Disclaimer:
All KNB characters in this story belong to Fujimaki Tadatoshi, creator of 黒子のバスケ/ Kuroko no Basuke / The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays.
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The sharp sounds of metal hitting against rocks echoed in the mines. Soft grunts of effort accompanied each hit.
Today was a good day. The sun was hidden behind a cloud, softening the harsh heat of the noon sun. They did not have to worry about collapsing from heat exhaustion before the guard blows his whistle to signal a break. If they failed to endure until the whistle blows, they would be punished.
A young man, with his black hair pushed back from his face with a towel, secretly glanced to the side. Pity shone in his eyes as he watched the thin body of the young teenage boy slaving away at the mines.
The poor boy had such weak stamina that he collapsed far too often. Of course, this led to the boy being covered in wounds. The barely healed whip lashes could be easily seen through the boy's sweat-soaked thin white shirt. The young man was sure the boy did not only carry whip marks, but also knife wounds on him.
As he observed the boy out of the corner of his eyes, the young man did not forget to hack away at the rocks with his pickaxe.
The man sighed. Hopefully, the boy would be spared from punishments today. Glancing away, the young man saw many others casting worried looks to the boy, some lifted their heads to the skies, studying the covered sun. He smiled slightly. Looks like he was not the only one relieved for the boy.
The only reason why the boy's wounds had not reopened even with such harsh movements was due to the healing powers of the middle aged man who was hacking away at a spot not too far away from the boy. The thin film of power covered the boy from head to toe, but because it was so thin, no one noticed.
Ah, no. That's not right. The only ones who did not notice was the guard watching over them. Everyone working in the mines knew, could see the power covering the boy. Because they were special. They were all humans, yet not.
They were humans gifted with powers, and were called Demigods.
The powers could range from simple offense to complicated healing power.
Long, long ago, demigods of old were worshiped by normal humans. The demigods adored the humans who held such respect for them, and so they changed their appearances, becoming identical to normal humans, to connect closer to them. Their efforts were rewarded, and the humans' devotion to them grew even more.
Faced with such feelings, the demigods repaid in kind. They constantly reached out to help the humans, be it healing their life-threatening illnesses or defending them from evil monsters keen on devouring humans.
By maintaining the balance, demigods and humans coexisted peacefully for many years.
But then, slowly, the humans became greedy.
They wanted the demigods to share their power, said it was unfair for only demigods to have such divine powers. They demanded for 'equality'. The demigods of old tried over and over again to explain that the bodies of demigods were different; though they had the same appearances as humans, but that was nothing more than an illusion. Their true bodies were in fact, very different from humans.
If normal humans were to receive the vast power of a demigod, they would immediately die.
But the humans were relentless.
They turned a deaf ear to the demigods' words and warnings, and insisted to be given power.
The demigods of old loved the humans, so they came to a compromise. They could not give their powers to the humans, so they created special beings for the humans. These beings were almost equal to a demigod in power, and had similar appearance to an orc. The demigods gave them the ability to learn, to communicate.
The humans were ecstatic, and called them Otrok.
The demigods were relieved that the humans no longer endangered their own lives due to their greed for power. And the humans who were finally given what they wanted began to live peacefully with the demigods once more.
Many years passed without any changes.
However, humans were always, always a very greedy race.
They became unsatisfied with their position. And so they used the Otrok, who were on par with an actual demigod, to fight against the demigods. They wanted to erase the existence of demigods; they wanted to be the one to stand at the top.
The demigods of old were deeply hurt by the actions of the humans they loved. To protect themselves, they fought with the humans. They shed their human appearance, and resumed their original forms.
The original forms of the demigods were grotesque, terrifying, and this spurred on the humans to eliminate such hideous monsters. Many demigods died in that war that lasted for years. Eventually, the demigods were tired. Supporting each other, the remaining demigods escaped. But they were sure to destroy as many of the Otrok as they could before leaving.
With so many of them destroyed, the humans to become infuriated. But as a majority of their strength had been destroyed, they couldn't continue the drawn-out war nor could they stop the demigods from fleeing. With barely a handful of Otrok left on the earth, the demigods fled to the skies, returning to where they had lived before coming down to earth.
But there were repercussions of using so much of their power to destroy the Otrok. The demigods of old became extremely weak.
With every generation, the power of the demigods continued to weaken.
And eventually, they fell into the hands of humans.
Humans advanced, building palaces and establishing statuses. Only the royalty would have the privilege of owning one of the very few Otrok left. These Otrok were carefully trained to be obedient only to the humans, just the way the humans wanted. Then, the humans changed history to their liking, feeding false information to the people. And the result was obvious.
Demigods were scorned by humans, made into slaves, used for hard labour that no human would willingly do. With them losing more and more of their powers, their bodies changed and started to take on the forms of humans. There was no need for their enhanced bodies to contain such strong powers anymore, thus they became just like humans.
Now, even if one comes from a lineage of demigods, it did not necessarily mean that they would have powers. But one thing remained the same, that all descendants of demigods could see 'power'. An ability the humans would never have. But that did not matter, for they have the obedient Otrok. The Otrok monitored everything for the humans.
