Light and Shadow

Shadow of an Echo

Chapter Eighteen

Sleepwalker

With the revelation of Midorima's new skills and other enticing prospects about the next day swimming in his head, Kagami was falling back on old habits and having trouble sleeping the first night at the camp. It might not have been so bad if he and Kuroko were allowed near each other, but Izuki had laughingly put himself between the Phantom and the power forward, then -after sensing fun to be had- Himuro had slid into a sleeping bag next to his brother. Kagami had absolutely no doubt it was completely intentional that he had obscured the path between him and his Shadow.

It wasn't like he would try anything with a room full of other people, but it would be nice not to be completely isolated from Kuroko while staring at the ceiling with his pulse racing; driven by thoughts of the training they would get up to the next day.

Not wanting to wake the other guys up with his fidgeting he carefully snuck out of the room and down the hall to sit on the front steps of the building, only to find he wasn't the only one with this idea. Aomine was already out there, sprawled out on the steps, propping his upper body up on his elbows so he could stare blankly at the empty court and forested mountains.

He really must have been deep in thought because he didn't notice Kagami at all until the other boy sat down next to him, drawing his lazy blue gaze to the side for a moment, but he just went back to staring forwards without comment.

"Man, today really got to you, didn't it?" Kagami was the one who broke the silence, taking the plunge and treading on dangerous ground. He was always a bit more reckless than usual when he was keyed up like this.

Aomine let out a dark laugh, letting his head hang back so he could stare balefully at Kagami, "That damn Akashi, so high and mighty. Why does he always have to be friggin right though? He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but seriously, what the hell? Midorima's never beaten me before. That new trick of his is pretty cool, I'll give him that, but I keep losing when before no one could come close. I think I'm losing my touch."

Kagami's eyes were blown a little wide as he listened to Aomine vent, not expecting the other ace to just spill it all out like that, but then again, who else would he tell? His team that mostly thought he was a slacker? Or one of his many fans who tended to think he was a god of basketball? His only real options were a rival like Kagami or a true friend like Kuroko, and it just so happened to be Kagami that found him first.

"Woah, okay, slow down. First if you quit going to practice of course other people are going to get better than you. In case you forgot there were six players in the Kiseki no Sidai, not just you." Kagami reminded, "The way all of you Miracles play is amazing, seriously, every single one of you could get a spot in the NBA if you wanted one and in every game where Seirin's clashed with your teams you guys just get better. You were always going to have five guaranteed rivals at the very least, and now I'm not going anywhere either."

"I didn't stop practicing, not completely anyway," Aomine grumbled in protest while ignoring the rest. "I just stopped coming to school practice. I still run and stuff to keep myself in shape, and I go back to the street courts where I learned to play sometimes; it's not like I gave up the game entirely. I just couldn't stand to keep coming against teams and players who refused to fight, they lost those games before they ever touched a ball. It was ridiculous, and nothing I did made any difference. If anything, the more I tried, the worse it got. Why in the hell would I make myself stronger when no one was willing to play me as I am? That was true right up until Tetsu found you, and don't let the others tell you it was any different for them by the way. We all knew if Tetsu found a new Light the two of you would be our biggest threat, though no one really knew if he would be successful."

"What made you think he would come back around at all after what you guys pulled in that last championship?" Kagami wasn't afraid of confrontation, and that was doubly so if it involved his Shadow.

Aomine puffed up in anger, but still answered the question, even if he looked like he would rather swallow broken glass. Some confessions needed to be made, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "Tetsu is too good of a person just to give up on us. He struggled so hard to keep us from flying apart, he was our mediator and the most calming force in any fights. Akashi was cracking under the insane pressure he had on himself and the rest of us were running around like a bunch of half-cocked pistols. Tetsu stayed himself, all while the rest of us were falling apart thanks to our damn egos; even Midorima fell prey to that one though he doesn't like to admit it and it isn't quite as obvious with him. When Tetsu failed at keeping us together, I knew there was only one thing he would do, and that's find someone like you that could give us a wake-up call. I don't think you will ever have any idea how much me or the other guys needed that. You might think you do just looking at us from the outside, but until you feel what it is like to face an opponent that is totally and utterly afraid of you, only to turn around and meet someone like you who laughs in your face and meets you toe to toe, you won't have a clue."

"Yeah right there with you Aominecchi, first time I met Kagamicchi, he told me it was better if he couldn't win. I thought he was insane." The cheerful but quiet voice of Kise was a surprise, but thankfully since the typical hyperness was locked away thanks to the time of night, he was welcomed onto the steps with them without complaint, his voice continuing without pause. "Add that to finding out you came from America Kagamicchi and I was really worried about Kurokocchi! I'm not anymore, but I was then."

Kagami found himself irritated with Kise's overly cheerful chirrups, but it was too late at night to do more than angrily retort, "Oi, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that we didn't know anything about you, and if you were foreign even Momoicchi wouldn't be able to find out much more." Kise deflected with a shrug, used to having irritated companions by this point. It wasn't an uncommon thing for him to be around considering how much he enjoyed riling up the other Miracles and his Senpais.

