Chapter 4
disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket.
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Thank you Phoebe for editing this chapter~
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Chapter 4
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Twelve years ago
"What are you saying?" She wanted to escape but her legs were wobbly and she couldn't move them. Did she hear him correctly? He said that she was his?
"You seem to have forgotten about me…" He studied her expression very carefully before a frown appeared on his face, "But your eyes were always looking for me. Was it just because I was the subject of your interest? Or was it because you were not sure about me?"
"I know it's you. I have been waiting for you but you never greeted me. Not even-" She said but he pressed his index finger to her lips. She stopped talking immediately to study him. He had grown more mature than he was when he used to be as a kid. His eyes had turned sharper than it was before and he looked better with his short hair. Then she noticed something also changed in his eyes. The pair of red eyes that she loved to see was no longer there.
"What happened to your eyes?" she unconsciously said to him. She watched him smile. But not that kind of smile that brought warmth to her heart; it was the kind of smile that made her feel chills going through to her bone. He had changed. This was not the boy she used to know nor is this the boy that used to play with her in the park.
"What happened to you?" she asked him again.
"Why don't you try to find the answer by yourself?" he told her with a challenging smile before he stood up and walk away from her without turning back to look at her.
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~Present time~
"Akashi-kun, please drive carefully" Kuroko said when they were on their way to Seirin Agency. She didn't have the guts to look at the speedometer nor the confidence to look at the blurry view in front of her.
"Are you scared, Tetsumi?" Akashi asked before he turned the car to the right. Kuroko was completely unprepared for the turn. She flew to her left side and had her head hitting Akashi's shoulder.
"I am scared that we will lose our lives before we arrive at Seirin's office. What if Akashi-kun lost control of the car and we ended up in hospital with Aomine-kun?" Kuroko mumbled while she nursed the sore spot on her head and shuffled back to her seat and this time, she flattened herself onto the chair and held onto the bottom of the chair like her life depended on it.
"You are underestimating me, Tetsumi." Akashi said before the car took a sharp turn and then a complete stop. Kuroko, who finally had the guts to look out the window, saw that they had arrived inside a governmental building complex. She saw Akashi open the window and present his ID to the officers. Kuroko opened her purse and also gave her ID to the officer
"I completely forgot that Seirin was part of the official government." Kuroko said once they had passed the security check up.
"Seirin is one of the secret intelligence services that did dirty work for the government. We used their help to make sure that your team had clean records in exchange of us helping them finishing some of their dirty works."
"I know about the contract, Akashi-kun" Kuroko looked at Akashi with her big blue eyes and a scowl on her face. Akashi stopped at one of the buildings and he parked his car outside the lobby.
"Let's go, Tetsumi." Akashi said before he opened his door. Kuroko followed him to the lobby as he stated his business to the security in there.
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"Midorima-kun?" Kuroko asked when she and Akashi had arrived at the sixteenth floor where Seirin's agency office was. Midorima was there while he glared at the red haired male that was almost as tall as he was. That male also had a very muscular build and Kuroko assumed that he was also one of the agents in Seirin.
"Kuroko." Midorima said to acknowledge her presence. "Akashi." he said to the male standing behind Kuroko.
"I just told you. If she didn't try to stop me, I would be able to kill this killer and she wouldn't get abducted." the tall red haired male suddenly said. He looked agitated and in a complete mess with blood in his clothes.
"Shut up. This would end without any injured if you did as we had planned." Midorima turned to look at the male. He raised his hand to punch the male but he felt someone grabbed his hand and stopped it in mid air.
"What is going on in here?" Kuroko, who had stopped Midorima's punch, said to everyone in the room.
"Kuroko-san, Akashi-sama, we wanted to apologize. Because of our mistake, one of your friends got abducted" Kiyoshi said while he bowed down.
"It wasn't our mistake! It was her mistake! She wasn't supposed to try to stop me while I attack that killer!" the red haired suddenly shouted.
