"Argh!" Kaido grunted to himself, slamming a hand on his alarm clock to smother the sound. Normally, he wouldn't have minded waking up at 5-something in the morning… hell, he would have relished the thought of being able to train at 5 in the morning because it was so much more peaceful in the morning than any other time of day… but no. Oh no.

It really was all Inui's fault. If Inui hadn't asked him to come to the creek at – what was it, 10:30 at night? – then Kaido wouldn't have come back home at 1 in the morning. And if Kaido hadn't come back at 1 in the morning, he wouldn't have had to deal with his angry parents accusing him of doing drugs, or drinking, or whatever the hell they had yelled at him for. But of course, it was all Inui's fault why he ended up sleeping at 2 in the morning, and was grounded indefinitely.

"Seriously, he annoys me as much as that other…" Kaido scowled to himself, glaring fiercely at the mirror. Why did he always have to get in trouble? Always? First that match which he had lost against Momoshiro, then being forced to run 200 laps by an angry Tezuka for being late to practice, and now this? Not that Kaido was one to complain; he rarely ever opened his mouth other than to utter "Shut up." Still, he couldn't help but feel that there was a certain degree of injustice that he was putting up with…. that Momoshiro never got grounded for stuff like this, did he?

Kaido scowled again, but this time the object of his venomous hatred (well, not quite hatred, but it was something close to that) was none other than the person responsible for this mess… Sadaharu Inui. Not only did the data master wish for him to sneak out of the house early in order to train, he was also planning on inviting himself over for dinner tonight! Who the hell does he think he is? Kaido disgustedly threw the washcloth at the sink, kicked over the rug and slammed the bathroom door for good measure. Does Inui-senpai not care about what just happened to me last night?

Kaido snorted, exiting the house. He started jogging, rather unwillingly, towards the direction of the park. No, Inui cared all right… but what about, Kaido still didn't know.

"Yo."

And Kaido jerked around, a bit startled to see the data man raising an arm in friendly greeting right behind him. "Don't do that." Kaido muttered.

"Ah sorry…I forgot that you are 46 less alert in the mornings than you are at any other time of day. My apologies."

… Damn Inui.

As they got to doing their usual crunches, sit-ups, push-ups, and finally holding the plank position for 15 minutes on a stretch, Kaido finally blurted out: "I'm grounded." Inui appeared not to have heard him. "Did you hear me?" Kaido gasped out, suddenly feeling his elbow sinking into the marshy mud.

"Ah Kaido, change positions – if your elbow sinks any further, you will be at risk for an elbow injury, such as a strained muscle." Inui remarked casually, as if he were discussing the weather. Kaido shot him a furious glare, and quickly got up from the plank position.

"Do you even care that I've been grounded because of you?" Kaido said, furiously. "Do you know that now my parents don't even trust me anymore? That they might even force me to quit tennis?" He demanded of Inui, his voice rising in tone along with his emotions. Inui shrugged.

"There is an 89 chance that the last statement was a complete exaggeration. Other than that… I do apologize. Though, perhaps, it might be more beneficial to your cause if you leave a note for your parents before leaving the house, explaining how to contact you." Inui said placidly, recording something down in his data notebook. Kaido shook in anger. He hated how he could barely control his anger sometimes. And Inui usually never achieved the art of making him angry, since Kaido had always looked upon him as older… but those divisions had dissolved once they had all entered high school.

"Damn you and your percents… you don't care about anything except your data, do you." Kaido muttered a little bitterly, beginning squats. Inui looked at him carefully, face seemingly devoid of emotion (as always, of course). This awkward silence continued, for approximately another 12 minutes and 34 seconds (Kaido's eyes were fixated on his watch, so he knew perfectly well how much time had passed) when Inui suddenly spoke up.

"I believe that we'll need to be getting to school." Inui said, checking his watch. "Otherwise, we will be late." And then, Inui got on his bike and began biking to school. Kaido blinked at that, for Inui always talked to him about his daily progress before leaving…

"What the hell?"

That night, Inui did not appear for dinner. Kaido decided that it was probably due to the fact that they had a lot of homework – he knew that Inui was filling in lots of applications, and perhaps he had lost track of time and forgotten to come. Or, equally plausible, Inui had decided to test some new data out… or maybe he was making a new juice. But Kaido couldn't lie to himself, as much as he wanted to. There was no chance that Inui would have 'forgotten' something… and so that really left only one explanation.

"Well, if you're going to be that way, so am I…" Kaido stared at his angry and… disappointed? reflection in the mirror before turning the lights off and going to sleep.

And so, Kaido did not show up for practice the next morning with Inui. It was wonderful, Kaido decided, to sleep in for a change, instead of waking up at some ungodly hour in the morning. And sure, he missed the feeling of the blood pumping through his system… but he could just ride his bike to school anyway, couldn't he? "No big deal…" Kaido thought to himself (but remembering all too well how Inui had said that if Kaido needed to improve, he would have to work even harder in the mornings). He scowled down at his bike. Really, he felt that the only thing he had done these past few days was scowl. And grunt. Not that he didn't do that anyway, it just seemed that he had been doing it in excess lately.

