Blue Wind Chapter 1: "Kare wa..."
"Talking" 'Thinking'
Authors notes
Blue Wind By "feitan aka bluewind"
Kanagawa Prefecture, somewhere in Yokohama.
It was around 8 o'clock am, and the sun was shining brightly down onto the waking people of Kanagawa ready for a Sunday morning. The sky was a light blue, with tinges of pink and white. Shops were beginning to open to meet the day's sales quota.
A girl skated down the sidewalk, avoiding oncoming traffic, a basketball tucked under one of he arms, backpack on her, well, back, and a earphones in her ear. She sped down the street at high speed for one on a pair of rollerblades. She sighted a rail and leaped into the air, landed on the iron rail slid on it. Nearing the end, she jumped again and executed a 180, landed, and sped away. People who were on the sidewalk, particularly old people and old geishas, out for a walk. The old people were muttering something about young people not having any respect and the geishas were whispering something about not having proper poise for a girl.
The girls name was Hikaru. She skidded to a halt in front of her destination. She was a girl who had hair so blue it was black thank you to Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park for thinking this one up! Errr. . . the 'so blue its black'. Her eyes were an icy shade of blue, and she was around 5'5'', not unusual for a girl her age. She was a first year, and took after her older brother in interests. Sort of.
Taking off her earphones, she heard a familiar bouncing of the ball. She looked up and towards the court, which was her destination, and saw one person she did not expect to see on the hidden court. She had heard from a friend he sometimes doesn't practice at school and at times doesn't even show up.
The figure on the court jumped into the air and soared through the air with the basketball in one hand, raising it to make a spectacular dunk.
She whispered to herself, "Kare wa. Blue Wind" Translation: He's. the Blue Wind
Hikaru opened the gate leading to the court, which creaked and the player who just dropped back to the ground from hanging on the ring looked at the girl. She froze, and stared at his slender body, his deep-sea eyes.
She walked towards him, looked up at the 6 footer. She fell into his eyes, lost within. She vaguely remembered herself thinking "Blue Wind" He smiled and ran his hand through his wild mane and said, "Blue Wind?" Hikaru blushed, not realizing that she had thought aloud to herself.
"That's in reference to me, ne?" The tall boy asked. Hikaru nodded numbly. 'Sendoh Akira.' She was meeting him in person and the only person to see him practice alone. "Hai?" Sendoh smiled at her. She finally pried her eyes away from his and silently cursed herself for thinking aloud to herself. 'I should stop myself from doing that or else I could spill some secrets.' Another voice in her head suddenly spoke up 'yeah, like a secret like you having a crush on him ever since you saw his game when your brother was studying junior high here in Kanagawa while you insisted in staying in Tokyo for your J. High and that's where you saw one of his games.' 'Oh shut up' said the first voice. You clear your throat and look back at him "Iya, betsuni."
"Blue Wind." Sendoh repeated then smiled. "First time I've heard of that."
"Um.. wanna have a game of one on one?" She asked timidly. Hikaru knew that she was no match to Sendoh though she wanted to test herself on how well her niichan taught her. He always told her every detail of the games that he played against his opponents. Of course, she watched those games, but it was like listening to a different story the way her niichan told her. He always told her about the look in his opponent's eyes, the way his rivals would respond, how and what he was thinking at that exact moment. And when she really thought about it, it seemed like two separate games if you compare the 2 points of view. So she wanted to experience that and see if what he said about Sendoh was really true.
Sendoh looked at her then smiled his smile. "Sure." Then he looked down at the shoes that Hikaru was wearing. He put on an awkward smile. "Are you going to play with those on?"
Hikaru suddenly remembered that she still had her skates on. "Chotto matte." She skated to the side, plopped down onto the ground, and started to take off her blades. She then took her shoes out of her backpack and put them on. Her shoes were black with blue and white trim. She took off her headband because it sometimes gave her a headache when she played.
When she got up, Sendoh was surprised. With the girl's bangs down, she looked amazingly like……… He smiled at the thought. 'omoshire.' he moved towards her and helped her up.
She brushed away the dirt on her denim shorts "first to 15 points is the winner."
Sendoh put a mock-crestfallen look. "No stakes?"
She smiled at the taller, hands akimbo. "OK then, what are the stakes?"
Sendoh smiled mischievously at the shorter. "The one who loses has to treat lunch."
"We never said anything about lunch!" She exclaimed.
