Chapter 11 – Rescue

Midorima was sat on the edge of Takao's bed, checking the man's injuries once again. The shorter ghoul had awoken ten days after the accident. Although 'awoken' was a bit of a strong term. In reality he had only begun to swim in and out of consciousness, Midorima would not have counted him as being awake until four days later, when he was actually capable of speech and became aware of his surroundings.

Now, he was sat up in Akashi's bed allowing Midorima to look over his injuries. The major stomach wound had healed over now but Takao was still quite weak, so Midorima sentenced the ravenette to another week's bed rest.

"Kazunari, how are you feeling?" The green head asked Takao.

"I'm feeling much better thanks to you Shin-chan!" Takao replied with a smile.

He was finally getting back to himself. Relief filled the green haired male's heart when he saw his childhood friend grin with his usual upbeat personality. He may still have been weak, but Midorima knew better than anyone that Takao would always put on his best smile.

"Do you need me to get you anything?"

"Howabout a kiss Shin-chan~." Takao teased his partner.

Midorima blushed, looking away from the dark haired male grumpily. "You really must be fine if you're back to asking for such pointless things."

"Stop being such a tsundere Shin-chan." Takao said softly before leaning in to peck Midorima on the cheek.

Before Takao could cause Midorima to die from embarrassment, Akashi walked into the room.

"How are you both?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"I'm good Akashi. Thanks for letting us borrow your room for so long." Takao replied. "But…erm…can I ask how the search is going?"

Whilst Takao had not spoken much to Kuroko before the day of the incident he had still acknowledged him as a good guy. He also noticed how much he meant to Aomine and Akashi and how his disappearance had even had a large impact on the usually cheery Kise.

Unfortunately, Akashi's mouth curved into a frown. "We still haven't found any leads. But we're running out of likely hideout spots to search, so hopefully we'll find something soon."

"As soon as I'm all better, Shin-chan and I can come help you guys!" Takao said in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.

However Midorima scowled at him. "Idiot. They will have already found him by the time you're ready to get into a fight again, now get some rest."

The dark haired man pouted. "But Shin-chan it's so boring in here."

"I don't care. The more you rest the sooner you'll be feeling stronger."

Akashi decided to leave the two lovers in peace as they argued. After he left the room his phone began ringing. The red head took his phone out of his pocket and saw who was calling him. He hastily answered the call. "Himuro-san?"

"Yes, hello Akashi-san. I've got some good news for you. A young ghoul I believe to be from the Kirisaki Daichi is waiting in my store. I thought you might want to come over and talk with him."

Akashi's mind lit up at the news. "We'll be over there as soon as possible."

"I'll be sure to keep him here until your arrival. See you soon."

"Thank you."

The red haired ghoul hung up on the mask-maker as he hurried to Aomine's room.

"Daiki, I just got a call from Himuro-san. He's had a customer from the Kirisaki Daichi and said that if we get over there we can interrogate him. We're leaving now."

"That's great! Should I get Kise?"

"No, he'll take too long to get up, besides he could do with the rest. Now let's go."

The two drove to Himuro's, arriving 15 minutes after Akashi had received the call. The two were both hopeful as this was the first proper lead they had.

As they walked into the store Himuro greeted them.

"Hello Akashi-san and Aomine-san. The man I told you about is in the waiting room out back, feel free to go talk to him. There is no one else in there and I shall make sure you are not interrupted. Though, I would appreciate it if you didn't tell him I told you he was here."

"Of course Himuro-san, thank you for the help." Akashi replied politely.

With a nod, Himuro left them so that he could get back to his mask making.

The two baristas walked into the sleek looking waiting room and saw a young ghoul with light brown hair sitting on one of the sofas in the room.

Akashi had considered what approach he was going to take to the situation on the way to the mask shop. He had concluded that he wanted to get straight to the point.

The ghoul was the only other person in the room besides Akashi and Aomine, just as Himuro had said. The coffee shop manager walked over casually, as if he were going to sit next to the male but then lunged forward grabbing the ghoul's collar, pulling him up before shoving him against a wall.

"Are you a member of the Kirisaki Daichi?" Akashi asked in a deadpan voice.

The brunette seemed pissed off and was struggling to escape Akashi's strong grasp. "What's it to you?"

"I'll take that as a yes. Now I want to ask you some questions."

