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Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket for it belongs to Fujimaka Tadatoshi.

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Chapter 3: Long night

Huff huff huff

Kagami was running as fast as his legs could allow him, trying to maneuver his way to avoid bumping into obstacles on the street.

"What the hell is happening?"

Ten minutes ago, he was still on his way back to his apartment and now he was running for his life.

Five minutes ago, he happened to pass by a man who was clearly human and now that human was no longer to be seen.

Instead, in that man's place was a hideous monster who used to be a human. And it was chasing Kagami down in a game of predator and prey. Saliva dripping down its open mouth, which revealed a full set of sharp teeth, was obvious evidence of his hunger and desire to capture Kagami.

The red-haired teen ran into an alley with hope of losing the monster in the maze. He ran and ran. His animal instinct (also common sense) was screaming him to run. And then he realized he had made the biggest mistake of his life when slipping into the alley.

Instead of losing the monster, he ran into a dead end. High brick wall suddenly became a miserable barrier preventing Kagami from entering the land of survival hope. The only source of light was from an old lamp placed at the top of the wall. And it seemed so far away.

Kagami turned around to face the monster for the second time. This time, he looked carefully at his predator and absorbed its full appearance, probably for the last time.

Its body was much bigger than that of Kagami, which meant it was over 2 meter high. It had sharp teeth and long claw, ready to tear Kagami apart. Despite its large stature, the monster seemed to be faster than it looked for being able to catch up with Kagami and corner him to the dead end. And now, it was eyeing the teen with pure hunger.

All of a sudden, the monster stretched its long limbs armed with sharp claws and directed its deadly weapons towards Kagami. The teenager, thanks to his reflexes and instinct, quickly dodged in time but one claw still managed to leave a small scar on the redhead's cheek. He scanned around for any potential object that could be used as weapon against the monster. Unfortunately, the only thing he could find was an old broomstick that was obviously too weak to fend off the predator.

"What can I do with this thing? Whack it?"

Leaving Kagami no time to think, the monster charged towards Kagami with its claws, determined to tear the teen apart. The red-haired teen instinctually evaded the attack and used the broom to strike the monster's head with all his might.

Crack

Upon the impact, the broom stick broke into pieces.

This time, the predator was faster than its prey. Before Kagami could react, the hungry monster's arm hit Kagami's head, making the teen fall vulnerably onto the ground.

The only thing Kagami was able to register through his blurred vision at that time was the monster hurling its claws towards Kagami.

Splat

-o0o-

Inside a dimly lit room, three figures were looking at a golden-framed mirror hovering in midair with expression akin to disinterest. The bespectacled guy with green hair was taping his fingers with bandages but his eyes didn't leave the flying object. The violet-haired giant was eating his snack. The redhead was leaning his back against the couch, arms crossing to his chest, assessing the image in the mirror attentively.

However, once in a while, they would take a brief glance at the small figure lying on a nearby sofa to check whether he was having a good rest. The said person was snuggling inside the blanket's warmth. A small puppy could be seen lying next to his face.

The quiet to the point of creepy atmosphere continued until the room door was opened forcefully with a loud bang, revealing two grumpy people, one with blond hair and one with dark blue hair.

"Aominecchi, don't just go kill them on all you own! I want to have my share, too!", Kise whined, blood stain could be noticed on his coat.

"Geez, I just wanted to finish it as soon as possible. It's not like they're gonna pose you any challenge anyway", Aomine said loudly and lazily picked his ears. His shirt was also stained with blood.

Three other occupants in the room quickly directed their glares towards the noise makers, which the peace breakers flinched right away after realizing the trouble they caused. However, before anyone could say anything, the previously sleeping beauty had already awakened from his slumber and rose slowly from the sofa. The puppy lying next to him, disturbed by the movement, let out a tiny whimper before snuggling into the soft cushion. Blanket dangling on the sofa's edge, the boy yawned and rubbed his watery eyes. Just when he was about to check what time it was, he was tackled to the sofa by a fast-moving object, which turned to be none other than Kise Ryouta.

