The Second Star to the Right Chapter 1: My Entire Life Story in One Chapter, a kuroko no basuke/黒子のバスケ fanfic

The Second Star to the Right

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except for my ideas and OCs.

-O-O-O-O-

Chapter 1: My Entire Life Story in One Chapter

-O-O-O-O-

When I was sixteen, I died.

I know what you're thinking. If she's dead, how is she telling me this story? Just wait, I'll get there.

I was born to a normal family in a normal city in a normal country. My appearance was normal. My name was normal. I went to a normal school, lived a normal life, and wished that I was special.

Of course, my parents always told me that I was special. But that didn't mean anything. I wanted to be unique, blessed. But nothing happened. I even died normally, at the age of sixteen.

Car crashes, sadly, are a very common way to die. One moment, I'm walking down a normal street with my normal friends, and the next, I'm sprawled over the ground in front of a normal car with a normal driver that's panicked and upset and calling 911.

I didn't make it. At least, I don't think I did. It's still not very clear. I vaguely recall going into emergency surgery, which was proclaimed a success, and being moved to a hospital room, where my normal parents worried over my unconscious body. A coma, the doctors said, with little chance of waking, but at this point, my brain finally caught up to my body and lost consciousness.

Then I was flying, through skies and suns and galaxies. What a dream, I thought, slightly giddy. From the painkillers, maybe? I must be high. I remembered the old Peter Pan movie. The second star to the right, he said. So I angled my body (self? soul? I wasn't, and still am not, sure) towards the second star on the right, and everything faded to white.

When I came to, it was to unfamiliar faces hovering over me with relief. "Chinatsu!" the lady said, embracing me. Chinatsu? I thought. That's not me. She started babbling in a language that I didn't understand—Japanese, my brain supplied—but did understand. It was disorienting. It was frightening. So I concluded that something was wrong and that I wouldn't speak until I figured out what.

Chinatsu had been in a car accident too. Similar to me. Maybe she'd died, and my soul, devoid of a body, had latched onto hers. Maybe we'd merely swapped bodies. Whatever it was, I didn't know, but here I was, in her body. Dairosora Chinatsu, fifteen year old girl. Roughly 170 centimeters. She of apricot-orange hair and brown eyes. Special.

I seemed to have had acquired another set of memories. Hers. But I still had mine, so did that mean that I'd forcefully taken her body from her? Because I was a soul. And I carried memories. If we'd switched spots, wouldn't she have taken her memories with her? In any case, this proved to be useful. I could see what she'd behaved like. Talked like. Lived like. I could assimilate. I, in a way, already knew how to live in this world through her memories.

(I just had to keep the memories separated.)

She was a nice girl. Maybe a little too cheery for me, but I could always pass off the personality change as something that was caused by the accident. Except for her extraordinary appearance (hello, orange hair?), she seemed relatively normal. Like I had been.

This was when the homesickness set in. What was this scenario that I was in, anyways? It reeked of those fanfictions where the main character is reincarnated into another world and ends up saving that world. I didn't want that. I could die if this was something like Tokyo Ghoul. So I resolved to myself that no, I didn't want to be special in this world, this life. I wanted to be normal and live.

More about Chinatsu's appearance. Her hair color, considered unusual in this world, seemed to be a magnet for Plot Points. Yes, Plot Points, with capitalized letters. Because two weeks after I was discharged from the hospital, to Chinatsu's parents' gratefulness (Aya and Satoshi, her mother and father), I found myself running into situations that could easily be the start of a shoujo or shounen manga. I found a pink heart shaped crystal? I left it where it was. A ghost followed me? I ignored it. It seemed that in the world of manga and anime, the story didn't start until I chose a specific course of action. So I avoided everything.

Aya, or Okaa-san, was worried about this. Her precious Chinatsu had already undergone a personality switch, and now she was apathetic? Uninvolved? Was Chinatsu really okay?

It didn't really matter to me. She wasn't my mother. Sure, I was grateful that she and her husband provided for my basic needs, but I wasn't their daughter. I just had her body. Now, it may seem like I'm a supreme bitch and that I'm blaming Aya and Satoshi for something that wasn't their fault (and okay, I was blaming them), but I wasn't heartless. My parents were probably similarly concerned about the real Chinatsu, in my old body. So I tried to interact. Ease their worries.

