āBecause you like playing basketball with them?ā Kuroko didn't think too much about his answer, he just replied to the obvious rhetorical question.
Sure, Mayuzumi kept complaining about how annoying everything related to his team was, but at the same time he was proud of them. Otherwise, he wouldn't have threatened Seirin with losing the next time they played. Right there, just the two of them: a declaration of war in a broken elevator.
Enjoying it while it lasts... There was a moment of silence on his part. Of course, Kuroko knew that his time at Seirin was limited, but he had already felt what it was like when Teiko team collapsed. He had no intention of allowing a bittersweet goodbye to happen again. āI am aware. And we will not lose.ā How? Surely they'll come up with something.
It was also true that he wasn't going to be there⦠āYou can always repeat the year if you want to be there. We will beat you again.ā And perhaps Kuroko sounded more confident than Mayuzumi would like to hear. The part about repeating the year was a joke, although he didn't know how good a student Mayuzumi really was.
Something was a little off about that statement of his, so Kuroko decided to ignore the part where he said he was glad it was over.
Do I? Mayuzumi frowns at question, but ultimately ignores it. There were moments this past year where he... wouldn't say he enjoyed playing basketball with them, but it certainly had been interesting. However, to Akashi and the Uncrowned Kings, Mayuzumi was only welcome when he was performing well. The way they cast him aside when he was not needed left a bad taste in his mouth, to the point where he can't truly say he enjoyed it.
Mayuzumi rolls his eyes. "Akashi alone could trounce your team on a normal day. You'll have to come up with some new tricks if you want to keep up with him. He's not going to take that loss lying down." How complicated that he sounds proud of a team that doesn't even like him.
"I'm going to graduate," Mayuzumi says dryly. "And I don't want to be there. I'm sure they'll find a replacement." That is to say, he feels he held them back during their last match of the Winter Cup, but he doesn't want to admit that. "That being said, I still have loyalty to Rakuzan... and I still want them to win. Even if that team is a bunch of little shits who don't respect their upperclassmen." There was... almost something positive buried in there, maybe?
Talking about his annoying team when he had come to Tokyo to get away from them is kind of pissing him off. "...Surely you get tired of it." He stares directly at Kuroko with unfiltered judgment. "Being invisible, even on your own team."












