Step 3: Left...

(私は一人...)

"Kuroko!"

Aomine scaled the wall in a single leap, bounding from the window sill with the innate grace of a feline. Kagami was already through the door, cargo bag jostling against his back and dashing down the hallway as he tried to locate where the gunshots and yelling had originated, but the officer took a moment to draw his weapon and turn off the safety.

There was very little intel from the inside, even from the teachers who had come face-to-face with the trespassers. He knew for sure that all of them were armed. From vague witness statements, it sounded to him like the guns they were carrying were similar to his own. There had been no mention from anyone of seeing something higher grade, and while he was glad that his Kevlar should be capable of withstanding anything shot his way, it was also his guess that these men were professionals. Everything had been carefully calculated in advance. They didn't need larger ammo, because they wouldn't miss.

"Kuroko! Where are you?!"

He would have rolled his eyes at Kagami's recklessness, but he was barely resisting the urge to follow his lead. Had this situation been a new one—had he still been a rookie—the ache building in his chest would have burst out into full blown panic.

"Daiki."

And had he still been in middle school, that deadly quiet voice would have given him an aneurism. "Akashi," he murmured, keeping his voice down despite knowing that Kagami's would easily cover anything he said. "I can't let you follow me. You're unarmed and a civilian. Wakahisa would have my ass if anything happened to you, especially given your family name."

His former captain met his steady, serious gaze with one of his own. "You doubt me." The stunningly mismatched eyes assessed him, and the probing stare was disconcerting with little effort on Akashi's part. "I would never be unarmed in a potentially hostile situation."

"…scissors aren't going to cut it, y'know. They aren't a bunch of teenagers."

His jacket parted slightly for just a moment as he passed, and Aomine knew it was intentional, because he could have sworn there was a flash of metal. The man made a half turn, only his gleaming yellow eye visible. "Who said I still carried scissors?"

Aomine shivered. Was that a sword? …Akashi hadn't changed a bit.

He closely followed Akashi, though he wasn't sure who was covering whom in this situation. Kagami was still yelling loudly ahead of him. It was mildly worrisome that the guy had no survival instinct, but it was equally alarming that no one had shot him yet.

Quick footsteps from his left had him switching his focus immediately. When the first child came into sight, he clicked his gun's safety back on and kept it pointed at the floor. The student nearly shot right past him had he not lightly grabbed her elbow before she could. "Hey, hey, I'm one of the police officers here," he reassured her when her eyes widened and he could feel her beginning to struggle to escape. She eyed him suspiciously, but clearly recognized his uniform and badge. "Are you alright? Is anyone with you?"

She nodded. "Sensei told us that we were racing to get to the art room for ice cream, but Yuki-chan had to go to the bathroom and I'm her partner… But I really wanted ice cream. Should I go back for Yuki-chan?"

"Nope, we'll find her for you so both of you can get ice cream." He hesitated for a moment. As a police officer, he knew he should escort her back to make sure she was safe; on the other hand, she would be taking the same route that he had just come through, that Kagami had run yelling through. It was probably safe.

And he still hadn't found Tetsu…

"You know where the art room is?" She nodded. "We'll make sure that your friend Yuki meets you there. Which way are the bathrooms?"

"Down that way," the girl pointed back the way she had come from. "They're right before the kitchens."

"Got it. Now you better hurry on your way, or they'll run out of ice cream."

Her eyes comically widened, her sense of duty to her classmate warring with the supposedly waning ice cream. It didn't last long. "Tell Yuki I'm getting a scoop of chocolate for her!"

He chuckled as she flew down the hall. Sweets were undoubtedly the path to a child's heart.

