Progress Takes Time

It is just the beginning of April, marking the start of a new school year. Everyone on the school is busy as many club representatives gathered on the corners of the school entrance or nearby it with a majority of them waving some club registration forms in their hands.

These are the seniors of the school who's trying to one up each other on inviting new students. This has become something like a tradition in this school as, even when the then newly made school expanded over the years and grew, the clubs never stopped on gathering near the entrance of the school to recruit newcomers.

"Anyone who wants to join the Tabletop Gaming Club!? We currently have a very beautiful club president that you might be able to see everyday," one crafty upperclassman shouted. This attracted the attention of the simps as they immediately surrounded the upperclassman, asking about various things that should be kept private for everyone's mental health.

"No, join in our Literature Club! We have various collections of… you know? Hee? Get me? We've got tons of those in our library," one horny looking dude shouted. Even his nose was slightly enlarged and his mouth is letting out steam while he's smiling in an extremely perverted way. One look at him and you'll know that he's definitely up to no good.

That aside, what's with middle schoolers having a collection of 'those' in a club? In a literature club no less. Is this how middle schoolers behave these days?

As time passed by, many first years have already joined their desired club while others are still undecided. How they wish there was a Going Home Club or Lazing Around Club around. It would be their honor to join such a club.

While many juniors were thinking about such useless things, a somewhat tall teenager suddenly arrived after alighting what seems to be a pretty expensive car. He was accompanied by two pretty girls and a grumpy looking average teenage boy who's wearing glasses.

The teen is sporting a mid-fade hairstyle, his hair light ash gray in color, while his jet black colored irises with purple undertones stood out. He has a healthy skin tone, not pale but is not tanned either. The smile on his face made the onlookers think that there are imaginary sparkles surrounding the teen while talking to the two girls and the teenage boy who's accompanying him.

"How is it, Seiji-kun? Our school I mean…" one of the girls asked.

This girl is a fair-skinned teenage girl with shoulder-length dark-brown hair that has one long strand of hair which she keeps combed neatly to the left side of her face and chocolate brown eyes. She have this timid atmosphere around her, making her look like a small animal.

"Right, right. You two are first years here huh. Well, I'm also new here though. I just transferred after all," said the last of the two girls.

She have a slightly boyish air around her but she still kept a prim and proper demeanor. She never acted girly than what's necessary. She had her mid-length caramel colored hair tied into a loose pony tail and put a few hair clips to keep her bangs off. The item she used to tie her hair even have a cute little bear design.

The young man in question, Seiji, finally answered the first girl after his long time friend Riko said her piece.

"Oh, well, I think the school is great. The atmosphere feels great, I can't wait to start schooling…" he paused for a moment before looking at the timid girl.

"You're so timid Kosaki-chan~," Seiji teased.

"Mou, I'm not timid! Also, I'm older than you so you should call me onee-chan!"

"Yes yes, Saki-chan. I understand."

"You don't understand anything at all!"

The girl who Seiji addressed as Kosaki finally couldn't help but raise her voice a bit in frustration.

"*sigh* Why is my little playmate from before suddenly asking me to call her onee-chan I wonder? She even used to cling on me when we were kids…" Seiji pretended to be sad as he wiped the fake tears rolling down his face.

"Wha-Wha-Wha-Whatever do you m-mean, I wonder? That was definitely Riko, not me…" Kosaki tried to lie as she played with her index fingers while pouting slightly.

"Haaaa!? Why'd you drag ME into the conversation? Also, mind you, I was never like that in the past!"

Riko tried to defend herself but was immediately countered by Seiji.

"What are you saying? You were even crying when I sometimes didn't go easy on you when we play chess…"

Hearing Seiji's words, Riko immediately panicked. However, she didn't want to deal with another round of teasing from Seiji so she just harrumphed and turned her head away to the side.

Seiji wanted to start another round of teasing but he seems to have remembered something as he looked at the other young man on his group.

"Hey Hyuuga-senpai. Do you think I could enter the basketball club here? I heard it was quite strong, regularly entering the top 8 of the Nationals every year and such."

The young man was definitely caught by surprise by this question as he looked at Seiji like he is someone stupid.

"Oi, are you kidding with me? You, a monster among monsters, wouldn't be able to enter this school's basketball club?"

"Don't give me that Hyuuga-senpai. I'm just asking you since you're the one who have experience among the four of us."

Hyuuga was visibly angry for some unknown reason but he still answered Seiji's question properly nonetheless.

"You see here… The basketball team in this school is quite lax when it comes to being able to enter the first string. As long as you are able to pass a benchmark that the coach set, you'll automatically be put into the first string. Even though he's good, the coach here can sometimes be lazy at dealing with these kinds of complicated stuffs so he just set a benchmark once and called it a day."

It is Seiji's turn to be taken aback this time.

"To think that the coach is that lax. Just what kind of person is he? Kagetora-sensei did tell me about him but…"

Before Seiji could finish his words, Riko interjected.

"Alright, stop! We should first look around before we look around for our classrooms!"

"Riko is right. I want to tour around the school."

"You two are… never mind. Let's go Hyuuga-senpai. We need your help in this one."

"*sigh* It can't be helped. Ya gotta pay me back for this favor next time!"

"Yes yes. Just guide us around and I'll make sure that the repayment will be worth your while."

Seiji walked forward, trailing behind Riko, Kosaki, and Hyuuga.

