Chapter 02 - Scrimmage

The next day, Furihata found himself with Kawahara, Fukuda, the red-hair, and another one with light-blue hair that he knows pretty well as the sixth member of the Generation of Miracle known as the phantom, Tetsuya Kuroko, lining up in the middle of the court while the girl that he thought as the manager yesterday examined them.

It turned out that the girl is their coach.

A minute later, five players that Furihata knows as his senpai came into the court, prepared for a game. Looking at them, Furihata had an idea of what is their assessment after this.

"Okay, since all of you are here, let's not beat around the bush. Take off your shirt, all of you!"

Furihata was taken aback. Not only him, the other four players also had a similar expression, so their senpai with glasses on his face immediately explained the reason.

"Don't worry about it. Riko has the ability to assess your skill based on how trained your body is. Just do what she said." The first-years nodded after hearing the explanation.

'Well, that is a pretty convenient ability.' Furihata thought inwardly as he took off his shirt, followed by the other. The girl, Riko-senpai, observed them one by one with somehow creepy eyes that makes him uncomfortable. However, he didn't say anything and just wait for his turn.

When it is indeed his turn, Riko-senpai looked closely at his body for almost five minutes before she nodded and walked again without saying anything. Furihata lets out a relieved sigh as his turn is finished.

He turned his attention when he heard a gasp from his senpai.

"What the hell.." Riko-senpai muttered while observing the body of the red-hair.

Well, he couldn't fault her as by just looking at the red-hair's physical, he knows that the red-hair is a monster. He is about 190 cm, the tallest among the team, even the senpai. He also has a muscular body that indicates that he is the explosive type on the court, a body that is rare to be seen in the high school

Honestly, it is ridiculous how gifted one person could be.

After another round of observation by Riko-senpai for the red hair and the phantom, she clapped her hand. It seems she is a bit disappointed that the player from Teikou has a weak body, not like the Generation of Miracles.

"Okay, since I am done with assessing your body, we will have a scrimmage for you against them." She pointed at the senpai who have evil smirks. "Don't worry. I don't expect a lot from you as I know you haven't played together at all. Just show your best here."

Furihata raised his eyebrow at that. While he has already had the idea of the scrimmage and expected the coach would not expect them to do well, he still took the last statement as a challenge, as it is his job as a point guard to make this teamwork.

"I will announce the team now! For the first year, it is the position that you put in your form! Kouki Furihata, point guard. Tetsuya Kuroko, shooting guard. Koichi Kawahara, small forward. Taiga Kagami, power forward. Hiroshi Fukuda, center."

Kawahara and Fukuda looked nervous while Kagami only showed annoyance and impatient on his face. For Kuroko, the phantom didn't say anything, just observed his teammates carefully.

As for Furihata, he didn't know if he should laugh or cry at the irony. The only member of the Generation of Miracle who couldn't shoot registered himself as a shooting guard.

Ridiculous.

The green-hair shooting guard from Teikou would laugh to die if he knows about it.

"Okay, for the senpai member! Shun Izuki, point guard. Junpei Hyuga, shooting guard. Satoshi Tsuchida, small forward. Shinji Koganei, power forward. Rinnosuke Mitobe, center."

The Senpai grinned as they are preparing themselves for the game.

"We will only play for a quarter, 12 minutes, and I will be the referee. I expect all of you to do your best so that I can choose our first team. Standard rules applied. Ready?"

Seeing all of the players nod, Riko-senpai took the ball and walked to the middle of the court.

"Center ready?" Mitobe-senpai and Fukuda nodded. Five seconds later, Riko-senpai throws the ball high for the tip-off, and the game officially begins.

Unsurprisingly, Fukuda loses the tip-off against Mitobe-senpai, as the senpai center sends the ball straight to Izuki-senpai. The point guard didn't take a long time before passing the ball to Hyuga-senpai who is standing alone outside the three points line without anyone guarding him. The shooting guard didn't hesitate as he shoot straight from his position, a three-point for the senpai team.

0-3

"Yossha!!!!"

"Nice one, Senpai!"

"Keep it up!"

The senpai team high-fived each other for the three points before. As for the first years, it seems that the red-hair, Kagami, could not hold his patience anymore.

"Hey, give me the ball!" The red-hair that he knows his name as Kagami demanded with a harsh tone, causing a frown upon the team. However, Kawahara didn't want to cause a problem right after the game begin, so he just gives Kagami the ball.

"Get out of my way!" Within a second, the red-hair dribbled the ball with a quick pace to the senpai team, driving straight to the rim before jumping for a dunk without anyone could stop it.

2-3

"Woaaah!!!"

"What a crazy dunk!"

"He is a monster!"

While Kawahara and Fukuda showed awe expressions from Kagami's play, Furihata clicked his tongue in annoyance at Kagami's selfishness. Kagami essentially just rushed forward without waiting for his teammates to be ready in position, just to show his dominance.

'Well, if he wants to do it alone, let him do that. Let's see how far he can do against the senpai.'

The game continues again with the ball for the senpai team. Now, all of the Senpai have serious expressions on their faces that indicate they will stop playing along and treat the game seriously.

