Hello lovelies!
We're finally picking up the pace on this baby! (We actually hit a 100k mark on how much we have prepared for this story, so don't go anywhere! We've got stuff in the works ;)
Disclaimer: We don't own any of the franchises that we don't own. (That sounded convoluted.) We don't own any characters we didn't make up. Or plot lines. Or- You know what, let's just get on with the story.
A very complicated way to explain that we only own what came out of our own imaginations, but eh- whatever. We finally got back on track with which part of the story we were focusing on so y'all are welcome.
"Aomine you teme! We've been looking everywhere for you! How are we supposed to start practice without everyone there?"
The strident voice near his ear brought him out of his pleasant dream, and he turned onto his other side away from the noise. "Did you really have to interrupt my nap just for that?" He mumbled into his arm.
He was dimly aware of the footsteps taking the voice ever closer. "You shouldn't be napping right now! How did you get up here, anyways?"
He wanted to sigh. Then, not seeing why he shouldn't, let out a huge yawn. A foot wedged its way into his side, and he scowled, opening one eye halfway to glare more effectively.
"It's not like it's hard to open the door." Aomine deadpanned.
He couldn't even see who he was talking to. The sun was right behind the guy's head, but it didn't really matter. The person twitched.
"The door to the roof is always locked."
He shrugged again, closing his eye once more. He had been trying to sleep, for heaven's sake. "Not like it's especially difficult to kick your way in. Should make the lock more sturdy if they don't want anyone getting up here."
"Forget that-" Another person shouldered their way forward. Unfortunately, this one didn't have the courtesy to even block the sun like the other one had, and the brightness pierced even his closed eyelids, driving away the last vestiges of sleep. "We need to start practice! Stop napping the day away and get your butt to the gym!"
Aomine growled, propping himself up and glaring at the newcomer.
"Listen, gaki, I don't know if you are brain dead or what, but there's not really a point in going to practice when I could beat you all with one hand. So why don't you just shove off and go back to failing at your sport?"
Idiot #2, as he decided to call him, flapped his mouth a couple times wordlessly, and Idiot #1 stepped forward again. "I get that you're a prodigy, Aomine-san, but it's school policy that anyone who participates in a club has to attend practice if they want to play in any games." The sensible tone only served to make him more irritated.
Did the guy think he was stupid? That he was just going to jump up and go to practice just so he could play in more games against weaklings?
"Works for me," Aomine said, rising. "Less work that way. Let me know when you need someone who can actually play basketball."
With that he brushed past the Idiot duo. He needed to find a new napping place if they were going to start looking for him here. Momoi was exiting the door the same time he was going through, and turned to him, brightening. "I thought we'd be able to find you up here! Headed to practice?"
He didn't even reply, headed down the stairs. Of course Satsuki told them where to find me.
"You guys! What did you say to him? You were supposed to encourage him to practice!" Momoi's voice floated down, as well as the ensuing protests.
He didn't care. There wasn't really a point in going to practice anyways. No one could beat him anymore.
After all, the only one who could beat him was him.
Even the Shrimp didn't measure up anymore.
Swish.
Beside him, Takao-san twitched. Midorima merely pushed his glasses up further on his nose. Expecting him to miss a shot from the mere three point line was pure foolishness.
He was capable of shooting from the half court and still never miss- never mind the fact that he was working on being able to shoot from the opposite end of the court.
"Are you sure you need to do that many threes. . . ?" Takao asked, staring horrified at the bin of basketballs he had next to him. Midorima scoffed.
"One does not get better without practice. I am not like those other buffoons who skips out on practice out of arrogance. Oha Asa will not help me if I do not keep up on such basic skills as these." Midorima said, gesturing to the large Neko holding a bell, his lucky item for the day.
Takao turned to stare at him while others around him twitched. "Basic skills?" One of them muttered.
"He's a monster," Another murmured back. Midorima closed his eyes against the stupidity.
They didn't know true monsters. True monsters like Aomine, who disregarded every strategy to simply push his way through any defense. Murasakibara, who despite his laziness was an unstoppable force once angered. Akashi, who could command a court with a mere glance, who stopped enemies in their tracks with a glare.
