A/N: So! Looks like I managed to update faster than last time, yay for us! And yes, I'm about a week late, but better than being months late, right? Thanks for all of your reviews, they're very encouraging. But anywho, onward!
Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke or any of its characters.
Chapter Four
Aomine stared down at the redhead grumpily while said redhead stared back up at him expectantly. Everyone else was off playing basketball while he was here, stuck in an awkward stare down with mini Kagami.
Aomine sighed and despairingly thought to himself, 'Why did it have to be me?'
҉
After experiencing the shock of finding out that Kagami apparently forgot how to play basketball, everyone started firing off questions at once.
"What're you talking about Kagami?!"
"Waah! Kagamicchi forgot how to play! What're we gonna do now?!"
"Noo! We lost our Ace! How are we gonna defeat the Miracles in the Kanto tournament now?!"
"Idiots! The team is not just Kagami!"
"What has the world come to?!"
"Hmm, it makes sense."
The chattering halted when they heard Kuroko speak up.
"What do you mean by that, Kuroko-kun?" asked Riko.
Kuroko waited until everyone was paying attention before he started his explanation, "Well, I do believe that Kagami-kun started playing basketball during his middle school years in America. If I'm not mistaken, Himuro-kun was the one that introduced the sport to Kagami-kun in the first place. It makes sense that his reversal in age also involves a reversal in mind. In other words, Kagami-kun currently only has the memories of when he was the age he is now."
Everyone looked a little thoughtful at that. It was still a hard concept to grasp that Kagami reversed in age in the first place. Having to come up with theories as to how this happened and what are its effects are the best they could do right now. No one had a clue as to how to fix it, so they'll just have to get adjusted to the change and quickly learn how else Kagami was affected.
"Well then, at least this is something we can solve easily!" Momoi said while clapping her hands cheerfully.
"What do you propose, Momoi-san?" questioned Kuroko.
Momoi gave a mischievous grin before turning around and pointing at an out of place looking Aomine.
"Dai-chan!"
"Huh?"
"Dai-chan!" Momoi continued, "You will teach Kagamin how to play basketball!"
"HUH?! Why would I do that? There's no way he's learning from me!" protested an indignant Aomine.
"Because Dai-chan, everyone else is going to be playing a match of basketball, and neither Aida-san nor I have enough skills to teach him. You're the only one not doing anything, so instead of lazing around, you'll be doing something productive!" explained Momoi.
Aomine hurried to come up with an excuse until his eyes landed on Midorima. "What about Midorima? He isn't doing anything either! Force him to do this instead!"
"Actually, I have to meet up with Takao in a few minutes. I'd rather not be late-nanodayo." Midorima refuted hurriedly.
Momoi turned to Aomine triumphantly. "See! Everyone has something to do but you Dai-chan! Now, you better do this or I'll tell your mom that you've been skipping practice again!" threatened Momoi.
"You wouldn't!" challenged Aomine.
Momoi simply took out her pink phone and dialed a number. After the first ring, you could hear the voice of a woman answering.
"Hello aunty! No, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to let you know that Aomine—"
Aomine quickly rushed to Momoi using his unbelievable speed and snatched away the phone from her person and placed it on his ear,
"—that I'll arrive later than usual today. I'm hanging out with a few...friends." he finished off, slightly hesitating on the last part.
After finishing off his explanation, he handed the phone back to Satsuki while glaring at her resentfully.
Momoi smiled and threw him a basketball that she snatched from out of nowhere.
"Alright then! Off you go!"
҉
Oh, right. That evil woman.
A tug at the hem of his shirt brought him out of his musings.
He glared down, annoyed, at that stupid Bakagami. The redhead only kept on looking at him expectantly. He sighed and decided that this was a necessary sacrifice. A Kagami that couldn't play basketball just wasn't a Kagami anymore.
"Fine fine, but you better pay close attention." Aomine spoke out resignedly.
Kagami only nodded excitedly and was nearly shaking in anticipation.
Aomine sighed once again and picked up the basketball that was at his feet. He started to slowly dribble the ball in place and spoke up,
"Okay, so this is what you do. You grab the ball like this, see?" Nod. "Okay. Then you just bounce the ball and make sure it doesn't leave from where you can reach it. Here, try it."
Aomine made sure to pass the ball without much force. Kagami fumbled with the ball for a little until he steadied it in his grasp. The sight was quite comical. The basketball was way too big for his hands. In fact, it was bigger than his whole head!
