[Black Basket] Star Trail

After all, it was only mid-February, and the temperature in Tokyo was still in the single digits, so the heating was naturally turned on in the first hall.Also because the room temperature was higher than outside, Kanzawa Norie took off the outermost thick coat early on, and only wore a white sweater and Teiko's school uniform.Akashi Seijuro pointed at her neck, the girl stroked it subconsciously, and then untied the bow tie that got in the way.She lowered her head and touched the basketball in her hand. Compared with the one she gave Akashi, this one was much smoother, probably because of the difference between the old and the new.Kanzawa Norie recalled the teacher's teaching method in physical education class, tentatively spread his legs to shoulder width, and raised his elbows slightly.

The girl is not a person who loves sports. For her, physical education class is just a class for her to change clothes. Even swimming is only a little bit because of Kanzawa Norisha, let alone she has no interest in it at all. basketball.It is also because of this that every time she watches the training of the basketball team, the girl feels very fresh.Akashi folded his arms and watched from the side, noticing that Midorima Shintaro was looking at the brown-haired girl, the red-haired boy cast a glance.The tall green-haired teenager Toto with glasses frame continued to do his basketball shooting practice.

Kanzawa Norie's shooting posture seems to be able to grasp the shape at first glance, but many details can be done better.With Akashi's experience on the court, she could tell at a glance that she would definitely miss this shot.Sure enough, as Kanzawa Norie turned his wrist and pushed the ball with his fingertips, the basketball crossed a parabola that was neither high nor low, and finally landed three or four feet before the basket.However, for a girl, this kind of achievement can be regarded as super performance. Kanzawa Norie looked at Akashi happily, and smiled like a little girl expecting her parents to praise her.

──It has to be said that it is rare for Akashi to look like a girl with brown hair.

The closer you get to her, the more you can break through her indifferent outer shell and touch the "real" and "ordinary" at the core.Kanzawa Norie may not have realized this yet, but her attitude towards Akashi is getting closer and closer to that of her eldest brother and Ji Zheng.The red-haired boy raised the corners of his lips, "The ball feels good."

This sentence is true.Ball feel is an abstract concept. It has nothing to do with whether you like sports or not, and it has nothing to do with whether your body is healthy or not. .If you practice more, it is not difficult to improve your hit rate.

But first of all, you have to correct your pitching posture, otherwise it will be difficult to correct it if you get used to it.

Akashi Seijuro stepped forward and reached out to adjust the girl's fingers.He demonstrated to her how far the joints between the fingers should be bent and how far apart the five fingers should be.The girl has a pair of beautiful hands, with slender and white fingers, even the joints are not thick at all, and the nails are neatly trimmed and oval.The red-haired boy casually brushed her cool fingertips while giving instructions softly.Kanzawa Norie resisted the urge to escape, and listened to his instructions, "This way... um, yes."

He stood beside her, the difference in height between the two of them was just enough for his breath to heat up his ears, and his clear voice sounded within a short distance.

There were faint whispers from outside the half court, and Midorima Shintaro continued to shoot as if he couldn't see or hear anything.The red-haired boy noticed that on the back of the girl's right hand, there was a little brownish black at the root of the ring finger, which looked like a handwriting or a mole.While pressing the bases of her fingers, he separated them to an appropriate distance, and approached her with a gesture that almost pressed his palm against the back of her hand.The body temperature on the back of her hand was a little lower than his, but the closer it was to the fingertips, the colder it became. Akashi's fingertips could feel the temperature difference between each other, "...Okay, let's try again."

