A/N: Oh God! I just found out that I didn't publish this chapter after so many months. I'm so sorry! Anyway, I hope you still enjoy this book.

The hall was full of the sound of squeaking shoes as the players of Seirin practised against Komada High. Yasu was watching her teammates and taking down notes after noticing some things, while Riko and the others watched. From the empty stands, the people from the press were watching, with an interviewer asking some questions about the Winter Cup participants.

"The strongest teams of the Winter Cup are Kaijo High, led by team captain Kasamatsu Yukio." replied the interviewee. "There's Kise Ryota, their prodigal ace."

The interviewer jotted down his reply as fast as he could while listening to his reply. "Oh, but didn't Kaijo lose to another team the other day?" he questioned.

"They lost to Touou Academy. It was a fierce battle. They have the prodigy Aomine Daiki."

"Speaking of prodigies, Shutoku High's..."

"Midorima Shintaro. What a terrifying shooter."

The interviewer looked at his notes, and recognised the names of the star-players each from different schools. "They're all from Teiko Middle School's Generation of Miracles, aren't they?"

"Yes, and there are two more members of the Generation of Miracles." added the interviewee. "At Akita's Yosen is Murasakibara Atsushi. At Kyoto's Rakuzan is Akashi Seijuro."

"One of those teams will surely win, then."

"Don't be so sure." corrected the interviewee as he gaze landed on the players on the court. "Kiyoshi Teppei. He damaged his knees and couldn't participate in the Inter-High, but he's a strong center. There's their captain, Hyuga Junpei, a clutch shooter. Their point guard with the Eagle Eye, Izuki Shun. And their new player who has gone toe to toe with the Generation of Miracles, Kagami Taiga."

The practice game ended as the referee blew his whistle, leaving Seirin ahead of Komada by seven points. Seirin team cheered while Riko and Yasu smiled at them before the latter closed her blue notebook, thinking about her journey with Seirin to the upcoming Winter Cup.

"Remember their name." advised the interviewee as he started to walk away. "They're the dark horse of the Winter Cup, the Seirin High basketball team."

The interviewer was about to leave as well when he noticed someone the man had missed when listing the names of the Seirin players. "Have they always had the player?" he questioned himself.

~Time skip~

After the practice match, Seirin went to a restaurant to have early dinner. Yasu sat with the first-years, between Kagami and Kuroko. She noticed Kagami was trying to eat with his left hand. He picked up a broccoli but it fell out of his chopsticks. "Damn it!" he cussed out loud.

"Kagami, shut up already!" scolded the captain.

"Uh, sorry about that." said the junior.

"Broccoli is slippery." advised Kiyoshi.

"Is that really the problem?" asked Hyuga with annoyance.

"What is he doing?" asked Koganei as he watched Kagami struggled to eat with his left hand again.

"He's practising." replied Tsuchida.

"Practising?" repeated Kawahara questioningly.

"He's practicing using his left hand." replied Yasu.

Kagami tried picking up the broccoli again, but it fell out and bounced in front Nigou before he quickly caught it with his mouth. Kuroko told the Pomsky to quiet down, afraid that the owner would kick them out for bringing the dog into the restaurant.

"Damn you, Nigou!" cussed Kagami as the dog quickly went back inside the bag. "Give that back!"

"Kagami!" scolded Hyuga. The ace sulked as he sat down, and Kuroko gave him a small smile.

"By the way, what do you want to do tomorrow?" asked Kawahara, causing Kuroko and Yasu to turn to him. "We finally have the day off."

"Well, I'll probably sleep tomorrow." said Fukuda.

"H-Hey!" called Furihata as he took out a flyer with the words 'STREET BASKETBALL 5 ON 5' printed on it. "Why don't we do this?"

"Oh, street ball." said Kawahara excitedly.

"Hey, first-years." called Riko. "Don't you know what a holiday is? Rest. You have to rest."

"We know." said Furihata. "We know, but..." He looked down with a sad expression. "Kagami and Kuroko always get to play in games. But, well, we'd like to play sometimes."

"Good!" praised Kiyoshi. "Good for you! That's the spirit, first years! Right, Hyuga?"

"Y-Yeah." replied the captain hesitantly.

Kiyoshi then turned to the coach and said, "Hey, Riko. Out of respect for that spirit, let's send them off right."

"Hey, wait! I-"

"The first-years really want to go." he added, cutting her off. "Let them do it."

"W-Well, just for the first-years, then." she said, finally giving in.

"Alright!" cheered Kiyoshi before looking at the first-years. "I got her approval. Do your best, guys."

"Okay." was the three first-years' response. Kagami, Kuroko and Yasu smiled at their enthusiasm, despite not having much opportunity to play on the court.

"Yasu-san, do you want to go?" asked Kuroko as he looked at the manager.

"Sure!" she said. "Sounds fun."

"Okay, let's go!" said Kagami enthusiastically.

~Time skip~

The next morning, the first-years met up at the street ball tournament. However, Kiyoshi decided to join them as well, much to Kagami's annoyance. "So, what are you doing here?!" he asked, annoyed at the upperclassman's presence.