If a slave demigod dared to use their power during their 'training', they would receive even harsher punishments. With the history manipulated by the humans, there was nowhere for a demigod to run to. The people will not support them. Thus, the demigods were left with no choice but to endure, endure and endure.
That was why, even though that boy with shockingly weak stamina possessed powers so strong that it left other demigods descendants in awe, he could never use them. As long as he remained a captive, the boy did not have a choice. So the boy sealed a majority of his powers. No matter how injured the boy was, he refused to lift his seal. The other descendants could only sigh, and help take care of the boy.
Kuroko Tetsuya was the boy's name.
Taken away by the humans at seven years old, Kuroko Tetsuya had been a slave ever since then. One would think that Kuroko had no memories of when he was still together with his parents, but Kuroko would smile whenever the other descendants had whispered conversations about the family they no longer had. Seeing that, they were relieved, for Kuroko to be able to smile as such meant that he was able to experience a happy childhood, even if it was short.
The other descendants were wary of Kuroko at first, because even though Kuroko was only seven years old, his eyes did not look like that of a child's. Even at seven years of age, Kuroko had already started sealing himself. Back then, Kuroko had scarily low presence, making him practically undetectable. This angered the human king, and Kuroko was constantly punished (when they finally managed to find him).
But Kuroko learnt fast. He forced himself to make it easier for others to spot him which resulted in Kuroko constantly tiring himself out. But because he was now easily visible, the human king's anger subsided. Throwing him to work in the mines, the king easily forgot his existence.
The king forgot, but the human lords under him did not. So Kuroko could only continue to make himself easily visible. Being perpetually tired, and forced into hard labour under the unforgiving weather with barely any breaks for water, led to Kuroko collapsing often.
"Kusame-san." A soft voice murmured beside the young man who was lost in his thoughts.
The young man with black hair jumped, nearly dropping his pickaxe. He turned to the side.
"Ah, Kuroko-kun? What is it?"
Round black eyes blinked at him.
"It's time for a break. The guard blew his whistle." Kuroko said.
"Oh? I didn't notice. I was caught up in my memories." Kusame swung an arm around Kuroko's shoulders. "Let's hurry and get some water."
Kuroko smiled.
"Are you looking through history again?" He asked.
Kusame nodded. "I guess it's a good thing that our demigod blood allows us to view the untainted history. Humans are amazing, aren't they? To be able to twist history so much." He sneered.
Kuroko only blinked in reply.
Kusame noticed him staring, and quickly put away his angered expression. Instead, he smiled and then he ruffled Kuroko's hair. Laughing, he said, "I also remembered when I first met you. You were one scary kid."
Kuroko chuckled.
"Is that so?"
Kusame nodded his head in reply before quickly reaching up to catch the two bottles of water thrown at him. The person who thrown it was the middle aged man, Ryuu. Ryuu could be said to be taller than an average man, with broad shoulders and a large build. He gave off a rather intimidating presence. Currently scowling at Kusame, Ryuu's dark brown hair was dripping with sweat. Kusame swiftly handed one bottle to Kuroko, then lifted his hands away from him, acting innocent. He turned away, guzzling down the bottle of water.
Kuroko also drank down the water greedily. The wounds Kusame had caused to reopen were easily healed with a very slight burst of warm light from Ryuu. Kuroko did not mind, he knew Kusame did not do it on purpose. Besides, his body was always in pain, so it was a little hard for Kuroko to identify which part hurt more.
The sharp sound of a whistle rang out once more.
Break was over.
Life as a demigod slave was very mundane.
Wake up, have breakfast, work in the mines, dinner and then sleep. Lunch was not provided, because no one would die from a lack of food when they were already given two meals a day. As much as possible, the humans wanted to conserve their precious food for other humans. Making the slaves go hungry was fine, as long as they did not die.
Kuroko has lived this life for many years, although this restrictive schedule was changed whenever he was punished for 'slacking off'. Because apparently, to the humans, collapsing from exhaustion was considered as slacking. Kuroko did not care much, just that it was annoying that he had to place extra caution in his seals to prevent his power from leaking out in the presence of the Otrok stationed in the torture room.
But today was a little different.
Today, the slaves were all gathered in the rather rundown living room of the demigod's dorm. Apparently, new slaves were to join them. It was not unusual to receive new slaves, but they have never been told to gather like this before. So these new slaves had to be special.
They were all curious, but the room was silent. No one talked to each other. Well, no one wanted to, especially not in the presence of an Otrok. Soon enough, multiple footsteps approached. As one, everyone's head turned to the door.
The first person to step in was the human lord in charge of the slaves.
Following after him, were the new slaves. Everyone's eyes widened. The new slaves were…colourful. Yellow, green, purple, dark blue and red. Those hair and eye colours were extremely unique, and a characteristic of a strong demigod. Perhaps it would be better to call it 'exceptionally strong'. Even among the demigods of old, very few had such colours. And humans obviously did not have such hair colours, mostly black, brown or blond.