"Kagami-kun!' The brown haired female, Kuroko remembered her as Aida Riko, shouted at Kagami. She saw Kuroko's cold gaze glaring at Kagami this time and wouldn't end nicely if Kagami continued his childish act.
"Are you saying that Satsuki's plan failed because she tried to stop you from doing something unnecessary like killing your own target when the mission clearly stated to catch him alive?" She let go of Midorima's hand kept staring at Kagami. Even with her small figure, she was quite scary when she wanted to. Kagami was about to said something else but Kuroko punched his stomach. Kagami grunted while he glared at Kuroko.
"You!" Kagami grabbed the collar of Kuroko's shirt once he had recovered from her punch earlier and he was about to lift her up when he fell to the ground as he lost his consciousness. Kuroko saw Akashi standing behind Kagami; he just knocked Kagami out with just one hit to the back of Kagami's neck.
"Can we have a cup of tea and talk about this in the table over there?" The cat like male from Seirin said timidly. He saw that the situation had gotten worse after Kagami's little outburst and. It didn't help that Seirin was at fault when they failed to protect the pink haired lady from Seirin.
Kuroko looked at Akashi and she saw him let out a deep sigh before he nodded. "Sure. If you can, please tell me the detail in your view. I have heard the story from Aomine's point of view and I hope you could also give me all the details about this killer that was not in this file." Kuroko pulled out the mission file and give it to Riko.
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Meanwhile in other part of the city
"Let go of me!" The sound of Momoi Satsuki could be heard inside a big room in the older part of the city. Both of her hand and her legs were tied with a plastic rope and it was hurting her. The killer was currently pacing in front of her with a scared expression on his face.
"Shut up! Why do woman like you always hate me? You choose for a guy like that blue haired man." The killer said while he panted heavily, grabbing a fistful of his hair. He kept mumbling something that Momoi couldn't hear.
"Hey, that's my brother!" Momoi lied. He seemed to be emotionally unstable. Maybe I could use that to escape. Momoi thought before saying, "I always hated him."
"Don't lie to me! You two are nothing alike." He stopped pacing and he turned to look at her with his blood-shot eyes. Momoi speculated that he might have been drunk or using some kind of drugs. Either way, that might work in her favor if she said the right thing.
"Why would I lie to you? He left me to escape on his own." Momoi pretended to sob and she gritted her teeth. And luckily, because of the pain she felt from the pressure in her legs and hands, she could let out a few tears on her eyes.
"No no, he was someone that also had a military training just like me. He would've come here and attacked me." The man said in panic. He pulled out a knife from his pocket and pointed that knife to Momoi.
"He wouldn't! He never cares about me. Why do you think he let me protect that red haired man from you. When in fact, he could do that on his own!" Momoi shouted and she started to sobbing and choking on her tears. "He only cares about his girlfriend."
"He dumped you too?" the killer rushed to her side and he hugged Momoi.
"Yes. I care about him but all he cares was for his teal haired girlfriend. I just want to kill her!" Momoi put the last pieces in her strategy. And she waited for his answer and hoping it was the right one. Then Momoi felt the rope around her hand was loosened and she saw what remain of that rope after the killer had cut the rope.
Only to have it replaced with a handcuff on her hand and her leg.
"Do you think I would be fooled by girl like you faking a few tears?" The man slapped Momoi on her face twice and Momoi could taste a metallic substance in her mouth. She saw the blood coming out from her mouth and it dripped into her shirt and pants.
"I hope your friends come to help you tonight. I have few surprises for them." He told Momoi before he slapped her again. This time, Momoi instantly lost her consciousness.
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At the table, Kuroko was seated next to Akashi while Midorima was standing next to the two of them. In front of them was Riko, Kiyoshi and dark haired male wearing his glasses Kuroko remembered as Hyuuga Junpei.
"We will start by telling what happened when we arrived at the scene" Riko said. Kuroko nodded and she prepared to pick any useful information that she could use to save Momoi.
