Teiko's Princess

Fifth Quarter: The Try Outs: Basics

The bell chimes, marking the end of the school day. Many within the class 1-A had packed and left in a hurry, leaving only a few who stayed in the classroom just a bit longer. Like yesterday, the four that were part of a group that had become the center of most of the student body's talks and discussions met each other before leaving to meet up with the other two. The strangest thing about it was that despite the talks claiming there were six of them, many didn't know who that sixth person which was also the fifth player was. What they described was a 'ghostly blur' that had left the senior second stringers glued to their spots with their mouths agape.

Despite that, they didn't care, knowing that their 'fifth player' would rather stay silent and unnoticed. Leaving the classroom, the four walked down the now silent and empty halls, meeting up with Aomine and their giant, Murasakibara at the doors to their respective classrooms before heading downstairs and out the building. As expected, outside was as hectic as their homeroom teacher had said. Even before they could even step one foot outside, distant shouts of advertisements for specific clubs and once in a while, a rather frustrating outburst from some freshmen that couldn't take on the chaotic situation they were thrown in after school.

"Satsu-chan! Taka-chan!" A familiar voice caught their attention amidst the loud barking and shouting of various club representatives, turning to see Honousaki Haruka running to them, waving.

"Haru-chan!" Satsuki greeted back, meeting with the orange haired girl halfway, followed by the other remaining female then the boys.

"I was waiting here because I was too scared to cross the courtyard through that crowd..." Haru took a second to glance over at the chaotic scene that laid before them before shivering a bit from the thought of getting through that place they called the 'recruitment convention' of their school.

"Yeah...I don't think I'd want to go alone as well." The tanned boy gulped as he stared at the crowd that stood between them and the gyms of the school.

"Honousaki-san, you could've waited with Aomine-kun." The petite teal head said, tilting her head slightly to the side as she looked questioningly at their new female acquaintance who only squirmed under her gaze.

"Mou, Taka-chan! Just call her Haru at least~" Satsuki pouted at the smaller girl's habit of being formal, even she would sometimes revert back to calling the pinkette by her family name.

"...Okay."

"We should get going, the try outs are starting soon." The red head interjected as he started walking towards the noisy crowd that was in their way. "Stay together."

They all chorused their agreement in sticking together as they calmly walked towards the gym, catching the attention of the students nearest to them in the crowd before it reached the students from the back as the shouts of advertisements and hollering of different kinds of response were diminished to mere murmurs and looks of wary as the group of freshmen approached.

"Hey, it's those freshmen who humiliated a bunch of Seniors in the second string..."

"No way! Isn't it already hard enough to even enter the second string? Those are the second best right under the first string!"

Despite the popularity of the basketball club and its huge count of members, only those that showed some potential could even join it, just barely managing to get into third string. With over a hundred applicants, it was usually only a mere fifth of that number would be qualified to be an official club member. And throughout all of Teiko's long history, not a single freshman had ever been able to reach first string. So when such a miracle as seeing a group of freshmen able to get a twenty score lead against the best and most notorious seniors in the second string before they started raising their level of dirty plays, the group of first years had established quite a first impression and reputation among the students.

As they approached, the crowd seemed to part ways as if it was the red sea, allowing the group to pass through. It was rather uncomfortable for them, especially for the three girls as they found themselves being eyed at questioningly by many. Some of them were rather creepy as well. It was times like these that the other two girls would wish that they had the same lack of presence as their smaller teal haired friend who seemed to have been spared from being ogled at by the majority of the male population.

It was probably by coincident that possibly the most good looking of the first years were all in one group, including the new addition of Honousaki Haruka who had also been catching the attention of many boys both from their year and those above.

As calm as they may be on the outside, they were rather anxious on the inside, seeing the sea of eyes just looking at them as they passed through. But they maintained their own blank or intimidating mask as they moved on until they had finally reached the sports facilities not without hearing a few sighs of relief from behind them as they entered the gym where the try outs were starting.

As soon as they stepped in, clear sounds of basket balls dribbling and sneakers squeaking flush right towards them, filling them with excitement. Aomine couldn't help but grin widely as he picked up his pace, followed by his childhood friend who had dragged her cute teal haired friend and followed by the last female of their group. Midorima muttered something under his breath about basketball freaks as he followed behind with the giant behind him, munching on a new bag of chips. Seijuro smiled as he noticed the eager looks on most of them as they finally entered the court not before checking in with the club members.