In order to have a new start, Aya and Satoshi moved to a different prefecture. Tokyo. I began high school, because Chinatsu was fifteen, at a school called Seirin. So far, nothing rang a bell as to fandoms and manga. Still doesn't (even though I know by now that I'm fully immersed in one).

My test scores placed me slightly ahead of the average, and I was put into a class with similar students. And there was no one with unusual hair in that class.

Throughout the school year, I kept to myself. Something with a club that shouted things from the rooftops happened, but I stayed away. A street vendor tried to sell me a shady-looking amulet, but I pretended he wasn't talking to me and kept walking. A classmate got hospitalized because of a sports injury. I didn't visit.

Normal. I stayed normal. The only thing I allowed outside of the norm was growing Chinatsu's orange hair out. It was special. The only thing special that I allowed myself. Oh, the style itself was simple. A side part, blunt cut at the waist. But it was orange. Apricot. The sunset.

So my first year of high school passed, with Chinatsu's (my) special hair and normal life. It would all change soon.

But I didn't know that.

New body, new identity, new life. Dairosora Chinatsu. Chi-chan to family, Sora to friends, Natsu to stubborn idiots.

And so, my story as Dairosora Chinatsu, heroine of some kind of sports manga, begins the morning of the first day of my second year of high school.

-O-O-O-O-

"Chi-chan," Aya said. "Will you be joining a club this year?"

I paused in eating my bowl of rice, setting it down. After I chewed and swallowed, I replied. "I'm not planning on it." Aya's face fell, but I picked up the bowl again and finished it off. After I set it down, I hesitated. "Okaa-san?"

Aya brightened. It wasn't everyday that I spoke without being spoken to, and it was even rarer for me to call her mother. Mostly, I just replied. "Yes, sweetie?"

"Would it make you happy if I joined a club?"

She smiled. It was warm and happy and loving. I winced. "Yes, dear, it would."

I ducked my head. "I'll see what I can find."

After excusing myself and placing my dishes in the sink, I walked to Seirin High. Today was the day for club sign ups, and judging from the year before, it would be crowded. A lot.

As soon as I stepped foot onto campus, I began receiving calls and propaganda.

"Join the shogi club!"

"The newspaper club needs someone, and that someone is you!"

"If you want your high school experience to be fun and interesting, join the occult club…"

Dodging around waving arms and dropped pamphlets, I found the notice board, which had a map of the club tables. Then, I cocked my head, musing.

Aya had wanted me to be involved, hadn't she? Depending on the club I joined, my life as a heroine could drastically change. Occult club? That was just asking for monsters and spirits and spells to chase me. Newspaper club equaled gossip and drama. Shogi club… well, I sucked at shogi in general.

Then, my eyes landed on the sports clubs, and I could hear my brain metaphorically go 'ding'. Sports mangas weren't dangerous, from what I read. The riskiest they got was a short fight between two players. Unless, of course, the sport was a martial arts (which ruled out all martial arts clubs).

Well, I thought. I might as well browse around.

The very first club that approached me was the soccer club. "Hey there, cutie," a club member said, winking at me. "Want to be a manager for our club?" I kept my face completely still, blinking at him with a poker face.

"No." With that, I breezed past him. Soccer club is a no.

"You, with the orange hair! Do you want to join the softball club?" A friendly looking girl came up to me, grinning while swinging a bat. I considered it, until I remembered:

I actually sucked at all things that required athletic ability. I was weak, uncoordinated, slow, and had no endurance at all. The only thing athletic about me was my height, which wasn't even that tall compared to the boys at this school.

"Sorry," I apologized, feeling legitimately sorry since she wasn't a creep like the soccer dude, "but I can't really do sports. I'm looking to be a manager instead."

She pouted. "You can be a manager for girls' clubs too! Although, we do prefer guys…"

"Exactly," I agreed, patting her on the shoulder. "Which is why you should give that spot to a guy instead. Enjoy the eye candy and all." I went on my merry way.

Then, something caught my eye. A girl sitting by herself at a table that belonged to the basketball club. A manager, I thought. Maybe she could use an assistant?

