Visibility

By: Aviantei

Chapter 18: Commotion

Miura joined them for lunch, coming down from his classroom to theirs, and then after school, too, and Airi felt her happiness from that morning grow a bit more. Somehow, what had once been just her and Youta's desks had grown into a larger cluster, four people gathered around as they chatted over a mix of bento and school lunches. It was livelier than Airi could have ever imagined, and she realized that Miura wasn't just Youta's friend, but hers, too.

She still felt reservations about going against her parents' wishes. Part of her knew that Youta and Tetsuya were right—she really did prioritize others a bit too much, and sometimes it was okay to focus on her own wants. Even so, there was a limit somewhere, the idea that there should be a balance between desire and practicality. And while staying at Seirin meant a lot to her, Airi wasn't sure if it was the best thing to do.

She was willing to give everyone else a chance, though. Everyone seemed willing enough to help, and they had pulled through with their best effort before. Part of Airi suspected that whatever it was wouldn't be enough, but she had to let them try.

No matter how practically she tried to look at it, Airi couldn't stand the idea of not allowing them to do at least that.

"But in all seriousness," Miura said, "you guys mentioned that this is a time-sensitive issue. I get that we need to be fast, but how fast exactly is that?"

Youta seemed to grip onto his chopsticks a little bit harder, stopping before bringing the food and utensils to his mouth. "Oka-san has always been pretty strict," he said. "It's never been too much, but the best way for her to advance while at work has been to work as quickly, efficiently, and productively as possible." Airi nodded in agreement. That attitude of Eiko's had never been overbearing, but it hadn't really disappeared, either. "So to be honest, I don't know our exact time frame. I'd say a few days at the least."

Miura made a sound of pain in his throat. Airi wondered if he had winced. "That's pretty tough. I don't know what all we can do about that, then, but I'm sure if we get some extra help, we can come up with something."

"I can ask the basketball club," Tetsuya added. Airi felt a bit bad but didn't object. The Seirin Basketball Club had already done so much, and they were going to be starting their Inter-High preliminary games soon. It was another burden to add onto someone else, but Airi didn't see what other choice they had. Tetsuya reached out for Airi's hand, probably noticing her discomfort. "You heard Coach. You and Youta are an important part of this team. We don't mind helping you at all."

"Oh, so you're all in the basketball club, then," Miura commented. Airi could almost hear the grin in his voice. "Heh, Wata-chan's pretty cute. I'm sure you pull in all sorts of people with a manager like her."

Airi shook her head faster than necessary, the smaller of her braids hitting against her face with a bit more force than she had expected. "No, no, I'm not the manager at all," she protested. "I don't think I'm really suited to a job like that. I just cheer on everyone, so I'm more of a cheerleader than anything…"

"Oh ho, even better! Too bad I'm no good at sports or I'd join up right away. Best of luck, then, you guys. I'm sure with Wata-chan around your membership will skyrocket!"

"Oi, bastard, just who do you think you're talking about there?" Youta inserted in a good-natured growl. This was the part of Youta getting worked up that Airi didn't mind. He was way more energetic this way, and would end up laughing in the end. After years of him being protective and shutting out others, Youta really was more lively this way. "Just so you know, if I hear rumors about the basketball club's cheering section, you'll be the person I'll beat up over it…"

Miura nodded proudly, laughing himself. "I'll keep that in mind, then. Though if I word it differently, does that still count?"

"I'd prefer it if my girlfriend wasn't used as a bargaining chip to gain members for anyone," Tetsuya interrupted. Airi couldn't help it; she still felt a silly burst of happiness in her chest at the words. She was his girlfriend. "Besides, Coach wouldn't want people that would join for such a reason on the team anyway."

"That's the truth," Youta grumbled. Airi could imagine the sort of rant Aida would go on easily. The club's training regimen would probably also be increased to some ungodly levels as a result, too. "Still, I think asking the club might be a good idea. There's a lot of weird but different ways of thinking between them, so it should help out."

