Momoi had known Seijirou since preschool.
She remembered the first day she’d met him like it was yesterday.
It had been recess. She was with Daiki, who seemed to hate it. Suddenly a boy came up to them.
“Come play with me.”
Both Satsuki and Daiki had obeyed the order.
He had already begun a game of King and Queen with himself as the King. He was ruling from the top of the double slides. He grabbed Satsuki’s wrist. “Be my Queen.”
“Why?” She asked, staying back with Daiki, though he had already started talking to a few of the other boys.
He looked at her. “Please be my Queen?”
She looked back at Daiki, already thoroughly distracted. Then she turned back to him. “I’ll be your Queen. But Dai-chan is a knight, ‘kay?”
“Okay.”
Years passed. In grade school, Daiki was still the loyal knight to Satsuki and Seijirou’s Queen and King.
When the two were playing basketball, Satsuki began her data collecting skills.
One day while they were waiting for Seijirou, Daiki started screaming at her. Something had upset him, and since she was at fault, he would take out his rage on her.
She started crying when suddenly she felt hands on her shoulders. “Leave her alone, Daiki.”
“This isn’t your business, Akashi.”
“It is now.” He grabbed Satsuki’s shoulder and steered her away. Daiki shouted at them, but Seijirou guided her away from the place as fast as he could.
Once they were far away, he handed her some tissues. She wiped at her tears as quickly as she could.
He sat next to her and it was comforting.
Teikou was a good school with an excellent basketball team.
It was hard to believe she had almost not become a part of it.
Seijirou had fought for a long time with the coach until he let Satsuki sit through a few practices. Seijirou was already ahead of so many of the players, and even reckless Daiki was as well. Within a few weeks, they both found their way into the first string. Seijirou quickly became captain and began implementing Satsuki’s strategies in the game, until the coach agreed that Satsuki should be the manager for the first string.
They worked their way to victory constantly after that. Akashi-kun, Dai-chan, Tetsu-kun, Midorin, Mukkun, and Ki-chan all worked so hard.
She noticed that as Junior High continued on, Dai-chan began to pay her a bit more attention, especially in certain areas, as did many of the other boys. Because of that, she began spending a bit more of her free time with Akashi. At least he didn’t oogle her and he was very helpful when it came to spying on the other teams to collect data.
It wasn’t until the end of their third and final year at Teikou that Akashi said something.
“Will you come with me to Rakuzan?”
“What?”
Akashi sighed, setting down the shogi piece he’d been holding. “I want you to come to Rakuzan with me.”
She turned away from him. “I don’t know. Dai-chan’s already enrolled in Touou, and…”
Suddenly Akashi grabbed her wrists and made her look at him. “You’re going with Daiki?!”
“I thought I should. We’ve known each other since we were babies, and…”
Akashi dropped her wrists and stood up. “I should have known. I should have fucking known.”
“Akashi-kun…”
He stormed out of the room.
Satsuki didn’t understand. What had she done wrong?
Midorima came in as she was clearing up the shogi pieces. “Where’s Akashi?”
“How should I know?” She meant to say it calmly, but it came out raw and ragged, and much louder than she meant it too.
There was a pause.
“He asked you to come with him, didn’t he?”
“Yes. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“He doesn’t want to see you get hurt.”
That threw her off. “What do you mean by that?”
“Satsuki, the Generation of Miracles is splintering. None of us will be enrolled at the same school next year, with the possible exception of you and Daiki. However, Akashi’s at Rakuzan. Not only does Rakuzan have reputation, but they have three of the Uncrowned Kings. Who do you think Akashi expects to win the Inter-High?”
“You could enroll him at the worst school ever and he’d still expect they’d win.” She retorted. Where was all this anger coming from suddenly? She had almost never had any reason to be angry at Midorin, and it was an even rarer occasion she was angry at Akashi.
“He doesn’t want to see you get hurt.”
Satsuki glared. “Him being enrolled at Rakuzan does nothing to me.”
“Not if Touou and Rakuzan go against each other at the Inter-High, Satsuki. Then bad feelings could very much be exchanged with each other. He was hoping to protect you from that.”
“Yeah right. By throwing a fit even though I haven’t enrolled at Touou yet. And why would I need protection? I’m not some pitiful damsel in distress.”
“He loves you.” Midorin said.
Satsuki froze.
“I’d say he was hoping you’d feel the same. Enough to go with him instead of Daiki.”
Suddenly it was like a dam had been broken. She cried with all the tears she had held back all these years. Midorin seemed uncomfortable, but he didn’t leave.
Finally she stood. “I can’t leave Daiki. He’s changed, and if he returns to his normal self, he’ll need someone to help him fix his mistakes.”
Midorin nods.
Satsuki walks away from that room.
She won’t see Akashi face to face again until the Inter-High.
Rakuzan wins.
The words were heard but not processed in her head.
Dai-chan gave her the most evil look. She had kept him from playing. He felt she was the reason they had lost.
She ran.
She was standing outside, trying to enjoy a few moments of the day. They had all been hit hard by this loss. They had expected it would be a hard battle, but they hadn’t expected to be playing without their ace, and they hadn’t expected that the enemy would have come up with as many tricks as they did.
A hand was set on her shoulder. She expected any number of people. Harasawa to tell her it wasn’t her fault. Imayoshi to ask if she’d gotten any good notes they could study. Daiki to scream at her.
Instead, he stood there. His red hair was not even ruffled with the slightest bit of exercise. His eyes, one red, and one orange, looked at her as though she were an interesting puzzle to solve.
“What do you want?” She managed to say, sounding almost the same as she had when she and Midorin had talked, except there was less anger in her voice now than there was then.
“To see you,” He replied. “But if you want me to go away, I will.”
She looked at him, and he looked back at her. The gaze was even. They were equals.
Finally she spoke. “I always knew I was going to go with Daiki. But that didn’t mean you had to act the way you did.”
“I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Just because it happened today doesn’t mean it’ll happen tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe we’ll beat you and the rest of Rakuzan into the ground during the Winter Cup.”
“You honestly believe that?” He asked, his voice expressing his serious doubt of her statement.
“I do, and you know it.”
There was a pause, and then he smiled. “Then I look forward to seeing you in the Winter Cup, Satsuki.”
He turned to walk away.
“Wait.”
He stopped.
“I have to ask you this, Seijirou.”
He turned to her and nodded.
“Do you love me?”
And for a second she saw something she had never seen in him before. A flash of fear of the unknown, and of a great inner turmoil.
Then his eyes became steely again.
“No.”
But it was a lie. A convincing lie, but a lie all the same.
“I love you.” She said, just loud enough so he could hear it.
He stared at her. She turned to walk away.
“Wait.”
She turned back towards him.
“I’m sorry. For what happened during the last few days at Teikou.”
“You were already forgiven, Seijirou.”
Then he turned and walked away.
It was only when she got home that she saw the piece of paper in her bag.
You did well today, my Queen.
I miss you.
“Oh Seijirou, you fool. I miss you too.”