Disclaimer: Kuroko no Basuke is written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki, published by Shueisha. Nothing belongs to me, but my fanfics and OCs are mine.

Possible Genres: Romance, Drama, Action, Shoujo, Crime, Girls with Guns…

Note to self: Chapter 38 was uploaded on March 7, 2014

Author's note: Thanks for the reviews, everyone!

To Guest Anon: Akashi's eye is pretty much a secret. If you noticed, he never told anyone what was going on. So, of course you'd be confused what is happening to his eye. :D The answer will be revealed eventually. *winks* Unless you think hard enough, it could be obvious too.

Enjoy reading!

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Texting

Chapter 38: A Fleeting Battle Between Queens

In the forest that resembled a maze, Sakai actually lost where Ginmori had gone. Slowing down her pace, she eventually came to a stop and panted. The air felt so warm that it made her remember about summer because the days had been getting warmer and warmer each day. And today felt more heated than before that a couple of sweats ran down the sides of her face.

The gun in her sweaty right hand was gripped tightly and she knew Ginmori must be hiding close by. Ginmori might have long legs, yet Sakai just knew she would not just run away like that. They must face each other, even if they never did so before in their Life and Death Game. Even if they were friends in the past.

This was Ginmori's chance as well as Sakai's. To test each other's strength for the first time.

Quieting her breathing, Sakai stepped forward cautiously. She had left her bag behind somewhere, but that was not important. Only having some bullets left, Sakai was determined she would at least shoot one more into Ginmori's head.

A single drop of blood dripped above Sakai and in front of her view. She glared and quickly raised her gun as her eyes snapped to look up at the sky.

Ginmori had jumped from a high tree branch with her knife swinging outward. As Sakai fired, Ginmori had already knocked the gun over to the right and the bullet missed. Sakai held on it tightly and was still capable holding it. She landed as Ginmori bent down and aimed a roundhouse kick at Sakai's legs.

Unable to dodge Ginmori's quick movement, Sakai's feet were swept off the ground and she began fall on her left side. However, she threw her left arm out, striking Ginmori's wrist with her left hand. And the knife flew out of Ginmori's hand. Snickering, Ginmori moved her body to drop over to the right and her elbow slammed into Sakai's stomach as they both landed on the ground together.

Leaving no room for feeling pain, Sakai realized her right arm was buried Ginmori's body so she was unable to pull her trigger. Lifting her left leg to knee Ginmori's head, Ginmori had already dodged it by flipping forward from her back. Sakai glared and got up quickly and aimed her gun. Ginmori made a quick turn to meet Sakai, slapping the gun away just as Sakai opened fire once more.

"Tsk," Sakai pointed the gun again. However, she did not pull the trigger seeing as Ginmori kicked out from the left and Sakai blocked with her left forearm. Sakai winced by the blow of the kick and she rushed backwards as Ginmori moved again to kick from the other side.

Sakai took a leap back and Ginmori's kick missed by an inch. Aiming her gun once again, Sakai frowned just as Ginmori quickly moved forward and grabbed the gun to lower it. "You can do better than that, Rin," Ginmori smirked to her face.

Sakai grunted and gave a look of vexation. "You're not allowed to call me by my first name anymore, Silver Blade," Sakai nearly whispered.

The two struggled for the gun as their eyes stared into one another. And in that mere moment, Sakai seemed to have lost herself in old memories she wanted to forget. Sakai pressed the trigger to erase her own confusion, but the bullet only hit the ground by Ginmori's left foot. Laughing a bit, Ginmori hurried and forced Sakai away to keep their distances a bit.

Out of Ginmori's right sleeve, something shot out to Sakai when Ginmori swung her arm vertically to the sky. The blond realized it was one of Ginmori's favorite hidden weapons, those thick needles. It was aimed to Sakai's face, however it was knocked away by a pair scissors that flew from the side.

Ginmori did not try to see who threw the scissor and moved back a few steps. With a grin, her right foot accordingly found where she had planted a trap. A trap to plan her escape if something had gone wrong, but this worked out either way. When she pressed on it with her foot, bombs were set off nearby and dusts flew in the forest in a second.

