It's not the pain,

It's who it came from.

Drishti Bablani

The house was so quiet that he didn't even stir as the sun sneaked in through the space between the curtains, illuminating the dark, heavily-curtained room. He stirred in his sleep, but he was awoken by a sound. He groaned in misery. It was a ring, coming from his alarm clock. He chose to ignore it, as his body felt heavy and tired. But then, it sounded again. Fed up, he then reached for it, but before he could get it, it stopped ringing. With a groan, he got up anyway and stretched.

"Ah…another boring day…" Hikigaya Hachiman groaned to himself as he proceeded to do some pushups and stretches as he starts his very boring day, which happened to be none other than Monday. After that, he then proceeded to cook breakfast for his and his younger sister Komachi.

As he was busy cooking, he heard the voice of his younger sister, who appeared to just have woken up, "Onii-chaaaaan! Good morning!"

"Yo, Good morning." Hachiman greeted rather in a gruff way as he was already laying out their food in the table, "Well, we better hurry up in eating our food. But nevertheless, you go first. I'll have a matter to attend to, Komachi."

"Yep," the younger sister nodded as he sits in the table, "Sure thing, onii-chan."

As the younger sibling started to eat her food, Hachiman returned to his room to fix his beddings, sheets, and his pillow. While he was doing that, he was thinking a lot of things. Crap, March is about to end. It was already the third week of March which means that it won't be long before they'll become third year students and that means he must be able to prepare for college entrance tests. Not that it would bother me so much. Loners like me have mastered the art of relying and planning something like this ahead of others. He thought to himself as he was finished cleaning his room.

But before he went out of his room, he then passed by his closet first and then he pulled out an old photo of himself with three other guys when he was still in first year middle school. Kuroko…Ogiwara Shigehiro…how are they now? He thought to himself as he was actually cringing at his younger self who still sported a Mohawk-styled spiky hair.

Putting back the photo in the shelf, he then went inside the bathroom to cleanse himself.

After eating breakfast and wearing our uniforms, Hachiman and Komachi were both ready to go. As usual, they ride the bike of the older brother and off they went to go to her school to drop her off there. This distance is somewhat becoming longer than I thought. Is it because going to a destination takes a longer time than going back to your original starting point? He thought as he brings his younger sister to that, he then proceeded to go to Sobu High School and when he finally reached there, he locks his bike in a special bike parking and proceeded to go to the room of Class 2F. Once he manages to go inside, he then spotted that their other classmates isn't yet around. He groaned as he saw Hayama Hayato together with his clique in Tobe, Ooka, and Tobe in one corner of the classroom. I wonder where Miura's now? Well, it's not my responsiblity to look out after her. He was about to sleep off when suddenly, he felt a light tap in his shoulder.

"Yahallo! Good morning, Hikki!" The voice of Yuigahama Yui sounded off like a sonic boom as he annoyingly raised his head to meet the female's twinkling eyes.

"Yo," Hachiman greeted in his usual way of greeting someone.

"You looked sleepy, Hikky!" Yuigahama said in a cheerful way as she was standing beside him, "By the way, can you please help me in doing something?"

"Yeah, what's that?" Despite wanting to sleep, Hachiman can't refuse his fellow Service Club member so he just got up.

"The club room's going to be used for some kind of a seminar," Yuigahama explains as she fiddles her fingers, "Since only Yukinon is the one currently fixing the tables, I guess you can help as well!" She flashes a shiny smile.

Sighing, he nevertheless relented when he realized that Yuigahama's not going to budge, "Tsk, fine. I'm doing it because I'm mandated to." He was annoyed as he was dragged outside the classroom and into their Service Club room, where he spotted Yukino all cleaning by herself.

"Yahallo, Yukinon! I brought Hikki here to help us clean!" Yuigahama shouted as he drags an unhappy Hachiman into the room. The latter only waves his hand as he was too lazy to even greet a simple 'Good Morning.'

"I'm surprised Hikigaya-kun is here so early in the morning," Yukino sardonically claimed as she looks at the boy with an expression Hachiman can't describe, "Did he get hit over by a running car?"

