Rebirth In KurokoNoBasket

Shun took out his back sling-bag and put his basketball in the bag. He made his way to the study in the house. It was a Sunday, and he wanted to play basketball, so he decided to go outside.

Shun's parents shared the study room in the house.

Shun knocked on the open door of the study, and Shun's mother, who was in the study, looked up.

Shun's father visited his gym and swimming pool every Sunday morning to handle affairs that he couldn't handle on the weekdays, so he out for the moment.

Shun: "Mom, I am going out to the basketball court near the shopping district."

Shun's mother nodded and said to Shun.

Mom: "Ok, take care, and return before lunchtime."

Shun nodded back at her and said.

Shun: "Ok~. Bye, I am going."

Shun made his way to the door of the house, removed his home slippers, and replaced them with sneakers.

Shun had not properly played basketball for a whole week. The most he had done was play with the ball in his room. He had been busy having fun with his friends and catching up with his studies.

He didn't stop his physical routine, he still did yoga, with his mother in the morning, and as he was not allowed in the school gymnasium for a whole week, he went to his father's gym so he could have all the space he needed for his regular physical workout.

On his way to the court, he took out his basketball from his bag and started to play with it.

The feel of the leather against his fingers and palm felt right and almost addictive to Shun. The slight bumps on the surface and the ridged seams fitted provided the perfect grip in his hands.

Shun entered the shopping district and was met by the hustle and bustle that suited a shopping district.

Shun passed through the busy street, weaving his way through the people who were visiting the shops that lined both sides of the street.

Shun saw a familiar figure sweeping the ground in front of the only diner in the shopping district.

Shun called out to the figure.

Shun: "Yo! Yukihira, how are you doing today?"

The figure was of a boy the same age as that of Shun, and just as Shun addressed him, his name was Yukihira Soma. He was the son of the owner and chef of the Yukihira Diner and was aspiring to be a chef himself.

[A/N - 1, Refer at the end of the chapter.]

Yukihira looked up from the ground and saw Shun; they knew each other from the times', Shun crossed the shopping district to go to the basketball court near the shopping district.

Yukihira: "Oh, Kageyama. Going to the basketball court again today."

Yukihira said, looking at the basketball in Shun's hands.

Shun nodded and said.

Shun: "Yeah, I was bored at home and thought to pass some time."

Shun raised the ball and threw the ball towards Yukihira.

Yukihira was startled and had to drop his broom to catch the ball.

Yukihira: "Woah! Man, you do this every time, and I get startled every time."

Yukihira threw the ball back to Shun. Shun laughed as he caught the ball.

Shun: "Well, you better be ready for it the next time."

Suddenly a voice came from inside the diner. It was Yukihira's father calling for him.

Yukihira's father (Yukihira/Saiba Joichiro): "Soma don't waste time outside and slack off. Come inside and do some work."

[A/N - 2]

Yukihira picked up the broom, turned to Shun, and waved him goodbye.

Yukihira: "See you later, Kageyama. Come and eat sometime at our diner we will talk then."

Shun: "Sure, I will come to eat someday. Bye~."

Yukihira walked inside the diner, and Shun heard him shout.

Yukihira: "I was not slacking off, old man. You must be getting old to ask for my help. Let's have a match today. I am sure I will beat you today."

-*-*-*-

Shun reached the basketball court and found that it was empty.

Shun: "Lucky."

Shun removed his bag and set it aside.

Shun started by playing H-O-R-S-E by himself. He would make a shot and then retrieve the ball and make the shot again from the same position.

[A/N - 3. Refer at the end for the description of the game.]

Shun would always try to keep the rally going on as long as possible.

When Shun completed one game against himself, he switched and started to do layups.

He would try to put the ball in the basket while standing still, moving towards the basket with high speed, he changed the combinations, switched hands, and tried to make it as hard it was possible for him.

Shun was going in for another try when Aomine's formless shooting entered his thoughts.

Shun: 'Formless shooting is the product of ball-handling reaching a high level, by getting rid of the orthodox form the player can put the ball in the basket from any angle. The reason the skill is so hard to develop is that there is no guide to learning formless shooting.

The player needs to correctly judge the distance between himself and the basket, aim properly from a random spot, and just throw in the ball from whatever position the player was in.'

The formless shooting was extremely hard to learn, but when mastered with high accuracy, the possibilities became limitless.

Aomine Daiki was a prime example of what this skill could do on the court.

Just as Shun reached the end of his line of thought, he heard a voice call out to him from behind.

???: "Hey, can I play with you?"

Shun turned to find a boy with a shaved head and thick eyebrows. Shun was alone, so he didn't mind a playmate.

Shun: "Sure, I don't mind. My name is Kageyama Shun."

Shun extended his hand towards the boy. The boy grabbed his hand and shook it.

Tsugawa: "Thanks~. My name is Tsugawa Tomiki."

Shun immediately connected the name and appearance to his memory.

Shun: 'Woah, I didn't think I would get to meet a canon character today.'

[A/N -4]

In the canon, Tsugawa Tomiki for Seihō High, one of the Three Kings of Tokyo, and the school were known for having the strongest defense in Tokyo.

Tsugawa was able to keep Kagami from scoring and tire him out in their match in the inter-high preliminaries.

Shun: 'He must be good at defense. Next year, he will be able to guard Kise and that Kise was unable to move freely against, even forcing him to cross the 24 second-clock.'

Shun asked what Tsugawa wanted to play.

