1

A blind winter sky that looked down upon the grass frosted with white crystals.

Grey light filtering in through the clouds, like giant white rods piercing straight to the ground.

A tree of crows below the sky-rails.

These were the last things Kuroko remembered seeing. They weren't his favorite memories to call upon.

He'd rather think about the warm sunsets he used to watch with his parents. The rolling waves of the oceans. The sunflowers as they turned their faces to the sun. Clouds, suspended outside his window. The sky so blue.

Kuroko ran a hand across the surface of his desk, feeling the small inconsistencies in the machine-smoothed wood. A bump here, a ridge there. These were the tiny things that made up his world now.

There was a soft knock on his door, and he heard it open.

"Kuroko-kun? Are you ready? It's almost time for your surgery."

He rose from his desk, one hand lingering on the tabletop to guide him to the doorway.

"Yes."

"Just hold onto my arm, now… no need for that silly cane anymore."

"It's not silly," Kuroko said lightly as his hand was guided to a clothed arm. "It's been like a light for me the past year."

"Yes, yes, silly me," the nurse tittered. "I'm sure it has been. I just tripped on one this morning, so you must understand my ill sentiments… You are quite lucky, you know…"

Kuroko had never seen Nurse Furi, but he imagined her to be a sixty-year-old woman a bit on the chubby side with a round face and a pink nose. He didn't know how old she was actually, only expected her to be at least fifty five since she was always talking about 'when I was your age'—much like how she was now. That, and how she tended to repeat the same story over and over again…

"…there was a time when this hospital didn't have those magnetized routes for your canes. All the patients would need a nurse when they wanted to walk around—because this was after the great Dog Culling of eight years ago, back when, you know, when—with the Dog Flu epidemic. Especially when they wanted to go outside…"

They were in an elevator now; so far, Kuroko had heard the floor bell ring twelve times.

"…When I was your age, cities were still on the ground. Now they're like people's ideas—high up in the clouds with weak little foundations that could go toppling over at any moment…"

The elevator doors popped open, and a hand grabbed Kuroko by the arm and dragged him out.

"Ah, Nurse Furi, thank you so much for bringing Kuroko down here. I'm sure he's enjoyed listening to your stories for the eleventh time, but we must get going. We don't want to be late!"

Nurse Furi, by the sound of her voice, didn't seem slighted at all and told them to shoo off like the young children they were. Kuroko heard her grumbles from around the corner as he was led away at a brisk pace.

"That was ruder than usual, Furihata-san."

Furihata laughed nervously.

"Well! If I'm late today, then Riko-san will really have my head, and that'd be no good because I have a date—uh."

"A date?"

Kuroko could feel Furihata's embarrassment and pride rolling off him in waves.

"Yes, well, I am twenty, so it's no surprise—everybody always seems so surprised when I say—you know what, forget it. We're late, and I'm screwed—" Kuroko heard the doors swish open, "and oh boy there are a lot of reporters here."

Kuroko was bombarded by the stench of sweat and hot air as whoever was in the room leapt to their feet and came at him like starving mosquitoes.

"No questions!" Furihata yelped desperately. "No questions and no photos! Please make way, we're already late!"

"Just one question!"

"One question for the boy!"

"He's not a boy either, he's eighteen years old and—"

"How does it feel—"

"Any words for the Akashi Company—"

"Are you looking forward to getting your sight back?"

A blind winter sky that looked down upon the grass frosted with white crystals.

That was the last thing Kuroko remembered seeing, though he'd much rather think about how the golden sunsets turned suspended dust into little stars.

And for the next year, that would be the last thing Kuroko had ever seen. It was a twisted blessing that his sight was all that he had lost; it was a miracle that he had even lived. For in this world, where vehicular pods rode along rails in the sky amongst skyscrapers standing far above the tallest trees, when one rail broke, it meant a long, long fall.

Was he looking forward to getting his sight back?

That question didn't even need an answer.

"Ah, Kuroko-kun," an authoritative voice cut through the chaos. "If you would come with me. And Furihata-kun, Riko-san would much enjoy your presence in her office when the operation is over."

"I knew it…" Kuroko heard Furihata mutter as his wrist was taken.

"Reporters, I know your job is to make stories, but making stories will come after this boy has gotten back his sight. Kuroko-kun, if you will…"

Displeased grumbles rolled through his bones. He heard a door slide open, and the room exhaled a cool breath of air against his skin. He slipped inside quietly.

"I'm Imayoshi, the head surgeon of this little group," the man leading him introduced himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you. In a few minutes, you'll meet my assistant Sakurai Ryou and my superior Harasawa Katsunori. You think you're ready for the big surgery?"

Imayoshi's voice was lilting, somewhat comforting and discomforting all at once. Kuroko shrugged his assent. Imayoshi chuckled.

"Very good. Ah, Sakurai, I hope you haven't been waiting long?"

"No! Sorry!"

"Alright, Kuroko, if you'll sit here… First we'll put you under some very strong anesthesia, and then Sakurai here will begin the surgery—"

"Sorry!"

"Yes, yes, we all know you're sorry," Imayoshi said a little exasperatedly. "The surgery should take nine hours, tops."

"Nine?" Kuroko echoed.

"Nine," Imayoshi confirmed. "It's not easy even with robots to connect somebody's optic nerve all to everything. Don't worry, we'll wake you up, do a few tests, and send you out on your way where no doubt you will run into hordes of reporters clamoring to get your story. Sound good to you?"

"I suppose so."

A hand ruffled his hair. Kuroko ducked his head.

"When you wake up, an annoying guy called Kiyoshi Teppei will be running through some tests with you with Chiri—you know what Chiri is, right?"

"I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with Chiri."

"Chiri is the most recent medical robot the Akashi Company put on the market the beginning of this year. Akashi was gracious enough to donate one to our cause in addition to providing us with all the materials our biomedical engineering squad needed to make your eyes. It makes you wonder what they want from us…" Imayoshi trailed off into a mutter. "Drowning us in so much debt…"

"I-Imayoshi-san…"

"Conspiracies aside," Imayoshi said, sliding back into his lilting voice. "When you wake up, you might see something that looks like a naked human that's completely white. That'll be Chiri."

It sounded as if Sakurai were setting something up behind the table on which Kuroko was sitting. Imayoshi had begun to pace around the room, and Kuroko could feel the lights dim a little.

"I'll fill you in on the procedure. We'll hook everything up to the right nerves, and if Sakurai here messes that up, he's fired. Side-effects of a failed surgery include, but are not limited to: death, death, and death. But don't worry, Sakurai won't mess up."

"Sorry!"

Imayoshi chuckled darkly.

"Chiri will initially be linked to your eyes and be recording everything. In simple terms: we'll be projecting on a wall what you're seeing with your new eyes using Chiri. Once we determine everything's working fine, Chiri's connection will be cut, and you will be a free man. Everything clear?"

Kuroko nodded once.

"Good boy. Let's get down to business. Ryou…"

Through the window of the pod, Kuroko watched the still winter sky as they whizzed along the rails a thousand feet from the ground. His parents chattered quietly at the front of the driver-less contraption. The traffic was slower than usual; it was rush hour, and the sky rails were clogged with pods.

Everything had a muted quality to it that day, so fitting when they were all blanketed by a grey sky. Kuroko peered from the window to the earth below, wistfully thinking back to the days when the fields were choked by blazing sunflowers. While the lull of winter was peaceful, it was lonely and monotone, with only the blue sky breaking the stone-grey world on occasion.

But that monotony was suddenly shattered in a much different way than Kuroko would ever had desired.

It started with a single scream…

"Alright, I think that concludes the operation."

A deeper voice, slightly muffled as though through a speaker. "Okay, great job, guys. Let's wake him up and do a run through the checklist. Chiri, wake up."

"Jeez, no matter how many times I see it, that robot creeps me out—"

"Shut up!"

The voice on the speaker chuckled. "Okay, let's have fun! Chiri, begin filming."