"Shut up," He retorted back, quite annoyed, "Just be glad that I'm here to help."

Wordlessly, Hachiman started by rearranging the tall cabinets that were deemed too heavy to be pushed out by an ordinary person like Yuigahama, whose smaller body frame can make her snap. It's fine for me to do stuff like this because I use to train very hard under that evil Coach Shirogane. He thought to himself as he easily pushed the cabinet into another location. But as he did that, a small box placed at the top of the cabinet suddenly fell from its position due to the vibration of the pushing and Yuigahama shouted, "Hikki! Watch out!"

But to her surprise, Hachiman caught it with ease as if he detected the incoming object and his fast reaction time enabled him to intercept it. That was close but not surprising. After all, I was actually even faster in my feet and only Aomine was the one who outran me in terms of speed at that time. Swift drives…penetrations…inside cuts…cold blooded buzzer beaters…crossovers. Yep, my favorite player is actually Dwyane Wade in his rookie days and I used to enjoy that stuff though I'm not quite sure if I still had it. But I kept myself in game shape by swimming, lawn tennis, and riding the bicycle everyday.

"Hikki! Hikki!"

"Huh?! What?" Hachiman snapped out of his day dream to see Yukinoshita staring at him and suddenly getting flustered. Uhm…why is she blushing?

"Can you please stop looking at me like that?" The green-eyed girl said in "fear" as she hugs herself, "I fear that you'll take away my virginity…"

Hikigaya Hachiman just sighed. There really is no dull moment in this place.

Some kilometers apart from Sobu High School, a man with brown hair and brown eyes and appears to be of average height and weight was seen asking some neighbors some stuff, "Good morning. May I ask something? Do you know where the Hikigayas live?"

In his hand was a small, brown package.

It was another boring Monday afternoon where everyone else was able to finally get out. But for Hikigaya Hachiman, he had to stay behind as he still has some duties to do in their Service Club. Honestly, he wasn't really compelled to even do something as he was really feeling lazy this day. As in lazy. But knowing that he'll only end up hearing a number of complaints from Yuigahama and Yukino, he dragged himself into helping them set up for the event.

It was already six in the evening when he and Komachi were able to return home. He had to pick up the later from their school and when they did reached their home, he honestly wanted to do nothing more than to drop in his bed. I'm awfully exhausted. He then smiled as he watches his younger sister run first inside their house as he parks his bicycle. But when he was about to enter into the house, something suddenly caught his eye.

"Eh, what's this?" he said as he suddenly saw something that was lying into the mailbox of their house.

A small brown package.

Going nearer to it, he then rips it open and he was surprised when he noticed it was actually a video tape and his curiosity suddenly got piqued by it. Who would even send me such a video tape?

After getting his things fixed and their dinner cooked, he prodded Komachi to go and eat first as he said he had some things to do. After the younger sibling decided to eat first, he then went to their television where he had a video player set and he then played the mysterious video tape that was sent to him.

It was already night time when the Nationals championship for the middle schools has ended. As usual, Teiko has steamrolled past Meiko Chugakko but this time, it was more awful than last year's match against Shoei as the Generation of Miracles, by this time already unparalleled in terms of strength, simply toyed around their opponents. They even fixed the score at 111 – 11 with Aomine being the last one to score the defining shot—the shot that would shatter the hearts of Shoei's valiant boys as it was a shot in Teiko's own goal. After that, Ogiwara Shigehiro disappeared from the gymnasium while Kuroko, in tears, also disappeared in search for his best friend. Once they were in the locker room, the rest of the GoM began to change their clothes in a quiet way as if this championship is barely anything of value.

"Tch, what another boring game," Aomine said with a boring tone as he drinks his Gatorade, "I hope Akashi's happy with his decision to fix the goddamn score. That was very hard to do, you know! I could have just scored more than what was required so we can just steal the game from the beginning."

"I can't believe that I'm saying this but I actually agree on Aomine on this one,"Midorima said with a bitter taste in his tongue, "It's not even worth of my time. Why did I even play anyway when I can't even get into my usual number of shots?" He complained while holding a make-up kit as a lucky item.

