Chapter 139 : Aftermath

*Bzzzzt!*

Far from Tokyo Gymnasium, Furihata is lying on his bed, trying to make himself comfortable. He had been exchanging messages with Riko, asking for the update of the game. However, the message stopped coming after the fourth quarter.

That's why when he heard the buzzing sound again, his hand moves quickly, searching the phone for a while until he found what he was searching for. Looking at the new message that popped up from the notification, he rose from his bed immediately.

Riko Aida: It is over.

His fingers flew through the virtual keyboard pretty fast, typing the most important question he wanted to ask.

Kouki Furihata: What is the result?

A few seconds later, the phone is buzzing again, as another message comes.

Riko Aida: Kaijo lost. Too advanced through the quarter-final. We are on the way home now. I will tell you later.

Furihata was stunned for a moment, his mind went blank. A moment later, his fingers had already danced back on the phone, scrolling down through his contacts until he found the name he was looking for. Without hesitation, he pushed the call button, biting his lips nervously. After another minute, his call was finally answered by a sluggish voice.

"What's up, Furihatacchi?"

"Are you okay?" Furihata asked directly, not beating around the bus.

He had to admit that he grew fond of the blonde. When he was isolated from the team, it was Kise who accompanied his training and kept him sharp. That's why he was concerned about Kise's state after this defeat.

"Don't worry, Furihatacchi." The sound from the other side was nothing like Kise's usual ball of sunshine, which only made Furihata worried. "I will be alright."

After thinking for a while, Furihata asked another question.

"When will you go back to Kanagawa? "

"I don't know. Two or three days later, maybe?"

"Good. Let's hang out one more time before you go back. I will ask Momoi-san to come too. And no, I don't accept rejection. I will be at your place tomorrow morning, okay? Goodbye."

Right after that, he closed the call, not giving Kise any chance to reject his invitation. It seems a bit cruel, asking him to go out together with the manager of the team who beats him. But having been hanging out with Momoi several times, Furihata knows that the girl is not that petty to rub off her win toward Kise. If she never mentioned her win against Seirin in front of him, Furihata doubted Momoi would do that for Kise.

Of course, he could invite Kise's self-proclaimed best friend, Kuroko. However, with his blunt personality, Furihata is afraid Kuroko would say something insensitive that only makes things awkward for everyone.

'No, Momoi-san is the best choice here.' Furihata shook his head lightly. 'With her bubbly personality, she would be able to light up the mood. Speaking of the girl…..' His fingers moved once again, scrolling through his phone until he found her name. He pressed the call button, waiting for about a minute before he was greeted by a playful voice.

"Kouki-kun!"

"Hello, Momoi-san." He greeted back. "Congratulations on winning the game, by the way. Your team has done so well in this inter-high."

"Why, thank you!"

Furihata furrowed his brows, finding something wrong in her tone.

"Any problem there?"

It took a while, but Momoi finally answered with a weak voice.

"Don't worry, Kouki-kun. Just Dai-chan being Dai-chan here."

"Aaahhh…." Furihata is speechless for a second, not knowing what he should say. It is a bit weird for him to comfort the winner of the game like this. However, after hearing the dejected tone of Momoi's voice, he finally said, "Well, forget about him. Let's hang out together tomorrow! I invite Kise-kun too. Just come, okay?"

Hearing that, Momoi giggled from the other side.

"You are so cruel, Kouki-kun. Aren't you afraid that Ki-chan would hold a grudge against me?"

Furihata rolled his eyes. "You know he is not like that. Just come to my place, okay? We losers need to comfort each other."

"Hey, I am not a loser! My team won the game, okay?"

"You know what I mean."

"You are so insensitive, Kouki-kun! I will tell Hana-chan!"

"Hey!"

After bantering for a while, they finally agreed to meet tomorrow, just like what Furihata planned. However, it was not Furihata's final call today. He scrolled through his phone again, searching for his coach's name. A minute later, he was already on another call.

"Sorry for bothering you, Senpai."

"Don't worry about it." The voice on the other side reassured him. "I promised I would tell you how the game ended, right?"

"Yeah." Furihata straightened his back, waiting patiently for Riko to start.

"Wait a minute. I recorded the final quarter on the phone. I will send it to you first. You have a laptop. You can watch it first and call me again later."

"Thanks, Senpai!"

After waiting for another few minutes in front of his laptop, the video finally arrived.

