Seirin Private High School, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh"
"Something the matter, Koganei?" asked Tsuchida with a concerned tone. The other boys in the group were hoping that if they just ignored their classmate, Koganei would drop the subject. However, ever considerate Tsuchida of course had to ask his friend what was troubling him. Usually with Koganei though, the reason for his agony was always rather trivial.
"We've been trying to get sign ups all morning and not a single person seemed interested!" complained the brunette.
"Well that's not exactly true," started Izuki. "We handed out a lot of flyers."
"That doesn't mean that they're interested! A lot of them are probably going just throw the flyers away…" pouted the Second Year.
The other Second Years quieted at this. 'Well he has a point' was the collective thought. Then, a silent yet detectable hum seemed to go through the air as the quiet one of the group gestured with his hand.
"Ah, I guess you're right, Mitobe!" Koganei perked up, giving a cat-like grin, trying to appear optimistic. "There were a few First Years who seemed pretty interested!."
"Mm. They were never Exposed though, so the chances of them going out on Excavations are pretty slim…" Izuki pointed out.
"Still, that doesn't mean they're not useful to the team! There are plenty of Excavation teams that have members who've never even seen an Orb." Tsuchida countered with a frown.
Which was true. The rate of Exposures has decreased in recent years. The Orbs had not ceased to appear, but they now did so more sporadically, so teams quickly went after them. These days, it was less common to be exposed to an Orb and thus awaken the special talents one could gain via Exposure.
Seirin Private High School was a new school, having only opened up it's doors to students the previous year. It's student body was made up mostly of Second Years with a good amount of Third Years who transferred from different schools. Today was the first day of a new school year and it was ample time to recruit new members for school teams and clubs, however…
"Excavation teams are sort of falling out of style these days, what with the appearances of Orbs becoming more and more rare with each passing year..." Izuki sighed. "Our team isn't even well known in our own prefecture. There are plenty of other schools who are more successful than us." the others all looked off in silence, the crowd seemingly forgotten as they all recalled the struggles they face trying to keep up with the other schools last year. "After all, what you seize is what you get."
"…"
Finally, Tsuchida broke the current bout of silence with. "Was...that a pun?" Izuki seemed to beam at that and open his mouth to undoubtedly give an explanation to the pun, but before he could get the words out Koganei cut him off with;
"Bad puns aside, all we really need to get our club going would be to get just one member who can completely change the whole team dynamic. But you know, in a good way!" Koganei suggested.
There was a moment of awed silence as the rest of the Second Years though on this. "That's odd," Izuki remarked. "Koganei said something pretty smart."
"I don't need to hear that from you!" screeched back the other Second Year.
"That's a good point." Tsuchida said, looking thoughtful. "A strong player who could change the flow of the mission…"
Izuki frowned. "Does someone like that even exist?" he questioned skeptically with a raised brow.
"Hey, you!" bellowed an unknown voice, confusing the group. "Um, I mean, excuse me…" it trailed off.
Koganei looked around, then the source of the voice was found as he looked up.
And up, and up, and…
At a table set off to the side, shaded under a blooming cherry blossom tree, two Second Years sat, one a boy with dark hair and glasses and the other a girl of small stature with short brown hair. The brunette gave a sigh as she placed some papers down onto the tabletop, bouncing the top of her pen off the plastic surface of the folding table. Her friend noticed the nervous habit of hers. It usually meant that she was thinking pretty deeply on something.
"What's wrong, Riko?" asked the bespectacled teen.
"The roster for this year just has me concerned." confessed Aida Riko as she started to shuffle through the applications that they had received for the Excavation team, her brows knitted in concern. "There was lots of interest but…"
Hyuuga realized what Aida must've been thinking too. Lots of kids applied, but none of them had what they were looking for. Many kids marked in their applications that they were Exposed, but Aida could tell that it must've been pretty recently or not enough to cause any change.
"Lots of them were lying, huh?" Hyuuga sighed as he leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. A scowl crossed his face. "The nerve of those freshman…"
"Well, they weren't all necessarily lying…" Aida argued, resting her cheek in her palm. She closed her eyes as she recalled the other teens she saw that morning. "Some of them could've easily been in the presence of an Orb, but you hear how these days they've been affecting people less and less." she slumped down on the table, looking sullen but still managing to give a smirk. "Yes, you and I might be a part of a dying generation, my friend."
Hyuuga furrowed his brows, giving his long time friend a strange look. It was like her to sound so reminiscing and whimsical. That annoying trait was reserved for someone else..."Sometimes it's better to be in a dying generation. Less competition." he shrugged.