A few more days passed – and for some reason, every day Kaido woke up, he found himself unjustifiably nervous and disappointed – like he had lost something. And each time he tried to shake those negative feelings out of his head (because Inui had always told him that negative feelings sap physical strength), he couldn't exactly get rid of the mood he was in. Sure, he could hide it. But there was just something in him… that was perpetually pissing him off. And for once, it wasn't Momo.

The next day at school, Kaido, who wasn't paying attention to where he was going, accidentally bumped into Tezuka. "Sorry." Kaido said, about to pick up his books and go to his next class. "Ah – Kaido. I've been meaning to discuss something with you," Tezuka said, as he was about to leave. Kaido jerked his head around, a barely polite and tolerating expression on his face. "Yes?" What did Tezuka want with him already?

"You haven't been to practice this week at all."

Oh. So that was what it was.

"I've been… busy." Kaido said shortly, again about to leave. But Tezuka just stood there, staring him deep in the eye. It unnerved him greatly, and he felt rooted to the spot.

"… Really."

"Yes," Kaido said, lying in without batting an eyelash. Since when did I become like this? Lying to the Captain?

"I see… so you wouldn't happen to know why Inui hasn't shown up for practice either, would you?"

Kaido, again in mid-turn, froze. "N-No." he stuttered quickly, hurrying the hell out of that room before Tezuka could force the truth out of him.

"Damn." Kaido glared up at the threatening sky and felt raindrops on the back of his head. A week later, and he had, foolishly, decided he was going to try to run today. He hadn't trained in… quite a while, but he thought that running a little would be an excellent way to get back in shape.

Only, he hadn't counted on the rain. "Of all the damn days to rain, why now?" Kaido grumbled to himself, half-closing his eyes in order to shield himself from the onslaught of raindrops pelting his eyes. He almost ran into a car; the rain had gotten so terrible that he felt as if he were a blind man groping his way through the once-familiar streets of Japan.

And then he heard it.

The sound he had never —ever— expected to hear. Not here. Not now.

"Kaido!" the voice called again.

Kaido slowly turned his head around, still not expecting to see the person he knew it undeniably was.

"What are you doing running in the rain, Kaido? You have more than a 95 chance of catching a cold in this weather. It will have adverse effects on your tennis."

"Inui?" Kaido yelled back. "What – why are you here?" The spiky-haired glasses-man came close enough that Kaido could make out his features through the thick rain. "I knew you would be out here… so I came."

"But I thought you weren't—"

"I calculated that you would need an approximately 2-3 week break of tennis…." And from me was the implied statement, which both Kaido and Inui could hear.

"No—I didn't really, it was just that I got—"

"Angry?" A silence, other than of course the loud, deafening thunder. "We better get into my house – it's over there." Kaido said, finally.

They entered the house soaking wet, ignoring the taunts from Hazue, and made their way to Kaido's room. "So…" Kaido said awkwardly, throwing Inui a dry towel.

"A 98 chance you don't know what to say, Kaido…" Inui muttered, scribbling something down in his data book. As Kaido was about to open his mouth, Inui suddenly shot him a piercing gaze. "Do you know why I keep a data book?"

"… Not really."

Inui adjusted his glasses. "Well—if you'll look…." And to Kaido's extreme surprise, he tossed the book at Kaido. "It's all about--"

"Hell." Kaido managed, flipping through it quickly. It was all – and he meant, all, about him. And not just his tennis skills… his favorite color, his favorite video game… even the little embarrassing animal incidents were in there. It was like he had a personal stalker or something. Inui was seriously violating some laws here, getting all this information.
But for some reason, Kaido wasn't angry.

"Why?" he asked again, though he thought he knew the answer. "Why do you—"
"Why do I bother?" Inui finished, again. "I'd like to have a good answer, but… I don't know."

A silence again. Then Kaido suddenly said, "I… I apologize for what I said earlier. I didn't mean it." Inui blinked. And then he said, "I apologize too…I know I probably shouldn't have said what I had…"

"But it's okay now." Inui turned away as he cleaned his glasses with his shirt, and then faced Kaido, with the glasses back on. "It's getting better, somewhat." Inui observed, looking outside. "I had better go home – there are a few things that I need to catch up on."

"Ah." Kaido said. "Well, I…" He didn't quite know how to finish that sentence, so he compromised by letting Inui out of the house with a rather placid expression on his face (the closest he could get to a smile.) And then, he trooped back upstairs and stared, absentmindedly, at the rain pouring down.

The rain still pelted down on the windows, but the ferocity of the rain, of the trees crashing against the windows, had disappeared. It was bound to stop sooner or later – maybe not in a few minutes, and maybe not even in an hour.

But Kaido knew that he would be outside, training, by the end of the day.