Chapter 8:
Their story revolved around basketball.

He was skipping class and napping on the roof as usual when someone approached him, standing in a way that casted a shadow over him. Opening his eyes grumpily, he glared sleepily at the intruder. "What do you want?"

"Aominecchi, you really shouldn't skip class so often."

That caused him to blink and sit up. "Huh? Kise? What are you doing here? What time is it? It couldn't be time for practice already. I couldn't have actually slept the whole day away, could I? I swear, it was lunch like…5 minutes ago!"

The blond laughed and shook his head. "Lunch was half an hour ago. I was supposed to be on my way to ask one of the third year teachers for some video we're supposed to watch in class today but decided to take a detour and see if you were here."

Letting out a yawn, he frowned. "Why? So you could disrupt my nap?"

"No, that wasn't what I was aiming for. It's just that…" There was an uncharacteristic pause. It reminded him of the time Kise asked to join the basketball club. The model looked around, fumbling for the right words. "So I came to a realization recently and I think that I…"

Impatient, Aomine urged the other to hurry up so that he could return to his nap. "Hurry up and tell me already! What is this? A love confession?"

Amber eyes widened. "Y-yes! How'd you know?"

There was an awkward pause between the two.

"Oh…" That was the only word he managed to get out of his mouth.

The blond looked equally sheepish as he stared at his feet. "Yeah…I just realized it myself a little while ago. I think I've come to like you, Aominecchi…"

Holding a hand up, he tried to piece his thoughts together. The other boy 'loved' just about everything and everyone, so what did he mean? "Wait. What about basketball?"

Kise blinked and tilted his head slightly. "Huh? What about basketball? I love basketball."

He raised a brow. "And Tetsu?"

There was a wide grin on the other's face as he answered enthusiastically, "I love Kurokocchi!"

"And everyone on the basketball team?"

"I like all of them too!"

Sighing at the other's excessive use of the words 'love' and 'like', he rested his head on his arm. "Then exactly what kind of 'like' are you talking about when you're talking about me?"

Kise's face quickly reddened as he averted his eyes. "The way I like Kurokocchi and Aominecchi is different…"

Though Aomine was pretty sure he'd correctly understood what the other had meant by his words, he had to double check just in case. "So this is an actual love confession and not an 'I've come to realize that you're actually a decent guy' confession?"

"Yes…"

"Alright," he began slowly, "so now what? What do you want to do? Date or something?"

The blond looked over at him in surprise and blinked a couple times. "Huh?"

He could feel his own face heating up as he let out an exasperated huff. "What's with that stupid face? You just confessed, didn't you? Well, I'm not saying no or anything. So what happens now? Most girls want to jump straight into dates, but I don't know what you want."

The confused expression on the other's face didn't disappear. "Aominecchi, you…you don't think it's gross to be confessed to by a guy?"

Looking away out of embarrassment, he spoke in a low tone, "Not particularly…I mean, you don't have breasts or anything but that doesn't make your confession particularly gross. Words and feelings don't have breasts so you can only judge them by their level of sincerity. Besides, it might not even work out since I'm pretty sure I only like girls. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm willing to give it a try and see if maybe I'll come to like you that way. Don't get your hopes up though."

"Aominecchi…"

There was a loud sniffle, causing him to turn his attention back to the blond in shock. "Wha…? Oi, why are you crying? You didn't even get rejected or anything! Stop crying already, Kise! If anyone sees you crying, I'll get in trouble with your fans, you know? Shouldn't you be happy right now, you idiot?"

Kise shook his head, wiping his eyes hastily. "I'm really happy! It was just unexpected, that's all. Aominecchi's so kind, I love you! I didn't expect you to take me seriously at all. It's like basketball, even though I just started awhile ago, you play against me seriously."

Though he'd never admit it out loud, there was a feeling inside him that if he didn't take the blond seriously, whether it was in love or in basketball, he'd come to regret it later on in his life. He laughed. "Don't be stupid! I always take basketball seriously. Anyways, I'm just treating these things as seriously as you. I wouldn't have taken you confession seriously at all if you didn't look like you were about to run away and bawl your eyes out the entire time."

The blond huffed and let out a protest. "I didn't look like that! But I did think that my heart would explode or something, it was thumping so hard!"

Patting the other on the shoulder mock-sympathetically, Aomine let out another sigh. "Yes, yes, I realize that it must've been really difficult. But it's done and over with now, right? So what exactly are we supposed to do about it now?"

"Honestly, I hadn't thought that far ahead. Umm…for now, until you reach a decision about all of this, I really just want to play basketball with you," the model replied with his usual sunny smile on his face.

Raising a brow, he couldn't help but chuckle at the simplicity of it all. "Basketball? I can definitely agree to that. Guess I'll see you at practice then. Oh, by the way, weren't you supposed to go get a video for your class or something? Won't they be wondering about why you've been gone for so long?"

Giving a jump, Kise's eyes widened as he bolted for the door to the stairwell. "Crap! I completely forgot about that! I have to go! See you at practice, Aominecchi!"

For the rest of the day, all Aomine could think of was that very unexpected confession from his friend. Then he thought about how it'd be different from all the past relationships he's had. Most of them ended the same way. It was either 'sorry, you weren't the person I thought you were' or 'you clearly treasure basketball a lot and I respect that, but I need someone who'll make time for me'. And when asked to choose between a girl and basketball, he never failed to choose the sport. After all, basketball was constant whereas girls were fickle and mostly replaceable by other girls with larger breasts.

He wondered if it'd be different with Kise. The blond already knew what kind of person he could be at his worst: blunt, insensitive, thick-headed, an academic slacker and aggressive. There'd be no disillusion there. And the basketball problem wouldn't be an issue since the other boy was just as passionate about the sport as he was, and spending time together wouldn't be a problem either since they were both in the same club. Humming to himself as he thought about it further, the whole idea wasn't that bad after all. "It might actually work out pretty well…"

The only problem now was to figure out whether or not he could come to like the blond. And while he was on that note, since when did Kise start liking men? Last he remembered, the blond had girls lining up to date him and he'd gone out with quite a few of them, including the one that Haizaki stole. Mentally, he decided that he'd have to ask the other about it later. Or maybe he'd ask Momoi since the two of them had been talking a lot since Kise became a regular.

Letting out a sigh, Aomine frowned up at the sky. If only Kise had breasts, then that'd solve everything.

The two of them stayed late that day to play 1-on-1 as usual. Momoi had gone home early to study for an upcoming test that they'd consciously chosen to neglect. And as usual, he'd won with ease.

Kise was lying on the ground and panting. "This isn't fair! I can't believe I lost again! I almost had it too! I'll definitely beat you next time, Aominecchi!"

He laughed. "Yeah, right, of course you will. You're still a thousand years too early to even think about beating me in a match, you idiot!"

The blond returned the laugh. "You just keep telling yourself that. I'll win eventually, and then we'll see who's laughing at who!"

"The only place you'll ever win against me is in your dreams." Walking over to the bench to grab his towel, he tossed the blonde's over to him. "Come on, it's getting late. Hurry up and change so we can get home, yeah?"

Sitting up, Kise grabbed the towel and asked him eagerly. "Oh, can we get ice cream on the way? Please?"

He shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not?"

On the way to the convenience store, they talked about things they never had before. He found out why Kise took on his modelling job and what his situation at home was like. All in all, it was quite different from his and Momoi's where their parents were quite well off, enough to provide them with everything they could possibly need. He also found out that they both relied heavily on Midorima's lucky pencil during tests. And after they'd bought their ice cream and were making their way home, he asked (bluntly as usual), "So when'd you suddenly start liking guys?"

The blond looked up in thought and answered honestly, "I'm not sure. I don't think I like all guys, or even most guys for that matter. Don't get me wrong, even though I confessed to you, I still think girls are really cute and I find them attractive, so I'm pretty sure it's just you."

"Oh…" He was glad that it was dark out since he could feel a wave of embarrassment hit him. "Out of all people, why me? I would've expected you to like Tetsu first or something."

"I do really like Kurokocchi. I absolutely love him! As a friend, I'd choose him over you any day! ("Oi! Don't say it so happily!") But it's not the same. I'm not sure how to describe it." Kise glanced over at him. "I can tell you why I like you though! If I were to ask you to choose between me and basketball, which would you choose?"

He blinked and paused for a moment. He hadn't expected to have to choose between the two before he'd even decided on whether he liked the guy or not. But as always, his answer was, "I'd choose basketball, of course."

Kise smiled. "That's why I like you, Aominecchi."

Not quite understanding what'd just happened, he let out an intelligent "Huh?"

Eating his ice cream happily, the blond mentioned lightly, "If you ever come to like me more than basketball, I'd probably break up with you…" Then he quickly added, "That is, based on the assumption that we actually end up going out, of course."

Aomine remained silent for a moment, unsure of what to make of that statement. But by then, they neared the intersection where they normally went their separate ways and he had a choice to make. Though they weren't going out or anything and that Kise was a boy, the fact that he'd confessed to him made him feel obligated to walk him a little further to the train station.

"Well, I guess this is me…" The blond trailed off as the taller boy continued walking beside him. "Aominecchi?"

"Shut up and keep walking. The station isn't that much further anyways. I'm just walking the ice cream off," he spoke louder than was necessary out of embarrassment. He felt even more self-conscious when he began thinking about how normal couples would be holding hands in situations like these.

Kise stared at him in disbelief for a moment before beaming at him. It was a smile he'd never seen before, one that was shy but so full of happiness it filled him with warmth, not that he'd ever admit it to anyone. The rest of their walk was silent with the blond grinning to himself while he avoided all eye contact with the other boy, trying to clear his head of all those embarrassing thoughts.

Their relationship remained the same as it always had and Aomine didn't reach his decision until another couple weeks later, when he woke up from a particularly disturbing dream.

They were playing in the outdoor court by the school because it was exam time and the gym was being used as always. As expected, they played until the sun began setting and they were the only ones left in the court. Kise was lying on the ground, having lost again, and he was sitting beside him, laughing. "Are you sure you should be lying on the ground like that, model-san? Won't your fans be upset if you get dirt in your perfect hair?"

The blond huffed. "Whatever, I'm going to shower after I get home anyways. I can't believe I lost again! Why can't I ever seem to win? Aominecchi, let's play again!"

Frowning, he stared at the other in disbelief. "Huh? Again? No way! It's getting late! I'm going home!"

Kise began kicking his feet in the air like a child. "Again! Again! Please!"

"I said no, so just drop it already!"

"But Aominecchi, just one more! Please-"

He cut the blond off with a kiss. "I said no, idiot!"

The model didn't reply and merely stared at him, eyes widened and jaw agape. Then slowly, colour began rushing to his cheeks. "Aominecchi…did you just…?"

"Huh? That? Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he announced, "So I've finally come to a decision. And that was it."

The blond asked quieter than usual, "…and how'd you reach this decision?"

Though he'd hoped that he wouldn't be asked that, there was nothing he could do but to answer honestly. A light blush on his face, he looked away as he answered, "I had this really erotic dream about you this morning. I mean, if I can jack off to you, then that must mean I'm attracted to you, right?"

At this, Kise covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "To be able to say something like that so bluntly…Aominecchi, you're just the worst…"

"What? You asked so I answered! Are you telling me that you've never jacked off to me before?"

Much to his amusement, he'd never seen the blond go speechless like that before.

The pro shot him an annoyed look. "You know, last night, thanks to you guys, I wasn't even able to enjoy the company of my guest properly. I ended up walking over to Teikou instead…it's stupid, but I began remember all these things. If anyone had asked about them before yesterday, I probably wouldn't have been able to answer them," Aomine spoke contemplatively, still looking upwards.

Kagami offered an understanding nod. "Brains have a way doing that, remembering things at random times and all that. So you two continued dating even after middle school?"

"That's right. Kise…made me work hard in middle school. When you have someone close who admired you as much as Kise did, you don't want to disappoint. But at the same time, the harder I worked, the less interesting basketball became, just because no one could beat me." He heaved a sigh. "Teikou… those were the good times. If you want to know, we didn't have actual sex until the day after we graduated. But that was mostly because Akashi would've killed us if anything we did impaired our skills during practice or matches. So fuck anything Haizaki said."

The detective didn't dignify him with a response.

Aomine let out a laugh. "What? Weren't you the one who wanted to know everything?"

The redhead coughed uncomfortably, clearly trying to remain composed. "I don't think I'll need to know every detail of your teenager sex life, thanks. So moving on, I understand that you two didn't go to the same high school?"

The taller man shrugged. "For the longest time, I thought we were going to. That guy was always talking about how cool their uniforms looked and all, but in the end, he chose Kaijou. I chose Touou because I heard they developed a good reputation in basketball in recent years, and they were pretty slack when it came to school. I'm not like Midorima where it's all about name and prestige, you know? I asked Kise why he changed his mind and he just said that instead of playing with me all the time, he wanted to play against me. It sounded like something he'd say so I didn't press it."

Kagami tapped his pen against his cheek as he listened to the other. "You don't sound particularly convinced though, even now."

"No…in retrospect, he probably knew that if he went to Touou, we would've broken up. With the way I was skipping classes and practice in my first year, I'm surprised they didn't just kick me out of school altogether. A lot of the times he came to visit, he ended up forcing me to attend practice before he'd even consider hanging out. I tried to bribe him with pretty much anything you can think of: 1-on-1 matches, sex, food, money, porn magazines…he wouldn't budge."

"So did everyone on your team know about your relationship with Kise?"

"Hmm? Yeah. Everyone on both our teams knew and the guys back at Teikou knew so…chances are that most of the people in basketball knew about it. My team probably wasn't too keen on the whole thing, but they never said anything about it so I never really cared. He got along pretty well with Ryou though and he and Satsuki got along as well as always."

"So it didn't affect your matches at all? Even when you played against Kaijou? I'm sure your team must've been worried about your performance."

"That's the problem with having a relationship that revolves around a sport. It consumes you to the point where you lose sight of what's what. Like, what do you do when you have to play a match against the other? You can't lose because you want to live up to their standards but winning's not that great of an option either since it's not like you can just go and comfort someone you just beat, someone who tried their best against you, and tell them it wasn't a big deal. All you can do is stand there and watch. Always being stuck in situation like that gets tiring."

Kagami blinked. "Oh, I think I've heard someone say something like that before when we met Midorima and Takao…"

"Oh, they're still together? No way." The pro perked up in mild interest at the mention of his old teammate but then digressed. "During that first year of high school, I was seriously stuck. Basketball had become boring for me since no one could really pose much of a challenge for me, but I wasn't willing to quit. It was partially because of that stupid question Kise always asked me. 'Me or basketball?' If I were to quit basketball then I'd obviously be lying if I said 'basketball,' right? So by quitting, I would've lost both things." He let out a sigh, "But it was really tense between us after Interhigh…we both said a lot of things during that match."

"I'm going to stop admiring you…"

"You're the one I can't stand the most!"

"And it took awhile for us to start talking normally again…"

The atmosphere was tense. Although they were just sitting around, watching television and reading magazines, the atmosphere was impossible to ignore. Glancing over the other, Aomine wondered if the blond was still thinking about their match; not so much about the loss as the words that he'd carelessly spat out. Thinking back, he never realized how different they'd grown. Kise had followed Kuroko's path while he continued on his own, relying on no one but himself.

For him, the hardest part was the distance after the match ended. He never realized how hard it would be, seeing the other on the ground while unable to reach his hand out to just so much as to help him up. Watching Kasamatsu help the blond up onto his feet, he couldn't help but think that that should've been him instead. In Teikou, when Haizaki had beaten him, he'd been there to give words of support and encouragement. But when he was the one doing the winning, there was nothing he could say or do to make things better. Not for the first time, he could only feel bitter towards the sport that'd brought them together in the first place. It didn't help that the blond continued talking to everyone else, even those on his team, except him afterwards.

"Aominecchi…why are you glaring at your magazine like that? Did they make Mai-chan wear something ridiculous? Oh hey, that's the magazine I'm in this month! And that's my centerfold you're glaring at! …are you still mad at me for copying your moves?"

Blinking, he looked over. "You think I'm mad at you? You're the one who was pissed off."

The other boy didn't deny it. "Yeah, I sulked for awhile, but I'm over it now. It was weird, not being able to rant to you about it or being able to come to you for extra practice. Even though you beat me, that doesn't mean I'm just going to give up, you know? Besides, you looked so cool, I can't help but forgive you. I guess I was just disappointed…"

"Huh? In what?"

"Myself."

There was something else about the match that the blond wasn't saying, but he decided that it wasn't the right time to ask.

"…how's your leg? After that match, you couldn't even stand on your own."

The model gave a rueful grin. "Oh, you remembered that? It's a lot better now. Hopefully it won't act up again. Sempai was really thoughtful. You should've seen him. He piggybacked me all the way to the train station even though he was exhausted. And every time I asked him to put me down, he just told me, 'Shut up, we're almost there!' Wasn't that cool of him, Aominecchi?"

Reluctantly, he answered, "Yeah…how cool."

Annoyance ticked inside him. There it was again; the feeling that he was in the wrong place, at the wrong school, doing the wrong thing. It should've been him piggybacking the blond. It should've been him telling Kise to shut up. It should've been them winning that match, not just him alone.

Amber eyes studied him for a moment before asking teasingly, "Aominecchi, are you jealous? There's no need to be, you know? You're still really cool, I swear! And you're still the one I like. I still lo-ve you!"

He snorted. "Yeah, yeah. Like anyone would get jealous over an idiot like you."

The blond pouted. "That's mean, Aominecchi."

Glad that the tension was gone between them, he lied down on the couch and rested his head on the other's lap. It took awhile to get used to, but the feel of muscles under his head as opposed to the softness that girls had became a source of comfort to him. "So, what exactly did you mean by 'you're going to stop admiring me'?"

