The Phantom's Wards

by TehPrimeraHaruoka

There had been a string of murders in Seirin, the capital of Spring Country. The murders don't make any sense and seem to be happening without any rhyme or reason, giving Detective Kagami Taiga a difficult job to complete. Enter Tetsuya Kuroko, a noble who lives on the edge of town. The mysterious man offers his assistance in solving the murders after witnessing one himself...

The Phantom's Scales

Hello everyone~ it's your girl Eren here and my, I just finished watching KnB 2 and can I just say… AKA-CHIN WHY U HEF TO BE SO OP THO? No like legit though, Akashi's Emperor Eye is so overpowered, it's crazy, anyway, I wanted to start an AU KnB story. The pairing is going to be either AkaKuro or KagaKuro and I'm definitely looking forward to writing this out since it's my first KnB story so please don't kill me if anyone's OoC.

This universe is such that the six members of the GoM are all the first born children of the last six half dragons with the exception of Tetsu who is the world's last Pure-Blooded Dragon. It does take place in a weird psudo-11Eyes-esque world where supernatural and modern features co-exist so I hope you all enjoy.

Little note to all of you guys, Tetsuya kicks ass and takes names like a bawse so BAMF! Tetsuya that and Aomine is still his 'Light' so to speak so Aomine is the Ace of the group. Everything else will be discovered during the story so stay tuned.

Another little note, I will update this in between updating Project Maelstrom and Team Prima so updating will be a bit slow going until I can jumpstart my updating for the other two, especially since I only have access to the computer like twice a week.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke, I just want Kise-chan to cuddle me 'til I die~~

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Chapter 1: The Tale of Akashi Seijuurou 1: The Snake's Secrets

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Once upon a time, there was a council made up of six powerful, ridiculously powerful, beings who were in charge of making decisions for the human race. They were known as the Court of the Phantoms, since no matter how hard one tried to, they could never locate them. This court consisted of the six dragons of nobility, the wisest and last of the dragons, since the rest of the race were either dead or had their blood-lines diluted through their half-children.

In order, these lineages were the Akashi, the race that stood absolute, the Aomine, the race that commandeered the light, the Kise, the race that refused to stand still, the Midorima, the ones who gazed into the future, the Murasakibara, the ones who commandeered physical power unmatched and the Kuroko, the ones who pulled the strings from the shadows.

In order to put the warring humans at peace, Kuroko Tora decided that they should annihilate the party responsible thus ending the wars from the source, however the other members refused. They wished to take a more roundabout way, disguising themselves as humans and diplomatically stopping the war themselves, something that was forbidden among the race of the dragons.

Tora warned them against it, but they didn't listen.

The night they went out, they were slaughtered by the humans as they had earthly mages among them who mistook them for demons in disguise.

The five clans blamed the Kuroko.

They retaliated severely, refusing the listen to Tora and thus started the last Great Dragon's Slaughter.

By the end of it, the Kuroko clan were left standing strong, next to the Akashi and the Aomine whereas the last three were left with a single string of pure-dragons.

Akashi Seiryn wished to punish the Kuroko for the respective deaths of their kin and as such they planned the final attack that would rock the bowels of the draconic world.

On the birthday of the newest heir to the Kuroko clan, Akashi Seiryn and his division completely massacred the main house of the feared clan, leaving only the new born son over the fireplace to burn with the rest of the house.

The son, Tetsuya, had survived.

This is his story.

This is also the story of his closest friends as well as his legacy.

So, listen closely, because if you don't….

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The rain fell heavily against the rusted galvanise, the pitter-patter creating a tinkling sound that resembled magic. The roads were overflowing with the heavenly substance and mud was splattered everywhere, forcing the many shoppers and tourists to forgo the day's activities in favour of sheltering from the rain.

