The match between the green and yellow miracle finished with Kaijo winning. It was a very close game but Kise managed to stop Midorima's last shot just in a knick of time. Panting from lack of oxygen, Kise sent a happy grin to the disgruntled Midorima and strolled towards the bench.
"We'll get them tomorrow," Takao said to his sulking friend. "No need to cry Shin-chin."
"Who's crying?!"
Takao just laughed and dodged a ball thrown by the angry megane.
As the two teams cleared away from the court, Touou's coach announced that the day's training matches were over and the boys now had some free time on their hands. As long as they didn't do anything stupid, they were free to use the court.
So it was all too natural that Aomine took the chance to challenge Kagami to a match.
"Yo, how about a round Bakagami?" the tanned teen smirked throwing an arm over Kagami.
Kagami's brow twitched, "Who're you calling Bakagami, AHOmine?!"
"Bastard, I'm asking for a one-on-one,"
Kagami shrugged off the annoying arm around his shoulder and said, "Uh sure."
Meanwhile, everyone watched them with flat stares. There they go again...those basketball idiots.
The other GOM members took to the benches with their friends to watch the match. After all, a game between the two crazy basketball aces was a match not to be missed. They always did something entertaining that captivated the crowd.
While most were wearing interested and excited expressions, one certain blond was not at all happy with what was going to happen.
'Kagamicchi better keep his promise' thought a frowning Kise.
"Is everything alright Kise-kun?" Kuroko's soft voice spoke.
Kise yelped in shock, "K-Kurokocchi! You scared me!"
"My apologies. But my question still stands, is there something wrong?"
"Wrong? No, nothing at all. Just feeling a little tired...hehe," Kise rubbed his finger under his nose. "Why'd you ask?"
"You looked like something was bothering you," Kuroko replied.
"Aww, I'm so happy Kurokocchi cares about me!" Kise reached out to hug the smaller boy but all he hugged was thin air. "Why'd you dodge?!"
"Because you're too clingy,"
"...You're so mean Kurokocchi," Kise fake cried.
"Would you two be quiet already?" Midorima hissed, irritation in his eyes.
Before they angered the greenhead further, the two boys wisely kept silent and watched the game between Kagami and Aomine. Next to them sat Murasakibara, Himuro and Akashi. Each of them had their eyes solely trained on the duo playing on the court.
However, it wasn't long before people began noticing something.
"Is it just me or is Kagami's movement kinda stiff?" Takao suddenly asked.
"He's slower than usual," Kuroko murmured.
Midorima narrowed his eyes, "He seems to be having difficulty moving."
"Don't tell me the baka injured himself again," Hyuuga glared.
Some of Seirin looked towards Riko wanting to confirm Hyuuga's theory. But to their surprise, Riko seemed clueless as well.
"That's weird. His legs are in top condition and his arms are normal as well. Why isn't he playing properly?" She voiced her thoughts.
At this point, Kise was sweating rapidly in his seat. Of course they'd be suspicious - Kagami isn't like himself.
On the court, Aomine blocked another of Kagami's two-point shots with irritation written all over his face. Turning to the opposing redhead, he growled at him, "Oi Bakagami! What the hell are you doing?! You looking down on me?!"
"O-Of course not asshole! I'm just getting warmed up," Kagami lied. He gave a nervous chuckle and got into position to stop Aomine.
The blue-haired teen clicked his tongue and started dribbling. He dashed forward and did a fake before stepping back and shooting the ball towards the hoop. Kagami was a single step late and he didn't even bother jumping to block the shot. Instead, he stuck out his arm in a weak attempt to stop the ball.
Aomine was beyond pissed now. He turned to give Kagami a piece of his mind but was cut off by a loud sound coming from the benches. Both players turned towards the source and their eyes widened at the sight.
They could see a very angry Kise being held back by Midorima from attacking what looked to be a Touou freshman bench player. In fact, everyone in the surrounding area was watching them with shocked eyes. Just what happened for the usual playful and happy Kise to become so angry.
