Hello people! I won't apologize for the delay, as I never promised regular updates, but I will explain it: I got sucked into the black hole that is the Supernatural fandom. Any good recommendations?
This was prompted by chapter 223 (and later by chapter 224 when it came out) and several very sweet reviews.
It doesn't happen fatefully, with a grand reveal and a flash of lightning.
Rather, it happens gradually, one step at a time.
When Kuroko brushes by Kagami on that court, there is no jolt of electric current. No earthquake. No sudden premonition that they are going to become teammates, partners, best friends. Just a sense of dull surprise that he's been noticed, and a handful of words exchanged that, at any other time, would have made Kuroko pause. Would have made him consider the boy opposite him, and stirred his curiosity enough to try and draw him into a game, a conversation.
At any other time.
The team that walks by barely registers - the presence of an Uncrowned General is noteworthy but not of any direct concern of Kuroko's. His eyes do pause, however, and flicker over their game, over the handshakes and discussions and backslaps. It could have been a revelation, the sudden feeling that their basketball will be his, that they will become a family - as it is, it only makes his heart clench a little tighter.
He's filling in his applications, and his heart has never felt so heavy - his resignation letter is folded inside his bag, and it seems to him that it weighs a thousand tons. His hand pauses over the name "Seirin" and a flash of memory steals through his mind.
Kuroko hesitates.
And takes a chance.
The throng of people is awe-inspiring - but Kuroko navigates it like it's second nature, his nose buried in his book. He glances up, and his gaze comes to rest on another student - tall, red-haired, scowling. The world doesn't go still, Kuroko isn't filled with the certainty that everything is going to be all right - but he does acknowledge the niggling feeling of déjà vu, and wonders if this is due to chance.
He knows he doesn't look like much - there's nothing impressive about his frame, nothing remarkable about his speed or skill, especially next to his senpais and Kagami-kun - yet Kawahara-kun passes him the ball.
He'd like to say that's the moment everything changes, but in truth, it's not. It's just another tiny step, and frankly it's got nothing on what he did at Teikou. Still, his new team look at him with amazement and awe, and he thinks that there could have been - there may still be - a connection, a link forged between them.
"I'll become number one," Kagami-kun says, and for the first time in a long time, Kuroko allows himself to hope.
Is anyone else wondering... If Kagami lived close enough to Kuroko's that they met on a street court, how could he not know about the Generation of Miracles?