Kuroko watched from the sidelines as Aomine ran across the court, easily surpassing the other players who were desperately attempting to block him. As the tan blue haired man continued to break past their defenses, the light haired boy could see the morale of the opposing team drastically deflate.
He determined that he would be the one to stop the match at that moment to hide their expressions from his light's eyes. Aomine did not need to see this again.
His light was currently searching for a teammate to pass him the ball, but Kuroko saw he was the only person on the team. Aomine-kun was a solo player. The smaller person could visibly see the horror dawning on his friend's face. He hoped to distract him from making the realization he would have made from the "first time".
"Aomine-kun," he called out. "Did you forget the reason why you exist right now as you are-?"
His last words were oddly blocked out by even his own ears, yet he continued on, not caring about the content. The question had spilled from his mouth unintentionally, but it had at least distracted the larger man, if for a moment. Kuroko saw Aomine quickly deem his question as unimportant in the face of searching for a ball. He would try again.
"I can tell you the reason why you remain here in this endless game of chance."
Aomine raised a dark slim eyebrow and tilted his head in question. "Really? Who are you?" the action asked. Kuroko remembered he was still hidden in the sidelines and took a step out from the comforting shadows. His friend's eyes rested on his form but he saw no recognition alight in them. He did not realize who he was.
"Yes, really, Aomine-kun."
Kuroko felt that there was only a sliver of time remaining, and he did not want to waste it explaining his identity to the jersey-clad man. He opened a pale hand toward his long time partner and he imagined a ball appropriate for the sport he was playing, a round orange object.
A fire lit in Aomine's dark azure gaze and he stretched a calloused hand to the ball. Seeing the excited expression smoldering in his friend's eyes, the blue-haired youth had the sudden urge to speak what he had wanted to say to his first light for the longest time.
Fixing his gaze to his former partner's, he noticed his arm was fading way. The court was also losing its physical structure and was collapsing. He had to make his words short and fast.
"...unto death, Aomine-kun. After all, we never really had the chance to..."
Kuroko mouthed words but only managed half of his intended speech before Aomine-kun passed through him and into the concluding darkness. He made to raise his hand in a gesture reserved only for Aomine-kun and a select few others, but even it disappeared along with the foreboding realization everything he had done—everything he worked so hard to rebuild—was a lie.
Kuroko resurfaced from his consciousness slowly, trying to groggily remember the last bits of his dream. There was Aomine, wearing a dark uniform competing against others with an orange object. Kuroko was also present, speaking to him and attempting to prevent something "disastrous" from happening.
The drowsiness from his sleep immediately disappeared once he felt the pounding in the side of his head. He noted the various bruises and cuts scattered across his body but no fatal wounds. The only alarming injury he seemed to have had was the constant aching near his head. He carefully reached up to feel the top of his helm and found a horn had broken off.
No, rather than broken, it seemed to have been sliced off by something. The stump felt smooth rather than jagged.
Kuroko and Aomine were being chased by an unknown creature the larger Hollow had deemed as a threat, and he had believed him. The smaller Hollow had never witnessed such a terrified expression cross his partner's face before, and he did not wish to see it again. He willingly obliged when the taller Hollow grabbed his hand and fled at a speed he knew his muscles would pay for later.
They had run until a sinkhole had appeared and swallowed them into the depths of the Forest of Menos. The threat was just on their heels before attempting to behead Kuroko as he fell, resulting in his sliced horn. Before he had blacked out from impact of the long descent, Kuroko faintly sensed the powerful presence of the creature's reiatsu above and the loss of Aomine's large clammy hand in his.
He regretted letting go because they were split up in an unfamiliar place swarming with Hollows, the dangerous threat, and the unknown. Kuroko did not want his companion to worry on his behalf, and he could sense Aomine was awake, confused, and flustered some distance away.
"Tetsu."
His name sounded in his mind in an exhausted whisper, and he knew Aomine was calling, searching for him.
The secret ability of his wasn't beneficial to Aomine, with it being active without his knowledge. Kuroko had developed it after he had first met him—naked, nameless, young, and pure—with no name to call himself. Perhaps it had appeared because of the constant worry he felt toward his friend since the beginning and his growing desire to shoulder the burden his powerful partner carried.
It was a mysterious and dark power, but he couldn't leave it alone. Kuroko had learned to track the dark-skinned Hollow when he napped or ran off in bouts of anger.
Rarely and at the worst times, he would find Aomine, face blank and blood-splattered, surrounded in the aftermath of one of his happenings. Fairly bloody and traumatizing scenes like it would appear randomly as a vision to Kuroko. Once he inquired Aomine of his whereabouts after receiving them, the dark-skinned Hollow would tilt his head in confusion.
Several times after the same thing had happened, Kuroko concluded Aomine had amnesia, and his missing memories were transferred into himself. It was exactly what Kuroko had wanted, to shoulder some of Aomine's burden, even if he woke up screaming from the nightmares of rotting flesh and the blood on his hands from the deaths he knew he hadn't committed.
Sometimes, when he felt drained and unusually tired, Kuroko wished he didn't have this power, because reliving the memories were so painful. Aomine was always concerned, like the good friend he was.
He wished he could tell Aomine about it, knowing he would do the same in his situation, but something held him back. Kuroko wanted to allow himself the privilege to share anything with his friend and partner, no matter what. He wanted acknowledgement that he was alive and a true friend to Aomine.
"But that's not what a shadow does,"a mocking voice cut in. The sneer could be heard in the quiet yet malicious tone. "You're not supposed to be recognized by the host, you parasite."
