Distance of Shadow and Light: A Secret with Tetsuya Kuroko
After the fierce Winter Cup, Tetsuya Kuroko of Seirin High's basketball team quietly steps toward a new goal, having finished his heated battles against the Generation of Miracles.
But he carries a secret he can tell no one: a special feeling, beyond friendship, for his former light and now separate path-walker, Taiga Kagami. This must never come to light. Living as a shadow, Kuroko desperately hides his fiercely burning crush under an expressionless mask today as well.
On the other hand, Kaga
Distance of Shadow and Light: A Secret with Tetsuya Kuroko - Eternal Shadow, Screaming Light
After school.
Thirty minutes had already passed since the chime rang. The school store on the first floor of Seirin High's west wing was usually packed with students heading to club activities around this time. Today, for some reason, it was strangely quiet.
Kageyama You stood leaning against the wall.
His slightly long jet-black hair swayed in the breeze coming through the open window. His gray eyes, tinged with purple, remained fixed on the store entrance, utterly motionless. The expression on his refined features was calm, but the heat dwelling deep in his eyes was something entirely different from the spring warmth outside.
(*Kuroko-senpai.*)
He traced the name with only his lips.
The man who had thoroughly crushed Kagami Taiga 5-0 in the gymnasium yesterday now stood there with the face of someone waiting for a lover running late to a date. That contrast would have struck anyone watching as deeply strange.
"...I've been waiting."
The moment he caught sight of that figure, the temperature of Kageyama's voice changed.
Kuroko Tetsuya had just stepped out of the store, a shopping bag in hand. In his left hand, a vanilla shake carton. His light blue hair swayed softly with each step. Kuroko, who had been heading straight back to the clubroom with his usual blank expression, stopped dead in his tracks.
(*Kageyama-kun.*)
Inside Kuroko's chest, the scene from yesterday flickered.
Kagami had dropped to his knees. Slammed his fist against the floor. The voice that spat out *damn it* clung to his ears and wouldn't leave. The man who had hurt that Kagami now stood before him.
"Kuroko-senpai."
Kageyama pushed off the wall and stepped closer. A peculiar sweet scent—not quite perfume, not quite incense—brushed past Kuroko's nose.
"Just a little time is all I need. I want to talk. Somewhere private."
Those gray eyes looked straight at Kuroko and no one else. They didn't seem like the same eyes that had directed a provocative smirk at Kagami yesterday. They were earnest, gentle—and yet, deep within them flickered a heat so intense it couldn't be hidden.
(*I have to refuse.*)
Kuroko thought. This was dangerous. Kageyama had hurt Kagami. Had brought turmoil to the team. And yet.
"...If this concerns a teammate, I have an obligation to hear you out."
His own voice was calmer than he'd expected.
Thinking like the coach—he told himself that. Riko-san would surely say the same. He couldn't accept himself going along with this invitation unless he framed it with a reason like that.
The corners of Kageyama's mouth relaxed, just barely.
That was when it happened.
"Oh my, my, my~"
Behind the school store counter, the lady known as "Oba-chan"—Matsuda Mitsuko—had stealthily pulled out her smartphone. Her aged fingers tapped the screen with practiced ease. She was posting to the basketball club's unofficial LINE group—a mysterious group she had created on her own without telling the members, and which for some reason Captain Hyuuga had also joined.
"New development incoming! Kageyama-kun ambushed Kuroko-kun! This has all the makings of a date invitation!"
Sent.
Seconds later.
Hyuuga Junpei: "Huh?"
Izuki Shun: "That report came faster than my puns."
Koganei Shinji: "Wait, seriously!? What about Kagami!?"
Matsuda shook with laughter. The face reflected in her phone's screen was fully in entertainment-enjoyment mode.
(*Ah, romantic chaos has come to our club again.*)
Thinking that, she secretly snapped another photo.
—
Haruba Street Shopping Arcade.
