9 Hanabira Junior High

Months after Hideki graduated, he is now wearing a new spring uniform for his new school, his mom Kanai is preparing his bento and Hideki is preparing for his first day at school. Kanai then asks "Backpack?" Hideki answers "Check!"

"Got your Notebooks?" "Check!"

"Got your Pen?" "Check!"

"Got your Pencil" "Check!"

"Got your Eraser" "Check!"

"Got your Phone" "It's in the bag!"

Kanai then brought Hideki's bento and said "And here's your bento my baby boy" Hideki smiled and hugged his mother and said, "Thanks Mom, best mom ever!"

Hideki then proceeded to exit the house before saying "I'm going to school now Mom, see you later. Actually, maybe more later if there will be extra-curricular activities after school!" Kanai then said, "It's fine honey, just come by the cafe so we can eat dinner there, I'm on night shift today" Hideki heard what his mom said and bid goodbye to her "Okay Mom! Bye!"

Hideki now in his school uniform is walking towards his school, the school where he will spend his three years with, he is excited to meet his new teammates and possibly win three championships with them.

Hideki is now in front of the school gate, Hanabira Junior High School is a medium-sized school with over 300 to 400 students enrolled, and there are around 6 sections of classes from A to F and the classes are evenly distributed. As the school is still new, 5 years in existence, the school is still not that well known, but it got the job done to have students enroll in it.

Primarily the school's motto is "Have Fun in Everything", yes it is cheesy but they implement an easier workload for students and their teachers are on board as they do not frequently give assignments and give easy projects to the students, as long as they understand the subjects. This leniency does not mean that the quality of education is low, fortunately, the students here boast high grades due to their relaxed and chill nature, which allows them to have time to study their subjects. 

The school administration also handpicks their staff, most especially the teachers as they want their staff to be more creative in teaching subjects to their students, this is why this school is gaining much more attention from fresh graduate wannabe teachers. 

Funnily enough, this is one of the younger schools to implement foreign assistant teachers, especially with their foreign language subjects, not just English, they also teach other foreign languages such as Spanish, Korean, and Mandarin. In their curriculum, they let their students choose their desired foreign language. 

Back to Hideki, he finally entered the school premises and was greeted with a cheerful atmosphere, from students who are Sophomores and Seniors and new students, the Freshmen, such as him. 

The reason for their cheerfulness is that on the first week of the school, there are stalls for recruitment to various clubs. Reinforcing the school's motto, there are known and niche clubs such as Volleyball Club, Physical Education Club, Occult Club, Literature Club, Manga Club, Anime Club, and Video Games Club. However since the school is particularly new, there is only a selection of sports clubs, the teams are Girls and Boys Volleyball Clubs, Baseball Club, and Girls and Boys Basketball Clubs. Take note that the boys' and girls' clubs are separate from each other and have their own set of coaches and advisers.

As Hideki was looking for his desired club/s, he spotted a half-Japanese student who was looking for a team too, so he approached the student as it seemed he was shy or does not speak perfect Japanese. This boy stands at around 172 to 174 centimeters and like Hideki, he has a long wingspan and is blonde-haired.

Hideki asks in English "Uhm, hi are you lost?" The boy responded in English and sighed that he could have someone in school to communicate with in English "Hi, uhm, yes, I am kinda lost, I am looking for the basketball, club. Thank goodness, I am not that yet perfect in Japanese so I'm kinda shy to bother other students" 

Hideki smiled and said "I am also looking for the basketball team. Oh by the way I'm Hideki Takeuchi" Hideki presented his hand for a handshake and the boy introduced himself "Hi I'm Benjamin Nakamura, you can call me Benjie as it is more easier for Japanese people to pronounce." Benjie shook Hideki's hand and asked him "If it's not bothering you, can I go with you and find the basketball club?" Hideki just said "Sure, let's find it"

As the new friends Hideki and Benjie were walking and finding the basketball club, while finding the club Hideki told Benjie "Yo, Benjie-san, in order for you to improve your Japanese, why don't we try communicating in Japanese and if you can't find the words, just ask me, I'm more or less proficient in English, so I can help." Benjie took up the offer and said "Arigato Hideki"

As they were talking to each other, Hideki found out that Benjie is a half-American, half-Japanese kid with his dad the Japanese guy, he moved to Japan from the USA for his Middle School studies as his parents are now working in Japan for the foreseeable future, at least for 3 years. Benjie also learned to speak and write Japanese from his dad but not that frequently as he is busy with work. 

After that both of them learned from each other that they both played volleyball so they clicked together as close friends within one hour of meeting each other.

After 30 minutes of looking, they spotted the basketball booth situated under a Sakura tree which provided the people there with shade as they entertained students who wanted to enter the team. 

As Hideki and Benjie sat in the booth they were greeted by the manager and team captain respectively, "Hi, are you a player who wants to join the Boy's Basketball Club? I'm Ayumi Yamamoto the team's manager. Please fill up these forms so we can get to know you better."

Then the team captain introduced himself "Hi, I'm Yuki Tanaka the team captain of the Boy's Basketball Team, thank you for coming. As you know, or not, Hanabira's Boys' Basketball Team is new on the scene with only 2 years of existence but we pride ourselves on our playstyle and we have continuously improved every year. As a matter of fact, we have got to the Nationals for the first time last year and were able to squeak by the Top 16. But of course, now, we aim higher"

Benjie was astonished and of course, there were some words which he didn't understand so Hideki helped in the words he didn't understand. After they finished the forms they gave the forms to the basketball team representative, they then proceeded to ask questions.

Captain Tanaka just asked one basic question to both of them, "What can you contribute to the team" Hideki first answered, "Basically what you can get from me is grit and grind and determination, but my main selling point is defense, I love defense as I can be selfish and not disrupt the team flow and allow the team to win." Tanaka's eyes got wide in a second as Hideki said "selfish" but it was a positive response for him. As for Benjie, he said "I wanted to join this team as I want to use what I learned from playing basketball in the USA, and I would also like to improve my defense", as Benjie answered he was helped by Hideki for the translations.

Tanaka was okay with their answers and said "Okay, we don't really aim high but of course, we want to win so your answers are okay with me. Do you have anything to add Yamamoto-san?" Yamamoto shook her head and said "I'm fine with their answers either. So, with that, we'll see you on Friday for the tryouts, don't forget to bring your basketball gear. We'll meet at the Basketball Court #1, that's the court used by the boy's basketball team."

After that, Hideki and Benjie stood and Hideki said to Benjie, "So we'll meet on Friday I guess, as we're in different classes" Benjie responded "Yeah, see you on Friday Hideki, thanks for the big help dude" Hideki and Benjie high-fived before they go their separate ways.