Sorry this took so long, I caught acute writer's block. And Fanime was so much fun.
These are replies to guest reviews:
nYandere: No, I don't live there. I do, however, happen to be Asian and have many relatives living in Malaysia. I'm an American btw.
Guest: I'm glad you like Takao that way~ It's fun writing him because I get to put in a little bit of crack.
hotwetlumpia: I'm sorry that you dislike AkaFuri, but you are entitled to your opinion. There's about a 99% chance that I'll write it in though.
This is unrelated, but please allow me to tell you a true story of my trip Fanime (with slight spoiler so you might want to skip if you're not updated with the manga for KnB)
The first day I went to Fanime, I bought some stickers at the price of 4 for a dollar, and they were KnB characters. I got Kuroko, Kise, Midorima, and Akashi first. The next day, I realized I had lost Akashi and went to get more, so I went back and bought Kagami, Aomine, Murasakibara, and another Akashi. A few days later, I found the missing Akashi in my bag, a little dirty and stuff but nonetheless it was there. So when I realized there were two of Akashi, I freakin' flipped.
The End.
And without further ado, The Basketball which Kuroko plays is (/bangs head on wall) not mine.
Chapter 18: Fight & Rise
Tuesday: May 1, 2038. 4:37 P.M.
Our trio had just finished fighting the fourth boss they'd come across (more of the sloth-like creatures from before) and were in the process of walking into a Maji Burger at Kise's suggestion.
"That was so awesome!" the blonde loudly exclaimed as he skipped down walkway, "We're going again tomorrow, right? Right?"
Kuroko glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Yes, but aren't you a model Kise-kun? Do you really have the time to be playing this game?"
The Bandit grinned, "Actually, I've been cutting down on work lately and I'm free for most of Golden Week. I'm a little bit surprised that Kurokocchi actually knows about me though. You don't seem like the type that reads this kind of stuff or anything–no offense."
"Meh… That's 'cause Tetsu works in a convenience store."
"Really?"
"When it is a bit slow, I sometimes read the magazines in the store, "the Cleric spoke as the three found a booth and shifted comfortably into the seats. A second later, a light bulb appeared above Kise's head after he examined the bluenette's response.
"That reminds me!" he all but shouted, pointing toward Kuroko and then questioning him innocently, "Are you really older than me?"
Kuroko inwardly sighed at the fact that this occurrence was happening quite frequently nowadays. In the past week alone, it'd been around three or four times. Disregarding his own silent irritancy, he replied with his usual civil tone, "Yes. I turned twenty this year. I believe I am a few months older than you, Kise-kun."
"Ehh… Kurokocchi's baby face is pretty amazing then. I really thought you were a high schooler–maybe even middle. You'll probably look the same when you're thirty or something!"
Is this a new type of spell or something? Holy shit, what is that!?
"Oi, K-Kise, w-we should talk about something else."
"Huh? Why?" the blonde asked, looking up from the menu to the view of the two blue-haired men sitting in front of him. His happy-go-lucky expression turned blank, followed by terrorized and teary. "GAAAAHHHH! That's scary, Aominecchi, make it stop!"
In that minute, he may have gained a different type of respect (more like fear) for the Cleric.
"What am I supposed to do!? This is your fault!" the Paladin screeched, trying to avoid several of the obscure shapes emanating from the smaller man next to him. "This is worse than his height complex," he thought, desperately scooting as far away as possible. The scariest part was that, despite the obvious fact that Kuroko was rather upset by the offhand comment, his demeanor was still relatively unchanged and–
Shit, I think something just touched my leg!
At that moment, the NPC waitress chose to walk over to the table and carefully set down their orders. Even she seemed to be a bit reluctant to approach though. Maybe it was the AI or something.
While keeping his stare even and straight ahead–though he seemed more to be looking through Kise and not at him–he grabbed the drink that he'd recently become so addicted to and took a nice, long sip.
Thank god…
The tan-skinned man exhaled in relief; the blackness surrounding the older man quickly dissipated and was replaced with the illusion of fragrant daisies, roses, and bright sunshine. "Tetsu," he started, "You really gotta stop doing things like that."