Kagami seemed undeterred by this and determinedly bounced the ball with one hand. Apparently he used too much force because the ball went sailing over his head.
"Ah!" Kagami exclaimed and extended his tiny arms out in order to catch it.
Aomine caught it for him and handed it back. Kagami took it with a blush of shame on his cheeks before frowning and tightly grasping the ball. He turned away again and this time, with a little less force, bounced the ball with one hand. The ball bounced back and Kagami started to lightly dribble the ball, looking unsure. When he saw that the ball wasn't going anywhere else, Kagami seemed to gain more confidence and started to walk around while bouncing the ball and interchanging hands.
"Haha! Look Aomine, look! I'm doing it!" Kagami excitedly called out while increasing his pace.
"Hmm, don't get too excited kid. This is just basics."
Kagami turned his head to pout at him and grumbled loudly, "Gee, thanks."
Aomine smirked and stole the ball from Kagami. "Now, since it seems you've got the dribbling down, let's see if you can shoot."
Aomine did one of his many seemingly formless shots using only one of his hands. The ball went in without even touching the net.
Kagami looked awed and let a, "Whoa." He shook himself out of his daze and quickly went after the ball. Once he got it back, he placed himself a few feet away from the basket. He tried imitating Aomine in only using one hand to shoot, but the ball didn't even reach the net. He frowned and went after it again, coming back and placing himself in the same spot. Once again, he tried shooting with one hand only but failed miserably. This went on for a little while until Kagami let out a frustrated whine and turned to Aomine.
"Why isn't it going in?!" Kagami demanded.
Aomine had sat down after the fourth failed attempt and just contented himself with watching Kagami fumble around like a noob. The frustration was obvious and honestly, quite amusing.
"Because you suck," Aomine replied.
"I don't suck!" exclaimed Kagami angrily. "You're probably teaching me wrong!" Kagami jabbed back.
"I'm not teaching you—" When Aomine figured out why Kagami couldn't make it, he almost smacked himself. Of course he couldn't make it; Kagami was attempting a formless shot. His signature move. And with one hand! There was no way Kagami could make that.
Standing up, he walked up to Kagami and took the ball from his hands. He positioned himself a few meters away from the basket and took a shooting form.
"This is what you're supposed to do. You bend your knees and hold up the ball with your right hand. You put your left hand to the side of the ball to steady it. Once you take aim, you jump a little while shooting with your right hand. Like this."
Aomine took the regular shooting form and demonstrated what a perfect shot should look like.
"Ha! So you were teaching me wrong!" proclaimed Kagami smugly.
"Tch, just go get the ball and start shooting." Aomine replied, annoyed at the redhead and himself for not figuring it out sooner.
Kagami gave one last smug grin before going after the ball and positioning himself in front of the net. He gingerly settled himself on a shooting form and placed the ball on his hands. He took a deep breath and held it. Then, he shot the ball up and into the basket. The ball skimmed the rim and barely made it in, but was made nonetheless.
Kagami released the breathe he was holding and started cheering.
"Yeah! Take that Ahomine! I don't suck at all!" cheered Kagami while jumping around Aomine and poking him on the stomach.
Aomine caught the little hands that were poking him. "Stop that, it's annoying," he grouched.
Mini Kagami only smiled and looked at him as if waiting for something.
Realizing what Kagami wanted, he grudgingly praised him, "Uh, yeah, that wasn't as sucky as I expected, Bakagami." Well, praised him in his own asshole way.
Kagami smiled joyfully anyway, all of his teeth showing while a light blush appeared on the top of his cheeks. Aomine looked away and uncomfortably scratched the back of his head. Seriously, why was Kagami making stupid expressions like that? It wasn't right.
He cleared his throat and gave the ball back to Kagami.
"Here, just because you made one shot doesn't mean you're an expert at it. Go shoot some more hoops until you get fifteen out of twenty."
Kagami nodded determinedly and rushed back to his previous position. But just before Kagami started shooting, he turned back and called out,
"Oi, Aomine."
"Hmm?" he replied.
"Thanks for teaching me basketball!" Kagami responded, all smiles and sparkly eyes.
Aomine looked away again, deeming to not reply to that at all.
'Seriously Kagami, stop giving me those smiles...'
After several hours of playing basketball, everyone was tired out and hungry. Including Aomine, even if he didn't do much. Still, having to deal with Kagami alone was tiresome in on itself.
