Important Note: Addiction and Side Effects take place in a whole separate universe to my other stories, meaning that the backstory for Kuroko is significantly different than it was there. This chapter is setting all of that up so it will have a lot more plot and backstory than most of this story will. For the most part Side Effects is a slice of life that will not be driven by plot.


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Drama Warning

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Shokuhou was still grinning as she walked down the street, despite the electro master having wrestled the tape recorder from her a while ago and destroying the tape.

The pair had left the Garden's of Education and, with nothing better to do, had decided to go visit Kuroko. Along the way they came across another pair in much the same formation as them, with one cheerfully grinning person upfront while the other person gloomily trailed along behind.

"Yoohoo, Saten-san, Uiharu-san," Shokuhou called as she ran up to them, "How are you today? Where are you heading?"

Saten turned and smiled at the blond, "Hey there Shokuhou-san, Misaka-san. We're heading off to Judgment. Uiharu has work today."

"Hmmm?" Shokuhou hummed as she fell into step beside the longer haired girl of the pair. "She looks a bit upset, what did you do?"

"The usual." Saten shrugged. "She'll be over it shortly." Saten glanced backwards, "I'm a bit more interested in what you did to Misaka-san."

Shokuhou quietly filled her in on the events of the past hour or so. At the end of the story Saten could barely hold in her laughter. "You recorded the compliments then?"

"Yeah, it's a bit of pity that she destroyed the tape though." Shokuhou sighed in disappointment.

"Yeah, if only you had managed to hand the tape off to one of your minions before she caught you and switched it out for a blank." Saten winked at the blond conspiratorially.

The blond winked back. "Ten points for cleverness." She said. "If you don't tell then I'll let you hear them later."

"Give me the 'you have pretty hair' one as a ringtone and I'll consider it," Saten grinned.


After a few more minutes of casual conversation the four arrived at Judgment Headquarters to see a very distressed looking Konori and no Kuroko. The moment they stepped in Konori glanced at them and seemed a bit relieved, "oh good, you guys," she said, her eyes falling on the two level fives, "can you do me a favor. Kuroko is at the HC Hospital, room 760, some sort of emergency. Could you-" By the time two words of the next sentence were out of her mouth though the four had disappeared, slamming the door behind them.

That particular hospital was quite close so the four had no trouble sprinting the entire distance. Misaka easily made it there first, but the others caught up as the electromaster was over-riding the elevator controls to make one come down to the lobby. They crammed into the elevator and rode up, wishing it would go faster. Once it arrived on the floor they immediately began running towards the indicated room.

As they ran down the hall they heard a familiar voice, Kuroko's voice, crying out as if in distress, "Let go of me!"

"Kuroko!" they cried as they burst into room 760 with considerable gusto and urgency.

The sight that greeted them was slightly unusual. At the end of the room stood a massive teenager.

He was around six foot four inches and was as broad as two normal people, with arms and shoulders rippling with muscles. His short brown hair was cut in a buzz, which, combined with his tattoos and numerous piercings, gave him the look of a delinquent. He held Kuroko in the air by one of her pigtails bouncing her up and down like a yo-yo as she struggled.

However, the sudden noise of the door startled the black haired teen, stopping the bouncing for long enough to give Kuroko the opportunity to teleport away, immediately hiding behind Misaka and Shokuhou, in a way that suggested she was somewhat scared of this person, certainly more scared than the four of them had ever seen Kuroko before.

Seeing this, the electromaster needed no more explanation and was about to start shooting lightning at the person who had been hurting her friend when the black haired teen chuckled, "Hiding behind others as always, eh, runt?" He laughed.

It was the next line that stopped the girls in their tracks though, as they heard Kuroko snarl and yell, "Shut up, Onii-san."

For a moment Misaka and the others were sure they had misheard, but before they could question it they heard another voice. "Would you two please stop fighting," said a calm but tired voice from the side.

As the girls turned to look they saw a very small, very frail looking woman laying in bed in the usual hospital garb. The woman looked young, perhaps sixteen years old at the most, but the laugh lines crinkling around her worldly eyes and the flecks of grey visible in her otherwise jet black hair cut in a bob hinted that she was quite a bit older than she looked. The shape of her face and the color of her eyes seemed familiar, but they couldn't quite place it.

The woman in bed smiled brightly at the five girls. That cheery expression that looked far too happy for someone in the hospital seemed so natural upon her face that it was all too easy to imagine that it was her default expression, or even that she had never had any other expression but that warm, compassionate smile in her entire life. "Are these your friends, Kuroko-chan?" She asked in a voice that was as bright and warm as her smile, "How about you introduce us?"

"Oh, ahem," Kuroko cleared her throat, blushing as she stepped out from behind the two level fives, "These are my friends," she began, pointing to each of the four girls in turn as she introduced them, "That's Uiharu, my colleague in Judgment, my friend Saten-san, and my two girlfriends, Misaka-senpai and Shokuhou-senpai."

There was a hush as everyone present digested this new information that they had just received. The first one to speak was the tall delinquent looking teen across the room, who closed the gap between himself and Kuroko in a blur.

He crouched down in order to put himself at eye level with the much shorter girl and looked slightly exasperated as he clasped the teleporter's shoulders. "Runt,'' he began, his voice easily matching the exasperation that adorned his face, "If you have more than one girlfriend, they aren't supposed to know about each other..."

