MiRACLE (KnB Fanfic)

9.

They step into Teiko Junior High, but not together.

Aisaka thinks his father is embarrassing. He's sobbing like his kid's won the award of the universe, and that camera screams outdated old man.

Luckily, Aisaka manages to chase him off to work before the entrance ceremony could begin. He has about a year's worth of shameless-daddy memories already, though.

He rides through the crowd of seniors. Some wear lanyards, others bombard him with offers of assistance he really doesn't need. He dodges them, searches for the map, and follows the crowd to the hall.

The seniors here were too helpful. Each time they greeted him, Aisaka felt painfully self-conscious about the black brace glove on his right hand. Their eyes always consider it for a moment before they respectfully look away.

"Your seat is at the third row, you'll find your name," the senior tells him, handing him a leaflet. It had a big bold WELCOME FRESHMEN printed on it-- as well as a map that may have come in handy two seconds ago.

"Ah, thanks," Aisaka answers automatically, the crowd easing him forward. He takes one look at the poor senior tasked with usher duty-- and freezes.

The senior sees him staring, and stills, too.

"You're pretty tall for a first year," he says, and instead of heading straight for the chairs, Aisaka steps out of the crowd to take another look, blinking once.

He looks familiar.

"You planning on joining any clubs later?" the senior asks with a crafty grin.

Immediately after, another usher whirls around to them, "hey, Nijimura, that's not fair! You can't recruit until after the ceremony!"

He then turns to Aisaka with a sort of accusatory look, "don't get lured in. He's the Captain of the Basketball Club right now, so he's looking for fresh meat."

Aisaka steps back at that, surprised. Meat?

Niji. Rainbow. He has black hair, so he wasn't one of the miracles-- but maybe he's an important character too? Damn, if only he'd actually watched that dumb show...

Captain. He's the Captain of the basketball club-- so this guy is the one that gets replaced by one of the Generations of Miracles later?

Nijimura actually laughs sheepishly at that, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I tried. Oh well, sorry to disturb you! Have a nice first day."

"Ah-" Aisaka finds himself bowing, "then, excuse me."

Looking from the back of the hall, he could see a lot. Blacks and browns mixed in with the blinding white and pale blue of the uniforms. It made sense that they would stick out-- in fact, they were so obvious Aisaka felt self conscious about his painfully indigo hair.

"There's no orange," he observes, "but we have pink, and three shades of blue? Ah, Purple's a shade of blue too, so we have four shades of blue?"

Okay this makes zero sense. Isn't Kuroko supposed to have black hair anyways? How on earth does he not stand out with bright turquoise hair? Ah, maybe because he's the main character... and it'd be stupid if Nijimura had rainbow hair...

"Hiroto-kun."

Aisaka screams. He whirls around and whacks Kuroko on the head.

-

"Hiroto-kun, Hiroto-kun," Kuroko directs full attention to Aisaka's arm, "that's a different glove from usual."

Direct and blunt as usual.