She is messy but she's kind
She is lonely most of the time
She is all of this mixed up
And baked in a beautiful pie

She is gone but she used to be mine

She lived before the age of phones- mobile or otherwise, so of course most evidence of her existence remains within the many letters she have sent and recieved, Lysandra doesn't know whether to be grateful or envious. Grateful that she still has pieces of her to hold, and envy for who these pieces are meant for, containing facades of her she would never know while hers are lost to the lack of records kept.

She shouldn't be, when she already has so much. But when one is grieving, it is never enough.

[...]while I would classify myself as unassociated, the act of creating Constella should buy me enough credit to speak upon the matter, though I have long since left it— the modern form of SSRA relies upon the outsourcing and borrowing of work and talents of communities, mostly via interconnected hubs much like the Vertical Crossroad home to the Vineyards' academia, Constella's information intelligence, Karasumas' combatants and the Lakotadam folks' trades.

The SSRA outsources their work, and allow for talents that wouldn't have thrived in their original communities access to experience, work and a future without taking away their identity as one of their community. Community politics however, persists, as it have before SSRA was founded. The Yokai's preference for the Nanakasa and subsequently, Karasuma made things rather tense as of late— their folks never liked me, depts are often treated with despise, after all.

Excerpts from the exchanged letters of Jemisha Almassy and Unnamed local Chief of Police, dated 1916, location unknown

"Madam!" The man in front of her puts on a shaky smile, his eyes dart down towards her badge, indicating her rank, and gulps. Lysandra shakes her head inwardly. The man is young, in his early twenties perhaps. Kitahara Sosuke, a contact, according to his file, Lysandra glance towards the glasses he's wearing- he not-sighted, not a sorcerer- then towards the campus behind him, and grimaces.Kaijou high, judging by the look of what she can see alone, its grounds seems hardly something someone could handle alone, let alone by one Secretary Knowledge and skill have their limits, without sight there are just some things that end up being more time consuming than what is convenient. She looks back towards the man, who shifts uncomfortably in front of her, and sigh. "No need to be so nervous," she shakes her head, handing him her identifications for due process, which upon seeing, he only grew paler, Lysandra decides to ignore that, and continues, "I'm only here for a routine check up. We were short of hands, and I live close by- so the director sent me." The last one is a lie, but he didn't need to know that. She turns around and looks towards the walls lining the gates instead. "How are the wards?"

"Perfect condition, Esmeray-kakka" Kitahara answers, albeit a bit too quickly, the use of her code name cause Lysandra to raise a brow, so he must've heard of her before, then after a beat of silence, he hastily added, "to my knowledge. Of course. I... ah, Kaijou's campus is big. And even though I'm a TA and my workload is, no where near some of my colleagues, this is-"

(A/N: -kakka is a honorific used for non-royalty, high ranking governmental officials as well as generals.)

Lysandra shakes her head, "I'm honestly confused. Are you the only one assigned here?" He nods. Lysandra heaves a sigh. Anthea has her work cut out for her. "I'll make a note in the report, now, mind if you take me around the check points?"

When Tetsuya requested for her to check on one of his old teammates, Lysandra was glad. Tetsuya is an independent child, and never shared much with her. While he trusted her enough to cry on his shoulder while grieving, the boy had never confided in her nor Mafuyu much. But Lysandra had been his age once, so she understands the feeling. But at the very least, with matters regarding magic, Lysandra would much rather he come to her. But...

"What do you mean," she frowned, "that it felt violent?"

Tetsuya blinked up towards her, "something about the magic felt violent." He repeated himself. "It's like, feeling my own magic. But on Kise-kun, it's... clinging to him."

Lysandra shifted. When they last got him on file, Tetsuya only tested positive for Sight, but not the other internal affinities. But if he sensed anything... while it wouldn't come as a surprise, since the Nanakasa's are an old family and the Aura aligned magics are common in them. It wouldn't come as a surprise if he does have Echo.

She pursed her lips, her mentor had Echo, as does Anthea and Elias it's a difficult talent to manage. A Ripple requires the sorcerer to set it off, meanwhile an Echo is heard no matter what. Her mentor had a better time due to her... nature. But she remembered exactly how taxing it was for her teammates, years back magic is basically energy, with emotions. And when she first met them, having unfiltered, enhanced senses for it left their emotions in ruins.

She had contacted Anthea soon after regarding the situation, arranging Tetsuya for a new testing and volunteered to take up the check up for Kaijou. She may not specialise in the area, but her expertise in runes is a known fact amongst most of the Association most importantly, she also have the qualifications. It's still early enough now, and by the time check up ends, it would likely be around the time Tetsuya and his team arrives for the practice match. She'd be able to catch it in time then.

Going through the grounds revealed no more problems than she expected. Nothing major, and to some extent she is honestly impressed with Kitahara, the man has kept record on each individual wards and recorded any anomaly. Which he all had reported— according to him as well as the records of the correspondence he has. Which makes the fact that none of the files Lysandra received on Kaijou's current situation not having any of the reports recorded a problem. She's starting to pity Anthea, at this rate, the entire current staff is looking at an upheaval.

"And done," Lysandra straightens, and dust her knees off from the dirt, and flicks away the dust at the back of her tablet, grimacing, "that's all 12. Now we're only missing the back ups."

"Yes, Esmeray-kakka." Kitahara nods. "We, well, I store the backups near the school gyms, as its close to two of the locations that I'm more concerned about. But..." he glances towards his watch as they began making their way towards the main pathway, when they were interrupted by a blond figure pushing right past them. Kitahara stumbles, and Lysandra blinks. "Oi, Kise!" The man protests, calling after the teen disapprovingly. He doesn't seem to hear them, however, and runs straight up towards a group of students in familiar uniforms not to far away... ah.

"Sorry about him, that boy is..." Kitahara doesn't continue his sentence, and instead turns towards Kise Ryota, beginning to make his way over as he attempts to catch his attention. "Kise!" He calls out as Lysandra trails behind him, watching with curiosity.

Kise Ryota is talking to one of Tetsuya's classmates- the one with the whisp, when Kitahara finally catches his attention. One of the teens taps him on the shoulder and points vaguely in their direction, after which the blond looks over and scratches the back of his head sheepishly. They step onto the main road, Lysandra trailing after the younger man. "Ah, Kitahara-Sensei." The boy chuckles. "sorry."

Kitahara sighs, the annoyance leaking out of him just as Lysandra comes to a stop behind him. Tetsuya catches her eyes, blinking in slight surprise. "Just be careful where you're running, next time," the TA says sternly, "what if we were holding something important?" The man glances back towards her, and bows. "My apologies, ma'am- ah," he glances down towards his watch. And Lysandra belatedly recalls that the man mentioned that he had a meeting just around... she glances towards the time, right now.

"Just let me know where the backups are and I'll check on them myself." Lysandra waves her hand, and the TA slumps in relief. "North of campus, correct? Which gym?"

"Gym five- the basketball one. It's in the general office upstairs. The drawers are all marked so just ask the storage manager for my section." Kitahara replies- his expression is getting a little strained again as he glances towards his watch again. "My sincerest apologies, Esmeray-kakka-" Lysandra blinks at the address, a little further ahead, Tetsuya turns away, he is laughing that boy is definitely laughing- "but I really must leave." He turns and catches sight of Kise. "Kise-kun, do you mind leading Esmeray-kakka to gym five?"

The teen blinks, "oh! We're headed there anyways, so uh, of course." He glances in her direction, and Lysandra inwardly winces as she notices the stiffness the honorific isn't, wrong, persay, her rank within the Association is equal to that of a general. Administratively, however, lot of her titles aren't official, so there has always been some debate in how she is to be referred officially technically her only official title is Lady Nanakasa, but that on its own is another can of worms.

Most of the teens are now regarding her with a sort of unnatural rigidity in their posture- except for Tetsuya, of course, and Lysandra can feel the exasperation rise- at least she has given everyone here one extra fun story to share at parties. Kitahara turns towards her with one last dip of his head and apology, then hurried away with them staring after him. As he finally turns a corner and out of sight, Lysandra pinches the bridge of her nose, and heaves a sigh.

"Sorry for the inconvenience," she starts first, knowing full well no one else is going to discreetly, she meets her nephew's eyes, "you all are headed for gym five, correct? I'll just follow along. I'll hate to disrupt your prior plans- so, please, don't mind me."

She doesn't talk to Tetsuya, on their way over, keeping mostly to herself as she trails slightly behind the group. Her nephew glances at her direction several times, but she only shakes her head. Work is work, and she has other reasons for taking up Kaijou high's wards. The campus is large enough and close enough that she can set up a ward for the entire neighbourhood just by setting runes in its grounds. She had to get permission for it, of course, and now she's just scouting. But with how things look like at this school she is not adding any wards untill they get Kitahara a few more colleagues and a raise.

Checking the backups was a quick thing, as well as the last thing she has to do. She sends a quick message to Kitahara as a final report, as well as a copy of her accessment to Anthea, and leaves the storage room, it doesn't look like the game is starting just yet, since the court beneath is divided in half. Her nephew's team are discussing with a large man- the coach, probably, and the looks on their faces are growing more and more annoyed by the second. Lysandra glances towards the divider, and frowns.

She gestures at one of the Kaijou's team members- who blinks at her appearance before approaching her. "What's going on over there?" She asks, tilting her head to point over at where the Seirin team stands. The teen blinks, looks over, and huffs.

"Oh, the coach wanted to have the second and third string members today, so we're playing half court the rest of us are going to be practicing as usual," he glances at her again, "who are you, anyways?"

Oh, Tetsuya would not like that. Lysandra hums, and taps at her pin, fishing her card from her pocket. Whatever information on it would be complete nonsense to anyone who isn't in the know but the name SSRA is always enough to either answer enough or keep people from asking anything in the first place. The teen looks at her card, stiffens then walks away, rejoining his teammates.

Lysandra moves up to the second floor to catch a better view as soon as Seirin leaves to change in the locker rooms, removing her coat as to keep attention away from herself- she puts on a glamour just in case, leaning over the railing to observe. This is the first time she's watching Tetsuya play in a game, and while she has some degree of understanding of how he plays, she is still quite interested.

From what it looks like, the Kaijou team members are definitely stonger- faster, too, by quite a bit, the redhead Kagami Taiga, is the only one on the same playing field physically though he's likely quite a bit ahead of most of everyone else on field. Skill-wise, however, Lysandra wouldn't know. She doesn't know how well her knowledge would translate into sports, there are some glaringly obvious difference between running for your life and running while dribbling a ball, after all.

Before tip off, Tetsuya catches her eyes, and nods. Lysandra blinks he's planning something. That's his 'I'm planning something even though I don't look like it face', this might be interesting. Less than a minute later Kagami Taiga tears the hoop right from the board and forces Kaijou to open up the full court, his ghost cackles with shrill, pleased laughter, and Lysandra isn't even the slightest bit surprised.

More people begin to gather around her as they prepare to open the court, most of them being the majority of the Kaijou basketball club that didn't fit on the benches beneath to her surprise, Kagami's whisp as well. She is perched right next to her on the railing, swinging her legs as she watches her charge... her son, from how her signature feels. Lysandra feels her heart squeeze before she looks away, her eyes flicking over to some of the new members on the court particularly Kise Ryota.

Silently, she sends out a Ripple. She feels the warmth of her blood tremble at her call and ripple out like a wave, washing over the crowd around her. Their signatures respond, quietly carrying back the information around her. From the crowd of noise she picks out the blond teen's, eyes closed as she attempts to discern the energy in him.

It's faint, for her, but that is to be expected. As a Bloodline manifestation the talent is naturally more physical than magical. But the fact that she is getting anything at all is enough to raise brows. She can't tell any more than that as she's no professional healer. But while this amount is strange for this particular situation, its not alarming for the teen's wellbeing on its own. So Tetsuya shouldn't have to worry.

At least not for the magical side of things, Lysandra winces when one of the blond's teammates kicks him on the back for getting distracted. Teenagers, she sighs. Her own teenage years was considerably less energetic, the years after her 13th birthday were some of the most difficult times in her life and remains to be so though much thanks to the people around her she wasn't completely devoid of the experience of being a child.

Now, enough dwelling on her past, she has a game to watch.

She can understand why Tetsuya likes basketball so much now, sort of.

Being in the line of work she's in, training for anything perceivably less than survival starts seeming pointless. But... she can see why he likes it. Lysandra spent most of the latter half of the game directly on the bench- she had rushed down when she saw Tetsuya got hit. Most of his teammates gave her weird looks for that, since she didn't bother to explain who she is. But watching the match right at the sidelines is quite different from above. When Tetsuya wanted to be put back into the game, she had protested, but really, his injury was light, and they really couldn't stop him in the end.

It was a extremely tight game and a slim win, rather exciting Lysandra almost got caught up along in the excitement, not that its be a bad thing. And Tetsuya's smile in the end, small as it was, was wonderful to see. Maybe she should consider attending a few more games in the future. Not just for Tetsuya, but rather just to... watch.

From a strategic standpoint Seirin has a good basis. She doesn't know the first thing about gameplay in basketball, but strategy is strategy, and so long as there is offence, defence and support, things translate. Of course each have more things to consider in their own situations- basketball for rules, meanwhile in active combat anything goes- but there's the added 'inconvenience' of people going out of commission via either injuries, or death. She should get Tetsuya into strategy, it'd be good for him.

Lysandra slips out the building, coat hanging around her arm as she once again approach the Seirin basketball club. The coach notices her, and nods.

"Esmeray-san!" She greets, Lysandra had managed to get them to stop with the 'kakka' nonsense. "Thank you for your help with Kuroko-kun during the match, sorry for taking you away from your work." The young coach glances towards Tetsuya, gesturing with her eyes for him to say something.

Right, it seems the both of them have neglected to tell anyone about that. Lysandra makes a small sound of realisation, and just as she's about to clarify, her nephew nods towards her, with far too much formality than she's used to from him. "Thank you, Esmeray-kakka." He says, and looks back up, meeting her eyes.

Oh the little shit. The polite smile on Lysandra's face freezes, anyone else may not be able to read that but she's been living with the boy for months. She knows that look all too well. "Tetsuya," she states, crossing her arms, her smile now too sweet and obviously fake, "call me that again and I am not making you any milkshakes this month."

Her nephew's teammates slowly turn towards him, eyes wide with questions, some shock and confusion, Kagami is now looking between the two of them like a head following a ping pong match. Tetsuya stares back with his pocker face, but it's obvious the threat is working. Eventually, he caves.

"Sorry, Hotaru-san," he coughs into his fist, averting his eyes, and Lysandra nods with satisfaction, "thank you for the bandages." Tetsuya turns back to his slack-jawed teammates, and elaborates. "This is my aunt."

"your-" One of the boys- the captain, she thinks, stutters, looking back and forth between her and Tetsuya. "That's your aunt?!"

The redhead, Kagami, has a look of realisation on his face. Meanwhile the others just look a little shocked. She thinks the way Kitahara addressed her left them a little too much of an impression... and her administrative uniform isn't helping. She glances down at the official garb, she probably looks like some really highly ranked foreign government official of some kind. "Nanakasa Lysandra," she gives them a small wave, "nice to meet you all, well, hope you don't mind me tagging along? You're headed for the clinic, right?"

While Lysandra is confident in her first aid, and she highly doubt she missed anything, not letting Tetsuya go to a checkup at the clinic is likely going to look strange. While the SSRA's reputation precedes them, nothing is public nor known. They wouldn't know what she works with nor how qualified she is. She joins the group by her nephew's side, feeling a little short surrounded by high schoolers a full head taller than her.

Lysandra's thoughts however, cannot stay focused on that. She does remember what she came here for, and while Kise's appearant anomaly is quickly fading like Tetsuya's own likely had been several months prior someone else's who entered mid game, is not. A green haired teen she recognised from the sports journals, Midorima Shintarou. The last name rings a bell- a relative of a contact, perhaps? While Kise's own oddity had been just barely felt even when she used Ripple, his felt like a brush against her alarm bells without even needing the senses to begin with.

The amount of linger on the boy is... not alarming, but odd. He felt like he's only left the place for weeks instead of months. Particularly since the analysis on Teikou grounds have came back cleared for the existence of a conduit. Of course, it can be a difference due to differing constitutions but that would be a difference on the more extreme side.

Perhaps she's just paranoid, but something about this doesn't feel right. Lysandra clench at her badge, the corners of the star dings into her palm as she begins to make her way outside to join her nephew and his team. She almost feels like she's 13 again.

And she never wants to go back.

The cool water running down along his face feels both calming and a distraction from his tears, so he can pretend the soreness and wetness of his eyes are simply from the water, and not himself. It drips down his face into the sink where it gathers and then slips away, never lingering in puddles. He turns the tab off, watching streams turn into droplets slower and slower, until a voice interrupts him.

"The horoscope predicted terrible luck for Geminis today," Ryota looks up to meet the green haired teen- who he haven't seen since middle school may he add- and straightens, "but of course, to think you'd actually lose."

He hadn't expected to see him here Midorimacchi have grown a little taller, from when he last seen the teen. From what he's saying, Ryota can guess that he's not changed, not even a bit. His eyes flick down towards the porcelain toy frog in his hand, fingers immaculately taped and maintained. Yep, not a bit.

"So you saw that, Midorimacchi?" Ryota asks, he hadn't noticed him before the match started. Inwardly however he's a little miffed at his lack of manners. Who parts ways with a friend and drops in to snark about them losing a match before a proper greeting? Rude.

Midorimacchi doesn't seem to catch onto the sentiment, and continues. "Either way, that was an unfortunate match. Even monkeys could've made those dunks, no wonder fate wasn't on your side."

Again, rude. Ryota pouts, if he's not going to be the polite one then he'll do it. "haven't seen you since middle school," he snarks, "nice to see you again, and I see you haven't stopped taping your fingers." He points with his chin, and shifts to stand upright. "Anyways, who cares if its a dunk or not, so long as it goes in?"

Midorimacchi looks up at him at that, looking vaguely annoyed. And isn't he always that way? "That's of course, why you're no good," he harrumphs, "getting the ball in from up close is easy, but distance holds true value. 'Man disposes, God disposes', haven't you heard? Only optimal effort makes you worthy of fate's graces of course." He tosses his a towel, and Ryota catches it, slightly confused at the pep talk. "I always do my best, and always keeps Oha-Asa's daily lucky items on me." He brings up the hand with the toy frog, and Ryota sweat drops. At this point, there is no need to announce it. Everyone who's ever interacted with Midorimacchi probably knows at first glance why he's taking these items with him. "Today's item is a toy frog." The green haired teen adds. "This is why my shots never miss."

Sometimes, he just never understand his friends. Ryota inwardly shakes his head, and decides to ignore everything he just said. "Shouldn't you be talking to Kurokocchi instead?" He raises a brow. "I joined after all of you, and none of you really reacted when he dropped off all of a sudden at end of term. Don't you want to, I dunno, catch up?"

"There's no need," Midorimacchi looks away, there's a confidence on his face that Aominecchi described as 'highly punchable', and Ryota is almost tempted to agree, "B type like myself and A types like him of course never get along. I not only acknowledge his style, even hold respect, but I cannot accept that he would choose to attend a school like Seirin." He scowls, the words comes out with more force than necessary. "I came only because we'll be playing them during the preliminaries. They're not good enough."

His tone lowers enough into a sort of scoff. Ryota thought perhaps he should be able to read more into that, but then they're interrupted by someone ringing a bicycle bell, and someone paddling up towards them in a... rickshaw? He's dressed in the same uniform as Midorimacchi's, so his guess is that's one of his new teammates- who introduces himself via shouting across the distance and calling his green haired friend a bastard.

"You left me alone in the middle of traffic- do you know how embarrassing that was?!" The teen rages- uselessly, Ryota is sure, because he knows Midorimacchi way too well. His ex teammate isn't socially inept. He just doesn't give a single shit. And he is proven correct when Midorimacchi doesn't even acknowledge the guy and instead makes his next statement.

"Well, I just came to watch the match today," the teen stuffs his hands into his pockets, and turns to look back towards Ryota, "but allow me to apologise in advance-" he blinks, Midorimacchi? Apologise? Did the horoscope tell him to do that or something- "there is no way we will lose to Seirin. So regrettably, your revenge will be of course impossible."

Wow, talk about kicking someone when he's down. Ryota almost pouts- but then a flash of blue catches his eyes, and he looks over Midorimacchi's shoulder, where Seirin's team passes by, and Kurokocchi walks along, bandages around his head and looking down towards... the government woman Kitahara-Sensei told him to lead towards the gym?

She's acting too familiar with Kurokocchi, chattering up towards him. Midorimacchi, sensing his gaze, turns around as well, and settles his gaze on Kurokocchi, before shifting towards the woman as well. His reaction, however, is one of alarm.

"Who's that?" He asks, narrowing his eyes. Ryota blinks at his ex teammate, who stares unblinkingly at the woman like she's some kind of criminal. He tilts his head in return, a little confused, and Midorimacchi, still scowling, elaborates. "She wearing SSRA uniform," he says, "very highly ranked ones."

"SSRA?" Ryota blinks, isn't that like Area 51 but with like, ghost? The paranormal part is bullshit but they're like, some kind of police? "Isn't that like, an urban legend or something?" He asks, but Midorimacchi gives him a look and only then does he remember the initial question. "I don't know much? One of my teachers was taking her around the grounds and wanted me to lead her to the gym or something, he called her... Esmeray-Kakka." The foreign name took a bit of time to recall, but thankfully it wasn't a difficult one. "What about it?"

The look on the green-haired teen's face fliped through a myriad of emotions, before he just sighs heavily like he's disappointed in Ryota's intelligence, then turns and begins walking away. "Never mind," he says stiffly, "of course you don't have the tact to read situations like this. I'll see you at Interhigh. Let's go, Takao."

Ryota stares after the teen until he turns a corner and rounds out of sight, a little dumbfounded.

Wow, Midorimacchi actually remembered that guy's name, how long has it been since school started? That's rare.

After a checkin at the clinic that revealed- or rather proved, since Hotaru-san already checked- that his head is fine, they existed the building with coach in front of them and his aunt trailing several steps behind him. Riko-san bounds up in front of the waiting team, and gives them a big thumbs up. "All good!" She cheerfully declares.

Simultaneous sighs of relief sounds from the team, adn everyone seems to slump, finally relaxing. "That's great." Hyuga-senpai says with a smile. Behind him, Kagami's mother's whisp makes a trilling sound from her perch on her son's shoulder. Tetsuya gives a small bow.

"Sorry for making everyone worry." He says politely. His aunt nudges him a little for the apology. He side steps it.

"I didn't know what's happen when you fell over." Izuki-senpai smiles at him, a little behind him, Tsuchida speaks up as well.

"I'm just glad you're okay."

Everyone stews in the relief for a moment, before the afterglow of victory catches up, and with Kogane-senpai starting first, laughter began. "We won!" Everyone started cheering, a myriad of congratulations and pats on the backs, and Tetsuya watches on with a warmth in his heart. He missed this, the rush and this feeling of belonging in a team, everyone's joy at hard work paying off. It just feels... nice.

A hand gently lands on his shoulder, and he glances back to meet his aunt's eyes, smiling up at him. "That's a nice smile," she says quietly so that no one hears, "I'm glad you're happy, and making friends."

His heart tightens, and he almost expects the familiar guilt to seize him again and for this happiness to vanish, but it doesn't, and Tetsuya feels happy, and he feels okay. His aunt was right. The thought of his parents lingers with him, but even so he is happy, he can breath, and he truly feels okay.

They begin making their way around the streets, his aunt masks her presence by lingering behind the group and not participating at all, likely wanting to leave this to themselves instead of stepping in. Chatter begins again, and Captain and Izuki-senpai begins talking about eating out somewhere.

"Something cheap probably, I'm broke." Kogane-senpai cheerfully declares, trailing after the two. Unbeknownst to him a ghost just flew right through his body and started flying is circles around them before settling again on Kagami-kun's shoulder, Tetsuya really has to get used to this.

"Me too," Kagami-kun states after their senpai, and Tetsuya, remembering the current state of his wallet and that allowance day is tomorrow, has a very bad feeling.

"Me too," he says after his classmate, and coach, probably having the same bad feeling as he did, frowns.

"Hold on," she calls, and everyone turns around to look back towards her. "Outside of transportation costs, how much does everyone have right now?"

...

The answer is absolutely not enough. Tetsuya stares down at the few coins they've managed to gather in coach's hand, feeling the misery radiating off some of his teammates and the amusement from his aunt. "Let's go home." Hyuga-senpai deadpans at the coins. And it is at this moment, the amusement that Tetsuya could almost physically feel radiating behind him reaches a peak, and she snorts.

"No, I may not know much about basketball but I can tell you boys worked hard," she slips past his side, picks out her wallet and plops her card- and Tetsuya notes with half dread, half exasperation, that its her black card- atop the coins, "think of it as a thank you from me for the amazing game you all played with Tetsuya today."

she was met with almost a dozen pairs of wide eyes and one deadpan gaze, before their group erupted into cheers and some pleasantries, but with the adrenaline from the game still pumping in their veins really no one stuck to their protests, and it wasn't long before 'Nanakasa-san' becomes 'auntie' and they start their march towards one of the restaurants lining the street.

They end up crowding into a houdai stake house near his house, stuffed into three adjacent booths and loud and rowdy enough to catch the curious gazes of nearby customers. He thinks Kogane-senpai gave a toast to Kagami and him rather loudly with soda at some point, meanwhile his aunt successfully achieves undivided attention from rowdy high schoolers when she gets hooked into a arm wrestling contest of some kind and demolishes Tsuchida-kun. and the woman, confident as she is, he's known her long enough to know that she is, in her most natural state, an introvert, but Tetsuya has no qualms with seeing her suffer. Eventually everything got so chaotic he really couldn't keep track, and it's starting to get a little stuffy.

When everyone was starting to finish up and started chatting to eachother, some still hounding his aunt for questions of... whatever they're talking about, he slips away from the crowd, and slinks off with his lack of presence to head outside for some air- his aunt notices him of course, she catches his eye before he left with concern, and Tetsuya gives her a nod to assure before he leaves.

The door swings shut behind him, and Tetsuya breaths a sigh- only to glance up, catching the blond hair of Kise-kun, seated leaning against the railing, now dressed fashionably in Kaijou's gray uniform- looking every bit like the model he is. "Kise-kun?" He asks, and frowns. The odd feeling of something that Kise-kun was almost radiating has lightened quite a lot, did Hotaru-san do something? His ex teammates smiles at him, and waves.

"You got a minute?" He asks, straightening from his position, and Tetsuya contemplates, and caves.

"Alright."

They start down a path Tetsuya is familiar with, leading down along the side of a park, twilight is approaching, and some of the streetlights are beginning to flicker on. Perhaps its the paranoia that his new guardians' work have instilled in him, but as they stray further and further away from the area he lives in, he's starts glanceing around the alleyways, just in case.

"It's been a while since we last spoke like this," Kise-kun's voice draws his eyes back towards the teen, who's now somehow holding a basketball, "how's your injury?"

"Hotaru-san looked it over, and we had it checked out at the clinic," Tetsuya replies as they take a turn into a small clearing in the park, where Kise-kun dropped his bag and starts making his way over to the bench, "I'm fine."

"First name? So she is someone you know," Kise-kun hums, sitting down on the back on the bench as he faces his properly. "Guess what? I saw Midorimacchi today." Tetsuya blinks, making a noise of surprise. "He said something weird when he saw that woman's uniform, but if you know her then it's fine."

He didn't expect that, but if he remembers right, Midorima-kun's parents are doctors, right? From what he's heard most doctors and first responders are actually in the know, since they are, well, first responders, and need the information, so Tetsuya wouldn't be surprised if he know a thing or two. "We don't get along too well," Tetsuya admits, dodging the topic belatedly as he angles his head downwards, though not averting his eyes. Kise-kun catches the expression, and laughs.

"That's true, he said the same thing earlier as well... his accuracy is no joke though, especially on days where Cancers have good luck." Kise-kun's face drops at the mention. "Wonder if there's any truth to it? Horoscopes. But," the teen stretches, "seems' he just came here to watch the game, though." He turns head head, tilting back to stare up at the skies. "First you turned me down, then I lost today's game, my high school life is not starting with a smooth sail is it?" He paused. "I didn't expect you to say yes, though, but," the blond swings back down to the ground, staring at him with a sincere look in his yellow eyes, "I was serious! I've missed playing with you since you left."

Tetsuya's heart seizes. The memories of Teikou are still painful, it seems, but he doesn't avert his gaze- counting it as a small victory for himself. "Sorry," he apologises still, not sure what for, but seeing the look on Kise-kun's face soften makes him feel better, somehow, even though he has no idea what it was making him feel better from.

