Betrayal In Its Most Simplest Form

Chapter 13

"Rin, I want you to listen carefully, okay?" Hayato asked warily of his wife. Akashi Rin, demonic mother of Akashi Seijuro and wife of Akashi Hayato, stood at the threshold of her husband's law office, one perfectly-arched eyebrow raised. Her arms were crossed over her chest, expectant. She was wearing a formal suit used for working, which consisted of a medium-length black pencil skirt, followed by a white blouse and a dark suit jacket. Just like her son and husband, she had fiery red hair, but it was long and slightly wavy, coming passed just down her shoulders.

Rin tapped her long, manicured nails against her arm. "Hurry and say it, Hayato. I'm busy."

"Ah, but not too busy, yes?" Hayato gestured toward the chairs in front of his desk. "Don't lie. I checked your work schedule."

"Tch." Irritated, the red-haired woman strode across the room and sat herself in the chair. "What do you want?"

Why, of all times, does this woman have to be in a bad mood? Hayato miserably thought."Ah, well, our 'wonderful' son visited me yesterday," he said sarcastically.

"Seijuro?" His wife's expression turned a bit softer. "Why was I not notified?"

"You were working."

Rin's left eye twitched. As much as the man claimed how smart he was, and as much respect he received in the law industry from Japan, Hayato would always be stupid. "Is he well? Does he look healthy? Does he look like he's behaving? No, do not answer the last question. Of course he's behaving." A smile came onto her lips. "He's my son after all."

Hayato returned the smile with a shaky one of his one. "Ah, he's—well. And healthy. Still as bratty as ever, though," he added with a grumble.

"He can't be a brat. I raised him." Rin studied her nails for a second before shooting a glare at her husband. "So? What did Seijuro need?"

"Aha-ha-ha-ha," the red-head laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "That's where the problem lies."

After, Akashi Hayato commenced miserably in explaining the situation and problem he got himself in with his son. Rin listened in disbelief, her urge to strangle her husband becoming more evident as the minutes passed by. Names such as 'Ibuki' or 'Atari' and 'Kuroko' shot straight through the female attorney. When Hayato finished, Rin had to compose herself to restrain from slapping her husband until he flew all the way to the depths of Hell.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and:

"Are you crazy, Akashi Hayato?" Rin suddenly screeched. She scrambled out of her chair and slammed her palms against the polished desk. It made a loud, intimidating sound that even had the 'supposedly formidable' Hayato wince. Good thing the door was closed. "How could you?"

"N-now, Rin," Hayato tried to soothe. "You know this—"

"How could you . . . how could you . . ."

"I know, I know, but—"

"How could you let this Tetsuya kid be abused for so long?"

Hayato blinked. "Eh?"

Rin pushed herself off the desk and started pacing the room. A severe frown was on her face. She did her signature habit of stress by running a hand through her hair three times. "That poor boy! Kuroko Tetsuya; he's such a polite child. I've met him once, when Seijuro was coming home from those silly basketball games of his. Seijuro talked about him one time, too, during his middle school days! And he's been abused since? And my son kept this from me?" Rin's left eye twitched again, and she stopped her pacing. She glared at her husband. "I'm going to kill that ungrateful boy of ours. How dare he keep this from me?"

"He had his reasons," Hayato cautiously defended. Knowing his wife, if he didn't defend his son just a little, Seijuro might as well avoid home for the next few weeks.

"And this Kuroko Ibuki?" his wife scoffed. "Let's see; Kuroko Ibuki, mysteriously owns two identities and three of the largest corporations in Japan, ridiculously has high influence, 36 years old, and graduated from the University of Tokyo." Like Hayato, Rin knew the infamous Kuroko Ibuki and had memorized most of her basic information on the top of her head.

A demonic aura started to emit from the tall woman. Her eyes swirled with fury. "I'm going to crush that woman," Rin snarled.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves yet," Hayato warned, keeping the fear he felt in the back of his throat. "You are mostly correct about her, but she has three identities, actually."

"Three? That doesn't show up in the records."

"Mm, but our oh-so-smart son called all three incorporations and found out three identities." He pulled out the notes he and his son had taken the other day.

Rin took it and examined everything thoroughly but quickly. "I see. Seijuro did a rather good job in gathering basic evidence," she wiped a fake tear dramatically. "That boy would be the best lawyer in the future."