Even Hinata and Kuroko had their strengths, could probably easily mop the floor with his teammates as they were now.
Well, that was only to be expected of a team filled with non Miracles. His eyes narrowed at the ball in his hands, coming up to the perfect position and letting it fly.
Swish.
He needed to get better if he was going to be facing off against the other Miracles. They wouldn't stay stagnant in their progress, and he couldn't imagine losing to someone like Kise.
It just wasn't acceptable. He would practice for hours to make sure that eventuality never came to pass.
Murasakibara popped another chip in his mouth, watching curiously as the colors changed on Taicho-chin's face. He'd gone from red to purple and he wondered what other colors he could do.
"Why. Weren't. You. At. Practice?" Taicho-chin ground out, looking like he was trying to be imposing. He wasn't very good at it. Akashi-chin did it better. Then again, Akashi-chin was the best at everything.
"Umm," Murasakibara mumbled, popping another chip in as he thought back to what he had been doing while practice had started. "Oh right. Maiobu was having a sale, and I was nearly out."
Taicho-chin started turning a shade of blue similar to Aomine-chin's hair color. "You mean you neglected practice to buy snacks?!"
"Mmm," Murasakibara confirmed, savoring the last chip and shaking the empty bag longingly. "Nee, Tatsu-chin, do you have any more snacks?"
Tatsuya looked bemused, wry smile quirking his lips. "Is food all you think about, Mura-kun?"
"No," Murasakibara pouted. This wasn't relevant, but maybe if he answered all his questions he would give him a snack? "I think about other stuff too. Basketball, Aka-chin, Kuro-chin, all the Miracles," He trailed off, looking through his pockets to see if he had stuck any candy in there earlier.
There wasn't. Only empty wrappers that joined the chip bag in the trash.
"Sorry, I don't have any snacks, Murasakibara-kun. But I'll take you shopping if you can make it through practice, alright?"
His lip jutted out, thinking hard. Taicho-chin was spluttering in the background. Was he trying to emulate Hina-chin? It was annoying.
"You promise?" He confirmed, to which Tatsu-chin nodded solemnly. Another moment of thought, and he nodded begrudgingly. It would be tough getting through practice with no food to tie him over, but Tatsu-chin always found the best deals, and didn't always have time to shop with him. The tradeoff was worth it.
"Now that that's settled," Taicho-chin grumbled, "Let's get to practice!"
At least Aka-chin let me eat snacks in the gym, He grumbled, tucking in the uniform and walking onto the court. I wish he were captain instead of Taicho-chin. Oh well. Aka-chin said come to Yosen, so I guess I have to stay.
"And that's practice for today. Do not forget your assignments. You are all dismissed."
A few of the older members still looked to the coach before heading out. It irked him a bit that they still had yet to learn who was really in charge here, but they would learn. Sooner rather than later.
"A-Akashi-sama? I was just wondering if-" That same stuttering fool as yesterday had approached him again. He had persistence at least, but no brains to back it up.
"I believe I said you were dismissed. Do not make me repeat myself." Akashi's glare stopped the boy in his tracks, before he scurried away.
Pathetic. This is all I have to work with? Shoyo has more spine, and he's overly malleable on a good day.
That just proved that he had not yet spent enough time here. Shoyo, Daiki, Atsushi, Shintaro, Ryota, and Tetsuya had all grown out of their ridiculous tendencies, and become true tools in his quest for superiority. The longer he spent here, the more he would be able to mold this team in the same way.
A few more simpletons tried to waylay him on his way to the gates, but he paid them even less mind than (he needs a name, cause i feel like akashi would know it, but idk). None of them were worth the time it would take to send them off.
He reached the secluded peace of the limo, and nodded to the chauffeur.
"You know where to go."
The man bowed low as he closed the door. "Of course Akashi-Sama."
The car started with a hum, but Akashi didn't even look up as the driver pulled away from the school. The driver was silent (unlike the buffoons back in the gym, who never knew when to shut up) and let him work on his laptop in peace.
A careless swipe of his finger allowed him access, and he set to work. He had very limited time before he reached his destination after all.