The Elf turned to him, sipped him milkshake, and replied blankly, "things like what?"
There may have been the chance he was joking or teasing (unless he really didn't know he was like that when upset), but Aomine wanted to no further explore the subject and decided to drop it while he had the chance.
Meanwhile, Kise had forgotten all about the killing intent from half a minute ago.
"Kurokocchi is a little bit like a kid, it's sorta cute", he thought to himself, not wanting to incur more of the Elf's soundless wrath, "I wish I had a younger brother". He'd now taken up to enjoying the view of the flowers and the taste of his burger. Sadly, even though Maji Burger had a varied assortment of strange foods, such as tofu soup, lobster meat, and full-sized cakes, they didn't have his favorite–which by the way is onion gratin soup.
Approximately, the next twenty-two minutes and twelve seconds were spent talking about and doing meaningless, everyday things: Kise describing his modeling career, Aomine studying for his written exams, Kuroko telling Aomine about some of the children at the Daycare (at this point Kise practically jumped the two for more information), Kise telling them he was jealous, Aomine telling him, "shut up already, you're annoying!", Kuroko finishing his shake (and ordering another), Kise crying, "that's so cruel! Comfort me, Kurokocchi!" Kuroko ignoring him completely–I think you get the point by now, so I'll stop right here.
Succeeding those conversations, they arrived back on the topic of more game-relevant things.
"Tomorrow is gonna be my first PVP! I wonder if we'll win."
"The group from earlier was pretty weak, so since we're still an unknown guild, I'm pretty sure it'll be a while before we get people who at least put up a challenge."
"I'm still kind of nervous though! What if I mess up or something?"
"I do not think you have to worry about that. Kise-kun is already very strong."
"Kurokocchi~!", the blonde sang, eyes sparkling as he launched himself across the table. Too bad for him, because resistance was found in the form of Aomine's calloused fist colliding with his face and sending him flying onto the table behind him.
"Aominecchi, did you really just punch a model's face with no hesitation!?"
"It was instinct; I couldn't help it. It felt like a big monster was leaping my way," the bluenette replied without any sign of remorse or sympathy.
"Why am I on the same level as a monster?"
"Whatever, we're in a game anyways, so that bruise will heal quickly."
"Bruise!?"
Kuroko decided to block out their bickering by occupying his mind with a nice novella for a few minutes, though it was difficult to filter as they started running around and throwing condiments at each other with no regard for the others in the building.
"Ping!"
Kiyoshi 05/01/38 5:16*
Close message index.*
.
He hadn't expected to be interrupted by that, but he still de-materialized his book and lifted a finger to the blinking message.
.
Kiyoshi 05/01/38 5:16*
Close message index.*
.
"Hey Kuroko-kun~ How have you been since last time? We're doing fine if you were wondering~. By the way, do you want to join ou-"
"Too fast Kiyoshi! We haven't even gotten to say hi yet!"
The blue-haired man watched them take turns shoving each other out of scope range to say hello. Well, except for the quiet one–Mitobe, if Kuroko remembered correctly–who was silently waving to him. Sooner or later, however, all of them were knocked to the ground in a single swift movement by Riko who promised them something about "doubling training."
After they calmed down, she started by saying, "How are you, Kuroko-kun? I think it's been a week or so since we met, so we decided to see how you were doi-"
"Guess what!", Koganei butted in, "We have a guild now! Well, just in name, but we have it!"
Riko smiled darkly.
Hyuuga shifted the camera after from the two, but Kuroko could still hear a few screams of terror in the background and felt a cold chill permeate through the holographic images. A few seconds later, all was silent. The brunette woman once again situated herself in the scope with a wide smile that honestly scared Kuroko more than any possible terrifying creature from this game. Kuroko could see the rest of her guild members–some of which he didn't recognize–huddled together, cowering from her fury.
"What's that, Tetsu?" asked Aomine from behind him; judging by the state their mustard, ketchup, and a couple other things-covered clothes were in, both sides had suffered heavy casualties.
Hmm. I guess he met other people before me and Satsuki.
"Don't block the view, let me see too!" said the blonde as he rested his head over Kuroko's shoulder.
