Welcome to the Multiverse Group Chat!!!

Chapter 253 ~ Vs. Kagami

“Hey hey, Yuuji-kun. Can you show me the super far shot you did in the game?”

Haruka asked Yuuji as they sat on the bench at the side of the court to rest. She held in her hand a half-drank bottle of sports drink Yuuji bought from the convenience store near the park. 

“Hm? Why?”

“I just want to see it again! It was super impressive, you know? I couldn’t believe you kept scoring from that far! So I want to see it again!”

“Alright.”

With a helpless smile, Yuuji stood up from his seat, taking the basketball with him, and made his way to the three point land. 

With little effort, Yuuji took his shot and the ball swished through the basket without touching anything but the net. 

“Wow~! Amazing~! Yuuji-kun, do it further!”

“Yes, senpai.”

Yuuji took a few steps back, and this time as well, the ball swished into the basketball.

“Farther!”

“Farther!”

“Farther!”

Yuuji complied with his senior’s request, each time going further and further away from the basket, until he reached the middle line. 

But even then, his accuracy didn’t drop one bit. Every single ball went through the basket without touching the rim nor the backboard. 

And every time it did, Haruka would clap louder and louder as her eyes sparkled in amazement until she run up to Yuuji in excitement.

“You’re so amazing, Yuuji-kun! I wouldn’t have believed that happened if I didn’t see it with my own eyes!”

“Haha, thank you, senpai.”

“Hey.”

Just then, a voice resounded from behind them, successfully gaining their attention as Yuuji and Haruka turned to see the tall, red-black haired young man from earlier before them. 

“Yes?”

Yuuji asked in response with a look of wonder and confusion that he shared with Haruka as they looked at the hesitant young man.

“...My name is Kagami Taiga, from Seirin High’s basketball club. What about you? Were you from Teikou Middle School? What school are you from now?”

Yuuji and Haruka looked at each other, before Yuuji responded to the question. 

“My name is Tsubakihara Yuuji. And no, I’m not from Teikou. I am from Bonyari High School.”

“Bon…yari?”

Kagami’s eyes widened in shock. 

Bonyari High school… He had heard of the school before, obviously, since it was in this area. But, he never heard anything much about that school’s basketball club. 

He had also never heard anything about a middle school or high school basketball player named “Tsubakihara Yuuji”. But the shooting skill he showed off earlier… To make a basket from beyond the third-point area without even letting the ball touch the net of the basket multiple times was not something just anyone could do. 

He must be someone with the talent and skill on par with the famous Generation of Miracles he heard a lot about from Kuroko and the others. 

A sense of excitement and competitiveness began to boil within his heart. 

He had only saw Yuuji making impossibly far shots. But his instincts told him that Yuuji must have skills beyond that. And he wanted to try it. 

He wanted to try playing against him. 

“I see. Can we play a few rounds? 1-on-1? Anyone who got 5 points first wins.”

A grin of excitement appeared on his face as his eyes lit up with a blazing flame of competitiveness. 

Yuuji was taken aback by the sudden invitation. 

He didn’t really mind playing a few rounds with him, but he was currently with Haruka. 

Yuuji turned towards his senior, and to his surprise, she was bursting with excitement. 

“Oooh! This is getting very interesting! Yuuji-kun, how about you accept it? It’s definitely going to be fun!”

“Alright.”

Yuuji turned back towards Kagami and gave him a nod.

“Let’s do it, Kagami.”

“Alright!”

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Yuuji stood behind the three-point line as he dribbled the basketball in his hand. 

In front of him, ready in a guarding stance with his legs spread apart and hands stretched out, Kagami watched his every move with absolute focus. 

He was taking this far more seriously than Yuuji thought… 

‘...Guess I should also treat this seriously.’

It was a matter of respect, not only between athletes, but simply between one individual to the other. 

He lowered his stance and began to focus, observing Kagami’s movement to every minute movement possible with his enhanced senses without Elemental Sight. 

And the moment he did, Kagami felt an immense pressure fell upon him. 

‘What the…!’

He could feel a cold sweat slowly drip down his forehead and his back as his body strained under the pressure. 

‘This guy’s a monster… I need to focus!’

Kagami snapped himself out of his daze and took back control of his body. 

He observed Yuuji’s movement more closely. He was dribbling seemingly casually, but Kagami’s instincts were shouting at him otherwise. 

In a flash, Yuuji suddenly dashed to Kagami’s left. His speed was so surprisingly fast that Kagami was caught off guard. 

‘So fast…!’

Kagami grit his teeth and turned to chase. 

In a blur of speed, Yuuji reached under the basket and jumped for a simple layup. When from the corner of his vision, he saw Kagami rushing towards him with a surprising speed and jumped higher than expected. 

“Not so fast!”

Yuuji was genuinely surprised and impressed by his speed and his jump power. 

Although he wasn’t employing his fastest speed, none of the players in his school’s basketball team and Kaijo except for Kise could’ve reached him.

But now, Kagami’s hand was already obstructing his shot from the basket. 

A smile curled up from his lips, which didn’t go unnoticed by Kagami in this moment of slowed time. 

Then, to his shock, Yuuji took the ball back with one hand. 

‘What-? The right of postponement?!’

A memory of his senior in Seirin, Kiyoshi Teppei, doing the exact same thing as Yuuji, change the course of the ball at the last second using his ability to palm and grip the ball with one hand flashed across his mind. 

But now, instead of passing, Yuuji instead did a double clutch layup, by passing his block and putting the ball through the hoop cleanly. 

