Another Player [Kuroko no Basuke]

11 - Meeting "Dad"

"Captain! I copied the preliminary tournament bracket!" The team paused their practice and turned their attention to the boy who was running towards them, papers in hand. Each team member was handed a paper and the team began to inspect it.

"The Inter-High preliminaries start as a tournament. If we lose, we're out. We can't let our guard down for a single game." Hyuga said, while looking over to each team member. "Tokyo has blocks A through D. The winner of each block goes on to play in the champion league. The top three teams from the championship league participate in the Inter-High. Only three schools are chosen out of 300 participating schools. Only the chosen 1% will stand on the court of their dreams. That's the Inter-High." Hyuga explains.

"I sorta get the picture, but you're wrong about one thing." Kagami starts, making everyone's attention on him. "They're not chosen. They win it.... Sir." A smirk makes its way on everyone's face and they nod in agreement to Kagami's statement. "We've got three weeks until the Inter-High preliminaries. We fell one step short last year, but we'll definitely go this year. We'll be facing a lot of strong schools, but our biggest and strongest opponent is Shutoku High." Miki perks up when she hears the school name, and brings her attention to the explanation.

"Last year, they were in the nation's top eight. On top of that, just like Kaijo, they had one of the Generation of Miracles join their team. If we can't beat them, we won't make it to the Nationals." "If we play against the Generation of Miracles, it'll be the championship game." Kagami says as he looks over the games.

"Kuroko, Miki, you know who he is, don't you?" Kagami asks. "I doubt you would believe me if I told you." Kuroko starts. "However, as Kise-kun said, the other four are on another level." "And if they actually have gotten better, I can't imagine how good they've become." Miki finishes.

"Before we can play Shutoku, we have to play our first game! Let's make sure we're on the ball!" "Yeah!" The team cheers.

"By the way, where's the coach?" One of the freshman asks. "Oh, she went to observe our first opponents practice game." Hyuga said. Just then the gym door opened and walked in a pissed off Riko. "I'm back." She announced. "Speak of the devil." Everyone's attention turned to Riko.

"She was skipping after the Kaijo game, but she's not skipping today." A freshman remembered. "Coach, are you gonna skip today?" The other freshman asked. "Like hell I will!" She said with a dark aura coming out of her. The boys flinch and stand up straight.

"Idiots. She wouldn't act like an idiot over an official game." Hyuga said with his hands on his hips. "But you do seem unhappy. Are they good?" He asked. "We shouldn't be worried about Shutoku when our first match isn't looking good." Almost everyone gasped. "What do you mean?"

"One of their players might give us trouble. You can watch the video later. Take a look at the picture." She said while handing her cell phone to Hyuga. The team instantly crowded to the phone to see the picture and they gasp once again when they see the picture.  "Th-this is..." Hyuga starts, his eyes widening.

A tan colored kitten was on the phone, cutely posing. "That's adorable..." Miki's mumbled, her eyes wide and a slight blush was stained on her cheeks. "It's cute, but..." Hyuga started. A bright star was launched from Kuroko, and a small blush was also on his cheeks. "Sorry, it's the next one." Riko said while face palming and waving her hand.

"The next one?" Hyuga asks as he pushed the arrow to change pictures. The whole team gasps, everyone with a shocked expression except Kuroko.

"His name's Papa Mbaye Siki. Two meters tall, weighs 87 kilograms. He's a foreign student from Senegal." Riko explains. "Senegal? He's huge... Two meters?!" "Can they do this?!" "He's studying aboard? Sorry, but where's Senegal?" All the second years fussed.