AUTHOR'S NOTES

This is a revamped version of my last chapter. I've changed the story elements a little so that things would flow better. That last one was just awkward. The first part with Junpei stayed the same, but the rest was changed. Don't hesitate to comment. Anyway the next real chapter will probably come sometime soon, please look out for it. Ok anyway. Enjoy and review:)

CHAPTER 2 THE BEGINNING

- PRESENT -

High School 1st year

Seirin High Start of Term - Morning

- Junpei Hyouga -

People say that time passes when you have fun; Junpei Hyouga hadn't realized just how true it was before his summer had disappeared in the blink of an eye and he found himself, on Monday, dressed in his school uniform and getting ready for that morning's welcome back to school festivities.

As per tradition, Seirin organizes on the first day back to school, a sort of giant party to welcome old and new students alike. The party, brought to the students by the Student Union, had food, candy, games and of course the famous "blitz" where all the clubs would have a stand of their own, and would try their best to make people sign up. Some clubs were more extravagant than other; for example the art club always had these super cool paintings up on display and would, every year without fail, attract people purely based on how otherworldly it looked. The volleyball club had already won a title or so and was pretty popular as well. The basketball club however, was a bust. They were fairly new as clubs went; only two years old. They have no titles to speak of or any famous members to attract attention. Even neighboring schools seem to look down on them; finding practice matches was a headache for sure.

But this year, Hyouga was determined to work extra hard to get even more members than the previous year. After all, he can't let himself and Riko down…not when she had put so much effort in to it.

"Looking good, Riko," he called out encouragingly as he took in the kick-ass promotional poster the girl had made. The drawing on the poster might not be first class but it was well done enough so people can actually recognize that it was a basketball, "Need any help?"

"Sure," she replied, pointing to her bag, "I need you to get out some papers for me. The red folder contains sign up sheets for players; the blue one contains sign up sheets for the assistant coach position."

"Oh? You're looking for an assistant?"

"Yeah," Riko answered with a sigh, "I need all the help I can get; maybe an extra head will make it easier to plan out training regimes."

"I think you do a pretty good job by your own," Hyouga admits because it was true; despite not having had any formal education on how to be a basketball team coach, the things Riko comes up with usually targets pretty well every team members' needs. Hyouga knew he had to thank her father for her skill of being able to reag someone's stats just by looking at them. It was impressive for sure and they would have been lost without her. "But I guess an extra pair of hands would be useful."

Riko, for some reason groaned pathetically before flopping down against the table and slid in a sitting positing against of the legs. She rubbed her head as if trying to chase away a headache, before looking up at Hyouga.

"I've been doing this for the past 2 hours," she told him, "I need a break. Distract me"

For one moment, Hyouga was truly unable to think of something to distract Riko with when he remembered the sports magazine he had brought that morning.

He handed it to her.

"What is this?" Riko asked, as she took it and glanced at the title.

"Sports Today," he replied, "They did a piece on Teikou Middle and the Generation of miracles; want to see?"

She hesitated for a second before shrugging.

"Sure, why not? It would be good to know what we will be dealing with?"

Hyouga opened the magazine to the appropriate page for her.

The title of the article in question was: "Teikou Middle; A school of Legends." The first few paragraphs was a introduction to the school and its team. It told the reader about the number of club members, the number of consecutive championships wins and the facilities available for training. Then it went on talking about their most famous members. It was nothing that they didn't know before, so Hyouga was a little surprised when Riko exclaimed.

"Hey, wait a minute…what's this about a sixth member of the Generation of miracles? It's the first I've heard about it. It even say here that it's someone they recognize as superior; is that even possible?"

"Oh that," Hyouga dismissed with a hand, after realizing what she was talking about. That bit had surprised him as well, when he read it this morning in the train over, but the story was so inconsistent with any records of the Generation of Miracles that he could find, that Hyouga just chalked it off as mere speculation. After all, people do love a mystery. "I think it's a myth or something. Everyone knows the Generation of Miracles only have 5 members; remember that interview a year ago; the interviewer only interviewed 5 members; it there was a sixth, we would know. Beside if he were good enough for the Generation of Miracles to recognize, people would surely notice. "

"True," Riko mumbled as she continued to read, "They made him sound like a ghost."

