Chapter 6: Let Me Tell You Two Things

"Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah! Waah!" Kuroko awoke to the sound of a loud wail. She checked her clock, which read 1:00 am. She groaned as she sat up in her bed, and looked at the crib in her room. She sighed again as she stood up from her bed and went over to the white crib.

"Hey, what's wrong sweetie?" she said to the wailing bundle before scooping him in her embrace. "Shh, shh, there, there, little one." She said soothing to the baby while rocking him gently.

After some time, Tetsuya finally started to calm down. He became content with chewing on a piece of the girl's blue hair as he slowly nodded off as the girl sat down on her bed while holding the little bundle close her.

"Don't worry." she whispered sweetly. "I'm here. I'll protect you." She promised then kissed the baby's forehead.

-Scene Change-

Kagami dashed down the court as he got the ball and was heading straight for the basket. Not far behind was Ryota Kise as he tried to prevent Kagami's basket.

"I won't let you do that!" Kise shouted with fury as the two jumped into the air.

"I don't need you to return the favor." Kagami said back. "Because…this ends now!" he shouted as he dunked the ball.

"Huh?" Kagami groaned sleepily as he opened his eyes to a brightness.

"Don't "huh" me, Kagami-kun." A gruff voice snarled and that's when Kagami realized the situation. He had fallen asleep in class, and his hand was on his teacher's almost hairless head.

"How dare you sleep so shamelessly in my class." The teacher scolded. "Come to the factually office later." He commanded as Kagami removed his hand with a start. He glowers in annoyance then heard some soft snoring from behind him where a certain blue-haired girl sat.

"Hang on. Why didn't she get in trouble too?" The redhead thought annoyed, as he looked over his shoulder to a sleeping Kuroko. However, Kagami couldn't help but think that the girl was kind of cute. He held back a blush as he turned forward.

Although it wasn't just them, the entire Seirin Team was tired, and practically falling asleep in their class due to the practice game against Kaijou. Although Kuroko might be sleepy for a "different reason". Soon it was lunchtime and the first years were called to meet in the school hallways.

"What so you want?" Kagami asked Riko.

"Go buy some bread." Riko replied immediately confusing the first years. "On the 27th of every month, the Seirin High cafeteria sells a limited quantity of very special bread." She explained just confusing the first-years even more.

"Supposedly," Riko began again. "Eating this fantastic bread will bring you in love, clubs, or anything else. The triple Iberian pork cutlet sandwich, with caviar, foie-gras, and truffles! It's 2800 yen!" the girl said excitedly, while some groaned.

"We beat Kaijou, and practice is coming along well. We're asking you to get this fantastic bread so you can continue building momentum." Hyuga said.

"However, we're not the only ones with our eyes on it." Riko added while sighing. "It always gets a little busier than usual." She said while Hyuga gives a guilty look.

"Hmph, we just have to go buy some bread right?" Kagami spoke up. "That's easy as pie…ma'am." He continued and Hyuga handed the red head some money in an envelope.

"Here." The boy in glasses said as Kagami took the envelope. "The second years will pay for this. Buy lunch for everyone else while you're there too." He asked.

"But if you fail…I don't need any change. Instead, you'll be doing three times as much strength training and footwork." He said suddenly giving off a dark aura scaring the first years.

"Hey. If you don't hurry, they'll be sold out." Izuki suddenly said and the first years were off to the cafeteria.

"Wait, you can't be serious." Kagami groaned when they arrived at their destination. Only to discover it in chaos as almost half the entire student body was crowding the school shop for the exotic bread.

"It-it's chaos." Fukuda commented.

"We have to go though. Three the strength training will kill us." Kagami spoke up and everyone agreed. With that, the battle began.

Kawahara was the first to make a move and charge in. However, he failed and ended up being knocked back out of the crowd. The others all tried again with many stratifies, but failed each time.

"Ah! It hopeless!" the boys groaned.

"Um…excuse me." They heard and turned around to see Kuroko. "I got one." She said showing the bread she bought surprising everyone. Kagami charged forward and grabbed the girl by her uniform shirt.

"What?! You?! How?!" he asked eccentric and the girl thought back.

"Using the flow of the crowd I was able to squeeze through to the front, so I got the bread and left some money." She explained. "Here." She said handing the bread to Kagami then noticed the other first years. "Is something wrong?" she asked but the boys just stay quiet, still shocked by what she just said.

After gathering some more bread, the first years head up to the roof to meet with the second years.