Akashi pulled the young ghoul away from the wall before thrusting him straight back into it, hoping to demonstrate his annoyance at the ghoul's struggling.

"Where is your hideout?"

"Like I'd tell you that!"

The red haired ghoul, irritated at the younger's lack of cooperation, slammed his fist into the brunette's face. "I will not hesitate to torture you until you tell me, now where is the Kirisaki Daichi's hideout? Don't bother lying or I will hunt you down and make you wish you were dead."

Aomine was observing his brother and noticed the complete change in personality. He was releasing a murderous aura alongside a ferocious glare that scared even Aomine. He knew the frustration that Akashi was facing. The past few weeks of searching and worrying combined with a complete lack of sleep only made them more desperate for a lead. To finally have found someone who could give them information was refreshing, but a lack of cooperation would only make it that much more frustrating.

"I-I don't know."

"Liar." Akashi snarled before punching right through the ghoul's shoulder, his patience wearing thin. "Tell me where it is."

The ghoul held against the wall howled in pain. "I-I-It's in the east side of town."

"I want specifics dammit."

"I-I-t's the abandoned o-office building that used to be owned by Higashi Industries."

"Thank you." Akashi said, removing his hand from the ghouls shoulder, although he did not drop his intimidating stare. "Do you know Hanamiya Makoto?"

The youth responded with a hesitant nod as he held his injured shoulder.

"Have you seen a light blue haired human?"

"I-I haven't seen him, but I've heard about him from the other guys gossiping."

Tightening his hold on the man's shirt, Akashi pushed the ghoul further against the wall. "What did they say?"

"Just t-that Hanamiya-san was using him as a plaything to get some sort of revenge."

The red head seethed at his words. It wasn't unexpected, he'd guessed as much, but it still hurt to know. To know that it was his fault.

"Is that everything?"

"Yes."

"Then get out of my sight. Now." Akashi pulled the ghoul away from the wall, throwing him in the direction of the door as he let go of his shirt.

The male ran out of the room deciding that he valued his safety over the mask he'd ordered.

Akashi took a moment to compose himself, sorting through his feelings. He was glad to finally have a starting point for Kuroko's rescue but a deep seated worry continued to push through. He turned towards Aomine.

"We'll go back to the house to check the location of this abandoned office building and to pick up Ryouta and Atushi. Then we'll head straight there."


"Do you all remember the plan?" Akashi asked the three other ghouls.

The sun had finally set and the baristas were waiting around the corner of a building each wearing their masks. Kise's resembled a golden wolf, Aomine's was a black panther and Murasakibara wore a simplistic mask decorated with lightning.

After Akashi had located the old office building, they had hurriedly driven to the site. The plan Akashi was asking about had been explained to the others on the drive over there.

"We will try to be stealthy and reclaim Tetsuya without a fight. We are going to split up into two pairs. Atushi you're with Daiki, Ryouta shall accompany me. But we will still search on the same floor in case a fight breaks out. If the situation is clearly not in our favour then I want you to retreat. We shall regroup here in an hour unless circumstances lead us to a forced retreat. Any questions?"

"What do we do if we find Tetsu?"

"You get him out of there of course. Preferably wait for us here, however if he needs urgent care take him to the hospital and leave a note somewhere around here."

"Yes." Aomine, Kise and Murasakibara replied in unison.

"Let us go then."


The blond and the red head were walking down yet another freezing corridor. They had found nobody yet, but Akashi was confident this time as he was able to smell ghouls nearby.

"Akashicchi, do you really think we'll find Kurokocchi tonight?" Kise whispered hopefully.

"I do." At least I hope we find him. Akashi mentally added.

Suddenly, a heart wrenching scream was heard from somewhere nearby. Kise looked at Akashi worriedly. The corridor was currently empty so the two decided to make haste towards the source of the noise. However, as they did so a handful of ghouls exited another room.

"Hey…That guy has got red hair and a dragon mask…and the blond with the dog mask…didn't the boss say they're on our 'not welcome list'" A rather dim ghoul asked his friend.

"Yep. Hello, Akashi-san! Welcome to our humble home." It was a grey haired ghoul who spoke so mockingly. Akashi recognised him as Hara Kazuya from the Kirisaki Daichi. The cruel ghoul cracked his knuckles, indicating he was about to fight the two. More screams were heard in the distance, this time more intense.

