Hey guys! How's everyone doing today? I just wanna apologize for the extremely long hiatus for this specific story. I hope that I didn't piss too many of you off and that you'll at least find the changes that I've made somewhat agreeable. There were quite a few things that I changed, mainly the writing style cause oh boy, looking back at how I used to write, it was just cringy as hell, and how the story flows. Basically, instead of just doing Your Lie in April but with Kuroko no Basuke, I've made it so it goes more like Kuroko no Basuke Seirin Team formation but with Nijimura and make it Your Lie in April flavored. Anyways, I'll just let you guys jump into it. Again, I'm sorry and I hope you guys enjoy!
Anyways, I enjoy any comments, except for those that are just full of negativity and not constructive at all. Just give me something to work with instead of just "It's bad." I also appreciate any positive constructive criticism since I'm always looking to improve my writing and storytelling capabilities. Thanks for reading this story! Virtual hugs and cuddles to y'all.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except any OC's that may come up, any world building that has not yet been officially stated by any medium, and any plot points/structures that have not been used in the anime or manga.
Warning: No beta, we die like Kaori.
Prologue: The Story that Began with a Lie
XXXXXX
Kagami Taiga casually strolled down the street as he made his way to school in the early morning. He shivered slightly from the chilly air that foretold of the cold winter that was swiftly approaching.
"Ugh, it's cold," he grumpily muttered as he zipped his school jacket up to contain as much of his body heat as possible, "I guess it'll get even colder during the winter cup…" He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I hate the cold."
Then his thoughts began to wander to the conversation he'd overheard in the locker room not too long ago.
"I'll play even if this knee breaks!" Kiyoshi shouted as he desperately clutched at his injured leg.
The other second years immediately raised their protests and concerns over his condition. But then Kiyoshi cut them off with a solemn declaration that rendered them all silent.
"We promised him, remember?"
'I wonder what that was all about,' Kagami thought to himself.
Suddenly a hand landed on his head and playfully ruffled his hair. "Hey Kagami! Why're you making such a serious face so early in the morning?"
"That hurts!" Kagami cried out more in surprise than pain. The hand removed itself from his head and he turned to see Kiyoshi grinning at him.
"Yo!" Kiyoshi greeted with a playful salute.
"Uhhh…" Kagami intelligently responded as he stared dumbly at his senpai.
Kiyoshi looked at him in confusion at his reaction or lack thereof. "What's wrong? Did you eat something bad?"
Kagami shook his head and focused back on reality. "No. Actually, after practice, can I-"
"Practice?" Kiyoshi cut him off, looking at him in concern for his poor memory, "What're you saying? It's that day today."
"Eh?" Kagami tilted his head in confusion, "What day?"
XXXXXX
Kagami watched in growing confusion as the members of the Seirin Basketball Team prepared for the arduous challenge ahead of them.
"Cleaning up the clubroom?"
Riko nodded while tying up her hair into a short ponytail. "Yup. Tomorrow the school life supervisor is coming to inspect the club buildings. Which wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that we haven't done a single cleanup this entire year."
"But shouldn't we practice for the next match against Kirisaki Daiichi?" He asked, still not getting why they were putting off practice just to clean.
She deadpanned and shook her head in disapproval. "I told you already, today's our break. Besides, you're the one who needs it the most."
"We have a whole week till the Kirisaki Daiichi match," Hyuga remarked, "We'll start preparing once we get proper rest."
Riko nodded in agreement and placed a large metal trashcan near the clubroom door. "But before that, you gotta do what you gotta do."
Then she casually lit a match and tossed it into the trashcan where a fire immediately burst into life and startled the entire team.
"Okay," Kagami nodded before he finally registered the fire, "Eh? Wait! What're you doing with that?"
"Can't you tell? I'm burning all of the useless garbage," she nonchalantly responded.
Everyone was taken aback by her response. "EH?!"
Riko stretched her arms out in preparation for the task ahead. "It's fine if it's just dirty but if I see some sexy teacher stuff like last time…I think I'll want to give a Riko Practice times five!"
Everyone flinched in fear and silently prayed to all the gods in existence that there wouldn't be anything that would encourage her to follow through on that ominous threat.
"Isn't this bad?" Izuki quietly asked Hyuga, "Who's did that end up being anyways?"
Hyuga grimaced. "I don't know but no worries. I already finished taking care of all the adult materials…I think."
He stepped forward confidently, taking the lead as was his duty as the captain. "I guess it's time for a cleanup."
