Disclaimer: born on the day of earthquakes does not own Kuroko's Basketball.

Anticipated Meeting

Chapter One

Aida Riko could not forget that young light blue-haired and -eyed male that showed up for the team recruitment that afternoon. He was the weirdest one she had seen, not only for that little presence he had, but also for the fact that he was from Teiko coupled with the rather low body statistics he had.

She watched the raindrop draw a crooked line of water on the glass of the car window as it rained. She sighed, deciding that she was going to deal with the enigmatic new recruit until she knew what abilities the younger male possesses. For now, she'd focus on enriching the possible raw talent that that tall red-haired male with weird eyebrows had.

And she wasn't exactly disappointed with her decision. Her team accepted the Phantom Sixth man of the Generation of Miracles, said to be revered by the starting members of the legendary Teiko. A shadow player entered into her team, someone who she never expected to be...

But that would only be later revealed to her and to her team.

[Summer, fifteen years after the invasion]

Kuroko hummed, watching the strewn bloodied bodies on the wide span of cement. He flicked his eyes to the side of the road, tilting his head slightly as he watched Kagami hurl his breakfast at the roadside near the tall wild grass that seemed to surround them from opposite sides.

"I never thought you'd be this type of character, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said in that monotone voice of his. The softness of his voice was almost drowned out by the buzzing of flies around them. "To throw up just because of this..."

Kagami wiped off saliva from the corner of his mouth before pointing a finger at the other boy. "You—! How can you not be affected by something like this?!"

The red-haired tall male didn't dare look again at the sight, keeping his eyes trained on the surprisingly unaffected small teen.

"I've seen worse," Kuroko replied mysteriously. Kagami just raised an eyebrow at that before mustering some courage to sweep a glance at the dismembered bodies and groaning.

"Anyway," Kagami said as he turned around. He pulled his phone from his pocket and speedialed one of his bosses. "We ought to report this to the captain."

He saw Kuroko take a step towards the nearest torso. It didn't have a head; arms and legs cut crudely as if by a blunt knife or sword. Kagami almost yelled when he saw Kuroko kneel and dip a finger into the pool of blood around the torso and brought the finger near to his lips.

"Kuroko—! What are you—?!" Kagami yelled. He briefly forgot about the gruesome scene in front of them as he stepped towards the kneeling light blue-eyed boy. Only the slight splash of blood on his jeans made the tall red-haired remember, giving himself the hard time of stopping from hurling once more. His phone fell on the puddle of blood and his call to Hyuuga was cut as the phone screen blacked out.

The smaller teen just turned to him after sniffing the blood coating his fingers.

"A first-degree," Kuroko said, standing and pushing his hand towards Kagami's face. Kagami almost sighed in relief when the said hand of the smaller boy stop, even if just centimeters from his nose. "The blood doesn't smell sweet at all, and there are few residue left on the victim's body. This is done by someone who was turned probably a few days ago, considering that it ate without regard for cleanliness or anything. Uneducated, probably rogue, but still first-degree."

"W-What...?" Kagami stuttered. His vision doubled as his eyes tried to focus on the finger just before his nose. He couldn't smell anything but the hideous stench of slightly decaying corpses.

Kuroko slightly, slightly frown. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the blood off his finger. "Vampire, Kagami-kun. I thought you might be more knowledgeable at this, considering the line of work we're in."

"O-Of course I know these kinds of things, idiot," Kagami said, looking away. He made a mistake of turning his head towards the gore and immediately turned his head the other way. "So, f-first rate, isn't it?"

"First-degree," Kuroko corrected. ("First-degree! Of course I know that!" Kagami interjected briefly.) The light blue-haired boy turned to the bloody scene, not a single twitch on his face as his seemingly otherworldly eyes set on the torso he had approached earlier. "By looking at these remains, there must be three people who were attacked. This is a seldom-traveled road, so it's no surprise that there are no witnesses when they were attacked."

"There are many roads like this around Seirin," Kagami said.

"Yes, this is the weakness of the town. There are too many roads leading to the town: old roads that are forgotten, less-traveled roads that only the locals know about," Kuroko said. "Seirin has very few members in training, considering that it's fairly new, and could only afford to guard the main road to the town so as to keep the merchants coming."

Kuroko slowly walked to his motorbike, leaning on the seat while taking out his phone. He punched on the buttons with surprising speed. He briefly looked at Kagami before deciding to continue speaking while typing on his phone, "As you might have noticed already, among the remains in front of us, there is not a single head of the victims in there."

Kagami gulped, still not looking directly at the bodies. "Oh, really?"

"Yes." Kuroko continued explaining. "This fact tells that the vampire who attacked them is a first-degree."

"But why?" Kagami asked. "Are these first-degrees sicko or something?"

"Not really." Kuroko finally pressed send on his phone and watched as an image of a light blue and white envelope flash on his screen. "First-degree vampires are those who are newly turned, or those who turned out as failures. Their types do not drink blood but enjoyed seeing the liquid nonetheless. They have no abilities unlike the higher degrees but are physically strong and fast. And all they need to eat are human or animal heads, though they prefer human ones because they find them bloodier."

