Puppet's Escape

by Skull1412

ONE-SHOT After capture, Kuroko stopped speaking but meeting Koganei changes everything. Kuroko manages to get Koganei to escape to tell Seirin who automatically goes to save Kuroko from the animatronics in Miracles Diner. Every battle has sacrifices, and the animatronics are going to make sure there'll be sacrifices. Seirin might win though, especially with Haizaki on their side.

(Sequel to You Belong To Us Only)

One-Shot:

Ever since the death of Kagami Taiga, Kuroko had become a person with no soul inside. He would do what people asked liked a puppet without a comment, this worried the animatronics greatly, he did everything without argument but he never talked or showed not even a slight emotion anymore.

Midorima sighed as he went into the secret room they held Kuroko with breakfast on a tray that Akashi made, as he unlocked the door and was about to open the door he heard a muffled voice that belong to Kuroko.

Midorima placed his ear on the door, Kuroko didn't need to know that he was eavesdropping, he managed to hear Kuroko's voice somehow, "I wonder if Nigou is ok, I haven't seen him in so long, I wonder if Akashi-kun and the others would get him if I talked to them…"

Midorima's eyes widened, would Kuroko talk freely with them again if they got that dog? He had to tell Akashi this! After he gave Kuroko his breakfast of course.

"Kuroko here's breakfast." Midorima announced as he swung open the door making Kuroko's mouth snap shut, Midorima was able to catch the wonder in Kuroko's eyes before they became void of emotion.

Midorima raised his eyebrows like he didn't overhear Kuroko's words, "You better eat Kuroko, you know we can't sneak you a meal whenever we want."

Kuroko didn't say or do anything as he stare at Midorima without emotion, Midorima sighed and went over and set the tray on Kuroko's lap. Kuroko mechanically picked up the spoon and ate his breakfast pausing to only take sip of the orange juice given to him.

It was only when he finished without leaving a single drop of piece behind Midorima took the tray and left with the usual click of the lock.

Kuroko sighed and laid down on the bed and fell into another dreamless sleep, it had been forever to him since he couldn't tell night to day in his little prison anyways.

Midorima sighed as he heard the creak of the bed and a shift in the blankets from the room, Kuroko didn't do much anymore, not since the event happened before muttering as he left, "I better tell Akashi about that dog."

"Are we going to take care of that dog though?" Midorima asked to himself.

"What dog Midorimacchi?" a familiar voice asked.

Midorima turned to see nobody other than Kise, "I think I figured out how to make Kuroko talk to us."

Kise visibly brightened at that one sentence, "Really?! Midorimacchi's the best! What do we need to get?"

Midorima sighed at his fellow animatronic, "I'll tell when everyone is gathered, help me out and get Aomine and Momoi, I'll get Murasakibara, by then Akashi should know something's up."

Kise shivered at the last part, Akashi somehow always knew, it was really creepy, he seemed to know things, it especially creeped costumers out when he'd go up to a child and say something like 'You'll die in a car accident at Isoie Street next week on Tuesday at 4:23 p.m.' That child would never came back since the person would indeed die at that very place, day, and time.

"I see, I'll go get them then! I think they are getting the stage ready today!" Kise chirped as if he never had that shiver and sped off to the stage area yelling, "AOMINECCHI! MOMOICCHI!"

Midorima sighed again and went straight to the cafeteria knowing that Midorima would be once again eating the snacks despite him not being able to digest it but thanks to Kuroko he got to taste the sweets, how they managed to get Murasakibara taste buds is beyond him, at least they gave the rest of the animatronics taste buds too, that was a positive.

"Mido-chin, what are you doing here~" Murasakibara asked as he ate another donut from the pantry.

"I might've found a way to make Kuroko talk to us." Midorima said, Murasakibara dropped the donut he was about to eat and grabbed Midorima from the shirt he wore, lifted him up, and said in a dangerous tone, "How do we make Kuro-chin talk to us?"

Midorima however was unfazed by his position of dangling from the air, "We have to meet Akashi and the others first Murasakibara."

Murasakibara growled but let Midorima down and the two walked out of the cafeteria but bumped into Kise, Aomine, and Momoi not too long ago.

"Midorin! Is it true you know how to have Tetsu-kun talk to us again!" Momoi asked desperately.

Aomine was standing upright and staring right into Midorima's eyes, he slouched right down after he determined that Midorima had indeed found a way but Akashi wasn't here ye-.

"What was that Daiki?" Akashi cut into his thoughts.

Aomine jumped suddenly before falling to the floor and grumbled quietly, "Oh yeah that demon would be here faster than the speed of light if it dealt with Tetsu."

"I see, Daiki, you really want to leave this Earth don't you?" Akashi said pleasantly with a smile as his nails sharpened and was about to position his hand to cut Aomine's arm, he wasn't dumb enough to kill a fellow animatronic.

The nails did the trick though as Aomine straightened right up at the sight of the nails and backed away in fear as he stared wide-eyed at the nails.

Midorima felt a tad bit of pity, a bit mind you, and decide to speak up, "We might need Aomine to get what we need for Kuroko."

Akashi paused, "Is that so? Very well, Daiki, you're off this time only since we need you."

Aomine sighed in relief and gave Midorima a grateful look, Midorima scoffed and looked away while lifted his glasses up.

"So what do we need Shintaro?" Akashi asked impatiently, they had to get to the stage soon.

Midorima took a breath, "His dog."

There was a brief silence before the barrage of skeptics.

"His dog?" "Nigou?" "The little demon?" "Tetsu-kun lookalike?"

Midorima rubbed his temples, not really doing much though, he was made mostly out of metal, "Let's continue this after work hours, this place opens in 5 minutes and the fat night guard is probably leaving for good again."

"Ah! We have to hurry before the owner comes in!" Kise panicked and the Generation of Miracles ran to the stage faster than the speed of light could ever achieve.

"You should have warned us beforehand Midorin!" Momoi reprimanded as they got into position they were the day before.

"Sorry." Midorima said, not sounding sorry at all but they all fell silent and motionless as the owner came in and turned on the lights.

"I can't believe you guys! You stage on the stage all night but every single night guard leaves or disappears! Even that Kuroko guy who you all loved so much! I don't even think he was worth hiring; the little brat is still in school after all. He was a little brat alright demanding requests for stupid robots; at least the robots make money for me!" The owner ranted as he turned and walked away not seeing the flash of pitch black in the animatronics' eyes as they glared at the owner.

"He insulted Kurokocchi." Kise whispered angrily.

"We'll deal with him tonight, nobody will notice him anyways." Akashi growled.

"That old fart never really attended the work hours and never visited employees anyways, just turn on the lights every day when the place is opening up and there we go, nobody will notice the difference." Aomine grunted.

"Dai-chan is right for once, let's finish him off." Momoi chuckled darkly.

"Ye-What do you mean for once?!" Aomine whispered a little loudly only for everyone to snap back into place when the owner came back and looked at them puzzledly before leaving again.

"You almost blew over cover Ahominecchi!" Kise yelled in a whisper.

"Excuse me if he happened to make an extra round without me knowing!" Aomine retorted back in a shout inside a whisper.

"Whisper shouting, that's new." Midorima muttered to himself.

"Silence or I'll cut your tongue out." Akashi demanded in a small voice but still held the same power as if he was talking normally.

Everyone automatically closed their mouths and stayed still until the costumers came in, that was when they came to life, they waved to the kids who enthusiastically waved back but the adults either scoffed, smiled, or looked away in disgust.

"Hello kids! Welcome to Miracle's Diner! I hope you'll have fun with us today!" Akashi said in an announcing tone with a professional, fake smile on his face, only the other animatronics and Kuroko, who stated on the first time meeting him, much to his shock, knew that it was a fake smile and Akashi despised saying it every time especially in front of adults.

"Kiddos! Let's play basketball! 3-on-3!" Aomine shouted as he ran with the other little kids and some adults to the mini-basketball court ignoring the cry of Kise who shouted, "AOMINECCHI! I WAS GONNA DO THAT!" That made the kids following Aomine giggle.

Midorima looked at the kids who looked right back at him and stated boredly, "I'm going to read a book that has complicated words."

The kids groaned and went to Kise who was pretending to be a clown, Murasakibara who was baking in front of the kids and adults, much to their distaste, or Akashi who was doing role-play with the kids about a king in a poor town and he made them prosper into a magnificent kingdom.

Midorima smirked, books, a thing that always made kids leave, everyone except for Kuroko when he was a child up to the point of his current age. He remembered the day Kuroko first came to Miracle's Diner; that was an eventful day alright.

~Flashback~

"Hello kids! Welcome to Miracle's Diner! I hope you'll have fun with us today!" Akashi said with his fake smile, the introduction was getting so tiring that he started to hate it.

"You're lying," a quiet voice said suddenly and the room got quiet as everyone stared a teal haired boy who stared right into Akashi's eyes like he was seeing everything about Akashi.

"Excuse me?" Akashi asked in a calm voice but inside he was happy that someone other than the animatronics could see that he hated that, this boy was special.

"You hate saying that, this is my first time here and I already know that you said that every day, so many times that you hate it, you don't want to say it anymore but you have to." the boy stated in a knowing tone.

Around him were scoffs and whispers of the kids and adults saying things like, "What would a kid like him know?" or "The first time here and he already thinks he's a big shot by embarrassing Akashi?"

Kuroko continued to stare at Akashi in the eye ignoring everyone else, "You know, you don't have to fake it, I came here to have fun, but if you aren't having fun, why should I? Everyone can be selfish and take everything they want not caring about others, but if this is what you guys are, phonies, I'm leaving and demanding my money back, my mom needs it more than me watching fakes."

The animatronics' eyes widened at the boy, he was serious, this little boy who couldn't be more than 4 was saying such things. Kuroko turned around and was about to leave until Akashi called out to him.

"Wait, how's this smile?" Akashi asked and smiled a genuine smile at the boy who turned around and looked at Akashi again, genuine smiles from Akashi was rare but the others in the room besides the animatronics and Kuroko couldn't tell the difference and whispers started again.

Kuroko slowly nodded, "That's the smile I want to see, if I see another fake one from any of you again I'm leaving and never coming back you hear?"

The animatronics nodded, the message was clear after all, I can tell real from fake, if fake, well see you never.

"What's your name?" Kise asked.

