I forgot to put this yesterday.. o.o

anyway, yaaaay, here's chapter eight! I'm so sorry the storyline is going too slow.. I don't even know if it's worth it.

and, senior year has started! :D that means.. I'll be too busy to update each stories once in a week. maybe I'll go with once in two or three weeks. I'm sorry!

hope you like this chapter? :D

Kuroko No Basuke (c) Tadatoshi Fujimaki


The six teens walked to the empty seats of the train they just entered. They sat together. But, unlike any other group of teenagers, they only sat quietly. Heads low, all of them.

Kise turned his head to the window of the train. The sunset shone on his face, making the usual cheerful blonde hair and golden eyes become dull orange. And he saw it on the reflection of his face on the window.

He sighed. He cannot get rid of what was repeating on his mind.


"That's all I can say."

Older Ryouta sighed. As he expected, the kids' expression was mixed—anger, confusion, disbelief, miserable, you name it.

They must be angry of him. Must be angry of them.

"… It's time for you all to leave."

Akashi was the first to react. "Ah, but—"

"Seriously, that's all I can share to you brats. Now leave me alone and let me have some peaceful sleep to get rid this shit out of my head."

The kids were obedient this time. Within a minute, they left Ryouta alone in the room.

They closed the door.

And Kise was the first to burst out to tears, followed by Momoi after she saw Kise's tears.


When they have arrived at Tokyo, Akashi got an idea.

"Let's head to Teiko."

The other five turned their head to him.

"You really mean it, Akashicchi?"

"Why not? We're all feeling down… and I do believe that by playing with Kuroko-nii, we can recover and be happy." Akashi smiled.

Aomine slapped his forehead. "Talking about Tetsu… I haven't tell him that we weren't going to visit him today."

"Ah, right! So we have to play basketball with Kurokocchi right now, just like Akashicchi said! And we can tell him we have some errands to go before visiting him, so he won't feel we neglected him today! It's like killing two birds with one stone!" Kise said cheerfully.

Midorima tried to fight the urge to smile. "Really, Akashi, we haven't even reach Teiko, yet Kise is cheerfull already."

"The idea a

lone makes me happy, Akashicchi!"

"I'm happy that I will meet Tetsu-kun today, too!" Momoi chirped.

"And I feel like sharing my vanilla candies with Kuro-chin…"

"For the nth times, I'm telling you, ghosts don't eat."

Akashi gently smiled at the brightened atmosphere. Though he was the person to enjoy a silence relaxation, he of course would prefer the loud them than the quiet them. Those five won't fit to be described with the word "quiet", after all. "I am glad."


When they got off of the train, they quickly made their way to Teiko, right to the fourth gym.

"OKAERI-SSU~" Kise slammed the doors open.

"Oi Kise, you're too loud!"

And there Kuroko was, standing in the middle of the court, forming a straight line from the middle lane to the gym entrance. Kuroko looked a bit surprised to see them.

"…You came." All the ghost could say.

The teens' face saddened at the ghost's response.

"Mou, Tetsu-kun, we're sorry. We were very busy today, and we just made it here…" Momoi said sadly.

"Tetsu… don't be mad at us…"

"Gomen, Kurokocchi…"

"The fact you get angry at us… bothers me."

"I'm sorry, Kuro-chin…"

Nobody dared to look at Kuroko, nobody but Akashi. Five of them was caught in the atmosphere in which they were kids who felt sorry for being bad to Kuroko.

"Kuroko-kun… you're… mad?"

Kuroko did not answer.

Instead, he ran into Akashi, with his hand reached to Akashi as if he was trying to hug the slightly taller male.

Akashi almost shivered for the sudden temperature change. Kuroko's embrace was cold. Almost his entire body was surrounded by Kuroko. It felt weird. He could slightly feel Kuroko's skin, and even the fabric Kuroko wore. The ghost was still almost transparant and intangible, to the point Kuroko would almost entered Akashi's flesh, yet, did not. It puzzled him a bit, remembering that the ghost could not touch anything beside basketball.

And he could feel the bluenette trembled.

"… Y-you all came… I can't believe it… I-I thought you won't visit me anymore… I thought you will leave me alone once again…"

So that was the case. Akashi smiled. His shivering body began to go normal again. He let Kuroko hugged him all the ghost wanted.

"What are you saying, Kuroko-kun? We won't do such thing. We sure cannot promise to be beside you always no matter what… but one thing you may note, we will not leave you willingly."

Momoi gasped. "So Tetsu-kun is lonely? W-we are sorry, Tetsu-kun!" Momoi tried to hug him, but failed and instead had her shivering skin—due to the cold temperature she suddenly felt—went through Tetsu's body. "Kyaaah!"

"Don't worry, Kurokocchi, we're up for some basketball plays!" Kise exclaimed.

Kuroko let Akashi go, slowly forming a thin smile. "Hai, Kise-kun."

"Great! But…" Kise looked around. "… why's the gym all mess?"

