Kiyoshi watched his sleeping teammate breathing low and steady. Murasakibara and Himuro stood outside the room along with two officers who were not pleased with the two teens intruding but got over it. Kiyoshi crouched over in his chair, watching intently. He could not believe something like this could happen to his kohai especially how he helped everyone.
"I don't have a big brother but I like to consider you as a big brother to me." The words from Kuroko appeared in his mind and Kiyoshi dropped his head. "What type of brother can't protect his younger brother?" He muttered to himself.
He looked back to Kuroko and thought back to what Riko said, 'how you are like an older brother to him.' He wanted to disagree with her. Seirin is a family. Kuroko is a brother to all of them. But unfortunately, not all families stay together.
A knock on the door was heard and Himuro poked his head in before completely opening the door letting him in. "Hello Kiyoshi-san." He said, closing the door behind him.
Kiyoshi relaxed in his chair at the sight of the freshmen. "Hello Himuro-kun, what brings you here?"
Himuro raised his left hand revealing a white bag. "I just got some food and since it's already one, I thought you would want something to eat." Himuro explained.
Kiyoshi stood up and politely received the bag. "Thanks, though I'm sorry you went out of your way to get me some food."
Himuro gave a small smile before it disappeared. "No problem but I'm worried for Taiga's health. I haven't seen him yet, he's probably devastated."
"He is, but we all are. Kuroko-kun never deserved this then again; none of the other victims deserved it either."
"Yeah…" The two stared at Kuroko before Himuro broke the silence. "Well, I had better go outside with Atsushi." Kiyoshi jut nodded as he watched the first year walk outside closing the door with a small click.
Kiyoshi sat back down and took his sandwich out. He thought back to Kagami as he slowly ate his sandwich. Kagami probably thinks it's his own fault that Kuroko got hurt, Kiyoshi sighed. The next time he sees Kagami, he needs to tell him that it is not his fault, only The Marker's.
Kiyoshi's gaze flickered over to Kuroko. He dropped his sandwich, not caring if the contents splattered over the hospital floor. He pulled out his phone and hurried over to the door. Kuroko was starting to groan and his eyes were beginning to open.
Akashi grabbed his chin in thought. The information they had was so little. He looked at the list of names in front of him and a detailed report of each victim. Each victim varied in their personalities. Hirota Rikuto (age 15) was a loud cheerful soccer player with average grades. Kubota Katsurou (age 16) was a calm, tennis player who excelled in his grades. Sakuma Takahiro (age 16) was a lazy, rude teen with terrible grades. Shiro Takumi (age 17) was a nice, a bit timid boy who loved to draw, his grades above average. Hasekura Yoshirou (age 17) was a hot tempered, energetic boy who did archery, and had average grades and often got into fights. Iwakura Tarou (age 18) was the oldest in his family, a protective, nice teen but was very sarcastic. Kentarou Hiraku (age 15) was a relaxed, extroverted guy with average grades and had a girlfriend. Royama Kuchiro (age 15) was a serious, calm boy with excellent grades and at chess. And Kuroko Tetsuya (age 16) is a serious, invisible, monotone and a basketball enthusiastic.
The only thing the nine had in common was that they lived in Tokyo, all male, about the same age, all straight except for Tetsuya, and their names seems similar somehow.
Akashi peered at Wakahisa who leaned against his kitchen table writing over multiple pieces of paper. He looked at the writing to see the detective had spelled out each character of all of the victims' names in hiragana.
Hi-ro-to/ Ri-ku-to
Ku-bo-ta/ ka-tsu-ro-u
Sa-ku-ma/ Ta-ka-hi-ro
Shi-ro/ Ta-ku-mi
Ha-se-ku-ra/ Yo-shi-ro-u
I-wa-ku-ra/ Ta-ro-u
Ke-n-ta-ro-u/ Hi-ra-ku
Ro-ya-ma/ Ku-chi-ro
Ku-ro-ko/ Te-tsu-ya
"I've never noticed before," Wakahisa started, "but after seeing Kuroko-kun's name, I noticed that each name has the character 'ro' and 'ku'. Put them together and you get the word 'roku', the number six."
"Or the word 'kuro', the word for 'dark'." Akashi finished.
"Yeah, other than the city they live in, their age, the word 'six' and 'dark' are the only thing they have in common. Interesting. I wonder if The Marker chooses his victims by their names, if their names have those two words in it." Wakahisa pondered.
"The real question is why? But which word is he specifically looking for?" Akashi wondered out loud but, "Or is that the specific link? Those words could always be there to throw us off."
"Then he must be clever." Wakahisa commented.
"Well he has managed to avoid the police all this time. It was September when the first victim was found dead, it is now November."
"Don't remind me." Wakahisa grumbled before sipping his coffee. "All we have is that the nine victims have the character 'ro' and 'ku' in their names, why those two particular character, I don't know. That they all lived in Tokyo and that The Marker waited between his victims presumably to talk them waiting for the right time to strike."
Akashi placed his hand on his chin again. "They all were murdered in Tokyo. The Marker had to murder his victims in close range to where they were found."
Wakahisa pulled out his phone. The phone rang in his ear before the other line answered. "Get me a map of where the victims' bodies were found including the ninth." He ordered and he received a 'yes sir' before he hung up. Wakahisa looked over at Akashi who pulled his vibrating phone. He nodded towards him.
Akashi pressed speakerphone. "Akashi speaking. This better be good Daiki."
"Get yourself to the hospital now Akashi." Aomine ordered.
"Pardon?" He growled darkly. He does not take being ordered lightly.