"You're so cute~, Kurokocchi~!"

"Ugh, Ryouta-kun…."

"You're so adorable~! Make me wanna hug you so much. Can I kiss you, Kurokocchi?"

However, before Kise could actually press his lips against Kuroko's ones, the baby-blue-haired boy was forcefully snatched away by a fast blue blur, leaving Kise off the balance and have his face planted on the coach.

"Lay you lips off Tetsu, you puppy face!", Aomine, having snatched Kuroko away, was hugging the boy to his chest tightly as if he was gonna be attacked anytime.

"Aominecchi, why are you preventing me from showing my love for Kurokocchi?"

"Your method of expressing love is creepy!"

"So mean~!". Big crocodile tears rolled down Kise's face.

"Daiki-kun, I would appreciate if you put me down. It's uncomfortable to be lifted like this", Kuroko told Aomine although he secretly enjoyed being hugged by him.

Aomine reluctantly put Kuroko down. Hardly had the bluenette's feet touch the ground when he was lifted up by Murasakibara, who then fixed his horrendous bed hair. The violet-haired giant ran his hand through the soft blue hair gently to press the hair down, ignoring the envious glares being thrown at him.

"Done, Kuro-chin"

"Thanks, Atsuhi-kun. Now can you put me down?"

"Kise-chin is right. You make people just want to hug you~"

"Atsuhi. Put Tetsuya down now!"

Upon hearing Akashi's command, Murasakibara unwillingly placed Kuroko back to the coach near Akashi. The redhead, to everyone's surprise, took this opportunity to pull the bluenette to his lap. He traced his index finger along the other's lip, his heterochromatic eyes shining seductively.

"So Tetsuya, did you have a good rest?"

"I did, Seijurou-kun. Can I go back to my room now?"

"What's wrong? Don't you like my company?"

"Actually, I still have to finish my homework and prepare for tomorrow's school."

At this point, everyone was staring at Kuroko disbelievingly.

"Kurokocchi, you shouldn't waste your time on something so meaningless".

"That's right, Tetsu. Don't worry about homework. If you want, I can convince every teacher of that school to exempt you from that stupid thing."

"Now, now, Daiki. If that's what Tetsuya want, then we must do our best to support him. However, Tetsuya, I still think Daiki is right. You shouldn't waste your time on studying. After all, it's been a long time since all of us reunited like this."

"But studying is fun, you know."

"Fun, my ass."

"Kuro-chin, I want to make cake with you tonight."

"It's not that I want to spend time with you but it's best that we should spend time together."

"Kurokocchi, you have attended school many times. Don't you find studying boring?"

"Studying is fun if you do it with many people. I was thinking of asking one of you guys to study with me in my room, but it seems none of you wants to study with me."

And Kuroko's statement immediately changed others' opinion.

"Kurokocchi, I can study with you~", Kise spoke first and jumped to tackle the blue-haired boy. However, before he could reach Kuroko, the poor blond was harshly stopped by Aomine, who grabbed his collar to hold him back.

"No way, Tetsu's gonna study with me."

"Oh please, Aomine. You can't even recite multiplication table right", Midorima said sarcastically and pushed up his glasses, "It's advisable for Kuroko to have me tutor him, not that I want to help him study."

"Eh~, but I want to study with Kuro-chin~!", Murasakibara whined while stuffing his mouth with a handful of potato chips

"Kurokocchi, choose me. I can help you study!"

"Stupid little brothers! It's obvious that I should be the one who tutors Tetsuya. Don't forget Tetsuya once said he learned fast when I taught him", Akashi intervened, looking smugly with his trademark smirk.

The argument kept going on with each of the rainbow squad one by one stating their own reason why Kuroko should be with them. As for the one who caused the argument, he was watching the others bickering with his usual blank face while his eyes showed a different emotion; he was enjoying others fighting him.

