Knights of Teikou

Genre : Adventure, Friendship, Fantasy

I didn't own Kuroko no Basuke, Fujimaki Tadatoshi-sensei own it! (May include OOC)

Thanks for the support, minna!^^ Sorry if I take long for update, in this chapter I will talk about Kagami's past..

Hope u enjoy this chapter too~!

-Chapter 4:-

All 46 freshmen of Squad 12 finally finished their training menu and gathered again in the side of one of the arenas there.

" Good! Now let's continue to our next training, okay?", Riko shared a glance around then continued, " Now take one sword from this box. Hurry!"

They took the swords and distribute it to their back, until all of them had the swords.

Kagami blinked when the long-iron plain-sword was held with his right hand. He tried to grip the sword, feeling how nostalgic it was.

" Now, for our warming up session~ Let's divide all of you into a group of two and have some sparring~!", Riko shouted in excitement.

'What Riko did was right. When you are training your troops, you need to fully grasp the conditions and powers each of them have.', Kiyoshi thought silently while keeping his bright smile. His eyes moved to a certain kid that had caught his attention since yesterday.

Riko started to divide them into a group of two, intentionally pairing the boys with the adults one. " Now let's start the spar, minna~! Group 1, Karamune Riki vs Maragi Kita, get ready into position!"

A 20 years old boy stood out, his hair was shiny-brown with the thin eyebrows. Also did a boy in his 26 with black-long haired that was combed backward.

" I will explain the rules…"

1. The first one to let their opponent let off of their sword, he is the winner.

2. No serious attack allowed here.

3. No foul-trick allowed.

4. The spar will be stopped whenever I saw any intention of going over the line of a spar.

5. Anyone breaking the rules will get the punishment from me, or even more I'll kick you out from this squad.

Kagami stayed at the side and watched as the others having their spar, his heart was debating over something. He saw the clash of the swords in front of him, the moment when one sword was ready to slice the opponent's body but was stopped by the other sword and it continued until one sword was flung away to the side.

The next group was called and it repeated what happened before, except it was more safe-playing. The next group was more frontal though, it was totally one-sided with the stronger one cornering his opponent without any mercy.

It repeated again and again, until Midorima was called…

The said boy looked as calm as ever, side-stepping his opponent... He didn't make any unnecessary movement and when a right moment came, he hit the arm a little harder to made his opponent lost hold of his sword and so he won.

Kise and Aomine were agile, their opponents were having a hard time following their movements. Kise won the spar beautifully with his swift movement and skills while Aomine won it enormously with his strength and speed.

Murasakibara was amazing though, using one hand to hold the sword and just a single-swing and the sword his opponent held flung off. Akashi was amazing too, he won the spar by pointing the pointy end of the sword to the other's grip and somehow splinted it away to make the sword fall down.

The next spar was quite heating too but resulted by someone accidentally hurt. It's just a little scratch and because it was an accident, the man wasn't being scolded too much, only being asked to go run around the field for 10 times.

By the time they were having their spars continued, Kagami noticed a group of people coming inside the field too. They gathered at the other arena on the other side and was having sword-swinging warm-up. Soon after the field were crowded with many squads traning there.

Kagami was looking at them when he heard Riko called for Kuroko's name. He turned his attention back to the arena in front of him and found Kuroko facing off with a dark-brown haired boy around 18 years old. His eyes were dark and sharp and Kagami knew from looking that that boy was strong.

'Kuroko…', Kagami silently prayed for the boy. He still remembered how nice Kuroko was, the boy let Kagami had some of his dinner. He knew the boy was trying to cheer him up and he was very grateful for it, no one ever done it to him except Tatsuya.

The spar started and the strong-looking boy took the first move by a quick frontal-dash. Kuroko disappeared from his place and appeared again behind the boy's grip and knocked the long-sword away skillfully, the boy seemed not to notice him until his sword was lost from his grip.

Everyone was dumb-founded on their places, even Kagami too. It's all happened too fast.

' D-Did he just disappear? H-How could it happen?! C-Cool!', thought Kagami completely in admiration.

' W-What?! H-He disappeared?!', Riko was surprised , she had had a feeling that Kuroko would surprise her, but she wouldn't ever think for it to happen this way.

Riko composed herself and continued the spar, until Kagami's turn come…

Kagami climbed up the arena, his right hand held the long-sword. He looked at his opponent, a 22 years man that had spiky dark-gray hair. His eyes were as sharp as the man facing with Kuroko before. There's a scar visible on his right eye, slicing right down passed the eye, making his appearances looked more dangerous.

