#“so what did i miss?” oh nothin just two mental breakdowns by two separate kids several confrontations and the descruction of our friendship

[active-mind-15]

In the Replace Plus chapters, he does note that their is a colder side to Akashi, so he does get a glimpse of that personality. But that was before Akashi switched. However, he comes to the conclusion that the good-natured side of him is the real Akashi. So technically, he's seen how Bokushi can be but hasn't really met Bokushi himself. Not in full force the way the rest of the Teiko gang has.

Any other accounts of Bokushi would have to be from other people, I assume.

In fact, now that I'm talking about Nijimura and Akashi, I've always wanted to write a scene about their first conversation after getting back in touch with each other.

I feel like Akashi would at first avoid talking to Nijimura because he's afraid to tell Nijimura everything that happened in the past two years and thinks Nijimura would be disappointed in him if he found out that Akashi apparently "ruined everything". And so he puts it off for time until eventually Nijimura calls him first because he had been getting back in touch with the rest of the Teiko gang and finally got around to Akashi.

Maybe Nijimura already knows that stuff went down after hearing from the other people in the Teiko gang (or maybe he heard from Himuro and he realizes that Himuro is playing basketball with and against all of his former juniors) and takes Akashi off-guard by apologizing for not being there. And Akashi, who was originally going to apologize to Nijimura first, is at a loss for words.

There are many ways I think that convo would go down, but it would be interesting to delve into the guilt Nijimura felt putting all that weight on Akashi's shoulders before he was ready and Akashi's sense of duty in taking the burden off Nijimura. Because Akashi deeply related to Nijimura's issue of having a sick parent and probably couldn't in good faith make Nijimura choose between basketball and family after Akashi had to deal with the aftermath of his own mother's death. He wanted to be the support system he never had.

But at the same time, Akashi would probably feel like he didn't live up to Nijimura's expectations and would apologize anyway for not being a good captain. I'm sure Nijimura would find a way to reassure him that regardless of everything, he did the best that he could, and that would always be deserving of praise.

I know I'm just rambling here, but I've always kept it in the back of my head because I can imagine the first conversation after months of not talking would be jarring on both ends.

Or maybe it could be that this is a face-to-face convo where Nijimura comes back to Japan briefly to visit family and surprises Akashi (and the rest of the Teiko gang). I would also love to write a scene where his Rakuzan teammates see the difference in how Nijimura treats Akashi vs how everyone else treats Akashi. That might be fun. Either way, I'm saving this idea for later.