FLASHBACK
It was 8pm when they had arrived at the place where this killer was. Their first plan was to barge inside the place. Aomine and Kagami would be the first ones to enter while Kiyoshi and Hyuuga would back them up. Momoi was waiting with Riko few buildings away behind them since Riko couldn't protect herself. She wasn't trained to use guns or any method to defend herself.
"Satsuki, are you sure this is the right place?" Aomine said to the receiver in his hand.
"Of course! According to the data, this should be the place where the killer should be" Momoi said into the receiver." She opened the map in her hand and look closely at where the teams were headed. "And I couldn't even prepare my rifle—wait." Momoi stopped mumbling when she saw something that caught her eyes.
"Dai-chan, is there a building that's about four stories high?" Momoi asked Aomine.
"Hm… yeah. It's the shortest building in here." she heard Aomine said. Momoi's widened her eyes and ran to find her rifle.
"Dai-chan, get away from that building!" Momoi shouted into the receiver while she grabbed her rifle and ran to follow them. On her way out, she told Riko to wait in their hiding spot.
"Oi Satsuki." Aomine tried to talk to her from the receiver. But he got no answer from her.
"What's wrong?" Kiyoshi asked Aomine.
"Satsuki just goes solo. I will be here to wait for her." Aomine said lazily before he leaned on one of the wall.
"This is not a walk in the park where you could wait wherever you want! We are in the enemies hide out!" Hyuuga was clearly annoyed by Aomine's attitude. He acted like this mission, which Seirin must ask for their help, was nothing.
"Then wait for Satsuki in here. She's useless unless she already set her rifle somewhere" Aomine look at Hyuuga with his droopy eyes. He waited for Hyuuga to say something but Hyuuga was silent and walked ahead of him.
"I will wait for your friend. You go ahead with Kagami-kun." Kiyoshi said with a smile on his face. "Besides, I am also pretty much useless unless I have a tank with me." he said when he saw Aomine was not convinced by him.
"Fine, but don't let Satsuki into the front line." Aomine gave Kiyoshi one last look before he ran to catch up to Kagami. Kiyoshi waved happily to Aomine until he couldn't see him anymore once he had turned on the corner of the road. Kiyoshi look up to the sky for a while he swung the gun in his hand carelessly.
"You might shoot yourself if you keep doing that" Kiyoshi heard someone said to him. He saw a pink haired girl with a long sniper rifle in her hand and she didn't even look exhausted after all the running she had done from their hideout to where Kiyoshi was standing.
"Momoi-san?" Kiyoshi said to the pink haired girl. If she didn't bring her sniper rifle, Kiyoshi might think she was just a civilian.
"Kiyoshi-san. Were you waiting for me?"
"I volunteered when Aomine-san told me that he wanted to wait for you. I never have guessed you were the one holding the sniper rifle. I thought it would be Midorima-san." Kiyoshi said to her.
"Midorin would never be in the active field. He was someone who would clear the area and the one who would deal with the officials after our missions. Enough with the small talk, can you run Kiyoshi-san?" Momoi said in a hurry.
"Sure, but why?" Kiyoshi said. He saw Momoi's eyes turn cold and it was so not what she used to look like just a few seconds ago.
"The only one who can take out the snipers is another sniper." She said before she ran again, this time with her full speed. Kiyoshi was having a hard time following her, even when he had the advantages for having longer legs.
He saw Momoi enter one of the buildings that was two blocks away from their meeting points. She stopped and turned to look at Kiyoshi, "You could go to the rendezvous point. I will be fine in here"
"But this is six hundred meters away!" Kiyoshi said in shock.
"Don't worry; this should be enough to take out the other three snipers."
"How do you know there are three other? And what if there is someone is this building?"
"I just do. Now please choose whether you wanted to follow me or—"
"I will follow you." Kiyoshi said firmly. Then he saw that Momoi was shocked before she told him, "This is a ten story building and we are not going to use the elevator"
"I could handle ten." Kiyoshi was already sweating when he imagine to run up to tenth story building.
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"You are a very healthy girl." Kiyoshi said once he arrived at the roof. He saw that Momoi had already set up her sniper rifle.
