6

"Hyuuga Junpei, if you don't open this door right this instant, I will take a chainsaw and destroy every single one of your antique figurines, which you and I both know can sell for $6000 each these days!"

Hyuuga Junpei, with his oval glasses jittering nervously on the end of his nose, gulped and threw his arms around his precious Japanese warrior figures.

"It's okay, Masamune," he crooned softly. "It's okay, Yukimura. I won't let her kill you."

"Hyuuga!"

Hyuuga sighed and withdrew his arms, one of which brushed against his great friend Masamune—he gasped—saw it fall—with a great yelp of Masamune, nooooooo!, he dived to the floor, managing to save Masamune from a ghastly death by the skin of his teeth.

"I heard that! I know you're in there, now!"

"Crap…"

Setting Masamune gently back on his place on the shelf reserved for figurines, Hyuuga sighed again. Why did Riko come every day? Didn't he already say he was quitting the team? Anywhere he went, whether with a stethoscope or a gun, he failed. He was done. He just wanted to spend the rest of his (sad) days doting over his figurines (like the lonely bachelor he was).

Because running away was preferable to owning up.

He pressed a button on the wall, watching a glass case whirr out to cover the dolls. It was a small impediment to Riko, who would no doubt find a way to smash the glass whether by hammer or by bazooka, but at least it would slow her down…

He could hear her hissing at the door.

How long had it been since he'd seen the others? One month? Two? Four? Was the Great Mold still thriving? Was anybody watering it (God forbid Riko find out that he had been cultivating the Great Mold for the past year).

"What?" he heard Riko gasp on the other side of the door. "What'd you say? Kiyoshi collapsed and is in the hospital?"

Hyuuga called out, "That trick got old the first time you used it, Riko."

He heard her growl and chuckled. Stopped himself. He shouldn't be laughing.

"C'mon, Hyuuga-kun. The rest are waiting for you," Riko said. She was wheedling at him, now. He didn't like it when she did that; it made him feel bad inside. "You know? They didn't even take you off the leaders list. You're still up there next to Kiyoshi and me."

"I'll pass," Hyuuga said. "You guys are better off without me, anyways."

"Hyuuga—"

But Hyuuga was climbing the stairs to the second floor of his house and could no longer hear Riko.

Yes, that's right, Hyuuga Junpei. Walk away. Like you've always done.

"Shut up," he muttered to nobody in particular before he threw the covers over his head.

Aomine, up to this point, didn't know what it was like to be sprayed in the face with pepper spray, but.

As Kiyoshi would put it:

You learn something new every day.

Now, to set the record straight, Aomine Daiki was very much minding his own business. He was in the corner with Kuroko, watching as the four crazed scientists scurried like rabid mice around the lab, ransacking the cabinets and fridge. Why?

To pay tribute to the gift from god sitting in the middle of their lab.

Was it his fault that the four of them had been possessed to do this? No.

So why was he the one getting pepper-sprayed.

It began when a woman walked into lab to see the sight of her four teammates running around like chickens with their heads cut off desperate to please a new god. She demanded to know what was going on, like any sane person would, and why they were depleting their emergency rations, at which point Aomine slunk forward.

"Emergency rations?" he asked logically. "Potato chips are your emergency rations?"

She whirled around, stared directly into his eyeballs, screamed, and then sprayed forth from a canister summoned from her pockets a god-awful cloud of who-knew-what.

"Yaagh!"

Aomine was down. Now her teammates were yelling at her—what are you doing, Riko—have you finally snapped—just because Hyuuga isn't responding to your love doesn't mean you can kill people!

"What love?!" she snarled, and they shut up as quickly as a clam. "What are you guys doing?" Riko demanded. "Why is this—" she gestured at the giant who'd turned to peer at her curiously, "being treated like a god and why are you," she glared at her teammates, "acting like manservants?!"

"We're not!" Koganei spluttered. "We're just showing appreciation!"

"Appreciation for what?"

Before anyone could answer, Aomine dragged himself from the claws of death and clenched sweaty fists around her ankles. She looked down and saw the boy she'd just incapacitated struggling to stand. She kicked him. He went flying.

The mob converged around her again in its desperate bid to spare Aomine's life. Kiyoshi, while restraining Riko, explained exactly why Murasakibara was being hailed hero of the century, that Aomine was his new roommate, and that no that blob of blue hair over there was not a ghost, but a seventeen-year-old boy by the name of Kuroko Tetsuya.

Riko coughed, the tips of her ears pink, and turned to Aomine. "Sorry for spraying that at you. I thought you were an intruder and sort of… lost my head for a moment. Teehee!"

