12 Basketball Club And The Coach

After Seiji, Kosaki, and Riko was done with their business with the basketball club, Seiji filling up the club registration form and all, the three of them proceeded inside the school building to find their respective classrooms. Both Seiji and Kosaki first accompanied Riko to the location of the classrooms for second years, helping Riko find her own classroom, before both of them went back to their initial location to look for their rooms as well.

To their surprise, both of them was admitted to Year 1 Class 1. After high fiving each other, a short celebration for both of them being classmates, Kosaki and Seiji entered inside the classroom through a sliding door.

When the both of them entered, everyone on the room focused their gazes at them. This made Kosaki slightly uneasy while Seiji continued on as if it was nothing. Compared to the schools in the Philippines where the eyes of more or less 50-60 people will look at you at the same time when you enter the classroom when you're late, this is nothing.

Upon seeing Kosaki's unease, Seiji slightly tapped her shoulders to calm her down before they sat down at the two empty seats near the back row. Seeing their actions, a few students decided to continue on with their own business while the others gave each other a look before simultaneously turning their gazes away from the two.

What? You thought this will be like those xianxia novel where the protagonist will meet with some incident just some time after entering school?

Sounds of students chattering filled the classroom while Seiji arranged his belongings neatly on the chair before plopping his butt down on the seat. He heard a few girls talk about him but he decidedly ignored those chatters. Instead, he started a small talk with Kosaki in order to help her get over her nervousness.

Thankfully, she was eventually able to loosen up her taught nerves and she finally was able to converse with Seiji inside the classroom normally. Just when everyone in the classroom started to wonder where their teacher have gone to, the sound of the door sliding open immediately gathered everyone's attention.

The one who entered inside their classroom is a buxom woman who appears to be in her middle to late 20's. She is considered to be tall by Japanese standards(5'2) and she seems to be much taller since she wears a pair of high heels. Her approximate height is around 5'6,

She's wearing a tight fitting turtleneck with a gold necklace around her neck and a skirt. The males in the class couldn't help but gulp audibly as they watched her sway her hips in a very enchanting way while she walks towards the table right in front of the whole class.

This teacher could rival models in terms of looks. Her shoulder length crimson red hair weren't styled in a particular way while only a part of her bright crimson colored irises is shown as her eyes were half closed. This made her give off an unenthusiastic atmosphere around her.

"Alright class, it's good that everyone of you are here. Hmm… no one's late. That's good."

Even the way she speak screams that she is exhausted or something.

"Alright. Before you little kids introduce yourselves, I'll first do my introduction. The name's Sengoku Chihiro, your Arts and Homeroom teacher. I don't like childish people but I still accepted the job offer here. The pay is quite lucrative and all so… Anyway, take care of me for years to come…"

The teacher, now known as Chihiro, silently looked around, remembering the faces of her students. When her gaze landed on the final row of seats, she was taken aback by what she saw. Reflected on her bright crimson eyes which are now wide open is the image of Seiji looking at her attentively.

'The genius of Arisugawa clan? Meaning, he's the son of 'that' man? What is he doing here? Oh, I did hear that there were some inner conflicts going on in that clan right now, but still…'

She calmed herself down before taking a look at the sheet of paper with the names of her students written down on it.

'There it is, Arisugawa Seiji. It really is him! I thought I was hallucinating but I guess I'm not. But, why does it feel like his eyes and face are worlds apart from what I remember?'

Chihiro tried to recall her memory of the young genius of the prestigious Arisugawa clan performing on stage calmly like it was something natural. After jogging her memory a bit, she also found out that she is indeed correct. His face and eye color was indeed different from last time. Now that she thought about it, weren't his face at the time kind of felt unnatural? Was it make up or something?

'Whatever. Why am I worrying about this kind of thing, anyway? Let's just continue with the introductions.'

After solving her inner conflict, Chihiro told her students to introduce themselves. The whole first day of school continued on like this, teachers introducing themselves to their students, and the students and teacher familiarizing themselves with one another.

When there was nothing else to do, Seiji would engage a conversation with Kosaki who is just next to him, effectively passing his whole first day without him getting bored. After the classes are over, Seiji and Kosaki joined up with Riko before heading for Gym #1, the gym that the basketball club is using.