"Kuroko Tetsuya, 7 years old, I don't know your names, can you tell me?" Kuroko asked.

The animatronics were surprised; he really looked like a 4 year old, was he really 7 years old? Kuroko knew what they were thinking and glared at them as if challenging them to say otherwise, they wisely avoided the topic of age and went to introduce themselves.

"I'm Kise!" Kise shouted happily but Kuroko raised an eyebrow, "That's it? I doubt it, you have a first name."

Kise smiled brightly at Kuroko, nobody ever asked for his first name before, "Kise Ryota, call me Ryota Kurokocchi!"

The children started to shout Ryota too but Kise quickly stopped them by doing something he never did before, he yelled, "ONLY KUROKOCCHI CAN CALL ME THAT!"

The kids cowered behind adults who looked shocked at the animatronic, he was usually bubbly and friendly; this was not expected.

"I think Ki-chin speaks for all of us on that." Murasakibara stated lazily before turning to Kuroko, "Murasakibara Atsushi, call me Atsushi Kuro-chin."

"Aomine Daiki," Aomine said lazily but gave Kuroko a wide grin, "Call me Daiki you hear Tetsu?"

"Momoi Satsuki! Call me Satsuki ok Tetsu-kun!" Momoi chirped.

Midorima scoffed and looked away while lifting his glasses higher on his nose before saying, "Midorima Shintaro, call me Shintaro Kuroko or I won't talk to you."

Akashi was last as he gave a short bow, "Akashi Seijuro, call me Seijuro Tetsuya, or I will have to make you say it."

Kuroko deadpanned at them, "I will not call you by your first name, it is impolite, also, if call you such it would make me special, which I'm not, so I will call you Kise-kun, Murasakibara-kun, Aomine-kun, Momoi-san, Midorima-kun, and Akashi-kun."

The animatronics frowned, they wanted this boy to call them by first name, but this boy just effused whereas other kids would squeal or shouted in happiness.

A large boy came up behind Kuroko and pushed him down harshly and said, "You brat! Who are you to disrespect them like that! They let you have a special privilege so take it! That or go away cause we kids don't want you here!"

The kids muttered in agreement and glared at Kuroko, the adults didn't care it was just a kid fight that would end in a few minutes, the animatronics on the other hand, their eyes went pitch black and lunged at the large boy who pushed Kuroko down with wide mouths and triangular teeth. The child screamed in fear at he was pinned down by the 6 animatronics.

"STOP!" Kuroko demanded strongly making the animatronics stop from biting his head off; they looked at him with their pitch black eyes and their mouths were going to a slightly open position as they stared curiously.

Kuroko slowly got up from the floor and went and slowly patted their heads and said, "Thank you for being protective of me but I'm ok so please leave him alone."

Their eyes slowly returned to normal and they slowly got up from the floor leaving the boy, who was bawling on the floor with snot running down his nose, alone.

Kuroko went over to the boy making the animatronics tense again but Kuroko patted his head and said softly, "It's not your fault, you didn't like the special treatment, but I don't want it so can we please be friends?"

The boy sniffed up his snot and nodded at Kuroko with teary eyes but had a huge smile on his face. Kuroko smiled gently at the boy and helped him up by lending a hand.

Everyone was silent as they watched the interaction between the two boys. The animatronics were frowning though, the precious boy didn't have to be friends with that boy, the boy pushed him down.

"What's your name?" Kuroko asked.

"Ogiwara Shigehiro! Nice to meet you Kuroko!" Ogiwara said brightly.

Kuroko just smiled, "Nice to meet you too."

"Are you just going to leave my kid standing here all day watching this stupid scene or are you going to play with my child!" an angry and annoyed adult shouted.

Kuroko straightened up and turned to the animatronics and bowed to a 90 degree angle and said, "Of course, Akashi-kun, Midorima-kun, Kise-kun, Momoi-chan, Murasakibara-kun, and Aomine-kun, sorry for inconveniencing you, please go with your usual activities."

Akashi nodded, as much as he wanted to spend with Kuroko he had a place to run whether he wanted to or not, "Sorry for the wait! Let us play shall we?"

The kids quickly forgot the scene they just saw and cheered and raced up to the animatronics but left Midorima when he stated that he was reading a complicated book, everyone except Kuroko.

Midorima raised an eyebrow as he picked up his book, "Do you really want me to read this book to you?"

Kuroko looked impassively and simply said, "I already read that book and remember it word for word, I remember everything I encounter, quiz me if you want."

Midorima smirked, "I'll be the judge of that memory of yours, challenge start."

Kuroko face never changed but his eyes said it for him, 'Bring It On Dude.'

"What's the 3rd sentence on page 45, paragraph 2?"

"I shall not leave thee for if the dreaded Nighur comes, I'll stay by thy side."

"Page 65, paragraph 3, 2nd sentence."

"Thy promised to not die, stay awake my dear for help is on thine's way and thee shall live."

"Page 1, paragraph 1, 1st sentence."

"To people out there, this story thy shall see the real world and know that everything is not for thine's wishes."

Midorima smirked as he closed the book, for sure, word for word, this boy hit point on.

"Good job Kuroko." he congratulated.

"Hn, Come with me to play with the other animatronics Midorima-kun, you must've been lonely here alone before." Kuroko said and grabbed Midorima's hand and dragged him over to Murasakibara who was making crepes.

"Ah, Kuro-chin, do you want a crepe? Mido-chin too?" Murasakibara asked as he spotted the two coming over to his place.

"Murasakibara-kun, a vanilla crepe please, and Midorima-kun?" Kuroko asked Midorima who looked away and said, "Red bean soup type you can."

"I can't do that one though Mido-chin, that's soup." Murasakibara pouted.

"Ah, my mother loves that flavor; I can make it if you'll allow me to make it Murasakibara-kun." Kuroko requested.

"Hmm, if it's Kuro-chin, it's ok." Murasakibara drawled and scooted over letting Kuroko squeeze in the tiny kitchen in the rather large room.

"I should request a larger kitchen in this very large room for you Murasakibara-kun." Kuroko commented.

"Please do Kuro-chin." Murasakibara said absentmindingly.

"Very well, I shall do that." Kuroko said and produced different red bean soup products out of nowhere.

"Kuroko, where did you get all of that?" Midorima asked incredulously.

"If you spend just an hour with my mother, you'd realized, get as much red bean soup products as you can before you die by her hands." Kuroko said nonchantly.

Midorima sweatdropped at the teal-haired boy, should he be afraid of his mother if they ever met?

"Actually, can you even taste them since you are animatronics, no offense." Kuroko asked.

"None taken but no, we can't taste anything." Midorima said.

"Then why do you like red bean soup? Also, I'll have to request you getting taste buds too, where does all the food go if you consume it?" Kuroko asked some more questions.

"Because I know if I had taste buds I would like it, please do request that, and we have a compartment where the food goes so we just take it out and dump it in the trash." Midorima said patiently.

"Oh, that's interesting; here you go Midorima-kun, when you get taste buds I'll make another one for you so that you can really taste it." Kuroko said.

"Thank you Kuroko." Midorima thanked.

"Kuro-chin, I want you to make me a crepe when I get taste buds too." Murasakibara whined.

"I'll Akashi-kun and everyone else crepe so don't worry Murasakibara-kun." Kuroko assured.

"Yay. Here's your crepe Kuro-chin." Murasakibara handed the vanilla crepe to Kuroko immediately dug into it.

"It's very good Murasakibara-kun, thank you." Kuroko complimented.

"You're welcome Kuro-chin~" Murasakibara said before turning back to the chocolate and strawberry crepe he was making for a little 5 year old girl.

"Let's go to Kise-kun now Midorima-kun, he's trying to do a backflip, I wanna tease him for failing." Kuroko urged as he once again took Midorima's hand and dragged him over to the crying Kise on the floor.

"Hey Kise-kun, did you fall?" Kuroko teased.

"Kurokocchi! So mean!" Kise wailed.

"I'm so sorry." he said in a monotone voice but they knew he didn't mean the apology, "Please excuse my rudeness."

"Kurokocchi is so mean to me!" Kise wailed some more as he latched onto Kuroko and shook him lightly.

"Kise-kun, please let me go, I'm getting dizzy." Kuroko said in a monotone voice.

"Kise! Let him go now!" Midorima ordered and Kise automatically let Kuroko go in fear of Midorima's harsh voice of demand.

"Thank you Midorima-kun, and Kise-kun, please don't do that again." Kuroko said calmly as he got up and fixed his hair and shirt.

"I'm so sorry Kurokocchi!" Kise apologized profusely as he fell to his knees and bowed down low as his head hit the ground again and again.

"Kise-kun, Kise-kun, please stop, its ok." Kuroko said worriedly as he rushed over and tried to grab Kise's shoulder but was too short.

Kuroko made a last ditch effort and jumped on Kise's lap as he went up from another one of his bow and settled in his lap, Kise froze from his position and stared at Kuroko who soon laid his head against Kise's chest.

Midorima's glasses cracked at the sight of an adorable Kuroko looking so cute as he laid against Kise's chest with a too-adorable-to be-legal determined smile.

"K-K-Kurokocchi!" Kise stuttered as he blushed thanks to a certain program and if he could get a nosebleed he would certainly get one now.

"Are you going to stop now Kise-kun?" Kuroko asked as he looked up and Kise covered his tomato red face with his hands, Kuroko was too cute!

"Kise-kun, why are you red?" Kuroko asked bewildered.

"N-Nothing! Nothing at all! I'll stop so please get up Kurokocchi!" Kise rambled.

"I see, ok then." Kuroko agreed, got up, and just now noticed the crack in Midorima's glasses, "Midorima-kun how did your glasses break?"

"A kid threw a rock at me." Midorima said quickly.

Kuroko frowned, "That's not nice, are you ok Midorima-kun, you didn't get hurt did you?"

"No, made out of metal remember?" Midorima said.

"Oh yeah, at least you didn't get hurt, do you have a spare of glasses?" Kuroko asked.

"No."

"I'll request for spares too then."

"Please do and thank you."

"No worries, let's go to Momoi-san shall we? Accessories I think is what she does."

"That is what Momoi do, how did you know anyways?"

"The kids around me are squealing about the cute little accessories Momoi-san gave them to try."

"I see…"

"Let's go then Midorima-kun, I think you'd look good with a bright pink bow on that head of yours." Kuroko said calmly as he dragged a horrified Midorima and left a laughing Kise with the kids again.