The two landed back on the ground, and soon after, the sound of the ball hitting the ground resounded in the silence that followed. 

“You…”

Kagami stared at the man before him with widened eyes, stunned. On the other hand, Yuuji seemed pleasantly surprised as he looked at Kagami with a smile. 

“You were faster than I expected, and your jump is also very high. It’s really impressive.”

“...”

Kagami kept staring at him in shocked silence as Yuuji picked up the ball and passed it to him. 

“Your turn on offense next.”

Kagami looked down at the ball he caught, and an even greater flame of excitement lit in his heart. 

“You’re on!”

The game resumed. 

Kagami charged to the best of his abilities, using every skill and capability he had honed since he was a child. 

He did a crossover, and at this speed, his defender would usually fall for his fake and let him pass through the other side. But Yuuji stood still stood before him, unfazed, as if he was simply switching his ball hands. 

‘Tch! I guess there’s no other way…!’

If faking him out didn’t work, then he’d force his way through. 

Kagami charged once more, this time more aggressively towards Yuuji, using his forward force to try and make Yuuji move backwards or move aside from being pushed. 

‘Alright!’

In a blink of a moment, Kagami run past Yuuji, leaving him behind. 

But just as he was about to dash to the basket, he felt something amiss. 

‘Where’s the ball…’

He waited for a moment, waiting for the ball to bounce back from the ground and to his hand. But no matter how long he waited, it never came. 

‘No way…’

He looked back and saw Yuuji holding the ball with one hand. 

Kagami immediately turned around, but before he could even go into a defensive stance, Yuuji ran past him and made a simple floater to the basket. 

“...”

Kagami looked down to his hand, then to Yuuji, before going back to his hand in disbelief. 

How could he be so fast…? He didn’t even notice it when he stole the ball from him? 

‘He’s really fast… faster than even that blonde-haired guy from Keijo…’

His hands clenched into a fist, and a look of determination appeared on his face. 

“One more time!”

They continued on, switching between offense and defense, for rounds after rounds.

That was, until Kagami held himself by the knees, drenched from head to toe as his lungs struggled to catch his breath. 

In the end, he never managed to snag a point from Yuuji. 

“Uhm… It’ll be sun down soon, so how about we end it here?”

Yuuji looked at Kagami with a bit of guilt. He simply continued playing with him before he kept asking for one more round with an expression that wouldn’t accept anything but a yes. 

He didn’t expect Kagami to push himself this far… And now, he was too tired to even respond to him. 

“You guys~! That was amazing! It was so intense!!! Here!”

Haruka run over with a huge smile on her beautiful face basked in the golden glow of the afternoon sun. She held two bottle of sports she had just bought and gave one to Yuuji and put the other on the ground near Kagami, who was still catching his breath. 

“Thank you.”

Yuuji took a sip of the energy drink before turning towards Kagami. 

“Uhm… Kagami, are you okay?”

“I’m… Fine… Just… give me a sec…”

“...”

Yuuji looked at him and sighed inwardly. 

“Alright… Then, we’ll be going first. Thanks for the games. See you next time.”

“See you~”

“Yeah… See ya’...”

Yuuji and Haruka left the court, bringing back the basketball with him, and left the exhausted Kagami. 

“Sorry for the wait. We got a little too overboard…”

“It’s fine~ I had fun watching! You were amazing!”

“Thank you. I’ll walk you home, senpai.”

“Eh? Is that fine?”

“Of course.  It’s getting dark, after all. And it’s near, so there’s no problem.”

“Okay. Thank you~!”

The orange-red glow of the afternoon sun colored everything around them in its color as they made their way through the neighborhood, masking the blush apparent on Haruka’s jade white skin. 

They walked side by side, close, but never breaching those last few centimeters between their shoulders. 

It was a distance Haruka had often dreamed of closing in. To feel his warmth directly, and to hold his hand as they chatted and laughed together. 

But… her heart wasn’t ready… Not yet. Right now… this was enough. Just close enough for now. 

Having been trained by Aika and his girlfriends to be more perceptive of such things, Yuuji obviously noticed her demeanor. And he did not push for it. 

Although in his heart, he did wish to become closer to this adorable senior of his, he’d wait for her to be ready. Ready for him to love her as much as he wanted. 

Before they knew it, they arrived in front of Haruka’s house. 

“Uhm, thank you for today. I had a lot of fun!”

Haruka turned and looked at him with a wide smile, trying to hide her bashfulness with cheerfulness. 

“I had a lot of fun today as well, senpai. I really enjoy my time with you.”

“!!!”

Haruka blushed, and this time, not even the afternoon sun was able to hide it for her. 

“U-Uhn! T-Then, I’ll go inside now! Yuuji-kun, you should go home quickly as well before it gets dark! Uhm- S-See you tomorrow!”

Haruka rushed back into her home and slammed the door behind her, leaving Yuuji alone in front, laughing softly at her cuteness. 

He stared at the door Haruka entered from for a moment, and left, making his way back to his home. 

But just then, his phone ran with an unknown phone number displayed on the screen. 

A brief look of confusion appeared on his face, wondering who it might be, before he picked it up. 

“Hello?”

[“Ah, so this is the voice of the famous Tsubakihara Yuuji~ I have to admit, you do sound very hot~”]

A playful, beautiful voice of a girl resounded from the other side of the call. 

She was speaking in flawless Japanese, down to her tone and intonations. But Yuuji could notice the slight accent in her voice… A familiar one.

“...Who is this?”

[“Fufufu~”]

*In German*

[“It’s nice to meet you, Tsubakihara Yuuji. I am Viktoria’s bestest friend~”]