Izuki-senpai has the ball while being guarded tightly by Furihata. The second-year point guard frowned as he couldn't see any hole in Furihata's defense.

'Tch, his defense is good. I can't see any hole in it.'

After he couldn't do anything for almost five seconds, he decided to pass the ball to Mitobe-senpai in the paint area.

Fukuda tried to guard him, but Mitobe-senpai is quicker. He turned his body around and did a hook shoot, resulting in another two points for the senpai.

2-5

"Good one, Mitobe!"

"Nice shoot!"

"Oi, give me another ball!" Kagami's shout snapped their attention to the first-year's power forward. Now, they are ready to defend the red hair.

Seeing as the first play was going well, Kawahara passed the ball once again to Kagami, who without waiting or saying anything just rushed forward once again. However, this time, there is Koganei-senpai who guarded him.

Koganei-senpai is an average player. Anyone could see that he is not a fair match-up for Kagami. But the cat-like senpai has the stubbornness and a very quick reflex to do the defense that makes Kagami a bit uncomfortable.

After about seven seconds of holding the ball without any result, Kagami tried to overwhelm Koganei-senpai in power before sending a floater right in front of Mitobe-senpai, resulting in another two points for the first-year.

4-5

"Yosshaaa!!!" Kagami screamed after he bodied Koganei-senpai to the floor. Kawahara still shares the same excitement as Kagami's first play, but Fukuda has a frown on his face. Furihata noticed it as well as Fukuda asked for the ball for almost five seconds without getting noticed by Kagami.

"Don't worry." Furihata patted his back. "You will have your time to shine. Just be ready for it." Fukuda nodded with determination in his eyes.

The game resumed once again with Izuki-senpai holding the ball. Seeing as he couldn't do anything against Furihata, he passed the ball to the weakest link in the first-year's defense, Hyuga-senpai.

The glasses senpai caught the ball quickly and released it without giving the defender any time to close the distance. The ball fell down smoothly to the rim.

4-8

"Yoooshh!!!"

"Nice shoot, Senpai!"

"You are on fire today!!"

Furihata sighed. Honestly, when he watched Teikou's game, he found out that Kuroko's ability is too specialized that it needs teammates with high ability to match his style. Without it, he is basically useless on the court as he couldn't defend properly and his shooting is terrible.

"Oi, the ball!"

And there is the biggest problem in the team. The biggest asshole named Taiga Kagami, thinks that the world is resolved around him. Well, if he thinks so, let him do that. Sooner or later, the senpai will have a solution for Kagami.

And much to his surprise, the solution came up in the next play. Kagami was double-teamed by Koganei-senpai and Hyuga-senpai who find out that it is pointless to guard Kuroko as he is basically doing nothing.

A smart decision, indeed.

"Don't underestimate us, rookie!" Hyuga-senpai shouted as he tried to hold Kagami back in his position.

However, much to his surprise, Kagami managed to overwhelm them once again and tried to do a layup. Unfortunately, he didn't see that Mitobe-senpai is already in front of him, so the center didn't have a problem swatting the ball outside, straight to Kawahara.

"AGAIN!" Kagami shouted as he is not happy of being blocked by Mitobe-senpai. However, right after Kawahara passed the ball, Kagami was immediately surrounded by Hyuga-senpai, Koganei-senpai, and Mitobe-senpai. A triple team.

"HERE!" Fukuda shouted under the rim as he is alone without anyone guarding him. Furihata also moved in the opposite direction of Fukuda so that Izuki-senpai would follow him as it would create a space for the center to be alone inside the paint area.

However, the senpai team had already predicted the outcome of triple-teaming Kagami. While it leaves Kuroko and Fukuda alone, they know that Kagami would not pass the ball, so they can just put their focus on Kagami.

And within a second, Koganei-senpai managed to sneak behind Kagami and swatted the ball from his position, resulting in a turnover from the Kagami. Fortunately, it is still the first-year's ball.

Seeing as Fukuda picked up the ball, Furihata runs quickly in his direction while shouting,

"Fukuda, here!"

"What!"

Izuki who was guarding him tried to follow, but Furihata is quicker. Fukuda gives the ball immediately to the point guard, and before he noticed, the ball is in his hand once again.

Fukuda widened his eyes, couldn't believe the play that Furihata just did a moment before. Just right after he gives the ball to Furihata and walked inside the court again, the point guard passed the ball once again to him without even dribbling it, leaving Fukuda in a wide-open position to score. He didn't hesitate and put the ball to the rim for easy two points,

6-8

"Good pass!" Fukuda gives Furihata a high-five, which replied with the same gesture.

"You too. Good finishing."

They are back to the defense position, leaving the other players in their shock. Honestly, it is just a simple play. The senpai team can replicate it in the next play, definitely. But the fact that it was done by two first-year players who have never played together before is what makes the play special.

And it is the first play from the first-year that involved any players other than Kagami, so it definitely surprised them.

Furihata smirked as he whispered to Fukuda,

"Let's try to have fun."

The smirk mirrored to the first-year center.