Kanzawa Norie waited for him to take a few steps back, and then stood in the shooting position again. When she looked down at her feet, she was distracted and unconsciously relaxed her hand holding the ball as before—her hand was too small , in order to meet Akashi's request, it must be as wide as possible, which becomes unnatural.I don't know how Akashi, who was squinting and looking at Midorima, saw it. The red-haired boy stepped forward again. This time Akashi happened to stand behind the girl and stretched out his arms.Even though he was only wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt for practice, his body temperature was even higher than hers.Kanzawa Norie almost fell into his arms, this time he simply grabbed her hand and adjusted it inch by inch, the girl cleared her throat as if she was about to break something, her voice was deliberately suppressed and calm, but Just because he was too depressed, he was even more pathetic, "I'm sorry, I'm really not very good at sports, and my hands and feet are uncoordinated."

"It doesn't matter." The girl glanced slightly sideways and could see his shining golden eyes, because Akashi looked straight ahead, the pressure the girl felt was greatly weakened. "...Okay, let's do it again."

Kanzawa Norie did what he said.What Akashi taught her was posture, how to capture the timing, and how high she should jump when she bent her knees to jump up. All these things needed to be understood by herself.The boy looked at her intently, the girl seemed to have no feeling of being watched, and concentrated on staring at the basket in front of her──flicking her wrist forward──

The basketball crossed a high arc and fell into the basket.

The brown-haired girl stared dumbfounded at the basketball that was still bouncing back and forth, then suddenly turned her head to look at Seijuro Akashi as if she had been awakened from a dream. "...in?"

It was nearly six o'clock when the basketball club's training ended, and the two of them stayed for more than half an hour, and it was almost seven o'clock when they walked out of the Diguang campus.Although it was still a little early for dinner, Kanzawa Norie was too embarrassed to drag Akashi with her for so long—the other party was going home for dinner.Kanzawa Norie tidied up the cuffs of the jacket, the length just covered the back of the hand, exposing five fingers.The girl was shivering from the cold wind, and white mist escaped from her mouth when she spoke, "To be honest, it was unexpectedly fun... Although I have watched the training many times, I really did it myself and threw the ball into the basket. It’s the first time in the box.”

Without waiting for Akashi's response, she continued, "Well, if that's the case, I can probably understand why Akashi-kun likes playing basketball. Compared with swimming, it is indeed a quite different experience."

"If you're interested, you can come next time." The red-haired boy put the key to the first hall in his pocket, and the sound of the metal hitting was even clearer on the road where no one else was around.

Kanzawa Norie glanced at him, smiling contentedly and gratefully. "Thank you, Akashi-kun."

The red-haired boy looked back naturally, "It's nothing...take it as a gift of chocolate."

He paused, and finally gave his belated impression, "Because it's delicious."

"Excuse me, is there anyone sitting here?"

Hearing this answer, Kanzawa Norie, who was scrolling through Twitter with her head down, raised her eyes and raised her eyebrows when she saw the face in front of her clearly.The boy with light blue hair was wearing a neat school uniform, and every button of his white suit jacket was meticulously buttoned. Hei Zizhe, who was standing in front of her with a food tray, asked the same question.

It would be too coincidental to say that the other party bumped into her at this time and this place.Kanzawa Norie glanced around calmly, and confirmed his thoughts the moment he saw other vacant seats. "Please sit down."

Since the other party took so much effort to find her, he must have something to say to her.As for the specific content, it is not difficult to guess-the intersection between the two people is not too much.

The boy with a weak sense of presence said "excuse me" and put down the tray. Kanzawa Norie noticed that in addition to the normal set meal, there was an extra glass of vanilla milkshake on the other party's tray.Although Hei Zizhe didn't directly say "I'm here to find you", both of them knew that this matter didn't need to be explained at all, it was something that could be seen at a glance.So Kanzawa Norie didn't go around and took a sip of the hot chocolate, "What's the matter?"

Unexpectedly, Kanzawa Norie would be so direct, and Hei Zizhe was also choked for a moment. "..."

The brown-haired girl who couldn't hear the answer put down the cup and explained with the same expression as Akashi, "Although I don't know why you came to me, but it's getting late, even if it's for Kuroko-kun's safety when he returns home For the sake of thinking, I should also get straight to the point and make it clear."