"Not happening. He always talks about being some professional Shogi player." Hayato sighed. "Anyway, I gave him a list of people he could contact. I'm trying to find records deep about Ibuki's past, but they're all locked."

"Nothing should be locked from us," Rin informed him. "Unless our client wishes for it to do so, all records should be there."

"I know that," he said wryly. "But it's not there."

The red-haired woman crossed the room to stand beside her husband. She leaned over his shoulder to access his computer, quickly typing in the password and accessing the kept records on his computer. Hayato could smell her sweet and subtle perfume this close, and he was suddenly reminded why he married her in the first place.

"If I catch you thinking dirty thoughts in your rather filthy mind, I'll kill you," Rin snapped, knowing exactly what was on her husband's mind.

"Give me some credit," Hayato sighed. "You accessed the basic records of Kuroko Ibuki, right?" He asked to which Rin applied with an "Mm." The man explained further, "Anything else, I can't access it."

"It's either the higher authorities who locked it or hid it, or Ibuki actually used her influence in the government to hide her past," she muttered. "I am thinking it is the latter."

Hayato hummed in agreement. "Still, unless it's serious or the government actually security locked, we, who has more power in law than anybody in Japan, should be able to access more than simple information like this."

"Her criminal files would open easily to us if we were to make this an official case."

"With who as the prosecutor?"

Both attorneys imagined their son as the prosecutor and smirked. "Let's not make it official, yet," Hayato decided. "It's better not to make it public for Ibuki to know."

Rin didn't answer. Instead, she pulled a chair over to sit next to her husband. Hayato let her take over his computer, knowing she was always the faster one to access hidden files. "Criminals records should be there, if she has any," she said. The moment she tried to access it, though, the computer rang and a pop up appeared:

ACCESS DENIED

PASSWORD?

Rin clucked her tongue and clicked in the space for the password. "You know the code?" Hayato asked, surprised.

"Ibuki isn't the only one that has connections," she replied tersely. "I happen to have police companions." She wiggled her fingers over the keyboard. "Let's see. J-R-Q-V-D-A-3-9-M-1-A." With her ridiculous memory, she typed in the 11 needed characters. Another pop up showed on their screen:

ACCESS GRANTED

Hayato whistled at his wife's ability. Only one file appeared on his computer though, and Rin clicked on it. Both raised their eyebrows at what came up. "Past abuse records?" she murmured. "How interesting." She clicked on it, again, and read what came up aloud. "Charged for physical abuse in public, two months of probation. Victim was _, attacked at both head and abdomen. Reasons unknown." Rin read three more of the abuse records, each with similar information as the first. Hayato's frown became more distinct at each word Rin read.

"This does not contain enough information for a criminal record," he said after she was done. "Where's the date she was sentenced? Trial date? The date of crime? The victims' names? The codes she broke, amendments, policies? Even the description of herself should be there, along with her personal information."

"Also," Rin moved to another file on his computer. "Ibuki seems to have moved all four times, moving to a further location than the first. Do you think that has to do with the abuse records?"

Hayato groaned and covered his eyes. "I do feel like we are detectives, rather than lawyers."

"Half of her records are either still hidden or erased. I'll take note of this and have two of my best workers look further into it." Rin wrote something swiftly on a notepad that was on his desk, ripped out the piece of paper and folded it to put into her pocket. "I'll be leaving now. I have an official case to work on. Next time you see Seijuro, tell him I'm waiting for him." A sadistic smirk appeared on her face before she stood up and walked dramatically out of his office.

The red-head sighed and leaned back on his chair, spinning around to face the large window that led out to Kyoto's busy streets. "Well, Kuroko Ibuki," he muttered out loud. "You have the two best lawyers in Japan against you. What's your next move?"

~Setting Skip~

"Sorry I'm late!" Kise waved his arm around to catch the attention of two basketball players. One of them was holding an overly large pink pencil, and the other was grumpily stuffing his hands into his pockets. The two had sour expressions on their faces.

"Oi, Kise," Aomine complained. "You were the one that called us out, so why are you late?"

"This is very troublesome," Midorima muttered and gripped his 'lucky item'. "I had to convince Mother to let me go for the day."

"Pft, you have to ask your mother to go out?" Aomine laughed. Midorima ignored him.

