“Man! Why the heck do we have to go to the outskirts of town in the middle of the afternoon?! The sun’s streaking up so high!” Kagami complained as the rest of them followed the Kuroko siblings.

“Nobody told you to follow” Tetsuya told him, popping a vein at his head.

“What did you say?!” Kagami grabbed him by the collar and receive a slap from Emiko. “Please let go of my brother” she requested, giving him a look.

He flinched and released his grip on Tetsuya’s shirt huffing afterwards then continued to walk. They reached an old street and saw a street court just near it, discovering Aomine running laps while Tsukiko yelled at him.

“Faster! Faster!” Tsukiko shouted, cupping her mouth as Aomine picked up his pace and ran faster.

“Tsukiko-san” Emiko approached her. “Oh, Emiko, and Tetsuya and the others too huh?” Tsukiko glanced at the back seeing her friends had all arrived. “I told you that we’d be going home a bit late didn’t i? I didn’t tell you to bring them here”

“But they insisted on coming” Emiko reasoned and heard mumbling that came from Kagami. “Well except for him who had no choice but to tag along”

“I see” Tsukiko put her hands on her hips. “Well if he really is a basketball freak, then he wouldn’t regret not missing this battle…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Emiko, Tetsuya” Tsukiko called her two cousins as her half-brother had approached them with a cocky but serious look on his face. “Say hello to your long unseen cousin, Takuya Satoshi…”

Emiko and Tetsuya widened their eyes in shock that their cousin who they haven’t seen in five years is now standing in front of them. “Yo” Takuya greeted them with a cold tone giving shivers down their spine. “And this jerk here is going head to head against, my Aomine!” Tsukiko announced cheerfully, completely not aware that it sounds like she picked Aomine over her half-brother.

“Tch, better add that I’m going to beat the hell out of him” Takuya hissed and walked away with a cold stare. Tsukiko glared back, not liking his new attitude. She didn’t know why he was like that. But she thought someone would need to teach him a lesson. “Alright! Let’s start! Aomine!”

“Tch, fine!”

“Tsukiko-san, are you sure this is a good idea?” Emiko was skeptical of the idea of her, senpai and cousin head to head on a basketball one-on-one.

Tsukiko smiled carelessly. “It’s fine, it’s not like it matters whoever wins, right? Besides…” she beamed. “I think it’s been a while since Takuya battle against a player like Aomine” Emiko gave her a questioning look. “What does that mean?” she asked but her cousin just returned a chuckle.

“Aomine’s the type of guy who doesn’t give up easily and get excited whenever he discovers someone stronger than him. It’s obvious isn’t it? When he met me and learned about my skills, he never stopped in challenging me. I think that’s the kind of player Takuya was looking for, and didn’t manage to find one until now that is…”

“Right” Emiko nodded. “In your dictionary, he’s a synonym of Kagami” Tsukiko pointed out with a joking smile making Emiko’s face blush madly. The monster player restrained her laugh, by covering her mouth. ‘Oh Emiko, you do like him’

“All right! A battle between, Satoshi Takuya and Aomine Daiki is about to begin!”

“Oi, blonde boy this ain’t official, no need for that” Tsukiko sneered at Jeremy who flinched and jumped away from her. “Eh, sorry about that, Tsukiko! ~”

“First to 30 points win!” Tsukiko announced, raising a hand cheerfully. “EH?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!” Aomine complained. “Don’t worry, Daiki! I’ll be here supporting you!” she encouraged as he realized that she had call him by his first name. He nodded and looked determined as ever.

“Hmm, Aomine-kun looks serious than ever” Momoi commented, looking at Aomine’s face. “And that’s because of Tsuneko!” she attacked her, a hug.

“OI! GET OFF ME!”

“You’re not usually hyper like this, Tsukiko” Tetsuya noticed, glancing at his cousin. He noticed the sudden change in her personality the longer she stayed in Tokyo with them.

