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 Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:20 pm
~::Okina City Outdoor Basketball Park::~
[Inner City Recreational Complex]
Once a low-budget recreational facility, the Okina City Outdoor Basketball Park became a major attraction during the recent rise of the so-called 'Generation of Miracles' Basketball Team within the Okina City Middle School. During off-hours and over the summer, the members of the team would often visit the Basketball Park and play games together, practicing, accepting pickup challenges from any takers...never losing. Properties nearby became hot commodities, as those who wished to see a once-in-a-lifetime set of talents flocked to the area. Concession stands, small fast-food franchises, sport shops, and other related locations began to open nearby.
Within the span of a couple of years, it had become one of the most frequented recreational areas in the entire city. Several basketball courts opened, with a single outdoor court at the heart built up larger than some high school facilities. This was the court of the so-called 'Generation of Miracles'...one they still occasionally visit when they return to town, even if they all left to attend various Tokyo High Schools.
Though others are still allowed to use any of the facilities, and constant maintenance is done in order to keep the court in top condition. Quote: This area of the city includes several basketball courts, including the 'Generation of Miracles Outdoor Facility', a court designed with large seating arrangements, floodlights for nighttime games, and concessions. There is a sporting goods shop nearby that contains plenty of simple weapons, clothes, and armor that might be customizable by a better craftsman, "Dandy's Sporting Goods". One can also visit the local "MacBurger" restaurant nearby, a favorite for post-game meals and celebrations.
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Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:22 pm
Akashi Seijuurou, Captain of the Tokyo All-Stars
"...In life, it's the winners who get everything, and the losers get nothing. I never lose, therefore I am never wrong..."How long had it been since he had stood here? One foot carefully set upon the white line beneath his soles and his mismatched eyes focused perfectly on the orange-red hoop nearly ten feet over his head, it was all exactly the way he remembered it. Even if he closed his eyes, he knew the feel of this place as clearly as he knew the face of his best friends, as he knew the feeling of the round ridges on a basketball, or as he knew the feeling of victory against an inferior (and they were all inferior to him) team. He knew the way that the wind tended to blow across the open, concrete court at this time of night, and he could predict almost to the degree the temperature of that breeze brushing against his chin, guess within a centimeter the degree to which the path of the shot would be altered by that same wind. He knew exactly how much force he would have to put in and how much he would have to adjust the direction of his shot to ensure that wasn't an issue with scoring. He knew the number of people on the court at any given time, and he could tell you with a glance how many were watching from the tiny bleachers on the side of the street-ball court, how many were lining the chain-link fence surrounding it, and after watching a mere five-to-ten minutes of any single one of them play ball he could tell you down to the single-digit rank he would consider each of them amongst all the different people he had played together with or against over the years. He could tell you their strengths and weaknesses, tell you which hand they dribbled with and what the style of their shot might be, and guess with startling accuracy their height, wingspan, and vertical leap simply by watching them. And it was even said by those who had played together with him, or against him, that he could even tell you the future of your own moves on the court...guess even before you knew what your next move would be, see through it, and stop you before you could do it.
He knew these things because he had seen them, and because there was not a detail that escaped his Emperor's Eyes. He knew, because he had to know them if he was going to win. And as the famous captain of Okina City's 'Generation of Miracles' middle school basketball team, leader of the Tokyo All-Stars Persona-User Squad, he always won. The number of times he had put down challengers to his legacy on this very court, a simple blacktop park for street ball and outdoor practice near Okina City Middle School, went beyond count for most but Akashi himself. It was here that he had discovered many of the other talents who eventually came to share the title of 'Generation of Miracles' with him, and where they had refined their skills after-hours to become even better. It was here they had decided to go their separate ways when their final season together ended, and where they had delivered their different proclamations of victory back then, before each accepting their basketball scholarship to a different high school in the metropolis of Tokyo. It was here that he and Chiriko had met and played ball for the first time together when they were five, that fateful first pickup game when his solo act of going from one victory to the next became a two-person show. He could count the number of times he had schooled some poor, high-school baller one-on-one and taken the money from their bet to buy himself dinner, his longtime friend often right beside him to partake in his treat. By heart, he could recite the number of steps it took from center-court to the restaurant with the best hamburgers and ice cream in town. With such familiarity, it was more than simply a remembrance when he set foot for the first time in two years upon the outdoor court in Okina where he had grown up and evolved his game time and time again. And if the visit had been under any other circumstances, he might have even registered a smile at the nostalgia. Being here was more than simply returning to a place he had once been...and when the ball released with that mechanical ease from his fingers and slid through the net without so much as a 'swish' to break the reverent silence, it was much more...it felt like coming home again.
