Hello once again, everyone! Who's ready to be done with the Shutoku game? I know I am. No offense to Midorima, but this game is very long and had a lot of detail that I had to capture for characterization's sake. So yeah, I'm ready to move on lol.

But first of all, thanks to LetTheWorldHonorTheFallen (I knew you'd like that scene! Haha!) for reviewing, all 79 followers, 60 favorites and 6,980 readers!

Not much else for me to say here...enjoy the last bit of Seirin vs Shutoku!

Chapter 13: Believe

"Your new pass?" Riko questioned, her eyes slightly widened.

"Why haven't you said anything before?" Hyuuga added, looking confused. Kuroko couldn't blame him, they probably all assumed they knew all the phantom's tricks.

But there were some tricks that Kuroko had deemed too precious to use before they were necessary.

This pass…this pass was one of them. It was precious, sacred, something only the Generation of Miracles could accomplish.

But it was also necessary. And Kuroko was willing to sacrifice his heart just this once for victory.

"Only a few people can catch it," Kuroko explained. Five exactly. "But in his current condition, Kagami-kun may be one of them. However, just passing to Kagami-kun won't work until the end. We'll have to break free from Takao-kun and use normal passes as well."

"But maybe we can do it," Izuki added, drawing Kuroko's eyes. "Besides, my eyes are cramping up."

"What does that mean?" Koganei questioned, glancing at his fellow second year.

Kuroko smiled.

The buzzer went off and the two teams made their way to the court, with Kagami taking the time to apologize to Hyuuga and Hyuuga taking the time to warn Kagami of his upcoming punishment.

"Let the fourth quarter begin," the referee announced.

"Kurokocchi's playing," Kise noted as he looked down at the court.

Within their shared bond, still so cold and empty, but not desolate, Kuroko showed no sign of what he was thinking. His mind was only the glitter of a determined snowfall.

But even still, Kuroko was good at strategies, both coming up with and executing them. Kise had no doubt he had a plan and, even if it felt wrong, he hoped the phantom would win.

Something told him that it would take the phantom winning in order for Kise himself to feel a little less empty.

Kuroko ran on the court, Takao staying on him constantly, preventing Hyuuga from passing to him.

But that was fine. Hyuuga passed to Kagami instead and when Otsubo and Midorima looked to block him, Kagami passed to Mitobe, who was able to score.

Getting punched by Kuroko must have cooled his head. Midorima thought as he observed the game, holding his hand up to signal Otsubo. However, you have only a little stamina left.

Otsubo passed the ball and Midorima prepared to shoot. There was nothing to worry about now.

You cannot stop my shots anymore.

But as the basketball left the sharpshooter's fingertips, Kagami was suddenly there, hitting the ball to the floor.

What? He can still jump? But I know he's nearly out of energy.

Midorima's heart was pounding. Had he misjudged? No, he couldn't have. It was impossible.

Doesn't he intend to save anything for the end?

Midorima couldn't find logic in that, it didn't make sense. Why would you not save your last reserves to give the final push at the end? Did nobody besides him understand this?

It didn't matter right now, as Kagami's block gave Seirin's captain the opening he needed to get the ball to Izuki, who scored.

61-51, Shutoku.

"Looks like they're really counting on you," Takao mused as he stared directly at Kuroko, as if they were two friends hanging out.

In any other situation, Kuroko suspected he would have enjoyed spending time with Takao. Perhaps someday they would.

But today was not that day, not when they were in the middle of a game, a battle dictated by the Oath.

"But no matter what you try, I'll stop you," Takao promised darkly. "You can't escape my Hawk Eye."

But what Takao didn't realize was that Kuroko didn't want to escape it.

Instead, Kuroko had allowed Takao to see him, over and over, preparing for this moment.

Because now that he controlled Takao's vision, Kuroko could misdirect it.

He could vanish.

And so he did, like the shadow he was.

And now, for the final piece.

I'm sorry, Aomine-kun.

"You will not get it this time," Kuroko swore. "Until now, I have only changed the direction of the pass. This pass increases the ball's speed!"

The Ignite Pass hit the basketball with all the power Kuroko could give it, sending the ball out of Takao's grasp and straight into Kagami's. It was fast and no doubt it hurt to catch.

But if they were going to win, they needed this pass. And so, Kuroko used it.

Kagami moved towards the net, with Midorima jumping to block him.

"No you don't!" Midorima cried.

