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Welcome back everyone to Tokisadame, Gunma, where our contestants, Yuuko Aioi and Mio Naganohara, are just about getting ready! We have a total of one audience member in attendance. We even know her by name since she’s the only one here. And… Mai Minakami looks like she’s preoccupied with her book at the moment. The weather is also… not the best for an outdoor pick-up game, but the good thing is that the snow has been lightening up as of late.
“Isn’t it a bit chilly to be playing basketball?” Mio shivered, running her hands up and down her shoulders.
Yuuko wrapped her scarf around her neck more snugly around her neck and smiled at her friend.
“It’s alright! We’ll warm up once we start playing.” Mio looked at the ground.
“It looks too icy to be running on the pavement here too.”
“Aw, come on, there’s only like a few patches left. And they’re clearing up anyway!”
“But what if we slip anyway and hit our heads on the ground?”
“I hit my head all the time! Sometimes you’re the one who hits me in the head.” Mio gave her a frown. “Anyway, look at me! I’m fine.”
“...um, what were we talking about again?” Yuuko chuckled nervously.
“...basketball.”
“Oh, right.” Yuuko looked over at the one audience member. “Mai, can you pass-” Mai chucked the basketball right at Yuuko's face. It peeled itself off her face, revealing her deadpan expression.
“Ow,” She sighed. “Thanks, Mai… Wh- what’s with the baseball glove?” She asked. But by then, Mai had already returned to her book. “Ah, nevermind.”
She turned to the basketball and spun it on her finger. “So… We play to eleven?”
“Why eleven?” Mio asked her. Yuuko shrugged in response.
“Just because, I guess. Oh, and you have to be ahead by at least two points to actually win.”
“Oh… kay?” Mio looked up at the hoops. “How many points do you get when you score again?”
“For this game, every basket you make is just one point.” Yukko held her pointer finger up.
“Is that how it usually is?”
"Well… no, but this game would be a lot shorter if everything wasn’t a point.” She explained to Mio. “Besides, I’m a real marksman from the outside!” She chuckled.
Mio stared blankly at her. She would say something snarky, but she didn’t want to get her friend fired up right away.
“Uh-huh. Just go easy on me alright? I’m not very good at this.”
“Or any sports in general?”
“...gimme the ball.” Yuuko threw the ball in the air, but Mio only batted it away towards her own basket.
Mio Naganohara gets the tip, and away we go! She brings it up into her front court, and… it looks like she’s having a bit of trouble with her dribble, only striking it with her palm…
Aioi on her, sliding her feet to keep up. Mio’s looking for an opening, and she slips right by her! Literally slipped on a patch of ice on her way to the hoop!
“Alright! Now throw it in!” Yuuko cheered her on.
She hesitates… and puts it up-! Almost goes over the backboard! But she gets the lucky bounce and the shot is good!
“Aw yeah. Nice shot!” Yuuko patted her friend on the back as she passed by her. “Now, get back on defense.” She pointed to the other side of the court. Yuuko retrieved the ball.
Aioi- goes right at Naganohara, hesitates, puts Mio on skates! She slips away from Aioi as she steps back behind the arc and takes a three! Can’t get it to fall, but Aioi chases her own rebound and gets it on the follow!
Naganohara- still reeling from that move from Aioi, gets back on her feet and brings the ball up. Yuuko still waiting for her on the other end.
Mio tries to rush in, Aioi is there, guarding her at the perimeter. Mio holds it, got nowhere to go, forces up a tough mid-range… way off…
Aioi grabs the long rebound and accelerates to the basket! Naganohara in pursuit, but Aioi cuts her off and lays it up and in! Yuuko Aioi with the sweet bucket in transition, yapping at Naganohara as she jogs by her.
“C’mon! You gotta be quicker than that!” Yuuko giggled.
Looks like Naganohara is starting to get agitated by Aioi, who still seems to be trying to provoke her.