"I am the only one who can use this sniper rifle for about eight hundred meters. So I have to train so I wouldn't be a burden to my team." Momoi said while she focused on the rifle lens in front of her.
"Your team consists of six people, right?" Kiyoshi asked. Momoi asked him to also lie down so the enemy won't spot them.
"Hmm, yeah. Tetsu-chan, Ki-chan, Muk-kun, Midorin and Dai-chan." Momoi counted with her hand. "Why do you ask?"
"I was just curious. I'm new in Seirin and I was surprised when they put me in the mission with personal guards from other company." Kiyoshi said sheepishly.
"Ki-chan handles all the problems with security and other thing that used computer. Muk-kun was helps me to go to my place and helps to blow things up. Dai-chan and Tetsu-chan would be the one's attacking and assassinating. And that's left Midorin to clean things up." Momoi explained shortly. Then she used the receiver and called for her teammates.
"Satsuki, are you in place?" She heard Aomine's from the receiver.
"Yeah, listen, there might be a surprise attack from the sniper I could only find one of the possible three in the area." Momoi started.
"Yeah, just do your job. I'll be the one luring them out. Don't you ever come in here." She heard Aomine say lazily. "Damn, I wish Tetsu was here"
"We could pull this out without Tetsu-chan." Momoi said into the receiver.
"Who is this Tetsu? Is he Aomine's partner?" Kiyoshi asked her.
"Tetsu-chan is a she." Momoi said before she turned the rifle to her right side.
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"Then, how did Satsuki ended up getting abducted when she was few building away?" Kuroko interrupted Kiyoshi's story. So far, all she had heard was a god job from Momoi's strategy and that she hadn't messed anything up.
"It was after the mission started and Momoi has shot the other snipers down, she heard about the trouble and she went running to where Aomine-san was." Kiyoshi said.
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"Momoi-san' Kiyoshi tried to catch up to the smaller girl. But she ran as if the wind was helping her to run faster. She must have heard something from the receiver and suddenly ran from the roof. And the look of her face was a pure panic.
"Kiyoshi-san. Please inform Aida-san that we need a medic. Immediately." Momoi said while she threw the receiver to Kiyoshi and dropped the sniper rifle to the ground. Kiyoshi caught it and when he looked again to where Momoi was, she was gone.
Momoi was using all of her strength and speed to get to where Aomine was. She heard Aomine screaming for Kagami to calm down, and it looked like Kagami went into crazy rampage like he wanted to take revenge for his fallen comrade.
"Dai-chan, please be safe." Momoi tried to run faster to reach her teammate. When she arrived there, she saw someone about to stab Aomine from behind and she jumped to kick the knife away from that guy.
"Satsuki! What are you doing here?" Aomine shouted when he saw her on the active field. "Get out of here! You won't stand a chance!"
"We should retreat! He already screwed the plan!" Momoi begged to Aomine. When Kagami went all heroic to attack the killer, the killer's entire paid troupe was ready to attack them. With only Aomine and Kagami, they wouldn't stand a chance to fight him.
"I know that! But I couldn't let him die in here!" Aomine said again. Momoi saw the main problem in this mission and she ran to save Kagami. He was clearly losing in physical battle with the killer. Momoi went to pull Kagami back, but she made a mistake. When the killer looked at her, someone that was clearly the target of his killing spree, he instantly charged at her with the knife in his hand. He tried to stab Momoi but Aomine was faster than he was. Aomine grabbed the killer hand but he saw that the killer has a big smile on his face. Before he could react, the killer had another knife in his other hand and stabbed Aomine in his thigh.
"DAI-CHAN!" Momoi screamed. She was at panic and she did the first thing that passed through her mind. She charged into the guy and used her small knowledge about martial arts and drove the killer away from Aomine.
"Satsuki! Don't be stupid!" Aomine shouted. Kiyoshi arrived at the right time to see the state of the battle. Momoi was fighting with the killer, Aomine had blood pouring from his thigh and Kagami was stunned. He did the only logical thing to do. He pushed Aomine away from the scene.