"Did you guys applied for the club?" asked a second year second stringer who was sitting at a table with papers spread all over it. His eyes looked skeptically at them as he sorted them out.

"Well, we didn't apply..." Aomine admitted as he rubbed the back of his head, averting his eyes away from the second year sempai.

"We were told to attend the try outs by your assistant coach." Seijuro stepped up, eying him with an intimidating look.

"A-ah...What are your names?" The second year stuttered, searching the mess on his table for that special list which the first string captain had given him earlier.

"Akashi Seijuro."

"Aomine Daiki!"

"Midorima Shintaro."

"Murasakibara Atsushi~"

The second year ticked their names, marking them present before his face formed a confused and incredulous look. "I-is there a Kuroko Takara here?" He called out, raising an eyebrow while muttering. "...That's a really girly name for a boy..."

"I'm here." A soft voice answered, startling the boy who was checking them in. He nearly fell off his chair as he struggled to recover.

"You're Kuroko Takara?!"

"Hai." The petite girl nodded.

"Is this some joke?" The second year blurted out, catching everyone's attention. "A girl was invited to try out?! By the assistant coach himself?!"

"...Is there a problem?" The venomous hiss from the red head made the boy cower as he frantically shook his head, anymore harder and he would've gotten a whiplash. "Tch."

"Sei, it's okay." Takara sighed as he turned to bow politely at the poor frightened sempai. "Sorry for the rudeness."

"A-ah...It's not a problem...I-I was being rude first..." He stuttered out, a blush slowly creeping its way onto his face as he finally got a good look at the teal haired girl. She was cute. "A-anyway, go line up with the other applicants over there." He thumbed towards a line of freshmen at the back as he went back to his work. "G-good luck. Oh! And the changing rooms are at the back." He pointed further down the gym where there were doors leading to the locker rooms. "There's also a female changing room there." He added. much to Takara's relief.

"Thank you."

Next came the other two females, they cheered and wished their teal haired friend good luck before glomping her and wishing the others luck as well. Satsuki cleared her throat as she stood in front of the table, catching the same second year the players had to deal with. He looked up and once again felt his cheeks burn as he noticed another two good looking females had came. What's with all these pretty and cute girls joining all of a sudden?

"You two are here for..."

"Manager position." They both answered.

"O-okay, names?"

"Momoi Satsuki."

"Honousaki Haruka."

The boy nodded as he ticked the side of their names on the list of manager candidates, gesturing them to the left where a group of freshmen both male and female were sitting down on the benches. The two thanked him with smiles which caused him to go beet red before they made their way towards the benches. The two thanked him with smiles which caused him to go beet red before they made their way towards the benches. They took a glance at the line of applicants and spotting their friends standing straight as they were being inspected by a teacher who must've been the club's supervisor.

Takara, being the only girl there and the shortest stood out like a sore thumb. They cringed as they imagined what their smaller friend might have to do.

On the other side of the court, the new freshman applicants all lined up, standing straight as the club's teacher slash supervisor took a few seconds to inspect them. He looked at the list in his hand as he matched them with the students before he reached her name.

"...Kuroko Takara?"

All the applicants save the four who knew who Takara was glanced at each other in confusion.

"Here." A timid soft voice that was most definitely not belong to a male answered at the end of the line, right beside Seijuro and caught the attention of everyone in line.

"Alright then." The supervisor looked impassive, he must have been informed about it beforehand by the assistant coach as he walked back to the middle. "Alright! Welcome first years to Teiko Basketball Club's try outs! Not all of you will be able to join and I'm pretty sure very few who passed would even reach second string. But do your best! Good luck!"

He stepped back, allowing a first year to step up front and barked out what their first try out was. "Alright! You're all going to go through the basic physical trainings first! You'll need to do is shuttle running! Pair up with someone so that one could mark down the laps while the other does the run! There's a time limit that I will start as soon as everyone's ready! It's 3 minutes! The number of shuttles you do will affect your results in the end and which string you'll be put at!" His eyes narrowed at them as he added a warning in a low tone. "...No cheating."

"Yes sir!" They all chorused before scrambling to find a partner.

"Takara." The small blunette looked towards Seijuro at the call of her name. "We should partner up."

"Nn." The blunette answered with a nod as they moved to get ready. "Are you going first or me?"

"You first." He gestured politely for her to be the first to take the first test, smiling with a knowing look as she too had a small smile on her face.