Kise scratched his head sheepishly. "S-sorry! The people at my modeling job wouldn't let me go until later." Truth be told, Kise all but ran out of the modeling agency to make it on time, even though fans and photographers chased him all the way to the station. You could see his face was red from running so hard, and that his breathing was faster than normal. Aomine hungrily checked out his partner's mandatory outfit for his modeling job. Kise, noticing Aomine's eyes, blushed and yelled, "S-stop it, Aominecchi!"

"Eh? I'm not doing anything," the tanned teen retorted. He put a large hand over the blonde's head and got close to his face. Kise squeaked. "So?" Aomine scowled. "Why'd you call us here?" Kise could smell the blue-haired teen's scent from how close he was.

"You probably called us for Kuroko, am I correct?" Midorima asked, pushing his glasses up with his middle finger. The glare reflected onto the lens.

The ace of Kaijou leaped out Aomine's grasp, to the tanned teen's disappointment, and answered Midorima's question: "Yep! I want to visit Kurokocchi. It's not fair he has to go back to that Hell of a place, especially when Akashicchi is all the way in Kyoto. You guys live in Tokyo anyway, right?"

Aomine scoffed. Midorima 'humphed'. Kise grinned. "Great! Let's go!"

"Wait." Midorima's composed voice stopped the hyper blonde. "Do any of us know Kuroko's address?"

Everyone but Midorima sweat-dropped. "W-well," Kise started. "We can always call his father . . ."

"Do you know his phone number?"

Again, it was a negative. Midorima sighed. "As usual, you make plans recklessly. Well, we can look up—"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." All three teens whirled around to face the annoying, shrill woman. Teal, long hair, pale, ugly-looking; everybody recognized her.

"Why does this woman always pop up?" Aomine groaned. "Seriously, woman, it's like you're stalking us. Go away."

Ibuki's eye twitched and her lips curled into a snarl. "How dare you speak to me like that, you brat? Do you know how capable I am?"

"Capable of being crazy," he muttered under his breath. Midorima coughed to hide his laugh. Kise only hid behind his lover, scared of Kuroko's mother.

The teal-haired woman had to restrain herself. This is public. I can't attack them, Ibuki warned herself. "I'm simply here to gather some answers, and I will be out of your sight," she said tightly. "If you all cooperate, no harm will be done." She looked at a picture, then up to the three players. "Midorima Shintarou, Aomine Daiki, Kise Ryouta."

Aomine grunted. Midorima pushed up his glasses. Kise 'eeped'.

"If you all answer my questions, I will make sure your families get promoted in the social standings."

Kise frowned at that. "But Kaa-san would get angry that I ratted out someone for her. I don't want to get scolded." He said this softly.

"Yeah, Mom would give me Hell." Aomine shuddered. The only person that could scare the tanned teenager was his devil of a mom.

"Father would definitely scold me," Midorima added. "Mother would probably take away all of my lucky items. I cannot have that."

She glared at the teen boys. "All I want are answers! I did not say anything about this silly thing called 'ratting out'."

"And what would the questions relate to, Kuroko Ibuki?" The tallest of them all asked smartly while gripping his pink pencil.

"Akashi Seijuro," Ibuki replied bluntly. "I want to know what his business with me is, what he plans to do, and why all of you are involved with my son."

Aomine raised in an eyebrow, one eye wider than the other. "Hah? Sorry, but-"

"If we," Kise stepped out partially from behind Aomine's back. His voice was hesitant. "If we answer your questions, will you stop hurting Kurokocchi?"

Hurt? Ibuki blinked blankly at them. She honestly had no clue what the blonde was talking about. "You mean, Tetsuya? I don't hurt him; I only discipline him as needed."

Suddenly, Midorima and Kise wrapped their arms around Aomine, who yelled an enraged cry and tried to charge at the woman. The tanned skin's power was brutal, and both Midorima and Kise had trouble stopping him from attacking Ibuki. "Does leaving bruises on every inch of his skin count as discipline?" Aomine shouted. "Throwing him from the second floor? Breaking his bones? Nearly killing him? Drawing blood? Is that what you call 'discipline'?"

"Aominecchi!" Kise pleaded. "Calm down!"

"You're only giving her more reasons and evidence to take us to court," Midorima whispered fiercely. "Pull yourself together."

Ibuki watched amused as the two players tried to calm the tanned teenager. Aomine snapped out of his violent anger when he realized the mocking look on Ibuki's face. He shoved off Midorima and Kise with a grunt, frustrated that he had shown weakness in front of the woman. He kept a hand over the blonde's head, though, as a way of saying 'thank you'. Kise hummed and leaned against Aomine's shoulder.

