Chapter 5

.

.

.

The man let out a yelp of relief as he was finally able to wrestle himself out of the deathly grip Aomine had his arm in, before bolting away, sparing the blue haired man no second glance as he darted towards the opposite direction with trembling limbs, whimpering. Aomine spun around sharply to face them after a short pause. There was another loud boom that shook the walls and left dust raining on them. None of them even bothered to flinch, however. They had more pressing matters on hand.

His expression was of something Kuroko had ever seen him wear before, and it was nothing short of utter panic and rage. But to be fair, everyone in the room bore similar expressions.

Because the realization that Moi-moi and Riko had left early to sell flowers that morning dawned on them so harshly, they all had to take a long moment to fully absorb the particular nugget that they were selling them in the market.

If the attacks had been positioned or centered around that general area, it was more than possible they might have been caught in the explosions. Noting this, their alarmed and distressed expressions were probably understandable, as they stepped instinctively forward to Aomine and closing the distance between all of them. Their sisters were in danger and that had automatically set them all on edge.

"I'll find them. I swear on my fucking life I will." He said without prelude, as he clenched his fist and stiffened his jaw, turning to meet the eyes of the three in front of him, which Kuroko presumed was supposed to be his form of reassurance. "And if they're hurt... then I'll kill whoever hurt them." His tone lowered dangerously, as he averted his gaze and he shifted them onto the wall behind them.

"I promise, I'll keep all of you safe."

And then all at once, he spun around on his heels and made a mad dash towards the market, leaving both his family and dust trails behind in his steps.

"Dammit!" Kagami exclaimed, slamming his fist on the wall beside him as his nostrils flared. "Stay here." He directed to Kuroko and Hyuuga as he turned around to face them, "I'm going to make sure that shit head doesn't do anything stupid." Then he too, spun around and took a step forward out of the door. But unlike Aomine, he halted and pivoted back, eyes staring straight at them with a solemn expression.

"I don't know what's happening or who's attacking. But if anyone comes..." He drifted off, shifting his gaze around with obvious discomfort and uncertainty. Again, it was a sentence everyone in the room knew the ending to and with none of them wanting to think about.

"Just... Just don't die before we get back." He ended abruptly, as he finally turned and dashed out the door and down the path the other took not just a few moments ago.

Neither of them had time to react, because everything had happened in an instant. So after a full minute they found their feet unmoved from where they were set when their brothers first left - rooted to the ground and still trying to adjust to the fast flow of events. Kuroko blinked as he continued staring blankly outside the opened door. The screaming outside hadn't died down, and they could still hear the terrified wails of people running past them.

Everything was in chaos.

He could smell the distinct traveling scent of burning wood from where they were, even though they had been nowhere near any fires. Women were screaming hysterically, tripping over themselves as they fled for their lives with bawling infants in their arms. There were people dashing and shoving past each other, neither giving a second thought of whether the person they pushed down were injured, nor whether the child they saw weeping at the side of the street were lost and needed any help. Looking at the passing scene, Kuroko realized that at times like this, humanity was truly fragile. It was like an iceberg. And the sun that hung overhead - slowly but surely, melting the bonds of humanity into a different, weaker state - was whoever, or whatever caused the massive explosions.

His heart ached. Whatever was going on, he knew it was anything but good. There was a passing thought in his mind that the people who were doing this were nothing but sick, because they just destroyed hard-attained peace everyone had just found after a period of long unrest. Even if it were to be a false alarm, things would never go back to the way they were again. The people he saw right now were beyond terrified, and if the government expects them to return to their daily lives after this, it would be an impossibly hard challenge, as this was a grim reminder to the people of how easily the security and peace they've spent most of their lives building can fall apart with a simple tug. The worst thing was, that was probably the goal of the ones who set these explosions up.

Kuroko considered a bunch of possibilities; one being the start of a world war. There had been palpable tension going on between many countries for many years now, and it wouldn't be that far-fetched if a war were to break out. Though he had a distinct feeling that that wasn't it.

"Hyuuga-san," Kuroko said softly, as he broke the trance both of them were stuck in and turned his head. "Should we-"

"No." He cut him off. "It's better if we wait."