"The phantom sixth player," Hyouga mocked as he took back his magazine, "that would make a great article. Too bad he doesn't exist. Come on, unfortunately break's over; I see Amada-Sensei coming. If she sees you sitting down, she would slap a detention on you for lazing about."

Seirin High Start of Term - Late Morning

- Aomine Daiki -

"So this is Seirin," Aomine mused out loud as he took in the white buildings, wall high windows and expansive courtyard of his new home for next 3 years. For a school with no reputation to speak of, Seirin's facilities were quite impressive. For one thing, the main building didn't look like it was about to fall down any moment – Touou's library building was so old that it felt that way – and the courtyard wasn't so bare that it looked like parking lot. There were some trees here and there and grass too; a few of the older students were already lazing about, chatting and enjoying the late morning sun. All in all, it looked rather cozy. But to be honest, it didn't really matter if he liked Seirin or not; it was too late to change schools - it had already been a nightmare convincing his parents to let him go here; they had been really keen on him attending Touou. But at the end, his determination won; he was an official Seirin student from the moment he had rejected Touou's offer and applied to Seirin. He still wasn't sure if his plan would pay off; if he could get back what he had with Tamiko, but he will try his best to make the most out of everything.

"Hmm, I think the clubs are over there," he muttered to himself as he narrowed his eyes to get a better look at the numerous stalls set up in a parallel fashion some distance away. The "Club Area" of the festival was already crowded with students; moving in that sea of people would be impossible. Maybe, it would be better to wait a little bit before venturing in.

He wondered at that moment where Tamiko was. Was she already here or was she still at home? He knew he was here early because it was the only time his mother could drop him off. Tamiko came by train (Momoi had told him) and since he hadn't told her in advance that he was going to Seirin instead of Touou, he couldn't ask her to meet up with him so they can go sign up for basketball together. That was too bad but he figured he'd see her at tryouts anyway. He just can't wait to see her expression when she realizes that he was there.

He was still snickering to himself, imagining her reaction when a large hand landed on his shoulder. It took him everything not to jump, but he managed it. He should thank all the practice he got with Tamiko appearing out of nowhere most of the time.

"Hey," the owner of that hand said with a boyish smile, "Do you know where the basketball team stall is?"

What a coincidence, Aomine thought to himself as he took in the tall figure with his flaming red hair and fiery eyes, This guy actually looks like he could be good, with his height and all. Maybe Seirin won't be too bad.

"No, actually," Aomine admitted with a self-deprecating shrug, "I'm looking for it actually; we can go together if you want."

Although he hadn't been actively looking for the stall, he figured it would be nice to not have to look for it on his own and especially in this condition. This stranger, whoever he was, was huge and Aomine knew he could easily part the crowd of students to let them through. He wasn't one to not exploit such an advantage.

"That's fantastic," the guy cheered, "I'm Kagami by the way; Taiga Kagami. And you are?"

"Aomine Daiki," he introduced himself, only absent-mindedly noticing how the guy used a first name-last name combination instead of the usual last name-first name that Japanese people tends to prefer. This guy, he guessed, must be from abroad or something. "You from overseas?"

Kagami looked surprised at the question but nodded.

"Yeah, I'm back from the States," he explained, "I've been living for a few years now."

"So you've learnt basketball from the source; you must be good."

Kagami shrugged as they slowly made their way towards the action. His strides were larger than most people, due to his size but a seasoned athlete like Aomine didn't have any difficulty keeping pace. Atsushi had also been tall, perhaps even taller than Kagami, so if Aomine could keep up with him, Kagami was a piece of cake.

"Yeah, I could say I'm pretty good," Kagami admitted with a confident smirk, "What about you?"

He shrugged, his action mirroring his companion's a moment ago.

"I'm ok," he lied, not wanting to tell Kagami his reputation just yet; he would probably figure it out during tryouts, "I hope high school teams are stronger than middle school ones."

Kagami's smile brightened at that and for the next few minutes, he talked and talked about his middle school experience in the states. It was actually pretty interesting in Aomine's opinion. After all, he had never left Japan before; sure he planned on it in the future, but for now, he was pretty content staying near people he was familiar with.