Akashi had taken a different path from Kagami, heading towards the north entrance where the hostage takers had been last spotted, so going to the south entrance wasn't a bad idea. Not a few meters down, he could already see the sign for the restrooms off to his left. "Yuki." There was no answer, so he supposed she was still in one of the stalls. He propped open the door with his foot, but didn't step in. "Yuki, your friend is looking for you. Are you in here?"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" A toilet flushed and there was the sound of water running in the direction of the sinks. A moment later, a girl who didn't even stand as tall as his knee dashed out, paper towels still in hand. "Did Yoshi-chan leave without me?" she asked, looking around for her classmate.

"I asked her to," he quickly said. "The ice cream is running out, so she said she'd get one for you." The answering beam she flashed him was reward enough for the last-second fib. "I still have to find a friend of mine, so do you know where the art room is?"

"Of course! But…" she bit her lip, looking up at him with huge Bambi eyes set alarm bells off in his mind, "won't you need help finding your friend?"

He should've taken off running. He should have. "Umm, no, he wouldn't like it if I kept one of his students from getting their ice cream. It could melt, y'know." This was why he was never, ever having kids. Couldn't say no to the brats when they pulled faces like that.

"Oh! Is Kuroko-sensei your friend, maybe?"

Fuck.

"Uh…"

Yuki beamed a second time, and he thought that next time he walked into a primary school, he'd be bringing sunglasses. "I thought so! Kuroko-sensei is everyone's friend! Toru-sensei was crying, probably because Sho-kun was missing and she thought everyone would blame her, and Kuroko-sensei told her that he would find him while we got ice cream. Sugoi, ne? Kuroko-sensei is always doing things like that for us." She needed to stop smiling or else his perfect vision was going to take a beating. How did Kuroko handle this every day? Had one of his university classes covered this?

"Ah, yeah, that does sound like Tetsu."

"Here! I'll take you where he was going." Yuki grabbed his hands, somehow tugging him down a larger, adjacent hallway despite the massive height and weight difference between them. "He said that Sho-kun had probably gotten lost, but I bet he was just talking to someone in the hallway. Sho-kun is always doing things like that. Sensei always gets so annoyed, because he's always being noisy, but Sho-kun is actually a really nice person. Like once, I forgot my bento box at home, and he said he wasn't very hungry so I could have his. And this other time—"

Aomine, being significantly taller than the girl pulling him along and facing the right way, noticed the puddle of blood in front of a classroom door while Yuki was still happily going on about something or other. In one swift gesture, he dislodged his hands, crouched down and pulled her to his chest. "Shh," he whispered, holding her head tightly against his shoulder to block her vision after pushing his gun back into his hip holster. He couldn't hear anyone, so protocol be damned. Tetsu would kill him for letting one of his kids be traumatized by this.

"Ojii-san?"

"Shh." He wrapped another hand around her waist and stood up. "This is part of Tetsu's game, right? If the other team hears you, then they get the ice cream instead." The blood wasn't puddled as he'd first thought. Rather, it had been smudged by a shoe print. With his elbow, he pushed the door open and carefully glanced in. Nothing. Another sweep of the room confirmed that there had been no struggle, and there were no traces of blood on the floor.

He retraced his steps, moving back to the bathrooms. "Okay, Yuki, I need you to do something for me," he slowly stated as he set her down. She nodded. "Go meet up with your friend in the art room and send one of the guys outside to this spot, right here. I think your sensei might have fallen, so we'll need someone really strong to help him out."

"But, isn't ojii-san really strong?"

His physique hadn't loosened up since his years of basketball at the Academy, not even after the sheer amount of take-out he consumed on late nights. "Yeah, ojii-san is strong, but if your sensei can't tell other kids where to go, then they wouldn't get ice cream, would they?"

She took his words in stride and gave him a cheery salute. "Aye, aye, ojii-san! I'll bring them right back!"

