greeted back.

"Morning, sweetie!" chirped Okimi as she stepped into the dining room with a tray of food. "Breakfast is served!" Okimi was a woman who had a slender but feminine build, fair skin, emerald eyes, and light brown waist-length hair with shoulder-length strands framing both sides of her face. Okimi put away her apron and tray after placing the plate of pork cutlet on the table, and joined her family to have breakfast.