~CHAPTER 4~
Kuroko laid down on the empty, soft bed of his own dorm, which was dimmed since he didn't turned on the lights. According to Riko, once that you've arrived on Afterlife, your student info will totally be inserted on the registrar automatically, which means he already had his own dorm and school supplies.
This place, together with its people and things are really weird. And Kuroko could only hope he won't be one too.
Because today, he just remembered two blurred memories which involves someone whose face was blurred and had red hair. It's possible that it was Kagami, but he realized that there are people he knew who were red-haired.
Even in actuality there's just two people: Kagami and Akashi.
Well, he remembered the first memory when Mibuchi talked about how soft his hair is and he remembered the second one when he first sipped the vanilla milkshake.
"Drinking with just a vanilla milkshake doesn't count as a lunch, Kuroko."
He saw himself sigh. "Stop bugging me about this, I already ate earlier."
"Don't you dare tell me you're already full with one piece of maiubo he gave you earlier." With the tone he's using, Kuroko was so sure he's frowning.
"I appreciate that you are- mmphh!" Kuroko's mouth suddenly became full of food from the boy's chopsticks.
"As expected, you're just hiding your hunger ne?" The boy's voice is sickeningly sweet. "Our personal chef cooked that so you should eat it because I'm going to double your training later and you need strength."
Kuroko pouted even through his full mouth, chewed and swallowed, which took him five minutes, before talking. "I can't believe you're doubling my training regimen just to- mmph! Kakahi-ku!" (A/N: The last word's undeciphered since Kuroko's eating, but I assure you that it's a name)
"Maybe I'll feed you so that you could eat properly, ne?"
Just remembering that made Kuroko felt warmth in his chest and it made him chuckle, and before he knew it, there's tears in his eyes.
"If only I could remember you… I know I could get answers from you only." Kuroko said then covered his closed eyes with his arms and unknowingly fell asleep, not knowing that a pair of eyes was watching him and smirked before leaving.
"What?!" Aomine's bloodshot eyes widened as soon as he heard Midorima's statement.
"It's not my fault, it's Akashi's! So don't shout at my face!" Midorima reasoned out. "Do you know I had to listen to that damn Literature teacher's rants just to excuse me?!"
"I don't care about that!" Aomine shouted back. "I don't know what to write about them because all I know is my and Tetsu's love story!"
"I don't care about that too! Just write it out or Akashi will kill you!" Midorima paused and then… "Wait, what?! Are you begging to die?!"
"Psh!" And that phrase is the signal of Aomine quitting together with a facepalm. "By the way, is that… battingfront or something… is it going to attack again tonight?"
Midorima glared at the indigo-haired President. "It's Battlefront, you moron. I don't even know why you became the President of School Paper."
"I don't even know that either! But…" Aomine puts his right hand on his jaw, the table supporting his right elbow. "If they would attack tonight, Akashi would surely not going to allow me to fight those bastards because I need to focus on this."
Midorima sighed. "As if you're not one of the bastards…" He whispered.
"WHAT?!"
"NOTHING, JUST TYPE IT ALREADY OR I'LL KILL YOU!"
"Stop your bantering or I'll be the one killing you."
Midorima and Aomine glanced at the door and there stood Akashi, who looked like calm on outside but his glare said it all.
"It's all this ganguro's fault."
"Why-?! Arrgh, whatever." Aomine lazily said and starts typing again. "By the way, I'm making renames of you two. Does Akabane Karma and Nagisa Shiota[1] sounds good?"
"It's okay as long as you comply on my requests and make me satisfied." Akashi said and took some of the papers on the table that Aomine's been looking before typing. "I assume this is the final draft?"
"Yeah."
Midorima coughed. "So, how's Yuuri?"
Akashi glanced at the green-haired president before looking at the papers again. "Yuuri's fine. That person's been playing shogi, looking outside, sleep, eat, clean our dorm and take a bath and the cycle will be repeated for 24/7 straight."
