A/N : This is an update. Sorry if this one is slower than the first two chapters. I'm working for my new Kuroko no Basuke extra-long one-shot...

I hope this one is good and I didn't drop the quality...


Chapter 3


Aomine knew this place well. He used to come here every day to play with Satsuki while the girl was working on her manga. Aomine would sit on the couch, drawing whatever he likes while chatting with the girl. Even her assistants back then liked him, the chatty boy that could be cheeky once in awhile. His favorite thing to draw was of course the character from Satsuki's "Tales of Robo". Aomine really enjoyed it. Back then, he really wanted to become a mangaka, just like Satsuki.

And now, as he and Kuroko stood in front of the door to the apartment which dubbed as Satsuki's workplace, the memories came and hit him. The door seemed not as big as he remembered, still in the same blue color. Aomine smiled as he unlocked the door. The front room was still the same as he remembered. It seemed like his uncle paid for someone to keep the apartment clean.

"This is the workplace of Momoshiro Satsuki?" asked Kuroko as he stepped into the room. Aomine turned the light on and continued to enter the apartment. This apartment only had two rooms. One room used as the sleeping quarter for rest, and the main room used as the work place. It was full of table. One biggest desk was sat near the furthest wall, with four smaller desk lined up in the one side of the room, near the big desk. There was one big sofa and a coffee table. The rest of the room was full with bookshelves, full with manga and manga materials. Kuroko counted there were at least ten or more bookshelves. Each of it was very big and full packed with manga, gun-pla, materials, and some even novels.

"This room is incredible," said Kuroko as he walked between the shelves and saw the collection. Dragon Ball, Death Note, Naruto, One Piece, Ashita no Joe, Slam Dunk… All popular shounen manga was arranged neatly in alphabetical order.

"Satsuki always said that the best material for manga is manga," said Aomine. "Oy, Tetsu, do you know what name is?"

"'Tetsu'? Aomine-kun uses my given name…"

"Tch. Just tell me do you know what name is?" asked Aomine as he rummaged through a small store room where Satsuki used to keep all her works.

"I don't know," said Kuroko.

Aomine sighed at Kuroko's answer. "And you want to be a mangaka?" Finally he found a box he was looking for. The boxes in the storeroom was arranged neatly and numbered to make it easier to find something. Aomine opened the box which full of papers and showed it to Kuroko. It was a very rough sketch of "Tales of Robo". Kuroko read it as he noticed there were some part that was marked with red ink and the comment beside the mark. Panel position, dialogue, point of view, and so on.

"That is called a name. It's a rough draft of manga. When you show your manga to your editor, you show the names to them, when they gave you their approval, you can continue with the manuscript. But only recognized mangaka who can only be 'okay'-ed from their names. For us, amateurs, we have to submit a full manuscript to be evaluated by editor," Aomine explained as Kuroko went through the names. "But you can't really copied Satsuki's panel distribution. 'Tales of Robo' is a comedy love story seinen manga. It might be different from the type of manga you and I want to write."

"What kind of manga Aomine-kun wanted to draw then?"

"Of course a shounen manga! Masculine manga for boys. I don't really like mushy manga or something like that."

"So, no shoujo manga, then…"

"Oy, do you think I have a cut to be shoujo mangaka?" asked Aomine. He was 190cms, dark skinned and had a well toned body. It was kind of hard to imagine he wrote a shoujo manga.

"You're right. What's your favorite manga, then?" asked Kuroko.

"Maybe Slam Dunk?" said Aomine.

"Good choice," said Kuroko.

"What about you?"

"I like Death Note," said Kuroko.

They continued to search for more names and Kuroko studied them. That was when Aomine caught something from the corner of his eyes. A small box in the corner of the storeroom. Without thinking, he took it and opened it. There were letters. A lot of letters. Aomine took it one by one as he studied the address. It weren't fan letter. The letter came from one person. A male.

"What is it, Aomine-kun?" asked Kuroko.

"Probably letter from Satsuki's crush," said Aomine. "She liked someone from the same town, and they kept exchanging letters."

Kuroko went to Aomine's side as he joined the taller boy to read the letters. They read it in silence. It was only normal letters. Asking for well being, informing his daily life or something like that. There was no special thing as if it was letters from two good friends. The two boys were slightly disappointed. The last letter informed them that the guy would go to America and it was the end of their correspondences. It was sad though, in the end, Satsuki didn't manage to tell her crush about her real feelings.

"I think it's enough," said Aomine. "We shouldn't do this anyway." He placed the last letter into the box, but something caught his interest. There was a photo of a boy in basketball uniform. From the look of it, the boy didn't realize that his picture was taken. He had slick black hair and a beauty mark under his right eyes.

"Was this her crush?" asked Kuroko.

"It seemed so," said Aomine. "But I really wonder who he is…"

Aomine wanted to put the picture back in the box, but his instinct told him to take it with him. Without thinking further, he took the picture and put the box back in the store room. He was still wondering who the guy was.


