Kuroko no Basket: Honored One

"Akashi's… slipping."

Aomine's gaze sharpened as he noticed Akashi's pupils had lost their focused gleam—the lightning that symbolized Zone had vanished.

"Just like back then…"

Kise couldn't help but recall the day Akashi first awakened.

That same confused, fearful look was in his eyes.

"So this is all you've got, Akashi?"

Tendou darted past him with a flash of movement, and Akashi didn't even react—he just stood there, frozen.

"Now you understand, don't you? Why I am the true leader of the Generation of Miracles."

That line pierced Akashi like a blade.

He was born for victory. If he couldn't bring it, then what did his existence mean?

Even Shirogane Eiji noticed something was wrong. After Tendou scored again with a triple-fake layup through three defenders, he called the first timeout of the match.

He couldn't believe it.

The player he'd so carefully chosen as Rakuzan's emperor—was this fragile?

Shirogane had picked Akashi from the very first glance.

The blend of elegance and tyranny he exuded was the perfect match for the dominant powerhouse that was Rakuzan.

Akashi was supposed to be the only choice to lead the team to glory.

And now, after just a bit of adversity, his confidence had already started to crumble?

At that moment, Akashi's eyes were vacant, lost in his own thoughts, deaf to the sounds around him.

He was no longer the elegant, imposing, cold-blooded emperor of Rakuzan.

He looked like a helpless child.

"If this keeps up, the whole team's going to fall apart…"

With the brain and soul of the squad in shambles, team morale was being shredded.

If Akashi didn't snap out of it, Rakuzan was heading straight for defeat.

They needed Akashi—but this Akashi couldn't help them.

Meanwhile, on the other side—

Tendou had already noticed the turmoil on Rakuzan's bench.

He subtly opened a screen—just in time to see Shirogane preparing to make a substitution.

Right on cue, Mayuzumi Chihiro was about to be brought back in.

"Hey, who are you?" Tendou asked with a smirk.

Just six words—but they stabbed into Akashi's heart.

His consciousness drifted to the deepest part of his soul, and suddenly he stood once more at the crossroads of identity.

The space was vast and empty, like a void.

But in the shadows, seated calmly, was his first personality—Akashi Seijūrō.

This place, once familiar, now felt foreign.

"Who… are you?" the second personality asked.

"Me? I'm Akashi Seijūrō, of course."

They began to speak, the scene surreal and haunting.

It was one soul, divided, now questioning its own right to exist.

Memories surged like a tide through the second Akashi's mind.

His childhood. His mother. His friends from Teikō.

Everything most important to him.

And with it, the two greatest traumas of his life.

The first—was the death of his mother.

In the frame, he stood silently in the rain, staring at her grave.

The world around him was quiet, colorless, filled with sorrow.

The photo of her still held a warm smile—but her warmth was gone forever.

Then, the frame shattered like glass.

"Maybe it was then that our soul split into two halves," said the Akashi in the shadows, his voice full of grief.

As the only male heir of the Akashi family, his childhood had been nothing like other children's.

His days were consumed by the family's rigid training, drilled into him for the sake of preserving the Akashi legacy.

But he endured—because he had his mother, who loved him dearly.

Her passing shattered the one thread holding him together.

From that moment on, another Akashi was born.

But fate wasn't entirely cruel.

In middle school, he found "friends."

Tendou, Aomine, Midorima, Murasakibara, Kise, Kuroko, Momoi… all of them.

At Teikō, he experienced the happiest year of his life.

But that happiness didn't last.

Then came the second trauma.

As they entered their second year, the team began to fracture.

First Aomine fell into confusion. Then Riko passed away. Then the coach had to leave.

It all made the basketball club feel like it was falling apart.

Murasakibara was the first who couldn't take it. He refused to stay in a place that no longer felt like home.

"We should've realized back then," said the first Akashi. "Murasakibara wasn't tired of training—he was afraid of what the club had become."

"But we didn't understand. We didn't know what to do. So we took the most extreme, simple, short-sighted path."

"We forced him to stay—with strength."

It kept the club from falling apart… for a while.

"We removed Himuro, erased threats like Haizaki…"

Akashi suddenly turned around, staring directly at his other self.

"It was because of me that we stayed united. You just had to stay where you were."

"You're right," said the first Akashi, stepping forward from the shadows.

"I was the one who ran away. But even now, I still can't accept it. We've made the same mistakes—again and again."

Crack.

Tendou shut the screen again.

Sure enough—at the moment Akashi sensed defeat, the original Akashi came back out.

But—

"It won't matter who you are," Tendou said.

"Get ready, bad boys."

"Huh?"

Hanamiya and the others froze for a moment—then quickly got fired up.

Team-oriented Zone.

This was Akashi's last trump card. If Tendou could break even the team Zone, then Kirisaki Daiichi would rule this court alone.

Timeout over.

Both teams returned to the court.

Rakuzan made a surprising substitution—

Mayuzumi Chihiro stepped back in.

"Wait, what? Rakuzan looks like a whole different team after one timeout."

"Is that okay? Wasn't Mayuzumi's misdirection already used up?"

"They must be planning something…"

Kagami suddenly recalled something Tendou had once said:

"The duration of misdirection depends on the opponent's strength."

The stronger the focus of the opposing team, the longer misdirection could last—because that overwhelming presence pulled all the attention away.

Rakuzan possession.

Akashi took the ball and dribbled past half court.

But this time, something had changed—

"Ugh, what is that nasty feeling?" Hanamiya muttered, glancing around warily.

Each Rakuzan player now radiated a strange aura—one that made Hanamiya's skin crawl.

Akashi's first move was to walk straight up to Tendou and greet him.

"We meet again… Tendou."