SIX

A few days later, Takumi and Riko had become a common sight to see walking the hallways of Seirin. She was the only girl Takumi could be around since she wasn't as annoying as the other girls who confessed to him. Plus Riko was smart and the two sometimes conversed on other academic topics when they weren't talking about basketball.

Today, the girl had called him out with a big smile etched on her face and skipped as he walked with her.

"What are you so happy about? The practice match?"

"Fufu, of course but not just against any school."

"Let me guess, you got a school with one of the generation of miracles," Takumi said.

Riko stopped skipping and pouted, "Dammit. I was hoping to surprise you...and what's with that lack of reaction?!"

"Have you forgotten who I am?"

Riko snorted and stomped off making Takumi raise and eyebrow. 'What's her problem?'

He shrugged and followed after her.

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

Today, the team ran a couple of drills and played another mini-game. Takumi did his job as a manager well and made sure the towels and water bottles were ready for the players. Riko also asked him to keep track of the players progress and improvement.

As the match continued, Takumi excused himself to go to the washroom and left.

It was around then when a certain blonde entered the Seirin premises and headed for the gym. Kise Ryouta, the copy-cat small forward.

He stood at the entrance of the gym and smirked while watching Seirin play. He didn't notice the presence behind him until a hand landed on his shoulder prompting him to yelp.

"It's not nice to spy on other team's practice," Takumi said gripping the blonde's shoulder. Kise froze and turned around to see a boy, taller than him, looking down at him with his lazy smile.

"So what business does the famous model copy-cat have with Seirin?"

"Ehehe, b-before that, could you perhaps release my shoulder? It's starting to hurt." Kise said nervously. Who the hell was this guy? A player? He's definitely strong and what's with that grip strength?

"My apologies," Takumi let go of the blonde. "By the way, I can see what you're thinking and if you're wondering who I am...I'm Yoshida Takumi, the manager of Seirin."

"I see the ma-- eh? Manager?! You?!" Kise all but shrieked.

Takumi covered his ear, 'Damn this dude is loud.'

"Yes. And--"

Before Takumi could continue, the entrance of the gym was suddenly infiltrated by hundreds of girls all heading straight to Kise.

"Couldn't you have at least disguised yourself coming here? Now look what you've done," Takumi sighed.

"Ah, sorry. I didn't think of that," Kise said with a sheepish expression.

By that time, the team had noticed the commotion and were shocked to find a member of the generation of miracles standing there surrounded by girls, and Takumi at the back looking annoyed and amused.

"What is he doing here?" muttered Riko.

Kuroko blinked and made eye-contact with the blonde. "It's good to see you again,"

Kise grinned, "Good to see you too. Um, could you give me five minutes?" he signed another autograph.

For the record, it took more than five minutes and Takumi and Riko had force the crowd to leave resulting in the latter give the blonde an annoyed glare.

"You know, you are technically trespassing and I could report you to the school for this," Takumi stated.

"Eh? You wouldn't do that would you?" Kise panicked as something told him Takumi was very capable of doing that. Takumi instead of answering him, just gave him a look and went to sit on the bench.

"What are you doing here?" Someone asked from the team.

"I heard our next opponent was Seirin and remembered Kurokocchi goes here so I came to check it out. Kurokocchi and I were best friends back in middle-school,"

"No more than anyone else," Kuroko said. Takumi snickered as the blonde looked genuinely hurt.

Furihata read out his description from the magazine and Kise waved him off saying they exaggerated. Takumi narrowed his eyes slightly and smirked.

'Copy-cat is really good at faking emotions. Must be a result of modelling, but his arrogance is kind of annoying.'

As Kise talked, he suddenly saw a ball coming towards him and reached out to stop it but before he could, another hand caught it. It was Takumi who clicked his tongue at Kagami.

"Oi tiger, what are you doing? Haven't I told you to think before you act?"

While Takumi questioned the red-head, Kise was staring straight at the taller boy with shock though he quickly masked it.

'That guy...he reacted faster than me.'

"I wanna challenge him to a one-on-one," Kagami said in a loud voice.

Riko wanted to hit him. 'That baka! Can't he think about something other than basketball?!'

"And prove what? I hate to break it to you but you won't beat him," Takumi spun the ball on his finger. "However, it'll be interesting to see a generation of miracle play up close. How bout it?"

Takumi tossed the ball to Kise who blinked before smirking. "Very well, but don't think you'll be able to beat me,"

"Bring it on," Kagami gave his famous 'fired up' grin.

The two moved to an open space while the rest retreated the side. Riko took the time to punch Takumi in the stomach but winced when her hand hurt instead. She seemed to hit him a lot.

"What the hell?! I thought you were going to stop him!" Riko angrily said. The boys, sans Kuroko and Takumi, visibly backed away from the angry female gorilla.

"I was but then I thought it'd be good Kagami gets a taste of Kise's strength before we play him. Plus it'll get him more fired-up for the oncoming practice match,"

"Tsk. The moron is fired-up enough," muttered Riko. Kuroko paid attention to their conversation though his eyes were on the match.

'Takumi-kun is the type to do things for reason.' thought the shadow. Another piece of info of the strange first-year.

Like Takumi had stated, Kise basically crushed Kagami however, the latter didn't seem to lose the spirit in his eyes. He seemed happy and Riko saw this and looked at Takumi.

'It seems this cheeky kouhai is right again. This part of him reminds me of Teppei.' Riko mused internally. Occasionally, Takumi's personality was similar to Kiyoshi's and this made her wonder whether this was a good or bad thing.

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a/n: I'd like to think the way Takumi gives advice or pushes others to do things is a lot like Kiyoshi. Of course, you readers are welcome to have your own opinions on Takumi's traits.