"Ahem. September 15, 2087. Teikou Hospital, Institution X. Biomedical engineering squad. Leaders: Kiyoshi Teppei, Hyuuga Junpei, Momoi Satsuki, Riko Aida. Surgeons: Harasawa Katsunori, Imayoshi Shoichi, Sakurai Ryou. Absentees: Hyuuga Junpei, Momoi Satsuki. Patient #16847, Kuroko Tetsya. Male. 18. 168 cm, 54 kg, BMI 19.2. Completely blinded due to eye injury and head trauma in 2086. Patient number 11 for artificial eye implant; patient number one to have both eyes replaced with robotics. Commencing tests. Wake him up."

"Order received. In three… two… one…"

All he remembered was a sudden tremor through the rails, like an earthquake had manifested within the roads suspended above earth. In horror, he could do nothing but watch a deadly wave travel through the steel rails, tossing pods high into the air before they began their plummet.

And just before that wave hit their pod, the sun broke free from the veil of clouds, sending rods of light to pierce the earth…

And then their pod was tossed into the air like a paper plane might have been, tumbling, falling, streaking down…

There was an awful screech of twisting metal, screams, shouts, and Kuroko caught sight of a flock of crows setting flight from the tree in which they'd just landed…

And when he'd next woken up, it was into a pitch-black darkness that would last for the next year.

Pale peach. Pink. Black. Light blue. Electric blue. Two electric blue eyes mirrored his movements. He brought the mirror close until his nose was almost pressing against it.

"Do you like them?"

Up close, he could see tiny rings of dark blue that continuously zigzagged across the 'iris.' The black holes that were his 'pupils' began to contract and expand. The whites of his eyes were whiter than any natural ones, unblemished, without the veins he remembered seeing in his original eyes.

"Yes."

"Good," Imayoshi said. "Now then, if you look to the back of the room, you'll see what you're seeing being projected on the wall. That's all being done by Chiri, which I told you about before your operation."

Kuroko nodded, fixing his eyes on the white robot whose movements were too fluid to be natural. Out of his peripheries, he could tell that on the wall was being projected the white robot just as Kuroko was seeing it.

"If you look through the window, you'll see my supervisor. Over intercom, he'll be leading you through a series of vision tests, and once we deem you a perfect product, you'll be a free man."

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Don't thank me," Imayoshi chuckled. "Thank the Akashi company. Or don't, since they'll probably bring this debt up in the future and make you—"

A voice crackled in over the intercom, cutting the surgeon off.

"That's enough, Imayoshi. Now, Kuroko-kun, you probably want to get out of here as soon as possible, so if you'll just follow my instructions… Chiri, begin recording."

The world outside hadn't changed much in his sight's absence; nevertheless, he stood still for a full five minutes, simply absorbing all there was to see. In the middle of Teikou city, he was where the latest technology and architecture resided. Buildings made entirely of reflective glass that acted also as solar panels shivered on their foundations, moving slowly to mime the sun's movements like a sunflower would. Linking the rooftops of the tallest buildings of over twenty stories high were long stretches of glass. They were like bridges, stretching out and casting their shadows over the ground below, only they were used for agricultural purposes. A thick layer of soil covered the glass in which the latest genetically engineered crops grew.

External elevators climbed the skyscrapers, leading to railways in the air on which small pod-like vehicles swept away. Nearly everything was off-ground now except for farms, as humans had overturned almost all the asphalt highways marring the earth in their attempts to make amends for their reckless pollution of the earlier years. Instead of roads now, there were forests clinging to the bottoms of every building. The tallest trees embraced the medium-sized skyscrapers and engulfed the smaller, shorter homes. Small trails ran through the wilderness below for recreational purposes, but otherwise, life was lived mainly in the tops of the trees and above. Now that upper levels of the troposphere were being used for life, people were more careful with the air pollution.