"Tetsu-kun! Midorin! Why are you both here? Did you manage to get Midorima out of that reading corner Tetsu-kun?" Momoi gushed as she saw the two going in.

"Yes I did Momoi-san; may I request a bright pink bow for Midorima-kun?" Kuroko said monotone like he never said such an embarrassing request.

Midorima's horrified face became more horrified as he realized that Kuroko was going through it, he was doomed to wear a bright pink bow on his head.

Momoi's eyes widened in shock before giggling, "Sure Tetsu-kun, I happened to have one today, what about you?"

"He will wear teal-colored cat ears and tails," Midorima interjected and said to Kuroko who giving him a death glare without even moving a face muscle, "My revenge for making me that bow."

Momoi was full on laughing at this point; they were so cute with the way they were interacting with each other. She walked away and looked for the required items.

"Midorima-kun, that wasn't necessary." Kuroko said still giving Midorima the death glare.

"If I wear a bright pink bow then you wear cat ears and tail." Midorima stated.

"It's not fair, it's 2-on-1, you have to wear make-up then." Kuroko retorted and then said to a returning Momoi, "Get a make-up kit please, Midorima-kun was being unfair and I have to make him get make-up on."

Momoi laughed again, Midorima wearing make-up? Oh she had to get the make-up kit alright, Kuroko was a miracle worker, she really wanted to get Midorima to wear make-up for a while and Kuroko just granted that.

"I will not! Momoi! Don't get the make-up kit you hear me!" Midorima protested.

"I'll get it Tetsu-kun! Wait for me and keep an eye on Midorin, he might try to run." Momoi said in an amused tone as she Midorima try to just that but Kuroko caught his shirt without having to even look at the said animatronic.

"Where are you going Midorima-kun? You haven't put on the bow and we still need the make-up." Kuroko said calmly as Midorima sweated profusely.

Momoi practically skipped back with a full-on make-up kit specially made for animatronics. Midorima's eyes widened at the kit of make-up while Kuroko had a wicked gleam in his eyes as he looked at the kit.

"Here you go Tetsu-kun! Are you the one applying it?" Momoi asked happily.

"Yes I am Momoi-san; I have experience with my mother." Kuroko said a little too happily.

"Perfect! Call me when you're done so I can take a picture ok?" Momoi said as she clapped her hands together.

"I will Momoi-san, don't worry." Kuroko agreed.

"Momoi! Why!" Midorima practically wailed.

"Now now Midorima-kun, stay still so I can apply it correctly or it'll smear." Kuroko chastised as he picked up the kit from Momoi.

Midorima struggled as Kuroko jumped on his lap and was about to put on the make-up on his metal face. Kuroko frowned, lowered the brush, took off Midorima's glasses, and picked up the brush again.

"No! Kuroko! I refuse to put on make-up!" Midorima yelled.

"That's too bad isn't it?" the 7 year old said as he started to put eyeliner on Midorima who given up on struggling and just glared at Kuroko.

Kuroko didn't seem bothered that he was being glared at and was adding a light blush on Midorima's right cheek. This continued for 10 minutes before Kuroko announced that he was done, he didn't really do much, just a dab here, a quick placement there, but it was hard since he couldn't seem to find the right amount for Midorima's face, and once he was done he placed the glasses back on Midorima's face to complete the look.

Lastly, Kuroko placed a large bright pink bow on Midorima's head and fixed it so it balanced and was set so it wouldn't fall off easily.

Midorima felt like he never really had make up on, he felt the same way every day except the part about knowing full well he had make-up on, and the pink bow for that matter.

"Momoi-san." Kuroko called for the pink-haired girl who was on them in the speed of light.

"Tetsu-kun!" she gasped as she saw Midorima's face, "It looks perfect! Not too much make-up so it's completely obvious but just enough so the lighting makes it looks just right; it's so perfect how'd you do it!"

Momoi then cracked up as she spotted the bow, she fell to the ground laughing harshly that she had to cross her hands to her side and curl up into a ball from laughing so hard.

"I helped my mother a lot that's all Momoi-san; I picked up a few things that's all." Kuroko dismissed as he paid no heed to the laughing girl and placed cat ears and tails on himself, Midorima had make-up on and his bow, he mine as well go to his part of his deal and put them on.

Midorima's glasses cracked even more and Momoi stopped laughing as she stared wide-eyed at Kuroko who was looking at them innocently.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, his cat ears tilted downwards as if following along with Kuroko's movement.

"N-N-Nothing at all! Can I take a picture of you too Tetsu-kun?" Momoi asked excitingly as her eyes were glued to the ear that tilted, darn it, that single movement made Kuroko so much cuter than the illegal cuteness he already had!

"Um, if you want Momoi-san." Kuroko said uncomfortably as he looked to the ground in embarrassment.

Momoi grew moe flowers around her at Kuroko's cute unintentional pose and took 1,285 pictures a second of the 7 year old.

Midorima was watching the scene through his cracked glasses and grew a light blush on his cheeks when Kuroko looked up and gave him wide eyes that was clearly asking for help, he was too darn cute!

"Momoi, we still need to go to Aomine and Akashi and I don't think taking millions of pictures will help." Midorima interjected Momoi's photograph spree.

Momoi turned and took a perfect picture of Midorima before lowering the camera, "Fine, Tetsu-kun, come again ok! I want to dress you up more!"

Kuroko nodded uncertainly, Momoi was a fun person but get on certain sides, well, good luck getting out. The two left Momoi's little dressing place and went over to the mini-basketball court that was apparently also in the room but very cramped as it was right in the middle of the room full of people.

"Yo Tetsu! Ah, Midorima too I guess…" Aomine said the last part picking his nose.

"Hello Aomine-kun, how are you fairing in this crowded court?" Kuroko asked as a grown-up walked right past him not caring that the game was ruined because of him when a kid was about to pass but had to redirect it so it wouldn't hit the adult causing the ball to fall into a crowd and was lost in the sea of people.

"Not so well, I wish I had more space here." Aomine confessed as he watched yet again another adult breezed through the court without a care, also trying to not look at Kuroko's cat ears and tail, too adorable, bad thoughts, bad thoughts, think about Midorima wearing make-up and a bright pink bow, oh wait…

"I'll request a basketball court in a different room so it isn't so crowded, how about that?" Kuroko offered suddenly, jostling Aomine out of his thoughts.

"Really?! You're a life-saver Tetsu!" Aomine grinned.

Kuroko let out a small smile, "No worries Aomine-kun, you'll get that big court soon."

Aomine grinned and produced another ball out of nowhere, it wasn't a regular ball though, the animatronics first and last names were on it with different colors matching their hair and eye color, Aomine held out a teal marker which he yet again produced out of nowhere.

Kuroko stared at the marker as if puzzled and Aomine rolled his eyes, "Write your first and last name on it Tetsu."

Kuroko took the marker and slowly wrote his name as if afraid he'll mess up on the basketball, not exactly realizing that Kise's and Murasakibara's name were messily written without a care.

Aomine's grin widened as Kuroko capped the marker again once he finished writing his name on the basketball. Kuroko returned both items while Midorima scoffed, the basketball didn't really mean much to anyone else but to Aomine it was precious, why it was is beyond him.

"See you later Tetsu! The day is almost over and you still need to see Akashi right? Come by again and we can play basketball together, just you and me you hear?" Aomine said as he gave Kuroko a fist-bump.

"Yes, I would like that Aomine-kun." Kuroko said as he glanced up to the clock and saw only 20 minutes left, and so the two, ignoring Aomine's yell of how beautiful Midorima must be feeling with that make-up, went over to Akashi's role-play of a fairy tale with the usual prince-save-princess look to it.

"Tetsuya, Shintaro, hello, I hope you had fun." Akashi greeted as he called break for the exhausted but happy kids who were playing in on the story too.

"Hello Akashi-kun."

"I told you to call me Seijuro."
"I'm sorry Akashi-san."
"It's Seijuro."
"Terribly sorry Red Head."

"Sei-ju-ro."

"I'm sorry for getting your name wrong Shortie."

"…Akashi-kun it is then."

Kuroko held up a peace sign to a gaping Midorima, did the great Akashi just lose to a kid?! This isn't possible, then again, so was getting make-up on him.

"Nice make-up Shintaro, you should wear it more often." Akashi said with an amused smirk to get back at Midorima's thoughts.

Midorima groaned, he just had to rub it in didn't he?

"Yes, yes I do." Akashi said, once again reading Midorima's thoughts.

"Akashi-kun, may I be in your role-play as well?" Kuroko asked, his cat ears perked up in hope.

Akashi smirked, "Very well but you must be the role of my lover."

Kuroko looked confused as to why Akashi would want him to play the role of the princess but agreed nonetheless, Midorima, however, choked on his spit at the one sentence, Kuroko was too young to be hit on darn it!

The role-play itself was a surprise, instead of the usual prince-saves-princess Kuroko changed it into the princess doing things on her own, saving the world in her own way and not caring about what other people thought of her, forging forward until meeting the prince who she slapped harshly when he asked for her to be his wife and yelled at him saying that if he loved her like that at first sight then certainly he did it to others, she didn't want to marry a dirty playboy and left.

After that the play ended and so did the last 20 minutes and when Kuroko was about to leave Akashi grabbed onto his arm.

"Do you need something Akashi-kun?" Kuroko asked curiously.

Akashi smiled at Kuroko but had a pleading hint in it, "Come back soon?"

Kuroko smiled and nodded, "It was fun, nothing was fake and I enjoyed everyone's company, I'll come again when my mom lets me ok?"

By then all the animatronics were there and they were smiling too, well Midorima's was as bit smaller mind you, and together they said in their happiest tone they ever spoke in, "Come back to Miracle's Diner again Kuroko Tetsuya! We'll show you a better time than today for sure!"

Kuroko for the first time in his life, grinned the biggest grin on his face and shouted as he ran to the exit giving all of them a wave, "I'll see you soon!"

~Flashback End~

Midorima sighed as he skimmed through the already read book; it was a really good day that day, but not long after that very day Kuroko's mother died and his father went into debt, he still snuck in thanks to their help but he was having a hard time outside of the diner which made the animatronics worry about him greatly.