"Where was I again? Oh well, since he already said it, I guess I might as well go on. We established a guild a few days ago and have been recruiting members. Right now we have-", she stopped to turn around and count them, "ten members. We were wondering if you would like to join us if you haven't found any parties yet. Also, we're departing toward the fourth island in a few days, at most around two weeks, and we'll probably be able to raise the ladomi we need for a guild building soon."
From behind her, Kuroko could hear Izuki utter, "Kitakore! We'll be able to… afford it. Get it? 'Cause we're going to the 'fourth'isl-"
This time Riko didn't even need to expend the effort as their only glasses-wearing member had already dragged him away by the ear.
"You can send your answer any time", Kiyoshi said after re-entering the frame with a care-free expression, "Well, since you're online now, it'd be nice if you could send one immediately~"
Riko pushed him aside again, "We'll be waiting". With a final smile, the screen disappeared.
Man, that woman looks violent… and her chest is really small. Wait a minute, shouldn't be thinking of this right now, Tetsu's not actually gonna join them, is he?
"WaaaaAAh, Don't leave Kurokocchi!"
The Cleric couldn't enunciate very well because of the fact that there were arms around his neck in an unintentional chokehold. Luckily for him (though Kise had to sustain more damage), the death grip was loosened with a hard hit to the blonde's head and another to his side.
After a small intake of air, he replied, "no, I will not join their guild. If I had not met and joined the Generation of Miracles, perhaps, but that is not the case. I am happy where I am right now. Besides, I have already promised that I would help make this guild the strongest–the number one in Japan."
While the shorter man was writing a similar message back to the other guild, Aomine grinned and ruffled his light-blue locks, effectively shaping it to a hair stylist's worst nightmare.
"I would appreciate if you did not do that, Aomine-kun."
"Murasakibara does it all the time though."
"Both of you seem to forget the fact I am older than you, even if only by a year or so."
"I think 'cause you're so sho-"
Kuroko didn't need to hear the end of that sentence to know where it was going. Since he was in a Neutral Zone–which, as I failed to explain earlier, is a map area where systemated spells and attacks are disabled–he couldn't use his Magic. So of course, he settled for the next best thing: equipping his staff and using its blunt end to jab backwards toward the Paladin's gut.
Aomine fell to the ground, right next to Kise who was also still writhing in pain.
Tetsu, you bastard, that hurt! I don't have my armor equipped!
The stoic man paid no heed to their groaining as he finished his reply letter and promptly sent it. "It is almost time for me to go to work, so I will be leaving now", were his next words prior to selecting the options menu buttons and escaping the protests from the two on the ground.
Kise and Aomine stared blankly at each other for a few seconds before finally getting up. After their shortest companion had left, they had finally started to become mindful of the confused and curious looks they were getting from the other people in the restaurant.
It did not help in the slightest that they were drenched in sriracha sauce.
Wednesday: May 2, 2038. 11:02 A.M.
"Just as I thought, they're all really amazing", thought Kise in awe, watching their opponents being taken down one-by-one at an unrelenting rate by his guild mates.
This match, Midorima and Akashi were both absent due to something that came up in real life, at least according to the words spoken through Murasakibara.
Heaven's Alliance (the other guild) was underestimating them, but they were riled up by the fact that the opposing leader wasn't even attending and sent out the majority of their members to duel, coming out to a bit more than twenty players.
"Five people only? Ha! Are you getting cocky or something? It doesn't matter that you're a couple levels higher than us, idiots. Are you even taking this seriously?" some of them of them had jeered. they hadn't even taken any notice of Kuroko.
Apparently this guild hadn't heard of yesterday's win, and thought this would be an easy victory for themselves. "This is gonna be over in three, maybe four minutes, tops."
Oh, how true those words would be.
The lineup was six versus twenty-three on a grassy field. Both sides had waited for the starting signal, and then rushed into the middle of the field when it sounded.
In the front lines were around fifteen frontline fighters that clashed with their five. Behind them, several Mages and Hunters were casting spells or firing off arrows imbued with whatever elements they held.
De-buff skills seemed abundant for the other guild's Mages–a weaken-and-capture (or in this case, kill) type strategy that was a pretty basic idea. It was their unlucky fates that they were pitted up against the this guild.
