Side Stories
Omake
YxH
School Rumble created by, registered, and copyrighted to Jin Kobayashi, Kodansha, and any other company and/or division associated with the creation and/or production of School Rumble. Del Rey hold the copyrights to the English version of School Rumble. This work of fiction is not intended for any commercial purposes but was created for the entertainment of the Author and Fans of School Rumble.
No copyright infringement was in any way intended.
Side Stories written by Jino Turtlegod
Text Styles:
" text " - spoken
:: text :: - thought
text - sung
// text // - electronically transmitted
[text - computer text
TEXT - white text on black screen
text - stressed
text - sound effect
M Rating. For mature readers only. Some scenes, themes, language, and situations are not suitable for younger readers. Reader discretion is advised.
It was a small shrine, well-kept despite being in a remote location. A girl, still in her high school uniform, dozed on the veranda, her back to the wooden wall, and her legs tucked underneath her. A black cat lay on her lap, her hand across the animal's back.
The girl slowly woke up to her cat's nervous fidgeting.
"What is it?" she asked her cat in concern. The cat looked up at her, 'Listen!' it seemed to say.
The girl heard nothing but the afternoon wind moaning… or was it the wind? No, it was too sad to be the wind. The sound was filled with anguish, heart rending sorrow.
The cat squirmed out from under her hand and raced towards the rear of the shrine. It only took her a moment to decide to follow her pet. Like the cat, she too was curious to find out who or what was crying.
She paused at the corner of the shrine. A boy, just a bit older than her, sat on the shrine's rear steps. The boy was large for his age, towering heads above the girl who was herself taller than average. The boy was one of the most feared delinquents of the school, with his dark sunglasses and long unkempt hair.
The boy was crying uncontrollably, tears streaming down his cheeks and his wide shoulders shuddering with his sobs. Her cat sat beside the boy, gently pawing the boy's thigh in consolation.
"Sempai?" she said, as the boy was not unknown to her… and in a way, he is more than just an acquaintance. The girl was probably one of the very few people who knew the boy's gentler side.
The boy was startled in mid sob, and hurriedly tried to wipe his face on the sleeve of his school jacket. "Ah! Imouto-san! I'm sorry, did I disturb you?"
Very few people would have noted the slight shock of indignation that ran through the girl. She usually didn't care if others viewed her to be nothing more than being the younger sibling of her famous older sister. However, there are exceptions, some people she would prefer to be known to as her own person. This boy happened to be one of them. She took a deep breathe to regain her composure and then walked over to sit beside the boy, her cat immediately jumped onto her lap.
They sat there in silence. The boy was no longer sobbing, but his tears still flowed and he kept wiping them away on his sleeve.
"Sempai, you've told her your feelings?"
The boy laughed bitterly. "How long had you known that she already liked someone else?"
"Would you have listened to me even if I had told you?" she asked in a soft voice as her hand gently stroked her cat's back.
"So, you know me so well…" the boy said as he stood up.
"I would like to think so, despite the short few months that we've known each other," the girl answered.
"Wouldn't you think I would have liked to have been warned! I looked like a fool!" he snarled as he grabbed her by the arms. The cat jumped off the girl's lap as the boy hauled the girl up onto her feet. "Do you know how much it hurt to know that the one you love had already given their heart to someone else?!"
The girl the bit her lips, a look of shock and pain on her pretty face. "Of course I know! Don't you think I know how much it hurts to know that the person you like likes somebody else!?" She screamed back at him. "At least now that you know her heart, you can stop acting like a love sick idiot!"
The boy was surprised as he saw the tears welling up in the girl's eyes. "S-sorry," the boy said as he suddenly let go of her arms. The girl staggered, her knees felt weak. She fell against the boy who instinctively held her to him. Her thin yet strong arms embraced the boy, pulling him to her. And then she started sobbing against the boy's chest.
The boy sighed to himself as he gently wrapped his arms around the girl. He looked off into the distance, watching the setting sun as a girl cried in his arms. It seemed to be his fate to be in situations like this with girls who either didn't like him in a romantic way or down-right hated his guts.
He wondered how it felt to be actually liked by someone.
The sun had set and the stars began to come out by the time the girl calmed down and pulled away from the boy. She rubbed against her eye with the heel of one hand while the other tried to straighten her shoulder length dark hair.
She gasped as the boy held her small hand in his large hand and led her to a faucet in the courtyard. The girl felt a sense of loss when he let go of her hand. He then took off his jacket and wet it at the faucet, carefully wringing the excess water from it before giving it to the girl as a makeshift towel.
"Imouto-san, I'm sorry if I hurt you," the boy said as the girl wiped the tears away with his jacket.
The girl looked up at the boy…
"By the way, if you don't mind me asking, who is the guy you're in love with who's in love with somebody else?"
Yakumo looked up at Kenji expectantly. This was one of the few times that she hoped that she could read the whispers of his heart.
Kenji suddenly burst into laughter as he finished reading the incomplete script that Yakumo had proposed for the next installment of their manga. Just because of the little mix-up with Nijou-Sensei's manga the last time they tried to help out, Hario-sensei will now be doing a love comedy as per the magazine's request. And since the last one had been Yakumo's idea, the pair had decided to go with another one of Yakumo's ideas.
"I like it, Imouto-san," Kenji said as he used his nickname for Yakumo. "You really like those rough and selfish men. Ha! He doesn't even realize it that she's talking about him!"
Yakumo just nodded. As expected from her sempai, he had found the subplot almost immediately. It was manga after all and therefore it was easier for a manga master like Kenji to read in-between the lines.
Real life was a bit harder to read.
"So, how will we end it?" Kenji said as he set the script aside.
"I'm still trying to work it out… but we can start drawing the layout up to that point."
"OK! Let's go with that! I'm on fire!" Kenji said excitedly, inspiration throbbing in his veins. Yakumo sat patiently by the coffee table, amazed at how fast Kenji drew. She watched in fascination as the lines of his fishbone pen brought to life the images Yakumo had in her mind.
She blinked and a sense of shock akin to terror ran through her. Kenji had drawn what was in her heart! There was no way he would miss it this time!
The lead girl had shoulder length hair, large slanting eyes with a cool expression. The lead boy had long swept back hair, and an intense expression in his narrow eyes. In a few strokes, Kenji had rendered himself and Yakumo as manga characters.
Yakumo began to sweat in nervousness. Kenji will notice and then-
"Ah?!"
Yakumo nearly jumped at Kenji's exclamation. She watched as Kenji's face began to redden.
"Yakumo's pretty… Shit! What the hell am I drawing! Yakumo's going to flip! Oh, God! But it looks great! What am I thinking?!"
"No! It's alright! You can keep it as it is!" Yakumo cried out as she read his heart, her hand was suddenly on Kenji's hand before he can scrunch up the piece of paper.
Kenji laughed nervously. "Sorry, Imouto-san, I guess I was drawing without thinking. The boy that you would want to read this story may not get it that you're trying to express to him your feelings."
Of course, since her feelings were laid out in manga form, Kenji was able to notice her intent… too bad he did not notice anything more.
"I don't mind. It looks great. " Yakumo said as she took her hands from his with some regret. She stood up and went to the small electric stove that was in Kenji's room so that Kenji wouldn't see the blush on her face.
As Yakumo put in the tea leaves into the pot, she wondered why her heart skipped a beat when she read his heart.
A small smile graced her lips as she let the tea steep.
OWARI