Kuroko frowned and pushed the teen away, "It's not like that, Onii-san. I'm not cheating on them or being unfaithful, I am simply in a biamorous relationship with the two of them."

"Well that's fine then, as long as you aren't betraying the trust of the people you love," the older woman said in a completely understanding, accepting tone.

"I would never do that," Kuroko protested, "I'm not him." She jabbed her thumb at the tall teen beside her.

"One time, and that was an accident, I've told you before." He bristled in defense as Kuroko opened up that old wound.

Ever since they were kids Tora had taught Kuroko about the importance of fidelity and loyalty, and while he was very faithful and loyal to whatever girl he was currently dating, he also rebounded quickly once the relationships had ended, sometimes getting a new girlfriend before the day was out. One time he had had a particularly bad fight with his girlfriend at the time. He had assumed that they had broken up so he had gotten a new girlfriend.

As it turned out though his previous girlfriend hadn't actually broken up with him and they made up the next day, leaving him with two girlfriends. Despite his usual spiel about loyalty he felt that it was more important to preserve the girl's feelings than be honest with them about the cheating, so he kept it from them until one of them broke up with him. This act had disappointed Kuroko more than anything else he had ever done, leading to the current coldness between them.

Kuroko shook her head and turned back to her friends, "Everyone. This is my Aunt, Midoriko, and my older cousin Tora."

Shokuhou was the first to recover from the shock of this particular revelation. She stepped forward and bowed politely, "A pleasure to meet you." She said, still clearly out of breath from the mad sprint here.

"A pleasure to meet you as well," The older woman said, the words sounding completely sincere, "We've heard so much about you all."

"Really? We haven't heard about you at all," Misaka said, recovering from her embarrassment at being introduced as Kuroko's girlfriend just in time to fix the teleporter with a frown, to which Kuroko had enough presence of mind to look guilty at.

"Onee-sama..." she whispered, then a look of realization spread across her face, "why are you guys here anyway?"

"We heard from Konori that you went to the hospital and that it was an emergency so we thought you were hurt." Uiharu explained, sounding far more worried than the level fives.

"Oh, right," Kuroko face-palmed as she realized again what had happened, "the signal dropped before I could tell her that I was just going to check on my Aunt... sorry for worrying you guys."

Tora now wrapped his arm around Kuroko's shoulder, suddenly acting far more jovial than before. "You probably worried that senpai of yours too cousin-dearest. You really should go and apologize. No worries though, Onii-chan would be more than happy to come along and say sorry with you."

For just a second Kuroko looked slightly touched by the offer, then suspicion descended upon her features as she glared at the older man. "For the last time, Konori-senpai is already dating someone." It was a lie, yes, but a necessary one to spare her senpai.

"Damn," Tora said, disappointment clear in his voice as he backed off.

"But I should go and clear things up..." Kuroko stated, looking conflicted.

"Kuroko-chan, I'm fine, really. You don't have to stay and look after me. Go and do what you have to do," The older woman said, her smile as bright as always.

"Are you sure?" the teleporter asked. She wasn't looking for a way out of the inevitable conversation she would need to have with her friends, she really was just very concerned about the health of her aunt.

"I'll take care of her runt, looks like you have a misunderstanding to sort through," Tora told her in a tone that was a mix of amusement and perhaps a hint of gloating.

Kuroko looked at the pair before nodding and turning to leave the room, the other girls following shortly behind her. They waited until they had left the hospital before beginning the inevitable questioning.


Luckily Saten-san was the one who pounced first, starting the interrogation off on a more light-hearted than accusatory note, "So, you have family here, eh?"

"Yeah," was Kuroko's simple reply.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Misaka asked, wondering why Kuroko hadn't trusted her enough to tell her this earlier.

"Because I didn't want to make you feel bad," Kuroko said, turning to them, "The way that Academy City is so few kids see or even communicate with their family very often. I've seen the way you guys look when you talk about your families. You look so lonely. If I came out and said, 'hey, I have a family I can see anytime' it would have just made you guys feel worse. It would be like going around to a bunch of people in wheelchair and flaunting how well I can walk. I might not be the most sensitive person but even I know that that's not something you do to friends."

All the anger, hurt, and betrayal that the girls felt died in their chests. Shokuhou smiled and stepped forward, putting her hand on the teleporter's shoulder. "While that is considerate of you what kind of friends would we be if we held the fact that you have a family against you. I'm happy that you have family here."

The rest chimed in with a chorus of agreements but Kuroko had reason to not believe them. She could see the same loneliness in their eyes that they usually had when they talked about their families, possibly even worse than usual. Shokuhou-senpai's expression was different from the others. Her gaze held far more bitterness than jealousy.

Unlike the others who had good relationships with their parents despite the distance, Shokuhou-senpai had never gotten along with her family. The last time she had talked to her parents was when she had called them to tell them that she was in a relationship with another girl in order to maybe piss them off a little.

"Is your aunt okay by the way?" Uiharu asked, looking back at the hospital they had just left, "did she get hurt or anything?"

"No... she just has a... delicate constitution and so we get a bit panicky over everything just in case," Kuroko reassured them as she continued walking.

"So what other family do you have here?" Misaka asked.

Kuroko stopped in her tracks and looked off into the distance for a second, "Would you like to meet the others?"

"Can we?" Saten asked, excited at the possibility of sating her curiosity.

"Sure. They don't live in this district but it's only about half an hour trip by train. Let me call Konori-senpai and explain things first."