Luckily when he reached middle school he smacked his father repeatedly until he came back to the living, his father got a stable job and slowly got out of debt but when Kuroko reached high school his father died in a car accident thanks to a drunk driver.

Kuroko had gotten a job and couldn't come as much but came as much as he could, when the night guard shift came up they instantly wanted Kuroko to take it but one after another people filled in the role before Kuroko could even try.

Midorima growled, scaring away the kids that were near him, "Midorimacchi, you look so angry!"

Midorima looked up to see Kise balancing on a large with one foot that was in a tippy-toe position, he was juggling a plastic vase, a dog toy, an orange, a calculator, and duct tape, his face had a blue tear on his right cheek and a purple colored tear on his left, he started to paint it on his face since Kuroko insisted it looked good him.

"I am not angry." Midorima denied with a scowl.

"So scary Midorimacchi! So very, very scary~" Kise teased.

Midorima threw his book at the large ball Kise was balancing on and Kise fell harshly. The kids swarmed around Kise asking if he was ok or if he was hurt.

"I'm fine…don't worry about me…" Kise groaned from the floor and Midorima felt a little bit of victory in his chest.

Just then a bell rang in the building signaling the end of the day for the diner so they could close the place, Midorima blinked, the flashback was longer than he thought apparently.

The kids ran to the exit with their guardians or parents shouting their goodbyes to the animatronics as they left. Midorima saw Kise volunteer to bring Kuroko some food and race off with a bowl of rice, small, rolled up egg omelets, and a cup of milk.

Kise had a smile on his face as he ran to the secret room, Kuroko was definitely going to like this dish, his favorite food was involved, eggs! Too bad they ran out of vanilla milkshakes though, at least Kuroko could have eggs.

"Kuroko! What are you doing here?!" an unknown voice was heard.

Kise paused from his walk, someone saw Kuroko and they know Kuroko?! This was bad, Kise gently placed the tray on the floor, he didn't want to ruin Kuroko's meal later, and ran towards the secret room at full speed.

He stopped when he spotted a boy who looked a little older than Kuroko, his brown hair was sticking out in angles but not as bad as Kuroko's, his brown eyes were widen in shock, and his mouth looked like one of a cat.

Kise was about to kill the boy when he heard Kuroko's hoarse yet still melodious voice after so long but it held a desperate tone in it, "Koganei-sempai?! Quick! Get out of here before they see you here!"

"Kuroko what are you talking abo-" Koganei trailed off as he spotted Kise who stepped into view of both Koganei and Kuroko.

Kuroko gasped, "Kise-kun," he started to plead in fear of Koganei's life, "Please don't hurt Koganei-sempai! He didn't know I was here!"

"Sorry Kurokocchi but he found out," Kise said dangerously, "I have to eliminate him before he tells someone else, we don't want that now do we?"

Koganei trembled as Kise glared down at him, Kuroko looked around desperately but he couldn't find anything that would help him get Koganei to escape, he couldn't lift the bed since it was nailed to the floor.

"Kise-kun please!" he tried to plead again.

"Kurokocchi, you know that I'll kill him anyways, don't try to stop me." Kise growled and was walking towards a shaking Koganei.

Kuroko made up his mind and charge his small body towards Kise's metal one. He successfully made Kise collapse and hit the floor, luckily Kise's head banged on the floor causing him to black out for a few minutes.

Kuroko quickly took Koganei's arm and dragged him towards a secret exit he found one day that the animatronics didn't even know about miraculously.

"Hurry Koganei-sempai! You got to escape or else they'll kill you!" Kuroko urged and Koganei successfully got out of his terrified trance and began running with Kuroko.

Kuroko pushed Koganei into the entrance of the secret exit, "Run straight ahead and wait before going out! Don't let the others know you're here and that you saw me!"

"Kuroko you have to come too! I'm not leaving you here!" Koganei argued.

Kuroko held an odd gleam in his eyes, "No Koganei-sempai, I can't leave here or else they'll go after Riko-sempai and everyone else."

Koganei met Kuroko's eye that was filled with determination, "I'll get the others and save you soon Kuroko, please, please bear with it until then."

Kuroko smiled wearily and nodded, he motioned for Koganei to go quickly and Koganei did just that but not without giving Kuroko a determined look.

Kuroko watched until Koganei couldn't be seen anymore before saying suddenly, "Akashi-kun, why did you let Koganei-sempai go?"

Akashi came out from the corner of the hallway, "Did you want me to kill him Tetsuya?"

Kuroko shook his head, "No, I just didn't think you would let him escape, I was ready to fight you so he would escape."

Akashi chuckled, "I'm just killing a lot of birds with one stone Tetsuya, when your friends come we'll be ready to take them down so we can finish this off for good so you belong to us only."

Kuroko didn't move when Akashi left knowing that Kuroko would go back to the room on his own. Kuroko felt tears threatening to fall; he was probably leading his friends in to die because he was so selfish.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as the tears eventually fell from his face and fell to the floor sobbing, "I'm so sorry everyone, forgive me for doing this."

"Kurokocchi…" Kise murmured as he looked at the boy, he was crying as well, why did Kuroko hurt himself by letting that boy go? He should've just died; he would've died if Akashi didn't stop him.

"Oi Kise." Aomine said roughly as he went up to the crying animatronic and patted his head reluctantly, "It isn't your fault Kise, Tetsu will be ok."

Kise turned and buried his head into Aomine's shirt wetting it, "B-But Kurokocchi's sad and crying, I can't do anything either."

Aomine sighed, "He'll be ok, later he will only belong to us only, his friends will come and we'll finish them off, Tetsu will have to stay with us."

Kise nodded, his head still buried in Aomine's voice, "Kurokocchi will stay with us forever and ever right?"

Aomine grinned lightly, "Yeah, he will."
Kise felt a huge grin grow on his face, "I like that idea Aominecchi."

"Let's go, we have get that thing for Tetsu, Midorima is announcing it soon." Aomine nudged Kise.

"What about Kurokocchi?" Kise asked as he pulled his face out of Aomine's face.

"He'll go back to the room on his own, I think we don't need to lock the room anymore, he's staying with us." Aomine chuckled happily but it had an insane sound in it.

"Aominecchi sounds so evil with that laugh." Kise chuckled as he stood up fulling and Aomine made an indignant sound.

Aomine then ran to the other side of the hallway, "Hurry up idiot! Akashi will kill us if we are late."

Kise paled and ran full speed along with Aomine not paying heed to Kuroko who just rounded the corner and was asking him to help him back to the room.

"I guess I have to find the room on my own, my adrenaline helped me find the exit but I don't have it anymore." Kuroko said before sighing at his hopelessness.

"Now then, let's go the opposite way Kise-kun went." Kuroko said with a little smile, he mind as well explore this place since he had the excuse of being lost, he never been in this place before after all.

Kuroko left but the image of Koganei flashed through his mind and he paused for a second before continue, at least he escaped, he still had a life while Kuroko was bound to this diner, even if it's only a little while, Kuroko prayed that Koganei would have more time before he came back.

Koganei sneezed once again in the process of his run and shivered, hopefully it wasn't the animatronics talking about him, he was already tired enough.

"Oi! Koganei! Where were you for practice?!" a familiar angry tone reached Koganei's ears who whipped his head around to see a scowling Hyuuga and a smiling Kiyoshi despite his smile had less of his usual brightness ever since they realized Kuroko was missing.

"HYUUGA! KIYOSHI!" Koganei shouted in happiness as he jumped towards them and landed in Hyuuga.

"G-Get off me Koganei!" Hyuuga shouted after he hit the cold ground of the sidewalk.

"What's wrong Koganei?" Kiyoshi asked his smile getting a little brighter at the scene off a ticked off Hyuuga trying to get a crying Koganei off of him.

Koganei snapped into serious and took a quick scan of the area around the three before saying, "Get the rest of Seirin first before I tell you anything."

Hyuuga looked shocked before asking, "Why would we need Seirin?"

Koganei took a deep breath, "I found Kuroko."

Kiyoshi looked shock but unlike the frozen Hyuuga he swiped out his phone and texted the other basketball teammates to go to Seirin's gym once again pronto and that it was important, miss out and die by his own hands.

"You two get up, we need to go to Seirin's gym again, hurry up." Kiyoshi said roughly, Kuroko was like his little brother darn it, he needed to know where Kuroko is now but he also knew the others had to know as well.

The two who was on the floor scrambled up, Hyuuga, despite being captain, knew well enough not to tick off Kiyoshi if he was in this state, it was not pleasant, Koganei only got up because he never seen this side of Kiyoshi and decided that Kiyoshi would be ticked off if he didn't get off and would kill him despite his usual happy-go-lucky state.

"Hurry up; we need to tell the others about Kuroko." Kiyoshi ordered and the three ran the fastest they ever ran towards their school gym.

Kuroko sneezed once again, he rubbed his nose as he continued down the creepy hallway that barely had any lighting in it, he peeked into a room and gasped.

There was another animatronic, but unlike the others, this once was beaten up and had missing parts, his silver hair matted down on his face with oil running down his head to his clothes as he slumped down the far wall.

Kuroko slowly went in and the animatronic suddenly snapped up being rewarded with a small squeak from Kuroko. The animatronic had one left eye and his right was just an eye socket, the silver haired animatronic looked Kuroko over before slumping down the wall again.

"Um, are you ok?" Kuroko asked cautiously as he once again approached the silver haired animatronic.

A chuckle was heard from the animatronic, "What do ya think? I'm missing parts and there's oil coming from my head."

Kuroko sighed, his guarded stance disappearing and a relaxed one came up. Kuroko went right up to the animatronic before plopping down next to him and laid his head on the other's shoulder.

The animatronic looked up with a raised eyebrow, "Why are ya so close and don't lay on my shoulder."

Kuroko hummed nonchantly, "I've been trapped in a room here by the others and I don't want to talk to them but you seem like a good guy."

"Trapped? Here? By the others?" the animatronic questioned curiously, sure this guy was interesting but what would make those animatronics want to keep him?

Kuroko murmured sleepily, "Been here as a child…accepted the job…a while ago…Kagami-kun…died…"

He sighed as Kuroko fell asleep, still laying his head on his shoulder. He tried to get comfortable while attempting not to wake up the teal haired boy.

"Sheesh, you're such a hassle." Haizaki huffed in annoyance as he couldn't get comfortable thanks to a certain someone lying on his shoulder.