But Kuroko knew it was useless. Kagami used his final jump and dunked over Midorima's head, leaving the sharpshooter gaping.

"He's done it now," Kise commented, staring down at the game. "He finally blew over Midorimacchi. Not only that, but…that was the pass only the Generation of Miracles could catch during middle school!"

Kise could feel Kuroko's apology in the glitter of his snow flurries, almost as if they were caressing Kise's face. But Kise had known this was likely, had expected it even. But the fact that Kuroko was apologizing made Kise feel warm. In his world, after all, emotions were never spared. And yet, here Kuroko was, trying to do exactly that.

Perhaps that kiss hadn't been a fluke after all.

"Is he going to be alright running on fumes?" Kise questioned aloud, directing his gaze to the panting Kagami.

"You could argue that wasn't the time to force a dunk," Kasamatsu mused. "I mean, there's not much point to dunking, anyway."

"He loves to show off," Kise sighed exasperatedly.

"So do you," Kasamatsu countered with a scoff. "But…"

"Kuroko…" Kagami's voice drew Kuroko's attention as they ran to the other side of the court. "It sucks, but the coach was right. I don't think I can jump anymore. I'm going to have to trick Midorima into thinking I can cover him. I don't really want to say this, but the rest is up to you." The Light then patted his shoulder before running ahead.

"Okay," Kuroko smiled, a plan of attack already forming within his mind.

The gymnasium was dark in its quiet gloom, the sole occupant within lying lazily on the stage. The only thing he was doing was spinning a basketball on the tip of his finger.

But that, too, had long ago grown so very easy and so very boring. Everything was boring.

What a dull existence he led. As plain and boring as this gymnasium, here to serve a purpose no matter how taxing it was.

"Ugh, I'm tired," Aomine groaned aloud, staring at the spinning basketball listlessly. "I don't want to move. Maybe I'm getting old. I don't have any energy. I want to eat bread."

Perhaps talking out loud, hearing his voice resonate through the entire room, didn't do much to entertain him as he gave sound to his thoughts. But it was better than letting his voice grow as useless as the rest of his life.

"I thought you'd be here!" Momoi cried out. As he heard her voice, Aomine tilted his head back over the stage's edge, the ball falling to the floor as he stared at his pink haired manager/childhood friend. "Did you fake being sick to skip another game?" Her voice wasn't at all surprised, considering how many times Aomine had done exactly that.

"We'll win anyway. It's too much work," Aomine drawled. His right arm was still raised where the basketball had previously been spinning, as he was too lazy to even let that arm move. Momoi, apparently, brought some life into the gym with her, as Aomine felt the slightest of breezes, causing his tank top to flutter the slightest bit, the cloth touching the names engraved onto his collarbone as soft as silk, or whatever fabric it was that Kise always claimed was his favorite to model.

"Sheesh!" Momoi sighed, placing a hand on her hip, shifting her ankles where Aomine knew she bore several of the same names as his collarbones. "Anyway, it sounds like Testu-kun and Midorin are playing against each other right now!" Aomine let out the expected groaning responses. "Maybe Tetsu-kun will win. After all, he's the man I fell in love with."

Aomine had never understood Momoi's insistence on being in love with Kuroko. After all, it wasn't like she only had the phantom's name on her ankle. Aomine would know, they had shared each other's names since they were children.

And it wasn't like all seven of them could be a romantic bond, like Momoi believed hers was with Kuroko. As far as Aomine knew, if you shared multiple bonds, they all meant the same thing.

But ah, that was too boring to focus on.

Aomine glanced at Momoi, watching as she bit into the popsicle she held.

"We'll see," the ace mused. "You never know until the game's over."

"What?" the manager hummed, confused as she glanced up at Aomine. It wasn't often, after all, that he didn't know who would win between two teams.

But those other teams didn't contain Miracles.

"They're both strong players," Aomine elaborated, forcing his body to turn so he was now laying on his stomach instead of his back, his face buried in his left arm as his right hung off the stage, his legs kicking behind him dully. "They took the middle school championship title three years in a row. Both Tetsu and Midorima."

Kuroko passed the ball, his misdirection working perfectly against Takao, and Mitobe took his shot.

The ball went in.

Two minutes left.

78-76, Shutoku.

Just then, Shutoku called a time out.

"I didn't think…I didn't think you would catch up this much," Midorima commented, staring at Kuroko's back.

