Streetball Vixen

Chapter 1: The Fox

Chapter 1

“So, a recap: you’ve played gambling basketball for a week, and I’ve been personally training you since then, right?”

Alex’s question seemed a little redundant to Kagami, though he replied, “Yeah.”

The corners of her lips quirked upwards and the pink glasses she wore slid a little down her nose. “Okay, so in the Winter Cup, you’ll be seeing all of the Generation of Miracles, who you have to beat. Why?”

Kagami Taiga wondered absently where this trail of questions would lead. “Because I want Seirin to become the best in Japan. And also because all of them need some sense knocked into their big heads.”

“Right,” she smiled for real this time. “So, you’ll need practice knocking sense into people. Now, come with me.”

Alexandra Garcia dragged him along, out of the street basketball court and down the street. Five minutes later they arrived ata large, whitewashed house, with a red roof and a chimney. The number on its gate was 134. It was completely silent, and Kagami saw that the garden was slightly overgrown, the grass left to grow taller than in normal gardens.

“This place is really big. The owner must be really rich,” he remarked as Alex kicked open the door.

“Nah,” she told him over her shoulder. “All this money was made because of gambling basketball.”

He was taken aback. That must be hundreds of thousands of dollars! Who was this person?

The interior was just as nice as the outside. The house was big and modern, with a minimalist style and a black and white colour scheme. The floors were made of a dark, grainy wood, and the walls a pristine white.

“Kitty? Where are you?” Alex called, hands cupped around her mouth. Kitty?! Kagami almost choked. Trust Alex to come up with something that strange with absolutely no basis at all. But that also meant that this mysterious person was a girl… who had to be able to beat gangsters and thugs at basketball. Was that even possible? It seemed that he was going to meet another monster.

Alex led him to the kitchen—another monochromatic space shining with steel cabinets and a low island in the middle. But there was one thing that was out of place. The only thing that was not black or white or shiny steel. Instead, there was bright orange hair, splayed out on the top of the island.

It was a girl, looking about Alex’s age, with hair the colour of the basketball that had been left on the floor. Her head was turned away from him and resting on the table. There was a bottle of alcohol near her hand, which lay with its fingers spread out. Alex poked her shoulder. “Oi, wake up.” This went on for almost two minutes. “I swear,” Alex said as Kagami looked on, feeling a little amused, “if you don’t wake up right this second I will kick you out the window and see if you wake up then.”

Kagami grinned a little at that, before grabbing an empty glass off the rack and filling it with water from the tap. “Here,” he tapped Alex’s shoulder. “This should help.”

With a devious smile and a nod of thanks, Alex poured the entire glass of water onto the girl’s head.

She woke screaming. Her head whipped up and she grabbed the bottle of liquor, clutching onto it like it was a lifeline. “Dammit, I was having a great dream. Whiskey was dancing around me!” she yelled, before her gaze settled on Alex as she stumbled backwards into Kagami, shocked. She began to giggle, and that soon escalated into full-blown guffaws. “Ah, Alex, how’d you get ‘ere…?” Her voice was slurred slightly and she swayed back and forth, having recovered from the adrenaline shock.

“Kitty!” Alex pushed off Kagami and jumped on the clearly hung over girl, who didn’t even fight her off when Alex kissed her full on the lips. “Guess what? I found you an opponent,” Alex gushed. Kagami could’ve sworn that he had never seen Alex so excited.

The girl’s head seemed to topple forward of its own accord and her forehead slammed into the table. “I told you before, stop calling me that. ‘Kitty’ makes me sound like something kind of boy toy. It’s not like I’m a kitten or, like, some baby fox. And all your voices are sooo loud.”

Kagami cleared his throat. “There’s only two of us, and—”

“Inside voice, both of you!” she cut him off. “Oh, wait,” she said, and rolled her head over, peeling back her eyelids to look at him, then at Alex. “You think he can go one-on-one with me?” She snorted.

He could see where this was going all of a sudden. This girl’s attitude was oh so familiar. Need practice knocking sense into people, Alex had said. By ‘people’ she probably meant this girl. This was further proven by Alex’s response. “Yep,” she said, popping the ‘p’. “I think he’ll be a worthy opponent for you. So, Taiga, this is Vixen. Vixen, meet Kagami Taiga.”

She groaned and covered her ears. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She rolled her head to peer at Kagami again. “Yo. Vixen’s my street name, by the way. Don’t bother finding out my real one, no one but me knows.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him drunkenly. “Okay, so you want me to play you, huh? I can’t say that this’ll be fun. I’ve not lost once since I started playing gambling basketball.”

Kagami grinned down at her. “Basketball’s only fun when you play strong opponents, so give me all you’ve got.”