Akashi froze when a sudden, terrifying burst of power came from the sky.
The power swallowed up everything; from the entire expanse of the blue sky to the ground they were on. A deep, suffocating darkness enveloped the world for not more than three seconds.
Then the darkness cracked, breaking apart like fragile eggshells, and everything returned.
But no one was unscathed. No matter how much he tried to bear it, Akashi couldn't win against the pressure of that immense power. He fell to his knees.
The Otroks all around them had disappeared, not even a single trace was left behind.
With difficulty, Akashi raised his head to the sky.
Two figures were speeding straight for the ground. The familiar blue hair had Akashi's eyes widening in shock.
Kuroko was falling!
Akashi tried and tried to force himself to his feet but he couldn't move. No one else could, for them to still be breathing was more than a miracle. Somehow, they had managed to avoid death.
With despair, Akashi awaited the unavoidable crash to the ground. However, seconds before the crash, blue eyes opened and the descend of two people was immediately stopped. Kuroko flipped around and landed lightly on his feet.
In his right hand, Hanamiya was dangling from his loose grip. His body looked to be broken in too many places to count, and there was not a single sign of life.
"Ku..roko..cchi…? He… Is Hanamiya dead?" Kise was the first to speak.
Kuroko glanced over at Kise.
Kise's breath caught. …Kuroko?
Kuroko tilted his head down to look at Hanamiya. And then he simply dropped him to the ground.
"Dead." Kuroko nodded.
"Tetsuya?" Akashi frowned. "You, are you Tetsuya?" He murmured. Without waiting for Kuroko to reply, Akashi answered his own question. "No. You're not. You're different." He stated, assessing the person before him.
Kuroko turned to Akashi.
Then, he smiled.
That alone was enough for the overwhelming pressure that had disappeared to return all too suddenly.
"You…" Akashi grounded out.
Aomine's blood was boiling, urging him to call out to Kuroko. Why? What was different from before? Why did Aomine want to kneel by his feet?
Before Aomine could stop it, two words slipped out, unbidden, from his lips.
"..A…God..."
Kuroko blinked, turning to face Aomine.
"You are…a god." Aomine gasped.
"…I am not a god." Kuroko smiled gently, "But I suppose you may be right, my power rivals that of a god, not just a demigod."
"How…" Kise was staring at Kuroko with fearful eyes.
"My seal, I removed it." Kuroko replied.
"What seal?"
But Kuroko chose not to reply anymore, turning around and headed for Akashi. He stopped a few steps away from Akashi.
"Akashi-kun, I have decided."
"What did you decide, Tetsuya?" Akashi's gold eye was hurting. Every time he glanced at Kuroko, fiery pain exploded behind his eyes, as though to punish him for daring to look upon Kuroko. But Akashi did not show his pain, concealing it through sheer will.
"Haizaki and Hanamiya were right. This war will not end. Humans must learn their place. It is time for us to rule, Akashi-kun."
"What are you saying?" Midorima hissed, eyes wide as he stared at Kuroko.
Kuroko gently explained, "Hanamiya's goal was to acquire the Key. He wanted to create a new world with him as the leader."
"But –"
"Yes, he would have to give up his life. But apparently, he had found a way to counter that, by using me as a sacrifice instead. Too bad for him, he could not achieve what he wanted in the end." Kuroko chuckled, "The dead cannot rule."
Midorima's eyes strayed to the crumpled, broken form of Hanamiya.
"But now I finally understand what must be done. I will create a new world, without using the Key within me. The humans will be put back into their place. And I will rule."
"You will not do such a thing." Akashi glared at Kuroko. "Don't you already know it? Even if you attempt changes now, the descendants of the demigods are too weak. Also, I do not know who you are, but you are not Kuroko Tetsuya. I will not allow you to harm nor rule this world."
Kuroko only hummed.
"I am not, you say? Then, this appearance, this voice, if they do not belong to Kuroko Tetsuya, then who do they belong to? Won't you share your wisdom, Akashi Seijuurou?"
Kuroko smiled, but the mocking light in his eyes was much too apparent to Akashi.
"Are you testing me?" Akashi growled.
Kuroko lightly stepped closer to Akashi, until he was close enough to look down at Akashi who remained on his knees.