He quelled it with the thought of being kicked in the shins by Momoi-san's notorious hooves. Handling "him" was a common chore Kuroko didn't necessarily want deal with. "He" was a result of absorbing Aomine's negative energy, which were the darkest parts of the dark-skinned Hollow's personality and memories.
At one point, Kuroko had decided to name him Shiroko, but it decided the name was too cheap. "Chihiro" it renamed itself.
He would have thought further on the resulting "child" born between his and Aomine's clashing energies, but the latter's sudden burst in speed and rise in anxiety caught his attention. Kuroko sensed the distance between them grow smaller and the emotions increase in intensity once again.
Snap!
Kuroko whirled his body toward the direction of the sound and winced at the sudden movement, almost forgetting about his injuries. He had been so concentrated on Aomine's mental hysteria that he hadn't noticed someone approach. It was too late to flee.
A chuckle resembling a growl came from the shadows of a thick crystal trunk and a gray muscular creature on all fours emerged. Immediately, Kuroko recognized the destructive aura resonating from the animistic creature as the one chasing them before they had fallen. A hole through its abdomen and back revealed its signature mark as a fellow Hollow.
"You finally noticed my presence, little gazelle. Figured you were too out of it to put up a fight, so I gave you some time to clear your head," the Hollow drawled out with what Kuroko assumed was an animal's version of a smirk. "Thank me for my generosity."
It paced back and forth, a predator contemplating its prey before it executed the final blow. The act was very feline. Kuroko realized the Hollow resembled that of the Human World panther, a carnivorous big cat of power.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a familiar object, smooth and white, just out of reach. If he could distract the powerful threat, then maybe he could escape while he could.
Kuroko steeled his resolve and cleared all expression from his face in preparation for what he was about to do. If his plan worked, then he would be able to meet Aomine halfway.
He brought his gaze to the large panther's and impassively addressed him, afraid that showing fear would only provoke him. "What is your name?"
It narrowed its eyes to stormy gray slits and they flickered a luminescent green. It opened its jaws to grunt out a response, "My name is Haizaki Shougo. Since you were polite enough to ask for my name I'll offer you a deal."
"What kind of deal, Haizaki-san?"
Keep eye contact with the target. Refrain from blinking. Distract the target with an impenetrable stare.
"Well, I was thinking instead of killing you, I would eat a chunk out of you, as a reminder that you were spared by me, your oh so kind king."
Take a deep breath. Loosen your body in preparation—
"Of course, I'll be deciding which part to devour. Should I just start dieting and eating a finger? Or get juicy with a thigh?" Haizaki sent a gluttonous glare his way and tensed as he witnessed Kuroko disappear right before his eyes.
—and action.
The panther Hollow roared, swinging his head to try to find his prey among the forest when he was in view a moment ago.
Kuroko made short work of the allotted time to scoop up his decapitated horn and sneak close. An unfamiliar thrill took a hold of him and he felt Chihiro cheering him on to draw blood, lots of beautiful tasteful blood. In his current state of mind, Kuroko could no longer refuse and was almost at the point where he was agreeing along with the little demon.
Just as he aimed for one of the panther's searching eyes, his wrist was grabbed suddenly. The boy Hollow glanced up from his hand to the one who stopped him without noticing his presence.
A person in a loose black garb wielding a sheathed weapon menacingly loomed above him, face obscured by the moonlight behind them and the hood they wore. The sight reminded him of the mythical being who came to a dying soul at the end of their life, cloaked in darkness and called Death.
Maybe his time here was drawing to a close. Or maybe not.
The figure in black leaned to whisper a string of words that would echo and sleep within Kuroko's soul for the longest time, even longer than the fleeting taste of hard-earned victory and the memory of ambiguous admiration.
"I'll save you this time, Kuroko."
This time?
Before he could respond to the promised oath, he gasped as a blow was delivered to his solar plexus and he collapsed into waiting arms. Kuroko fleetingly thought he had enough with being knocked out and having other people saving him instead.
The last thing Kuroko saw before succumbing to unconsciousness was the assuring smile of the blade-wielding person, the determined set of their shoulders they put forth while drawing their sheathed weapon to face Haizaki, and having a sense of déjà vu his current scenario had happened once before.
Honestly, Kuroko was just about done with familiar dreams and memories.
The other persona within him agreed.
xXx
The person set down the unconscious figure of the blue haired boy—now a Hollow, they reminded themselves—at a far, safer distance from the Adjuchas level Hollow in the clearing.
Who would have thought that they would meet in Hueco Mundo of all places? Was the universe really so small?
The figure quickly used Shunpo to return to where the panther Hollow looked furious, powerful, and ready to kill. To take down such a large Hollow would require some extra intake of food. From within the folds of their cloak, they brought out a snack to much on.
"Hey," they called out to it, spewing crumbs from their mouth,"I don't think you're going to find him anywhere!"
The Hollow turned its cat-like form to glare at them. "And who are you?" it snapped angrily.
"Who am I?" they replied in mock wonder.
They removed their large hood to reveal a man with short brown hair. They unclasped their dark cloak to reveal a black kimono underneath, a noticeable badge worn on the billowing sleeve of their upper arm, and a sheathed sword at their hip.
The Hollow's feline ears twitched in alarm. "You're one of those Shinigami!"
The brunet grinned impishly at the Hollow's realization as they rubbed the crumbs from their face. "I'm glad you know of us! So, you certainly must know what comes next...right, Hollow?"