"Sorry," Akashi could tell the other teen had paled incredibly. "But Kagami got a call-"
"Taiga is there with you?" Akashi narrowed his eyes. "If I recall correctly, I ordered for Seirin to not participate with you."
"And you think I care?" He heard Kagami yelled in the background. He blinked before his eyes settled into a glare. He opened his mouth to speak to the other red head but Kagami beat him to it. "I got a call from Kiyoshi-sempai saying that Kuroko is waking up."
With that Akashi grabbed his jacket and proceeded to leave the apartment with Wakahisa in tow. "Tell everyone else to meet in the hospital room. I'm on my way." He hung up the phone; he'll wait for later to punish Daiki and Ryota for disobeying him but all he cared now was seeing Tetsuya. He heard Wakahisa barking orders on his phone.
Don't worry Tetsuya, I'll protect you, he thought as he and the detective jumped into Wakahisa's car.
Once the car reached the hospital, he and Wakahisa exited the vehicle and ran into the hospital and ran all the way to Kuroko's room ignoring protests from the nurses. Akashi skidded to a stop seeing police guarding the door; Murasakibara and Himuro were not present.
He and Wakahisa walked into the room and saw Kuroko sitting up in the bed almost in a daze. Midorima-san stood over Kuroko preforming small tests such as asking Kuroko what he was holding. Murasakibara and Himuro stood at the edge, Kiyoshi and the rest of Seirin excluding Kagami stood at the side but with some distance away with worried expressions. Momoi, Midorima, and Takao stood next to Murasakibara; Momoi was crying in joy. Two other police officers stood in the room; lest to say, the room was pretty crowded.
Once Akashi's eyes landed on Kuroko, he hurried to his boyfriend's side. "Tetsuya!" He exclaimed in relief. Kuroko stared back at him as Akashi hugged him ignoring the doctor's protests. He pulled back to see Kuroko having a small gentle smile on his lips.
"Hello Akashi-kun." Kuroko greeted quietly, his voice hoarse.
A soft smile broke out on Akashi' face, a smile he never showed to anyone. He caressed the bluenette's cheek- the one unmarked.
"Tetsu-kun!" Momoi cried out. Kuroko looked at her keeping the gentle smile on his face, he looked around the room.
"Hello Momoi-san. Hello everyone." Kuroko said.
Everyone including Midorima-san and Wakahisa sighed in relief. Akashi gently grabbed Kuroko's shoulder. "Tetsuya, tell me who attacked you." He demanded, but he kept his voice soft enough to not have Tetsuya feel pressured too much. Kuroko's rare smile dropped and his usual monotone facial expression had a confused expression.
"I, I don't know. I don't remember." Kuroko admitted quietly, looking down at his hands. Gasps echoed in the room and Midorima-san only sighed.
"Unfortunately, this is quite common." Midorima-san said and everyone stared at him. "When a victim is attacked, it is traumatizing so often after the victim wakes up after the attack, the brain will delete, well temporarily, the events in a way of protecting the mental state of the victim. This could be caused by the victim's wish not to remember the unfortunate event or the victim simply denies believing it. It also does not have to be the event; it could be the identity of the culprit. It is heard of people blocking their memory of the culprit because they don't want to believe it was someone they know. Anyways, it is a form of amnesia. I would like to perform some test to review the functionality of the brain." Midorima-san explained.
The room went silent and everyone stared at Kuroko. Kuroko continued to look down but glanced up when Akashi gripped his hand. Akashi looked down at him. "Don't worry Tetsuya, I will find the person who did this to you and punish him." Kuroko only nodded at him before staring at his hands again.
"Testu!" The door slammed open and catches everyone's attention. Aomine busted into the room, sweat rolling down his face. Kise followed in next. "Kurokocchi!" He yelled. Kagami entered last yelling 'Kuroko!'
"Kuroko-kun, what's wrong?" Hyuga asked and everyone looked at Kuroko who had released his hand from Akashi's grip. Kuroko was scrambling backward to the best of his abilities- he seemed to be ignoring his pain, pressing his back against the headboard; his fingers gripped the bed sheets. Hi blue eyes were wide and fear shone visibly. His face went incredibly pale, paler than he already was, almost ghostly. His neutral expression was replaced by fear. "G-get away from me! Go away!" Kuroko began screaming, his voice trembling.
Everyone stared at Kuroko in confusion as Kuroko surprisingly grabbed a pillow despite his injuries in his left arm and threw it. Eyes followed the direction of the pillow until it hit an individual's face before sliding to floor revealing the face of Kagami Taiga.
A/N:Dun, dun Dun!What is this? Why Kagami? And Why do I love torturing this adorable monkey that is known as kagami? I don't know. But it will be explained in due time and I knew all you were waiting for this chapter, so yay, it's finally here! I was happy to hear that some of you managed to pick out the word 'dark' but it could also be read 'six'. So why those two words or is it only only one of them in specific? I'm very interested in some of your deductions. I hope y'all enjoyed reading this as I enjoyed writing this, I have already written the next chapter and I'll post it as soon as I write the twelfth chapter.
Thank you/ gracias for reviewing, 'NKloveNK', ' .thomsen', 'kauaians12', 'SasukoUchmaki2012', 'guest', 'milefanis-cullen', 'Riddikuluss (I really loved that long review, thank you)', 'Caithlinn13'.
(Pss, anyone who is reading my fanfic 'A Shrunken Life'or is interested in reading it, it is a Detective Conan fanfiction, I lost all of my notes for that story so if anyone has any ideas, can you please PM?)