.

Maron and each member of the basketball team's mouth gaped open after hearing what Kazuya just said. If this was true then was he really just here to see what kind of training they went through?

"I wanted to start training with everyone while gaining an understanding of the sport but it looks like the basketball team gets straight to the play part before the preparation part?" he really wasn't sure so he tried to clarify.

"Allow me to explain. Everyone do warm-ups for now" the coach stepped up and explained the situation to Kazuya.

They were not aware that he was looking forward to the training part rather than the playing part so Maron suggested to make him experience the game first before anything else. They agreed to it since most people would be more interested in playing the game rather than training for it. Their plan seemed to have backfired so the coach took the initiative to come clean whilst giving him a short explanation of the rules of basketball.

"Hmm… I see…" Kazuya nodded and took note of the rules he needed to remember. He wasn't a complete stranger to the sport but like when he first stepped into the Shiroyuki dojo, he didn't think about the rules at first so he made sure that he would ask this time.

"How about you try a one on one game with Maron to get the hang of the game first" the coach suggested. She knew that Maron wanted to play with Kazuya and would probably be the best candidate to bring out the comparative spirit that would make him interested in the sport.

"Let him warm up a bit first coach" Maron confidently smiled. She was confident she would have no problems playing against a newbie like him no matter how athletic he was.

"Can I borrow your phone for a bit while I warm up sensei?" Kazuya politely asked and immediately looked over a few videos of professionals online and studied while he got himself ready.

"Here, let me show you a more amazing one…" The coach showed Kazuya one of his favorite compilation of plays. He was quite passionate and also explained the names of the moves that the video showed.

"There's no use in showing a newbie something like that sensei" Maron commented. She had finished warming up and waited for Kazuya to finish with a ball in her hand. She started telling him about the rules of a one on one basketball duel.

"I understand. I will do what I can" Kazuya nodded and moved towards the court. Maron gave him first possession and chose to guard.

"(Hmm… this might take a little while to get used to)" he thought as he started dribbling the ball. He may have full control over his body but he was not omnipotent. He had zero experience with the sport so this felt very new to him.

Maron stared at him intently. She already started concentrating and looked at him like a hunter looking at her prey. She gave him little time to get used to the sensation of dribbling a ball but was a little surprised to see that he was taking the same form he used when they played together a long time ago.

"The first one to get past 20 points win" Maron mentioned as she began her attempt to steal the ball.

"!!" Kazuya was quite surprised at the sudden change he saw in Maron. It was as if she was a different person compared to the girl who always tried to argue with him.

"Stolen!" Maron grinned confidently after she successfully stolen the ball from Kazuya's careless stance.

"(So she's a natural physical type)" Kazuya smiled at this discovery. Maron was unexpectedly a person who had a certain affinity to mana. The activation of her enhanced abilities was proof that she really loved this sport.

Kazuya was now on defense so he immediately focused his attention towards this girl. This was the first time that he had taken her seriously and this was because he could feel a surprising amount of mana emanating from her. He could tell that she was taking match against him very seriously.

She quickly moved to the side and he immediately followed. He was more confident in his defense skills because he did not have to worry about carrying the ball.

"Not bad. As expected from the reflexes of a person who practices Kendo" Maron grinned. She expected this much from him and was glad that he was able to keep up with her. She straightened her back but immediately leaned forward to once again try to get past him to the side.

Kazuya immediately stretched his arm towards the direction she was heading but what he didn't expect was the girl that was supposed to go to the side suddenly stopped and moved towards the other direction with a spin.

*SWISH*

Maron didn't waste the opportunity and did a lay up to score two points. Her teammates cheered for her but Maron wasted no time and recovered the ball before moving back to position. It was her time to attack until Kazuya recovered the ball from her and she planned to finish the game without letting him score a single point.

"A bit unexpected but you're actually quite impressive" he commented. He didn't mean anything ill by it but it was just his honest opinion.

"Stop talking. It has no effect on me once we're in the game" Maron remained calm and passed the ball for him to check it. Kazuya was even more impressed because although he didn't mean anything by what he said, the girl actually remained calm.

Kazuya's opinion of this girl was slowly rising. Though she was not like Tomoyo or Ayame that showed tremendous amount of fighting potential, she made up for it with her skills in the sport. He tried following her movements by paying more attention to her movements. She unexpectedly quickly took a shooting position the moment he handed her back the ball which immediately prompted Kazuya to stop her attempt to shoot the ball.

"Heh" she grinned at him after retracting her stance to move past him with ease. She successfully did a fake and was able to take another two points to add to her lead.

This was the reason why all the members of the academy's basketball club welcomed and accepted Maron as the new captain of their club. Her talent in the sport, especially when it came to offence was something that even their school could not ignore. She might have appeared as a haughty and outspoken girl outside the court but inside the court, she was like a seasoned warrior.

Everything went as it naturally would have and Maron continued to make consecutive baskets. Kazuya had yet to recover the basket from his initial possession which did not come as a surprise to all those who was watching. Maron was very talented that their coach felt it was a shame that she was a girl. The sport wasn't as popular as it was to females as they grew older after all.

*TAP*

A sudden change occurred just as Maron tried to make a drive for the hoop once again. Kazuya was able to tap the ball and wasted no effort in chasing it down. Everyone felt like they were standing on their toes as he was barely able to recover the ball before it went out of bounds which coincidentally made him clear the ball in his possession.

"Not bad" Maron praised. While going against him, the quieter he got, the more trouble she encountered in trying to make a basket. She was amazed at how fast Kazuya was learning. He would have been a troublesome guard if she didn't have any tricks up her sleeves.