He waited until her form disappeared before returning to the bloody smear on the tiling. There was no way the EMS guys would let her back in, much less the local PD, so his morals were cleaned of the issue. Again, he knelt at the crimson mess. Looking closer, it was definitely spots of dripping blood. The individual spots were all clumped together, making it appear much worse than it was. This pattern and amount could have been caused by a good solid hit to the face, which had the thinnest skin and broke more easily. His guess would have pointed to a broken nose, with the lack of movement following the injury added with the continuous dripping. With a normal bloody nose, a tissue and good grip at the bridge of the nose would quench the flow. A broken nose could have complications and, besides that, it just hurt. If the receiver hadn't been expecting the sudden pain, he would have had no idea what to do. Any attempt to remedy it would have hurt like hell.

Aomine trailed his gaze further down the corridor. If the injured person hadn't gone into the classroom, and he hadn't left any traces of his injury further down the way he and Yuki had entered, then… A spot of red caught his eye, and he stepped over the smeared liquid to get closer. Yep, looked like the person's next reaction was to run. How convenient of them to leave a neat trail for him. It went straight down the corridor, thinning out as the wound began to clot, before making a short jog around a corner and towards the west exit, where it abruptly ended.

He looked back up to see where his injured person had finally gone to. Turned out, it wasn't far. The man was slumped beneath a window, definitely unconscious. Blood was crusted on his bottom lip and beneath a badly bruising nose. The stocking mask in his pocket made it easy to guess that this was one of the hostage takers. He guessed that the large bruise forming on the man's temple was the reason for his current state.

...and returned.

(...だから 助けて。)

Satisfied that the man was out for the time being, he swept his eyes further down the once-pristine expanse. As his eyes locked with an all-too-familiar form, he felt bile rise in his stomach as he shouted, "Tetsu!"

That was odd. He could have sworn he'd just heard his name called, but it was hard to tell with the ringing in his ears.

"Kagami, Akashi, we're over here! West entrance!"

There were footsteps. Loud ones. Were they getting louder? Oh, that's probably because they were getting closer.

He wrapped his arms tighter around the warmth at his abdomen. Protect. Have to protect. Bad people. Armed people who wanted to hurt.

"Tetsu! Tetsu, can you hear me?"

That sounded familiar. Warm. Not bad. Trustworthy? He hummed, then coughed as pain radiated through his chest at the vibration.

"Okay, okay, I got you. The building's clear, you hear that? No, wait, don't answer. Uh, I don't have much experience with this, but you can't fall asleep, okay?"

He was feeling a little tired, but he supposed that wasn't a big request so he went with it. No sleeping.

"Kagami! Akashi!"

Ah, did he have to yell so loudly?

"Daiki, what's the situation?"

A shudder went through his bones. It might have been the cold of the tile floor against his skin, or it might have been his instinctive reaction to Akashi's clipped tone.

"I can't tell, but there's blood, lots of it. Tetsu's conscious, but not by much."

Hands were on his shoulders, and even through the light touch, he could feel the heat emanating from them. He wanted to lean back into the grasp, but something told him that wasn't a good idea.

"Who is the child?"

"I assume Sho-kun. One of the students said he had gone missing, so I assume the men confused him with your brother. They have the same hair and body type. He doesn't appear to be injured, but it's hard to tell. I don't want to move either of them until Kagami can make a better assessment."

"Tetsuya," the warm hands were on his forehead and his wrist, "are you in pain?"

He shook his head. Well, it nothing hurt unless he moved or tried to make sounds, and they needed to take care of Shoichi-kun, not worry about him. He'd probably just landed wrong.

"Your pulse just sped up," Akashi intoned above him. "Answer my questions truthfully. There is a lot of blood on you, and we need to know how much of it is yours."

Blood? There was blood? On him? Had Shoichi-kun been shot? The moments before he'd fallen had been hazy, with lots of noise. Was Shoichi-kun hurt? He needed a medic…

"Pulse is speeding up, Daiki. I believe Tetsuya is going into shock." One of the hands was gently ruffling his hair, but he couldn't tell what they said as the ringing got louder.

"Kagami! Get your ass over here! Where were you?"