He scrolled quickly, but efficiently through the first several pages. Daiki's status had not changed in the past several weeks, and though he had yet to attend practice, he was still on the team- which was all he cared about for now.
Atsushi was in a similar situation, though his connection with Himuro Tatsuya raised a small red flag. He would need to keep an eye on it. It wouldn't due for him to get too close. Atsushi always had the loosest tongue out of all of them.
A click brought him to Shintarou. His situation was slightly more precarious than the others. Takao Kazunari had the potential to break through his shell, and ruin him. Shintarou was at his most effective when he had no distractions on the court, and it needed to stay that way.
Ryota was as much of a concern as ever, being in the limelight as he was. Though his resilience and tendency to see things his way certainly came in handy quite often. And it seemed that he hadn't gotten into too much more trouble than usual this week, so there would be no need for any excessive damage control. One less thing to worry about.
Here he slowed, eyes sharpening. Really, it still surprised him occasionally that out of all of them, these two would turn out to be the cause for greatest concern.
Shoyo and Tetsuya. His greatest projects. And greatest successes. It had been extremely vexing when he had been unable to display Shoyo as planned at Nationals. Akashi had been preparing for it for so long, and to have it snatched so cruelly from him… but he'd already gotten his revenge for that slight.
No, what was troubling him now was that he could not find them. It had been easy enough to track their movements for that final part of the semester, but when summer had come. . .
Plastic creaked under his hands before he forced himself to relax his grip. Calming his anger was slightly more difficult.
Tetsuya had always been the most difficult to keep an eye on, for obvious reasons. It had always been easiest to locate him through Daiki. When that connection had been severed (And how fortuitous that separation had been. It had made the division to different schools so much smoother.) he had expected it to be more complicated. So he hadn't been as concerned when he could not locate him for the first few weeks.
Being unable to do the same for Shoyo had been a touch more alarming. That he had continued to be unable to pinpoint even what city either were residing in throughout the entire summer had stretched his patience thin. He had only been able to calm his temper with thoughts of the rules that would be put in place after he found them to keep something like this from ever happening again.
But now it was several weeks into the school year, and he still had yet to find hide or hair of either of his precious prodigies in all that time.
He was beyond alarmed. No one evaded him for this long without intending to.
They were avoiding him.
Akashi had refused to think poorly of Shoyo and Tetsuya at first (after all they were the most well behaved out of them all in middle school), but he was beginning to think he was going to be forced to consider some more radical answers to why they had mysteriously vanished into thin air.
An old rumor said that they had both moved at the end of the school year. Had moved together no less. He hoped that they knew better than to disobey him so obviously, but if not. . .
His laptop closed with a resounding click as he reached his destination.
Well, they would probably not like the consequences.
Kise jumped on his heels, unable to contain his excitement.
"What are you so happy about?" Kasamatsu grumbled behind him. Kise whirled, giant grin on his face. Kasamatsu-senpai looked startled, but that didn't matter cuz-
"I got a text from a fan!"
The next thing he knew he was eating floor, Kasamatsu's foot pressed into the back of his head. "Don't sound so happy about that, idiot! You're supposed to be practicing, not texting your stupid fangirls!"
Kise pouted as he rose, wincing as he rubbed the now tender spot on his head. "So mean, senpai . . ."
His phone pinged again, and he got halfway to reaching for it before realizing senpai had a deathly aura around him and pulled hand back slowly. It was almost physically painful.
"Don't you have anything better to do than text your fans all day?" Kasamatsu-senpai growled, looking very much like he wanted to put Kise's beautiful face back into the floor.
He scooted back, just so he was a little further out of reach. Senpai was even testier when he avoided the assaults, but he did need to keep his good looks if he wanted to keep his job as a model.
True, he did have better things to do. . . . normally. But this had been important! He didn't often use his fame for personal reasons, but he had been worried about Kurokocchi, with how he had disappeared- anyways, it was for a good cause. And it had finally paid off!
Still, he perked up, grabbing his phone and beginning to type away. "You're right! I haven't checked in on the Miracles in a while! They've probably already forgotten all about me, or-" He gasped as a nightmare made itself known. "Or they've gotten in a horrible accident and I'm the only one who doesn't know because I haven't kept in contact!"
