Chapter Summary:

Tetsuya's graduation from Teikou was as quiet as their library usually is.

The Magical secret agents stress over communication, and worries that Tetsuya may end up thinking they're Yakuza. How exactly does one tell their charge that they are in fact, magical secret agents?

Meanwhile, observing his new guardians, Tetsuya briefly wonders if his new guardians are Yakuza.

This makes for a rather amusing correspondence when the communication finally comes round.

There sits a private library in the apartment. On the shelves you can find anything you wish, historical texts, essays, literature classic, and even notebooks.

All three occupants often spend time here, and it is not out of the ordinary to fine two of three curled up in a corner with a nice mug of hot drink, and a book in hand.

Looking closer, you will find the notes of an elegant, sweeping hand. Appearing in the margins of some of these books, notes. At times you can even find entire books written in it. Ink decades old, but never fading.

"The natural acquisition of Sight is rare in non-affities (humans born without any affinities to the five branches of innate magics), but commonplace in dormant affinity havers. However as an internal manifestation of the Glyphics magics, like its external counterpart, glyphs, the talent is easily cultivated.

The acquisition of Sight is an irreversible process. And since any single branch of Sight also subsequently exposes the person to any paranormal threats, the introduction of Sight to any uninformed non-sorcerers should be regulated. But since when have any of them listened to me?"

Annotations at the bottom of a page of 'A Research into 'The Five Affinities, by E. Tatsuake, 2nd edition'

Tetsuya's graduation from Teikou was anticlimactic and unmemorable, compared to the months he went through beforehand. His parents' death was kept a closed topic amongst teachers, and none of his classmates ever notice him anyways. So Kuroko Tetsuya graduates from the place like one wakes from a fleeting dream that should've been a nightmare.

He goes through several therapists before he finds the right one, and Hotaru-san is right that it helps. He plays basketball again, not feeling as guilty as he used to, and grief fades into a part of his daily life. He doesn't stop missing his parents, nor does he stop loving them. But it feels easier to breathe with it now than it used to be.

The holidays hit, and both his aunt and uncle returns to their regular work schedules. Suddenly Tetsuya has more time on his hands than he knows what to do with, and almost desperate to keep his mind away from the grief and overthinking that happens with the lack of distractions, naturally, he distracts himself by picking up the magic tricks he used to do.

He does small handicrafts, too, Hotaru-san, who turns out to have one of the craftiest fingers he's ever known, joins him sometimes. His aunt and uncle also indulges him by letting him buy just about anything he would need for his projects without worrying about budget. He knows that his sudden appearance into their lives have been stressful and a heavy responsibility they're not ready for, so he's grateful that at the very least, he doesn't seem to be a financial strain.

Their apartment slowly fills up with his little handicrafts, as well as stuff from his new guardians. Hotaru-san's plants have taken over the edge of the balcony, flourishing with spring and growing so wildly it looks like an invasion of nature. Mafuyu-san's books in various languages fill the shelves of the library/study, and apparently his aunt also inherited a full library of classics from her mentor. Tetsuya recognise some really old literature classics, as well as something in French or German which he can't read.

With the library filling up, reading also quickly becomes one of his favourite pass times. He is particularly thrilled when Mafuyu-san tells him to feel free with his collection of first edition Akutagawa Ryuunosuke. His aunt, however, made him promise to stay away from a particular shelf, stating that those are 'aniki's collection', muttering about 'irresponsible old farts' all the while. When asked for the reason, Hotaru-san simply picked out a particular title, and upon seeing it Tetsuya immediately remained a good distance away from the shelf without question.

Several shinais finds their way onto the walls, as well as some anime figurines and old gaming discs that belongs to Hotaru-san. He couldn't really believe it when he first saw them, but after seeing her get so heated over a discussion of the newest resident evil over the phone, Tetsuya picks up the pieces of his impression of his aunt off the floor and learns to live with it.

He observes his new guardians, as well. They don't seem to be working desk jobs, with how they dress and and the strange schedules. Sometimes when Tetsuya couldn't sleep he could hear Hotaru-san stumbling in through the front door at 4 am, or leaving the house at 8pm for work. The schedule seems to be mostly fixed, but sometimes they get a call and then either one or both would be gone for the rest of the day, and the next morning Tetsuya would find them looking a strange kind of wreaked- like tired, but not stressed.