He laid against the wall in an uncomfortable position and closed his eyes, it was so hard being in consciousness ever since he was beaten by the others 25 years ago, oh so long ago that time was, was it really so bad that he fell and squashed a kid by accident that ended up killing the very same kid? At least the splattered blood hadn't reached everyone in the room, just about 95% of them.

The silver haired animatronic finally felt unconsciousness take over him and the last thing he noticed was his head falling on top of the teal haired head.

"Wake up Silver Head-kun." a monotone said rousing Haizaki who was still sleeping.

Haizaki groaned as he slowly returned to consciousness, "Why are you still here?"

Kuroko frowned, "You're lying on my head that is lying on your shoulder."

Haizaki's eyes snapped open as the last time he was awake moments rushed back and snapped his head up. Kuroko looked startled at the sudden motion and his head slide down from Haizaki's shoulder and was about to bang into the ground if it wasn't for Haizaki's quick reaction of catching his head with his hands.

"Ah, thank you very much Silver Head-kun." Kuroko said in monotone.

"It's not Silver Head-kun, its Haizaki Shougo." Haizaki grunted.

"Very well Haizaki-kun, my name is Kuroko Tetsuya." Kuroko said.

"So, tell me, why is the others interested in you anyways." Haizaki asked.

"Well, it all started back when I first came here and I told Akashi-kun that his smile was a fake and threatened to leave." Kuroko started.

This got Haizaki's attention and he perked up in attention as Kuroko told him his whole story since the first time they met to the very moment of his friend's escape.

Haizaki's single silver eye held amusement and pity as Kuroko finished his story, somewhere along the line Kuroko ended up telling his childhood memories and everything.

"Don't look at me like that." Kuroko said as he slapped Haizaki up the head causing Haizaki to splurt out oil from his head.

"Hey!" Haizaki shouted indignantly as he rubbed his head promptly smearing it on his hair.

"I apologized, I didn't like the way your eyes looked at me, I saw amusement and pity, I want no pity and I'm amused at your amusement." Kuroko said.

"Didn't mean that you had to hit me Kuroko." Haizaki mumbled.

"I apologize again Haizaki-kun." Kuroko apologized once again.

"Sheesh, I get it already, apologizing is stupid." Haizaki sighed.

"Why is that?" Kuroko asked curiously.

Haizaki took a breath, it's his story now huh, "Well, I'll tell you about how I ended up here; I was like the others once to you know."

~Flashback~

"Haizaki let's play tag!" a little girl asked with big doe eyes asked she stared hopefully at silver-haired animatronic.

Haizaki looked up from his sketchbook full of complicated drawing, he was an animatronic that loved to draw but the kids would just messed up his precious drawing so he tore away from them and only drew in the corner of the large room.

"No." he said flatly.

The girl started to tear up and the parents rushed up the girl and took her to another animatronic while glaring at Haizaki who glared right back.

"Tch, they're so noisy." Haizaki growled at the noise as he tried to draw a lotus flower that he saw one day in a television, it was beautiful so he just had to draw it, the image was seared into his head and he was still trying to perfect it even after 3 days. But he was almost done, all that hard work at it was almost finished.

"Haizakicchi is still drawing huh?" Kise said loudly as he approached the annoyed animatronic.

"Go away Kise." Haizaki hissed.

"C'mon Haizakicchi, you've been drawing that picture for 3 days and won't show us at all." Kise whined before slyly grinning, a grin that made Haizaki feel his stomach drop in dread.

"I wanna see Haizakicchi!" Kise yelled excitedly and lunged for the sketchbook, promptly ripped and crumbled the lotus flower page.

"Whoops, sorry about that Haizakicchi." Kise said grinning sheepishly as he held up the ruined page.

Haizaki stared at the page for a long time before shouting furiously, "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT KISE!"

Kise scrambled out of Haizaki's way as he charged towards the blond, they continued to chase each other while the other animatronics pulled the children into their respective places so they wouldn't get hit.

"H-Haizakicchi! I already said sorry!" Kise shouted as he ran for his life.

Suddenly a large kid who was running towards Momoi got in the middle of Kise and Haizaki froze in shock as Kise barely dodged him but the speed Haizaki was going there was no way he could stop himself nor dodge the kid.

"SHIGINO!" a woman yelled in fear.

Haizaki snapped out of his anger and saw the boy in his way and tried to stop himself but ran right into the boy and promptly fell on the poor child, killing him with weight. Blood splattered on 95% of the people in the room who didn't do anything but stare at the corpse and bloody animatronic.

"Oh no." Haizaki gasped.

Kise backed away from the two, it was partially his fault after all, he didn't mean to cause this. Akashi stepped up furiously as he glared at the distressed Haizaki.

"Haizaki Shogo." Akashi said dangerously as Haizaki looked up in shock, "I didn't mean to Akashi! I swear!"

"For killing a child you'll have to be put down." Akashi said.

After the sentence it seemed to snap everyone else out of their trance. The humans screamed and ushered their children out the diner.

"A-Akashicchi, it was my fault too." Kise said fearfully.

"Silence Ryota, Shogo here was one who killed the child so it's his fault." Akashi said.

"But it wasn't necessarily his fault!" Momoi complained, this wasn't fair in Haizaki's part.

"He killed a child Satsuki, whether it was an accident or not the fact is true and unless he disposed of people will not come back and we'll be shut down." Akashi retorted.

Momoi became silent, it was true and being shut down wasn't a pleasant experience and they knew what it felt like. The other animatronics looked away they knew it wasn't Haizaki's fault but couldn't go against Akashi.

"Akashi, we could put him in that storage room, it'll be a waste if he was ruined since it cost a lot of money to make us." Midorima suggested.

Akashi looked thoughtful at the suggestion and Haizaki looked a little hopeful, he was one of the first animatronics and hearing the others getting disposed of didn't sound like it would be quick.

"Very well, throw him in the storage room and make sure he don't get out." Akashi commanded and Murasakibara took Haizaki by the back of his shirt and lifted him before proceeding to the storage room.

As they reached the door of the room Murasakibara threw Haizaki in there roughly who hit the wall causing damage and landing on the floor and had a nail pierce his right eye, Haizaki got up and faintly saw Murasakibara closing the door leaving Haizaki in pitch darkness.

~Flashback End~

Kuroko was frowning at the end of Haizaki's story and Haizaki was leaning against the wall once again tiredly, he never spoken this much in years.

"So they just threw you in here and that's it? Nobody came again for you?" Kuroko asked.

"There were those people who came by and gave me upgrades so I'm up-to-date with the others but they didn't want to fix my head or eye, apparently it was a pain." Haizaki snorted.

Kuroko shook his head, "That's just wrong, and you shouldn't be here either, it was all an accident after all."

Haizaki closed his eyes, "I'm used to the it by now so don't worry about me, worry more about yourself, as much as they love you they are probably thinking about how to keep you with them forever."

Kuroko's eyes widened, "You don't think they'll do that do you?"

Haizaki snorted again, "Of course they'll do it, if they went this far so why not keep you with them forever."

Kuroko looked disturbed and was about to say something when another voice cut in, "Well well, I never thought that you'll find this room Tetsuya, you've been in here for 2 hours too, was Shogo that entertaining?"

"Akashi-kun, Haizaki-kun was very entertaining and I apologize for not returning sooner I got lost." Kuroko said nonchantly.

"I see, you got in the completely opposite direction when there was clearly a sign that said that the way you went lead to the storage room and I'm sure you know that we would never put you in a storage room." Akashi said politely.

Kuroko was surprised though he didn't show it; he really didn't know there was such a sign there, "Is that so? I didn't see it."

"Of course not, it's probably the old sign which is so small that you can barely see it; you'd need a really strong magnifying glass to even see the string line of words." Haizaki scoffed.

"Hello Shogo, how are you fairing after these years?" Akashi asked politely although you could detected a bit of annoyance.

"Me? After getting my right eye pierced and taken out along with my head getting damaged, living in this same room for more than 25 years, bored out of my mind since I don't have anything to do, just dandy really, thanks for asking Akashi." Haizaki said sarcastically.

"That's nice." Akashi said shortly and turned his eyes towards Kuroko, "Tetsuya, you need to go back to your room, we are leaving for a short trip and we don't want you wandering around in danger of someone seeing you."

Kuroko nodded in understanding, stood up, and petted Haizaki head, which raised some complaints from Haizaki, before leaving.

When Kuroko walked out of the room Akashi said "I'm glad you're talking again."

Kuroko paused mid-step before resuming again not saying a word to Akashi and headed the way he went before to find that small old sign.

Akashi had a smirked as he stared at Haizaki who laid on the floor bored once again, not giving a care about what Akashi wanted.

"Shogo, I think you're getting too close to Tetsuya." he warned.

"Don't worry I am not interested in a kid like him anyways." Haizaki reassured boredly as he rolled over on the floor to face Akashi.

"Hm, I see, I'll trust you on that Haizaki." Akashi said before turning and leaving letting the door close rather loudly.

"I wonder what Tetsuya's friends are planning anyways." Akashi said thoughtfully to himself unaware that he made everyone in Seirin sneeze.

"You guys are going to get a cold in the clothes you all are wearing!" Riko screeched as she saw the state of her team, most of them were still in their pajamas, a handful of them were half in outside clothes and half still in pajamas, only Hyuuga, Kiyoshi, Koganei, and Riko herself were fully clothed and warm in their jackets, scarves, gloves, hats, and boots.

"S-S-Sorry, w-we were in a rush since K-Kiyoshi-sempai threatened us v-via t-text message." Furihata said while shivering violently as he was only in his pajamas.

Riko sighed at the team hopelessly before turning to Kiyoshi, "Why did you call us here anyways?"

"Koganei found out where Kuroko is at." Kiyoshi said seriously making everyone snapped out of their shivering trance.

"What?" Riko said sharply.

Kiyoshi shrugged, "You ask Koganei he saw Kuroko not me."

Everyone's stare went to Koganei who was suddenly sweating at attention but was able to explain, "Kuroko's at Miracles Diner, I stumbled upon him on accident in a room as I searched for the toilet, by the way I got to go."

Koganei dashed into the restroom that the gym provided, the attention was making him sweat and that made him really need the restroom again.

"Kuroko, stay safe, please." Koganei prayed as he sat on the toilet seat.