"Kagami-kun! Let's retreat!" Kiyoshi shouted.
"Let me go! SATSUKI!" Aomine shouted. But all of his effort was pointless when Kiyoshi pushed him away. Then he saw Hyuuga, who just arrived on the scene tried to push Kagami away, just in time for another bullet to almost hit his head.
"Momoi-san!" Kiyoshi screamed. He saw Momoi was unconscious in the hand of the killer. But he couldn't see any blood coming from her. Then he saw more people come and try to kill them. He had no choice but to leave Momoi and drag the tanned male away from the scene.
"Please be safe, Momoi-san." Kiyoshi whispered.
"She will survive this." Aomine told him while Kiyoshi helped him to walk from the scene.
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"I see…" Kuroko was silent for a moment. She turned to look at the still-unconscious male on the floor and Kiyoshi could see her she was trying so hard to retain her anger. And he also saw the same look of retained anger from the green haired male next to Kuroko.
"Midorima-kun. Have you called Takao-san and asked about Aomine's condition?" Kuroko asked Midorima.
"He told me that Aomine tried to leave the hospital. But he already knows how to handle him" Midorima told her. But there was something scary from the way they had this conversation.
"Good. Make sure Aomine stays in the hospital until we finish this job." Kuroko said while she looked at the red haired male that was seated next to her.
"Shintaro, called Kise to bring us one HK416, seven pairs of the longest range hearing devices he has and call Atsushi. He should be arriving here in less than two hours. I will send a helicopter to get him from Hokkaido." Akashi ordered Kise.
"Make that eight pairs, Kise-kun." Kuroko said before Kise ran to do his task. "The last one was for Kagami-kun." Kuroko said when Akashi gave her the questioning glance for the extra devices she asked.
"Tetsumi" Akashi said in a warning tone.
"I am going Akashi-kun. I won't sit here and watch my friends dying." Kuroko said firmly and she saw Akashi's heterochromatic eyes were flashing dangerously. One wrong move she might bring out the wrong Akashi to the surface. "Besides, that HK416 rifle was for you, right?" she asked softly.
"Aida Riko, prepare what's inside this list in one hour." Akashi gave her a long piece of paper. She didn't realize when Akashi had written this list. She read the list and she saw two things that caught her eyes.
"We couldn't afford these two things." Riko said when she pointed at the two item on the lists.
"You are the daughter of the head Ministry of defense. I am sure you could do something about those." Akashi told her. Riko's face was full of surprised when he told her about the biggest secret that she kept.
'This man is dangerous.' Riko thought.
"I will try. But don't expect anything more from this." Riko said before she ran out of the room to find all the things she needed on the list.
"I think I should wake him up" Kuroko said to herself when she looked at Kagami. But she was stopped by Akashi before she even moved from her position.
"Kiyoshi Teppei, I believe you are capable of handling your teammate." Akashi said. It wasn't a question to him. It was like a command from him to Kiyoshi.
"I could wake him up and make him ready before the briefing starts." Kiyoshi said. It seemed the answer was acceptable as Akashi pulled Kuroko away from the unconscious Kagami to the next room.
"Akashi-kun." Kuroko said to him once they have entered the different room. She saw Akashi was looking at her intently and she was feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.
"Tetsumi, what do you think about cutting your hair?" Akashi suddenly said. Kuroko instantly grabbed her hair and stepped back to get away from Akashi.
"No." Kuroko glared at Akashi. She was glaring at him just like a little puppy glaring at the big bad wolf in front of her. Akashi took one step closer to her and Kuroko also took one step back away from him.
"Tetsumi." Akashi called her.
"My answer still no!" Kuroko said firmly.
"This killer has a fetish for long hair woman."
"I won't cut my hair." Kuroko said firmly. Akashi saw the determination in her eyes and he knew how stubborn Kuroko could be when she had that look on her face.
"Now please excuse me; I needed to help Aida-san to prepare for this job." Kuroko said. But her exit door was behind Akashi and she still glared at him when he hadn't even move from his spot. "Akashi-kun, I will find a way to hide my hair. Please let me keep my hair like this." Kuroko begged him when he had yet to move from his position.