"Do you not feel my strength? You, who cannot even rise to your feet before me, your arrogance is truly astounding."
"I don't like you." A voice suddenly came from behind Kuroko.
Kuroko turned around, blinking at Murasakibara.
"Aka-chin is right. You are not Kuro-chin. I don't like this Kuro-chin."
Kuroko sighed, glancing around. Five pairs of eyes filled with rejection met his gaze.
"That's too bad, you guys would have been useful." Kuroko sighed wistfully. Then he casually shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, in that case, you can all perish together."
Kuroko's statement was met with silence for a brief moment, before exclamations of disbelief rang out. A single voice came through the noise clearly, gathering Kuroko's attention.
"So that means you are going to kill us all? Aren't you overestimating yourself? Do you really think you have power that can rival the Key and change this world?" Midorima frowned. "There will be a war, this time, it is against you."
"A war is alright. Even better if I am the reason for it. I will only grow stronger." Kuroko smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"I am Chaos. I do not mean that I am a God, but that chaos is my source of power. Do you know? It's very easy to fill a person's heart with hatred and the desire to destroy that which causes them pain. And because my powers comes from conflict, hatred, and revenge, each time someone falls into such negativity, I will only get stronger and stronger. A war will make me omnipotent!"
Kuroko spun around, spreading his arms wide. His laughter echoed within the empty, destroyed hall.
"I will make use of the darkness in their hearts, and I will rule the world!"
Kuroko tilted his head, staring at every one of them. He looked at them as though measuring their worth, and after a short period of contemplation, he spoke. "I have changed my mind. Not yet, I shall not kill the five of you yet. Your anger right now is currently giving me wonderful bursts of power."
Kuroko turned away and then shot up to the sky. He stared at a particular direction, cocking his head in thought.
"Ah, that's right. He would make a good start. For my first move, I shall take care of the human king. It would be easy for him to start a war." He chuckled.
Unable to stop Kuroko, they could only look on as he flew away, taking with him his oppressive aura and releasing the tension among the rest.
Akashi's eyes followed Kuroko as he steadily disappeared into the distance, until he could no longer see him.
With effort, He pushed himself to his feet.
"Akashi."
Akashi turned, and even without asking, just by looking at their expressions, he knew that they had all reached the same conclusion. He nodded, and thought hard as the rest rose to their feet unsteadily.
"We need to find a way to stop him," Akashi declared.
No one spoke up, until Kise suddenly cried out in realization.
"Ah! Akashicchi! Didn't Kurokocchi say that Hanamiya had wanted to use his life to activate the Key? Doesn't that mean that if we managed to take the Key back from Kurokocchi, we will have a way to stop him?"
"That was surely Hanamiya's plan. But Kuroko's desire is different. Didn't he say that he was going to change the world without the use of the Key?" Midorima shook his head at Kise's suggestion.
Kise hummed. "But, you know, that gem within Kurokocchi is really, really powerful, right? It's something left behind by the gods for the demigods. If we were to get hold of that, won't we be able to stop Kurokocchi?"
Midorima's eyes widened.
Akashi, who had just been silently watching, spoke up. "That's right. It would increase our chances in stopping him with something as powerful as that gem in our hands. Which means that we need to somehow pull out the gem from Kuroko's body."
Midorima lifted his hand, unconsciously adjusting his glasses as he thought. When he opened his mouth after some time, his voice came strong yet soft, and his tone was neither neutral nor agitated. He sounded just like a parent telling a midnight fairytale to a child.
"Back then, during the long drawn-out war with humans, we were unsure of whether there was a betrayal among the demigods, so we had to take drastic actions to protect our race. Kuroko's parents had sacrificed themselves to remove the Key from where it had stayed for countless centuries, protecting us. Then, they even went as far as to force it into the body of their own son, using him as a safeguard so that no one could steal or attempt to harm the treasured Key.
"Because Kuroko was already extremely, terrifyingly strong back then, with him holding onto the Key, whoever wants to take it from him would have to kill him first. And that is surely an impossible feat for a good majority of the demigod race. Even if the five of us were to work together and fight against him, there is no guarantee that we will succeed. To protect the Key from being misused, Kuroko was the best choice.