With the both of them so involved in whatever they were discussing, they arrived at destination pretty fast.

The basketball team stand was slightly less decorated and way less populated than the other stalls. For example, the volleyball stall was so busy that you could barely see past that crowd of people. The art club stall looked pretty popular as well; it wasn't surprising considering all the cool artwork they put up. In comparison, the basketball team one was a desert; they stall was maintained by two people; a tall guy and a short girl with even shorter hair. The girl was alternating between answering the only student at their stand and shouting for people to join. That must be the coach, Aomine figured, since there wasn't any record of any female players on the team. The guy beside him must be the captain; from an information booklet he had picked up earlier, his name was Junpei Hyouga, a 2nd year as well. From what he could see, there weren't many third years in the club.

When he saw the student the coach had been talking to walked away, towards one of the food stands, Kagami made a move to go over. But before he can, Aomine suddenly had an idea. The coach would probably know who he was based on the interview he had given with the rest of the team, some time ago. And since he didn't want to ruin the surprise and reveal his identity just yet, Aomine asked if Kagami could sign up for him as well.

"I want to go to the washroom," he told the teen, "Here, that's how I write my name. I'll see you at tryouts."

Kagami shrugged, took the offered paper and headed to the stand alone. Once Aomine was sure the teen was gone, he turned around and left; he didn't really want to go to the bathroom but he didn't want to risk Kagami turning around and asking him why he was here. Besides, he saw a pretty nice food stand near the restrooms, he could always check them out.

With his plan in mind, Aomine turned the corner, just in time to miss a small bluenette heading towards where Kagami had headed a moment ago.

- Tamiko Kuroko -

Thanks to a map, Tamiko managed to find the basketball stand rather easy, otherwise without it, she knew she would still be looking around for directions. She may be good at finding her way, but Seirin was frankly huge. If she thought Teikou was impressive back in her middle school days, she just never saw something more impressive.

The basketball team stand was right around a corner and was maintained only by 2 students. She headed over and just as she walked up to it, she could have sworn she saw a dark-headed tanned teen that looked exactly like Aomine walk away. But since that was impossible, she shook her head to clear her thoughts. Aomine couldn't be here; he was at Touou, probably already signed up with his new basketball team. She tried not to feel annoyed at that; Aomine had made his choice, he had gone to Touou and they hadn't managed to savage their relationship. She was going to move on; she wasn't going to let something like this ruin her day. She was going to have fun playing with Seirin and everything would be great.

Once the huge red-head finally left the stall, Tamiko made her way over. And just as she had expected, she had to say "excuse-me" 3 times before the girl on the other side of the table, notices her. When she did, she yelped in shock and immediately started apologizing.

"God, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you."

"It's ok," Tamiko replied with a shrug, already used to it, "I'm here for the basketball team."

The girl and the guy both looked surprised at her words, making her wonder just what was the reason they were thinking she was here for. But to their credits, both recovered quickly enough. Unfortunately, their expression turned even more apologetic as the boy beside him – Hyouga Junpei, according to his nametag – answered:

"Actually we were just cleaning up to leave. I'm sorry, but you're too late. The last two places have been taken."

"You have a limit on the number of people signing up?" she asked in surprise; she had never thought that it was possible.

"I know it's weird, but Seirin isn't exactly rich and the direction decided to put most of their budget in to construction. Classrooms here are great but the sports facilities are pretty mediocre. The gym we have is pretty small and since the tryouts are going to be held there, the direction told us that they don't really have money for insurance and all that stuff, so we will have to limit the number of applicants to 50. Any more and the gym might get too crowded and people can get hurt. I don't really understand how that's possible with just one more student but we will get disbanded if we do not follow the rules. And believe me, the Dean will know."

"Oh," Tamiko muttered dejectedly as she sighed. And she had been so looking forward to playing too. Now, it looks like she won't even have the chance to try out; first, she was being haunted by Aomine's ghost and now she couldn't even get on Seirin's team; can her day get any worse?

Luckily, Riko must have taken pity on her because she immediately added.

