It was relatively rare for Mizuki’s team to have time to explore a city they had played in. Something—she had been half listening to the explanation—had gone wrong with their transportation, meaning that they had an extra day to kill in Akita. And an extra day in Mizuki’s language meant a day that should and would be spent practicing. Her teammates were off exploring the city some more and here she was, on some random street court not far from their hotel.
In all honesty, she probably couldn’t have picked a better day to practice. A light breeze was in the air, ghosting its cool fingers across everything that lay in its path. It ruffled through Mizuki’s hair, blowing strands of hair into her eyes.
She didn’t notice. She was too focused on her drill. Mizuki alternated between performing left-handed lay-ups on the left side of the basket and right-handed ones on the right side. When the ball was in her hand, everything else faded away to the background.
Everything except for the loud screech of tires broke her concentration. Startled, she fumbled with the ball, only to send it flying on a trajectory right towards a passerby.
“Shit!” she yelled, sprinting after her ball. “Look out!”