Even if one of Kuroko's teammates had some kind of skill-bind or curse placed on them, it barely mattered in this fight. Kise and Haizaki could take care of those type of things themselves, and for their two Fighters, they didn't even need the system attacks. Momoi seemed to have a bit of trouble with it as she wasn't strong physically, but Kuroko would support her from the back and surprise the enemy every single time.
After a few seconds, when finally got tired of all the disturbances supporting the main line from the back, Aomine kicked one of his opponents into another attacking him and sprinted toward the group there. He took two of them out, a Cleric and a Gunman, before the people chasing him could catch up.
As for Haizaki, he was getting his kicks out of toying around with his opponents, slowly stealing all their systemated skills and laughing at their despair when they realized they were completely erased from their archives. Akashi had warned him not to, but because he wasn't here, he couldn't enforce his rule.
On the other side of the field, Murasakibara was... sitting down, bored and barely moving as he was pelted with throwing knives and other weapons. Kuroko speculated he might only take action when directed by Akashi, who, of course, was absent. When he sent a short PM saying, "Please take better care of yourself", however, the Berserker at least stood up and returned a few of the blows given to him. Due to his monstrous strength, it was more than enough to drain their HP down to zero.
Since that was now taken care of, the Elf went to heal and help their faction's peach-haired Spy, who was being ganged up on by three of the other guild's members and was having difficulty dodging some of their attacks.
Later that day, she would fall irrevocably in love with him because of a video replay of this battle and a Popsicle stick.
But I digress:
It seems Kise had the same idea as Kuroko did, because at the same time Kuroko besieged one of them with a strong mid-level spell, another was hit by an unexpected arrow to the head (which, as I've mentioned, is quite a mental shock) and fell backward.
Momoi followed up on their assist by taking advantage of the trio's last member's confusion and knifed him from behind, not giving the chance to counter attack.
"Watch out!" Kise yelled to the pinkette, firing off another two arrows to stop an Assassin class player from letting some throwing stars fly at her. Since he wasn't as accurate as Midorima, they didn't make contact, but it was at least enough to give Momoi the time to execute a back flip by rebounding off the back of the Blacksmith she'd just attacked and letting the projectiles hit him instead. In half a second, Momoi had already calculated the angle of descent she'd needed to land on top of her assailant and did so with a resounding drop-kick.
Relieved that Momoi was out of the imminent zone of danger, Kise relaxed for a moment. Then he heard a scream of pain to his left, and twisted around to find a fellow Rogue face-down in the dirt, pretty much already dead even if he had a bit of health left.
"Like Momoi-san, Kise-kun should also be more careful", Kuroko monotoned next to him before finishing off the player on the ground. The blonde jumped a bit at the Cleric's sudden appearance. "Don't scare me like that!"
As much as he was trying, it was very difficult to get used to. He thinks he's gotten a little bit better, though.
"I am sorry, that is impossible. Also, we are still in the middle of a battle right now."
"Oh, yeah!" the blonde then smiled and dashed away to find someone else to fight. "Thanks, Kurokocchi!"
Meanwhile, Aomine was ripping through a few of the other team's Mages. As they were low on physical defense, he only needed one or two hits to send them back into the PVP lounge. Without the extra support and interference of their ranged members, the Fighters, Rogues, and other close-ranged players in front were even more easily taken care of.
And so, within three minutes and nineteen seconds, Heaven's Alliance suffered overwhelming defeat at the hands of Generation of Miracles.
Saturday: May 5, 2038. 2:22 P.M.
Five days.
An estimate of what it had taken for the Generation of Miracles to reach a point where they were quickly becoming one of the most distinguished guilds in the game.
From their first group battle to the one they had just completed, they had controlled every single victory without fail, even if they only had a grand total of eight members.
Currently, they were number 72 in the Official Rankings List, meaning they had jumped over 500 spaces since last Tuesday. Though it wasn't in the top fifty yet, keep in mind that they had only battled with a handful of other guilds, of which whom seemed to rely more on the fact that they had numbers rather than individual strengths. Now that they were challenging stronger enemies, however, pride was on the line; the other guilds would fight in the way they did, which means less people and more skill.