"North entrance. Wasn't that where the shooters were suppo— Oh, shit. Kuroko!" There was a loud thump, and then a blanket was wrapped around him. The warmth against his chest—Shoichi-kun—was removed for a second before the child settled back against him. "Need…get a stretcher…one of…bleeding out…one, two, THREE!" A chill settled in again when his small burden was removed, lulling him to sleep. Then suddenly, a heavier weight was on his chest and it hurt. His eyes shot open with a wet gasp that burned his throat and his back arched. There were voices above him and next to him, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. "Get off!" he tried to yell. It emerged instead as a deep moan that wracked his chest with deep coughs. The world shot into focus, and he squeezed his eyelids back down because it was blindingly bright and why did everything hurt so much?

"—suya, need you to listen—"

"—on way, stretcher outside—"

"—othing broken. Think it's safe to—"

The pain was giving way for an increasing numbness that had already settled into his toes and the fingers that had at some point knotted themselves in someone's shirt. Hands were on his chest, his arms, running through his hair, but he could only half sense them through the haze of beckoning sleep.

Then his rest was disrupted again as he felt those hands lifting him, his head falling on to someone's shoulder. His chest was still on fire—or it felt like it, anyway—and the pressure on it only increased as he let out a choked sob, fingers clenching further into Akashi's shirt. Kagami had nothing to secure the wad of cloth with so he was holding it on to absorb the blood, which was soaking through much too quickly.

Aomine had lifted the unconscious child gripped tightly to the young teacher's chest only to find that the small body was putting pressure on an ugly, gaping wound. He'd lightly set him back down while Kagami grabbed a heavy shock blanket and his off-duty clothes from the bag. When Kuroko's eyes had suddenly opened, they were unfocused and pained. Kagami winced as he'd pushed down on the wound. The body below him weakly protested, moaned and coughed out a small amount of blood.

"We've gotta get him out, stretcher or not," the fireman had stated, after Aomine confirmed that his neck and spine were probably not broken. "He'll bleed out otherwise and I think a lung may be punctured."

"Then let's go." As Kagami faltered, Akashi had lifted Kuroko up into his arms, the teacher's fingers still clutching his jacket in a white-knuckled grip. Kagami adjusted, standing with him and putting pressure back on his chest. With the change in altitude, crimson drops trickled slowly, but steadily, from one leg of his trousers to splash on a spreading pool on the floor, and all three stared at it blankly for a moment. Aomine shifted the child in his arms to look for the source. Despite the dark material, he found the stained hole fairly easily.

"Akashi?" The man nodded his affirmation, and Aomine unlooped the expensive tie from the redhead's neck with one hand. After a short bout of fumbling, he had it tightly tied above the wound to prevent further blood loss. Akashi shifted his arms, keeping the leg slightly more elevated. He looked down at eyes shrouded in wispy blue bangs. Even with his eyes closed, it was clear that he was still conscious.

Kagami glanced over at him. "Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Right. Then let's move."

His chest hurt, and it had for (what he thought had been) awhile. Then, at some point, there had been a quick pain in his leg before it was gone again, melding into numbness. The pressure on his chest alleviated as he felt himself being jostled. Moving? Probably. The voices above him had quieted, and he took that as his cue to relax into a warm shoulder. He was long overdue for a nap, and as unusual as his position felt, it was quite comfortable.

He felt himself drifting, the cold tremor of his veins warring with the heated skin above it.

The pressure increased again. He winced.

"Tetsuya. Stay awake."

That was reminiscent of too many late night practices in middle school, being on the verge of sleep while their demon captain demanded another lap, another set, another round. And he could never bring himself to resist, especially seeing what happened when Aomine tried.

Ah, he must have fallen asleep for a moment, because he'd forgotten what they were doing. Was this another practice match? Haizaki must have distracted Akashi. He normally couldn't even take a seat before his captain was dragging him back up. If Akashi was carrying him, maybe he'd gotten sick again. Training with the first string was nothing like what he was used to, but Akashi said that he needed to get his stamina up quickly. He wasn't sure how well it was working.