A small smile. "Oh that? I meant that next time, I'm going to aim to play against you as your equal, Aominecchi. And next time, I'll win for sure."

"Sure. You're still a hundred years too early to beat me."

Kise looked down at him. "And what did you mean by 'you're the one I can't stand the most'?"

"I meant exactly that. You're going to drive me insane someday. I absolutely can't stand you, Kise." He grinned playfully and pulled the other down for a kiss.

The blonde's cheeks were tinted slightly pink as he muttered, "You're so mean, Aominecchi…"

"And then things were pretty much back to normal after that. We didn't really see each other all that much since we were all busy with training until the Winter Cup when Tetsu managed to beat me."

Kagami raised a brow. "I find that very hard to believe…"

"Yeah, well, Tetsu's not a bad player. His skills are just very different from most other people's, but he's pretty reliable during matches. So after that loss, I suddenly felt like playing basketball again if only to beat Tetsu to show him who's boss. I guess after winning for so long, finally losing a match refreshed things for me. Everything just seemed to have gotten better after that…Kise had been staying at my place while the tournament was going on. He made it to the semi-finals after that incident with that bastard Haizaki."

He tried his best to hide the amusement in his voice. "The one where you punched him in the face?"

The pro shrugged nonchalantly. "That's the one. It was really his own fault for being an idiot; first by playing dirty on the court, then by egging me on afterwards. I told him to stop any idiotic ideas he had against Kise or Tetsu and he said something like 'Well, you're going to have to stop me by force.' So I did. I wish I beat him up some more. I mean, I had to carry Kise back because of his foot afterwards while he whined about how dumb I was for punching the bastard."

Though it was in the form of a complaint, Aomine had a rather pleased tone in his voice as he remembered carrying the blond back to his apartment. He could still recall with great detail what a relieve it was to finally be able to say, 'That was a good match. You did a good job, Kise.' and the smile he received for it.

The detective mentally noted the warmth in his voice as he continued, "And did anything else happen between then and the night of the banquet?"

"Hmm… Not really. On that night, after we left the banquet, on the way back, I remember Kise calling his parents to tell them that he'd be staying with me for a couple more days. Then after that, I remember Kise was talking about university applications and future careers since there were guys on his team that were going to graduate soon…"

The two of them were sitting in the living room of his apartment, watching TV (he was reading a porn magazine) and waiting for the bathtub to fill up when Kise looked over and asked, "Hey Aominecchi, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

He blinked and put down the magazine. "Huh? That's so random. Why are you even asking?"

The blond shrugged. "It's because senpai's graduating soon and we were talking about it. And it got me curious about your aspirations for the future, that's all."

"I don't know. Maybe I'll continue in basketball and become a pro. Who knows?"

"What about outside of basketball? Have you ever considered anything else?"

"Like what?"

Kise looked up in thought for a moment. "Like…a pilot or something!"

Aomine let out a laugh. "A pilot? Is that what you want to be? I figured you'd stay a model until you turn into some old and wrinkly geezer."

A pout. "How mean! Modelling isn't what I want to do forever, you know? A pilot gets to fly and travel everywhere, always going to new places, meeting new people and stuff. I just think it'd be fun. So? What about you? You must've dreamt about something outside of basketball, Aominecchi."

Pulling his lips taut, he hummed thoughtfully. For a moment, he thought back to the incident with Haizaki a few days ago and muttered, "If not basketball…maybe a policeman?"

Amber eyes blinked. "Oh, that's unexpected! But how cool! Then you'd get to carry a gun around and fight crime uphold the law!"

"Hmm? So I'd be equally cool chasing down criminals as I would playing basketball?" he asked teasingly.

The blond shrugged. "I think you'd be equally cool no matter what you do, so long as you do it seriously, Aominecchi." Then he let out a chuckle, "Being a cop would make you particularly cool though. I think you'd make a really awesome cop, Aominecchi! I can see you slacking off and napping on quiet days and then chasing criminals down the street on busy days."

"A cop, hmm…?" Leaning back against the other boy, he frowned. "Why can't I be a basketball pro though? That's definitely something I can see myself doing. Isn't it the most natural step at this point for me? Even my coach said I'd definitely get accepted if I ever wanted to."

"Because that's too obvious of an answer, isn't it? I'm not saying don't do it, but that's not all there is to life. You have to try thinking outside the court every now and then, you basketball idiot! Besides, if you become a pro, I'd probably have to become one too since every time I see you play, I'll want to play too! And then we'd really be stuck together forever!"

Inwardly, Aomine thought about how that didn't seem like all too bad of an idea. But at the same time, what Kise had said was also true. There was an entire world out there, beyond basketball, one that he'd never explored or even thought of before. Glancing at the grinning blond, to hide his own smile, he could only give him a shove and snort. "Who'd want to be stuck with an idiot like you forever?"

"You're so mean, Aominecchi!" Then a moment later, the shorter boy perked up. "Oh, I think the tub's full. I guess I'll go first! You can just stay here and think about policing or breasts or whatever it is you think about while I take a bath, okay?"

He scowled. "Oi, why do you get to go first?"

Kise let out a happy laugh. "Because I'm a guest and you love me! And no, you can't join me because the tub is small and I actually plan on coming out clean!"

And while the blond bathed, he thought long and hard about their conversation. Ever since the blond confessed, the backwards problem of 'will you choose basketball over me?' had always persisted. And while it had yet to cause any issues since the sport took up such a huge part of their lives, but like Kise said, there was a whole world outside of basketball out there. If they were to step into that world, would everything shatter and fall apart? He'd always presumed Kise asked him about his love for basketball because that was the main thing that held them together. Without that common passion, what would happen to them?

But wasn't it inevitable that he'd come to like the blond more than basketball? While girls had been flippant and fickle and basketball stable, Kise was…different, the boy was just special, and what they had was serious. He wondered if that conversation was meant to imply that they could move their relationship away from the sport. After all, if the blond had been that insistent on him thinking about careers beyond basketball, that must mean something, right? That it'd be okay for his love for basketball to give way to other opportunities…right? Or maybe not.

Groaning, Aomine ran a hand through his head. He was probably reading too deeply into the conversation, and he really didn't have enough experience in over-thinking things to be effective and make sense of any it. Though through his mulling, he eventually reached a decision and somewhat of an epiphany just as Kise emerged from the bathroom with a satisfied expression on his face and a towel around his neck. "Okay, Aominecchi, it's your turn!"

Eager to get a chance to plan out his method of execution in the tub, he got up and began stripping as he made his way to the bathroom. "Geeze, took you long enough."

The model immediately began to protest, "Don't just start stripping and throwing your clothes around in the hallway, you barbarian!"

"Shut up! It's my apartment! I'll run around naked if I want to!" he shouted back before shutting the bathroom door.

"I don't really remember how much time I spent in the tub that night, just thinking of ways to tell him that even if I were to choose him over basketball someday, there was more to us than just that. And if there wasn't, then, because there was so much beyond basketball, we'd find something…or something like that." Embarrassed, Aomine let out a huff and rolled his eyes at himself, "I spent all that time in the tub and all these years thinking about it and I still haven't come up with something decent." As he continued, his tone changed and became more somber as he spoke, "But yeah, after I got out, I found my phone next to a note from Kise on the kitchen table saying that he'd be right back. Only…he never came back."

Chapter 9:
Flipping through his notes, remembering that Kuroko had mentioned a note as well but it never turned up in the inventory. "I never saw a note in our box of evidence."

"That's because I never handed it over to the police. At the time, I was so convinced that Kise would just show up again that I never bothered to," the pro admitted a little reluctantly.

"Do you still have it?" After listening to the other's story, there was no doubt in his mind that he did, but he decided that straight up demanding to see it would be counter effective.

There was a pause before Aomine nodded. "Yeah…it's around somewhere…I guess…"

"Well, we could grab a drink later and go see if we can find it," Kagami suggested easily.

The pro shook his head. "I don't drink. Drinking makes me…"

Drinking makes me miss him…

The unspoken statement rang loudly as the two sat there.

"The coach doesn't like us drinking," the taller man spoke hastily, changing the direction of his sentence.

"Then I guess I'll just have to drop by later to find it. Hope I won't be interrupting you again."

Aomine gave a snort. "I doubt I'll have anyone over today thanks to this depressing talk. And speaking from experience, women don't find sulking men particularly attractive."

Looking down at his notebook, he tapped his pen against something Tatsuya had found. "Says here, your high school coach is the same guy coaching your team right now?"

"Huh? Yeah, what about him? Coach only got on the team a couple years back. He was surprisingly helpful and motivational after Kise disappeared. After that day, I pretty much threw everything away and was ready to live as a bum for the rest of my life." The pro sighed despondently as he recalled the memories, "I…the only way I can really describe it is that when Kise disappeared, it was like he took the sun with him. Back then, I remember coach saying to me…"

"Look Aomine, you can either continue this and become so useless that if blondie were to see you, he'd be guilted into getting back together with you, or you can do something with your life and become so successful and well known that he'll come crawling back just to see you again. I don't really care what you do with your life, but don't just throw it all away."

"So I decided that I'd become so famous that no matter where he went off to, he'd hear my name. Then I had another choice to make. Do I choose the road to the rest of the world that'd been opened up to me or basketball?"

"…if you become a pro, I'd probably have to become one too since every time I see you play, I'll want to play too!"

"And you chose basketball because Kise would've never been able to resist it."

"Basically. Seems like a really dumb idea now considering how there'd never even been a chance of him showing up again," the other spoke cynically.

Watching the other man, he could see why Kuroko and Momoi were so sympathetic towards him. He made entire career choices on the hopes of seeing the blond again someday. The woman had been right when she said that he must've hoped for a miracle more than anyone.

Kagami pulled his lips taut. "Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Kise? Or anyone who disapproved of your relationship with him?"

The man shook his head. "I don't think anyone approved of what we were doing. They didn't outright object to it, but they never approved. If anything, I'd say they just tolerated it. I can't think of anyone who'd want to hurt him though. That is, other than Haizaki, but he probably chickened out after that punch." The man heaved another sigh. "Just leave it to Kise to get into this kind of trouble. Such an idiot…it pisses me off to think about it. I still can't believe he went and got himself killed like this. He just left us all behind."

He raised a brow in surprise. Though anger was a common reaction, he hadn't expected the fluctuation in emotions. One moment, the taller man was reminiscing sadly about days past with the blond and then next, he was complaining about him. He couldn't help but ask, "So what exactly was Kise to you? I want to hear it from your mouth." Though he'd heard the affectionate tone and the longing in the other's voice, he wanted to hear it said out loud.

Aomine rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully, a slight frown on his lips. "To put a name to it would cheapen it. Kise was, more than any man or woman I've ever met, very precious to me." His eyes were downcast as he continued, voice rough with emotion, "Of course, for all I know, we might've broken up the very next day or we might've still been together now. Maybe I'm putting him on a pedestal even in my memories but that idiot just had a way of worming his way into your heart." Then he looked up and glared at him, "Don't give me that pitying look. I don't need your concern, bastard. It's bad enough that I had to say half the things I did."

"Who said I was concerned?" Huffing, he asked his final question, "Just one more thing then you can go. We also found an earring with the body. I get this feeling you know exactly what I'm talking about. Can you tell me about it?"

The pro froze for an instant before shrugging. "Yeah, I know the one you're talking about. A blue hooped earring, right? It was a birthday present I got him…he looked so idiotically happy about it and refused to take it out ever since…hey, before you leave, can you tell me how it happened?"

Conflicted momentarily, Kagami decided that the worst thing he could do was to avoid the question. After explaining everything they'd found so far about the murder, he could only avert his eyes and pretend not to notice the horror in the other's dark blue eyes. "And that's all we know right now…" He closed his notebook silently and noticed the edges of something sticking out the side. Taking it out, he remembered what he'd planned to do. Sliding the photo across the table wordlessly, he watched Aomine's eyes widen and his face flush with emotion. Quickly getting up, he rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't leave this room until I tell you to, okay? It might take awhile, but I just need to run out and double check with my boss in case I missed anything, alright?"

Slipping out of the room, he tried his best to put the image of tears sliding down the other's face out of his mind.

As he left the room, Alex approached him. "You look exhausted. How'd it go?"

He shrugged. "It went well enough. I got him talking at least. I wanted to give him some space after all that. I need to get ready for the next interview anyways."

His boss shook her head. "I'll take the woman. You look terrible right now and you're probably not in any condition to take on another interview. Besides, you're too nice to women. So brief me on everything and I'll take her on, okay? You can just go watch everything from the observation room."

"Fine…just try not to do anything that could lead to a lawsuit."

Then Tatsuya returned to the office. "Oh hey, Taiga. Are you finished? Have you seen the newspaper? Somehow, your case leaked. It's all over the papers and the news."

The redhead frowned as he took the papers from his partner's hands and stared at the headlines. "What? How? Who would go and tell the reporters? Damn it, we managed to keep it so low key too."

Aomine sat there, alone in the room, alone with his thoughts. A little angry at himself, he wiped the tears away, mentally willing them to stop to no avail. Though he was grateful that the detective left the room, he'd never acknowledge it. He hadn't meant to let the tears slip but after talking about the blond so much and to be suddenly shown a photograph was too much for him to handle all at once.

Ten years.

In all those years, he'd never been able to bring himself to look at photos of the blond, unsure of how well he'd react to it. He never realized how much hope he still had until it was all crushed. Unable to tear his eyes away from the photo, with shaky hands, he picked it up and held it a little closer in attempt to read the writing through his tears.

'Me and my beloved Aominecchi!'

He couldn't help but snort. Honestly, what kind of boy would draw that many hearts on a picture?

As he read it again, everything suddenly hit him.

Kise was really gone.

"I think I've come to like you, Aominecchi…"

He'd never hear that name again.

"Let's play 1-on-1! 1-on-1!"

He'd never see his crying face again.

"Kurokocchi, Aominecchi's being mean to me!"

He'd never hear Kise's constant whining again.

"Wake up! Geeze, you're late for practice again!"

He'd never see his 100 watt smile again.

"One more game! Please, Aominecchi? Just one more game! It'll be the last one, I promise!"

There'd no longer be anymore 1-on-1 matches or lounging around, reading magazines together on lazy Sundays afternoons.

"You taught Kurokocchi how to make shots? That's not fair! Why didn't you call me? …of course I'm jealous! You got to spend time with Kurokocchi! Ow! What was that for?"

They'd never have another discreet date in the most crowded parts of Tokyo or follow and watch Momoi's dates from afar.

"I'll beat you next time for sure, Aominecchi!"

There were so many things they'd never do again, so many things he never realized he'd miss doing until now.

"Aominecchi, I love you so much!"

Worst of all, he realized, was that their relationship would never have any closure.

He'd never find out whether they'd endure all hardships and obstacles or break under the pressure of everything. He'd never know whether they were actually 'meant to be' or if those feelings were just something temporary that his teenage mind made up. And somehow, all those what-ifs and never-again's made him miss the blond just that much more.

If you're really gone, then what've I been working so hard for, for all these years?

Another wave of grief hit him hard, and he could feel tears stinging at his eyes again.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd cried over something.

Just when did the blond become so damn precious to him?

Shoulders shaking, he buried his face in his arms and tried to choke back his sobs.

For the second time in his life, it felt like the sun disappeared and the world stopped turning.

"Damn it, Kise…"

What am I supposed to do now?

After a long while, Kagami entered the room tentatively. While he wanted to give the other man the privacy to cry and calm down at his leisure, he also didn't want the pro to fall asleep in there. The taller man was sitting there, glaring at him with reddened eyes, looking equally exhausted and more than slightly annoyed. "Took you long enough. So can I leave yet, or did you want to know more about my personal life?"

He shook his head, choosing to ignore the redness of the other's eyes. "My bad, something came up. But no, we're done for now. I'll come around later tonight to take a look at that note though."

Sighing loudly, the pro stood up. "I suppose that means I'll actually have to go and look for it then."

Though he had a feeling that the man knew exactly where it was, he nodded. "Yeah, hopefully you'll be able to find it. I'll give you a heads up before I come by."

"Will Tetsu be coming too?"

"I don't know, maybe. Why? Would it bother you if he came?"

A shrug. "Not really. I guess not."

"Actually, could you come by later to pick Momoi up? I get this feeling she could use your support after." He could tell by looking at the other that the man understood the difficult position he'd put his childhood friend in and how much she'd had to deal with for his sake.

"Fine, just give me a call." Leaving his card behind, Aomine made his way towards the door and paused to spare him a glance. "Look, I don't particularly like you or anything, but this case…I'll leave it to you. You better find out who did this and make him pay."

Those words were still lingering in his mind when Momoi entered the office. "Hello, Kagami-san."

He dipped his head in greeting. "Hey, hope you got some sleep last night."

"I managed. You don't look too great yourself, detective. Was it Dai-chan?" She frowned. "He didn't give you any trouble, did he?"

"No, he was quite helpful actually, even if he was rather reluctant at first."

Understanding shone in her eyes. "It's a hard subject for him to talk about." Then she quickly flashed him a rueful smile. "I'm sorry; it must seem strange to you that I keep sticking up for him like this. I guess I grew protective over him after growing up with him."

Kagami rubbed the back of his neck absent-mindedly. "Not really, I don't think it's strange. It's only natural to want to look out for people you care about and whatnot." Glancing at Alex, who was emerging from her office, he remembered that he wasn't going to be doing the interview. "So that lady over there's Alex, my superior. She's helping me out so you'll be talking to her today. You'd probably rather talk to another woman anyways, right?"

Momoi shook her head. "I don't mind talking to her. If she's working on this case, I'll give her my full cooperation."

"Thanks a lot. If she does anything stupid, just holler or something."

