In Shadows | Kuroko no Basket Fan Fiction

12. History

In Shadows

Chapter Twelve

History

Hyuga told them everything - right from the very beginning.

He told them how he'd gone to Seirin with Izuki, with no desire to ever play basketball again. His morale had been shattered by constant defeat in middle school and the helplessness all teams felt as they encountered the Generation of Miracles. As a brand new school, Seirin had had no basketball team, and he hoped it would stay that way.

Until, he had bumped into Kiyoshi. Even though he could've easily been accepted into any strong school, he went to Seirin since he was raised by his grandparents and it was easier for them. Kiyoshi had been on his way to hand in a club application form for the basketball club, and had been dismayed to hear of how there was no club.

However, his spirit soon changed and he instead went about planning forming a basketball club. He had managed to recruit Izuki easily, and then they met Kogani and Mitobe, who also joined. However, no matter how much he pestered Hyuga about joining, Hyuga's answer remained the same; no.

Even Riko hadn't been able to convince him. Until Kiyoshi convinced Hyuga to play one-on-one, saying that if Hyuga managed to score, he'd stop asking him to join the basketball club. Hyuga accepted, but Kiyoshi was too strong and stopped all of his attempts at goal. It was then Hyuga had given and the next day, joined the basketball team by joining the others on the roof and declaring his intentions to be the best.

Riko had decided to become to coach upon seeing their determination to become the best, and Hyuga was nominated captain by Kiyoshi. They'd trained hard, and since they had a limited time until Inter-High, they'd focused on run-and-gun.

When they entered the Inter-High, they surprised everyone as they won each game they played. Everything went relatively smoothly until they reached the final of the preliminary league, and went against Kirisaki Dai Ichi.

At first, everything had gone well. Seirin had led through the entire game. Then, toward the end of the fourth quarter, Kirisaki Dai Ichi put Hanamiya Makoto in.

Hardly minutes after he came on court, Kiyoshi was injured as he attempted to get a rebound. The opponent, even after being obviously late on the rebound, smashed into his knee. Kiyoshi had been feeling pain in that knee for some time, and that blow had finished it off. The Iron Heart had to be carried off court by a stretcher.

Though Hanamiya claimed that he was not the cause of the injury, Hyuga said he saw him give some sort of signal.

Seirin had still won narrowly and had gone to see Kiyoshi in hospital straight afterwards. Though he had put on a brave face, Kiyoshi was terribly injured. It would take two years for his knee to fully heal. However, he could cut it down to just one if he chose to just to rehabilitation and not take the surgery.

But by doing so, the stress on the knee would continue to accumulate until he was back where he started. And that would only take a year.

And Kiyoshi chose the second option despite it meaning he'd probably never be able to play during his third year, or any time after. He wanted to be there to take Seirin to number one in Japan.

So, the team was without Kiyoshi for the finals league of the preliminaries for the Inter-High. They didn't stand a chance as their score was tripled by the three Kings of the West, ending their campaign for the year.

Hyuga sighed as he finished his recollection of their team's last year. "That's that," he said quietly. He looked back at three first-years. Gina bit her lip as she walked along, her heart reaching out for Kiyoshi. To think he was willingly destroying his knee to play one more year with his friends...