"Teehee?" Aomine groaned. "That's all you can say, you devil woman—"

It was only thanks to Kuroko's quick actions that Aomine avoided another face-full of who-knew-what. Izuki sniffed, wrinkling his nose.

"Wait, that smells really familiar," he muttered. "It smells an awful lot like—" He gasped. His face turned white, courtesy of the blood draining from his head in fear. "Riko… you didn't… take the Great Mold and put it into that canister?!"

"And if I did?" she said with a smile whose innocence belied danger. "What are you going to do about it, I-zu-ki-kun?"

Izuki just about fell over from fright, and Riko giggled unnecessarily.

"She's very beautiful."

Aomine started and hastily cleared the screen of his FlareX. He scowled half-heartedly as Kuroko sat down beside him in the darkened room. On the other side of the aquarium, the older ones were quietly discussing the message that had been sent from the US. Their voices were oddly muted.

"I told you," Aomine said. He cleared his throat; his voice was gruffer than he'd like. "I told you to announce yourself properly. And don't peer over my shoulder like that."

"I did call out to you," Kuroko said. "But it seems you were too deep in thought to notice. I guess that was a picture of Momoi-san that you were looking at, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Are you worried about her?"

Aomine snorted. "Who'd worry about her?"

Kuroko stared at him with blank, but oddly skeptical, eyes. Aomine shifted guiltily.

"Fine," he grumbled, a hand rubbing the back of his neck. "You got me. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about her… but, Satsuki is more than capable. If anything, she's too capable. She'll be able to get herself out of any tight pinches. It's just that…"

"It's just that?" Kuroko prompted.

Aomine sighed. "Call me crazy, but, my gut's telling me something awful's about to happen. And more often than not, my gut is right. It's like when you're playing basketball, and you're not sure which direction the opponent's going to move in—you use your gut instinct to figure it out. Mine's never been wrong."

"Wrong about what?"

Kiyoshi had appeared above them, one of his natural grins on his face.

"Adults done talking now?" Aomine said a little spitefully.

"Hey, now, don't be upset because we couldn't discuss with you," Kiyoshi said. "We can't let too much information go through you guys' heads. But yes, we're done. We've decided to recruit all of you into our little team, and that means you guys get to know it all!"

"Your little team? You mean… like, part of CloudLines?"

"Yup! Welcome aboard! Your life from here on out will be in incredible danger, but don't worry, I'll protect you all!"

From his wheelchair, Kiyoshi offered them both a hand, and they stood warily.

"Isn't this a bit… sudden?" Aomine asked suspiciously.

Kiyoshi shrugged a bit and offered them a grin that was meant to be reassuring.

"Surprise is our middle name. Besides, you all have some unique aspects to you that we're sure can be cultivated."

"Like plants?"

"Like people," Kiyoshi corrected. "Talents are meant to thrive in the right environment. Take Murasakibara, for example. He's far too valuable to let go. I've never met anyone who could code so fast or disable the emergency radio feature in the pod. He's probably better than all of us combined. In fact, he could be a good match for Momoi. With talent this big, a little push could lead to a domino effect. What kinds of things do you think he'd be able to do if we showed him just a little bit of what he might know?"

Aomine looked almost convinced. "What about us?"

"…We'll get to that when it comes."

"Hey. You just hesitated, didn't you."

"Don't ever lose these."

Izuki dumped a bag onto a table around which they had convened and started sorting the mess out.

"If you've noticed, we all carry something that looks like this."

He raised his wrist to show them the bracelet that had four beads hanging off its end.

"They look like normal friendship bracelets, but they're not. We designed some that could second as buttons, but those became a hassle to put on and take off, so we scrapped it and adopted accessories like these."

He tossed out a ring with four beads woven into it and a keychain of a similar fashion.

"Pick one you like and wear it at all times. We prefer a kind that you can reach even with your hands bound behind your back. Now that you're a part of us, never take it off, never leave it anywhere, never hint at it being anything other than a fashion statement."

Kuroko picked up a sky-blue one that could easily be wound around his wrist or a belt loop. Made of intricately woven floss, the bracelet shimmered oddly. At one end were three white beads and on the other was a single black bead, each of which hung off a thick string.

"If you look closely, you'll see silver fibers running through it," Izuki said. Kuroko glanced up to check Aomine and Murasakibara's. Aomine's navy one and Murasakibara's purple one both held the strange, ethereal shimmer.

"This is how we'll contact each other if a crisis arises."

