Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke

As Tetsuna fell to the ground, Ryouta moved immediately to catch her.

"Tetsunacchi!" he exclaimed, looking at the wound on his friend's head.

He felt horrible. He hadn't meant to hit her, yet here she was unconscious and bleeding.

"Bring her over here!" he heard Seirin's coach, Aida Riko say. She gestured at the bench on Seirin's side. Ryouta complied and gently set Tetsuna down, staring at her worriedly. He moved aside as her teammates got a first aid kit and tended to her injury. Seeing that he could do nothing for his friend, he backed away to let Seirin take care of her.

Tetsunacchi… The injury looked really bad to him. If word got out about this…

I'm going to get killed! Ryouta realized. Aomine and Akashi would have his head for this. Even Midorima and Murasakibara would be furious with him for what he'd done. They'd all been very protective of Tetsuna, treating her like a younger sister. They were supposed to make sure she didn't get hurt, not hurt her themselves!

He looked over to Seirin's side and saw that Kagami was glaring at him.

Great. Now there were five people who wanted to murder him.

Who exactly is this Kagami? Ryouta wondered. He hadn't missed the way that Kagami had Tetsuna's passes. There was only one other person that Ryouta knew who could catch the phantom player's passes that easily, and that person and Tetsuna were no longer on speaking terms. Seeing Tetsuna and Kagami work together so easily was both sad and exciting at the same time.

I wonder if Aominecchi knows about Kagami.

Ryouta gulped as he thought about what the ace's reaction would be. It was true that Aomine and Tetsuna were no longer speaking to each other, but that didn't mean that they no longer cared. Ryouta knew for a fact that Aomine still cared very much for Tetsuna, and would be less than pleased to know that she found a new 'light'.

He would also not hesitate to kill Ryouta for hurting Tetsuna, accident or not. Ryouta was once more engulfed by his guilt as he watched Tetsuna's team talk amongst themselves.

"They're finished," Kasamatsu said. "It's not what should've happened though."

Ryouta nodded slowly, not really thinking.

"Hey, Kise!" He was brought out of his guilt by his captain, who'd hit him on the head. Again. "It was an accident. Stop beating yourself up over it. If you really feel that bad, then apologize later once the game is over. Now get your head back into the game!"

Ryouta sighed. "Understood, Kasamatsu-senpai…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tetsuna awoke to the sound of shoes on a gymnasium floor and the voices of her teammates.

Their words were blurry at first as she tried to reorient herself. What had happened?

A sharp but brief burst of pain reminded her that Kise had accidentally hit her earlier. Her friend's worried and guilt-filled face flashed before her eyes for a moment as the pain faded.

I have to talk to Ryou-chan later, she decided.

The voices around her became clearer and she realized that the match was still going on. Her teammates were discussing the match, and by the sounds of it, things weren't looking good for Seirin.

"If only we had Tetsuna-chan…" Riko was saying.

"I understand," Tetsuna said, sitting up slowly. She tried opening her eyes but realized she could only open her right one. "Good morning."

Her teammates stared at her in shock.

"I'll be going then," she said and walked towards the court.

Riko stopped her immediately. "Hey, wait. What are you talking about?"

"But you just told me to go," Tetsuna told her, confused.

"I didn't tell you to go," Riko protested. "It just slipped out."

"Then, I'm going," Tetsuna said, opening her left eye. "If I can change anything by going out there, please. Besides, I promised Kagami I would be his shadow."

"I get it," Riko said at last, sighing in resignation. "But if I think you're in trouble, I'm switching you out immediately."

Tetsuna nodded in agreement. It was the best she could ask for at this point.

With only six minutes left in the final quarter, Tetsuna switched places with Koganei. They were ten points behind Kaijou.

"You alright?" Kagami asked her as she stepped onto the court. "Are you sure you're okay to play? Are you dizzy at all?"

"Kagami-kun, you worry too much. I'm fine."

The redhead looked at her dubiously, but relented. "Fine. Let's go."

"Yes."

The match progressed quickly. Tetsuna snuck around the court, stealing the ball and passing to her teammates, who would then score. Kaijou would score as well, maintaining the point gap. But since Tetsuna had been out of the game for a while, her misdirection was renewed, making it hard for Kaijou's players to keep track of her. She took advantage of this and moved as fast as possible, passing the ball from person to person.

