A/N : This is the fourth chapter of "Of Fate and Miracle"... I'm really sorry if this chapter is a bit confusing... Hope everything will clear up in the next chapter~

Thank you for all who left reviews and faves, and follows... I really appreciate it... Sorry if I can't reply your review, but I'll try next time...! XD

Bad grammar is bad. Sorry. But, enjoy this chapter~ Please review~


Of Fate and Miracle


Chapter 4

Holes


"At that moment, what Kagami felt was no longer frustration or defeat. It was a pure feeling of respect. Because Aomine had reached the pinnacle as a basketball player."
Tadatoshi Fujimaki,Kuroko No Basuke 15


The sky was red… the color of twilight. Red. Like blood. Crimson. Like rose. But in whole equation of the color of red, there was something. The bright smile, the challenge, the one that made him pushed his ability to the limit…

"Head in the game, Ahomine!"

Aomine Daiki looked up. He didn't know when red become his favorite color.

Akashi's hair was also red, but it was different. He liked this one. Dark red… Crimson… Like blood, roses, and … the evening sky. On that person face, there was a smug smile, challenging Aomine as he dribbled the orange ball, ready to attack. Aomine returned the smile with his initial smirk.

"Heh… I'm just going easy on you, Bakagami…"

The red tiger in front of him didn't anything as he saw a hole in Aomine's defence and charging forward. But, Aomine's quick reflex managed to catch up, and with a very skilled risky movement he had steal the ball from the red head. Slow down, change of pace, cross over, the red head followed his movement. They jumped to shoot.

Crazy leg you got there… Do you have wings, or something?

Aomine maneuvered mid-air and threw his formless shot. The ball swished smoothly into the hoop. They landed.

"I win," two words from Aomine and the red had fuming.

"One more time!"

"Idiot… I'm tired."

"I'll win next time! I'm gonna beat you, y'hear that?!"

"Yeah, yeah… sure… Good luck with that."

They sat on the side of the court, looking up at the crimson sky. The red-head beside him gulped down the water from his bottle before he threw it over to Aomine. Aomine caught it easily and drank for himself. No words spoken between them. Only the slightly cold breeze of wind which caressed their hair softly.

"Quit that deep-in-thought look, Ahomine. It's creepy!" the red head tossed over a towel.

"Huh? Shut up, Bakagami," Aomine said. He used the towel to wipe the sweats before he put it round his neck. Aomine glanced at the red head's direction. "Say, I've got one question for you…"

"Hm? Shoot," the red head said nonchalantly.

"Why am I the only one who remembers you?"


"Kagami Taiga?" Aida Riko asked.

"Yes," Kuroko answered.

"Hmmm… Never heard that name before…" Aida said as she tried to dig up her memory. "Am I supposed to know him?"

"He's a basketball player…"

"From which school?"

"Our school."

"Huh?" Aida Riko threw an 'are-you-kidding-me' look at Kuroko. "Year?"

"Apparently mine."

Aida Riko took a deep breath. Did Kuroko just hit his head or something? She didn't know any Kagami Taiga, not from school, not from the basketball team, and of course not in Kuroko's years. Four people were in the same grade as Kuroko; Furihata Kouki, Kawahara Kouichi, Fukuda Hiroshi, and Kuroko himself. No one named 'Kagami Taiga' ever went to Seirin, or to basketball team in this case. Aida explained this to Kuroko, looking at him with puzzled expression on her face.

"Kiyoshi and Hyuuga, how about you?" asked Aida. "Does the name 'Kagami Taiga' ring a bell?"

It took them a long time to answer, but both were saying they didn't know.

"Why do you asked about him, Kuroko? Who is he actually?" Aida asked.

"I don't know… But I supposed he is somewhat important for us…" Kuroko said. "None of you remember?"

Three of his senpais shook their heads. Kuroko sighed. He knew it. He couldn't remember Kagami either. Only the name. The name was so familiar, and somewhere, deep down in his heart, Kuroko knew that Kagami was his precious person. His important person… Aomine-kun remembered everthing about Kagami, but why can't he? The thought seemed to bother Kuroko so much, and he had to find the answers.

"Ah, maybe I got it somewhere in my notes…" Aida said. "Wait here."

The girl jumped from her seat and went somewhere. Kuroko, Kiyoshi, and Hyuuga only stared, waiting until she came back with a stack of notebooks. Some were new, some were worn out. Seeing a puzzled look on Kuroko's face, Aida smiled as she patted the stack.

"This is my notebooks as the coach. I kept record of everything, every development, personal data, tactics, attack and defensive pattern, including every each of our play, and any other data," Aida explained. "Maybe we'll find a clue in here, though it is unlikely. But it's better if we tried, right?"

They investigated the book. Kuroko wasn't really surprised when he saw no such name as 'Kagami Taiga' in any page of the notebooks. It got the information about very single players alright, but none of them named Kagami Taiga. Kuroko knew it was a futile effort after all. There was nothing he could do to find Kagami. He couldn't even remember who he was anyway! And why only Aomine who could remember him.