Whilst Akashi could have easily taken them on, he was glad to see Murasakibara and Aomine appear behind them, ready to fight. The four baristas moved in to attack the other ghouls. Akashi and Aomine had both started intense combat training after the night Hanamiya attacked them in the café, frequently meeting up in the basement or in the woods outside of the city to practice. They now fought at the level of an S ranked ghoul, easily taking down the lower ranking ghouls. They were outnumbered, but by no means out skilled, although Akashi noted that Hara proved quite capable.

During the fighting, Akashi's attention was grabbed when he caught a movement down the corridor. Someone else had just exited another room further down the corridor. "What the hell's going on out here I'm trying to enjoy my-"

Akashi's eyes met the angered ones of Hanamiya Makoto's. A smirk stretched across the taller's face as their gaze connected. "I didn't expect to see you here so soon Akashi-kun."

Akashi threw the ghoul he was fighting in rage before dashing up to Hanamiya ready to rip his throat out. "Where the hell is he?!" Akashi demanded.

Yet more screams were heard and Akashi noticed that they were originating from the room next to him. The room the barbarous ghoul had just exited. "He's just in there Akashi-kun~. But before you go say hello, why don't we settle this?" Hanamiya sneered, however he was taken by surprise when a fist punched him in the head.

"What the fuck are you doing to him?!" Aomine shouted at the dark haired ghoul, before moving to beat him. Akashi took in the situation around him. As much as he'd have loved to join the navy head and punch Hanamiya in the face until his fists were bloody, he saw that Aomine seemed to be coping with Hanamiya by himself, releasing all his pent up frustration and anger. Kise and Murasakibara weren't doing too badly with the other ghouls either, a number of which were already lying dead or unconscious. This left Akashi able to go tend to Kuroko and so he entered the room that Hanamiya had exited.

The screaming had seemed to stop as Akashi eased the door open, but the sight he was met with made his stomach churn. Kuroko was strung up by the arms and kneeling on the floor, several knives sticking out of him and his body was wracked with convulsions. What was most disturbing about the scene though was the vast amount of blood that covered the floor and walls of the room, so much that Akashi was not sure how the teal head could still be alive. Akashi shook with fear seeing his kind and gentle partner like this.

He ran to his side and began removing the knives before getting rid of the chains, blindfold and gag and then laying him on the floor as carefully as possible.

"Tetsuya..." He whispered with a shaky voice. "I'm so sorry." It hurt the ghoul so much to see what Hanamiya had done to him. To realise that those screams he'd heard and shrugged off so casually moments ago were indeed Kuroko's screams. He hated himself for being the reason his boyfriend was in this situation in the first place and for taking so long to find him.

The red head was brought out of his grim thoughts when Aomine's voice broke through.

The navy head was stood in the doorway as he spoke. "That bastard ran off. I swear to God I'm-" It was then that Aomine actually looked into the room and saw Akashi kneeling beside Kuroko. "T-Tetsu?" He choked out. As soon as his eyes landed on the broken image of his best friend all of his anger faded, instead replaced with disgust, horrified by the state Kuroko was in.

Aomine sprinted to Akashi's side to help him with Kuroko, who seemed to be unconscious. "What's wrong with him? Why is his body shaking so much?" Aomine asked frantically as he heard the teal head let out small whimpers.

The red head had also wondered why Kuroko's body was acting so unnaturally. At first he thought that it could simply be a side effect of the stress of torture, however when he noticed the needle mark on Kuroko's neck and the empty syringe by the wall he realised that was likely not the case. "I think he's been drugged Daiki. We need to give him some room so we don't restrict his movements, he could end up hurting himself if we do."

Kuroko let out a small sob before murmuring things in his unrestful sleep. "I'm sorry onii-san…scared…..I'm sorry"

He has a brother? Akashi thought. "Daiki what-"

When Akashi saw the look on Aomine's blanched face he stopped speaking. Kuroko had told the navy haired male about what had happened to his family a few years ago.

Flashback

Aomine stood in the living room of Kuroko's new house, waiting for the human to get dressed before they went out for lunch. He noted that there was little decoration in the room, however the photo frames on the side table took Aomine's interest.