She got in line along with other applicants as they lined up on one side of the gym, each of them readying themselves for the run. Takara bent her legs slightly as her eyes fixed on the other end of the gym where the small orange cones marked the check point a few meters away from them. Meanwhile, the first stringer in charge handed out a piece of paper and pencils towards the others who were going to count the laps.

"Alright! Listen up! On my mark, you'll start and when I blow my whistle you will stop immediately. Am I clear?"

A wave of murmurs responded to the first stringer's instructions as they tensed up and awaited the call to start. Just as the whistle blew, a slight breeze passed by the two boys next the Seijuro causing them to stop for a split second with confused looks on their faces. Was that a breeze just now? They looked around to see that none of the doors of the gymnasium that lead outside were open. The one counting was the first one to snap out of his daze before he quickly tried to get his partner moving.

"What are you standing there for?! Go! Run!"

His partner nodded, snapping out of his own daze before he sprinted to the checkpoint but along the way, the boy felt slight breezes gently blowing by to his right. Turning, he nearly fell over in surprise as he thought he saw a light blue blur zip by him. "W-What the hell was that?!"

Seijuro smirked as he watched the rest of the participants look their way. "That's four, Takara." He calmly informed just as the teal haired girl returned on her fourth lap within the first twenty seconds.

"Hm, I should slow down a tiny bit. I don't want to burn all my stamina on just shuttling." The girl mused as she zipped back to the checkpoint and back with a sigh. "Five." She then twitched as she felt a dozen pairs of eyes on her which made her feel uncomfortable as she glanced towards the rest of the freshmen and frowned. She either keep her presence low or sacrifice that for the right speed that wouldn't drain her energy within seconds.

"Just keep going." The red head grinned.

She nodded and once again reached the cone and back with a burst of speed that barely anyone could keep up with. The only ones who were not surprised were the ones who knew who she was.

"Not bad." Aomine grinned as he watched the teal haired girl darted from the start to the cones and back again in a blur.

"Kurochin is fast." The purple giant commented as he ticked for another lap made by his tanned partner.

"She's reckless." The green head frowned as he sped off for another lap with another random freshman counting his laps for him.

"Was that Taka-chan?" Haruka blinked, her eyes were wide open after seeing how the rather small girl seemed to dart between Seijuro and the cones non-stop. "She's so fast!"

"Nn." The pinkette agreed as she watched Takara made another lap. "That's the fifteenth lap already and there's still one and half minutes left." She frowned slightly. "I hope she'll be okay. Her speed really burns her strength..."

The orange haired girl nodded before they both returned their attention to the senior manager who had been explaining the basics of what a manager should do, although he too was a bit distracted by a certain speeding blue blur that was with the freshmen recruits. The two girls couldn't help but stifle their giggles as the senior manager kept stuttering as his eyes darted from the group of manager candidates to the player candidates.

"Alright! Time's up!" The senior first stringer announced, blowing on the whistle to signal the end of the first test. Takara who was counting the laps for Seijuro stopped immediately and awaited for further instructions as the others frantically counted the last lap to the last second. Seijuro jogged up to her and sat beside her with a sigh.

"Otsukaresama." The teal haired girl said as she rechecked the amount of laps her brother did.

"You too." The red head nodded with a small smile before he took out the piece of paper that he used to mark the number of laps done by Takara. It stated 49. Glancing over to how many laps he did, he was eight laps behind her. He broke into a smirk when he saw that, knowing the out of the two of them, she would always be faster.

"Alright! Hand over the papers and we'll start with the next test!"

Everyone was once again paired together for the next test while the first stringer collected the paper and read through them. He froze when he read the number on Kuroko Takara, wide eyes looked up to search for that girl only to frown as he knew he wouldn't be able to find her. He looked at the others while keeping that name in mind to report to the assistant coach, finding other surprising results.

It didn't take him long to find out that the names of those who showed extraordinary results were also the ones on the special list.

No wonder they caught Sanada-san's interest.

He double checked to see if he had everyone's results on the shuttle run written down before he nodded and looked back up. "Alright! Everyone, the next is sit ups!"

"So for the following two months, you will all be on trial." The senior manager explained as he looked at the clip board in his hands. "You'll be divided into groups of three later on and will be scouting, helping out with specific strings and plan out training regimes. Am I clear?"

"Hai!" Everyone chorused as they were free to watch the new recruits take the tests although most of them decided to leave to tend their own matters.