Kuroko shivered as he entered his previous room with Akashi companying him, the other animatronics stared at Kuroko as they paused in their search meeting for the teal-haired boy.

"Kurokocchi! Where were you? We all panicked when we couldn't find you in here! Oh! Hi Akashicchi! I bet you found Kurokocchi huh! Akashicchi is so smart after all!" Kise ranted to relieve his stress of the missing Kuroko found.

Kise took a huge breath, ready to rant on more when Aomine hit him harshly on the head, "Shut up already Kise we already know that Kuroko was missing and now is found by Akashi now shut up."

"That hurt Aominecchi!" Kise whined as he nursed his metal head checking for dents.

"Good, it was meant to." Aomine snorted.

"Enough, Tetsuya why don't you rest, we'll go out and get you something to eat." Akashi commanded and the animatronics went out single filed except for Kise and Aomine who both demanded to get out before the other until Akashi gave them a sweet, happy smile.

Kuroko laid down and ready to sleep, it was a rough day today, helping Koganei escape and talking to Haizaki who was unrightfully punished for tripping, landing, and crushing a kid, it wasn't like it was on purpose.

Sure it was horrible but nonetheless it wasn't Haizaki's fault anyways, Akashi was so cruel back then, it wasn't like when Aomine accidently bumped into a kid that made the very kid fall down the basketball court and scrape his knees, Akashi didn't do anything to Aomine other than refraining him from playing basketball and take Kise's supposed job as a clown to entertain kids with tricks and the like for a week. Aomine was not happy for a month, that's for sure.

"Kurokocchi! I got you blueberry pancakes! With syrup too! Lucky!" Kise said enthusiastically as he held up the plate of strawberry pancakes with syrup.

"Kise-kun, that's strawberry pancakes, not blueberry." Kuroko said forgetting that he vowed not to speak while in capture.

Kise almost dropped the plate in shock that Kuroko spoke to him, sure he heard Kuroko talk to the kid that escaped but that was different, Kuroko talked to him!

"Kurokocchi! You finally spoke to me! And really? I never knew the difference anyways." Kise said sheepishly.

"Didn't we make the conversation of the difference between the two around 4 years ago Kise-kun?" Kuroko deadpanned at the blond animatronic who once again laughed sheepishly at the boy.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh, hahaha…that's cool, I forgot…"
"Of course you did, you're Kise-kun after all." Kuroko deadpanned once more.

"So mean Kurokocchi!" Kise sobbed before popping right back up and bounding over to Kuroko handing him the strawberry pancakes.

"I'll see you later Kurokocchi!" Kise shouted as he bounded out of the room happily.

Kuroko sighed as he stabbed the pancakes with his fork emotionlessly, he stared at the wall in a daze of realization of what exactly happened, he could be free with his human friends again or they could all die by his animatronic friends' hands.

"So how are we going to get Kurokocchi's dog when his friends obviously have it?" Kise asked while spitting out the word friend as if it was something they didn't deserve.

"Simple, we knock them out with Atsushi's supposed fart." Akashi said seriously.

Aomine laughed at he looked at Akashi's very serious, no joke face. Aomine collapsed on the floor in laugh with tears brimming his eyes while Kise chuckled a bit too hard as he was gaping like a fish afterwards.

"Are you done? I'm pretty sure if you're not I can send you both to the Melt Oven. It's been so lonely without any other metal to melt lately." Akashi said kindly with a rather demon yet polite smile.

Aomine and Kise immediately stopped and stood up with fear flowing on their face. Midorima scoffed in annoyance but had a microscopic-mini-super-duper-tiny-itsi-bitsi small smile on his face at the two's sweating faces.

"Ok, now by to the plan." Akashi said and this time the animatronics went into serious mode while planning how to get Kuroko's precious dog.

Kuroko woke up to the sound of something breaking in his room. His eyes snapped open and looked over to see…Nigou.

"Nigou! What are you doing here?!" Kuroko whispered loudly as he beckoned for the dog to come over to him which Nigou did happily finally reunited with his owner.

Nigou leapt into Kuroko's outstretched arms and automatically snuggled into the warm arms, "Oh Nigou, how'd you get in here in the first place?"

Nigou barked while wagging his tail as he pointed his little nose to the small vent that only he could fit through. Kuroko stood up and walked towards the vent and managed to peek through to see dust and bugs running through it.

"You need a bath; I don't know what you could've gathered while in the vents." Kuroko chastised which made Nigou whined in apology.

"Let's go take a bath shall we?" Kuroko said with a sigh and went over to a corner shower and started to wash Nigou down while making sure he cleaned the fur thoroughly just to see strange bugs, dirt, and dust come out.

Kuroko made a face at the sight but continued nonetheless and started to put shampoo on. Nigou shuffled a bit to lean closer to Kuroko wanting to get all the random things he cleaned out, it felt weird. Nigou was done and clean as Kuroko stood up and went to go get a towel.

"Tetsu!" a voice suddenly shouted scaring both of them and Kuroko quickly draped a clean towel and Nigou and tossed the dog on the fluffy, soft bed.

Aomine just then burst into the room looking at Kuroko who had his arms outstretched to the bed, one leg lifted and bent 90 degrees, leaning forward slightly with a panic look on his face.

"What are you doing Tetsu?" Aomine asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kuroko suddenly obtained a blank face and started to stretch in an awkward move and looked at Aomine with a deadpanned face.

"WHAT KIND OF EXERCISE IS THAT TETSU?!" Aomine shouted incredulously.

Kuroko stopped, stood regularly, and promptly shrugged. Aomine slapped his forehead with his hand but was grinning, this was Tetsu after all.

"The other animatronics and me is going to get something, will you be ok staying here?" Aomine asked, it's not like Kuroko could go anywhere since they lock the door but Aomine asked anyways.

Kuroko nodded and continued his little stretch making Aomine laugh he left. Once Kuroko made sure the footsteps had completely disappeared he quickly ran to Nigou who was wriggling out of his towel prison.

"Sorry Nigou." Kuroko apologized and Nigou made a sound at the back of his throat but it wasn't a harsh one so Kuroko took that as apology accepted.

"I gotta get you something to eat huh?" Kuroko said as he stood up and looked around his room; the destroyed pancakes were still here somewhere.

Nigou wagged his tail and explored the room with his owner before running over to the strawberry pancakes and gobbled it down.

"You really are hungry huh?" Kuroko said with a small smile as he petting the eating dog on the head gently.

Nigou barked with his mouth full making pancake bits fly around everywhere. Kuroko sighed as he picked up the pancakes bits and threw them in the trash.

"Nigou don't make a mess ok?" Kuroko reprimanded with made Nigou whine apologetically.

"I forgive you Nigou, are you done already?" Kuroko asked a bit surprised at the clean and empty plate, Nigou turned and his eye held surprise as if just realizing this as well.

"You must be really hungry huh Nigou?" Kuroko chuckled lightly as he petted the small dog affectionately.

Nigou barked and ran around the room excitingly before whining when he scratched at the door already knowing it was locked by the others.

"Nigou, I'm sorry that you're locked in here with me, you should've been with the others from Seirin." Kuroko apologized to Nigou who padded over and nuzzled against Kuroko conveying to him that it was ok making Kuroko smile softly.

Riko and the rest of the team were in the gym planning out how to save Kuroko from the diner and didn't notice that certain animatronics were watching them.

"Are you sure we can't go in there with guns and grenades?" Koganei asked for the 23rd time in the meeting.

"No Koganei, we can NOT go in with guns and grenades, we will get caught and questioned by the police if anyone reports us and if we do leave evidence that we intruded the diner WHILE having the guns and grenades on us we will most likely go to jail." Hyuuga said tiredly, this was getting annoying.

"We can go in with pans; it seems to work well in movies." Kiyoshi said in a serious tone, the team couldn't even tell if he was joking or not.

"No we can't go in with pans Kiyoshi!" Hyuuga snapped and went into Clutch Mode.

"How about w-" Riko was cut off when a horrible smell entered the gym, the team gagged and tried to run out of the gym but found that the door was locked and couldn't get out.

The team passed out soon after and the doors swung open after a minute, "Wow Murasakibaracchi! Your fart smell was so horrible that it really did knock them out!"

"I didn't know you wanted me to crush you Kichin."

"…"

"Idiots."

"Hahahahahahahahahaha."

"Dai-chan, don't be so rude to him!"

"Whatever Satsuki, lay off."

"You idiot Dai-chan!"
"Everyone's so mean to me! Especially Aominecchi!"

"Silence."

"…"

Akashi smirked, "Good, now go find the dog, it might be here somewhere."

The animatronics nodded and ran off in different directions looking for the dog while Akashi calmly walked over to the teens on the floor with an evil smile playing on his face.

"Ugh…" Kiyoshi moaned and Akashi walked over, grabbed a handful of hair, lifted the teen, and said, "Tetsuya is ours and ours alone, while I'm amused to think that getting him will be so simple, I advise you to be thoroughly prepared or else nobody will ever see you people alive once you step into the diner."

Kiyoshi groaned but had enough energy to send a glare with brought the message he wanted to say with it, 'We'll get Kuroko back so watch out and don't underestimate us.'

Akashi smirked and let go of Kiyoshi without a care and Kiyoshi yelped at the impact of his head taking a direct hit to the hard, cold, wood floor.

"Ki…yoshi…" Hyuuga groaned and attempt to crawl to his friend.

"Aw, how sweet." Akashi cooed sickly and uncaringly kicked Hyuuga's head as he walked off.

"Akashicchi! I can't find it!" Kise shouted as he ran over.

"Akashi, I can't find Nigou either." Midorima said with a sigh as he walked into the gym.

"Nothing on my end." Aomine reported as well.

"Akachin, I can't find that chibi dog either." Murasakibara said with a yawn following it.

"Wasn't there." Momoi said dejectingly looking at her shoes in disappointment.

Akashi frowned at the news; the dog had to be somewhere, but where? It wasn't in the school for some; it was most likely not in Kuroko's house. That means that it could possibly somewhere in Tokyo or one of the team members' house.

"Search the houses of the basketball members then Tokyo itself." Akashi commanded.

"Are you serious?! You have any idea how big Tokyo is Akashi?!" Aomine shouted.

"Daiki, are you defying me?" Akashi said with a demon look.

Aomine sighed, "No, I'll go now, see you back here in an hour."

"I'll go too…" Kise said uncomfortably as he ran after Aomine.

