At 3:30 after school, he changed into his sports clothes and walked into the Minato Ward Gym after his dad had dropped him off, while other kids came in behind him, recognizing faces from the tryouts. Coach stood at center court with a clipboard, gathering them into a circle.
"Good. Everyone's here." He counted heads. "Circle up, I want introductions. Name and grade."
"Imamura Tashiro, fifth grade."
"Sawamura Hirotoshi! Fourth grade. Uh - I'm really excited to be here."
"Naruhaya Daichi, fifth."
"Ukai Hisashi, fifth."
"Matsuo Managami, fourth."
"Ikeda Issei, fifth."
"Hayashi Doma, fourth."
"Ori Kagao, third."
----
The layup lines were first; they were two columns, alternating ends, catch-and-go. Kagao took his reps with both hands, right side, then rotating to the left side. He went up at the right angle, soft release, ball rolling off his fingertips through the rim.
Three spots down the line, Naruhaya sprinted towards the basket, left his feet early, and extended his arm - reaching. The ball rimmed out.
"Damn," Naruhaya said under his breath, then glanced at Coach. Luckily for him, Coach was looking at his clipboard. Naruhaya went to the back of the line, and Passing drills were next, which were two rows facing each other, chest pass and catch.
Sawamura's passes were noticeably better than the others at his grade level - arriving at exactly the right height. Kagao caught one from him, passing it back. Defensive footwork was next, Slide left, slide right, close out, recover.
Kagao went through it without thinking much - his footwork had been good since he picked up the basketball.
"Alright," Coach said. "That's enough warm-up. Let's scrimmage."
He split them up into two teams. Team A: Kagao, Sawamura, Ukai, Matsuo. Team B: Naruhaya, Imamura, Ikeda, Hayashi.
"First to forty, or twelve minutes each quarter, whichever comes first," Coach said. He was keeping score manually with a pencil on his clipboard. "Play hard but no fouling, I want to see what you got."
He tossed the ball at the center, and Imamura got the tip-off, passing it to Naruhaya. Naruhaya drove immediately, crossing half-court, and attacked the right side of the lane where Sawamura was positioned. Sawamura was not built for this. Naruhaya blew past him, got past Matsuo's weak defense, and laid it up.
Swish.
'He's fast,' Kagao noted.
Team B: 2. Team A: 0.
Sawamura inbounded to Kagao at the top of the key. Kagao caught the ball in motion, stepped into the low post with one dribble, planted his left foot, and turned. Hayashi tried to stay in front. Kagao dropped his shoulder, one long step across, right foot planting as the angle cleared. He laid it up with his right hand on the glass.
Swish.
Ukai gave him a glance from the wing. 'Huh. The kid can actually play.'
Team A: 2. Team B: 2.
The next three possessions went back and forth without scoring - Team B missing a mid-range attempt, Team A losing the ball when Matsuo fumbled a pass, a Kagao drive getting cut off by Imamura's defense. His arms reached angles that Kagao didn't expect, blocking the passing lane on a drive that should've been a clear layup.
The fourth possession: Sawamura pushed the ball up, Kagao flared to the wing, but Hayashi was right behind him, chasing him. The ball swung to Kagao at the three-point line.
Hayashi didn't close out hard, underestimating Kagoa. The ball left Kagao's hands in a high arc and went through the net.
Swish
'Did he just - from there?' Naruhaya stood at half court staring.
Team A: 5. Team B: 2.
Two more possessions, both defensive stops. Then Sawamura got stripped on a drive, and Naruhaya pushed it out ahead - Ikeda trailing on the right side, Naruhaya pulling up at fifteen feet. His form was decent. The ball dropped through.
Team A: 5. Team B: 4.
Kagao received the inbound at the top of the key. Same spot as before, but he had a different defender now - Ikeda had rotated in for Hayashi and was closing out better with his hands up. Kagao shot anyway and made it.
Swish
Team A: 8. Team B: 4.