"We're not going to answer your questions," Midorima said. "Truth be told, Akashi likes to hide important information from us for this very reason. However," he did his habit of pushing up his glasses, "His and our business with you is Kuroko Tetsuya."

"I figured as much," Ibuki sneered. "My son is perfectly happy in our home. There is no need for you to interfere with our life."

"That's up for Akashi to decide," Aomine retorted. "Come on, Kise, Midorima. Our plans just got ruined."

"I won't let you near him!" the woman yelled as they turned their backs on her. "You won't even be able to lay your filthy eyes on Tetsuya."

Midorima sighed. "We will see."

Ibuki let out a frustrated sound. "Why? Why do you rely so much on this Akashi Seijuro?" Now all of them turned back to her fully, watching as the crazed woman lost herself. "Don't you know I can destroy all of you?" she suddenly shouted. Bystanders stopped and stared fearfully. Adults hid their children. "I'm the most powerful woman in Japan! I have this country in the palm of my hands! The Akashi family can be easily crushed, and you don't care?" Ibuki sank down to her knees and stares at her hands. "Every time, that boy is healed. I go out of my way to punish him; break him, but it never works. Someone always heals him. He mocks me every day with that blank face of his. He's the only one related to me that hasn't fallen in my hands," Ibuki clenched her fists.

"It's your entire fault!" she roared hysterically as she pointed to the frozen basketball players. "It's yours! Stop interfering with me! Let that wretched boy break!" Her screeches had more people stop, and some questioned whether they should call the police.

Aomine was first to snap out of his trance. He grabbed Midorima's shoulder with one hand, wrapped his other arm around Kise, and tugged them back for them to start moving. The blonde and green-head managed to snap out of it, too, and all three of them started to retreat far away from the screeching woman.

"To have a mother like that," Kise whispered. He had to lean against Aomine for support. "I'm sorry, Kurokocchi."

~Setting Skip~

"Mm, Dad?" Kagami mumbled sleepily through his phone, rolling over on his back on his bed. There was no after-school practice today, so he had the whole afternoon off. His plans were to sleep, eat, and then sleep again. Apparently, though, fate didn't want him to rest.

"Taiga," his dad greeted, just as sleepy-sounding.

"Isn't it around two in the morning for you, old man?" Kagami asked with a sigh. He swung his legs over his bed and stretched with a loud ground. He didn't bother with his hair, knowing it'd be a huge mess.

"Who was it that told me to research Kuroko Ibuki?" His father replied, a little more awake. "And judging by how you're addressing me, you're probably not very interested."

This had Kagami's attention. "No, no, no, no!" the ace suddenly yelled into the phone. "Wait a damn second old—D-Dad! . . . Please!"

Kagami's father snorted over the phone. "There's no point in adding 'please' at the end when you've already said something rude." He yawned loudly and shuffled some papers, to which Kagami could hear. "I didn't get much information, by the way."

"But you did get something, right?"

"You can say that," his dad grumbled. "I couldn't get anything else from Kuroko Ibuki, probably because her files were mysteriously locked in the sister branch in Japan. The fact that they're locked doesn't mean it won't stop rumors, though. I managed to get something from talking to several people in the sister branch." He stopped to mutter, "The long-distance phone costs . . . My Japanese was rusty, too, so it was an extremely long process."

"What did you find?" Kagami couldn't help but impatiently ask.

"Stop getting so excited. It's nothing special. All I found was that Kuroko Ibuki seems to have come from an entertainment background."

The ace of Seirin raised both eccentric eyebrows. "Hah? Entertainment background?"

"Her mother and father seemed to be popular entertainers," he informed. "Very popular, but Ibuki seems to have literally erased their names. I can't tell you the names because there were several different names I was told. It's not evidence-proofed. Also, I was told her mother was somewhere between a magician to a singer to a damn host to a knitting show," Kagami's dad let out a frustrated sound. "Her father's information is even worse. All I can confirm is that they were both entertainers."

Kagami didn't know how to respond to that. He worked his tongue and mouth for a minute, before blurting, "Dad . . . how can this help me?"

"How the Hell should I know?" his father snapped back. Dad's going into his cranky mood. I should hang up soon. "You said to look up everything I could to help your friend and to tell you everything I could find. Well, there it is."

He pressed his lips together. "Every clue helps, I guess," he sighed. "Thanks, Dad."