Kagami made face at the thought. Kuroko's phone chimed and he pulled it out to see the new message. After reading, he pocketed it.

"The messier the scene of the meal, the lower a vampire's degree is," Kuroko said, riding his bike and turning the key. The engine grumbled to life. "First-degree is considered the lowest because they are vampires who don't even drink blood."

"Oi, where are you going?" Kagami said. "We still need to report this to the captain!"

"I already did," Kuroko replied. "Koganei-senpai and Mitobe-senpai are coming to clean the scene. Orders are to continue to scout. If suspect is found, subdue it. Call for back up if necessary."

"Alright!" Kagami said, riding his own bike. "I'll be sure to catch it then."

He turned on his bike engine, not failing to give the huge bike a positive appraising look. Its sleek black design, gleaming in the orange afternoon light, was not from cleaning alone but also from being new. The red and white on the black surface of the bike were the lines and swirls that proved it as Seirin's property, as well as the large Seirin logo that was printed on the bike's side.

Kuroko's bike was almost identical to that of Kagami's, but there was a small unfamiliar logo that was stuck next to the logo of Seirin on the bike. This gold shield-shaped logo was composed of simple handwritten Japanese characters, but with Kagami's limited knowledge on the said characters, he had no idea what it meant. He was aware that the same logo was on the pin Kuroko never failed to wear on his collar.

"You're very knowledgeable about these things, aren't you?" Kagami said suddenly in between the rumbles of his and Kuroko's bikes. "Vampires, I mean."

Kuroko turned to him slightly. Kagami didn't miss the odd look on the pale boy's face.

"I'm sure..." Kuroko said slowly. "... that Aida-san briefed us about vampires when we joined the organization." A smirk — if Kagami wasn't mistaken — was showed as the small pale teen put on his helmet. "Weren't you listening then?"

"I was listening!" Kagami yelled, but his voice was covered by the noise as Kuroko decided to drive his bike that time. The red-haired male had no choice but to put on his own helmet and follow his partner as they went to carry out their orders.

Never had they thought that this would lead them to search for something else.

Aida slammed her hands on the table top, scrunching the papers that were laid out in front of her as she fisted her hands on them. She gritted her teeth in anger. "You still can't find it?"

Hyuuga could only frown as he could, slightly, understand her anger. "No."

"Where's Izuki-kun?" the brown-haired female asked. She had come back from a meeting, expecting to face only a ton of paperwork waiting for her, not this ridiculous incident about a first-degree vampire on the loose in her town.

"In the watch room," Hyuuga replied. "Still no news from him either."

Aida started biting her thumb fingernail while looking away, thinking. "This is bad," she muttered. "It's a rogue according to Kuroko-kun, isn't it?"

"He says it's a rogue or an uneducated," Hyuuga said. His phone rang and he saw a new message, immediately relaying the contents to Aida. "Mitobe and Koga finished their cleanup and are proceeding to identify the victims. They'll be back in the HQ in less than five minutes." He turned to Aida again after flipping his phone shut. "Kuroko... Shouldn't he be able to locate it in minutes?"

"First-degree vampires have little to no smell. Kuroko-kun will have difficulty in locating it," Aida said, turning her round brown eyes to Hyuuga. "We can rely on Izuki-kun for now."

Suddenly, the doors of Aida's office burst open as a brown-haired short male rushed in. The boy stopped before Aida's desk, panting as he finally raised his head after a polite bow.

"Furihata-kun," Aida acknowledged the boy. He was also a new recruit but Aida already knew of his name. She already knew the names of all her subordinates.

"Boss, captain," Furihata addressed Aida and Hyuuga. He breathed heavily, both from the pressure of the first time to report to two of the highest personnel in Seirin and from the news he was bringing. "I-I'm here to bring report from Izuki-senpai."

"Speak," Hyuuga said. Internally, he was quite amused with the definite fear and admiration in the brown eyes of the new recruit. But he hid it to avoid of nagging that will come from the girl behind the desk just beside him. "What is the news of the first-degree vampire?"

"About that, sir," Furihata said. "Izuki-senpai finally located the first-degree vampire."

"And?" Aida said with firmness in her voice. The slowness of the report is starting to grit her nerves. "Where is it?"

"..."

...

Kuroko looked up at the dark-skinned boy who sat atop the cemented wall, noting the familiar blue hair and the smug smile that sat on that handsome features of the tall male. The light blue-haired boy could not forget that face and that wide smile that showed the canines that belonged none other than that of a vampire.

"What are you doing here?" Kuroko asked darkly. "Aomine-kun."

The said vampire called Aomine continued to smile.

"That's a rather cold welcome from you, Tetsu."

A/N: I'm not really sure if I should post this. But I really WANT to post something. So here it is, my first attempt on romance. Really, it's supposed to be romance. And KuroAka romance... or so my plan says.

Anyway, how do you find the story? Reviews will be awesome.