Kagami walked there with Aomine not too behind and shouted, "Oi, what's going on?"
At the sound of Kagami's voice, Kise visibly stopped struggling and his formerly angry expression softened slightly. Aomine glanced between the Touou freshman and his former teammate with confusion on his face.
"What the hell happened?" he mimicked Kagami's question.
"I believe your underclassman made a rather rude comment about Kagami's current performance and Ryouta immediately attacked him. For what reason? I think you'd have to ask him directly," Akashi answered. While his expression was unreadable as usual, inwardly, he too was rather taken aback at Kise's actions. From the time he first got to know the yellow-haired model, Kise had never once resorted to physical violence during arguments.
Kagami raised an eyebrow and looked at Kise directly, "What did he say Kise?"
Midorima's arms that were holding Kise slowly let go of him once he saw that the Kaijo ace had fully calmed down. By now, everyone's attention was on the blond who merely glared at the boy in front of him.
"Nothing you need to worry about Kagamicchi," Kise muttered through clenched teeth. His eyes flashed with rage and danger, "However, this little bastard should know that if I hear another bad comment about Kagamicchi, I'll fucking rip his useless eyeballs out of their sockets."
Kise's cold voice sent shivers down several people's spines. The GOM and Kaijo were stunned speechless at their most flowery member words. Where was their Kise? Who was this person standing there?
"Kise, if someone insults me, I'll beat them up myself. So calm down and stop scaring everyone around you," Kagami's soft voice broke the tense atmosphere. Kuroko turned to his light with a bit of shock on his features.
And to everyone's further surprise, Kise relaxed his threatening stance and turned away from the now trembling freshman. He looked at Kagami and said, "I'm sorry."
"What the hell?" Aomine whispered. He shifted towards Momoi and asked, "What the fuck is going on? When did Kise become close with Kagami?"
"I have no idea Dai-chan. I'm just as shocked as everyone else. Maybe Tetsu-kun knows something?" She said motioning to the boy on her right.
"I don't know either Momoi-san," Kuroko replied. "Kagami-kun's never mentioned Kise-kun before."
Suddenly Kise stomped towards Kagami and poked his chest with his finger, "And you! Don't think you can go lecturing me when you broke your promise!"
"Eh?!" Kagami squawked. "When did I do that?!"
"You promised you wouldn't play!"
"No, I promised I wouldn't play HARD-Ack!" Kagami covered his mouth on instinct. Shit.
Almost immediately, several eyes landed on him. Majority of them were laced with suspicion.
"And why would that be, Kagami-kun?" Riko asked walking towards him slowly with narrowed eyes. As she got closer, she got a better vision of the numbers on his body but it still wasn't clear enough to figure out what was wrong with him.
"You injured yourself Taiga?" Himuro asked, his tone was full of worry.
"Um-I-" Kagami swallowed nervously. "I-It's not that bad."
"I highly doubt that," Midorima's voice interrupted. "Whatever injury you or sickness you've got was bad enough to mess with your playing."
Kagami clenched his teeth, 'Dammit Midorima!'
All of a sudden, Riko said, "Take off your shirt!"
A minute of silence passed before...
"EHHH?!" A collective shout from the crowd.
"Stop looking at me like that!" Riko snapped at the judgemental gazes. "I just need to see his numbers."
"Numbers?" Takao asked confusedly.
Kuroko started explaining, "Coach is able to make accurate deductions on the human body's condition just by looking at them. She sees numbers that portray their physical stats."
"Seriously? That's kind of amazing," replied the hawk-eye. Thankfully, Kuroko spoke loud enough for others to hear so their misunderstandings were quickly washed away.
However, when they turned to the redhead expecting him to take off his shirt, Kagami just froze and backed away slowly.
"Um, do we have to do that now?" he asked, cold sweat covered his back.
Riko raised an eyebrow, "Obviously. Don't tell me you're suddenly feeling insecure about your body."