"You're paying a visit to America for this."

"I'll go on the next break." Both of them hung up.

Kagami threw his phone across the room. "Parents are entertainers . . ." he let out a loud groan and messed his hair with his hands. "What the Hell is that supposed to mean?"

~Setting Skip~

"Father gave me a rather short list." Akashi frowned at the list of contacts that contained the names, phone numbers, and addresses. "This must mean there are not that many people that are not under the influence of Ibuki and are trusted. I will call the first three."

He was inside his Kyoto's complex. It was much bigger than his temporary apartment in Tokyo, and much more intimidating, too. Red furniture decorated the large apartment, complimenting the smooth, white walls and the wooden floor. There were five rooms; his bedroom, two guest rooms, one mysterious room, and an office room. When entering, Akashi would be greeted by his living room, with the kitchen to the right.

These weren't factors that made it intimidating. The fact that it was so freakishly clean and almost normal-looking made it intimidating. It looked perfectly normal how a pair of sharpened shears sat right near the patio door that led to his actually-lively plants (that were actually mostly small plants, so the reason why he had shears were unknown), and it was perfectly fine that a butter knife sat on the counter next to a basket of fruit, along with a black pair of scissors next to it.

Basketball championship and Shogi competition trophies stood in line on shelves, further scaring anyone who would dare challenge Akashi Seijuro in a basketball or Shogi match.

Akashi sat casually on his red sofa, grabbed his other phone that he used outside of his social area, and dialed the first set of numbers his father gave him. The phone rang for minutes, until he was taken to an automatic message. He hung up, dialed again, and waited.

This time, the person picked up. "Hello? Who is it that I am speaking to?"

"Akashi Seijuro," the red-head fearlessly told his name. "You are Tsubaki Kaname." It was a statement, not a question.

" . . . Akashi Hayato's son, was it?"

"Yes."

"Ah," Tsubaki Kaname's voice suddenly turned nervous. "How can I help you, Akashi-san?"

"Hm," Akashi tapped his fingers against the seat of his couch. "Are you aware of the name, Kuroko Ibuki?"

The name came as a shock to Kaname, as he had tried to rid of the name for a long time, "Yes, I've heard of him. I used to work for his corporation a long time ago, but I quit because he always hired clueless employees," Tsubaki Kaname added bitterly at the end.

Clueless employees, Akashi noted of it. "I regret bringing up any bad memories," he didn't regret it, "Though I need some information on . . . him. Do you happen to know anything unusual about him? It does not necessarily have to 'stand out', but anything unusual would help."

"If you don't mind me asking, help with what? Why are you suddenly calling me about Kuroko Ibuki?"

"I do mind," Akashi said coldly.

It was silent on the other end for a few seconds, only the sound of Kaname's quick breathing over the phone could be heard. "I don't know anything too unusual," he finally said. "Our real boss never came out to the public, and we never saw his face. We only knew of his name and his popularity . . . But, I did see something on the news years ago, when I was still working for them."

The red-head had his pen ready. "And that is?"

"It came up on just a small headline on the Internet. It was discovered that Kuroko Ibuki had undergone numerous surgeries for many years."

"Surgeries?"

"Plastic surgeries, to be exact."

Akashi's eyebrows rose, but he furiously scribbled it down. "When was this?"

"I can't give you an exact date, but I found this around . . . 15 to 16 years ago?"

His eyebrows went up a centimeter more. How old is Tsubaki Kaname? "This information is noted. I do not need to warn you to keep quiet about this, do I?"

"No. Hayato-san is a good friend of mine."

"Hm." Akashi disconnected the call.

He leaned his back against the sofa and stared at the blank TV in front of him. "Fifteen to sixteen years ago, right about when Tetsuya was born. And to have it go on the news must have meant she was in Japan, and already on the start of being an influential woman." He tapped his foot impatiently. "Counting the fact Tsubaki Kaname addressed her as a man; that must mean the news page Tsubaki read had addressed her as a man, as well." Akashi glanced at his filled note-pad and gave a subtle frown. "If the surgeons who did the plastic surgeries saw the news, would they not be confused and address her as a woman?" He suddenly narrowed his eyes as one of the million puzzle pieces fit in with another. "Unless . . . it was done in another country."