Underneath this rusted piece of galvanise, a heterochromatic child observed the people pass him quickly without so much as sparing him a glance. He was freezing, squeezing his pale frame between his hands in hopes of salvaging some of his barely existent body heat. His tired crimson and amber eyes slowly tracked the bodies of the upper-class residents as they filtered in and out of the fancy hotel as if it were a guest house, their tippy-tapping shoes making a terrible clack-clack sound to his overly sensitive ears. He observed a family of five, a mother, father and three children, rush happily towards the hotel, the twin boys covering him from bright crimson head to shivering toes in the gutter waters from their rough housing.

Another rack of violent shivers rocked the boy's body as he coughed and spluttered to get rid of the obstruction within his chest, a thick glob of blood and plasma staining the side of the road where he spat it up.

The child looked on at the people passing once more, his eyes duller than they had been a few seconds ago, it would seem that he was going to die, at the side of the road, in a rain storm in the middle of Spring Country.

"Hello."

The boy jumped a couple feet in the air before landing flatly on his butt, the offender, a young man with bright baby blue hair and matching teal eyes, chuckling in amusement at his reaction. He was about to shout when another coughing fit took a hold of him, turning him into little more than a lump of flesh on the filthy sidewalk. The blue-haired man smiled softly at the red-haired boy before taking off his fur coat and placing it over his shoulders, causing the boy's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Mister… what are you doing?"

The boy's voice was raspy and underused, the scratched quality made the blue-haired man flinch slightly. He smiled again though, holding his hand out for the boy to grab, "I'm adopting you."

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The nice blue man had taken him into the fancy hotel, earning him many glares and looks of disgust which he met with a soft smile. No words were spoken between the two as the man made it possible for them to spend a full week in the hotel. The receptionist looked sceptical and glared slightly at the boy, telling him to keep his hands off of anything expensive before giving the key card to the blue-haired man and directing him to Room 106.

When the two of them had made it to the their room the blue-haired man immediately stripped the red head boy and threw him rather playfully into the bathtub of scalding hot water, not that it burnt the boy. He then thoroughly scrubbed the boy, getting rid of any and all traces of dirt and grime from his body, before washing and preening his hair until the crimson strands basically shined and shimmered with body and life.

If he noticed the various scars and growths on the boy's body, then he didn't say anything about them, quickly and efficiently dressing the boy in a large deep blue scarf and an overcoat saying that he would go shopping with him for clothes in the morning. The boy was then promptly sat down in the middle of the bedroom where the blue-haired man ordered food to be brought up to them before sitting down parallel to the boy.

"So, are you willing to tell me your name? I would like to know exactly who I'm adopting please? I'm Tetsuya Kuroko, call me whatever you wish."

The boy looked up at the man, Tetsuya? It was a funny name that sounded weird on his tongue, but the least he could do would be to answer his rescuer, "I'm… Seijuurou. Akashi Seijuurou."

Kuroko chuckled, "Why is a king talking so meekly? Your head is bowed as if I'm your better, chin up! You are clean and soon to be fed, as a king, your orders are absolute! If you're going to live with me, then Sei-san, you need to be able to carry yourself with an air of nobility. So, none of this nonsense."

If possible, Akashi's head bent further down, as if he were hiding something from Tetsuya. Kuroko frowned at this before placing a hand in his new ward's hair and ruffled it around, "It's okay, Sei-san. From this point onwards, you're royalty, okay? Your orders are absolute, please remember that."

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A twelve year old Seijuurou ran into a huge golden gate, going as fast as his legs would carry him, which was pretty darn fast considering who his brothers were. Speaking of his brothers, he could see Atsushi in front of the garden gate munching on cubes of sugar meant for horses. He rolled his dual crimson eyes before continuing on towards the front door, pelting a bag of snacks in the lazy boy's direction which he caught with his feet, not even bothering to put his sugar cubes or his magazine down.

Seijuurou snorted before he deftly flipped over a large yellow blur that had simply appeared in a yellow flash.

"Mou, Akashicchi, it's no fun if you can predict where I'm going to appear from~" The large blonde boy whined, folding his arms and glaring cutely at his elder brother.