Last night he slept late, for different reason. He was staying late at their new workplace, checking the names as Kuroko studied all the correction in the name, including the distribution of panels, dialogues, and many more. Aomine gave him small advice as he knew more about the name. He was glad though, he always watched Satsuki working on her name back then. Kuroko can start to make his story; the only problem would be the art.

Aomine could draw well using pencil, but to make a real manga, he had to use specific pens. So far, he could only use kabura pen. He could make a good line with it, but the line thickness didn't vary, so it gave no dramatic effect on his drawings. G-pen on the other hand, had the ability to change the thickness of line very quick in one stroke because the nib of this pen is very elastic. The problem was, it was hard to master the use of this pen. Most of professional mangaka used G-pen to draw, and kabura pen to draw background.

Aomine had started to learn to draw with G-pen this morning. He even brought Satsuki's G-pens and its nibs to school to practice with them. So far, he managed to pen ink his drawings, but still, it wasn't close perfect.

"But this one is good," Kuroko said as he looked at some random characters Aomine drew on paper.

"It isn't," said Aomine as he scratched his head in frustration. "The line was so messed up, and it's suck."

"I see…" Kuroko murmured. Kuroko didn't really understand though. How many times he saw the picture, it was really good. It wasn't the level of beginner. His eyes were right when he saw how good Aomine could draw. But then again, Aomine understood manga art better than him though. Kuroko had started to make his own name, with the crappy people of his where the head of the people looked like rotten potato, and most of it only sticks figures with a name plastered on them.

"I'll practice some more today in the studio. You want to join me?" asked Aomine.

"Okay."

"Good," Aomine once again leant down on his desk as he pulled out the G-pen and tried to draw some more. He decided to get a drink before the next period's bell rang. Practicing his drawing was exhausting as hell. Especially since he wasn't used to the pen. He also had to practice to apply screen tone, and many more. The smile of Kagami in his mind was the only thing who kept him going.

He asked for milk coffee in school's canteen, and took a large gulp of it. He was walking away when something dropped from his pocket.

"Aominecchi, you dropped this!" Kise's voice made Kagami turned around and saw the blond held the photo he found in Satsuki's letters' box. He quickly grabbed the photo from Kise before the boy saw too much, but…

"That guy look a lot like Kagamicchi's brother," said Kise. "Maybe a younger version… but why do you have Himurocchi's high school picture with you?"

"'s not your business!" said Aomine. Did Kise just say Kagami's brother? Wait… Himurocchi…?

"Don't tell me… you like Himuro Tatsuya?"

"Who?"

"He's Kagamicchi's brother, ssu!" said Kise. "Well… half brother actually."

"No, I am not," said Aomine. My love is only for Kagami, he added in his mind. "Don't say anything to that idiot, okay? I'll kill you if you do."

"O-okay…" Kise said, slightly frightened by Aomine's threat. He had no idea what happened to Aomine, but he was sure he didn't want to make this guy angry. From the outside, Aomine might be seemed calm, a bit loner… But actually, he was wild… Like a beast. It frightened him a bit.

With those words, Aomine left to his class. He needed to check on this. Is it true that this Himuro guy is Satsuki's long time crush? Guess he'd find it soon enough.


Both Kuroko and he were standing behind the bushes in front of Kagami's apartment. From Kuroko, Aomine knew that Kagami lived there with his brother. The fact that Kuroko seemed to know everything about Kagami was slightly disturbed him. Kuroko had become like Kagami's stalker or something, and possessive side of Aomine didn't like the fact that Kuroko knew more about Kagami than himself. But now, he would forget about all of his jealousy.

They watched as Kagami came out from the apartment (according to Kuroko, he went for vocal course). When he disappeared in the corner, they came out from the bushes and went to Kagami's apartment. Kuroko rang the bell once, until someone answered from the intercom.

"Yes, can I help you?" the voice asked.

"We're Kagami-kun's friends," Kuroko said.

"I'm sorry, but Kagami just left a few minutes ago," the voice answered them.

"We want to talk to his brother, Himuro Tatsuya-san."

There was silence from the speaker until finally, the voice spoke to them once again.

"Okay. Come in," said the voice.

The front door was opened as they were face to face to man with slick dark hair that covered his left eyes. He was taller than Kuroko, but shorter compared to Aomine. The beauty mark under his right eyes was very familiar. They recognized him as Himuro Tatsuya, the guy from the photo.

This was Satsuki's long time crush.

And that person happened to be Kagami's brother.

It was fate, wasn't it?


More A/N :

List of terms in this chapter (in case you needed them) :

Gun-pla : Gundam plastic model.

Name : storyboard or a rough draft of manga.

Seinen manga : subset of manga for 18-30 years old male readers. Usually it emphasized on storyline and character development and sometimes had lack of action. Example : Chobits, Black Lagoon. It was different from shounen manga especially a comedy one.

Shounen manga : Manga for male readers age 10 and up. Usually had a lot of action with the male protagonist and attractive heroine as fan service.

Shoujo manga : Manga for female readers age 10-18. Usually dealing with romance, relationships, and emotions.


And that's that! I'm sorry if this chapter was a bit boring with too many explanation and all... But, I'm going to need your input to improve this. Please leave a review!