Kuroko opened his mouth to protest but closed it a second later. He was probably right. As large as the urge was to aid in finding his sisters, they wouldn't be able to do anything out there in the complete chaos. And as much as they both hated waiting around, they knew the chances of them being separated were higher than actually finding Riko and Moimoi, and separation as of right now, wasn't their best option. They had to leave it to their two brothers right now.

"Kuroko, I think we should leave." Hyuuga reached his arm out to grab onto his shoulder. "I don't know who or where... where they are attacking from, but it doesn't sound far. We can't stay here. We have to leave."

"But Kagami said-"

"I know what he said!" Hyuuga raised his voice as his grip on his shoulder tightened. "But right now he's not here, and it's my goddamned duty as your brother to keep you safe. And as of this moment, this place isn't it." Kuroko hesitated as he met his firm eyes. Hyuuga was worried and frantic, he could tell. His older brother wanted to keep him safe and he understood that, but at what cost?

"We can definitely regroup with Kagami and Aomine later. We will find them, Kuroko. I'll get you out of here safely and find others who've-" Hyuuga began but was cut short when a loud crash resonated into their chipped wooden home, followed by a high pitched shriek which tore through the other screams, making them freeze as they instantly spun their heads around to the opened door. A sickening thought surfaced in his mind.

Were they right outside?

But hadn't the man earlier mentioned that the attack had been situated in the market? That was but less than a few minutes ago. The market was a mile away from their home and for someone to travel such a long distance within a matter of minutes was next to impossible.

The brothers exchanged worried glances as they took a few steps back, placing themselves at a safe distance from the agape door, and ducked behind the nearest pillar that offered little to no cover. Then for a while, all they heard was silence, before the trembling voice of a person. "Wait - please - I - I'm sorry. Please don't -" The voice choked out in-between snots.

"Tsk tsk. I told you, told you not to run. A wise man once said, obedience is the key to success, silly human." Another voice remarked, as the owner of it laughed sadistically. "This is all. Your. Fault."

"That's enough, Takao."

One more voice entered the conversation, as the weeping died down, turning into stifled snobs. Other than the consistent distant screaming, Kuroko realized that outside had surprising turned silent now, with no signs or sound of any of the earlier chaotic clutter of meshing bodies. Wait, back the hell up. Weren't there tons of people running about just a fraction of a second ago? Unless there had been a massive wormhole that sucked away all living humans around that area - and that couldn't have been possible as they were still very much here and dammit, trapped - he hadn't had the next slightest clue. His eyes flickered around the open area outside. Where the hell had all of them gone?

"Aw, stop bursting my bubble Shin-chan."

"You can't burst something that's not there. But that's not the point. Your old habit is showing, Takao. Don't forget what we came here for."

Kuroko felt his insides freezing as the stranger finished his sentence with an exasperated sigh. The voice sounded eerily familiar. Kuroko was never one to forget a voice. Still, no matter what his instincts told him otherwise, he refused to believe so. Because it just couldn't be.

But he had to make sure. With that thought and just like that, his legs took a determined step forward, as they went against and ignored the silent protests of Hyuuga behind him who tried to grab his arm, and snuck across the room. He crept silently, as he placed his back to the wall adjacent to the door that had been the only thing standing between him and the ongoing scene outside.

After the passing of a few seconds, he felt the presence of someone beside him, and instinctively spun around to find himself face to face with an annoyed Hyuuga. But the older male said nothing and instead, jerked his head, gesturing for his Kuroko to peek outside. A human's curiously was difficult to tame, after all. He wanted to know what was going on as much as Kuroko did.

Kuroko nodded, turning his head sideways as he attempted a glance out the door. The fact that there were three people outside was already a given. Two of them were facing his general direction; one of which sprawled out on the ground and the other, towering over with an awkward expression plastered all over his face. The last person out of the three had his back to Kuroko, but his structure and build was unmistakable, not to mention the bright hue his hair was colored in that struck a brutal chord in both his eyes and memories.

That was him. As much as he hadn't wanted it to be, the man standing in front of him was definitely there nine years ago.

Kuroko hadn't been blessed with astoundingly accurate memories from birth, but that night had been one that not even his terrible excuse of a memory could manage to shove out. It had haunted him for nine straight years, and even though they had gotten fuzzier each time he replayed the scenes, he couldn't shake off the myriad of emotions that had glued themselves to the incident. Seeing one of them here was like plucking the vivid memory out of him and slapping it onto his face with so much unhindered force that made him wonder if he had actually been seeing things.

