Broken Hope-KnB-Kasamatsu Yukio

★0★ The girl who weaves Hope

It's already been a few days since Kaijou lost at the preliminaries of the Interhigh. The seniors shedded their tears as there dream shattered all because of one miss pass. Losing by only one point really hurt them. They had a chance to turn the game over but everything went wrong because of Kasamatsu Yukio's miss pass...

"I'll quit once it goes in..." 

Kasamatsu took aim and released the basketball up again only to watch it rebound and bounce onto the court.

One bounce, two bounce. On the third bounce, the ball simply rolled away and gently hit a ball that was on a standstill from a while ago. 

"Again!" He threw another ball but it rebounded again. What was wrong with him? He couldn't throw his usual 3 pointers... Why? It was as if the sport didn't allow him to quit. 

"Dammit... Dammit!" The 17 year old cried, frustrated that he couldn't make a single shot to the hoop at all. The hoop was not far, yet, the balls never went in.

What good will it be for Kaijou's basketball team if a player like him made everyone's hard work go down the drain all because of a miss pass? Kasamatsu wanted to go back to that day and change his mistake. Him alone let everyone down, he had let his seniors down; they have all worked so hard, all aiming to get into the Interhigh but he destroyed their dreams in a single moment. Without any point of continuing club activities, his seniors decided to quit basketball earlier and study for their exams.

Moriyama Yoshitaka and Kobori Kouji can hear their friend's cry of sadness. They wondered why Kasamatsu chose to stay behind the school's gym to 'practice alone' but now they realized he intended to quit after shooting a ball into the hoop. They were upset like Kasamatsu too; they stood by his side and lost alongside him. They knew of the pain of losing too and they were frustrated at the loss. They chose to cry behind the door so their friend couldn't see their tears. 

After crying for a while, Kasamatsu decided to leave. He could have sworn he heard someone cry too but there's nobody but him. He carried his own ball home. Maybe he should just quit without telling a single person? There's no way anyone would miss him let alone need him...

He was so upset. His eyes were red from crying. How long did the tears fall for? He couldn't quite remember anymore.

The sky was orange, the sun was setting and the moon will soon rise. Time stops for nobody, he knew that. Yet, he wished to go back to today's match and wished he did not make that pass that changed everything.

"Woo hoo!"  A cheerful voice of a young girl can be heard.

Kasamatsu was about to walk past an outdoor basketball court. There, he saw a young girl with soft pink hair playing basketball by herself. She was wearing a black tank top, a red skirt with a pair of black shorts underneath. Other than the fact the girl had beautiful sky blue eyes, he noticed how short she was and he wondered how on earth would she be able to shoot from the other side of the court. He stood by the wired fence and watched her. Kasamatsu watched the girl as she did a forward somersault and release the ball as her feet touched the ground again. The ball flew towards the hoop and it went in with a 'Swish!'

'She used her entire body as a catapult to give the ball more power to go further...' Kasamatsu thought, watching her bounce up and down as she happily laughed.