"But, as a result of coming into contact with that godly item, Kuroko's parents did not survive. As for the reason why Kuroko was fine even after accepting the Key into himself, I have certain guesses."
Midorima paused then, looking around him to see that almost everyone was looking at him with sparkling eyes, the exact picture of eager children waiting for the next part of the story.
Midorima blinked, a little surprised at their reactions.
Akashi chuckled softly, causing four pairs of eyes to turn to him.
"Shall I continue the story?" He suggested. "After all, Shintarou's and my guesses are the same."
A small smile surface on Midorima's face, and he nodded. "Yes, that's true."
Akashi took over and began explaining, "Tetsuya's mother was the strongest demigod when it came to fighting and having raw power, because she was the direct descendant of the very first demigods to have ever come into existence. In other words, she has received the strongest blood of the gods. And it's not just her, but Tetsuya's father too, was a direct descendant. They were the closest to the gods, very much unlike us. Although our connections with the gods are still present in our blood, but it has been thinned out compared to theirs.
"And then, those two who held the strongest blood of the gods, came together and had a child. What do you think that child would become?"
Akashi smirked.
"And also, didn't Hanamiya confess earlier that he had created even stronger Otroks by piling up power over power? Taking that theory, Kuroko's words about him being a 'god' isn't entirely wrong. He is not an original god, but he can, to an extent, be considered as a being of equal status as a god. That is probably the reason why he could take the Key into his body, without repercussions.
"I highly doubt that anyone else could attempt such a feat and walk away with their life, excluding the demigods of old who had perished long ago."
Akashi's eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Back then, I understand that that was the best path to take, especially since there were cunning people like Hanamiya. If they really wanted to, I'm sure that they would have somehow found a way to contain the Key's enormous power and control it, which would then leave it vulnerable to misuse.
"However, what was best back then is now the worst outcome for us. Like Midorima had stated a while ago, even with all five of us, we cannot match Kuroko. We can stall him, perhaps stop him momentarily, but to truly make him cease his actions are impossible. Right now, we have to remove the Key from within Kuroko, only then can we proceed with stopping him."
Everyone fell silent after Akashi spoke his last sentences.
Kise scratched his head, frowning down at Hanamiya. Somehow, he couldn't get the idea of using Hanamiya out of his head. So he decided to just suggest it.
"Why not use Hanamiya?"
"Hah? Hanamiya is dead. How are we suppose to use him?" Aomine returned back gruffly.
"But he know, since he really wanted the Key that much, surely he would have gathered some useful information, right?"
Akashi blinked. "That's not a bad idea. But like Aomine said, Hanamiya is dead. Unless we find a way to acquire the method that he had wanted to use, we are unable to do anything."
Kise deflated, looking down at the ground.
Midorima's voice suddenly came, with a hint of urgency. "What about a hidden dungeon?"
"A dungeon?" Akashi repeated. "…I see, that's right. He should have had one, he must have a place where he can safely do his research and store them all together. But where would we find it?"
"Wouldn't the dungeon be near here? Hanamiya does not have a very wide range of power, so his creations have to be within a certain distance." Midorima's eyebrows were furrowed in deep thought.
Akashi nodded in silent agreement.
Aomine chuckled lowly, reaching up and ruffling Kise's hair. "You say some good things every now and then, huh?"
Murasakibara joined in, pressing down on Kise's head, causing him to bend over from the force. "Kise-chin can be surprisingly useful."
"What?! That's mean! Murasakibaracchi!"
"But isn't it the truth?" Aomine widened his eyes, acting innocent.
"As if!"
"You guys, stop playing. We should hurry and search."
Kise, Aomine and Murasakibara tensed up under Akashi's reproachful glare.
"Understood!" They replied in unison.
"You understand, don't you?" Akashi looked at them all, his expression grim.
"We have to stop him, no matter what. And should the worst happen, we will even have to consider killing him."
x
A/N:
Thank you for all your supportive comments.
I apologise for disappearing without a word. Right now, this story is giving me a lot of trouble. It's very difficult to continue writing this. However, I do want to finish this till the end. It may take a really long time, but I do not want to leave it incomplete. My track record of incomplete stories from all these years I've been writing is quite depressing, really.
From time to time, I will try my best to work on this story.
But for now…
This story will be on indefinite hiatus.