"Excuse me," I said, plopping down in the seat in front of her. "Can I join this club?" She was visibly startled, jolting back in shock.

"Oh, um, sure. You do know that this is the basketball club for boys, right?" she asked.

"Yup," I droned, popping the 'p', "I thought you could use another manager."

She laughed with some effort. "I'm not the manager." Huh? "I'm the coach."

I blinked at her, slightly impressed. "Well," I said, grabbing a form to fill out, "you go, girl. Breaking society's role for you and all." Signing with a flourish, I presented the form to her. "Here you go. Do I start now?"

She smiled. "Yup!" Patting the chair next to her, she added, "I'm Aida Riko, a second year."

Taking her cue and moving to the chair next to her, I replied, "Dairosora Chinatsu, also a second year." I offered her a small smile.

"Then, Dairosora-san—"

"Please," I interrupted. "Just Sora or Chinatsu is fine. My last name is too much of a mouthful."

"Call me Riko, then," she said. "So, Chinatsu, you didn't join a club in your first year?"

"Hmm, yeah," I hummed, tilting the chair back slightly. "I guess I was recovering from my accident."

"Oh, are you okay now?"

I formed an 'okay' symbol with my hand. "As okay as I'll ever be. Riko, what are my duties as manager?"

"I'll give you a more complete list later, but most of it is dealing with the paperwork, keeping track of everyone's stats, and acting as a gopher."

"Gopher?"

"As in, 'go for this' or 'go for that'. Gopher."

"Oh, I see."

Pff. Gopher.

"Um." A first year stood in front of us, shifting from side to side. "I'm here to join the basketball club."

"Great!" Riko chirped. "Watch closely, Chinatsu." She directed him to fill out the paperwork and stacked the completed form with the rest.

I tilted my head, bemused. What was there to watch?

"Here," Riko said, handing me the forms. "They're your responsibility now. Oh, can you count them?"

"There are ten," I said after just a glance. She blinked.

"But you didn't count them."

"I know. I have the completely useless ability of being able to tell how many of something are in a group after looking once." Riko sweatdropped.

"That's amazing! But... you're right, it's useless..."

A shadow loomed over us. "Coach," a pitiful voice called. "I brought back a new student."

We looked up. Riko gaped. I just stared. Wow, that's a tall student.

Standing in front of us were two people. Wait, scratch that. Standing in front of us was a tall redhead, who was dangling a shorter guy by the scruff of his school jacket. I could see Riko's thoughts: Brought back? Isn't it the other way around?!

Then, I blinked, because even though this was a manga, there shouldn't have been any breaking of the fourth wall.

Now that I think about it, I've been seeing captions and signs a lot more lately...

The tall redhead dropped the other guy and sat in the seat in front of us. Riko immediately gave him a cup of water and a form. "I think you know already, but our school was barely opened last year. All the upperclassmen are still just second years, so somebody with your build will immediately—"

"I don't care about that," he said. "Just give me a pen and I'll write my name and go back."

"Wow, rude," I commented blandly as I watched him fill out the form. Kagami Taiga, first year, went to middle school in America. "Shouldn't you show some respect? We're your senpai, you know, Taiga." Seriously, what kind of name was Taiga? Tiger?

He scowled at me. "As if you can say that, you bored-eyes!" He slammed the paper down in front of me. I flinched as I felt the weight of his words bear down on me. Bored-eyes? Do I really look bored? Is that my resting bitch face? I became gloomy, a cloud hanging over me. Then, I noticed the cloud and waved it away, dissipating it. This fourth wall thing needs to stop.

"It doesn't matter anyways," Kagami continued, crumpling the paper cup in his hands and standing up. "Japanese basketball is the same everywhere." He tossed it over his shoulder, and it landed in the trash can. Then, he walked away.

"S-scary!" The other guy collapsed onto the table. "Is that really a first year?"

"Tch." I folded my arms. "I don't like him. He annoys me."

The other guy blinked. "Who are you?"

"This is Dairosora Chinatsu! Call her Sora or Chinatsu. Chinatsu, this is Koganei Shinji. He's a second year like us," Riko said.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "Congratulations on surviving Kagami."

