KnB Chapter 58 : Visitors

“So, we won the game at the cost of me, and Red got injured and probably wouldn’t be able to play for the Tokyo Final League next week, huh?” Furihata hummed after hearing the story from his senpai. “What about Red? How bad is his injury?”

Riko shrugged a little before she answered,

“We will know about it soon. He will go to this hospital today for an MRI scan to see how bad it is. Hopefully, it would not be as bad as ACL or MCL injury.”

Furihata nodded but still had another question in his head.

“I still don’t understand though, why do you act in such a defeated manner like that? Besides the fact that I and Kagami got injured, of course. But I don’t think you would react that badly just because of that. I mean, Kiyoshi-senpai also suffered an injury in a game too last year, right?”

Hyuga and Riko nodded, they both have wry smiles plastered on their face.

“Well, it is because of last year’s accident with Teppei that things get worse right now.” Seeing Furihata get more confused, Hyuga added quickly, “One of the medical staff on the court yesterday was the same one who handled Teppei’s injury.”

“Aaah..” Furihata finally grasp the full image. “The scold was that bad, huh?”

Hyuga snorted a little at that rhetorical question.

“No shit, Sherlock. Ouch! What the hell, Riko!” He was surprised by the sudden smack on his back. However, seeing the glare from the coach, he knows it is better to keep silent.

“Mind your language, Junpei!” Riko scolded the captain before she turned to Furihata’s mom and bowed slightly, “I am sorry for his rude language, Ma’am.”

That was when Hyuga realized that Furihata’s mom is still in the room. He turned around and bowed immediately, imitating Riko’s gesture.

“I am sorry for the slip, Ma’am.”

Furihata’s mom just waved her hand nonchalantly, dismissing their apologies before she stood up from her seat.

“Don’t worry about it. I know high school students like to swear and curse whenever there are no adults around them, so I can understand it. Also, call me Obaa-san next time. You are Kou-chan teammates after all. I will give you some space to talk freely to each other.”

Hyuga and Riko bowed once again before they replied in sync,

“Arigatou, Obaa-san.”

After they saw the elder woman leave the room, their attention turned back to Furihata.

“Back to the topic, yeah, we kinda received a harsh scold from the medic team. In adults' eyes, playing Kagami-kun was an unresponsible decision that caused Kagami-kun to get hurt more than necessary. Nakamura-sensei, that is the medic’s name who handled Teppei’s injury last year also said that we could prevent it if we have some adults responsible on our bench, not just a high school student who acts as a coach and make a bad decision that affect our players. He even promised he would call the principal to discuss this matter, as it is the second time this happened in our team.”

“Ouch..” Furihata winced after hearing the story, his stare turning back to his coach. “Getting called unresponsible, that must sting, right?"

Riko shrugged helplessly as she replied,

“Yeah, it stung as hell.” She cursed out loud as there is no adult around them. “But it cannot be helped. Tomorrow, I will have to go to the principal office to discuss this matter with him. We will probably end up with a new coach after the summer and I will be downgraded as the new manager.”

Furihata nodded slightly at the explanation.

They keep exchanging conversation for a while until Hyuga checked his watch and he stood up.

“Sorry, Furihata-kun, but we have to go.” His action is mirrored by Riko. “We need to pick up Kagami-kun. He would also be here today, by the way, and probably for the next few days. I will tell him to visit you. But don’t hope too much from him. He is a bit depressed after hearing from the medical team he couldn’t play in Tokyo Final Tournament next week. He keeps muttering about not being able to play against Aomine over and over yesterday.”

Furihata snickered for a bit as he could imagine Kagami doing exactly what Hyuga said.

“Oh, and expect a lot of visitors coming for you today. You make a lot of people worried about your condition yesterday. Bye”

Furihata nodded. “Yeah, See you later.”

And true to his senpai’s predicament, there is a lot of visitor coming for him. The first ones to come surprisingly are Kaijo’s duo, Kise and Kasamatsu.

“Kasamatsu-san! Kakashi-sensei! What a surprise!” He exclaimed, eliciting a little snicker from Kaijo’s captain.

“Kakashi-sensei? Really, Kise?”

“Hey, it’s his nickname, not my fault! If it is up to me, I would call myself Naruto!” The blonde boy huffed before he took a seat. However, he could still hear his senpai mumble in a low voice,

“Nah, Kakashi really suits well with your ability.”

“Not you too, Senpai!” He groaned in exasperation, causing a chuckle coming from Furihata.

“By the way, Furihatacchi, yesterday was amazing! You played like a beast! You even competed against Midorimacchi in the three-point contest! I dare to say you are the only one who can do that and end up with a win! And your defense! It was so…”

Hearing Kise keeps babbling non-stop for almost five minutes, Furihata gives Kasamatsu a pitying gaze.