As a child, Tsukiko was an outgoing girl who was always happy about everything. But after Takuya had left, she became serious and gloomy. She became irritant and stopped basketball for a while and told Tetsuya and Emiko that she hated it. When she came to Seirin, she found out that Tetsuya had joined the basketball team and was intrigued to join and had to say that she lover basketball again, leaving Tetsuya shocked when she wanted to join. She was supposed to end up like her brother, but when she met Kagami, and Aomine then followed the Generation of Miracles, her personality came back to normal. She even loved basketball more when she became satisfied with the effort and determination she was showed at by her Japanese teammates who wanted to beat her and didn’t want to stop until they could do so.

‘That’s because I met the team’ she answered her cousin mentally.

“Tsukiko?” Tetsuya called her attention, still waiting for an answer. “Ah, gomen, gomen” Tsukiko sheepishly grin and looked back at Aomine and Takuya. “I guess, I found myself again, after moving to you guys” she smiled. “I’m grateful for that”

Tetsuya saw one of the brightest smile he hasn’t seen for years, stretching his cheek muscles to form a smile too. “I’m glad too” he replied and saw the match.

Takuya was currently destroying Aomine with the score of 14-0. He was currently dribbling the ball while the out of breath Touou ace, knelt on the ground facing him. Tons of sweat already escaped his pores, as he wiped some of his forehead, using his t-shirt. “Whoa, he’s really destroying Aomine” Kagami commented from the sides, terrified at the brunette player, who was playing in front of him. His skill in basketball was completely overwhelming and a power he possessed that you couldn’t imagine.

‘This guy’s more of a monster!!!’

“Hmmm, Ao-chin, hang on there!” Murasakibara said and bit on some sweets he had with him. “Why on earth are you eating, we just had lunch!” Kise told him. “The walk here made me hungry” he replied nonchalantly and ate.

 “Seriously Murasakibaracchi…” Kise sighed and looked at his side where Midorima was. The green haired shooter was holding a flower vase with a blue flower inside it. “Midorimacchi… you… is that your lucky item for today?”

Midorima glanced at him and looked at the vase he was holding and nodded. “Yeah. Oha Asa’s horoscope says that Cancers--”

“I don’t want to hear it” Kise didn’t let him finish with a sweat drop. He focused on the game where Aomine was completely exhausted. He couldn’t cope up with the speed Takuya has and hasn’t shot a single one. “C’mon Aominecchi…”

“Tch” Aomine punched the ground and stood up once again. “Don’t you think this is over!”

Takuya smirked in entertainment. “Hmm, then prove it to me, Aomine” surprisingly, Aomine was able to cope up but still lost in the end. They all didn’t know what to think because like Tsukiko, Takuya was also a monster in basketball. Momoi even noticed that he wasn’t giving his all. Her childhood friend sat on the ground, feeling the agony of lost again. Takuya stared at him with an unreadable expression as Aomine smirked up at him, making him flinch.

“I’m not even finish beating Tsukiko, now I’ve got another rival right in front of me? Well life’s making me more excited” he had this creepy grin on his face. Takuya’s yellowish-brown eyes narrowed, seeing the old self of his at Aomine, remembering how determined he wanted to beat stronger opponents when he was a little kid.

The grin suddenly disappeared after his head got hit by a certain someone’s fist as he stumbled on the ground and rubbed his head. “Oi, Tsukiko! What was that for?!”

“Oh, just cancelling your transformation of a basketball freak” she reasoned while smiling.

“Oi, what does that mean” he got up and pinched both of her cheeks stretching it.

“Stop that!” she whined, holding his hands to stop. “Anyway, as expected you lost from Takuya here who seems—oi”

She noticed that her brother is in dazed and staring blankly at Aomine while holding a basketball between his hands. “Oi, Takuya, you there?” Jeremy waved his hands in front of his teammate’s face.

Takuya flinched, and slapped his hand away. Kagami sweat dropped seeing this. ‘His movements are the exact same thing like Tsukiko’s’ he thought referring to his slapping habit.

“You seem absentminded back there” Jeremy told him.

“I’m fine. Don’t mind me” was statement and turned his back at them. “Let’s go” he started to walk away, leaving them there, and Jeremy following him. He paused walking noticing that their red and blue kites were brought by Tsukiko, and was tied on some pole. then resumed walking.

