"Dammit! He won't pick up!"
Akashi smashed the keys of his phone, dialing Kagami's number again even though he knew, like the last ten frantic failed phone calls, the other redhead wouldn't pick up. The ringing went back to voicemail and Akashi gave up, shoving his phone in his back pocket, doing all of this while sprinting from the train station to Kagami's apartment in Tokyo alongside the other Generation of Miracles.
"Why won't Kagamicchi pick up?" Kise moaned, more to himself than asking an actual question. "You don't think-?"
"I refuse to think about it!" Akashi snapped, pulling to a complete halt the would have been impossible had he not been a basketball player. They had reached Kagami's apartment complex, familiar to them for the one time they had been there, to celebrate Kuroko's birthday. All seemed so long ago as Akashi took of sprinting again, kicking the door down. If his suspicions were correct, which they tended to be, Kuroko was in peril.
"Oi, Akashi!" Aomine barked. "What do you think's wrong with Tetsu?"
"No time to explain fully," Akashi yelled back. "But in short, Kuroko's in danger of himself."
"Wha-?"
"It occurred to me how stressful it would be having your parents in the underground market," Akashi said, laying out his train of thought for everyone to follow. "For me, it was having to deal with more pressure than most adults go through in their entire life. If my intuition is correct..."
But Akashi's words died in his mouth as he found himself staring at what should have been the closed door to Kagami's apartment. Instead, it lay ajar, no lights on from the inside. His heart sprang to his throat and blood rushed to his ears. Foreboding weighed down on his shoulders, making his feet immobile, but what could have possibly happened in the hour it took them to get here?
In forty minutes, Kuroko can save me.
"C-Come on," Akashi said, taking a shaky breath and stepped toward the door.
It was completely dark inside the vast apartment, the shadows nipping at Akashi's feet like mice. It took a considerable amount of willpower to step forth into the apartment. Akashi hated it, but he was afraid, perhaps for the first time since the Winter Cup, of what was inside.
Inside, everything was bathed in a cold grey, the sun having gone behind the clouds even though it was late April. Kagami's and Kuroko's shoes were paired neatly next to the door which should have come as a reprieve. However, where were their owners?
"Kagami?" Akashi called into the apartment. A horrible silence responded. His heartbeat was terribly loud in his ears and as he called out, "Kuroko?" he may not have been able to hear the reply if anyone had actually responded.
"What the hell?" Aomine breathed and walked agitatedly further into the apartment. The few moments of silence that followed his outburst seemed to crush further on Akashi. He couldn't help but agonize on what he could have done, on what he should've done the moment he had heard his friend was being abused. Perhaps they wouldn't be in this situation right now. He had been too proud, and the last time he had let his pride rule him he destroyed Kuroko.
Split him...
"WHAT THE HELL?"
Aomine's yell broke the spell and everyone else spilled forth into the main living space where they found Aomine crouched next to an unconscious body, a bloody scrape running from his right temple down to his cheek. Staring down at Kagami's form, Akashi felt something inside of him snap. This wasn't right and something had to be done.
He should have stayed.
He should have stopped himself.
He should have stopped Kuroko from leaving.
So many memory fragments tore at his head, ones that were his and ones that he had seen as though through a TV screen when they had happened. Was this happening to Kuroko as well? So much pain, so much that he'd rather not deal with.
"I will no longer run away."
"Ryo-Kise," Akashi muttered, his mind finally flowing smoothly and attaching a plan for him. "Search the rest of the apartment for Kuroko. Daiki, I need a cup of water."
Kise and Aomine nodded grimly, the former heading for the second hallway calling out Kuroko's name while the later scrambled for the kitchen. Both reappeared at the same time, Kise's demeanor expressively telling Akashi Kuroko was no where to be found. Their only clue as to where their friend could possibly be was lying on the floor.
"Wake up," Akashi commanded and spilled the contents of the glass onto Kagami's face with a sharp splash. Immediately, the ace's eyes snapped open and his upper body shot forward, his legs nearly following but giving out so that he flipped face first onto the floor.
"Kuro-?!" Kagami gasped, spinning around as if he were expected some monster to be looming behind him. Akashi leaned forward and shook his head.
"Kagami, Kuroko isn't here."
"Wha-?" Kagami began to say before his eyes narrowed and his entire expressing turned from afraid to boiling anger, baffling Akashi. "Dammit, Akashi! Why weren't you here a few minutes ago? Kuroko's gone! He's fucking gone!"
"Kagami, please," Akashi said evenly, watching Kagami's angry face. "Being upset with what could have happened won't happen now. I should have contacted the authorities the moment we knew Kuroko was being abused. Right now..." Akashi took a deep breath and stood up commandingly. "...we need to keep moving forward for Kuroko's sake. Now please, tell us what happened."