"(Hmm… it should go like this right?)" Since Maron focused her guard from inside the three point line, Kazuya was able to get a few moments to get used to dribbling. He switched it in between both his hands and calculated the strength he needed to use for the ball to bounce at a height he wanted.

He tried stepping in but Maron quickly struck to knock the ball away. Though they both tried chasing after it, Maron hit it too hard which caused the ball to go out of bounds. Kazuya retained his possession and adjusted the way he handled the ball. A skilled player was indeed exciting to go up against.

*bounce*

Kazuya wasted no time and attacked quickly as soon as Maron checked the ball. Kazuya tried to force himself left while Maron lowered her stance to make sure he didn't get past her. The grin on her face faded however when her opponent spun on the other direction and got past her with ease. Though his ball handling was a bit crude, he had enough speed to cover the mistakes that would have caused him to lose the ball.

*SWISH* Kazuya finally made his first basket. He was slowly adapting to handling the ball.

Maron proved her skills as a defensive player as she gave Kazuya a hard time as he was still getting the hang of everything. The two of them dueled and forgot about the people who were watching. Kurumi felt a little disturbed because of the smile that had stayed in Kazuya's face for a while now. She wondered what was going through his mind or if he was remembering what he learned previously.

"One more to go" Maron smiled as the two smiled at each other. They hardly noticed the perspiration dripping from their faces.

Maron scored 19 points and only needed one more baster to exceed the over 20 point requirement they agreed upon. She led by five points over Kazuya's 14 and she still had possession.

"Let's go" he said in a low voice. Tomoyo's gaze sharpened as she felt the sudden rise in Kazuya's presence. Kazuya once told her to look out for people who gave her the same sensation like Ayame did, the two of them hardly found anyone outside of the Shiroyuki dojo.

*SWOOP*

He wasted no time and was able to steal the ball immediately after Maron dribbled it once. She tried to get it back from him before Kazuya regained his balance but he made the ball bounce right between her legs and turned to get it after taking her by surprise.

*SWISH*

"WHOA!" The coach almost dropped the whistle he was holding. Though it was roughly done, this was almost like the moves from the compilation he showed Kazuya.

"You…" Maron looked at Kazuya who remained silent even after he recovered the ball. She knew that his focus was on the game and he was not planning on losing.

"Check" he passed the ball and the moment Maron passed it back, he moved into a shooting stance. Maron didn't believe he would take it because he had yet to try a three point shot. Even if he did, he would have needed a grasp of the range and other factors before be could make an accurate shot.

*SWISH*

"Wha--!?" Maron was flabbergasted. The ball didn't even hit the rim and went in as if he had done this before. The image of his stance overlapped with a smaller version of him. His arm still remained in the air and this was a habit of the Ka-kun that she once knew when he made a lucky shot.

A bunch of cheers echoed through the gymnasium. A crowd had already gathered to watch the two as many onlookers were curious as to which club Kazuya would end up joining. They were filled with excitement because at the last moment, Kazuya caught up and both of them only needed to score once to win.

"Check" everyone grew silent after he said this. This was his winning possession if Maron couldn't stop him. Everyone was rooting for the beginner to beat the ace player but Maron had no intention of letting that happen.

"(Interesting)" Kazuya was a bit startled because Maron's presence increased even further. She truly was like a warrior who had been backed into a corner. She was putting everything on the line as he could feel her observing every movement from his body the moment she gave him the ball back.

"hup!" Kazuya immediately went into stance to shoot. Maron reacted instantaneously and prevented him from taking another shot. She didn't expect anything out of his first shot and allowed it but she was not going to let this one pass after she got tricked once.

"!!!" her uniform flapped as she felt the wind from her left side immediately after she tried to defend the air. It was at that moment that she realized that she was once again tricked.

"Too bad" she heard the voice passing from her side.

"NO!" she forced her body to stop from rising any further and immediately turned to go after Kazuya. She normally wouldn't have been able to do so but all she could think of right now was stopping him from taking that winning shot.

"Sorry" he already expected her to be able to catch up. Maron's current state exceeded her current limits and her determination made her ignore the pain that her joints should be suffering from right now. Even Tomoyo couldn't help but silently praise Maron from the sides.

"!!" Maron's mouth gaped as Kazuya stopped to immediately jump backwards. This was also one of the clips that their coach showed them.

"Fade away!" the coach shouted. He forgot that he was the referee for their match was already too engrossed in the exciting match.

"I'll stop it!!!" Maron already saw this move many times and knew that she wasn't in a position to do anything about it. She desperately jumped towards the trajectory of the ball.

"!" Now this was out of Kazuya's expectations. Maron unexpectedly touched the bottom part of the ball

*roll roll roll*

The ball bounced upwards after hitting the rim and rolled around it. Maron fell to her knees as soon as she landed on the floor but looked at the result of her effort. She couldn't care less about her legs right now and was only interested at if she was successful in stopping him or not.

"YES!" she shouted victoriously as the ball rolled out of the rim and fell. She stopped Kazuya's vicious attack and she felt proud. She turned towards the direction where he took the shot to gloat after stopping his winning shot but he was nowhere to be seen.

*SWISH*

Maron turned to see him landing in front of the ring. Kazuya tapped the ball as it was falling and made it go through it.

"You didn't stop a buzzer beater" Kazuya turned to pick up the ball before passing it to the basketball team's coach. "Right sensei?" he smiled at the coach who snapped out of his daze after receiving the ball. He was affected by Maron's early celebration and thought that she had won as well.

"K-kouzuki-kun wins!"

.