In the evening arcade, students heading home from club and shoppers came and went. In front of the greengrocer, a handwritten sign read: "New Onions — 100 yen a bag!" From the yakitori shop, a savory aroma drifted along with the smoke. Next door at the taiyaki stand, the sweet scent of red bean paste mingled with the toasty smell of batter grilling.
Kuroko and Kageyama walked side by side.
An appropriate distance. Not close enough for their shoulders to brush. But a little closer than just friends. Kuroko could tell that Kageyama was consciously closing the gap.
"Do you always take this route, Senpai?"
"Yes. It's on the way from the station to school."
"It's nice. I like shopping streets like this. So many people, you can't tell who's who. But the people who are really watching—they see."
Kuroko felt a slight catch at Kageyama's words.
(*The people who are really watching—they see.*)
Did he mean himself? Or—
"Here it is."
Kageyama stopped in front of a family restaurant called "Saizerumu," three doors down from Maji Burger. Through the full glass windows, warm lighting and the figures of families and students were visible.
"Here?"
Kuroko was a little surprised. He had vaguely assumed it would be Maji Burger. That window-side booth he'd visited so many times with Kagami. That place where they'd talked about basketball while drinking vanilla shakes, where he'd sometimes watched Kagami devour three jumbo burgers.
(*Maybe it's a good thing it's a different place.*)
Kuroko didn't notice that he was thinking that.
—
A window-side seat inside Saizerumu.
Sitting across from him, Kageyama didn't even open the menu, ordering only from the drink bar. Kuroko got a vanilla shake. The plastic cup in his hand was pleasantly cold.
A moment of silence.
In the distance, the laughter of other customers could be heard. The clink of tableware. A server calling out, "Are you ready to order?" Noises that normally wouldn't register now grated conspicuously on his ears.
"Senpai."
Kageyama quietly opened his mouth.
"Will you hear my story? Why I'm so fixated on you, Senpai."
Kuroko nodded silently.
He had no reason to refuse. Listening to a teammate's story was only natural—he told himself that again.
"It was when I was in fourth grade."
Kageyama's voice took on a quality that seemed to gaze at something far away.
"Due to my father's work, we moved, and in that town there was a small park. Just an ordinary park with a single basketball court. But that's where I saw it. You, Senpai, playing in a pickup game."
(*A pickup game.*)
Kuroko's memory stirred faintly. Fourth grade. That was before he'd entered Teikou Junior High. A time when even his Misdirection was incomplete, when he was just a kid who was merely hard to notice.
"Even though no one noticed you, your passes kept connecting one after another. Your teammates shone brighter and brighter. It was the first time I knew there was someone who played like that. That was you, Senpai."
Kageyama's gray eyes narrowed.
"I didn't know your name. Didn't know where you lived. But I couldn't forget the sight of that day. After I entered junior high, I kept searching for you."
"...How?"
"Video footage. While I was collecting match footage of the Generation of Miracles, I happened to find you, Senpai, caught on camera. After that, I was obsessed. I watched only the matches you appeared in, over and over. It took time, but I finally identified you as 'Kuroko Tetsuya of Seirin High.'"
There was no lie in Kageyama's voice.
Kuroko could tell. This purity was genuine. To search through footage, watch it countless times, and pinpoint the location of a player he'd only seen once in a single pickup game years ago—that was obsession. You could even call it madness.
But.
"...How did you learn Misdirection?"
The moment Kuroko asked, Kageyama's expression shifted, ever so slightly.
For just an instant, a different color mixed into those gray eyes.
"I had a teacher."
"A teacher."
"Yes. Someone who taught me the fundamentals of Misdirection. But—I'm sorry. I can't say who."
Kageyama's voice dropped a register.
"Though... it might be someone you know, Senpai."
(*Someone I know.*)
Something snagged in Kuroko's mind. Misdirection wasn't a technique just anyone could teach. It was limited to a handful of people—those connected to Teikou Junior High.
"You can't tell me?"
"Not yet."