'Almost five years passed huh. It's like everything that happened these past few years just happened yesterday. Coupled with my early training, it will be almost nine years that I've started training and practicing hard for this day.'

He looked at the backs of the three before catching up to them while sporting his brightest smile until today.

'Basketball… I've been looking forward to this since my 'past life'. Now, I finally have that chance within my grasp.'

※・※・※・※

It has been almost 5 years since Seiji started to consult Aida Kagetora regarding his fitness. Kagetora never gave him anything too hard at first due to him being a kid so the reps weren't that hardcore. It was a training menu for a child after all.

During that same amount of time, Kagetora also trained him in basketball. He first taught him how to handle a ball, going into things like crossover, between the legs dribble, behind the back dribble, in and out dribble, V dribble, spin move, and wraparound. He's also taught Seiji how to dribble at different heights while simultaneously teaching him how to add float to his dribble.

In basketball, dribbling is important to enable a player to move around the court. Dribbling is necessary in order to take steps while possessing the ball. Once a player picks up their dribble (stops it by holding the ball), they may not dribble again until they pass, shoot, or otherwise lose possession of the ball and the ball touches a different player or the rim or backboard.

During their first few lessons when Seiji was still quite small, Kagetora only taught Seiji the easier to execute variations of a dribble like crossovers, between the legs dribble, V dribble, and In and out dribble. He then later taught Seiji the advanced moves like behind the back dribble, spin move, and wraparound once he saw Seiji do it so easily after seeing him perform it once. He even taught him a basic hesitation move just to see if he could pull it off well.

At first, they only did some training routines and drills that suits a child but Seiji learned them all immediately so Kagetora decided to up the reps in order to make Seiji get used to the feel of holding the ball. When he got used to it, Kagetora taught him the moves like jab steps, cross body jab, scissors, and other things that would help him defend the ball from those defenders who will try to attempt a steal.

Seiji learned from him how to protect the ball by keeping it behind his pocket when he does moves like the cross jab, with Kagetora emphasizing that he also have to base it on the situation. Doing this, he'll lessen the likelihood of the ball being stolen. Keeping his offhand in front of the ball also helps to protect it from the defender.

When he got slightly older, Kagetora made him do some drills like those stationary ball handling drills, among other things, to help him further improve his ball handling skills. After that, Kagetora no longer taught him anything about dribbling, telling him to find his own style.

Kagetora also did the same with the other basic things that Seiji has to learn in basketball. Shooting, rebounding and blocking, Kagetora all taught him just the basic moves and some drills to improve his game. He never taught him anything extra, afraid that he'll just ruin his monstrous talent for the sport.

Seiji understood his sentiment too and never asked him to teach him more. He just learned things through seeing videos and some trial and error in order to further polish his arsenal.

Like usual, Seiji just went home after consulting Kagetora and visiting his friend Riko while he's there. He suddenly felt a sudden craving for something sweet so he told Mia that he'll go out for some time to buy something for himself.

He aimlessly walked along the road as he looked left and right for a store where he could buy something. On his way, he noticed a lone girl sitting on a bench in the children's playground. Since he hasn't strolled around much here, he figured that he should just ask someone around.

So, Seiji approached the girl who looks to be around his age and asked a simple question.

"Hey, do you know a place around here that sells pastries or anything sweet?"

The girl's reply at the time made Seiji feel like he hit the jackpot.

"Eh? Me? W-Well, my family owns a candy shop so…"

"Eh? Are you serious? I just had the thought of asking someone for directions. Who knew that I'll hit the jackpot right away…"

Seiji couldn't help but chuckle at his luck in finding the right person to ask right away. He didn't know that his actions further stunned the girl as she looked at the boy with a slightly confused and timid expression. Nevertheless, as the kind girl that she is, she still offered her help.

"I-If you want, we can go there right now."

"Thank you. You really saved me a lot of trouble. By the way, my name is Seiji, Arisugawa Seiji," Seiji said while offering a handshake.

Seeing his gesture, the girl timidly extended her hand and introduced herself.

"K-Kosaki… I'm Onodera Kosaki."

Seiji grasped her outstretched hands firmly before smiling at her.

"Un! Nice to meet you Onodera-chan!"

This marked the time when Arisugawa Seiji and Onodera Kosaki met. After that day, Seiji regularly visited Kosaki's family owned candy shop and bought plenty of Japanese sweets while also asking the madam of the store if she could make him some made to order ones. The two of them eventually became friends and Seiji often invited her and her family on his mansion to play and eat some snacks.

※・※・※・※

To be continued…

[A/N¹: Hey there you wonderful people! I apologize for the lack of childhood interactions and content. I find it unnecessary so I just made a brief summary so that you guys will have an idea as to what happened during his childhood.]

[A/N²: Good thing I've prepared myself and announced that this will probably be a harem. I just remembered Onodera when I was looking for School Life animes. Knowing her ending, I kinda felt that long buried hatred for Raku surge and so I decided to add her here. There will be some more, probably only one more or so but it wouldn't surpass the double digits.]

[A/N³: Onodera is one of the best girls! Come fight me if you don't agree! I'm still not used to writing her given name as I got used to Raku constantly calling her Onodera. Fcking spineless piece of sh*t… Imma make Seiji slap him to oblivion when I have the chance. On second thought, I find it unnecessary to add him here.]