(The new neighbourhood is nowhere near as paranormally active as the area they used to patrol, so most nights left both of them itching for a fight. It feels like a guilty pleasure to request for more special missions to be thrown their way when they're supposed to be taking care of a kid, but when the adrenaline hits, no one complains.

They really should talk to Tetsuya before he stumbles upon them back from patrol and decked out in full gear and assumes they're like the yakuza or something. But how exactly does one tell their hastily acquired ward that they're magical secret agents?)

Hotaru-san, having grew up in a foreign country, sometimes instinctively speaks in English And Mafuyu-san would do the same in turn. His English have passively improved as a result, to the point where sometimes he'd be able to chip in their conversations naturally.

He also learns that Mafuyu-san is no where near as stoic as he appears. His mother was right. His face has the emotional range of a teaspoon and it ranges from blank-faced, to various kinds of frowns, to some kind of weird twisty thing he does with his face. When in fact, inside, the man is just so awkward it pains him to watch. Hotaru-san takes joy in teasing reactions out of him, and imagine the shock that Tetsuya feels when she manages to wrangle not only a blush, but a full blown splutter from her husband. Even though by then Tetsuya has long since(very reluctantly) learned that the stoic man is helplessly, unsalvageably whipped for his wife. It's still hard to watch.

Sometimes being with them reminds him of his mother, the time he spent with her and the time he never got to spend with her, and Tetsuya feels like crying all over again.

Hotaru-san also have tattoos, apparently. He'd stumbled upon her in a sleeveless top sometime late at night and saw the scrawl of foreign letters, patterns and a pair of wings on her back, neon blue eyes blinking owlishly back at him as she was taping her ankle up with bandages. He offered to help, but she'd refused, saying that procedures with her is a little different from regular sports. Tetsuya'd shrugged, and afterwards she'd made them both a nice mug of herbal tea before shooing him off to sleep.

(Lysandra breaths a sigh of relief as he leaves, and drops the glamour over the gun she'd just taken apart to clean. The boy has zero presence, that was too close.

She moves her fingers like they have strings on them, and a washcloth flies across the room and into her hand. Of all things she misses from before, it's the convenience of not needing to get off the couch to fetch anything. Sometimes, magic is amazing.)

He briefly wonders if his mother's side of the family are actually yakuza, with the amount of kimonos he recall seeing at the funeral as well as the frivolous spending they allow him, but dismisses the idea as it seemed a little... far fetched.

He keeps playing basketball, mostly alone, sometimes on their day offs, with his aunt and uncle. Both Tetsuya and Hotaru-san sort of suck at one on one, but Mafuyu-san, who is built like a martini glass and has hands like Murasakibara, picks it up easily enough. Neither of them takes it as seriously as him, they both have work and other interests, but they treat it with a careful sort of fascination and respect.

And its fun.

Kuroko wakes to the aroma of fresh bread from the oven, and instantly know that Hotaru-san is cooking.

His aunt, having grown up in a cafe, makes the best food in the house. Mafuyu-san isn't bad either, and Tetsuya is still very proud of his boiled eggs but when you have heaven on a plate next to a pleasant bowl of Kitsune udon or a mean boiled egg there really isn't much competition.

"Morning, Tetsu-kun." Hotaru-san greets as she tosses the coffee beans she's toasting. There are several machines running simultaneously in the kitchen, and everything smells like heaven, but such is the skills of someone who used to work in a cafe. His uncle is sitting cross legged in the living area, flipping through something on his ipad in what he usually wears to work.

"Morning, Hotaru-san." He greets. Something dings, and Hotaru-san glides around the kitchen with the grace of ten ballerinas as she kicks open the oven door and spreads out the toasted coffee beans on a tray, then turns off one stove just to check another's temperature. Something starts sizzling afterwards, just as a tray of fresh brioche is taken out and set on the kitchen island. Tetsuya would offer to help, but he gets a strong feeling that he's just going to get in her way.