“Keep up, c’mon!” Yuuko beckoned toward her with both of her hands in a taunting manner, trying to rally her friend.
“Shut up!” Looks like it worked.
Their game continued on…
“Mio, tries to lean in, has it poked away and stolen by Aioi! Aioi, on the move-! She barely gets it to roll in!”
Mio again, charges her way in, picks up her dribble and rams Aioi out of the way for an easy shot!
Yuuko, dashes in. but Naganohara stays with her. Aioi turns around to reset, but she quickly spins around Mio and scores on the other side! Sweet move from Aioi!
Both of them started to get fired up as the game went on. Even Mai looked up from her book and started to get interested once she started watching.
Yuuko pulled ahead with her early lead, but Mio wouldn’t let her run away completely with their game, trailing behind with five points to Yuuko’s seven. (however Yuuko let her friend score a few points while pretending to defend her)
She even let her friend get away with a few fouls and violations. Well, Yuuko let her get away with these violations…
Naganohara quickly takes off and bumps into Aioi. She stumbles and holds the ball, trying to keep it, and-
FWEEEEET
Both of them turned to Mai, who had a whistle in her mouth and was spinning her arms in a circle rapidly.
Oh- a whistle on the floor here, and- it’s a travel call! Too many steps, says Mai Minakami, who seems to be taking up being the referee all of a sudden.
“Wh- what is that… What are you doing?” Mio asked her friend, who was still spinning her arms. Yuuko’s eyes lit up.
“Ah! That means you traveled!”
“...huh.”
“That means I get the ball since you took too many steps after you held it!” Yuuko pointed at her and laughed.
“What?! You didn’t tell me that was a rule!” Mio angrily balled her hands into fists. Yuuko chuckled and scratched the back of her head.
“Ah, aha… I didn’t want to call you out on those things, but I guess Mai is going to do that now.” She chuckled even more…
“Mai! Why are you against me too?!” A tick mark appeared on Mio’s head in anger.
“Because you were traveling.” She said bluntly.
“Can’t you just let it go?! I don’t know how to play that well! And I’m losing!” Mai stared at her.
“No.”
“Hehe… Looks like you better watch yourself, Mio.” Yuuko teased. Mio grumbled at her before passing the ball in a frustrated manner.
Aioi, sizes up Naganohara. Aioi dribbles in, stops, takes the shot right over Mio- and hits! And Aioi hits her with a taunt!
“Wh- Are you calling me small?” Mio glowered at Yuuko, who was lowering a hand to the ground. “That’s it!” She wildly clasped the ball and started to bolt down the court.
Mio is furious right now! She revs to the rim, and Aioi is way out of position! Aioi tries to recover, but Mio is already there! She fakes the shot, Aioi bites and jumps up! Mio jumps into her- gets lots of contact- and hits the layup!
FWEEET
Mio landed on her feet, bent over, and inhaled deeply.
*inhale*
She bent over backwards and faced the sky, shooting out a gigantic laser beam out of her mouth as she screamed about her foul call. Her nails were almost piercing into her palm from how hard she was balling her fists. All of the ice on the court and some of the snow nearby instantly melted.
Count it and a foul! Mio has a chance for another point! Looks like she’s all fired up now from that tough layup, letting everyone hear it!
Yuuko fell on her side and rolled into a sitting position. She dumbfoundedly stared at her friend in awe, who stopped screaming and started to rub her throat. “Woah… where… where did that come from..? And how do you know what that means?”
Mio kept clutching her throat and looked at Yuuko. “I… I don’t know… I just felt like I had to say that…” They both sat there and hung their heads for a moment, just trying to catch their breath, watching the misty clouds they were exhaling quickly disappear.
Mio slowly looked up at her friend. “ Huff… you know… puff… You suck at defense.” Yuuko felt a switch flip in her mind…
“Huh…” She sprang up onto her feet and pointed to the free throw line. “Get to the line and take your damn foul shot.” She commanded. Mio looked up at her and slowly got up and walked to the line.