Saying that, Kageyama lowered his gaze. In that gesture, there seemed to be just a little—truly just a little—guilt mixed in.
Kuroko stopped pressing.
(*Not yet. Not now.*)
He made that judgment. Even if he forced the issue, Kageyama wouldn't talk. And besides—
(*Who is it that I want to hear about right now?*)
Kuroko had realized it. Even as he listened to Kageyama's story, in a corner of his mind, he had been thinking about Kagami the whole time.
The image of Kagami dropping to his knees yesterday.
The fist that slammed the floor with a *damn it*.
Himself, unable to chase after Kagami or call out to him.
(*The person I want to see most right now—is Kagami-kun.*)
For the first time, he recognized it that clearly. Along with the guilt that Kageyama thought this much of him—and yet, despite that—the fact that the one he wanted to talk to now wasn't the Kageyama in front of him, but Kagami Taiga.
Both feelings clashed inside his chest.
"Senpai?"
"...No. Thank you for telling me."
Kuroko replied curtly. That was all he could manage.
Kageyama's face clouded slightly.
He must have keenly sensed that Kuroko's heart wasn't here.
—
Around the same time.
Kagami Taiga was walking alone along Haruba Street.
His spiky two-toned red-and-black hair seemed less energetic than usual. His massive 195-centimeter frame somehow looked small.
(*Damn it.*)
He hadn't been able to go to the Tiger Coat.
Normally, even after club ended, he'd do solo practice late into the night. The sound of the bouncing ball alone was enough to drown out the noise in his head. But today—
(*My feet wouldn't go.*)
Yesterday's crushing defeat still clung to his body. Copied so easily by Kageyama, 0 to 5. And of all people, right in front of Tetsuya.
Kagami bit his lip.
(*What's Tetsuya doing right now?*)
He found himself unconsciously thinking about Kuroko. Normally, it was at times like this that Kuroko was by his side. Expressionless, but listening properly, dissolving Kagami's frustration with a single "Are you all right?"
But.
Since yesterday, he hadn't seen his face properly.
After club ended, they hadn't exchanged a single word. No—Kagami had been the one to run away. After losing to Kageyama right in front of Kuroko—he hadn't known what face he could possibly show.
(*And yet, what was Tetsuya doing?*)
A pointless irritation smoldered in his chest.
After that—had Kuroko talked to Kageyama? About something?
"...Tch."
Kagami quickened his pace. He wanted to stop thinking.
That was when it happened.
Kagami's feet stopped.
At the end of his gaze—beyond the large glass window of Saizerumu.
In a window-side seat, Kuroko and Kageyama were sitting.
Facing each other, talking. Kageyama speaking about something, Kuroko listening. The warm lighting softly outlined their silhouettes.
(*...Huh?*)
Kagami's mind went completely blank in an instant.
(*Why is Tetsuya with that guy...*)
Yesterday's images flashed back through his head.
—*Too bad, Kagami-senpai.*
—*I've proven it now. I'm more suited to Kuroko-senpai than you are.*
(*That guy... smiling with Tetsuya.*)
Smiling—that's how it looked. In reality, Kuroko wore his usual blank expression, and Kageyama's face was serious. But to Kagami's eyes, they looked like nothing other than two people sharing an intimate laugh.
His feet moved on their own.
The restaurant door swung open forcefully.
"Party of two?"
The server's bright voice came flying at him.
"Party of one!!"
Kagami shouted back with a straight face and immediately broke into a run toward the window-side seat. Behind him, the server let out a small "eep!" and a nearby family turned to see what was happening.
—At the sound of the approaching heavy footsteps, Kuroko looked up.
"Kagami-k—"
Before Kuroko, who had started to rise, Kagami's massive body came to a halt.
His spiky hair was trembling. His red eyes were wide open. The silver piercing in his left ear glinted sharply, reflecting the restaurant's lights. His shoulders heaved violently, his breathing ragged.
"Tetsuya."
His vo
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