Murasakibara sighs for the third time in that hour, and Akashi is visibly getting irritated. It's not helping the grim mood of practice.

"Murasakibara, get up and practice or get out," Midorima chides. No one mentions that Midorima has missed about five shots since this morning.

"It's only Tuesday, you can't be tired already," Aomine groans, wiping off some sweat with his arm, "if you don't have individual practice to focus on, go help some of the seniors with defense drills."

Murasakibara only pouts at that, sinking his face deeper into the gaps of his knees.

Kuroko sits beside the purple giant, ("Tetsu, when the fu--?!") and they sigh synchronously.

The scene was only getting weirder to witness. Haizaki stared at them, and affected by the sheer grim atmosphere, he could only sigh as well.

"They're radiating depression," Aomine makes a very keen observation, "what do we do, Midorima?"

"Throw Aisaka at them," Midorima says, then corrects, "or so I would like to do, but that's currently impossible."

And this time, Aomine and Haizaki sigh in unison.

"This isn't going well at all," Akashi speaks up, arms crossed and giving his own sigh of utter resignation, "it's Tuesday after all."

"What does it being Tuesday have to do with--" Midorima stops, and finally, he too sighs. "Oh, because we don't get Aisaka's Home Ec snacks anymore."

There's a moment of silence, then they all sigh again.

"Where are the rainbow morons?" Nijimura walks into the gym, and the moment he sees the group, he snaps, "not again!"

-

"Aisaka isn't around anymore, you know."

When Nijimura says that, it's like he's picking a fight. He really isn't trying to, but when Haizaki hears it, it feels like an insult to his very core.

"Fuck if I care about him."

Everything hurts. His head is ringing and pulsing in waves of agony-- he touches his temple where a sting is burning and he sees blood. He swears again. There are too many new bruises on him and he thinks that ache at his side might be a broken rib. There's a big tear in his jacket and he knows his mother is going to be cranky about it.

"Even if you do this, he's not going to come back to pick you up."

And Haizaki all but screams, "I said, shut the fuck up!" His fuse is shorter than ever before, "I'm not expecting anything from him and you can screw off and mind your own goddamn business, Nijimura!"

Nijimura sees it very clearly from where he's standing, even in the dim lighting.

Head wounds bleed the worse, and with how the boy cringes at every move, he probably needs a hospital. When doesn't he need a hospital, really? How did Aisaka always deal with this?

"We're all angry that Aisaka left, so--"

Haizaki feels himself get lifted up and he yelps. He's thrown over a shoulder with one arm-- fuck, Nijimura, what are you, superman?-- and Nijimura is on his phone, calling someone Haizaki can't see.

"What are you doing, Nijimura! Hey, NIJIMURA! Stop that! Put me do-- Ow ow ow OW OW!"

"If Aisaka ever starts replying to messages, that little shit better send me an instruction guide... ah, Momoi? Mind telling me where Haizaki's house is? Or a hospital, wherever closest I can go with a shrieking thirteen-year-old on my shoulder."

"Nijimura PUT ME DOWN, my FUCKING RIBS ARE BROKEN!"

-

"You are the light-- and I'm the shadow. Right?" Kuroko says, and Aomine flushes red even against his dark skin.

"How many times do you have to say that before you're satisfied?!" Aomine squawks, trying to hide how madly he's blushing, "I still don't understand how you can say something so embarrassing with a straight face!"

Kuroko all but sparkles at the reaction, "because Aomine-kun's reactions are always really funny."

"I'll seriously punch you one day, Tetsu."

They were a duo that never really complemented each other before this. Sure, they hung around all the time, but they were two people with a bridge in between them. They only knew what to talk about and how to treat each other because Aisaka was around.

They had nothing in common outside of basketball, yet on the court no one understood them better. That was how they were-- light and shadow, white and black.

"Are you lonely?" Kuroko asks.

Aomine hates having to admit his own weaknesses, but something in him wants to be vulnerable, if only for a moment. "Yeah," he says, not thinking much of it. It's just Tetsu, after all, "but there's nothing we can do about it, right?"

Together, they had to soldier on. Even without Aisaka, they can keep going.

They have to, because life goes on.

"Wanna go practice?" Aomines prompts, and Kuroko smiles back easily.

Their fist joins in the center, a little lonelier now, but they were together and as long as they were together, nothing was going to break just yet.

-

"Akashi-kun."

"Coach Shirogane?"

It's rare for Akashi to be approached by the coach-- after all, Akashi was the vice. Everything from the coach, much less the Head Coach, goes through Nijimura.

"Tell me honestly, Akashi-kun," the coach invites him for a chat, along with a rather dignified cup of coffee, "what do you, personally, think of the Generation of Miracles as it is now?"