"Wha-?"

Just then, Alex walked up to them with her best professional smile and held her hand up to the other woman. "You must be Momoi Satsuki. I'm Alexandra Garcia, and I'll be helping Taiga out with this case. Come on, we can go over there to talk."

Sighing wearily to himself, he walked into the observation room to listen in on their conversation.

Standing by the one-way glass, he felt the urge to run in and tell Alex to behave even though she hadn't done anything yet. He had to remind himself that she was a detective, just like him, and him his superior at that. "Come on, Taiga, she can be professional when she needs to be…" he tried to convince himself with very little success.

Alex wasted no time with pleasantries and leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "So just what is your relationship with Aomine Daiki?"

The other woman replied equally seriously, "Well, he's a member of the team I manage. And we're childhood friends. I grew up with him."

"And Kise Ryouta?"

"He was my best friend."

"And have you ever had any romantic interest in either of them?"

"No. I was interested in someone else."

"So their relationship didn't both you in the least?" Momoi hesitated for a moment. His boss picked up on it immediately. He'd forgotten how perceptive she was when she was on the job. "You didn't like them being together? Why? Because they were both men?"

She shook her head. "No, no, that's not it at all! I was glad they were together! I was…relieved."

The blonde raised a brow. "Relieved?"

There was no criticism in her eyes as she spoke, "When it comes to dating or relationships, Aomine-kun doesn't have the best track record. He tends to be insensitive and blunt though he doesn't mean to be. And ever since we were little, nothing and no one's been able to come between him and basketball. He chases people away unintentionally with his careless words and dedication to what most people see as simply a sport. So when Ki-chan…I mean, Kise-kun…"

Alex gave a shrug. "Just call them whatever you're used to calling them by, or whatever you're comfortable with."

"When Ki-chan told me that he was thinking about confessing, I got worried. I was afraid that Dai-chan would be careless as usual and end up hurting him. But the next day, he came up to me and said: 'Aominecchi's surprisingly cute, isn't it?' Somehow, everything worked out between them. I'd been so worried that Dai-chan would never find anyone, and that I'd have to look after him for the rest of my life because he's actually not as independent as he leads people to believe. I mean, I love Dai-chan like a brother, but that would've been too much. So you can imagine my relief when Ki-chan showed up."

"But then Kise disappeared. Did you become a manager just to take care of Aomine?"

"No, of course not. I think a part of me was afraid that I'd have to assume that role again, but it didn't happen. After Ki-chan's disappearance, Dai-chan became very independent. We both worked hard and it was by chance that we ended up getting recruited to the same team."

"I see…"

"I…am I a suspect in this case?"

The blonde shrugged again. "Everyone's a suspect. I don't think you were the killer per se, but there's always a possibility that you were involved. I mean, in a lot of cases, those were the closest to the victim ended up being the perpetrator. So in Kise's case, it's highly possible that you were involved somehow."

Even he winced at the harshness of her tone.

Momoi remained calm, though she'd tensed up. "If I'm a suspect, then even if I were to say that I'd never do anything to harm Ki-chan, there's a chance that you won't believe me, right?"

"I suppose. At the end of the day, we look closest at whoever the evidence and testimonies point us to. Speaking of which, did you or Aomine tell anyone about this case?"

"No, I've been at home ever since Kagami-san and Tetsu-kun dropped me off last night. I doubt Dai-chan would have anyone to tell. We don't have practice today, so we didn't even have to make up any excuses for being absent today."

Nodding, Alex pursed her lips, brain processing all the information she was receiving. "Alright then. Let's move on. Tell me about the night of Kise's disappearance. Where were you?"

"We were at the Winter Cup banquet…"

Sitting there and taking notes of his own as the woman talked, he wasn't sure how much time had gone by. The more Momoi spoke about the blond, the closer to tears she became.

"…I remember Ki-chan telling me how glad he was that Tetsu-kun beat Dai-chan. 'When we played 1-on-1, he was smiling again. I wish it'd been me who relit that spark in him though,' he told me. I think he was worried about Dai-chan's interest in basketball more than anyone."

"And why was that?"

"He was afraid that if Dai-chan could get bored of something he loved as much as basketball, then he could get bored of Ki-chan just as easily. That's why Ki-chan used to ask Dai-chan to choose between him and basketball all the time. Boys can be so stupid sometimes…"

As the two continued discussing the case with Momoi having to constantly wipe the tears from her eyes, there was a light knock on the door. Looking over, he raised a brow when Tatsuya poked his head in. "Taiga, Aomine's here."

"Huh? Oh right." He'd forgotten that he asked the pro to drop by. "Can you tell him to come in?"

"Alright."

Turning back to the interview, he missed what Alex had just said but it caused the younger woman to cry to the point where she couldn't articulate herself anymore.

Aomine stepped in, looking a little better than he had earlier. He figured that the taller man must've taken a nap or just passed out after he got home. "Hey."

"Hey…" the pro trailed off, seeing Momoi in the other room, crying. He furrowed his brows angrily. "God, what are you guys doing to her in there?"

And before he could answer, Alex got up, leaned over, and kissed the younger woman.

Momoi looked stunned as she sat there.

Aomine's jaw dropped, forgetting any protests he might've had.

Meanwhile, Kagami got up and stormed into the other room to pull his boss off the other woman. "Damn it, Alex! I told you not to do anything stupid or illegal!"

Chapter 10:
Prying Alex off of the younger woman, Kagami could only continue to yell, mostly out of panic. "What were you thinking!? Or rather, were you thinking at all!?"

She pouted (unprofessionally, in his opinion). "What are you yelling about this time, Taiga? Just look at the poor girl! She was crying so sadly, I thought I'd distract her, that's all."

At that point, he was pretty sure his head would implode from a combination of stress, fatigue and frustration. "Randomly kissing someone's not called a distraction! That's call sexual harassment! You're going to get all of us fired-or arrested, whichever comes first! There was even a witness!"

Aomine stepped into the room when another person suddenly appeared beside him. "Did I miss anything, Kagami-kun?"

The detective looked over. "Oh, Kurok-" Before he could finish his sentence, he let out a yelp and let go of Alex in favour of backing up to the nearest wall. "Why'd you bring that thing in here!?"

Everyone in the room turned their attention to the dog sitting beside Kuroko. Momoi sat up, momentarily forgetting the fact that she'd been crying and then molested a minute ago. "Tetsu-kun, and you brought Tetsuya #2! He's still as cute as ever!"

Pressed up against the wall still, he frowned. "Tetsuya #2? What kind of name is that?"

"Kagami-kun, could it be that you're afraid of dogs?" There was a glint in his eyes as he picked up the dog and walked towards the cowering detective. "But he's so cute."

Flailing his arms, he tried to ward the other off. "Keep that thing away from me, you sadistic brat!"

"But I'm the same age as you."

Tetsuya #2 suddenly barked and caused Kagami to run out of the room. Aomine looked over at his ex-teammate with his arms crossed nonchalantly. "You haven't changed at all, Tetsu." Light blue eyes returned the glance easily but remained silent. The pro understood that the statement didn't apply to him. He'd changed a lot since his middle and high school days. Shrugging it off, he turned towards the door. "Looks like they're done with us for today. Come on Satsuki, let's go."

Momoi nodded and got up to follow her friend. "Goodbye, Tetsu-kun and," her face reddened when she looked over at the blond, "Alexandra-san…"

Alex smiled and waved as though nothing had happened. "See you around. We'll give you a call if anything comes up. Thanks for your cooperation!"

For a moment, Kuroko raised a brow at the strange interaction between the two women before shrugging it off and returned to his game of 'Scare Kagami-kun'.

After having been cornered in his own office by the person who was supposed to be helping him on the case and his dog, Kagami finally gave up on trying to escape…not that he had much of a choice. Glaring at the other, he could only ask, "Why are you doing this to me, Kuroko?"

The shorter male's expression remained impassive. "Dogs are so cute though. And this will help you get over your irrational fear."

He shook his head unhappily at the offer. "It's not irrational. They bite. It's terrifying. I'll get over my fear on my own time." Waving his hand, trying to shoo the two away, he huffed indignantly, "Just get it away from me already. Did you come here for a reason or did you just want to scare me?"

Light blue eyes blinked for a moment, as though suddenly remembering something. "Oh, that's right. Please cancel any plans you might have tonight."

Raising a brow, Kagami asked, "Huh? Why? I was going to head over to Aomine's to grab a note he has or something tonight."

"Aomine-kun will definitely understand if you explain things to him. I got a call from Akashi-kun earlier. He wants to meet us in a couple hours. So I thought I'd walk my dog here and grab a bite with you before heading over."

Sullenly, he muttered, "I'll agree to that second part, but not the dog walking part."

And that's how he ended up sitting in a traditional looking waiting room with Kuroko and cups of tea in front of them, feeling extremely out of place. The traditional setting made sense since they were dealing with a professional Shogi player, but it didn't make the place feel any less awkward. "So just how long are we going to have to wait for that guy?" He asked softly, in case there was someone lurking around outside.

"It shouldn't be very long," was the equally quiet reply. "One thing I should probably emphasize before Akashi-kun gets here…don't be disrespectful to him."

He blinked in confusion, "Huh?"

Then the door opened and a figure stepped in. "Tetsuya, it's been awhile."

Looking over, he observed the stranger that just entered the room. He was about the same height as Kuroko with red hair and mismatched eyes. Despite his shorter stature, he had an air about him that commanded respect.

Kuroko turned his head up and nodded in greeting, seemingly unfazed by the other's presence. "Hello, Akashi-kun. You seem to be doing well."

The man nodded calmly, standing by the table, right next to Kagami. It made him nervous though he'd never admit it. Mismatched eyes studied him critically before he spoke again, "You must be the detective. Kagami Taiga, correct?"

"Yes, that's right." Noticing that the redhead didn't offer his hand, he decided to follow suit and kept his hand firmly wrapped around his cup of tea. Speaking cautiously with planned words, he continued, "It's a pleasure to meet you though I wish the circumstances had been different. I'm the lead detective on the case. I'm not sure how much Kuroko's told you about it already…"

Finally, Akashi took a seat across from them with an unreadable expression on his face. "Case? Tetsuya only informed me that it was something to do with Ryouta. So tell me, what's happened to him? He's no longer with us, is he?"

Too busy with his mental notes of how the redhead referred to his ex-teammates by their first names, he was caught off guard by the other's question. Head snapping up, his eyes widened for a moment before nodding. "Yes. I'm sorry."

The redhead closed his eyes for a moment to take a breath. "Ryouta went missing about ten years ago. For a detective like you to suddenly show up with Tetsuya, it was the only logical reason. Now, before you ask me your questions, tell me the people you've talked to and the leads you have."

Annoyed at the other's demanding tone, he shot Kuroko a glance who replied silently with the slight shake of his head. Taking the hint and reeling back his temper, he mentally took a deep breath and complied with the other's wishes.

After explaining the case and everything he'd done and getting feedback on it (much to his annoyance), he watched as Akashi pause and take a sip of tea. It fazed him that the other was able to remain so calm and composed whereas everyone else he'd talked to reacted to the news in one way or another. "So you haven't talked to Atsushi yet?"

Kuroko shook his head and answered in his stead. "Not yet. We were hoping to talk to you before approaching him…"

Understanding what the other was trying to imply, he nodded. "I see. Very good, I'll give him a call. You can expect full cooperation from Atsushi when you meet him. Now, I suspect that you have questions for me, correct?"

Kagami nodded a little hesitantly. There was an uncomfortable, nagging feeling inside him that told him that no matter what he asked, he'd get judged for it. "Well, first of all, I'm curious about Haizaki."

"Shougo's abilities would've been overtaken by Ryouta's soon enough. I merely gave the two a push in the right way. I let Shougo off softly before Ryouta could actually beat him and allowed Ryouta on the team to help him improve at a faster rate. It was absolute."

"And what about Kise's relationship with Aomine, what were your thoughts on that?"

The redhead shrugged coolly. "I can't say I was surprised. Ryouta's always worn his heart on his sleeves when he was around us. And though Daiki can be dense at times, he was bound to notice. I didn't have anything against them being together since it didn't affect their performance negatively. Of course, that was only when they were playing on the same team. There were repercussions when they entered high school."

"Repercussions?"

Taking a sip of tea, Akashi nodded. "They were both hesitant. Daiki was the most noticeable one. He'd gotten bored of basketball but couldn't quit. As a result, his moves were sloppy. He also hesitated during his match with Ryouta during the Interhigh Tournament. Tetsuya, you must've noticed it as well. As for Ryouta, he was fine playing against anyone other than the members of the Generation of Miracles. He was too sentimental when it came to playing against us. That's why he struggled so much.

"Of course, all this changed after the Winter Cup and Ryouta's disappearance. Daiki became more focussed and now he's where he is. You should probably keep that in mind while you're working on this case. Also, you should probably keep an eye on Daiki to make sure he's dealing with all of this properly."

Kagami raised a brow, wanting to snap back something snarky but refrained, remembering Kuroko's warning from earlier. He didn't understand where Akashi was coming from, the way he just seemed to know everything grated on his nerves though. "I'll…keep that in mind."

"And please inform me when you solve this case."

There was an air of finality with that statement.

"Yes, of course. If-"

"I didn't say if you solve the case. I said when." Before he could inject a word in, mismatched eyes flashed almost threateningly. "My word is absolute. Now if you'll please excuse me, I have something else to attend to."

And that was that.

Once back on the street, Kagami huffed angrily. "That Akashi guy was so irritating." Rolling his eyes, he did a mocking impression of the Teikou captain. "'My word is absolute.' Does he think he's psychic or something? Ugh, he's the kind of guy I hate the most. I read that he threatened to do bodily harm to himself to motivate his team in high school, is that true?"

Kuroko nodded. "He did that during the semi-finals of the Winter Cup when he was playing against Midorima-kun."

"He's a psychopath."

"But he's almost always right."

Sure, he couldn't argue against the fact that the redhead had the confidence of a natural leader and the logic of a genius, but it didn't make him any less condescending. He frowned. "If he's always right about everything, then why doesn't he solve this case? Why bother making me run around when he could just go and give everyone closure?"

The shorter man shot him a thoughtful look. "You probably didn't notice, Kagami-kun, but Akashi-kun wasn't completely certain about this."

"What do you mean? He sounded pretty confident to me."

"He never expected Kise-kun to disappear. Akashi-kun is good at reading people and predicting moves. If he never expected it, he can't simply see through it like everything else unless if it's repeated. And since there's no chance of this incident being repeated, he has no way of solving it like he's used to. He probably felt more uncertain and emotionally attached to this case than he let on."

That made him feel a little better about himself. He raised a brow. "So despite all his big talk about absoluteness, he's really just a brat?"

Kuroko shook his head. "He's definitely a genius and a really good ally to have. I'm sure he's going to try his best to help you out with the information you've given him. And the fact that he's absolutely sure that you're going to solve it, I guess, would imply that it was probably done by someone within our circle of acquaintances."

"And how can he be so sure?"

A shrug. "He's a genius. I'm not sure I'd be able to follow his train of thoughts even if I tried."

Letting out a sigh, he decided not to argue about it any further.

A few days later, he received a call from Momoi asking him to check in on Aomine. He raised a brow, pausing from his work. "Huh? Why? What's he doing?"

"He took a week off from practice which is fine, but I haven't really heard from him since that day at the police station. He made sure I was going to be okay and then I haven't seen him since."

Resting the phone against his shoulder and his ear, Kagami attempted to get back to his work. "But he's an adult. I'm sure he can take care of himself. I don't think he'd appreciate me suddenly showing up and crashing his party again."

"Normally, I'd agree with you but from what I've heard, he's been spending all his time alone in his apartment. And he's started drinking apparently."

"I thought he said it was because the coach didn't allow it."

"Huh? He doesn't approve of drinking an excess amount but he's never banned it. Besides, Dai-chan never drinks. I don't know what to do…he won't answer any of my calls either."

Scratching the back of his neck, all he could hear was Akashi's voice in the back of his mind, the one he'd disregarded, telling him to keep an eye on Aomine. "Alright, calm down and don't worry. This is what's going to happen: I'll call Kuroko and we can all go pay him a visit tonight, alright? I'll call you again when I've got the time confirmed with Kuroko."

"Alright. Thank you, Kagami-san."

"Don't mention it. I still need something from Aomine's place anyways."

Later that night, the three of them stood outside of Aomine's door once more. To no one's surprise, he opened the door angrily with an unopened can of beer in his hand. Looking at the three with a raised brow, the pro scowled in obvious annoyance. "What the hell do you guys want?"

Not wanting to get the door slammed in his face again, he put a foot down, jamming the door. "Please pardon the intrusion," he let out half-heartedly as he let himself in, ignoring the other's protest. Looking around the interior, he let out a whistle, "It's really not that bad here. So this is what a real penthouse suite looks like."

Helping himself to the fridge, he grabbed a can of beer only to have the door shut by the other. "Just what do you think you're doing!? Isn't this illegal or something? You just broke into my apartment and now you're stealing my drinks? Tetsu, Satsuki, don't just stand there. Get him out of here!"

Kagami merely cocked his head and raised a brow. "It's kind of sad drinking alone, isn't it? Besides, I did tell you I'd drop by for that note."

"Ha? That was days ago."

"But like I told you, we had to go meet Akashi. I get this feeling that even you wouldn't go against that guy." He took the silence he received as a yes. "So are you going to kick us out? You've got way more beer in there than any normal person can handle."

After a moment, Aomine finally narrowed his eyes and gave in. "Fine, whatever. I don't care."

Opening the fridge again, he pulled out a beer and passed one over to Kuroko and another to Momoi before opening another for himself. "Thanks. We'll just be helping ourselves then."

