If it didn't count as strange that Kuroko, with his perfect attendance to after school practice—even when he wasn't actually present at school—had actually skipped practice for the first time (something which the team didn't realize until half an hour in, rubbing their eyes and darting their heads around to make sure that yes, Kuroko was not being exceptional at erasing his presence, but was actually not there) then it was definitely strange that he had skipped the day after, and the day after that— the current day—giving the team a mild panic attack that launched a series of theories and speculation on Kuroko's "highly-probable" and sudden attainment of the actual power invisibility, or his entrapment in the world of shadows, or Kagami's inhuman appetite rendering him unable to distinguish friend from food.

"Are you serious," Kagami growled, actually pausing his attempts at trying to start practice. "I'd at least notice if I were eating Kuroko—he's practically skin and bones! Gyudon has more meat than him!"

The coach smacked him behind the head with a paper fan. "As opposed to being able to distinguish between what's actually human and what's cooked?!" she gritted, squinting. Kagami chuckled sheepishly. "'Ehehe' my butt! These discussions have been disrupting practice since yesterday!"

"But coach," Koganei offered, stepping forward. "Aren't you a little bit curious? I mean, this is Kuroko we're talking about, he never misses practice."

Riko considered this for a few beats, and crossed her arms. "Well, it is pretty weird that he's skipped not once, but thrice in a row now, but it's not like it's forbidden—and in any case, instead of coming up with stupid theories, why don't you just go and ask Kuroko yourselves!"

"Ask me what?"

"Ask Kuroko why he's been—eh?" Riko glanced to the side, discovered that someone had suddenly appeared there, and instinctively spun around and smacked Kuroko upside the head with the paper fan, squealing. The rest of the team jumped, yelping octaves higher than can be considered manly.

"Ack! Kuroko!" Riko drew back her weapon, wincing. "S-sorry, it was a reflex."

"You're late!" Hyuuga pointed out, pushing his glasses up. "And what's up? You haven't shown up to practice the past few days!"

"Sorry," Kuroko said, slightly bent in pain, two hands on the sore spot on his head. He straightened up slightly to meet the captain's eyes. "I'm sorry I skipped without any notice for two days. And sorry for being late, but I actually just came here to return Furihata-kun's notebook. I have to leave early today, too."

"Wha—eh?"

Kuroko fished out a notebook from his bag and walked towards Furihata, handing it to him. "Thank you for lending me your notes," he said to him, bowing slightly.

Furihata blinked. "Oh, ah, sure! No problem!" he said, taking the notebook and somehow bowing slightly too. Kuroko's mouth quirked up faintly before he stepped back, glancing over at Kagami, who blinked at him. Kuroko seemed to consider something as he looked at his partner, but then turned to his team. He bowed again, almost hesitantly. "Sorry," he repeated. "I'll be taking my leave for today, then," and he turned on his heel and slipped out of the gym.

Seirin's basketball team was somehow set on pause, not quite processing what had just happened. The lot of them blinked a couple of times before Hyuuga spun around, "Kagami!" he yelled, pointing a finger at the redhead. "What did you do?!"

Kagami shook his head, snapping out of his pause. "What?! Why me? I didn't do anything!"

"What just happened?" Kawahara asked, head cocked to one side.

"I—Kuroko's skipping again?" Fukuda said, confused.

"Well, like they say, third time's the ch—"

"Shut up Izuki!"

"Gah!" Koganei cried, gripping the sides of his head. "We weren't able to ask him!"

The coach let out an exasperated sigh, her groan laced with the resignation of being so done with all the goldfish-level attention spans she's had to deal with since Kuroko's unexpected absences. "That's it!" Riko started, patting the paper fan over her palm. "Let's go find out what he's up to!"