"Just watch it first."

"Okay."

Then, Furihata put all of his focus on the screen where Kise and Aomine were standing head-to-head, ready for an isolation game. Even though the quality of the video is a bit amateur, it still captured the movement of all the players on the court, so Furihata could observe the game. After watching the clips for almost 20 minutes, Furihata closed his laptop, taking a heavy breath while trying to imagine the scene on the court. A moment later, he opened up his phone and called his coach again.

"So, what do you think?" Riko said from the other side.

After thinking for a while, Furihata replied slowly, "Kise really deserved to be the generation of miracles. Even though he is the weakest, he could still push Aomine to the edge like that."

"Yeah." Even though he couldn't see the person he called, Furihata could imagine the nod of agreement from Riko. "His perfect copy is really troublesome to deal with. Unlike the other generation of miracles, he could incorporate his style into the team too. That is something that he couldn't do when we played against Kaijo before. But you know that he is not my main focus, right?"

"I know." Furihata nodded solemnly. "It is Aomine's zone state, right?"

"Is that thing called zone?" Riko exclaimed from the other side, a hint of surprise could be heard from her tone. "But you are right. And you should have guessed what I am about to ask, right?"

"Of course." Furihata nodded again. "It should be because you saw the similarities between his state and my state when we played against Yosen, right?"

"Right on the point again, Furihata-kun." Riko praised him. "I had a suspicion, but after observing carefully, I know what you experienced last time against Yosen is the same thing as what Aomine did today. The sudden rapid improvement in all the physique aspects, if I didn't know better, I would suspect it was doping. So, what is that?"

Furihata was silent for a while, pondering how to speak. After thinking carefully, he sighed, decided to throw the blame on the other.

"Well, I know it was called zone state, and as you said, the sudden rapid improvement is the effect of that state. However, that was all I knew from Alex-san. So, if you or Red want to know better, ask her, okay?"

It was not completely far from the truth. Alex indeed promised to explain more about the zone after the game against Yosen. He just used her as an excuse to avoid Riko for a while. She hasn't apologized for his unfair treatment in the last two weeks, after all.

"Wait, Alex-san knows about it?"

"Of course, she knows." Furihata snorted. "Where do you think I got the specific information about the zone?"

A silence descended for a while before he could hear Riko sigh.

"Okay, let's talk about it later when Alex-san is back. You still have two days off, so use it wisely and don't do anything stupid. See you in training."

Riko didn't give him any chance to say anything as she closed the call rudely. However, Furihata didn't really mind. It was he who acted rude first, and Riko knows pretty well the source of his lack of respect. However, Furihata just shrugged it off, knowing that it wasn't his fault in the first place.

'Well, no need to overthink this. Let the tomorrow problem be solved tomorrow.'

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*Clank!*

"Come on, Furihatacchi! Once more!"

The next morning, in the small court near Furihata's house, he had already been playing with Kise for almost half an hour. At first, it was just a normal horse game. However, as time goes by, the game intensified, and they were engaged in a one-on-one game right now.

*Slap!*

"Come on!" Kise roared after blocking another Furihata's attempt. "What's wrong with you, Furihatacchi? Why are you so slow today?"

Furihata could only smile wryly at that.

"Well, why are you playing so hard, by the way?" He asked. "We agreed playing just to spend time until Momoi-san arrived, right? Moreover, aren't you tired after yesterday's game?"

"No way in hell I would be tired!" Kise denied quickly. "I don't have time to feel tired! I need to vent up all of my frustration! Come on, Furihatacchi! Play seriously!"

The corner of Furihata's mouth twitched.

'Is this the prove that idiot couldn't get sick?' He shook his head slightly. 'Momoi-san, you better come quickly or I would be dead.'

They played for a while until Furihata noticed the pink-haired girl poked from the corner of the crossroad. Seeing the girl, Furihata lets out a relieved breath as he finally had time to rest a bit.

"Kouki-kun! Ki-chan!" Momoi's cheerful voice greeted them, stopping Kise from shooting the ball. The blonde turned his head around, just to see his former manager waved her hand slightly with a bright smile on her face. "Ohayou!"

"Momoi-san, is it still a bit early to be this cheerful?"

"Well, there is no too early if you have a good reason!"

"And what is that good reason?" Furihata asked curiously. However, seeing the playful smile on Momoi's face is getting widened, he knew he asked a wrong thing.