"Seriously, Satsuki? But you don't even drink…"

The woman looked like she was about to protest, but then just to spite him, she opened the can and took a gulp. "There! The only reason I'd ever drink is because you're such an idiot!"

Not wanting to get in the middle of their fight, he quickly asked, "So where's Kise's note?"

Distracted, Aomine pointed towards the staircase. "It's in the box in my room somewhere…you'll see it. Just dig through it until you find it. It's the last room to the left."

Gesturing at the shorter man, he quickly headed towards the stairs. "Come on, Kuroko."

Beer still unopened in his hand, the other nodded. "Right behind you, Kagami-kun."

Once out of sight, they could hear a resounding 'smack', followed by yelling.

"Stop acting like you're the only person to have lost Ki-chan! We all lost him! And don't tell me I don't understand just because I didn't lose a lover! I lost a best friend that day! He was just as irreplaceable to me as he was to you! Why can't you understand that? Don't just shut me out to drink your problems away. I…I can't deal with everything on my own. I miss him too, you know? You're not the only one who wants him back!"

Exchanging glances with Kuroko, they quickly snuck off to Aomine's room. It was surprisingly tidy and like the pro had said, there was a box in the corner. Taking in the sheer size of the place, he couldn't help but gape. "Lifestyle of the rich and famous, hm? This is twice the size of my bedroom."

"Well, he is a professional basketball player, it's only expected that his salary can cover something like this…" Kuroko spoke indifferently as he walked over to the box, pulling it away from the wall.

Curious, he followed suit and sat down by the box. Opening it, he peered inside and took a gulp of beer before stating the obvious, "There's a lot more in here than just a note."

Pulling out a stack of magazines and photos, the detective raised a brow as he finally located the note. He took a glance at it but rather than stopping there, he set it aside and continued digging through the box, coming across an old looking cell phone. Quickly locating the charger in the box, he plugged the phone in and turned it on. Kuroko glanced over. "Kagami-kun, what's that?"

"It looks like Aomine's old phone. This thing must be a decade old, but wow, apparently it still works." It took awhile to figure out how to work the thing but eventually, he found the stash of pictures and began flipping through them. There were pictures of basketball shoes, food, a couple self-portraits and random pictures of people. "Wow, he was so young back then. There are photos of Kise here so it's probably from his high school days. I can't believe he still has this thing."

By that time, Kuroko shuffled over and was looking over his shoulder. "These are definitely high school photos. It looks like Aomine-kun never learnt how to delete old photos from his phone. Wait, go back, what was that photo? No, the next one. The one with a title. That one. Aomine-kun definitely didn't take that one if it's got a title."

"Can't blame him. These things are impossible to work properly." The two of them sat there and blinked at the photo of Kise grinning into the camera, wearing the Touou team's jacket. It was titled 'Touou does really have nice uniforms!' It was dated December 5th. "This was taken on the night he disappeared. I'll have to go back and check with the file to see if there were any clothing remains on the body."

Pressing on random buttons, Kagami stumbled across some sort of history log unintentionally. He really wasn't the most high-tech person in the world. The phones they had in Japan a decade ago were pretty much as high-tech if not more so than the American ones nowadays. It didn't help that his Kanji wasn't as good as it should've been.

He meant to press the exit button, but somehow ended up opening the log instead...

05/12/08 21:32 From: Kise Ryouta

Aominecchi, are you still in the shower~? It's not like you to take super long showers~! \(=3=)/ I'm getting drinks~! Is there any flavour in particular that you want~? Pocari Sweat maybe~? If you don't answer, I'll just have to get everything~! \(^0^)/

05/12/08 21:53 To: Kise Ryouta

Pocari Sweat. Hurry up, idiot. I'm thirsty.

05/12/08 22:08 To: Kise Ryouta

Oi, Kise, did you get lost? Pick up your phone.

05/12/08 22:10 To: Kise Ryouta

The store's less than a block away. You didn't get molested by a fan or something, did you?

05/12/08 22:11 To: Kise Ryouta

Pick up your phone.

05/12/08 22:13 To: Kise Ryouta

Seriously, this isn't funny. Pick up your phone, you idiot.

05/12/08 22:15 To: Kise Ryouta

I'm coming down to find you. You're so dead once I get my hands on you.

05/12/08 23:31 To: Kise Ryouta

Everyone's looking for you right now. Where'd you go?

06/12/08 00:02 To: Kise Ryouta

Kise, pick up your stupid phone already!

06/12/08 00:05 To: Kise Ryouta

Did I do something to piss you off!? I'm sorry, okay!?

06/12/08 00:09 To: Kise Ryouta

I'm so going to fucking kill you once we find you.

06/12/08 01:23 To: Kise Ryouta

Kise, call me. I promise I won't get too pissed off.

06/12/08 02:07 To: Kise Ryouta

I left the door unlocked.

06/12/08 03:46 To: Kise Ryouta

Fuck you. I'm going to sleep.

06/12/08 09:02 To: Kise Ryouta

The police were called. Seriously, where are you?

06/12/08 13:29 To: Kise Ryouta

Apparently they think you might've been kidnapped. That's just stupid, isn't it?

06/12/08 16:37 To: Kise Ryouta

You can see yourself all over the news, right?

07/12/08 10:43 To: Kise Ryouta

If you're not going to contact me, at least call someone and let them know you're okay. I'd rather hear it through the grapevine than not at all.

07/12/08 14:55 To: Kise Ryouta

I swear, I'm not even mad anymore. Just stop worrying everybody. Satsuki's been crying nonstop for days now.

07/12/08 19:20 To: Kise Ryouta

If you call me, I promise I'll play 1-on-1 with you for the rest of your life.

07/12/08 22:14 To: Kise Ryouta

Fine, fuck you too! I'm going to quit basketball, let's see how you like that!

08/12/08 11:08 To: Kise Ryouta

You took my fucking jacket, you jackass!

09/12/08 19:29 To: Kise Ryouta

Kise, whatever I did, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to call you a jackass or anything. I'll even promise to never buy another porno magazine if you call me.

09/12/08 19:32 To: Kise Ryouta

Are you angry that I never tell you how much I love you?

09/12/08 19:36 To: Kise Ryouta [1/2]

I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love

09/12/08 19:36 To: Kise Ryouta [2/2]

you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you.

09/12/08 19:38 To: Kise Ryouta

There, is that better?

09/12/08 19:41 To: Kise Ryouta

What? Still not good enough? Impossible to please, aren't you? I'm not typing all that again so too bad.

09/12/08 23:18 To: Kise Ryouta

I think I'm going to turn in early. Goodnight.

09/12/08 23:18 To: Kise Ryouta

Just so you know...I love you.

10/12/08 15:51 To: Kise Ryouta

Ryou made a really awesome lunchbox today.

[Photo attached]

12/12/08 02:03 To: Kise Ryouta

Please come back. I humbly request that you return.

25/12/08 00:00 To: Kise Ryouta

Merry Christmas.

25/12/08 20:42 To: Kise Ryouta

Check out all the presents I got. Was Santa even able to find you?

[Photo attached]

01/01/09 00:00 To: Kise Ryouta

Happy New Years.

18/06/09 00:00 To: Kise Ryouta

Happy birthday. I remembered this year.

*Message could not be delivered*

05/12/09 21:00 To: Kise Ryouta

It's been a year already…you can still come back anytime you'd like, you know?

*Message could not be delivered*

18/06/10 00:01 To: Kise Ryouta

…

*Message could not be delivered*

06/12/10 03:48 To: Kise Ryouta

Just in case you didn't know, I'm playing in a real team full of pros now. In other news, you've ruined December for me for the rest of my life. But I'd still take you back if you came back.

*Message could not be delivered*

05/12/11 22:17 To: Kise Ryouta [1/2]

Three years. It's been three years now. You know what? I'm not going to send you any more of these. I've done so much in my life already, I don't need you. I'm on the national team. I've broken records. I sleep with models with

*Message could not be delivered*

05/12/11 22:17 To: Kise Ryouta [2/2]

huge racks now, so fuck you. I don't even know why I'm still so hung up about you. Fuck, I should just throw this thing out.

.

.

.

.

.

But you can still come back.

*Message could not be delivered*

29/07/18 21:45 To: Kise Ryouta

Tetsu and Satsuki just came by with a detective and I just sent a really hot chick home. You can't be dead.

*Message could not be delivered*

30/07/18 03:53 To: Kise Ryouta

I went to the outdoor court at Teikou to shoot some hoops. I kissed you there. Do you remember?

*Message could not be delivered*

30/07/18 04:12 To: Kise Ryouta

Why'd I have to meet you? Do you have any idea what you've done to my life? No one ever told me it'd be this hard. Fuck, I have to head to the police station later. Fuck.

*Message could not be delivered*

30/07/18 04:27 To: Kise Ryouta

I wish you'd come back and haunt me. At least then, I'd still have you around.

.

.

.

.

.

You can still come back if you'd like.

.

.

.

I wouldn't mind at all.

*Message could not be delivered*

"Oi, what are you guys looking at over there?"

The two of them reeled around to find Aomine standing there with an angry, red handprint on his cheek and a new can of beer in his hand. Feeling like he'd just been caught red-handed, he exchanged guilty glances with Kuroko for a moment before confessing, "We found your old phone." Glancing behind the pro in hopes of seeing Momoi, he raised a brow at the empty hallway. "What happened to Momoi?"

Momentarily distracted by the question, the tanned man rubbed the handprint on his cheek and sighed. "There's a reason Satsuki doesn't normally drink. She's never been able to hold her liquor. She took one sip, got really pissed off at me, slapped me, yelled at me and then promptly fell asleep on the couch. I put her in the guestroom-yeah, that's right. I've got one of those too. So what are you doing with my phone? I thought you were looking for the note."

Not even bothering to look for it again, Kagami merely pointed at the phone. "We found the note, but there's also a picture of Kise in your high school uniform jacket on your phone here. Was this the last thing you saw him in?"

Aomine shrugged. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what he went in to go get drinks. That, or I misplaced it and never found it even after I moved."

"Would you mind if I got a copy of it?" He paused and furrowed his brows when the two began staring at him with strange expressions on their faces, one skeptical and the other annoyed, "…what? Why are you guys looking at me like that? Stop it." After thinking about it for another moment, he understood and reddened. "Oh! No! Get your minds out of the gutter! It's for the file! Taking evidence for personal purposes is unprofessional!"

Kuroko looked at him pointedly. "What are you trying to say, Kagami-kun? If it wasn't evidence, you wouldn't have an issue taking it?"

"No! Of course not! Hurry up, Aomine, is that a yes or no?"

The pro rubbed the back of his neck, clearly not sold on the idea. But in the end, he agreed. "Fine, I guess. Can I just email it to you or something?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that'd work too. Looks like you kept a lot of Kise's things."

"Anything I could…" the other man admitted quietly. "So, is there anything useful in there? Or can we move this downstairs to avoid waking Satsuki up?"

Quickly nodding, he gathered up some of the things that'd stuck out and stood up. "Oh, yeah, sure, let's head down."

Going out for a bit, I'll be right back~!

-Ryouta

He stared at the note, mind unable to full comprehend that it'd been written by the victim. First there were the messages and now the note. It'd been so easy for him to distance himself from the case and treat Kise as a fictional character for the sake of objectivity all this time, but seeing something that'd been handwritten by the golden boy himself made things a little too real for him. Reaching over and grabbing Kuroko's untouched beer, he popped it open and took a sip while his mind tried to take everything in.

Shaking his head to himself, he pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to recall all the facts he had on the case. "Okay, so…so far, we have an hour time frame in which the crime most likely occurred and the clothes Kise was last seen wearing, which I'll have to double check with the file. Oh wait," he pulled out his phone, "maybe Alex is still at the office, let me give her a call."

Aomine blinked, recalling his visit to their office with some interest. "Alex? Is that the blonde that made out with Satsuki? She is, isn't she? You have a really hot boss, you know that?"

Kuroko shot him another look while he tried his best to wave them off, pretending to concentrate on the phone call. "Hello? Alex? Are you still at the office? Yeah, I just wanted to confirm something. Did the file say anything about the victim's clothing? I want to see if it matches what eyewitnesses are saying. Alright, yeah, I can wait. Thanks."

"Kise."

He blinked and looked over at the tanned man whose fists were clenched, "What?"

The pro frowned darkly at him. "It's Kise, not 'the victim'."

Suddenly, guilt rushed over him as though he'd just been caught red-handed committing a crime. Ducking his head, he apologized sheepishly, "Yeah, sorry about that." Then Alex returned to the phone, "Oh hey, yeah. What? Are you sure? Is that normal? Maybe it decayed or something? No? Alright then. Thanks. And what? This Sunday? Alright, thanks. Be careful on your way home. Bye."

The shorter male cocked his head curiously. "So what'd she say?"

Unsure of how the two would take the news, he spoke cautiously, "According to the file, the body had been stripped of all clothes." Judging by the two's horrified stares, he assumed that they'd jump to the same conclusion he did a moment ago. Hastily, he added, "Wait, remember that we don't have all the facts yet. What you're probably thinking might not necessarily be true."

Aomine snarled, clearly shaken by the news. "What I'm thinking? You're telling me that Kise was stripped before he died and that's still not enough for me to jump to conclusions!? What exactly am I suppose to assume then!? This is Kise we're talking about!"

The detective frowned worriedly. "Aomine..."

Eyes darkening and sounding more tired and older than he really was, he sighed. "Don't bother. Actually, you know what? I…fuck, I just don't want to think about it anymore." Shaking his head, he got up on unsteady legs and began walking away without finishing his drink, "I'm going to head to bed or something. You guys can show yourselves out."

Kagami exchanged glances with Kuroko for a moment before getting up somberly. "Come on, Kuroko, I'll walk you back." There was nothing he could say that would make the news more bearable to hear. Comforting the other wasn't an option either, since his own mind had come up with the same conclusion and was still reeling from the very idea to think of other possibilities.

For the rest of the night, neither of them spoke until they parted ways.

On Sunday, the two of them stood outside a pastry shop while they waited for Tatsuya to show up. Neither of them mentioned the night at Aomine's as they stood there and watched as people walked past them. Glancing over at the other, he asked casually, "So, is there anything I should know about Murasakibara before we go in there? Because so far, every member of the Generation of Miracles that I've met so far has been a little…very strange, yourself included. I kind of want to know what to know what I'm walking into this time."

Kuroko shrugged unhelpfully. "Murasakibara-kun might normally seem pretty calm to most people but he actually isn't. And he can seem intimidating but I think it's unfounded, when you're outside the court anyways. He doesn't take things very seriously so you might want to watch out for that when you're talking to him."

He raised a brow. "Oh? It sounds like you two got along well."

The shorter man nodded. "We got along well when at the beginning of middle school but that fell apart pretty quickly after we joined the basketball club."

Blinking at the unexpected answer, he asked, "Why?"

"A difference in opinions. Murasakibara-kun only played basketball because he was good at it, and not because he enjoyed the sport or anything. I didn't agree with that so it caused a lot of tension between us. I still like him as a person though. I wonder how he's been… Working in a pastry shop," his lips twitched, forming a slight smile, "I'm surprised they haven't gone out of business yet."

Trying his best not to stare, he mentally thanked his stars when his partner showed up with his usual smile on his face and something tucked under his arm, "Taiga, Kuroko, sorry for making you wait. Alex insisted that I drop her off somewhere for lunch first. Come on, let's go see if Atsushi's busy."

Entering the store, the bell chimed happily, announcing their presence, earning them a warm welcome from the staff. There were a couple customers in the shop, but it didn't look too busy. Kuroko narrowed his eyes at the sight of one of the customers. "Kiyoshi-sempai, is that you?"

The tall brunet at the counter turned around and blinked for a moment before beaming happily. "Oh hey, Kuroko! It's been awhile! How've you been?"

The shorter male dipped his head. "I've been doing fine. What are you doing here?"

Kiyoshi smiled and held up a couple grocery bags. "I'm running errands for Riko and Hyuuga! Isn't that nice? It's like they've included me as part of their family!"

Kuroko replied as expressionlessly as always, "I thought it was because you always end up at their place for one reason or another. It makes sense that they finally decided to make the most of an uninvited pet."

Warm brown eyes blinked in confusion. "What? They have a pet? Since when? I've been over there at least a couple times a week and I've never seen one. Is it cute? I didn't even know Hyuuga liked animals. But I guess he liked Tetsuya #2, hm? Do you think it's a dog?"

Watching their interaction, all Kagami could think was 'Wow, that guy's really dense.'

As the man who'd been helping the brunet returned, Kiyoshi grinned excitedly. "Oh! You'll never guess who works here!" He pointed to the even taller man behind the counter, "Look, it's Murasakibara! Isn't it a small world?"

The purple haired man scowled almost childishly as he passed the box of desserts over to the brunet. "I still don't like you and I wish you'd stop coming in so often. You're too happy; it makes me want to crush you." Clearly being ignored, he turned to Kuroko. "Hello, Kuro-chin, I haven't seen you in a really long time. Are you here with Muro-chin?"

The shorter man nodded. "Yes, I'm here with Himuro-san and Kagami-kun."

Kiyoshi blinked and looked over at the detectives. "Oh, I didn't notice them at all! Hi, my name's Kiyoshi Teppei." He looked at them seriously for a moment before continuing, "Kiyoshi, it's written with the 'ki' from 'tree', and the 'yoshi' from 'fortune'. And Teppei. The 'te' is from 'iron' and the 'pei' from 'palm', like the palm of your hand."

Rather uncharacteristically, Kuroko snorted. "Sempai, I don't think they'll need to know how to write your name."

'Great, I'm stuck in a pastry shop with a giant behind the counter and this guy's a total airhead.'

Despite his thoughts, Kagami stuck his hand out politely. "I'm Kagami Taiga and that's Himuro Tatsuya."

Shaking hands, Kiyoshi reached into the box and took one of the tarts out and began munching on it. "It's nice to meet you two. So why are you here with Kuroko?"

"He's helping us on a case right now."

The taller man's eyes widened, clearly impressed. "A case? Like a mystery? Wow, Kuroko, you're a detective now? I thought you worked with children at a daycare."

Kuroko appeared unfazed by the older man. "I do. And aren't those pastries for Hyuuga-sempai and the coach?"

Blinking, the brunet looked down at the box. "Huh? Hey, it's missing one!"

"You just ate it, sempai."

"And you still need to pay for those," Murasakibara chimed from the other side of the counter.

Kiyoshi let out a laugh and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Right! Guess I better pay for these and get them back to Riko before she gets mad at me! She's got the craziest cravings, you know? Don't tell her I told you, but I think she's been putting on weight from eating so much."

It was very impressive how Kuroko managed to keep a straight face and wasn't massaging his temples like he was tempted to just from watching them. "Sempai…she's pregnant."

Brown eyes widened in disbeleif. "What? Seriously? Who's the father? Does Hyuuga know?"

'Are you serious? …and now he's eating another tart… Unbelievable.'

After waving goodbye to the brunet who ended up having to buy a whole new box of pastries, he turned to Kuroko and began slowly, "Well, he was certainly an...interesting character."

"Kiyoshi-sempai was actually the founder of our basketball club."

He raised a brow skeptically. "Seriously? He managed to recruit people, a couch, and actually create a club from scratch? The guy that just left?"

The shorter male nodded. "Sempai's actually a lot smarter than he leads people to believe. He really loved basketball but had to stop after that Winter Cup because of his knee injury."

That gave him a slightly better impression of the man though he still had a hard time believing everything he'd just been told. "Oh…well, anyways, I guess we should get to work, right, Tatsuya?"

His partner nodded and called out to the figure currently sampling some of the desserts from behind the counter. "Atsushi, do you have a minute? We were hoping you could help us on this case we're working on right now. Look, I even bought you a pack of the newest flavour of that snack you were talking about the other time."

Violet eyes glanced over before reluctantly dragging his feet over. "Fine. Just because I like you and because you bring me snacks whenever you visit me. That, and Aka-chin called me the other day too and told me to be helpful, so I guess I really don't have a choice. This is about Kise-chin, right?" Reaching out, he accepted the snacks from Tatsuya and took a seat at a table nearby and began eating.

'Aka-chin? Either they're really good friends or he's really brave. Maybe he's just crazy…all height and no brains? He's like a child.'

"Do you normally do everything Akashi tells you to?"

The taller man paused in his munching to blink. "Yes, I think I normally do. It's not a smart move to go against Aka-chin and to upset him."

Unable to argue with that, he took a seat across the taller man. Studying the other, he couldn't help but notice the disinterested look on his face which wasn't really an expression he saw often while he was on the job. "So what was your relationship with Kise like? Did you two get along?"

Murasakibara raised his head to exchange glances with Kuroko, who was standing around, as though double checking his answer. "I'd say we did. What do you think Kuro-chin? We got along, right? He shared the snacks he promoted and I shared my snacks with him sometimes. Kise-chin was so cute, he got along with everyone." Unwrapping a piece of candy, he stared at it for a moment before popping it into his mouth. "Have you told Mine-chin and Momo-chin?"

The answer wasn't anything he hadn't heard before. Nodding, he glanced over at Tatsuya, wondering why his partner enjoyed the pastry chef's company so much. "Yeah, we've already talked to them. When was the last time you saw Kise?"

"It was probably the night he went missing."

"Oh? At the banquet?"

The man shook his head. "I saw him there, but also later that night."

He blinked. "Wait, what? He was staying at Aomine's at the time though."

Murasakibara nodded in agreement. "He was. Kise-chin looked really happy about it too. I went to Yousen for high school so we had to stay at a hotel when we came for the Winter Cup. It was pretty close to Mine-chin's place."

That caught his attention. "So when did you last see Kise?"

"I saw him at the convenience store that night. I went out because I'd ran out of snacks and he was buying drinks from what I remember."

"Do you remember what time it was? Did you guys talk for very long?"

Violet eyes glanced upwards in thought as he continued polishing off the snacks Tatsuya had brought him at an alarming rate. "What time…? My best guess would be around 9:30? We didn't talk for very long, Kise-chin was in a hurry to get back. He said that he didn't want Mine-chin to get mad or worried."

He nodded, that fit in with the time frame he'd set up in his mind. "Do you remember what he was wearing that night?"

Murasakibara shrugged. "Kise-chin was wearing Mine-chin's jacket, that's the only thing I really remember about his clothes. We paid for our things together. Kise-chin was really excited about getting to spend most of his holiday together with Mine-chin since most of his photo shoots were done or something. We must've talked for maybe five, ten minutes?"

"And I even got him this present that I'm thinking about giving him tomorrow. I spent a really long time picking it out, so hopefully he'll like it. Oh, I got a lot of samples for this snacks I did an ad for! They taste really good! Will you still be around tomorrow or maybe back for Christmas? I'll get it to you somehow."

He had draped himself over the blond as they stepped outside. "I'll still be around tomorrow. Kise-chin, you're so energetic today."

Kise grinned happily. "I can't help it. I love the holidays! And I get to spend most of it with Aominecchi! He promised to play one-on-one with me tomorrow! Maybe we can invite Kurokocchi too!"

"Hm? It sounds like you'll have lots of fun. Say hi to Mine-chin and Kuro-chin for me."

"I will! Why don't you come with us?"

"I don't like playing basketball during my free time."

"Right, I completely forgot. That's too bad. Oh here, why don't you take these complimentary coupons? It's for a new cake shop that opened up around here, a fan gave them to me."

"Really? Is that okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it! I'll probably get more…" he trailed off as they spotted a figure standing in the shadows a little ways away.

Stepping under the light, the stranger revealed himself. "Ryouta."

The blond frowned. "Shougo-kun…"

He tightened his grip slightly at the sight of Haizaki. "Kise-chin?"

Kise stepped out of his hold and turned around with a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Murasakibaracchi. I don't think he's going to do anything. It's cold, so you might as well head back to the hotel. I'll go straight back to Aominecchi's right after, I promise."

"Hm? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine! Goodnight, I'll call you tomorrow about the snacks!"

Kagami narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. "What'd you say?"

'That bastard, Haizaki…'

Chapter 12:
"Haizaki." Kagami scowled as he made his way towards the criminal, doing his best to refrain from stomping around and breaking things like he wanted to. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to see you again, damn it."

"Oh?" The other man merely raised a brow and watched him calmly, chipper even. "Back so soon, detective?"

"So you were there that night."

Haizaki's eyes flashed understandingly but his easy tone remained unchanged. "So I was."

Seething, he sat down in the seat and crossed his arms. "Would you care to explain why you conveniently left this particular piece of information out the last time I was here? I don't exactly enjoy making these visitation trips."

A smirk graced the other's features. "That's a shame, because I happen to enjoy your company and charming personality a lot."

He frowned, cutting straight to the point. "According to the last witness we interviewed, Kise went to talk to you after coming out of a convenience store, right before his disappearance. That makes you the last person to see Kise Ryouta alive, which makes you the prime suspect for this case…again. It's not looking good for you, Haizaki. You do realize that capital punishment is legal in this country, right?"

This caused the criminal's grin to fall as he sat up defensively. "Whoa. Wait a minute. I'm the prime suspect? Why? For talking to Ryouta before he died? You're seriously going to pin his death on me because I stepped on him during a fucking basketball game and talked to him that night? All I did was tell him to fuck off!"

Kagami raised a brow. "Why? What'd he say to you?"

"That bastard had the nerve to bring up how his boy-toy punched me in the face."

Amber eyes narrowed warily as the blond approached him. "Shougo-kun, what are you doing here?"

"Huh? I'm staying this chick's place nearby."

"I see…how's the eye?"

He sneered and laughed sarcastically. "Probably as tender as your ass right now."

"Look, I wanted to apologize about it. Aominecchi-"

"Just fuck off, Ryouta."

Undaunted, Kise shrugged coolly. "Sure." Then he raised his eyes and saw something in the distance, "Oh…I have to go. Have a good night, Shougo-kun."

Haizaki leaned forward, eyes serious. "Then he walked away. It must've been someone he recognized. It was probably one of those basketball junkies, since I saw Ryouta walking towards some guy by the basketball court. So I was definitely not the last person to see him that night."

Kagami couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Why couldn't you have mentioned this before? It would've saved the both of us a lot of trouble."

The other man rolled his eyes, sounding equally annoyed with the situation, "Because I wasn't the fucking prime suspect before. I might be a criminal, but I'm not a killer."

"Do you remember anything about the guy at the basketball court?"

The criminal shook his head unhelpfully. "Not really, he was far away and he wasn't exactly dressed in bright colours." Scratching the back of his neck, he pulled his lips taut, "Actually, now that I think about it, it might've been one of the guys from Daiki's school. The jacket looked similar enough. I guess it makes sense."

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, he frowned. "And why would you say that?"

Haizaki gave another shrug. "I'm just saying…some people take sports way too seriously, you know? While I personally didn't give a shit about basketball, definitely not enough to kill over it, I'm sure some of those guys thought of it as their life or something melodramatic like that. So it'd make sense to me if it was some guy from Daiki's team that did Ryouta in." Resting his head on the palm of his hand, he smirked arrogantly. "I wasn't the only one he surpassed. Given Ryouta's skills, there was nothing he couldn't do with a little training. It was only a matter of time before he overtook all the other members of the Generation of Miracles."

The detective raised a brow. "So you're suggesting that someone from Aomine's team killed Kise because he would've become a better player than Aomine?"

"Well, I definitely didn't kill him. And besides, you're the cop here, so you should know." He gestured to the building they were in, "There are tons of people locked up in here who've killed people for dumber things than a sport."

Kagami eyed the other man closely for a moment before getting up. Despite the arrogant attitude, he could see fear and uncertainty in the criminal's eyes. The man might've deserved a worse punishment but he wasn't one to condemn someone for a crime they didn't commit. "I suppose I'll look into it. But trust me when I say: if I have to come back and see you again, you can expect to hear nothing but bad news."

As he left, he could hear the other letting out a faint sigh of relief.

Making his way down the street, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed his boss. "Hello, Alex? Are you busy right now? What do you mean the press have been calling you nonstop? Just direct them elsewhere-like an answering machine! Look, I need you to look something up for me. Should I call someone else to do it? You can do it discreetly, right? Alright. I'm going to need the contact info for the regulars from Touou. Yeah, that was Aomine's team. I'll explain it to you later. Yeah, it was something Haizaki said. I know he's not exactly trustworthy, but it can't hurt to look into it. I'm meeting up with Kuroko right now. Yeah, swing by my place when you've got it then. Thanks."

Standing by their usual burger joint, he felt a twinge of pride when he spotted the shorter man instead of being caught off guard as usual. Waving, he made his way over, meeting the other half way. "Hey, let's head back to my place. I'll whip something up if you're hungry. The media's been going crazy over this story, so it's probably better to not talk about this in public."

Kuroko nodded, agreeing easily to the idea.

Once they reached his apartment and stepped inside, he went straight into the kitchen to fix himself a snack. The shorter man followed him in. "You'd make a really good wife, Kagami-kun."

Raising a brow, he frowned. "And just what's that supposed to mean?"

Kuroko shrugged and immediately changed the subject. "Nothing. So you talked to Haizaki-kun today, right? How did that go?"

He shrugged as they began to walk. "It went about as well as it could. That guy pisses me off whenever I see him. He was pretty cooperative after he turned into the prime suspect though. He admitted to being there that night but said that Kise saw someone else he knew and went to talk to them. Couldn't give me a description or anything, but he swears that he wasn't the last person to see Kise alive. Do you think he could've done it?"

Taking a moment to ponder the question, the light blue haired man gave a slight nod. "I don't think he'd ever kill over a sport, but maybe if his pride got bruised enough… For some reason, I don't think Haizaki-kun did it."

Kagami shrugged nonchalantly. "I think so too. That guy's all bark and no bite. He's the kind of guy who'd go out of his way to make someone's life miserable, but he has no killing intent. Besides, that still doesn't explain how the body was transported."

"So that means an adult was involved?"

He nodded in agreement, eyes never leaving the food. "It's most likely an adult or at least someone older who had access to a car. Haizaki seemed to think that it was someone from Aomine's team. Of course, he only said that whoever Kise went to talk to wasn't wearing bright colours and a jacket of some kind. He said that Kise was a threat because he was talented and took him out because of that. What are your thoughts on this?"

"I…" Kuroko began slowly, "I wish I could rule that possibility out. Although I find it very hard to believe, I can't say it's impossible. There will always be those who think of basketball as more than just a sport or those who feel that winning is all there is to life. Kise-kun was very talented. No doubt, he would've easily surpassed quite a few members of the Generation of Miracles if he'd been given a bit more time."

"Do you think he would've surpassed Aomine?"

A shrug. "It's hard to say. They were both monsters on the court. Aomine-kun still had a lot of room for growth so I couldn't say for certain who would've been better by the end of high school."

Turning the stove off, he stood there in thought for a moment. "Hey, Kuroko?"

"Yes?"

Remembering those messages sent and the ones left unsent after the blonde's disappearance, he couldn't imagine what kind of reaction he'd have if he found out that Kise might've been killed because of basketball. For a moment, he almost wished that Haizaki had been lying and that he was actually the killer.

"Until we get something more concrete than Haizaki's hazy memories, don't breathe a word of this to Aomine."

Alex dropped by (to be more accurate, she barged in) when they were asleep, having fallen asleep on the couch while watching television. He slowly drifted back towards consciousness when she called his name, loudly as always. After years of practice, he learnt to sleep through her random and often loud entrances.

Before he slipped back into blissful sleep, faintly, he could hear Kuroko speaking next to him. "Please be quiet, Kagami-kun's asleep."

When Kagami came to again, he could hear voices talking softly over his head.

He sat up with a start.

On the other couch, Alex was finishing off whatever food he'd left for her from earlier and Kuroko was still sitting next to him. "Did you have a nice sleep, Kagami-kun?"

The woman grinned knowingly at him. "Oh hey, you're up, Taiga. Did you enjoy napping in Kuroko's lap?"

Quickly looking over to the shorter man, he realized in horror what'd just happened. Face heating up, he immediately apologized, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry about this, Kuroko. You should've just shaken me awake or something!"

Kuroko shrugged indifferently though the amusement in his voice rang loud and clear. "It's alright. I didn't mind. You have surprisingly soft hair, Kagami-kun."

In the back of his mind, he tried to recall the last time he'd blushed so hard.

The blonde shook her head. "Just look at you, Taiga, blushing like a schoolgirl! How cute! I haven't seen you this embarrassed since back at the academy!"

Oh god, I'm stuck in a room with a pair of sadists. Wait, did Kuroko pet my hair? Or was he just saying that to make me uncomfortable? I can't believe I used him as a pillow. But he said he didn't mind -damn it, now is definitely not the right time to be thinking about that stuff! Just stop thinking, Taiga! Stop thinking! Come on, mind, just shut up already! Wait, those two were talking. Fuck. What were they talking about? Shut up mind! I need you to stop wandering to useless thoughts! We've got sadists to deal with here! Focus!

"Shut up, Alex! I'm not blushing!" was the only intelligent reply he could come up with in the end.

After making dinner for them and putting up with their double teaming, Kuroko left on the account that he had work the next morning. Alex leered at him. "I must say, that kid really grows on you."

He rolled his eyes. "You're just saying that because you're both sadists. Two of a kind. Kindred spirits and whatnot."

She merely shrugged, not denying his claim. "You should've seen the way you slept in his lap like an oversized dog."

Willing his face not to heat up, he frowned, asking as casually as he could, "Just what were you two talking about while I was asleep anyways?"

His boss shot him a smirk that spoke for itself. "It's a secret and it'd be unethical for me to tell you."

The redhead snorted skeptically. "Really, Alex? Being unethical never seemed to deter you from doing anything before."

"Is that any way to talk to your boss and someone you're trying to pry a secret from?"

"Come on. Just tell me already."

Alex shook her head, clearly unwilling to budge on the subject. "Nope. I absolutely refuse." Then she added, "Actually, now that I think about it, I think you might be more like a cat than a dog with the way you were practically purring while he was petting you."

The temperature in his face rose so quickly, he was surprise his head didn't explode.

The next day, Kagami found himself sitting in the interrogation room with one of Aomine's old teammates: Sakurai Ryou. According to the information Alex had dug up for him, the shorter man was a lawyer, working for a decent law firm. The brunet before him looked nothing like a lawyer. He had large, fearful eyes, and Kagami could only raise a brow at the timid man sitting before him. How did someone like that survive on the same team as someone like Aomine let along become a lawyer? Before he could begin his questioning, the smaller man immediately began apologizing about something, though exactly what he was apologizing for, he wasn't sure.

With all that apologizing, it made Kagami wonder if the young man had killed Kise or if he was just thought everything wrong in the world was somehow his fault. He remained silent until the brunet calmed himself down again. Then, trying his best not to startle the other, he asked lightly, "So...do you even any idea why you're in here?"

Raising his head with a start, large brown eyes stared at him for a long moment as though he hadn't expected to be spoken to. Then slowly, he answered hesitantly, "Yes? Sorry, not really, I actually don't."

At least now, he knew that the brunet was capable of intelligent responses. "Kise Ryouta. Does that name ring a bell?"

Sakurai blinked. "Kise-san? Oh, is this about his body being discovered in that lake? Is it really true then? I read about it in the newspaper. I'm really sorry about his death. He was such a nice person."