"Alright everyone! We've been here a while so let's head back to Kagami-kun's apartment. I'm sure I can whip something up so we can all eat," announced Riko.
Hyūga quickly stepped in front of Riko before she could take another step. He put his hands up to make her stop and forced a smile.
"Ah, coach, you don't need to do that. We'll go to Maji's or something..." Hyūga trailed off when he saw Riko smiling creepily. He shuddered and decided that the best course of action was to shut his trap before he got killed.
Riko continued smiling and let out in a sickly sweet voice, "Ne Hyūga-kun, I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart. Can't I reward my team for playing a good game?"
All of Seirin huddled together in a corner, terrified for their lives that were now in the hands of their coach. They had a good life, they thought.
Kise, Aomine, Momoi, and a chibi Kagami looked confused by their behavior. Kuroko went up to them and explained, "Coach's cooking skills are a bit...lacking."
Aomine shrugged before carelessly saying, "I'm starving, I think I'll eat anything right now. Besides, she can't be as bad as Satsuki."
That earned him a smack to the head.
"Actually, Coach's cooking skills are on par with Momoi-san's, maybe even a little lower." Kuroko clarified, backing away slightly incase Momoi-san decided to smack him too.
Kise looked baffled at this. "What?! How can someone cook worse than Momoicchi?! Is that even possible?!"
Smack.
"Ouch! I'm sorry Momoicchi, but it's true!"
Momoi 'hmph'd' and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm sure Aida-san and I can cook something up. Maybe if we combined our skills, we'll make something delicious!"
Riko, having overheard what Momoi said, brightened at the suggestion and spoke up, "Yeah! C'mon Momoi-san, let's head over to Kagami-kun's apartment!"
"Ugh, well in that case, I'm out. No way am I eating whatever crap they'll come up with," Aomine grouched out. He was already on his way out of the court before he got stopped by Momoi pulling the back of his hoodie.
"Aomine-kun! We're going, and that's final!" Momoi ordered, sounding like a bossy mom.
"Tsk, and why would I listen to you?" Aomine questioned grumpily.
Momoi brought Aomine close and whispered menacingly in his ear, "Because Dai-chan, I know where your porn is. Who knows what I can do with that type of information?"
Aomine paled slightly and growled. He shrugged off her hold and turned around to head back to where the rest were waiting for them. Momoi skipped ahead of him to hook her arm around Seirin's Coach's elbow. They started chattering and were exchanging their 'delicious' recipes and whatnot.
Aomine went to go walk next to Kuroko who was walking with chibi Kagami. When he got close enough he heard Kagami question, "Ne Kuroko, is her cooking really that bad?"
Kuroko nodded affirmatively and responded with, "Yes Kagami-kun."
"How bad is it?"
"Well, one time after we won a match against Tōō, we went over to your apartment to celebrate. Someone else was supposed to cook for us but Coach beat us to the kitchen and already had a hot pot ready. It tasted normal and there didn't seem to be anything off with it—asides from the fruit—so we ate it. But it was like a slow acting poison; we all collapsed a few minutes after finishing the hot pot. It was quite disconcerting." Kuroko explained tonelessly, seeming to not be affected by his near death experience.
Kagami and Aomine looked horrified. How could someone make a poison out of fruits and vegetables?!
Aomine simply groaned and said, "Damn, and I wanted to live a little longer."
Kuroko simply smirked amusedly while Kagami was still contemplating on how someone can mess up food so completely.
Seirin, Kise, Aomine, and Kagami were all sitting around the low table, dreading over whatever was going to be placed on their plates. They could hear and see the tinkering the women were making. From what they could see, the kitchen looked a mess. There were pots everywhere and random foods were spread around the kitchen. Stains seemed to be on almost every surface and smoke was seen coming out of the bubbling pots that were currently cooking on the stove.
"I'm not cleaning that," Kagami mumbled to himself.
Everyone else silently nodded to themselves, agreeing with him wholeheartedly.
Finally, after having been in suspense for what seemed an eternity, the woman came out of the kitchen with a dramatic flair; steam and smoke being left in their wake while the lights did some weird thing and focused on them, casting their faces in menacing shadows.
They all gulped in unison.
Momoi and Riko approached the low table and carefully placed a plate in front of every one of them. They all looked down and saw...meat. Not even properly cooked meat. The questionable pieces of 'meat' looked undercooked and just generally raw. There was some type of what they assumed was a vegetable accompanying the meat. They were all cut in varying sizes and didn't look cooked at all.