Naruhaya answered with another drive, this time drawing Ukai in to help and passing it - Imamura caught it under the basket, turned, shot over Matsuo.
Swish
Team A: 8. Team B: 6.
'Good pass,' Ukai thought, watching Naruhaya.
Ukai moved to get the inbound, and Sawamura pushed up the floor. He found Kagao on the right elbow, a clean pass, the ball arriving at the right height without Kagao having to reach. Kagao caught it off Sawamura's pass, already squared up.
'I just want to be part of this somehow,' Sawamura thought from the perimeter, watching. 'Even if he never passes back.'
The three splashed through the net.
Team A: 11. Team B: 6.
It was mid-quarter, and Ukai was working the left block against Ikeda, calling for the ball. His arm was up. Kagao had it at the top of the key with a clear view of Ukai's position. Ukai drove instead and pulled up at the free-throw line. It hit the back of the rim, missing.
'Could've been a guaranteed two. That's how he plays, I'm going to have to work around it.' Ukai thought.
Team B inbound. Naruhaya probed, found nothing, reset. Hayashi tried a pass that Sawamura cut off - Sawamura's hands were fast - and Team A pushed it in transition. Sawamura found Kagao on the right wing in stride.
Kagao planted his feet and shot the pull-up three without hesitating. It hung on the rim, spinning them fell through.
'That shouldn't have gone in,' Naruhaya thought, watching from half court.
Team A: 14. Team B: 6.
Two minutes left in Q1. Kagao drove baseline left - a move he'd been building since Sunday, the specific step-through his left hand had been practicing on the concrete. Naruhaya had rotated over, but he was a half-step late. Kagao's left hand released the ball off the glass at the right angle, and it went in.
Team A: 16. Team B: 6.
Then the play he'd been setting up all quarter - driving the lane center, and finishing through it despite Immaura's defense. The ball hit the glass while Imamura's arm grazed his shoulder, going in.
Team A: 18. Team B: 6.
The final two Team A points came from his teammates. Ikeda gambled on a steal attempt and left Ukai's baseline open. Ukai received Sawamura's bounce pass and scored.
Team A: 20. Team B: 6.
Then, with forty seconds left, Kagao drove into a double-team, and the ball came loose. The ball rolled toward the paint. Ukai boxed out his man, picked it up, and scored.
Team A: 22. Team B: 6.
"End of Quarter", Coach said.
They gathered on their respective sides. Water bottles were passed around. Kagao gulped the water down fast while Coach addressed Team B first.
"You're not being outplayed on every possession. That's important to understand. Your defense in the last two minutes was better than your defense at the start. Naruhaya - your drives are creating real problems for their guard. That second one was well-timed, but figure out how to make them help, then make them pay for helping. That's your Q2 goal."
Naruhaya clenched his fists, nodding. 'I got two baskets, I deserve some more praise. Wait, every three that Shorty made came from the right wing or the top of the key. What happens if I cheat over early? What does he do when the space closes?'
Coach turned to Team A. "Good ball movement from the guards late in that quarter. Q2, I want to see more of that."
Naruhaya took the opening possession of Q2 and drove fast. Kagao had noted this in Q1. He was the fastest on the team by a margin, maybe even faster than him. He got into the paint this time, blew past the defenders, and finished.
Team A: 22. Team B: 8.
'I got that,' Naruhaya thought. 'I'm not done.'
He rotated back on defense and found Kagao receiving the inbound at the three-point line. Then he did something different - he stepped up hard, hands in Kagao's face.
Kagao pump-faked, but Naruhaya didn't bite. In the end, it didn't matter; Kagao shot anyway.
'He's still shooting,' Naruhaya thought, watching the ball leave Kagao's hands - 'over my hand, with me right there-'
Splash
Team A: 25. Team B: 8.
Naruhaya stuck to Kagao on the next possession, cutting off every angle to the three-point line, and it worked, mostly. Kagao dribbled into the post, and Naruhaya was right there, arm up, but the speed difference showed up.