Shuutoku High School, same afternoon

It had just occurred to Takao how seldom he actually saw Midorima without a shirt, and how even less often he saw him showering. Without a shirt. In the shower. It probably looked rather suspicious how pointedly he was staring over the low shower cubicle divider at his half-naked partner, trying to decipher why the image of 'Midorima Showering' was somehow not right, but all of his fellow teammates had one after the other started doing so as well, not quite understanding what was wrong with the picture.

"Wait, what," Miyaji said, halfway into a cubicle, squinting at the now-rinsing Midorima.

Takao's arms felt a tingle of strain when he realized that he hadn't dropped his hands from shampooing his head ever since seeing Midorima get in the cubicle next to him to shower. The pang made him blink and realize rather belatedly that Midorima was showering. With them. After practice.

"Shin-chan why are you here?" Takao blurted, the words spilling out clumsily.

Shin-chan ruffled the last of the shampoo suds from his green hair, bowing slightly under the shower. Afterwards, he closed the shower and turned to look at Takao. "Why shouldn't I be? I have to shower before changing, Takao."

"No no no," Takao chanted, gathering himself. "I mean, you're not going to do your shooting practice again?"

Midorima seemed to think about it, glancing away. After a moment, he ran a hand through his hair, smoothing it back over his forehead, and locked eyes with his partner. Takao swallowed, staring back, realizing just now that Midorima wasn't wearing his glasses. And that he looked really different with his hair pulled up. And that his lower eyelashes were thick, with water droplets dotting them. And that he was close enough to count them, and he was actually trying.

"No," was all Shin-chan said after the pause, regarding Takao's gaze with a look that Takao knew was different but couldn't quite figure out how. Midorima turned around to leave, wrapping a towel around his waist and picking up his glasses, popping them over his eyes. "I'll be taking my leave now."

He bowed slightly at the exit of the showers and turned, stepping out. A few beats passed before Miyaji repeated more confusedly, squinting and frowning, "Wait, what?"

"Takao, what did you do?!" Ootsubo accused, turning sharply to their point guard.

Takao jerked out of his daze, sending drops of soap and water flying from his hair. "What?! Why me?"

"He's been leaving earlier than all of us these past few days! He hasn't done his shooting practice either, there's something wrong!" Miyaji scolded, vigorously scrubbing at his hair.

"And why would it be my fault?!" Takao defended, getting under the torrent of the shower as he rinsed his head. The team seemed to be in a frenzy, showering furiously as if to make up for not finishing before Midorima, who usually stayed later than anyone to do his routine shooting practice.

"Guys!" Kimura suddenly burst in from the entrance, half-dressed in their school uniform. "I—Midorima—he—"

"Yeah, he left early. Again. This is weird."

"No, no!" Kimura swallowed, catching his thoughts. "That is weird but today he's leaving with a small bouquet of flowers in hand!"

There was a pause, and then:

"WHAT."

"Are you sure?" Ootsubo asked, eyes wide.

"You sure that wasn't his lucky item?!"

"Then what's the big-ass eggplant he's been carrying all day for?!"

"Nah, the eggplant is his lucky item for today," Takao said, leaving his cubicle and fumbling with the towel around his waist. "Kimura-san, did you see which way Shin-chan turned after leaving the locker room?"

"Huh? Uh, right?"

"That's the wrong side," Takao said, a hand under his chin. "The left exit of the gym leads to the rickshaw, where we usually park because it's the closest entrance to the road we take from his house."

"Hm," Ootsubo thought seriously, the last to leave the showers as the team filed into the locker room to change. "He can't have taken a wrong turn. Maybe he had an errand to run?"

"But what's with the flowers?" Miyaji asked, somehow almost fully dressed.

"It couldn't be—"

The Shuutoku team had a simultaneous thought, all of them freezing and turning to look at each other in shock.

"A girlfriend?!"

A beat passed, then everything seemed to spill out in a rush.

"Nonononono. No way. Not our Midorima….right?"

"Maybe he's giving the flowers to his mother or granny or something!"

"Then why has he been leaving early since Monday?"

"…He was growing the flowers?"