Akashi smiled at Kise before adjusting his pace to a fast walk since all of them knew how much Kuroko hated running in the house. "How's Tetsuya?"

Kise frowned, something that was noted to be rather rare for him, before answering, "Father's been holed up in his office for days now Akashicchi, you know that. Not even Aominecchi is able to get him out for something to eat."

Akashi frowned immediately; his caretaker had gone out on a trip a week before, leaving Akashi in charge of the household. When he had returned, the bluenette was notable colder, as if his trip had sucked all of the happiness out of his body. He had simply retreated into his office and wouldn't come out, which made the newest addition to their growing family, Aomine Daiki, who was rather attached to the blue head, volatile. Akashi had even had to resort to ordering the boy to bed or to go get dinner since he was so heart set on camping out in front of the door until his 'Tetsu-chan' came out smiling and happy like he always was.

At this point the redhead and the blonde had made it to the front of the office door which was located in the West Wing, where, predictably, Aomine was sitting in front of the door drawing with crayons.

Something which is to be noted, though, the manor where all of them lived was broken up into four main parts, the Western Wing where they all slept, the Eastern Wing where the kitchen, gyms and guest houses were located, the Northern Wing, which was off-limits for some reason and the Southern Wing were recreation sites were. The manor was located on the outskirts of Summer City which was the largest city in Spring Country and occupied all of twenty-three hectares, nearly half of which was still forests since Tetsuya firmly believed in preserving all forms of life.

Akashi raised an eyebrow; the dark skinned teen was drawing pictures of a blue hilted halberd that crackled with blue energy. In fact, if the sketches and papers on the floor were anything to go by, he was trying to draw this particular weapon perfectly.

The redhead stooped next to the blue head and picked up one of the idle pictures, observing the astonishing detail that was placed in each one, "Akahiro? Is that what you're going to name it?"

Aomine turned around so quickly that Akashi was afraid the teen would get whiplash, his deep blue eyes narrowed like the redhead had offended him, "So what if it is? When I get older I'm gonna make it myself so that I can protect Tetsu-chan."

Crimson and amber eyes widened before a soft smile crossed over Akashi's face, "Come on, we have to go move Atsushi before the eagles try to take him again."

Just before they moved out a loud crash followed by a bloodcurdling scream pierced through the once calm and tranquil atmosphere, unmistakably that voice was the voice of their precious protector, the very one that Aomine was so emotional attached to.

Atsushi was suddenly there, his purple eyes burning, an aura of deep purple spinning wildly around him causing black skid marks to appear all over the floor. His cheeks were covered in deep purple and red scales, a testament to his anger and worry, "What happened to Kuro-chin?"

Both Aomine and Kise had immediately curled into the corner closest to the office door looking on in curiosity as Akashi slowly got up from his position on the floor.

By now, Kuroko's heart-breaking sobs could be heard clearly through the oak wood door that separated them from him. The repeated shouts of 'No way' and 'There's no way I could do that' stabbing each and every one of the four in their hearts.

Atsushi clicked his tongue, "Seijuurou! Why are we still out here?! He's losing his mind in there! We have to-"

"Sit quietly and wait."

The reaction was instantaneous, the loud crash of the purple giant's knees hitting the hardwood floors made the two in the corner flinch and turn their gazes rather nervously in their older-younger brother's direction.

Akashi looked pissed, both of his eyes were a piercing amber, his pupils were slit and feral a raging ring of fiery red surrounding them. He had his own set of crimson scales inching their way onto his neck and face, his glare was directed to Atsushi who was struggling on the ground to get up.

The redhead's gait was slow and relaxed; his face was the epitome of passive aggression as you could quite clearly see the storm raging behind his eyes. He placed a hand on the purplette's shoulder before he whispered something into his ear that made his blood run cold. Atsushi's shoulder's sagged before he was let up, which after which he immediately joined both Kise and Aomine in the corner to wait for their older brother to remedy the issue.