The earth seemed to shake and Sakai wobbled. Her eyes caught Ginmori shooting out another needle from her left sleeve and it flew above Sakai's head. The sound of something snapped and Sakai looked back. A tree begun falling toward her and Sakai picked up her feet to evade it, however Sakai felt she tripped on string trap that seemed to have activated on Ginmori's signal.

"Heh," Ginmori walked backwards as she brushed her bangs from her face. The tree would land over Sakai when Sakai falls to the ground. That was how Ginmori calculated. But then she saw a glimpse of that redhead, who moved and tackled Sakai out of the tree's way. "Ah, oh well," Ginmori smirked as she made a sharp turn to leave the scene. Since creating this loud commotion here, Ginmori had already lost her chance to do what she wanted. As a result, it was time for her to depart.

Besides, continue fighting the Golden Bullet would only waste time. Not as long as Sakai craved for revenge, the battle would be absolutely disappointing. Aside from that, Ginmori could also sense Sakai was not able to bring herself to harm her at all. 'Rin had gotten so weak,' Ginmori quietly thought, running with the wind.

Was that a good thing for Ginmori? Or a bad thing?

When Akashi had tackled Sakai, they both rolled down on the hill together. He covered her body as much as possible, his arm around her head and the other around her waist. Sakai was not certain who helped her, and at the same time, she was furious for someone getting in her way.

The moment they landed, Sakai felt something pierced through the back of her upper right arm. Akashi was over her, so he moved to sit up beside her. Her eyes looked at him and she frowned as soon as their eyes met. "What the hell, why is it you?" Sakai bitterly said, getting up from her back. She winced when Akashi took her arm.

He saw a dirtied broken piece of glass in the back of her arm. Pulling on the glass, he threw it away and then he ripped the end of his shirt. She seemed to disapprove of his gesture, but when they looked at each other's eyes again, she paused as she stared at him in a daze. Akashi took this chance and quietly wrapped up the wound around her arm.

Then he thought back about that battle he saw between Sakai and that woman with silver hair. It was only a short moment, but he could tell those two really experienced life and death before. And they were not afraid to take each other's life at all. 'It's like a fleeting battle between queens,' he mentally said to himself. He was not amazed, he was simply observing.

"Does it hurt?" Sakai was asking softly. He looked at her with his eyes in hues of only red. The golden-yellow color was gone for some reason.

Akashi knew she must have seen his left eye, but he would never answer her question. The pain in his eye had stopped immediately and she peered some more to study it. The golden-yellow hue must have returned given that Sakai frowned.

And he just rewound the tone of her voice when she asked if it was hurting. She sounded concern as if she knew pain very well. Whoever it was, friend or foe, her heart seemed to call out to pain automatically.

That would be why Sakai would not have been able to stand a single chance against that silver haired woman. Sakai had become soft. Her dark side would never get a chance to come out ever again for she sealed it more tightly than before.

"Ba-kashi, I can't believe you threw the both of us down here," Sakai looked up the hill. It was quite a few ways down. Did they roll down that long? The sky filled with dusts and mixed with black smokes.

"If I had not, you would have died," Akashi told her, moving to sit more properly. Then he ripped another strip of cloth to cover up his own wound on his left arm that the woman made earlier.

She snapped her head to him, "Me? Died?!"

"You would not have won as well," he remarked, glancing to her. He tied the cloth up around his arm and noted, "The forest is her territory." Sakai gritted her teeth and pouted to the side with an annoyed expression. He saw her hand touched upper right arm gently. He felt she was thankful enough and her mind seemed to clear up a bit. "Do you really have a death wish, Rin?"

Sakai choked on something and coughed as she covered her mouth. "What the hell did you just called me?!" she glared at him. She blinked when his golden-yellow eye was flickering, as if it would give out soon. "Akashi, seriously, what's wrong with your eye?" Apparently, it caused her to be more curious and her outburst was already dismissed.

He covered up his left eye and sighed at her. "Is it for revenge?" he inquired her, wanting to go back to his subject.

