An Interview With The Tensai
By Nysa

"LaLa...... I'm Sakuragi the Basketball Tensai ....."

The usual song you can hear before the Basketball practice every afternoon. I don't understand why the man I'm about to interview has such a swelled head! Oh well. I just gotta face it. I just have to. I've got no other choice. *Sigh*

By the way, I am -NySa_SaN.jInG, a writer of Shohoku Magazine. 2 days ago I have yet failed to interview the most pathetic member of the Basketball team, Mitsui Hisashi. And now, I have to interview the 'do'ahou'.

I went in to the court, and there he was, holding a mop, singing his heart out. Next to him was Rukawa Kaede, the Super Rookie of Shohoku, or so they said, and other fellow juniors. They looked at me when I went in. And then............. "Take off your shoes!!!!!" they glared at me, one by one. My, my. They don't really have to get all hot anyway.

I took off my shoes and said Gomen to all of them. Then I went straight to Sakuragi Hanamichi's direction.

"Sakuragi-kun..," I began. Then I saw Mitsui-senpai and Kogure-senpai entering the court. Mitsui-senpai saw me and smiled..... a rather devilish smile, I thought. But I didn't bother and continued to talk to Sakuragi.

"Yes? What can the Basketball Tensai help you?" asked Sakuragi-kun, with his usual annoying hoarse voice.

"I-,uh.. what time do you finish your training?" I asked him. This Red-haired guy was giving me the creeps. Mitsui-senpai was a gangster himself, but he didn't have that really naughty look on his face. Unlike this Sakuragi guy. I heard that he and his gundam were really a notorious trouble-making group from Wako, the bad-boys school.

"Why do you want to know......?" He's really, really creepy. I felt small talking to him.

Then Mitsui-senpai came to us and he put his arm around Sakuragi's shoulder. He said to Sakuragi, "Give this sweet girl a break Sakuragi. She's a writer and just wants to interview you, that's all."

"Interview?" Sakuragi's eye widened. He doesn't look too bad. In fact, I just noticed that he was kind of cute. "Nyaahahahhahahahha" Man! That's one loud laugh! Especially when you're just standing a few inches away from the person! "Of course! You can always interview the Tensai!! You hear that Rukawa? The tensai is going to be interviewed, not you! Nyahahahhahaha!"

I looked at Rukawa and he just sighed. I heard him say "Do'ahou." I looked back at Mitsui-senpai and he too, gave me the 'Sighing look.' The rest of the members were too busy with their own work. I didn't see the manager, and Captain Akagi though.

"Hey!" I got really startled. It was Sakuragi, back to his serious, dangerous look. "Wait for me after practice.. around seven." Then his voice softened to a whisper. "But make sure Haruko-chan doesn't know about this!"

"Yes, yes," I said. He's sooo weird.

I went to stand by the door to watch them practice. Their captain and manager finally arrived and the other members greeted them. They took a few laps around the gym.....

----------- "Are you ready?" I asked Sakuragi. I couldn't imagine how he can still look all cheerful and strong despite the hard practices he had this afternoon. It must have been a hard day. It was, for the rest of the members. Some of the members, I mean.

We took off in the direction of the ol' fast-food restaurant, you know what. But then Sakuragi said, "No, no. I know a better place to go." A restaurant selling noodles.

I offered to treat him. And guess what he ordered? 6 mega bowls of prawn noodle-soup, 4 noodles with meatballs and 3 huge glasses of Milo. I was too startled with this huge order and just ordered myself a glass of orange juice. He asked me if I was hungry, but I said no. I was hungry, but seeing the number of bowls he had, I was even more hungry for money.

It took him an hour to finish all that. *Sigh* At last he's done. I can finally interview him. I was going to open my mouth to ask him the first question when I heard him shout, "One more bowl of mee-sup!" What is he trying to do? Rob the money out of me? I could't help it. He cannot be left here any longer. I immediately paid the bill, excluding his last order which haven't arrived, and pulled him away from the restaurant.