Izuki picked out a free bead from the bag. He held it between two fingers and squeezed—it popped noiselessly.

"If you're in trouble, pop one. It'll sting. These beads are all connected with each other—so, Kuroko-kun, if you pop yours, the rest of ours will pop and sting us as well."

"All of you have one?"

"In some form or another," Izuki confirmed. He and Kiyoshi shook back their sleeves and revealed identical bracelets with four white beads hanging down.

"When a bead pops, we'll know who popped it because the silver threads will turn the color of the owner's bracelet. So, again, say Kuroko-kun pops his bead. Each of our silver strands will turn sky-blue. This is why I said we prefer types that are always within reach. If your hands are bound behind your back, and your beads are just out of reach… sucks to be you."

"Is there a difference between the black and white beads?" Murasakibara asked languidly.

"There used to be," Izuki said wryly. "But then we realized that if you have your hands bound behind your back, you won't exactly be able to discern the color. So now, they all just mean 'trouble.' See, we didn't switch yours out, but we changed all of ours to white ones."

"What did the black one use to mean?"

"Well…" Izuki glanced at Kiyoshi. "No meaning, really. If that's all, then…"

"Has Satsuki popped any?" Aomine asked roughly.

Kiyoshi smiled. "Yeah. A few days ago, but there was nothing we could do about it. She knew, too. I think it was just a signal for all of us."

"Signal?"

Izuki shrugged. "To be prepared. Ah! Bring a pair of pears to be prepared…"

"That doesn't even make sense!" Aomine howled.

Murasakibara decided to stay in the lab, declaring that it was more interesting than his own place and accepting the team's requests to boost their coding defenses. After bidding goodbye to Aomine, Kuroko returned to the flat Kise was renting. There, he was unsurprised to be greeted by the sight of Takao and Midorima—Midorima holding a small pine tree—lounging on the couches.

"Good evening," he greeted courteously.

"Appear more normally, can't you?!" Midorima demanded after pushing his glasses back up his face from where they had fallen out of surprise.

"Dinner's ready—Oh, Kurokocchi, you're back!" Kise grabbed Kuroko in a bone-crushing hug. Kuroko sniffed. Kise smelled like cake.

After a long dinner, Takao and Midorima returned to their flat, and Kuroko and Kise readied themselves for bed. Lights were out in no time, and Kuroko fell asleep to the noise of Kise's snores.

Then, suddenly, he was looking into the sun. He blinked a couple times against his will; then the light was gone, and he was looking at sand. A pair of feet came into his line of sight; the dream body looked up. A boy with dark purple hair and a mole under his eye smiled down at him and offered a hand. Accepting it, Kuroko was hauled to his feet. The other boy was talking; what about, Kuroko didn't know. As usual, he couldn't hear; he only saw.

And for a moment there, he wished he could do something more than just see.

The purple haired boy was stumbling back, hand gripping tightly onto his shoulder, which was spurting blood. The dream body whipped around. Behind them, at a distance, they could see people clad in black, firing at them. Suddenly, Kuroko could only see sand; then the dream body looked down—it had been shot in the leg. Heart pounding furiously, Kuroko willed the body to get up, to start running, but the body struggled halfway before collapsing. He could see bullets digging into the sand all around him.

The purple haired boy sprang up and heaved him to his feet; they began running as fast as they could towards the ocean. The blueness of the water struck Kuroko; it was so beautiful on such a terrifying day. He was in the water now, the purple-haired boy leading the way, a new wound in his back. He saw him bite his lips as the salt water seeped into the open wounds; his eyes closed momentarily, probably in pain.

What was happening? Why were these two people in such danger so suddenly? There was no time for Kuroko to even wonder as he dove into the water. Under the surface, the sun shimmered in and out of darkness; little bits of seaweed clogged his vision.

But it seemed as if making them dive into the ocean had been a trap. White pods were closing in on the two of them ahead, dragging nets with them that formed a semi-circle. Kuroko's body took a steep dive; he saw a hole in the ocean floor through which his companion was swimming. He followed hot on his heels, and was quickly engulfed in darkness.

"Kurokocchi? Hey, Kurokocchi!"

Gasping for breath, Kuroko shot up in his bed, knocking Kise flat on his back.

"Whoa, Kurokocchi, are you okay?"

Drenched in sweat, Kuroko held his hands up. They were trembling violently. His entire body was shaking.

"You were thrashing around like—like you were drowning, so I tried waking you up," Kise was saying. He sounded frightened. "Are you okay?"

Kuroko tried to nod, but he knew he wasn't doing a good job of it. He fought to regain himself, taking deep, shaky breaths.