"Midorima-kun, you once said dunks are shots that can only score two points," Kuroko spoke, not looking at the sharpshooter even as his left wrist burned. "Your threes certainly are impressive." He finally looked over his shoulder, meeting Midorima's green eyes with his own blue ones. "But I think inspiring dunks like the one he just made, are worth more than the points they score."

Midorima was glaring at the phantom, but Kise's mind was a brilliant starburst of agreement, warming Kuroko's heart as easily as his smile did.

"Will Shutoku break away, or will Seirin overtake them?" Kasamatsu asked aloud as he and Kise watched the game. "It's a deciding time out."

Kise couldn't look away, not that he would ever choose to.

Both Kuroko and Midorima were in their element here…and they were so beautiful that Kise would stare at them forever if he could.

The only way it could've been better would be if he could play with them, and Kise's heart ached at the idea.

But he couldn't think about that right now. Later, that was a later thought, one he would look at when he had the time to do so.

"There's two minutes left," Nakatani stated as he looked over his team. Midorima could already guess what was coming next. "We'll put everything into Midorima."

"But Kagami can still jump," Kimura protested.

"No, he can't," Shutoku's coach smirked as he glanced over at Seirin's bench. "That was just their coach covering the truth. Their no. 10 is completely out of gas. Crush them with threes. Go!"

Midorima could already feel the weight of those instructions falling onto his shoulders. It was a familiar weight, one he was used to carrying.

He'd be carrying it for several more years, it was inevitable that it would become a familiar friend.

The game started once more and went at a fast pace. Shutoku began passing to Midorima, but Kuroko was there, preventing the ball from ever gracing the sharpshooter's fingertips.

But even if Seirin had the ball, it didn't matter. Otsubo, Miyaji, Kimura and Takao were all there to defend.

The score didn't change.

"This is kind of creepy," Kise commented, even as he followed the game perfectly. "I thought it would get more intense."

"Since Shutoku dropped their pace, the score's been frozen in place," Kasamatsu agreed. "One more minute."

The game continued on and Midorima threw the basketball. It sailed through the hoop.

81-76, Shutoku.

Thirty seconds.

Izuki got the ball to Hyuuga and he scored a three of his own.

81-79, Shutoku.

Twenty seconds.

Kuroko stole the ball from Takao, but the Hawk Eye user hit it out of Izuki's grasp, overshooting it enough that the ball went out of play.

The ball was Seirin's.

"Fifteen seconds left!" Kise cried. Kuroko's mind glittered with determination, building up into even more deadly icicles.

"This is Seirin's last chance," Kasamatsu stated.

Kise's heart pounded, as if he were on the court himself, the suspense hanging above him as it did Kuroko and Midorima both.

A game hadn't felt like this in a long time. The only one that came close was Kise's practice game against Kuroko.

It was a rush unlike anything else. Kise could feel Kuroko thriving even as the adrenaline and the need to wind created a blizzard within his mind.

"Seirin has to make a three," Kasamatsu's voice broke Kise away from his thoughts. Kise followed his gaze and found Otsubo marking Hyuuga. "If Hyuuga can't make this, it's over."

Kise's breath caught in his throat.

The play began.

Izuki had the ball. Hyuuga glanced at him before he turned and ran. Kagami screened Otsubo, giving the Seirin captain the chance he needed.

But Hyuuga ran further than the three point line.

Izuki passed the ball.

Hyuuga threw it.

The net swished as the ball fell through.

82-81, Seirin.

Three seconds.

"Did we win?" Kagami gasped. But Kuroko wasn't celebrating.

This wasn't the end.

"You haven't won yet," Takao stated darkly a second before he passed the ball.

Right to Midorima.

"Let me tell you why I am determined to shoot from so far away," Midorima spoke as time seemed to slow down. Everything was frozen, leaving just him and the tool, facing off against each other. "It is not simply because my shots are worth three points. It is not unusual for comebacks to happen in the last seconds of a close game. Sometimes, they are the result of desperate shots. I will not leave it up to chance! That is why I end games with a buzzer beater. That is what it means to do everything humanly possible!"

Midorima jumped to shoot the final basket of the game, to win for Shutoku, for himself, for the Oath.

Kagami suddenly jumped one last time. But that was okay.

Midorima, after all, had faked that shot.

"I believed in you," the sharpshooter stated. "I believed that even at your limit, you would overcome it and jump."