"Well, out of us three, only my team won and advanced through the quarter final! Of course, I am so happy right now!"

Furihata's face fell after hearing that as he cursed himself inwardly.

'Shit! I forget about her sharp tongue! Is this really a bad decision to invite Momoi here?'

Fortunately, Kise didn't take it into his heart, as he replied the banter with a whine. "You are so cruel, Momoicchi! You know I am a bit delicate, right?"

"There, there, Ki-chan.. Don't be sad.." Momoi patted Kise's head reassuringly like a child. "But if you want to blame someone, it is Kouki-kun's fault, okay?"

"I know." Kise nodded in agreement. "To invite us who just competed against each other yesterday like nothing bad would be happening, he is so insensitive, right?"

"Yeah." Momoi nodded in agreement. Furihata who heard the conversation was a bit speechless.

"Hey, hey, why in the hell is it my fault now? You both agreed to meet, right?"

"Well, you don't tell me Momoicchi would be there!" Kise retorted.

"Yeah!" Momoi nodded, supporting Kise's argument. "You didn't tell me either that Ki-chan would be here!"

At first, Furihata was a bit panicked as the blame rolled into his shoulder. However, seeing the playful smile on Kise's face as Momoi stiffened a giggle, he knows they are teasing him.

"Haha.. You both are so funny." Furihata rolled his eyes as the laughter broke from the other two. "You talked to each other last night?"

"Yeah." Momoi nodded, wiping the tears that threatened to fall from the corner of her eyes, her body is still shaking from laughter. "By the way, why don't you invite Tetsu-kun too?" She asked with curious doe eyes.

"You seem to forget that my relationship with my teammates is a bit tense right now, Momoi-san." Furihata replied wryly.

"Eh?! That issue hasn't been resolved yet?" Kise widened his eyes in surprise.

"Yeah." Furihata nodded. "That's why it would be awkward if I invite him."

Having been hanging out with five boys since she was in middle school, Momoi had a finely honed bullshit detector and knew that Furihata is not telling the truth. However, the reason that was thrown is also valid, and she didn't want to force Furihata to tell the truth. In the end, she just puffed her cheek in annoyance as she muttered, "Boys.."

Furihata and Kise who overheard that snickered amusedly.

"You haven't changed at all, Momoicchi. You are still as funny as before." Kise said.

"What do you mean by that?!" Momoi's tone rose a little. However, judging by her face, Kise and Furihata could tell she is not really angry, and it was just a banter between friends. "Except for appearance, you cannot tell a lady she hasn't changed, Ki-chan! You are so insensitive!"

"Hiiii! I am sorry, Momoicchi!"

They keep bantering for a while until they heard the gruggling sound from Kise's stomatch. Momoi giggled as she saw the blush on Kise's face, taking something from the plastic bag she bought and handed it to Kise and Furihata.

"Here! I brought it before I came here. I know you two would be hungry."

"Thanks, Momoicchi! Hey, this is my favorite!" Kise exclaimed happily as he took the thing from Momoi.

It was a small onigiri that could be brought in every supermarket. Furihata also took that from Momoi's hand, and after taking the first bite, he had to give a big thumb for Momoi's thoughtfulness.

"Tuna mayo, huh? I like it!"

"I also have this!" Momoi took another thing from the plastic bag. "Here is for you both!" It was two bottles of ionized drink that was also brought from the same store. "It has just been one day or two for Kouki-kun's case since you both played a full game. You need to watch out your health, okay?"

"Thanks, Momoi-san." Furihata was touched for Momoi's concern.

They spent the next fifteen minutes just sitting on the court, enjoying the snacks that Momoi brought and bantering with each other. For Furihata who didn't have any close friend in the middle school, he cherished this moment a lot. Never in his mind he would imagine basketball would bring him close friends like Kise and Momoi.

'Well, having close frineds like them is not bad. I just hope that it would last long for me to cherish this friendship….'

"Momoicchi…" Kise suddenly spoke, interrupting Furihata's melancholic thought. "Can I ask you a serious question?"

"Eh?" Momoi was startled for a moment. "Sure, ask away." She leaned her body forward, looking at Kise's eyes curiously. Furihata mirrored her action as Kise's sudden seriousness caught him off guard. However, what he asked next shocked him more.

"What is the zone state?"

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Author note :

If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes

You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 159 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 20 too.

Thank you! :)

-Zeta Faes-