But why was he here? And if he was here, did that mean the blonde guy was too? He glanced sideways at Hyuuga, who was intently pressing his face to the wooden wall, peeking out from the holes within that had exposed their house far too many times.

He didn't exactly hold the highest of expectations for the reactions his siblings might give when they realized that the man from - you'd not imagine the countless times he was forced to repeat the same tale because they wouldn't believe him when he told them the truth of what had happened the first twenty times - the story was nearby. After all, seeing their little Kuroko drenched in blood wasn't exactly the best way to introduce someone that you've just met.

Still, he had to find out, for sure, if the man - Yeah, okay. It was embarrassing enough his lovely memory had decided to exclude his name out of the trillion possible details from that particular night - was really here. He had to see if the man that had haunted his nightmares for the longest time was at the very least, okay. He wanted, no, needed that closure. His eyes resumed scrutinizing the area outside, looking for a blonde headed male. Judging from the timeline, Kuroko expected him to be in his late twenties or early thirties by now. But he was interrupted from his quest almost immediately and jolted back to reality.

"Really? Ah... Crap. Sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, idiot."

There was a pause, as Kuroko turned his attention back to the trio, frowning as his eyes settled on the green haired man for reasons he wasn't quite sure of yet.

"Why- Oh! Shit, sorry man! C'mon, I'll help you up." The other guy, Takao from what it seems, exclaimed, his entire demeanor changing so fast, from the unpredictability he emitted earlier to open friendliness that it left the man on the floor peering wide-eyed at him, hopelessly startled. Well, no one could blame him. The man who tried to kill him not just a few seconds ago was now offering him a hand.

"Well, come on!" Takao shook his extended arm, smiling widely as he gestured for the civilian to accept it. "No one's going to hurt you."

If anyone had wondered whether the words coming out of his mouth had been filtered beforehand, that just slapped a huge neon sign of "Ha, no" on his forehead.

Kuroko deepened his frown, as he realized the aura and impression the guy gave out was strange. Not technically in a bad way, but still strange, in a way. He had jet black hair that was parted down the middle, leaving stray strands dangling over his forehead and slightly past his eyebrows. With closer inspection, he owned a chiseled face that enhanced his otherwise already dominant features and dark tired eyes that looked like they reflected all the horrors in the world, but yet managing to preserve the childlike innocence in them all the same.

"There! Wasn't that easy?" He chirped, as the trembling man acquiesced, extending a shaky arm and grabbing onto his opened palm and got back up on both feet. "Tell you what," the eccentric guy added, after noticing the lack of healthy color in the face of the other party, "I'll take you to Town Square. Everyone else is already gathered there." And with that, the man's shoulders instinctively dropped, visibly relaxing - but the change had only been slight, as the wary look in his eyes remained.

He followed, as the dark haired man led the path down the street, all the while keeping a safe distance. But somehow Kuroko knew that the minute distance placed between them wasn't anywhere capable of saving the man if the other party were to return...to his old habits again. The dangerous aura he emitted a while ago was more or less dissipated, and all that was left after a minute was the disappearing back of two figures down the road.

Now all that remained in the scene were the two inside the house, and the silent green haired man standing a few meters away from them.

Kuroko squinted, shifting as he tried to get a better look at the man's features. But he must've made a sound as he shuffled forward, because just as he did so, the other man who a second ago had his back to them, froze momentarily before spinning around, turning to look straight at their direction.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Kuroko's eyes widened, as he jumped back behind the cover of the wall. Hyuuga received the hint instantly, as he quickly tugged the boy's arm and pulled him behind two stacked crates which had stored their rice supply at the corner of the room, before too, crouching down and placing himself defensively in front of Kuroko.

Shit. He'd messed up and pushed his luck too far. His previous position was compromising enough as it was, stepping out further was a move destined to go wrong from the start and he should've known better. Kuroko held on to Hyuuga's forearm in front of him as the older male gestured with the other arm for him to stay silent.

They held their breath and waited. A few seconds passed with complete silence draping the atmosphere. But just as they thought they were safe, footsteps started drifting closer to their house. He felt a few beaded sweat drops slip past his forehead, as they collected on his chin, dangling with the same anticipation he was under. This situation felt all too familiar, and he held no doubt where he experienced it before. It was surreal, almost like he was reliving that incident.