Actually, Kuroko himself was rather 'colourful', but because he had sealed so much of his powers, his hair and eyes turned black, blending him in as an ordinary demigod to the humans. Humans would scrutinise the colours a demigod bore, to determine their strength. Kuroko knew that, so he had painfully sealed himself to avoid attention.
But these new slaves did not hide themselves, they even walked around proudly. The human lord was clearly very displeased, but he did not say anything.
The human lord gave a very brief introduction of the new slaves, not even bothering to say their names. He then ordered the other demigod slaves to keep an eye on the new slaves and report any breach of orders. Although no one reacted, the slaves all had the same thought.
Like hell we would help you humans to increase your control over us.
Kuroko felt the gaze of someone on him, so he turned away from the human lord and to the source of the stare. He was met with a pair of red eyes with narrowed pupils. Kuroko blinked, but did not look away.
Abruptly, a tiny smirk appeared and vanished just as fast. Those red eyes finally shifted their gaze, no longer watching (studying?) Kuroko.
Right after that, the slaves were all rushed out to work in the mines. The king wants his diamonds, and they had better fulfill the quota set by the king by the time night has fallen. The other demigods only picked up their weapons with a soft, barely audible sigh, and started working. They all stayed away from the colourful group.
It was not quite because of fear that they stayed away, but more of respect. The memories in their blood told them that they were powerful, and to maintain a proper distance out of respect. While the lesser demigods did have some fear, it was not enough to overpower the respect they felt as well.
But for Kuroko, because he himself could be considered as an exceptionally strong demigod, he did not feel the need to keep a distance. So he simply headed to his usual spot and started hacking away.
Compared to everyone else, the distance between Kuroko and the group was considerably small.
This of course, drew the attention of the group.
The one with yellow hair and eyes moved towards the red haired demigod, leaning his body over the smaller man's back. The yellow eyes remained locked on Kuroko.
"Akashicchi, that boy over there…" The yellow demigod whispered into 'Akashicchi's' ear.
"Mm, I'm not too sure myself, but I believe he is like us." The red-haired demigod softly answered the unfinished question. Then his voice increased in volume, "And let go of me, Kise. You're heavy."
"Ehh, stingy. Murasakibaracchi does this all the time and you never complained! No fair!" Kise whined.
A large hand plucked Kise off of Akashi, dangling him in the air.
"Kise-chin. Aka-chin says to let go."
"Wah! Murasakibaracchi! Don't do that, it's scary! See, I've already released Akashicchi. Let me go!"
Kise was dropped to the ground, landing hard on his butt.
"That hurts." Kise pouted, though he was ignored.
"Akashi, we should introduce ourselves. It seems we have already drawn quite some attention. And the guard standing above looks rather angry." The green haired bespectacled man said.
Akashi nodded.
Completely ignoring the human guard, Akashi had Kise call over all the demigods. They crowded in front of the group. And of course, the human guard was livid, blowing his whistle loudly and ordering them all to get back to work.
Akashi silenced the guard with a single glare.
The guard was so afraid that he peed in his pants. Yes, Akashi and his little group were different from all the lesser demigods that the humans were used to. Akashi smirked. Even the king could not do anything, not after they displayed some of their power by destroying one of the treasured Otrok.
The king was extremely reluctant, but still managed to treat them with barely there respect. Akashi didn't care though. Respect from humans meant nothing to him. The king allowed them to roam around the palace freely, but Akashi only requested to be where all the other demigods were.
The human lord clearly did not receive any instructions from the king, for he dared to address them as slaves. Nevermind, he would leave that lord to Aomine, for him to play with.
Akashi's gaze swept across the demigods before him, lingering very briefly on the boy who caught his attention earlier.
With a single nod from Akashi, the little group introduced themselves.
Midorima Shintarou, Aomine Daiki, Murasakibara Atsushi, Kise Ryouta and Akashi Seijuurou.
The lesser demigods all introduced themselves as well, and though Akashi nodded courteously, he was more interested in the boy. And he was not the only one. Akashi could see Kise fidgeting restlessly.
Finally, it was the boy's turn. Midorima's breathing picked up a little. And Akashi's lips twitched into a small smile. Indeed, everyone had noticed the boy.
"Kuroko Tetsuya." The boy murmured softly.
Immediately, the group froze. Even Akashi had frozen, his eyes widened in shock.
"…Akashi-san? Is there something wrong?" A lesser demigod questioned.
Akashi pulled himself together, and shook his head with a smile.
"It's good to meet you all. Please, get back to work." Akashi pretty much ordered the lesser demigods.
They all nodded and returned to their stations.
Five pairs of eyes followed Kuroko Tetsuya's every move.
"…A..Akashi..." Aomine choked out.
"It can't be. No, it can't. Perhaps it's just someone with the same name." Midorima forcefully spoke, as though he wanted to desperately hypnotise himself.
"Shintarou," Akashi murmured. Midorima tensed, glancing at the terrifying gold eye. "I want to know, Shintarou. I have to know." Akashi grounded out.
Midorima's eyes closed. Eventually, he exhaled softly as he nodded.
"But not here. Akashi-kun, please wait until we get back to the rundown house." Midorima said.
"I understand." Akashi's gold eye faded, turning back into red.