" Give it your all, Kagami Taiga.", he said in a dangerous tone, his golden eyes were focused and the way he was looking at Kagami tell that he regard Kagami as his opponent.

Kagami looked at him straightly then down to the long-sword in his hand.

" Kagami Taiga vs Tanaguchi Hans. Start!", Riko announced loudly.

Hans dashed forward and attacked. Kagami looked kind of surprise and he clumsily dodged it, but looks like Hans really didn't plan to be easy, he quickly attacked Kagami again. This time, Kagami evaded it by his sword and both of them backing down for a moment.

Kagami raised his sword to the front and took a deep breath, 'Easy, Taiga… Easy… It feel like holding Kon… Just think of it as Kon.'

Hans moved forward again and attacked him again, this time Kagami responded it better. The swords clashed and slowly Kagami started getting used with the sword in his hand. He fluently dodged the attack and gave the counter-attack which was dodged by his opponent too.

Both of them didn't stop right there and attacked again in the same time, their swords were clashing each other fiercely, battling for the dominant. Kagami tried to increase his power more and more, so did Hans. The fidgeting continued almost one minute before the small difference started to appear.

Kagami slowly rotated his sword a little, planning to end this little war already. After he found a better angle, he increased his power and pushed the other sword away. With only a sec after the sword was pushed away, Kagami aimed for Han's grip of sword.

'Shit, I lose.' Hans knew in that second what's going to happen.

CLANG

The plain long-sword hit the ground while the two of them still in their positions. Hans with his golden-eyes widen, his left hand were stretched to the side while his right hand were holding his sword diagonally.

Kagami himself were looking at him with his crimson-eyes widen, his right hand were stretched forward to Hans like how it must be like, but not his sword. Looking down, Kagami saw his plain long-sword laying on the ground.

Everyone who weren't fast enough in looking was confused of what happened, and thought that Hans had somehow beaten Kagami.

But those who were fast enough to see knew something went wrong. Even Hans thought so too. 'D-Did he just…'

" Ah, my bad. I lost.", Kagami said and picked his sword up.

He managed a sheepy-smile and jumped down from the arena, acting like nothing really happened. Riko was beyond confusion because she saw what happened in that split second. She made a note to question the boy later.

" Okay then, the next!", Riko called for the other participants.

Kagami didn't pay any attention to the spar anymore, his mind were full of what had just happened with him. He knew he had made a big mistake, a mistake that he shouldn't do no matter what. But he had done it. He raised the sword in his hand and stared at it, his hand unconsciously trembling.

' Shit! Stop trembling!', Kagami tried to held his right hand down.

" Kagami-kun."

'WOAHH!'

" K-Kuroko? Since when are you here?!", asked Kagami to the aqua-haired boy who stood just beside him, completely shocked.

" Since you stood here.", answered Kuroko with his small smile on his face.

" U-uh? R-Really? Sorry, I didn't recognize you just now.", Kagami told him truthfully.

" You was too occupied with your thought just now, Kagami-kun. Mind to share it with me?", Kuroko looked up at him sincerely.

Kagami was surprised at first but then he grinned and patted Kuroko's aqua blue hair" Woah, you are nice, Kuroko. But I'm okay, thanks."

Honestly, Kuroko was disappointed by the answer. He was born with a natural heart that wanted to help people as much as he can. And he knew this boy was lying, since his expression just now didn't show any signs of being fine.

If it was Daiki or his other friends, he would surely point it out directly. But he just knew Kagami for one day, it was inpolite to just bark in someone's problem when they didn't want to even tell him.

Kuroko managed a small smile, " Really, Kagami-kun? If you feel the need, just tell me will you?" Kuroko tried to let the boy know his resolution through his eyes.

" Okay, thank you Kuroko.", Kagami quirked a small smile then turned and walked away from Kuroko. He was never an expert in making a lie, so the best way was to walk away from the person. 'Geez, I did it to him again. I'm sorry, Kuroko…'

The rest of the morning was filled with training, training and training. Every squads trained there were having their lunches in the field, they formed their own squad-circle and despite their tiredness, they were chatting and laughing like usual.

But not squad 12. As a group of freshmen, they still hadn't gotten used to the training yet. Not to mention that they didn't know each other very well.

" Did any of you see Kagami-kun?", Riko approached Kuroko's group.

Kuroko shook his head, all of them shook their heads. " The last time I saw him, he was sitting over there. It's not like I have been paying my attention to him.", Midorima murmured the last statement quickly while he pointed to the right direction.

" Geezz~ Where did he go?", Riko walked away while her eyes looking around, trying to find the crimson-haired boy.