Akashi grabbed the phone again and dialed the second number. The second conversation went as similar to the first:

"Yeah, I can confirm that she did have plastic surgery," the woman over the phone babbled. "It was on the news, way before you were born, I think. But also because I know of a friend who still works for her, and she told me that her boss, being Kuroko Ibuki, had plastic surgery. She never saw how she looked, though. So, you're Akashi Hayato's son, right? I work in a small law firm, and I was wondering—"

He hung up.

The next name on the list had a small star beside it. Akashi looked at the star his father made beside the name, trying to configure the meaning. Is there something different about this person? Is this person the least trusted? Will he obey my command or . . . Akashi raised both eyebrows. Ah. I see.

"Hello?" a monotone voice answered through the line.

"Takumi," Akashi greeted.

"No honorifics? Who is this?"

He sighed at the usual, boring introductions. "Akashi Seijuro."

"I see." Unlike the others, Takumi had no surprise nor fear or hesitance in his voice. It was a simple, dead tone. "How can I help you?"

"Do you know of . . . Suzuki Akihiko?" Akashi took a guess at the name.

Akashi was correct. The man replied again without hesitance, "Yes. I know of him. Hard not to; I believe he owns three large businesses."

Him. The second speaker addressed Ibuki as a woman, but the first and last addressed her as a man. "Do you know anything unusual about Akihiko?"

"Not particularly."

The point guard of Rakuzan glared at Takumi's name on the piece of paper. Why would Father give me a person who could be rendered useless? Then another thing clicked. "Takumi, I am aware this sounds strange, but what did you used to specialize in?"

" . . . I used to specialize in psychological profiling. I was a profiler."

Check mate.

Akashi placed his second phone back in its place and sighed. Talking was simply a chore. Lately, he had been making too many calls, which was unlike his character. Speaking to people who looked down on him until they realized he was 'Akashi Hayato's' son irritated him to no ends.

I suppose I should—

The phone vibrated again. This time, it was his personal phone. "I have had enough talking for today. If it is something useless, I will make sure their training is tripled," Akashi muttered and pulled out his phone, checked the caller ID, and answered, "Ryouta."

"Akashicchi." Kise's voice was not as upbeat as it usually was. Akashi immediately knew something happened.

"Ryouta, what is wrong?"

"Ahh, well," the blonde gave a nervous laugh, obviously stalling to tell the truth. "I knew you would find out anyway, so I had to—"

"Idiot, you're taking too long. Give me it." A rough voice interrupted Kise's. There was the sound of static, protests, and shuffling. The red-head "patiently" waited for them to settle down. When they did, Aomine's voice took over, "Akashi, you there?"

"Daiki. I am."

The ace gave a scoff over the phone and yelled, "Oi, Midorima! Restrain Kise for me! . . . Hmph. Well, I'll get to the point: We met up with that Kuroko Crazy today."

Akashi refused to let any surprise show on his face. Is she targeting everyone in the Generation of Miracles? "Oh? And did something major happen? Did she happen to confess, or threaten you?" He let the question 'Did he hurt you?' hang in the air.

"The woman thinks she doesn't have anything to confess. She really thinks she's doing the right thing. And yeah, of course she threatened us with her social standing or whatever. And then . . . she kind of broke down."

"Broke down?"

"I don't know; a crazy seizure? She just collapsed in the middle of the sidewalk, sobbing and screaming how it was all our fault because Tetsu couldn't 'heal'. Then she started raving about how she wanted break him, but somebody always 'healed' him. Really, those were the exact terms she used." Aomine grunted, and Akashi could hear him hit something. "The whole damn thing pisses me off!"

"She came to us first with an intention of gathering information." It was Midorima's voice form the background. "About what your plans were."

"Did you answer her questions?" Akashi asked absently as he scribbled down the events on another piece of paper.

"We did not."

"Good," Akashi praised, pleased. "Did she attack you in any way?"

It took a while for Aomine to answer. "Not—physically. But her words shook Kise pretty bad."

"I see."

"Give me the phone, Aominecchi!" Aomine must have complied, because it was now Kise's voice that was dominant over the phone. "Akashicchi! Besides Kurokocchi's mother, Kagamicchi met up with me the other day."

This piece of information interested him more than Kuroko Ibuki. "Oh? Kagami Taiga from Seirin?"

"Yeah, that's him. Akashicchi . . . he's starting to get curious. Really curious about Kurokocchi."

"Is he? In what way?"

"I think—he's starting to do some serious research on Ibuki. He might catch on, soon, if he hasn't already."