"Yes, we did."
"And when was that, pray tell."
"When I mentioned the stakes" He smiled the charming smile.
Hikaru felt her heart beat faster as the smile saw her eyes. She was hoping desperately that she wasn't blushing on the spot. If she was, Sendoh would probably know what she felt for him.
"Sa. shall we start?" Sendoh handed the ball to her.
"Ha-hai." she then lunged forward into Sendoh's guard.
Sendoh hung from the quivering ring, and Hikaru looked up at him in awe. she had never experienced anything like playing against him. playing one on one with her brother was a different matter altogether. Sendoh. he was intense. He looked like he wasn't concentrating at all. Unlike her brother, her brother looked more like he was obsessed.
He dropped back to earth and looked at the blue sky, and breathed in. He always did that when he was alone. he suddenly remembered he wasn't. He turned and looked at the girl. She was just looking at him.
"E? Do I have something on my back?" He asked.
"Hoooeee? Iya." She looked at him questioningly.
"Maaa. . . ah! Soeba. . . kimi no namae, nani?" Sendoh gave the charming
smile again.
Translation: By the way, what's your name?
Hikaru suddenly remembered that she hasn't introduced herself yet.
'Baka.'
"Watashi wa, Rukawa, Rukawa Hikaru."
'Thought so' Charming smile. 'She did amazingly look like her brother. er. relative. the bangs that shield her eyes, the cold eyes, though in hers, they show a sort of cold warmth. how ironic. The only real difference was the height. Probably around 5'4''.' Sendoh estimated.
"It's around 8:30. So, what do you want to do?" He asked, checking his watch. "if we are going to have lunch, we're sweaty."
Hikaru breathed in deeply, sort of like an in ward sigh. "oh.. you're right."
Sendoh grabbed her hand and both their stuff. He was running towards the gate of the court. "SA! Ikou!"
She was being half dragged by the ace player, then she remembered how fast he reacted to whatever she tried. At the time, she fully realized how it was like playing against one of the best players in Kanagawa. She remembered when they both were in Tokyo, in his 3rd junior high year, she had watched him from the stands, accepting the MVP award. She now saw and experienced why he received that honor. She saw now the reason why Niichan wants to beat him.
"My house is kind of far from the center of Yokohama. We can take a break there and if you want, a shower or bath." Sendoh smiled as he ran at top speed, letting go of her hand, he glanced back at Hikaru. His eyes had a sort of glimmer to them as he recalled how she played. 'She needs a bit of work. But she's got speed.' He saw that she was keeping up with the ace player.
After a few minutes of high speed running and an occasional word or phrase, they arrived at Sendoh's residence. It was quaint, medium sized, double leveled with a small balcony, off-white in paint. Four windows occupied the front view with a western style front door. It had a small vegetable garden put to one side and it looks like it has been well taken care of and a few small trees crowded the opposite side. A wall surrounded the compound, with a simple gate providing a portal.
She was drenched in her sweat, even more than before. She put her hands on her knees in order to support her self from collapsing. She looked up from her position, and her eyes landed on the taller player. He looked even taller from her point of view. He was breathing hard through his nose, and smiled at her. "You ok?" he asked. She held up a hand signing that she was ok, even though she was out of breath.
Sendoh took Hikaru's hand lightly, and led her into his house, opened the door and gave her a pair of slippers to put on, and then he escorted her into the living room. "Sa, you make yourself at home, anything you want?" He put down the stuff against a wall and left to go to the kitchen.
Hikaru looked around at her surroundings. Some furniture dotted the room, with a lot of pictures hanging around on the walls and on the side tables. She moved to the sofa and gently picked up the closest picture to her.
It was a family picture depicting a two identical boys, both of them having black hair, parted slightly at the middle, and deep, fun-loving blue eyes, one of them looked slightly older than the other, maybe each of them were around 9 and 6. The boys were wearing tank tops, hitting each other with a pillow. 'Kawaii.' Hikaru commented even though she couldn't tell who the two were.
She put down the picture and picked up the one beside it. Shown on it were a formal family picture, a man, a woman, two boys, and a young girl. In this picture, the man had closely cut hair that had some chunks stood up at odd angles while the others were gelled in place. It looked like he had tried to tame his air. He was obviously the father. The woman was very pretty, using an elegant headband to contain her long, blackish brownish hair. She also had deep blue eyes that radiated gentleness. The two boys were the same ones from the previous picture. She estimated that the two boys were around 16 and 13; both had identical smiles, easygoing, and slicked back hair. The young girl, probably around 3 years old looked at the camera with a half happy, half bewildered looked on her tiny face. She had blackish brownish eyes, like the father's and was being held in the man's arms.