"Dumbass! What kind of explanation is that!"

"He can't have a girlfriend before me!"

"That's not the point!"

"Let's—" Takao started, not quite sure where his train of thought was going, or why there seemed to be a lump at his throat. "Let's go follow him!"

The team looked at him, and the idea seemed to settle into their thoughts hesitantly, albeit agreeably. Takao was smirking crookedly, features pricked with an edge of panic. There was a tentative bead of sweat rolling down the team's collective wariness, and they all seemed to nod at the same time, Miyaji the first to break the silence.

"Let's do it."

"Ohh!" The team boomed, much like their energetic roar before every match. They swiftly collected their belongings and slunk out of the locker room, jogging out of the gym in the direction Midorima was last seen. They had filed out and collected themselves as a team, switching gears and positioning themselves so that Takao was in front and had the best field of vision for his Hawk Eye to quickly spot their green-haired shooter. The other members positioned themselves strategically behind him, ready to shift their formation to instantly hide in case Midorima's seen.

"Alright, look out for green hair and a stupid huge-ass eggplant."

"And flowers."

"All in one tall arrogant brat with glasses."

He wasn't hard to find.

"There!" Takao announced, shifting his heels to veer to one side away from Midorima's field of vision. The team responded instantly, falling quickly behind him. Midorima had just rounded the second corner near the end of the road to their school, and Takao waited until he disappeared from their sight, then shifted to move towards the road before the one Midorima took, detouring to end up behind Midorima as he reached the next road that led downtown. When they saw Midorima cross the street, they waited a bit before following after him, keeping away some meters behind him.

Just as Midorima was about to cross another street, he abruptly paused, sending the team to a skittering halt when he switched his hold on the eggplant and flowers and fished out his phone from his pocked, suddenly turning, his side facing his stalking teammates who scrambled to hide in the nearest open store next to them. They panted, pulses racing at almost having been caught stalking their tsundere teammate.

After a few beats, Miyaji was first to move, pulling out his phone and sticking it out into the sidewalk, angling it a certain way before clicking, taking a picture. He pulled his hand back, and the team huddled around his phone, examining the photo. In it, Midorima still had his side towards them, the eggplant and flowers in his right arm, his cellphone held to his ear with his finger-taped left hand.

"Who's he talking to on the phone?"

"How would I know?"

"You don't think—"

"—the girlfriend?"

"We don't know that yet!"

"But who would call him?!"

"I barely even see him use his phone."

"Wait! There was one time he got a message during the opening ceremony of Inter High!"

"You're right! He even left afterwards! Who was it?"

"I don't know! He just excused himself, saying he was 'being summoned'."

"Arf!"

"…Arf?" The team paused, looking down. Near their feet stood a black and white dog with big round eyes, wearing a black, red and white jersey, that looked very familiar.

"Dog?" Miyaji craned his neck forward, squinting at it. "Hmm? Doesn't he look familiar?"

Takao regarded the dog with his own squint, a pang of familiarity nudging at his brain. "I know I've seen this dog before."

"It's wearing a jersey, isn't it? Number 16?"

Just then, the dog's ear twitched, and it gave a small bark before trotting away, in the direction of Midorima.

"…Huh. Random."

Takao was about to agree when he realized something. "Wait!" He spun around and practically leapt out in the open sidewalk. He blinked once before frantically announcing, "Shin-chan's gone!"

The team followed him, running out into the sidewalk to see it devoid of eggplant-holding tsunderes. "Quick! Let's catch up!" Ootsuba barked, jogging forward. The team followed, turning the corner Midorima was about to turn before taking the phone call. When they cleared the turn, they skidded to a halt when they didn't find their shooter in sight. They quickly scanned the area, Takao surveying it more times than any of them, before they all groaned.

"He's gone!"

"How could he disappear like that?! Has he been taking lessons from Seirin's Number 11?"

