One-hundred and Eight Tolls

It had somehow been decided that they would all be going to the shrine together, to celebrate the New Year of course, but Kuroko had his suspicions that their little group of gathering would be split up in one way or another. And he was right. He had bent down for just a moment to fix the fitting of one of his sandals, but when he stood back up, everyone was out of sight.

"Aka-chin," Murasakibara whined, "Mochi*. I want mochi. Mochi, mochi."

Taking a deep breath, Akashi let out an exasperated sigh, before saying, "Fine, let's go. However, your training menu will be tripled."

The threat—considering the lengthy path such words would have to take in order to do so—went right over Murasakibara's head. "Whatever you say, Aka-chin."

They approached a vendor that was selling the sticky treat in no time at all. "What flavor do you want? Red bean or white bean?" Akashi asked, reaching his hand into the right sleeve of his winter kimono.

"White bean," Murasakibara said. "Make sure that they don't forget the tangerine on top."

With a nod, Akashi pulled out his small money pouch. "Two, please," he ordered. "One red bean and one white bean."

"Coming right up!" the cheerful vendor beamed, rushing over to the rice machine.

A few minutes later, the vendor returned with their rice cakes in hand, delicately placed in a festive pastry box. "That'll be four-hundred yen, please."

Akashi paid the accurate amount, before accepting their snack. Walking with Murasakibara, he handed him the box and placed his pouch back into the sleeve of his kimono.

"Huh? You're not having any, Aka-chin?" Murasakibara questioned. He was confused. He had been sure that Akashi was ordering the red bean cake for himself.

"I don't particularly like mochi," Akashi began, "and you don't particularly like red bean paste."

Murasakibara blinked. It took him a moment or two for Akashi's evil ploy to register. "Aka-chin, that's so mean," he drew out childishly. "Now I don't know which one is which."

With a smirk, Akashi folded his hands into his sleeves and shrugged his shoulders.

"At least they didn't forget the tangerine on top."

"Here's your fortune, sir! Happy New Year!" the woman smiled, handing Midorima a small slip of paper that would determine his fate for the rest of the year to come.

"Thank you, nanodayo," he replied sternly.

For the horoscope junkie, receiving his yearly fortune was like life or death. That was why when he slowly began to unravel the papery scroll, he could feel his heartbeat in the tips of his fingers and taste the coppery flavor of blood on his tongue.

In an instant, Midorima felt as if his existence were a lie and that everything was crashing down all around him. Rushing back to the fortune booth, he demanded a new slip, but was promptly denied. "Sorry, sir. One fortune per person."

"But I can't accept this one!" he explained. "I can't have an entire year of bad luck!"

With a sympathetic sigh, the woman shook her head and offered Midorima another fortune slip. "Technically the first fortune is supposed to be the one that truly counts, but if it really matters all that much to you—"

"Thank you, nanodayo," Midorima interrupted, taking the fortune graciously. This time, he opened it with much more vigor.

"Um."

"Yes? What is it, sir?"

Holding up the fortune slip for the woman to see, Midorima wore an expression of someone who had just had an out-of-body experience.

"What's worse? Bad luck or awful luck?"

"No fair, no fair-ssu! One more time, Aominecchi! Play me one more time!" Kise cried; punching Aomine's shoulders playfully.

"No, Kise. Do you really just want to lose again?" Aomine snickered. He twirled his paddle in his hand and added, "You suck at hanetsuki*."

"I won't lose this time-ssu! I'm going to win! Just play me one more time!"

"You know this game isn't even supposed to be about winning, right?"

Without responding, Kise positioned himself and his hagoita* and sent the shuttlecock over in Aomine's direction. He had hoped to catch him off guard, but much to Kise's dismay, Aomine expertly paddled the birdie back to him.

After a few rounds of back and forth, again, Kise was the one who had missed the mark. In his defense, Aomine had hit the shuttlecock way out of bounds.

"Hey, that's not fair!" he complained.

"What's not fair? You missed it," Aomine replied dully.

"Yeah, but you hit it all the way over there!" Kise used the fine demonstration of dramatically throwing his hands in the direction of which the birdie now laid.

"You're just a sore loser."

"I am not! I am not-ssu! You're so unfair, Aominecchi!"

Due to his faint presence, it was rather easy for Kuroko to slip past the crowds of people. Although his original intentions were to spend the New Year together with his teammates, he was having a nice time by himself, as well. He had stopped for some mochi, received his fortune—an average one at that—for the year, and even helped himself to a small game of hanetsuki.

Now, however, he was slowly walking up the stone steps toward the shrine. Surprisingly, there weren't many people around. Everyone else must have been caught up with the hustle and bustle of the celebrations below.

