.

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The

Twilight

Void

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caroandlyn

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Prologue

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It is hot, and he is tired. Riko has driven them all the the ground with her training regime from hell, and now Kagami cannot even find the energy to haul himself from the grimy surface of the training room to his bunk in the dorms, preferably after a nice, long, cold shower.

Around him, his companions are all in the same predicate, red-faced and sweaty and exhausted. Hyuuga lies on his back, slumped and unmoving, like a turtle overturned on its shell. Mitobe leans against the wall, a hand over his face, effectively keeping the sweat that drips down from his forehead away from his eyes. Even Koganei, who could probably run a marathon and chatter the day away without any effort, has collapsed in the corner, panting visibly with hands drawn into tight fists.

"Alright, boys," Riko says cheerfully, and her voice is sweeter than poisoned honey. "That's enough work for today—" a collective groan of indignation "—and as a treat for all your hard work, I've made you all honeyed lemons!"

Silence immediately follows. Everybody knows how lethal their coach's cooking is, especially if said dish was made unsupervised. Riko has a natural talent for poison, only she does not seem to use it against enemies, but her own charges instead.

Hyuuga is the first to crack. "I'm going to go take a shower," he says, somehow garnering enough energy to push himself upwards and stagger away. "Don't bother leaving any food for me."

"Yeah, m-me too," says Furihata, following suit. "R-Riko-san, p-please don't save anything for me. It's fine."

Riko huffs angrily, looking mutinous. "Is my cooking that bad?" she says, and pulls out a large cooler from under the table. "You guys are grown men, you should be able to stomach anything. I added a whole bunch of vitamins inside here just for your benefit."

Nobody answers her. Somebody lets out a low-pitched keeling, a sound of mourning, as she struggles with the lid of the cooler, and the feeling of impending doom is high in the air. Kagami rolls over slightly, if only not to stare at what will no doubt cause him another week spent inside the dorms, sick with food poisoning. There is a click sound as Riko flips open the top—

—the sound of death bells ring in his ears—

—and promptly releases a sound of surprise.

Kagami turns over, and suddenly finds that he can breathe again:

The cooler is empty.

"That's not right—I was sure that I placed the honeyed lemons in here this morning—where did they go?" Riko wails, holding the empty container close to her torso. "And I spent half an hour last night trying to make them!"

Kagami thinks he sees a shadow moving on the wall behind her, but when he blinks, it is gone. He groans, shifting his weight upwards so he sits unsteadily on his knees. Perhaps his exhaustion is getting to his head. "I'll be leaving as well," he calls out, but he isn't sure Riko can hear him over the condolences his teammates offer about the missing lemons without revealing their own relief.

.

The shower helps, but not much. Kagami sprawls over his bed, unmoving, gazing blankly at the tenebrous wall beside him, feeling strangely lethargic. His muscles scream with agony even when he is still, and there is a dull pain that throbs in his lower ribs. Perhaps something has broken, or torn. He will ask Mitobe see to it later.

Lost in his thoughts, he almost does not hear the quiet rustling noise as the door softly creaks open.

"Who's there?" Kagami says loudly, pulling out a pistol from underneath his pillowcase and forcing himself to sit upwards. He leans against the wall, extending his arm towards the source of the noise. "I am armed, and not afraid to shoot. Reveal yourself at once."

The person—a boy, judging by the sound—laughs, a soft, breathless sound. "Is this any way to treat the person who just saved your life, Kagami-kun?" he says, almost mockingly. He has a smooth, childish voice, oddly hollow, as if speaking from another dimension completely; his words echo across the room, impossible to pinpoint. "Should you not repay the favor in kind, I believe the saying is?"

"What do you mean? How do you know my name?" Kagami asks, scrunching his eyebrows together. His tight hold on the gun does not yield. "And I don't recall anyone saving my life recently, especially—wait a second, you! You were that shadow on the wall, the one who stole Riko's honey lemons!"

"You are correct," the shadow says, sounding mechanic. "I am the Shadow Lord Kuroko, and the darkness is my domain. I have been watching you for quite a while, Kagami-kun. You are a very interesting human." The air in front of him ripples, and suddenly, in the space Kagami swears had held nothing before, is a prepubescent boy, tousled blue hair and icy cyan eyes, and stunningly beautiful. "Will you become my contractor?"