She set the picture down, and her gazer wandered over the other photos. A photograph of the three children in kimonos, a shot of a pair of old couples (4 people), the family at Kyoto enjoying the cherry blossoms (she saw the sign in the background), though the father looked like he was the one who timed the shot, and tried to get in the shot himself, and plenty others.
She looked from the photos and up to a boy around his late teens who had just entered the room. The boy was identical to the Ryonan ace and had almost the same hair as Sendoh except it was more, kind of tilted and he had a pierce on his left ear. He looked at her. And she looked back at him.
"Omae. . . Dare. . . Ka. . . "
Translation: Who. are. you?
They continued to stare at each other when Sendoh entered the room.
"Ah! Aniki! I didn't know that you were home."
Sendoh's brother looked at him and replied in almost the same voice, "I wasn't, I just got back from tofu delivery." He ran his hand through his hair in a similar fashion to Sendoh. Sendoh nodded to show his understanding.
"A-anou."
Sendoh remembered that he had drinks in his hands; he gave one of them to Hikaru and put the other one on the coffee table. "Hikaru-san, this is my brother, Teichi."
Hikaru looked at the two boys, she took a sip from the drink, which was lemon-iced tea, then remarked "You two look so much alike."
The two young men burst out laughing at the same time and gave each other a high five. "Yeah, you're not the first to think that!" Teichi said. "Some think we're twins!" Akira added.
"One of the reasons why I got a pierce." Teichi smiled the charming smile.
"Though aniki is older than me by about 3 years." Akira also smiled the charming smile.
Hikaru blushed as a pair of the most wonderful smiles beamed at her. "Ah! Watashi wa Rukawa Hikaru. Yorosh'ku ni gaishimasu." And bowed in the proper niponggo style.
Translation: I'm Rukawa Hikaru. Pleased to meet you. All names introduced will be Japanese style, meaning last, first
"Ah, Rukawa," Teichi said after bowing in turn, "Rukawa Kaede no imotou, ne?"
T: You're Rukawa Kaede's little sister, right?
Sendoh Akira (he will be referred to as Akira in narratives to avoid confusion) in the mean time was in the kitchen again fetching another lemon- iced tea for his brother. 'Aniki.' He was happy that his brother visited. With him in collage in Tokyo, Teichi hardly has any time to visit them anymore. It was a rare treat.
He returned to the living room in time to hear, "I didn't know that Kaede- niichan is known in Tokyo also."
Akira chuckled ever so slightly. Here he was, serving and hosting his unsaid rival's younger sister. He vaguely imagined a SD Rukawa giving him an angry speech on not getting within a 10-kilometer radius of his imotou, wondering momentarily if Rukawa was capable of long angry speeches.
His brother replied in a matter of fact tone, " well, this IS the Inter- high we are talking about. Even though I'm already in collage, I'm still interested in the Inter-High games."
Akira entered the room and gave Teichi his drink.
"Doumo." Teichi took a long swig from the glass. He was seated at the chair across from the sofa where Hikaru was seated. His younger counterpart sat down on the other end of the same sofa.
"I heard that Ryonan didn't make it into the Inter-High." Teichi remarked. "It's Kainan and Shohoku right? Going to Hiroshima?"
"Eeh. Shohoku almost lost to us in the prefecture finals. They really have become stronger than when you played." Akira took a sip from his drink "Miyagi, Rukawa, Sakuragi, and Mitsui. They can be the drive of the team. It might be interesting to watch."
"Too bad Ryonan didn't make it." Teichi smiled "Even though we made it to the prefecture final 4, when I was playing in my 3rd year, Kainan and Shoyo were too strong." He looked at Hikaru. "I take it that you are from Shohoku right?"
Hikaru smiled, and replied, "Iie. I go to Ryonan High."
Akira looked at her with wide eyes. "I never saw you at school." Which was true, because he honestly never saw anyone who looked like Rukawa that went to the same school as him.
Still smiling, she said, "Because you might have only seen me with my headband and glasses on. People say I looked different that way. Miite. (Look/see)" she got up and got her headband and glasses and put them on. Then took them off after a few seconds.
