1 Another Shot

I didn't start playing basketball until my 9th grade year of high school. Growing up I had bounced around different sports and hobbies, but none could really keep my attention for very long. Of course I knew about basketball and had played it in different PE classes or random pick up games.

However it wasn't until I saw the anime Kuroko no Basket, that made me want to actually play it at a competitive level. Seeing the Generation of Miracles and all their different abilities sparked an interest in the sport I didn't know I had.

So I tried out for the team at the start of my freshmen year, and with my athleticism gained over the years of playing different sports I easily made it on my high school team. Only to find out that we sucked... bad.

That first year left me with mixed emotions, personally I played amazing, leading our district in scoring, but we couldn't seem to win consistently off of just me. I would watch YouTube videos of multiple levels of competitive basketball to hone my craft, but no matter how good I got, my team as a whole wasn't getting better.

As a competitive person I don't see how you can enjoy something if your are losing, but my teammates didn't seem to care. I was kind of seen as the odd one out, being one of the only players that seemed to actually care about winning.

So I found the 2 other players that actually wanted to get better as well, and we trained together. We made it so that we were undoubtedly the best 3 on the team to be in the starting 5 and we played hard, gritty and sometimes flashy basketball.

By the end of our freshmen year we started winning more games more consistently. We also managed to convince our teammates to pass the ball more. We played a completely offensive assault of a game. We didn't care much for defending because we would only tire ourselves out too fast, so we made sure to make our shots count.

Sophomore year you could feel the change, me and the other 2 were really fine tuning our chemistry and our other teammates were starting to see the appeal of actually getting better at basketball. As corny as it was we had developed a nickname for our trio.

"Birds of Prey"

I know I know, laugh it up, but we embraced it. I was nicknamed Raven, after my dark black hair. Then there was Eagle, unfortunately for him it was due to his bald head he had to start high school with for whatever reason. Although he had embraced it and just kept his head bald. Lastly there was Falcon, I'm not real sure why he was called Falcon, don't think that much thought went into it, but it stuck nonetheless.

We'll call the rest of our team the flock, just to make it easier. Anyways midway through sophomore year it was obvious something special was happening, I was now not only leading our district in scoring, but I was leading the whole state and averaging a triple double. Eagle was our big man and led the state in rebounds. While Falcon led in steals.

But it's never that easy I suppose. For the first time in the last 4 decades our school had made it to the play offs, and we matched up against a notoriously rough, and all round bad news of a team. They punched, kicked and tripped their way to their wins and it proved effective against us.

They targeted me first, and not being used to this rougher side of basketball I struggled to find any real rhythm before they finally got me in the 2nd quarter. An elbow to the ribs made me bend over right as another was coming down from a rebound, and my lack of flexibility showed through when I felt my hamstring pop.

The game was downhill from there, they targeted Eagle after that, and Falcon did his best, but by the 4th quarter without me and Eagle he was absolutely gassed and couldn't keep up. With that we were out of the tournament.

Junior year was the same, we started to get national recognition for our high scoring games and amazing team work. We made it to the playoffs undefeated, and funnily enough met the same team, however this time we were much better.

We were faster, quicker, smarter by the end of the first half we were up 30 and the rest followed pretty much the same with the final score being 80-32. We payed them back for last year, and went on to win the state championship, the first in school history.

Senior year we were all excited to graduate, us 3 had multiple scholarship offers to big name schools and we had to decided attend the same one to keep playing together as long as we could. But before that we had another championship to win.

Another undefeated season under our belt, we were the obvious favorites this year. Cruising past each opponent in the bracket by comfortable 20+ point wins. That's what led to this though, me bleeding out on the sidewalk not even 2 blocks from the stadium.

A couple of the guys from the team we stomped last year were seniors and I guess they lost out in scholarships after we beat them, and they resorted to becoming gang members to get by. So when they heard about me and the other 2 about to go back to back they treated me to multiple stab wounds to the stomach and chest and dumping me in an alley slowly dying.

With only one thought on my mind. "I just wanted to keep playing basketball." As the sound faded out, my vision slowly followed until I was met with completed darkness, before being overtaken by a soft white light and presented with the figure of an old wizard like man with a long white beard and long straight white hair.

"Welcome, Jace, or should I call you the Raven." He speaks out with a calm and endearing tone. It honestly set my whole body and mind at ease as I took in what was happening.

"Uh, Jace should be fine, but uh who are you?" I had multiple ideas running through my head, but they were each as impossible as the next.

"Well it's mostly as you imagine, this is the afterlife. Or more specifically the in between of life and death. The most popular name I believe is Limbo where you are from, but no I'm not God, at least not as you imagine. I'm merely a fragment of God's being tasked with guiding recently deceased souls."

"So what's going to happen to me then?" I ask

"It is up to you, whether you wish to go to heaven or be reincarnated. You didn't do anything in your life to warrant a trip downstairs." He explained.

"I want to be reincarnated please! As great as I'm sure heaven is, I'd like to keep living and playing basketball. Do I get to choose where I reincarnate?" I ask hopefully. He merely nods and the gestures for me to continue.

"I would like to be reincarnated into the anime world of Kuroko no Basket, and be the same age as the Generation of Miracles. Do I get any wishes or boons?"

"Indeed you get 3 wishes within reason of the standards of the world." He replies

"Then first I want perfect control of my body and brain, so theirs no "lag" in between when I think of a movement and when I do it.

Secondly I want a superior body potential, where as long as I put in the work my body will continue to improve.

And last but not least I want to be able to have a version of Hawk eye called Raven's Eye. It has the same view ability as hawk eye, and it also allows me to remember everything I've seen down to tiny details that lets me pick up on people's tendencies."

Not quite emperor eye level where it predicts the future, but I will notice anything they do and with my reflexes I'll have it will feel like I'm predicting the future.

"Very well, this is acceptable. Definitely not as absurd as some of the wishes I've heard before. For the final thing you may choose the family you want to be born, it can be random or it can be the family of a character from the show."

Wow I didn't expect to be able to do this as well after my wishes, but this works perfectly.

"I want to be born as Riko Aida's brother, but with my same black hair." I respond quickly

"Very well. Good luck in your next life."

And with that everything went dark again.

——————————————————————————

Author's Note

So I'm gonna be upfront I don't know all the different nuances of basketball, I just really enjoy the show and wanted to make my own FF for it. So apologies ahead of time if I don't do it justice.

Also like the synopsis said I can't promise a well written or consistently uploaded story. Hopefully MC isn't too op, but I don't want him to be able to compete against the GoM. Also I'm not that good with Japanese names, so if they sound familiar or generic, that's because they are.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy.