"I died when he did."

"Oh come on now, don't be so dramatic."

"It's almost been a year."

"Yeah, so move on already. Everyone else already has so why don't you?"

"Call me sentimental, but I have a conscience."

"You don't still blame yourself for it do you?"

"I blame us, our team, our school, our society; and as I happen to be apart of all of those groups, I guess you could say I do blame myself." There was a pause as Aomine buried the twinge of guilt that arose at the statement.

"It wasn't our fault." But then why did remorse coat his voice?

"Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night."

"Fine. Wallow in your own misery for all I care! He's dead and there's nothing we can do about it!" He huffed and began to turn away. Kise could only watch Aomine open his mouth to say something, but then never did. With one look back, Aomine stuffed his hands in his pockets and quickly walked off into the night.

Kise slumped back on the the bench and allowed his eyes to drift from the eerily lit court in front of him and the stars in the sky. He wondered, if only Kuroko hadn't died, what would he be doing now? He liked to think that if there were a heaven, Kuroko would be there. Probably playing basketball with angels. He chuckled at the thought and allowed himself to drift off into oblivion.

.0.

Sometimes during the school day trailing behind teammates, Kuroko got bored like most students. Unlike most students, he could leave whenever he wanted. So, he wandered around, catching up with his favorite humans with interesting lives. Usually nothing too big happened; the other day one adopted a stray cat, and got a promotion at work much to the jealousy of her peers.

At around lunch, Kuroko wandered into the city looking for some entertainment. What caught his eye was something he both never wanted to see and something he relished to see.

On the front cover of a magazine fluttering on the concrete, there was a small circle with Kise's face. The words around it read: 'KISE RYOUTA: DEPRESSED?'. Not that Kuroko was happy to see anyone depressed, but it brought a small sort of sick satisfaction that his death caused those monsters some guilt. The article further showed pictures of him sleeping on benches at night in front of basketball courts.

Kuroko filed the information away and went on his merry way. Maybe they could be changed after seeing the error of their ways?

.0.

The Seiho game was upon them. Their defense was crazy good and they were incorporating martial arts into their style. Seirin did not prepare for this, but all things given they were coping quite well. To start off their problems, Kuroko didn't show up until the beginning of the second half. That alone caused enough unrest and mutterings of a bad omen. Then, while Kuroko was gone, Kagami had gone off and gotten himself two fouls and was about to get another one judging the look on his face. They were on the losing side by almost twenty points and the exhaustion was starting to show.

Kuroko really regrets trying to hunt down Kise. But no time to regret the past, he needed a good plan now. He didn't know the other team well, but it seemed they had good defense and weren't sloppy. He started to go through all the scenarios in his head, how in the everliving fuck would they beat this team? In every way, they were underdogs in this situation. Their best players were tiring quickly and they had less players. Even if they did somehow win, they would still have Shutoku to play against later.

"Anno, excuse me everybody. I have a plan."

"Well, lets hear it."

"We put in Furihata, Fukuda, Tsuchida, Koganei and Kawahara for the third quarter. Then for the final quarter we add in the guys from the first half as they feel most recovered."

"Not that we don't trust you Kuroko, but that is a terrible plan! We're already behind, this will just make the gap bigger!" There were mutterings of agreement. Kuroko agreed as well, he never said it was fool-proof.

"Ok, so the guys from the first half are pretty tired and are getting sloppy. What if we took out them one by one for short periods of time, and during that time the sub would go all out until the player recovered?"

"Still doesn't sound doable." Kuroko rethought his plan again.

"What if I possess you?" The team looked taken aback.

"Can you even do that?" Kagami's face was priceless.

"Wanna try?" Riko took the silence of no volunteers to talk.

"Ok that's enough. Kuroko you had some good ideas, but we're going to switch up our offense a little. And we're going to go with Kuroko's second plan, because we do have another game later with a tougher opponent. Kagami you're on the bench first. Tsuchida, you're up."

The game resumed and the clock began anew.

Watching his teammates fight against fatigue and the offense of the other team, Kuroko hated this feeling of helplessness. If only he had never died, he could help out immensely. Even with all their plots, Kuroko still couldn't see how Seirin would win this game. They weren't making any progress, but to be fair, they weren't losing any either. Kuroko tried his best to help his teammates on the court but his shouts were only distracting. So he sat back down and let the chaos unfold.

Nearing the fourth quarter, the gap was 15 points and they had switched out most everyone. Kuroko was at the end of his wits. Maybe the possession could work…? He managed to mess with those phones after all, and human neurons do use electricity to communicate. The most ghosts could do was manipulate things, maybe he could manipulate the neurons in his teammates' heads to work faster? Or maybe to give some more adrenaline? Or maybe even put his own thoughts in their heads?

Kuroko shook his head of that idea. There was too much risk of brain damage, especially since he was not experienced.

Still, maybe the thoughts idea could work, just not as neuron manipulation. Before Kuroko always floated above the court and called out to his teammates, distracting them, but if he floated on the court next to them and whispered what to do they might listen.

And it did work. They were severely creeped out but it did work. Moves that Kuroko predicted were avoided and with one minute left they managed to get the gap down to 5 points. It would be difficult but not undoable.

.0.

It was a hollow victory, but they won. Barely. With two seconds on the clock, and two points behind, a buzzer beater three pointer by Hyuga was the only thing that saved them from going home. Exhausted, they cheered. But there was still Shutoku game bearing over them. Everyone wanted to collapse, but that was just the semifinals. The will to win on both sides would only grow with each game.

.0.

An: Hey hey hey its the lazy ass author! Anyways hope you enjoyed, as always please review, favorite and follow. If you liked this feel free to check out my other Kuroko stories. And thanks to everyone that has reviewed and favorited and followed! We're almost at 100 follows! (99 -_- rn)

Ya kno, I was really considering just dropping this story but like? What the hell, its summer I've got nothing better to do. I kinda haven't touched cannon in well over two years but who needs that for a fanfic amiright. So uh, Kise prbbly seems really ooc but like idk I like to portray him dealing with guilt and remorse in his own way. Plus I fuckin love writing angst. SO, I just realized I skipped over a shit ton of games but like? Its too late now. Just gotta live with it. So, did you know that seirin has like nine people without kuroko,,, its so small team.

Anyways next chapter should be out before 2018? But like,, you should know better than listen to my hollow promises by now.

-Frosty