**

The blinds were closed, leaving the only light that could be seen artificial- and dimly lit at that. One of the inner bulbs above the hospital bed flickered on and off sporadically, as it irregularly illuminated the man sitting next to the bed.

Hands on his wheels, he was at about abdomen level when perked up. On the backrest of his wheelchair were two crutches which he had received during his prosthetic rehabilitation the previous day.

A man stood in front of him with a backpack and a black sweatshirt, as the soft orange bulb(s) occasionally elucidated his face.

While the man stared at the hospital patient, the patient stared at the ground. He appeared ashamed as he hid his pale face, attempting to escape the gaze of his dear friend which he could only assume judged him at this very moment.

“Tensai…”

The presumably judging man called out to the patient, seemingly to see his face- wanting to see the eyes which had before gleamed with the favorable present.

As he raised his neck, he couldn’t help but shake- his bones rattling. He felt like an old man the way in which he felt brittle and tired. Tired of both thinking and doing. Brittle from the various procedures and exams.

As his eyes reached his friend’s, he stared. Stared so deep that it would make others quiver- but not his friend. Not his friend who shared his aspirations and dreams. His friend who had been with him the whole way.

The same friend was now crying. Or more so holding back tears as they forcefully trickled down his face at a steady pace.

“Noah…”

Tensai couldn’t help but to call out to him. He felt bad having to watch him cry. Crying for his sake. Crying due to his actions.

And yet, while he felt responsible for his friend's turmoil… he contrastingly felt vengeful towards the man who did this to him.

But he was now dead. There was no one to blame. All he could do was feel responsible himself since no one else could take blame. He was the only one who could accept pitiful gazes, while what he had really wanted was one of fear from the man who left him in this state.

‘…’

What had Tensai become?

**

The sun brought down a wave of subtle heat upon the three who walked the paths of the outer city. The concrete which they walked was a common path for them- using it whenever searching for abstract activities to fulfill their empty time.

“Yeah, he said he was gonna visit him right around now. I don’t think they’ve seen each other since the accident…”

Ren continued.

“Speaking of… I heard he had his first rehabilitation yesterday, right?”

“Yup. Didn’t seem very rehabilitated though…”

The topic of his brother was never something Koji went out of his way to bring up. Talking about it was guaranteed to bring down his mood.

“I’m bored! C’mon, let’s do something!”

Lucas snapped Koji out of his mood real quick- as both him and Ren looked around for something to do to please the brute. Meanwhile, Lucas had his eyes closed and hands on his head- clearly relying on the two to pick something.

“Arcade?”

“Did that.”

Koji’s turn.

“Mini golf?”

“Done that.”

Back to Ren.

“How about-“

“Actually…”

Lucas cut off Ren as he looked to the opposite side of the street and pointed.

“Let’s try that out, hmm?”

Koji and Ren followed suit and turned their heads to the same direction as Lucas. Upon comprehending what Lucas was referring to, they were both shocked…

Lucas wanted to play basketball…

**

Across the street from the city’s southern outskirts basketball courts, Akari and Yuki roamed.

“This Italian ice is really good.”

Yuki kept scooping shaved ice into her mouth as she shivered while maintaining a broken smile.

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“Yeah. It looks good…”

“Why didn’t you get any?”

“Don’t know. Wasn’t interested I guess… Anyway, what do you want to do?”

At the thought of Akari’s question, Yuki paused and looked to the sky for inspiration.

“…”

Yet nothing could come to mind.

Bringing her head back down, she asked Akari.

“You have anything in-“

Just then, she realized Akari was gone. Out of sight out of mind, one would say. Except she wasn’t even close to out of sight- for she was currently passing the large but vacant street which divided them from the basketball courts.

“Akari! Where are you going!??!”

Akari didn’t turn around, instead, she just pointed to the basketball courts- in case her friend wanted to follow. Yuki could see two familiar faces there, and another vague one which she couldn't quite put her tongue on.

“The hell is wrong with you?” Yuki muttered to herself as she followed suit.

**

“Are you sure you want to just watch us?”

“Yup!”

Lucas gave a big thumbs up and smile to Ren, as Koji broke down from nerves behind them.

Seeing how Ren was still unconvinced, Lucas double downed.

“Hey, think of this as Koji’s payment for flaking on us twice in a week. I miss watching you two play, while you miss playing with him. Win-Win.”

“Sigh.”

Ren couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for Lucas, who was just gonna sit and watch- but he felt even worse for Koji.

He was very obviously not handling the ensuing pressure too well.

Koji glanced at the 8 grown men that were playing a game of 4v4 basketball. Big toned muscles and glistening sweat. For someone like Koji who hasn’t played in years, this was quite scary for him.

Lucas began to sit against a chain link fence, as Ren walked up to the 8 grown men playing half court pick-up basketball. Koji followed behind him, as he hunched over and cowered a bit.

