➪ Rᴇɪɴᴄᴀʀɴᴀᴛᴇᴅ ɪɴ KNB ✔︎

Those dark days

It had begun. Yui sat alone in crowd watching the basketball game where Aomine realised his overwhelming strength. She sighed seeing Kuroko's face. It was only a matter of time when they all 'awaken' and be dubbed the Kiseki no Sedai. The game ended with Teiko completely thrashing the opponent school.

Yui left early without saying goodbye and went home.

Days passed and she no longer hung out with the GOM except for her brother, Kuroko and Momoi. Akashi would sometimes bring her home to cook but she would always leave straight after. Call it cowardice but Yui didn't have the heart to see everything fall apart.

Aomine started skipping practice and always disappeared off somewhere. Kuroko looked sad these days but the rest of the team didn't care or didn't notice. They began focusing on individualistic growth instead of team work and their coach supported it.

Eventually, the day arrived for the finals. The last day of the championship was filled with excitement and happiness from the stands but Yui felt nothing but sorrow. Sure she could go and tell the prodigies not to fix the score so badly but she knew that they wouldn't bother listening to her.

Meiko came to the arena full of spirits while Teiko walked in looking bored. It was disrespectful and rude of them but the Meiko team didn't seem to mind. Yui saw a lob of brown hair and recognised the player as Kuroko's childhood friend, Ogiwara-san.

Both teams bowed at each other and the ball was thrown up.

~*~*~*~*~*~

As expected, everything went the same as the anime and manga. The GOM fixed the score to mock the opposing players and utterly crushed their spirits. Yui watched as Kuroko made eye-contact with his friend who looked humiliated. She wiped a stray tear from her eye and walked out.

Akashi knew very well what he did. He felt a small pang of guilt but didn't regret it. He needed to show the commoners their place and that he was absolute.

The team changed out of their jerseys and made their way outside ignoring the stares and whispers. They spotted Yui waiting for them however, instead of wearing her usual warm smile, she looked at them emotionless and cold. Without a word, she motioned for Atsushi to come and turned her back and left.

None of the noticed the disappearance of a certain member until the next day and he was no where to be found.

~▪~▪~▪~▪~▪~▪~

"You're angry," was the first thing Atsushi said as they arrived home.

"No I'm not," Yui said. Her words and her tone did not match though.

"You are. Why?"

"...I'm..not angry. Just very disappointed," The brunette muttered as she slouched on the couch. "Are you even...aware of what you did?"

"What do you mean? We won the game, that's all that matters," her brother drawled eating maibo.

Yui sighed but said nothing. He will learn eventually once he loses to Seirin but that time seemed so far away. She knew Kuroko disappeared but made no attempt to go after him. This time gap was crucial for him to develop the will and courage to fight against his old teammates and friends. She thought it better not to interfere.

Yui wanted to stay mad at her brother but couldn't because despite being such a bully on court, they were close as siblings and he was a decent person in general.

The two spent the rest of the afternoon playing board games and watching tv before Yui and Sora made dinner.

Sora could tell his imouto was feeling down and tried to cheer her up by telling corny jokes. Niko got fed up and jabbed him in the stomach to shut him up. The family congratulated Atsushi for his win but he just replied, "Basketball is easy. Everyone else is just weak,"