(A/N: So um, this came out a lot earlier than I was meaning to, but I thought aww hell why not. Next chapter won't come out till next month, though.)
two;
As a woman, Satsuki blossomed in middle school. She had always been stick thin as a girl, to the point that Daiki often laughed at her about it. But when she was around thirteen, her height shot straight up and her figure filled out in all the right places. She was proud of herself for it; she had become a natural beauty.
She learned quite early on about the effect she had on boys. One couldn't be the manager of a sporting club of over one hundred teenage boys and not pick up on a few things. She was naturally observant anyway, an attribute that proved invaluable when it came to shaping the team and directing her boys to victory.
Really, until she met Tetsuya, that was all Satsuki cared about. And even then, she knew her priorities.
("It's so annoying," she complained to Daiki one day, after three boys from the second string had confessed their undying love to her during lunch break. "Don't they realise that I am Tetsu-kun's girlfriend?"
"Whatever," said Daiki, snorting.
"What do you mean whatever?"
"Has he even told you that he likes you?"
"Of course he has!" At this affirmation, Daiki looked a little bit surprised. "In my dreams, every night," Satsuki went on proudly.
Daiki rolled his eyes.
Satsuki huffed. "For your information," she said indignantly, "Tetsu-kun is a wonderful boyfriend. He is a perfect gentleman, unlike some people I could name."
"Haha," Daiki chuckled dryly.
"See! That's what I'm talking about!")
As the manager of Teikou's basketball team, Satsuki lived and died by her school's victory mantra. Even if Tetsuya and Daiki never blamed her for what happened to them, Satsuki knew she had always been on the sidelines watching the world turn monochrome. She had never even lifted a finger against all the corruption.
That, to her, was her biggest crime.
Graduation was now fast approaching and all the seniors were required to attend the ceremony rehearsals, where they practised singing the school anthem and walking up on stage. It was compulsory and not even Daiki could get away with being a no-show. "Fricken hell," Satsuki heard him mutter darkly as he shuffled into line behind her.
Hearing his voice, Satsuki couldn't help but remember her encounter with Imayoshi.
"Oi, Satsuki, think you can make up some excuse for me?" Daiki asked her hopefully.
Characteristically of Daiki, he made no reference to their fight on the rooftop. It was like he had wiped it clear from his memory banks. Satsuki knew that it wasn't because he had really forgotten – it was just that he didn't place too much weight on things like that. These days, ignoring everything and letting the negative feelings pile up was his way of saying sorry.
Satsuki tried not to let it get to her.
"Hey, Dai-chan, have you picked what school you're going to yet?" she asked casually. She chewed on the end of her hair as she spoke; it was a nervous habit of hers.
Daiki surprised her by saying, "Yeah, I'm going to Touou."
Satsuki turned around, surprised. The hair dropped from her mouth. "What, really?" Had Imayoshi and the Touou scouts already succeeded in influencing him?
"But I'm not joining the basketball team," Daiki added. "It just looks like a place where I can do what I want."
It was only then that she realised she had been holding her breath. As she exhaled, something scrunched up inside her stomach and felt as if it dropped. It was not a pleasant sensation. "Oh," she said, turning away. She searched for something to say. Anything. "Well, there's still time to think about it."
Daiki grunted unenthusiastically.
Perceptively, Satsuki let the subject drop.
Tetsu-kun.
In the last few days of school, just before the graduation ceremony, Satsuki found her thoughts turning to the former phantom member of the Generation of Miracles. Tetsuya was the shadow to Daiki's light – they knew each other. When they played together, their rhythms resonated with the perfect tonal vibrancy of octaves sung in unison. Time was running out – she only had a matter of days before their middle school days were over. She couldn't just let things end like this.
She was backed into a corner. Tetsuya was the only one she could trust now.
But Tetsuya wasn't in the library anymore. He didn't appear to be anywhere in the school. He had slipped completely under the radar in a way that only he could manage. As for the other members of the Generation of Miracles, none of them seemed to care overmuch about their time at middle school coming to an end. Kise was sentimental, but then again, Kise was always sentimental, and besides, it seemed like he was more upset about the idea of high school entrance exams. Satsuki knew that her boys were slipping away from her.
No matter how much she wanted to slow down time, she couldn't prevent graduation. When finally, the inevitable day came, she just couldn't think anymore. Everything was numb and stretched out to uncomfortable proportions. It all seemed so distant to her.
One by one, she watched as her boys went up on stage to receive their diplomas. Later, she would only remember the whole ceremony in snippets – Midorima towering over their principal, shaking his hand with clinical precision; Kise bursting into tears as he got his photos with all the girls taken; and Daiki, sleeping through the farewell speech. Satsuki could not remember seeing Tetsuya once, no matter how desperately she searched through the swarms of people on the school ground.