"What, I can't be here?" asked Kiyoshi.

"No, but..." trailed off Kagami before turning to Furihata and Fukuda. "Where's Kawahara?"

"He's got a cold." replied Fukuda.

"Huh?" responded Kagami.

"Well, let's have some fun." said the second-year cheerfully with a closed-eye smile.

"Right..." sighed Kagami.

They entered the park and saw a lot of teams participating. Yasu thought that street ball in Japan was extinguishing after seeing that sport was very common back in the States, but she then admitted that she shouldn't have judged. While looking around, she noticed Kagami taking in the atmosphere with a nostalgic look while twisting his necklace.

'I just realised that Kagami only takes off that necklace when he's on the court.' she noted before looking ahead.

The team went to the booth to sign up for the tournament. "Please sign in here to continue." said the man as he gestured to a piece of paper where a few names had been written down from the top.

"You idiot, you wrote it wrong, Tsugawa!" scolded a voice that was familiar to Kagami. He and the others turned to look at the source. "Oh?"

"Seirin?!" shouted Kagami while pointing at the bald boy.

"Seiho?!" shouted Tsugawa, pointing at him as well.

After registering their teams, they decided to sit down on the grass and chat. "What a coincidence." said Kasuga, who was sitting next to Kuroko. "Anyway, what are you doing here? What about practice?"

"We have the day off." replied Yasu, who was sitting on Kuroko's left.

Kasuga noticed her and hummed. "Are you their manager?" he asked, earning a nod. "No wonder I've that cute face before. What's your name?"

That comment made the girl's face flush. "Yukimura Yasu." she replied.

"Kasuga Ryuhei." he introduced. "Nice to meet you." When he noticed Kuroko's intense gaze, he flinched and waved a hand to him. "I mean no harm!"

"You can play already?" asked Iwamura, looking at Kiyoshi.

"Well, yeah." he replied. "A little."

"What about you?" asked Kagami with his mouth stuffed with food. "Shouldn't you be practising?"

"Huh?!" shouted Tsugawa with a vein throbbing on his head. "Are you trying to pick a fight?!"

"Huh?" responded the confused Kagami.

"Kagami, listen..." trailed off Kiyoshi.

"Ignore Tsugawa." said Iwamura. "The third-years are retiring."

"What?" asked Kagami. "You're not going to be in the Winter Cup?"

"You mean you don't know?" asked Kasuga. "Only the top eight teams from the Inter-High can participate in the Winter Cup heats."

"In other words, only the first and second place from the Inter-High." clarified Iwamura. "From our block, that's just Seirin and Shutoku."

"Which means because we lost to Seirin, we're automatically disqualified." added Kasuga before standing up with an empty mineral water bottle in his hand. "We're taking a break from studying for exams today."

"If we play each other today, we can play the game we missed last year." said Iwamura, who stood as well while looking at Kiyoshi.

"Don't play too hard." advised the latter.

"People don't forget that easily." said Kasuga while slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I wish this coincidence could've happened while we were still smoldering."

"Yeah, seriously!" agreed Tsugawa as Iwamura dragged him by the back of the shirt.

"I'm disappointed Hyuga and the others are missing, but we'll have our revenge, so we can focus on our exams without reservations." he said as he and the team left for their game.

"Bring it on!" said Kagami with a grin.

~Time skip~

After playing against a few teams, Seirin quickly made their way to see Seiho's game. "Oh, crap!" cussed Furihata. "We're late! It's all 'cause Kagami said he was hungry again!"

"I bet Seiho already won!" said Fukuda.

When they arrive at the court, the first thing they saw was the scoreboard, realising that Seiho had lost with nineteen points behind. All the five members looked upset as they stared at the person on the court, while Tsugawa was on the ground looking flabbergasted.

"No way, they beat Seiho so easily." said Furihata with disbelief.

"What..." trailed off Kagami, recognising the person. "What are you doing here?" The boy turned around upon hearing his name. He had gray-black eyes and slick black hair with one longer side-swept fringe covering his left eye. He had a mole under his right eye. What Yasu noticed about him was the same necklace as the one Kagami was wearing. "Himuro Tatsuya!"

"Taiga?" he muttered before speaking to him in English as he walked towards him. "Well, well, Taiga. What a surprise to find you here."

"You don't look surprised at all, keeping the usual poker face?" asked Kagami mockingly.

"I ain't keeping a poker face." he scoffed, smirking at him. "It's my nature."

"Is it... uh... Himuro? Kagami's friend?" asked Kiyoshi, struggling to speak the foreign language fluently.

"Oh, I can speak Japanese." said Himuro, quickly changing to a language those around him were familiar. "I just lived there so long, I'm still not used to it."

"Good, that'll help." said Kiyoshi with relief.

"We're not friends." replied Himuro to his question. "I guess you can call me his brother."

As if he could read his friends' minds, Kagami began to tell what happened between him and Himuro. When Kagami had a hard time making friends, Himuro approached him and invited him to play street ball together. Kagami admired Himuro's talent, and Himuro taught Kagami how to play basketball.