Kuroko went a short distance away and pulled out her cell phone, hitting redial in order to get in touch with her senpai again. "Moshi moshi," she began when the older girl answered the phone, "I lost reception last time. Sorry."

"It's fine, what was so urgent though?" Her senpai responded, sounding far more calm than Kuroko thought she would.

"Oba-san was in the hospital again, I had to go and check up on her."

"Oh, I understand. Is she alright?" Konori asked. She already knew about Kuroko's family, having met all of them before.

"She's fine, it was a false alarm."

"Oh, that's good. By the way, the others came and I told them where you were. They ran out before I could explain that it wasn't you that was hurt."

"Yeah, they came and met Oba-san and Onii-san."

"Tora-kun was there?" Konori asked, sounding far too interested for Kuroko's taste.

"Yeah, he came with his girlfriend," Kuroko lied.

"Oh," Konori said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Anyway, I was thinking of introducing the others to Hitsuji-san and Nadeshiko-chan, I was wondering if that was ok or if you needed me back there."

"Nah, it's fine, I dragged Aomi back in when Uiharu went running off. We'll be fine. Say hi to Nadeshiko-chan for me," Konori told her.

"I will, thank you," Kuroko answered and hung up before walking back to the others, "come on then, let's head to the train station."

"So who are we going to go see? Your mom and dad?" Uiharu asked curiously.

"No, my uncle and my other cousin. My mom and dad aren't here anymore," Kuroko said as they began walking.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Uiharu quickly said.

Kuroko looked at her oddly before realising what she had just said, "oh no, I don't mean they're dead, they just don't live here. They live with my little brother and older sister in Tokyo." Kuroko face-palmed and sighed. "It's a bit of a long story..."

"We have plenty of time," Shokuhou said. Despite the digging into Kuroko's memories she had done before they had become friends, Shokuhou had never stumbled across anything to do with the teleporter's family. It hadn't mattered at the time. Now that they were girlfriends however she wanted to learn more, and another dig through Kuroko's memories was out of the question so she'd have to hear it verbally.


Kuroko was silent for a while as she thought about how to begin her story. Finally she rummaged around her bag and pulled out a small square of laminated paper and handed it to them.

They pressed close together to see and were surprised to see a fairly poor quality picture of someone who looked very similar to Kuroko in an elegant kimono holding two black haired infants swaddled in blankets. Behind her stood a tall man in an expensive looking suit, his arm wrapped around the Kuroko-look-alike's shoulders and a big smile on his face.

"Those are Aoko and Ryu Tatsushen, my grandparents. The story starts with them. You see... like Oba-san, Obaa-sama[1] had a delicate constitution. She was often weak and sickly. Ojii-sama wanted to find a cure but medicine back then wasn't very good. Then he heard about this new city which was all about learning and research. He was a wealthy man even when he was young so he decided to invest in this new city."

"That city became Academy City and, due to Ojii-sama's investment, he had bought himself a seat on the very first Board of Directors. Obaa-sama's health slowly improved... for a while at least. It was when she became pregnant with twins, my mother and her sister, that things took a turn for the worse. The pregnancy was bad enough but the birth sapped pretty much all her health away. That is the last photo of her before she died a couple days later."

"Ojii-sama was never quite the same. He did his best to take care of Okaa-san and Oba-san, but between his position on the Board and other things he was never quite the father that he could have been. Because of that, and various other things, Okaa-san was quick to move out of the city and away from Ojii-sama when she had grown up. Oba-san is basically a saint and could never hold a grudge against anyone so she decided to stay, marrying one of the scientists sons who she had grown up with and starting a family here while Okaa-san married a politician in Tokyo and started a family of their own."

"So... you were born in Tokyo?" Saten asked, wondering if she had gotten the story straight so far.

"And if your mother was so eager to move out why would she send you to learn here?" Misaka asked, spotting the flaw in the story.

"Okaa-san and Otou-san still visit the city often, usually three times a year if Otou-san isn't up for re-election[2] like he was this year. It was during one of these visits that Okaa-san gave birth to me." Kuroko said, shifting uncomfortably in her spot on the train, "I was... several months premature. The doctors told my mother it was only because of Academy City's science that I could be delivered properly and be kept alive."

"There was a lot of discussion about what to do. My parents had a house and a life back in Tokyo. My father had just been re-elected and couldn't stay for that long. Eventually it was decided that Oba-san and Oji-san would raise me, so my mother gave me my name and left," she fidgeted a bit more and was surprised when she felt four arms reach around her in a hug as Misaka and Shokuhou embraced her comfortingly.

"It's good it turned out that way," Misaka said, "otherwise we might never have met."

Kuroko smiled and hugged them back. "Yeah... I'm glad too."

After a short while the hug ended and Kuroko began smiling again. Then she reached up and twirled her hair, "Kuroko... it's ironic. I'm the only one of my family who doesn't have black hair. I take after Obaa-sama."

"You really do," Uiharu agreed, "when I saw the picture I thought it was you."

"Yeah, that's another lucky coincidence. It's because I take after her that I can date you guys," Kuroko said to the two level fives at her sides.

Shokuhou raised an eyebrow, "I'm not that shallow, I wouldn't not date you because you had black hair. In fact I think it might be cute."

"That's not quite what I mean," Kuroko shook her head as she corrected herself, "you see, Ojii-sama is still on the Board of Directors. He has a lot of power over the city and the family and he kind of disapproves of me dating you guys. He thinks that being involved with two level fives will make me a political target. Luckily, because my appearance is so close to my grandmother's he's always had a bit of a soft spot for me and I managed to convince him to allow me to date the two of you and even got his help in convincing the dorm to allow all three of us to room together."