He raised a brow. "Oh? You knew him personally? So I take it that you knew about his relationship with Aomine as well?"

The brunet nodded in affirmation. "Yes, everyone on both our teams knew about them. I mainly became acquainted with Kise-san because apparently Aomine-san liked the lunchboxes that I made, so Kise-san came to me for cooking tips and whatnot. So then I ended up teaching him how to make lunchboxes and simple dishes…did I do something wrong?"

Kagami shook his head reassuringly, feeling on the edge around someone who looked like he was ready to run, or burst into tears, or both, at any moment. He was beginning to doubt the credibility of Alex's information because the smaller man definitely could not be a lawyer. "Not that I know of…yet, anyways. What were your thoughts on their relationship? I would assume that a lot of people didn't approve of them."

"Yes, but that never bothered Aomine-san…not very much ever bothered him. And as for what I thought about them…my opinion really shouldn't be taken into heavy consideration or anything since it's really not that important, but I thought they were very dazzling people. They were both really good at basketball, and outside of the court, they were amazing in their own way. Kise-san was," he hesitated, "a very good looking person and he was really nice to me while Aomine-san pushed us and gave us something to strive for. When they were together though, you could see that they were very different people. And at first, I have to admit that I didn't really approve of them either."

"Why?"

A little embarrassedly, Sakurai admitted quietly, "I thought that Kise-san could've done better… He could've, you know, found someone more…receptive of his feelings. I have nothing but respect for Aomine-san but…"

He nodded encouragingly, not wanting the brunet to retreat back to his shield of apologies and self-blame again. "But…?"

Averting eye contact, the smaller man continued, "I'm really sorry… At first, I doubted his feelings towards Kise-san."

"At first? Does that mean you changed your mind about it afterwards?"

Sakurai dipped his head. "I did. You see…Kise-san used to come to our school when he had off days…"

"Sakurai-kun, have you seen Aominecchi? He better not have gone home already. I told him I was coming today and specifically told him to wait for me! And he's not picking up his phone for some reason, that stupid ganguro."

Giving a start at being addressed, his first instinct was to apologize. "I'm sorry! ("Huh? What? Why are you apologizing?") Aomine-san's probably on the roof, that's where he normally goes when he skips practice…"

The blond nodded and shot him a smile. "On the roof? Got it, thanks! Wait, he told me that he didn't have anything to do today, that liar!" Then he heaved an exasperated sigh and shook his head, "Damn, and I came all this way to see him too. What a waste of my day off. Don't worry, Sakurai-kun, I'll go find him and make him go to practice."

Sakurai's eyes widened. "K-Kise-san, you don't need to…ah, he's already gone."

Worried, he decided to follow the blond to the roof. And once he got up there, he could practically hear the blond scowling as he spoke so he stayed hidden behind the door.

The model had his hands at his hips as he frowned. "Aominecchi, you told me you were free today! I can't believe I came all this way just to be told that you have practice today, you liar!"

Meanwhile, Aomine was on his back and had a finger plugging one of his ears, answering with furrowed brows. "Shut up! God, you're so loud, Kise! I told you I was free because I am! I don't need to go to practice!"

Kise's hands dropped to his side as his voice softened. "But you never missed practice at Teikou…"

Sitting up in annoyance, the taller boy huffed impatiently."Yeah, well, that was then and this is now, alright? Just drop it already. It's annoying! It's not like practice's all that important anyways!"

There was a long paused between the two.

"So then, between me and basketball, which do you like more now, Aominecchi?"

Sakurai hadn't expected to hear their ace hesitate when answering.

Pushing himself up, Aomine sighed and placed a hand on the blonde's head, speaking surprisingly gently, "...you idiot. I'm going to choose basketball, of course."

An unreadable expression flickered across Kise's face for a moment before it turned back into impatience. "Then go to practice already! Your teammates are all waiting for you!"

Sakurai was twiddling his thumbs as he continued, "Then shortly after that, Kise-san found out that Aomine-san had been eating my lunchboxes. So he asked me to teach him how to cook…"

"Sakuraicchi!"

"I'm really sorry! I'm really sorry for being alive…" Then he paused and blinked at the blond. "Sakurai...chi?"

Not noticing his apologies, Kise clapped his hands together and asked him for a favour. "Could you please teach me how to cook? That idiot Aominecchi wouldn't stop talking about how good your lunches were, so now I'm curious, and a little jealous. So could you show me, please?"

He immediately bowed. "I'm really sorry, Kise-san! I didn't mean to divert Aomine-san's attention away from you!"

Looking shocked by his words, amber eyes widened as the model tried to calm him down. "Eh? No, there's no need to apologize! Really! It just means that you're really good at cooking, right? So please teach me! I'd like to try making lunch or something, sometime! That's all! There's really no need to apologize! It's okay if you don't want to! I'd understand!"

Sakurai shook his head. "N-no, I'd be happy to teach you…really."

Immediately, brightening, the blond shot him a sunny smile. "Really? I love you, Sakuraicchi!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Hey, Ryou, you need to teach Kise how to cook better!"

"I-I'm sorry!"

The taller boy let out a sigh and continued eating from his lunchbox, completely ignoring his apology. He snorted. "Seriously, I thought he was supposed to be good at copying people. Apparently it doesn't apply to cooking or maybe he got bored and didn't pay proper attention. Either way, make sure he practices more before making me lunch again! Ah…this sucks…"

Sakurai watched as Aomine continued eating though his complaints never ceased. "D-did you want my lunchbox instead, Aomine-san?"

The dark haired boy paused to consider the offer before shaking his head. "Nah, it's alright. I mean, it's not particularly delicious or anything, but it's edible. No point in wasting perfectly good food. Besides, I'd never hear the end of it if Kise found out. He'd probably cry and be all like 'Aominecchi, you're so mean! I put so much time and effort in to preparing this for you! I even made all your favourite dishes! I can't believe you didn't finish it!' or even worse, he'd get all depressed and say something stupid and girly like 'I guess it wasn't any good, sorry.' and then he'd tell Satsuki and then she'd get on my case as well. Both scenarios are seriously annoying!"

He could've sworn there was affection in the other's voice as he said all that.

The brunet had a small smile on his lips as he spoke about his memories from high school. "Every time Kise-san made him lunch, without fail, he'd complain about it but he'd eat it all…I never asked Kise-san directly, but I think he knew that Aomine-san treated him especially nicely. To Aomine-san, Kise-san was definitely special."

He nodded in agreement. "So it would seem...you don't think he'd be capable of ever harming Kise then?"

Eyes widening, Sakurai quickly shook his head. "No, definitely not. I think it was clear that he cared a lot about Kise-san."

"And what about you? You said you didn't accept them at first and then changed your mind. That's fine and all, but what'd you think about them individually? You respected them both, alright, but was there anything more to it?"

A little bewildered, the brunet answered, "H-huh? No, I respected Aomine-san as a player and liked being around him as a friend…if he ever thought of me as that, and that's it."

"And what about Kise?"

"Kise-san was a very dazzling person. I admired him a lot. I don't think anyone could've been a better match for him than Aomine-san."

Kagami raised a brow. "Sounds to me like you had a bit of a crush on him."

The smaller man shook his head again. "I'm sorry. To be honest, I'm not sure if I ever had feelings for Kise-san beyond that of a friend. It's hard to tell when you're awed whenever you're around them."

It was making him feel terrible for making the other feel so bad. Just by looking at the brunet, he couldn't imagine him being able to hurt anyone (at least not without apologizing profusely before, during and after the incident). Not wanting to stress the man out any more than he had to, he continued the interview, "What about your teammates then? Do you know what they thought of Aomine and Kise's relationship? Or about Kise in general?"

"I-I couldn't say for sure. But I think most of them were indifferent. Or if they didn't like it, they never really mentioned it…at least not out loud to Aomine-san."

"What do you mean by not out loud to Aomine? Does that mean someone said something to Kise?"

"I didn't mean to look, honest!"

He'd forgotten his notebook in his desk and had ran back to grab it before heading home. As he made his way down the hallway, he noticed Kise standing there and was about to greet the other boy when he noticed the distant look on the blonde's face. Clenched tightly in his hand, there was a piece of paper. Quietly, he asked, "Kise-san?"

The blond gave a start and turned around, quickly shoving the piece of paper in his pocket. "Sakuraicchi! You startled me!"

"I'm really sorry!"

"N-no, you don't have to apologize. It was my fault…"

"No, I'm sorry for startling you! I'm just scum! I'm sorry for being alive!"

"Please stop degrading yourself like that! It's depressing me!"

"I'm really sorry for depressing you, Kise-san!"

"It's fine, so you can stop apologizing!"

"I'm sorry!"

It took all his willpower not to laugh at the story. "So you saw what was written on that note?"

Sakurai nodded sullenly.

"And…?"

"From what I remember seeing, all it said was 'Stop seeing Aomine'."

Chapter 13:
"'Stop seeing Aomine.' Apparently that's what the note said. And all this happened about a month before his disappearance which would explain the strange behaviour Momoi had mentioned before. Maybe Kise was being threatened." Kagami chewed on his chopsticks as he sat at his desk with his lunch in front of him. "By the way, are you sure that guy was a lawyer?"

Alex walked over and stopped next to his desk. "Sakurai Ryou? He's definitely a lawyer. Haven't you read about him in the newspapers? I have to admit, I was surprised by how…apologetic he was in real life. But when he's in session, you should see how much he changes. He's not the kind of person who'd apologize for anything. And he knows what he's doing. If he told you all of that, my best guess would be that he's not the perpetrator."

He nodded in agreement. "That's what I was thinking. If he did it, instead of coming in, he would've barred himself behind a line of lawyers or something."

His boss' eyes flashed at the statement. "Hiding behind a line of lawyers, hmm? Funny you should mention that. You know who's gone and created a barricade of lawyers right now? Touou's ex-coach. I was looking into him since you brought up this idea that someone from Touou did it. And since the perpetrator needed help from someone who had access to a car or some way of transporting the body, naturally, I checked the coach out and found him hiding already."

Kagami frowned, mind processing everything the woman was suggesting. "Do you think he did it? He could've done it to ensure that Kise wouldn't be able to surpass Aomine, or just to knock Kaijou out of the running. I mean, when you're the coach a high school student who goes on to be the youngest pro basketball player to get onto the national team, that'd look pretty good on your résumé. That'd be pretty good motivation right there – even if it is kind of extreme for a high school sports club. But then again, he's the one who got Aomine back in the game after Kise's disappearance."

The woman shrugged unhelpfully. "I thought about that too. It's a possibility we can't rule out yet. The other possibility would be that he was just the driver. So maybe someone on the team did it and didn't know what to do with the body, so they called him up for help. Then maybe because of the bad publicity Touou would get if the story were to leak out, he went to help. Or maybe he didn't want his players to get in trouble. That's the other most likely scenario."

"It definitely doesn't help that he's got a bunch of lawyers ready to tell him not to answer our questions. He could've been the one who leaked the story to the press as well. He knew Aomine and Momoi's past with Kise, their absence and all the time they've been spending with us must've tipped him off. So it looks like Haizaki was probably right after all. Aomine's own team…"

He didn't even want to think about the reactions he was going to get from them.

Alex dipped her head and flipped through the small pile containing all the contact information of everyone that used to be in the Touou basketball club. Picking out a couple, she placed them on top of the pile decisively. "Let's start by looking into the guys we have access to first then. I'll see what I can do about the coach, but our best bet would be to get the other accomplice to confess. Here, these guys would probably be your best guess. They were on the regulars when Kise Ryouta disappeared. Imayoshi Shouichi was the captain at the time, I believe. He doesn't live in Tokyo anymore so you'll have to contact him via telephone or something."

Taking the piece of paper from her hand, he sighed. "Alright, I'll see if I can get a hold of him later then."

He was standing in the convenience store by Aomine's apartment with Kuroko, picking out which ice cream to buy when he brought up the case. "The problem with cases this old is that there's rarely any evidence left. Whatever they collected back then, that's all we have to work with."

Kuroko nodded understandingly. "That does sound difficult, Kagami-kun. How long are you planning on standing there and staring at the ice cream? If you don't know what to try, this brand's pretty good."

"Alright, I'll trust you on this." Finally deciding on a colourful looking popsicle, he went to the cashier with his basket full of snacks.

They had decided to retrace Kise's steps on the night of his disappearance at Kuroko's request. Stepping outside the door, the shorter man looked around, expression unreadable. "So Kise-kun would've been talking to Murasakibara-kun still. Then he saw Haizaki-kun somewhere there and went to talk to him…then he made his way over to the basketball court, right?"

Kagami nodded, already taking a bite of his frozen treat. He stood where he assumed Haizaki would've been that night and looked over to the basketball court. "It's pretty close, but not close enough to see people clearly. Haizaki definitely wouldn't have been able to make anyone out at night. Guess he wasn't lying after all."

"No, I guess he wasn't."

"Hey, Kuroko."

"Yes, Kagami-kun?"

The detective frowned, still munching on the popsicle. While he didn't want to risk shattering the shorter man's hopes or anything, he felt that it was important to mention the difference between TV magic and real life when it came to crime investigations. "I hope you realize that we won't be finding any new evidence over there. It's been ten years. I don't know what kind of TV show you watch at home, but those shows are really unrealistic. We rarely get DNA samples from crime scenes. I don't know how that stuff works, but we definitely won't be finding any here. This isn't a story that's been written by someone, so don't expect something to conveniently pop up."

Kuroko shot him a blank look. "Don't worry, Kagami-kun. I know better than to expect a note with the guy's name on it. Right now, I think I just want to see where Kise-kun was when he still…before everything happened. I remember that he used to come here to practice with Aomine-kun all the time."

Tongue heavy in his mouth and words stuck in his throat, he nodded wordlessly and followed the other towards the basketball court. Once they were standing outside the fenced area, they took a seat, watching kids play inside. "So we've been talking to Aomine's team. Do you remember very much about them?"

"No, I can't say I do. We played against them quite a few times, but that's about it. There were no regular interactions between Seirin and Touou. From what I remember, Sakurai-kun was a very timid person though he became more confident in the court. There was also Imayoshi-san who was the captain during Interhigh and the Winter Cup. He was always cordial enough, but his personality was pretty bad."

"'Pretty bad?' That's a pretty vague and negative way to describe someone."

The shorter man nodded, eyes never leaving the ball bouncing around in the court. "I think you'll understand when you talk to him. He's not a person you'd be comfortable around. I think Aomine-kun called him the 'evil four-eyes guy' or something. Although his personality's nothing to die for, he'd very controlled and calculating."

He raised a brow in interest, taking notes in his head. "Is that so? I was talking to Sakurai earlier today and he mentioned that Kise might've gotten a note from someone telling him to break things off with Aomine. Of course, this could've been from anyone, say, a fan or something. But if Sakurai's memories are accurate, Kise's reaction at the time would suggest otherwise. And I'm not sure if that was all that was written on the note or if there'd been others which fuddles things up a bit. But if Imayoshi's as shrewd as you say, then he doesn't sound like the type to write notes like that."

"No," Kuroko agreed. "He doesn't. If he had a problem with Kise-kun, I imagine he would've found a subtler way to deal with it."

Kagami scowled and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. Trusting the shorter man's word, he already knew that he wouldn't be putting too much effort into the interview with Imayoshi. "I guess I'll find out more when I give him a call tonight – not looking forward to it at all. I wish we had more information on the note though. Do you remember how Momoi mentioned that Kise had been acting strangely about a month before his disappearance? That note would line up with everything she said. Kise might've been dealing with that problem at the time."

Light blue eyes glazed over slightly. "To be honest, I'm a little angry with Kise-kun right now."

The detective blinked in bewilderment. "Why?"

"Because he didn't rely on any of us. It didn't have to me or Momoi-san specifically. He could've gone to someone, anyone, if this problem was bothering him. But instead, he just kept it to himself. We could've helped somehow. I'm sure of it." Kuroko's fists clenched tightly. "If Kise-kun was killed over something so petty and trivial, I'm not sure how I'd be able to handle it."

Red eyes widened slightly at the surprising amount of emotion the shorter man was so openly expressing to him. And while he understood it and sympathized, there was also not very much he could do about it. "Finding out and getting pissed off about it is still better than never finding out. Well, that's my opinion anyways. We'll deal with it when the time comes, okay? So in the mean time, tell me more about the other guys."

Relaxing visibly, Kuroko nodded in agreement. "To be honest, I don't remember very much about the others. There was a Yoshinori-san, I think, but he graduated after my first year in high school, so I never actually talked to him. And there was Wakamatsu-san, he was the center and took over as captain after Imayoshi-san retired."

He let out a sigh. "That's really not much, hmm? I suppose that when you're on the same team as someone like Aomine, it's hard to really stand out. You guys in the Generation of Miracles must've crushed everyone else's dream of becoming a pro. How the hell were people supposed to compete against you guys and your inhuman abilities? By the way, I still haven't seen you play actual basketball yet."

Then a voice joined in their conversation. "Tetsu and the detective? What are you guys doing here?"

Narrowing his eyes, he growled, "I have a name, you know. And what are you doing here?"

With a basketball in his hands, Aomine raised a brow. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to shoot a couple hoops. Just because I've been skipping team practices doesn't mean I just sit around at home all day. Come on, let's see if you're any good. I'll even let you have Tetsu on your team."

The two of them exchanged looks for a moment. They were both clearly thinking about how the pro had no idea that Kise had disappeared and had maybe even been killed somewhere nearby. But glad for a distraction, no matter how momentary, Kagami got up. "Fine. You asked for it. Come on, Kuroko. Let's go and kick Aomine's sorry ass."

They didn't manage to kick Aomine's 'sorry ass' in the end.