"And less of a chance to improve your team. You heard how that other generation went on to other schools didn't you?" she retorted with a scoff, sounding more like her usual self.
"You know I have." he said through gritted teeth. It was clear that Hyuuga too was concerned and dreading the day when their team would have to go against a Miracle. 'If they even got that far...'
Aida groaned in frustration, putting her hands up to her hair and giving the short strands small tugs. "We need to get stronger to compete with these other schools, we don't need a repeat of last year. If only we had some ridiculously strong members ourselves…"
Hyuuga gave Aida an annoyed smirk. "You're not putting pressure on your Captain now are you, Coach?"
Aida relaxed, giving a curt chuckle. "I don't mean to, but we have a lot of work ahead of us. Hopefully Izuki-kun and the others were able to find some hardworking recruits."
As if on cue, a shadow was cast in front of their already shaded table and the visibly distraught face of Koganei—were those tears in his eyes?—appeared in front of them.
"A-a r-recruit is here…" he whimpered out.
"Huh?"
Both Hyuuga and Aida were about to question their classmate about his current state, but all sense of speech vanished as they both noticed the arm that was gripping Koganei, hovering his torso just over their table. Aida looked up. And up, and up till-
Her vision was assaulted by different shade of deep red. 'Scarlet and mahogany' her mind supplied. The source of the color was a looming teenager. 'Teenager. He has to be a teen. He looks young but he's huge.' His skin was tanned, but not dark. 'Sun kissed'. Everything that Riko saw was mesmerizing but none quite so as 'his eyes'. Not only were they just yet another shade of shocking red-'crimson'-but they were filled with something. Something strange, a spark that Riko had so rarely seen. They were knit with 'determination. No, passion', but his scowl told a different story. 'Rage? Contempt?' But yet there was something else.'Apprehensive desire?'
"I wanna join." a deep voice rumbled, for that was the only way to describe it. It rumbled like thunder, shocking Riko out of her analysis.
She had so many things to ask. 'Where did you come from? Who are you? When were you Exposed?' because clearly he had been. He was radiating with power, with pure strength. He had to have been Exposed, but still something felt...off. 'What are you?' was another question she wanted to ask, but all she managed to get out was; "What?"
"The Excavation team," he started, dropping Koganei to the ground-who gave a startled squawk-as he grabbed a chair that was positioned in front of both Aida and Hyuuga and sat himself down in it. "I wanna join it."
"A-Ah! Hold on just a moment!" Aida chimed, her face breaking out in a grin. She grabbed the pitcher of water and ice that sat on the table and one of the plastic cups sitting next to it, speedily, yet carefully pouring a glass for the imposing newcomer. "My name is Aida Riko and this is Hyuuga Junpei, the Captain of the Excavation team. Now-"
"I don't care." cut off the redhead.
"Excuse me?" Hyuuga asked dumbfounded, with an underlying tone of irritation. Aida hope he wouldn't get too mad. Sure, it was rather rude of the newcomer to cut her off, but she didn't want Hyuuga scaring off such a valuable asset.
"I said I don't care." he said rather matter of factly, grabbing one of the forms on the table, placing it in front of him and scribbling on top of the paper with one of the pens that was nearby. "I'm leaving after I write down my name."
"A-ah, alright." Aida responded rather shocked. He must have things to do, it was the first day of school after all. As the redhead stood up, Aida reached across the table and took the form that he left behind. Her eyebrows drew up. "Huh?"
Hyuuga heard her remark and noticed her confused expression looking at his form. Now Hyuuga's eyebrows raised as he gave the redhead a confused look of his own after ready the form himself. "You don't have a reason for joining?" he asked.
The redhead gave a groan as he cracked his neck slightly. "Not really. A missions a mission, an Orbs an Orb. I don't care about the stupid details. As long as I'm strong, it doesn't matter how the job is done. Just so long as it gets done." he informed, chugging the rest of his water and crushing the plastic cup. "I've been living out of the country since my second year of middle school and I've been disgusted with the lack of power ever since I got back. Everything about Japan is weak, even it's Orb supply isn't lasting long. I figured I'd come back before they were all gone." the redhead turned to leave, tossing his cup into the trash from behind his back. Aida's eyes became a bit wider. 'Such accuracy. And certainty…'
"I'll be at the training tryouts. Not that I need to go…" he added that last part as if for himself but the others heard him well enough. The redhead gave one last menacing look over his shoulder and was eventually out of their sight as he was lost in the sea of students.
"S-so scary!" Koganei exclaimed, having to have gotten over his shocked silence by now.
"Was that really a freshman?" asked Tsuchida.
