I'm Right Here

Takame continued her odd struggles and successes as the game went on. By half she was taken back to the bench, but managed to muster up the courage to remind the coach to put her in as they got into the fourth quarter. At least there was some progress Youta could say had occurred, but she still hadn't attempted a shot, let alone hit one yet.

While her defense was solid, what was the point of all that practice on shooting the ball if she wasn't going to do that when it came to game time? This was what worried Youta the most as his eyes were glued on her moving back and forth with the pace of a snail. At least on the bright side she was a bigger girl, so it made sense to be a bit slower.

What didn't make sense was being continually left open by the opponents while her teammates failed to capitalize on this situation. The longer this went on, the more Youta realized he should've addressed her personal problem sooner.

He wasn't the only one to notice this problem. Takame also fight an internal battle to figure out how to get involved with the team. All her struggling would culminate in the girl tripping when she attempted to rebound the ball as her only means of getting a chance on offense.

She landed over onto the cold hard floor as the girl watched as everyone else moved over to the other half of the court in transition. For a moment, she stayed down on the ground, feeling the tears in her eyes welling up from how much of a disappointment she had been. Right now, she was letting everyone down. Herself, the team, and especially Youta along with his friends.

"Get up!" A voice yelled out so loud it echoed in the gym. Everyone single person, which wasn't many, stopped what they were doing to see Youta calling out to her. "You can't give up now." He said to her as his last plea to get this girl past the wall she found herself stuck at. "I don't care if you look dumb or if you're worse than everyone else in this building. But I can't have you giving up like this."

All eyes were on him as he was the loudest person in the room. She couldn't help but see him taking all that attention and not hesitating for a moment. And it was all just for her. Everyone else didn't even notice she had fallen to the ground, not the opponents to try to get an edge nor her teammates to pick her back up. "It doesn't matter if even now you're not that great. What you can't just lay down and give it all up."

"Mr. Morikawa…" She got back up on her feet thanks to his encouragement. "I'll… I'll do my best!" She stood up straight and gave him a salute to oblige his command. Then realized how embarrassing she must've looked now that all eyes were on her for the first time since the game started. Takame quickly stopped her post and meekly ran over to take her rightful position. Everyone was stunned from this turn of events as the ref blew the whistle.

"Two things, we'll call time and reset." They said, then pointed at Youta. "And you're ejected from the game for causing a disturbance."

"What!?" He replied, shocked to hear this, but was unable to argue his case. He only gave one more look at Takame, who looked back at him as he left, giving her a silent signal to finally step up without his help.

"Huh, it's kind of less fun when he's not here." Fuwaka commented as play resumed.

"Yeah…" Mitora replied as they sat with enough space for him to sit between them. Neither of them left though as that would look rather strange and be disrespectful for Takame even if they both wished to see him right now.

The game went on without him as Takame continued to play as hard as she could. Yet she knew she needed to figure out a way to get past her problem. Youta sacrificed a lot and even got himself kicked out of the game all for her sake. So there was no way now for her to let him down and be a disappointment.

Now with them on offense yet again, she found herself unguarded by her opponents. Despite being called out earlier, people had once again fallen back into their old habits of forgetting she existed. This time she couldn't let this stand and allow her team to fight without her.

"I'm… I'm…" She mustered up the courage to finally speak up for herself. "I'm open!" Takame yelled out loud enough for the whole gym to hear. It caught everyone by surprise, who all paused for a moment to stare at her and nearly make the girl regret her actions. Finally the girl who had the ball realized the situation and passed it to her.

Takame caught it, surprised her yelling worked and nearly forgot she was playing until she noticed a pair of defenders rushing over to guard her when they realized their error. Thanks to her practice, her body acted without thinking as she jumped up towards the hoop for an easy layup.

She made the shot, giving her team the lead as everyone cheered for her. This was the first time she had ever seen so many people reacting positively to her actions. Normally they tumbled over in fear due to her accidentally sneaking up on them.

Finally she had hit a groove where both aspects of her game reached their potential thanks to the training she received. Takame understood now what Youta meant earlier about speaking up for herself. No there was no way for anyone to accidentally forget her existence.

This would continue on before she finally was benched for a well deserved rest and her team well in the lead. Not that winning mattered either way in this situation, but a win was a win. The game ended rather uneventfully as everyone gave each other their respects and her team celebrated their victory.

"Good job Takame." Both Fuwaka and Mitora came down from the stands to give her their own expression of praise. "If Youta was here to see it, I'm sure he'd be real proud of you."

"We should find him and let him know how you did." Said Mitora. "I don't know where he went though. I tried messaging him and he hasn't replied yet." They knew he couldn't have gone far, so the trio went out of the gym once everyone else began filing out on their own way.

It didn't take long to find him strewn out on a nearby bench napping away. All the concern and work towards her basketball game left him exhausted. So the boy ended up passing out when he had nothing else to keep his mind occupied. "Oh wait, don't wake him up yet." Mitora told the others as she slowly sneaked up to the sleeping boy. She would carefully lift up his shirt to expose his belly, which got Takame to avert her eyes wondering if something weird would happen before her. Then the girl would blow a raspberry on him, startling the boy awake.

"Huh! What's going on?" He awoke to see her squatting before him with his body slightly exposed. When he saw Fuwaka and Takame standing and watching these events unfold. He got all red and immediately got up and covered himself up again. "M-Mitora what are you doing?" He scolded her.

"Come on, I used to do that all the time to you." She giggled. "It's been too long since the last time."

"There's a time and place for everything." He clearly was not a fan of her actions. "And just to let you know, it's only because we used to have sleepovers growing up. We're not some kind of weirdos or anything…"

"Is that what it's like to have a childhood friend?" Takame commented in her mix of confusion and second hand embarrassment.

"Anyway." He quickly changed the subject to avoid being on the spotlight for any longer. "How did the game go?"

"You should've seen her." Fuwaka answered for all of them. "She was great out there. It was like she was a one woman army."

"And it was thanks to you." Said Takame. "So I'm really grateful for all you've done for me. And that goes for you two too." The girl looked at both Mitora and Fuwaka. "You all took time from your day for someone like me…"

"Hey, us athletes got to stick together." Said Mitora, assuring her none of them were inconvenienced. "Right Fuwaka?"

"Heh, right." She chuckled as they could all be glad this was mission accomplished.

"It's also my job anyway." Youta had a much more logical and somewhat less kinder response to her lament. "But I'm real proud of you for stepping up. You know what? How about we all go somewhere to celebrate?"

"Then how about we go to my family's bakery?" Takame offered, revealing a bit of herself to them. "Since I don't want you all to spend so much just because of me."

"Well, I didn't mind spending more money." He said. "But sure, I'd love to see your family's bakery."