Chapter Eleven: He's Serious
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"SO—RA—TO!"
"If you don't get up now you'll be late!"
Chinatsu Yui rubbed her sleepy eyes, shuffling in her slippers to Yagami Sorato's bedroom door to execute her daily "wake-up mission."
"Yui-chan, Sorato-kun is already eating breakfast~" Chinatsu's mother's gentle voice drifted up from the kitchen downstairs, accompanied by the sizzle of frying eggs. "You should come down too!"
"What?"
Chinatsu snapped awake instantly, wondering if she'd misheard. She blinked, then as if making a life-or-death decision, yanked open Yagami's bedroom door—
Empty!
THUMP THUMP THUMP.
Rapid footsteps thundered down the stairs. Chinatsu burst into the first-floor living room, freezing at the sight before her.
Yagami Sorato sat properly at the dining table, calmly eating breakfast. Morning light streamed through the window, falling across him in a way that made him look... unexpectedly handsome?
"No! No way!"
"Why am I having these hallucinations?!"
Chinatsu shook her head vigorously and looked again—did he somehow get even more handsome?
"???"
Chinatsu's eyes widened. She strode to the table in several large steps, examining Yagami up and down like a rare specimen.
"Unbelievable!" She dragged out the word dramatically, her finger nearly poking his face. "Did the sun rise in the west? Is it the apocalypse? What—what's wrong with you?"
Yagami calmly raised his head. Before him stood a girl with a loose ponytail, wearing cute pajamas yet striking a detective's pose—his childhood friend, Chinatsu Yui. And the gentle woman in a checkered apron smiling at them from the kitchen was Chinatsu's mother.
Yagami carefully swallowed his food before meeting her eyes. "Yo. Morning, Chinatsu." His tone was as calm as commenting on the weather.
With his parents working overseas year-round, Yagami had boarded with his parents' good friends, the Chinatsu family, since middle school.
As for Chinatsu Yui—while they were technically childhood friends, his memories showed "he" had been obsessed with anime and manga, completely uninterested in real girls.
"Well, makes sense at this age," Yagami thought to himself. His reaction felt perfectly normal.
"This is so weird!" Chinatsu looked thoroughly unnerved.
"You're just some guy who happens to be kind of good-looking with decent athletic ability, but you spend all day doing nothing except grinning at 2D waifus like a total shut-in! Why am I suddenly seeing hints of a sporty, sunny high school athlete in you?!"
"..." Yagami thought about his previous life—after getting sick, he'd spent most of his time bedridden. Being called a "shut-in" wasn't exactly wrong. Okay, that joke was kind of dark.
"Did you catch a fever? Or..." Chinatsu gasped sharply, covering her mouth and lowering her voice in alarm. "Were you POISONED?!"
"Mom! Even if Sorato's a freeloader, you can't poison him!"
SMACK!
Chinatsu's mother lightly swatted the back of her daughter's head. "What nonsense are you spouting this early? Go wash up and eat breakfast."
"Hehe~" Chinatsu stuck out her tongue playfully and scampered back upstairs.
"Don't leave after eating! Wait so we can go to school together!" Chinatsu called back from the staircase landing.
"Yeah."
Yagami nodded slightly. After all, Chinatsu was also a first-year at Ryonan High School—waiting to walk together seemed perfectly natural to him.
"Still so strange," Chinatsu muttered. Their relationship hadn't been this cordial before—they'd walked to school maintaining distance, terrified their respective classmates might see them together.
"Though maybe this is better~"
Chinatsu felt inexplicably cheerful, though she was always cheerful anyway...
Yagami finally got to finish his breakfast in peace. With time to spare, he tidied up a bit, grabbed a copy of Weekly Basketball, and settled onto the living room sofa to read.
Magazine pages turned as article after article caught his eye.
"Just as I thought."
Yagami confirmed it once more—this really was a world where Slam Dunk and Kuroko no Basket had merged.
The publication featured detailed breakdowns of last year's national championship won by Sannoh Industrial, while also devoting extensive coverage to Teikou Middle School's Generation of Miracles and their absolute dominance of middle school competition.
Basketball culture ran deep in this world. Just entering high school, over three hundred teams competed in regional preliminaries alone, each fighting desperately for a ticket to the national stage.
Yagami silently studied the text and photos in Weekly Basketball. Coach Taoka's declaration during the post-game review—"dominate nationals"—still echoed in his ears.
No matter how he looked at it, this path would be incredibly difficult.
He gently closed the magazine, gazing out the window.
"Which makes it all the more exciting."
"Huh? Since when do you like basketball so much?" Chinatsu had somehow appeared in front of Yagami again. "You used to only practice because Dad forced you. He always said you were wasting your talent."
Chinatsu's father, Chinatsu Kazushi, was a former professional basketball player in Japan. Thanks to him, both Yagami and Chinatsu had developed solid basketball fundamentals.
"Ah, I know!"
"It's that thing people talk about online—a second personality that awakens after entering high school! Or..." Chinatsu's eyes lit up as if discovering the truth. "You've finally decided to turn over a new leaf and become a new person, aiming to be 'the nation's number one model student'?"
"..." Yagami finally couldn't hold it together, his mouth twitching slightly as he pushed away her approaching face.
His memories showed they'd barely interacted before. She hadn't been this persistent.
"Hmph~" Chinatsu crossed her arms triumphantly, mimicking a certain famous detective's signature pose. "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth!"
She took a deep breath and announced in an extremely dramatic tone:
"So there's only one truth—!"
"Yes, I admit it."
"Eh?" The expected denials and protests never came. His overly straightforward confession left Chinatsu completely thrown, her prepared pose freezing awkwardly.
Yagami looked up, meeting the eyes of his theatrical childhood friend with a calm expression, deciding to play along with this impromptu performance.
"I do want to make changes in high school, to try being more mature."
"Ahem..." Now it was Chinatsu's turn to feel embarrassed. She withdrew her hands, gaze drifting elsewhere, touching the back of her neck guiltily. "Y-you suddenly saying serious stuff like that... isn't it kind of awkward..."
This wasn't how she'd scripted this at all! She was supposed to corner him while he made excuses!
"However, my goal isn't 'the nation's number one model student.'" Ignoring her embarrassment, Yagami continued in a level tone that carried unshakeable conviction. "What I'm going to become is Japan's number one basketball player."
Chinatsu stood frozen, looking at Yagami's profile. Suddenly, her childhood friend felt unfamiliar.
Those were even more dramatic words than hers, yet Yagami didn't sound like he was joking at all. An unusual feeling stirred in her chest.
"He's... serious."
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