The seven just realized that the gym was really messed up with the balls in here and there. Even Kuroko blinked at this.

"I don't remember touching any of them." Kuroko said. "I was sure they're all in the large basket where Kise-kun put all of them in."

"W-weird…" Aomine's eye twitched.

"Well… that's weird indeed…" Momoi looked scared.

Akashi rubbed his chin. "… I don't know what happened, but let's clean all this mess and play. I believe it won't took too long to only put all the basketballs back to their rightful place."

"Okay, Aka-chin~"

"Well, I suppose it can't be helped."

"Let's do that-ssu!"

Kuroko smiled. "I'll help you…"


Monday.

Older Ryouta got off of a train from Yokohama to Tokyo station.

He smiled. Sincerely.

It wasn't like he didn't feel any guilt anymore. It was just, half of his burden being lifted.

He needed to thank to those kids who visited him last Saturday.

Before, he felt like the weight of his body being added half as much into every inch of his body. It was hard to breath. Hurt, to the point he did not know if it was a physical wound or his internal ones.

But now, it was different, since last Saturday.

Ever since he told the kids who visited him, things changed. At first, he was a bit regretting it. But then, he took a quick nap, and when he woke up at night, he felt refreshed. He guessed all he needed was just ears to listen to him. Ears to listen to his burdens.

He smiled.

He made his way to Kuroko's neighborhood, then stopped by Kuroko's household. He rang the bell.

A minute later, a woman with a waist-length light blue hair opened the door. She looked as if she was in her mid-twenties, but Ryouta knew better.

"Good morning, Tetsuyacchi's mother!" Ryouta smiled cheerfully to her.

"My!" The woman smiled back. "If it isn't Ryouta-kun! It has been awhile, isn't it? Come in! Sit while I get you something, okay?"

Ryouta nodded. He made his way to the living room by himself, as if it was his own house. In fact, he used to do this until about ten years ago. And thus, he sat on a sofa in Kuroko's living room.

Mrs. Kuroko entered the living room with a tray full of cakes and tea.

"I usually have my tea-time in the afternoon, but it won't hurt to have them a bit earlier, no?" She giggled. "Come! I have some scones, truffles, macarons, and muffins! Oh, I have two slice of strawberry cheesecake, too!"

"Thank you, Tetsuyacchi's mother~" Kise took a banana-flavored macaron and ate it. "This is good, did you made this?"

"Yes." Mrs. Kuroko smiled, but only to lasted seconds. "Look… I… I think everyone's forget about Tetchan… I mean… he was easily forgotten, no? And… and you were the first one to visit this house after… after that… and this is your first…."

Mrs. Kuroko couldn't say it clearly in complete sentences, but Ryouta didn't need them to understand her words. She didn't need to elaborate them. Ryouta understood clearly.

Ryouta's look saddened. "I… I'm sorry… it was… so hard… for us. I guess we haven't matured enough to face this reality… reality that… that he was gone. Forever."

Mrs. Kuroko sighed. "That's okay… I know someday you will come, one by one. I know Ryouta-kun, Daiki-kun, everyone, will come to this house. I know you will visit Tetchan." She smiled.

"Actually, I did." Ryouta grinned.

"Really?" Mrs. Kuroko leaned forward in interest. "You did?"

"Yeah! I did! Well… took me years to build up courage to visit him…"

Mrs. Kuroko leaned more, and hugged him from across the table, in which Ryouta yelped a bit. "Oh my… my… I can't believe this… Tetchan must be happy…"

Ryouta returned the hug awkwardly, before pulled himself back. "I'm… happy as well."

Mrs. Kuroko giggled.

"Well, putting that aside, Ryouta-kun, how's life?"

"Aah…" Ryouta leaned back on the sofa. "Flight schedules are hectic lately. But I'm taking a vacation."

"Being a pilot is good, but it's better to know your limitations, no?" Mrs. Kuroko chuckled.

"Yes. And I started this vacation in a nice mood."

"What do you mean?"

Ryouta laughed. "Well, those kids visited me."

"Which kids?"

"They were little friends of Tetsuyacchi when they're still small kids. They used to play basketball a lot with Tetsuyacchi when Tetsuyacchi isn't playing basketball. I cannot believe Tetsuyacchi hadn't say any words about it."

Mrs. Kuroko raised an eyebrow. "Kids?"

"Yeah. From your neighborhood."

Mrs. Kuroko laughed. "I doubt, Ryouta-kun. Tetchan was the youngest in this neighborhood, followed by Mrs. Yamaguchi's newborn baby one month after Tetchan's death… and the people and families from our neighborhood have never changed since I moved here with my husband."

Ryouta's eyes widened. "What?"


shoot.. it looks like I cannot just end this chapter without another cliffhanger.. I'm sorry.. it wasn't like I like to put them in every end of the chapter.. but that's an important scene, so..

and I just had to put some slight AkaKuro here xDDD;;