The locker rooms were filled with merry voices; Kirasaki Daichi's first win in a long time made the whole team excited for the next game. They were pretty sure of their victory because, with Miho's help, how would it be possible to lose? She was their weapon, which finally proved itself to be useful for something different than making them fulfil Hanamiya's orders. Her plan to win was glorious, and no one could deny it.

After the water under the showers began to cool down, the players gradually left to get changed, Hanamiya the only person remaining. The boy was still as cool water washed over his body, plastering his long bangs over his eyes.

Hanamiya breathed loudly as his hand pulled back wet hair from his forehead, his eyes dully locked on the tiles.

... remember, there's someone, who can do worse than I...

Hanamiya's eyes shut.

You fuck with me, you fuck with us all.

A low chuckle filled the boy's ears; he clenched his fists and banged his knuckles against the wall. The pain didn't ease the obsessive thoughts running in his mind, making his head thump with a dull ache; he rested his forehead against the cold tiles.

You will see tonight— you and that bitch.

"Fuck—!" Hanamiya mumbled. "Fuck..."

He knew it wasn't a child's play anymore once he entered the court. Even the game didn't feel fun to him seriously starting to wear on his nerves as they were nearing the end. It'd been ages since he actually played to win and it kind of slipped his mind winning wasn't that easy. However, once he decided upon that, it was all or nothing. Hanamiya knew that it might come to this, he would have to eventually give up something he valued the most, but what he wasn't expecting, that something to be his very own Miho.

It was surprisingly effortless to say all those nasty things to her. There was no denying he had to do this, nevertheless, it pained him she believed his words so easily. Her stone-dead face as she bid him farewell was still crystal clear before his eyes.

Have a nice life, Hanamiya.

In order to get themselves out of this mess, all he could do now was to move forward and end those goddamn bastards once and for all.

Aomine said the pest wanted to see him. Well, so be it. Miho was out of the picture, so he'd go and watch that bastard cry as he stepped over his damn pride.

That lone thought made the corners of Hanamiya's mouth go up. He turned the water off and wrapped a towel around his waist. He ruffled his hair to get rid of some excess water and left to get changed.

No one paid attention to him, as everyone was roaring with laughter. Deep in his thoughts, the captain went to dig through his locker in search of clothes.

"— I don't know what makes people want to tell me about their problems—" Hara chirped, his voice cracking with every higher note he tried to pull off; the fact that he still was only wearing his shirt and a pair of boxers made his jesting even funnier. "Is it because I smile too much?" He pursed his lips in a sour manner as he looked at his teammates, who by now were rolling on the floor and laughing their asses off.

"That resting-bitch face—" Yamazaki tapped his knees like a retarded monkey when Hara dramatically dropped on the bench before the short-haired boy and crossed his legs.

Seto rolled his eyes and pushed a blazer over his head, quite distasted he had to associate with their sort.

"I am a bitch, Hiroshi. What's your excuse?" Hara snarled, making Yamazaki's face drop.

"That's so Miho—!" Matsumoto smacked dumfounded Yamazaki on the back; the boy nearly fell off the bench.

Hara's parody of Miho was so painfully accurate, making even composed Furuhashi chuckle.

"Do that thing with the folder." Furuhashi prompted as he pulled his pants up; Hara gladly obliged.

The boy shot up to his feet scanning an imaginary file with a deep frown.

"Why do I even bother? It's not like you dipshits understand Japanese..." The purple-haired boy smacked his hand over his forehead and rubbed his eyes. "If you had even less grey matter than now, I have no idea how—"

"Oi! Shut up!" Matsumoto chimed in; Hara was dead ready to punch him since he interrupted his show but as the latter said: "Someone's coming!", all of them froze in panic.

The room fell quiet as everyone listened for the sound of footsteps.

"Oh, shite—! It's Miho!" Yamazaki shirked; someone indeed was coming, a sound of rubber soles' swooshing over the floor. After all, it was way past the time their match ended; Miho had to come eventually, they only wished she wouldn't exactly walk on then right as they were openly laughing their asses off while trying to imitate her. It was scary to think what she would do to them if she was ever to find out what they'd been saying behind her back.

In a panic-induced hurry, the boys started to pull on the missing items of their clothing, not really wanting to face their spooky assistant in just as much as their underwear. All of them were well aware that Miho would barge in on them, whether they were clothed or not.

Hara rummaged through his bag and pulled out a pair of pants. He hurriedly put it on but in a panic, he missed a leg and tripped, in the process falling flat on his face. A long thud made everyone's heads turn before they resumed their doings.

"Yeah, go ahead, don't mind me..." Hara mumbled irritated as he rolled onto his back and pushed the pants up his hips.

The footsteps were getting closer, now only a few meters from the door.

One.

Two.

They waited.

Three.

But no one reached for the knob; the doors were closed and the person behind them, resumed walking.

"That was close..." Furuhashi mumbled as he dropped on the bench with a loud sigh. "Where is she even?"

Hara sat crosslegged on the floor. "She should be here by now. Nagging."

"Insulting," provided Yamazaki.

"Fussing."

"Yelling."

"Threatening."

"Scol—"

"We get it," Furuhashi deadpanned, closing his locker with a loud slap. "Generally speaking, harassing us." He ducked under the strap of his bag and sat next to Matsumoto.

"Shouldn't we look for her?" Hara asked after a moment of silence.

"What for?" Seto yawned; now the potential danger was gone, he became sleepy again. "Kou will show up eventually. Whether we search for her or not."