"Akashi-sama, I've found the wig you've put in your list. It was a good thing one of our employees love to play dress up." Riko said when she entered the room unannounced. "Did I disturb something?" she said when she saw the serious expression between Kuroko and Akashi in that room. "I just put this here and I will be continuing to find the other items on the list." Riko said and put the wig in the chair next to Akashi and left in hurry.
"You planned this." Kuroko said in an annoyed tone. She got even more annoyed when she saw the knowing smirk forming in the corner of Akashi's mouth. She walked passed him and snatched the black haired wig. It was a very boyish like wig and when she wore that, she saw she looked like a little boy with a pair of big blue eyes when she saw herself in the mirror rather than being a twenty seven year old woman.
"Please don't smile like that Akashi-kun." Kuroko said when she looked to Akashi who was standing behind her from the reflection in the mirror.
"You do look like a little boy." Akashi commented her new look.
"Akashi-kun please stop teasing me" Kuroko was clearly unhappy when she saw that Akashi was still looking at her, but this time he approached her from behind and put his hands around shoulder and pulled her close to him. Kuroko's face was already turned into the same color as a ripe tomato and her big blue eyes got even bigger when she widened her eyes as Akashi put his head on top of her shoulder. She saw Akashi closed his eyes and stayed like that for a little while until someone carelessly opened the door and Kuroko could saw another red haired male entering the room from the reflection in the mirror in front of her.
"I wouldn't want to be—eh?" Kagami stopped talking when he saw two males hugging each other in front of him. One of them was having a very red face while the other one has a serene expression in his face. Kagami saw the other red haired male open his eyes and Kagami felt a chilling aura coming from him and when he looked at Kagami, Kagami was sure that he could die at the very moment if he didn't act carefully around this male.
"I am looking for Kuroko, is she here?" Kagami asked. Kuroko tried to escape from Akashi's by removing his hand from her shoulder and she turned around to look at Kagami.
"I am Kuroko."
"Eh? Kiyoshi said you are a girl. Did he mistake a little boy like you as a girl?" Kagami asked with the look pure of surprised on his face when he finally got to see Kuroko clearly. But that didn't make Kuroko happy when he thought she was a male.
"I am a female!" Kuroko said while she removed the black wig she was wearing. Her long teal colored hair flew freely. Her face was slightly flushed with her big blue eyes were fully widened and it was the cutest thing Kagami ever saw and this also made him blush.
"Kuro-chin?" someone come again to the room. This time, it is a tall purple haired male with a bored expression on his face. In his hand were three packs of dango and he was eating another pack of dango in his other hand.
"Murasakibara-kun."
"Kuro-chin playing dress up again?" Murasakibara asked when he saw the black wig on her hand.
"Yes! Now we should go and find Midorima-kun." Kuroko walk passed Akashi and Kagami while she pushed Murasakibara with her as she escaped the two red haired male in the room.
"Kuro-chin? Why are you pushing me?" Murasakibara asked, even when he let himself get pushed by Kuroko.
"I don't want to be anywhere near Akashi-kun when he has that look on his face" Kuroko mumbled. Murasakibara didn't seem to hear what Kuroko just said. And he kept on munching the dango in his hand.
"Do you want this, Kuro-chin?" Murasakibara offered one of the dango packs to Kuroko.
"Thank you Murasakibara-kun." Kuroko accepted the dango and started to unpack it and eat it with Murasakibara in the room where Riko and her team were busy trying to find everything they need for saving Momoi and catching the serial killers
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-Next chapter:
-will Momoi be saved?
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AU:
finally chapter 4. personally it took a long time to made this chapter(at first I just want to end this as two chapter. but I ended up making three chapter for this "Carnation mission") and it is the first chapter I made while thinking "what did I just do? maybe I should change this" then I freak out when the story just dragging on and on.
anyway,what do you think?
and please...please leave a review for this chapter.