Because they had gained so much attention from moving up the ranks so fast, they were receiving a mass of requests to join their group (all shot down) and multiple summons to contest by some of the higher-ranked organizations. Also helping to boost their fame was the fact that they had Kise, who as you all know, is obviously a famous model–not that the rest of them weren't attractive as well. They were.
Oh yeah, there were also the rumors that they had a ghost in their team.
Their dual-eyed leader had seemed rather satisfied at this sudden fame.
What he wasn't satisfied with, however, was that lately he had a headache with the name Haizaki Shougo. He was proving rather difficult to keep in check whenever Akashi took his eyes away–the silver-haired Thief would sometimes go out of his way just to provoke them, but mostly Kise into a fight, one which the blonde would accept and usually lose. It was clear that they didn't get along at all, but Akashi had thought they would at least tolerate each other and not fight like squabbling little children when not in his presence.
But enough of that, let's move on to some of the changes made to the game.
One was a new type of classification, the "Esteem Evaluation Ranking", which sorted players according to their actions toward others. Bonuses would be given out to the kindest players and the most infamous, though it was highly skewed toward certain classes. Things like killing or stealing from other players outside an official PVP were the types that were inputted. For the kinder side of this system, it was deeds like buffing others and giving out items.
Another alteration made was one that many players found annoying, but that the systems management team seemed to think was enjoyable and realistic (or perhaps they just enjoyed the suffering of their people). A short patch implemented a few hours ago was the cause of all this, and after logging in, Kuroko was still apprehensive toward the fact that his hair was now long enough to reach his shoulders.
He did, however, find amusement watching his guild (besides Momoi) struggling with their newly-gained elongated follicles. They couldn't pull it off nearly as well as he could.
The reason for this game change was unknown, but Kuroko guessed that the administration was giving the players a little more freedom; a chance to slightly deviate from how they are in real life without full blown consequences or complications. Still, he could not help but think it was rather troublesome that, from now on, hair would have to be maintained like it would in reality.
Most of the members of the "GoM", as it has been abbreviated, were now taking a break in their recently-purchased guild hall and waiting for their green-haired Archer to come back.
Akashi and Momoi were going over the guild's finances, their dark-skinned member was sleeping (Kuroko hadn't known it'd been possible in the game, but apparently it was), after chopping his hair off with his knife, Haizaki went out to "picking up chicks", and Murasakibara and Kise were both playing with their shortest male member's hair. Every few seconds, their pinkette would enviously glance over, so after a few minutes, Akashi let her go so that she too could fawn and gush over Kuroko.
"Where did they get all these ribbons?"
After a short trip to the weapon's smith, Midorima returned with two pairs of scissors, meaning that they could finally cut off their ridiculous-looking, unneeded mops.
Though it was a viable option for them to go to one of the new salons placed in the towns, Akashi had insisted that he cut it so that they wouldn't have to waste the ladomi and the time. The salons that had been set up were extremely crowded and the Guild had recently purchased this Stronghold for 11.5 million (because it was more comfortable than the cheapest building type). There wasn't much leftover if they wanted to get some new gear.
Kuroko wondered why the redheaded man seemed to be in a slightly foul mood today, but then he caught sight of his own reflection and decided, "Maybe this is the problem."
"Akashi-kun, do you have experience with cutting hair?"
"just a bit, but I can assure you of my skill," he had smiled, taking up one of the sharp cutting tools.
True to his words, it was only a matter of time before they had finally gotten their hair back to appropriate length and style.
"Akashicchi is like a pro!" exclaimed Kise, admiring himself in a mirror. It was virtually unchanged from how it had been before the patch took place, though there was still a problem in maintaining it now that hair grew just like it did in RL.
"I'm gonna go get food, I'll be back in a few minutes", yawned Aomine as he trudged out the door and the dimensional gate. Murasakibara followed along for a while before they split ways toward their respective destinations. Realizing the purple-haired man went to buy snacks alone, Momoi, who was taking in some final images of her Cleric guildmate, offered to go follow the purple-haired giant so that he wouldn't spend too much. Again.
