Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket. All rights go to proper owners.
*set when the Generation of Miracles are in their second year of middle school*
It was club recruitment day for Teiko Middle School. Hollers were heard from students in the crowd, advertising their club and handing out flyers. Amongst the wave of people, a boy weaved through the packed clusters of students, occasionally bumping into a few bodies.
The boy carried a metal stick with him, and he held it out in front of him cautiously, momentarily poking at empty air before accidentally whacking a couple of limbs. He shoved down the panic that was beginning to grow inside of him and concentrated on trying to find the bumps on the pathway that lead him around the school grounds.
He didn't like this. Not at all. There were too many people gathered in one place, which overwhelmed his senses and made him stumble off of his only guideline.
Straining his ears, he listened for calls of basketball. In the distance, he heard, "Basketball club! Sign up here!"
That was his target. He shifted his body weight and began to move in the vague direction of the voice. The crowd pressed against him, but he pushed back, determination filling his brain.
When he finally got to the clearance, the words rang clear in his head. "Basketball club! Sign up here!" The yells and shouts of people were now distant murmurs in the background.
His grasp on the metal stick was slimy with sweat from being surrounded by such ferocious body heat of others. He opened up his senses and made his way to what he assumed was the table for basketball club, stick clicking against the sidewalk. The pole was abruptly jammed into something hard, presumably the table leg.
The boy took a deep breath before speaking. "Excuse me, is this the basketball club sign up place?"
He heard the slight twitching of eyes come from the person at the table. Wait no, there were two people at the table, he felt two pairs of eyes boring into his skin. He didn't blame them; there was nothing normal about a boy who carried around a metal stick and wore two eye-patches that covered both of his eyes.
A calm, serene voice responded. "Yes it is. Who are you, if I may ask?" It sounded like a male voice.
The boy tilted his head in the direction of the voice. "My name is Shiroma Jun. I'm a second-year. I would like to join the basketball club," the boy, Shiroma Jun, said steadily.
A female voice butted in. "Oh! Cool! It's always good to have more new recruits! Here's the sign-up sheet!"
Jun caught the quiet friction of a piece of paper being slid across the table. Hesitantly, he groped at thin air before finding purchase on the edge of the table. While stretching his hand until his fingertips bumped the clean, sharp corner of the paper, Jun asked, "May I have a pen?"
"Sure! There's one right in front of you!" the female yipped. Jun paused for a moment, his thoughts whirling around the obliviousness of the girl. It might be right in front of me, but I'm blind, you know, he thought.
The other boy seemed to be less dense than the girl, and Jun could hear the soft rustling of clothing as the boy nudged her gently before questioning him. "I assume you cannot see?"
Jun may be blind, but his retorts were as biting as ever. "No, it's the latest fashion trend to wear eye-patches so that you can walk around blindly while bumping into things and random people. Yes, I cannot see."
Although it was silent, Jun swore that the boy cocked an eyebrow. He just had this sensation.
"Well, I think it would be quite inconvenient for you to not be able to see when playing basketball," the boy told him.
If Jun had any control over his eyes, he would have glared. "I'm sorry for my rudeness, but let me sign up. You don't know what level I am, and turning me down just because I was born with something I couldn't help is horribly pathetic and cruel."
There was a pregnant pause as Jun felt the other boy's eyes wash over him, inspecting every part of him.
"Alright," the boy said, finally agreeing. "You can sign up and try out. But if you do, then I have every right to kick you out if I feel like you are just dragging the team down. Agreed?"
The latter wasn't really a question, just an order that Jun would have to obey if he wanted to join. Jun nodded.
"Momoi, please right down his answers to the questions for him," the boy instructed the girl, Momoi. "I have to go talk to the coach."
"Okay!" Momoi said happily. She started asking him questions as the boy walked away.
As Jun answered, he started to lean forward a little bit to capture the girl's scent. The light, subtly sweet scent of peaches wafted around her skin, not too strong but not weak enough to go undetected. Jun categorized the scent mentally.
After the Q and A session was over, Jun inquired, "What was the boy's name that was sitting at this table? I'm sorry if I'm being nosy, I just want to know."
Momoi laughed, her voice clear and bright. "It's not being nosy! I mean, you would have found out either way. His name's Akashi Seijurou, the captain of the Teiko basketball team. He's a second year."
Jun made a surprised grunting noise. "Only a second-year? I thought you had to be a third-year to be captain."
The girl giggled. "Well, Akashi is a very special exception. Anyway, practice is after school today at the main gymnasium. See you there!"
His lips curled into a small smile. "Yup. Thanks."
The crowed had thinned out by the time their talk was over.