"I was wondering why it was ok for us to have three in a single room," Misaka murmured.

"After the problems my Okaa-san and Oba-san had as children of a member of the Board, it was decided that it was best that I didn't flaunt that particular relation. Which was easy enough considering the different last names," Kuroko explained.

"So, tell us a bit more about your other family," Saten urged as the five of them boarded the monorail that would take them to their destination, "Like that brother of yours from the hospital." Uiharu, Misaka-san, and Shokuhou-san were all only children and Saten only had a younger brother, one she hadn't seen for quite a while, so she was curious what it was like to have an older sibling.

"He was kind of scary looking," Uiharu recalled, "Is he some sort of delinquent?"

"You'd think so," Kuroko agreed, "he's actually quite a star in Judgment, though my arrest record is better of course." She boasted. Kuroko worked twice the normal number of hours in one of the most difficult branches in Judgment in order to be able to make that boast.

She had also managed to become a member of Judgment at a younger age and with better scores at the Academy than Tora had. She had to work about 8 times as hard as he ever did to achieve those results, but it was worth it to surpass him.

"Tora dresses like that because he says that girls are attracted to bad boys. Everything with him is about attracting girls. Tora is a womanizing bully," Kuroko huffed, putting her hands over her pigtails protectively, making the girls remember what they had seen back in the hospital, with the older teen dangling Kuroko like a yo-yo by one of her pigtails.

Suddenly Uiharu giggled. Kuroko fixed her with a glare. "What's so funny?" she spat out at the flower headed girl.

"Oh, uh," Uiharu withered slightly under the glare, "it's just... hard to imagine you getting bullied by anyone. I've seen you fight people his size like they were nothing."

"Well those people don't have his power. He's a high tier level four with a weaker version of the ability that the seventh ranked Level 5 has. It gives him super strength, super speed, and a whole bunch of other things that make it hard for me to fight him off. Plus he has experience dealing with me and my ability so I can't get the drop on him like I can most people," Kuroko defended herself.

"Sounds like you had a pretty rough childhood," Misaka admitted.

There was a distant look in Kuroko's eyes as the train's loudspeaker announced they had arrived at the station. Kuroko stood up and walked off, the others following her.

Kuroko walked towards the edge of the elevated monorail platform and looked out over District 8. Memories of the past rushing past her mind's eye like a river over stones.

"No," she finally said, "I've had a good life. There have been moments of pain and sorrow, but everyone has those moments, and I've probably had fewer than most." She began walking down the stairs towards the streets. It was a difficult line to tread; on the one hand she didn't want to be pitied when she knew she had so much to be grateful for, but on the other hand she still didn't want to flaunt her luck and happiness too much in front of people who weren't so lucky as her.


After another short period of silence Shokuhou read the mood and decided to change the subject, "So is this where your Aunt and Uncle live?"

"Yeah. Ojii-sama wanted her to have a nice house to reflect her status, but Oba-san is a teacher at a school in the northern part of District 7 and she wanted to be close to her job. Since District 7 doesn't have any houses Ojii-sama approved of she decided to live in the southern section of this district. I've spent most of my life here..."

The distant look returned to Kuroko's eye as she pointed in a seemingly random direction. "A couple streets over in that direction is the playground me and Onii-san would always go to. When someone was with us I would go on the monkey bars but when it was just him and me, I would go on the swings and he would push me all the way around the bar."

She pointed again. "Over there is the park where I would go walking with Oba-san every weekend to feed the ducks and birds. Oba-san was so calm and serene that she could get robins and jays to land on her hand and sing to her. I used to try and get one to land on me too, but I was too excitable and would always scare them off. When I finally learned to calm down long enough for the birds to approach me I would always only ever get crows and ravens and things so Onii-san would joke about how I was a witch."

She pointed in yet another direction, "Way over there is the tea house that we would always go to when Ojii-sama would visit. We would always have to dress up and be on our best behavior, but I didn't really mind since it was the only time Ojii-sama ever really smiled and laughed."

The others listened to the stories silently. This was a side of Kuroko none of them had ever seen before. The teleporter never really talked about herself, now they were learning so much about her all at once. Questions they had never thought to even ask were being answered, revealing the auburn haired girl's past like a bright light in a dark room.

And yet this new side was not as big a surprise as they thought it would be, almost like they had always somehow known it was there. Kuroko had always seemed more at home in this city than the others had. She knew the breath, the rhythm, the soul of the city in a way the others never had. Misaka, Saten, Uiharu, and Shokuhou had been here for years, but they would still always be visitors in the city, their true homes lying elsewhere. Kuroko had always seemed at home in Academy City.

"And this," Kuroko said, stopping suddenly and turning on her heel, "Is my home."

The others turned to look, each wondering what they were going to see, each expecting something different. Uiharu, who would forever think of Kuroko as her tomboyish, rough and tumble Judgment colleague, was half expecting Kuroko to have grown up in some sort of dojo, with paper walls and large tatami rooms for practice.

Saten, who knew that Kuroko was rich and had a surprisingly high place on the social ladder, expected a lavish, opulent western style villa with maids and butlers for every little task.

Misaka, who had been Kuroko's room-mate for months, could not imagine the teleporter in any other environment than that of the dorms, so she imagined her house as a mirror image of the Exterior Dormitories.