*plop

Suddenly, next to Lucas was a girl with peach blonde hair.

*plop

And next to her, a girl with an enticing blackish purple radiance.

“Ah!”

Lucas stared and pointed across Yuki, straightt at Akari.

“Your that psychotic bi-“

Before Lucas could finish his very crude sentence, Yuki pressed down on his pointing hand.

“Who are you to be calling people psychotic, you brute!”

Lucas was quite taken aback. Before, he hadn’t even noticed Yuki.

“Brute??? Who are you calling a brute you pink sheep???”

“Sheep??? Who are you calling a…”

It seemed they really clicked.

It kept going on like that, as Akari watched Ren and Koji negotiate teams for the ensuing 5v5 game.

She watched as Ren talked, while Koji whimpered behind him.

“The hell is wrong with him..?” She muttered.

“Knave??? Who are you calling a- wait what does that mean?”

Just as Lucas finished asking an honest question, Akari pulled at his pants, reaching over Yuki. As a result, Lucas shot her a dirty glare, not understanding what she was getting at. Yuki then shot back with another dirty glare on behalf of Akari.

“Hey, why is Koji so scared to play?”

“Hm?”

Lucas’s expression turned to puzzlement.

“Why do you care?”

“Cause he’s my friend.”

Yuki watched as the two talked, not sure where to butt-in to define the word “knave”. She was quite proud of that one…

“Hm… I’m not sure how true that is- but if you must know; He hasn’t played basketball in a while.”

“I know that much, but why is he acting so scared..?”

Lucas looked at Koji, then back at Akari.

“He’s probably overthinking it. Putting too many expectations on himself…”

Upon hearing that, Akari developed a shocked face- as she was not expecting such a well articulated answer from Lucas…

Although, it made sense.

It would explain why he stopped playing- and it checks out considering how good his brother was…

And upon all that, he had told Akari that he will achieve his dream, not just try.

Even if he plays it off as determination, he must be holding himself to high standards…

And that line of assumptions seemed to be right. While Koji was intimidated by big muscles and glistening sweat, he was more so scared of seeing how bad he really was.

He knew he had gotten rusty, but would he be exposed just as badly in a real game? Only time could tell, and time is what Koji was afraid of.

After all, he didn’t have much left to achieve his dream…

“Since when were you a psychologist?” Yuki interrupted Akari’s thinking, responding to Lucas.

“Psychologist? I’m an actor, thank you very much…”

Aaand they were back at it.

But Akari ignored them, watching as the game started with an inbound from Koji’s team.

Koji’s team consisted of himself, Ren, a tall skinny white man with buzzed blonde hair, a shorter, but more muscular black man with a beanie, and another taller- but less toned -black man with puffy hair.

The other team consisted of similar figures.

“How are you supposed to be an actor if you’ve never acted?”

Akari continued to ignore their bickering. Ren brought the ball up, as the tall man trailed behind him. On either side of the wings were the two black men, while Koji sat in the close corner to Akari.

She intently watched, as she tried to grasp the theory behind the game. That was just the type of person she was. She liked to understand things to the best of her abilities.

“You expect Rom-Coms to help you be an actor??? Pfft!”

“Well Ms. Hot Shot, what do you plan on doing?”

Akari watched as the tall man stood behind Ren’s defender. She believed this was called a screen?

“You wanna be a script writer? Sounds pathetic if you ask me…”

Ren dribbled around the screen, as the screeners defender dropped back to cut him off. Just then, the tall man turnt and started running to the hoop. This left the opposing defender in a 1 versus 2 scenario, as he had to guard both of the attackers. Ren’s previous defender trailed from behind, attempting to jam the roller (tall man), but to no avail.

“You’re telling me you’ve actually made scripts before? Hah!”

The tall man’s defender chose to guard Ren over his own matchup, resulting in Ren bouncing the ball to the tall man. But before he could grab the ball for an easy layup, another defender came out of nowhere.

“So you just have scripts on your phone? Let’s see it then!”

It seems the person who was guarding Koji came from the corner to help his fellow defenders. Now, with no one guarding Koji, and three defenders in the paint- the tall man passed the ball out to Koji.

“Fine! Read it then!”

As he caught the ball, Koji bent his knees and loaded his shot. Lifting himself up, he jumped and flicked his wrist. The look on his face was that devoid of any stress- any previous nervous fibers were gone.

It seemed as if he was having fun as he shot the ball. He smiled, letting the ball leave his fingertips. His follow through was clean, and he started to descend. Every player on the court, including Akari on the sideline, was watching intently- waiting to see if the shot would drop.

*ting

Hitting the far side of the rim first, the ball got propelled downward into the basket, bringing the net down as it fell through.

“Nice shot Koji!” Lucas cheered, then went back to taintinizing Yuki.

“Anyway, this script sucks.”

**

End Chapter 8:

A First Leads to a Second