Then he threw open the door to the clubroom and balked. Everyone else snuck a peek from around him and also balked at the sight that greeted them. The clubroom was an absolute disaster zone with various pieces of clothing and uniforms hanging everywhere, trash littering the floor, and basketball equipment strewn about in random places. Everyone was both in awe and intimidated by the whole thing.
"If one dives in with the mindset of cleaning, it's quite intimidating," Kiyoshi helpfully remarked.
"Yeah, I feel crushed and we haven't even started yet," Izuki agreed.
Riko stepped inside, shaking her head at the cowardly behavior of the men on the team. "Come on. If you don't hurry, the sun's going to set."
She walked to the lockers and opened one only to see a disgusting sea of fungus covering every square inch of its interior and contents. She immediately slammed the locker door closed.
"GO BURN IT!"
"WE CAN'T!" Hyuga shouted as he grabbed and held her back from removing the locker and tossing it into the fire with her bare hands.
Their struggling paused when a mysterious package fell onto the ground before them. Hyuga let Riko go and she crouched down to pick it up.
"What's this?" She asked as she examined the object for any clear identifiers.
"It looks like a rice ball?" Hyuga cautiously remarked, "How old-"
The rice ball package twitched in her hand much to their horror. They yelled out in fear as Riko threw the rice ball into the fire with a vengeance.
"I-It moved!" Furihita cried out in a trembling voice.
"Why!" Kawahara shouted up to the heavens as if the gods had forsaken them.
"I wanna go home!" Fukuda sobbed without an ounce of shame.
Riko breathed heavily with a crazed look in her eyes. Everyone backed away in fear at her demented expression.
"Alright. We'll start burning everything that comes out…Burn EVERYTHING!"
That was the team's cue to jump straight into cleaning mode if only to deter their coach from tossing them into the fire.
"Ah! I found a Christmas tree!" Koganei exclaimed as he held out a decorated mini Christmas tree, "With this we're set for Christmas!"
Riko snatched the tree out of his hands and tossed it into the fire much to Koganei's sorrow. "Get your mind straight for the Winter Cup!"
Kiyoshi held up a pack of hanafuda cards. "Hey! There were some hanafuda."
"Wait, isn't that yours?" Izuki asked.
"Yup! Once we're done cleaning, let's all pl-" Kiyoshi's suggestion was cut off when Riko grabbed the pack and tossed it into the fire much to Kiyoshi's shock.
"Don't!"
What followed next was like something out of a gag manga. Every time someone found something that could potentially distract them from the task at hand, Riko would come swooping in to toss that object straight into the fire no matter what it was.
A model plane that Hyuga spent too many pain staking hours assembling.
Straight into the fire.
A figurine that Koganei scoured the entirety of Akihabara for.
Burned in the flames.
A dragonfly that Kuroko Nigou was gleefully chasing after.
Grabbed and tossed into hell.
Everyone quickly wised up after that and kept their discoveries to themselves. Clean up was a slow but steady process when under the burning scrutiny of Aida Riko. The only mishap was when Hyuga caught Koganei reading manga but luckily, the incident passed by her radar and cleaning continued.
XXXXXX
An hour into their cleaning endeavors and everyone was already completely exhausted despite only being halfway done.
"Alright, we somehow managed to organize the outside," Izuki said, wiping the sweat off his brow, "Now we can start working on the insides of each locker."
Koganei was the first to volunteer, opening his locker only to get knocked over as loads of boxers of all sorts rained down on him.
"Koganei! Why in the world did you hoard so many boxers?" Hyuga cried out in disgust, "Geez, you dumbass."
Then he opened his locker to reveal a very detailed diorama of some historical battle inside and nothing else.
"There's a diorama in Hyuga-senpai's locker?" Fukuda asked incredulously.
"It's the battle of Nagashino!" Hyuga corrected with an affronted expression.
"Like we care!" Tsuchida exclaimed in annoyance.
Mitobe was strangely defensive of his locker, standing protectively in front of it while shaking his head vigorously to prevent anyone from approaching. The second years were surprised by his actions though Koganei could only chuckle nervously when asked by the first years to interpret the meaning behind his unspoken words.
Riko shook her head and sighed, feeling a headache coming on and the growing desire to smack some sense into her team with her clipboard. "You're all terrible at this. Look! Why can't you follow Kuroko's example?"
She pointed at Kuroko's locker, which was average in every sense of the word. It was clean with some shirts on hangers, a pair of sneakers, and a few folded towels placed neatly within the space where any extra items had enough room to be easily accessible.
"Whoa! His locker!" Furihita gasped in amazement.
"There's nothing to comment on!" Kawahara cried out in irritation.