"This is weird…" said Aida after two hours they spent reading the notebooks (even Hyuuga and Kiyoshi decided to help).

"Why is that, Coach?" asked Kuroko.

"This is the attack pattern we've been used for quite sometimes, right? I made this pattern by considering the strength of each individual in Seirin basketball team, but I never thought I'd make something like…" Aida said as she laid down the book on the floor so everyone could see what she was talking about. "We used this strategy to win our match, but this doesn't make any sense."

"Hmm… why?" asked Kiyoshi.

"Because there's no way we could win by using this strategy with our members," said Aida. "You see, in this simulation model, we centered the attack pattern around our two weapons. The question is, who are they?"

"Well, it's easy… It's Kuroko, right?" said Hyuuga.

"And the other one?" Aida asked. Hyuuga thought for awhile despite the pounding in his head.

"Kiyoshi, right?" he said finally.

"Then who will guard our inside?" Aida asked calmly. "Kuroko-kun himself cannot be the only pivot on our attacks. Not according to my note. We will need another key player here."

"Then how…?"

"I don't know…" said Aida with a puzzled look in her eyes. She took another notebook and analyzed the strategy she had made all these years. Seirin's first year's patterns, and then the second year when Kuroko and new players joined their team. It changed a lot, and yet, it was still didn't match with the player data Aida had. They were missing a big hole here, and she didn't know what was supposed to fill the hole.

This was getting confusing.


The crimson sky was hovering above them. Aomine could see the silhouette of birds coming back to their nests somewhere. The red head next to him hadn't answered his question, but Aomine didn't feel an urge to force an answer out of him. So, he chose to wait. Aomine was amazed by himself since he knew he never had enough patience to wait for something like this.

"I was wondering…" the red head finally said to lied down on the grass and closed his eyes for quite a long time. Aomine wondered if the red head was fallen asleep. But he opened those fiery red eyes and looked into Aomine's deep blue one.

"… Am I hurting you, Aomine?"


"Holes?" Kuroko said, unsure of what to say.

"Yes, holes. I know I'm not this careless with my data," Aida opened her other notebooks. "Why was I making a strategy that we couldn't use? We clearly missed one element in these strategies, and yet, I thought about it was possible."

"May you're just mistaken?" asked Hyuuga, though he wasn't sure Aida had ever made any mistake in their training regiment or her notes. Hyuuga thought he had better chance finding Tokugawa's treasure than seeing Aida Riko made these kinds of mistakes.

"Are you underestimating me, Hyuuga-kun~?" Aida asked with her dangerously sweet smile and murderers' aura around her.

"N-no, C-Coach!" Hyuuga said quickly.

All of them were now busy with their own thought. It was certainly odd. There was no way Aida Riko would've made this kind of mistakes. Things just didn't add up perfectly, since they lost one coefficient in the whole equation. Aida Riko pulled out her cell phone and called one number she had remembered.

Maybe Momoi Satsuki would have an answer.


Aomine could see the sad look in those crimson orbs. This red-haired boy didn't answer Aomine's question. As if… He couldn't answer it. Not because he didn't want to. The red head lied on his side, and let his gaze met Aomine's. Aomine couldn't read that face. He didn't know what the red head was thinking about. Only the sad look.

Aomine reached out his hand. He did something he thought he didn't dare to do.

Softly he touched the red head's cheek, softly, caressing every feeling. At first, he thought the red head would back out, yelled at him or something. But instead, Aomine found the red head leaned in into his touch, close his eyes as if he tried to savor every moments and the feeling of Aomine's warm hand on his cheek. The red head covered Aomine's hand with his own. Slowly but sure, he brought Aomine's palm to his lips and kissed it. Just a like touch, but the force could send the warmth into the pit of Aomine's stomach.

The red head moved his lips and kissed Aomine's finger tips with the same passion before he looked up at Aomine's face. The red head sat up from his position until he came face to face with Aomine. Slowly, he positioned their hands until their palms met each other and their fingers entwined together.

Aomine leant down slightly until their foreheads rest against each other and Aomine could feel the red head's soft breath against his face.

"Am I hurting you, Aomine?" the red head asked once again, softly, quietly, like the caressed of soft wind against his ears.

Aomine didn't answer.

He couldn't answer.


Momoi had returned to her home after talking to Aomine. She sighed as she looked up at the soft pink ceiling of her room and thought about what Aomine just told her. Kagami Taiga… Kagamin… Momoi thought. Something was bothering her. In her head, there was something… definitely something was missing. Momoi got up from her bed, and almost unconsciously, she went to her closet and pulled out a simple box.

She opened the box and found her notebooks. Every data of every basket player… Including their habit, their potential, their training… Everything. Several books were labeled for Seirin. Momoi took one of them and scanning every page to see if there was something… or anything indicating the existence of Kagami Taiga.

