Mitsui leaned his body forward on the railing in front of the grand stand and looked out to the court where the Sohoku team were wrapping up after another day of gruelling practice.
Not as gruelling as what Taoka-sensei whips up, ammended the 3-P shooter, grinning to himself. One would think that the Ryonan coach was a war general in his past life.

Mitsui's eyes trained to one player in the court who was talking to Akagi under the basket at the left end of the court while the other players including Ayako gathered at the bench for refreshments. Kogure looked much like the attentive assistant that Mitsui remembered as the spectacled-boy and the tall captain engaged in what seemed to be a serious discussion. As Kogure talked, Mitsui saw that the boy seemed to be searching for something and when Kogure's eyes stopped wandering, the boy stopped talking for more than a moment that Akagi had to snap his fingers in front of the vice-captain's face to get his attention back. Mitsui arched an eyebrow and wondered what Kogure was so interested about. Taking an estimation where Kogure was looking at, his eyes fell upon the form of Sakuragi Hanamichi packing the basketballs into the square wire basket.

Mitsui's look turned thoughtful.



****

"Hey, Kogure, Akagi," greeted Mitsui as he walked towards his ex-teammates with a smile on his face.

Akagi nodded and Kogure waved as he grinned, "Mitsui. What brings you here?"

"Weeell, I kinda like to see how our competition are doing," Mitsui shrugged before he pointed to the Shohoku captain, "You still need to work on your passing technique, Akagi."

Akagi growled, "You just mind your own business, Mitsui."

Kogure sweatdropped as he muttered lowly, "This certainly feels like old times..."
Then the spectacled-boy's heart skipped a beat when Mitsui leaned close and whispered, "And I'm dropping by to see you too..."

Akagi rolled his eyes. He couldn't hear what the scarred-face boy was saying but by the way Kogure was blushing Akagi could guess that Mitsui was flirting with his assistant.

"Maybe he's here to sabotage the team," said a voice behind them.

The three turned around to see Sakuragi leaning his arm against a broom as he looked at Mitsui with suspicion.

"Sakuragi," chastised Kogure, "Mitsui wouldn't do that."

Sakuragi gave the boy a hurt look before he turned around and said from behind his shoulder, "Yeah, you sure know him well."

Kogure bit his lip. He hated the way Sakuragi was acting and it was tearing him inside to know that he was most probably the reason for the redhead's hostility.

Akagi sighed, "Don't mind that kid. Mitsui, I'll see you in court the day after tomorrow."

Mitsui gave Akagi the thumbs up, "Sure. See you there."

Akagi walked away leaving him with Kogure and when Mitsui turned back to his old friend, the scarred-face boy was surprised to see that Kogure was still watching the redheaded junior who was busy sweeping up the floor with another junior.

"Kogure?" called Mitsui.

Kogure gave a start and turned towards Mitsui with an apologetic look but the troubled emotions were still visible behind those clear glasses.
"Mitsui, gomen ne. He doesn't usually act like that..."

"I understand," said Mitsui, holding Kogure's arm to give him a reassuring squeeze.
I understand very well.
"I can see you're busy here so I'll bug you later then... after the game?"

Kogure nodded shyly, still awed that Mitsui was still after him for a more romantic standing in their relationship.
"Hai," the Shohoku player answered before Mitsui let his arm go with a lingering touch on the front of his hand.

Mitsui turned and walked away - towards Sakuragi.
The redhead seemed surprised that Mitsui stopped in front of him but the expression instantly turned to annoyance.
"What d'you want?" demanded the redhead as Mitsui stood there just looking at him in a speculating manner.

"Let him decide for himself," Mitsui told redhead simply.

Sakuragi's eyes widened, "What?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Kogure," said the shorter player, cocking his head in the general direction of their object of affection who was curious as to what they might be talking about.

Sakuragi glared at the Ryonan senior from the corner of his eyes, "Urusai."

Mitsui snorted, "What? Afraid are you? Hmph. Some competition you are."

And then Mitsui walked away, leaving a steaming redhead behind.



****

The fight was fast and furious. Kogure played as hard as he thought he could for Ryonan was a formidable opponent in Kanagawa standards. Sendoh was quick like Kaede and Fukuda's throws rivalled Sakuragi's only with better accuracy. He could handle Koshino fine but he found himself marvelling how Mitsui was able to switch tactics and tricks that had Akagi spinning with the quick action. However, Akagi's steamboat could still not be penetrated, and that Kogure was thankful. Slowly they managed to gain point by point and with Akagi's and Sakuragi's goal keeping skills, they were able to prevent the Ryonan team from scoring any more than one every five minutes of the second half.

When the whistle ended, Kogure nearly dropped onto the floor in relief. Shohoku has won. Kaede exhausted look showed signs of relief as well but Kogure can bet on it that his fox-eyed brother would be thinking of a one-on-one with the spikey haired player from Ryonan. Mitsui looked disappointed, as did the rest of the Ryonan teammates but when they lined up for the courtesy bows, the scarred-face player gave the vice-captain a tired but cheerful one-sided smile.

Mitsui didn't pursue Kogure after the game as he has promised. The spectacled-boy thought that probably his friend would want to meet with his coach and teammates to discuss on their loss so he didn't bother himself about it. He was sorry that Mitsui's team didn't win because it would be the last game that the highschool third years would be able to play in (including himself and Akagi), but he couldn't let himself down when all his friends were making a storm for their hard won victory.

Kogure walked up to the redhead and tapped his shoulder. Sakuragi turned around and grinned at Kogure when the senior held out his palm to receive a high five. The redhead laughed and slapped the senior's palm, "We won!"

"Yeah," laughed Kogure, "We did. Take us to the finals, ne, Sakuragi? It would be our dream come true."

"Don't worry!" boasted the redhead, "Let the Tensai handle it!"

Kogure smiled that came from the heart. He believed him.


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