Kagami shook his head in disappointment as he rifled through and cleaned out his own messy locker. "Come on Kuroko. You're so lame. You should be more-"
"Hold it right there, Kagami!" Hyuga called out, causing Kagami to flinch and quickly hide something behind his back, "What did you just hide?"
"Ah, n-nothing," Kagami lied with a guilty expression clear on his face.
Hyuga wasn't stupid enough to buy such a lame lie and went over to snatch the item out from Kagami's hands. "It's a test," he said, examining the paper closely.
"Wha- 12 points? And it's in English!" He cried out incredulously. Then he threw the paper back at Kagami and irritably shouted, "Go give up on being a returnee!"
"How?" Kiyoshi couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you from America?"
After Hyuga spent a good ten minutes lecturing Kagami on the importance of studying, especially if he wanted to keep playing basketball, the cleaning continued. Izuki removed a worryingly tall stack of joke and pun books from his locker. Kuroko helped the other first years organize the contents of their lockers. Tsuchida carefully kept away from Mitobe after catching a glimpse as to what was inside the silent teen's locker.
Everyone was slowly but surely removing boxes and boxes of unnecessary stuff, separating them into different piles to take home or throw away.
Hyuga sighed and stretched out his back with a satisfied groan. "I can finally start to see the end of this madness."
"Wait, umm…" Izuki said, drawing Hyuga's attention to whatever he was staring uncertainly at.
"Koganei!" Hyuga called out in accusation, "Why do you keep on reading manga?"
Koganei turned to look at them without an ounce of shame at having been caught. His expression was one of fear and awe, as if he'd fallen into a rabbit hole he knew he wouldn't be able to get out of. "This is bad. I think I just found a super awesome manga."
Hyuga irritably snatched the manga out of his hands, not believing a word he said. "Come on, it can't be that good…" Then he flipped through the pages and fell down the rabbit hole as well. "Oh shit. It's great. Wow!"
"I know right!" Koganei said, nodding eagerly in excitement.
"Seriously?" Kiyoshi asked as he took the manga out of Hyuga's hands to give it a look through as well. "Whoa. It is good!"
"I found the second volume on top of the lockers!" Kawahara called out, waving said volume in his hand.
"Here's volume 4," Fukuda announced, "Maybe we have all of it?"
Cleaning efforts were soon abandoned as everyone began earnestly searching everywhere for the rest of the volumes of the manga. They eventually managed to find every volume except for the last one.
"Shit, what's this? Only the last volume is missing," Hyuga said in annoyed disappointment.
"There's nowhere else to look," Tsuchida said, eyeing the entirety of the clubroom for anywhere they might've missed searching.
"Maybe it hasn't been published yet?" Furihita tentatively offered an explanation for the missing volume.
"No. There's one place we haven't looked yet," Kiyoshi somberly remarked.
As if on cue, the locker door of the sea of fungus opened ominously. Everyone turned in unison to look at the locker and immediately voiced their objections. However, upon closer inspection, there was an object within that looked vaguely like the final volume.
"Alright first years, do rock-paper-scissors and pick a loser," Hyuga ordered.
"EH? NO WAY!" All five first years objected in harmony.
"That's an order from your senpai and your captain," Hyuga firmly stated.
"What's up with that? Always senpai this and senpai that," Kagami complained, "Japan's the only one that follows those stupid ranks."
"Huh? You're in Japan," Hyuga said, ticked off and glaring down at Kagami as he spoke in broken English, "Dis iz Japan."
"Hyuga-senpai, your English is broken," Kuroko bravely remarked.
Hyuga glared at the phantom first year and he shut his mouth so as to not invite the ire of his short-tempered captain upon him. Soon the five first years were forced to play rock-paper-scissors against each other. In the first round, Furihita, Kawahara, and Fukuda escaped fungus duty with scissors that beat Kagami and Kuroko's paper.
"Alright! We won!" The three of them cried out with tears of relief.
Now it was down to Kagami and Kuroko. The two of them faced each other with hands at the ready for an epic dueling showdown.
"I won't lose," Kuroko resolutely declared.
Kagami chuckled darkly. "I never expected to fight you like this."
"Be quick about it," Kiyoshi called out.
Without further ado, Kagami and Kuroko waved their hands up and down three times and threw out their signs. In a major upset, Kagami lost epically with scissors to Kuroko's rock. Kuroko held his hands up in triumph as if he'd won the Olympic gold instead of a game of rock-paper-scissors.
"No, no, no!" Kagami cried out in disbelief.
"Stop whining dumbass. Aren't you a tiger?" Hyuga said, nudging the dejected Kagami with his foot.
