Step 2: Right...

(右に行く...)

Tanaka was indeed having difficulty keeping her children, and herself, under control by the time he rapped quietly on her door. He was crouched down, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for her to answer. When she didn't, he knocked a little louder. "Kodama-san, it's Kuroko. The coast is clear."

The paper taped over the small glass window in the door shifted slightly. A moment later, he heard a nearly silent click as the door was unlocked, followed by the sound of objects being shifted. Ever so slowly the door was opened. A woman in a long blue skirt and beige top peeked out from inside, taking in the empty hallway with fear-filled eyes. Long black bangs fell into her eyes, and she swept them back behind her ears with trembling fingers. She motioned him in. Only when the door was securely locked again did she speak. "Kuroko, what's going on?" she whispered. "Are the police here? Is the school secure? I heard shots." Her hands were clasped together in front of her chest, but the tighter she held them, the more they shook.

"There were shots, but I believe it was just as a warning. Kodama-san, we need to get the children out. Whoever it is, it appears they are looking for someone. What have you told your students?"

"That it was a drill, and they had to stay at the far wall until the principal gave the all clear." He looked over her shoulder to see that the students were already starting to fidget and complain. "That's what they told us to do, right?"

"Yes, you did the right thing, but we're going to try something different. In the case of children, motivation always helps. Now please, try not to look scared. We're going to be just fine. I heard the police pull up a few minutes ago." His calm façade seemed to soothe some of her nerves, and as he put a hand over her blanched white fingers, some of the trembling stopped. "We're going to be fine," he repeated. "You are doing an incredible job of staying calm, Kodama-san, so please continue to keep calm for the children. We cannot let them know the reality of the situation."

Aomine pulled up to the curb in a screech of rubber. Fifteen minutes? Ha, try five! If the sirens and lights hadn't gotten his fellow drivers out of the way fast enough, his negligence of the speed limit had done the job. As he had neared the school, the smaller roads had been cleared by police cruisers and orange caution cylinders and driving was significantly less hazardous.

The first responders had taped off the perimeter, keeping pedestrians from entering the area and shooing off reporters and cameramen with curt responses to their questioning. A few parents were already gathered, frantically asking if their children were safe and what was being done to assuage the situation. Aomine cut through the thickening crowd with little regard to who he was pushing to the side, tossed on his Kevlar vest, and easily jumped the tape. He couldn't tell who was in charge of the mess with an initial glance, so he grabbed the shoulder of a passing officer. "Hey, who's running the show here?"

"Ah," the officer glanced around before locating his superior, "Kato-san's over there." He pointed to a pair of men in conference with a third, who didn't appear to be a policeman with his neatly kept suit and elegant red patterned vest. One of them had a white megaphone in hand, while the second was speaking into a walkie-talkie.

"Thanks." He could easily guess which one was Kato. When the officers shifted as he jogged in their direction, he caught a short glimpse of the third man again, this time noticing the dichromatic eyes. His hair was covered by a handsome grey hat, but he knew that beneath it was bright red hair. Yep, he was in the right place. "Akashi," he shouted to the group, catching their attention. Mismatched red and yellow eyes met his, their owner waving him over. The man must have been wearing shoes that discretely added height to his stature, because he wasn't completely dwarfed by the two average-sized men to either side of him.

"You are earlier than I expected."

"I guess the sirens helped," he retorted wryly. He took a quick glance at Akashi's shoes, which did not go unnoticed past Akashi. Dress shoes, but there was definitely some kind of platform in the heels. His validation was noted with an unsettling frown.

The officer with the megaphone turned from his colleague to look at Aomine. "Akashi-san, is this the officer you called in from the Kyoto office?"

"Yes. Jirou, this is Aomine Daiki. He is a close friend and an excellent officer, top of his class. Daiki, Kato Jirou is the head of the regional office. Unless further measures are required, he will be in charge of the situation from here on out." The two shook hands. Kato gestured to the officer half-paying attention while he pressed the walkie talkie to his ear. "Yosano here is working with some men across the street to get a better idea of what's going on inside. Akashi's man was caught on the second floor when the school went into lockdown, so he can verify for us that the shooters are confined to the first floor. Otherwise, we're flying blind. We know for certain that they have at least one hostage from what our sniper can tell. Looks like it might be a kid."

"Damn." Aomine stuffed his hands in his pockets. From what he could tell, the windows were bolted shut, and the doors would have automatically locked when lockdown started. Getting in would be noisy and give away the advantage of surprise. "Have there been any demands?"