"I wonder how well is Taka-chan doing..." The pinkette scanned the area for a certain petite friend of hers before frowning to see said girl struggling to do even one sit up. "Ueeh~"

"What's wrong Satsu-chan?" Haruka asked before the pink haired girl directed her attention to where she was looking at and she too frowned. "Uwah! Taka-chan was so fast earlier when they did the shuttle run! How come she can't do any sit ups?!"

"I don't know either..."

They watched as Takara was finally able to make it up with both her hands behind her head.

"That's two Takara! Good job!" They overheard the red head said and sweat dropped. All this time and all she did was two?! The pinkette looked at her watch, noting that a minute had already passed since they started the test. How could someone be that fast and that weak at the same time?! How could she even play basketball if she couldn't even do at least ten sit ups within a minute?!

"This looks bad for her, doesn't it?" Haruka carefully worded as she looked on with worry.

"She should be able to handle this! I'm sure of it!" The pink haired girl said with a tone of hope. Even though she only knew the smaller girl for two days, she pretty much got the outline of her personality as crazy as it sounded. And Takara was one very stubborn girl, she wouldn't give up just because of that.

Gambatte Taka-chan!

"That's sixty two, keep it up!" Seijuro tried not to frown at how his sister was doing with the sit ups. It should be about time before the time limit is reached and so far, Takara made it to the teens which was already quite a feat for her. Knowing the last time she insisted on doing these exercises, the teal haired girl barely made it to sixty within five minutes, she had definitely improved a lot.

"Mmf!" She grunted as she made the last one before a whistle was blown, signaling the end of the test. It was time to switch partners.

"You did better than last time." The red head said, trying his best to cheer her up as she pouted after the announcement came. He knew that she wanted to do better, to get stronger but it was near impossible for her weak body. But that's just that, she still had a chance to grow stronger and she will, he know she will. "You'll get stronger and you'll make it to the team with me."

"Nn..." She nodded before wiping the sweat from her head and switched positions with Seijuro, her knees resting on his feet as he got into a sit up position. Her soft hands weakly grabbed hold of his knees as they waited for the signal to start.

"Ready!"

Peeeeeeet!

As soon as the whistle sounded, Seijuro swiftly made one, two three and counting as the others did their sit ups rather sloppily or recklessly. The red head's fast and steady count caught the eyes of others as they noticed how behind they were compared to the small red head who seemed a bit shorter than average. But he wasn't the only one who seemed like a monster when it comes to these activities.

Not too far from the red head and his sister were three other guys who seemed to push to their limits as they made sit up after sit up without pause or heavily covered in sweat. They were already at least ten counts ahead of the rest by the time the first minute had passed and many were more focused on staring with an expression matching a gold-fish than trying to catch up by the time the second minute was over.

"Time's up!"

Everyone relaxed, the ones that were doing the sit ups collapsed onto the wooden floor of the gym with relieved sighs and panting. Everyone was catching their breaths save for five colorful individuals as they regrouped together and sat somewhere on the edge of the crowd of fellow freshmen. Aomine had a grin on his face while the others saved more of their energy by ignoring the tanned boy.

"I did 144 on that test." He boasted, dropping down to sit next to the siblings followed by Midorima and Murasakibara.

"156." The red head answered causing the others to widen their eyes in surprise.

"...141." The green haired boy muttered monotonously as he adjust his glasses to distract himself from comparing his results with the others.

"161~ It was tiring~" The purple giant drawled as he yawned before he looked around the gym. "Neh, is there any snacks around here?"

"I don't believe there's any snack vending machines nearby, Murasakibara-kun." The sole female in the group answered, still slightly worn out from the test earlier.

"Wow, Taka you look like you went all out on that test." The tanned boy commented as he observed her being grinning again. "You must've done quite a bit."

She shook her head as she looked down at the ground with a sad look in her eyes. "No...63."

They all stared at her incredulously save for Seijuro who glared at them instead. It didn't really make sense for the three who barely knew about the girl since yesterday, she had been going all out and taking on the whole enemy team by herself for a few times on the court. They expected her to be quite a strong built girl to be able to do that but it seemed like they were wrong.

"...63 per minute right?" The tanned boy carefully asked as he felt the ice cold glare from the red head beside him. Were those scissors he heard behind Seijuro's back?

"...No, that's the count I got for three minutes."

"That is way below average..." It seemed that his mouth couldn't shut up despite his mind continued to force it to keep quiet. Aomine Daiki, 12, probably marked his grave at the exact spot he was sitting.

"She did good." The red head interjected while sending death glares at the tanned boy who slowly backed away before he gave up trying to kill him with his eyes. "She definitely did better than before."