Aomine snickered gaining a glare from the redhead. Kuroko jabbed his former partner's side and said, "You're very rude Aomine-kun."
"Shut up Tetsu," Aomine hissed back rubbing his painful ribs. "If the dumbass was insecure about anything, it'd be those shitty eyebrows of his."
"What was that you ganguro?!" Kagami growled.
"Don't insult Kagamicchi, Aominecchi. Even if it's you, I won't forgive you if you hurt his feelings," Kise suddenly spoke, his yellow eyes narrowed at the boy he once looked up to.
Multiple people suddenly stopped to stare at Kise with confused and surprised gazes. Eventually, their questioning eyes shifted to Kagami who was blushing furiously on the side. Blushing...BLUSHING?!
Who was this guy? The Kagami Taiga everyone knew does not blush! Moreover, he's not supposed to look so adorable doing it!
This situation was just getting weirder by the minute. Momoi, while her heart lay with Tetsu, couldn't help but swoon at the sight of a blushing and flustered Kagami. Some of the GOM couldn't help but stare with wide eyes and force themselves to think that Kagami was absolutely NOT cute. Nope!
"W-What the hell are you saying Kise?!" Kagami stammered, "You can't just say things like that!"
Kise looked at him with a smirk, "Why not? I promised myself I was gonna protect the angelic you from now on."
"HA?!"
Momoi almost fainted from shock. Aomine was just staring slack-jawed, Midorima's glasses cracked and Murasakibara's constant chewing came to a halt. Kuroko and Seirin were utterly speechless (everyone was at this point), and Akashi just watched the whole thing unfold with an amused gaze. This was certainly taking an interesting turn.
"Who're you calling angelic?! I AM NOT!" Kagami spluttered, his face becoming redder by the second.
"Where am I? Who am I?" Koganei wondered if this was the right training camp he came to.
Riko momentarily forgot what was going on as her brain tried to process just WHAT THE HELL was happening. Since when were Kise and Kagami so close to the point Kise became so...protective over the redhead. And why was she seeing the redhead with fuzzy cat ears and a tail?! Something was really wrong.
Meanwhile, Muraskaibara watched warily as the usual calm Himuro emitted a dangerous aura. The poor water bottle in the pretty boy's hand was slowly getting crushed under the strong gripping force.
'Did someone drug the water?' was Wakamatsu's concern. Because he sure as hell knew that what was happening now was as abnormal as Aomine not skipping class.
"Um, so like...is Kagami okay or...?" someone from the crowd asked. Whoever it was, they had successfully brought everyone's attention back on track.
Kagami just wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it. So far, nothing was going as planned...not that he had a plan but the point was; nothing was going as smoothly as he hoped. With Riko's form slowly closing in on him, he knew there'd be no choice but to take off his shirt.
"Take off your shirt Kagami-kun. Don't make me ask again," Riko demanded.
With her tone now, Kagami knew there was no room for argument. He and Kise exchanged a glance with the latter looking sullen.
"Kagamicchi, I don't think we can hide it anymore," said Kise with regret.
"Hide what anymore?" Kuroko asked, his eyes darted between the two with worry.
"Wha-"
Kagami let out a loud sigh cutting off Riko's voice and he slowly lifted his shirt over his head.
Cue several gasps and exclamations as everyone noticed the very noticeable bandage around the teen's toned abdomen. Also, there was a little bit of blood seeping through the bandage.
Riko's eyes widened into large saucers as she saw the numbers. They were way too low.
"K-Kagami-kun!" She and Seirin hurriedly surrounded their ace. Even the GOM left their posts to clamor around him.
Kuroko was positively horrified, "H-How did this happen?"
"What the fuck Kagami?" Aomine muttered, his eyes wide.
"He was stabbed," Kise's quiet voice broke through the noise.
And just like the room quietened.
Horrified expressions overtook the spectators' faces.
And then, chaos broke out.