Shokuhou, who would never see anyone on quite the same level of wealth as herself, imagined it to be just like her own family's house except much smaller and a lot less nice.

They were all quite surprised to see that it was quite a simple building, reminiscent of standard suburban construction, with a basic, two story rectangular shape surrounded by a lush garden full of flowers which itself was surrounded by a small grassy lawn. The house was painted a plain shade of beige with a red tiled roof.

Kuroko looked around then knelt down. She put her fingers to her lips and whistled. The others looked at her oddly before hearing a deep, loud noise coming from the side of the house as a white streak rounded the corner, charging at Kuroko. It closed the distance quickly and half enveloped Kuroko, whose stance was the only thing that kept her upright as the massive creature tackled her and began assaulting her face with its tongue.

"Good boy, Inu. How've you been, did you miss me?" She asked the Great Pyrenees, though the affection it was now showing her was plenty answer enough for that question.

Misaka was instantly enamoured by the adorable animal and quickly joined Kuroko on the ground to pet it with a single excited word escaping from her lips, "Puppy!"

Uiharu had a few more words on her mind, "You named your dog 'Dog'?" She asked incredulously.


Kuroko was about to defend herself when another voice cut through the garden, "Onee-chan!"

Kuroko's eyes widened as she heard where it was coming from and she teleported as fast as she could a few feet ahead, leaving Inu to fall back onto all fours at the spot where she had just been.

The teleporter appeared just in time for a pink and black blur to plough into her chest from the second floor window like a boulder from a catapult. The impact winded her and knocked her backwards, causing her to fall over onto her back on the ground.

Shokuhou gasped, "Are you ok?" she asked, not as used to seeing Kuroko getting hurt and thus far more concerned than the others who had seen her take much worse than that on a regular basis.

The black mass that was buried into the teleporter's chest looked up, revealing the face of an adorable little girl. Her hair was the same jet black that Tora and Midoriko had, though far longer, tied in a long ponytail with a single pink ribbon.

The hair's length made the curliness of the hair a lot more apparent than her shorter haired relatives. Her eyes were brown with a dash of pink that, while giving enough resemblance to be apparent, hardly matched the pink hue of Kuroko's own eyes. She wore a vivid pink dress that would not look out of place on a princess in a childhood fairy tale.

The little girl smiled and gave a thumbs up to the blond, "Nadeshiko-chan is fine," she said, finishing the sentence with an all too familiar "desu no" in a voice that sounded like an angel who'd had a little too much sugar to eat, "Nadeshiko-chan is tough."

"I'm fine too," Kuroko reassured the blond as she propped herself up again, holding the small child to her chest with one arm as she stood up, "Nadeshiko-chan, how many times have I told you not to jump out of windows. You could get hurt."

"But, nee-chan...Nadeshiko-chan's ability makes her tough," the little girl argued.

"Ability?" Saten asked.

Nadeshiko looked at the level zero and nodded, "Nadeshiko-chan is a level two ESPer."

Her ability allowed her to alter an object's toughness and rigidity, making her flesh as hard as steel or a brick as soft and malleable as pudding.

Saten's eye twitched slightly, "How old are you?" she asked pleasantly.

"Nadeshiko-chan is five years old," the little girl chimed happily.

Saten turned to Uiharu and placed her hands on the other girl's shoulders, her head hanging in shame, "We've been beaten by a five year old Uiharu," she bemoaned.

"Don't feel too bad about it," Kuroko said, practically seeing the massive spears that her little cousin had accidentally stuck through her friend's self esteem, "Nadeshiko-chan, Tora, and myself were have all been in the Power Development Curriculum since birth, remember."

"Yeah," Saten said, looking back up with a slightly forced smile upon her face, "you cheaters got a head-start."

Kuroko cleared her throat, "Anyway...This is my little cousin Nadeshiko-chan and my dog Inu, which I named when I was four and a half so it's not my fault his name is so terrible."

"Nadeshiko-chan likes the name, Nee-chan, it's easy for Nadeshiko-chan to remember," the little girl said from her spot in Kuroko's arms, still being held like a doll to the teleporter's chest.

The auburn haired girl smiled at the support and hugged the small child tighter, "thank you, Nadeshiko-chan. Now then, these are my friends," Kuroko began, gesturing with her head. Nadeshiko turned around in her nee-chan's grasp to take a look at these people that nee-chan had brought with her.

"The one you were just talking to is Saten-san. Next to her is Uiharu-san, who works with me at Judgment. The one who's petting Inu is one of my girlfriends Misaka-senpai, and the one with blond hair is my other girlfriend Shokuhou-senpai."

Nadeshiko looked up at Kuroko with wide eyes, then pouted cutely, "No fair... Nii-chan has a girlfriend, you have two girlfriends, why doesn't Nadeshiko-chan get a girlfriend?"

The other four were slightly surprised by this reaction but Kuroko had expected something like this and handled it in the manner one would be expected to when dealing with a five year old asking for something like that. "Maybe when you're a little older you can get one."

"But Nadeshiko-chan wants one now," she whined, then she turned towards the others, looking at Uiharu, "Flower-chan, you're pretty, will you be Nadeshiko-chan's girlfriend?"

Needless to say Uiharu would never have expected that the first time someone would ask her out it would be the five year old female cousin of her colleague rather than some dashing prince on a white horse.

