173 Shrine Visit, Part-Two

Aomine: "Geh."

Shun furrowed his brows and spoke in a faux-irritated tone.

Shun: "Dai-chan, that is not nice. The correct response is Happy New Year."

Aomine removed Shun's arm from him and said.

Aomine: "What are you doing here?"

Shun sighed and reprimanded Aomine.

Shun: "Again, that isn't the correct question. Why would a person be at a shrine on the first of January?

Look around. It is so cold out here.

There is only one reason to come out here in this weather."

Aomine grumbled and asked.

Aomine: "I mean, what are you doing here, right now?

Why did you have to be here, the same time I am?"

Shun shrugged and pointed at the girl behind them.

Shun: "I don't know. She is the one who decided the time."

Aomine turned to Satsuki, who just whistled to portray innocence.

Shun laughed and spoke.

Shun: "Come on, don't sweat the small stuff. Now that we are here. Let's go up and have fun."

Aomine stared at Shun and questioned.

Aomine: "What is fun at a shrine?"

Shun quirked his eyebrow and answered.

Shun: "Well, I know that you are here to see college ladies.

I can't think of another reason you would come here."

Aomine humphed asked a question but didn't refuse Shun's guess.

Aomine: "Then, why are you here?"

Shun chuckled and replied.

Shun: "I am here to buy the merch."

Satsuki and Aomine looked at each other, and Satsuki questioned.

Satsuki: "Merch?"

Shun nodded and talked.

Shun: "Yeah, you know the lucky charms (omamori) and fortune tellings."

Aomine coughed and exclaimed.

Aomine: "And, you are calling that merch."

Shun crossed his arms and answered.

Shun: "Well, I am paying for that, so yeah, I can call them merch.

And, you can get that stuff at shrines only, so this is exclusive merch."

Aomine and Satsuki were dumbfounded at the reasoning.

Shun laughed and said.

Shun: "Okay, let's go. It is probably going to be pretty crowded up there.

Let's get this over with and get somewhere less crowded."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

All three of them went up to the shrine, donated, wished, bought the lucky charm and fortune readings.

Shun laughed when he saw Aomine's fortune reading.

Shun: "Bad Luck. Well, that checks out."

Shun turned his reading to show the other two.

Shun: "Great Luck. Nothing to be surprised about."

He looked at Satsuki and asked.

Shun: "What did you get?"

Satsuki showed her telling.

Satsuki: "Same as you, great luck."

Shun smiled and spoke.

Shun: "Nice."

He turned to Aomine and patted his shoulder.

Shun: "Now, Aomine, don't worry. You meet Satsuki every day, maybe some of her luck would rub on you and elevate you from bad luck to normal luck."

Satsuki giggled while Aomine just grumbled at Shun's words.

Shun clapped and said.

Shun: "Now, let's go to an empty park. It is too crowded here."

The other two looked around and saw groups of people here for their first shrine visit.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The three of them reached a park, three of them sat on a swing next to each other.

Shun hummed a tune as he swung on the swing. He looked at Satsuki and Aomine and asked.

Shun: "So, what is going on at Teiko's basketball club? Anything new?"

Satsuki and Aomine glanced at Shun, who was swinging back and forth.

Aomine didn't even think about the answer.

Aomine: "Nothing new. It is boring."

Satsuki didn't speak, but her expression did fall a little.

Shun hummed and spoke.

Shun: "Well, it has been a tad bit boring for me too."

Satsuki and Aomine looked in surprise as they looked at Shun.

Satsuki: "Eh? What happened?"

She talked to Shun regularly, but it was totally from different from when she talked to Aomine about basketball.

He always seemed happy when he talked about anything to do with basketball.

Shun shrugged and explained.

Shun: "I haven't been in a single practice game after the Nationals.

And, that has been a bummer.

What about you guys, has Teiko been getting practice games?"

Satsuki nodded her head and spoke.

Satsuki: "Umm, we get games, but they are always for the second-string.

The first-string hasn't been in a single practice game after the Nationals."

Shun flashed a wry smile and continued.

Shun: "I see, so you guys are the same, huh.

Anytime we get a practice game, the other school always put a condition that they don't want me to play in the game.

At first, our coach refused all the practice games, but everything has a limit.

I couldn't let the team suffer just because of me.

The team needed practice games, so I went to the coach and told him to accept the games.

Now, the rest of the team participates in practice games.

But, I haven't played in a practice game in months."

-*-*-*-

Tokiwadai and Teiko's reputation has gotten so high that they couldn't get practice games against other teams in Tokyo and getting practice games against teams from different prefectures, was difficult.

No one in Tokyo wanted to play against the Generation Of Miracles and Shun.

The mentality of the Tokyo middle school basketball scene had changed to see these players as unbeatable existences, and no one wanted to play a losing game.

The hopelessness caused by the six players was setting in, and after the preliminary game, none in Tokyo wanted to play against Shun or Generation Of Miracles.

-*-*-*-

Three of them just sat in silence before Satsuki tried to suggest.

Satsuki: "How about Teiko and Tokiwadai schedule a practice game?"

Shun answered the question immediately.

Shun: "That won't work, and I personally don't want that."

Satsuki was surprised at the statement and asked.

Satsuki: "But, why?"

Shun continued to swing and spoke.

Shun: "All of us know how the game is going to end up.

I don't want to undermine my teammates, but we all know from them the practice game won't be much of practice with you guys on the court.

It will end up the same as the preliminaries."

Satsuki understood the reason why Shun wouldn't want to participate in a practice game.

Aomine didn't comment on the situation.

Satsuki noticed that Aomine didn't comment, and she knew the reason. She was all too familiar with the reason.

The current situation in Teiko had cast out the concept of team play.

-*-*-*-

All in all, Tokyo middle school basketball scene had changed a lot in one year, Generation Of Miracles and Kageyama Shun were the cause of the change in mentality.

None of the schools in Tokyo had any hopes to win against the two schools.

The two schools had set their place as the undisputed, unbeatable teams. Both teams became too strong for normal teams to play.

But, Tokiwadai and Teiko were also not free from the darkness spreading through the scene.

None of the two schools could get practice games with their full roster in play.

Teiko couldn't let a single one of their starters play in a game, and Tokiwadai couldn't let Shun play.

The players who caused the current situation were the ones suffering the most.

Tokyo Middle School Basketball Scene had entered a dark time.