"Crap!" Kagami shouted as he realized what he had done, what Midorima had predicted.

Midorima moved to shoot once more.

"I believed in him as well," Kuroko suddenly said, his voice much closer than it should have been. "I believed Kagami-kun would jump."

At that exact moment, Kuroko stole the ball from Midorima, stopping his shot and sending the basketball to the stadium floor.

"Kuroko!" Midorima cried instinctively.

"And that you, believing that, would lower the ball one more time," Kuroko finished as the clock finally ticked down to zero.

The buzzer rang out.

82-81, Seirin.

Instantly, Seirin began to celebrate, while Shutoku was frozen into shocked silence.

Midorima remained where he stood, his eyes closed. He would not fall apart, not here, not now.

Losing…is this what losing always felt like? Or perhaps this was different because Midorima had never lost before?

The sharpshooter didn't know. All he knew was…his mind was quiet.

"Let's go line up," Takao's uncharacteristically soft voice brought Midorima back to reality. "Even Oha-Asa's gotta be wrong sometimes." But of course, he had to go and say that.

"Shut up," Midorima glared down at the Hawk Eye user. Not that he was grateful for this slowly becoming familiar dynamic, no of course not. He simply could not let an insult to Oha-Asa stand.

Takao only smiled.

"Eighty-two to eighty-one, Seirin!" The referee read out the final score as they all lined up.

"Thank you very much!" The players all yelled as one.

"Looks like the rain isn't going to stop today," Kasamatsu commented as he and Kise began to walk into the downpour, leaving the stadium behind.

Kise didn't say a word as the rain pounded against his umbrella.

The championship league is next. Which means it won't be long before they play Aominecchi. He thought.

"Kise-kun, I have found Midorima-kun," Kuroko's voice rang out within his mind, causing Kise to come to a stop. The voice was accompanied by a cooling frost that Kise could have sworn was covering his skin in a protective layer, keeping the cool of the rain at bay.

The copycat knew what he was going to do next.

"Hey, Kasamatsu-senpai…"

Midorima stood outside in the rain, allowing it to cover him entirely without a care for his health for once in his life.

What did it matter if there was rain on his cheeks? It's not like he was using the rain to hide anything, he had some pride.

But at the same time…he was alone.

Perhaps he could admit, just this once, that he was crying.

Midorima's phone rang and he made sure he was presentable before he lifted it up to answer it. It would do him no good if anybody knew he had cried, after all.

"Yes," The sharpshooter answered.

"Ah, Midorin, it's great to talk to you again!" Momoi's exuberant voice loudly responded, as if all her excitement was going to implode if she didn't speak all her thoughts right here, right now. She knew the game was done, meaning she needed to know who to prepare to face off against in the championship league. She was like a bloodhound when she knew information was just waiting for her to collect it. "How was the game? Did you win? Did you lose? Which was it? Tell me!"

Instantly, Midorima hung up. He firmly told himself that his left index finger was not burning. That would be ridiculous, all she did was talk.

Instantly, the phone began to ring again and the sharpshooter sighed.

But even still, he answered the phone.

"What's wrong with you? Enough alread-" he started to scold when a new voice answered.

"You sound grouchy," Aomine commented. "I know. You lost, didn't you?"

"Aomine?" Midorima questioned, surprised. Aomine rarely talked to any of them. In fact, Midorima was certain the only people to have heard from him since they left middle school were Momoi and Kuroko. Midorima himself surely hadn't talked to the ace until this moment, after all. Even still, the sharpshooter admitted the truth. "I did. You should be careful in the championship league."

"What? What are you saying? Gross." Aomine scoffed as he spoke into Momoi's cell phone, the girl in question pouting right behind him, her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk. Not that Aomine cared. "The only one who can beat me is me."

And there we are! We have finally reached Aomine and Momoi! Ahhh, I love these two, Aomine is so fun to analyze and Momoi is my girl! And now we have the majority of the Miracles in the fic, woo!

Okay, freaking out over characters aside, this chapter is one I can safely say gave me that spark back for writing, considering this was the chapter that led to me doing my first two day in a row update. And, of course, the next chapter actually managed to replace chapter 5 as my favorite chapter, hehe.

But as a warning, I'm probably gonna take the rest of the night off so it might be a few days until chapter 14 is posted. But I am very excited to share it with all of you and I hope you look forward to it as well, considering there is a hint to what will happen within this chapter ;)

I hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you think! Bye!