But while disappointing it was also surprisingly sweet and flattering that this adorable little girl thought she was pretty and wanted to be her girlfriend. So she decided that she might as well play along.

She smiled, "Sure, Nadeshiko-chan, I'd be happy to."

"What?!" Saten cried out in mock hurt from beside her, "I thought you were my wife, Uiharu." The level zero pressed a hand to her forehead dramatically, "Such betrayal!" she covered her eyes with her hands, "Sob sob sob," she said aloud, body shaking in highly exaggerated simulated crying.

"Four points for content, seven points for emotion, and zero points for the awful pantomime," Shokuhou scored the performance from the sidelines, a grin on her face at the entire proceedings. Saten flashed the blond a smile and a thumbs up, proud despite the low score, or perhaps proud because of it.

Uiharu just looked on confused by the performance and a little embarrassed by Saten's declaration in the middle of it, though she knew that the level zero was even less serious about Uiharu being her wife than Nadeshiko-chan was about being her girlfriend.

As if summoned by the thought, Uiharu felt the little girl in question tugging at the hem of her long skirt. She glanced down and saw the girl holding out a flower, a pink rose to be exact, with a big smile on her face. "Nii-chan always gives flowers to his girlfriend, so here you go Flower-chan."

Uiharu knelt down with a smile, taking the flower from the girl carefully, noting its many thorns. She noticed that the thorns around the area that Nadeshiko had been gripping the flower were crushed or snapped off and that Nadeshiko had no blood on her hand.

Furthermore the stem of the flower appeared to have been snapped off, as if it were a rigid piece of ice rather than an organic plant. Was Nadeshiko's power really this developed already?

"Thank you, Nadeshiko-chan," Uiharu said with a smile, "It's beautiful."

Recognition spread across the five year old's face as she recalled what Tora always said in this situation, "Though the flower may be beautiful its beauty pales in comparison to your own."

The slap of Kuroko's face-palm rang throughout the yard as she heard one of her brother's cheesier lines.

Uiharu was shocked at the smoothness of the line's delivery and found herself blushing despite herself. The other three simply burst out laughing. "Your sister's quite the lady killer," Shokuhou teased. The blond considered making a joke about how she might have chosen the wrong sister, but she knew that the teleporter was very sensitive about things like that, even if it was so obviously a joke, so she decided it wasn't quite appropriate.

"Nadeshiko-chan, is Hitsuji-san home?" Kuroko asked, deciding to get back on track with the purpose of this visit.

"Mhm," Nadeshiko nodded, "he was in the study for a while but he should be out now."

"You guys want to come in?" she asked the other four.

"I'm good," Misaka said with a smile, still petting the dog, who sat there panting and wagging his tail and not running away like most other animals always did.

"Is Inu more important to you than meeting my family?" Kuroko huffed.

To Misaka's credit there was only about a two second hesitation before the electromaster sighed and said, "No..." As much as she loved animals and was excited at the prospect of one that actually allowed her to pet it, she knew they weren't here for that. They were here for Kuroko. So she stood up and followed the others inside, leaving the massive white hound in the yard.


As they went into the house Kuroko called out, "Hitsuji-san, I've come for a visit, and I brought some friends."

"Really?" came the surprised voice from the other room.

A tiny twinge of irritation creased Kuroko's brow for a moment at the shock in her uncle's voice at the idea of her having friends to bring over, but then she realized that there was a good reason for him to be surprised and the anger faded away. "Yes really," she said as she led them into the living room where a middle aged man sat sitting at a low table a cup of tea.

His brown eyes looked cheerily up towards the teleporter from beneath his combed back hair. His hair was black just like the rest of the family they had met, but with far more pronounced grey streaks than his wife had. The man wore comfortable, casual clothes that suggested he had stayed in all day.

"Well it's nice to see you as always Kuroko-chan," he said with a nod as he stood up, "Nadeshiko-chan has missed you very much." He glanced at the others who were peeking out of the doorway. "These must be your friends."

Kuroko nodded and introduced them in the same manner as before. Hitsuji raised an eyebrow at the "two girlfriends" thing, wondering if it was an extension of the competition that had been going on between Kuroko and Tora since they were kids. Something along the lines of, "well if Onii-san can have a girlfriend then I bet I can get 2." But he realized that even if that were accurate it would be rude to bring up. So he simply smiled and told them that it was a pleasure to meet them.

"Would you care to join us for dinner?" He asked them after introductions and other pleasantries had been dealt with.

After realizing how hungry they all were they quickly agreed. "Do you want me to cook, Hitsuji-san?" Kuroko offered. Her uncle was a good enough chef but she wanted a chance to show off her skills to her Onee-sama and Shokuhou-senpai.

The offer got a suspicious look from Misaka that lasted only about half a second before the electromaster decided that not even Kuroko would have such low standards as to put an aphrodisiac in her food at home with her family.

"Sure," Hitsuji said, "Let me show you what we have. I suspect what I was planning won't be enough now that there are five more mouths to feed."

"Nadeshiko-chan will help to," the little girl said, bounding after them as they went to the kitchen.

Alone now in an unfamiliar house the four girls sat down at the small table in awkward silence, unsure what to do or say in this situation.


That silence lasted about half a minute before Saten shattered it with the excited cry, "ooo, a photo album." An odd sense of dread filled Misaka as she remembered their discovery last time Saten had brought out one of Kuroko's photo albums.