"Ara…Because Aka-chin said so and it's not like we can do anything," Murasakibara said in a lazy voice while munching his Maiubo snacks.

"Hahahaha! Midorimacchi, what's up with the make-up kit?" Kise suddenly bursted into laughter as he was holding into his chest, "Don't tell me you are becoming gay?"

"Shut up Kise!" Midorima angrily shouted at the blonde copycat, "Today's Oha-Asa recommended a make up kit as lucky item for Cancers on this day!" He pushes up his glasses in annoyance.

"By the way, has anyone of you had seen Kuro-chin" Murasakibara sain in-between his munching as he scans the area, "I haven't seen him anyway."

"Tch…Who cares about Tetsu anyway," Aomine muttered in irritation as he crushed the plastic bottle in his hands, "He's as worthless as that feeble Hikigaya…"

"Aominecchi, your mean," Kise tries to reprimand him, "And why are you talking about Hikigayacchi when he's not even—"

"Not that I care about for those two fools but I was Kuroko running outside of the gymnasium," Midorima harrumphed as he seats in the chair, "I saw him trying to chase after one of Meiko's players. It must be the Ogiwara person he was talking about."

"Aren't we a little mean to his friend?" Now, Kise tried to stop his fellow Miracles from saying anything that is bad, "I mean, I know its normal for us to win but I think Kurokocchi seems to be a little down right now and do we really have to even bring up Hikagayacchi?"

"Of course, Ryouta," A familiar fifth voice said while opening the locker room door. "Because winning is important, Ryouta. Keep that in mind." Akashi smirked as his heterochromatic eyes blazed.

"Aka-chin, is the interview over all ready?" The purple-headed center asked impatiently as he chews another pack of snacks, "I still need to go home to buy more snacks."

"Yes, Atsushi," Akashi smiled smugly as he seats down on the chair and faces his fellow prodigies, "Now that we're nearing High School, why don't we talk about someone or rather, two of them, that is not present here."

"Two? Is it Tetsu and Hikigaya? What about them?" Aomine angrily mutters, "If you're going to talk about the two of them, I better leave. I don't have time to listen about a shit player who can't even play decently and Hikigaya who's too naïve. No, I'll count him as trash or even shittier in person than Tetsu."

"Aominecchi…" Kise was very much shocked to hear their ace saying such rude things to their teammate, including Hachiman, "That's not true..."

"Shut up Kise. Aomine is spot on for once." Midorima cut off the small forward, "Why does Kuroko need to stay in basketball club anyway? He could have just went with Hikigaya off to who knows where to. Kuroko can't even shoot and Hachiman's only as strong as the Uncrowned Generals. Those fools really are a match made from heaven." He said this with a sarcastic tone.

"How harsh, Mido-chin," Murasakibara commented, "But does Kuro-chin knows that we are only using him as a substitute player when where tired? I mean, if he isn't aware of that, then he is already too much of a fool than what he is now."

"Yes, Atsushi. He knows." Akashi replied to their center, "He is aware of his own limitations and usefulness as a player. We all know that we don't need Tetsuya now. We don't need a player who can't even score at his own. He can disappear as good as Hachiman, whom I don't even know what happened to that imbecile. Perhaps, he is there outside lamenting his own misfortune on not even leveling up to our standards."

"But still, Kurokocchi is our passing specialist and Hikigayacchi was our former teammate." Kise, despite the intimidation coming from their captain, decided to stand up once for the two, "We can't let my mentor quit the basketball club. We already lost Hikigayacchi—"

"Can you just shut up, Kise?!" Aomine roared, causing the blonde to clam up and bow his head, "For me, you can now deem those two idiots as garbage. I don't even need Tetsu anymore. I'm stronger than anyone else. He plays for shit."

"Aomine, your language please." Midorima reprimanded their tanned ace, "Keep it in place while were still here."

"What's wrong with what I said? I'm just stating a fact, right?" Aomine shrugged as he slings his duffel bag in his shoulders, "Admit it Midorima. You and I are not the only ones who think it's not even worth mentioning those two. Maybe everyone in this room thinks the same thing."