"Nice to meet you too," Koganei sighed. Then, he blinked. "Ah, you forgot to pick up a registration paper."

"Huh?" I picked it up. "First year, class two. Kuroko Tetsuya..." Something happened then. A shiver crawled down my spine as goosebumps ran up my arms. Ah, I realized. The protagonist. It's this Kuroko. "From Teikou Junior High..."

"What?" Riko exclaimed. "He's coming from Teikou?"

Koganei's mouth dropped open. "Eh? That famous school?"

I watched the two, hopelessly lost. "Um, I'm missing something, aren't I?"

"Yes!" Riko shouted, cradling her head in her hands. "You are! Teikou, the school that produced the Generation of Miracles! And since he's a first year, that means he was a part of the Generation of Miracles? I guess? Ah, I don't know! And that Kagami from earlier! He was from America! What's with the freshmen this year?" Then, she whirled on me, hellfire burning in her eyes and panting. "Huh? Huh?"

Leaning away slightly, I glanced nervously to the side. "Calm down, Riko. Isn't this good?"

"But," she lamented. "I forgot the face of such a golden egg..."

Koganei was strategically retreating, edging away from the table. I shot him a glare of my own, freezing him in his tracks. Don't you dare leave me alone with the coach when she's like this.

He whimpered and sat back down.

-O-O-O-O-

Club activities. My new social life, starting from this year.

Before club activities began, Riko pulled me aside and gestured at a tall (okay, pretty much everyone in this club was tall. It was basketball) boy with glasses. "This is Hyuga Junpei. He's the captain." Hyuga lifted his hand in greeting.

I lifted a hand back at him. "I'm Dairosora Chinatsu, the new manager. You can call me Sora." Then, I realized something. "Aren't you in my class?"

"Huh. You're right, we're classmates. Izuki is in our class too. He's the point guard. Glad to have you." His ear twitched. "Sorry, I need to go hit some idiots on the head." He headed over to some first years and punched them on the head.

"Well," Riko said as if nothing had occurred, "I guess it's time to start!"

Is, is this normal? I questioned internally. I'm going to be okay, right? Right?

"Gather up, everyone!" Riko called. "I'm the boys' basketball club's coach, Aida Riko. Nice to meet you!" Ignoring the newcomers' incredulous looks, she stepped aside and waved me into place. I sighed.

"Hi. I'm Dairosora Chinatsu. I'm the manager. Pleased to meet you all." I bowed. "Oh, and please call me Sora. If you don't..." I smiled sharply at them, letting the sentence hang unfinished. Heh, that was fun.

"Well then," Riko continued, displaying her amazing ability to ignore ridiculous situations, "first, take off your shirts."

I blinked in confusion as everyone cried out in shock. Not that I was complaining, but... "What's going on?"

"Her father is a sports trainer," Hyuga explained. "He was always recording data in order to make training menus. Just by looking at someone's body, she can see all of its abilities and stats. It's a special skill she gained after spending every day at her father's workplace and looking at muscles and data." Hyuga smiled proudly.

I stared at him and snickered. "Captain, you have a crus—"

"Shut up!" he hissed, turning bright red. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Better be careful," I warned, teasing, "she's drooling over Kagami's body right now." Because she was. She was staring at him as if she'd just seen water turn into wine.

"That's just because his stats are probably off the chart," Hyuga insisted. Nevertheless, he intervened, causing me to smirk triumphantly. "Coach! How long are you going to daydream?"

Nice, I thought. Five minutes in and I'm already able to push someone's buttons.

Riko snapped out of her daze. "Sorry! Erm... is Kuroko-kun here?"

"Oh, that guy from, uh," I glanced down at my clipboard, "Teikou?"

Hyuga whirled, shocked. "Teikou, you mean, that Teikou?"

"Yes? There's no other Teikou, is there?"

Riko sighed, disappointed. "I guess he's taking the day off. Well then, let's start practice!"

"Er, excuse me. I am Kuroko."

I did a double take, along with everyone else, but restrained my surprised shout in time. What the heck? I placed a hand over my heart. Where the hell did he come from? I swear there was no one there... And he's from this powerhouse school, right? I eyed his appearance. Pale skin, hair the prettiest light blue I'd ever seen, and... shorter than me. He's a little underwhelming.