At first, she was resigned; she knew he wasn't the type of person who drifted towards large gatherings. As time wore on, however, and the crowd started to thin, the frustration welled within her. She knew that if Tetsuya did not want to be found in a time like this, she would never be able to find him. Yet she couldn't stand to be with anyone else either. Before she knew it, she had run off to an empty school corridor, where she was punched the wall out of anger.
"Argh! I hate it!" As she yelled, she breathed out heavily. To her, it sounded like something in between a sob and a wheeze. But it did nothing for her; she could feel herself tensing up yet again. "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!"
"Momoi-san, please, calm down."
Satsuki jumped and yelped in surprise. Standing behind her, blinking and peering at her coolly as if he had been there this whole time, was Kuroko Tetsuya.
"Tetsu-kun! What are you doing here? I was looking for you!"
"You seemed upset."
This was the good thing about Tetsuya, Satsuki thought. This was why she loved him. He could actually talk about feelings and emotions with a reasonable level of competence. She just couldn't imagine confiding to anyone else in the Generation of Miracles.
(But of course, they weren't really the Generation of Miracles anymore. They had all graduated. Today.)
"I still can't believe it," she whispered. "We're ending, Tetsu-kun."
"Perhaps," responded Tetsuya philosophically. "But I like to think from here, the true story begins."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You couldn't see it, Momoi-san? They're all bored geniuses. They look forward to next year because they want to fight each other as rivals."
It was the first time this idea had even occurred to Satsuki. Now that she thought about it, it did make sense. This was why the graduation ceremony seemed like such an anticlimax. None of them had honestly enjoyed their time at Teikou.
"I guess that gives something for me to look forward to as well," she mused aloud, mustering a smile for the first time that day.
"I'm glad you feel better," said Tetsuya.
"But wait," Satsuki said in a low voice. The smile dropped off her face. "Dai-chan… Dai-chan said he's not playing."
Tetsuya said nothing to that.
"You have to do something, Tetsu-kun!" Satsuki insisted wildly. "You and Dai-chan were partners, weren't you?"
Finally, Tetsuya spoke.
"That," he said quietly, "was in the past."
"I don't care," Satsuki said through gritted teeth, her voice steely. "Together, you and I can change Dai-chan's mind. We can't let him quit, Tetsu-kun! We just can't!"
She was gripping him by the shoulders, shaking him violently. Tetsuya did not avoid her pointed gaze. He blinked and seemed deep in thought, his normally inexpressive eyes gleaming just a little bit brighter.
One of his hands rose up and held onto Satsuki's arm. Just like that, he stilled her. His touch had the feel of a gentle reprimand.
"You're right," he said. "I do not like the thought of Aomine-kun quitting either. Even though he doesn't enjoy basketball, I do not want him to quit."
"Tetsu-kun, I'm glad…"
"But nothing I say will change him now."
Satsuki opened her mouth but found she could say nothing.
Tetsuya turned away, his shoulders hunched. In Satsuki's vision, he just seemed so small and lonely.
"Come with me, Momoi-san," he said after a moment of contemplation. "There's something I want to show you."
It was late afternoon now, and the sun felt cool, detached, and ultimately so far away. Tetsuya walked briskly out the school gates and across the street. It gave Satsuki a small thrill of pleasure to walk with him, even as she was curious to know what he wanted to show her. Though his manner was mild, he had always been so hard to read. Today, perhaps, he was even a little more inscrutable than usual.
"Where are we going, Tetsu-kun?"
"To the courts," he said simply.
This response bemused Satsuki, but she supposed she would find out what he really meant once she got there. Stepping up in pace with Tetsuya, she realised it had been a while since she had last talked – as in really talked – with him.
"Have you decided what school you're going to yet?" she asked him curiously. "I know Ki-chan's going to Kaijo, Midorin's going to Shuutoku…"
"Yes," said Tetsuya evenly. "There is a school I want to go to."
"Which one's that?"
"Seirin."
Satsuki paused and frowned. She had never heard of that school.
"It was only established this year," Tetsuya explained.
That made sense. Satsuki knew about all the high schools in the area, having researched them thoroughly yet selectively. She had paid no attention to the schools that had no reputation in basketball. She made a mental note to do some investigation on Seirin. "How do you think your exam went?" Satsuki asked, changing the topic.
"I think I did enough to pass."
"Tetsu-kun, are you still going to play basketball?"
Tetsuya stopped. "We're here," he said.
They were standing outside an outdoor basketball court. Satsuki could hear voices coming from the court below, accompanied by the sound of a basketball being bounced.
She could hear children laughing.
"How are you going to show me anything?" Satsuki asked, puzzled. "The court's already occupied."