After his statement and a moment of silence, everyone nodded, sans Kise who just decided to keep quiet and bowed his head. Akashi also agreed to Aomine's statement as he lets out a smirk.

"I'm honestly surprised about how Mine-chin finally said something smart for once in our group meetings." Murasakibara took a low jab at the power forward's intellectual capacity.

"Hey!" Aomine shouted angrily, "What did you just said, Murasakibara?! You bastard!"

"Daiki, stay in your place." Akashi warned their ace, "Don't start violence here or you will wake up one morning with your tongue detached from your vulgar mouth." He made his threat clearly by displaying his scissors.

Aomine grumbled as he kept quiet.

"Such a fool." Midorima huffed as he faces their captain, "So Akashi what are you going to do with Kuroko? You're the one who discovered his powers in the first place. And why do we have to bring up Hikigaya when it was already established that he isn't even worth remembering for in the first place."

"Nice question, Shintaro." Akashi smiled smugly as he fold his hands in the desk, "I just thought that since we have become too strong, we would all go to separate high schools and in the process, we would be competing against each other to see who is the strongest of us five. It just came to my mind that Hachiman won't probably compete in the Interhigh. Kuroko would join this battle but his style won't win help him win at all."

"How about we let him Kuro-chin suffer?" Murasakibara offered as he kept eating his potato chips, "Kuro-chin is weak after all, just like how weak Hiki-chin is."

"Not to mention how stupid their love for basketball is."Aomine added, "The moment he told us how he felt over our game last year against Shoei, Hikigaya can just roll over and die. Does he thinks we would chase him when he leaves off for somewhere in the middle of nowhere? Only ignorant people would do that."

"Well that's true but you're too harsh, Aominecchi…" Kise said as he wanted to add something else but seeing the face of their captain, who gave him the stink eye, he decided to just keep quiet and just go with the flow.

"Think what you will, Ryouta." Akashi said as he drinks his own sports bottle, "Tetsuya and Hachiman can now be compared to a trash—no, worse than trash."

"Can we all go home now?" Murasakibara complained like a child, "I don't have snacks right now and I'm already hungry, Aka-chin."

"Murasakibara is right. Let's just go home and leave Tetsu behind. I want no part in anything that involves him right now." Aomine said while standing up and opening the door.

After that, finally they leave the locker room and head out of the gymnasium.

But they didn't realize that they have company.

And none of them even noticed a video camera secretly hidden in a dark corner and that video camera contains their whole conversation.

"These demons…They will pay for what have they done to me and my team," That ice-cold voice belonged to none other than Ogiwara Shigehiro, Kuroko and Hachiman's close friend as he peers in the video camera with a dark expression in his face.

"Kuroko won't be able to handle this by himself for now so I will make sure that he and Hachiman will see this in the near future when all of them return to their normal selves…or maybe just Hachiman would be enough…" Ogiwara said while having a dark smirk on his face while walking away.

Soon, that smirk turns into a dark laughter as if it was his team that just won the competition.

Hachiman's eyes were wide open, like his eyes where about pop out of it. His mouth wide open from shock. Normally, I would be able to get over things such as bashing but…

He is just to shocked from what he has just watch. Just when I was able to get over with my middle school experience…this…this…

Sooner, he did something he only did one time in middle school at Teiko.

He's crying.

Yes, he's crying.

Pain

Hurt

Sadness

Emotions just began to overwhelm the lone wolf. He just couldn't believe it. Even though that tape was recorded while he is still in junior high school, Teiko Middle School, something inside him just snapped.

"I know I'm a loner." He muttered to himself, "And I know that it was years ago...but to think they actually think of me and Kuroko that way…" He then began to utter three words that he didn't even thought of doing so when he was being bullied and ostracized in his last year in middle school and first year in Sobu High School.

"I hate them…I hate them…"

Somewhere in Chiba, a group of high school boys with black-and-red jersey jackets stood in an inn that had a basketball gymnasium. They were all happy and boisterous at the same time. It seems like this is their first time being here.

"So what shall we do first here, Kagami-kun?"

"You decide. You're the one appointed as captain by Hyuga-senpai…Kuroko…"