“So what do I do here..?” She said as she barely caught the ball. “Ow… you almost jammed my finger.”
“Just shoot it, but don’t jump.” Yuuko said. “You can spring up to your tippy-toes though. Mio nodded and looked up at the rim.
A free throw from Naganohara… and, Oh… way off, it’s an airball.
“Wow, you suck.” Yuuko exhaled in amusement.
“Shut up.”
The game went on, the both of them filled to the brim with intensity. Yuuko kept maneuvering around and slipping past Mio to get to the basket while Mio would use her physicality to force her way to the rim.
Their game even went on way longer than it should’ve, with the game being pushed to the both of them having more than 50 points. Mio was breathing down Yuuko’s neck (in terms of the score), being one point behind. However, now Yukko could win the game with her next score.
Nano even showed up to watch them.
“Oh,” She said, sitting down. She looked at Mai, who had now put on a black and white striped uniform and had a whistle in her mouth. “What are you three doing here?” Mai turned around for a second and pointed to Yuuko and Mio, who were diving all across the pavement for the ball, with Yuuko coming up with it.
Nano was so distracted by them that she didn’t notice Mai dashing cross-court.
“A’right.” Yuuko said, keeping her dribble low. I’m gonna win this here.”
Aioi, keeps her head down. Rushes in left, stops, picks up her dribble and spins. Mio loses her and Aioi lays it up for the win-!
OH!!
BLOCKED! BY MINAKAMI!
“WHAT?!” Yuuko exclaimed. “MAI! WHA-” Mai waved to her, wearing her baseball glove on the hand that blocked her.
What is she doing? She just rejected Aioi’s game-winning layup! Mio, the other way! Steps on the gas, gets to the basket, rises up-! FOR THE JAM! MIO NAGANOHARA! Ties it up!
“Wow!” Nano got out of her seat. “Mio almost flew for that! Are you two playing against Yuuko?” Mai looked at her and shook her head. She pointed to the two of them again. “Then why did you block Yuuko’s shot?” Mai just stared at her.
“Umm… okay…”
With that block from Mai, now neither of them could pull away enough to put the game away anymore. Both of them now had over a hundred points, and it was getting dark out. Nano couldn’t take her eyes off of what was happening, and Mai was just kind of there.
Both of them were exhausted and just wanted to end the game, but neither of them wanted to lose to the other, so they kept playing.
Aioi, almost loses it out of bounds, Naganohara smothering her space near the sidelines. Aioi chucks it up! Way off, but she gets the offensive rebound! She resets… she looks like she’s about to collapse…
“I’m gonna…” Yuuko pointed at Mio. “I’m gonna… posterize you…”
Aioi again, drives in, hops forward to get even footing, fakes the shot- Mio falls for it- and Aioi jumps up, and slams it home! Uh oh-
She grabbed onto the rim, but Mio accidentally pushed her, and she couldn’t hold on long enough to swing back, falling with her head plummeting towards the ground.
“AHHHHHH!” She screamed. Mio gasped, but she reacted in time to catch her back before she fell. Yuuko started to breathe heavily again, and so did Mio.
Yuuko got out of her friend's arms, staring at her with wide eyes.
“...thanks.” Her mind was going a mile a minute… She hesitated.
“...Soooo, are we going to leave it there for today?” She asked her. Mio gave her an unbelieving look.
“I don’t think I’ll ever play this sport again.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
Nano rushed over to them.
“Are you guys alright?!” She asked them in a concerned tone.
“Yeah,” Yuuko scratched her head. “We’re fine, I think it’s about time we go home now-”
FWEEEEEET
Mai held her forearm up and clasped it with her other hand.
…Aioi gets the and-one.
“Hey! Looks like I can win!” Yuuko exclaimed. Mio glared at her.
“I’m going home.”