But nothing.

The name didn't come up.

Momoi's phone buzzed, indicating incoming call. She looked at the screen and saw the name of Seirin's coach on it. She picked up.

"Riko-chan?" Momoi greeted the caller.

"Ah, Satsuki-san? I was wondering if you could help me with something…"

From the tone of the female coach, Momoi could guess.

"It's about Kagamin, isn't it?"

"'Kagamin'?"

"Kagami Taiga," Momoi said. "I'm sorry, Riko-chan. Aomine-kun told me about him, but I cannot remember him. There was no trace of Kagami Taiga in my notebooks…" And yet, somehow I know he should've been there.

"I know. But I want you to check on something. Do you still have your notes about the strategy and plays you used against Seirin?"

"Yes, I have. What about it?"

"I need you to check on it."

Momoi followed Aida's instruction over the phone as she flipped her notebook and stopped. The stats… The strategy… The data… All seemed wrong… She flipped another notebook on Seirin, and her eyes getting wider at what she had found.

"R-Riko-chan… It can't be…" Momoi said to the phone.

"You see it too, yes?"

"But I don't have any data on him! If I made this, there was supposed to be something… or anything about him…! It can't be…" Momoi's quick mind was working at full speed, trying to analyze everything she had, every data provided, every proof. There was something missing. A single coefficient in a whole equation…

"I'm afraid it's true, Satsuki-san…" Aida Riko said over the phone. There was a dark tone in her voice. "It seemed like the existence of Kagami Taiga, every memories of him… Had been deleted."


"I cannot stay, Aomine…"

The red head said softly.

Please stay… Aomine begged. Aomine could feel their entwined fingers became tighter. The red head squeezed his hand softly. Aomine closed his eyes, enjoying the other's warmth bathe him with a soothing presence. He didn't want this moment to end. He didn't want to let go of these hands. He wanted to be here.

This is where I belong…

"No, Aomine…" the red head put their entwined hands down and looked into Aomine's dark blue orbs with a sad, soft gaze that made Aomine's heart clench tightly.

"I cannot stay…" the red head said.

"Then let me come with you…" Aomine whispered.

"It doesn't work that way…"

"Then why am I the only one who remembers you?" Aomine repeated his question.

Again, no answer. Only the sad look, that was all Aomine got.

"Am I hurting you, Aomine?"

There was a flash of white light, engulfing him. Suddenly, he couldn't see the crimson sky… He couldn't see the fiery red orbs staring into his soul. He couldn't see anything. Only white. White… with no ends.

And then darkness.

KAGAMI!


Aomine's eyes snapped open. He was panting and he could feel the sweat had formed a thin layer all over his body. He felt like he was having the hardest, most tiring basketball match of all time. He just lied on his bed; in his darken bed room, trying to control his breath. He let his eyes adjusted with the darkness around him. The only source of light was a thin ribbon of light, formed by his curtain from the street lamp outside his house. Aomine turned his head and looked at the glowing clock on his bed side table.

09:37 in the evening.

With wobbly legs, Aomine got up from his bed and walked slowly to the bathroom. He opened the bathroom door slowly, went to the sink and splashed some water to his face. He looked into his reflection the mirror. He looked awful, with matted hair because of sweat. Without thinking, Aomine went into the shower and turned it on, didn't have slightest care that he still in the clothes he wore from this morning. He let the water soaked him wet, making the clothes stick to his body like second skin. After he satisfied, he turned off the shower and walked out of the bathroom, dripping water all over the place.

He took off his wet clothes, threw them into the dirty clothes pile, and reached for a towel to dry himself before he put on another clothes. Aomine felt hungry. He went down to the kitchen and saw his mother already prepared dinner for him, covered it in plastic wrap. Aomine ate it in silence, put the bowl and plate on the kitchen sink before he returned to his room.

He looked at his cell phone on his bed and picked it up. Opening his contact list, he saw one name he had been staring at this whole afternoon. Aomine sighed and decided to call that number.

He waited for awhile until someone pick up.

"Hello?" a voice from over the phone greeted him.

"I need your help."

"Who is this?"

"Aomine Daiki from Touou."

"Ah, Aomine-kun? Sure. What can I help you with?"

"I need you to tell me everything you know about Kagami Taiga."

There was silence over the phone. One second became too long for Aomine, as he stood in his darkened bed room, a cell phone on his ear, waiting for one Himuro Tatsuya to have the answers of his question.

And yet, one question kept repeating in his mind, over and over again. In a soft voice like the caress of wind in his ears, asking the same question over and over again…

"Am I hurting you, Aomine?"


"That's the bad part about Kagami. He can't separate between a fight and compassion... He's way too kind."

Kiyoshi Teppei, Seirin's Centre No. 7—


A/N : I'm really sorry if this chapter is so confusing... Even I get confused... But... nah... It had to be done... Hope things will clear up in the next chapter.

Coming up next : Aomine finally found the answers...