The others turned to see Saten rifling through a bookshelf, pulling out a large album and setting it on the table. On the cover were the words, "Memories With the Kids," and along the side were three tabs. One saying "Tora" the other saying "Kuroko" and the third saying "Nadeshiko". These were enough to ease Misaka's dread that it was a dirty album of her and instead piqued her curiosity, along with the curiosity of the others.

"I bet there are baby pictures in here," Saten grinned as she flipped to the section with the "Kuroko" tab. There were countless photos of a much younger Kuroko, Tora, Inu, and the rest: there were pictures of Kuroko playing happily with Tora, of Kuroko eating ice cream on a warm summer's day, of Kuroko in a yukata watching fireworks, of Kuroko cuddled up with the little puppy that would become the massive Inu, and all sorts of other things. However the girls were somewhat surprised to see they couldn't find a single picture of Kuroko from before she was a late toddler.

"Awww... are the baby pictures in another album?"

"No, they're in that one," a voice suddenly interrupted, "there just aren't any of Kuroko."

The girl's jumped in surprise as Hitsuji walked back into the room and sat down across the table from them, "She tore them apart during one of her angry episodes. She doesn't like to be reminded of her time in the hospital."

"Hospital? Oh, you mean her premature birth?" Misaka recalled.

"And the four subsequent years, yes." Hitsuji nodded.

"Four years? Why was she in the hospital for four years?" Shokuhou wondered.

"She hasn't told you then eh? Well I can't say I'm surprised." Hitsuji sighed, "You should probably know though. You see... the thing that my wife has, the reason she's in the hospital, and the thing her mother had... Kuroko has it as well."

There was a palpable moment of shock among the four, "Kuroko... is sick?" Misaka asked, trying to wrap her head around that idea. Kuroko had described her aunt as suffering from a delicate constitution. The idea of that little ball of energy who practically radiated health and was durable enough to withstand Misaka's harshest punishment being in any way delicate was... it was beyond comprehension.

Another sigh from Hitsuji, "It... would be wrong to call it a sickness. It's more like..." He searched his mind for a method to describe it that they would understand, "It's like a carpenter building a shelf. Most shelves are sturdy enough to last quite a while unless something happens to them, but with people like my wife, her mother, and Kuroko-chan the carpenter got a bit lazy and built the shelf out of weaker materials. It can still hold up just fine, but it will give out sooner than a normal shelf would and it's not quite as good at handling the strain."

"Unfortunately, there was another factor with Kuroko-chan: her premature birth. In addition to the weaker material the carpenter never even finished building the shelf. It took three years and countless medical procedures to get her body to the point where it could even support itself and another year on top of that to get to her body to the point where she could play like a normal child. But even after all of that her life expectancy was... dismal to say the least. Her grandmother managed to live until 29, my wife is 42 and going strong, but the doctors said a couple of years was all we could expect from Kuroko. They doubted she would even live to see her sixth birthday.

He reached forward and turned the book to the beginning of the Kuroko section where there were countless pictures of an adorable toddler Kuroko, her auburn hair in the same shorter braids they had been when Uiharu had first met her, playing around with a puppy version of Inu and a much younger Tora.

"Every second of every day everyone, including Kuroko, knew that death was just around the corner. We tried to keep her happy and comfortable, tried to give her as normal a life as possible because we knew that it would be a short one." Hitsuji-san smiled then. "But Kuroko-chan has always been a fighter." He turned the page to reveal another picture. This one featured Kuroko and Tora engaged in some sort of wrestling (Kuroko was losing of course).

From the look on the pair's faces it was clearly playful, but at the same time there was an odd sort of ferocity there. "Her constant wrestling and running and playing made her body, which was supposed to fall apart, get stronger and stronger. By her sixth birthday, the time the doctors were sure she wouldn't live to see, she was healthier than she had ever been."

He continued turning pages as he talked, each one holding several memories for him but little significance to his narrative. He stopped again when he reached the aforementioned birthday party, with everyone huddled together tight, more happy than you can imagine to not only have a new member of the family in the form of Kuroko's perfectly healthy little brother Uma, but also to still have the little girl herself.

"The doctors weren't too hopeful about this, still very skeptical about her chance for survival, but they were giving her a few more years this time. They thought she would probably be around for her ninth or even tenth birthday.

"That was until a few months later when they discovered her ability," Hitsuji-san sighed again as he flipped through the pages randomly. "Teleportation is a dangerous power. It is itself like a death sentence, with the chance of self-harm and even accidental death far higher than most other abilities. It was even worse given Kuroko-chan's... temperament. Nobody is sure whether or not it's related to her disease or her long stay in the hospital or one of the medical procedures conducted on her or something else entirely, but her emotions would often flare up unexpectedly at times. There were countless flashes of intense anger or wallowing depression sparked by the simplest of things and lasting only a couple minutes but frightening in their intensity."

"Before her ability surfaced we always found ways of dealing with these flashes," he looked down at one picture of Tora demonstrating his preferred method of calming Kuroko down by holding her aloft by both of her pigtails as opposed to one, "but teleportation doesn't just pose a danger to one's self..."

There was a pause as Hitsuji glanced down at the scar that ran up his left arm. It was nasty but he knew that the ones that his son had were far worse. "Suffice it to say that there was an incident that convinced everyone, especially Kuroko, that she needed to learn control. Casual wrestling was replaced by martial arts to learn discipline and focus while still keeping her body strong. Playing around randomly was replaced by calm walks in the park and flower arrangement, to learn refinement and grace while keeping serene and calm."