"Seirin's—ah! I remember now!" Takao announced, fist smacking his palm in realization. "The dog a while ago was Kuroko's!"

"What, really?" Miyaji asked, then considered it. "Well, come to think of it, it did look like the kid."

"Arf!"

"Arf again?"

The Shuutoku boys turned to the sound of barking, and saw that passersby seemed to avoid a certain spot across the street from them, right at the intersection. They straightened up to see that there were two people, one cat-like male and one shorthaired female, hoisted up on tall men's shoulders, facing opposite directions, hands over their brows as if they were searching for something far away. Around them, in a circle, were a number of pretty tall highschoolers looking in all directions and completing the ridiculous formation. The black and white dog from earlier bounded towards them, barking affectionately, and one of the tall men—a readhead—yelped at the sight of it near his feet, jumping so incredibly high despite having a tall guy sitting on his shoulders. His passenger leaned heavily to one side, flapping wildly, losing balance as the two crashed against the other guys around them, sending half of the formation into a tumble of long limbs and thrown-around curses.

"Wow, that was a high jum—wait, aren't those the Seirin guys?!"

True enough, the mess of flailing limbs and tumbling bodies looked to be Seirin's basketball team, with their coach hoisted on the shoulders of their bespectacled captain, who was trying to dodge the thrashing limbs of his teammates on the ground (and having a really hard time doing it, since his passenger was gripping his head in a tight hug, trying to keep balance and effectively blinding the captain). One of the long limbs got him behind the knees, making the captain double over and sending the coach flying towards the ground. She caught herself and twisted around just in time to land squarely on the back of Kiyoshi Teppei, who's breath was knocked out of his lungs, deflating him until he went slack.

The Shuutoku regulars gaped at them, actually somewhat amazed at how well the Seirin guys generated continuous team chaos. The people around them had actually stopped steering away and laughed, some flipping out camera phones to document the epic battle of limbs.

"Oh my god, this is ridiculous," Miyaji groaned, stomping across the street towards the chaos of a team. The rest of Shuutoku's guys followed him, trying to make sense of what was happening with the regulars, their coach, and a dog. Takao had barely gotten there when an elbow came swinging at him, narrowly missing his face when he jerked away, stumbling backwards into Miyaji, who lost his balance when a foot somehow appeared at his side. Ootsubo caught them both, pulling them away from the mess, all of Shuutoku's regulars staring in bewilderment after.

"Holy crap," Takao breathed. "These guys are dangerous. It's like their chaos has an area of effect."

"More like their stupidity," Miyaji scowled, breaking free of Ootsubo and straightening Takao up.

Somehow, suddenly the dog and a paper fan were flying in the air, and not realizing how that had happened, the Seirin guys panicked into a scramble to catch the dog, spreading out impressively quick and coordinating so that Kiyoshi was the one to catch the dog, jumping forward at the same time Kagami leapt across his side, snatching the paper fan from their coach's outstretched hand, quickly passing it to Hyuuga, who tossed it over to Izuki on the other side, who swiftly packed the fan into his bag, making the coach scowl and squint at them. "I don't know if I should be mad or proud that your coordination just now was top-notch just to keep me from getting that," she said.

"And to catch Nigou!" Kiyoshi pointed out, just as his eyes spotted the Shuutoku regulars. "Oh! It's you guys! Hi!"

The Seirin team followed his line of sight, recognizing the Shuutoku team. Kagami perked up, "Hey! You guys are Midorima's—"

"It's Shuutoku!" Miyaji snapped.

The coach blinked at them, then bowed slightly. "Hello. Fancy meeting you here."

"Uh, yeah, you too," Takao said as his team bowed a little as well. "We were passing by when we saw you—what were you guys doing? You know, before the chaos ensued."

"Oh, the Shadow Formation?" Koganei chipped in, raising a finger.

"The what?"

"Please ignore the stupid name," Hyuuga said, grunting. "Our team decided to go and follow Kuroko out today, but as you probably know, he's really good at disappearing."

