Here is chapter 14.
I do not own Kuroko no Basket.
Enjoy!
Kenichi Murasakibara was a father of five children.
Yes, five not four.
He had never giving up on his fifth child and even till this day, he was still looking, hoping that one day, the police would call him and tell him that they had found Atsuki and were sending him home.
He imagined his youngest son to look like a mixture of both him and his wife, maybe he had inherited his tall genes or maybe he took after his mother but shared the family trait for a sweet tooth.
He refused to think of the worst case scenario where his youngest son is returned back to them in a body bag or never found.
Thinking, had the tendency to make him crave sugar and that's what he did, on his way home, he stopped by a convenience store to pick up a late night snack.
What he didn't expect was to run into two teenagers who were lost and came to him ask him for directions.
What shocked him was who, one of the teenagers looked like.
"Atsushi is that you?" He said, seeing a very different looking Atsushi, in a different school uniform that was neat and orderly placed on him, his flat hair had completely gone and was permed and he was wearing glasses.
"I'm sorry, sir. You've mistaken me for someone else" The boy said.
Kenichi wanted to have a heart attack.
Ch 14: Enter the father
Kenichi couldn't help but stare at his son look alike.
"Hey, old man" Koike said, getting annoyed that the man has been staring at Kade for a bit too long, just than Zeus made his presence known by sniffing the man in front of them and gagging.
He know that smell all too well, this man smelled like his owner's look alike and growled, ready to protect Kade if the man tried anything funny.
"Which way is the bus stop?" Koike asked, the man peeled his eyes away from Kade form and focused on the red head who looked annoyed.
"It's quite a long distance" Kenichi said, "I can offer you guys a lift" with a hidden motive and immediately he know, he had said something he shouldn't have because all three of them were looking at him like he was some sexual predator that loved to kidnapped high school boys looking for directions.
"….Um, no thanks" Koike said, awkwardly even Kade had read about cases about young people getting kidnapped and abused by strangers offering young people a lift and was starting to feel very uneasy about the man. "We'll find our way, somehow"
Koike took out of his phone and went to google maps but for some reason he wasn't getting any signal!
"Koike, why don't you use a regular map?" Kade suggested, the man was staring at him again, like he was seeing someone else entirely in his place.
"Regular map?" Koike said, like Kade was speaking a foreign language.
"You know, the kind of map that is always accurate and doesn't need a signal?" Kade said, "We can ask the cashier where we are and then have them point us in the right direction"
Koike was looking at him like he was an angel.
"Kade, this is way your my friend" Koike said, with his eyes shining.
Kade smiled, he didn't quite get what Koike meant by that, he was just happy that Koike called him a friend.
Kenichi eyes drilled into Kade head.
"Don't worry Mister, we don't need help anymore" Koike said, walking passed Kenichi and Kade followed his friend lead, getting a whiff of sugar from the man and his eyes slightly widened as something finally clicked in his mind about who this man could be.
Koike was surprised that the map was so cheap to buy considered how nobody used them anymore before paying and walking out the store not noticing the man was still there and had been watching them the whole time.
"How the hell do people us this thing!" Koike said in irritation, he couldn't make head or tales or this, even Zeus was tilting his head trying to see what he was supposed to be looking at and luckily Kade came to the rescue.
"Use the compass, it gives you a rough idea of where to go" Kade said, unaware that Kenichi was listening in closely as he pointed at the compass in the top right corner. "These lines at the side, act as a key to the whole map, like that dotted line is, represents 1 kilometre and if we walk, it would take us roughly around 15 minutes to cover. Using this method, makes the map look a lot simpler and easier to comprehend"
"Huh?" Koike said, blinking owlishly, he didn't get any of that but said. "Kade, since you know how to read it, lead the way"
"Really?" Kade said, looking happy that he was in a charge before his expression dropped and he turned to the man who had been drilling his eyes into him since the moment they met and asked. "Can you stop staring at me, mister? It's creepy"
Not that he was one to talk.
Kenichi looked surprised that he was called out on it and said. "Sorry I can't help it. You just look so much like one of my kids" yes, very much alike before walking to Kade and trying something and said.
"Would you like some candy?" he asked.
"No thank you" Kade answered automatically and Kenichi eyes literal grow round.
Zeus noses wrinkled at the strong scent of sugar on the man.
"It's a nice offer but I don't like sweets" Kade said, honestly before saying. "But if you had offered me some fruit or vegetables, I would have defiantly said yes"
Kenichi was dangerous close to having a heart attack.
Atsushi or any of his children would have eagerly taken the offer but this teenager was denying it like it meant nothing to him and even suggested vegetables!
Yep, he was defiantly going to lie down and try to calm himself down when he got him at the life changing revaluation.
This wasn't Atsushi but then who was this boy?
A crazy thought just popped into his head.
But it couldn't be!
This boy…
Can't be Atsuki.
Can he?
"Kade, let's go. It's getting dark, my mother is going to skin me alive if I'm late for dinner" Koike said, he didn't know what this old man found so interesting about Kade.
"Okay, Koike" Kade said, turning his back on the man and holding the map to his face so that he could negate.
Kenichi felt like he was letting something precious slip away by watching the young man and his friend go.
Why did he have the strong urge to run after him?
# a couple of Hours later#
"I'm home!" Kade said, finally in a place he recognised, he was surprised to find Jeremy literal coming out to greet him.
"Welcome back, why are you so late?" Jeremy asked, Kade was especially late even by normal standards which never happened.