But at least Kagami found out that yes, Kuroko was an excellent basketball player; it just wasn't in a conventional way.

That night, after dinner, he managed to force himself into dialing up Imayoshi.

"Hello?"

"Is this Imayoshi Shouichi who used to go to Touou?

"That would be me. How can I help you?"

He blinked, not having expected such a heavy accent for someone who went to high school in Tokyo. But still; so far so good.

"My name's Kagami Taiga and I'm a detective working on Kise Ryouta's case."

"Oh? And how would this pertain to me, detective?"

Although he could hear the smile in the man's voice, he could also tell that the cogs in Imayoshi's head were turning and analyzing the situation as they spoke. Considering that the older man had the ability to hang up on him at any time, Kagami decided to play it safe. "I'm looking into all the people who attended the Winter Cup in the year Kise went missing. I was just wondering if you had any information that might be of use to the investigation."

"Are you asking me if I killed him?"

It was a statement, not a question.

When he didn't answer, Imayoshi continued, "While I might not have been all too thrilled about Aomine's relationship with Kise Ryouta, I had nothing against it. I pretty much let him do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted anyways. As long as he showed up for the games, I didn't really care if he skipped practice or what he did with his time. Besides, we lost to Seirin during the first round of the Winter Cup. That was the last match where I got to be the captain. If I remember correctly, Kise Ryouta disappeared after."

"That's right…"

"Then what motivation would I have to harm him? I wasn't even on the team anymore, really. So even if it benefited them, it wouldn't have been any of my concern. I cried my share and got over it. Oh, but… no, never mind. That's probably not important. I hope you find the killer, detective. If there's nothing else, then I'd like to bid you a goodnight as I'm actually in the middle of something right now. Bye, detective!"

Before he could say anything else, the man had already hung up.

Running a hand through his hair in frustration, Kagami sat there for a moment to replay the conversation in his head. While he didn't particularly like Imayoshi's personality or the way he was so easily dismissed by a civilian, the man had a point. After Touou lost their first round against Seirin, he had technically passed the torch onto someone else and stepped out of his captain's position. Having stepped out of the team, there was no reason for Imayoshi to continue to look out for the team, and there wasn't any personal gain he could've gotten from killing the blond.

There was no motivation.

It was just as Kuroko had said. Imayoshi wasn't the doer.

"Damn evil four-eyes guy," he muttered in annoyance to himself.

After sitting there for awhile to get over his irritation, Kagami heaved a sigh and picked up the phone, dialing Kuroko's number.

"Hello?"

He sighed dejectedly. "No luck. He didn't even need an alibi."

"I guess that means you can cross another name off your list then, Kagami-kun."

"Yeah…"

"What if it wasn't someone on Aomine-kun's team?"

The detective massaged the bridge of his nose. "Then I guess we've narrowed down the suspect list further. Any work done and any name crossed off is still better than none, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, but I'm anxious that this case won't get solved. I've been getting calls from the members of the Generation of Miracles asking for status updates. I didn't tell them specific details, but I think everyone's afraid that we won't ever know who did this to Kise-kun. I don't mean to put pressure on you or anything, Kagami-kun, but-"

"We'll definitely find out who did this," he quickly reassured the other. "Although we don't have the magic of TV and miracle DNA samples on our side, I won't stop until it's resolved."

Kuroko sounded relieved. "Thank you, Kagami-kun."

Kagami smiled. "Anytime."

He spent the rest of the night reading over the profiles of Aomine's ex-teammates, trying to decide on who to interview next.

It turns out that all of it was unnecessary.

A few fruitless days later, with the media tracking his every movement, Kagami arrived at the office to be greeted with a frown from Alex. He blinked. "What's up? Did something happen? Don't tell me journalists tried to break in here again."

She rolled her eyes. "They've been trying for days now, but that's not it. A guy came in earlier, asking for a plea bargain. Looks like our investigation paid off after all. He probably couldn't take the waiting game so he opted to turn himself in instead. He's sitting in the interrogation room now, looking awfully nervous. You better head on over before he changes his mind and runs off."

Without another word, he threw his things down and made his way to the room.

Chapter 14:

Chapter 14:

Kagami stood there for a long moment at the doorway, staring at the man sitting inside. He couldn't believe after so many weeks of investigating, the man turned himself in. Half of him was annoyed that the man turned himself in when he was so close to finding the truth. By surrendering, the perpetrator had, in his own way, won by turning his hard work into something anticlimactic and almost trivial.

Shame immediately washed over him when he realized what he'd just thought to himself.

The case was about catching a killer.

It was about bringing closure to all those who loved and were loved by the victim and for the victim himself.

It was about justice.

Getting his mindset back into order, Kagami turned the knob and stepped inside.

The man's head immediately snapped upwards, eyes wide with fear, legs still tapping nervously. For a moment, Kagami didn't see a man sitting there; rather, it was just a frightened teenager who knew he'd done something wrong and was trying to own up to his actions.

Clearing his throat, the detective sat down across the table with his manila folder in front of him. "Wakamatsu Kousuke. Tell me, why did you decide to turn yourself in now?"

The blond drummed his fingers in his lap and his eyes trailed downwards to the desk. He looked pale and too thin for his size. When he spoke, he sounded worn out and defeated, as though he'd been weighed down by guilt from his crime. "I…I don't want to hide it anymore. I've lived with it for 10 years and I can't do it anymore. I got a call saying you were on my tail. I knew that I couldn't run away anymore, so I figured that this way, I'd at least be able to preserve some of my dignity."

Coldly, he asked, "What crime are you pleading guilty to?"

Wakamatsu's voice trembled as he admitted quietly, "I killed Kise Ryouta."

And there they were: the four words he'd been waiting to hear.

It didn't feel as satisfying as he thought it would.

"Why'd you do it?"

Still averting eye contact, Wakamatsu spoke, "I didn't mean to kill him. That wasn't my intention. I just wanted him to stop distracting our ace and ruining our team."

Kagami frowned. "Is that why you wrote the note telling Kise to break up with Aomine? That was you, wasn't it?"

The blond looked shocked for a moment before nodding. "Yes, I wrote that note. I was sick of Aomine skipping practice all the time and getting away with it. He was always distracted. And he never really tried during any of the games and tournaments. I hated him – this person had unlimited talent in the sport I loved the most, and he was just wasting it. Back in high school, I was never afraid to voice my opinions on things, and I got pissed off when things didn't go my way. It wasn't a secret. Aomine knew I hated him. Kise knew I wanted him to stay away."

The detective folded his hands on top of the desk. "How'd you know that Kise was the one distracting Aomine? From what I heard, he was the one who made Aomine go to practices when he could."

Wakamatsu snorted bitterly. "There's nothing more distracting to a teenager than dating. And besides, Kise wasn't just a distraction, he was Aomine's weakness. It was obvious. After that game against Kaijou during the Interhigh Championship - I've never seen a person so distraught from winning a game. That's what happens when you play against someone you have romantic feelings for. I remember Imayoshi-sempai saying that the only thing there was to worry about Aomine was that he still had a soft spot inside him – a weakness.

"We both knew that if he was to play Kise again, he'd never be able to play at his best – not after seeing what damage winning could do. He looked traumatized after that match."

Kagami nodded wordlessly. What Wakamatsu was saying matched up to what Aomine had testified to earlier: the helplessness of being a winner.

"Their relationship was hindering Aomine's performance. And it showed when we lost to Seirin during the Winter Cup," the blond said decisively. "I tried talking to Imayoshi-sempai and he understood what I was getting at, but in the end he just shrugged it off and said, 'What can you do?' I even asked Momoi about it, but she was actually cheering them on. Sakurai practically worshipped them so he was no help either. I didn't know what else to do."

"So for the sake of basketball, you killed Kise?" he asked seriously.

Wakamatsu shook his head fervently. "No! That's not how things happened! I tried confronting him but he wouldn't listen! And then Winter Cup happened and the next thing I knew, Imayoshi-sempai passed the title of 'captain' onto me! All I could think of was how useless I'd be if I couldn't keep my players under control. And Aomine had never listened to me before, so if anything, he'd continue with his old ways and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. We couldn't afford to kick Aomine off the team so I thought that if Kise wasn't in the picture anymore, then at least I'd have one less distraction to have to deal with. It meant I had to try harder to separate them - people were expecting me to lead Touou to victory!"

Judging by the blonde's reactions to questions and accusations, Kagami could tell that while Wakamatsu wasn't necessarily a bad person, he was naturally a short fused person who didn't react well under pressure.

And there was no greater pressure than being expected to lead a team to greatness.

Studying the other closely, he began, "If Aomine behaved for once, then that'd take a load off your shoulder, right? It'd ease the burden of having to be 'captain'. When you're captain, everyone expects so much out of you - it couldn't have been easy. Here you were, drowning in expectations and there was Kise."

"All he ever did was get in the way," the man hissed venomously.

"So why didn't you just tell Aomine to break up with Kise instead of the other way around?"

Wakamatsu scowled at the very thought. "Trying to talk to Aomine would be like talking to a brick wall – except brick walls can't react violently. Every time I confronted Aomine about something, it turned violent. We were just too different to see eye to eye. So I thought maybe Kise would see reason or at least respond to threats."

"But he didn't – or at least not in the way you hoped."

The blond frowned. "At first, he said he'd have to think it over. I took that to be a good sign. But then when I ran into him after the Wintercup Tournament, he said no – and he even had the nerve to wear Aomine's jacket! It was like he was flaunting the fact that he had our ace wrapped around his finger!"

Standing in the basketball court, the model had a rueful smile on his face as he spoke, "Look, Wakamatsu-kun, I'm really happy that you're concerned about Aominecchi, but I can reassure you that he'll be better next year."

Wakamatsu frowned. "And how can you tell?"

"Because Aominecchi loves basketball, he really does. And as long as he loves basketball, I want to be there to support him."

"But can't you tell that your 'support' is distracting him!? How can you even have a relationship based around a sport!?"

Unfazed by his outburst, Kise shrugged. "I used to wonder that myself, but as of lately, I think that although we both love basketball, there's more to us than just that. It's possible: a basketball-free future. We're still only high school students right now so it's too early to tell what we're going to do with our lives. But to tell you the truth, no matter what I end up doing, I'd like Aominecchi to be there with me."

Wakamatsu stood there, speechless.

Kise's phone buzzed. Blinking down at his phone, he smiled fondly at it. "That's Aominecchi now. I'd better head back before he gets worried. He's thinking about his own future, you know? If not a pro, then he said maybe he'd like to be a cop…I think it'd be cool, but who knows how it'll turn out. Happy holidays, Wakamatsu-kun."

In his head, all he could hear was how Aomine was thinking about straying even further away from basketball; how Touou's team would suffer.

And it was all Kise's fault.

Glaring at the model's back, he could feel his temper flare and for a minute, all he could see was red.

"I remember thinking, 'How dare he? Who does he think he is, taking our ace away!? Aomine wouldn't have ever even considered anything beyond basketball if it wasn't for this guy! If he wasn't here, Aomine would finally concentrate on basketball. If he wasn't here, the team would flourish. As captain, I can't permit my ace to have such an obvious weakness. Kise needed to go away and stay away.' And I thought that if he wouldn't bend to reason, he'd bend to threats.

"The next thing I know, he's there, lying on the ground and not moving at all – not breathing. There were hands around his neck." His hands trembled as he spoke, "And I realized that it was me. I did that to him. I didn't mean to kill him or even hurt him. I just wanted to scare him - let him know that I was serious. I just wanted him to…go away. I was the captain. I was expected to do what's best for my team, but I didn't mean for it to end up like that. After that, I panicked and called the coach."

"C-coach Harasawa?"

"Wakamatsu? What's wrong? Why are you calling me at this hour?"

"I…I need help. It was for the team! It was for Aomine! I swear!"

"What did you do?"

"Kise…I…I…I didn't mean to…"

The man cursed over the phone and demanded, "Tell me where you are and make sure no one sees you until I get there!"

Harasawa showed up with the school's van minutes later. Under his instructions, they quickly loaded the body into the back and drove off, leaving no evidence of their crime behind.

Wakamatsu had his hands over his ears, trying to drown out the constant buzzing and ringing of the blonde's cell phone, too afraid to turn it off. He was certain that if he touched the phone, everyone who was calling the model would instantly know what he'd done. Frantic, he turned to his coach. "W-we should take him to the hospital and we should call the police, right? Where are we going, coach?"

"Just be quiet and do as I say when we get there. You can't ever let anyone know what happened. This will stay between you and me, got it?"

His eyes widened. "What? Why? B-but they'll find him! They'll know I did it!"

"No they won't! Just calm down and start stripping him! We're going to make sure no one ever finds him."

There was no telling how long they drove for, but suddenly, the van came to a halt.

The man frowned. "Come on, help me wrap the rope around him." When the teenager didn't move, he snapped, "Look, do you want to be tried for murder and hung!? If either of us gets caught, just think about how that's going to reflect on the school, the team, and everyone who knows you! Nobody can know what happened."

Terrified of the thought of what could happen, he quickly did as he was told.

"We tied him up with rope and attached a rock to the end of it to make sure he'd stay down. I haven't been able to get the image out of my head. I still remember it all like it was yesterday. I knew it was wrong, but the consequences of getting caught terrified me more – until now anyways. So we left him there, in that pond. And there he stayed for 10 years…. He stayed in that pond and haunted my dreams for 10 whole years. I tried my best to forget about it, but I couldn't. Maybe it's because I still have Aomine's jacket….

"I think I was starting to adjust to it - the guilt. Maybe Kise finally got sick of haunting my dreams or something or maybe he knew everything was about to get resolved. But I was finally sort of able to sleep again until coach called. He said that the body had been found and that you guys were investigating it. I was supposed to stay low-key and avoid you, but I'm just so tired. I don't want to have a ghost hovering over me anymore."

Kagami couldn't help but feel angrier at the coach than the actual perpetrator. The guy had been a mere teenager, alone and frightened. And instead of guiding him to do the right thing, Harasawa went and made everything worse. Gently, he told the other man, "You know, you should've gone to the hospital and to the police like you originally wanted to. Your coach was wrong. Everything he said and did that night was wrong. You were misled."

Wakamatsu nodded. "Perhaps…I can see that now. But it's too late to be regretting it, isn't it?" After a pause, he added quietly, "…I wonder if I was right about any of it though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, did my actions lead to Aomine's commitment to basketball…? Was it because of Kise's death that he managed to lead our team to victory and become a pro? Or would it have all happened anyways?"

The detective frowned. "I couldn't tell you. Even if it did lead to all that, do you think it was worth it?"

In barely a whisper, the blond shook his head and spoke with a haunted voice, "No. Never. I would give anything to undo it all, but there's no turning back time, is there, detective?"

Kagami shook his head. "No, there isn't."

With tears in his eyes, Wakamatsu muttered remorsefully, "I just wanted to break them up...that's all..."

Everything that happened next went by in a blur. They took Wakamatsu away and arrested the coach during his team's practice. Among the players, he could see Aomine and Momoi's shocked faces. Then a moment later, Aomine roared and lashed out at the man only to be held back by his teammates, the disbelief and betrayal evident in his eyes.

Leaving the gym, cameras flashed all around him, blinding him.

Journalists shoved microphones towards his face, trying to get the story out of him.

Ignoring them all, he and Alex loaded the coach into the car and drove off.

Somewhere in between all that, he managed to send a message to Kuroko but never got a reply.

Later that day, they recovered the jacket Kise had worn on the last day from Wakamatsu's place. Kagami stared at it long and hard, wondering if he should file it away with the evidence right away. They'd need it for the trial. Turning the fabric around in his hand, he found it strange, knowing that Kise had worn this during his death. It was strange knowing that the blond took his last breath in that very jacket.

As he fiddled with the jacket, he almost didn't notice when something fell out of the pocket.

Blinking, he picked it up and studied it for a moment.

He almost wished he didn't.

The following day, after news of the arrest got out and the names of the perpetrators released, messages came flooding in. The redhead ended up spending majority of the day reading and listening to voicemail after voicemail, each expressing their gratitude to him for solving the case. He never expected to feel so much grief from solving a case. The more messages he received, the worst he felt, knowing that all those people had lost someone dear to them.

As he sat there, dutifully going though all of them, much to his surprise, one by one, members of the Generation of Miracles showed up at the office to personally thank him.

The first was Midorima who was dragged in by Takao. Eyes red from crying, they thanked him and gave him his lucky item for the day and left as quietly as they entered.

The second was Murasakibara who appeared and offered him a box of pastries as thanks before taking off with Tatsuya to be comforted.

The third was Akashi. No words were exchanged between them, but that single nod he received from the captain of the Generation of Miracles told him more than words ever could.

Then Kaijou's old basketball club showed up, led by Kasamatsu. Teary eyed, the men bowed to him and expressed their appreciation for everything he'd done for their fallen teammate.

Speechless at their heartfelt gesture, all he could do was sit there and will his eyes not to tear up.

It wasn't until a few days later that he heard from Kuroko.

He was sitting at home when there was a knock on the door. Getting up, he looked through the peephole but saw no one out in the hallway. Frowning, he opened the door only to find Kuroko standing there. He gave a start and scowled. "Damn it, Kuroko, why can't you show up and be noticeable like a normal person!?"

Unfazed by his surprise, the shorter man replied, "But I knocked, Kagami-kun."

"And I looked through the peephole but I didn't see you there! Are you a ghost or something!? Never mind, come on in."

When the two made their way over to the living room, there was an uncomfortable pause between the two of them.

Kuroko was the first to break the silence. "Congratulations on solving the case."

From next to the other man, the detective nodded. "I couldn't have done it without your help. Thanks."