Aomine butted in again, "That's why we all kind of felt the need to come get a good measure of you as soon as we found out you existed. Satsuki more or less forced me to after you beat this idiot and Midorima." He patently ignored Kise's indignant 'Hey!' at being called an idiot.

Kagami thought back to that first one-on-one against Aomine with a fire sparking in his veins, sparing a lazy glance at the pouting blonde, when he realized something, "You know something Aomine, the first time you and I played, I was actually on court arrest by coach. I wasn't supposed to be playing at all. Seirin had just played back to back games against Seiho and Shuutoku where I hurt my legs since I still wasn't really ready to handle my jumps yet and I hadn't fully healed. I wonder what would have happened if you had found me when I wasn't hurt?"

Aomine scoffed, "I still would have wiped the floor with you, and you know it." When it looked like the other ace was about to go off on a rant and Kise broke in with a scandalized, "Aominecchi!" He stopped to think about it a bit more. "I did wonder about that though, between that one-on-one and our first game you were a lot steadier. I'm not even counting the difference playing with Tetsu makes, I know what happens when it's his work changing a player's style; I watched him learn how to do it. I'm talking about specifically your own power getting a lot stronger. Then when we played in winter, you changed again; big time. More than in the summer." He analyzed.

"Taiga went back to America and learned with our teacher before playing in the Winter Cup," Himuro's voice was smooth and gentle, like a night breeze, but he might as well have shouted for how high his little brother jumped.

"Doesn't anyone sleep around here?" Kagami asked rhetorically, knowing his brother had a bad habit of staying up at night and sleeping during the day which made him horrific to deal with in the mornings.

Kise shrugged and responded to the inquiry anyway, "I'm used to not sleeping much, between school, work, and basketball I really only get a few hours here and there. More if class is boring." He admitted with a sheepish wince.

Aomine waved off the comment, "I don't like sleeping around people I don't know. Figure I'll sneak off tomorrow for a few hours unless Akashi or Satsuki catches me."

"You sound like me," Himuro observed with a chuckle, before looking at the two younger Miracles in concern, "I know better than to ask Taiga since he always gets too worked up to sleep before a big day of playing, and I've been this way for so long now I'm used to it, but you two aren't worried how you'll play tomorrow without sleep?"

He was not expecting Kise and Aomine to quickly meet each other's eyes before abruptly bursting into laughter they had to quickly work to control before they woke anyone else up. It was Kise that explained, "Camps were much harsher than this in Teiko, the first twenty-four hours at every one would be a nearly continuous combination of stamina and strength training for the first string players. We wouldn't be allowed to sleep until the second night, and would only stop for water and food breaks."

"How did you not die!?" Kagami exclaimed in a mirror of his brother's feelings, both surprised clear to the core at the very thought of such grueling training.

"Where did you think our skill came from?" Aomine challenged with crossed arms, "Yeah some things came naturally, but without the training to back it up we wouldn't be half the players we are now. Also Teiko was famous for their sports teams long before us, we were just the guinea pigs they needed to show off their methods the way the administrators dreamed they could. We had the talent to keep up with their idea of the perfect training regimen so they pushed us into it full throttle. Even Akashi hurled a couple times it was so intense, those camps really sucked."

Kise stretched out, long and lean like a cat, "There were times it hurt so bad I thought I really would die, and poor Kurokocchi; he was always passing out or throwing up, but we couldn't get him to stop. He'd just rest long enough to stop seeing spots and be right back up with us again. Akashicchi did what he could for us, he at least made sure we were never asked to do something he wasn't willing to do right along with us. He knew what kind of pain we were in because he was in it too."

"No wonder we can never get Tsuya to tell us when he needs a break," Kagami realized. "If that's what kind of training you guys lived with, your new teams must feel like paradise."

"If that's what Atsushi was asked to do I'm no longer shocked at how far he pushes himself when he says he hates practice, to him, he IS going light." Himuro was having the same epiphany as Kagami about his team's own Kiseki member.

"I made the mistake of looking down on my Senpais when I first went to Kaijo," Kise admitted sadly, his normally bright aura darkening. "In Teiko all the strings were treated very differently, first string players were the top dogs, but we were also driven to the brink of death with the high caliber training. At Kaijo, the whole team practiced together, and the amount of work they put in for the day amounted to our warm-ups essentially. It took me awhile to take it seriously. I was arrogant and wrong in a lot of ways, I know and I'm working on it, but that first introduction I didn't take practice seriously because I honestly didn't think anyone else was. I couldn't understand how it was supposed to work, but it does, it's so much better this way. It doesn't hurt when I play as much anymore, even using Perfect Copy, and I'm faster too."

Listening to Kise talk, and comparing it from what he'd learned over the years working so closely with Alex, Himuro realized what the problem with Teiko's overzealousness actually was. "Your body is stronger if it has a chance to heal between workouts. Sounds to me like Teiko didn't let you have that time at all, especially you Kise since from what I heard your talent has rapidly evolved ever since you started playing. That kind of sharp increase is probably exactly why you were hurting all the time. Your muscles would have been constantly strained and torn without proper healing the way Teiko was doing things. I'm glad you have those growing pains under control at Kaijo, no one wants to see you in pain and it's better to play all out in this gang." He encouraged with a small smile on his passive face.