As Kagami grew stronger in basketball, he made more friends with the help of Himuro. His admiration towards Himuro also grew, and he began to see Himuro as a big brother. To seal their brotherhood, Himuro bought two matching rings and gave one to Kagami, hence the necklace they both were wearing.

Time passed, Himuro graduated, and as a result, both of them lost contact with each other. They were reunited playing against each other in a street basketball game, facing each other on opposing sides. They agreed not to hold back, and Kagami eventually won for the first time against the brother he looked up to for so long. After that, they played every week, and each lost and won an equal amount of games.

After the 98th game, Himuro told Kagami that if he lost the next game, he won't see Kagami as his little brother anymore, because the big brother was always stronger than the little brother. In the next game, Himuro accidentally got his wrist injured and missed a shot, giving Kagami the upper hand. But he couldn't bear to win against Himuro for the sake of their brotherhood, and intentionally missed.

This angered Himuro and ended up punching Kagami, telling him that the next match, they'd bet on the ring that represented their friendship. He said to treat the previous game as a draw, and that if he were to lose the next time, he would have to pretend that the rings never existed, meaning to pretend they were never friends. But before they could have a rematch, Kagami flew back to Japan, with Himuro not able to see him again until that day.

"I was disappointed back then, but then I came back to Japan this year, and now I attend Yosen High." said Himuro, causing Kiyoshi to furrow his brows while Yasu softly gasped at the school name. Himuro turned around before walking towards the center of the court. "I thought we'd meet eventually. Let's fulfill that promise today."

"Tatsuya!" called Kagami, making the said boy stop in his track and look at him from the corner of his eyes.

"What?" he responded.

"I..." he said, hesitating to speak. "You..." Nigou's ears suddenly perked up, and Kuroko picked him up to let the dog used his paw to hit Kagami, surprising Tatsuya. "Ow!" he yelled, glaring at he culprit. "Nigou?! You brought him?!"

"I don't like it when you're indecisive." said Kuroko bluntly.

"What?!" responded Kagami angrily.

"I think I understand the situation." he continued as he put Nigou down. "In any case, I think it's your fault for going easy on him."

"I..." stammered Kagami. "If I had won-"

"You wouldn't be able to call Himuro-san your brother, and winning when he was off his game probably isn't what you wanted." continued Yasu, causing the rest to look at her. "But no one wants their opponent to go easy on them in the game they love. Besides, even if you're not brothers, it's not as though you would change."

Kagami stared at here for a while before he realised his mistake. "You're right. I like basketball because I enjoy facing strong players. Even if Tatsuya's my opponent." He held his necklace and gripped the ring tightly, finally making his choice. "Thanks, Kuroko, Yasu." Kagami then turned to Himuro with a determine look, and said, "I've made up my mind! If we go head to head, I'll play as hard as I can, no matter what, Tatsuya!"

"Sure." said Himuro, accepting the challenge. "I look forward to playing with you today." He then turned to Kuroko and Yasu. "By the way... Sorry, who are you?"

'He didn't notice them after all!' thought Furihata.

'Kuroko's lack of presence is starting to affect Yasu-chan!' thought Fukuda.

"I'm Kuroko Tetsuya." introduced Kuroko before turning to the girl. "Our manager's name is Yukimura Yasu."

"Nice to meet you." said the latter, nodding at him.

Himuro's eyes widened at the familiar names as he stared at them. "So, you're..." He then looked at Kagami with a smirk. "You've found interesting partners, Taiga."

"Hey, Tatsuya!" called Kagami with surprise. "You know about Kuroko and Yasu?!"

"Yeah, a little." he said. "There's actually an interesting guy on my team, too."

After the boys got into position while Yasu stood behind the fence, the referee tossed the ball up. However, when the ball was still in the air, someone placed a corn snack on the ball, and it landed in his hand. The court went into silence, as eyes were on him because of his abnormal height. "Sorry, could you wait a minute?" he asked lazily.

"You're late, Atsushi." scolded Himuro.

"Sorry, I got lost." he said.

"It's been a while, Murasakibara-kun." greeted Kuroko. Kagami's eyes widened and looked at the said boy.

"Oh, it's Kuro-chin." he said, noticing his former teammate. "What are you doing here?"

"Murasakibara?" said Yasu, surprised to see the boy.

Murasakibara heard the girl's voice and turned to look at her with his droopy violet eyes. "Oh, it's Ya-chin." he said. Everyone would think he was saying that sentence lazily, but Yasu could feel excitement in his tone. With the plastic bag dangling from his arm, he walked over to her and picked her up before placing her on his shoulder. "What are you doing here? Did you make anything for me this time?"

The girl laughed at his question. "Of course I didn't!" she said, earning a pout from him. "If I had known you were coming here, I would've baked your favourite cookies."

"Heh." he responded as a lazy smile formed on his lips. "I miss your chocolate chip cookies."

"Murasakibara-kun, please put Yasu-san down." said Kuroko seriously, whose gaze was focused on the abnormally tall boy.

"You look as serious as ever." remarked the said boy. "You're so serious..." He walked towards the Phantom Player and stood in front of him with his height towering him, his hand hovering over Kuroko's head. "I want to crush you."