At the five-minute mark, they were only two points behind Kaijou. One minute later, they were tied.

We can do this, Tetsuna thought with a smile. But just as her hopes got high, she felt the atmosphere of the court change. She looked over at her friend and saw that Kise's aura had strengthened immensely. A defiant look had entered his golden eyes.

Kasamatsu passed the ball to Kise, and he took off with it immediately, bypassing everyone with incredible speed and scoring a basket.

"I won't lose," Kise said. "Not to anyone. Not even Tetsunacchi."

"This isn't good," Hyuuga said. "Give it your all everyone. From here on out, the match will be like the first quarter. A back and forth run-and-gun game!"

The game continued, both teams scoring, making it so that the gap remained unchanged. When there was only one minute left in the match, there was still a two-point difference between the teams, Seirin at 91 and Kaijou and 93. Then, at twenty seconds, they were tied once more at 98 points.

So close, Tetsuna thought, eyeing the score board. Her hands were planted on her knees and she was breathing hard. She was getting a little lightheaded, most likely a result of her head wound from earlier. Just twenty more seconds, she told herself.

"There's no time left!" Hyuuga yelled. "If we don't take the ball now, it's over!"

"Kagami-kun," Tetsuna said, walking over to the redhead. "If we can get the ball, there's one more thing we can do that Kise can't copy. It's a simple strategy that will only work once, though."

"Let's do it!" Kagami declared once she had explained her plan.

When Kasamatsu jumped up to shoot, Kagami jumped as well, pushing the ball from Kaijou's captain and towards Seirin's. Hyuuga passed the ball back towards Seirin's end of the court and Kagami and Tetsuna took off after it.

"Kuroko!" When Kise appeared in front of them, Kagami passed the ball to Tetsuna. She knew that Kise would expect her to pass it back to Kagami since she can't shoot. So he looked shocked when she threw the ball towards the basket.

If she was on her own, the ball would never have gone in. The trajectory was all wrong and it would've fallen terribly short of the basket.

But she wasn't on her own.

Kagami was there, right where she needed him to be. He jumped high, ready to take hold of the ball. Kise jumped as well, but Kagami jump got him further. When Kise had started to fall to the laws of gravity, Kagami was still climbing up.

"I don't need you to return the favor! Because, this ends now!" Kagami declared as he took the ball and slammed it into the basket, raising Seirin's score to 100.

It was Seirin's victory!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Midorima Shintaro watched as his former teammate stepped out of the gym and walked towards the sinks to wash his face. Shintaro had seen the whole match and was very surprised by the outcome.

"The horoscope for your sign, Gemini, was the worst for today," he said while he approached, immediately catching Kise's attention, "but I didn't think you'd actually lose."

"You came to watch, Midorimacchi?" Kise asked.

Shintaro felt a slight pulse of annoyance at the ridiculous nickname. "Well, no matter who won, it was an unfortunate game. Even a monkey could've managed those dunks. It's no wonder that fate didn't choose your side." He adjusted his glasses with as bandaged fingers as he spoke.

Kise pouted at him. "I haven't seen you since middle school. It's good to see you again." He rested an arm on the sink and looked straight at Shintaro. "I see you're taping your fingers, as usual. Anyways, does it matter if I dunk as long as it goes in?"

"That's why you're no good," Shintaro said, irritated by Kise's way of thinking. "Getting the ball in from up close is easy. Getting it in from a distance has true value. Didn't anyone teach you the saying: 'Do everything you can and God will do the rest'? Optimal effort makes you worthy of fate's grace." He tossed a towel at Kise and continued, "I always do everything I can, and I always keep the Oha-Asa horoscope's lucky item on me. By the way, today's item is a toy frog. That's why my shots never miss."

He held up the frog that he had gotten first thing in the morning.

Kise looked at the frog skeptically.

"Shouldn't you be talking to Tetsunacchi instead of me?" Kise asked.

"There's no need," Shintaro replied. "I respect her as both a person and a basketball player, but I will not accept her decision to go to a weak school such as Seirin. Her talent is wasted on such a school."

He'd asked her about her choice when he'd texted her to inform her of Kise going to see her at Seirin, but she'd never gotten back to him on that.

I know what happened in third year was bad, but was it so horrible to her that she would choose to go to a weak school?