"Well... I saw her leaving earlier." Matsumoto frowned. "She looked pissed."

"When she doesn't?"

Everyone winced at Furuhashi's statement. Point taken.

"Anyway," Hara stood up, "shouldn't we call her or something? To go celebrate. And... stuff."

"She won't come even if you called her." Hanamiya started buttoning up his shirt; his team looked at him puzzled since they didn't notice him. Was he there all this time? Did he hear...? Pretty unfortunate. Well.

As the most reasonable, Seto was the first to regain his composure.

"What do you mean, Hanamiya?"

The captain closed his locker shut. "Just as you heard. She won't come because she quit."

"What?!" Hara whined. "Why? We did a decent job. We won!"

"Maybe I'll call her?" Matsumoto proposed, already taking his phone out.

"She won't answer," Hanamiya repeated.

"Right."

Miho never returned Matsumoto's calls; she was determined to ignore the bane that his existence was to her.

"You call her, Hara." Matsumoto tossed his cellphone back into his bag, looking nonplused at all by the way the girl treated him.

"Her phone is probably turned off. She won't pick up any calls," Hanamiya grumbled starting to feel annoyed.

"That's fucking lame," Hara whined, falling flat on his back; he took out a pack of chewing gum from his pocket and popped one into his mouth. "Did she at least say why?" He asked Hanamiya.

"Reasons."

"But—"

"Just shut up, Hara!" Furuhashi snapped. "It's not like you can't think of any."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly turned sour. Truth to be told, Miho had the worst personality any girl, hell!, any human could ever have; she nagged, cursed and pestered them and there was no day they wouldn't like to talk back, or better, lock her somewhere where the Sun didn't shine, but once she was gone, it felt weird for all of them. She was a pain but she was their pain. And that pain was supposed to get them the first place in the Inter-High.

"Let's grab something to eat. I'm famished." Seto was the first one to break the silence; he grabbed his back everyone following his lead.

"Before you go... there's something I need to tell you."

"What now, Hanamiya." Seto rolled his eyes. "Maybe you're quitting too, huh?" he mocked but one glare from his captain made him turn on his heel, his tail between his legs.

"Maybe we all will have to quit." 

♕♚♕♚

As Hanamiya more or less patiently explained what may happen tonight, his team was silent, not daring to interrupt. Yamazaki's eyes were wide as saucers, while Hara's jaw dropped, his gum nearly falling out of his half-open mouth. Matsumoto could pass as pretty nonchalant at the revelation if not for a small twitch in his arm which gave out how his hands had started to shake. The only ones who accepted the news fairly well were Furuhashi and Seto. The latter dropped on the bench, hiding his face in his hands, thinking.

"And what the hell did we even do?" Yamazaki inquired. "It's not like we actually did anything to Aomine, right?"

Now that Hanamiya finished talking, Hara closed his mouth and resumed chewing his gum.

"We're Kirisaki Daichi, dumbo. Of course, we did something wrong. Sometime— Once— Can't remember." He blew a large, pink bubble that managed to cover half of his already barely visible face. "But hey! At least we won't get beaten, right?" He asked Hanamiya who stalled with his response a little too long for their liking.

"I don't think so."

"So we will?" Yamazaki fretted.

"No."

"Are you positive?"

Hanamiya rolled his eyes. "Yes."

He wasn't. He had to somehow get them to tag along with him. Besides, it's not like he was lying. He really had only a vague idea of what to expect.

"What if we don't go?" Furuhashi spoke up; everyone turned to look at him. All this time he was awfully quiet and the sudden sound of his voice made them feel quizzical. "We don't have to. It's all your doing, after all, Hanamiya."

"It won't make a difference, Furuhashi," Hanamiya said dismissively; if they wanted to play he would gladly join. "They will come after you. After all of you. Wanna know why?" He closed the distance between Furuhashi and himself. "We are a team and everything we did, we did together."

Furuhashi sneered, pulling nervously on his collar. "Is that so? Then let's get Kou to go with us too. She did most of the work with you anyway." He was about to pivot on his heel and leave but Hanamiya pulled on his shoulder before harshly thrusting the other boy's body into the lockers. The sound of metal giving in resonated in the air.

"She has nothing to do with this!" Hanamiya slithered as he clenched his fists around the front of Furuhashi's jacket. "Just try to as much as call her and I'll make sure you will be counting your teeth on the floor."

"Okay, Hanamiya. We'll all go." Hara's voice burst into Hanamiya's thoughts as the other boy tried to split the duo. "Happy? We'll go." He grabbed onto Hanamiya's shoulder but the captain forcibly yanked it back.

"Like fuck we will!" Furuhashi exclaimed, pushing glaring Hanamiya away, however, the boy didn't feel like doing so already moving to punch his teammate.

Hara was nearly in tears as his attempts were disregarded so openly; he nervously jerked his chin in Matsumoto's direction but the boy was only staring dumbly at the fight, the sight of Hanamiya using force on anyone quite shocking to all of them.

"I hate to say that but Hara's right," Seto declared out of the blue; if not for his current position, Hara would feel offended but with Furuhashi's palm shoved into his face, Seto's nasty remark wasn't exactly his biggest issue. "We will go."

Hanamiya halted his fist mere inches from Furuhashi's nose. He looked at his teammate with a mild disgust before unhanding him and taking a step back.

"Where are we meeting them?" Seto asked as Hanamiya put on his jacket. "It's a public place, right?"

Hanamiya passed them as if his teammates following him was given.

"I don't know. They'll come to us."