THIRTY

[Extra: The Hinata Brothers]

Two silver-haired men sat a bar laughing and celebrating over their semi-successful ambush. Both men held a bottle of beer and some sake on the side which they indulged themselves with whilst causing a racket in the bar.

The regular patrons of the bar had long left not being able to take the ruckus caused by the Hinata brothers and their men.

The bar owner so desperately wanted to kick them out but these men carried knives and wouldn't hesitate to use them so he could only suck it up and pray they left as soon as possible.

One the brothers, Toushiro, leaned back on his seat letting out a loud chortle.

"We did good little bro! That'll teach that damn White Tiger Gang not to mess with us! How dare they kick us out of their casino with such humiliation?!"

"To be fair, we did bash up one of their customers,"

Toushiro clicked his tongue and drunkenly mumbled, "Fucker had it coming - provoking me and all~"

His brother, in a tipsy state, asked, "But won't they come after us?"

"Eh? Nah, they won't. Their boss is down so there's no way they'll act,"

"Right...you're always right bro~"

He was wrong. Very wrong and that was proven so minutes later when the door of the bar was kicked open and the White Tiger members swarmed the place looking for blood.

To bad for the Hinata brothers, they were far too drunk to think straight and fight back so they and their men were defeated all too easily.

From the back, Takumi made his way over to the brothers now bruised and beaten to the point their faces were unrecognizeble.

They were held up by their arms and forced to face the boy.

"Tsk tsk. Did you two morons really think you'd get away unscathed with what you did?" Takumi asked with cold eyes.

All he got in response was a groan from each of them but it was obvious they were far too wasted to understand the full situation. Takumi let out a sigh and gestured to the men behind him.

"Bring them. We'll keep them in the southwest warehouse for further operations,"

Translation: We'll keep them prisoner and torture them till they'll wish they were dead.

"Let's get out of here," he ordered.

""HAI!!""

As they made their way out, Takumi dumped an envelope of cash on the bar counter and looked towards the cowering owner.

"It's for the damage and their tab."

The owner who was too terrified to speak only nodded vigourously.

--------

The Final leage matches have finally begun.

The Tokyo Stadium was packed to the brim with crowds of people - a vast difference to the preliminary games. For today especially, the match was against two dark horses, one of which had the ace of the generation of miracles in their team.

Touou academy weren't known for having many championship wins and only became a threat when the current third years entered the arena.

With Aomine Daiki added to their arsenal and that apologising mushroon with sick shooting skills, their level was boosted from B to A+.

Seirin arrived at the stadium at half-past three in the afternoon.

Kagami could feel his heart tremble from either nervousness or excitement.

...

Pfft, nervous? Him? As if.

Yeah this feeling was totally excitement. And a tinge - just a tinie tiny bit of anxiousness.

While he hadn't seen this Aomine Daiki's skill in person, the team had watched old recordings of him in Teiko and he was strong.

Of course, not Takumi's level of strong but still very strong.

Takumi had told him not to worry and to trust his instincts but this was coming from a guy who could easily thrash anyone on court. Kagami wondered if his hanging around with Takumi brought down some self-esteem in him.

The old Kagami would be very disappointed.

"Shit, what the hell do I have to nervous for? I - We are gonna win this thing," He mumbled lowly.

"Damn right we will," Takumi slapped the boy's back making him stumble from the force.

"What the fuck man?!" Kagami growled.

"It's not nice to swear Kagami-kun."

"GAHH!! KUROKO YOU SHIT!!"

"SHUT UP YOU BRATS!!" Hyuga shouted from the front of the group.

With many eyes on them, Riko couldn't help but sigh and face-palm in exasperation.

'Boys...'

--------

Momoi was biting her fingernail and throwing frequent glances at her watch. Her leg was rapidly moving up and down as her eyes scanned the area looking for a certain tanned boy.

"Where is that idiot? I told him the match was at four," she muttered worriedly.

The Touou team were all here and ready to roll except for one boy who was late...again.

This was total disrespect to Kuroko who was going to give his all in this match. For acquaintances, this wouldn't really matter but the two were once bestfriends and partners. The least Aomine could have done was show up on time.

'Even though I warned him about Kagami Taiga and Yoshida Takumi.' Momoi thought. 'He may not care about them but he should be here on time at least for Tetsu-kun.'

"It's time," The Touou Coach walked into the locker room. He gave a single glance around the room and frowned, "Where's Aomine?"

"H-He's not here yet, coach. Sorry!" Sakurai responded with a yelp.

"Momoi-"

"I've tried calling his cellphone. It's switched off," she replied. "We will have to start without him."

The coach let out a sigh and nodded, "Fine. Let's go."

"Yes coach!"

The team locked away any valuables in the lockers and made their way out wearing confident expressions. They entered the stadium immediately igniting cheers from the crowd and their gazes met Seirin's.

Takumi watched them from the bench and took note of Aomine's absence.

'And here I thought my presence would change things. I suppose this goes to show just how arrogant and confident he is.'

"He's not here," Kuroko mumbled, his eyes also staring at the team dressed in black.

"Don't worry. He'll show up eventually but, he's going to regret being late," Takumi grinned devilishly.

Kagami frowned but chose not to say anything. Takumi had mentioned earlier that the guy might not show for the first quarter. It was unnerving but Kagami knew what he had to do.

"Touou themselves are a tough team, without Aomine, so expect the worst from them," Riko said to them in a solemn voice. "I believe in your abilities but it's up to you to show them."

"YES COACH!!"

"Let's do this!" Hyuga exclaimed.

"3...2...1...SEIRIN FIGHT!!"

------

A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! Wishing all my lovely readers a wonderful and joyous year and I hope you all stay safe and healthy.