"I'm not a tiger," Kagami retorted as he slapped Hyuga's foot away.
Then he was unceremoniously escorted to stand before the sea of fungus locker. He grimaced as he took in the full magnitude of the apocalyptic disaster zone that was confined within the small metal space. He slowly reached a hand in while trying to avoid touching everything else inside.
"Something moved!" He cried out in a panic.
"Nothing moved, go on already," Tsuchida 'helpfully' encouraged.
"Wasn't there a scene like this in an old movie?" Furihita asked in a trembling voice.
Eventually, Kagami's hand reached the book and he grabbed onto it. The triumphant feeling bypassed the gross sensation of the fungus. "I got it!"
Everyone looked at him in anticipation. Meanwhile, Riko had shown zero interest in what was happening the entire time. Her sole attention was focused on Kuroko Nigou being absolutely adorable.
Kagami yanked the book out with a mighty cry. The fungi was flung off the book and revealed its cover to be one of a sexy nurse magazine. Everyone froze in fear and slowly turned their attention to where a terrifyingly smiling Riko greeted them.
"Times five practice!" She cheerfully remarked.
Everyone shouted out in protest and fear for their well-being as Riko grabbed the magazine and dropped it straight into the still burning trash fire.
XXXXXX
The sun had long since set when cleaning was finally completed. The members of the Seirin High Basketball team left the clubhouse with a sense of accomplishment which was the only reason why they were still able to move despite their exhaustion.
Kagami and Kuroko were the only ones still left with Kuroko having hung back to wait for Kagami since he was slow to pack his bag. Just as they were about to depart, Kagami noticed something fall onto the ground. He picked it up out of curiosity and was surprised to find it was an old team photo with the senpai huddled together in the school gym.
The photo had the words 'Seirin Basketball Team Formed!' written on it in black sharpie. Starting from the left was Koganei kneeling with a cheeky peace sign held up. Mitobe looked down from behind him in confusion. Izuki was to their left and he had a calm smile though there was a hint of exasperation in his expression. Riko stood in the middle with crossed arms and a wide smile though she had a gaze of indescribable emotions directed at Hyuga. Kiyoshi grinned widely from beside her with his arm thrown around an unknown teen with black hair and piercing grey eyes. The teen was smiling widely back at him though he was also jokingly nudging Hyuga with his elbow as Hyuga looked off to the side with a click of his tongue. At the right end of the group, Tsuchida jokingly leaned out from on top of Hyuga's shoulders.
Kagami eyed the photo thoughtfully. "Huh…this is…"
"Kagami?" Kuroko asked, wondering why his friend was standing in the middle of the clubhouse and staring at a piece of paper like an idiot.
'This is a picture taken when the basketball team was formed,' Kagami thought as he carefully examined the photo, 'It's only a year old but, now that I think about it, it's a pretty amazing story. On the year the team was formed, they became one of the four best teams in the Tokyo region. Even in the Newcomers League they qualified for the Kanto Competition.'
A sense of respect for his senpai swelled within him as he thought about the team's short history but great accomplishments. 'I don't know the details but normally it's not easy for a new team to do so well. Although…'
His gaze narrowed to scrutinize the unknown teen in the photo. 'Who is this guy and why haven't we seen or heard about him since the year began?'
Then his grip shifted and he noticed that there was another photo stuck behind the one he was looking at. "Huh. There's another photo."
He pulled the photo out and saw a scowling bespectacled teen with long dyed blonde hair and the same unknown guy grinning cheekily beside him.
"Kagami, what are you looking at?" Kuroko asked as he walked over to see what had enthralled his friend so much.
"Kuroko, do you know who these guys are?" Kagami asked, holding the photo of the two guys out to the phantom.
Kuroko carefully examined the photo and jerked in surprise when he saw the unknown grinning teen. "I don't know who the blonde guy is but-"
"That's me," Hyuga said, startling the two first years with his sudden appearance.
"Eh?" Kagami smartly responded.
"Everyone's already left. It's getting late so don't stay too long," Hyuga warned as he turned to leave the clubhouse again.
"Ah, okay," Kagami nodded dumbly in agreement until Hyuga's words fully registered in his mind, "Wait, what did you just say? This photo…"
Hyuga irritably sighed, preparing himself for the inevitable reaction of disbelief and laughter. "I told you. The blonde guy. It's me. M-E."
Kagami and Kuroko looked at the photo again in surprise and compared it to present day Hyuga who stood before them with short-cropped black hair as opposed to the blonde monstrosity he was sporting in the photo. Once it all clicked together, they immediately broke down into laughter. The absurdity of the photo and present day Hyuga caused the question Kuroko wanted to ask to slip from his mind.