In response, Tetsuya merely gazed at her solemnly.
"That's what I want to show you."
Satsuki opened her mouth and then closed it. She understood now. As soon as she stood still and focused on the heat of the sun against her cheeks and on the halting sounds of inefficient dribbling and above all, the laughter, as clear as a summer day…
"I see," she said, smiling fondly and nostalgically. Her heart felt full and heavy. "So that's where you've been these past few days, Tetsu-kun. You were watching these children."
He nodded slowly. "We were all like that once. Don't you remember, Momoi-san, how it felt in the beginning?"
Of course, of course she remembered. How could she not?
Her stomach lurched and it was like something in the back of her mind jerked back and swung into motion. Click. A perfect time machine. Rewind and press play. In her mind's eye, she and Daiki were children again, scrambling around trees and scraping their knees on the pavement. Daiki played basketball without any reservations, shouting in glee and pumping his fist towards the sky whenever he played well. His voice was still high-pitched back then and his grins were still broad and boyish.
"Hey, Satsuki! Satsuki! Look! I got it in five times a row!"
She could hear her voice too, responding to him, so high and eager and sweet, because she had never known anything different.
"Oh, wow! Dai-chan, you're the greatest!"
… Back then, she remembered, she thought Daiki had no flaws. He was strong and he was fast and he was good at basketball. He could shoot further than any boy his age and he could dribble them off the courts. When she sprained her ankle and couldn't walk, he carried her on his back and he stopped the other boys from teasing her. Back then, before Daiki fell complacent, before she came to feel like she needed to take care of him, she had always thought of him as that older brother figure that could do no wrong.
Satsuki blinked, startled. Her right eye stung. She clasped her palm against her eye and felt something wet leak out of her eyelids.
Just like that, the image in her mind blurred and fuzzed. She couldn't quite reach it anymore.
"Don't you want to hear it again?" she heard Tetsuya ask beside her.
"Hear what?" she asked slowly, not daring to look at him. Her eyes were fixed on the children. There were about five of them or so and none of them could have been older than ten…
Tetsuya said, "The sound of Aomine-kun's laughter."
(Tetsuya had always, always cared about Daiki, perhaps more deeply than he had ever cared about himself.)
"Tetsu-kun…" she said, turning to him tearfully. "We can't go back to that time, can we?"
Tetsuya faced her too. Slowly, his mouth curled into a slight smile, as genuine a smile as she had ever seen from him.
"No," he said firmly. "But we can go forward."
Was this Tetsuya's plan? To rediscover what made basketball fun? To show that to the Generation of Miracles? Were any of them, let alone Daiki, even capable of seeing that now?
"So this is why you quit," she said softly. "Tetsu-kun, you don't hate basketball at all, do you?"
"I only hate the kind of basketball that we played at Teikou." Tetsuya's gaze swept towards the children for a brief moment, before turning back to Satsuki. "Momoi-san, I don't think my words will ever reach Aomine-kun, but I like to think that one day, my actions will."
She could only look at him, afraid to blink as if he would vanish before her eyes if she did. It was then that she remembered that out of all the members of the Generation of Miracles, Tetsuya had always worked the hardest with his basketball, making statements with his invisible passes that no one seemed to perceive, just by simple definition.
He looked back at her, his gaze unwavering. There was a short pause, and then he spoke, with a voice brimming with quiet resolve.
"I'm not quitting basketball. That is my promise to you."
It was too much for her. With a soft, muffled sob, Satsuki fell to her knees and wept. It was only then, with Tetsuya at her side and the sounds of ringing laughter and basketballs bouncing as her anthem, that she felt, for the first time, as if she had graduated from Teikou Middle School.
That was the last time she saw Tetsuya for a long while. The next time they came face to face, it was months later, and he hung around with boys Satsuki had only ever seen on videos and he wore a jersey that did not have Teikou's stripes on it. He seemed apathetic, albeit a little cautious, though he still looked her in the eyes when she talked to him. When they were alone, one of the first things that he said to her was a solemn promise to defeat her school's team.
In the long wait before she saw him again, she thought often of ringing his cellphone, just for the sake of hearing his voice. She missed him, with all the utter longing and misery that came with it. Some part of her knew, deep down, that her infatuation with Tetsuya was just that – an infatuation. But there was the infatuation and there was the camaraderie, and as someone who had always observed and supported her team from the sidelines, Satsuki knew how Tetsuya felt. Somehow, it just felt right not to talk to him. It was not what he wanted, not yet.
Perhaps it was through her silence that Satsuki knew her feelings for Tetsuya were genuine. She might not bow down and let her team lose to him, but she would do anything else for him.
He had left her with just one unspoken task. She would not allow herself to see him again until she had seen it through.
end part 2 of 4