"I know you're in there." They froze as a deep voice echoed throughout the house, hanging in the air before fading like the dwindling of ominous thunder. It sent waves of shivers down his back, and his heart skipped a beat with sudden trepidation. He could feel Hyuuga tense up beside him, as his posture stiffened.

"Come out, before I come to you."

And if they hadn't been terrified enough as it was, that sentence had probably sealed the deal and ripped out whatever calmness they had left, trampling it on the ground and leaving them to be like broken peanuts.

But what choice did they have left? It was fight or flight and right now, the latter wasn't a feasible option, considering their only exit was currently being blocked by an unknown man. But before Kuroko could move a muscle, Hyuuga reached out his hand and grabbed a broken leg from a table that had somehow landed on the floor of the other side of the room after the explosions, and stuffed it into the back of his pants. Kuroko's eyes widened for the thousandth time that day alone - and he was pretty sure by now he must've burst a vessel or two with all the excessive eye popping - when Hyuuga stepped out. He reached out his hand and tried to grab Hyuuga to pull him back, but he was a second too late as Hyuuga had already caught the attention of the other man.

"There you are."

Hyuuga said nothing in response as he started approaching the man. What the hell was he doing? Did he have a death wish? Because walking up to someone who quite possibly might have the intention to kill you wasn't exactly the best way to protect your life.

But just as he was about to reach the man, Hyuuga whipped out the long wooden rod he had stored from behind his back and charged forward, swinging the rod with a terrifying force that it dealt a heavy blow to the opponent's head. It all happened so quickly that the other man didn't have any time to react, and ended up tumbling on his rear, hand rushing up to grab onto the side of his head where he had been hit. His eyes were wide in shock, as if un-believing that he had been put down on the ground so easily.

Kuroko stared at Hyuuga in astonishment, then at the fallen man and back at Hyuuga. From his position behind the crates, he could tell that Hyuuga was scared. The older brother was holding tightly onto the rod, as if it was it supporting him and not the other way round, as he stared down at the frozen man beneath his feet, large heavy pants escaping his lips. There was a slight tremble in his forearms, but other than that, his posture appeared sturdy and confident as ever. It could've fooled him.

Silence then draped the atmosphere again for a long minute, but to them, it felt like hours, before the man on the ground started showing signs of human response and moved to get up. But just as he did so, a loud voice from outside rattled their guts.

"SHIN-CHAN! What the fuck are you doing?" It was the man - if his memory didn't fail him, Takao - from earlier. He was stood all the way at the other side of the street, staring at Hyuuga through the opened doors with heated vehemence and anger.

Then all at once, he wasn't there anymore.

Instead, there was a slight flush of frigid wind and before they knew it, Takao was standing in front of Hyuuga, punching him square in the jaw. Kuroko gasped in horror as he flew four feet back into the house, his back landing on the broken glass pieces with a heavy thud and groan.

He slapped his palm over his mouth in terror, as he turned his attention back to the other two men. What had just happened? Even though he had witnessed it, it still managed to sound ridiculous as he thought about it, because the man had just crossed over fifteen meters in half a second, and literally sent Hyuuga flying after a punch. He had a hunch that something out of the ordinary was going on, and he didn't like it at all. There were too many things he didn't have an answer to; half of them came from today itself and the other half probably belonging to that night.

But as he looked over to Hyuuga's fallen twitching posture, and to the bleeding and probably broken nose he had, Kuroko felt an unfamiliar ball of anger surface up within his systems, diminishing the remaining bit of composure he had left at lightning speed. No matter what was going on, he knew one thing would always be for certain. He wasn't going to let anyone hurt his family either.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Short A/N to address :

Hello! Early update! Sorry for the suspense, if you guys are anxious for the long waited entrance of Akashi, fret not! If everything goes as planned, he should coming in very, very soon.

You might have noticed the slight OOC of Takao! I felt it was appropriate for the story bc as much as I didn't want to hurt my precious cinnamon roll, this would probably contribute to the angst that's following. :^}

Also, I might be uploading this story to AO3 soon! Hoorah!

Once again, thanks for supporting the story, you guys are lovely!

Don't be afraid to leave a review, they're all welcomed!

.

.

.

Favorite reviewer of previous chapter: Loryko
THANK YOU V V MUCH! Bless you, your review made me smile – I appreciate it!