"Breakfast will be ready in 5," she starts running the coffee machine as she says over the area, Tetsuya settles onto one of the couches, and glances up at the television, turned on with its volume lowered on the news channel, "there's also something your uncle and I have been meaning to tell you, do you have any plans?" He looks up, surprised, then shakes his head, "Good, um, it's going to be a little... shocking."

Next to him, his uncle snorts, Hotaru-san rolls her eyes in response, muttering something he couldn't quite hear, so with nothing else to do, Tetsuya turns his attention back towards the news, something about violent animal attacks in Saitama. Mafuyu-san sets his tablet down onto the coffee table, then leans back with a sigh.

"That's where we're headed later, right?" His uncle asks, glancing towards his wife, now frying up some tamagoyaki.

"Yep," She almost drawls, and Tetsuya listens in out of curiosity, "animal attacks is a pretty typical cover story, works 80% of the time, and they'd have a reason to close off the area to the public before they send us in. We will be working with mum's old department, too, so its going to be familiar faces."

"Oh, they're a decent lot, knows not to look where they shouldn't." His uncle seems pleasantly surprised, "Anything else?"

"Fire." She hums in English.

"Yes, ma'm."

He understood every single word that was being said, but Tetsuya couldn't help feeling like they were speaking in code or something. This is the first time he's heard them talk about work out in the open, and he's never been so confused. It sounds official and a little dangerous, but their tone is almost... bored.

Breakfast is delicious as always, Hotaru-san even made him a vanilla milkshake, topped with chocolate sticks and whipped cream, the food is a mixture of western and Japanese, they have rice, fish and tamagoyaki, but also a helping of bacon, slices of avocados and tomatoes, several brioche buns, and some fruits in a bowl. Mafuyu-san is drinking a mug of coffee so packed with milk and sugar and chocolate sauce it didn't even look like coffee anymore, while Hotaru-san is elegantly sipping a black. Certainly exceeding expectations.

The servings are larger than what he's used to back home, but with three athletic people in the same household having too much food is the last thing one should worry about. Hotaru-san is shorter than he is, just around 150, but he's seen the muscles beneath those baggy jackets and cardigan she drapes over herself all the time- there are very few things he would not face before a kick from that woman, and it is not a very long list. Not to mention Mafuyu-san, who is again, built like a martini glass. Tetsuya is fairly certain either can burst a watermelon without tools for assistance- one with her legs and the other with his arms.

Breakfast in this apartment is quiet, not much quieter than back home, but the three of them seldom have common topics to talk about. His aunt and uncle seems to realise that he's reluctant to chat about basketball for now, and he doesn't know enough about his new guardians to know what to talk about. Most of the conversation that does happen revolves around the food, which leads to Hotaru-san's family cafe. Or about books, which sometimes, Tetsuya would chime in.

He ends up munching on a delicately crafted apple bunny as Hotaru-san clears part of the table, and doesn't move to put away the rest of the plates. Instead, she stacks them to the side, and the couple sits across him, still stirring their drinks as they share looks that almost looks... nervous.

"Mafuyu and I have been meaning to talk to you about our work." Hotaru-san opens the conversation, looking a little skittish, expression edging on grave. "It's... something that's going to impact your life to varying degrees, depending on how deep you want to be involved." She seems very hesitant, and his uncle glance up at his wife, there's something unreadable in his eyes as he reaches out and clasps over her hand in encouragement before he opens his mouth.

"This also concerns your mother, and her family-" Mafuyu-san speaks up, setting his mug aside, "our, family. Since we has been involved with the job for years."

Tetsuya blinks at the wording, processes it for a few seconds, and then frowns.

"Are you two yakuza?"

The couple blinks at him incredulously for several seconds, before his uncle groans into his hands and Hotaru-san burst into laughter, clearing the room of tension.

They're not Yakuza. They're magical secret agents, and Tetsuya feels like nothing is real anymore as he watches with fascination as his aunt summon lightning to her fingertips, grows a pair of enormous black wings, and his uncle make a weird floating globe of ice with his bare hands. The ice is now slowly and pathetically melting in the sink because apparently, he can't just make it vanish.

They tell him about a magical side of the government, dedicated to monitoring paranormal activities, about ghosts, lingering memories that sometimes get confused and strong enough that they hurt people. And their job, to patrol and prevent these things from getting strong enough to hurt others, or hunt down the ones that are hurting people already.

"That's about all, for now," Hotaru-san sips on her black coffee, she grimaces at the lukewarm liquid, but Tetsuya's eyes are glued to her back- the black wings are very distracting, "your mother was a sorceress too. She just left. You likely have magic, it's just dormant since Haruka haven't actively used hers." A pause, " the moment you start contacting denser magic, or live around frequent users like Mafuyu and I, it's only a matter of time before you start seeing ghosts as well."

Tetsuya finds a weird kind of irony that after all this time of being mistaken as a ghost, he's now getting to see ghosts. But he couldn't quite pin point why it is ironic, or why it's sort of funny.

"And that presents a new kind of danger." His uncle states. "Being able to interact with the paranormal means they will in turn be able to hurt you. While this neighbourhood is relatively safe, magic users tends to affect the area around them and attract paranormal activities. Have you heard of the broken window theory?"

Tetsuya nods and his aunt takes the explaination, "It's not the same, but the metaphor translates. Once a sorcerer shows up in an area, the magic in in will increase and become denser. Denser magic increases the probability of the formation of ghosts, as well as attracts other magical creatures and beings. People living long term in dense areas also have a higher probability of developing magical abilities, thus encouraging the use of magic to defend against them, until the magic in the area reaches the highest available density, which varies with different places, and the situation reaches stalemate."

"Your mother is smart in that this particular area has a low threshold. Even if the two of us were to live here, not much would change outside of the apartment itself," his uncle's voice seems to lower when he talks about his mother, "this apartment complex is also heavily warded, we did the wards ourselves, so its safe."

"Then, what does this change?" Tetsuya asks, this feels like the most suitable question to ask. What changes? "Do I have to learn magic now? Or do I have to apply for a different school?"

"No- none of that, not unless you want to." Hotaru-san hurriedly clarifies, she doesn't sound particularly enthusiastic about the latter, either. "Right now you would be considered someone who is 'in the know', but not a official member of the society, but I'll get you registered the moment you develop sight. This won't change your citizenship or anything, it's just a label that helps with identification. You still get to play basketball as you like, grow up and live a normal life. You just have to be a little more careful while travelling."

"You can also choose to learn sorcery," his uncle says, but his tone sounds as though he would much rather he doesn't, "Hotaru is an Instructor at the Association, outside of our jobs as specialised response units and the patrols. So if you do want to learn you have the best right here."

Tetsuya's eyes trail back towards his aunt, curious, she frowns at the compliment, "I teach advanced combat for specialised patrols, not self defence." She protests, "I can get him some enhancements so if a ghoul finds him he doesn't die, but those counts as bodily modification. It will get him disqualified from any official sports competition."

What? He stares as he heard, looking for an explanation, and his uncle sighs. "Both your aunt and I, as combatants, have tattoos of certain spells on us that gives us physical advantages, like enhanced healing, strength, and durability. Your aunt got wings on top of that, since she also fights aerially. But while they can be taken off, once you get it on you its not an easy process."

"There's a hidden set of rules specifically designed against sorcerers in almost anything, that's what the Association is in charge of, and why we have this registration system," his aunt explains, "we have certain immunity as well as added conditions in laws, and in other places, we get more specific regulations. That includes competitive sports. There's a lot of rules against aquired bodily enhancements. Which is why we have to discuss this with you, just in case you wanted to learn."

"I don't mind learning," Tetsuya says, after a beat of silence, "but I also love basketball, and I want to play in games."

His aunt sighs, "that narrows things down," she nods, "you'll likely start sensing things soon, tell us when you do. We'll get you something after that."

She stands up then, and the wings behind her flexes before vanishing into her back. She then flicks her wrist, and a plate from the table shoots into her hand like a magnet, which she tosses over her shoulder, and it flies through the air and glides into the dish washer on its own. The rest follows suit before the door slams shut, and Hotaru-san, who has walked over to the kitchen sink to wash her hands, turns the machine on and sighs.