“Damn you Takuya! Always leaving me behind!” the blonde complained but followed him anyways.

“Aren’t you going to follow him?” Aomine asked Tsukiko.

“Oh, well, no” she answered simply. “He’ll be alright”

“Huh? How come? He’s your brother after all. And by the way he acts… I think you need to talk to him”

“What for? He’s probably thinking about something right now, what am I to do interrupt him?”

“Thinking about what?”

“You’ll see” Tsukiko smiled, knowing how her brother acts when he’s like that. ‘He’ll figure out soon enough why he started to play basketball. And find a way to enjoy it again’

“Now, about the flower fields…” Tsukiko started and receive a paper fan from Emiko. “OI! Emiko!”

“Tsukiko-san, did you go to your old house?” Emiko asked.

“Yeah, I did…” she replied then flinched remembering it was out limits and wasn’t allowed to be entered since it was really old. “I was just…”

“You came to get your kite” Emiko finished with a sigh. “You’re really childish you know”

“OI WHAT DOES THAT MEAN”

“Nothing, let’s go back to oba-san and oji-san’s house. They must be looking for us right now” Emiko said.

“Yeah, iku” Tetsuya and Kagami led the walking with the others following.

“Oh, chotto” Tsukiko remembered, and untangled the kites from the poles. “Almost forgot these” she said and walked with Aomine back to the old Japanese house of her grandparents. “Oh, I remember, the harvest moon festival’s tomorrow”

“Moon festival?” Aomine wondered.

“Don’t forget, it’s also your birthday” Tetsuya reminded the forgetful cousin, who was always excited about the moon festival not her birthday.

“Oh right” Tsukiko remembered, knocking on her head.

“Seriously, you need to take memory pills. Who forgets their own birthday anyway?” Aomine gave her a weird look. She smiled sheepishly.

“I bet tomorrow’s gonna be the best birthday I had”

“Huh, what you’re a psychic now?”

“No!” Tsukiko protested with a pout. “I just think everyone will be happy tomorrow”

“And how come?” Aomine raised an eyebrow.

“It’s just a feeling” she shrugged. “I bet even Takuya will be happy”

Aomine flinched and Tsukiko ran ahead of him, hugging Emiko and bugged her about the festival tomorrow. Aomine was left walking with Tetsuya and Kagami was walking with Murasakibara.

“She’s really different from before she met you” Tetsuya snapped then glanced at Aomine. “You brought her back to herself”

“E-Eh? W-Why me?”

“Well, this is just a guess but…” Tetsuya paused. “She was really depressed when her brother left. That explains her grumpiness when she arrived in Tokyo. She also used to hate basketball because she blamed it for losing Takuya’s self. I was even surprised when she said she loved it when she joined the basketball team. Maybe she just used that excuse to be able to qualify but soon learned how she loved basketball the longer she trained with us”

“T-Tsukiko… used to hate basketball?”

“Well, that’s was before” Tetsuya explained. “But when she battled against you, she became pumped up about the sport again. Maybe because you got her all excited and…” he paused. “You somehow reminded her of the old Takuya”

He flinched after receiving that statement. “Why me? you know how I was before”

“I understand that, but somehow, I think that it’s good that you two met each other” Tetsuya told him. “Because the both of you were able to change, mutually”

Aomine’s lips were parted, after hearing those words from his former shadow. Tetsuya gave him a small smile and he did too. “Thanks, Tetsu” he ruffled the phantom’s hair.

“Now, all we’ve got to do is prepare for tomorrow” Tetsuya reminded their plan for tomorrow.

“Yeah”

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YAY I FINALLY GOT TO UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyways, hope you like this chapter guys <3 <3 actually, this is the 2nd to the last chapter xD then the final... then epilgue... and i'll be posting trivias about my OCs... i think....

WELL, TELL ME IF YOU WANT ME TO POST TRIVIAS. AND I'LL DO IT. IF YOU DON'T.

OKAY, make my life easier <3

vote and comment pls! :)