"Yes! This is so much better, you have no idea." Kise gushed, and for once no one blamed him.

Kagami was curious about something else though, "If they were such harsh task masters during camps, why'd they let you stop coming to practice?"

Aomine's gruff drawl answered him, "I already told you." He rebuffed. "Just because the first string didn't come practice with everyone else did not mean we weren't expected to stay in shape. We had to keep in top form on our own time. By that point we had been indoctrinated enough it didn't matter how we stayed in condition as long as we kept winning, and it must have worked because we never lost a game."

"Teiko never got in trouble for doing something so extreme to children?" Himuro had to ask, he couldn't help it because that was seriously far beyond anything he encountered, especially when remembering they were discussing middle school students.

"No, remember, we volunteered to be on the team." Kise reminded. "That was how they stayed out of trouble, any time concerns were brought up about the intensity of our practices the head-coach just reminded whoever was asking that any one of us could back out whenever we chose to. They weren't forcing, coercing, or paying us to stick it out; which cleared them of most liability issues as long as we had parental permission to continue; which we did."

"That's how much the game meant to you?" Himuro realized the sheer amount of determination it had to have taken to get through the trials Teiko had thrown at them, all of those boys had to have something driving them or they would have dropped out long ago.

"Yes," Kise responded with a broad smile. "We all have a different reason for playing, but we really do love it from the bottom of our hearts no matter how much Murasakibaracchi says he doesn't. It was Kurokocchi who reminded us of that."

"Tsuya is good at knocking some sense into people," Kagami agreed.

Himuro couldn't help himself from teasing his brother when he gave him such a good opening, "How's that working out for you? Seems like a lot to ask of him."

With a furious blush and playful tackle the brothers were off the steps and grappling in the grass off to the side. It had been a while since they had an impromptu wrestling match, though they used to indulge in them often back in LA.

Kise and Aomine watched the pair of them in shock, Aomine doing his best to look disinterested while Kise didn't even bother to hide his staring. They weren't trying to hurt each other, so no one was throwing any dangerous hits that would draw blood or compromise playing the next day, but it was obvious both brothers were strong and familiar with the other's style enough they could do so if they wanted to.

The match ended with Himuro's knee in the small of Kagami's back, his arm around the red-head's throat, pulling back until his little brother was forced to tap out so he could breathe.

Since Aomine already had an inkling the brothers were capable of such a thing from the confrontation Kagami had with him after finding out he had punched Haizaki, it was Kise who commented first, "Whoa, where did that come from?" He asked looking at the elder brunette in awe.

Seeing his brother too embarrassed to answer, Kagami did it for him. "A pretty boy growing up on the streets of LA needs to know how to fight. It's practically a given that if you spend much time outside you're going to be roughed up at some point no matter who you are, but it is worse if you happen to look like an easy target."

"You told me you knew how to fight, never said he was better," Aomine commented coolly, wondering what the reaction would be.

Here Himuro had to speak up, "That isn't always true," He refuted. "Taiga is stronger than me, I've just had a lot of practice taking people down who are larger. Also this was a fight where we really were just playing around, it would have been different if there was any strength in his hits. We both held back quite a bit."

Kise looked a bit hesitant before coming out and asking, "Could you teach me some of that?"

"You learn so fast I don't see why we couldn't, but why do you want to learn?" Himuro asked curiously.

"Did Kagamicchi ever tell you about the night a couple of us had to crash at his place?" Kise responded with a question, getting a shake to the negative from Himuro. "Well, long story short, we were waiting for news about Kurokocchi and Kagamicchi's Senpai and it was so late by the time we got the all clear that Akashicchi had to ask if I could stay instead of walking alone after dark. The others staying was just an add on. It was a fun time, so I can't really regret it, but I don't like being a burden on people and would feel a lot better about taking care of myself if I could do some of what you can." He explained, having realized that Himuro was essentially in the same boat as him, both too pretty for their own good. The difference being Himuro had done something about it.

"Didn't you say you already could take care of yourself, as long as you can see what's coming anyway?" Kagami didn't mean to say they wouldn't help Kise, he was just trying to understand the discrepancy.

"Normally yes," Kise didn't argue, "But all I can really do is punch my way out and run, I have nothing to back it up if someone is truly trying to hurt me. I wouldn't be able to fight them off if they knocked me down the way you two were just fighting." He elaborated.

"We'll show you what we can here at the camp then, and when it's over keep coming to Seirin and I'll show you more if you want." Kagami offered, realizing how serious this could end up being for the blonde model. The obsessions that could form around famous people weren't something to fool around with, and it seemed like Kise was only getting more popular as he matured.

"Thank you Kagamicchi, Himurocchi!" Kise grinned brightly in appreciation, making the brothers smile and Aomine roll his eyes at the display, but even the wild Touou Ace was glad to see him be a bit more proactive in his own protection. There was only so much other people could do and they didn't have Murasakibara to yank them out of trouble like they had at Teiko.

This was going to be an interesting adventure.