"Watanabe-san, Watanabe-kun," the voice of Onishi Rina called. Airi started a bit, having completely missed the approaching class representative. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Hara-sensei said to deliver a message. He's busy right now, but he'd like to talk with you after classes. He didn't tell me what it was going to be about, though, so I can't pass it on."

"That's fine. We'll be there," Airi said, her mouth turning dry. Youta looked to her as Onishi gave her farewells and walked off. The between the two of them, the twins understood what was going on without needing to be told. Airi reached for her brother's hand, and their fingers squeezed each other's.

We don't have a few days at all.

Standing in the teachers' office wasn't too different from the last time Airi had done it, with the exception of Youta standing beside her The circumstances were similar as well, which only made the scenario seem more surreal. With a sigh, Hara-sensei looked up from his desk at the twins.

"While I'm glad to have you two attending school regularly again, I'm afraid to say that we have some cause for concern again," Hara said. Airi had been preparing the whole day, so she didn't feel as nervous as she could have. Youta seemed to have the same amount of resolve about him. Hara shifted at his desk. "I received a call from your parents this morning saying that you two were to stay at school until they picked you up. Given the circumstances, it sounded more like an order than just a suggestion. After all, if they wanted to tell you something, why couldn't they have just contacted Watanabe-kun by cell phone, am I correct?"

Youta flinched a little, small enough that Airi was probably the only one to notice. "I forgot to charge my phone last night and it died off," Youta said. Airi didn't know if the words were true or not, but there was a chance they were a lie. "Ai-chan doesn't have a phone of her own, so they probably needed to call you to have a chance at contacting us." Youta bowed his head slightly. "I'm sorry for the trouble."

"Even so," Hara continued, "the fact remains that they wish for you two to stay within the faculty office so that they know where to get you." The teacher sighed again, this time the sound directed downwards. "Listen, I understand that there are some things families wish to keep private, but if you two are having troubles, we faculty are here to help you. It's okay to rely on us."

Airi frowned. Hara was good at saying the words, but there was a tired tone to his voice. It may not have been on purpose, but it was clear he was only asking so that she and Youta didn't cause any more trouble for the school. She pursed her lips a moment before speaking.

"I'm sorry, Sensei, but I mentioned this before," she said, keeping her voice somewhere between warm and hard. "In our house, we consider family matters to be handled within the family. This is something we're working towards figuring out. Any problems you think we're having are preferred by our parents to be worked out between ourselves."

Though, really, when she thought about it, that was more of her mother's policy than it had ever been her father's. Even so, Noboru agreed that it was a good idea so they wouldn't bother others with any problems they may have. Regardless, it was the perfect excuse to not have to explain anything.

Hara left a silence in the air, though another sigh wouldn't have sounded too far out of place. "Alright," he allowed. "But as per your parents' request, you two should stay here. They said they should be here within a half-hour of school letting out. There are some extra chairs by the door you can use." That being said, he turned back to his desk, starting to shuffle through papers that were probably the assignments the class had turned in today.

It was easier to navigate the faculty office with Youta by her side, and Airi even started to formulate a mental map of the place. Making it to the door, the twins sat down, their fingers meeting instantly.

"Crap, this is bad…" Youta muttered, more to himself than anything. "I knew they'd try to corner us, but I didn't think it would be this soon. And it's not like we can just walk out the door with all these teachers here."

"I'm sure they're not trying to hurt us," Airi said. She believed it, too. Youta should have believed it, considering he was the one that recognized just what lengths Eiko and Noboru would go to keep them safe. "I bet they're just worried. We did run away last night."

"Still, this is—"

Airi heard something, even over her brother talking. It was down the hall, and the door was open enough to make catching it easy. She might have been losing her touch due to the stress, but it sounded like basketballs, mixed in with the bark she was certain was Nigou's.

