A Death
Chapter 1: Cigarettes
Hanamichi lights a cigarette, he fumbles with the lighter as he walks to center court, Rukawa looks at him, and it is only the two of them inside the old and battered Shohoku basketball gym. Rukawa stands underneath the rim, he keeps looking at Sakurag and he sighs. Sakuragi tries to say something but he stops himself, Kaede answers the question that he failed to ask.
"She knows already, she was with him when he..."
Hanamichi thinks to himself, trying to think of anything other than Haruko, and what she is going through. Hanamichi inhales a long one, a deep one, and then blows out through the nose.
Rukawa picks up a ball left behind by the team. "I never knew you smoked." He asks looking at the ball, gripping it, as if expecting it to be something else.
"One stick a week," Sakuragi breaks into tears, Rukawa turns his head away. His sobbing echoes a sad echo throughout the gym as if the gym itself was crying. Crying much tears for the death of Takenori Akagi.
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Mitsui walks alone in the streets of the shopping district, he stops by a convenience store window and looks at the cigarettes. One, two, five, thirty seconds before he shakes his head and smiles to himself, he quitted when he went back to Shohoku, he quitted three years ago, he laughs as to why he even considered it now.
Mitsui jumps, his phone is ringing. He fumbles with his jacket pocket.
`Hanamichi Sakuragi Calling…` is on the screen
Mitsui answers with a smile, but only seconds last before it seemingly peels off his face; his eyes turn from surprise, to anger, to sadness in moments. He nods, shakes his head as if forgetting that Sakurgi can only hear him, he asks a few questions and acknowledges the answers with sniffs, as they say their goodbye's Mitsui looked at the cigarettes again, with shinier, deeper, tear-coated eyes.
The chimes of a convenience store door chimed, a clerk greets with an oblivious generic happy greeting, and an oblivious generic happy smile.