One second, Kagao was in the post with Naruhaya draped on him, and the next, he'd shifted his weight, exploded baseline left, and was already at the rim before Naruhaya finished reacting.
'He's faster than me,' Naruhaya thought in shock.
The left-hand layup dropped in.
Team A: 27. Team B: 8.
From the other side of the court, Imamura watched this while setting his defensive position. He'd been thinking since halftime about what Naruhaya couldn't solve: 'You can't guard someone with your speed if they have more of it.' Naruhaya was the team's fastest; if Kagao were faster, this could be a problem.
'This isn't normal,' Imamura thought. He had been playing organized basketball for two years. He'd played against 5th-graders, 6th-graders, and in one ward tournament, an 8th-grade exhibition scrimmage that he'd lasted eleven minutes in before being subbed. He had a working understanding of what different levels looked like.
The third-grader with the buzz cut was operating at a level he hadn't seen at this age. At any age, here in this ward.
Kagao had the ball again; Naruhaya had switched to Ikeda for primary defense while he stayed back. Ikeda was doing his best, but Kagao received the ball at the right wing, and this time, both Naruhaya and Ikeda converged, contesting the three.
Swish
Team A: 30. Team B: 8.
'Eight points in this quarter, Naruhaya thought. 'Four total baskets for their entire team, and eight of those points are his.' He'd been running the math in his head. 'How do you guard someone who makes contested threes?'
Naruhaya dribbled to the right side again, this time pulling up at twelve feet when the drive was cut off. The ball hit the back of the rim and fell through.
Team A: 30. Team B: 10.
The last minutes of Q2 ran together - stops, turnovers, both teams tiring. Kagao caught the ball at the top of the key off a Sawamura drive-and-dribbled, Ukai's screen having cleared Naruhaya to the left side. He rose and shot, greening it.
Team A: 33. Team B: 10.
Sawamura increased his pace on the next possession, found Ukai sealing his man inside, and bounced passed it to him perfectly, and Ukai finished with his right hand.
Team A: 35. Team B: 10.
Ukai got another one two possessions later - Kagao got double-teamed, and Sawamura found Ukai cutting baseline. Ukai caught the ball, stepping toward the basket, and put it up.
Team A: 37. Team B: 10.
Sawamura himself did a drive that surprised everyone, including himself, slipping through the defense when Naruhaya over-committed on a Kagao fake. Sawamura caught the gap and finished off the wrong foot, but somehow made it.
Team A: 39. Team B: 10.
"Thirty-nine, Coach said, making the final mark on his clipboard. He called time.
Imamura remained standing. He'd expected to be the physical anchor of this team. He was the tallest, longest, and most experienced at the center position, and in the scrimmage, the player who had determined the result was four inches shorter than him and three grades below.
'He's going to keep scoring like that,' Imamura thought. 'The question is what else the team does when he's the one everyone's focused on.'
Ukai sat down on the bench and drank water. His expression was the same as it had been at the start of practice.
'The 3rd-grader's good,' Ukai thought. 'He doesn't pass much, though, I'll have to work around that.'
Kagao sat at the end of the bench with his water bottle, drinking. 'Only twenty-nine points I need to be better.'
Coach stood at the center with both teams around him now. "Good scrimmage. Team B - you scored ten points against a good defense. Naruhaya, I watched your Q2 adjustments. Nice job, we must always be willing to change to improve when it comes to basketball."
"Team A, some of you showed me things today I didn't see at tryouts. What I want to see more of is the ball moving, not fewer scoring. Next week thursday, we play Aoyama Elementary, the Dolphins. It's a friendly game, but they're pretty decent."
"The starting five is Ori at shooting guard. Sawamura at point guard. Naruhaya at small forward. Ukai at power forward. Imamura at center."
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A/N: I don't expect this fic to be popular, but we need some representation of Kuroko no Basket stuff fics.
100 ps- 1 bonus chapter
150 ps- 2 bonus chapter