He walked over to them, looking at each. Most were ones of Kuroko with his friends from Seirin or with Kagami and Aomine or Nigou. However one contained people whom Aomine was completely unfamiliar with. Carefully picking it up and looking at the photo, Aomine took in the details of the picture. In it was a younger Kuroko, probably about 11, smiling alongside a taller, grey haired teen and behind them stood two adults, a woman with cerulean hair, the colour of Kuroko's, and a man with black hair. The grey haired male in the photo had his arm hung over Kuroko's shoulders and was smiling at the camera.

"I'm ready Aomine-kun." Kuroko said as he entered the room. As the light-blue haired man looked to Aomine he noticed the photo frame in his hand.

"Hey, Tetsu, who are these people?"

"They're my family Aomine-kun."

"How come you never talk about them?"

"That's funny coming from you Aomine-kun."

"Shut up! I just…"

"It's okay. I don't like thinking about it much but I will tell you about them if you want to know."

Aomine considered not pushing Kuroko further, realising that something bad must have happened between them or to them, but he was also curious.

"If you don't mind talking about it…"

Kuroko sat down on his sofa, taking a deep breath before starting his story.

"Six years ago, the four of us were going out for dinner. We took our usual route but that night we were attacked by a group of ghouls. My mother and step-father tried to stand between the ghouls and me and my brother as they told us to run." Aomine was still stood, listening as he watched Kuroko grimace. "There were so many. They killed my mother and father in an instant, tearing through their bodies and throwing them to the ground before some of them started eating them. They beat my brother and threw him into the corner. He called out for me to run but I froze. I couldn't move. They were about to attack me as well but onii-san managed to stand up and protect me before telling me to run again. I managed to that time. As I ran I saw that they grabbed my brother with their kagune and chucked him around, but they didn't kill him in front of me."

"It was horrible. They beat him and hurt him yet all I did was run away. We weren't too far from the city streets and I found a CCG officer in minutes but by the time we returned…all the ghouls had run away. They took my brother with them. I was told he's as good as dead."

"Afterwards, I was taken to the CCG offices so they could figure out what to do with me. I hadn't had contact with my biological father in years, he'd been abusive to my mother and lost the right to see me. There was no-one left to take care of me, so I stayed in a foster family until I was 17."

Kuroko stopped talking after that, refusing to make eye-contact with Aomine. The teal head had tried to be strong, but whenever he thought back to that night, to his family, he was weak. He missed them so much. He missed the sense of family.

What surprised Kuroko was Aomine kneeling down in front of him and hugging him. "Why did you never tell me you idiot?" The navy haired male asked softly.

"You didn't need to know Aomine-kun. Of course it hurts me and of course it's sad, but there is nothing you nor I can do to change it."

"Idiot. I may not have needed to know, but you shouldn't bottle-up shit like that. You can always talk to me okay Tetsu? I'll always be here for you." Aomine said, tightening his embrace around Kuroko's slender form. "I promise."

"Thank you Aomine-kun." Kuroko replied, hugging the taller male back.

End flashback

Aomine could only assume that Kuroko was having some sort of nightmare to do with the incident the human had told him about that day. It made him incredibly sad to see his friend so damaged.

Akashi and Aomine remained knelt next to Kuroko. Akashi longed to hold the teal haired man close but he did not want to cause Kuroko any harm in doing so as it could lead to the human tearing his muscles, and thus he resisted the urge.

The two ghouls then noticed that Kuroko seemed to be regaining consciousness, his eyelids fluttering open slightly before he screwed them closed. That's when Kuroko began screaming and crying again.

"Tetsuya? Can you hear me Tetsuya? It's Seijuro. You're going to be okay now. I promise. I won't let him hurt you again." Tears began to run down Akashi's face for the first time in years. But Kuroko did not respond to the red head's words, too lost in his physical and emotional agony. Instead he continued to make distressed noises, tears streaming from his eyes as he convulsed on the cold floor. Aomine was also crying as he wished that he could wakeup from this nightmare.

It was then that the teal haired male opened his eyes wide with fear as he screamed with all his heart. The sight made Akashi and Aomine stare in terror and confusion, for one of Kuroko's eyes was the colour of the sky on a beautiful spring day, whilst the other was jet black with highlights and an iris of crimson.

END OF CHAPTER

A/N:

They've finally found Kuroko, yay!

I know it got a bit Aokuro in there, but hey, friendships are just as important as romantic relationships.

Thanks for reading and supporting this story!

Next Chapter: One-Eyed