Due to his physique, even his classmates could seldom call out his last name, but Kanzawa Norie remembered it unexpectedly.Hei Zizhe also thought about it, and decided to speak in the most ordinary way.

"Good evening, Kanzawa-san. I'm Tetsuya Kuroko from Group E of the second year."

"I'm really sorry to bother you." Hei Zizhe also inserted the straw into the milkshake cup and sipped, with a calm expression like a sled dog whose chin has been scratched, "Surely Kanzawa-san also knows me The reason why I came here to find you...is about Akashi-kun."

The brown-haired girl narrowed her eyes—as expected.

"Please delete the honorifics, just call me Shenze," the girl wiped her mouth and glanced at the watch on her left wrist, it was almost eight o'clock, "Although it seems a bit impolite to make a rash guess, let me reason : Kuroko-kun wants to ask, has Akashi changed?"

The boy with light blue hair nodded with a complicated expression.

"Unfortunately, I probably don't have the information Heizi-kun wants. Because I'm just a bystander." Kanzawa Norie's tone is quite calm, as if the protagonist in the topic didn't send her to the restaurant not long ago The red-haired boy said, "I don't know more about Akashi's changes than Kuroko-kun. More information is just speculation, and unconfirmed things... It's better not to talk nonsense."

The boy's hand that wasn't holding the cup was clenched into a fist, "But... aren't Kanzawa and Akashi-kun acquaintances?"

Kanzawa Norie seemed to be pleased by the boy's words, and the curvature of his lips became wider. "I'm afraid Kuroko-kun has misunderstood. My influence on Akashi is far from that great, and I don't intend to use my influence to change him. He has enough wisdom and rationality to distinguish who he is, or wants to be Who. More importantly, even anyone has secrets that they absolutely don’t want to share with others. I understand this, and I can definitely understand it. Therefore, regarding his changes, I don’t think I need to ask to the end—more What's more, the person I came into contact with is indeed Akashi's fault. All I need to know is enough."

"but……"

"Admittedly, I also have some thoughts about his sudden change, but I don't think it's appropriate to share those thoughts with Mr. Heizi, because his privacy is involved. So if Mr. Heizi wants to know something, if you want to find out something, It's better to ask him face to face. That's my suggestion."

The boy was silent for a moment. "……I see."

Kanzawa Norie smiled reassuringly, "Then, I'll go first. Please be careful when you go home."

The girl walked out of the noisy restaurant, stood in front of the traffic light and glanced back feelingly. The light blue-haired boy Zhi Yi looked out the window, his eyes were empty and unfocused, like a lost child, both troubled and troubled. helpless.She sighed lightly, and the white mist that came out disappeared in the wind in an instant.

Because of what happened that night, Kanzawa Norie became concerned about the movements of the Generation of Miracles.Kuroko Tetsuya probably found an opportunity to have a good talk with Akashi a few days later. Kanazawa Norie met him in the corridor, his face was gloomy, and the determination in his eyes was also dimmed. The whole person was in a bad state. worry.

It was not only Tetsuya Kuroko who had changed.

On the blonde model's attendance record, there are more and more blank places.Murasakihara and Aomine no longer came to the basketball club, and only Midorima and Akashi remained in full attendance.

Heizi still came, but his face during training was quite different from usual.Kanzawa Norie saw everything in his eyes, and vaguely guessed how much Akashi had confessed to him.

Before you know it, the cherry blossom season has arrived, and everywhere you look is a sea of ​​tender pink flowers. The weather has become humid and warm, and the last semester of the second year of junior high school is also coming to an end.

Kanzawa Norie pulled the shoulder strap of her schoolbag, and glanced at the red-haired boy standing beside her.

"Bangs." She pointed to her forehead, reminding Akashi, "It's about to be cut."

She could hear the sound of sand piling down the funnel, very faintly, but never stopped for a second.Time...is it running out?