"Wha- This-" Kagami tried to say in between his bellowing laughter, "It's so bad. It looks totally lame!"
"Get out or I'll kick your asses!" Hyuga angrily growled.
He snatched the photos out of Kagami's hands and smacked the two first years over the heads. That stopped their laughter real quick and then the three of them walked out of the clubroom. Hyuga looked down at the photos with bitterly fond nostalgia.
"Last year's photo huh," he mused aloud, "I'm surprised you managed to find it."
"Captain. Did you start playing basketball in high school?" Kuroko asked with a serious expression.
"No, why?" Hyuga responded in confusion.
"You…in that photo. Pft-" Kuroko had to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing uncontrollably again.
Hyuga's brow ticked in annoyance. "How long are you planning to laugh?" He sighed and shook his head. "Shun and I have been playing for as long as I can remember with Riko by our side. I believe the same is true for Teppei. Mitobe started in middle school and Koganei and Tsuchida started in high school."
"Captain, can I ask you something?" Kagami hesitantly asked.
"Mm?" Hyuga hummed, surprised by the hesitant behavior of the fiery teen.
"The rumor that this year's the end for Kiyoshi-senpai…what's that supposed to mean?" Kagami carefully asked.
"Ah…I see. You've been listening," Hyuga remarked with a sigh, "Then it can't be helped. It's something that happened last year. Well, looking at his condition you guys would've noticed it eventually so we were planning to let everyone else know too."
"Makes sense I guess," Kagami said. Then he finally took notice of Kuroko's odd silence throughout the entire exchange. "What's up, Kuroko?"
"Captain, I would like to ask you a question," Kuroko said.
Hyuga turned to face him, already knowing what he was going to ask. "It's about the other guy in the photo, right?"
"Ah right!" Kagami perked up in remembrance. "The one that I don't recognize. You know him, Kuroko?"
"I shouldn't even be surprised considering who he was to you," Hyuga said as if he'd been expecting this question to be asked eventually but not so soon.
"Huh?" Kagami asked, looking between the two in confusion as if a completely different conversation was happening before him.
"Why was Captain Nijimura in those photos with you?" Kuroko asked with utmost seriousness, "He's part of the Seirin Basketball team right? At least, that's what the photo made it look like."
"Captain Nijimura?" Kagami parroted in question.
"I guess you wouldn't know cause this was after he left and the Generation of Miracles was formed. Even before then, he was overshadowed by you all," Hyuga thoughtfully remarked.
Kuroko flinched at the implied accusation.
Hyuga waved his hands and rushed to reassure him. "Ah, that's not to make you feel bad or anything, Kuroko. He never held it against you guys and would constantly worry about you all." He shook his head in fond exasperation. "The amount of magazines and news articles he collected on you guys was kind of insane."
"Then why isn't he here right now? Why didn't he keep in contact? Is he alright?" Kuroko desperately asked.
Kagami was thrown off by the unexpected change of attitude with his usually calm and deadpan friend. "Okay. Hold on a minute here," he said, trying to regain an understanding of the current conversation, "Who is this guy cause I feel like I'm missing something right now."
"He's Nijimura Shuzo, the former captain of the Teiko Basketball team, the one before Akashi," Kuroko responded with the same fondness he showed only for his old teammates before they had changed, "He's also one of the reasons why I was able to join the team in the first place. My friend may have taught me how fun basketball is but he's the one who gave me the skills and confidence to grow into who I am today as a player."
Kagami whistled, impressed by the praise Kuroko was showering on this guy. "Well damn. He sounds like an impressive guy if he's got you saying all that about him."
"He is," Kuroko nodded before looking pleadingly at Hyuga, "So where is he right now? Please tell me, captain!"
"I guess I have no choice then," Hyuga sighed heavily in resignation but there was a hint of relief in his expression. As if he'd been waiting a long time to finally get this off his chest. "Do you guys have anywhere you need to be tonight? Or do you mind joining me for a walk? It's gonna be a long story."
Kuroko and Kagami shook their heads and followed their captain on his walk to an unknown destination.
"Alright then. I guess I'll use this as an opportunity to tell you everything," Hyuga said.
"It all began last year…with a lie in April."
And scene! We have gotten obligatory Kuroko no Basuke manga/anime prologue set up done and out of the way. Now we can smoothly transition into the story you guys came for in the next chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and my attempts to integrate Nijimura into the team formation story. Until next time!