The second chapter after only over a week…..I FEEL POWERFUL! That is a good thing. Hope you like. Whatever I do I do for you - Angela Johnson. Leave a review or a thought. Thank you for taking the time to read this story. Them italics are the flashbacks.
Disclaimer: In the summary
As the boat rocked back and forth in the murky water and the waves crashed into each other mercilessly, Kise dug his nails into the back of his hands. They intertwined themselves in front of his face as his elbows rested on his knees; he looked tense and bothered to anyone that looked at him. This was not a face that a basketball player, let alone a model, should have. He didn't care. The only thing he cared about was finding his friend. The memory flashed through his mind like it was only yesterday, but in actuality the incident happened just three months ago.
A ball bounced loudly on the pavement as Kise walked down the road to a certain house not far away from a corner. He whistled a happy tune as he thought about the things he was going to do that day. Today was the day that the Generation of Miracles, after a long year of tension and unsettled disputes, gathered to finally put down their differences and be friends and become friends again. Not that Kise had that problem to begin with.
In addition to that, Seirin was going to be there and Midorima's friend Takao was going to be with him for what assumed was moral support. Then Murasakibara was letting one of his teammates tag along, too. Kise assumed it was Kagami's "brother", Tatsuya, from America. Kise, of course, wanted to bring his captain to, in his own words, "witness this historical moment".
Kise walked up to the well kept brick house after bypassing the picket fence at the front. The name plate "Kuroko" was sitting on the usual place near the fence that come with many homes like this. The blonde wasted little time knocking on the door as he hummed a little tune anticipating the arrival of the bluenette to the door. A minute passed and no one was there so he knocked again, not really worried, but rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. Another 2 minutes passed and nothing changed.
"Come on, Kurokocchi! It's me, Kise! Come open the door; we have places to be! Kurokocchi!" The teen hollard loudly, incase the bluenette was asleep and wasn't near ready to go anywhere, as he pounded on the door. The door opened slightly enough to make the blonde cease his consistent banging.
"An open door?...That's dangerous, Kurokocchi, leaving your door open like that. You don't know who's lurking around to find a easy house to rob. Was it like this all night?" Kise pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"Kurokocchi! Are you-!" The teen paused his sentence and stopped in his tracks as he entered. The bag he had a tight grip on slowly slid to the ground as he gaped at the inside of the house with slight shock.
Stuff was everywhere. Kise knew that the blunette was an abnormal neat freak since he was organized at all times, so coming into his house and seeing it this way was rather disturbing. Kise sighed and ruffled his hair in dismay.
"Kurokocchi, you shouldn't be such a hypocrite if this is how you keep your own house." he muttered under his breath while stepping over all types of things on the floor. "This is probably why he doesn't invite people over."
Making his way to the end of the hallway, Kise climbed the stairs finding that the mess was getting worse and worse as he progressed. He was beginning to believe that none of this was Kuroko's fault but from someone else. Uneasiness settled in his stomach as he picked up his pace speed walking up the remaining stairs and down the hall to find his friend's room. He found himself at a door that screamed the blunette's name in less than ten seconds before he turned the knob and pushed it open.
"Kurokoc-?!"
The Kaijo star dropped his jaw and basketball at the room he walked in. The room looked awful with an overturned table broken in half on the floor, a shattered dresser mirror had glass everywhere, the bed was broken, and there was tons of other stuff spread across the floor that he didn't even know where to start. That's not what unnerved him though; it was the blood that covered almost everything that set him into motion.
Kise full blown hightailed it down the stairs and all around the house searching for his friend. He shouted and called out for the young boy in panic and in hope to find him. He went as far as to look in the backyard and around the house.
"KUROKOCCHI! WHERE ARE YOU?! ANSWER ME, PLEASE! KUROKOCCHI!" He ran and yelled the boy's name until he was tired and his voice went hoarse. It was then he decided it was best he called someone, so he sped back in the house and grabbed his phone before dialing a recognizable number.
"What is taking them so long. You don't need an hour to get someone and come back." Aomine groaned from his position on the stage in the gym while everyone else either stared at him or did their own thing.
"If you're going to complain then you should have went with him." Momoi sighed at the boy's behavior. She snuck a glance at the door to the gym and saw no change. SIghing again, she sat down beside her friend and leaned back in exasperation.