Aomine sighed and paused from his typing to join in the conversation. "It's your fault for imprisoning Yuuri. Maybe you should let that poor creature out of the cage even for just a day, Akashi."
"Are you stupid?! What do you think will happen if Yuuri will be out of their dorm? Have the students the freak out of their lives, or deaths?" Midorima answered.
Akashi puts back the papers on the table. "Shintarou's right, Daiki. Yuuri should stay on our dorm and shouldn't be out unless I want to. On the side note Daiki, your ideas made me satisfied and no wrong spelling nor grammar. Write it on strong bold and italicization on your table of contents. Just make sure no fancy lettering are to be used. That's all." He said before going out of the School Journalists Office and heading to his next class.
"Okay, so the composer is…" The female music teacher continued to explain but Kuroko just continued to stare at everyone in the class located on second floor of this mammoth school, specifically the Presidents of Student Council and Designing Committee and his accomplices Kagami, Takao and Momoi who were also secretly watching the former two.
Takao's seat was on the second seat of the first column from left (A/N: where there's only windows and you could see the campus. I'm explaining this because people often confuse left and right and column, which is vertical, and row which is horizontal) while Kuroko's seat was located on the third seat of the second column from left. Fifth seat, third column from the left was Kagami's seat, and Momoi's seat was nearest on the door which is the first seat, first column from the right. Akashi's seat was on first seat, same column as Kuroko. Also, Kise's seat was on third seat, same column as Kagami.
"So, Akashi-kun and Kise-kun?"
"Yes, Koizumi-sensei?" The two replied after standing up from their seats.
"Please distribute this music note sheets of American National Anthem. Akashi will be on first and second columns while Kise will be on the last two columns. Students, we will discuss as soon as I return." She pointed at the two pile of papers on the teacher's desk. "This is just quick so be behave. The assigned student today will list down those who are not behave and noisy and will be punished later after I return. Now please excuse me." She then took her turn to leave.
Akashi and Kise got the papers and started to distribute it. When Akashi puts the note paper to Kuroko, the former decided to start a short conversation with the latter.
"Did Riko gave you the vanilla milkshake I bought for you yesterday?"
Kuroko nodded and stared carefully at Akashi's ruby red orbs. "Yes, Akashi-kun. Thank you for that, it was delicious."
"Of course it was delicious given that it is your favorite."
Kuroko blinked, then glared at the red-haired president. "I don't get it at all. Why are you acting like we were so close? We're enemies."
Akashi looked surprised and bowed down his head, hiding his eyes from his red hair and raised it again after a moment. "Nothing. Please excuse me." He said and continued to distribute the papers to the other students quietly.
Kuroko stared at Akashi's back before he looked down himself, feeling guilty, and later scribbled something on his notebook.
Kagami sighed and stared at the scenery below which is students going out of the school gates to go home or doing what high schoolers do with a can of coffee dangling on his left hand…
"Why are you here and not on the headquarters?"
…and he accidentally dropped it, making a student who's standing below drenched in coffee.
"Wha-! Kuroko!" Kagami shouted because of surprise. "Don't just appear like that!"
"I've been here even before you entered." Kuroko said innocently, which was sitting on the floor and leaning on the railing and sipped from his own drink. A minute later, the baby blue-haired teen offered a can of coffee. "Here."
Kagami glanced at the coffee first before accepting it reluctantly. "Thanks." He said as he opened and drank it. "By the way, you didn't reply in the rollcalls of our teachers of 2nd until 4th Period classes, so I thought that you're really absent and not just using your lack of presence. Why Kuroko? Did something happened?"
After a long silence… "Kagami-kun sure is talkative."
"What?!"
