Chapter 13

Cops versus Robbers

"Kuro-chin, did you guys go to bed together, or just drift that way?" Murasakibara asked in the morning when everyone found Kuroko and Kagami in the same futon.

"I know I went to bed alone." Kuroko mumbled.

"Your hair is just as awful as ever in the morning, Tetsu." Aomine's laugh flooded the room. "I almost forgot it did that."

"Your bedhead makes me want to crush you, Kurochin."

"Why Kurokocchi's bedhead?"

"I don't know, it pisses me off."

"Atsushi, please crush all future opponents on the court."

"Yes, Akachin."

"To think he didn't like basketball until a few weeks ago." Kagami pressed his face into the pillow. "I want to go back to bed."

"Then you'll miss out on breakfast." Kuroko broke away from Kagami's futon and reached for his bag of clothes for the day. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Not if Riko touched it, I'm not." Hyūga fell back to his bed. "She'll end up poisoning us again like she did with the hotpot."

"Didn't Kuroko end up passing out outside when that happened?" Izuki pulled his gym shirt over his head.

"It was fine, I'm not an idiot so there's no way I'd catch a cold from that." Kuroko paused. "Kagami-kun might've."

"Oi!" The ace jumped up from his makeshift bed.

"You guys are so slow!" Aida Riko tore open the door to the sleeping quarters for the men. She held a knife in her hand, it was covered in something red. "The girls are already awake."

"What are you doing with the knife?" Izuki yelled. He and Hyūga quickly ushered her back out of the room and told the groups to hurry and get dressed for the day—before Aida managed to kill someone.

"Karasuno and the Kiseki no Sedai, you're on a team. Nekoma and Seirin you're on the other team. Hyūga, heads or tails?" Riko held out a small coin in her hand.

"Heads."

"It's tails. Akashi, cops or robbers?"

"We'll be the cops."

"Go have fun in the woods boys. Be back in three hours." Aida turned away and her skirt flipped up into the air.

"Huh?" Everyone but Seirin looked around the gym. Riko's team immediately moved out the main doors and prepared for their run by stretching out their legs.

"For every round we lose we'll have fifty chase down layup drills practice back in the gym." Hyūga called out. "If I catch any of you slacking, you'll have one hundred."

"YES!"

"Excuse me," Tsukishima interrupted. "You really expect us to run around in the forest and play a child's game?"

"Yes." Izuki smiled at him. "We did this last summer."

"If you pay attention, you might figure out why." Hyūga waved for Kuroo to join him. "I expect a fitting drill for volleyball."

"Diving receives. Twenty-five laps around the gym and fifty for the slackers."

"Robbers have a sixty second head start." They all lined up, cops directly behind the robbers. Junpei counted down and clapped when they were to go. The teens ran for their lives.

"What is this training for?" Takeda looked over the schedule on his clipboard.

"It strengthens their stamina and grip in the balls of their feet." Ukai placed a hand on his chin. "I believe."

"You're exactly right. The mountain terrain is uneven and require more balance and weight distribution than a levelled floor. Those boys will come back stronger than before in their legs." Kagetora used his hands to propel himself off the floor onto the low stage so he could sit. "They'll be gone for the next three hours, so it's best to find something to entertain yourselves."

"Do you have clearance for this next week's surprise?" Riko flipped through her papers.

"I decided to install it as part of our training area. They'll have the basic construction done by Thursday and it'll be filled overnight so that it's ready on Friday."

"Perfect."

"We sincerely thank you for your help, Aida-san."

"I haven't done much. Riko devised everything she wanted to do and I looked it over is all. Didn't need to make any edits of course. She knows what she's doing."

"You don't mind if we ask you both for training strategies, do you?" Takeda pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Of course not."

"The basketball players run so fast." Tanaka leaned against a tree. His back slid down it slowly as he sunk to the ground.

"Don't let Daichi catch you like that, Ryū." Nishinoya swung himself up into a tree.

"It makes sense that the basketball players run faster. They have a huge court that they run up and down. We have a limited space and only run long distances to save out of bounds balls before they hit the ground." Ennoshita offered a hand to help Tanaka back off the ground.

"Let's at least try to catch some of those Nekoma guys. I doubt Kozume is overly quick."

"Kill me know." Narita whispered as he came up behind them. "I saw on the schedule we have to play a game tonight, after all this exercise."

"I'm going to run, I don't need fifty laps of diving receives on top of this and practice." Kinnoshita sailed past them with a shout of: "Die Nekoma!"

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