"Though they are really late."
"No." Aomine slurred sarcastically at her earning a punch in the gut.
"HURG!"
"You can shut up."
The Seirin members snickered at the teen as he doubled over in pain. Some of them didn't even try to hide how highly amused they were. Aomine glared daggers at them and growled lowly in a sad attempt to scare them.
"I'm going to get all of you."
"Not in that state you're not." Hyuuga snarkily replied pushing up his glasses. Midorima humphed at the blunette as he tried to stand to his feet. He held his lucky item for the week (a panda plushie) in his hand as he addressed the lot by the stage.
"Children the lot of you. If you have time to laze about then you can get your butts in gear and do something useful like get drinks."
"And snacks." Murasakibara chimed in munching on a bag of potato chips.
"SAY THAT ONLY WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE THE THINGS YOU WANT!" Hyuuga screamed at the overly tall male. Just then a phone rang throughout the gym causing everyone to check their own.
"It ain't me." Izuki held up his phone so everyone could see.
"Ditto." Hyuuga said putting his on vibrate just incase it did ring. Mitobe shook his head identifying that it wasn't his phone that went off.
"It wasn't mine either." Murasakibara spoke loud enough for all to hear continuing to snack on his chips.
"It's me." Akashi, of all people, pointed out and asked Midorima to put the phone on speaker since his hands were full with unfolding a table. "If I find it unnecessary to continue the call on speaker, I'll come and get it." Midorima nodded and hit the button.
"Hello."
"Akashicchi!" Kise spoke through the phone hurriedly as it picked up.
"Kise, where are you and Kuroko? We've been waiting an h-"
"Akashicchi you need to get down here immediately."
"Kise, I told you if you went he wouldn't come."
"But, Akashicchi, Kurokocchi-"
"Give him the phone; I'll-"
"AKASHI!" The redhead stopped as the rest froze. Akashi turned to his phone as Kise took the silence as a sign to continue.
"Kurokocchi…Kurokocchi is…Oh my God…just get down here right now! S***! KUROKO WHERE ARE YOU?!" The line went dead and the room was still. In less than a nanosecond, Kagami was on his feet and out the gym heading for his teammate's house. It took even less time for the rest to follow him down the road.
Kagami could already hear the sirens when he rounded the corner to Kuroko's street. He could also hear the thundering foot steps behind him as the others caught up. The cop cars lined the street neatly, free of their drivers who were most likely checking out the scene. He spotted a mop of blonde hair standing at the other side of the street from the house he was looking for staring at it like he saw the scariest thing in the universe. In his hands were an unconscious Nigou and a Seirin number eleven jersey, his bag and ball lie at his side.
"KISE!" The blonde was jolted from his daze and turned to see his friends storming towards him. He faced them eyes wide with shock.
"Everyone…Kurokocchi's…Kurokocchi is…" He breathed every word out, each syllable heavier than the last. Kagami realized he was hyperventilating and took hold of his shoulders.
"Hey, calm down. Take deep breaths...deep breaths." Kaijo's ace did as told but the look of devastation never left his features. "Now, tell us what happened, and take it slow." Kise stared at the ground silently.
"..."
"...Kise?"
"..."
"Come on now, Kise, you were all for talking two minutes ago." At Aomine's words, the model walked over to him and handed him the folded jersey. The tanned teen rose a brow at the action, but took it anyway.
"What's so important abo-" The bluenette began unfurling the fabric and suddenly stopped mid sentence. In that instant two things happened: Aomine unconsciously dropped the jersey and stared forward while Kise fell to his knees and wailed loudly clutching onto Nigou as if he would disappear. This sent everyone into a frenzy of attempting to calm Kise down and getting Aomine to look at them properly. Kagami, on the other hand, grabbed the jersey and stared blankly at it. The whole front of it was covered in blood making Kagami almost vomit his breakfast all on the sidewalk. The Seirin ace looked over to the model and wondered just what the boy saw in that house to make him react in such a way. Unfortunately, all of their commotion gathered unwanted attention.
"What is going on over here?!" A cop made his way over to the group from the house quickly to check on the commotion. Kagami could only stare wordlessly at the man as he looked down on them. Akashi took the initiative and spoke up on behalf of the group.
"We are here to visit a friend of ours."
"Well, I'm sorry son, but this area is off limits for right now. A crime just occurred." Everyone's attention was on the cop now.