"Hey, hey where are you taking me?" he asked. "I said I was going to interview you, not letting you use up my whole-month allowance!! Now come with me. Come, come!!" I was mad with rage. I just have to take him to one place where they don't cater food, my house.

He was really shocked that I brought him there, but I had no choice. I took him to the living room and made him sit on the sofa while I take him a glass of plain water.

I sat across him and he made me promise that I won't tell anyone that he went to a girl's house. Why the hell would I tell anyone else?

Finally I can interview him.

M: Right, Sakuragi-kun. I heard you were once an anti-basketball man. Why was that so?

S: *Sad face* Yoko, the 50th girl rejected me because of her basketball-player-boyfriend. I hated basketball since then.

M: You've only played for a few months, but what talent you had! What motivated you to improve your basketball skills?

S: *Happy face* Haruko-chan of course! She introduced me to basketball and encouraged me to join the Shohoku Basketball team. And besides, I myself is a tensai! I can do anything!!

M: You must really like Haruko to play because of her! Does she know you like her?

S: *Sad face* No.. I wanted to tell her. But before I had the chance to, she told me that she has a crush on that Foxy Rukawa! M: How did Haruko treat you?

S: *Happy face* She's really kind and sweet to me!! She supports me all the time and encouraged me whenever I failed. She even helped me to shop for a new pair of basketball shoes when my old one got torn. M: She's being really nice to you. Does she thinks you're the best basketball player?

S: *Sad face* .frown. No. She thinks her onnichan and that foxy Rukawa were the best basketball player, although it should be me, the tensai. M: What was your biggest achievement while playing basketball? S: *Happy face* I managed to get so many rebounds for the team! You know the old saying, "The one who controls rebounds, controls the whole world"!!!! M: Controls the whole GAME, you mean. Hehe. So what was the biggest mistake while playing basketball?

S: *Sad face* During our game with Kainan. It was just a few seconds before the game ends. I was supposed to pass the ball to Gori, but instead I mistakenly passed the ball to our opponent. Because of that Shohoku lost to Kainan. M: That's too bad. What did you do after that? S: *Happy face* I cut my hair! And Haruko thinks that my new hair-style is really cute!

M: I heard that Shohoku managed to enter the National Games for the first time. Some of the members of Shohoku received the MVP award. What do you think? S: *Sad face* I think they're being unfair! I should be getting the MVP award! Not Rukawa!!!!

M: Oh, right. I want to know what you think of the 5 popular members of Shohoku, namely Mitsui Hisashi, Kogure Kiminobu, Akagi Takenori, Ryota Miyagi and Rukawa Kaede.

S: *Happy face* Glassman always support me when the rest of the members didn't. He always believed in me and he calls me tensai too! Gori is really mean but he can really give me help when I need it. Sometimes he lied to me. It was the biggest mistake of my life to believe in his "Kill with your eyes" thing in order not to make me foul out during games. Ryoichin is one of my best friends. We both shared the same thing: dumped by girls. Sometimes Ryoichin will help me with basketball. He taught me 'Fake'. Mitchy helped me out sometimes too. But he kept telling me that I should take Rukawa as an example especially during the game Year 1 vs Year 2+3.

M: What about Rukawa?

S: *Sad face* Why should I even think about him? I hate him. I hate him. I just hate him! I hate his stupid red bike which always lands on me! I hate his R. Brigade who always scream Rukawa and insulted me! I just HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT RUKAWA!!!!! *pant*pant*

M: Okay... So.. Last but not least. What have you got to say to the Shohoku supporters out there?

S: *Happy face* I am the basketball tensai whom Fujima, Hanagata, Sendoh, Boss-monkey, Wild-Monkey and Old-man Maki cannot defeat! Nyahahahhahaha! And don't forget that you must always support me and NEVER support Rukawa!!!

--------- So that was the end of my interview. I should have kept some earplugs. *Sigh* Yeah, you wanna know what happened after that? I went in the kitchen to refill my glass of chocolate milk. When I went back to the living room, there he was, Sakuragi, soundly sleeping. I couldn't wake him up. I didn't know what to do, so I just took an extra blanket and let him use it. I should be lucky that my parents were in Paris that time.