With an intake of breath, the redhead calmed down, pushing his calming aura to his three siblings unconsciously before he opened the office door and walked through, locking it behind him.

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The first thing that the crimson crowned preteen noticed was the fact that the office looked like a tornado had passed through, followed by an earthquake and a hurricane. The floors were streaked with black marks; the entire room's temperature was many degrees below what it was supposed to be, nearly pushing minus three which made him shiver a bit. The room was also caked in darkness, unnaturally moving shadows littered the wall, all aiming to a certain corner behind the large marble desk, the corner in which the sobs and scratching originated from.

The redhead carefully stalked towards the corner, observing the piles of shrivelled and burnt papers that were written in a strange script that he couldn't make out. His eyes traced the messed up table, a huge dusty tome that was opened to a page that showed a picture of a company of six huge reptilian creatures whom were all brandishing strange and dangerous looking weapons in their clawed hands. Akashi's shoes suddenly stopped clicking, the sound of muted silence filling the air as the temperature dropped a few more degrees. Fiery amber eyes widened at the insane amount of ice that covered the floors and walls along with the crazily mangled shadows that followed his movement.

Kuroko Tetsuya slowly turned around before shifting from his position facing the wall to facing the crimson haired boy. The teal eyed man patted the spot next to him, inviting Akashi to sit next to him, before pulling out a small leather bound book that had a bright pink symbol on the front.

Akashi moved to sit next to his caretaker, frowning slightly at the temperature as well as the blank face that was staring back at him. Silence reined throughout the room, the only sounds being heard were the sounds of Atsushi trying to calm down Daiki and Ryouta's crying but, sure enough, Kuroko spoke.

"Do you know who you are, Sei-san?"

The question caught him off guard for sure, but he answered nonetheless, his calm façade being kept sturdily in place. "Of course I do, Tetsuya, I am Akashi Seijuurou, ward of Kuroko Tetsuya and unofficial older brother to Murasakibara Atsushi, Kise Ryouta and Aomine Daiki."

The bluenette in front of him blinked before a soft chuckle rang through the room. "You misunderstand Seijuurou-san, do you know what you are?"

This caught his attention. There was only one other time that his caretaker had called him by his full name, and the actions that followed were enough to keep him shuddering till he was twenty-five, "I'm afraid I don't Tetsuya."

A long sigh fell from the man's mouth, he looked… tired and old, like many years had suddenly piled their way on top of him. The man opened the book to a page that displayed a huge cross-shaped seal that was surrounded by two sets of wings, the words 'Immorality before Immortality' written in French script underneath it.

"That is the seal which keeps me bound to this world. It is the nature of my curse, Seijuurou-san."

A simple crimson eyebrow was raised; the question was loud enough to be inferred.

"I'm not human and neither are any of you."

Pin. Drop. Silence.

The red head looked at his caretaker like he had grown two heads before he looked down at his hands, crimson scales dotting his wrists and making their way up his knuckles. His eyes narrowed, what was the problem with him, he usually never showed his marks.

"Then, wha-what are we, Tetsuya?"

The bluenette's chuckle sounded broken, a slight choking sound making it echo off of the walls. The crimson crowned boy looked on in a weird sort of curiosity as he watched Tetsuya's arm go from being a soft a silky pale to darkening, a rough set of thorny scales that were peaked with ice covering his arm from fingertip to shoulder, "All of us are draconic. I'm simply the only pureblood. All of you, including your last of kin, are mixed with something else, I'm sorry for keeping it from you."

Akashi's mind was going at inhuman speeds, trying its best to process all of the information that was suddenly shoved onto it. Draconic? Mixed breeds? Last of Kin? Did that mean that there was one more of them? Is that why Tetsuya was under so much stress? Because he didn't find him?

"Wait, is that why you've been holed up in here? Because you couldn't find the last one?"