"But you can still be on the team if you want. I'm looking for an assistant-coach for the year, if you're interested and know the rules, I'll be glad to have you. It would be good to have more female company around here." The last bout of the sentence was directed at her companion, who just shrugged and smiled back good-naturedly. It was obvious by the way they interacted that they were best friends; they were just so confortable that it reminded her of her own relationship with Aomine before the fall-out. And as usual, the moment she thought about it, she started to feel depressed.

"No," she told herself mentally, "You're in high school now; your middle school days are over. It's time to move on." Perhaps, it was that sentiment that prompted her to agree. Besides, she was pretty good at coaching herself; she had been the strategist of their old team and she figured her job wouldn't be that different in this team. At least, she gets to be involved in the action.

She knew she made the right choice when Riko's eyes lighted up and a huge smile etched its way across her features, almost as if she has been told Christmas was here early this year. She looked so excited, nearly vibrating with energy, that even her companion was edging slowly away from her; afraid she was going to hit him in the face if she gesticulated too much. Tamiko couldn't help but smile in return; it was nice to feel appreciated.

"That's fantastic," Riko told her, "You and I would get along well together. Do you know the game well?"

"Yeah," Tamiko replied. She did know the game well; not only had she played it for the past 3 years, she was also the strategist of their team. She had to know the rules like the back of her hand in order to concoct strategies that did not violate the Code and gets them suspended. She also was responsible for pointing out any violation the opposite team made. Since she was able to move silently and tell the referee without anyone noticing, any team playing against them were always surprised that they can't seem to get away with anything. Their look of shock was a secret source of amusement for her. But she has to know the rules to make all that happen.

Instead of telling Aida all that however, Tamiko merely said: "I've read the Code Book."

"Great; that's the best we can hope for. I'll ask you some questions to see your level of understanding."

The next few minutes passed with Aida dishing out question after question and Tamiko answering them promptly and most importantly, correctly. Truth be told, Tamiko was actually pretty impressed with the level of difficulty of Aida's questions. Some of those were things that she would never know if she hadn't encountered those problems in middle school. Some involved details so specific that anyone who hasn't at least read the code twice, would not know. But Tamiko wasn't anyone; she knew her rules and she knew them well. It wasn't a surprise that at the end, both members were looking very impressed with her.

"Alright; the position is yours. I see I won't find anyone better even if I waited," she handed Tamiko a sheet to sign. Tamiko did what she was told and just as she was handing the completed sheet back, something caught her eyes. She could have sworn she saw Aomine's name on the sheet on top of the pile but before she could verify, it was snatched away as Hyouga gathered everything on the table and put it in his bag. Tamiko refused to gave in to her own delusions and ask him if he could show it to her. She was supposed to be moving on, and constantly thinking about Aomine and seeing him everywhere wasn't helping her case. God, she needed to get a grip on herself; this was getting ridiculous.

She was pulled back to reality when Riko said: "Tryouts at 4.30 today at the gym. As the assistant coach, you will have to meet me there around 4, right after homeroom ends. I'll tell you what to do."

After thanking them, Tamiko bid them goodbye.

Once she found a quiet place under an oak tree she sat down and took out her phone. She wanted to text Kise and tell him what happened. He probably would laugh at her luck; even she couldn't believe what had happened.

She was just about to open a text when, to her surprise, her phone vibrated in her hand, and with an incoming message from Kise himself. Talk about coincidences...

To: Tamiko K.

From: Kise R.

Message: Anything interesting happen today?

It should have been an innocent question, but with everything that occurred today, Tamiko couldn't help but be suspicious Her mind immediately turned to the two "Aomine" sighting as she was now calling them, and she could help but write back: "Why?"

Did Kise know about this? Was she actually right and it was really Aomine she saw? Did Aomine come to her school to try to apologize to her again? Was this a prank?

She waited patiently for an answer and frowned when she read: "Nothing. I have to go now. Have a nice day."

Her next messages were left unanswered and a call only led to Kise's voicemail. She tried again for another 15 minutes but after that decided to give up.

She was done with Aomine anyway; she didn't care what he did since she was moving on. Kise can keep his secrets; Tamiko wasn't going to waste time playing his game, she had a General Assembly to get to.

To Be Continued…

Next chapter: Let's just say Riko won't be the only one surprised by Aomine's apparence. And Kagami will discover just who Aomine really is.