"He acted quite cocky. A bit like a Sir Gawain type character, didn't you think?" supplied Izuki who was revealed to also have returned, along with Mitobe behind him.
"Where were you guys?!" shouted Koganei in a betrayed tone.
"He didn't need four of us to escort him so we circled around a few times until we were sure he didn't notice us." supplied Tsuchida. "You look like you handled it well though."
"Barely!" Koganei screeched back.
Izuki's eyes seem to flash for a moment, as if he had an epiphany. "The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference."
"Izuki, shut up." came Hyuuga's immediate reply.
"Kagami Taiga…" Aida read from the paper, effectively closing the door on the opportunity for one of the boys to start an argument. "Oh. He lived in America during middle school."
"Really?" Hyuuga questioned. "He must've learned from the experts then. After all, the first Orb encounters were in one of their states, weren't they?"
"Yes." If Aida remembered correctly, it was Nevada. Sightings were quickly reported all over the world a few years later. Japan was still in it's infancy, in terms of dealing with the Orbs and were still developing their understanding of them. Suddenly another part of the form that the teen didn't neglect to fill out caught Aida's eye and they widened. "N-no way!"
The others all seemed alarmed at her outburst but it was Tsuchida who asked first; "What is it?"
"H-He's a Type A!" she exclaimed.
"What?!" Hyuuga asked in disbelief, the scowl dropping off his face, he quickly grabbed the paper from Aida and started to read it himself. "He says he was Exposed when he was 9?"
"T-That's impossible! There haven't been any Type As in decades. Except for…" Izuki trailed off, but they all knew what he was going to say. 'Except for the Miracles'.
"But he was living in America during the rise of Teiko, he's not one of them. But the potential I see when I look at him...it's as if he could've been one, under different circumstances." Aida pondered.
Hyuuga gave a loud sigh, leaning back in his chair. "So you did see something. That's why you were gawking for so long."
"I wasn't gawking!" she yelled back. He was lucky she was too shocked to hit him. Besides, she didn't have her paper fan handy. Then suddenly, the bell sounded, signaling the end of the scouting portion of the day.
Aida stood up, gathering the forms the were spread across the table. "It's strange, but he seems as if he's on a whole different level. With someone like him on our team, we may just have a chance competing with the other schools!"
The others in the group paused at this. Aida was right, as always. With a player like this Kagami, maybe they even stood a chance against a team with a Miracle on it?
Koganei gave goofy grin at the thought. As he picked his head up from the table however, he noticed something sticking to his face. Oh. It's a paper. "Hey, Coach! You forgot this one."
Aida gave a sheepish smile. "Ah, sorry!" she took the form from Koganei's hand and started to read it over as she place it with the others. "Let's see. Kuroko Tetsuya...A first year and-" Aida's eyes bulged yet again as she noticed a certain box on the form. "H-He's a Type A too!" she shouted in shock.
"What?!" was the collective response from the rest of the boys.
Hyuuga looked over Aida's shoulder, reading the form for himself. "I-It must be another exception or typo maybe…" he trailed off, refusing to believe.
"No, it says he's always lived here. It says he was educated and trained by…" Aida paled, stopping in her tracks again. "N-No way…T-This can't be…I-It's not…"
Hyuuga couldn't wait for his Riko to gather her composure, so he glanced at the section she was currently reading herself, and soon he felt her same astonishment.
"Teiko Technology!?" he shouted out for the rest of the team to hear.
"Huuuuhhhh?!" Even stoic Mitobe looked astonished.
"A Miracle?!" asked Tsuchida apprehensively, barely managing to conceal his excited tone. "Did we really get a Miracle?"
"What did he look like?! What was he like?! What'd he say?!" Koganei question at the speed of light, not even bothering to try to cover up his own excitement.
Aida had her hands back up to her head, tugging on her hair. "I...I can't remember! Oh, why can't I remember that golden egg's face?!" she berated herself.
"Two Type As?" Izuki now chimed in. "The freshman this year are ridiculous…"
Author: Annnd, here we go! Story's still not really started up yet, but I hope I didn't confuse anybody too much. I also really hope you enjoy this, because your reactions really do decide the fate of this story.
Also, I'm going to be using the name's in the Japanese way so family name first and then given name last, if there's any confusion over that. I also decided just to keep Aida and Hyuuga's titles as Coach and Captain respectfully because I feel like they just work well. If anything, Aida may be more of a director of operations in this AU, but I'll just leave the title as Coach.
Please review and I hope you enjoyed!
Disclaimer: I don't own KNB or any of the puns Izuki will be saying throughout this AU. I get them from various pun websites and just try to incorporate them into the story, lol.