" I wonder where did Kagamicchi go to?", Kise frowned a little while eating his lunch.

" Ryouta, since when do you become so close with him?", Midorima asked bluntly.

" Uh? Uhmm~ Not close… But since we are all in the same ages and squad… And he doesn't look like a bad person. So why not be friend?", explained Kise hesitantly. He was quite unsure too why he had suddenly regard him as his friend.

Midorima sighed, " You trust people too easily, Ryouta."

" Uh? So you think Kagamicchi is a bad guy, Shintarou-cchi?"

"… We just knew him for only one day, we can't judge him so carelessly.", Midorima pushed his glasses up calmly.

" You hesitated, Shintarou-chin~", Murasakibara commented while eating his lunch.

" What? I don't, Atsushi.", stated Midorima firmly.

" You are lying again, Shintaro-chin~", Murasakibara said with his bored expression as usual.

" so weird…", the six of them quiet down, ears perked up at the conversation.

"Yeah, I thought so too. This morning, he disappeared right?", a young man spoke a little far from where the Kisedai were.

It didn't take long for the Kisedai to realize who were they talking about.

" Excuse me for a while.", Akashi put his lunch-box down and stood up.

" Where do you want to go, Seijuurou-kun?", all of the Kisedai looked at the said-boy questioning.

" To the restroom. I won't take long, just wait for me here.", Akashi smiled politely then walked away from the group. The others shrugged it off, while Kuroko and Midorima lingering their gazes to the boy longer before looking back to the group.

" Ah!", Aomine suddenly shouted and put down his lunch-box, earning confused looks from his friends.

-Meanwhile, behind certain tree in the little-forest (north of the field)-

Kagami was sitting there, both his hands holding his swords. One his wooden sword and one the real sword he received from the training. The already-empty lunch-box laying beside him. His eyes were focused on both the swords.

…

" So you really never used a real sword before?"

Kagami surprised at the sudden voice there and turned to the red-haired boy. 'I didn't notice him… And… What's his name again? A-Arashi …'

" Akashi Seijuurou.", suddenly the boy said and he smiled disappointedly, " It's rude to forget someone's name, Kagami-san."

" A-Ah, w-well… I'm sorry.", Kagami apologized while he silently asked himself how did the boy know what he was thinking about.

Akashi sighed a little in disapprovement, " So… Did what I said was true?"

" Uh?", Kagami was confused once again.

" You never used a real sword before?", repeated Akashi again.

Kagami looked at Akashi right eyes to eyes, the ruby-eyes were showing firmness and also passion as what a leader has. Kagami actually had felt it the first time he met the six of them that they emitted a certain dignity with this red-haired boy emitting a strong leadership aura.

He surprisingly found himself felt a little secured under the boy's gaze. Kagami sighed and looked back at the swords in his lap, " Yes. Not that I never used it before… I ever used it, once.", Kagami didn't even know why he answered the question so easily and honestly.

Akashi raised his eyebrow, now that was a surprise, " You have?"

Kagami nodded, " Now do you want to stand over there or sit here and let me tell you the story?" Kagami glanced at him questioning.

If Akashi found any offense mean from the offer, he would surely decline it or even turned it back at the one who dared to do it. But the boy didn't sound offensive at all, so Akashi chose to accept the offer and sat down beside the boy.

" Well then, uhm.. Where to start?", asked Kagami to Akashi innocently.

" Start from part when you got your first sword and how you got your hand with a real-sword. Or better where do you come from?", Akashi looked at him seriously, he didn't sound joking at all.

" Okay. ", Kagami unconsciously followed the command. "So~ I came from Gale Bay, north-coast of the Greek as an orphanage. There I met with Tatsuya and his parents. Ah, sorry… You don't know who Tatsuya is, right?", Kagami smiled sheepishly.

" Tatsuya was the only one who wanted to be my friend since I was kind of bad in making friends and he even kindly offered me to come with his family to Kranea village and so did I. Tatsuya was the first person that introduce me to sword-play too, he was amazing in it! ", Kagami's eyes seemed to shine at the mention of the boy.

"Haha, this sword I have was a present from him.", Kagami raised the wooden-sword. " He was the one who taught me how to use a sword, the basic skills I need. We used to spar together before, it was so fun. Everything went well until five years ago… " Kagami paused for a sec and his voice unwillingly dropped, "There's a war."

Akashi's ears perked up on the mention of it, 'Five years ago…' he remembered too well the war that had made him who he was today.

" I was there when it happened."

Now that Akashi thought about it, he remembered Kranea as one of the villages that were included in the war. Its condition was worse, buildings burned into ashes and many lives were cost there.