The red-head smirked and wrote Kagami's name down. Hm, it might be impossible to keep it from him, no matter how unintelligent he looks. "Well," he purred. "If we can't keep the truth from him, he might as well be useful to me."

~Setting Skip~

Kuroko grabbed his workbooks, folders, and notes that were handed to him from his homeroom teacher. It was all of his missed schoolwork from when he was gone. He figured it was best to work on them all day today, so that when he returned tomorrow, he would mostly be done with the missing work. In addition, he had missed too many school days, and his teammates would definitely be suspicious if he didn't return to school tomorrow.

"Get well," his teacher said.

"Thank you." Kuroko bowed to his teacher and turned to leave the school campus. He made sure to avoid the basketball gym.

The walk back home was short and not crowded. It was, after all, not rush hour and it wasn't yet time for people to get back home from work. Kuroko made sure not to bump into anyone, since no one could notice him.

He made it to his house, carefully hiding his slight limp as he walked up the driveway. Leaving the door unlocked when he went to his school, Kuroko easily opened the door and crept himself inside his home. He prepared to run, just in case his mother had come back, but he didn't get to when someone yelled, "You damn brat!" and a punch connected to his nose.

Kuroko's body fell back against the door, his head slamming into it first before his body. He saw stars before he hit the floor. Pain bloomed from his nose, forcing a grunt out of his usually silent body. Red liquid dripped onto the floor, its small drops staining the once clean hallway. He dimly realized it was his own, gushing from his abused nose. It was broken, for sure. He had heard a crack.

Stand back up, no matter your injuries. You are vulnerable on your back.

Akashi's words echoed in his mind, and with obvious effort, Kuroko shakily stood back up with one hand on his nose. His white, button-down shirt was now ruined with red stains. He leaned against the front door to steady himself and looked at his mother with heavy breaths through his mouth.

Kuroko's mother stood a few feet away from him, seething with anger. Her hands were clenched; the right fist a little crimson from where she had punched him. Smooth, pink lips were curled into a sneer. "You damn brat, do you know how much you've humiliated me, today?" Ibuki crossed the distance between her son and herself with two, easy steps. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt before he could do anything. "Three kids defied me in front of everyone, today. Three and it's because of you!" She sent another punch, this time at his eye. Kuroko refused to let out a sound as he was brought down to the floor again.

His inflicted eye and nose throbbed intensely. He was already starting to feel dizzy. Stand back up. Without hesitance, Kuroko grabbed the door knob and tried to stand, his bruises eye closed and the other hand trying to stop the bleeding in his nose. He didn't get far, though, when Ibuki's foot swung up and landed right on his stomach.

Kuroko sucked in his breath and fell to his knees, coughing and wheezing at the pain that was just brought to his abdomen. It felt like he was choking. Along with his gushing, broken nose and swollen eye, maybe he was choking, and he didn't know it. "Why don't you just stay down?" his mother screamed and sent another kick to his stomach. This time, Kuroko managed to react from Akashi's training and deftly caught the foot with one hand. Ibuki snarled at this, yanked her leg out of his hold, and kicked her son with her other foot before he could see it coming. "You're feeling brave now? Just stay broken! Useless! Worthless! You're not my son! My son isn't weak, isn't mocking, isn't disobedient! And he definitely doesn't humiliate me in public!" she roared and sent an agonizing blow to his chest.

Kuroko spit out blood and tried to breath. His body was burning again. From his nose to his eye to his mid-section; the pain wasn't new, yet he still wasn't used to it, yet. How come, after all this time, he didn't feel numb from this torture?

Somebody always heals you!

The injured teen grabbed the oncoming foot tightly, just as it was about to connect, and pulled with the little strength he had left. Ibuki, surprised at this action, let out a yelp as she fell down in front of her son, on her bottom. Kuroko was shocked at how a simple trick could work, and attempted to quickly scramble up before his mother could recover. Unfortunately, he was too slow with his swaying movements, and could barely stand before Ibuki's foot smashed into his face and trapped his head between the door and her foot.

"How dare you?" she hissed. "How dare you?" The shoe she had on was rough against his cheek, and the pressure she put on his face was incredible. He could barely move his head. "Just because you learned some new moves doesn't mean you outrank me, you insolent, worthless thing." Her foot grinded against his cheek and head. Kuroko could feel his skull being crushed against the door.