There was a long pause when she still tried to read what was wrong with him. It seemed painful. She wondered if Tomimura knew about it. Sakai brought her thoughts back together when he just stared at her. "Yeah sure, revenge," she mumbled, moving to sit up straight. "Nakano-chan might not have want it, but…" Why did she have to tell him though? Was she not supposed to hate him?

"Was her name perhaps Nakano Makoto?"

Stunned, she gave him a weird look. Akashi waited for her to response, but they both understood already. "…You know her?" she asked, a bit uneasy. She would never imagine if Nakano ever met Akashi. She could not even picture it.

Akashi looked away, tired of looking at her in the eye. His hand stopped covering his left eye when the pain ceased yet again. "I never met her, however I do recall my father mentioning her name. It was a name of a girl who might have honestly interested me. That was all there was to it." Hearing the name 'Nakano' made him believe Sakai was talking about Nakano Makoto.

"Interest you, really?" Sakai cracked a smile. "Nakano would never take a glance at you though, Ba-kashi."

Makoto meant sincerity. And Akashi believed the meaning in Nakano matched her pretty well, even if they had never met or spoke to each other before. Just a little bit, if he had met her before he had met Tomimura… Nakano might have been the girl he would first take interest in.

It was a shame Nakano was dead. She may have been able to fix up the distance between Akashi and Tomimura. Yes, that was the process of Akashi's very own personal thoughts. And those thoughts would never be said out loud because people would start to doubt his absolute words if he ever admitted it. Especially with Sakai.

Akashi sat up and dusted himself. Then he lowered hand to Sakai without looking at her. "Time to head back," he notified. She stared at his hand he held out and wondered to herself. "If you are away from your home, you must have someone who took you here, am I wrong? Do you want them to worry if you are gone too long?"

She tilted her head and pouted all the while. Truthfully, she was strong enough to stand by herself. He must know that. But his hand seemed to symbolize some kind of truce between the two of them. And it was up to her if she wanted it or not. Her eyes lifted up to see his face and he refused to look back at her. Sakai looked at his hand once more and waited to see if he would give up offering his hand to her.

Patiently waiting, he could do this all day. However, Sakai touched his hand and he looked to her. "You're still not forgiven," she stated with childish look.

With a faint smile, he grasped her hand and pulled her up to her feet. Then he responded, "I know."

Sakai rolled her eyes and looked around to see which direction was the way to go. Then Akashi turned in his spot to guide her and she soon followed willingly, with her hand over the wound he had tended. 'I bet he's just being nice for Tomi-chan,' Sakai flattened her eyes to Akashi's back.

And then she thought about Ginmori. Sakai recalled their little encounter and the way they fought to harm one another. '…Gin-chan,' Sakai sadly lowered her eyes.

She would have regretted it if she had killed Ginmori. The word 'revenge' seemed meaningless all of the sudden. Being close to Ginmori today only revived old memories Sakai still cherished in her heart. Sakai now knew her feelings as it became clearer, even if she had not forgiven Ginmori for killing Nakano just yet.

'Gin-chan… why did you kill Nakano-chan?'

\o~o/

Safely arriving to the Akashi residence, all of the bodyguards had welcomed Akashi back from the forest, which they had searched out for him and Sakai. When Akashi and Sakai were told to meet Akashi's father in the house, Sakai protested and rather not because her father might be looking for her, but Akashi suggested they should clean her wound first. So she agreed with a second thought.

"Seijuurou, who allowed you to run out like that?" Akashi's father demanded with concern. He was frowning at his son in the living room as the maids were cleaning up Sakai's wound on her arm.

Akashi gave his father a silent look first. They were standing in front of each other by the doorway of the living room and the lobby. "Am I supposed to apologize?" Akashi stared blankly. His own wound was already cleaned and wrapped up nicely.

His father chuckled now and patted on Akashi's head. Sakai was staring at them quietly and Akashi felt the urge to slap his father's hand for treating like a child in front of the blonde. "I'm glad you are okay, but you brought back an injured young lady," his father gestured, pretending to make a hurtful face. "You're supposed to be perfect. She should not have been harmed."

