"What?! Are you sure?" yelled Aomine into the phone. He had just received a report from the Sentinel division of the police force.
Wakamatsu, Aomine's partner in the police force, winced from his desk, where he was doing some paperwork. All hell could break lose when Aomine was angry.
"Okay, okay! Let me know when you get more information!" Aomine slammed the phone down.
"What's wrong, Aomine?" Wakamatsu asked quietly.
Aomine's head whipped around. His eyes were wide open with a mixture of terror and worry. "A guy reported that his van had exploded. Forensics found some human remains and Akashi's gun in the burnt scrap, charred beyond recognition. They identified that it belonged to him from the serial number. But Akashi is missing. No one knows if he is dead or alive."
"The human remains?"
"Not Akashi," said Aomine. "Stature after the body fragments were assembled didn't match. Too tall. Apparently, a suicide bomber of some sort. The explosion was caused by a bomb strapped to his person."
"Well, Akashi's mate must know if he is alive. He recently acquired an omega as a mate, didn't he?" said Wakamatsu. "His mate must be able to sense whether or not he is alive through their bond."
Aomine's eyes widened. His expression made a 180 degree turn. "That is true! You're right!"
Then, Aomine picked up the phone and dialled a number.
Kuroko had just reached his apartment and opened the front door when his mobile phone rang. When he answered it, he was greeted with Aomine's voice.
"Tetsu!"
"Oh, hello Aomine-kun," said Kuroko pleasantly, closing the door behind him. He threw his bag onto the sofa.
"Tetsu, I need you to stay calm when I ask you this, can you do that?"
"Er, okay?" Kuroko's intuition was telling him that something was wrong and that he ought to panic.
"Tetsu, can you sense Akashi through your bond?"
Kuroko was silent for a moment as he tried to place Akashi through their bond. Akashi's presence was weaker than usual, but it was there. He replied, "Yes, why?"
"Good! That means he is not dead! Hold on for a sec." Then, Aomine's voice got softer, like he was speaking to another person and holding the phone receiver away from his mouth. "Hey, Wakamatsu! Give Nijimura-san a call and tell him to keep searching. Akashi is alive!"
What was happening? What did Aomine mean when he said that Akashi wasn't dead? Why did Aomine think that Akashi had been dead even for a moment? Had something terrible happened to Akashi? Kuroko was starting to freak out.
"AOMINE-KUN!" yelled Kuroko into the phone frantically. It wasn't like Kuroko to lose control of himself like that, but when it concerned Akashi… well, when it came to Akashi, Kuroko was unable to stay calm if there was even the slightest hint that Akashi was in trouble. "AOMINE-KUN! OI, ANSWER ME!"
Then, Aomine spoke into the receiver. "Tetsu, calm down. I need you to calm down."
"DON'T YOU TELL ME TO BE CALM!" cried Kuroko. "TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO SEIJUUROU-KUN!"
Kuroko could hear Aomine suck in some air before he began to speak. "We found Akashi's gun in an exploded van. But we can't find him. We didn't know if he was dead or alive until we confirmed it with you."
"What?" gasped Kuroko. His heart was hammering in his chest. He was starting to hyperventilate.
"Tetsu, I assure you that we are doing all we can to find Akashi. Don't worry – if you can feel that he is still alive through your bond, then he is alive, and I'm sure he is doing all he can to come home to you as well," Aomine assured Kuroko.
Kuroko choked back a sob. "What was his mission?"
"I don't know the exact details, but I think it involved a bomb threat."
"Oh." Kuroko covered his mouth with his hand to muffle his sniffling.
"Tetsu, you shouldn't be alone right now," Aomine told Kuroko. "I will have one of my officers go over to your place to keep you company. If none of them are able to do it, Ryouta will go over."
"No, it's okay-" Kuroko started to say, but Aomine had already hung up.
Kuroko felt his knees go weak, and he collapsed onto a chair. There was no doubt about it – he could feel Akashi through their bond, so Akashi was definitely alive, but the horrifying thing was that his presence was faint. It was very faint. Did that mean that wherever Akashi was, he was dying? The fact that Akashi was probably in pain and fighting for his life right now sent a painful wrench into Kuroko's heart. Kuroko loved Akashi far too much for that not to affect him.
Kuroko buried his face into his hands and began sobbing. This couldn't be happening now. Would god be so cruel as to give him his soulmate after years and years of searching only to rip it away from him in an instant?
When Akashi came to, it was dark. He was covered in soil. There was earth and dirt around him, over him… Akashi had been buried in the soil.
Akashi moved to adjust his body and a sharp pain shot through his stomach. The criminal that he had been tracking had shot him in his abdomen before Akashi managed to shoot a bullet through his head. Akashi had been too late, though – after the criminal had shot Akashi and before Akashi shot him, he had activated the bomb on himself, which left Akashi with five minutes to move his body to a more inconspicuous area so that the bomb could explode without involving civilians – Akashi was not a bomb expert and didn't know how to deactivate a bomb. The resulting explosion had caused a landslide and that was how Akashi came to be buried underneath the landslide debris.
Akashi knew that he was losing blood very quickly. He lifted his shirt to have a look at how bad the injury was, but couldn't quite see it in the darkness. Akashi didn't know how fast he could dig himself out of the earth. Besides, he didn't think he had the energy to dig, so he didn't know if he would ever get out of the debris; he didn't know how long he would remain buried. Akashi knew he had to cauterise his wound if he wanted to prolong his life for as long as possible.
Akashi reached into his pocket. He usually carried around a Swiss army knife because he thought it was a handy tool to have around. It also so happened that he had a lighter on him too. The cauterisation would be crude, but hopefully it would enable Akashi to stop the bleeding.
Akashi slipped the large blade out of the main body of the Swiss army knife. He lit his lighter and placed the blade over the fire to heat it up. Just before the blade began to glow red, Akashi took the blade away from the fire and pressed it against the gunshot wound on his abdomen. A dreadful cry of anguish ripped from his throat when the blade came into contact with the injury.
After what seemed like hours to Akashi, but in reality was only about a minute, Akashi wrenched the blade away from his skin. Then, he reached south to gently touch the tender area on his stomach to check if the wound had closed up. Akashi's hand was dry; there was no longer any blood seeping from it.
Subsequently, Akashi passed out from the pain.
A/N – Please don't kill me for doing this to Akashi.