' He was there when the war happened?', Akashi questioned himself.

" We were having our lunches in a well-known restaurant, when we heard the news about the war. Everyone prayed for the war to be stopped before reaching Kranea, some also prayed for the Empire to come instantly and protect them."

Kagami smiled a little, " Tatsuya's father acted so calm and gave command to the citizen to evacuate to the next village and at the same time informing them about the upcoming-danger."

" Almost half of the citizen were evacuated already when the enemies come and started to burn the buildings. When they did, everyone started to panic and ran without any direction. I was separated from Tatsuya and his parents."

Kagami gripped the wooden-sword tightly and his voice deepen, " My instinct told me I must find them first before leaving there and so I did that. I was searching after buildings, carefully for not being noticed. Then… I saw it…"

Akashi's eyes sharpen and he readied himself for what's going to come.

' Where did Tatsuya go?', Kagami kept running from building to building. Suddenly he heard a scream and hurriedly ran to the source. From the distance, Kagami could see a soldier cornering a middle-aged woman, the woman were hiding her pair of kids behind her.

Kagami didn't think much and immediately ran to them, he got in time there just as the soldier was ready to swing the sword down. He held the sword back with his wooden-sword.

" RUN! HURRYY!", Kagami shouted while he kept holding the sword back with his wooden sword.

The woman nodded and ran away with her kids.

" Tch. Little kid, try to act hero. You know, kid? Iron can cut through wood!", the soldier raised his iron-sword and swang it down.

Kagami ducked away, jumped and hit the soldier's chin hardly, " OUCH! SHITTTT!", Kagami stabbed the soldier's knees with the pointy-end of his sword, making the tall soldier crouched down so he could hit him right on his head.

And the soldier was down, Kagami glanced around and found many cavalries were coming his way. He immediately ran and hid below a burnt-building, just behind the black-burnt pillar.

Kagami tried to calm his heartbeat down, 'Tatsuya! Uncle! Auntie! Where are you?! Please be safe!', Kagami peeked to the road again and saw the cavalry already gone away.

From his place he could hear some screams coming from unknown directions, the sounds of sword-clashing, the burning buildings, the horse-screams, the shout of the soldiers. All of it didn't help him feel better, more correctly it made him felt worse.

Somehow, Kagami couldn't find himself calming down no matter how hard he try. Whenever those sounds reached his ear, the sight of flames wrapping the buildings resurfaced in his mind… And suddenly he felt himself engulfed in a feeling of de javu.

" Dad!", Kagami tensed upon hearing that voice. He stood up and snapped to the left. 'This voice… Tatsuya!', Kagami immediately ran following his instinct and finally he found a pair of father and son that he knew so much, back to back, facing three soldiers at the same time.

Kagami was relieved for a sec to find the father-and-son, but then he focused himself and ran to aid the pairs. Not long, they managed to defeat the soldiers…

"Dad! Are you okay?", Tatsuya helped his father to stand, blood already flowing down his father's left-hand.

" Uncle…", Kagami suddenly heard the voice of horses coming their way. He snapped to that direction, " They come again!"

The three of them turned to the approaching horses but rather than fear, Tatsuya's father sighed relievedly " Haah, finally…"

Both Kagami and Tatsuya were confused at first, but soon they understood… They are Teikou's troops. Three knights let them up on their horses and started to strike back to where the evacuation place was located. The rest of the knights and soldiers continued forward, to confront the enemies.

Kagami was relieved but stayed alerted to the surrounding. He didn't even know why he did that, he just felt unsecure under that situation. Many corpses could be seen all along the streets in a not-good condition. Kagami felt himself wanted to puke by the sight but he couldn't made himself to look away from it too.

That time the horses, both Tatsuya and his father were sitting on, took the lead while Kagami's being the last one. And suddenly to their left, Kagami saw a group of soldiers with one knight riding a horse were grouping around a group of boys.

Without any hesitation, the knight turned the horse to the groups' direction. "When we are near, jump down and stay away. If you find a chance, lead the boys away. Understood?", was what the knight said. Kagami nodded and when their distances closen up, he jumped down from the horse as what he was told to. Kagami immediately ran and hid behind a burnt house's pillar.

The enemies were all surprised at the arrival of the knight and grouped the knights. Even if it's 7 vs 1 but the knight was winning over them. Kagami used this chance to sneak to the boys as quiet as possible.

There were total 4 boys, a bit older than Kagami it seems. The two of them already beaten up so badly, Kagami was sure they had put some fight before they being outnumbered." Listen. Now walk to that direction as quiet as possible. Don't make any sound. After you are far enough, run! Turn left in that T-intersection, there should be Teikou's soldiers straight there."

