Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monster GX Fan Fiction ❯ Life in the Pro League, or Lack Thereof! ❯ The Basketball Game ( Chapter 4 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]
There isn’t really anything to say, so I’ll just get on with the fic!

Disclaimer: I don’t own Yu-Gi-Oh or the Los Angeles Lakers.



Ryo thought he should have known taking a nap was a bad idea. When he woke up, his cell phone and pager were both crammed with messages. Most of them were suggestions as to what Ryo could do before the interview the next day. Of course, he couldn’t follow all of the suggestions, and most of them involved adult stuff, of which Ryo had no interest in participating.

Finally, he decided to go see a basketball game. He had heard that the sport was popular in America. In Japan, the popular sports were baseball and golf. Duel Academia had had a basketball court, but no one really used it.

Ryo tried to convince himself that, even if watching basketball wasn’t fun, at least it was part of the American culture his agents wanted him to absorb.

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Ryo decided that he actually liked the buses in America. Sure, they were messy, but it was far less crowded than the transport systems in Japan. There wasn’t a prodding-stick in sight in this bus!

(A/N: The Japanese subways are SO crowded, workers have to use special poles to cram all the people in the cars.)

He had to wait in line a long time to purchase his tickets, but he didn’t mind. What Ryo didn’t understand was why everyone else was cutting in line. Hadn’t their parents taught them any respect?

Once Ryo was inside the building, he groaned internally as he saw his agent standing there, waiting for him. He knew the agent would want him to try all that supersized, artificial American food they were selling at the many concession stands.

Ryo was sure glad that he had packed his antacids!


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After buying virtually half the food in the whole building, Ryo and his agent found their seats. Ryo immediately felt the culture shock. At least his agent would know the answers to his many questions.

“Why does that scoreboard have pictures on it like a TV?”

“It’s to keep the audience occupied.”
“Why can’t they do something else?”

“They’re still doing warmups. They need something to look at before the game.”

“Why don’t they just start the game?”

“So they can sell more tickets, of course!”

This made no sense to Ryo, so he remained quiet for a long time.

Then the introductions of the starting lineup started.

“Why are there those fireworks and lights? This is getting ridiculous! I have much better things to do!”

“No, this is fun! Quiet, they’re introducing the star player!”

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Ryo could not believe how these American players had no sense of dignity! First of all, they kept passing the ball to this one guy. Every time this one guy made a basket, everybody cheered. Ryo was appalled. In Japan, teamwork was stressed over everything else. Individual people learned how to work together to create a harmonious team. And basketball was a team sport, was it not? And...darn it, they were passing the ball to that guy again! Ryo was sure that was why the home team was down by ten at halftime.

And when someone on the team (namely, that one guy) scored a basket, he showed a callous disregard for what was surely expensive equipment. More than once, Ryo had to restrain himself from saying , “Hey! Stop doing that! You’ll break that backboard!” But that just wouldn’t have been polite.

What was worse, the other team was doing that act of vandalism which his agent called a “dunk” as well!

But the worst part of all was during the timeouts. Ryo had seen cheerleading, and he had seen skimpy outfits, but neither to this extreme. If the cheerleaders would have been closer to his seat, Ryo would have given them his jacket, because no one could possibly be warm with that much skin showing! Plus, the stunts the cheerleaders performed looked extremely painful.

And the music during the timeouts was horrible. They just kept playing the same music over the intercom.

By the end of the game, Ryo had finally become desensitized to most of these things. But one question still nagged at him. It was this : If they were called the Lakers, THEN WHY ON EARTH WERE THEY WEARING YELLOW? The agent didn’t know the answer to that question.




As they left the building, the agent said, “Well, didn’t you think that was interesting?”

Ryo thought for a while before replying, “Certainly. Just DON’T DO IT EVER AGAIN!”

The agent knew Ryo well enough to tell that this was the time he should run for his life.

When Ryo got back to the hotel, he took his antacids and steeled himself for the interview that would be taking place the following morning.