"I missed doing that so much." She says with so much relief in her voice, and his uncle barks a laugh.

Life goes through a weird shift after that.

Which is understandable, in the wake of life changing information. Tetsuya starts running into them after work, often with weapons as they enter the apartment through every single opening except the front door. Hotaru-san seems to enjoy swinging into rooms through the windows out of nowhere, while Mafuyu-san could climb up the balcony, two katanas hanging from his back. Hotaru-san starts gardening with magic involved, and he walks into the living room one day just to see her making a pot of vines help her water, before he speaks up and his aunt squawks and jumps high enough that she almost fell right off the edge just to be caught by the vines. Things flying through the air becomes the norm, as well. And sometimes he feels robbed because being able to grab things from across the room without moving from the couch should be illegal.

And true to their prediction, he does gain what they call 'Sight' soon. He starts noticing strange lights, small scatters of what looks like multi coloured fireflies in parks, glowing moths and butterflies that linger around the alleyways near the nursing home his grandmother now lives in. He still haven't seen an actual ghost yet, but Hotaru-san gets him registered still, and gives him a simple charm to keep on his person, just to keep him safe.

"It's not going to save you if a ghoul starts clawing at your back," she says as she presses the small metal tag on a black cord into his hand, it looks nothing like a protective charm, and more like a random necklace, "but they're more likely to ignore you when you have this. Your misdirection should also work for the most part, but do note that most ghosts don't only rely on sight."

"I still don't know what ghosts look like." Tetsuya deadpans.

His aunt grimaces like one thinking about a bad memory, "You'll recognise one when you see one." She says instead.

She then takes out a pouch of coins and set them on the table. "These are armillary coins," she picks one up, and presses a finger into its side- it slides apart and unfolds into a contraption of circles and small gears, and orbit on their own until they fold back down into a flat surface, "they're like... compact spells. These ones I custom made as a sort of smoke screen- they activate when you charge them, and only works against ghosts."

She spends that afternoon teaching him how to charge a coin, teaching him how to pull the dormant power in him. He writes symbols onto a paper for hours until he feels the words seemingly start burning without heat when he touches them. He picks up a coin, feeling a strange warmth in his palms, and it unfolds into rings of metal and gears and starts spinning in his palm. He pokes it, and Hotaru-san laughs when it flies out of control and into the back of his uncle's head.

"So," she smiles at the curiosity on his face fondly, "want to learn the grabbing things thing?"

He rips his eyes away from the 5th coin he managed to make levitate, he has never wanted to learn something so badly, outside of basketball, "please."

Turns out the variation of the skill he will be able to use is one that only works on items that are already imbued with a set of runes, which means he'll only be able to use it on either his belongings or in the house. Tetsuya also knocks over a number of plants, breaks at least 4 glasses and 2 windows while attempting to master the skill. But it is absolutely worth it.

On another note, life changing information tends to also shift your schedule a little.

With a something new that's he's unsure of how to approach yet just added to his worldview, Tetsuya finds grief... not easier to manage, but easier to breath with. He doesn't cry anymore, though nightmares still happen every now and then. Screeching tires and the crunch of glass which his mind seemed determined to cook up as a reminder. His sleep schedule is still messed up, but his habit of consistent exercising keeps it in check.

He also slowly begins to realise exactly why his new guardians were hesitant in bringing him into the secret, when they stopped hiding as much around him. Of course, his lack of presence also means he accidentally walks into a number of work discussions, most of them late at night- such is the night when he actually catches his aunt without glamour.

She's standing by the dining table, dressed for work but without the jacket, which is hanging from a chair by his side, and doesn't seem to have noticed him, there's a box on it, and she's currently dabbing a picece of cotton onto a gash on her arm, there is a very faint smell of iron in the air, next to her is a katana, stained with something black and clearly not from a human, set over a towel on the tabletop. Halfway through, she sets the cotton down and walks around the table, turns with her back facing him and Tetsuya sucks in a breath so violently he could choke.

