Unrelenting Memories

Chapter 3

"Where's Kagami-kun?" Kuroko asked when Aomine came back. He hadn't expected the match to be that quick. Then again, he didn't warn Kagami he would be crushed immediately, going against Aomine in basketball.

Aomine shrugged. "He felt sick during the match and went home."

"Kagami-kun is sick? Is he all right?" Kuroko thought it was strange the ace turned sick when he was fine earlier.

Aomine narrowed his eyes at Kuroko's concern. Who cares about that bastard? He was looking at you like he wanted to jump for your body anyway. "How should I know?" he shrugged. He slid back into his seat and unwrapped his first of many burgers. "By the way, how come you chose him to be your new light? He obviously doesn't have enough quality to show what you can really do." Plus he's after your body.

"And he thinks he can beat me," Aomine droned. Plus he's after your body. "And the Generation of Miracles. Is he suicidal or something?" Plus he's after your body.

Kuroko calmly sipped on his shake. "I trust Kagami-kun. We both will rise to the top of Japan."

Aomine almost choked on his burger. Trust? And he's already making marriage plans with the bastard! "You should have gone to Touou with me, Tetsu," he grumbled. "We would have made it way faster and easier than that Kagami dude." Plus he's after your body.

"Maybe, but that doesn't change my mind." Kuroko gave another sip. "Aomine-kun does not like Kagami-kun?"

No, I loathe the damn bastard to the deepest pits of Hell, and I hope Akashi will kill that phony of a "light" painfully. Aomine only scowled and stuffed another burger into his mouth.

~Setting Skip~

Kagami snapped open his eyes with a gasp of breath and was greeted by utter darkness. He breathed heavily, wondering why his head pounded painfully and that his body felt numb. The latter was soon answered when he found he was sitting on a cold chair in only his boxers, hands tied behind the seat of it tightly.

"What the hell?" he muttered and tugged at the ropes. This reminded him of some action or horror movie. "O-o-i!" Kagami shouted. "Anybody there? You bastards that attacked me better untie me!"

"I don't think you should be making any demands, Kagami Taiga."

It was a cold, peculiar voice that had the ace jump and deliver goosebumps to his arms and neck. Kagami twisted his head around and tried to see where the voice came from, but with the darkness, he couldn't. "Who are you?"

"Do you deserve an answer?" Again, that sharp, severe voice drifted in the room. Light footsteps began to make its way toward Kagami. Seirin's ace could see something faintly glowing—something red and yellow? As it got closer, he could make out they were eyes, swirled with pure hatred and fury. Kagami started to lean back, but there was no stopping the advance.

When the person came close enough, Kagami was only able to see a shadow of a face. Something snipped back and forth; it was almost like the opening and closing of scissors. Chilled breath met his cheek.

"Do you deserve an answer, even though you broke so many rules?"

"W-what rules?" he tried to spat, but it didn't sound menacing.

"Violating for what is mine, touching for what is mine, talking for what is mine, befriending for what is mine." Kagami flinched when he felt the cold breath. "Disgracing him with your presence." A sharp, metal edge touched his cheek, sliding down slowly to the base of his neck. The ace couldn't move with the fear of getting cut. "Do you think you deserve anything, Kagami Taiga?"

He swallowed in terror. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh," Akashi murmured. "But you do."

For the second time, a familiar scream claimed the city of Tokyo. No one bothered to call the police, though, because ever since the Generation of Miracles joined Teiko Middle School, screams such as this one were quite common. Akashi's neighbors, especially, were used to unknown sounds of pain from the red-head's house.

~Setting and Time Skip~

"What?" The Generation of Miracles minus Aomine asked in disbelief. Aomine nodded seriously.

"Kuroko and the Kagami guy have already made marriage plans?" Midorima whispered furiously, his right hand clutching onto a frog wallet tightly. "Are you sure?"

The tanned teenager crossed his arms and nodded again. "Positive. Tetsu said something about 'rising to the top of Japan' with him. Sounds like marriage to me!"

