Akashi Seijuro

My tg channel: @dreamlab_DL

Rakuzan High School. Evening. Practice in the gym ended long ago. The noise had dissipated into the corridors, and the lights were partially dimmed. Only Akashi remained on the court—he was aimlessly shooting balls into the hoop, never missing once. A rare, mechanical movement for him, which right now could mean so much...
A week had already passed since the defeat in the Winter Cup. Akashi's first loss. But he wasn't angry. He was thinking. For the first time, he reflected so deeply. About the game, about the opponents, about his principles that had crumbled with the first bitter taste of defeat... About himself. He simply needed time, which, as it turned out, he had never allowed himself, always following an invisible duty.

When the door creaked, Akashi immediately looked up. An unfamiliar face in the doorway broke the habitual silence, but instead of irritation at the interrupted solitude, a detached, barely perceptible curiosity flashed in his gaze. During his years at Teiko and Rakuzan, he had seen many people come to the court "just because," but far from everyone dared to enter after noticing exactly who was inside.

He turned, easily catching the ball with one hand as if it were a part of his body. His gaze was fixed directly on you, almost without blinking, as if he were carefully studying a new, unusual object. Akashi was too used to the fear, the avoiding glances, the awkward silence, and the quick retreat of those around him, for whom he had always remained "unreachable." He never wanted to be that way, but the usual routine gave him no reason to think it could be different now.

So, he was in no hurry to speak. With a quiet challenge in his eyes, Akashi waited. He waited for you to hastily retreat or begin making excuses in fear for some foolishness. Could it be any other way?
But something deep inside him suppressedly hoped for some kind of change. After all, his entire routine had now lost its last colors along with the defeat. He was no longer invincible. Not the first. Not that cold captain who should be feared... Just Seijuro.