"Hey, is everything okay in there? We heard some shouting, so we just wanted to check up… sorry for intruding."

Kuroko looked up to see Takao standing at the entrance to their apartment; behind him, he could barely make out Midorima. The white light clawed at his eyes harshly; he shut them quickly, but regretted it, seeing blood flowing into water instead of darkness.

"Just… just a dream," Kuroko managed to say. "I'm sorry for worrying you."

"What kind of dream?" Midorima said abruptly.

"What? Midorimacchi, what's up? You look really pale."

"Ah, well, Shin-chan here was having a bit of a nightmare a few minutes before we heard Kuro-chan shouting," Takao filled in. "It was pretty bad. He was writhing around in his bed and everything. I've never seen him so panicked."

Midorima cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Did you…" he started, staring at Kuroko. "Did you see a red-head, perhaps?"

"A redhead? I'm afraid not," Kuroko said, shaking his head. "There was a boy with dark hair beside me…"

Midorima's lips tightened. Kise glanced between the two of them worryingly.

"Were you on the beach?"

Kuroko looked up at Midorima, slowly, beginning to see where he was going with this. He'd hypothesized it before, but…

"Yes. My companion and I… we were being shot at."

"Then you dived into the ocean?"

"And we swam."

"What's going on, you two?" Kise said. "It sounds like you guys had the same dream or something."

"Rather than saying we had the same dream," Midorima said, sighing heavily, "it would be more accurate to say that we had visions about the same people, though through different perspectives."

"Visions?"

Midorima nodded. "I'm sure you have been having them, too, Kise. Perhaps dreams where you can't move your body, only look around?"

"Yeah… how did you know?"

"Let me guess. It started after you got your eyes?"

Kise nodded slowly.

"This is only a hypothesis, but," Midorima said, pacing the room. "I think we three share the ability of looking into other people's lives."

Kise choked. "What?"

"Seeing their lives through their eyes," Midorima elaborated. "When we sleep, we visit someone else who is awake and begin to perceive life through their eyes for a moment."

"What?"

"Kuroko," Midorima said. "Have you had any other instance of this?"

"I know it sounds unbelievable, but there's no other explanation for it. I watched, through the eyes of another, a man jump off a building. The day after, there was a report in the news of a man committing suicide off that same building I'd dreamed of. Have you not been having these sorts of dreams yourself, Kise?"

Kise frowned. "I… now that you mention it… there was one dream I had when you were showering… There was a mirror in your bathroom, and I caught a glimpse of myself—or you—when I—you—we left the shower."

Takao sniggered. Looking ruffled, Midorima readjusted his glasses. "Privacy issues aside, the fact that Kuroko and I just shared the same dream though through different perspectives is proof that we can look into other people's lives. How, or why, I don't know… I believe we should ask Kiyoshi-san and his team as to why this is so."

But they were never able to ask—or to ask Kiyoshi at least, because when they reached the lab, they found it somber and dark and with one less occupant.

Riko lunged at them as soon as the door opened. She was a wild ball of fury, words, and almost tears, yelling at them who reported him? Who? Which of you reported Kiyoshi? while Izuki and the rest tried to hold her back.

I told you already! Aomine was shouting back at her. From the way his hair was sticking up every which way, it seemed as if he had been in the lab for a while already, and harassed for the duration of his stay. None of us would report him!

Kuroko slipped past the group, unnoticed, and into the lab.

It was almost unrecognizable. Many of the computers that had lined the walls had been taken down; hard-drives had disappeared; even the Great Mold that should have coated the kitchen counters had vanished without a trace. Murasakibara was sitting at one computer, eyes narrowed and mouth downturned at a single code running across the screen.

Toobadtoobadtoobadtoobadtoobad

"This code, I can't get it to go away," Murasakibara said. He sounded preturbed. He scratched his head and stood. "I'm going to get more Maiubo."

Kuroko took Murasakibara's place when the giant left. Kuroko touched the screen with a single finger, and suddenly, the screen turned pitch black. His hand recoiled as if burnt. His eyes widened as two white words cut into the screen:

Thank you

Edit: Jun 21, 2015

Shoutout to YokohamaBeans for the amazingly long review that I didn't reply to TAT. Also to thecoldforest, TheReihani, AspergianStoryteller, Narutopokefan, XRinnumeneX, AngelHeartObsession, Eyes that see, Anglo-Chan, Unknown, thefictionfreak, akuma-chan25300, and Yakuma-chan25300.

Happy holidays and happy New Year! I wish you all the best of luck in 2014.