"Sou, ne." Akira unconsciously scratched his chin. "Ichi-nen, na?
T: 1st year, right?
"Demo. 'Kaede-niichan' te. that means that she should be in junior high." Teichi calculated. "But if they're twins."
Hikaru chuckled lightly. "No. We're not twins. I was born 10 months after Kaede-niichan. Besides, I'm about 40 cm shorter than him. Since he was born on January 1, we were born on the same year."
"Sou."
They talked for a while, about music, more on the Inter-High, teams competing, basketball, until the clock struck 10.
Akira looked at the time, and finished the last of his drink in one gulp. "Sa, I'll just go upstairs to change." He got up and picked up his bag. He looked back at Hikaru. "Hikaru-chan, wanna change?" Teichi grinned evilly. "What he's really saying is that do you want to-"
"OI! A-aniki!" Akira blushed furiously. "It's not like that!" He left the room with a beet red face.
Teichi smiled. He turned to Hikaru "Gonna change?"
"Un." She shouldered her backpack. "Um. where can I change?" She asked the older Sendoh.
"Follow me."
Hikaru followed the older boy to the second floor, where she encountered more pictures along the stairway, starting from the bottom, a lone child, a boy about 1 year old, after that, 2 boys, one, around 2 years old while the other, maybe more than a month old, was being supported by a pair of arms. Then a photo of the two boys again, one around 3 and the other around 5 or 6. As she went higher up the stairway, the pictures grew more recent, the people in the photos growing in age. its effect was sort of like time travel.
The pair of them turned a corner and Teichi led Hikaru down a hallway and stopped in front of a door with a sign on it. The sign said, "Keep out. -Akira" and underneath it was a silver angel set on a black background.
"Akira's room."
Hikaru looked at Teichi, in a bewildered manner. Teichi put his ear near the door, after a while, he nodded smiling. "Hai, he's listening to L'arc n Ciel." He smiled. "Sa, you're gonna change? Or take a shower?"
After thinking, Hikaru replied, "I think I'll take a shower." Teichi nodded, turning around, he opened a cabinet behind him, and took out a white towel with light blue clouds on it. He handed it to Hikaru smiling.
She went inside, took note of the bathroom. Hmm. nice. finely cut mirror, western influences. she turned around, and made sure that the door was securely locked. Then she began to undress.
Her thoughts went back to the smiles. Why are they so friendly? She remembered Akira's smile. Teichi's smile. The smile of the people in the photos. She recalled that neither of them spoke of their family, their parents. She wondered why. Then an image of her family liquefied in her mind's eye. She felt a shiver down her spine, not knowing whether that was due to the fact that she was naked, or was it the image?
She stepped into the shower, and opened the shower, she felt relaxed under the hot mist and drops of the falling water. Her muscles loosened up, and breathed in. . . this is where Akira takes a bath. it was vaguely erotic, if you think about it.
Akira was in his room, his hands flew up to cover his mouth in an instantaneous reflex, when he suddenly sneezed his shorts fell to the floor. Then his brother came in. "GAH! Aniki!" and he immediately tugged his shorts back up.
His brother smiled again, the smile that generations of Sendohs have used. "Maa." then he sighed, "while I was away, you still don't lock the door." then he paused as if thinking what to say. Then as an afterthought, "Even with the little one around."
"Oi." Akira said. Teichi and he have been extremely close ever since when. Some said that they could read each other's minds, but the two have always laughed at the same time, laughing at the notion of reading each other's minds, wondering what the other is thinking, especially around puberty. Though, it has some close to that, to the point of finishing each other's sentences, or saying the same things at exactly the same time. Though those things didn't happen. That often. "She KNOCKS if she wants to enter the room. Which is not often by the way."
"Hai, hai." Teichi waved his hand as if saying 'yeah. okay.' "Just wanted to let you know that she's in the bathroom right now. if you plan on doing anything." and in saying that, Teichi smiled and evil and sly smile to his sibling, one they've used in conspiring together, or against each other.
Akira had a feeling he knew what his brother was thinking, and knowing the tendencies of the oldest of the pair. His hand snatched a delicate piece of paper and wiped away the red streams that came from his nose. "That's called rape." He said sarcastically.
Teichi continued smiling as he said half-jokingly, "Not if it's with her consent. And if I know girls, she definitely likes you. And I know, since I've been tackled by them at Toudai (Tokyo University)."