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Once they're inside the gym, Riko and Kosaki separated with Seiji, telling him that they will be going ahead first. Of course, Seiji didn't mind at all as he need to change from his uniform to a T-shirt and shorts anyway.

The seniors of the basketball team said something about newcomers doing a few physical assessments. This will help the coach determine which group a certain player will be in. Then, tomorrow, they will have practice matches to determine who will be assigned into which string.

After taking off his uniform, placing it to the locker, and wearing his change of clothes, Seiji immediately went inside the basketball court where the assessments will take place. When he arrived there, there were already a few players lined up in a neat line. Some of them are chatting with the ones beside them while they wait for further instructions.

As Seiji joined them, these people who are also freshmen was taken aback. Seiji's height is around 175 cm(5'8) so they thought that he was a sophomore or something. They saw the senpais of the basketball team earlier and their heights was around the same as Seiji. Heck, Seiji seems to be taller than some of them, actually.

While these freshmen are still quite confused, a tall Asian man entered inside the court. This man is wearing a tuxedo and a hat on top of his head. He would sometimes take a glance at a player and then shake his head slightly, all while stroking his mustache with his index finger and thumb.

This man still looks healthy and is in no way similar to what a man like him who is in his forties should look like. Behind him, Riko, Kosaki, and an unknown beautiful girl is following him. This unknown girl have waist-length light-brown hair that has a single long hair strand tied on the right side, light-brown eyes and a beauty mark under her left eye. Similar to Riko and Kosaki, she is also wearing the same school uniform.

When they all arrived in front of the first years, the man in a tuxedo took a step forward and introduced himself rather formally.

"I am named Chu Lin, hailing from the land of China. I have been coaching this school's basketball team for a while now so, as your soon to be coach, I hope that we all could get along just fine."

After he was finished with his short introduction, he motioned for Riko and the unknown girl to step forward. Understanding what he meant, the girl and Riko faced the freshmen and took turns introducing themselves.

"The name's Aida Riko. You all can just call me 'Aida-san'. From today on, I'll be this school's basketball team manager."

Although Riko's introduction may come off as cold or maybe even rude, she paid it no heed. Also, even though she was slightly cold towards them, the freshmen, along with the seniors who are watching from behind the freshmen while doing some warmup exercises, are still quite excited at the fact that they finally have a manager who's a cute girl.

After Riko took a step back, the girl beside her finally spoke up after clearing her throat. Probably due to nervousness, she is also playing with her hands as she introduced herself.

"Ku-hum… Et-to… My name is Fujinomiya Neko! From today on, I will be the assistant manager of this team. Nice to meet you all."

Once Neko was done with her own introduction, Riko gave her a piece of paper and whispered something to her before once again taking a step back. Neko, on the other hand, addressed every freshmen who's currently in front of her. She would sometimes look at the piece of paper before lifting her head up and looking at the boys with a very serious expression on her face.

"For those of you who don't know, Coach Chu Lin is a former IBA league player. Not only that, but he's also one of the select few who is listed at the IBA's Hall of Fame. This is why you guys are lucky to have this chance. Now, Coach can't train you all as he just don't have that luxury. That's why he set a benchmark so that only those who pass it may enter the first string!"

Neko cleared her throat once again before continuing.

"Once you pass the benchmarks that he set as the standard for entering the first string, you all will have the chance to receive his teachings!"

As if this was her que, Riko, with her arms akimbo, bellowed, "Now, for starters, take off your shirts!"

Everyone, except Seiji, blanked out for a moment before they all simultaneously shouted in response to Riko's ridiculous statement.

"EEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!!??????"

Meanwhile, Chu Lin who is watching on the sidelines is stroking his mustache while murmuring something.

"She is indeed Tora's daughter. Who knew that that guy would even teach his daughter to act this way?"

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To be continued…

[A/N¹: Chu Lin have the same appearance as Ma Kensei from the anime 'Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple'. Of course, he also have Ma Kensei's 'hobby' but it is toned down to a bearable degree.]

[A/N²: Yep, it's Fujinomiya Neko from Masamune-kun no Revenge. I quite like her so I added her here. KnB doesn't really have that much girls so I opted to add some.]