"What?" all three of their new friends asked in unison.

"I have a relatively weak body..." The petite blunette explained timidly as she moved slightly behind Seijuro.

"The next test is about to start." The red head interjected, ceasing this topic immediately as the first stringer started coming back to the group of freshmen with a bewildered look. He could tell it's because of the huge difference in results between the shuttle run and the sit ups of a certain petite girl within the group.

"Alright! Next up is push ups! Like the last time, have someone count for you and you'll count your partner's when your turn is over."

"Come on Takara." The red head said as he got up and left. The teal head followed suit after she bowed to their acquaintances with a small 'excuse us'. Once she caught up, they once again chose to be on the outside of the group of recruits before they decided who to go first. This time, it was Seijuro.

"Good luck." He heard her sister softly said before a small smile made its way on his face.

"I think you need it more than I do at the moment." He grinned as he got ready in a push up position.

"Nn..." Her cheeks flushed somewhat, knowing that she would definitely have the same if not worse results as she had on the sit ups test.

"Get ready!" The first stringer said before he took out the whistle again. Seeing that everyone was ready, he blew on the whistle and everyone that were doing the test first immediately started while their partners counted. He decided to walk around the group to see everyone's form and method of efficiently doing the test, noticing many of them were not as good as he expected and frowned.

But there were a few note worthy candidates among the less than satisfactory batch of first years. Particularly the ones that had been showing amazing and rather confusing results that were on the special list he was given by the second stringer that was assigned to do a small check in on the applicants. He stopped when he noticed a red head which was on that list named Akashi Seijuro. His form was perfect and he could easily see the muscles on his arms flex and relax as he did push up after push up.

Strangely, it almost feel like another weaker presence was around him and out of curiosity he searched the red head's surroundings to find a small girl with flowing teal-sky blue hair and matching eyes crouched beside Seijuro and counting his push ups. The first stringer was rather surprised he never noticed her and he wondered what a girl was doing here when a test was starting.

He was about to call out to her when he remembered something about a girl named Kuroko Takara who had somehow managed to gain the coach's approval to attend the try outs and was also put on the special list. He frowned when he remembered the difference in results when he compared her shuttle runs and sit ups. The shuttle run results had shown him that the girl was fast. Really fast. But when the results for sit ups came about, she was below average.

Checking the time on his wrist watch, he announced that there was one minute left which caused everyone to double their pace. Many of them were trying to cram as much push ups as they could, more than what they're usually used to and the first stringer couldn't help but wonder if they really needed to do that. He just hopes that they wouldn't collapse anytime soon, it would be a bother to bring them to the Nurse's office.

"Alright! Time's up!" He announced as he glanced at his watch. "Those of you who were counting, bring me the results and get back to your partner to start the test."

"Hai." The freshmen chorused as they gathered around him to give him the results of their partners. It took a while before everyone scattered back to their spots.

"Excuse me." A soft voice spoke out from right behind him, nearly making him jump as he regained his composure and turned around to see the sole female candidate with the piece of paper that she used to mark the number of push ups her partner did. "You forgot to get this one."

"A-ah. Thanks." He managed as he was given the results of her partner. "Get back to your spot now, we're about to start."

"Hai, sempai."

With that, the girl made her way back to the red head's side before she got into a push up position and to his surprise, it was a perfect form too. Maybe she wasn't so bad...? He glanced around to see that everyone was ready before he signaled to start with his whistle again and went back to observe the only girl in the group. If she was good enough to make it onto the special list then he should see for himself if she was any good.

...He frowned.

Her form was perfect but she could barely hang on as she took probably two to three seconds per push up. This had to be a joke right? But he decided not to pry any further and focus his attention on the results that he was given and noted three names and their results..

Aomine Daiki, 122 push ups in three minutes.

Murasakibara Atsushi 131 push ups in three minutes.

Akashi Seijuro 136 push ups in three minutes.

He glanced once again to the pair of blue and red. Seeing how the red head kept on encouraging the girl as she completed another push up. From what he had heard, Akashi Seijuro always seemed to hang around that teal haired girl. He wondered what's their relationship...He shook his head. He's getting distracted, that's no good. He averted his gaze to other freshmen and continued observing the rest.

Soon, he stopped everyone as he announced the end of the test. Collecting the results, he then instructed them to go to the next gym for the last tests. Curiosity got the better of him as he sift through the results that were handed over to him before he found what he was looking for and frowned... The female applicant was at the very bottom on push ups as well.