"There was a lot of reporters running chasing me and Koike to the point we got lost" Kade said, while Zeus patted his stomach, having eaten a good half of the fruit basket and was feeling bloated.
"Kade, how do you feel about a blood test?" the man asked.
"Huh?" Kade said, confused.
"I think I've found your family" Jeremy said, smiling and Kade gave him a look of shock.
Just than his phone rang and Kade brain was working enough to answer it.
It was a message from the team manager about who the next opponent was.
He couldn't believe it.
# Murasakibara house hold#
"I'M HOME!" Kenichi yelled, feeling tired both emotionally and fiscally, Atsushi was the only child that was still young enough to live under his roof, while the other's always come over to visit.
"Welcome back" His wife said, thankful that her husband was finally here so that she could share the good news.
"*crunch* Welcome, *crunch* back" Atsushi said, from his room, eating in front of his mini T.V.
"Kenichi, I have something to tell you" Nana said, excitedly.
"Well, you won't believe what just happened to me" Kenichi said, wondering how his wife would feel if he said, he met Atsushi look alike. "But you first"
"Atsuki, is alive" Nana said, she watched the different expressions on her husband's face.
Kenichi said, in a calm tone. "Are you sure, Nana? This could be just another dead end" he said, he didn't want his wife going into extreme depression, again.
"I've got pictures" Nana said, knowing that it would take a lot to convince her husband, she laid out the pictures that she had been staring at the whole evening on the table and Kenichi came over.
His eyes widened.
Why were their pictures of the boy he just met!?
He could help but look in shock.
"His guardian said, he has been looking for us, for a long time and it was only recently that he had finally located us" Nana said, with obvious joy, once the test results came back she could finally reunite with her kidnapped child.
Kenichi looked from picture to picture, he was slowly coming to a revelation that scared him.
"Are you sure?" He said, looking up from the pictures "These picture could have been easily done in Photoshop."
"I've got a video too" Nana said, knowing once he sees it, her husband would be forced to see that this was their son.
Kenichi rose an eyebrow and Nana produced the blessered camcorder and passed it to her husband.
Kenichi pressed play with fear behind his actions.
He watched what looked like a running competition going on, when Kade came on, he sucked in his breath, Kade hair was flat and taller than Atsushi and it was always tied back.
He started to shake when he heard the boy talk.
This was the same boy, he had just met!
Everything in him, screamed that this boy was his son.
He had just met his missing son.
And he had let him go.
Tears started to fall.
"I….let him go!" He said.
"Huh?" Nana asked confused.
"On the way here, I ran into a boy, no" He corrected himself. "I ran into Atsuki with a friend of his, carrying a fruit basket and there was small animal with him, he was wearing the exact same uniform that he's wearing in some of the pictures."
"You met him!" Nana sounding shocked, wondering if her husband had gotten his number or maybe a promise from the boy to come and visit them. "Did, you get his number?" she asked, with excitement.
And this was where the heart breaking continued.
He hadn't.
"I didn't know who he was" Kenichi said, "Everything in me was telling me he was Atsuki but I refused to listen. I let him go without even a contact number. He doesn't even know who I am!"
Nana was shocked, her husband had met their lost child and he didn't even know it until she had told him.
Kenichi just cried.
He had been so close!
Why didn't he go after him when his own son had been right in front of his eyes!?
"What he like?" A voice asked.
"Huh?" Kenichi said, turning to his wife.
"What's he like?" Nana asked the question again, she needed to know about her baby.
Kenichi cleared his tears away and answered. "He's very smart, you should have heard him when he was trying to explain how a map works." he couldn't help but smile now that he know he was his son, before remembering. "Oh and he doesn't like sweets, he like vegetables and fruits"
Nana looked absolutely heart broken.
There was a Murasakibara that didn't like sweets!
Was the world ending!?
"So he's healthy than?" Nana said.
"Yes very healthy, he has your smile" Kenichi said and that was all that Nana needed to hear.
She had been so worried that he wasn't being looked after, it surprised her that Atsuki had taken her smile, since none of her other kids had.
But soon she would see her son for the first time and she didn't intend on letting him get taken away from her again as soon as she had custody and she told her husband the good news.
"Kenichi, I took a blood test yesterday" She said, getting the man attention. "Atsuki guardian had me take it to prove that I'm his mother, once we get the test results back, we can take custardy of our child" of course, this wouldn't be so if he had been taken away from them.
Kenichi was so happy about the news.
He still had a chance to introduce himself properly and get to catch up on all the years they've missed!
Of course the whole family would have to be told too.
They both chatted for an hour or so, not noticing that a certain someone was hiding behind the door having heard the talking and had got interested, it wasn't until Kenichi went to bed that Nana noticed Atsushi hiding behind the door.
She wondered how long he had been standing there for.
"Mom, why was dad crying?" Atsushi asked, with worry coming into the living room.
"Who is Atsuki?" he asked.
Apparently he had been there long enough.
Nana know the truth would soon come out so she gestured for Atsushi to sit down, this was going to be a long night for both of them.
She took a deep breath and said.
"Atsushi you have a twin brother"
# Kade house#
Kade stared at the name on the tiny screen looking absolutely stunned.
He just couldn't believe it.
What were the chances of him facing off against that team of all people?
Because Willow High next opponent was.
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Yōsen High
And scene!
Finally finished! Next chapter, the Murasakibara's come to watch the match between the two brothers. I've already named the next chapter title.
Ch 15: Kade and Atsushi face off: The Battle of the Giants!