Akira just stared after awhile, and changed his top then put on his pants. He then left his room in search of lemons to suck on while talking to his aniki. "I just met her today. Its not like the whole prefecture knows me."
Akira's brother followed him, also snatching a lemon from the fridge. "Oh, yeah, and the last game I saw was Ryonan against Kainan, practically everyone was cheering for you. They were calling, 'SEN-DOH! SEN-DOH! SEN- DOH!' and there I was in my seat, looking around, thinking it was me who was being cheered for." He said jokingly, but it was true, whenever he was in Kanagawa, one of the rare times he got off from school, he watched his younger brother play against the ones he had once played against in his third year.
They plopped on the sofa and resumed talking about the girl whom the younger Sendoh had brought home that day that was in the bath upstairs.
Hikaru dried herself with the towel Teichi had lent her. Thoughts ran through her head. memories. and a dominant figure. Sendoh Akira. Sendoh Akira. Sendoh Akira. She shook her head. 'Nah. why would he fall for a girl like me?' She asked herself as she slipped on her underwear. 'I'm sure that there're a lot more girls who'd be better than me. He's just doing this to be nice. I can just leave here and not have lunch with him.' She tried finding more and more excuses not to have lunch with Akira. Then the little voice in her head popped up once more. She called that little voice in everyone's head 'V-chan'. "What are you thinking? You're already here! Just go with the flow. it's going to be fine. You're just being paranoid." Yeah-just paranoid.
She finished dressing up and left the bathroom, and walked down the corridor, carrying her backpack. Hikaru stopped in front of Akira's room and found that the door was ajar. No no no no. that's called invasion of privacy! She peeped into the room and she was half relieved to find out that Akira wasn't there.
Whoa.
His room was nothing like Kaede-niichan's room. it was not fully messy, not fully clean, few stuffs scattered on the floor. The room itself was on the smallish side, but it gave the impression it was even smaller, because of all the things in it. It had something like a sky theme. The walls were colored in a beautiful sky blue, with tufts of white 'clouds' here and there, while the ceiling was a dark shade of blue, and yellow dots dotted the ceiling, giving the imitation of stars. The bed was set on the far end of the room, colored a pale green, beside it was a shelf, filled with manga, books, papers, an alarm clock the shape of a Japanese Koi and a few more pictures. A small coffee table was in the middle of the room, piled with papers, Cds.
hee hee, if you know Chester Bennington's tattoos ;p
She pried her vision away from the door and silently crept downstairs to join the two boys. When she got into hearing range, she suddenly stopped. The two boys were talking about her! Well, actually the game that Akira and she had a while before.
"She's pretty good, actually."
"Are you just saying that?"
"No, she is, she eluded me a couple of times, and scored a couple of points"
"Or should you say, 'I let her elude me a couple of times, and I let her score a couple of poi-'"
Pmff
She peeked into the room and saw that the siblings were engaged in a furious pillow fight. Akira and Teichi were hitting each other with the couch pillows, laughing hysterically, not minding the fact that they were 17 and 20. Hikaru smiled at the sight of the two grown men playing like the two little boys in the picture. Then she began laughing as they fell to the floor because Teichi had pounced on Akira and started to tickle the latter.
The two grown boys stopped and looked at the shorter girl in curiosity.
"How long have you been there?" the younger of the brothers asked as he propped himself up onto his elbows from a lying position.
She smiled. "Long enough." Her eyes lingered on Akira as he stood up along with his bro. She felt herself blush as she saw what he was wearing. He looked so gorgeous. He was wearing a black t-shirt that flowed loosely around his build but would not have been considered as an over-sized shirt. It lay over a pair of grey cargo pants, and a pair of black army-ish boots completed the outfit.
"Sa, Ikkou?" Akira asked his female companion.
They walked down the street, and well, Akira was getting some glances from people due to his height. (you'd think that the people of Kawasaki would be used to him, ne?) but other than that everything was fine. They were walking down the sidewalk, and were well. kinda silent.
Hikaru was the first to speak up. "Wait a moment, where are we eating?"
Akira shrugged. "You were the one who lost."
"So. . . you're saying that I'll choose?"
He shrugged in reply.
"I want steak!" Hikaru said happily.
Akira then pinched Hikaru's pale cheek. And he smiled the Charming Smile tm.