Kuroko silently moved back to the coach where he previous slept and picked up the sleeping puppy. Being lifted up, the puppy opened its round blue eyes, which bore a striking resemblance to that of its owner. It let out a small bark of recognition and stuck its tongue out, seemingly waiting for Kuroko to pet him.

The bluenette, emotionless as ever, brought the puppy closer and rubbed his cheek against the dog, which whimpered contentedly.

"You're so cute, Nigou. Tonight, I'm gonna let you sleep on my bed."

And it, of course, triggered jealousy from other occupants in the room.

"Kurokocchi… That's not fair. I want to sleep with you."

"Argh, that damn dog. Curse you Midorima for bringing that thing here."

"Feel the urge to crush something… gotta crush that dog."

"I can't believe Kuroko is obsessed with my lucky item of the day. Not that I'm jealous or anything."

"That's why I hate dogs. Why does Tetsuya see in that dog anyway?"

Ignoring the intense jealous aura behind his back, Kuroko turned his eyes to the hovering mirrors that everyone had stopped paying attention to since Kise and Aomine entered the room.

"So it begins. Good luck to you, Kagami-kun."

-o0o-

He could feel something wet on his shirt and he was almost sure that it gotta be his own blood. However, he didn't feel painful. Was it because it was so painful that he didn't feel painful?

Kagami didn't bother opening his eyes to check the surroundings until he heard a familiar voice shout.

"Kagami, get up quickly now."

The redhead snapped out of his reverie immediately. The sight he saw when opening his eyes was not what he had expected.

A chain was wrapped around the monster neck and arms, preventing it from getting close to Kagami. It growled loudly as it tried to struggle out of the physical restraint. On his back was one giant spear that pierced through its body, the blade sticking out of his chest. Blood was trickling down from the open wound and ended up on Kagami's shirt.

Being too dense to process the entire situation, he just lay there, watching the monster struggling and growling and didn't move a bit. And he got yelled again.

"Bakagami, do you seriously want to get killed that much? Get out of there quickly."

Snapping back to the reality, Kagami fumbled away from the monster and there, behind the monster's back stood people that he was too familiar with.

"Don't just stand there. Get behind us now", Hyuga, captain of Seirin basketball team, growled while clutching the chain tightly.

"Hello, Kagami. Fancy meeting you here", Kiyoshi smiled despite his hand busy keeping a firm hold of the chain.

Still shocked by the sight, Kagami didn't budge from his place until he was yanked harshly by someone else.

"Didn't you hear him, Bakagami? Get behind us quickly", a loud feminine voice shouted.

When Kagami looked down, he saw Riko, his coach, pulling his arm to follow her. He didn't understand a single bit what was happening in this dark alley. Something at the back of his mind was telling him that there were more familiar people he was gonna meet next.

And he was right.

"Good thing we got here just in time", Izuki said, his hand holding some kind of gun, except it was bigger and looked more equipped than the normal one.

Kagami let his eyes scan around. There were Riko, Izuki, Mitobe, Koganei and Furihata at presence. All of them were wearing black safety suit and armed with weapons ranging from blades, spears to guns. When Kagami was about to ask what was going on, he heard a deafening roar from behind. He turned around and to his horror, found the monster having broken free from its bound.

"Izuki, quickly, shoot it!"

The teen followed the order at once and released multiple shot aiming at the monster from his guns. But the monster didn't just stand there to take hits. It opened its mouth and a gust of flame was sent out, melting the bullets to the surprise of the humans watching it.

"Oh… it's of fire element. Nice~!", Kiyoshi noted in a singsong voice despite the situation they were in.

Calmly rolling up her sleeves, Riko let out a sigh. The others, understanding what to do next, prepared themselves for the next attack.

"This is gonna be a long night."

About my story Love diary, have no fear, I'm still in the process of writing it. I will post it when I reach my usual quota of at least 3000 words.

See you soon!