Looking for a Miracle
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Fading

The nearing summer of the new school year meant only one thing of real significance to me; the middle school championships were approaching once again.

And no one really wanted to to compete.

I could tell, I could see it in their eyes whenever I walked into the gym. No one was enjoying basketball. It may as well have been a chore, not a sport they'd all once loved.

It was difficult to talk to anyone, and it was difficult to meet anyone in the eye. Kuroko and I had banded close together. 

Momoi was with us sometimes, but recently she said she'd been spending time with a new friend who'd just transferred to the school this year.

Kuroko and I did almost everything together nowadays, it seemed. From sitting together in class, and walking home side by side... We find some small comfort in each other, when our conversations would turn to books instead of dwelling on what was happening to our friends.

If we could even really call them friends anymore. We'd grown so distant that friends may no longer be a truly accurate term. Maybe acquaintances suited our relationships better.

One day, in the dying days of spring with summer just around the corner, Momoi walked home with the two of us. The sakuras were out in full bloom, a forest a pink, some falling softly down in the wind.

"Aomine-kun isn't with you today?" Kuroko asked Momoi.

Momoi shook her head sadly. "No. These days we haven't been around each other much..." Her voice trailed off, and she pressed her lips tightly together and bowed her head, steeling herself.

"Same with me and Akashi," I murmured. "Though you probably already know that..."

I swallowed. Even now, it was difficult, almost alien, to call him Akashi, when I'd been calling him Sei almost from the moment we first met.

Momoi rested a hand on my own. I smiled at her, and glanced across at Kuroko. His shoulders had dropped slightly, and his gaze remained fixed on the ground.

"It's not just Aomine-kun," Momoi murmured. "Unless I have to deliver an announcement to the club, I don't talk to the others anymore, either..."

"Me either," I murmured. I couldn't remember the last time I'd held a proper conversation with any of them. Only a short while ago we'd been the closest of friends... and now no one talked to each other. "It's feeling lonelier and lonelier in the club lately... There's no joy in victories anymore, either. Instead, it's draining, watching them win by impossibly large margins while they don't enjoy it."

As I said this I thought of a little boy with red hair whose only solace after his mother's death and under his father's strict control had been basketball, and my chest tightened.

What had happened to cause this drastic change?

The three of us came to stop at the end of a pathway, they led out onto a zebra crossing.

"Tetsu-kun..." Momoi whispered, voice breaking. "Do you... remember what I asked you before?"

I froze, my eyes flicking between the two.

Kuroko turned around, his face blank and empty. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't recall. What was it you said?"

Momoi blinked; I could see how her eyes had glazed over with tears.

"Oh!" she exclaimed in a high voice, waving her hands frantically. "Never mind, it's okay! Anyway," she pointed at the path, "this is where we part ways, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah..." Kuroko murmured. "Then I'll see you..."

After another fleeting moment, Kuroko turned and walked across the road on his own. I sucked in a breath. The image of Kuroko on his own was an odd one that tugged at my heart - he never used to be alone. First it had been Aomine and I, the tight trio playing basketball together in the third string gym, when we all loved basketball from the bottom of our hearts and only wanted to improve and have fun together. Then he was surrounded by everyone else, and we were laughing after practice, on our way to the convenience store...

He shouldn't be alone. He really shouldn't. None of them should be alone...

"The others should be there..." Momoi choked out. She turned to me. "Akane-chan..."

"I know, I feel it too," I murmured. I hesitated before asking, "What did you ask him before?"

She sniffed.

"I asked him... if we'd always be together. All of us."

"Oh."

We looked at each other, and I knew we were thinking the same thing; we were separate, all of us. No one wanted to be together anymore. I had the distinct feeling that everyone wanted to separate, to never have met, to be free from Teiko. No one was enjoying the school or being together any longer.

The two of us held on to each other, and we cried.

*          *          *

School would have been unbearable, if it hadn't been for lunchtimes.

Classes had lost all interest for me, especially when I was very much aware of Akashi on my right every minute of the class. I'd buried my nose in my textbooks, but things were incredibly dull now that we no longer sent notes while the teacher's back was turned, or sent each other knowing glances throughout the class.

Lunchtimes were when I could escape everything, go to a secluded area of the school, and have time to myself, often with Kuroko. Today though, I fancied Momoi's company, so swept the school in search of her.

I found her, sitting under a tree with a girl with dark hair and glasses who I didn't know. She turned as I approached, a wide smile on her face as she waved. "Akane, hey!"

"Hi Momoi," I called. I glanced at the other girl and smiled. "Who are you?"

The girl smiled shyly and pushed her glasses up her nose. "Tsukino Gina." She held a hand out, which I took with a smile. "You're Hirai Akane right? I've heard a lot about you from Momoi."

"Please, Gina-chan, call me Satsuki," Momoi corrected.

Gina chuckled. "Okay."

"Gina-chan's from Australia!" Momoi told me as I took my seat beside them. "That's pretty cool, right?"

My eyes widened. "Yeah, I'd say so." I turned to Gina eagerly, leaning forward. "I don't know much about Australia... what's it like?"

For the rest of lunch, Gina talked to us about life in Australia, and I listened intently the entire way through, only interrupting her for the occasional question. When the bell rang, for the first time, I was smiling as I made my way to class.

I could understand why Momoi was spending so much time with Gina. She was a breath of fresh air, something so different from the basketball club. She was shy and kind, and a wonderful person inside and out.

---------------------------------------------------
for those who don't know, gina is my oc from my story in shadows! i've tied the two stories in together, so in shadows is technically the sequel to this story!

well we all know what's coming up next... the teiko/meiko game...