"Indeed it does." Akashi tapped his scissors against the table slowly and deliberately.

Murasakibara looked at his former teammates through half-lidded eyes and munched on his cracker stick. ". . . I want to marry Kuro-chin."

"Kurokocchi," Kise sniffed dramatically. "He's so vulnerable!"

"Do not worry," Akashi interrupted. "I have . . . taken care of things."

Everybody shivered the meaning of those words. 'Taken care of things' could mean a lot when it came to Akashi. "Did you kill him?" Aomine asked, a little too excited.

The captain traced a finger on the blade of the scissors. "Of course not. Death would be too easy. Immediate death would mean mercy." You could not put the word 'mercy' and 'Akashi' in the same sentence. "However, I do have a plan."

"A plan that would hurt Kagami and the others?" Kise piped up.

"Perhaps. Daiki, call Satsuki. I need her to set up an occasion." Aomine didn't question his old captain and took out his phone. "Ryouta, go shopping with Atsushi for party items and snacks. Atsushi, I trust you will not spend all the money on food for yourself." Murasakibara slumped his shoulders and sulked. "Shintarou, you will help with the preparations along with me."

Midorima pushed up his glasses. "What exactly are you planning, Akashi?"

The red-head had his phone out, jabbing in letters rapidly with his thumb. He pushed the 'send' button before snapping his phone shut and setting it down, satisfied. "Isn't it obvious, Shintarou?"

~Setting Skip~

Kuroko aimlessly tried to shoot the ball toward the basket and missed. He sighed with discontent before running over to pick up his ball.

"Kuroko!"

The said boy turned at his name. "Yes, Riko-san?"

"Where's Kagami? That basketball idiot is usually early for practice."

He shook his head. "No. Kagami-kun did go home sick two days ago, though. Do you think he is still sick?"

"Idiots don't catch colds," Riko muttered. She shook her head and clapped twice loudly. "We're going to start without him! Start stretching!" Since Kagami was usually his stretching partner, Kuroko waited on the bench while doing mini stretches on his own. It wasn't until another few minutes that a tired, ragged Kagami trudged in.

"Kagami!" Riko cried. "What happened to you?"

Hyuuga widened his eyes. "K-Kagami?"

Kuroko frowned at the state of his partner. No, Kagami did not harbor any major external injuries—the ace probably preferred a broken bone or two though. The hot-headed teen's appearance actually scared his team. His eyes were bloodshot and were decorated with dark, sunken circles under them. His skin was paler than normal, and he walked in a hunched-like shuffle. Kagami was visibly shivering. Instead of the normal, overly-confident basketball player he was, the red-head was now a scared-looking teenager that had his eyes flickering back and forth.

"K-Kagami," Hyuuga said nervously, approaching him. "Are you all right?" Now closer, Seirin's captain found that his first-year was chanting something rapidly:

"Danger, dogs, violate, his, red, scissors, dogs, dogs, scissors, yellow . . . " Kagami ignored the captain and shuffled over to the bench, continuing to mutter the unknown words.

"Kagami-kun?" Kuroko softly touched Kagami's shoulder. The latter jumped and looked at the teal-head.

"Kuroko?" he managed to say through the haze.

He nodded. "Hai . . . What happened, Kagami-kun?"

Kagami shook his head slowly and stared straight ahead. "I-it was horrible. The dogs, scissors, his eyes! Violation . . . " he moaned and brought his head to his hands. Seirin looked at their ace with shock and concern. Kuroko only stared blankly, wondering why he felt a sense of Deja Vu at the moment. A vibration from his phone took him out of thoughts.

He opened his phone and read the text message. It was a swift read, but Kuroko put his phone down and looked at his team seriously.

"Does anybody want to go to a party?"

"Eh?"

Author

Well, while I was writing about half of this, my computer shut down, and I lost all of my work. You could imagine how frustrating that was I:

But, now I'm back on track. Enjoy~

~Virelei