As Jun cast about the school grounds with his metal stick and the reassuring bumps under his feet that ensured he was going the right way, he thought, Well, Momoi's just about as forgetful as ever. I won't see her there. More like smell or hear her there.
Even though Jun was enrolled as a Teiko student, he didn't take classes with everyone else. Instead, he had his own tutor at school that specialized in educating blind kids. According to his tutor, Jun was incredibly intelligent for his age and was given harder material than the rest of the students in his grade. Not that Jun minded; he loved a nice challenge.
He was allowed to participate in club activities despite being separately taught, which was a privilege that Jun was glad he had.
At the end of the school day, Jun's tutor dismissed him. He changed into his gym clothes in the bathroom, which was a real pain in the butt.
As Jun kept one hand on the wall and the other on his walking stick, he made his way out of the school building and outside to where the gyms were located, which was not as easy as it sounds. It took a rather long time for him to turn the right hallways and go down the correct staircase.
As he followed the bumpy path that was meant to guide blind people, his stick crashed into another person. The person didn't even lose his footing from the impact.
"I'm sorry," Jun apologized. No, he was not going to say, "I wasn't looking where I was going," because that would just be wrong.
The threatening, low voice of a male replied. "If you hit me again…I'll crush you."
"I didn't mean to hit you," Jun snapped. Did the guy think he was a delinquent or something?
There was a stomp as the guy turned around to face Jun. A strong scent of sweet candy and snacks flooded his nostrils.
"Eh~?" the guy asked to no one in particular. "Why are you covering your eyes?"
Jun could practically feel the confusion radiating off of him. Annoyance sparked inside of the blind boy.
"Because I don't feel like being stared at by people who see my actual eyes. It's not the best feeling in the world, you know," Jun spoke in a low voice.
"Eh~ I think it's more weird to see a person walking with his eyes covered than seeing his actual eyes," the guy responded in a bored tone.
Jun smoothed out the wrinkles in his temper. This man just didn't know anything about him. He couldn't blame him.
"I'm blind. Okay? Now enough of that. Can you show me where the main gymnasium is?" Jun said as calmly as he could.
"Sure~" the guy replied happily. "I'm going there now anyway. Just let me finish my snack."
There's no way Jun would have agreed to wait until the man finished eating if he had been able to see just how much junk food the giant was carrying. But he couldn't see, and therefore said yes.
So Jun stood there for about 10 minutes, listening to the disgusting munching sounds the guy was making. At last, when his patience wore out, Jun told him, "Okay, can we please go now? I'm already late."
The other man seemed to have no sense of time, which was ironic because he could actually see a clock unlike Jun.
"Oh~ Okay," he drawled out contentedly. He started walking in the assumed direction of the gym, Jun following his footsteps by listening to where he placed his huge feet.
As they walked, the guy asked him a question. "Are you in basketball club?"
Jun nodded curtly, his mind making up several biting responses for what the guy would say with the knowledge that a blind boy was about to join the basketball club. Instead, the guy said, "Cool. You'll have to get me snacks though."
The blind boy snorted. "I don't exactly like that idea, but I don't mind. Hey, I forgot to ask you this, but what's your name? I'm Shiroma Jun, by the way."
"Murasakibara Atsushi. Call me whatever you want though," Murasakibara answered lazily.
Jun raised his eyebrows. "Oh really. Then it's fine with you if I call you Unko or something like that?" (unko means poop)
"Eh~ I don't like Unko," was all Murasakibara said. Jun had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing.
The sound of shouting and shoes squeaking against the wooden floor echoed from a building.
"Oh. We're here," Murasakibara told Jun.
"Obviously. I might be blind, but I'm not deaf," Jun muttered.
Jun heard Murasakibara move in front of him to get to the door first, but the smaller boy reached out a hand and stopped him.
"Sorry, but could I enter first? I need my grand late entrances," Jun nagged him.
He was almost positive that the team should be having an orientation for the newbies, but since it sounded like people were practicing, he guessed that Akashi held it off. Maybe that guy was aware that Jun hadn't appeared yet and wanted to wait for him.
"Sure," Murasakibara agreed easily.
"Thanks," Jun said quickly. He grappled for the door handle and managed to open the door without too much hardship.
The sound of balls bouncing ceased to a stop as the door slid open. Jun felt every pair of eyes concentrated on him. Then a voice cut through the silence.
"Well, well. It looks like our last newbie has finally arrived. Let's get the orientation started, shall we?" It was the distinct voice of Akashi Seijurou, the Teiko basketball team captain.
Akashi's clear, monotone voice frightened Jun and made him lose his sensible train of thought. So he said, "I see you've been waiting for me," which was the dumbest thing that a blind person could ever say.