"I simply came because we'll play them in the division preliminaries. But honestly, none of them are good enough besides Tsuna-chan."

"Not necessarily," Kise said, much to Shintaro's surprise. "I mean, Tetsunacchi is really amazing, but that Kagami Taiga guy has a lot of potential. He caught all of Tetsunacchi's passes without any trouble! He's really interesting."

Shintaro sighed. He didn't know about strength or potential, but Kagami was interesting. Watching Tetsuna play with him had reminded Shintaro of Tetsuna playing with Aomine. Not to mention that the redhead was just as loud and idiotic as Teiko's former ace.

A bicycle bell rang from behind them, and Shintaro turned to see his new teammate approaching him, glaring as he pulled the box-car along on a bike.

"Midorima, you bastard!" Takao Kazunari cried out. "You left me alone in the middle of traffic! Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

"Well, I just came to watch the game today," Shintaro said to Kise. "But allow me to apologize. There is no way we'll lose to Seirin, even if they do have Tsuna-chan on their team. It's unfortunate, but it's better if you just give up on your revenge."

"And Kise, one last thing." Shintaro adjusted his glasses again and glared at Kise, who gulped in fear. "Akashi has been informed of what happened in today's match."

"Midorimacchi!" Kise exclaimed, eyes growing wide in terror.

"I'll let Akashi decide what to do with you this time. But if this happens again, not only will I tell Akashi, but I'll tell Aomine as well."

Because Shintaro knew that Aomine would do anything for Tetsuna, no matter the circumstances between them. Kise knew this as well, and hung his head in resignation.

"I know I messed up. I'm really sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be telling that to," Shintaro said briskly. "How is she, by the way?"

"Her team's taking caring of her. Her coach is going to take her to a hospital to get the wound checked. She should be okay, though."

"She'd better be."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Despite her protests that she was fine, Riko still dragged Tetsuna to a hospital to get checked up. After the doctor reassured Riko that Tetsuna would be fine, and all she needed was to take it easy for a few days, they went to meet up with the rest of their team. They were all relieved that she wasn't seriously injured and decided to go out to eat to celebrate their victory.

"What should we eat?" Hyuuga asked.

"Something cheap," Koganei answered. "I'm broke."

"So am I," Kagami replied.

"I have money," Tetsuna interjected.

"Really?" all the boys exclaimed, grinning as they turned to her. "How much."

"Hold on," Riko said, sending them all glares. "You're not seriously going to make Tetsuna-chan pay for dinner, are you?"

The boys' elation wore off immediately and they all hung their heads, murmuring apologies.

"I don't really mind," Tetsuna said.

Riko looked at her worriedly. "Are you sure? I mean, there's a lot of us. Are you sure you have enough?"

"I'm sure."

In fact, she had more than enough. Her parents co-owned one of Japan's largest businesses with Akashi's parents. Their parents had been friends since their school days and had later started the business together right when they got out of college. The business was immensely successful, so Tetsuna got a hefty allowance from them each month.

"Come on, coach," Koganei said. "Kuroko said it's okay, so let's go somewhere to eat!"

Riko sighed. "Fine."

In the end, they ended eating ramen, even though they could've chosen something far more expensive. But if Tetsuna had learned one thing about boys during her three years at Teiko, it was that they would eat any food they could get their hands on, no matter the quality.

She finished eating before the others so she stepped outside for some fresh air.

"We won," she murmured, looking up at the sky. It was a hard match, but they had done it. They'd beaten one of the Generation of Miracles.

But, Tetsuna began to wonder, was I thinking to rashly when I thought that defeating them would change things? Has defeating Ryou-chan done anything to change his way of thinking about basketball?

As if her thoughts had summoned him, Kise suddenly appeared before Tetsuna.

"Ryou-chan?" Tetsuna said in surprise.

He smiled at her. "Do you have a minute to talk?"

They ended up at a nearby park with a caged basketball court next to it. Kise jumped onto a park bench while holding a basketball in one hand and sat on top of the bench, still smiling. However, his smile fell a little when he saw the bandage on Tetsuna's forehead.

"Your injury…" he started hesitantly.

Tetsuna gave him a reassuring smile. "It's fine," she told him. "The doctor just said that I would have to take it easy for a while. Other than that, it's really nothing serious."