"No, I should be the one thanking you. I'm just glad Kise-kun can finally rest in peace and that we can finally properly mourn for him." There was a foreboding pause. "I talked to Momoi-san recently."

Kagami looked up and frowned. "How's Aomine doing?"

"Not that great, but it could be worse. Momoi-san's been keeping him company – so at least he's not alone. They're both trying their best…" Then he added, "He's thinking about quitting basketball."

The redhead pulled his lips tight in thought. Although he didn't particularly like the idea of Aomine quitting basketball, he couldn't blame the man for considering it. Basketball was what caused the whole mess in the first place. It gave him the love of his life and then cruelly took it away. Quietly, he asked, "Do you think he'll go through with it?"

Kuroko shook his head. "I'm not sure. In the end, it's no one's choice but his own. By the way, Kagami-kun, on the weekend, we're going to visit Kise-kun's grave. It'd be nice if you could come."

Kagami nodded. "I'll be there." There was another moment of silence before he continued, "You know, they all came to see me. Most of them were crying or had been. They all came in to thank me and I didn't know what to say to them." He could feel his own eyes stinging with tears as he recalled that day's events. "It could've waited. I wished they'd thought of themselves first and took more time to grieve – instead of coming in to thank me."

The shorter man listened to him wordlessly.

Looking over, the redhead asked, "Kuroko, have you properly mourned for Kise yet? It's over. The case has been solved. You're allowed to cry now."

Slowly, he watched as the light haired man thaw, tears welled up in the other's eyes. "It's over," Kuroko repeated. "Kise-kun's really gone for good and we'll never see him again."

Wrapping his arms around the shorter man and pulling him close, Kagami let his own tears run as he finally said the words he'd wanted to say to everyone who left him a message and thanked him, "I'm so sorry for your loss. I really am."

Kagami would never forget the first time he walked through those trees and onto that grass. Though the tarp and the bones were gone, he could still see them as clear as day in his mind. There were couples sitting in paddleboats, floating idly in the pond and people just sitting on the grass and enjoying the afternoon.

It was as though nothing had ever happened.

The only thing that changed was a portrait stand surrounded by flowers and gifts.

The people who gathered together to mourn just stood there, each reminiscing on their own, recalling experiences shared with the blond. No words were exchanged and no sounds were made save the occasional sniffle. The atmosphere was thick with melancholy and grief.

Standing there amidst all those who loved and were loved by Kise, he felt oddly out of place.

Glancing around, he could imagine Kise watching them all stand there with their heads bowed and their hearts heavy. The only thing the redhead could think was, 'Look, Kise, all these people are here because you were precious to them. You somehow touched their lives and now they're here, grieving for you.'

The detective wasn't sure how long he stood there for but eventually, one by one, the crowd began dispersing. There was a soft tug on his sleeve. Glancing down at Kuroko, he nodded and took it as a sign to leave.

Then he remembered.

Walking over to Aomine, he tapped the pro on the shoulder and handed him an envelope. "I found it in Kise's – well, I guess your jacket, and I thought you should be the one to keep it. It's got nothing to do with the case, so it's yours now." Softly adding, "Please accept my condolences," he returned to his car with Kuroko.

From across the pond and sitting in the driver's seat, he asked, "How long do you think he'll stay there for?"

Kuroko shook his head. "Aomine-kun will probably be there for at least a couple more hours. He has a lot to think about. I don't think he's really accepted that Kise-kun's gone yet. After 10 years of hoping, it can't be easy to just give it all up."

Kagami nodded understandingly. He wished he could help but he knew that space was what the man needed. Then he remembered the other thing he said he was going to do that day. Pulling out of the parking lot, he glanced over at the shorter man and mustered up his courage. He took a deep breath and began, "Kuroko?"

Light blue eyes turned to him. "Yes, Kagami-kun?"

Although he tried to concentrate on the road, he could feel his heart racing as the words tumbled out of his mouth. "So the thing is, I wanted to ask you earlier, but it would've been totally inappropriate given that I was working on a case that's very personal to you and we had a working relationship – I don't care what Alex says, I think it's inappropriate. And I also wanted to wait a couple more days, but I didn't think I'd be able to – or have the guts to get in touch with you so I'll just ask you now and you can just give me your answer whenever you feel like it, okay?"

Kuroko continued staring at him which didn't help his nervousness. "What is it?"

"Would you like to have dinner with me some time?"

"When?"

Kagami blinked in surprise. "Huh? Well, the offer's valid as of right now, so…."

There was the slightest hint of a smile in the other's voice. "I'm free tonight."

"Are you sure?" was his immediate reaction. "I didn't say it to rush you or anything. If you're not feeling up for it, I'd understand, you know?"

"Kagami-kun, I appreciate your concern but I can't cry anymore. I've already spent the last two days crying and I'm exhausted. What I need right now is a little bit of joy to distract me from my grief. So please, let's go for dinner tonight."

He nodded and stammered, "I…but, you…well, tonight it is then."

"Thank you."

Kuroko sounded so sincere that he couldn't help but look over with a smile. "Anytime."

"Kagami-kun, please keep your eyes on the road."

Chapter 15 (Last chapter):
Aomine Daiki knew that he would never return to this place again.

As people began leaving the site, he continued standing there; staring at the flowers surrounding the portrait of the boy he once loved. Eventually, even Momoi shot him a rueful look and left.

But he stayed.

For hours, he stood there, mind blank with grief.

The only thing he knew for certain was that he would never return to this place where Kise's memorial stood, or to the rooftop where Kise confessed, or to the basketball court where they shared their first kiss. He would never return to any place that held memories of the blond ever again. That was what he decided.

After everything was said and done, all he felt was exhaustion.

The sun was setting when he finally willed himself to leave the park.

The exhaustion that came with the grief and anger didn't fade over the days.

Aomine spent the next week hiding under his covers, refusing to answer his phone or the door but unable to sleep. He stayed away from the television and the radio, not wanting to risk hearing Kise's name on the news – not wanting to be reminded of how he was betrayed by the very sport he loved and lived for. He also avoided the envelope Kagami had handed him; its contents laid splayed carelessly on his nightstand.

Curled up in the safety and comfort of his home, he closed his eyes and made a wish.

He was so tired; all he wanted to do was to forget everything and sleep.

So that's exactly what he did.

He was standing in the basketball court by his apartment.

Looking down, he found a basketball in his hands. Not particularly worried about how he got there or where the ball came from, he began dribbling it. Idly, he looked at the hoop, and without thinking, he shot the ball upwards and watched it go in.

Something was off.

Catching the bouncing ball, he shot it in again, wondering what the problem was. It wasn't until a few more shots that he began to wonder what he was doing and why he was there. Watching as the ball went in, hoop after hoop, he began questioning his career choice.

'I got bored of basketball in high school, didn't I? Why did I continue playing? Why am I still playing now?' he asked himself, sinking another hoop.

In the back of his head, an image began surfacing; a flash of yellow. But fearful of what memories would surface, Aomine quickly suppressed the thought and continued playing on his own.

Then a voice spoke up, "Mind if I join you?"

Turning around, he blinked at the sight of a blond teenager. The boy was undeniably good looking and had a slight smile on his face. Aomine shrugged and tossed him the ball. "Sure. Are you any good?"

The blond smirked at him challengingly and replied, "I guess there's only one way to find out! Let's have a one-on-one match."

So they did.

When it ended, he stood there, victorious and laughing; out of breath but pleased. "You're not bad, but still a hundred years too early to beat me."

The boy merely wiped the sweat off his forehead and pouted. "This isn't fair! I can't believe I lost again! I almost had it too! I'll definitely beat you next time!"

Aomine froze at the familiarity of the situation. Astonished, he turned to the teen. "You! It's you! You're the reason I continued playing basketball for all these years."

The blond nodded and smiled fondly at him. "And you're still as cool as ever. I've missed you, Aominecchi."

And just like that, the memories he tried so hard to lock away came flooding back.

"Kise…" He wanted nothing more than to run over and embrace the blond, but he was afraid that if he was to move, the other would disappear. Caught somewhere between anger and happiness, he asked, "Why are you here now? After all these years – I waited for you to show up for so many years, so why now?"

The teenager shot him a rueful look. "I wanted to, but I couldn't because you never truly believed that I was gone. Even when Kurokocchi and Mr. Detective showed up, you didn't really believe it."

"I still don't believe it," he insisted stubbornly.

"But you do. Or else I wouldn't be here. You don't want to believe it but you know it's true."

Taking a minute to search deep inside himself, he realized that the blond was right. Try as he might to deny everything that had happened, it wouldn't change anything. Dropping the basketball, Aomine lowered his head and blurted out, "I'm sorry."

Kise blinked and walked over. "Huh? Why?"

Fists clenched tightly, he confessed, "Because for ten years, I was upset at you for suddenly disappearing when in reality, I'm the one who caused your death – so, I'm sorry. It's because of me that all this happened. I'm sorry that I wasn't there to help you. I should've been there somehow."

Golden eyes softened. "That's not true, Aominecchi. Please don't say things like that. If you do, I'll start crying."

Aomine snorted and answered instinctively, "Then cry. It's what you do best anyways."

The model let out a soft laugh. "You're so mean, Aominecchi." Then quietly, he continued, "I'm the one who should be apologizing. These last ten years have caused you so much grief – I'm sorry." Chewing on his lower lip hesitantly, he asked, "But now that you know the truth…don't you think it's time to let it all go – to let me go?"

Instead of answering, he asked his own question, "Hey, Kise, if I touch you, will you disappear?"

Kise shook his head.

Tentatively, he reached out and wrapped his arms around the blond. Pulling the other close, he choked back his tears and muttered, "Ten years. For ten years, I've been waiting to do this. If I'd really wanted to move on at any point in my life, I would've, you idiot. I'm not ready to let go of you yet."

The model's eyes watered as he closed his eyes and hugged the taller man back. "But you have to. You can't just hide from the truth forever. I'm not coming bac-"

He shook his head stubbornly. "I don't want to hear it, Kise! You're here now! That's what matters! If this is a dream, then I just won't wake up! Fuck! I was planning on quitting basketball anyways!"

There was a pause between them.

Letting go, Kise took a step back and picked up the basketball. Amber eyes looked down at the ball and dusted it off. "Are you really going to quit basketball? I never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth."

"I don't want to play the sport that took you away from me," he admitted.

"But it also brought us together, didn't it? You can't just give up on the real world, Aominecchi. There are people who need you. Your teammates and Momoicchi – are you really going to abandon them?" There was a soft ringing in the distance. Kise looked over wistfully. "Do you hear that? Our time's almost up."

Aomine frowned. "What do you mean our time's almost up!? You can't just leave me again! I love you!"

The blonde's voice dropped down to a whisper. "You loved me, Aominecchi. You loved me so much, and I'll always be grateful for that – but that won't bring me back. There won't be a miracle-"

The truth hit him hard and he had to take a deep breath to hold his tears back. He shook his head. "Shut up…I don't want to hear it, Kise…"

"-there won't be a miracle, but I'm really happy that I got to play basketball with you again." Wiping the tears from his eyes, Kise sniffled. "I'm sorry. I told myself that I wouldn't make this any harder on you by crying. But the thing is, even though we can't be together anymore…even though I know you'll be okay and move on with your life, I love you, Aominecchi. And I know I should be telling you to just forget about me if it hurts too much to hold onto these memories, but the truth is: I don't want to be forgotten.

"I want you to move on and have a long and happy life, I really do! But I'm afraid of being forgotten, Aominecchi. It might sound selfish of me, but I want to be remembered from time to time by Kurokocchi and Kasamatsu-sempai. Even if it's just once every so often, I want to be thought of by you. So would it be alright for me to ask you to not forget about me, Aominecchi?"

Pulling the blond into his arms, he frowned. "Don't be stupid! Like I could ever forget about you – like anyone could forget about you! I'd have to be an absolute idiot to do that! You're the best damn thing that ever happened to me!"

"Aominecchi…"

The ringing grew louder.

Aomine held the other tighter though he could feel something pulling him away.

Amber eyes watched him sadly. "It's time. I have to go and you have to wake up, Aominecchi."

Struggling against the unseen force, he frowned and reached out for the other. "No. Please don't go, Kise. Please…I don't want to lose you again!"

The blond took a step back and shook his head. "I have to go. Or rather, you have to. This is no place for the living."

He could feel tears running down his cheeks as he was pulled back to the realm of the living. "Kise! I won't forget you! I promise!"

Fresh tears spilt from the teen's eyes. "Thank you, Aominecchi. Thank you so much for everything -thank you for loving me. You have no idea how much I'm going to miss you…"

"Kise…"

Shoulders shaking from suppressed sobs, Kise waved at him. "Goodbye, Aominecchi. Please be happy."

The last thing he saw was the most heartbreakingly beautiful smile he'd ever seen.

Navy eyes snapped open and he sat up with a start. Feeling tears trickling down his face, he quickly wiped them away with his arm and looked around. He was sitting in his bedroom and the sun was shining brightly outside. Checking his phone, he found dozens of missed calls and messages from worried friends and family. For a moment, he toyed with the idea of leaving them unanswered but then decided against it.

After Aomine replied to all of them with 'I'm fine,' he spared a glance over to his nightstand where the envelope Kagami had handed him sat. Leaning over, he grabbed everything off the table and placed it in front of him on the bed. There was a post-it note, and a clear plastic bag with a small gold stud earring inside.

Aominecchi,

It's your turn now! Merry Christmas~!

With love, Ryouta

He stared at the note and the earring for awhile, trying to decide on his plan of action. Internally, he already knew what he'd end up doing before he ever made the decision. Taking a deep breath, he took the earring with him to the bathroom. He returned minutes later and began rummaging through his box of 'Kise-related stuff' for his old phone. When he finally located it, he plugged the charger into the wall and turned it on to take a picture of his new piercing.

25/08/18 14:25 To: Kise Ryouta

Thanks for the present. It looks cool, right?

[Photo attached]

*Message could not be delivered*

25/08/18 14:26 To: Kise Ryouta

I have no idea what I'm going to do now. Fuck.

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I guess I should figure it out...

*Message could not be delivered*

25/08/18 14:26 To: Kise Ryouta

Don't worry. I'll figure it out.

*Message could not be delivered*

Days later, Aomine finally managed to drag himself out of his apartment and met up with Kagami and Kuroko during their lunch break. Light blue eyes studied him for a moment before shooting him a relieved look. "You're looking a lot better than you did a few weeks ago, Aomine-kun."

The pro shrugged and nodded. "Thanks."

Kagami raised a brow, taking a pause from his burger. He didn't bring up the earring though it was clear that he also took notice of it. Instead, he asked, "So are you really going to quit basketball?"

Aomine shook his head, thoughts immediately turning to the dream he had. Though he had an extensive answer, he simply replied, "Nah. I thought about it, but I can't really bring myself to hate the sport quite enough to completely cut it out of my life. Besides, there's a game coming up and I can't really just abandon them now – Satsuki would never let me." Taking a pause, he added, "You know, I never thanked you for solving Kise's case…so thanks. A lot. Really."

The detective looked surprised by his sincerity. "Don't mention it."

The pro pulled his lips taut for a moment. "So, are you two dating now or what?"

Red eyes widened. "How'd you know?"

He shot the redhead an unimpressed look. "Don't worry. I have nothing against it. I'm actually surprised this didn't happen earlier. I mean, it was kind of obvious that you two had a thing for each other. And you're not really being subtle about it either – I can see you two holding hands under the table." Licking his lips hesitantly, he continued in a more serious tone, "Hey Kagami, take care of him, okay? Don't take any of what you have for granted."

Kagami nodded solemnly. "I won't."

After a pause, he decided to change the mood and smirked teasingly. "So Tetsu, never mind kissing -have you guys gone all the way already? Is he any good in bed? I bet he isn't – he doesn't look like the type who'd have very much experience in the bedroom, does he?"

The detective immediately began protesting loudly, face as red as his hair. "Oi! You can't just ask people about these things, Aomine!"

Aomine grinned. "And why not, Bakagami? What are you going to do about it?"

"I'll kick your ass is what I'll do about it!"

The pro raised a brow at the challenge and stood up. "Oh? Is that right? You're going to kick my ass?"

Taking the bait, Kagami stood up as well. "Yeah, that's right!"

Electricity and tension crackled between the two.

"Then bring it on! I'll take you both on again!"

"Sounds good to me! Come on, Kuroko! We've still got some time left before lunchtime's over!"

Kuroko heaved a sigh. As he was dragged out of the burger joint and onto the street by the overzealous pair, in the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a flash of yellow and smiled.

There was no doubt in his mind that it was Kise checking in on them.

"Don't worry. We're doing just fine, Kise-kun," he whispered to the air.

From down the street, Kagami looked back and called out, "Hey Kuroko, what are you standing around for!? Hurry up! We don't have that much time left!"

Turning to the detective, Kuroko nodded and jogged over. "Coming, Kagami-kun."

Later that night, Aomine sat there on his bed and stared at his old phone. Somehow, in his heart, he knew that his next message would be the last he ever sent to the blond, so he needed to make it count. He knew that he needed to write a message that would make the blond smile.

Remembering the teary smile Kise had on his face in his dream, he typed out his message and pressed the 'Send' button.

Suddenly, the screen went blank.

Blinking, Aomine tried to turn the cell phone back on to no avail. After a few minutes of fruitless attempts to restart his phone and tears of grief and frustration, he began to laugh. "So that's it then, Kise? Fine, I get it." Looking down at the blank screen through misty eyes, he muttered, "…thank you."

Then, clapping the phone shut, he got up and put it away for the last time.

28/08/18 21:32 To: Kise Ryouta

I guess it's goodbye for now…

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Thanks for all the memories.

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And thanks for loving me.

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I won't forget you.

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Let's play basketball together again the next time we meet.