"Umm, Coach?" questioned a brave Fukuda.
"What is it, Fukuda-kun?" answered Riko while smiling expectantly along with Momoi.
"Uh...well, can you tell us the n-name of this dish?" he inquired, almost losing his nerve.
Momoi and Riko beamed before answering, "It's Nikuyaga!* Can't you tell?"
Seirin nodded hurriedly, unconvincingly trying to look like they knew all along. This went right over both girls' heads.
"Well, go on! Try it!" Momoi eagerly encouraged.
Kagami watched as everyone reluctantly grabbed their chopsticks and picked up a slice of meat. He wisely decided to see if they were all going to die before even trying his own serving.
He watched as everyone signed their death warrants by placing their piece of food in their mouths. Everything was silent, Kagami intensely staring at any change of expression. And a change there was. The faces of everyone turned into an unnatural purple color. Grimaces couldn't be kept from showing and some even did a comical spit-take! Kagami decidedly pushed his plate away.
He stood up, unnoticed, as everyone broke out into complaints. He walked to the kitchen and looked around at the mess that was made. He rummaged around the fridge to see what was left, and took out a bag of rice that was left untouched and some vegetables. He searched for a salvageable piece of meat and found one on a cutting board.
Kagami climbed up a stool that was conveniently placed near the stove, and placed all the dirty dishes into the sink where they can be washed later. Kagami then grabbed a knife that was next to the cutting board and started chopping up a few vegetables, cutting them in small even pieces with practiced ease. When that was done, he grabbed a pot from one of the cabinets and filled it with water and placed the vegetables inside it. He carefully set the pot on a burner and turned on the heat to medium to let them boil just right.
Kagami wiped the knife on a rag that was hanging from a hook on the wall, and commenced to cut the slab of meat in the same fashion as the vegetables.
'Honestly, how can someone mess up steaming cabbage? These noobs.' He thought to himself while shaking his head contemptibly.
Meanwhile, the people in the living room were still complaining and the chefs were throwing insults at every one of them for being rude. Aomine was trying to get rid of the awful taste in his mouth. He drank his bottle of water religiously until all he could taste was the water.
'Ugh, never again...'
He looked around to see that everyone else was either spitting out their food or were trying to not so discreetly slide their food into a nearby plant. Kise was even crying crocodile tears at how horrid the 'food' tasted. As he snorted amusedly at that, he took notice that there was one little person missing.
"Oi Tetsu, where's Kagami?" asked Aomine.
Kuroko looked to his left where an untouched plate was the only thing there. He looked around the room but couldn't spot him. He turned back to Aomine and responded,
"I don't know, Aomine-kun." Kuroko then turned to his team and cleared his throat, unsuccessfully trying to catch their attention.
Aomine rolled his eyes at his ex-shadow's ridiculously low presence. He proceeded to voice out his earlier question louder in order to save Kuroko the trouble.
"Hey, where's Kagami?"
This time, as they heard his imposing low baritone voice, everyone turned to look at him confusedly before the question registered in their minds. They looked around in the same manner as Tetsu and it seemed that they couldn't find him either.
It looked like Tetsu was ready to organize a search party—that is until they heard low humming come from the kitchen area.
Curious, everyone stood up from their spots on the floor and tiptoed to the kitchen. They all silently hovered around the counter that separated them from the kitchen. What they saw left them a little awestruck.
Chibi Kagami was expertly cutting up a slab of meat into neat little cubes and once he finished, he seemed to be peppering seasoning on to them before placing all the cut up pieces into a pot separate from the one already boiling. He then took out a rice cooker and placed the contents of a bag of rice in it and stepped back to observe his work.
It was at this point that Kagami took notice of his audience.
"Oh. Uh, hi?" Kagami nervously greeted.
"Kagami..." slowly started Hyūga.
"Y-yeah?"
"... What are you making?"
Kagami looked a little surprised at the inquiry before his features took an expression of slight arrogance.
"Oh you know, nothing too fancy. I'm just making curry." he nonchalantly responded while absentmindedly stirring the contents in a pot.
He was just making curry. He wasn't just making curry; he was making delicious looking curry.
"Kagamin, you can cook?" 'And better than us?!' was left unsaid but clearly heard.
Kuroko responded for Kagami, "Actually, Kagami-kun is an excellent cook."
"But he's a five year old! How can he know his way around the kitchen better than most of us?!" proclaimed Aomine. This discovery was quite shocking to him, considering that the extent of his cooking skills was limited to making rice, and even then it was the rice cooker that did all of the cooking. And besides that, Kagami was currently a five year old. Was it normal for a kid his age to know how to cook?
"Hey, that's right! Kagamicchi, how come you already know how to cook? Did someone teach you how?" inquired Kise with righteous indignation. Even he, who was good at almost everything, had trouble cooking. He usually had his chefs do all the work.
Kagami stopped what he was doing and looked away. He turned around and started to search the cabinets for who knows what. It didn't matter; he just wanted to do something to distract himself with.
"Actually, I just watched my mom cooking some stuff, and then I tried it one time and it actually came out pretty good." he answered distractedly.
"But you can't know how to cook good curry from just trying it one time. Did you practice all the time?" asked Momoi curiously, wanting to know in order to put it into play once she tried cooking curry herself.
Kagami once again stopped what he was doing but didn't turn around. He looked to the ground sadly before explaining,
"... My mom, she works a lot. She has several jobs and she says she does it so she can support us. I'm left alone a lot of the time because we can't afford a nanny so it's just me and my cat alone in our apartment."
Everyone stayed quiet and listened with rapt attention. Seirin especially wanted to listen to this, considering Kagami was their teammate and they recently found out he only had a mom. What more was there to him?
"That didn't bother me too much; I understood why she was doing it even though it was lonely most of the time. So, well, my mom said that I couldn't just eat cereal all day so she had me watching her cook sometimes in order for me to make my own food when she was gone." Kagami finished, still not looking at any one.
The silence that followed after was heavy. Some of them were trying to come up with the right thing to say while others couldn't help but feel pity for this lonely kid. Was he still lonely now? Now that he lived by himself again and had no one to talk to during his stay here.
Aomine felt slightly uncomfortable while listening to all of this. He didn't want to know Kagami's past, he didn't want to be part of this. He felt as if he was intruding on a moment between only the Seirin players. Still, he couldn't help but be enraptured by every word coming out of Kagami's mouth. There was something fascinating in hearing sordid details about one's rival. And he didn't mean it in a bad way, more in a whoa-I-can't-believe-I'm-hearing-this sort of way.
He noticed that Tetsu was about to speak up, probably with words of comfort, when Kagami finally turned to face them. What they all saw made his breath hitch.
Kagami flashed them the saddest smile they have ever seen. It was forced, with fake cheer decorating his features. As he spoke, no one was convinced that what he was saying was true, "But it's alright! Kaasan says I have to be strong, so I'll be strong. I'm fine with only Flamey as company. After all, I'm used to it..."
Kagami turned away and grabbed a clean plate from one of the cabinets. He went up to the rice which was already cooked and served himself two spoonfuls. He then went up to the curry, which looked about ready, and poured himself a huge amount. Kagami grabbed a spoon and walked out of the kitchen.
"There's curry if any of you want any. I'll be in my room." Kagami said cheerlessly.
They all watched him walk away, no one moving to stop him from leaving.
Aomine looked around at the Seirin team. Some faces showed concern while others showed helplessness, some a mix of both. They wanted to help, to cheer up Kagami, but the truth of the matter was that this was all set in the past. Sure, Kagami may believe that his five year old memories are his current life, but in reality that life left him eleven years ago. He isn't aware of that, but the rest are. They didn't know what to do.
Aomine let out a weary sigh.
'This is getting troublesome...'
After Kagami had retreated to his room, everyone, not knowing what else to do, decided to serve themselves some of the curry that was offered to them.
Unsurprisingly to Seirin, it tasted delicious. They all either nodded affirmatively to each other, saying that this was definitely Kagami's cooking, or hummed in appreciation. The rest on the other hand, were still baffled that mini Kagami could make something this good. They found themselves humming along with Seirin, the food being undeniably delicious.
Afterwards, Seirin, Momoi, and Kise went to the kitchen and started cleaning up the mess that was left behind. They didn't want to leave all of this mess to be cleaned up by Kagami.
Aomine meanwhile stood to the side, trying to see if there was any more curry left. Unfortunately, there wasn't. So he only stood there, watching as everyone else cleaned up. Aomine took this time to himself to think back to everything's that happened so far.
He was dragged to Kagami's apartment against his will, found out that Kagami magically reversed in age, made said chibi cry, had to apologize (something he will never do again), saw Kagami wearing the most ironic outfit, taught Kagami how to play basketball, unwillingly learned a piece of Kagami's past, and tasted the most delicious curry made by a five year old.
Aomine sighed while thinking, 'This day has been long. I want to nap.'
But of course, nothing ever goes Aomine's way. Before he could even tell Satsuki that they were leaving already, he heard the slamming of a door opening and stomping footsteps heading their way.
Everyone startled at the loud noise, and snapped their eyes to the dark hallway. But it didn't seem to be so dark anymore, for there was a bright light hurriedly coming their way. What came out of the hallway was a distressed looking Kagami, grasping at his own clothes in a panicked fashion. And it was understandable, he being panicked, because there was a bright light that seemed to be originating from Kagami himself.
"Guys! K-kuroko! What's going on?!" exclaimed Kagami, sounding terrified.
Snapping out of his bewildered daze, Kuroko rushed to Kagami, kneeling in front of him and steadying him by the shoulders
"Kagami-kun, Kagami-kun! Calm down, it's alright. Can you tell me how this happened?" Kuroko asked calmly, trying to pacify the terrified kid.
Kagami tried to stop his uncontrolled shaking, but he couldn't. He was afraid and had no idea where this light was coming from and it was suddenly getting very hot.
He tried speaking without stuttering too much, "I d-don't know! I was just e-eating my curry, and t-thinking about my m-mom and stuff, when t-this light a-appeared! And w-why is it getting so h-hot?!"
Before Kagami could start ripping his clothes off to relieve some of the heat, he suddenly felt an immense amount of pain hit him. With a shout, he collapsed on the ground and curled into a ball.
Alarmed, all of Seirin rushed to the hurt child's side and crouched around him, trying to see if they could do anything.
"Kagami, what's wrong? Kuroko, what's happening?!" demanded Hyūga, sounding distressed.
Kuroko looked distressed himself, hovering over Kagami protectively and trying to reach out for him. "I'm not sure, but this looks like what happened on the night Kagami-kun reversed in age. All I know is that he's in an immense amount of pain right now." he replied, his helplessness at the situation showing through his voice and expression.
Aomine didn't know what to do. If Seirin didn't know, then how could he? Sure, he wasn't friends with Kagami, but that didn't mean he enjoyed seeing his rival like this; in pain and whimpering pathetically on the floor. He hesitantly reached out to Kagami's forehead, trying to see if maybe he could sooth the pain. But as soon as he touched him, a scorching heat seemed to emanate from Kagami and in turn burn Aomine's hand. With a hiss, he retrieved his appendage and backed away slightly.
This seemed to cause a chain reaction. Kuroko let go of Kagami's shoulders in the same manner, wincing as he looked at his red hands. When everybody else saw this, they all backed away and left a good amount of space between them and the squirming child. They could all feel it now; Kagami seemed to be radiating heat. It was intense, making all of them break out into a sweat. And it only seemed to be getting hotter as the light that was surrounding Kagami grew brighter.
Eventually the light grew so bright that they had to shield their eyes from view and look away. What they couldn't see, they could hear. They heard Kagami's shouts of pain, his whimpering, and his cries for help. And they couldn't do anything, the heat that was emanating from him too hot for them to bare. But slowly, the light looked to be dimming little by little, Kagami's distressed cries diminishing. They all carefully uncovered their eyes, warily looking at the center of the circle.
Once the light was completely gone, they could clearly see what was left behind.
It was Kagami, still in the same tiger outfit, only this time it looked too small on him. His limbs were longer and his face less chubby. His wild red locks looked less tamed than they usually were. He still looked younger than them, only he was older than before.
He was Kagami Taiga, only it seemed to be that he gained a few years.
Aomine looked on baffled, along with the rest of them. Any doubts that they had before have been vanquished, seeing as they saw for themselves that this was real.
He stared at the sleeping child, for he was still a child, before looking away and letting out a heavy sigh.
'I really need a nap.'
*Nikuyaga is a simple traditional Japanese dish consisting of steamed meat and cooked cabbage.
A/N: Okay, well, there it is. At least I didn't take two months to update. I hope you guys liked it. I'll be introducing the rest of the GoM in the next chapter. Who isn't excited to see Akashi's reaction to all of this, right? I know I am. Also, I'll be explaining some more of Kagami's past too. What do you think of his past so far? Please let me know, and thanks for reading! Until next time!