Kuroko immediately answered. "I did absent for the rest of my afternoon classes but because I had to help Momoi-san and her band."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I overheard Riko-senpai talking about Momoi's band earlier, the Pinkish Nightmare. She said she was worried because last time they concerted as a diversion, a lot of people requested them to sing an acoustic version of song or like that as long as it's not rock." Kuroko explained. "So I volunteered the two songs I remembered composing when I saw the music sheets and Riko-senpai has taken a liking and immediately told me to teach them how to sing this song or what instrument will be used and how it should be played."
Kagami looked at Kuroko. "Ah, Kuroko sure is talkative."
He got a painful jab on the hip as a reply.
"Arggh- Kuroko!"
"So? Why are you here and not on the headquarters?" Kuroko repeated his question like he didn't hurt Kagami physically as he took another sip on his drink.
"I just… need a… little breather. What about you?" Kagami said with a forced voice while cringing and holding his hurt hip.
"I…" Kuroko hesitated, then shook his head. "Nothing important really. I'm just writing songs."
"Songs?"
Kuroko nodded and showed the papers and pen on his lap. "Remember the two songs I taught Momoi-san? Just like those two, I just remembered the songs I believe I originally composed when I saw the notes of the music sheets Akashi-kun gave us earlier."
"Then it is important at all. We're talking about memories here." Kagami replied as soon as he finished his drink, dropped the can and crushed it using his right foot. "So, is the memory good or bad?"
Kuroko continued to stare at the papers for some seconds before answering. "It seems good, but…"
"But?"
"Remembering it…" The newcomer then moved his head upwards to look at the sky. "…makes me feel sad." Then he moved his hands in a strumming motion like he had a guitar.
"Arrgh! I really can't do this!" Kuroko exclaimed. "I'm really helpless…" He muttered as he laid the brown acoustic guitar beside him.
"It isn't like you to just give up like that."
Kuroko looked up and tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"You're easy to give up on music when you love it as much as you love basketball." He said then sat down beside Kuroko, who's still silently lamenting his lack of success.
Kuroko sighed. "I know that, but still-"
"The Kuroko Tetsuya I knew doesn't give up even the world tells him." He said then picked up the guitar. "How about teaching you again?"
"How to play a guitar?"
"No." He said and strummed the guitar once. "I want to teach you the lesson of determination that you taught me once." Another strum. "That every problem has a solution."
"You know…" Kagami's voice snapped Kuroko out of his daze. "It's pretty normal for newcomer amnesiacs like you to be like that. Usually, you remember good memories first before bad ones."
Kuroko frowned. "Like me?"
"Unlike you guys, I arrived here with my memories intact." Kagami's answer surprised Kuroko, and what surprised him more is that the crimson-haired said it nonchalantly. "I remember everything, including my and Tatsuya's death."
"Tatsuya?"
"Himuro Tatsuya, the informer of Yosen faction. He's my childhood bestfriend."
Kuroko looked sad. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked you that."
Kagami's laughter rang in Kuroko's ears as the former headed for the rooftop's door. "It's okay, I'm so used to it that I became stupid. Let's go now? Our leader will be pissed if we're late."
"Okay." Kuroko replied with a smile and gathered his things before following the crimson-haired teen. But while walking down the hallway, someone suddenly showed up and blocked the way.
"Well, well, well. Fresh blood."
After seeing the blocker and hearing it talk, Kagami suddenly made a protective stance to Kuroko and glared at the person who has long raven hair and thick eyebrows. His face wore an evil smirk.
"Don't go anywhere near Kuroko, Hanamiya Makoto."
[1]Akabane Karma and Nagisa Shiota are from the anime Assassination Classroom, so I don't own them. I recommend it though. To those who watched this already probably knew why I used them as a replacement for Akashi and Kuroko.
[2]The stranger Yuuri-chan will make the first appearance in the next chapter! To those who were curious who's the character, I have a hint to give you: Yuuri-chan's neither an OC nor a character from other anime and is purely from Kuroko no Basuke.
Thank you for your continuous support in my fic! Feel free to review :))))