"Father, about that woman who attacked in our house…" Akashi wanted to ask about it, ignoring his father's statement.

When the older man smiled mischievously, Akashi instantly knew his father was not about to tell him about it. "If you do not wish for me to reveal about your friend there, who reeks of bloodshed…" Sakai's eyes widened a bit at Akashi's father's words and she kept her mouth shut. "I suggest you be quiet about how I am acquainted with that woman with silver hair."

Akashi stared at his father's calmness for a moment. Behind the older man's eyes, Akashi could at least trust his father on it. "…Fair enough," Akashi nodded. He did not desire for Tomimura to be found out either, so he must keep all of the girls safe for as long as possible.

"Good," Akashi's father smiled appreciatively.

"I'm not Akashi's friend, by the way," Sakai clarified after faking an annoyed cough.

"Oh?" the father smirked to her. "The both of you are not even friends? Not even after he saved you?" When Sakai opened her mouth to say something, Akashi did the same too and no one could hear what they both said at the same time. Akashi's father looked to his son since he actually heard what Akashi had stated. "This girl is Tomimura's friend? No wonder. You have been making friends with girls for the first time, haven't you, Seijuurou?"

"I said he didn't save me!" Sakai repeated what they did not seem to hear. "And he just got in the way!" She pulled her arm away after the maid finished bandaging it up and Sakai stood up. "I'm done here. Dad's probably running around with his tears streaming out!"

Sakai stomped her way around the living room and rushed over to the path to the lobby. "Hold it." She stopped by Akashi's father when he commanded her not to walk any further. "My son went through all the trouble to protect you and you are not going to thank him at least once?" the man inquired, eyeing her at the corner of his eyes.

"It is futile, father," Akashi told him, looking elsewhere. Sakai glanced to the father and the son, who were almost alike. "It will not mean anything if she does not say it from her heart. Just let her leave."

"Since when did Seijuurou think like that?" the older man smirked amusingly to the redhead.

Sakai sighed at them and could not help but have thoughts to actually say that special words she preferred to give her friends. As soon as Akashi turned his head to look at his father, who was almost alongside with Sakai, he noticed both Sakai and his father was staring at him shockingly.

Quickly, Akashi covered up his left eye with his hand. "I am going to rest now," he said, stepping out of the living room.

The father turned around to look back, "Sei—"

"I'm not in the mood," Akashi uttered to end their moment of discussion, already heading up the stairs.

Sakai stood where she was, also watching Akashi leaving up the stairs. When she could no longer see him down a hall, she looked to the father who just frowned. "This is one reason why it's difficult being a parent," he sighed to himself as he folded his arms to his chest. Sakai blinked to his remark as he added, "Sometimes I just don't know what Seijuurou is thinking anymore."

That reminded Sakai of her own father, who does not know what she was thinking or have been up to. She knew her father would be so disappointed in her, but she did not wish for him to feel like that. Therefore, she would lie to put her father at ease if she had to.

"Don't worry about what Akashi is thinking too much," Sakai waved her hand as if she wanted to slap away Akashi's father's clouds of confusion. As the older man fixed his eyes on her, she told him, "I'm sure Akashi just don't want you to be bothered with his personal issues either."

He smirked, "Are you talking from experience?"

"I'm sure you are already aware of that," she supposed with shrug.

"But do know this," he faced her. She kept her eyes opened as she stared right back peculiarly. "You will always worry your parent no matter what you choose to do."

He too was speaking from experience with a clear conscious. Remembering about her father again, she bowed to him as politely as she could. "Sorry for imposing, sir," she said as she stood back up. "I have to go now."

Walking out of the living room now, a butler had opened the door for her. Before she could exit, Akashi's father called, "You can still thank my son on another time, you know."

Sakai paused at the door and her hand rested on the edge of the door. She did not look back and then hurried out of there before any thoughts crossed her mind.

\o~o/

In the locked bedroom, Akashi was lying on his back on his bed and his right forearm covered his eyes. He breathed normally, but he could feel his heart beating than regular. And about his eye… he rather not had anyone ask about it or even interfere with him. This was his own problem he could deal with himself. Or whatever it was.