"Nii-san, did you hear—"

She didn't even get to finish. Sure enough, the sound got louder, something hitting against the legs of the chair she was sitting on. Airi reached down, feeling the familiar texture of a basketball under her hands, just as the dog running down the hallway barked several times in a row.

There was the sound of a chair screeching against the floor, footsteps heading out into the hallway. "Hey, what's going on here?" Hara called, his voice disappearing from the room. "Sheesh, this is a big mess."

"Sorry!" Aida's voice called from further in the hall. "We were moving in some new equipment and things got knocked over when this dog came running in. We think it got loose from its owner." Airi couldn't believe it. It was so surreal. "Sorry, Hara-sensei, but could you maybe help us out? A few of them went down the hall, but most of them are over by the shoe lockers."

The sigh Hara had probably been holding in was let out. "Fine. But let's make this quick, okay?"

His footsteps went down the hall towards Aida. Airi sat still, not sure of what to do. Youta did the same. Hara had been the only teacher in the office at the moment. Should they run? It would be a good opportunity to do so, but it was dangerous. There was no guarantee it would work.

"Let's go, Airi-san, Watanabe-kun," Tetsuya said, his hand touching Airi's shoulder. She couldn't respond, still awestruck by what was going on. "It's a pretty big mess, but we still don't have much time. We should get going."

Airi understood the small bit of urgency in Tetsuya's voice and stood up. She at least had her bag with her, but with the mess by the shoe lockers, she would have to make due with her indoor shoes. Youta didn't hesitate, standing up and looking into the hallway before running down it, Tetsuya leading Airi to do the same.

"How?" she asked. It still felt like a dream, like some desperate scenario her brain had come up with in order to avoid the truth of what was going to happen. But Tetsuya's hand held tightly onto hers, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

"It was Miura-senpai's idea," he answered, his breath starting to quicken as he spoke. "He figured you two were in a jam, so he went to the Basketball Club for help. It was crazy, but we went for it." He stopped talking for a moment, slowing down to push open a door. The breeze and smell of outside air washed over Airi. "Now let's go home."

Airi's legs moved on autopilot. Everyone else was so willing to help, to make sure things worked out, and yet she was being indecisive, not worthy of their hard work. When it came down to it, if everyone was going through so much trouble, then it was rude of Airi to not decide what she wanted to work for.

So in that case, I should start doing everything I can to stay.

When they made it back to Tetsuya's house, Airi asked to lie down. Tetsuya felt a little bad; he and Youta were athletes, and while they had varying degrees of practice, Aida's training regimens were more than enough to let them run for a while and not be troubled. From how much Airi was gasping for air, she definitely didn't have the same stamina. It was actually impressive how long she had managed to keep up with them.

She hadn't complained, either. Tetsuya knew she had to have understood the situation they were in, the kind where you had to act without thinking or else it wouldn't work at all. And they had made it home safely, although just a little more tired than usual. Exhausted, Airi excused herself to go lie down.

"Dammit, now I owe that Miura guy one," Youta grumbled, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. Afterward, he wiped the sweat off his forehead using his arm. "And you, too, Kuroko. Good job using your lack of presence to sneak past Hara-sensei."

"It was nothing," Tetsuya said, still catching his breath. He started heading for the kitchen, hoping for a drink. "I'm just glad it worked out alright. I'll admit I didn't think it would be so easy."

Youta followed him, nodding. "Heh, I don't even care how much trouble I'm going to be in when I finally go home." Tetsuya poured a glass of water for himself and another one for Youta. The older Watanabe twin sunk into one of the chairs at the table. "Thanks."

"Oh, you're home Tetsuya, I thought I heard you come in," Chinatsu said, walking into the kitchen. "How was your day, dear?"

Tetsuya hesitated, exchanging a glance with Youta. He had already explained part of the situation to his mother, but what they had done earlier wasn't the best thing to bring up. "It was good," he finally said, not knowing what other words would be safe.

