"Who's that chick?"
"You think she'd go out with us if we asked?"
"Idiot. She's way out of your league."
Standing in front of the basketball stadium where the finals of the Inter High School Basketball Championships were going to be held, a beautiful girl with silver hair stood out at the front of the stadium entrance waiting for her friend. The girl was Fujinomiya Azusa. She was standing there waiting for Chihiro Mai as the two of them had arranged. Boys from other schools who were passing by were talking up their chances of asking Azusa out.
"Sorry for making you wait!" Chihiro came running in Azusa's direction.
"No worries. Let's go, our spectating area will be right next to our team's bench."
When Mai arrived, the boys who were previously looking at Azusa erupted in amazement over the beauty that is Mai when she had arrived.
"Damn, I'm going to ask her out during the game."
"Do you even know if she's going to be sitting with you?"
"I'll just follow her. Easy!"
As the horde of boys followed the two girls who were visibly annoyed with them into the stadium, they were disappointed when the guard stopped them at the restricted area that was reserved for the basketball team members.
"Whew… I'm starting to think being a shut-in isn't so bad anymore." Azusa said as she silently apologized to all the shut-ins she had ever mocked in her life.
"It's usually not this bad though…" Mai said as she tried to cheer Azusa up.
When the two had arrived at their seats, the match for the third place was already midway through, the team that Tachibana Private High School had played previously in the semi finals were leading by 8 points.
'TENSHU 66 – 58 MORIZONO'
"Hmmm… it's almost half time and Tenshu is leading by quite a lot… Looks like the game is done at this point?" Mai spoke up.
"Not necessarily. Morizono High School is a school that is known for drawing out enemy stamina by prolonging their plays. Their defences are average but their offensive playstyle is among the strongest in the competition. I guess they're just patiently waiting for the second half." Azusa said
Azusa had done her research on all of the competition in the championship as a task given to her by Akane. Looking at her analysing the opponents, Mai understood why Tachibana High School did so much just to let her into the school. As the whistle of the referee blew to signal half time where the players will get a 15-minute break in the changing room to discuss tactics, it was time for the finalists to warm up.
"There they are."
"One of the previous champions made it through to the finals, huh?"
Two men seated near Azusa and Mai behind them were talking about the first team that had walked onto the court. Nakamiya High School had won the championship 3 out of the last 5 years. Only the last two years were an exception to their record as they underwent a transition from their senior players to their junior players. They had dropped to become the 4th seeds in this competition. However, they had managed to pull themselves and managed to reach the finals by defeating one of the biggest favourites to win the tournament in Morizono High School.
Seated near and around Mai and Azusa were scouts from national league teams, foreign team coaches, as well as the national team scouts who were here to see if there were any players worth recruiting. Although it was rare, for the players to be recruited, this year was an exception in the fact that Nakamiya had made a comeback in their power rankings as well as a surprising underdog reaching the finals.
"Now for the team everyone has their eyes on."
"Ah… I really want to see the physique and build of this team. How they managed to reach the finals and all out of nowhere."
As the scouts were talking amongst themselves, Tachibana's basketball team walked onto the court for their warmups. Scouts were observing the build of the players in the team to find they were relatively ordinary, save for a few, for a team who managed to reach the finals of the tournament.
"I guess it was a fluke?"
"I'm sure they didn't fluke so many games, right?"
"Looks like it's going to be one-sided I guess…"
"And I came all the way here just to find some hidden talent."
As the warmups for the two teams finished, the players each walked back to their changing rooms to discuss and wait for the ongoing game to finish playing. The scouts were discussing amongst themselves about what they saw in the earlier warmup session between the two finalists. There was one person however, who was not very happy about what she was hearing around her.
"Tch. People are so fickle minded. It's a wonder how any of them got into their scouting positions if all they care about is outside appearances."
"W-well… Maybe they will change their minds… Hehe…"
"Even if they do, I won't let Kei be recruited by these fickle minded idiots."
As the two girls were mocking the scouts, one scout in front of them overheard them but decided to keep quiet as he silently flipped the notebook he was holding as if he had just remembered something. When he stopped at a certain page, Kei's name was written there. At the subject corner of the page where Kei's name was written "Players to scout".
"Interesting." The scout quietly told himself.
'TENSHU 88 – 102 MORIZONO'
The game finally ended as the things that Azusa had said came true. Morizono High School had beaten Tenshu High School by a relatively big margin. The people who were familiar with the two school teams were not at all surprised to see how that game had ended. However, that game was not the game everyone in the stadium were looking forward to. Even more crowd had started pouring into the stadium as the atmosphere became even livelier than before.
"There they are!"
"The back-to-back champions are here!"
The crowd grew wild as the basketball team from Nakamiya High School had walked onto the court. It was to be expected as they were a team that was famous on the national level. It was only natural that the crowds would gather to watch them play now that they are back at a competitive level.
The noise and crowd slowly grew silent as the second team slowly walked out of the tunnel. Many were actually confused as many of the people in the stadium had only attended this competition tournament for the first time. It was natural that they had no information or any clue as to what this unknown basketball team was. In the front of the group was Kei with he jacket wrapped around his shoulders.
"Who are they?"
"Apparently they're some team who had managed to reach the finals through a fluke."
"Apparently their captain is a first-year as well."
"Really?! Aw man… I was hoping I could at least watch an entertaining game."
Many of the crowd had soon become disappointed as they had completely written off Tachibana High School. To the basketball enthusiasts, they were disappointed as to what they saw. For the girls in the crowd however, most of them had their eyes on Kei as soon as they had spotted him.
When Kei looked into the crowd, he spotted Mai who was also looking at him. She gave him a shy smile and gently waved at him. He also gave her a gentle smile and waved at her as well. However, since the people in the crowds didn't know who he was specifically waving at, the boys went into rage as they all thought he was showing off whilst the girls in the crowd had been thrown into a frenzy as they all thought that he was waving at them instead.
"Was he waving at me?"
"Of course not! He was waving at me!"
"Let's try to get his number after the game!"
Looking at the girls who went wild at Kei's actions, Mai started pouting. Azusa who was looking at Mai pouting let out a slightly exhausted sigh.
"Haah… Kei really doesn't know how much destruction he can cause sometimes…"
As Azusa was cheering up Mai, a man suddenly approaches them.
"Is this seat taken?"
"Ah I'm sorry sir, but this spot is for the basketball team members only."
"Is that so… well, I guess I'll look elsewhere then. Thank you for your time."
Mai who had stayed silent throughout that conversation suddenly sprung up.
"Umm… sure! You can sit here…"
Azusa was slightly confused as she started wondering whether Mai and the man were acquainted with each other. She leaned in close to Mai's shoulder as she whispered.
"Do you know him?"
"Umm… not really but…"
The man's face was a gentle one. But that is not the reason why Mai had just let him sit there. When she had looked closer, she could see a deep resemblance to another person's gentle looks. As she got his attention, the man looked at her as if expecting a question.
"Umm… could you possibly be…"