He proceeded toward the bell. As was customary on the New Year, one would ring the shrine bell and pray to the gods above, asking for blessings and granted wishes for the year to come. Just as Kuroko was reaching to grasp a hold of the thick rope, a voice called to him.

"Tetsuya."

When he turned around, it was Akashi who had greeted him. "Akashi-kun," Kuroko replied. "Where are the others?"

Akashi walked closer to Kuroko, before saying, "I haven't the faintest clue. Atsushi is at the bottom of the steps, though, I know that for sure. He claims to have a stomach ache and therefore cannot make the lengthy climb up to the shrine."

Kuroko didn't comment on or question Akashi any further, but instead turned back to the bell rope and extended his hand forward, almost as if giving an invitation. "Shall we?"

With an authoritative nod, Akashi was just about to join Kuroko's hand on the rope when they were interrupted.

"Hey, Tetsu."

"Kurokocchi!"

Aomine and Kise came barreling—well, Kise mostly—towards Kuroko and Akashi.

"Ryouta, Daiki," Akashi greeted.

"Kise-kun, if you run like that in your sandals, you'll trip and fall," Kuroko stated plainly.

"Uwah! Kurokocchi cares about my well-being!" Kise beamed.

"It's just that if you fall, your kimono will tear."

"How cruel, I've spoken too soon-ssu!" Kise sobbed.

"Were you guys praying or something?" Aomine asked, crossing his arms.

"We were about to," Akashi affirmed.

Aomine, as well as Kuroko and Kise, could sense the annoyance in their captain's voice, however only Kuroko dared to speak up. "Shall we wait for Midorima-kun?"

"Ah, we saw Midorimacchi in passing," Kise informed. "He said that he was going to the convenience store to buy a larger version of his lucky item and then go home."

"Did you ask him why he had the sudden urge to do this?" Akashi questioned.

"Yes. He told me to go die."

There was an awkward silence within the group before, surprisingly, Kuroko broke it again. "Seeing as we're all accounted for, shall I ring the bell now?"

"Yes, Tetsuya, you may," Akashi said, granting him permission.

"Go for it, Kurokocchi!" Kise cheered.

"Ring it loud, Tetsu, so Murasakibara and Midorima can hear it," Aomine suggested.

With a nod to each of their statements, Kuroko grasped the bell rope with both of his hands. He gave it a strong pull before releasing, sending a chime that was much louder than customary for prayer. Strangely in unison, they each clapped their hands and bowed their heads.

Kise was the first to finish with his prayer, followed by Aomine, and then Akashi. When they noted that Kuroko still had his head down and his eyes closed, they could only wonder what it was that he was praying for. When his head rose once again, he was a bit stunned to see his teammates staring at him as if he had ten heads.

"Kurokocchi, why were you praying for so long? Is someone in your family sick-ssu?" Kise asked worriedly.

"Yeah, Tetsu, what's the deal with that?" Aomine chipped in.

"If there is something troubling you, you know that you can always speak with me, Tetsuya," Akashi offered.

Kuroko blinked and stared back at them with his usual, vacant expression. "It's nothing of the sort," he corrected. "I was praying for our team."

"Hah? We're the best, Tetsu! We don't need New Year prayers to help us win!" Aomine scoffed.

"Kurokocchi is so sweet, but I agree with Aominecchi. We really have nothing to worry about," Kise giggled.

"I take your prayers as a personal offense of doubting my leadership, Tetsuya. Your training menu is now doubled," Akashi scolded.

Kuroko remained silent as he followed slowly behind his teammates. He hadn't been given the chance to explain his prayer further, but in the end, he supposed it was for the best. Truthfully, Kuroko wasn't praying for their team's victory, but instead for their stability.

More than anything, Kuroko just wanted for all of them to remain united.

*Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice (not to be confused with gluten) pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. While also eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time.

*Hanetsuki (羽根突き, 羽子突き) is a Japanese traditional game, similar to badmiton without a net, played with a rectangular wooden paddle called a *hagoita and a brightly coloured shuttlecock. The game can be played in two fashions: by one person attempting to keep the shuttlecock aloft as long as possible, or by two people batting it back and forth. Traditionally, the longer the shuttlecock remains in the air, the greater protection from mosquitos the players will receive during the coming year.

[ information from Wikipedia ]

Hello, everyone! Chappy here! :D

Haaa, I know this is two - three days late ( depending on if posting this at 2 AM counts as being a whole new day ), but Happy New Year!

Seeing as I've exhausted many ideas over the holiday, I decided to write a Kuroko no Basuke fanfiction to ring in the new year!

I hope that you all enjoyed it and maybe learned a thing or two while reading! I know that researching Japanese traditions has really made me feel more knowledgeable as to how they celebrate their New Year!

Thank you for reading!

- Chappy