"Take off your shirt!" Riko commanded.

"But I just put it back on," Kuroko said.

"Take it off again! I didn't get a chance to see!"

When she saw, Riko fell to the ground in utter despair. "His stats... they're so low!"

"Hang in there coach!"

"Gah, coach, don't die on us!"

Yeeeah, I thought, definitely a sports manga.

-O-O-O-O-

After club activities ended, I headed home.

Well, until my stomach growled.

Urgh. Need food. Looking around for a restaurant or convenience store, I spotted a fast food restaurant called Maji Burger. Trotting over, I fished my wallet out of my school bag and nearly dropped it when I saw Kagami sitting by the window. Huh, I guess this is a popular place. Then, I did drop my wallet and had to pick it up when I saw that Kuroko was actually there too, sitting in front of Kagami.

So I decided to abandon buying my own food and stealing one of Kagami's thirty or so burgers.

Hey, I'm an opportunist, and his senpai. I get to do these kinds of things.

"You guys are friends?" I asked as I slid a chair over to their table. Kagami looked up, startled (again).

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "And no, we're not friends! I just sat here."

"I'm here for food," I deadpanned, reaching out and grabbing a burger.

"I actually sat here first, but Kagami-kun did not notice and sat down," Kuroko explained. I stared at him, head cocked to the side, while I fended off Kagami's attempts to get his burger back ("Hey that's mine!" "You have like thirty, you can spare one.").

"You're a polite one, aren't you?" I asked, biting into the burger. Beside me, Kagami deflated in defeat.

"Yes. Unlike Kagami-kun."

"Haa? The hell are you talking about?" Kagami yelled and stood up, drawing furitive looks from other customers.

"Yes, I see what you mean," I said, yanking Kagami down by his jacket. "Pipe down, uncouth ruffian."

"Tch. Uncute," he said in English. I smirked.

"What was that? Uncute, you said? That's not something that you should say to people. So disrespectful," I returned with perfect English. Kagami gaped at me.

It was at times like these that my past life came in handy. I had, after all, spoken English as my first language in the past.

"You... you, you can speak English? How does something like thsi even happen? You were born in Japan, right?" Kagami asked. Across from us, Kuroko looked on, confused.

"Secret." I smiled slyly at him.

"Er... I amu Kuroko," Kuroko said, interjecting himself into our conversation. I winced. Beside me, Kagami did the same.

"Let's just stick with Japanese."

"Yes, let's."

"But back to the topic at hand. Don't randomly just call people uncute. It's rude. Not to mention, you're wrong. I'm pretty cute." I flipped my hair over my shoulder. Hey, Dairosora Chinatsu was a pretty cute girl. More elegant than cute. Pretty, I guess?

Kagami groaned and buried his face in his hands, disregarding the fact that he was holding a burger. "So uncute."

"Rude," I sang monotonously.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes at me—I repeat, he rolled his eyes at me—and proceeded to devour the rest of his burgers. Kuroko and I watched with morbid fascination as one burger disappeared after another.

After he was done, Kagami dusted his hands of crumbs and stood up. "Tag along with me for a bit." He left the table, leaving me to exchange glances with Kuroko.

"Was he speaking to you or me?"

"I am not sure. We should both go, in case Kagami-kun was speaking to both of us."

We ended up at an outdoor basketball court. Kagami retrieved a basketball from his sports bag and turned to address... Kuroko.

"You're from the Generation of Miracles, right? I want to see how strong—oi, Natsu, why are you here?"

"Don't call me that," I snapped. "And you never specified who you wanted to follow you."

He shrugged. "Okay, just don't get in the way, Natsu."

I grit my teeth but let it slide. I had the entire year to get back at him for it.

"Anyways, I was in America until the second year of junior high, so I was really shocked when I came back to Japan. The level of basketball here is just too low." Kagami frowned, dribbling the ball once. Then, his entire expression changed. "I'm not looking for playing basketball for fun. I want to play in matches that make my blood boil at full strength."

I shivered. A main character. And I realized. This is what they call passion.

"It seems like there are strong guys. Generation of Miracles? You were a part of that, right? I can guess the strength of an opponent to some extent. It's like strong guys have a peculiar smell about them." The awe-inspiring feeling left me like a microwaved quesadilla going cold. You know, quickly.