“It must be tough.”

Kaijo’s captain could only sigh helplessly as he replied,

“You don’t know about it. Sometimes, I feel like I am his babysitter and not his senpai.”

Furihata let out a small chuckle, clearly amused with the dynamic between them.

“Anyway, Furihatacchi!” Kise’s voice suddenly snapped him from his thought. “How is your condition right now? Is that as bad as everyone said?”

Furihata raised his eyebrows slightly.

“Who is this everyone you talk about?”

And right after he shot the question, Kise opened his phone immediately and showed him his Twitter account.

“People on the internet, of course! There are a lot of highlights of the game yesterday, especially when you went toe-to-toe against Midorimacchi! Everyone knows Midorimacchi’s capability as he went viral a few times in the past because of his long-distance three. So, to see you play in his game so well and snatched the win is really unthinkable. Look! You went viral along with Kagamicchi and your captain!”

Furihata who got curious also opened his phone and scrolled through his timeline quickly. He saw a lot of people mentioning him in a video when he was knocked out by Kimura. Not only people, but a lot of media also covered this game on their news websites, and when Furihata checked one of them, he could see the title.

‘A Heroic Performance from the Rookie Led Seirin High to A Win Against Shutoku High!’

“Oh, I saw that news too!” Kise exclaimed after he peek into Furihata’s phone. “It covered your play the best, from the battle against Midorima to the dramatic last play that sends you to the hospital. They portrayed you as the protagonist of this story! I am so jealous! Even the Generation of Miracles has never gotten this kind of attention before!”

Kasamatsu just rolled his eyes in exasperation before he asked Furihata again,

“So, how is your condition?”

He has to ask or with how chatty Kise is today, they would go off the topic again. Kise seems to realize that too and decided to shut his mouth up, waiting for Furihata to answer the question.

However, before Furihata could give any answer, someone opened the door from the outside, and when they all turned around, they could see the blue-haired boy is coming.

“Excuse me.”

Kise’s eyes lit up for a moment before he greeted the boy, “Kurokocchi!” Which makes Furihata and Kasamatsu cringe for a bit.

“Kise, indoor voice, please. We are in the hospital, you know?”

Kise just rubbed his head sheepishly before he turned his attention back to Kuroko again.

“Anyway! Good game yesterday, Kurokocchi! You really surprised me with your new playing style! I cannot wait to play against you again!”

*Cough!*

Furihata’s cough managed to stop Kise from blabbering again before it even started.

“Aah.. I am sorry about that one.” The blonde boy rubbed his head again innocently. Furihata just sighed as he turned around to Kuroko and greeted, “Well Phantom, good to see you here.”

Kuroko nodded slightly at him before he replied,

“It’s also good to see you being energetic again, Furihata-kun. How is your condition?”

Furihata chuckled a bit at his question.

“You come in the right time, by the way. I was about to tell Kasamatsu-san and Kakashi over here what the nurse said to me. Come here! Have a sit!”

After he saw Kuroko is comfortable in his seat, Furihata spends the next fifteen minutes retelling what the nurse said about his condition. By the end of the story, all of his audience has dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

“That’s…. Scary.” Kise muttered under his breath, his mouth gaping wide, Kasamatsu also nodded, agreeing to what his kouhai said.

“I never thought that something like that could happen in a basketball game. We really need to be more careful in the future.”

“Yeah.” All of them nodded solemnly at that.

“And what about now?” Kuroko suddenly asked again. “How long would you be in the hospital?”

Furihata shrugged before he replied,

“I don’t know. It will be what the doctor said, I guess.”

Kuroko nodded before he changed the topic again. Just like with Hyuga and Riko, they exchanged conversation for about ten minutes before Kuroko checked the clock on the wall.

“It’s time.” Seeing the confused expressions from the others in the room, he added quickly, “Kagami-kun will also have his MRI scan here today. Riko-senpai and Hyuga-senpai are the one who pick him up. But I also want to see it for myself, so I have to go, Furihata-kun.”

“Wait! Kagamicchi is also here?!”

Kuroko nodded at Kise’s question.

“Yeah, Kagami-kun is also here. Do you want to visit him too, Kise-kun?”

The blonde boy has his eyes shine for a moment before he nodded excitedly.

“Sure! What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Kise raised from his seat and ran toward the door, ready to leave the room. However, when he opened the door, he saw the entire Shutoku players standing in front of the room and also wanted to visit Furihata.

There is silence for a few seconds as no one could process what happened. But it was broken by Kise who shrieked out loud,

“Midorimacchi! What are you doing here?!”