"I see," Kise said, nodding. "Even so, I never meant to hurt you, Tetsunacchi. I'm really sorry."

"It's alright," she said. "You shouldn't blame yourself, Ryou-chan. After all, things like this happen all the time in sports."

Kise sighed deeply, spinning the basketball in his hands. "By the way, I saw Midorimacchi."

"Shin-chan? At Kaijou?"

Kise nodded.

"Why was he there?"

"Seems like he just came to watch today's game," Kise said. He tilted his head back and looked up at the evening sky, a note of melancholy entering his voice. "He's also upset that you chose to go to Seirin instead of a school with a strong basketball team."

"I know," Tetsuna murmured, thinking of the message that he had sent her. "But I don't plan on going to any other school than Seirin. I've made up my mind already."

Kise dropped his gaze back to her and sighed. "First you turned me down, and then I lost today's game. My high school life is going completely wrong."

He leaned further back and lifted his legs up, gripping the bench with his hands to keep himself stabilized. He then balanced his basketball on his forehead. "I didn't expect you to say yes, but I was serious."

"You'll fall over," Tetsuna chided him while smiling softly. Then, she added, "I'm sorry."

Kise leapt off of the bench and faced her, smiling like he always did. "I'm kidding," he told her. He tossed the basketball a few times before saying, "That aside, what I wanted to talk to you about was about your reason. Why, right after the middle school championship game, did you suddenly disappear?"

He tossed the basketball to Tetsuna, who caught it with ease.

His question, however, would not be as easy to answer. She considered how to answer for a while.

Several memories flashed into her mind at that moment.

Crying in the rain as Daiki walked away from her. Calling out his name even though he could no longer hear her.

A sudden change in her oldest friend. Mismatched eyes, one gold one red.

A scoreboard reading 111-11. The heartbroken look on her childhood friend's face as he looked at her as if he no longer knew her.

Tetsuna's heart ached at the memories.

Could she just lay out all of her reasons right here and now for Kise to hear? Would he even understand if she told him? The lack of understanding had been the root of the problems that had developed between her and her former teammates.

She could not understand how they could abandon teamwork and focus solely on victory, not even caring how that victory was obtained.

They could not understand why she wanted them to rely on each other and play honestly, not caring if they won as long as they had played their best together.

She couldn't voice these thoughts out loud. At least not yet, not with things being the way they were.

"I'm not sure," she said instead. It wasn't a full-on lie as she wasn't sure how to voice her reasons. "It's true I began to question Teiko's policies because of the championship game. I felt we lacked something."

"Sports are all about winning. What could be more important?"

All the hopes that Tetsuna had been building up since the victory earlier all came crashing down.

Nothing had changed. Not a thing. In the end, it had been unreasonable of her to believe that change would come so easily, that her friends would go back to the way they used to be if she beat them with her basketball. In the end, nothing was that easy.

"I thought the same thing, once," she said. "But at that time, I truly hated basketball. The feel of the ball. The squeak of basketball shoes. The swish of the net. I started playing because I loved the game. That's why I was so impressed when I met Kagami. He loves basketball from the bottom of his heart. He seems to have gone through scary and rough times, but he takes basketball more seriously than anyone else."

"I don't get it," Kise said in a low voice. "But I can say one thing. If you think so highly of Kagami because of his attitude towards basketball, some day you and Kagami will part ways. The biggest difference between me and the other four isn't our physical abilities. They all have a special ability not even I can imitate. I realized during today's game that he's still learning. And just like the Generation of Miracles, he has a special ability. Right now, he's still and immature challenger. He's enjoying the thrill of recklessly playing stronger opponents. However, someday he'll achieve the level of the Generation of Miracles and grow apart from his team for sure. Won't he be a different person then?"

The words hit her hard. Kise was talking about Kagami, but as he spoke, Tetsuna kept thinking about Daiki.

He had loved the game once, but as he grew stronger, he had grown apart from his team.

He had grown apart from her.

Without realizing it, Tetsuna's hands began to shake. She was still clutching the basketball, so it trembled uncontrollably in her hands.

No, she thought adamantly. I won't let it happen again. Never again.

Her thoughts whirled around and she found herself reminiscing on their final year at Teiko.

Third year, when everything went wrong…

Thanks for reading!

The next chapter will take place in third year of Teiko.