"We lost sight of him when we turned to this area so we switched to a circular formation to cover all directions," the coach continued. "And got a good vantage point. On these guys, at least," she jerked a thumb at Hyuuga and Kagami, who served as her and Koganei's ride.

The Shuutoku guys nodded, seeing the logic behind the ridiculous formation. Seirin's coach snapped her fingers, face lighting up. "But wait! This is perfect! Can we borrow your point guard?"

"What," Takao started, but the agreement of the Seirin guys had him by the arm in an instant.

"Whoa, wait, why do you need Takao?" Miyaji asked, grabbing Takao's other arm, as if to play tug-of-war with him as the rope.

"He can spot Kuroko! We haven't been able to find him at all this past hour and a half."

"Hu—wow, he's probably gone by now!" Takao cried, staggering against the tugging in his arms. "Besides, we're out looking for Shin-chan!"

"Shin-chan…? Oh, you mean Midorima?" Kagami said. "I saw him and his eggplant pass by just a while ago."

"Where?" the Shuutoku team barked.

"Went right past us, straight ahead," Kagami said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. "What's up? Why are you looking for him?"

"He's been acting pretty weird lately too," Ootsubo explained. "We just started following him a few minutes ago, after practice, but we lost him at the intersection, then saw you guys."

Takao had already run around them to look at the road Kagami pointed to, eyes scanning the area wide. He squinted when he saw a smidge of green in the distance, a few blocks ahead, and yelled when he saw a flash of eggplant. "I think I see him!" He then noticed a lower smidge of sky blue following behind the eggplant. "And I think Kuroko's with him!"

"What? Really?" both teams turned to look, squinting. A beat passed, then Izuki piped up, "Wait, I think I see them! They're turning the corner to the right!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Takao said, jogging forward, Izuki right beside him. The remaining guys followed after, smirking at each other and their bird-eyed point guards.

It wasn't long before they caught up and saw that Midorima was walking briskly together with Kuroko, who had taken possession of the small bouquet of flowers.

"B-b-b-boyfriend?!" Kimura stammered, suddenly flushed.

"What are you talking about," Kagami said, side-eyeing Midorima's team, striding enough to keep up the pace but still lag far enough behind. Kuroko and Midorima seemed to be in half a rush, sharply turning again.

"Where are they even going?" Hyuuga grumbled. It was getting late.

They continued stalking the two for quite some time before the destination slowly became clear to them. When they saw Midorima and Kuroko push through the glass doors of their town's biggest hospital, the questions and suspicions of both teams cleared somewhat, each side somehow not feeling the need for explanations anymore.

"The hospital, huh?" Takao said, exhaling. Neither group seemed to feel like following their former-Teikou teammates anymore.

"Man, that was unexpected," Hyuuga sighed, leaning back against the tree they hid behind, looking up. "So they're visiting someone."

The members of Seirin's basketball team seemed to share a knowing look, glancing at their captain and Kiyoshi, the pillars of their team who've had enough dealings with the hospital in the past. A solemn look briefly passed Kiyoshi's expression before he flashed a mischievous, beaming grin. "I'm curious about who they're visiting though!"

The others turned to look at him, already about to voice out their arguments when suddenly, a flash of black and blue dashed past them and their "hiding spot" (a tree and bench at the entrance of the hospital that did very little to conceal more than a dozen high school basketball players).

Kagami was the first to recognize the jogging figure, just from seeing his back, which he had gazed at in awe more times than he'd openly admit. "Aomine?!"

Through the glass doors of the hospital, they could see that it was indeed Touou's Aomine who ran past them, turning in the same direction Midorima and Kuroko did once inside.

"Okay," Kagami stood, determined. "I'm really curious now."

He maneuvered out of the cluster of basketball players and started for the hospital entrance. A shallow guilt seemed to wash over the others, but curiosity got the better of them, so they all stood and made to follow.

[tbc]