Kuroko no Basuke/黒子のバスケ Tale of the Fallen Angel

**Title:** Tale of the Fallen Angel

**Ship:** Akashi x Midorima

**Plot:** Midorima Shinobu is a plain, hardworking high school girl freshman who believes in fate. A shrine maiden in a temple that has been protected by her family for so many years, she lives a simple but loveless life. And when this writer says loveless life, it means she has no love life. Then came the boy from another planet, who all of a sudden wants her to be his prospective mate…

Chapter 1

Sixteen-year-old Midorima Shinobu sat on the end of her bed, perturbed, judging by the small gestures she made. She was constantly pushing her eyeglasses closer to her face. Then she combed her long green hair every five minutes. And she could not stop fiddling with her Karate Kid teddy bear, which was the lucky item for Cancers that day. Midorima was apparently frustrated, something that happens only once-in-a-blue-moon.

Midorima pushed up her glasses once more, and groomed her hair with her own fingers. Finally she slumped in her bed, and covered her anxious face with the teddy bear. It looked as if it assaulted her by lunging at her head in a full body slam.

I surely read the horoscope today, she said to herself.

The Oha-Asa said that Cancers were the luckiest that day. Furthermore, she bolstered her supposedly good fortune with a lucky item.

"So what went wrong with _my _luck?" She uttered, her voice muffled by the stuffed toy.

So what exactly went wrong with Midorima's luck? The answer lies somewhere faraway. Actually, the answer _came _from somewhere faraway. As faraway as another planet.

Midorima's supposedly good fortune began to go awry after school. She was on her way home, accompanied by the good friend, albeit annoying, Kazunari Takao.

"Hey, Shin-chan." Kazunari was jolly as usual, so much that it often irritate Midorima.

"There's a new arcade shop nearby. Let's stop by for a few minutes before going home."

"No thanks." Midorima answered indifferently. "I'm preparing for the exams."

"Why bother preparing for the _mock _exams? It won't affect your grades. Besides, you're a genius. You get high grades all the time."

Midorima wanted to tell him that he could have gotten high grades himself, had he spent less time slacking off, but she thought better of it.

"I have to go home." She said vaguely, and walked away before Kazunari could stop her.

Truth be told, Midorima only wanted to be alone that time. Thoughts assailed her mind, as if some invisible entity kept on throwing stressful stuff at her. Her brain was full of disorganized set of ideas, like how her luck went on that day, how hard she had to study in order to pass the irrelevant mock exams, how well-trained are the people in the basketball club she's been managing. And she could not help but feel nervous. She felt apprehensive, like something was certainly about to happen, but she had no idea what it was. It was not a foreboding, especially not a bad omen, but somehow Midorima disliked how she was feeling. It reminded her of the feeling she had when she was six years old, right before the bus she was riding along with her classmates on their way home from a school trip got into an accident.

She still felt disturbed by the time she arrived at her home. Midorima's family lived atop a steep hill that was lush with tall, ancient trees. At its foot stood a huge red gate, which led to rough set of stone steps all the way to the top, where a pair of stone dogs steadfastly guarded an old but well-preserved shrine. Not far from this was the Midorima's house, also old save the air conditioning and electricity attached for modernized living.

Midorima decided to stop by the shrine before entering her home. She believed that God would alleviate her of whatever was troubling her mind. And so she prayed for guidance and peace of mind.

Unfortunately, Midorima must have sought for divine assistance a little too late. Just as she was about to close her eyes in prayer, she noticed a bright red light coming from the sky.

A wishing star, she thought. Heaven must be really interested in knowing what I need.

And when she realized that the meteor was coming her way, she decided that the heaven was actually pissed at her. She jumped back, and was immediately thrown away by the impact after a huge ball of red light crashed into the shrine.

It was a calamitous astronomical phenomenon. Astrologically, it was also a disaster: people who frequent the shrine might think that the meteor was a bad omen and that God must have put a curse on the holy place. But the worse problem for Midorima was that she allowed the shrine to fall into ruins. Her entire family was away that time; she was the shrine maiden, and was supposed to keep the sacred place safe.

And so Midorima ignored any bruise or injury got as soon as she regained consciousness. She used all of her strength to get up and check the shrine. Surprisingly, the place did not become a huge pile of rubble as she expected it would be. The only damage was the round gaping hole at the right side of the shrine. It has a span of six feet at most, and its edges still burning. It was indeed a shock that the shrine was still standing. A miracle, to say the least.

Midorima stared at the shrine in awe. She took a moment to wonder._ What's inside the shrine? _ Her ancestors,who were devout Shintoists, kept the sacred item of God within the shrine, and it hasn't been opened in ages. No one in her family knew what the sacred item looked like. Whatever it was, Midorima could only hope that it was still intact.

Midorima walked to the shrine, past the offering box. Her hands felt the old wooden doors that kept the sacred item secret for hundreds of years. They felt warm to her skin, probably due to the meteor. Carefully, she slid them open.

She could only stare in shock.

It was a pity that the sacred item, a once beautiful, gold-framed mirror, did not survive the ordeal. It was severely shattered into pieces, and part of the golden frame melted in the heat. Midorima was certain that her grandfather would cry at the sight of it. Her grandmother would probably haunt her in her dreams.

But it was not the mirror that had gotten her attention. Because amid the still-burning interior of the shrine was a giant metal ball. Midorima quickly thought of it as some kind of spaceship. And she wasn't wrong about that.

The giant metal ball suddenly split itself open with a pneumatic hiss. Midorima stood in the doorway, frozen by fear and curiosity. She could see something – no, _someone – _crawling out of the spaceship. A humanoid (for Midorima surely believed that the ship's passenger was no Earthling) creature dragged itself out of the metal transportation and lumbered itself towards Midorima despite all the shattered glass it stepped on. Midorima took a step back. Part of her wanted to run away, but she was held still by extreme interest on this shrine-destroying intruder.

Soon, the creature was standing close to her. Midorima looked at it closely. It was not just a humanoid, it actually resembled an Earthling. A handsome young man the same age as her, with bloodred hair and eyes, a fair complexion, and the mien of a king.

At this, Midorima did what every normal girl would have done: _faint_.


End file.

Kuroko no Basuke/黒子のバスケ, Romance, Sci-Fi