Coach Shirogane was a wise man. He only did what was best for the team, and without a doubt he would lead the club onto the path of Absolute Victory they would always preach of.

Akashi can't possibly know what Coach Shirogane is thinking. Maybe it's just a whim, and the Coach isn't asking because of some deep, ulterior meaning behind it.

So Akashi, for once, thinks honestly. Not objectively, not in terms of the benefits, the failures, or the challenges. He just thinks as Akashi Seijuurou, as a friend and a teammate.

"We can go long," he tells the coach, "Aomine is almost there. Once he peaks, the rest of us will tag along. We'll get stronger, and we'll become the best."

Kuroko's analogy of light and shadow isn't too far away. Aomine is a light, it's in his name-- but he's not just a light that complements the shadow. He's a light that draws people in. Even without trying, the rest of their generation will follow along, drawn by his talent, and soon they will all stand up there with him, if he doesn't break first.

"We can become the best," Akashi continues, and there's a little more meaning into his tone this time, "but perfect-- perfect is something we can't become anymore."

Coach Shirogane casts him a strange look, but Akashi remains unfazed.

"Aisaka-kun," the coach mentions, and Akashi perks up, "what kind of person was he? I almost regret never having the opportunity to see him in action."

Against all the rules of the world, Akashi perks out a smile, though it reeks of a mischievous devil.

"He was like a mother," Akashi simply says, and he doesn't add anything to it.

Coach Shirogane stares, not too sure how to respond. Akashi isn't the kind to make jokes, so this wasn't the right place for a tsukkomi return.

"So is Njimura-kun the dad?" Coach Shirogane asks instead, and Akashi bursts into amused laughter.

-

"Pisces is in first place today! The world might not seem so bright, but there will definitely be people around to remind you of how beautiful the world is. Spread your wings and fly! Your lucky item is a sweater, and your lucky colour is purple. Scorpios are your best match today, so be sure to stick around one of them!"

Midorima hums. Well, Oha-asa is never wrong, so maybe he doesn't have to be so worried for Aisaka after all, wherever on earth he vanished to.

His own sign is at third place, so maybe something good will happen... he makes sure to borrow a purse from his sister before he leaves the house.

Hm, wasn't Haizaki a Scorpio too? Midorima thinks to himself, nah, it's probably someone else, wherever Aisaka had gone off to. Which leaves the question again, where on earth is Aisaka?

There's only so many places an underage boy can go after being suddenly orphaned.

The orphanage, but that wouldn't explain anything. To a relative's house, but that wouldn't explain why he wasn't answering the phone either. Maybe he's gone far into the countryside, so far in there's no cell reception. Or he's overseas, and hasn't gotten a new mobile plan yet.

Neither of those remotely answer why Aisaka isn't replying to their texts.

"Hiroto-kun used to have social anxiety, so he's probably just nervous."

Midorima shrieks, no I don't, when Kuroko's voice comes within five paces of him. He nearly stumbles into a telephone pole, clutching his heart in the wake of a heart attack.

"Good morning to you too, Midorima-kun."

Kuroko is a little shit sometimes.

"G- Good morning, Kuroko," he reluctantly stutters out, desperately fixing his glasses to pretend the previous embarrassing show wasn't real, "what a coincidence, seeing you on the way to school."

"We walk the same route every day, you just don't notice me."

Midorima was now reconsidering his life.

He spends a deadpan moment thinking about stupidity and the meaning of everything, and Kuroko, like the sardonic bastard he is, waits patiently for Midorima to come back to earth.

"He didn't seem all so socially anxious when he first met me," Midorima points out, finding it hard to believe that Aisaka, that living definition of social butterfly (social fairy?) had social anxiety. It was just too out there to believe.

I mean, the first thing Aisaka said to him was right out of a 4-koma manga. "Hi, green, I'm indigo!" with the most serious expression on his face. Midorima could remember that day like it was yesterday, it was not how he imagined his first day of school to be.

"Well, he got better after he met me, and Aomine-kun," Kuroko tells him, "but before that, he would punch me every time I talked to him because he got scared of me suddenly appearing around the place. After a while of punching me all the time, he got used to talking to people."

"That made absolutely no sense, but basically you've been scaring him since the day you've met?"

"Yeah," Kuroko has the gall to say with a look of blissful melancholy on his face, "he used to be really cute. He would shriek and run away and apologize at the same time. I almost felt like a proud mother the first time he stood his ground and just scolded me instead."

Midorima stares at Kuroko like he's an idiot. Kuroko stares back, expressions unreadable as always.

And Midorima nods to himself.

Yeah, if some ghost was haunting him every day, he'd probably get over social anxiety too. That makes sense.