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The bell was the last of many similar methods used to keep track of Kuroko, all of which the Phantom had protested and insisted were unnecessary.
Anyone who had ever been his captain disagreed.
The first version had been enacted by Nijimura, of course.
The Generation normally kept track of Kuroko for him, what with their constant attachment centering around the Phantom’s admission to the first string. That method worked well and fine… most of the time.
The six prodigies tended to have the attention span of goldfish, per Nijimura’s own description. Even if one of the kids in his care noticed Kuroko wandering off or the Sixth Man tried to tell his friends that he was going off on a detour, the rest of the disaster children had an equal chance of just forgetting the event happened.
So, since Nijimura was the only one with a phone at that point, he decided the best course of action to ensure his smallest underclassman didn’t get permanently lost was to get a child-proof wristband and write a short, to the point message for anyone the ghost boy bumped into.
“If lost, please call Nijimura Shuuzo, xxx-xxx-xxxx”
Kuroko had been a little indignant the first time his captain secured the disposable band to his wrist, but did not protest (much) for the sake of the respect he held for the power forward.
Besides – he had no scissors to cut off the wristband and he could see his senpai had preprepared enough bands for the remainder of his time at Teiko and more.
Nijimura trusted Kuroko for the most part and knew the Phantom tried to be as responsible as he could, so the wristband was just a way to ease his mind when the team needed to go beyond the gates of Teiko. As such, both parties resolutely ignored the second and third years teasing that the bands were reminiscent of a tag one would get a pet for identification.
The second version had been a modification made in Akashi’s ascension to captaincy.
Of course, Akashi had made his own contribution to keeping track of the Miracles as a whole by buying them phones, but there was just something about the way Kuroko still got lost and Nijimura kept getting calls for a lost child that led him to go a step farther.
That step being modifying the unmarked remainder of the bracelets with tracking chips that Momoi and Akashi could access anytime.
Kuroko protested this development much more fervently. He was not so hopeless that they really needed him to carry around a chipped wristband – he only got lost maybe once a week at most.
As part of this protest, Kuroko decided to be spiteful. He endeavored to be polite and respectful of Nijimura’s efforts to not lose him by trying to make sure his team knew his whereabouts, but if Akashi wanted to play this game, then he would make it exceptionally difficult on his red headed year-mate.
So, Kuroko started leaving the team behind at inconvenient times for the amusement of it; he stopped telling the others when and where he was going and just left, sometimes in the middle of being talked to.
Kuroko found the redheads’ reactions so very amusing. The slightly narrowed eyes that screamed irritation because Kuroko never did this to Nijimura, the taping finger that told him Akashi’s patience wore thin with the sudden disappearances, the way his hair swept slightly more to the right because he had been frantically searching for the Sixth Man once finding out none of the Miracles knew where he went.
Hilarious.
It was even better because the worst punishment Kuroko ever got was a light slap of the wrist because ‘he can’t help it if he’s hard to notice’ and no one could say for sure that Kuroko didn’t try to tell someone, and his friends just hadn’t heard in their rowdiness. The exercise in spite even made him more effective on court, as Kuroko got more practice on slipping in and out of people’s periphery while they actively looked for him.
Unfortunately, Kuroko did not consider whether his spiteful actions would turn into a habit. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter much since the Generation knew and trusted him to take care of himself and his disappearing trick was considered as much a product of his low presence as the screams that followed his sudden appearances.
(The second iteration turned into a game of hide and seek until it wasn’t; something borne from the worry of his most parental friend. But in the third year, it felt more like the collar and leash their graduated senpai had joked that it was.
Kuroko started bringing scissors to games so he could cut the wristband and just get out. Run away for a little air because the locker room was so suffocating with the ever increasing hatred towards their game.
Akashi stopped replacing the wristbands by the time Nationals hit.)
Seirin did not appreciate his disappearing habit.
Kuroko had been immensely confused by their reaction the first time he had wandered off with Kise, only belatedly realizing he had not shared his phone number, the ‘Miracle Rule’ no longer applied, and he was no longer burdened with an endless supply of neon colored, child-proof wristbands without trackers attached.
He would have rejoiced if his legs hadn’t hurt so much from the Boston crab Coach had thrown him into.
But then Kuroko couldn’t curb his habit. Kagami kept some track of him after the first incident led to them exchanging phone numbers, but his newest light was nowhere near as aware or clingy as his previous five (six – Haizaki deserved a little bit of credit for doing his part in keeping track of him).
Kuroko also doubted that Seirin’s continued jumpiness didn’t endear the habit to them either. Everyone at Teiko jumped and shrieked, sure, but the first string equated the experience as what is was like to be ‘friends’ with Kuroko Tetsuya. The ones who stuck around eventually just stopped acting like he was going in and out and accepted that he tended to be around more often than not.
He forgot he was dealing with an entirely new set of people who would reasonably not have the same reaction as his Teiko acquantinces.
So, some would say Kuroko did this to himself, as he glared at Hyuuga, currently tying a bright golden bell to his wrist with those dreaded child proof bands he had thought he had seen the last of.
“I don’t care if it makes your misdirection less effective! We’ll just take it off during practice and matches! I’m sick of you giving us heart attacks and wandering away like a lost pup!”
“Tying a bell to me would make that analogy worse, Hyuuga-senpai.”
“Don’t care! I’ve had it up to here with having to go on a search party for you! If you can’t be bothered to answer your phone, you’re gonna wear the bell!”