Shun: "So, what do you want to play."

Tsugawa immediately replied with an answer.

Tsugawa: "Let's play one-on-one."

Shun smiled and agreed immediately. He wanted to see how good Tsugawa's defense was.

Shun: "Awesome, do you want to attack first."

Tsugawa shook his head.

Tsugawa: "No, you attack first. I will defend first."

Shun: "Ok~."

Shun gave Tsugawa the ball they got in front of the top of the key.

Tsugawa passed the ball to Shun. Shun caught the ball and bent forward a little with the ball in both of his hands.

Shun started to dribble the ball and suddenly cut to the right, but Tsugawa was fast and was able to stop him from passing.

Shun: 'Good, this is good.'

Shun stepped back a little and was ready to try again. Tsugawa also reset his form.

Shun dribbled one step to the right. Tsugawa followed him, but Shun pulled back and passed Tsugawa from the opposite side.

Tsugawa: 'Crap, what a sharp pullback.'

Tsugawa was quick, but he was not quick enough to stop Shun. Shun passed him cleanly and scored with a simple finger-roll layup.

Shun smiled and said.

Shun: "One point for me. My turn to defend."

Both of them returned to their initial position, and Shun passed the ball to Tsugawa.

Tsugawa was nothing special on offense. Shun could shut him down every time, but this wasn't an official game, and they were playing for fun, so he let Tsugawa pass him once in a while.

But on the other hand, Shun didn't let Tsugawa block him on his offense.

-*-*-*-

Shun had the ball, and Tsugawa was in front of him defending.

Shun dribbled forward and pulled a crossover by switching the ball between his hands. The moment Tsugawa leaned in one direction, Shun passed him from the other side and scored with an overhand layup.

Shun looked at Tsugawa and thought.

Shun: 'He has a good defensive form, but he falls for fakes too easily.'

-*-*-*-

Shun even decided to test his post defense.

Shun had his back facing both Tsugawa and the basket.

Tsugawa: "I am not letting you score this time."

Shun chuckled and replied.

Shun: "We will see about that."

Tsugawa was staying extremely close to Shun and had his arms spread wide, trying to hinder any movement he made.

Shun decided to be a little flashy.

Shun: 'Let's go with that.'

Shun got ready for his attack and started by passing the ball between both his and Tsugawa's legs. Immediately after that, Shun did a spin on his left foot, ducked under Tsugawa's spread arm, caught up to the ball, and layed in the ball, easy and simple.

The whole movement was extremely fast, and Tsugawa had no time to react to what happened.

Tsugawa: "What was that!"

Shun laughed and explained.

Shun: "Tsugawa you're good at defense, you stay nice and close to the other player, you never lose your defensive form, and you don't give up after being passed once.

It is said that offense requires talent, but defense requires d.e.s.i.r.e. I can see that you enjoy defense more than offense.

You have a good base, but you fall for fakes too often. You need to look out for fakes, or else you will get crossed continuously."

Tsugawa said nothing, so Shun continued.

Shun: "As for the exchange right now, being dominant in the post requires either power and height, or overwhelming skill and speed to make up for the lack of power and height.

As we can see, you don't have the height or the power, so you need to be skilled enough to not let anyone pass, and if someone does pass you, you need to be quick enough to catch up to them and block their scoring attempt."

Tsugawa sighed and said.

Tsugawa: "As expected of the MVP of the Nationals, you know your stuff."

Shun raised his eyebrows and asked.

Shun: "Oh, so you knew me from the start. Why didn't you say something?"

Tsugawa laughed and replied.

Tsugawa: "I recognized your silver hair and purple eyes immediately. I saw one of your matches in the Nationals. As for why I didn't say anything, I wanted to see how good you actually were.

You held back on the defense, didn't you?"

Shun scratched the back of his head and said.

Shun: "Yeah, I didn't want you to leave because you weren't having fun. I was afraid if I shut you out, you would leave, and that wouldn't have been fun."

Shun looked at his clock and saw that it was very close to lunchtime. He looked up and said.

Shun: "It was fun, but I got to go now, it is almost lunchtime, and I promised my mom that I would be home by then."

Shun stuffed his ball into his bag, and slung the bag onto his back and said his goodbye.

Shun: "Tsugawa, this was fun. Let's play again when we meet next time. Bye~."

Tsugawa: "Sure, that sounds like a plan. Bye, until next time."

With that, both their separate ways. Shun reached home on time and enjoyed the meal cooked by his mother with his family.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

[

A/N -1: Yukihira Soma is from the series, Shokugeki No Soma. The link will be in the comment section.

-*-*-

A/N - 2: Yukihira/Saiba Joichiro is also from the series, Shokugeki No Soma. The link will be in the comment section.

-*-*-

A/N - 3: H-O-R-S-E is a game played by two people on a basketball court. The idea of the game involves matching baskets. The player who makes shots that the opponent does not duplicate wins the game.

For example, the second person shooting must duplicate the first person's shot if it is made. If the second shooter misses, he/she receives the letter H. If the first person's shot is missed, the second shooter may attempt any shot. If his/her shot is made, the opponent is obligated to duplicate it.

Each time a shooter misses, a shot that he/she attempted to duplicate, a letter is awarded. The game continues until one person acc.u.mulates five letters or H-O-R-S-E.

-*-*-

A/N - 4: Tsugawa Tomoki is from Kuroko No Basket. The link will be in the comment section.

]