It was like an itch. One Kuroko hadn't felt in a long time.
When his team fell apart in Teiko, everything turned dark for Kuroko. The world he was drifting through might as well have been monochrome, all black and white and grey. The urge to paint died when all his colors drifted apart.
But it was back now. Kuroko could feel it in his veins. Stealing the school's chalk machine to declare his goals, so that he could join the basketball team woke it up. It wasn't the same as spraying colors on a wall for the world to see, and turning his feelings into street art, but it was more alive than he'd felt in a long time.
Kuroko suppressed the urge at first, worried that it was premature. He didn't even have any inspiration, yet. But after the practice game against Kaijou, after beating Kise and seeing a glimmer of his old friend, and then after lunch the next day with his new team, his new friends, Kuroko had found his inspiration. That very evening, as soon as practice let out, he went to find his canvas.
There was a suitable blank space right near some street ball courts close to his house, on the wall against the stairs leading up to the courts. Kuroko tossed down his bag of spray paints, holding one in either hand, and envisioned his masterpiece. When he could see it clearly in his mind, he shook both cans to mix the paint well, and got to work.
He started with the background. That was always important to him. Some light blues, teals, and a little bit of white made for a nice backdrop. Next he did the outlines of the letters in dark purple, choosing to use a bold, kind of jagged style of writing. In English. As a tribute to his inspiration. All caps, except for the letter I. He did those lowercase. Because he liked dotting the I's. It was fun. Don't judge him!
After that he started filling the letters in with red, orange, and yellow. The colors of firelight. He made some of the words two-toned. Then he colored the only part of his art that could actually be considered a picture. And then added some flames to that part. Just because.
Finally, he signed his work, with his own trademark signature. A blue bird with a basketball on his head. He added a speech bubble beside it and in that sprayed his street art name. The Shadow.
Finally, Kuroko stood back and admired his artwork. It was good. An excellent comeback piece. He felt a surge of pride looking at it, because it was official. He was back. In every way that mattered. He'd found a new light that had brought color back to his world.
Painting this piece had been an unusually bold move for him. Especially since he put it here, so close to where he and Kagami both lived. He knew Kagami was bound to see it someday. And when he did, there was no way he wouldn't recognize the catch phrase. And if he needed any hint as to which of his teammates had done this . . . well, Kuroko might as well have signed it with the kanji for his name. That would have hidden his identity from Kagami better than his tagger's signature. Kuroko had never before let anyone know about his questionably legal hobby, but Kagami was special. Kuroko was betting everything on him as it was. And honestly, Kuroko wanted him to see it, even if he wasn't sure how Kagami would react to it. Maybe someday Kuroko would be able to explain to his new friend exactly what this meant, and how much Kagami had given back to him. That day wasn't here yet, but Kuroko believed they'd get there someday. Someday soon.
He hid a smile as two police officers walked by then stopped to scowl.
"Damn kids," the first officer growled. "We just had this wall scrubbed clean!"
He looked right over Kuroko, who was still holding a can of paint in either hand, and had a satchel full of other colors at his feet. There were some definite advantages to being invisible. Especially when you had a hobby like this one.
"Forget it. These things get tagged all the time," said the second officer. "Whoever did this is long gone."
Kuroko walked right between the two officers as he made his getaway. Neither of them even noticed him.
Only once they were behind him, unable to see his expression, did Kuroko allow himself to smile. The future was looking bright.
Midorima nearly fell out of the rickshaw when Takao abruptly screeched to a stop and jumped off the bike. "Takao! What are you doing?"
"This . . . this . . ." Takao was pulling out his phone, staring at a graffiti covered wall like he'd just found the holy grail.
Midorima scowled and read the message that had gotten Takao so worked up. "This is Japanese Lunchtime Rush?"
"Yes! Awesome! The Shadow's back!" Takao actually jumped up and down as though he just found out Christmas had come early. "Hang on, Shin-chan, I've gotta blog this!"
Midorima stared at his teammate then looked back at the graffiti that caused him to get into such a state. He saw nothing special about it, aside from its weirdness. What exactly did it mean? "THiS iS JAPANESE LUNCHTiME RUSH." And why did that last H have an arm coming out of it that was holding . . . was that supposed to be a sandwich? And why the hell was it on fire?
"What are you so excited about?" demanded Midorima. "It's just some weird graffiti."
"Shin-chan," said Takao in a pained voice. "It's street art. By the Shadow."
Midorima just stared.
"The Shadow, Shin-chan! The Shadow! The phantom graffiti artist who spray paints freaking murals right in front of police stations, and ghosts right past security guards if he's got a message he wants to leave on their building." Takao looked disappointedly at him. "He's done a few political and public awareness themes, but his favorite theme is basketball. Don't you ever play streetball? He's pretty much a legend in the streetball circles around Tokyo."
"I prefer to play in gyms," Midorima said stiffly.
"That's because you're such a princess."
"What?"
Takao waved a hand at him. "I can't expect you to appreciate real art. So just believe me when I tell you, he's a big deal. You always look for his work when you go to a streetball court. Because . . . I don't know, it's kind of like keeping an eye out for falling stars or something. It's cool. And he's got a lot of fans. But he disappeared for half a year. No one's found anything new by him in over six months. Until now."
Takao held up his phone to the sky, staring at the screen as he tapped buttons, posting the image somewhere in cyberspace.
"Yep! I'm the first one to find it," he said, sounding delighted. "It's like finding a unicorn!"
"You're an imbecile."
"You're just jealous you didn't find it."
Midorima didn't justify that stupid comment with a response. He glanced back at the graffiti instead, wondering just what Takao saw in such nonsense. The signature suddenly caught his eye. A blue bird with a basketball on its head? And this person, this street artist, called himself the Shadow?
No, Midorima thought with a slight shake of his head. It couldn't be.
Kagami stared at the graffiti and felt his blood pressure rising. He looked around, half expecting Kuroko to materialize out of nowhere, with that deadpan expression of his, claiming he'd been there all along. But for once, that didn't happen.
He shook his head as he continued up the stairs, toward the streetball court. "Right. Next time I see him, I'll kill him."
Of course that was an empty threat. Kagami had grown up playing streetball, and otherwise hanging out on the streets. He'd done a bit of tagging himself in his misguided youth. He had a respect for street artists and knew quality art when he saw it.
A smile spread over Kagami's lips as he wondered if Kuroko would ever stop surprising him.
(Kuroko being a tagger is practically canon. If you go to YouTube and watch the video called "Kuroko no Basuke ~ Catal Rhythm~ Special Ending Story" you'll see what I mean. And see the graffiti in this story)
Announcement: This oneshot has been continued in two separate places. The first is here on this site, where I've written another fic called Kuroko no Street Artist, about what happens when Midorima and Takao start putting together an art survey of The Shadow's work for an art class project. Midorima is reluctant at first, but the more he sees of The Shadow's work, the more hauntingly familiar the story it tells starts to seem.
The second place this oneshot is continued is on DeviantArt, where I've been working with the talented artist yellowoctopus333, who is telling the story of Kuroko's elementary school and middle school years through Kuroko's street art, painting every piece of his art that gets mentioned in my fics. Uploaded with her pictures will be microfics that I've written to go along with them, that are being posted exclusively beside her work. There are links to these pictures in my profile, so please check them out!