A small snort escaped the man's mouth, "Ever the charmer Sei-san, I was expecting you to ask something along the lines of 'what am I mixed with?' or 'Is that why Atsushi is so lazy?' but your first question is about the last one. You're not wrong, but you're not right either. I… I definitely found him, but he was already part of a human family. It seems like he was adopted by true nobility who are abusing the gifts of his lineage, but, unfortunately, he was incredibly loyal, refusing to leave the people that had rescued him from the slavers. I was too late."

Kuroko was crying again, but at the same time he was wearing such a soft, loving smile that Akashi was confused. If that was the case, if he or Ryouta or Atsushi or Daiki, if any of them were already parts of other families, he wouldn't have taken them in? Tetsuya would've been living in this huge house by himself? Wait… Tetsuya had mentioned that they all were draconic, if he were to go off of the picture he had seen, that would have meant that he had purposely searched for them. Did-did that mean that he was worried about the rest of us? Is that why he had specifically searched and adopted each one of them?

"Wait. If that's the case, if you didn't know if we had been adopted or not, why did you search for us anyway?"

Tetsuya immediately broke down again, his sobs growing louder. He leaned his head between the crook of Akashi's neck and shoulder, hugging the boy for all he was worth, while shouting out his sins to the heavens," I-I wish that it for something that noble. I'm nothing but an old man looking to end his life, even if it had meant hurting innocent children,"

Suddenly Akashi felt like his world had ended. He felt cold, even as his… caretaker's hot tears freeze-dried on his shoulder. He had collected them all to kill them? "THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF MAKING US SO HAPPY?!" He shoved Kuroko down onto the icy ground, causing it to shatter around Tetsuya, sending shards of ice everywhere. One particular shard slashed Akashi across his face causing a line of blood to leak from his cheek but he didn't care, his eyes burning a violent amber, the drips evaporating as soon as they hit the floor.

Kuroko was now dry heaving, a bright purple light illuminating through his thin coat and causing Akashi to shield his eyes for a brief period of time. A shot of pain flared through Kuroko's body causing him to empty his stomach, or at least what little was left of it onto the floor. He looked up from his bowed position at Akashi, his eyes turned from a clear teal to a frigid navy blue, much deeper than Aomine's already nearly coal eyes. Kuroko smiled bitterly before spitting up his blood across the room, "Do you think I knew?" He whispered harshly.

Akashi stopped, "What are going about now?"

The blue haired man's face suddenly became blank, his countenance devoid of emotion, "I simply knew that I had to find all of you. I assumed stupidly that it was to protect you, do you think that I would knowingly make each and every one of you this content if I had intentions of murdering you all after?"

Kuroko was now staring Akashi in his eyes, staring defiantly back at the burning Emperor Eyes, "How low do you think of me now Seijuurou? I became attached, too attached to all of you, from your protective streaks to Atsushi's lazy tendencies and Ryouta's constant bouncing and don't even get me started of Daiki's competitiveness. This is my curse for being born a Kuroko; the price for becoming too invested in each of you is my punishment."

Akashi was crying now, struggling to hold his face straight to find out the truth for his siblings and for himself. His eyes were burning and his wound was still bleeding just seeing his caretaker in this insane amount of pain was taxing on him, the person who had taught him how to control his power, how to take care of his younger pseudo siblings, how to enjoy training your body till you wanted to drop dead with a stupid smile on your face. The crimson crowned boy was doing everything in his limited power to not break down in front of the man.

"Do you resent any of it? If you had known, would you have still taken us in?"

A sharp intake of breath and suddenly Akashi was enveloped in the familiar freezing warmth of his caretaker, of his Tetsuya.

"If I had known… I would've still rescued you all, but I wouldn't have taken you all in. I would've found you all good homes with understanding parents and maybe, you all would've grown to be friends, all playing with each other until far into your lifetimes. I would've done what a Kuroko does best and disappear into to background. However, I don't regret it. I could never resent any of it, not when I have all of you to keep me going strong."