"Itai na." Hikaru rubbed the place where Akira's hand was a few moments before. She looked around the street they had wandered into, looking for possible places to eat. A bakery . . . ramen place. . . a fancy shmancy restaurant with glittery labeling. . . she perked up, seeing a regular-looking place called 'The Undercut Café'. She poked Akira and pointed to the said café. "lets go there."
to those who read Neil Gaiman's Sandman, the Undercut may sound familiar
Akira looked at the place and smiled. "oh the Undercut. Café by day, music restaurant and bar by night." He looked down at the 5'5'' girl and took her hand. He led her into the Undercut.
The Undercut was a restaurant/café was a 2 storey place, but its entrance was below ground level, and to get there, you had to go down a series of steps. The second floor, which was considered the ground floor had a large panel of glass on the two corners of the street that it possessed, giving the passer by full view of what was going inside. If it weren't frosted halfway down from the ceiling. Giving the passer by a full view of peoples feet. What was left of the walls outside the building was dark red. It a few people were already eating their lunches just outside of the café underneath the provided umbrellas and tables.
Akira and Hikaru entered the café, greeted by the traditional "Irasshaimasen". They went upstairs took a table that was adjacent from a window seat, which was across the aisle. A VERY perky waitress in red and white greeted them. "hai, irasshaimasen, welcome to the Undercut Café, Bar and Restaurant!" and waited for them, with an eternally HUGE grin, to make an order
Akira ordered 2 lemon iced teas and 2 lemon Rissotis for the both of them without even picking up the menu. The waitress nodded happily and walked briskly away humming to herself.
for those who don't know, rissoti, pronounced either Ri-so-ti or ri-so-to, is a rice-like noodle and looks like porridge, but I've tried lemon Rissoti myself and its uber delish!
Hikaru looked a bit surprised at Akira, "you didn't have to order for me. . ."
Akira waved it aside, "don't worry about it, I guarantee, its very good." He started looking around the café.
"Do you come here often?"
Akira drummed his fingers on the plastic table. "Sometimes. They have great food here. It's a plus when a really good band plays at night." He suddenly looked a bit distracted. "hm?"
Hikaru smiled to herself at the cute look that Akira had shown her when he turned distracted. 'aw, how cute. . . sigh wait. Why is he distracted? Oh, no, does he have a girlfriend and she entered the café? Is there someone who deserves his attention more?' she must have had a scared look on her face, because the older companion looked at her with a concerned face and asked what was wrong. She replied that she was just wondering why he looked so distracted. He nodded towards the door of the restaurant and Hikaru turned and looked.
'oh my god, what's Mistui-san doing so far away from Kawasaki!' Hikaru thought. She constantly rode the shuttle train to Shohoku in Kawasaki to see her brother, so she knew who this person was. Plus how could she forget him, he was an MVP as well in his Junior High days. What she saw next surprised her even more.
Mitsui was with the Shohoku Manager, Ayako.
"Ne, Hikaru-san, isn't that Mistui-san and Shohoku's Manager?" Akira asked his companion.
Hikaru nodded, she then whispered to Akira, "can you lay low a bit? I don't want Mitsui-san and Ayako-chan to blab to my niichan that I'm with you." She looked at Akira with a serious look. "he may hurt you."
Akira looked amused and replied in an equally serious tone. "really? That will be a first." And smiled at her, but he lay low just barely letting his hair be shown above the 4 foot divider between tables..
Hikaru looked at Akira with a bemused look and giggled. "no, sorry, its just that Ayako-chan has a tendency to gossip. And if Niichan gets word of me being with you before I tell him, well. . ." she trailed off, leaving Akira hanging.
He straightened up and leaned over the table and whispered into her ear, "well, if he knows that you're going to Ryonan, we might as well be going out." With that he gave her a seductive wink and leaned back into his seat.
Hikaru looked all the more surprised and blushed. Deeply.
Akira took one look at her and laughed. He waved his hand again, "Maa, maa, you were getting so serious, I thought you'd need a laugh." Charming Smile tm.
Hikaru laughed with him, more with embarrassment than anything else. 'oh my god, how I wish he weren't joking!' she found herself imagining Akira and herself going out and just . . . being. . . –
Her train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of their rissotis. 'It sort of looked like porridge with rice in it.' she thought, picking up her spoon and dipping it into the mixture. She tasted it and her eyes widened.
"wai! Oishiiiiii" she squealed and helped herself to some more.