Chinatsu smiled. "That's good, sweetie. Oh! I just remembered. I got the strangest call earlier from the school." Tetsuya was sure he visibly tensed up and he could see Youta do the same. Chinatsu's smile was as serine as always. "They were wondering if I had seen Airi-san and Watanabe-kun around. I told them I hadn't."

Tetsuya relaxed instantly, and Youta let out a sigh. "Thanks, Oka-san."

Chinatsu ruffled a hand through Tetsuya's hair. He blushed a little, but Youta kept his mouth much. "No problem, Tetsuya. Just be sure not to cause too much trouble, alright?" Tetsuya nodded. "Good. Now I'm going to go shopping for dinner. Should I make anything special?"

"Watanabe-kun likes squid," Tetsuya said. Youta tried to glare, but just ended up spluttering out a thanks instead. He probably hadn't expected Tetsuya to remember. Chinatsu nodded in agreement, heading out after checking her purse.

"Man, you didn't have to do that," Youta protested. He folded his arms on the table and rested his head on top of them. "Oh well, it's been a while since I had a proper sit down dinner that wasn't awkward as hell, so I'll take it. Thanks."

Tetsuya sat down as well. "It's no problem." He took a drink from his glass, wondering if he should take a nap or not. "I guess we were lucky Oka-san doesn't like interfering in what she considers my personal life…"

Youta scoffed. "Yeah, that'd be nice." At some point, Tetsuya would have liked to ask what kind of people the twins' parents were, but now didn't seem like the time. He set it aside for later. "Though I gotta say, your mom's kinda cool about this whole thing."

Tetsuya had never really thought about it. His mother had always been accepting, only stepping in when asked or when he was visibly feeling bad. Things had gotten better for him when high school progressed, and he still talked to her every day, but they hadn't had a serious conversation in a long time.

"Putting that aside, though, I got a favor to ask," Youta continued. Tetsuya blinked. Youta had been stubborn about even talking with each other, and now he was requesting things. It was a strange thing to experience. "Don't give me that look, Kuroko. I know what you're thinking and it's not appreciated."

"Sorry," Tetsuya said. Things were going to get more complicated if Youta could start to figure him out by just a look. Adjusting to Airi's awareness had been hard enough.

"Whatever. The point is I want Ai-chan to be happy. She's really been worrying about this, so I think she needs something to help out." Youta hesitated, staring at his glass of water rather than looking Tetsuya in the eye. "And as much as I wanna be the one to do it, at this point you're better suited. So what I'm asking is that since we have the day off tomorrow, so you two should go and do something."

Tetsuya thought he understood, but it was better to check. "When you say something…?"

"Geeze, you heard me, didn't you?" Youta sat up, crossing his arms and mustering a belated glare. "Ai-chan needs to cheer up, so take her on a date!" Tetsuya hadn't really planned to protest, but the forcefulness of the request completely banished the thought from his mind.

Then again, I don't really think that even counts as a request…it's more of a demand.

Keeping the words to himself, Tetsuya decided it would be better to focus on plans for his upcoming date instead.

I'm sorry for the day late update. I had three days off in a row and realized far too late that I wouldn't be at work Wednesday, thus no internet. Sorry again, but the update is in fact here, so I hope you enjoyed it regardless of its lateness.

Thanks to Tamani, farronewp, Blink-Dream, XxXTwilight-SinXxX, THE ANIME BADGER, XxSayaKeikouRyuuxX, and lovinurbuks for your respective reviews, favorites, and follows. I'd especially like to hear your thoughts on this chapter, so I look forward to hearing from you all again.

But really, this chapter was fun to write. I thought for a while about just what to make the Basketball Club do, and this was just the thing. Plus I had to make Nigou do more~.

In random notes about my life, I got to rewatch Princess jellyfish. I would love to write a fic for that series if I could.

I read the Accel World novel, too. I'm thinking about watching the anime, but I have so much to watch...

Oh, that's promised bonuses, didn't I? Really, all I could think of on short notice was development notes... But I like reading this sort of thing so maybe you'll find it interesting? I plan on posting some development excercises I did for Airi and Youta the next two updates, too, so look forward to those.