"Arguably it worked a little too well. While she did allow a bit of that old Kuroko out around us, she was always so distant from everyone else, too focused on keeping control of herself that she never allowed herself any fun or relations with anyone her own age," he smiled at the four of them, "it's been years since she brought any friends over, and given how she lets herself act around you all it seems she really cares about and trusts you all as well."

"If she trusts us," Shokuhou began sombrely, "then why didn't she tell us any of this?"

"She hates being pitied, she hates people worrying about her. As far as she's concerned everyone would be happier if nobody knew or ever found out about the burden she bears," Hitsuji answered, "It's admirable, in a sense, but it's also quite selfish. She might die and it would be worse to anyone who cared about her to be surprised by that sudden and unexpected death than it ever would be to tell them first. That's why I'm telling you."

"Kuroko might die..." Misaka repeated, audibly horrified at the very concept.

Hitsuji allowed himself a little smile as he shook his head, "she might. The doctors say that living until 16 would be highly unlikely and living until 18 would be a miracle, but that girl manages to pull off one miracle after another when it comes to that. She's defied one death date after another and just gets stronger all the time. Kuroko is a fighter, and a more persistent one I have never seen. Her will to live is so strong, and I don't see it being extinguished any time soon. As long as she has the tiniest thread to grab onto she'll keep on climbing." He smiled wider at them, "But I'm sure you know all of that already."


It was barely half a minute after that that Kuroko and Nadeshiko called out from the kitchen, "Dinner's ready!"

The five stood up and went to the kitchen where a delicious looking feast awaited them. Saten whistled appreciatively, "wow, it looks delicious."

"Nadeshiko-chan helped," the little girl said proudly as she washed her hands in the sink

"And what a great help you were Nadeshiko-chan," Kuroko smiled at the girl before teleporting to a trio of chairs set very close to each other. She sat in the middle one and looked at her two girlfriends expectantly, "There's cake for dessert as well, strawberry shortcake." she said, knowing that it was the level fives' favorite.

"Nadeshiko-chan gets to put the strawberries on," the girl informed them as she ran over to table to take her own seat.

Apparently Kuroko did have high enough standards not to put aphrodisiac in Misaka's food. However the teleporter did not seem to have enough shame to be prevented from lovingly feeding the two level fives by hand, and the level fives were too caught up in their own thoughts to refuse said feeding.

Nadeshiko stared for a while before hopping off of her chair and crawling onto Uiharu's lap. She glanced at Kuroko once more and took a piece of Uiharu's rice in her chopsticks before turning to the flower-headed girl and smiling, "Say ahhh, flower-chan," she mimicked the cooing of her sister with her own girlfriend.

Uiharu blushed at this but opened her mouth and accepted the offered morsel, and the next one, and the next one.

Saten watched on and suddenly felt very left out. She looked down at her own food and frowned, "say ahh Saten-san," she whispered quietly to herself before taking a bite.

"Do you really have to go so soon, Onee-chan?" Nadeshiko asked, disappointed.

"Afraid I do..." Kuroko frowned, as disappointed as the other girl was, "it's dark and curfew is coming up soon, we'll just barely make it back in time as it is."

"Okay..." Nadeshiko nodded. Kuroko stood up and turned to leave. Nadeshiko waved at her, "Bye bye, Onee-chan. Visit again sometime... Ah!" Nadeshiko cried and suddenly ran towards the group of girls standing in front of the gate. She ran up to Uiharu and tugged at her skirt. Uiharu knelt down curious as to what the little girl wanted and Nadeshiko kissed her cheek, "Call Nadeshiko-chan sometime, Flower-chan." She said to Uiharu, using the same words Onii-chan always used at the end of one of his playdates with his girlfriends.

The trip back was quite a bit more lively than the trip their had been. Saten was teasing Uiharu about her new girlfriend, asking her when their wedding was and things like. Shokuhou was teasing Saten about being jealous. Misaka was gushing to Shokuhou about how cute Inu was and how fun it had been playing fetch with him. And Uiharu was trying to deflect Saten's teasing by talking with Misaka about the weather and other such trivialities.

Kuroko was the only silent one. She was looking out the window, thinking about how great today had been. 'I wonder why I was so worried about introducing my friends to my family...' she thought, 'I guess I had nothing to worry about after all.'

Kuroko was a person who liked to live in the present. The past was the past and the future, if it came for her at all, was the future. But that didn't mean that she needed to separate them from each other totally. 'Maybe being a bit more honest is what I need to be...'

The teleporter smiled widely as she looked out the window of the train to see District 8 disappearing behind them. She had great friends, great family, and great lovers.

Past, Present, Future...For Kuroko they were all shining brightly right now.


[1]: I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure the only difference between Aunt and Grandma is that the latter has two "A"'s just like Oji (uncle) is only one "I" away from Ojii (Grandpa). So it might be a bit confusing but just know that Kuroko always uses "sama" when talking about her grandparents and "san" when talking about her aunt and uncle.

[2]: Kuroko's father is a member of the Diet, which is Japan's legislative body sort of like the Senate in America or Parliament in England.


Author's Note: In most stories which make a mention of Kuroko's family, my other story included, they typically depict them as distant, possibly even neglectful. So in this story I decided to give her a nice happy family. It kind of exploded in complexity the more I thought about it, and in the end I didn't make the situation surrounding her family as happy and painless as I originally intended, but I still think it turned out quite well.