"I'm kidding," Kise-kun chuckles, clearly not kidding, "anyway, I just wanted to ask you," his face drops into something more serious and contemplating, and the air feels cold now. Tetsuya braces himself for the question, though he doesn't think he have enough time to ever answer it.

"Why did you disappear? After the middle school championship games?"

Taiga feels slightly awkward walking next to Kuroko's aunt, trailing a little behind her despite their height difference, as they look around for her nephew. Understandably she doesn't look particularly worried, since this is apparently near the neighbourhood they live in and both her and Kuroko are quite familiar with the place. The air is filled with an awkward silence, but he somehow has the feeling that it's only awkward on his side.

He wants to start chatter, both a little nervous and curious in the presence of SSRA- he's not stupid, he recognises the uniform. While on the more obscure side, as it was never featured in mainstream media, much like the likes of Area 51 or some other special forces, SSRA has a bit of a reputation, especially among adults. Urban legends talk about paranormal, but really they're most known for the secrecy, and often being involved with violent cases. His mother's being one of them.

He doesn't know much, regarding his mother's death, he was quite a bit younger, and his father refused to let him know anything. Few things he remembers is how his dad turned to drinking for a while in the aftermath, and the murmurs about unfairness. Sometimes he's not sure he wants to know the details- the funeral was closed casket, and he's heard enough whispers of rumours. None of them placates him.

He shakes his head, only to spot the woman looking up at him with vague interest. "You recognise my uniform, don't you?" She asks, and for a moment Taiga thought that it sounds strange before he realises she's speaking in English. She crosses her arms, demeanour relaxed. "It's fine, I know our reputation, if you're curious, well, I don't mind, but I can't answer much."

"Oh, yeah." He expected that much, but the openness to questions seems almost too good to be true. Though her casual body language and the familiar tongue dispels the tense air, and Taiga relaxes, slipping into English, "you're SSRA, right?"

"Mmhm."

"I just," he pauses, there's not much he knows about the case back then. And does he want to know at all? Belatedly, he realise that this might not be a good time for questions like this, "my mother passed away in an SSRA case," fuck it, he decides, "they said it's a GD case, but no one would tell me how or what happened."

The woman, previously calm, tenses at the case name, she blinks back at him, her face suddenly blank, "and," she pauses, opens her mouth then closes it, carefully selecting her next words, "and you're asking me because you want to know about the case specifically because you recognise my badge?" She asks, and Taiga blinks, eyes darting down towards the decorative star pin on her breast pocket, "or just, what GD cases are in general?"

Taiga pauses, does he want to know? His mother have always been one of his strongest supporters, been there for him for so many things, she was one of his strongest supporters, playing basketball. Headstrong, stubborn and knew what she wanted and she taught him that. She was an athlete, too, the strongest person he knew. "Yeah," he settles, yes, he wants to, "I want to know, as much as you can tell me."

She falls silent, and stares back at him. Throughout the day she's acted friendly and kind around them, entertaining them as their teammate's aunt, but now she looks more like the haunting, silent agents he recalls in his memories. Not so much in a bad way, but strange. "If, you really want to know," she sighs, and relaxes, "then not today."

She reaches into her pocket, and pulls out a business card with her name and contact information in English, in a modest gray font, a corner printed with golden stars. He takes the card, and reads- the work titles are curious. 'Constella: Esmeray, SSRA Specialist; Head of Patrol and Instructor'.

"Talk it over with your guardians first," she retracts her hand, "call to arrange a meeting, depending on your guardian's decision, what I can tell you varies."

"Thanks." He pockets the card, "I'll think about it." Taiga says, and he begins looking around, only then remembering that right, they're supposed to be looking for Kuroko right now. But his eyes land on the court they have unknowingly walked next to, the cheers and laughter of two student playing street ball sounding through the air. He stops to watch, and the woman pauses too, looking back at him and the court.

Today is just full of reminders of the past, huh? The familiar style and movements tug at his memories, he watches, and just as the two move away from the centre of court, opening up the view for the park behind, he catches sight of a mop of blond hair- and shortly after, the blue-haired teen they've been looking all over the place for. Kuroko, and he's with Kise.

He shares a look with the teen's aunt, and begin making their way towards the park.