Disclaimer standard disclaimers apply

Author's Notes This fic spans from the train ride to Hiroshima (this prologue particularly) until years after Rukawa and Sakuragi graduate. R+R! Apologies for the slight OOC...

Coincidence Or Fate

Prologue An Excerpt From Rukawa Kaede's Supposed Diary

Don't get me wrong. I am not writing this because of some reason.

Hell no!

It's just that when I looked outside the window of the train headed for Hiroshima, memories from my childhood came flooding in my mind. Don't ask me why. I just suddenly remembered. And I suddenly had the urge to write it down. Weird, isn't it? I mean, it's not like me at all. But just to make the record straight, this would be the first and last time I'm writing about anything concerning me.

It was a very sunny summer day and I, an eleven year-old boy back then, was playing basketball at a nearby half-court. To tell you the truth, I was not as good as I am today. But I still played anyway. I was in the middle of making the most perfect lay-up shot I will ever do as an eleven year-old kid when I tripped and landed flat on my face. I laid there for goodness knows how long that took, completely out of my wits with only one simple question in my mind.

How did I fall?

As if to make matters worse, I heard a very sardonic and insulting laugh. Slighted, I turned around only to find two kids a year or so younger by the fence. One was thin and pale. He wore a dull expression but something told me that there was more to him than that. The other one, the criminal, was laughing gaily that I even winced silently. He had his hair tucked under a backwards cap and he wore a baseball jersey and a pair of ordinary shorts. My first impression of him was… rude.

I stood up, brushed the dust of my clothes, gathered my things, and started to leave. But when I passed them, the rude one sniggered at me and said, "Loser."

That did it. I dropped my things and glared at him. "What do you want?" I demanded in my silent tone.

"I didn't say anything," he defended, feigning shock. "Right, Shi-chan?" He turned to his friend.

"Tou-chan, you're too obvious at times," the pallid one replied unemotionally.

"I am not!"

"You are, actually."

This went on for quite some time before "Tou-chan" challenged me to a match to settle everything. I accepted. During the match—which I'm proud to say I was winning—I accidentally tripped again. To make matters worse, I landed on top of him. I suddenly stood up to give way for him. He sat up and just stared at the ground. I was on the verge of apologizing when I was suddenly cut off with a slap from him. It was a painful one. I turned to him, shocked. To my utter surprise, he was blushing.

"G-gomen." I whispered.

"Tou-chan!" The pale one came by his friend's side and asked if he was okay. Tou-chan stared at him, and then all of a sudden, he cried in his arms. "Nakanaide (don't cry), Tou-chan. It was just an accident."

"Shi-chan!" He wailed. "I hate him!"

I was very puzzled by the scene in front of me. Later, I found out that Tou-chan was actually a girl and that they were siblings—the Midorikusa twins, Shinobu and Mitsuki. Surprisingly, they just lived a few houses away from mine.

After the incident in the court, Shinobu and I became friends. We hung out in my room a lot just to talk. He usually carried the conversation because he knew I wasn't that talkative. He usually talked about himself, his school life and his siblings, particularly Mitsuki.

They were three, by the way. Kusari, their eldest brother, was already thirteen and the twins were ten then. They used to live in Tokyo before but they lost their parents to a plane crash two years back and now they lived with an aunt here in Kanagawa. They took the accident pretty well, considering their age. But I think they just didn't show their anguish to people. They, of all people, do not want pity.

Kusari, who became my sempai in Tomigaoka Junior High a year later, is an all-around guy. He's intelligent, a superb athlete, a real gentleman and is practically swarmed by the opposite sex. He stood as a father figure for the twins at a young age of eleven. And for everything he is, I admire and respect him.

Shinobu is a sick boy. It's not that he's going to die or anything. It's just that he easily gets sick, so sometimes, they really have to pin him down on the bed just so he could avoid getting sick. Now, he's a very smart boy—the smartest in his class—and he's the sweetest person you wouldn't want to miss. But don't let that act fool you. He's as deadly as he's sweet. I've seen him at it when Mitsuki does things that really pester him. But I'm genuinely fond of him even if he's that fragile.

Then there's Mitsuki. Mitsuki is a tomboy but a genuine girl nonetheless. She's really competitive and at any competition, she'll give her best. She's a bit proud but she knows humility. She's smart but she sometimes does things by instinct. She acts real tough when boys bully or tease her, but when she sees Shinobu, she breaks down and cries.

"You might even think that she's a twin herself," Shinobu told me once. "But I can only describe Tou-chan with this phrase: She's predictable yet unpredictable at the same time. And for that, I envy and love her all the same."

It was really a surprise for me to know that Shinobu loves his sister, knowing that they're going for each other's heads every single day. But I knew that he'd die first before admitting that to her, though, so I kept it from her as well.

Shinobu invited me over to his aunt's house to view the fireworks one summer night. Shinobu, Mitsuki, Kusari and I were really enjoying the night when Shinobu suddenly had a fit and collapsed. In the hospital, Mitsuki leaned on to me and told me something that gave me realizations—realizations that affected me greatly.

"Shi-chan's smart but he's too reckless. But even if he gets sick that often, I'll always be by his side."

Twins. They envy each other practically because she could do things he couldn't and because he's very calm and sweet while she fluctuates. But they love each other very much to the point that criticizing and ignoring each other seems meaningless. Shinobu will practically harm anybody who will hurt Mitsuki and she will do just the same for him. I've never seen any sibling relationship as strong as the twins'—probably because I'm not that sociable and I don't have a sibling—and somehow, I'm envious.

And something struck me as nice and as surprising that night. Right then and there, I realized that…

The manager groaned. She glared at the raven-haired boy sleeping in his seat and sighed dejectedly. "That's it."

"What do you mean 'that's it'?" A boy with curly hair asked, squinting his eyes in perplexity.

"It's cut!" The manager emphasized. "That iron-nerved man drooled on the crucial part!"

"NANI?" A redhead complained. "Kitsune-otoko (fox man) drooled on it? Rukawa, temee! (Rukawa, you!)" He went to the slumbering ace of Shohoku High and was about to hit him when his senior, a man with wire-rimmed glasses, stoped him.

"Sakuragi! Don't wake him up or we're dead!"

"Chi! Just when it was getting interesting," their shooting guard commented sourly, turning to face the window.

"It was a very personal thing, Mitsui," their captain reminded him, standing up to return to his place. "We shouldn't have invaded his privacy."

"But you were interested in it, too, Akagi," Mitsui pointed out in an offended manner.

"I was not!" Akagi said heatedly, his face heating along with it.

And as the members of the Shohoku Basketball Team commented about the diary entry, the writer remained sleeping, oblivious to what was happening around him.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes hehe! Got you, didn't I? Well, you'll know what Kaede wrote on that drooled-on portion later on… it's just the prologue anyway. Hahahaha! By the way... Shinobu always calls Mitsuki "Tou-chan" because it's a shortened version of "imotou-chan"... it's his endearment for her... and am sorry if Rukawa was a bit OCC here... i figured that since it was in writing, he could somehow show more of himself... again, that's just me... Reviews, anyone? Thanks!