Chapter 14 - VS Kaijo V - Intermission

"Don't worry, Senpai. I am okay." Kuroko said while he walked toward the bench. However, he didn't fool anyone as he staggered to his feet, swaying a little. His teammates sweat dropped at the contradictive of what he said and how he is right now.

'You are not okay at all!'

"Kurokocchi! What happened?!" Kise suddenly approached Kuroko with a worried face. Hyuga growled, annoyed with Kise.

"What do you mean 'what happened'? Look at your elbow and see for yourself what happened!" Izuki and Mitobe tried to make him calm as things could turn into heated arguments.

Meanwhile, while he didn't have a clue, Kise did what Hyuga said and looked at his elbow. To his surprise, he could see a trace of fresh blood in it. But he could feel that it is not his own blood.

'What happened?'

After rewinding the memory of his last play inside his brain, Kise widened his eyes in realization.

'When he blocked my path and I shrugged it off, I accidentally hit his head with my elbow. That's what happened!'

Then Kise snapped his thought and wanted to approach Kuroko to apologize, but all of Seirin's players is already on the bench, treating Kuroko's wound.

"Don't worry about it. That was an accident and you did nothing wrong here. Let's go back." Kasamatsu patted his shoulder. Kise nodded, but not before he looked in Seirin's direction with a worried face.

Meanwhile, on the Seirin bench, there is a heated argument happened there.

It starts right after Kuroko finished getting treatment, when Riko suddenly makes a shocking decision.

"Tsuchida-kun, go for warm up. You will replace Kagami in the third quarter."

"WHAT?!"

Not only Kagami, even several senpai was surprised at this decision. That is because Kagami is their best player in this entire game. Competing against Kise for the entire first half, battling against two big men, scoring, and defending, he did all by himself. If he was suddenly being subbed off, it will weaken this team.

But Furihata could see why his coach decided to do that. Kagami is getting tired and his emotion is getting uncontrolled, so Kagami needs to calm down and wait for Kuroko to play again so they can come back to the court freshly.

And it is not like Tsuchida is a bad replacement. The quiet senpai is an all-around player, good at both offense and defense. Out of everyone except Kagami, Tsuchida has the largest wingspan on the team. That means his arm is long enough to make it easier for him to grab rebounds and block the ball, very suitable for a defensive-minded player like him.

However, Kagami couldn't understand that, so the rad hair snapped.

"But coach! You saw it yourself! Only I can do this against them!"

Now, while Kagami didn't mean that, he basically insulted all the players who have played for the entire game.

"Care to say that again, Brat?" Hyuga is smiling sweetly while a vein could be seen popping on his temple. However, Kagami didn't see the captain and just continued his rant.

"You saw it before, captain! Only I can go against Kise! All of you cannot stop him! If I am getting subbed off, we will lose the game!"

No one replied to Kagami's rant, as everyone just looked at him as if he hits his head with something hard.

"Are you done?" Furihata finally spoke, unimpressed with the glare he received from Kagami.

"You say something?"

Kagami took steps forward until there is only a step distancing both of them. Furihata gets a sudden flashback at the timeout in the first scrimmage when Kagami also confronted him like this.

"Yes. Are you done with your childish rant?"

"HAA?!"

Fortunately, before Kagami could do something, they were stopped by Riko.

"Enough, both of you!" She glared at them both, but Furihata could feel that she meant it only for Kagami.

"Kagami-kun, I have warned you before, control your emotion. You may not notice, but when you snapped to Junpei right before the last play, the referee was already eyeing you, looking for an excuse to eject you. So, as I said before, keep your emotion in check or I will do it for you!" She scolded Kagami with a fierce glare, making everyone around them gulp.

"Tch." Kagami turned around and sit, ignoring the glare he received from the senpai.

"Well, seeing as Kagami decided to be a brat, I will only put him on the court when he is calm enough to not create more problems for us. It would probably get us time for Kuroko to play too." She gave Kagami a hint to stop being a brat and wait.

While she needs to discipline Kagami, she also knows no one could match his potential on her team, so she will let it slide again. But she will have to talk to Hyuga and Kiyoshi about curbing Kagami's ego.

"Okay, listen everyone!" Riko spoke once again, gaining the attention of her players. "I know we are thirteen points behind them. But I want you to treat it like we are even. Play hard, give it your best, and close the gap between us. I don't care if we are winning or losing, but we will not go down without a fight, right!"

"HAI, COACH!"

"Good. Just like I said earlier, I don't care if we can win the match or not. I want all of you to experience what it is like to play against an elite team and learned from it. And I said it to the first years too." Riko turned around to Kawahara and Fukuda who clenched their fists.

"I know I didn't give you any opportunity to play in this game. That is because you are still not familiar with our playing style and I think both of you still couldn't handle the pressure on the court. But I want you to observe not only our opponent but also our team as well. Learn how they play and how you could fit in, how you could improve this team, and what work do you need to do after this. Can you do that?"

"Hai, Coach!"

Riko smiles at the determination of the first years.

"Good. Now, Furihata-kun!" The one who was called snapped his head to her. "You will go for Kuroko-kun in the third quarter. You will be responsible for Kise in defense, so I hope you can step up your game." Furihata sighed at the difficult job he gets.

"Sure, I will do my best."

"Good. And speaking about Kuroko-kun, where is he?"

"I am here, Coach."

"Kyaaah!!" Riko was startled at Kuroko's sudden appearance. Making everyone gawk at the cute reaction.

*Cough* "Since when were you here?" Riko tried to gain her composure while a hint of blush still could be seen on her cheeks.

"I have been here since you talked about not caring if we win, Coach." He said it with a straight face which makes Riko couldn't believe what he said. But after a week with Kuroko on her team, she gives up thinking if he lies or not.

"Well, what did the doctor say?"

Seeing as Seirin played in Kaijo, Kuroko has to be treated by Kaijo's doctor.

"She said it is okay for me to play again, but I have to take it easy. If something happened that makes the wound open, I cannot play again." Riko sighed in relief at what she heard.

"Good. I will put you back in the fourth quarter, but I could change my decision depending on how the flow of the game. Play more carefully. Don't make reckless decisions that could injure you, okay?"

"Hai, Coach. Thank you."

Riko nodded, smiles fondly at Kuroko. Even though he is a bit weird, it is hard to not like Kuroko's personality.

A moment later, the buzzer sound could be heard, indicating the third quarter will be started.

"Well, go to the court! Give it your best! Even if we cannot win, make Kaijo remember that Seirin is not an easy opponent!"

"Hai, Coach!"

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Author note:

Hey everyone! I just release my Patreon account! If anyone wants to support me, you can visit the page patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes . You can also read up to chapter 24 of this fanfiction on that page. Thank you! :)

Zeta Faes