The four of them nodded and started to sneak away as quiet as possible, one of them each helped their wounded-friends to walk away. Kagami turned to where the fights were going on, the enemy's knight had come down from his horse and joined the fights.

Although the Teiko's knight still winning the battle but he was being outnumbered. Kagami then unsheathed his wooden-sword from his wrist and jumped in to help the knight. All of them were surprised of him, the knight too. " I told you to run!"

" I won't run alone!", Kagami answered while he hit down a soldier already. Two other soldiers turned to group around Kagami.

Kagami dodged the first attack and counter-attacked by hitting the body that was visible through the armor. He didn't waste any seconds and aimed at the face directly, the soldier spun around and collapsed, holding his head.

The second soldier cursed and assaulted Kagami from behind, Kagami was fast enough to react so only a few strands of his dark-crimson hair was cut. But at that moment too, Kagami realized one wrong move and that real-sword going to cut through him.

This soldier Kagami was facing now was calmer and seemed focused all the time. Kagami readied his stances, focused of any attack he would give.

" AHH!", suddenly a shout could be heard not far from their places, followed by the sound of something crashing hard.

All of them turned their attentions to the group of boys with a part of collapsed-building halting their ways, Kagami's eyes then caught a middle-sized wall almost collapsed right on the group.

" Watch out!", the boys looked up and too surprise to make any moves. The wall separated from the main-building and falling down on them. Kagami raised his wooden-sword behind and threw it strongly forming a rotating-circle and hit the falling-wall, pushed it only a little forward but enough to make it landed just in front of the boys.

" RUNNN!", Kagami shouted so loud before he was tuckled down to the ground with a sword pointing on his throat.

" Woah, so heroic hmm? Throwing your sword away for them, you lost this battle because of your naïve action.", some of his black-haired that he combed backward were falling to the sides. He had one red round-mark on his forehead.

" I don't want to be a hero, old man.", Kagami hissed angrily and then he suddenly grinned. " Besides I haven't lost."

Kagami rolled to the side quickly, the soldier wasn't fast enough to stab his throat. Kagami rolled to where a soldier he had beaten before was laying on, his eyes saw the iron sword in the man's grip and picked it up without hesitation.

He stood up and raised the real sword to the front, " Ho oh, interesting.", the soldier smirked, he attacked and Kagami countered it with his sword, he was kind of clumsy at first with the unfamiliar sword. But he soon got how it worked in the third attack.

Kagami started attacking the soldier back, first they were equal in strength but soon the soldier was pushing him back. Kagami still tried to evade the attack which became worse by each attack directed to him.

Kagami just lost his focus for only a sec, but it resulted at him being slashed right at his right arm. The cut was not deep, but it was deep enough to cause his blood flowing down from the cut. Kagami didn't have any time to think about it as the soldier kept attacking him.

Kagami decided to run to the side, luring the soldier with him. Kagami then attacked him while running, success in surprising the soldier.

" HHHHHHHAAAAAAAAA!", Kagami used much force to flung the sword away from the soldier's grip and in reflex, he jumped and swung down his sword to the soldier's face.

Bloods flew everywhere as Kagami made a deep long cut on his cheek.

The soldier widen his eyes and stumbled back a few steps, " BRATT!", he suddenly dashed forward to Kagami.

Kagami was surprised and reflexly sliced the coming hands with his sword. Blood splashed out from the hands, " A-A… S-Sorry… ", Kagami was terrified about what he had done to the man. But the soldier didn't stop and flung himself to Kagami again, Kagami kept dodging the man but the man just won't give up.

Then the man accidentally tripped himself and didn't get up anymore. Kagami looked at him confusedly, and slowly he approached the lying man. " H-Hey…" Kagami kicked the man for a few times.

The man didn't response for a minute, Kagami thought he was unconscious already and sighed in relief. And when Kagami was ready to turn back, suddenly the man caught his left foot. He woke up with his right hand holding his sword that coincidentally lay below himself.

" I'm so gonna kill you, brat!", the man said and raised his sword.

Kagami was beyond terrified now, " Don't!"

…

…

…

" When I opened my eyes, he already laid on the ground with a deep cut on his throat.", finished Kagami, gripped the real-sword tightly.

-To be Continued-

As always, thank you for reading minna-san!^o^ Hope you also enjoy this chapter, sorry if I made any mistakes.

(Kon= the name Kagami gave his wooden-sword. Kagami was too happy when he got his first sword and the innocent him decided to give the sword a name. Kon just came into his mind since he thought it was easy to call)