"I'll be back in an hour as well." Midorima said stiffly and walked out.

"See ya later Akachin." Murasakibara said lazily and punched a hole through the wall big enough for him to walk through.

"Um, I suppose I'll go too, see you later Akashi." Momoi said and ran off to Kise and Aomine.

Akashi smirked at the fleeing figures before dragging the team into a pile and just sitting on the top of the pile like a throne and just waited, hopefully Kuroko was doing ok.

Kuroko sighed as he tried to get the door open by slamming into the door using his shoulder; unfortunately his small frame was unable to do such thing. He needed to get Kuroko out of the room before the others find him here.

"My shoulder hurts a lot Nigou; I'm going to rest for a while ok? Wanna sleep with me?" Kuroko asked as he tiredly laid down on his bed and patted a spot right next to him which Nigou jumped on happily and the two snuggled in together under the blankets.

"You really think Kurokocchi is going to talk to us if we get Nigou?" Kise asked Aomine as they searched through Furihata's house silently to not alarm the others in the house.

"I don't know, Tetsu is always full of surprises so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't." Aomine replied before they jumped out the window of Furihata's room.

"I suppose, but I'm afraid for the dog if he didn't since Akashicchi worked so hard on the plan and all." Kise said sympathetically.

"…Might be the last time Tetsu would see the small dog." Aomine agreed.

The two were silent when they split up in different directions thinking about what they just said.

Nigou sniffed as he burrowed into Kuroko's warm chest comfortably, Kuroko himself was snoring ever so lightly, the snores sounded like soft purrs.

"Nigou that tickles." Kuroko murmured.

Nigou whined but moved away slightly to make sure Kuroko was comfortable. Kuroko scrunched his eyebrows together cutely before relaxing and snuggling with Nigou.

"He's not here." Akashi said bluntly.

"He wasn't where I was." Midorima said.

"Me either." Aomine said

"Nope." Kise said sulkingly.

"Didn't see Nigou." Momoi said worryingly.

"Didn't see him." Murasakibara said while munching on chips, savoring the taste with his programmed taste buds thanks to Kuroko.
Akashi massaged his forehead, obviously the dog was here, and it was getting late, Kuroko needed to eat. They had to retreat for now.

"We'll retreat for now, we'll try again tomorrow, besides, the new night guard is on today, we need to go before he get suspicious." Akashi commanded, the others nodded and prepared to run back to the pizzeria before someone caught them.

Nigou sneezed and Kuroko's eyes snapped open with worry, automatically looking at Nigou who cutely placed his front paws on his little nose as if guilty for waking Kuroko up.

Kuroko laughed, "I think someone's talking about you Nigou."

Nigou barked as Kuroko ruffled his fur, inwardly pouting that Nigou's fur didn't get messed up unlike his, which sticks everywhere even if he move when he felt, if he died his hair probably would've risen up even when dead.

"You lucky dog, not having to deal with bed hair." Kuroko murmured and Nigou stuck his tongue out as if laughing at his owner's jealousy.

Kuroko pouted and was about to say something but got cut off when Akashi slammed the door open with a tray in hand but froze when he Nigou. Kuroko and Nigou froze too, staring at Akashi with wide eyes, Kuroko in fear and surprise while Nigou in curiosity.

"Where…did you get Nigou?" Akashi asked slowly.

Kuroko gulped but didn't answer; he couldn't, ever since the scene with Kagami, every time he saw them, the scene of Kagami's body without his face flashed in his mind and his throat closed up.

Akashi frowned when he got no answer but a fearful face from Kuroko, his savior, the sweet person who always bore contagious smiles on his face.

Akashi grit his teeth, "Tetsuya, tell me or else I will kill the dog as well."

Kuroko's eyes widened once again and made a noise on the back of his throat before managing to say, "He came here by himself."

Akashi narrowed his eyes and stared at Kuroko was a profusingly sweating, Akashi couldn't detect any lies so he dropped the gaze which made Kuroko relax but he was still on guard, clutching Nigou in his arms, clearly stating that he wasn't going to let them take Nigou any time soon.

"I brought you some miso soup and rice to eat but I guess I have to get food for the dog too, eat your share first while I go get more." Akashi said as he set down the tray of food on the floor and promptly turned and locked the door.

Akashi briskly walked down the hallways, not caring that the new night guard could see him; he could just get Murasakibara to kill him before words spilled. Walking down the twisting hallways Akashi scanned his surroundings, Seirin was known for surprises, so if they came today he wouldn't be surprised.

"Akashicchi!" Kise shouted and waved happily when Akashi walked into the kitchen, Kise was happily flipping pancakes of different vibrant colors, the stack itself looked too bright to even look at, only Kise, only Kise could make sure bright, colorful pancakes.

"Make some dog food." Akashi demanded.

Kise paused mid-flip, "What?"

The other animatronics looked up from their pancakes to stare at Akashi with wide eyes.

Akashi sighed, "The dog somehow made his way to Kuroko's room and we didn't notice."

Something seemed to click in Aomine's mind, "Ah! That's why he was doing that weird exercise! Maybe he tried to keep me from seeing his dog!"

Akashi's eye twitch and Aomine backed up when he saw the action, Akashi was annoyed, and an annoyed Akashi isn't a good thing, especially if it directed to himself.

"And why," Akashi said slowly with menace, "Didn't you say this sooner? Actually why didn't you notice the dog?"

"I thought Tetsu was bored and decided to make up some crazy, random, weird poses to exercises." Aomine said with fear pooling in his eyes at Akashi's tone.

"I have no time for this, Kise, make some food for the dog, Murasakibara, go kill the night guard, he saw us eating here. Everyone else, just finish eating." Akashi commanded.

Nobody went against his orders though Midorima, Aomine, and Momoi ate uncomfortably since Akashi was staring piercingly at Aomine who was profusingly sweating, again, courtesy of Kuroko who Aomine was currently cursing right now for getting him in this mess.

Kuroko sneezed again, seriously, was he getting sick or did everyone just love to talk about him? Kuroko scratched Nigou's head lightly in comfort which Nigou took happily.

"KUROKOCCHI!" a door slammed open and both of the occupants' eyes snapped open to see a grinning Kise.

"You do have Nigoucchi! Here's some food for him!" Kise said happily as he bounded over to give Nigou the needed food and gave Kuroko a plate of eggs and rice as well.

Kuroko stared at Kise who just petted Nigou before bounding back out with a shout of, "NIGOUCCHI'S HAIR IS SSSOOOO FLUFFY LIKE YOUR'S KUROKOCCHI!"

"We mine as well eat it Nigou." Kuroko said with a sigh and the two started to eat their share of food in silence before a bang was heard outside and their heads snapped up, it was silent for a while before more bangs and clangs were heard outside, and Kuroko had the tiniest bit of hope that it was Seirin.

"Darn it! I lost my frying pan Kiyoshi! Give me one of yours!" Hyuuga exclaimed and Kiyoshi, who was fighting off Murasakibara with Mitobe, threw one of his 23 frying pans to Hyuuga who grunted in thanks and held off Midorima who was throwing precise punches with his gloved hands, "I always thought you were the faraway type Midorima."

Midorima scoffed, "As if I'd be afar when I could just beat you right here right now, besides, it's not like you're going to live."

Hyuuga grew a tick mark in anger as he entered Clutch Mode, "Hah? I'd like to think otherwise!"

Hyuuga suddenly swiped down and knocked Midorima off his feet and banged his frying pan harshly on Midorima's forehead, leaving a deep dent, "That's what you get you damn robot."

Hyuuga turned to go help Izuki and Koganei who seemed to be having a hard time against Aomine who was zooming everywhere around him when Midorima's hand shot up and tightly grabbed Hyuuga's wrist which was the arm he held the frying pan, automatically crushing the bone at the sheer grip.

Hyuuga cried out in pain and dropped the frying pan which clattered on the floor, Midorima sat up with a metallic glint in his eyes, "You think you can get off just like that?"

"Y-You damn r-robot!" Hyuuga exclaimed through the pain and kicked Midorima who just gave a grunt but didn't move, his grip didn't lessen either, it tightened up.

Hyuuga cried out again and made the last minute decision; Hyuuga tackled Midorima to the ground and rolled his wrist out of the loosen grip. Hyuuga stood up on Midorima's chest and jumped on him as hard as he could before getting the frying pan with his uninjured arm.

Midorima got up again only to once again get hit by a frying pan, "Just stay down!"

Hyuuga was pulled down by Midorima who crawled on him, his teeth becoming triangular, his eyes became large and stared at Hyuuga in the eyes, his mouth turning into a horrifying smirk, his eyes flashed back and Midorima reeled back to bite into Hyuuga's determined yet terrified face. As Midorima lunged at Hyuuga who looked away, expecting the pain, Midorima was smacked back by 3 10 pound frying pans, Hyuuga opened one eyes to see Midorima fly back and heard Kiyoshi shout in the background, "DON'T TOUCH MY JUNPEI!"

"Hyuuga-sempai, are you ok?" Furihata asked nervously as he jumped back with butcher knives in hand from Momoi who just turned to fight Kawahara who was wildly slicing the air with steak knives, miraculously blocking or dodging Momoi's attempts to stab him with her long yet surprisingly fingernails as they clashed against Kawahara's steak knives.

Hyuuga sweatdropped at the freshman's movements to ward off Momoi, "Yeah, I thought I was going to die there."

"Well you are." Midorima said as he appeared right in front of the two.

"Are you kidding me?!" Hyuuga exclaimed.

"HHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAA!" Riko shouted as she flew in out of nowhere and impaled Midorima's left eye with her abnormally long chopsticks.

Midorima leaned back at the sudden intrusion into his head only to straighten up and glare at Riko with his left eye while yanking out the pair in his left eye and cover it with spilled oil down his face. Riko stepped back only to grab another pair of chopsticks from a pouch at her waist and promptly stab Midorima's left eye.

Midorima growled and slammed Riko to the side, Riko slammed into the wall with a gasp as one of her ribs cracked at the impact.

"Riko!" Hyuuga exclaimed in worry, Riko groaned in response, Furihata had already left to fight Momoi with Kawahara again but left one of his butcher knives for Hyuuga who grabbed it and ran towards Midorima and stabbed him in the chest.

Midorima looked unamused, "I don't have a heart, I'm an animatronic remember?"

