This is fanfiction work on Kuroko no Basket. I do not own the anime nor the manga, but I do own my OC(s), including Shirosaki Ichiro, and the ideas I come up with in this fanfic are mine.
Suggested to have watched the anime before, since it's heavily based on and contains spoilers.
ICHIRO IS 4 WHEN he first holds a basketball in his hands. He remembers shooting. And missing by quite a margin.
He falls in love with the sport then and there, and it's impossible to stop him from becoming passionate about it.
His father, an ex-basketball superstar, watches with a proud smile as his son takes bigger and bigger steps into the domain of basketball. Shirosaki Hiroto is quick to help whenever his son asks, and the two only grow closer thanks to the wonder that is the sport, as Ichiro's mother watches with a fond smile.
By the time Ichiro is 10, he has already become extraordinarily good for his age. He can shoot three-pointers with incredible accuracy, and his father can easily imagine his son following in his footsteps, going pro with a basketball in hand.
His parents die in a car accident a few months later. Ichiro survives, and he begins to understand. Life isn't just sunshine and rainbows.
He moves to Japan to live with his aunt. She is kind, his father's younger sister. Her boyfriend breaks up with her when he learns that she has taken custody of a child. Ichiro pretends not to notice when he hears the wrenched sobs late at night.
His aunt Miya does her best to make him feel at home. She lives in Tokyo and is a lawyer in a prestigious firm. Ichiro feels thankful, but he isn't sure anymore how to express his gratitude. How to be happy when his parents aren't with him anymore? He finds it hard to smile and contents himself by showing his thanks with his blue eyes.
(Did you see that new kid? He never smiles. Such a freak.)
Ichiro loses himself in basketball. He doesn't make friends. He is content with only himself and his basketball. He pretends not to notice the worried looks his aunt is recently trying to hide from him.
It's such a weird thing. How cruel some children can be when they don't know any better. Ichiro isn't bullied, but he is ignored. A part of him says that he doesn't care, but then why does he look at the other children his age laughing as they play and tease each other? He doesn't understand, but then, he doesn't really want to. Not anymore.
There are a few times he has found himself wishing the world would just go away. He believes that the world is cruel. And it really hasn't given him any reason to think otherwise.
(He ignores the little voice that whispers about the times he used to laugh and grin, jump and smile. That part of his life is over. Maybe it really was just a dream.)
While he doesn't have any friends to speak of but his aunt (and does family even count?) Ichiro doesn't feel alone. At least, not to speak of. He really has no time for people who will try to judge him, try to put him in a box. Ichiro wants to be free, and basketball is his escape. It's as simple as that. If they can't accept him for what he is, then so be it, he will stay away.
After a few months practicing alone, Ichiro feels like it's time for him to play against other people. So when school is over, he runs over to nearby street basket courts and joins the ongoing matches going on that day. Turns out Ichiro is indeed very skilled for his age, and as he goes up against taller and stronger and older players, he has to use his smarts to stand up against them. It's fun, he admits to himself. It brings him joy to challenge himself against middle schoolers. There's just something about the way his heart beats after scoring points against someone so much taller than him. The rush of adrenaline slams into him, and it's as if he is flying and never coming down.
His aunt always waits for him, ready to scold him for staying out so late. But Shirosaki Miya always stops herself when she sees the smile on her nephew's too serious face. A smile that has not shows itself in months. So she stays silent and fusses over his dirtied clothes. She is simply glad Ichiro has found it in himself to be a child again.
Ichiro makes his first dunk when he's 12, and just about to enter Junior High. He was participating in a street match, nothing unusual, but there was a new feeling in his chest that day. As if something was telling him to let go. He makes to do a lay-up, but he jumps so much higher this time round. He really is flying, and it feels only natural for him to slam the ball in his basket.
(He almost feels wings, helping him ascend higher than any 12 years old has the right to)
When he lets go, and the players on the court all erupt in cheers and whistling, he feels lighter than he has been in months. There's a weight on his chest, that has been here ever since the accident, that is finally gone. He takes a big breath, and he's ready to take on the world.
(Ichiro feels as if he has found himself again. The feeling brings a wave of euphoria that doesn't leave for a few days after that.)