"Maybe the coach and head coach are getting too old..." He muttered despite knowing that Sanada was in his thirties.

The group of freshmen were now in the next gym, followed by a few other students who were curious or just waiting for their friends among the freshmen participants in the Try Outs. Gathering on one side of the large indoor basketball court, they started chatting amongst themselves, wondering what the last test was save for the ones that were on the special list.

"It's going to be basketball matches." Seijuro guessed, although it's more of a claim as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really? Dang, that's gonna be great!" Aomine seemed fired up at the mention of a match, grinning from ear to ear as he flexed his fingers. Everyone could tell that the tanned boy wouldn't hesitate to grab the closest basketball in sight as if his life depended on it.

"We would probably have to play against each other." The teal haired girl interjected with a frown, glancing over to the red head.

Seijuro knew immediately what that meant. There was a possibility that he and Takara would not be in the same group or team and he would be lying if he wasn't worried about the petite girl's well being if they were not grouped together. But then, he caught the most smallest of a reassuring smile from her and a nod to which he nodded back. She wouldn't want him to worry and that would be what he would do, trust that she would be okay.

Soon, another first stringer entered the gym and walked towards them with a clipboard in his hand. He didn't look very enthusiastic about it as he seemed to be trying to glare a hole through the board while scratching the back of his frustratingly. A little bit closer, they could hear him muttering about being late to some sort of event but most of them didn't seem to pay any mind about the fuming first string senior.

"Alright! Quiet down!" The first stringer shouted as ticks formed on his head from how disrespectful the first years were behaving. If looks could kill, then the glare the senior gave them would've massacred them a hundred times over. "I don't have much time so let's get straight to it! We'll be having trial matches against each other in random teams!"

A wave of murmurs was the only response from the crowd before the first stringer glared back at the clipboard in his hands again.

"When I call your names and the letter, then that will be your team. There will be four teams of five for today because we don't have that much time, it's getting dark out so let's wrap this up quickly!" He tapped the board with his pen as he called out the names. "Yumimura, Fushijou, Sumihara, Murasakibara, Shunhou. A."

The players with their names called gathered together. Most of them couldn't help but find the team rather amusing as everyone seemed like dwarves compared to the purple haired giant that stood with them nonchalantly munching down on a snack bar. One could wonder if he had some kind of supernatural or magical power that could summon any type of snack at will.

"Oi! Pay attention when I call the names!" The first stringer barked, irritated that the first years were not paying any attention to him. "Ichijou, Kaname, Sato, Himenoda, Aomine. B."

The tanned boy and the others gathered together in another spot with Aomine plastering a big grin. "I'm Aomine, yoroshiku!"

"Ah, same here. I'm Sato Yosuke." One of them returned the greeting followed by the others. It would seemed there's no problem for the tanned boy to fit right in. Takara didn't expect Aomine to be so outgoing, mainly because despite already knowing him for the past two days, he always had that bored and lazy look to him. Though it might be a possibility that the current group activity they're doing involves his favorite sport.

But whatever caused such a big personality change, it made the atmosphere amongst the whole club less tense and seemed to have lifted the mood to which many were grateful for. Takara smiled, seeing how well the tanned boy was getting along with the rest. At least it wasn't like they were isolated due to what they had did the day before, though it seemed like after that game their group had gained a small reputation amongst their fellow first years and even some second and third years in school.

But that reputation didn't seem like it was all good. Not when some of the students who used to be in Takara's and Seijuro's old private elementary school decided to spread some ridiculously crude and obviously false rumors around. Though those kinds of lies were easily exposed and had no evidence to back up its value of being true, they were still spreading rapidly throughout the whole school population and being the gossipers some students were, it wasn't long before the seeds were planted and it grew wild.

And all that happened in one day.

Takara sighed when she thought about it. It would seem that in middle school, information were passed around faster than in elementary. She shook her head and diverted her attention back to the first stringer who was still calling out names and assigning groups.

"Hanazuka, Taijou, Fujijou, Kanzo, Midorima. C." He called out, forming the next group.

They gathered in one spot and the four freshmen that was with the bespectacled green haired boy couldn't help but eye the item in his left palm in confusion. Sitting snugly on his left palm was a bunny plush doll in what seemed to be in a frilly dress. To others -boys mostly- holding such a thing in public would be embarrassing but the green head seemed unfazed by the weird looks everyone was giving him save for those he already knew.

"Seriously, Midorima? Just put the little guy down on a bench or something." Aomine sweat dropped as he made the suggestion, causing the teen mentioned to glare back at him.