Kuroko boarded one elevator and hopped into a yellow, driver-less taxi pod and punched in a destination. He wanted to see his parents first. He wanted to stick his head out the windows to watch the ground whizz past, but settled with sticking his face against the glass for the view. At the speed the pod was going, the wind would whip his head off his shoulders. It took only a few moments for Kuroko to reach his destination. Another elevator took him to the earth, where his electric blue eyes adjusted to the dimmer sunlight filtering through the canopy.

He took his time in getting to his parents' home, observing red birds flit through branches and white-spotted deer picking their way through the underbrush. It seemed as if no time had passed at all when he arrived. He halted, arranged his face in as wide a smile he could muster, and bowed his head.

"Good evening, father, mother. Have you been doing well? I've gotten my eyes back."

He sat on his haunches and pulled a few weeds from the grass surrounding the granite slab in the ground that read Kuroko Kyoko, Kuroko Toru, loving mother and father. 2047-2086, 2046-2086.

"I'd forgotten how amazing it is to be able to see. I took it for granted, I guess, but now I know to treasure it."

He cleaned the tombstone thoroughly, enjoying how he was able to wipe off every last speck of visible dirt.

"Kise-kun, the friend I told you about last time I visited, is going to go through the same operation I had in a few days. I promised him I would stay in Teikou until he got out so that we could try to get our lives back on track together, so I think I'll rent a hotel for now. And then I'll look for an apartment and apply to some universities, since you always wanted me to get a degree in something I love."

He listened to the wind whistle through the treetops for a while, watching as the sky gradually grew darker and darker.

"…I want to see the sunset from somewhere high, so I'll be going now. Take care. I'll visit again soon."

One last bow, and he was gone, headed for the highest rooftop he could find.

Kuroko got a room in the SKYline Aomine Hotel, using the inheritance from his parents' wills to pay the costs. Exhausted from the day's excitement, he kicked off his shoes and fell onto the bed, face-down, arms and legs spread out. Though it wasn't late, it didn't take long for him to drift off in the dark room that overlooked the city lights.

He began to dream.

Dreaming was a long time favorite activity for Kuroko. It had been the only time when he could see colors. He took solace in that fact and slept as long as he could, enjoying every dream he had, waking up disappointed after a night without dreaming. His dreams were often of his past, with his parents and an old childhood friend he hadn't seen in years who went by the name of Ogiwara Shigehiro. The most recurring dream, however, was of the accident in which both his parents died. They were in a pod, cruising along the railways smoothly, five hundred feet above the ground when an enormous tremor ran through the railings, sending them lurching forward into the next pod. Then, Kuroko would wake up into darkness and would try to quickly forget what he'd relived.

The dream he had that night was rather strange, as if he were looking through the eyes of someone else. There was no sound, no sense of touch, no taste, no smell. It was dark, nighttime, and he seemed to be sitting in a very luxurious room, looking out the windows into a dark sky laced with orange. Suddenly, the sight swerved, traveling across the room to face the door, which was opening. A man came through, a man with very dark red hair and matching eyes. He seemed to be saying something, but Kuroko couldn't hear. Kuroko could only guess that the man was displeased with something, judging by the severe downward curve to his lips. He grew uncomfortable, unable to move in this dream-body of his, only capable of watching the man shout and grow more and more furious until his anger drove him to picking up a mirror hanging on one wall and hurling it in Kuroko's direction. The mirror shattered against the window, and the man left. A maid scurried in, looking frightened, but backed out of the door, bowing courteously, as if Kuroko had motioned her to leave. He was bending over the broken glass now, picking up the broken pieces until skin broke and blood began to run, splattering against the glass. The hands collecting the glass halted, palms up with the mirror bits reflecting a pale face, pale lips, red hair, and a pair of very mismatched eyes.

Kuroko stared into those eyes, transfixed not only by their odd red-gold coordination, but more so by their complete and utter hollowness. They betrayed no emotion as they stared into themselves in the mirror piece. Then, a flash of pure frustration splashed across them, and the hand clenched tightly around the glass fragments, and Kuroko had time to see blood spurt before his own electric blue eyes opened into a soft morning light coloring his very blank hotel room.

Rewrite: 5/6/2015