Sword Art Online: Faithful Hymn

Chapter 8: A Spark Of Heart

9 hours later

'Quick Shoji, pass over the ball to me!', says one of Shoji's teammates.

A long time after Yuna's comfort given to Shoji due to his breakdown, Shoji is busy with the one thing he does best in his spare time: Basketball. Since he is not able to go to his training all alone without leaving anything or anyone behind, Yuna was happy to tag along with him to his training. Once the idol girl heard that he plays a sport, she got really excited. So excited actually, that she jumped so high that she almost made certain Shoji had a hole in his roof. Yuna immediately asked whether she was able to participate or not, although it didn't sound like a good idea to both of them to begin with. Moreover, she wouldn't even know if it was a fitting sport for her.

'Here you go Hachimura, catch!', shouts Shoji to his fellow basketball player.

Hachimura catches the ball without a problem. He dribbles further and further towards the opponent's basket, only to be intervened by Sakuragi, an opponent player.

On the spectator stands isn't much to do. The only person who's sitting there, is Yuna. While she watches Shoji play, she can't help but to get distracted by Shoji's phone. During the hour that Shoji has to sport, Yuna got tasked with securing the device. She browses through his Gallery, only to discover some images that she wasn't meant to see. They were only meant for Shoji's eyes, so to say. After studying the images, Yuna lays down his phone and continues to watch the guys play. Strangely no one has noticed her sitting there. That's because Shoji's fellow basketball players are considered to be quite intensive, thus they got no time to focus on other things. While Yuna was checking out Shoji's phone however, Shoji managed to recover the basketball from the opponent team.

Shoji, being in a tough position due to no teammates being around him, has almost no options to go with. The only thing that he could attempt, was to dunk the ball. It's something he's never been able to pull off before, but anything has to be a first time. Yuna notices what he was going for, and she started to yell his name.

'You can do it Shoji!'

The shouting beauty made the boy more confident in his plan of action, and thus he started to run, dribble and preparing to jump high up. A few meters further, he lifts off, laying the ball in his main hand while releasing his other arm to build up speed. Shoji appears to be one with the air. He feels as light as a feather. He's never jumped so high before. Once he reaches the basket, he moves his arm towards the basket. The ball, which sticks on his hand due to the strength of the quick motion of his arm, reaches its destination. And just like that, he's finally done it. With everyone's mouths open, Yuna stops cheering and raises her left arm skyward.

'I knew I could believe in you!'

Shoji, who's left with a blush on his face, didn't notice a basketball player coming from behind him. The player lays a hand on his shoulder, saying his name.

'Shoji, that was a great dunk, never seen any of us do that before!', says the basketball player.

'Thanks, Tabuse.' responds Shoji confidently.

The hero of the tale did not look at Tabuse, his fellow player. Instead, Shoji was distracted by his beautiful AI friend. Tabuse, who now sees the girl, opens his eyes further than anyone could ever expect of him and looks at Shoji before shoulder bumping him.