Anyway, here is the celebratory bonus content for Visibility's first anniversary!

Development

The idea for Visibility started in winter 2012-2013, when I started watching the anime. Since Tetsuya's thing was his lack of "perceivable visibility," I decided that I could counter that with an OC who had a lack of "perceiving visibility. At this time, the outline up to the Miyashita Charity Tournament was written down. I can't remember the exact time I started writing the story, but it was after I had watched the anime and caught up with the manga, thus had a lot more context.

At this stage, the story was titled (In)Visibility, which changed once other story titles like Reliability came up and became the motif for all my Kuroko no Basuke story titles.

Sometime after writing the initial chapters, I started to add onto the outline in August 2013, before the story had published. Thanks to "Hospital Flowers" by Owl City, I got the idea to have the conflict with the debt agency somehow led to a car accident, which would then lead to Youta's eventual character revolution. From there, the practical parts started coming through—like money and Airi and Youta's parents arriving, which helped the next chunk of the plot get fleshed out.

The outline was fleshed out til the end in April 2014, which is where I'll stop talking in details as to avoid spoilers. In July 2014, I finished writing the draft for the story after deciding I really wanted to get to it's conclusion, thus leading to the bi-weekly updates we have now!

Characters

Watanabe Airi: Airi was the first character to be developed. From the beginning, I wanted her to be blind, but highly functioning. Since the CHARACTERS BIBLE mentions his type of girl as being a "gentle person," that influenced her personality as well. Of course, I wanted her to be strong, too, hence her stubbornness and determination.

Watanabe Youta: Youta was developed at the same time as Airi. Since Airi was supposed to attend normal school, she would need help. The only reason they're twins is because it was the easiest way to get them into the same grade and class so Youta could help Airi out. His stubbornness is more insistent than Airi's, mainly because he's more outspoken. Putting these things together made him protective. On top of that, making him have a past in basketball was done entirely on a whim.

Yokoyama Masaso and the other new Seirin members: To be honest, these guys didn't get much thought put into them. I just wanted to have the sense that the Seirin team had grown. Though they're just background characters, I would like to give these guys more character and screen time in the future. Also, most of my character's names happen to come out of name generators. I'm sorry about that.

Sakamoto: She actually has a first name, but I'm currently failing at finding my notes, so I'll save that for another time. She and Miura were developed as "upperclassmen with bad attitudes about disabilities." I decided that I didn't want it to be two girls 'cause their dynamic would be bitchy, and not two guys since that could get more violent than what I wanted the encounter to be. So, it was decided that it would be one boy and one girl. The two have actually been friends for several years before Visibility, but that's no longer the case. Sakamoto actually has reasons for her behavior, but I'm keeping that quiet until I get another.

Miura Jiro: Miura is actually more of the type to follow along with others than have any real malice. He seriously feels bad about what he's done to Airi, and wants to make up for it. I didn't intend for him to have a bigger role at first, but as they story went on, I started to get fond of him, so gave him a more active role. He has to deal with the fact that Sakamoto has left him behind, so is now giving serious thought to his attitudes. However, while not everyone's exactly comfortable with his presence, I still wanted to keep him around, which leads to an interesting dynamic. Over time, he and Youta will continue to yell at each for a while, and then…well, there's a sequel to talk about that kind of stuff. I think writing Miura's dialogue is one of my favorite bits.

Hayashi:A no-nonsense debt collector with a sharp mind and a penchant for getting people in trouble. I developed her mostly on whims again, but in the end I wanted her to only cause more trouble to invoke the current arc. Her personality was developed with the thought of Durarara! in mind, and I plan to have her show up in some other stories someday, though I can't say exactly when. Her grunts that try to kidnap Airi weren't given nearly as much thought as they were meant to be convenient plot voice boxes. I would like to fix this someday.