"None, besides the one this morning to the Akashi family."

"So what's the plan?"

Kato nodded at Yosano, who pulled the device away long enough to say, "We're waiting for things to calm down inside. We couldn't get a look at where the shots came from, but there were only two, so we assume they were warning shots to dissuade resistance among the students and faculty. Once it looks like they've settled, Akashi's man on the inside is going to try to get us live footage from one of the open ceiling tiles he found. If need be, we have some of the doors unlocked on the roof. Getting down to the first floor will take time, but it's manageable for now."

"We wait?" There were many things that Aomine hated (annoying people that wouldn't leave him alone, reporters, caramel, mornings, not having coffee especially on said mornings, anything Momoi cooked, reporters, ridiculously hot days, math, reporters), but waiting topped the list. (Reporters came in a close second.)

"We wait," Kato confirmed.

"So you called me here to wait," he complained to Akashi, who merely stared him down. "What…" Bringing his voice down so that only the two of them could hear, he started again, "What about Tetsu?"

"As I told you over the phone, I have no confirmation that Tetsuya was here today. What I do know is that his classroom is indeed on the first floor and that he hasn't taken a single sick day in the last three years since he started working at Ansho."

If it were possible, his heart dropped a little further down. The static ringing in his ears was either emanating from Yosano's walkie talkie or his stomach acid burning holes in his abdomen. Maybe he should have considered a less stressful work environment, like a nuclear power plant. "Then what am I here to do?"

"I summoned you here in the event that our present strategy fails and more drastic action is required. Both on the court and in the field, you have an innate mental flexibility. Few officers can adapt to changing situations as quickly, or as successfully as you. To ensure maximum success, I am keeping all of my options open."

Was that praise coming out of Akashi's mouth, or had his brain finally broken for good? Or maybe Akashi was sick. Yeah, that's it. Or he's worried too, but that would make him seem almost…human. It was a unanimous agreement amongst anyone who had gotten within ten meters of the man that if there was one thing he was not, it was human. Mortals couldn't emit an aura capable of killing vegetation and small animals. Did his former captain even realize what he was saying? He hadn't heard a word of praise since his first year at Teiko from this man, and coming from him now, it was like listening to a foreigner mangle the language. Akashi was praising him, right?

The redhead's eyebrow lifted, correctly predicting that he had silenced Aomine for at least the next five minutes. One problem down, a dozen more to go. His phone buzzed twice in his back pocket, informing him that he had received a text. Akashi pulled out an expensive new model that he had been handed to him by his father after his return from a business trip last week. Sweeping through his messages on the touch screen, he quickly read the new message.

[慎太郎: Can't get down to the area hospital, but I'll be on call in the main Kyoto branch until six tonight. Who's angered you this time?]

Though Midorima wasn't a private specialist, he was already used to setting aside time and lower priority patients to stitch back together Akashi's so-called 'associates'. Not once had he questioned what a shogi teacher would need associates for, nor how they could get the injuries he saw. He sent out a curt reply to Midorima, primarily to reassure the surgeon that the situation wasn't of his creation, before scrolling out to read the second message that had arrived.

[大我: Didn't I say already that I'm ON MY WAY? You damn well better explain yourself when I get there.]

Kagami was, as always, succinct in his texts, preferring speaking face-to-face than calls or messaging. The firefighter was stationed in Tokyo's 8th fire district, so it should have been impossible for him to reach the school before the majority of the action was over. Akashi had rung him up heedless of the distance. Like Aomine, the term 'impossible' had no place in his vocabulary. So it was not entirely to his surprise to find that Kagami was in Kyoto for a preparedness training sponsored by the local district and was more than prepared—to ditch the program, that is. Like Aomine, his sense of responsibility had made little progress since high school.

Overall, he was pleased to find that his contacts were all reliable in situations that demanded their regrouping. Even his father had been pleased with his recent reports.

True to his word, Kagami skidded past the caution cones down the street not three minutes later on a red Honda TLM220R, the Kyoto department's 2nd district insignia scrawled on the side of the fire bike in white lettering, a fire extinguisher solidly latched to the body under his left knee and a large EMS bag secured behind him. Leaving black skid marks behind him, the firefighter pulled to a rapid stop, hardly stopping before jumping to the curb and knocking down the kick stand. He sought out familiar faces, and as soon as his eyes locked with Akashi's, he unfastened the medical bag to toss it over his shoulder. "Yo, Akashi, Aomine. You know that I'm not exactly fond of cryptic messages commanding me to come at once."