Which only served to remind him how tired he was. Why would Akashi tell him to stay awake if he was carrying him? He still wasn't feeling well. The nausea should have passed quickly, like it always did after a long drink of water, but it wasn't. It really was difficult staying awake. Maybe a short rest would help.

Just a little…

"Kuroko! No sleeping!"

Kagami…? Was he in class? Riko's early morning practices were merciless, and he never got quite enough sleep at night, so he was constantly napping during classes. Unintentionally, of course. His light was always whacking him on the head with his textbook to wake him up. It was convenient that he was invisible enough that his teacher never called on him, so he caught up on sleep in-between Kagami's wake-up calls.

He must have caught his grandmother's cold, between the uncomfortable tightening in his chest and the urge to suppress another cough. But he was already in school. It wasn't worth the trek to the nurse's office or back to his family's house. Riko would happily double his training tomorrow if he skipped out on her, though somehow it felt as if he wouldn't be able to handle her usual regimen today.

This was… He felt cloth—a jacket, maybe—beneath his fingers. Yes, this was Akashi. There was no one else with that acrimonious, yet gentle scent. Was Akashi…carrying him? Had something happened during a match?

"Hey, Tetsu, just a bit more. We're almost there."

No, he wasn't in school or a match. Wait, he was in school, just not as a student. He'd gone to university, finished it too. Wasn't he supposed to be working? There had been something going on. Something with…his students? No, it wasn't one of his. Men, men with guns had been in the school. Were in the school. And he'd had, no, there had been a student taken hostage. They thought it was Akashi's cousin, and he'd run over to get him, because he'd promised to get the students out and Toru had looked at him with those eyes, the same ones as Shoichi—

A shot. Someone had been shot. What if… What if Shoichi had been shot?

"Takao! Over here! We need a stretcher, stat!"

Dizzy. Very dizzy. The nausea was giving way, but he only felt worse.

"Lower him down, slowly. Do we have any compression pads? Compression pads! That'll do, but quick!"

The warmth gripping him was leaving him, abandoning him in the grasp of a cold pad as his hands were laid at his side. He gripped at the fabric before it could retract, dragging its owner down with all of his strength, which was not much. "Sh-sho-kun…" He needed to know, even if it pained him to ask, to even think about. "Sh-sho-k-kun…hu-hurt?"

A hand was dragged through his hair, and he wanted to lean into it, but his body was responding less and less. "Sho-kun is fine, Tetsuya. Not a single scratch. You did well."

"You coming with us?"

"I don't believe I have a say in the matter. Tetsuya's fingers are embedded well into my arm."

"Is Tetsu going to be alright?"

"I'm obviously coming and don't say that, Aomine!"

"I was kind of expecting more injured, so we have plenty of room."

"We have no time to waste. Daiki, Taiga, either get in or get to work."

"H-hai!"

"Anyone know his blood type?"

"A positive."

"How would you know that?"

"I'll call it in so we can get a blood transfusion going as soon as we hit the ER."

"Do you know how long he's been bleeding out?"

"No more than four minutes, and Taiga applied pressure for half that time."

"Heart rate a little slow… BP a little slow… O2 saturation falling, let me adjust the oxygen mask… Temperature holding level, so probably no infection… Guys, I think you got there just in time. Shin-chan can definitely patch this up."

"Kagami, want me to…?"

"Yeah, my fingers are going numb. Hear that, Kuroko? You're going to be just fine."

"I can call everyone up, and we can see if Midorima will allow vanilla shakes."

"Tetsuya, you can sleep now." Kuroko knew it wasn't a request, but it was a command he was more than happy to follow. In a haze of beeps, the blares of a siren, familiar voices and the prick of an IV needle, he drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.