A/N: It's been a while, but I do have word processor downloaded now. So I am happy about that. Anyway, sorry for such a short chapter last time, I hope this one doesn't disappoint either. I honestly haven't a clue how to get where I am heading, so just follow as if I know what I am doing. So this chapter might be confusing, but that's only because I have made three different versions and this just happened to be the one I am going with. It'll get where I want it, but that will take some time.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroko no basket or the characters, just the characters I made up.
Warning: This chapter contains original characters, and anything else I listed in the previous chapters.
Chapter Thirteen
Gold eyes boar into teal eyes as the silence enveloped the two. Neither one would say a word, but eventually the blonde haired girl couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't the kind of person, whether in life or death, to keep her mouth shut for too long.
"Kurokocchi, why are you here?" she asked, puzzled at the smaller girls appearance. She hadn't known anyone to come back, but she never really paid attention either. She'd only decided to do what she felt like and that's exactly what she had done for the past six years.
"I am here for a reason, Kise-chan. You do not need to know," Kuroko stated her voice as emotionless as it always has been.
"I see, I think I know what it is that keeps you here then. Isn't it, him, you are here to see? Isn't that what is keeping you in this place?" Kise asked.
"That's not the reason, Kise-chan. Besides, why are you bringing it up unless you are thinking of someone else at the same time? Are you trying to put your reasons onto someone else?" Kuroko asked, curious as to how the blonde girl would react to her words.
"Even if it's you, Kurokocchi, I will not forgive you. Besides, he's already forgotten, hasn't he? I don't feel like he even remembers me," Kise stated unhappily.
"That's only how you feel about it. Everyone is trapped here only because they think they can't move on, and that everyone they knew had already moved on. Takao-chan thought the same thing," Kuroko explained.
"Yes, but Midorimacchi wouldn't move on anyways. He's nothing compared Aominecchi. Midorimacchi wouldn't want to forget, especially how he reacted that time," Kise explained thinking back to a sad event.
"But Aomine-kun isn't like what you think either," Kuroko said.
"No, he is. He'd rather forget something like this than come to terms, and how would you know. Have you seen him any time recently?" Kise asked.
"No, he hasn't been back in town since he left. No one can get ahold of him either, he is just traveling around drowning out what ever emotions he's feeling," Kuroko explained.
Kise sighed, "See, I told you. Aominecchi wouldn't come back, he wouldn't even think about the things that happened. I am better off staying here, doing whatever I please. You can't stop me, and if you get in my way, I won't hesitate in killing you as well." Kise slowly faded away leaving Kuroko with her lips turning down and the hallway growing an eerie quiet again.
At that time, Riko and her group started to make their way to the third floor. They were having a difficult time keeping track of each corridor, and were slowly getting lost.
"How can we get lost when we've been down most of these hallways?" Riko asked, her anger starting to show.
"I'm sorry, so sorry. We're going to die here and it'll be my entire fault," Sakurai started to panic as he curled up into a ball in a corner. The group was officially getting annoyed with each other.
"There's no need to panic, or getting angry. We just have to keep heading this way. I am sure the stairs are around here," Hyuuga stated as he tried to keep the group as calm as possible.
"Yes, and then it'll only be a short walk to the exit," Imayoshi added, the two being more of the stable minds of the group.
"Right," Riko sighed as she tried to keep her calm. They were continuing down the hall when they had to stop. They heard voices on the other side of the corner.
"And you think coming back here to let me know was the right thing to do?" a husky voice shouted. It was filled with dark, malicious tones and sent an eerie chill up their spines.
"S…sorry sir, this was the better choice at the time. If I had chased her, we'd have lost our specimen," a more timid voice replied. It was filled with fear and an array of other emotions they were unable to detect.
"What about the others? Are they still here?" the first voice asked, not holding anything back.
"Well, they haven't left, but they aren't easy to track. They've been wandering around for a while now," the second voice continued.
"I see, well, as long as they are here our plans won't fall through. We'll be in trouble if we couldn't finish these plans, our heads will literally role," the first voice finished.
"Yes, I'll make sure that nothing else happens from now until the plans are finished," the second voice finished as well and then the sounds of footsteps faded away.
"What was that about?" Riko asked after a while.
"Another ghost?" Izuki asked.
"No, this felt different than when we'd met with the ghosts. Plus, they sounded older," Riko put her finger under her chin as she contemplated the current situation.
"Wouldn't the teachers also be here?" Izuki asked.
"Yes, but didn't it feel different?" Riko asked and everyone contemplated that thought.
A chill ran through all of them as they kept thinking about it. They knew better then to keep thinking about it, but it was the only thing filling their thoughts.
"So, if they aren't ghosts, what were they talking about?" Hyuuga asked and the new puzzlement ran through each of them.
While they were lost in their new thoughts Kagami managed to find himself down a dead end corridor. It only had windows on both sides of the hall and a checkered door at the end. He felt a chill run through him as he kept eyeing the door.
"Don't go down there," a voice whispered through his ears and he jumped looking behind him. A small, pink haired girl looked up at him, a smile painting her face.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked and her smile never faded.
"I am no one, but someone," she smiled with a playful voice, "would you like to play, onii-chan?" she asked. She wore the schools' old uniform, but it was a dark blue color instead of white.