"What crime?"
"Breaking and entering….and maybe murder. We can't find the residents." The cop looked at the hollering model on the ground and started to help him up while the others gasped in shock. Akashi's eyes narrowed at the news.
"Who's house was it?"
"That one right over there, son." The officer pointed at the phantom's home clearly disturbed. "Place is completely trashed. We think it happened at night 'cause no one here saw anything." A squeaked had the cop looking at the group, half seeming ready to jump him and the other half ready to burst into tears like the blonde.
"You...you wouldn't happened to-"
"That's our friend's house." Akashi cut him off abruptly glaring at the man in animalistic way. The officer straightened up with Kise in his arms seriousness all over his face. With looking away from the teens he called over one of his fellow officers.
"Sanchez!" A middle-aged man with jet black hair and red eyes jogged over to them. He was a tall man that was about Kagami's height.
"Sir."
"Round up some volunteers to take these kids to the station." The statement knock the majority out of their stupor. The cop looked at them with a small light of hope in his eyes; it wasn't everyday that suspects came to the police. Though, they did looked like they were about to protest.
"But first, take them to the scene, see if they can find anything that they wouldn't normally find in there. Make sure they don't touch anything and make sure they don't change anything. Don't worry kids, we just want to ask you some questions when you're done here." They nodded, tense shoulders relaxed slightly.
"Yes, Sir. If you all would follow me."
"I'll put this one in the car, he's seen enough already." The cop took Kise to a patrol car while the rest walked behind Sanchez to Kuroko's house. When they reached the door, The officer paused his movements making the rest stop as well. He turned to them giving them each a stern look.
"Please prepare yourselves," was all he had to say before turning the knob.
The could clearly remember how shell shocked they were when they reached the patrol cars. He could remember how no one said a word on the way to the station. He remembered the questioning and the answers, he remembered the looks on their faces when they were released that evening, and he remembered that same evening on their way back to the gym how Momoicchi was the first to break down into tears after it all followed closely by Aominecchi, Kagamicchi, Riko, Midorimacchi and the rest that was close to the Seirin player. Akashicchi was the only one that was close to the blunette that didn't cry, but he wasn't fooling the model. Kise could see just how hard the redhead was trying to hold back the tears and stay a strong example, but he knew that it was only an act and the situation wasn't boding well with him.
As mentioned earlier, that was three months ago and they just now found a lead as to where the blunette might be. Murasakibaracchi of all the people was the one to call with that lead. They ended up meeting in Seirin's gym again talking about how Murasakibaracchi found said lead. The tall teen showed them a flyer that said Columbia on it. Kagamicchi and Tatsuya's faces lit up at the flyer the very second they saw it.
"It was a city that seceded from the Union way back in the 1960's" Tatsuya had said grabbing for the piece of paper.
"It had been said it became a flying city in sky before even seceded. A scientist named Rosalind Lutece made that possible using quantum physics." Kagamicchi had stated as the others nearly went slackjawed.
"It's mostly legend now, but some believe that it still exists, though no one's been able to find it. The only reason being is that there is a huge hole where the city was supposedly said to be. It's a popular tourist spot." Tatsuya finished. The question as to why this had anything to do with Kuroko going missing came from Kiyoshi's mouth.
The Yosen center went on to tell about how he remembered seeing something similar on the poster in Kurokocchi's house. Kise had entertained the idea but seconds later thought it impossible and gave up on it before a bubble of hope could settled itself in. Akashi, on the other hand, pulled out his phone and called people to do some research. It took a day and a half to get an answer back and a week to get where they are now.
Apparently someone out there had know of the place, they had known it existed let alone still exists, and had known a way to get there. Kise could only pray for the phantom's safety and their own as he stepped into the boat. How traveling by sea to get to figurative place in the sky made sense, the blonde had know idea, but if it meant finding his friend and bringing him home, he would take all the risks in the world.
The Kaijou ace's head snapped to the person who tapped on his shoulder. His captain gave him a serious look though obvious concern was placed in his eyes.
"Land ho, Kise. Get your things together." The teen looked passed his captain barely finding a small dock and a pretty big lighthouse through the thick fog. Grabbing his bag, he held the strap tightly praying to God once more for his grace and mercy while looking for the blunette.
They were going to need it.