His aunt's entire back, outside of the tattooed wings, is covered entirely with scars. A large gash that runs from her shoulder to lower back, a multitude of something small and circular on her shoulder a large lightened and rough patch that seemed to hug her side and stretched with her movements. A lot of them doesn't look like they came from humans, but those that do aren't small in number either. And Tetsuya doesn't know which ones he should be more worried about.

He takes a step forwards, not making a single sound, but Hotaru-san notices him, and whirls around, hand shooting right towards the weapon on the table, before she catches sight of him and slumps. Her hand leaving the weapon to clasp over the wound on her forearm.

"Tetsuya," she greets, "sorry, I'm a little on edge. Just got back from a case." She turns around and , and Tetsuya tentatively walks into the living area, eyes still on the gash on his aunt's arm. She seems to realise what he's looking at, and shifts a little. "Do you mind fetching the black powder from the drawer?" She gestures a shelf across the room, "third row, it should be in a red bottle."

He doesn't reply, but gets her what she needs anyways. She takes it with a nod in gratitude, before applying an even coat over the wound. It sizzles a little, and her brows twists with discomfort, before she swipes a finger over a few of the tattooed lines on her forearm, which glows white and the wound begins to stitch itself together. His aunt sighs and slumps into a chair, setting the bottle of powder down with a small clink.

"Are you okay?" Tetsuya decides to ask, and she glances up. "It looked deep."

"I've had much worse." She shakes her head as she begins to pack away the tools she was using, and Tetsuya couldn;t help glancing at the scars, only to see that they're gone. Her glamour is back up. "This just didn't heal because the cleaning wasn't done right. Ghoul claws stop any forms of healing, natural or otherwise. I didn't notice until I got back."

"You have a lot of scars." He states. Hoping for an answer.

There is a beat of silence. "We have a dangerous job." She finally says. "Don't go looking for ghosts."

Tetsuya takes her advice.

But one finds him anyways, after a visit to his grandmother, and he knows it's a ghost the moment he saw it.

The man curled up in the corner of the alleyway is bloodied and broken in a way he couldn't describe. He's opaque, his clothes are those of a normal, everyday person, the kind you'd expect to see on the streets after school, but the shirt is ripped in places and bloodied in others. His hair is matted with something dark and damp, one side caved in and something white seems to move inside of it, and his shoulders does not rise and fall with breaths. He is entirely still and unmoving as he stared straight up at a certain window, a mantra of something streaming from his mouth that Tetsuya couldn't catch.

Something red and white falls out of his head and spatters against the pavement. Tetsuya turns away and speed walks the rest of the way home he tells his uncle about the ghost over dinner, and he calls Hotaru-san to deal with it. The ghost is gone the next time he passes the area.

(He doesn't realise that he just called the apartment home.)

Tetsuya keeps playing basketball, the court near the apartment complex becomes a place he frequents. His therapist says its good for him, and he thinks he agrees. He's not finding the same joy that he used to, playing alone, but its fun again, and the touch of the ball doesn't make his stomach turn anymore. His guardians still play with him, on their days off, and they seem quite impressed with his passing ability.

"That takes a lot of strength, doesn't it?" His aunt comments as she weighs the ball in her hand, it slips out all too easily, and she scrambles to catch it before it falls. "And grip." She adds.

"You just have small hands." Tetsuya replies.

"She ripped a head off with those small hands yesterday." Mafuyu-san comments, and Tetsuya sends Hotaru-san an incredulous look. She coughs and looks away.

Ever since he developed sight, the couple is a lot more careful with letting him out alone. They don't exactly give him a curfew, but they do ask him to text if the area he's headed for is far enough to warrant public transport, or to at least let them know when to expect him home. They go with him, sometimes, Hotaru-san would offer to drive him with her motorbike, though if he asked to be alone they give him the space.

They got him clothes from their workplace for his safety. It's an outdated uniform, but has enough protections on it that it keeps him safe. He doesn't think much of it until a ghost comes running out of an alleyway and tries to grab him by the collar, screaming nonsense with half a jaw and charred uneven fingers. It gets blasted right back where it came from the moment its finger grazes his shirt, and Tetsuya runs away, shaking as he calls his aunt, who drops out of a fire escape and walks him home to her husband before personally dealing with the ghost.