"I will do that when we start playing." He adjusted his glasses, pushing it up his nose where it's more comfortable. "I don't need to listen to a basketball idiot."

"Oi! Uncalled for!" The tanned boy retorted.

"Break it up you two." The stern voice of the first stringer halted any more arguments that was going to spew out as he glared at the both of them. They suddenly felt a bit small when they were under those irritated and slightly angered eyes. "I don't got all day and I doubt the rest of you do too."

"Baka..." The tea head muttered as she turned away from them after the commotions died down. Seijuro couldn't help but snicker at her comment on the two acquaintances of theirs. Though he guessed they were more like friends now.

"Next group. Gorou, Sabutaki, Kibatou, Jin, Akashi. D."

Takara frowned once the next group was announced. It wasn't that she needed Seijuro to stick to her like glue but she did half-hope that she and the redhead would at least be in the same group. She was snapped out of her thoughts when the red head got up from where he sat on the ground beside her, sending a questioning glance at her. She only nodded and showed a slight smile before he nodded and walked away.

"The last group will be E." The first stringer looked up from his clipboard and scanned the different groups of first years. "Are we all good?"

"Yeah." They all answered. Some were content with the teams they were assigned to, the others were stuck in awkward silence with their teammates. Especially those who were with the giant who was standing out like a sore thumb among his team due to his height. Everyone seemed rather hesitant to talk to the big guy who was happily munching on a snack bar again after finishing the previous one.

Walking towards the group of first years that were assigned as 'E', Takara couldn't help but find it amusing when they were done introducing themselves only to look for their fifth player which was her. Seeing as it wouldn't do any good to stall any longer, she stepped up to them and tapped one of them on the shoulder, catching the boy's attention.

"Huh?" He spluttered as he took a step back in surprise. "Wha..."

"I'm Kuroko Takara, I'm the fifth member of this team. I hope we get along." She introduced herself as she bowed politely to the others, leaving them speechless. It was then when the cogs in their brain started to function again, remembering that there was a girl that somehow managed to participate in the try outs.

"A-ah...I'm Yuuki Daisuke." The boy that she tapped on the shoulder introduced himself followed by an apology on how he had reacted earlier to which Takara shrugged it off as a 'normal reaction' when people were meeting her for the first time.

She wasn't born to have low presence. That was something she developed for the past few years, years that she would rather not talk or even think about. Shaking away those thoughts, she got herself back in track and scanned the different groups around hers, giving a quick observation with her analytical eyes.

Many of Midorima-kun's team are average in height with semi-built bodies. They're most likely a balanced team. Aomine-kun's team seems to plan on focusing offense as many of them seemed to be itching to play already. Murasakibara's team...It's hard to tell from how the team seems to be distancing themselves from the giant but their bodies suggests that they're pretty fast, a good cover for the purple giant's large form which most probably meant slower mobility.

Then her eyes lands upon Seijuro and his team and pouted. She wanted to be in the same team as him since she doesn't know if she's even ready to work with random strangers...Could she keep up with them? Or is it the other way around? The teal head sighed and diverted her gaze back to her task on observing her rival teams.

The red head's team seemed mixed. But that wasn't what Takara was concerned about. Knowing him, he'd probably work his way around and form a perfect strategy with the pieces given to him. She internally sighed at that before concern clouded her mind. This was her first time working with people she had just met. Turning back, she observed her own teammates. But they seemed to squirm under her blank stare, total discomfort from having the only girl that was participating in this year's try-out inspecting them.

"Ano, Kuroko-san?" Daisuke asked as he tried not to look too awkward. "May I ask why are you staring at us?"

"I'm not staring. Just observing." She answered his question as if it was obvious and tilted her head to one side. "Is there something wrong?"

"Well..." He glanced at the others and notice how they too felt uncomfortable under her gaze. "It does kind of feel weird being observed like that."

"Oh." She nodded. "I'll stop then. I've already gotten enough information anyway."

The boys in her team gave her puzzled looks when she said that but she ignored them and started sorting out her mind, make note of her opponents' and teammates' strengths and weaknesses, and matching and predicting results between others and their team despite it not being very accurate, she's merely a human girl after all. She was still going over some back-up plans with herself in her mind when she snapped out of her thoughts by the conversation held by another team.

"Hey, that group got the girl in it." She heard one of them said.

"Yeah, it should be the weakest team out there. We should aim for them."