Suddenly, the pressure disappeared, and blood painfully rushed back to his face. Kuroko knew from the back of his mind that the bleeding from his nose wasn't stopping, and that he had to stop it immediately. He also knew he had to get out before anything else could happen.

The closest exit is right in front me; outside.

It was impossible, though. With Ibuki on guard, he couldn't possibly stand up, open the door, and run before she caught him.

Kuroko slowly opened one of his eyes, wondering why his mother had stopped the abuse. He soon saw the reason, as his father stood at the bottom of the stairs, pale and scared yet determined. Ibuki glared at her husband and challenged, "Are you going to stop me from disciplining him, Haru?"

His father swallowed, and Kuroko threw a silent, pleading yet subtle glance at him. Haru saw his gaze, but quickly broke eye-contact. And then, to Kuroko's horror, the teal-haired man said,

"Of—of course not, Ibuki," he choked out the words. "T-Take out all your frustrations on . . . him."

"Oh?" Ibuki's face distorted into a pleased smile. "Have you finally come to your sense, Haru? I'm glad."

No . . . But Otou-san . . . he's . . .

"Did you hear that, Tetsu-kun?" his mother drawled. "Your father even approves of my methods."

"N-no," Kuroko whispered.

A hand slapped his swollen cheek hard. "Don't you speak with that monotone voice of yours," she hissed. "I know you're mocking me!"

The beating didn't last much longer. It seemed the encounter with Haru lightened her mood a bit. Kuroko only took a few more kicks, a few more insults, just a little more pain, until it stopped completely. Ibuki then spat on the floor when she got bored and left the house with a 'che'.

It wasn't the beating that had made Kuroko finally become numb or frozen. It was the fact that during the endless pain, he watched his father take out a camera and take pictures of his mother and himself.

When Ibuki left, Haru all but dropped the camera and rushed to his son. Kuroko laid there, a small puddle of blood near him, his face swollen from the constant attacks. "Tetsuya, don't move, I'll—"

Kuroko gently slapped his outstretched hand. "Please do not touch me," the boy said quietly.

The words made Haru freeze. Kuroko's father's eyes widened in horror and fear, and his mouth opened and closed before the words came out, "No, Tetsuya, you do not understand! Akashi did not explain—"

Kuroko did not bother to listen. He was making a huge effort to stand without help. His hands pushed him off slowly, and he ignored the pain his body was signaling to his brain. Somehow, miraculously, Kuroko managed to stand. The images before him were extremely blurry, and everything moved in front of him, but it didn't matter. His destination was his bathroom.

He took one step, and then swayed at the pain. Haru grabbed his son's arms to steady him. "Please, Tetsuya, let me explain it to you."

"Please do not touch me," Kuroko whispered again. His blue eyes were blank and soulless. He stumbled out of his father's arms, and then started his journey again. One step, two steps, three—he leaned on the wall to stop himself from falling. The slightest movement cut his breath short.

Haru came behind him, without touching, and softly said, "I understand you are disgusted with me right now, but let me at least guide you to the first-aid."

"Please do not touch me." The same, painful words came from the injured teen. He was like a robot, injured but numb; there was nothing to see from his face.

"Tetsuya!"

Kuroko stopped to lean against the wall again. He looked at his feet, where droplets of blood fell. Haru firmly but carefully clasped his hands on Kuroko's arms. "No matter how stubborn, I will lead you to the stairs."

His son didn't respond, so Haru took that as an 'okay'. He helped his lifeless son to the stairs, taking slow steps at a time. By the time they got there, Kuroko was out of breath. "Do you want me to—"

"No," Kuroko gently brushed off his father's hold. "Please do not touch me again . . . Otou-san."

The words made the tears from Haru's eyes fell. Haru dropped down to his knees, his hands shaking as he did so. He watched as his son dragged his half-dead body up the treacherous stairs, leaving trails of blood behind. At the sight, the father buried his face in his hands. "You do not understand," he cried.

Your job might be . . . difficult emotionally, but it is fairly easy in terms of capability. . . . But I do believe you can do this best.

~
I know, it's been forever since I updated. I was actually on vacation with New Year's and such :) But to make up for it, this is the longest chapter I have ever written, with about 7,000 words, beating my record of 4,797 by a lot. Many things happened in this chapter.

I told you from now on it'd be about destroying Ibuki. Every. Clue. Counts. Remember that. There are no useless scenes.

Thank you for reviewing and reading! Please tell me of typos.