I mean, come on, smell? Was he an animal or something? Then, I snickered. He's a Taiga.

"...but you're weird," Kagami was saying when I tuned back in. "Even though you should reek of weakness—" whoa, rude— "you don't smell like anything at all. Your strength is odorless. So I want to see for myself how strong you really are."

Kuroko took off his gakuran jacket with a flourish. "What a coincidence," he said, taking time to fold his jackete, "I was thinking of playing against you as well. A one-on-one. Natsu-san, can you keep score for us?"

"I thought I said not to call me that," I protested, but it didn't matter because they began to play, disregarding me. A vein pulsed in my temple, but I wrote Kagami and Kuroko's names in the dirt with a stick. Then, Kagami made a basket, so I put a tally by his name. Then another one. And another.

This guy... Kagami's thoughts were broadcasted to me over the power of the fourth wall. He... he... he's desperately weak!

I had to agree. Even I, the one who knew nothing about sports and had no athletic ability whatsoever, could tell that Kuroko wasn't that good. His shots weren't making it in, his dribbling couldn't make it past Kagami, and he was short. Shorter than me. (Although I was fairly tall).

"Why did you challenge me when you had no chance at all?" Kagami yelled. "I'm not interested in weak guys." He turned and picked up his discarded belongings. "I'll give you some advice. Give up on basketball. No matter what kind of beautiful things you can say about effort, it's an undeniable fact that you need talent in our society." I made a move to stop him, because oh my god, that is the meanest thing I've ever heard. But I was stopped by the look in Kagami's eyes. They were sad and genuine.

Oh, I realized. He's saying this because he cares.

"You have no talent for basketball."

Ok, nevermind, I'm going to hurt him. I started towards him, flipping my hair over my shoulder, but Kuroko's words stopped me.

"I have to say no to that."

"Huh?" Kagami asked.

"To begin with, I love basketball. On top of that, it is a matter of point of view. I do not care about who is the strongest. I am different from you."

Then, the court lights shone behind him, casting his shadow towards them. As I thought, Typical sports manga, I felt a chill up my spine.

"I am a shadow."

Kagami tilted his head, quirking an eyebrow. He was obviously confused.

As for me, well, I figured that this was one of those metaphors that are prevalent throughout the entire story. So I remained quiet, hoping to preserve the moment.

Kuroko was silent. "And?" Kagami prompted.

"That's all," Kuroko replied.

Kagami tripped (he wasn't even walking, how could he have tripped? Ah, the powers of manga), incredulous. "What? After all that dramatic lighting? That's all?"

Oh, I guess the others can somewhat break the fourth wall at times.

"No explanation? No clarification? Nothing?" Kagami ranted.

"Calm down, Kagami," I said.

"I am calm!"

"No, you're clearly not."

"Being so angry all the time is not good for your health, Kagami-kun."

"Leave me alone, you two!"

-O-O-O-O-

By the way, Aya was thrilled that I joined a club. "A manager!" she exclaimed. "You might even get a boyfriend like this!"

Yeah, no. That's not why I joined.

But hey, if I did get a boyfriend, props to me.

Thus began my second year of high school. With basketball, idiots, and basketball idiots. And you know what?

I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

-O-O-O-O-

—NG-Shuu Omake 1—

Kagami groaned and buried his face in his hands, disregarding the fact that he was holding a burger. "So uncute."

"Rude," I sang monotonously.

Then he choked.

"Wah! Kagami! Are you okay?"

"I do not think he is okay. He seems to be struggling to breathe."

"Kuroko, not now. Kagami, here, drink some water!"

-O-O-O-O-

A/N: Hey, everyone! I started another story when I already have three projects!

It's going to be tough, keeping up with all of them, but that's okay, because I love writing. Even when I get writer's block.

But yes, this is my second attempt at an OC in a sports manga. I made it different, with the reincarnation thing, but eh. We'll see how it turns out.

Reviews are very appreciated, but not required. (If you do, at least, uh, tell me if the voice works. I need to see if I'm showing Chinatsu's personality correctly. I mention it in the next chapter, but still.)

See you next time!