Akira smiled and ate his serving, occasionally stopping to drink his lemon iced tea. Halfway through the rissotis, He asked her if she knew that Mitsui and Ayako were going out. He looked past her and observed them eating in a secluded corner of the restaurant.
Hikaru shrugged. "No, but I doubt that they'll let people know if they are, because it's a known fact that Ryota, Shohoku's point guard is still in love with Ayako-chan and he fought with Mitsui before." She peeked at Ayako and Mitsui while saying this as Akira and Hikaru finished their drinks, rissotis long gone.
Ayako sat across from her companion and they were just sitting there, waiting for their plates to be taken away, drinks half forgotten. Ayako smiled at Mistui a few times and each time, he'd get a little uncomfortable and pretended that his soda was the most interesting thing he'd seen in his entire life. They'd try to strike up a conversation, but after a few minutes it seemed that one of them would hit a delicate subject and they'd both go silent.
"Ja, shall we go then? And not spy on those two lovebirds?"
Hikaru turned around and looked at Akira in alarm, "! We're gonna skip the bill?" she never knew that Akira was that courageous or daring. . . or rebellious.
Akira winked at her and slowly got up, motioning for Hikaru to get up as well. They moved towards the stairway that led to downstairs and hurried out the door. They made it without anyone stopping them or Ayako and Mistui seeing that they were present at their ahem date.
After walking a few meters away from the Undercut, Hikaru breathed a sigh of relief. "Wow, I didn't know it'd be that easy." And stretched her arms above her head.
Akira grinned at Hikaru, took her hand and placed something in it. He watched as she opened it and looked at it in disbelief. Then she playfully punched him on the arm.
"Baka," she said lightly, "you should have told me you paid for the bill!" She smiled purposefully bumped him with her shoulder. "I thought I was gonna pay for the bill"
Akira chuckled, "I forfeited the stakes." Then he pinched her cheek again "seeing how your so amusing and all." He put his hands in his pockets and looked at the sky, "so, what do you want to do now?" he felt Hikaru slip her arm into the loop formed by his arm and walked towards the park.
Akira and his companion decided to take a stroll around a park that was near the seashore, which happened to be a five minute walk from the Sendoh House. The sun had long gone past its zenith, and their shadows were lengthening once more. They just wandered around the park, talking, fooling around, and other stuff one does when he or she is in his or her teens.
Akira had treated Hikaru at ice cream and were chatting animatedly while they rested, once in a while glancing at the skaters, bladers and BMXers who were practicing at the vert ramp and the street course.
"ne, Hikaru-san, what does your brother think of me?"
Hikaru was a bit taken off guard as they had been previously talking about the well-known in-line vert ramp kings, the Yasutoko Brothers. "well. . . " she started, licking her ice cream thoughtfully "Niichan no doubt thinks that you're his rival, a person whom he has to beat to be the best. But of course, you aren't the only one." She gazed into the sky as she continued, "I sometimes ask him while practicing, 'Niichan, when you become the best, what happen then after? What will you do?' he always stops, and I don't know if its intentionally or not, but he just lets the ball drop to the ground and he stares at the ring." She reverted her eyes back to Akira.
"What do you think of my Niichan?"
Akira was surprised at the question but didn't show it, he had a good poker face when he wanted. He contemplated on the question for a minute and replied, "he takes the game way too seriously." And he, together with Hikaru, laughed. He continued, "I take the game. . . as a game. I just enjoy the difficulty. I enjoy playing." He took a breath, "your Niichan looks like the game is a matter of life and death, a game that he intends on living at the end, a game that he intends to be on top at the end. Nothing wrong with that of course, but. . . " he paused and seemed to be thinking of a better word for something, "he should have some fun once in a while."
Hikaru nodded and gazed into her ice cream as if looking for an answer in the melting patterns. "He doesn't tell me why he wants to always be superior to everyone. Maybe. . ."
Akira looked at her as she trailed off, "maybe. . .?" he urged her to continue.
Hikaru shrugged with a shake of her head. "o, nothing, its just a family thing." and chomped down the last of her ice cream cone.
well, how did you guys like the first Chapter of Blue Wind/ gomen it took so long. x life stole my writers ability. So, hold your horses for Blue Wind, Chapter 2 author bluewind aka: feitan, twstdHALO, swisyd, Ja
created 09-21-02
Finished01-15,-06. Oo"