His phone vibrated and he did not bother to see who it was when he took the red cell phone out of his pocket. Opening it up and placing it to his left ear, he answered, "Yes?"

"Hello, Akashi," Seki greeted almost enthusiastically. He did not say anything and she chuckled at his odd silence. "I'm just calling since you stopped doing so ever since you seemed to have stop speaking with Tomimura. Plus, I missed talking to you about shoujo mangas. Unless you got bored with those, we can talk about something else. Oh, how about Midorima? What kind of person is he?"

Akashi held back his own chuckle. Meeting with these girls were not so bad at all. He had Kise to thank. After that thinking, he replied casually, "First of all, Shintarou's a Cancer."

\o~o/

Sakai had met up with her father back at the same store where he was actually waiting for her with faith. When he saw her, he ran to her with his arms opened for a hug. Before he did anything though, she snapped, "Stop right there, dad! I'm injured!"

Just a few steps away, Nobuyuki froze and saw the bandage around her arm. "Eh? What happen to my beautiful Rin?!" he cried, walking closer while keeping his distance. "Did someone attack you?!"

She gave her father a dry look first. There was a fake story to back her up already, so she explained, "I almost got ran over by people running about and a shattered glass somehow stabbed me and then someone's friend from home, who lived here, was near by and helped me out."

He smiled with great relief, "Thank goodness! Did you give your thanks to that person?"

Sakai stared blankly at her father and he was making puppy eyes in hopes she did give her gratitude on his behalf. She lowered her eyes after a few seconds, falling quiet. There was not much to think about though. Slowing smiling to herself, she said, "…Not yet."

"Not yet?" Nobuyuki blinked with confusion. Sakai grew silent again and kept a soft smile on her face.

She was starting to get some sense Akashi must have another side to him. Just like her, perhaps. Because of the way his left eye reacted strangely. And that was not a good sign because two people cannot share the same body. Which was why Sakai locked her other self away many times before. So, she slightly worried for Akashi, but merely for Tomimura's sake.

"Sakai," a new voice called. Both daughter and father turned their heads to the voice. Minami, the man with semi-long black hair that was tied in a low ponytail, walked up to them with a notepad in his hand. He was looking at it while walking and he said, "About the case that…" Minami trailed off in his sentence when his quiet eyes met Sakai Rin's gaze.

The instant of them staring at each other was interrupted by Nobuyuki's happy cry, "Minami! This is my elder daughter, Rin!"

Sakai frowned at her father, who commenced his bragging obsession.

"She's nearly your splitting image," Minami nodded to him, giving not much of a reaction.

"That's it?" Nobuyuki let out a depressed gasp. His daughter meant so much to him, how could Minami have a little comment?

Minami gave Nobuyuki a sigh and then flipped through his notepad. "And attractive," he decided to add. "Satisfied now?"

Looking away, Sakai covered her ears as soon as Nobuyuki leap toward Minami. "NOOOOO!" Nobuyuki tackled Minami, but Minami was able stand his ground and Nobuyuki's arms were hanging from Minami's neck. "You're not allowed to talk about my daughter like that!"

"I lied," Minami dryly said, tilting his head away from Nobuyuki's loud voice. For such a man who was now a grown father, Nobuyuki sure acted like he was in his teens. Minami wondered how his daughter even thought of her own father.

"Oh," Nobuyuki moved off of him. He beamed and rubbed the back of his head uneasily. "Well, sorry about that, haha! Just so we're clear about my daughter! So, what were you saying before, Minami?"

Sakai squinted her eyes at the two of them whilst they started to talk about work. She could always run off and buy that dress she wanted. However… her gaze observed Minami's features. He talked calmly and patiently with Nobuyuki. His gestures were gentle and understanding too.

'He… almost look like him,' Sakai mused, averting her eyes elsewhere. 'Is it just a coincidence?' The look in Minami's eyes and his last name reminded her of someone, whose life was taken away by the ocean years ago.

Author's note: I wanna try to update again in the next two days or something... XD But if not, oh well!

And thanks for reading!