𝐀 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟽

For the remaining days between Kagami's first conversation with Kuroko and the practice match with Kaijo, the blue-haired boy proved the reason for his namesake. Anytime the power forward or another member of the basketball team attempted to find the phantom, they were lucky to see the bright strands of his hair before he disappeared from sight.

The team was on the bus to Kanagawa when the redhead was bemoaning his frustrations with the elusive miracle.

"Like, this kid has to be insane! Are we sure he wasn't some collective figment of our imagination? I've talked to him once. Once! And I haven't seen him face to face since. I didn't even get to finish asking this guy about the generation of miracles in that one conversation and he was gone!"

Furihata leaned away from Kagami and towards Fukuda in the back-row seat. "Are you sure that isn't why he's avoiding us? He didn't seem too happy to see Kise-kun."

By the opposite window, Kawahara leaned towards the other first years. "How are you so sure, Furihata? When I saw his face, it didn't change once while he was looking at Kise! The only thing we can go off of is his words."

Koganei looked to Mitobe beside him before voicing his own opinion. "I mean, if Kise says that the guy is supposed to be very polite, it's not a good sign if he leaves in the middle of the conversation, right? And he just left Kagami behind mid-sentence, right? So that seems like a pretty good sign that the phantom doesn't want to talk about his old teammates."

At a shift of Mitobe's eyebrows, Koganei spoke again. "You're right, Mitobe. Maybe he'll talk to us if we leave him alone for a little bit. I know I wouldn't enjoy being chased down by ten classmates who wanted to pry into my dark and mysterious past."

From in front of Mitobe and Koganei, Hyuga could feel his forehead twitch. "Like I could care about how he feels. Basketball is basketball! I don't see why he's being so dramatic about it! Besides, Coach and I already decided we wouldn't try to recruit him if he just talked to us about the miracles' playstyles."

From across the aisle, Izuki leaned back into his seat in exasperation. "Have some sympathy, Hyuga. I could have said similar things about you last year and he was on the same team as them.

Doesn't it rub anyone the wrong way that none of the generation of miracles went to the same school? Including the phantom sixth?"

Everyone tilted their heads in confusion. Fukuda spoke up for the group. "What do you mean, Izuki-senpai?"

"I mean that, for a bunch of friends, the generation of miracles is surrounded by a bunch of tension. Friends don't always stick together when they pick their high schools, but you'd think an invisible guy like Kuroko would stick with the only people who seem to notice him. We've talked to pretty much everyone in the school when we go looking for him and the only people who realize he exists are teachers and, like, two members of the library committee.

Isn't that weird? Six people who play together on one team for two to three years spend pretty much all their time together, and none of them choose to go to school together. What school would have said 'no' to more than one miracle playing for them? And when one of them shows up at Seirin, the kid cuts him off and walks the other way."

Riko nodded from her seat next to Hyuga. "I get what you're saying Izuki. You can't really spend all those hours being in school and practicing with the same, small group of people without becoming friends in some form. Especially if they were all regulars. You can't play basketball by yourself, so they had to be close friends before picking their high schools. And yet... none of them did."

"Right! You, me, and Hyuga all came from the same middle school. Same for Fukuda and Furihata. Those on the team who didn't come from the same middle school have other friends they came to Seirin with, except for Kagami. Doesn't it seem weird?"