She clenched her fists when she heard that. They believe that because of her gender, she would hinder her own team?! She glared at the back of the the boys who were speaking about it earlier, noticing that they were in Aomine's group. She made a note to reach the pair's expectations about being 'bad'. Amongst those that she was staring, she noticed a shiver from her tanned friend and smiled.

"Takara."

She turned to see Seijuro walking up to her with a smirk. He must've overheard the conversation as well.

"I'll make them regret saying that." She muttered before heading back to her group. Seijuro's smirk merely grew wider in amusement. It would seem the match between Takara and Daiki would be quite an interesting one.

"Ku-Kuroko-san." Daisuke stuttered as he actually somehow sensed the dark aura around their only female teammate. He could have sworn he saw it visually emitting around the petite bluenette. "We were discussing about our roles."

"I see." The girl nodded, the dark aura seemed to be fading away slowly as her mind dove back to planning and devising certain strategies. Noticing Daisuke's height and muscle tone, she gave him one last observant look from head to toe which of course made him uncomfortable before asking him to be the power forward of the team.

"S-sure." He answered.

"I will be point guard." Takara declared as she looked at the other three boys in the group, eying the boy to the rightmost of the team. He had short brown hair with sharp eyes. Her guess was that he had accurate shots. "Migaya-kun? What position do you think you would do best?"

Migaya glanced up thoughtfully before looking at the girl. "I would say shooting guard."

That's what I thought... She smiled, looks like her intuition was correct. She turned her attention to the next boy in her team, semi-shaved head and a taller height than Daisuke and a bit more built in body. "Katsumori-kun, would you mind playing as Center?"

"That's what I'm best at." He grinned in response to her question, earning a nod from her.

"Then I guess I'm small forward." The last boy said as he shrugged.

Takara turned to face him and noticed a few miscalculations on her part. "Actually Oja-kun, I'd like you to be point guard. You seemed like you're more suitable for that position than me."

"Are you sure?" Oja asked as he scratched his head. "I've never really played point guard before.

"Don't worry. You'll do." She assured him with a slight smile, making him blush as he looked away.

"O-okay then."

"ALRIGHT! Everyone, here's the team line-ups!" The senior shouted out, gathering everyone's attention as he brought back a white board with the teams marked in a competition styled leader board. "Look 'em up good!"

Everyone immediately gathered around to see which teams were against each other, making the place around the board quite crowded. She frowned as she had to push or even squeeze past all these males in front of her. Worse of all, they were already sweaty and smelly from the basics earlier. Even though she was also sweaty, she didn't actually smell at all compared to the rest of the people.

With her breath held in, she bravely entered the fray, squeezing past through the crowd with a bit of effort before finally ending up at the front with a slight stumble. Regaining her balance, she glanced up at the white board and searched the ladder chart before her eyes landed on her team, E and her opponent...

"Good luck."

She turned abruptly and found Midorima glaring a challenge towards her. He already knew what the girl could do and from the looks of it, on edge and wary of her. She returned his glare with a blank stare that sent chills down his spine before she replied with a monotone voice. "You too."

Gomen! Took a while to write. xD Writer's blocks are bad... :( And the more I stall, the harder it seemed to be for me to write at all. xD Anyway, I finally managed to finish this chapter! Just hope it isn't boring you. xD But then again, I am writing at a really slow pace, I'll start picking up speed next chapter, promise!

To, Aleiaa and Sakura-hime99;

Thank you for reviewing! And I encourage others to review as well! It serves as a motivation along with the favs and follows! Thank you for your support! Dai suki~ 3

I'll try to update faster! I also have a few other fanfics in the planning;

Princess of the Courts (Prince of Tennis)

It has been four years since the disappearance of the renowned 'Prince of Tennis', Echizen Ryouma. But said person never actually existed in the first place. Enter Echizen Risa or "Lisa" as pronounced by her American friends as she settled down in Japan, a break away from the States and actual competitive tennis itself and focus more on her musical interest. But when she stumbled across a Mixed Junior Tennis Competition game, she would be torn between sports and music. What would she choose? (Fem!Ryouma, OOC, AU, RyoumaxKaidoh/Tezuka/Fuji)

What?! (Love Stage!)

"I have to see for it myself! There's no way that he-she was a man!" Unfortunately, he wouldn't have expected the landslide of hilarious and awkward situations that he'd get himself into just to strip that person near naked. (What-if Scenario: Fem!Izumi, Semi-yaoi(ShougoxRei), OOC, AU, IzumixRyouma)

See you next update!