Kaizuto Megumi: Megumi was originally developed for her own story, which I've been working on. She has her own whole existence going on, but I wanted to have some sort of connection between my different Kuroko stories, thus her appearance. Most of what's going on with her will be discussed in Reliability (which is most likely to be published by next summer), so I won't spoil things here. In fact, when she shows up in Visibility, the events of Reliability have been over for several months! She's actually recovering from Avoidant Personality Disorder, so there's a lot of nervousness that would be visible to Airi, so I had fun with that, too. Beyond that, she and Akashi have a sort of enigmatic relationship that isn't easily defined, so I wanted that to be on display. Hehe, sorry, a lot of this is just a shameless self-insert.

Watanabe Noboru: Once I made the decision to have Airi and Youta's parents show up, I started their more concrete development. They have a lot of details not brought directly in the story, so I'll talk about them here. Noboru is a freelance journalist who often works with various news networks online, so he can work from about anywhere, and tends to write about anything without a specific genre. He's actually pretty well-respected, though not famous, so he is able to make a better income than most journalists, though not much. He's several years older than his wife. Noboru is the one who started Youta on referring to Airi as "Ai-chan," though this was mostly through imitation. I always develop characters who work as journalists and cement the fact in my head before I remember that I personally don't like journalism all that much, so sorry about that, too.

Watanabe Eiko: I struggled with the dynamic between Noboru and Eiko while deciding how it would turn out. Eventually, Eiko became the more often serious parent, while Noboru was the more emotional support. Eiko is still starting out in her business career, but she has goals to one day be in the upper rankings. Surprisingly, she's the one who made the decision to have a child, though twins were more than what she bargained for. With her and Noboru's salaries combined, the Watanabe family is actually lower middle class, something that Eiko is super aware of. Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably subconsciously based parts of Eiko off of my own mother, though they're not the same. It's kind of embarrassing to think about. The type of company she works for will be brought up later in Visibility, so I'll save that tidbit for now. Before she cut her hair, she had been growing it out since the start of her university days, so it was just a little bit past her waist.

If you pay attention, Airi refers to her parents as Oka-san and Oto-san respectively, while Youta uses Ka-san and Oyaji. Airi's more polite (a general trend with their speech patterns), and Youta's more casual. However, "Oyaji" is extremely casual and almost dismissive (think of it as "pops" or "old man"), while "Ka-san" isn't quite as formal as "Oka-san," but still respectful ("Mom" vs. "Mother"). This was done to show how much more lax Noboru is, as well as the great respect Youta actually has for Eiko.

Mayurama Natsumi: Again, more shameless self-inserting for me. I didn't really mean to make a story out of her, but it just sort of happened once I really started thinking about it. Natsumi started out as "The girl in the art club that Kise gets interested in." In fact, she's actually the Vice President. Since Kaijo is a more sports oriented school, I figured that the culture clubs, while not exactly neglected, might not get as much attention. From there, she ended up with a story of her own. By the time Airi and Youta's recovery party happens, she and Kise have started seeing each other, but this will actually line up with partway through Responsibility. Natsumi has a younger brother. You don't really see too much of Natsumi's personality in Visibility, but I promise more of that will come out in Responsibility, which is… Well, I actually haven't started writing it yet, but it will happen eventually, I promise!

Kuroko Chinatsu: Like I said before, Chinatsu was based off the fact that Tetsuya gets his looks from his mom and his personality from his father. Due to the latter, I got to be more flexible with Chinatsu's personality and decided on making her exhibit more energy than her son. I also decided to make her laid-back with a sort of "Oh, let kids have fun while they're kids attitude." This implies a lot about her own high school days, but I'll just leave that to the imagination. One day I'd like to sit down and develop Tetsuya's father and grandfather as well.

And that covers the development of the original characters. Phew, there really are a lot of them, aren't there! I really respect people that can write fanfiction only using the canon cast…

Next time, Airi and Tetsuya go on their date, promises are made, and Youta has a close encounter. Please look forward to it!

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