He keeps at least one of those on his person after that, and when Hotaru-san asks if he wants to learn a protective charm or two, he doesn't hesitate before agreeing.

Thoughts of his parents haunt him at the most random times, sometimes.

It could be the middle of the night, or just while going to the groceries. Sometimes a large enough truck drives past and he stares for a few moments longer than he should, and his mind attempts to conjure images of his parents dead bodies, now that he knows how dead bodies look like. His reactions varies too, sometimes it glides off like rain on a wind blocker, but sometimes it soaks in like cotton. Others send his mood into a pit the rest of the day, and he doesn't talk to anyone at all.

His therapist suggests he find friends to talk to, outside of his aunt and uncle. And with a burst of courage he doesn't even know how he acquired, he managed to find Ogiwara-kun again. Their conversation afterwards leaves Tetsuya with a heavy heart, and he spends the rest of the day staring at his pinned contacts, the generation of miracles, thumb hovering over the screen as thoughts waged war in his mind.

A knock, and Tetsuya startles out of his thoughts. "Tetsu-kun?" Hotaru-san's voice drifts in faintly though the door. "Dinner is ready, you want to come downstairs?"

"Ah, hai!" He tucks his phone away. And tries his best to take his mind away from his friends.

When he head downstairs, there are several sports magazines on the coffee table. Some of them open, others still in the packaging. His heart sinks when he spots the distinct brilliant yellow of Kise-kun's hair peeking out in the 'read' stack of magazines.

It's a Wednesday night, so both his aunt and uncle are dressed for work Hotaru-san having just returned from it, and Mafuyu-san with a patrol soon. His aunt's long jacket and gloves tossed over the back of the couch, his uncle is reading some information on his tablet, "don't work at meal times," his aunt reminds from the kitchen, and his uncle puts the tablet away, she looks up, and catches him descending the stairs, "ah, Tetsu-kun." She smiles. After almost three months, his lack of presence is starting to wear off on them. "I got you a vanilla shake from the place you like on the way back- then I saw some basketball magazines and since you've been playing a lot more lately, I got some." She nods toward the coffee table, "hope you don't mind."

He does mind, just a little, but he also knows she means well, so he doesn't say anything. "Thank you," he walks into the kitchen and takes the milkshake from his aunt, "what's for dinner?"

"Karaage and gyoza," she replies as she hands him a plate to bring to the table, the air smells a little greasy, in a good way, "I baked some vegetables, too. Get your uncle his coffee, will you? He's got a long night ahead."

Tetsuya nods and helps with setting the table, and they dig in almost immediately after. The food is as usual, amazing, but there's a tension in him that just refused to leave, dreading the inevitable question.

"I read some of the magazines," his aunt starts. Here it comes, "its quite amazing, to be compared with NBA players as middle school students. The Generation of Miracles? They called them?" Tetsuya doesn't look up from his meal, "you said you did play in games as a starter. What were they like?"

"They're prodigies, without a doubt." He answers, he knows she wants him to talk more about his time with them, and how they are as friends, but he doesn't feel like talking about it. "None of us are going to the same school, though. So we'll be competing against eachother in highschool."

"Oh," his aunt blinks, "wouldn't that be strange? Or hard? To play against your former teammates."

He thinks about it for a moment, "no," and the answer comes out easier than he thought. Akashi-kun already made them promise not to go to the same school before, so they all knew they would be competing, but now that he really thinks about it, an idea surfaces in his mind. "No, I'm going to beat them."

His aunt seems to sense that something seems off with the mood, and closes the topic without another word about basketball.

Ogiwara-kun is right. Tetsuya just needs to beat them, and show them that their basketball was wrong, then maybe, maybe. Everything will turn out okay, and they can all play basketball like before again.

A/N

The book Lysandra showed Kuroko was Naomi, or Chijin no Ai, by Tanizaki. Look it up, you'll see why Kuroko stayed the fuck away from that shelf.

Honestly I would react pretty similarly if my aunt just went and sprouted wings.

I'll post more updates after I get off my flight. in 11 hours, probably. meh.