Demons and Monsters

01: "We may die."

"Oi, Kagami, pass the fried chicken!" Aomine bellowed from the opposite end of the table.

After Seirin had won the Winter Cup, they decided to celebrate their victory. Of course, Kuroko wanted to share his happiness with his beloved former teammates – so he called them over (with the permission of Riko and Hyuuga, of course).

Even though they gave replies like 'It's not like I want to congratulate you', 'Are you rubbing in the fact that you won?' and 'How troublesome', they still showed up and they were now enjoying the little impromptu get-together.

"Aomine-kun, please don't hog all the food." The baby blue-haired boy reprimanded before taking a bite of his own chicken.

Aomine shot him a glare. "Me? Hogging all the food? What about Murasakibara, then? He's hogging everything!"

"Oi, leave some for your teammates, geez!" Kagami yelled as he passed the bucket of fried chicken onto Sakurai, who hurriedly took one and passed it on.

Maji Burger was occupied by various basketball teams, and they were given a big room in the back where they could do their 'celebrating' and not disturb the customers with their excessive noise. Said noise was mostly caused by Kagami and Aomine arguing over the food, Midorima scolding them, Kise whining over the way Murasakibara's coveting most of the snacks, Takao laughing at them, Kasamatsu hitting Kise for being too loud, Hayama was being overly energetic and chatty, Momoi was being fussy over Kuroko, and Sakurai saying 'I'm sorry' over and over for taking food from the bucket.

This irked the upperclassmen to no end. Sure, Hayama was loud, but he wasn't that loud by himself. Even his voice got drowned out by the rambunctious first years. Riko and Hyuuga were entering clutch time, Miyaji wanting to throw a pineapple at them, Imayoshi's smile was becoming more and more evil by the second, and Mayuzumi couldn't focus on his light novel.

"First years..." Hyuuga started, a vein appearing on his temples. He was smiling at them, but there was a furious aura surrounding him – although, the same goes for Riko.

Kagami and the other Seirin first years gulped at their captain's behavior. They knew that he was entering clutch time.

"C-Captain, w-we're so sorry!" Furihata apologized in a shaky voice. His voice rang out the large room, since everyone was now silent. A pair of red eyes were glued onto his figure – even though Furi couldn't see it, he could feel the intense stare.

"...Everybody, be quiet and listen to your senpais or we will have to discipline you."

The way Riko said the word 'discipline' did not sound very good to the younger Seirin players, as well as the rest of the underclassmen.

There was an eerie silence that hung over all of them before Kagami decided to point out something.

"Coach...Kuroko fainted."

At this, everyone turned their attention to the boy whose face was planted on the plastic table, a vanilla shake in his limp hand. Nigou was licking his owner's face in order to wake him up, but to no avail. They decided to wave it off as Kuroko being tired and passing out of exhaustion.

However, they noticed that Sakurai was also the same.

"Sakurai's fainted too! What the hell...?!" Wakamatsu screamed, his eyes widening in confusion and fear.

"...So that's why Kiyoshi's been quiet for a while. He's fainted." Koganei stated, eyeing the brunette whose head was resting on the table with his eyes closed. The Seirin Center looked very peaceful, akin to someone sleeping, but he had fainted, not fallen asleep.

"...Dai-chan, I feel sick..." Momoi breathed out, her fingers clutching at the tanned teen's jacket tightly. Navy blue eyes widened as he immediately pressed his hand against Momoi's pale forehead.

"Satsuki...! You're sweating and you're cold....you're pale... Tch...! What happened?!" He yelled in frustration as he caught Momoi, who has fainted.

With four people out cold, this alarmed the rest of them and put them in panicky mode. Aomine stood up from his seat and hurried over to the sliding glass door which separated them from the other eating areas. He tried opening the damn thing, but discovered it was locked. He pounded his fists angrily on the glass, hoping that it'd break and let him out.

He then decided to calm down and took an inaudible, shaky breath, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he observed the eating area.

It was strangely empty. The tables and chairs were completely void of people, trays, and food. There wasn't even anyone walking around. He tried moving around to see if there were people coming in and out of Maji Burger but to no avail.

"Aomine, what's wrong?" Akashi questioned, standing up from his seat and striding over to him.

The latter turned to face the Rakuzan captain with fear and confusion in his navy blue orbs. "Akashi, somebody locked us in. There's nobody outside. It's like it's isolated and they're keeping us here like prisoners."

The redhead's eyes narrowed as he strode over to the door and assess the situation for himself. "I don't like this. The shop feels empty and lifeless. They are most likely going to take us somewhere, after they have knocked us all out."

"Akashicchi, what are you saying? That can't be true! Can it...?" Kise exclaimed, his golden eyes were wide with fear and his hands were trembling.

Akashi stayed silent and just stared at the glass door. "...Does anybody have any contact outside?"

There was a long and tense silence. They certainly did not want to involve their families in whatever they are now involved in, and most of them were in Maji Burger already. The other teams were somewhere out there, though...like Seiho and Kirisaki Daiichi.

"...I have Mako-chan's number. Should I call him, Sei-chan?" Reo spoke up, giving Akashi a questioning look on whether or not he should contact the remaining Uncrowned King.

"Don't tell him to come here, Mibuchi. Instead, tell him to find out more about what is happening. Tell him everything. Also," Akashi turned to Kagami, "contact your mentor. Her name was Alexandra Garcia, right?"

Both Kagami and Himuro's eyes widened, and their bodies tensed. Kagami strode over to Akashi, a pleading look in his eyes.

"Akashi, we can't involve Alex in this! She might get hurt and-"

"I know. But I'm not telling you – or Himuro, for that matter – to get her involved. Instead, tell her everything and tell her to hide herself. To protect herself. If any of us can't get out of this alive, or if Hanamiya can't complete his task...then at least your mentor is alive."

"...Alright. Tatsuya, can you..."

"Yeah, I'll call Alex." Himuro said with a reassuring smile as he took out his phone and dialed Alex's number.

"Tatsuya? What's up? Did something happen?" came the woman's voice from the speaker; it had a worried undertone.

Himuro let out a soft sigh, a frown spreading on his face. He took a deep breath before deciding to tell his and Kagami's mentor what's happening.

"Alex, we may die."