While this happened, Kuroko was in the process of having his flowing tresses expertly cut. After the Sorcerer finished with everyone else in the vicinity, Kise was the one who worked on his hair as he was the second most adept in this line of work.
Kuroko sat quietly, watching the two since everyone else had already left and Midorima was going over the budget plans from earlier.
"Tetsuya," Akashi suddenly addressed him in the middle of some trimming.
"Yes?"
"Have you noticed any changes to your weapon lately?"
"Hmm… no. Nothing major at least."
Somehow, the redhead seemed disappointed by this statement, but any sign of it quickly disappeared from his face the next second.
Snip. Snip. Snip.
Locks of red hair floated to the ground and, after a minute or so, started to return to strips of data.
"Alright, I'm done!" the Bandit exclaimed triumphantly, proud of his handiwork.
"Hmm. The right side uneven and a bit longer than the left."
"Ack! You're right! Sorry!" Kise said, bowing in forgiveness and slapping his hands together as if praying.
Akashi's tone had a hint of playfulness when he said, "I don't mind, Ryouta. It is only hair, after all, and it will again with time. Hmm… Daiki should've been back by now. Shall we go find him?"
Kise perked up instantly. "Yeah~! Let's go find Aominecchi!", he threw the scissors onto a table they'd purchased and grabbed Midorima's arm–he was reluctant to go– and the four made their way to the Central Town. They decided to walk towards Maji Burger since they'd never seen Aomine eat anywhere else; he seemed to really like those teriyaki burgers.
"Hey, Midorimacchi, why do you still have those scissors with you?"
"It is my lucky item for the day, idiot," the bespectacled man huffed, pushing up his glasses by their bridge. He had said it as if it were common knowledge, some thing which the blonde complained about.
When they got to the restaurant and didn't find their tan-skinned friend inside, they opened up their guild window and found that, instead of eating like he said he would be doing, the tan-skinned man was outside the city in a monster map.
Akashi chanted out the words to one of his dimensional travel spells and transported the four of them to where they'd find him: a low-level area filled with weak, easily beaten creatures.
"I wonder what Aomine-kun is doing there," Kuroko thought while being surrounded by the black void.
They arrived at the scene to see him, Hakua in his hands, stance leaving no openings, and being charged at by an unfamiliar Warrior with a strong presence.
Kuroko took note of the Paladin's face, which more than anything was… excited.
Swords met, and steam hissed, rising from in between where they were in contact. The two figures each took a step back, but the distance was closed again as they exchanged a flurry of furious blows. Even though the other person was strong, (or at least strong enough to hold up against his attacks) it seemed that Aomine still had the upper hand due to his speed.
The Paladin smirked toward the other at he pushed him back. "Tired already?"
"Shut up!" the redhead fighting him growled, and then he retaliated, forcing himself forward with an equal amount of strength.
Their guild leader sighed lightly.
"Shintarou, scissors."
The Archer complied and handed him the pair.
Midorima would even give up his lucky item to Akashi. That is surprising.
The heterochromatic-eyed man made his way to the two Fighters, who were so absorbed in their match that they hadn't noticed the arrival of the other four players.
"Daiki."
After he spoke, the two finally realized there were people intruding on their duel and stopped mid-slash. Both Fighters spun around to face the just-arrived redhead.
"Huh?" the unknown face uttered before glaring. "Who're you?"
And then Akashi lunged.
Omake–Part three of the Unfortunate Tetsu-kun Series.
"Akashi-kun, do you have experience with cutting hair?"
"just a bit, but I can assure you of my skill," he had smiled, taking up one of the sharp cutting tools.
True to his words, it was only a matter of time before they had finally gotten their hair back to appropriate length.
But he had given them all bowl cuts.
This is the longest chapter so far~
Is it just me, or is the number of people suffering growing with each Omake?
Time for another secret: Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti. If you assign them number values from 1 to 7, La is 6, Do is 1, and Mi is 3. Ladomi=613. It comes from something I made in middle school, but it's too long to explain here and I'm sure no one wants to hear about my life.
Thank you for reading, constructive criticism and feedback are greatly appreciated~
GPS, AWAAAAaaaaayyyyyy~