Kagami screwed his face lie someone had poured vinegar down his throat but shifted himself heavily against the wall and stared at Akashi. Aomine frowned and Akashi knew why he did: why was Kagami dragging his body around like that?
"So?" Akashi asked, gesturing for everyone else to sit down around him. They did, Murasakibara folding his long limbs awkwardly and all waited agitatedly for what would come next. "What happened? Where's Kuroko?"
Kagami's grimaced, although it seemed like he was more angry at himself than Akashi now. Then he growled, "Kuroko's parents came here and took him."
"WHAT?!" The affect was immediate. Everyone seemed to want to say something, so Akashi held his hand up for silence. He himself had been expecting something like this to have happened, but still it felt like someone had dragged the world from under his feet.
"Let Kagami talk," Akashi said, craving the rest of the story. "Go ahead then, Kagami."
"They knocked on the door like they were just picking their son up from a play date or something. I thought it was you guys!" Kagami added defensively. Akashi nodded; he didn't blame Kagami for what had happened, he just needed more. He needed to know. "Then the dad stunned me with a taser. The mom, the fucking tramp, said some really disgusting things. I can't believe Kuroko comes from those people, it's just impossible."
"So then? What happened?"
"They went into the kitchen where Kuroko was, I think he had a knife. Then they started coaxing him to come with them."
"As if Kurokocchi would listen to them!" Kise burst out, his eyes wide with horror. Kagami shook his head jaggedly.
"At first he kept denying their offers," Kagami said, squeezing his fist. "But then...Kuroko's father pulled out his phone I guess and showed Kuroko something on it and he went berserk. I heard him drop the knife. Kuroko agreed to leave with them after that."
Akashi stared at his hands, mind racing with this new information. One more...he needed one more confirmation...
"Kagami, relay to me the events that happened the first day Kuroko started staying with you." He could feel everyone's eyes on him, but he ignored them. He would share with them his thoughts once he was sure. Absolutely sure.
"Why?"
"I have a nagging suspicion...and by telling me the things that have passed without us knowing, it'll help me confirm this suspicion I have."
"Well," Kagami started, biting his lip, clearly thinking hard. "I got Kuroko to stay at my place, but then I noticed that there were these ugly scars under his chin. Right around here," Kagami pointed at the skin directly under his jaw.
"I've never seen those scars," Aomine said, tapping his fingers impatiently.
"I'd never seen them either, but the idiot wouldn't tell me what they were from and why he had them, so I let it slide for a bit," Kagami continued.
"I bet my left eye his parents gave him those scars," Akashi muttered, more to himself than to anyone. But Kagami still caught it and responded accordingly.
"Those adults are so disgusting, it honestly wouldn't surprise me," Kagami snarled. Akashi leapt to his feet and paced around, his legs and feet prickling as blood rushed back into them. Kuroko had lied to his team about the scars...he didn't want to tell them about his parents' abuse...he was protecting his abusive parents...
And when his father had showed Kuroko the thing on the phone, he had changed his mind so willingly...Why would Kuroko's parents come to get him after it had been longer than a day since Kuroko had disappeared from their house?
"Kagami," Akashi mused. "Do you happen to know what was on Kuroko's phone?"
"I saved it," Kagami said, crawling to his couch and producing Kuroko's blue phone from underneath. "It's in the texts."
Akashi nodded and took the phone, opening the text messages. He didn't have to scroll far to find the text message. And what he found confirmed his worse suspicions. Everything was so much worse.
"Shit," Akashi breathed. "I was right..."
"Akashi, you were saying something on the way here," Aomine prompted, standing up and approaching the smaller teen. "Spill. What's wrong with Kuroko?"
Akashi glanced over at Kagami and sighed. Now that he was sure, he wasn't sure if he wanted to trouble everyone else with the information. If anyone were to use this information to the best, it was him.
No. They were all working to help Kuroko. Working to now save him from his parents and himself.
"Kagami, I never told you," Akashi said. "Kuroko's parents work for the Japanese Underground Market."
"Oi, Akashi!" Kagami yelled, more surprised than indignant. "You've gotta tell me these things!"
"More importantly, about what I was saying earlier," Akashi said, brushing Kagami's outburst aside. "Kagami, we can talk later, but it seems like we're dealing with two Kuroko Tetsuyas here."
Silence. Akashi took the few moments to slip Kuroko's phone into his pocket and then Aomine's stutter: "Wh-What?"
"Using myself as an example, I have two personalities," Akashi said, holding up two fingers. "My true self, and the other one who holds everyone subservient to himself. This was a result of the pressure my father put on me while I struggled with grief for my mother. For Kuroko, it seems like dealing with his abusive parents and the burden of carrying their secret into his life created another personality that wishes to protect his parents at all cost, no matter how abusive they get.
"Kuroko's split," Akashi summed up. Hearing himself say it out loud made it real and impossible at the same time.
Kuroko...
...who had shed tears and blood for his friends...
...split.