"How does your mind even- never mind, I don't even want to know. Just put your phone away during practice, Idiot, you can't be slacking off. We want to win, don't we?" Kasamatsu senpai shot at him, walking away to yell at the team.
Kise looked up from his half composed text to grin dangerously at Senpai's back, hand tightening. "Don't worry, senpai, we won't lose. After all, only a Miracle can beat another Miracle."
He blinked a couple times, then, and then looked back at his phone in horror. "Gack! I deleted my text to Kurokocchi!"
Kuroko knew the sound coming from outside the gym doors instantly. What he didn't understand was why he was hearing it. He looked at Hinata, who shared the glance, equally bewildered. After all, they were hours away from Tokyo.
Kise wouldn't travel all the way to Miyagi just to come to their school. That was crazy. Right?
It had been so long that Kuroko had forgotten. The Miragens were not just crazy. They were downright insane.
No one else would go against Captain when he had that look on his face. It was tantamount to defying Akashi (though without pain of death by scissors.) But the blond didn't even seem to notice, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"Ah, sorry. Gimme five minutes?"
Tadaaa!
The Generation of Miracles have arrived. Congrats to Pokeevee57 (sorry about the mistake last time ;) for guessing correctly that they'd be entering soon!
Also, we're putting out a challenge for y'all. Anyone who can guess what's different about this chappie (besides the fact that it's the Miragens' entrance) will get an exclusive extra written by yours truly! Review your guess, and we'll announce winners next chapter.
Honestly this chapter was super fun to put together. There are so many easter eggs in here. . . let's just say anyone who goes back to re-read it later is going to enjoy it immensely. (just another thing to convince all of you that we intend to finish this fic.)
I hope most of you will put forth your guesses on things. Including the challenge. Nothing makes us happier than to see what effect our story is having on all of you. And to see beautiful planning pay off.
And, for your reading pleasure, just a little extra something… blah. Words.
What are we adding?
Uh, the Omake at the end of this chapter? For the people who actually read the author notes?
I feel like most of them will notice the added length, but sure why not.
Enjoy!
~Writing in Tandem
Omake
"Alright, that's it for practice today! Make sure to not forget your homework," Daichi reprimanded, shooting a glance at the first years. He'd overheard Kuroko talking to Hinata and Kageyama- they'd need to watch out for those two. It wouldn't do to lose two of their best players because of bad grades.
Unfortunately, Hinata was already turning away from him towards Kageyama. "Hey, you still have energy, right? Send me a toss!"
"Wait, we're supposed to be cleaning up-" His vaguely pleading cry went unheard. He gusted a sigh, and the others simply laughed as they started mopping up the gym.
"There's no use reasoning with them when they get like this," Suga chortled as he walked past.
"One more!" Hinata called.
"Don't," Daichi pleaded, pulling on the ropes holding the net on, hoping the motion would cue the oranget in to the fact that they needed to be putting it up.
"Hinata," Daichi blinked at the vaguely amused tone of voice coming from Kuroko. "One more or milkshakes."
Hinata stopped dead, and the whole gym held it's breath. The oranget was actually trembling. "J-just one?"
"No," Kuroko replied, and yes, that was definitely a smirk playing at the edges of the bluenet's lips. Hinata slumped forward, pout jutting out his bottom lip.
"H-how?" Daichi stammered, walking wide eyed towards where Kuroko was standing across from the still depressed spiker. Kuroko's eyes were twinkling with mischief in a way Daichi had never seen before. It literally lit up his face.
"Hinata and I practiced pretty much every day during the summer, and we'd always go out to Maji Burger after. I . . . might have gotten him hooked on it."
"Yeah," Hinata mumbled. "And then you had no problem using it against me whenever you wanted to stop practice early,"
"It wasn't early," Kuroko admonished, giving Hinata a half-amused, half stern look. "We'd have been out all night if you had your way."
They quickly fell into their normal banter, this time helping them clean up.
He didn't quite know how Kuroko had managed to get a leash on Hinata, but he knew exactly who he was going to when the oranget was more rambunctious than usual.