Akashi Seijuurou was a winner; his life revolved around the victories on and off the court. Too many to count had been recorded in this very spot, beneath this very same sky in Okina City. Not every one of his friends had been there for all of them, and only one important one remained beside him when he moved his game to Rakuzan High School. Still, to him, this place was as significant as any one location could be to him. His feet moved about the court in a practiced pattern as the oafish street-baller who had challenged him to a match upon his arrival struggled to keep up with his easy pace. He didn't even need to use his eyes to predict his moves anymore, the great difference between their skill levels on display from the outset of the challenge. Twice he had made the man, who was in his early-20s and boasted of "over 200 victories on the streets, man!", simply stumble backwards over his own ankles with a misdirection drive and left him gaping as he put in another easy layup. Now his actions were repetitive and filled with an impending sense of defeat, his pride not allowing him to quit the game too soon, but his spirit already long dead from embarrassment and hopelessness. It was nearly over, and Akashi's foe hadn't even made a basket...just one more of his own and the money they had bet would be his, another clown paying the price for challenging a king in his own backyard. These sorts of challenges came often, people who recognized the unofficial 'king' of high school basketball and the former king of Okina City Middle School's nationally-lauded squad. All of them went home having learned a valuable lesson.
If you prod an emperor, you had best prepare for an execution. Bringing a deep wallet was always a necessity...fools had to pay for their foolishness, after all. And thanks to the pride of those who had yet to learn that lesson, a stream of never-ending challenges from those who sought to make a name for themselves by beating the legendary 'Captain', Akashi, Chiriko, and his friends had enjoyed a lot of free meals over the years. A ball passed through the basket as the impromptu pickup match came to a merciful conclusion. Two-hundred yen changed hands and a weak street player returned to the obscurity of his low-quality pickup games, while the Tokyo All-Stars' most valuable player ensured that every last bill was there within his hands. Satisfied, but not visibly happy either, he turned to the dark-haired girl who had so often accompanied him there, along with the other former teammates (and current allies) who had made the journey back to their hometown from their various new squads in Tokyo. Earning a little cash in the city had just been a little bonus. But the real mission they were after had nothing to do with the court or the round-ball they were so attached to playing. Holding the money out carelessly towards Chiriko, Akashi shrugged away the stray bead of sweat that had barely broken throughout the course of the first-to-21 game between he and his unfortunate quarry. The others would find his action not unfamiliar, and for at least one of them, it would be taken as a good sign for the rest of the night that he wasn't keeping it inside of his own wallet and immediately barking orders at them to move on. It meant that despite his abnormal drive to succeed, they were getting off easily for the rest of the night. They could sleep in Akashi's own apartment complex in Okina City tonight...tomorrow, they set out to complete their journey, and the mission at-hand.
"They never learn," his voice was calm, as though not a hint of satisfaction was taken from the victory other than another useless thug having discovered his place beneath them...it wasn't unusual, since winning came as naturally to Akashi Seijuurou as breathing, "It's my treat tonight. Chiriko, Tetsuya, Shintarou, Aichi, you all can eat whatever you want. ...But Atsushi and Ryouta, you're on a budget. Just because I'm treating doesn't mean I intend to let you break my bank." It all came out with the frankness of a command, and there was no way any of them would have the nerve to deny him even if it hadn't. He was their leader, and they followed his orders without question. ...Beside that point, not even he likely had the money to fully satisfy the insatiable appetite of their tallest member, the sweets-loving center, Murasakibara. He had included Kise with him merely because he could. Or maybe it was because he hadn't made the Final Four of the InterHigh Tournament this year, the way that others had. Such disappointment was not to be tolerated on their team. The only one allowed to defeat a member of their team was another member; he, himself, was still waiting for the one who could defeat him at all. His golden eye flashed as he stepped into the center of his court-side friends, glancing from side-to-side at them as he went and speaking again once falling into step beside his obsidian-haired companion.
"Some of you will take the trains into Iwatodai and Inaba, while a couple will remain here for the search; judging merely from the news, I can tell you there will be a fight," he explained the simple outline of their mission, wasting no time in reminding them of why they had made the trip en route to their meal, "Follow my every word, and let no one stand in our way. Soon, we're going to catch up to it...there is no option except victory."
There was no need to say any more than that, and the members of the team did not need to respond, though the floor was open nonetheless. The street spread out before them, and in the distance the bright sign of the restaurant he had long frequented after these basketball beatdowns could be seen fairly clearly. Tonight, they would eat and rest. Tomorrow, they made their way into the nation's tragic hotbed of Inaba in pursuit of an enemy that had taken away something precious from all of them...something that they could never get back. Tomorrow, they would tear through anything, and anyone, who got in between them and the only measure of retribution that they could hope to claim from that being. Tomorrow, they would claim yet another victory to go upon the piles that their Captain, and all of the team's members had claimed time and time again. Tomorrow, he would experience victory not for the first time...but the thrill of it, perhaps...
His eyes could see everything, and yet they could see no other end than the impending victory...not even the collateral damage that this path of righteous retribution might bring to the town itself and the people who lived there...
...
A glance at his watch revealed the date and time as he passed through the doors of the restaurant.
...
5:30 P.M. - September 11nd, 2012
...
'Soon...'
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