Tetsuya Kuroko
He is the "phantom" sixth man of the "Generation of Miracles" (キセキの世代 Kiseki no Sedai?) (Teiko Middle School's basketball team). Kuroko is Seirin's secret weapon. Although he was an essential member of his middle school basketball team, unlike his former teammates, Kuroko is largely unknown. This is because he is so small, frail, unnoticeable, distressingly slow, and easy to miss. However, he is greatly respected by everyone. Kuroko capitalizes in the skill of misdirection, using himself as a relay to redirect his teammates' passes to another free player and make virtually unstoppable steals, getting the ball to and between his teammates faster than opponents can react, while at the same time remaining "invisible" to his opponents. His near-invisibility makes him highly susceptible to on-court injuries however,[2] and is not effective indefinitely. If he is left in play too long, opponents grow used to his misdirection tactics; as such, he must be placed on the bench at varying points in any match to prevent this. As revealed in the Teiko arc, Akashi was the one who taught Kuroko his playing style. Also, his misdirection is inspired from the book "Techniques in Guiding Lines of Sight" and developed it due to his sharp observation skills. Because he has learned new skills like the "Phantom Shot" and the "Vanishing Drive" , his lack of presence wears out, because these skills require to hold the ball and the crowd turns their attention on the one who holds it. This the reason why Akashi didn't teach him how to shoot. [3] During the second season of the anime series and the eleventh volume of the manga, he developed a new technique, called the "Vanishing Drive". As the name states, he makes a drive towards an opponent player and seemingly vanishes in front of their eyes, appearing again behind them. This technique combined with his misdirection makes him a powerful player and is also effective enough to pass through the defenses of Midorima and Takao's Hawk Eye. During the game against Tōō Academy, Kuroko performed his Ignite Pass Kai, an new, upgraded version of his Ignite Pass, which is a very powerful pass that pushes the ball at a blinding speed that it even flies past Aomine's hand when he tried to block it. Midorima stated that the Ignite Pass Kai is much like a bullet being fired out of a gun. Kuroko's special ability is the Misdirection Overflow, where when Kuroko's misdirection runs out on him, his teammates have the ability to do the Vanishing Drive. This techinique is specially created to decrease the accuracy of shots. However, when this happens Kuroko is just a regular member on the court without any special talents. He also is helped by Aomine on his shooting skills, creating a shooting style that uses misdirection- the Phantom Shot. The essence of this technique is to use the palm of his hand to thrust the ball forward, although this will mess up the shooting posture. Instead of shooting above one's head, Kuroko shoots the ball from his chest, because of this, the opponent looks lower because of the ball's position, so that the opponents' field of vision is limited. By following a fast release, Kuroko can shoot through his opponent's field of vision, with the opponent thinking that the ball has vanished into thin air. However, Aomine stated that the shot itself has 70% accuracy, which Kuroko has missed some shots while using it. Apart from his lack of presence, Kuroko acquired his own version of the Emperor Eye- the Quasi-Emperor Eye- that is different than Akashi's in the sense that Kuroko's Emperor Eye cannot predict the movements of his opponents (which Akashi's Emperor Eye can), but rather the teammates whom he is familiar with. However, due to his long-term observation of his teammates and his trust with them, his Emperor Eye surpasses Akashi's Emperor Eye in terms of how far he can see into the future. Also, Kuroko is revealed to be the "gatekeeper" of the Zone's second gate. Kuroko respects but doesn't like Midorima because of his way of thinking; Midorima also has similar feelings toward Kuroko. Kuroko considers himself a "Shadow", whose goal is to help his "Light" achieve greatness. Kuroko calls Kagami "his Light". He also has a tendency to speak and act completely deadpan, and a running gag involves his teammates, thinking they are alone, talking to themselves only for Kuroko to answer them, apparently having been in the area long before they arrived. However, despite his initially kind personality, he gets extremely furious at the sight of dirty play, when his teammates are already injured by foul methods in the Kirisaki Daiichi game. His aura changes so drastically, even Kagami got scared when he saw him get angry. When he gets angry, it gets very hard to beat him, as he is filled up with fighting spirit. Also, when the situation worsens, he seems to turn talkative.
