Lights Down Low (Adult Tetsurō Kuroo x OC)

It's A Small World, Indeed

22nd May 2021

Third-person POV

As Kuroo walked home, Kenma tied his soft brown hair loose, with a tinge of blonde near the ends, and made a cup of lemon iced tea. Although he was nervous about the livestream session, he was grateful for the opportunity.

The live stream later starts with "Hello everyone! It's me, kodzuken. Welcome to my channel! In this special stream, we're going to play Tekken 7!"

With his headphones on, a wry smile on his face, and his glass of iced tea on the side, Kenma Kozume was ready to start his live stream celebrating 5M subscribers on Twitch and YouTube.

"I'm hoping you guys are having a good day today. Before I start, I want to say thank you so much for the 5M subscribers on Twitch and YouTube. What all started with Kuro, Shōyō, Bokuto, Akaashi, and the entire roster of the Nekoma volleyball team, has reached all of you. It's making me so happy, that I, usual stoic person, am moved by the love I've received from you guys."

A barrage of comments flooded his stream with "You're so outstanding, Kenma!" to "You suck as heck, Mr. Pudding Head!" While the hate comments initially got to his head, he didn't let them hurt him.

Gaming got him through the toughest of times. It introduced him to his best friend, Kuroo and all other close friends, so this means too much to him to be bothered by naysayers. "Also, to those who hate me, go find some other channel that'll help you feel satiated. I do not tolerate a hateful atmosphere here."

As far as he could remember, gaming was something he didn't just enjoy. It was his means of escape during his childhood. Gaming made him feel at home, and it helped him hone his intelligence and strategy skills, making him a great addition to the Nekoma High School Volleyball team as a setter, despite him lacking adequate physical strength.

So, when high school got over, it was a simple decision what he wanted to do: everything related to pro-gaming. Not just playing, but hopefully developing some games one day. So, he attended college and graduated with a major in computer science, and while he was happy being by himself, he still missed having company around him. That's when he'd started hanging out and becoming better friends with Keiji Akaashi, Kōtarō Bokuto's best friend and fellow setter from Fukurodani.

To Kenma's surprise, Akaashi was majoring in literary arts. No one but Bokuto and their two girlfriends Kaori and Yukie knew how passionate Akaashi was, outside of volleyball, for sketching, writing, and photography. When they graduated, both of them struck a deal. In the future, should Kenma work on developing a new game related to anime, he'd reach out to Akaashi for help and vice versa.

Kenma then later went to university to pursue his master's in Game Design. Currently, he has to finish taking a couple of courses to complete his degree plan and graduate, following which he's planning to take up an MBA course. During this time, he developed a keen sense of interest in stock trading, and soon, he started gaining profits. This enabled him to form his company, Bouncing Ball Ltd, which wouldn't just have close ties with video gaming but with professional sports too, volleyball in particular.

It took him a while to consider streaming games and making content for YouTube because that meant he'd have to come out of his shell. Initially he wasn't comfortable with the idea until Kuroo, Bokuto, Akaashi, Hinata, Yamamoto, Fukunaga, and the volleyball team cajoled Kenma into streaming. They stated that since they'll be his first subscribers he can do so comfortably for the sake of enjoying hanging out with them while playing.

So, taking UpUpDwnDwn on YouTube as inspiration, he started streaming there, then taking it up to Twitch. Before he knew it, swarms of people started following him, including the legendary LittleNitro.