Kise Ryouta was in a mission.

Nothing too threatening, or at least he hoped it wasn't.

He continued observing his target in silent caution like one would do in stalking a wild lion. A very wild lion.

The student model had just gotten off the phone with Momoi and managed to learn about Aomine and Murasakibara's first weeks of high school. He winced as he remembered their conversation. Taking care of the current Aomine was bad enough, but adding Murasakibara to the tow...

He sent a silent prayer for the sweet, poor Momoicchi. God bless her kind soul!

But, it was just his luck that she had to hung up before he could get any news about the rest of their old teammates. Apparently the newly dubbed lazy duo of Aomine-Murasakibara was creating trouble or some sort while Momoi was away, so she had to go quickly and take care of it.

The small forward mumbled in annoyance. Stupid Aominecchi still creating trouble for him even though he was miles away. If he just waited for five more minutes, then Kise would surely have the information about Kuroko's whereabout right now. And he wouldn't have to resort to asking the very person he wanted to avoid.

"N-ne, Akashicchi."

"What is it, Ryouta?" Akashi took his eyes off his book for a moment to look at him as an acknowledgment before returning his attention to the book again

"Aa, do you know which school Kurokocchi chose? It isn't that I'm looking for Kurokocchi or something. But he, Midorimacchi said something about staying in Tokyo and Kurokocchi—"

"Seirin."

"Huh?"

"Seirin was written in Tetsuya's choice of high school." Akashi answered without looking up from his book. Kise blinked as his mind started processing what Akashi was saying. Seirin, he didn't remember ever hearing that name before. Either he was forgetting things like he usually did or that Seirin was a no-name school to begin with. But, it didn't make sense if Kurokocchi chose to go to a school with no major basketball team...

"Akashicchi—"

"Seirin is a relatively new school," turning a new page, "so it is no wonder that you don't know about them."

The blond immediately silenced. Did Akashi just read his mind or what? Knowing his captain then it wasn't really surprising if he could really do that.

"How about their basketball team? Are they strong?"

"They managed to advance to the final league of the Inter High preliminaries last year, but there was nothing really note-worthy about the team except they have one of the Uncrowned Kings as their member."

"Uncrowned Kings... That's like Reo-nee and the others right?"

"Yes, but why are you calling him Reo-nee? Reo isn't female to begin with."

"Mou, I didn't want too! But then he pinched my cheeks real hard, see, and said 'please call me Reo-nee' with such scary smile-ssu!" The golden haired model pouted, "And he won't stop calling me 'Ryo-chan'!"

As Kise continued his rant on a certain Mibuchi Reo and how mean he was, the topic of the conversation was almost forgotten.

Almost.

Until the following day where one golden-haired copycat missed the practice for no apparent reason.

X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O

Reo spent about a minute to scan the gym, searching for one of his favorite juniors only to end up with nothing. There was no particular shade of blinding yellow anywhere near the vicinity today. He turned to Akashi who was busy observing the team and scribbling something on his clipboard, "A~re~ where is Ryo-chan?"

The redhead didn't even look up from his task as he answered, "Ryouta won't be joining us as he has to take care of something in Tokyo today."

"Ah, he is in one of his modeling jobs then?"

Akashi let out a secretive smile, "No, he didn't have any shots scheduled today."

"Eh, then what's he doing over there?"

"Let's just say that Ryouta is being his usual predictable self."

X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O

A/N: Not quite what you expect?

I really am sorry for not updating sooner! I was sick and things have gone from bad to worse lately that I didn't really have the time or motivation to write... I hope you can forgive me.

Thanks to all who have reviewed, followed and favorited the previous chapter XD I never thought that I'm going to get so many! Thanks a lot, guys! I was overwhelmed with your positive response. It was amazing! I have decided to continue this, and I hope I can meet your expectation for this story despite my lack of experience and good writing!

Looking forward to hearing more from you guys!