Akashi held on to Kuroko like a life-line, his tears finally pouring out of his eyes, the amber fading back into a harmless crimson with slit pupils, the sign of his reptilian heritage. They stayed curled in the darkness of the room for far too long, Akashi occasionally asking questions of Kuroko's past while playing with the long strands of the man's baby blue hair. In the morning, when Kuroko finally came out of the room holding onto sleeping Akashi in a bridal style, he was nearly smothered by the simultaneous embraces of his other wards. This had, evidently woken up the sleeping redhead who had growled at the three telling them to leave 'his Tetsuya' alone. Chuckles had rung throughout the West Wing, the order finally restored.

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Omake~~ Akashicchi's Struggles~~

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Hey, do you all wanna know a secret?

Akashicchi couldn't look people in the eye until he was eleven!

When Atsushicchi and I had arrived at Father's manor, Akashicchi wore this really fancy eyepatch that was gold and red. He was really shy too, only playing with us when Father was around.

One day when he was nine and we were ten, Akashicchi fell asleep in the garden under this huge apple tree while reading and Atsushicchi took his eyepatch off and hid it in the strawberry vines, then we hid in the pumpkin patch and waited until he woke up which was a looong time after, we had gotten so bored that we started playing cards and eye spy!

Anyway when Akashicchi woke up he started panicking and running around like a headless chicken, crying and muttering to himself about how 'Tetsuya was going to kill him for losing it.'

After about half an hour he turned in our direction and we saw his other eye. It was this pretty yellow colour that was almost as bright as my hair! We still don't know how he saw us from the distance but he ran over to us to ask us for help but as soon as he got close enough to throw his shoe and hit Atsushicchi this huge aura came over us and we couldn't breathe.

The closer he came the less air we got and when he saw that the two of us had almost passed out he started yelling for Father, blubbering about how he had killed his brothers.

When Father came outside he was holding onto the eyepatch and he just walked up to Akashicchi and kneeled down and put the patch on telling him something about how princes shouldn't cry. When he turned to us he bonked us on the back of our heads and told us that we'd be cleaning the entire garden for playing such a mean prank on Akashicchi. It was the worst working the entire weekend to clean and weed the garden! But you know, between the two of us, it was totally worth it to see Akashicchi so ruffled and out of it, especially now that we're all grown and nothing short of Father being hurt could ruffle his feathers.

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"Oi Ryouta, who are you talking to?"

A golden blonde eighteen year old with bright honey amber eyes turned around stiffly, clutching a small pink wire bound notebook to his chest, wrinkling his pressed, pristine dress shirt.

"Umm… just my diary Akashicchi!"

The crimson crowned male in the doorway was covered from head to toe in a sticky red liquid and was holding on to a red and black hilted naginata. He smirked dangerously, "Really, because I'm positive I heard you speaking of that incident."

The blonde began to cold sweat; he knew he was treading on dangerous ground now, especially when his brother looked like he had just overturned hell before coming back home, "Ahh… See you next time!"

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Oh my gosh that was hard on my poor wrists!

Anyway, this is the first chapter of this thing, now I know that it's a lot to digest but this is a story that will be a bit confusing until you get into the groove of everything. This chapter was just setting the sand on the hypothetical house; the next chapter will probably throw you off, but please bear with me. There will be a huge time skip to where everyone is eighteen- nineteen with the exception of Kuroko who doesn't age. Oh and a little hint to everyone, this is a sort of twisted story that changes depending on whose PoV its being told from. I will give you guys a hint though, you HAVE to pay attention the Omakes because there will be tidbits of information that will be hidden under the guise of a foolish simple story from the past, and yes, all of these Omakes will be told from one of the Kiseki no Sedai's Point of Views since I will not be going through their pasts until a bit later.

That being said I'm still not sure about the pairings but we'll see since romance will be important in the story.

Okay well, Happy Valentines Day, see ya~~