"It was merely a suggestion, Taiga, one that I implied was out of necessity."

"Whatever. So what am I doing here?" he asked, unconsciously repeating Aomine's identical question from just minutes earlier.

"There is a hostage situation inside Ansho, one that may be difficult to defuse since there has been little success at mediation with the gunmen." Akashi brought him up to speed as Aomine steadily left his dazed state.

"Hey, Kagami, when did you get here? And I thought you were still working with the fire department." He gestured at the light blue raincoat tossed over his darker work jumpsuit, the orange reflection stripes across his abdomen shimmering with reflected sunlight as he moved.

His former rival looked at him steadily as if he had grown a second head. "I am, Ahomine. Got promoted to Fire Captain just last month." He proudly flashed the armband pinned to the upper arm of his jacket, signifying his status as command leader. Following Aomine's confused line of sight to the raincoat, his expression turned sheepish. "Oh, the jacket. I stole it from one of the EMS guys on site. Figured it would get me through the checkpoints faster. It did, by the way. Didn't even have to show ID. And I've been here for a while. Jeez, this must be how Kuroko feels all the time."

Aomine saw Akashi's heterochromatic eyes flash, and he instinctively knew that his explanation hadn't included a single mention of Kuroko's involvement. The eyes narrowed, seemingly reading his mind and daring the officer to bring up the topic. He nearly flinched back, but opened his mouth to tell Kagami anyway. He and Kuroko were closer than any of the rest of them. The fireman deserved to know.

His timing was terrible. Just as he started, "Kagami, th—"

"Hey, what's that?" One outstretched finger pointed at the side of the school building, to the eastern facing exit. "Isn't the building supposed to be in lockdown?"

"Yeah…?" He squinted at the set of double doors, which looked to him just like the other two sets that they had eyes on.

Kagami crossed his arms. "Well I don't know many locked down buildings with jiggling doorknobs."

Aomine struggled to see what he had clearly missed the first time. "I don't see anything, Bakagami."

"Of course, Ahomine. It obviously stopped or it would still be moving."

"How the hell could you see a doorknob, much less a doorknob moving, from this distance?"

"Have you ever tried to spot Kuroko in a crowd? After so many years of that, you learn to notice the little things. Including jiggling doorknobs. Oh, hey, I think that window's moving."

"Uh huh, now even the windows are mov—the fuck?!" Even from the corner of his eye, he could see one of the windows being forced open from the inside by two sets of small, trembling arms. Akashi was already walking over to the side of the school, and the pair of arguing men hastily made to follow him. "I thought the school was supposed to be in lockdown? Shouldn't the windows all be secured?"

"Some of the bolts must have malfunctioned," Akashi noted with interest. "The real question should be how they were able to pick out the ones that failed to lock."

The window was not quite halfway open when the hands retracted. They were replaced by a leg covered in a white knee-high sock, toes against the school wall to gain a foothold in the smooth, painted bricks. Kagami and Aomine dashed forward as the small body grabbed the window sill and slipped the rest of the way out, a head poking out to gauge the distance to the ground. The fireman reached him first, wrapping his arms around the child's waist. "You can let go. I've gotcha." The pair assumed that the boy was lowering himself, but as he shifted his weight into Kagami's grip, two sets of hands were still clutching each of his wrists.

"Himura-sensei, Hisoka-kun, I'm out," he called up to them in a shy voice.

"Hey, how many of you are there?" Aomine asked, cupping his hands to the owners of the helping hands. "I'm Officer Aomine, Kyoto PD."

"Oh, officer, we're glad you're here," a woman's voice responded as she leaned her upper body out the narrow opening. "I have two classes here, and we can't get the east exit open."

"That's alright, ma'am. We need to clear the children out as fast as possible. Are you in immediate danger?" Kagami had set the child on the ground, arms outstretched to receive the next one. To the surprise of the two men, the boy put his fists up in the air with a quiet shout. The young voices inside echoed his cheer before they were shushed by the teacher.

"No, the men were still at the front doors when we last checked." She and an eerily familiar child lifted a giggling girl by her armpits to hand her off to the waiting pair. Kagami had to hold her at a distance to keep from being kneed in the stomach by the energetic bundle. "Ano… My colleague went back to get one of the other classes, so we may have more in a few minutes. I mean, we will have more in a few minutes." Aomine glanced up just in time to see her swipe a hand across her eyes as she sniffled quietly.