Hyuuga yanked at the knife but it wouldn't budge, he felt dread pool in his stomach when Midorima gripped his head with his hands and was about to twist his neck when Midorima sputtered out oil from his mouth and fell back. Hyuuga looked up to see Tsuchida who was heavily bleeding at his side thanks to Kise who went psycho, Tsuchida smiled wearily at Hyuuga who stared in wide eyes as Tsuchida fell down, dead from blood loss.

"TSUCHIDA!" Hyuuga shouted and ran towards Tsuchida, already knowing that Midorima was down.

Kiyoshi pressed his lips into a line as he fought off Murasakibara with his assortment of frying pans, hearing Hyuuga's despaired cry of a fallen friend.

"You should give up you know." Murasakibara growled as he slapped away another frying pan, only for Kiyoshi to pull out another one.

"Not until we get Kuroko back." Kiyoshi growled back and Murasakibara grit his teeth, "You're not getting Kurochin back."

"YES. WE. ARE!" Kiyoshi shouted as he slammed another 20 pound frying pan onto Murasakibara's head which only dented it, making Murasakibara very annoyed.

"You're annoying me." Murasakibara said with annoyance in his voice and slammed Kiyoshi into the wall.

Kiyoshi grunted and stood back up and swung a frying pan with high heat flames at Murasakibara who got his left leg partially melted thanks to the said flames and toppled down in unbalance.

"Ha, I wish it melted all of you Murasakibara was it?" Kiyoshi said with a heavy pant.

Murasakibara growled in pain as he unsteadily stood up. Kiyoshi stood up unsteadily and pulled out another pan that had metal pads attached to it and swung it harshly on Murasakibara's head, the metal reacted to the parts in Murasakibara's brain system and dug deeper on impact.

"Gotcha." Kiyoshi said with a tired grin as Murasakibara collapsed for good this time.

Furihata squeaked in shock as Momoi lunged for him with her nails out to pierce him. He quickly attacked one of the cracked nails that he and Kawahara were working on taking off. The nails broke off with a loud snap. Momoi froze and howled in pain as she took a wild swipe and managed to get Furihata's left side.

"Furihata!" Kawahara called out in worry as Furihata clutched his side with his face scrunched in pain.

Momoi's eyes black and her teeth grew triangular, she lunged at Furihata whose eyes widen but didn't move, already knowing it his doom. Kawahara froze in horror as Furihata's face was ripped out by Momoi who had a bloody, wide smirk on her face, extremely satisfied at the bloody, twitching body as Furihata was still alive.

"You…YOU!" Kawahara shouted and sprinted at Momoi with his knife outstretched, his eyes filled with hatred, he stabbed Momoi's forehead and went straight through her head.

Momoi's black eyes widen in shock as she reverted back to normal teeth and the bright pink eyes, Kawahara panted as the adrenaline wore off and he slumped onto the ground, not notice a shadow creep up behind him and grabbed him into the shadows unnoticed.

Izuki's head swiveled quickly and managed to nick Aomine's metal body with his tiny axe that he purchased online, Aomine speed off again managed to knock Koganei down in the process.

"You're really fast, but I can still see you." Izuki commented as he quickly jabbed Aomine while using his Eagle Eye.

Aomine snorted, "You only managed to scratch me, how are you planning to take me down?"

"Simple, I'll wait and defend until you get tired." Izuki stated and careful watched as Koganei stood up and wildly swung when Aomine got near him only to miss him entirely.

"You stupid? I can keep this up for a week at minimum." Aomine said in a lazy tone before striking Izuki's right leg with a bat, "Besides, you won't last for another 10 minutes."

Izuki cried out in pain, but remained standing which made Aomine at Izuki's determination.

"You could be a good animatronic you know." Aomine said remarked which just made Izuki scowl at the supposed compliment.

"And be in that heavy suit? No thanks." Izuki said seriously.

Koganei suddenly squeaked in panic and Izuki turned to face him only to see Koganei's neck threatened with a knife at his neck by Aomine who was smirking.

"I thought your weapon was a bat?" Izuki questioned.

"I'm always up for a fight." was Aomine's answer.

Izuki took the scene in a stride and calmly walked up to the two before quickly throwing his tiny axe at Aomine's head only to be defended by Koganei himself, the axe caught into his left shoulder.

"Koganei!" Izuki shouted, his eyes widen in panic as blood soaked Koganei's shirt.

Koganei smirked weakly before he quickly pulled the axe out and dug it into Aomine's forehead with strength he never knew he had.

Aomine's eyes flickered black before going back to dark blue, he smirked, and bit into Koganei's neck before falling back, bringing part of Koganei's neck with him.

Koganei's eyes became teary, he knew this would happen, and fell forward where Izuki caught him and called his name frantically.

"Sorry…I…can't see…the…fireworks…with you…again…Izuki." Koganei managed to say.

"Don't say that Koganei! You'll be fine! I'll get help!" Izuki said, tears cascading down his face, Koganei shook his head painfully before falling limp.

Izuki's anguished cry echoed in the diner, shocking Kuroko at the familiar voice, he looked at the door with indecision and conflict.

Suddenly the door swung open to reveal Haizaki whose face seemed a bit bashed in. Kuroko looked at him questionly but Haizaki just grabbed him and dragged him out of the room who was followed by Nigou who was equally confused.

"Haizaki-kun, where are we going?" Kuroko asked.

"Your friends are here Kuroko." Haizaki grunted, his voice off pitch slightly making Kuroko's suspicion confirmed, Akashi got to him.

Then the information sunk in, "What?"

"You heard me, they've been fighting for 3 hours nonstop, I'm surprised they lasted that long you know." Haizaki said and Kuroko inwardly smiled that the shrouded compliment for his teammates.

"Hold on." Haizaki said, and stopped Kuroko who was bumped by Nigou at the abrupt halt.

Haizaki peered around the corner to look into a room whose light was suspiciously on to see Akashi staring at Kawahara who was held captive.

"We gotta go the other way." Haizaki said and dragged Kuroko the opposite direction to lead into the battle.

"Who was there?" Kuroko asked, dread pooling in his stomach.

"One of your friends is being held by Akashi at this moment." Haizaki said slowly.

"What! We got to go help him!" Kuroko said and tried to go back only for Haizaki to stop him.

"Akashi isn't dumb enough to kill your friend, he's going to use him as hostage which will make your other friends stop fighting, ensuring their death, we need to plan how to intervene so that little hostage and your other friends live." Haizaki snarled.

Kuroko looked at him with teary eyes, "I understand."

Haizaki nodded, he knew how painful it was to leave a friend who might be in need, Nijimura was like that before he was disposed of, Haizaki having to guard in case he managed to escape, which Haizaki prayed for that to happen so he could escape but he never did, he faced the process of getting disposed bravely, not even crying out when the process took place.

"Hurry, Akashi might spot us." Haizaki ushered.

Their pace quickened much to Kuroko's dismay and entered a room that had the sight of the battle that was going on, Kuroko tried to go out and aid his friends but once again, Haizaki held him back, "We need to make a plan for when Akashi comes remember?"

Kuroko nodded slowly but glanced at his friends only to jump in shock when a bloody Furihata slammed into the window of the room, his face ripped out and his eyes vacant.

Kuroko resisted the urge to throw up as he stared at the bloody corpse that used to be his friend while Haizaki merely raised an eyebrow, it was bound to happen really, it was a war for the boy that was in the very same room as him.

"Furihata-kun…" Kuroko whispered as Furihata slid down the glass, leaving a bloody trail.

"There he is, Akashi's coming." Haizaki whispered and Kuroko trailed his eyes from the blood to Akashi who stood with a bounded and gagged Kawahara at his feet.

"Stop fighting or I'll kick the boy." Akashi said, and even with all the noise, everyone heard it and turned to look at Akashi who pointed a gun at Kawahara whose eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Let him go!" Riko shouted from the wall, holding yet another pair of abnormally large chopsticks in her hands threatenly.

Akashi just raised an amused eyebrow, "Try me."

Riko growled but had to back down, knowing that Akashi was going to shoot Kawahara without hesitation.

Akashi smirked in satisfaction before looking at Momoi, Midorima, Murasakibara, and Aomine and clicked his tongue, "A shame, they were good animatronics too."

"Akashicchi, I'm so happy you're here, they ganged up on me!" Kise said with crocodile tears as he bounced on his huge metal ball that everyone was trying to take down.

"I'm surprised you of all animatronics are alive Ryota." Akashi clipped boredly.

Kise's tears came down harder but barely had time to warn Akashi as Haizaki snuck up on him and when Akashi swerved around, stabbed him with the abnormally large and wide nail in his right eye. Haizaki grinned and moved it around in his head and oil spilled out of Akashi's eye while the other one glared at Haizaki and stabbed Haizaki's stomach with his own pair of sharp scissors which made Haizaki stumble back in pain.

"Shogo, didn't think you'd have the guts to come out." Akashi said but his voice was varying at each word and tone, his eyes flickered and his legs gave out.

"Ha, been waiting to do that for so long Akashi." Haizaki said grinning widely before coughing up oil.

Akashi glared at him before falling down, his eyes shuttering shut.

"AKASHICCHI!" Kise shouted in despair, falling from the metal ball he was perched on, not even reacting when Seirin beat him up, just continuing to stare at Akashi's fallen figure.

"This ends it." Izuki said solemnly and Kiyoshi melted Kise's head with his special pan, Kise fell down and slammed onto the ground, parts of his melted face splatted on the floor.

"We need to find Kuroko." Hyuuga said, wiping off oil from his face.

"I'm here…" Kuroko said weakly beside Haizaki and Akashi, tears streaming down his face.

Kuroko's voice seemed to trigger something in the animatronics and they started to say in raspy voices repeatedly, "Kuroko Tetsuya…"

Akashi's eyes cracked open as his eyes gazed into a terrified Kuroko who was quickly swept away by Kiyoshi, "Move out, we need to get away from here."

Kuroko barely resisted but couldn't help but stare at his animatronic friends. The door almost shut completely when Kuroko caught a glimpse of Kise sit up with a twisted smile, his melted face only making him horrified, his spared left eye had his cornea completely black but his eye glowed a bright yellow which bored into Kuroko's scared eyes as Kise mouthed something that Kuroko could only see which made a shiver run down his spine, "We're coming back Kurokocchi!~"