Kagami has of course heard of the Elemental Rulers of legend, more times than he would like to count, but never before has he ever imagined that one of them would suddenly appear and offer a contract to him. He sits, frozen, the pistol in his hand dropping to the floor with a loud thud. "Wha—what?"

"I imagine you heard me right the first time, Kagami-kun," Kuroko says dryly, lifting an eyebrow. "I asked if you were willing to become my contractor. I believe the answer is either a yes, or a no. Can you not understand me? Or is perhaps the pain dulling your thought system?" He waves a hand lazily, and then suddenly the pain is gone, as if it had never been there in the first place.

"I—I can understand what you're saying, but—" he swallows, trying to catch his breath. "Why me? Why did you choose me, of all people? I'm brash, loud, stupid—the only thing I'm good at is brawling. There's plenty of more talented people in this world."

"Do you wish for the truthful version of the answer, or the one which will make you feel better?" Kuroko asks drolly. When Kagami does not respond, he takes the silence as an answer. "You remind me of one of my older siblings. That is perhaps the only reason I asked for the contract. Now, what I'm looking for right now, is an answer. Please hurry, Kagami-kun. I am not fond of waiting."

Kagami bites his lip, hesitating. "I'll take it," he says, finally. "Okay, now what do I next?"

Kuroko blinks at him, as if he thought that Kagami was of low intelligence. "That was the contract, Kagami-kun. Your acceptance was what finished it."

"Wait a second—there's no complicated rituals, or anything like that? I don't need to chant in some long-lost language or do some kind of crazy hooligan dancing?"

"Of course not," Kuroko said coolly, brushing him off. "Although it was a gamble. If you did not accept the contract when offered, you would probably be dead right now. But by studying your reactions, I learned that there was an eighty-percent chance of you saying yes."

"Wait—you gambled my life for a contract? What if I had said no at the time?" Kagami stares, open mouthed and unable to stop himself. "You should have told me at the beginning, about the consequences!"

"I told you, you would be dead if your refused," Kuroko shrugs, "and I would move on. And if I had told you about the consequences early on, it would probably affect the results. I wanted you to choose of your volition."

"Yes, but—"

At the moment, the door slams open, and Riko stands triumphantly, holding a glass container in her hand. "I just finished with another batch of honey lem—Kagami Taiga, don't tell me you've been fooling around with random women when you were supposed to be properly resting?"

Kagami wants to groan—Riko has the worst timing ever. He can imagine the scene she sees: Kuroko stands directly in front of Kagami, and Kagami himself limp on the wall; his eyes widens his eyes in horror. "No, wait, Riko, it's not like that—"

Kuroko cuts in, "Riko-san, I believe this is a misunderstanding. I am not a girl. I am a boy."

That's all you're annoyed about? Kagami thinks, screaming mentally.

"I said, this is a misunderstanding," he says desperately, all too happy to explain. "I was somehow conned into a contract with an Elemental Ruler, and it also happens that if I refuse, I die. And he's also the Lord of the Shadows or something like that and apparently I remind him of his older brother or something like that which is why he chose me. Or at least that's the reason he gave me, I'm not sure if it's true but I hope it is because if it isn't then that means either I'm completely mentally insane which makes me interesting enough or powerful enough to capture the attention of a god, which is highly unlikely and something that will probably never happen so rest assured, Riko, and don't look at me with that face, it creeps me out seriously."

He pauses, and takes a deep breath. "We are not involved, we just met a few minutes ago."

"Hmm?" Riko says, crossing her arms and eyeing them both sternly. Kuroko looks unperturbed. "Well, then, Kagami, since you like to talk so much, care to explain?"

Kagami gulps violently, crossing his fingers behind his back and hoping for the best.

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Later, as he sprawls on the hard surface of his futon and watches the sleeping form of Kuroko, he thinks of the conversation they had had after Riko's impromptu interrogation had ended.

"Am I a pawn to you?" he has asked, tight lipped, frowning. "Do you view me but as a disposable source of entertainment?"

"No," Kuroko had said, and smiled mysteriously. "Humans are such suspicious creatures, aren't they? What I have been looking for, after all these years of wandering, is but a friend."

.

His teammates take the news of Kagami being an Elemental Ruler contractor surprisingly well. They accept Kuroko, too, even though half the time the Shadow Lord is away doing whatever an Elemental Lord does, and is strangely exempted from eating Riko's poison cooking.

And so, the next few months pass by in peace.

Until the green comes, and swallows up the world.