"Here we bought them." One of the first years said showing the bag with the bread in it. The guys were exhausted. After all the fuss, they ended sweaty with shriveled and messy uniforms. Well, all except Kuroko that is.

"Well done." Riko praised and took out some juice boxes. "Here. Have some juice." She said.

"Wait, does this mean…?"

"It's fine. Go ahead and eat it." Izuki said.

"After all." Hyuga jumped in. "You worked for it." With that, the first years turned to each other to decide whom to eat the bread first. They decided on Kuroko since she got the bread herself.

"Thanks for the food." She said and took a bite of the bread. She was quiet for a moment before a small smile spread across. "It's delicious." She said with slight sparkles in her eyes and everyone blushes at her cuteness.

"No way. I've haven't seen Kuroko this happy before." Commented one of the first-years and the rest start digging into the delicious bread. While Kagami was eating a jumbo BLT sub sandwich. He was back was turned so no one saw the blush on his cheeks.

-Later that afternoon-

The team was gathered in the school gym, where Hyuga began explaining the Inter-High tournament preliminaries and the rival schools. Specifically the school where a certain Green-head attended. As the captain finished talking, one of the players asked where their missing coach was.

"Oh. She went to observe our first opponent's practice game." Hyuga explained as a certain brunette girl walked in to the gym. "Well, speak of the devil." The club captain said as Riko made her way over to the players with a serious expression.

"She was skipping after the Kaijou game, but she isn't today." Kawahara said.

"Coach, won't you be skipping today?" Furihata asked the girl dumbly.

"Like Hell!" she snapped at the two with dark aura and glare, making both flinch.

"Idiots. She would never act stupid over an official game." Hyuga scolded both of them then turned to the girl coach. "However, you do seem unhappy, are they really good?" he asked.

"We shouldn't worrying about Shutoku when our first match isn't looking so good." She replied making everyone flinch.

"What do you mean?" Hyuga asked the girl.

"One of the players might give us some trouble." She replied putting a hand to her chin. "You can watch the video later. For now take a look at this photo." She instructed as she handed Hyuga her cellphone. The captain flips it open to get a look as the players gather round to see too.

"Th-this is…" Hyuga trailed looking at the picture. Which was off a cute little kitten on some soft pink blankets looking up with adorable innocent eyes. "It-it's, cute, but…" The glasses boy trailed with a faint blush, while the others froze. Kuroko had a twinkle in her eye as she looked at the adorable sight.

"Ah sorry, sorry. It's the next one." Riko said, having face-palmed herself for the mistake.

"Huh? The next one?" Hyuga said as he clicked for the next one, but immediately gasped as well as the other players. The picture showed a hugged well- built dark-skinned man in a basketball jersey.

"His name is Papa Mbaye Siki. Two meters tall, weighs 87 kilograms. He's a foreign exchange student from Senegal." Riko explained and everyone froze in shock and nervousness.

"What? He's just big." Kagami said seemly unfazed.

"This Papa Mbaye… Wait, what was it again?" Hyuga stammered having a hard time pronouncing the guy's name, as did the others apparently.

"We're not getting anywhere." Riko groaned as they tried to get his name right. "Kuroko-chan, give him a nickname or something." She asked the blue-haired girl.

"Hmm…How about "Dad" then?" said girl suggested and everyone freezes then starts laughing at the name, but it worked.

"Oi!" Riko shouted getting all the players' attention. "He's not just tall. His arms and are long too. Everything about him is big." She began explaining.

"More and more schools are inviting students from abroad in order to increase their power. Our next opponent, Shinkyo High, was only a middle tier school until last year, but with the addition of a single foreign player, they've become a completely different team. They can't reach high enough. Because of this one simple reason, no one can stop him." Everyone froze in silence as Riko finished.

"But we can't just do nothing." Kagami spoke up.

"Who said we would?" Riko resorted surprising the redhead. "So, Kagami-Kun, Kuroko-chan, starting tomorrow you two will have your own training regimen." She announced stunning Kagami for a moment before a smirk our on his face.

"The preliminaries start on May 16th. Until then, you won't even have time to complain!" she instructed and everyone agreed. And so, with that the training began. But, what the Seirin team, or Kuroko, didn't know was what would happen during this time period, or the effect it would have on the team.

And…Cliffy! Finally I got this done. Whew what a work out. Anyway, I'm actually cutting it off for today, next will feature a certain secret that Kuroko has been hiding. Later guys!