In Shadows | Kuroko no Basket Fan Fiction

8. First Match

In Shadows

Chapter Eight

First Match

The day of Seirin's first mach in the Winter Cup preliminaries had arrived.

Surprisingly, Gina found herself to be rather excited. Her excitement only continued to grow as she joined the crowd headed for the gym where the match was to be played. She hadn't expected this. She had never been particularly interested in basketball before, but now she was eager about a game.

Maybe it was because she had someone to support and root for. Gina smiled, thinking of Kuroko and Kagami, and also Kiyoshi, Izuki and Hyuga, as well as the others. They were all people she knew and liked and wanted to succeed.

Gina knew she would be missing practice to watch this game, and though that annoyed her, it didn't affect her as much as she thought it would. Her friends were competing in this game, and she wanted to support them just as much, if not more than she wanted to be at practice.

Gina checked the team match-ups for the day. Her friends would be going against Josei. She frowned a little, and wondered what sort of team Josei was.

I guess I'll find out soon enough, right?

Gina made her way inside the gym, and entered the door that led to the court her friends were competing on.

She hesitated a little as she entered, caught off guard. The stadium was surprisingly full for a preliminary game. Gina had hardly seen crowds like this for matches back in Australia, and found herself to be a little overwhelmed.

After taking a moment to take in the scene, Gina drew in a breath and walked deeper into the stadium, and down the nearest flight of steps that led to the seats. There were plenty of spare seats, but she made sure she got as close to the front as she could.

She attracted a few interested looks from other spectators as she sat down. After looking at her Seirin uniform, they knew in an instant which team she supported.

It wasn't long until both teams were making their way on to the court, contrasting greatly in uniform colours. Seirin was dressed in white, while their opposition was in yellow.

Wanting the team to know where she was seated, Gina waved. Unfortunately, she wasn't spotted by anyone but Kuroko, who happened to look up at the right time. She beamed, and he smiled back before returning his attention back to the team, where Riko was giving a few last-minute instructions.

Not long after Gina sat down, the whistle blew to get the starting players to line up. The five starting members were Kuroko, Kagami, Kiyoshi, Hyuga and Izuki. She hadn't expected anything different. Those five, along with Mitobe, seemed to have been the main players during practices.

After the usual pre-match introduction, the teams got ready to play. Kiyoshi and another member from Josei prepared for the toss.

The whistle was blown, and ball was tossed into the air. Kiyoshi, with his distinct height advantage, was the one to get it. Quickly, he passed to Izuki, who passed to Kagami. As soon as her red-haired friend received the ball, he was double teamed by two of Josei's players. With no way to move without pulling a charging offense, one of the two defenders managed to steal the ball and pass it down court. The play resulted in a goal for the other team.

Gina bit her lip, and leaned forward a little. Come on, you guys. You can do this.

The game continued, and at the beginning there was a fight for control. It was close, the score being 5-9 inJosei's favour.