"I presume that your colleague was the one to direct you to this window?" A presence by his side inquired, and he had to visibly resist flinching backwards. Akashi stood, arms crossed over his chest, between him and Kagami. With his shorter stature, the redhead had a better vantage point to see into the classroom. "Hisoka, I see you're fine."

Kagami looked between the student crouched beside the teacher at the window and the demonic presence at his side. The two gave off auras as opposite as night and day or, more specifically, good and evil. They shared their hair color and what must have been the original vivid red that Akashi's eyes had been colored in middle school, but the similarities ended there. Where Akashi's stare was cold, calculating and almost sinister, Hisoka's was soft, though clearly intelligent. The elder and younger also seemed to be the exact same height; at Akashi's age, it was much shorter than average, but for the younger, it put him at a full head taller than his classmates.

"Of course I'm fine, Seijurou," the boy retorted with a grin. "I won an ice cream from sensei!"

"…"

Even Akashi was silenced momentarily by his cousin's cheerful response. "You…won ice cream? Hisoka, you are aware of the situation, correct?"

His cousin puffed his chest out proudly as he assisted another classmate into Kagami's grasp. "I am always aware of the situation. We're playing a new game, to practice being sneaky."

"And you get ice cream if you…what? Get out first?" Kagami cut in, keeping Akashi from speaking. The former GoM captain gave him a thoughtful look, but didn't protest. Instead, he waited patiently for the response.

"It's a team-building exercise. All the classes that can get out without making a sound or being seen get to go out for ice cream tomorrow. Sensei said if everyone is super good, we might not even have to go to school!"

The girl beside him jumped up and down on the earthy floor, carelessly dirtying her tall socks as her twin pigtails bounced with her. "I'm getting strawberry! It's my favorite."

"Well I want chocolate. Looots~ of chocolate," Himura huffed.

"Ma'am," Aomine called back up, "can I have your name?"

"H-hai. I'm Himura Yori, one of the teachers here."

"Alright, Himura-san, you're doing very well."

The young teacher gave him a wan smile, a smattering of color returning to her cheeks. "Do I really look that bad? Kuroko-sensei told me that too."

Kagami paled, nearly dropping the child in his arms. "What?!"

"A-and th-then he grabbed Sho-kun and s-said that i-if we weren't quiet, he w-w-would—" The woman burst into tears, frantically trying to hold them in with both hands tightly clasped over her mouth.

"I understand, but Toru-san, I need you to listen." A softly calloused hand drew her into a warm embrace. She shuddered, choking down a sob. As he rubbed calming circles on her back, the terrified teacher slowly relaxed. "You did everything you could for Shoichi-kun, but your other students are still in danger. I need you to do something for me. It'll be difficult. I'm putting all my faith in you, okay?" When she nodded against his shoulder, leaving salty drops to soak into the fabric, he spoke again. "There is a window open in the art room, the one by the east exit. Himura-san, Tanaka-san and some of the other teachers are there with their classes waiting for you, and I have friends outside to help you."

"B-but, th-the men…they have guns…"

"Toru-san, they don't want to shoot anyone. One of our students is from a prosperous family, and they want money from his parents in exchange for his safe release. I know where they are going to be for the next few minutes because the boy was in my class. Until they can break in to the classroom, they won't be bothering anyone else. You understand?"

She nodded again, not trusting herself to speak.

"Alright, now this is going to be the hard part. You cannot let the students know of the danger. Please, just until you the children out, I need you to be strong—stronger than you've ever been in your entire life. Now," he held her at arm length, meeting her wet almond brown eyes with his own deceptively calm blue, "this is what you are going to tell them."

...but wrong.

(...でも、落ちる。)

Aomine and Kagami were helping the fourth teacher—Ryusaki Yuji, a man well into his seventies—out of the fully opened window when a series of yells rang out from deep in the building. Akashi's eyes narrowed, each taking in a very different view. Crimson red skipped over the students playing tag, the officers standing sentinel between them and their school building, the emotionally distraught teachers huddled together under plainly patterned shock blankets and the paramedics flitting around to check for injury; burnished yellow noted that the yells were all masculine and pained, that Kagami was going to leap through the window even before the fireman registered the piercing noise, that Aomine wouldn't have the heart to hold him back, and that his own heart had skipped a beat without his permission.

A gunshot rang out, followed by a second and third; but Akashi had already seen that. The emperor eye told no lies.

Edit: A special thank you to Tsuna de Vongola Decimo for correcting some of my rusty Japanese.