Chapter 10: Faithless Love

Murasakibara placed the last plate on the table. Dinner was ready. HE looked around and noticed someone had not come down. "Mine-chin, go get Kuro-chin."

"Tch," Aomine grumbled good-naturedly as he went to call down their missing member. The others could hear him knocking on Kuroko's door upstairs.

"Oy Tetsu, dinner time."

When there was no answer they felt a faint stirring of unease. Especially when Aomine knocked again. "Tetsu, you in there?"

There was a minute of silence as they waited. "Tetsu, I'm coming in."

At Aomine's words they got up and made their way upstairs after him.

They reached the open door of Kuroko's bedroom to find Aomine standing in front of the open window, clutching an envelope in his hands.

Akashi cleared his throat and Aomine started, whirling to face them, his expression a mask of anguish.

"Sei…" he held out the envelope, their names visible on it. Akashi took it from Aomine's trembling hand.

Slitting the envelope, he extracted five slim dossiers and a letter, written in Kuroko's hurried scrawl. He read aloud.

"To Everyone,

By the time you find this letter I will be gone and I beg you don't look for me.

I am the Shadow, I do work for the Council when they have need of me and in return I am treated slightly better than most Inferiors.

I am sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I have been called to act as Shadow again.

I am sorry, but I could not face goodbye.

Tetsuya Kuroko"

Akashi passed the letter around to the others to read and turned to the dossiers the envelope had also contained.

Attached to the top of the first dossier were Kuroko's orders. Akashi read it in silence and turned to the information the files contained. There wasn't much and Akashi felt vicious satisfaction that the Council had almost nothing on the Generation of Miracles.

"We're going to get her back, right Akashicchi?" KIse interrupted, causing Akashi to look up. He looked around at his bond-mates, seeing and feeling the grim determination they held. HE gave a sharp nod.

"Begin preparations, Shintarou. Tetsuya is unlikely to come willingly."

"I beg your pardon."

Kuroko stood before the Council of Government, dressed in black and face completely blank. She repeated her previous words.

"I refuse my most recent orders."

Muttering sprung up from the men and women sat in the stands around the pulpit where Kuroko stood. The Shadow had never before refused any orders given to her. Unfortunately, these orders were too important for them to allow her to refuse. Eventually, a gable was banged and the room was silent again.

"You are aware of the consequences of refusing?" the voice that spoke was cruel and came from the almost throne-like chair at the centre of the room.

"I am."

"Then take her away. She shall face the traitor's punishment."

Kuroko went quietly with the guards who escorted her from the chamber. She made no sound even with their obviously rough treatment. As they were leaving the hall, one of Kuroko's sleeves rode up revealing the silver bracelet of an Inferior and a name, written in red ink peeking from just beneath the band. Those who could make out what the name was gasped but Kuroko paid no attention as she was dragged away.

In her cell, Kuroko lay on a bench that served as a bed and stared out of the tiny, barred window. It didn't give a view of the outside so the girl was left staring at the grey of the wall in the corridor outside her prison. If she tilted her head slightly, she could just see her guard, standing in the corridor.

Kuroko lay on the bench, immersed in her own thoughts which centred primarily on her bond-mates. They would have discovered she had left by now, perhaps found her letter. If they had, they could want nothing more to do with her.

She was taking great care not to touch the bonds that linked her to the others, she had no desire to potentially hear their hatred and recrimination.

Still, there was a very small voice in the back of Kuroko's mind that hoped her bond-mates still cared about her. She did her best to bury this voice, it was a futile wish. It was not strong enough for her to believe they might try and rescue her, but it hoped they might still think fondly of her even now that she was gone.

Coming out of her head Kuroko turned so her back was to the door. She had her punishment to face and she refused to cause a scene like others had when she'd been forced to witness the Council's idea of punishment. She wanted to face her fate with some semblance of dignity.

AS she drifted off to sleep, Kuroko consoled herself with the thought that they had no one else capable of taking on the Generation of Miracles, and she had already provided them with all the information the Council had on them. Her bond-mates would be safe and, one day, they would see to the Council's downfall.

Riko Aida was a minor member of the Council of Government. She had enough power through acting as her father's proxy to sit in on all the meetings but it was near the door and her opinion was never asked. The position came with some luxuries though, such as her own office. The downside was, since she was unimportant, she got most of the less important work higher Council members delegated to her. As such, most days she could barely see her desk it was buried under mountains of paper.

When the door to Riko's office opened without a knock, she shot out of her chair. "Kagami, how many times do I have to tell you, knock before entering!"

Kagami, Riko's assistant, was the only person who ever dared enter the office without even a cursory rap to the door. He was calm in the face of his boss's rage, being on the receiving end of it almost every day. The only acknowledgement the words got was a gruff; "you wanted to see me, Boss."

Riko sighed and sat back down. "Yes," she said, massaging her temples. Kagami took the chair in front of the desk, completely serious.

"I think the Shadow is bonded to the Generation of Miracles."

Kagami stilled, clutching the edge of the desk. "You're sure?" he asked.

"Not completely. But when they were taking her away to the cells, one of her sleeves got yanked up by the guards and there was a name in red below her status band. It looked like it said 'Seijuurou Akashi'"

"That isn't proof."

"I know," Riko groaned. "But for the name to be visible at all means the Shadow must have multiple bond-mates, and two of the only things we know for sure about the Generation of Miracles is that they are five people, and they're all soul-bound."

"It's a risk if you're wrong." Kagami leaned his elbows on his knees and thought. "Then again, the Shadow's never refused an order before, so something must have changed."

"I know." Riko leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. "Still, I think it's worth going to talk to her, if only to get confirmation. This could be the break we've been waiting for."

"It'll have to be during change of shifts. And take Hyuuga, he's better at getting people to talk."

Kagami and Riko shared matching smiles before the former placed a stack of papers on a free corner of the desk. "You need to sign and return these before the end of next week," he said, ignoring Riko groaning and the thump of her head meeting wood.

"Go away," she said, voice muffled.

Laughing, Kagami left the office, already making plans to sneak into the cells to talk to the Shadow.