Kagami watched the child with intense eyes. He didn't know what was real or not anymore, and he was sure this kid was a ghost. He knew that anyone he'd meet would be one.
"I am Momoi Mana, maybe when you leave you can find my younger sister. Anyway, don't let my size and stature fool you, I was a high school student, meaning, I'd be older then you if I'd lived," she stated, reading the outer expression on his face. Her long, pink hair swayed as she turned around, "that's the student councils' office. Even though he is no longer there, it is still the most dangerous place in this school," then she skipped off leaving Kagami standing there, dumbfounded.
"What the hell?" he asked chasing after the smaller girl who turned back to gaze at him.
"I am only helpful for now, but if you don't leave soon, you and your friends will be in even more danger. I decided to help Tetsu-chan, since she is desperately finding something that no longer exists, so don't let her find out you didn't leave. Also, there are…some unexpected guests that have been causing trouble here and you're their target. Well, not you in particular, just the lot of you," she smiled.
He was stalled in his tracks as she disappeared down the corridor. He was still in the hall with the closed door.
"If that is the student councils office, does that mean that's where everything started? Would going there be able to stop all of this from happening?" he asked himself and started walking down the hall. He didn't know why he would do this, especially since he was actually really afraid. He just knew that he had to go there; something was pulling him towards that direction.
Below, on the first floor, Kawahara sat, both his arms and legs were numb and he couldn't move. He hadn't seen what had happened, except that there was someone who had been behind him. Then he was out until just now.
He looked around him, the first floor was in disarray and the ceiling had parts of it falling down. He wasn't in the hall, but in a room. There was a little bit of light coming from a fluorescent light bulb that gave the room enough light for him to see. Below that light fixture was a tray of medical scalpels, each gleaming dangerously.
In panic he tried to move or make noise, but even his voice wasn't working. It was like he'd been given specific drugs that cut off all speech.
Footsteps came into the room and a tall, dark haired woman smiled at the awakened male. She had long hair that curled at the ends, she wore a white lab coat, and her glasses hid her eyes.
"Well now, you are awake. I didn't expect you to be awake yet. I guess the dosage was too low," she smiled as she came closer.
"You must be wandering who I am, I am Dr. Chase, employed by the same people who had run this school. They decided that their initial experiment failed, but this one works out much better in the long run. I wonder, who was it that first started such a silly rumor? A haunted school, but that also makes it easy to entice young souls who want to see it for themselves. This place is the perfect breeding ground for a specimen," she smiled as she picked up a syringe and bottle of murky liquid.
Kawahara tried to move again, but he was at a loss at this point.
"It's not like we're doing anything bad. I mean, everyone who comes here, it's their choice. Don't you think? So I don't see this being anything bad at all," she smiled as she drew the liquid into the syringe and pulled the needle from the bottle.
She walked over to Kawahara, the needle looking bigger and bigger to him as she stepped closer.
"Well, at least we'll get to see some interesting reactions. First, it was that boy, what was his name? Oh well, names' don't matter to me. In fact, I don't even know your name. Is it sad, to die without anyone knowing who you are?" she asked as she placed the needle on his skin and was about to insert it when the door opened.
"Fionna, what the hell are you doing?" a rough, husky voice made her turn. She looked at the grey haired male, his grey eyes seething.
"Hmm, just having some fun, Haisaki-kun. What about you? Why are you disturbing my little sanctuary?" she asked, her own expression showing annoyance.
"We've got that group here, but it seems your too busy mixing your chemicals to see that they are no longer in any place we can track. What if they escape?" he asked, his annoyance just as high.
"That's your job, Shogo, my job is to test these newest drugs on these rats. What are you doing? Ordering others to do your work? If the bosses heard you were shirking your job, won't you be the one in trouble?" she asked, her tone changing from a playful, child-like voice, to a serious one.
Haisaki didn't show any signs of fear, but inside he was worried about the bosses finding out his failures.
"Just remember, keep an eye out for them. They haven't left the building yet, but they could be virtually anywhere," he stated before leaving with the slam of the door.
"Ah, what a touchy man," she smiled before turning her gaze back to her victim, "now, where was I? Oh yeah, let's see what kind of reaction you will give? Do you think you'll die right away or will you survive long enough for the pain."
The needle went in and she shot the liquid out of the tube. The liquid was quick to work, and she could only watch the agony start to set in.
"Enjoy, little boy. This is the outcome you have for coming to a school full of the dead," she smiled as the light fixture started to buzz out and the room returned to dark, "this is the outcome everyone has come to."
Final Notes: Sorry for the short chapters, but I should be upping the lengths and pace soon. I have break coming up and all I'll be doing is work, making my afternoons free for whatever I want. No homework either. I just have a lot of things to work on for my classes until then, so this will be the only chapter unless I get board with everything else.
Thank you to everyone who are still following, and especially thanks to those who continue to review. I love to see what everyone thinks about the story or how it's going.\
Another note, I have a lot of ideas in the works for new stories. I also have a few one-shots I am working on. Look forward to whatever I complete first, and once this story is finished, I will be working on the prequel. Making summer the better time to start getting out new stories and chapters, so until next time!