Ore Wa Tensai Sakura: Mine
Part 2

by Annie D
the_80s_chick@lycos.com




One lovely spring day, Sendoh Akira was walking down the pavement outside the main gate of the North Kanagawa University, idly tossing a basketball from one hand to another. Beside him Mitsui Hisashi was talking softly into a handphone.

A loud noise made Sendoh turn his head. He poked an elbow into Mitsui's arm to get his attention.

"Hey, Mitsui."

"Excuse me a moment." Mitsui looked up from his phone. "What?"

Sendoh pointed. Just beyond the closer shophouses a rather enthusiastic fight was well underway. The bodies involved were somewhat obscured by the flying dust, but one particular individual with bright red hair seemed to be taking a vocal solo in the event.

"Isn't that Sakura?"

Mitsui squinted. "Yup. Should we help?"

"Yeah, those poor guys could get hurt."

"Just give me a moment." Mitsui turned his attention back to the phone to say a goodbye, then clicked it shut.

They took their time in strolling toward the group, and their 'help' consisted of carefully hauling Sakura away from giving the headbutt-of-death to a blabbering senior.

"Woi, woi, woi!" Sakura said, wrenching free from Mitsui and Sendoh's grasp. "They started it!"

Sendoh took a moment to look over the rest of the group, who were either sprawled like sad salamanders on the pavement or carefully inching away while raising their hands in a dear-god-have-mercy kind of way. Sendoh shrugged and gave Sakura a cheerful smile. "Looks like they're finished, too."

"Hai!" said Sakura proudly. "Nobody messes with the tensai!"

Mitsui clucked his tongue. "You're not supposed to fight anymore, Sakura."

"This wasn't fighting, this was… upholding my honour," said Sakura, who gave a nearby senior a kick in the stomach before walking off. Sendoh and Mitsui looked at each other, shrugged, then trotted off to follow her.

"So what happened?" Sendoh asked.

"They were being cheeky about my hair," Sakura said, her voice dropping dangerously.

Sendoh sighed. "Do you have to get into a fight so early in the day? It is spring break after all, and you're supposed to relax."

Sakura mumbled something inaudible, the turned her attention to the sidewalk, as though memorising all the cracks before she could step on them.

Sendoh gestured at Mitsui over Sakura's head. You go pick up Kogure-san, he mouthed. I'll stay with Sakura.

Mitsui nodded, then ran off.

Sakura didn't even notice that Mitsui had disappeared. She just stuffed her hands in her pockets and trudged on blindly.

"Has he written?" Sendoh asked softly.

"No, he hasn't!" Sakura half-shouted, stopping suddenly. She grabbed Sendoh by the collar and shook him as hard as she could. "Why hasn't he written, why hasn't he? Is he that busy, is he really that busy, I mean, how long can it take to write one stupid letter?"

"I believe it takes you about four hours," said Sendoh.

Sakura stared at Sendoh, then let him go with a sigh. She sunk down and sat on the sidewalk to bury her head in her hands.

Sendoh squatted down and patted her on the shoulder. "You know the All-Japan team have that big game with the South American All-Star today. Rukawa's probably been training for that, and with all the publicity he has to handle, he might not have had time to write."

Sakura raised her head slowly, then made vicious strangling motions in the air. "One stupid letter, is that too much to ask? I'm going to kill him!" Her angry face suddenly dropped into an achingly sad one. "If I ever see him again. Ever."

"I'm sure—"

"One date! One lousy date in six months!" Sakura jumped to her feet, forcing Sendoh to stand up next to her quickly. She kicked a nearby lamppost, and it shuddered. "Sometimes I wonder if what he said was true…"

"Said what?"

"That he loved me," Sakura said softly. "Did he mean it, or was it just… I don't know… something else?" In her mind's eye she replayed the kiss. It had been amazing. During the weeks afterward she had been on a manic happy high, which descended into normal happy, and as the months drifted by had somehow deteriorated into… doubt.

She knew that he loved when he kissed her then. But now… now was a different question.

Sendoh draped an arm across her shoulder to half-hug her comfortingly. "He loves you, Sakura. He does."

"Then why doesn't he show it?" Sakura demanded. "Why?"

"Do you want him to leave the All-Japan?"

"No! No, of course not!" Sakura said quickly. "He deserves to be there, really he does. He's good enough… not that I'm saying I'm not good enough, because of course I am, it's just that the tensai has other things to do, right, ahem…" She sighed. "If he leaves All-Japan again I'll kill him."

"After you kill him for not writing, right?" Sendoh added cheerfully.

Sakura glared at him. "You're not helping."

"I do try, Sakura-chan," Sendoh said.

Sakura shrugged his arm off. "I'm going home." She marched on alone, head bowed sadly.

*****

All of Rukawa's letters were kept in a little wicker box under her bed, along with other various posted presents. Every now and then Sakura would take them out just to look at them, the letters especially. Not really for the words, but rather for the feel of it. Rukawa had touched and held that paper in his hands, and having that knowledge was really why she kept them.

She took a letter at random, scanned it, and sighed.

The actual letters themselves were rather… Well, to the basketball fan in her, they were devilishly interesting. There were details on the training camps, games, the All-Japan members, other basketball celebrities, et cetera. But to Sakura – the simple girl who was in love with a confusing kitsune – they were ridiculously dull.

Why don't you ever write that you miss me? she thought sadly. Why don't you ever mention about our kiss? Or that stupid date? Or whether you think about me? I guess you do think about me sometimes, since you find time to write, but you haven't been writing much lately, have you…?

The letters were so damned impersonal.

She hugged them to her chest, shutting her eyes as she envisioned Rukawa in her head. Tall, with narrow kitsune eyes that housed gorgeous sky blue eyes (freak of nature, that was), thin lips that were almost always drawn inward but could damn well kiss her senseless, broad shoulders, and well… perfect.

It was only when she opened her eyes to look at the letters again did she realise she was crying.

Sakura quickly wiped the tears away as she reached for the new sports magazine that had arrived that morning in the mail. She flipped through it quickly, trying to find something to take her mind off Rukawa, when an article caught her eye.

*****

BANG!

Kogure almost dropped his coffee cup. "What was that?!"

Sitting next to him in the apartment living area, Mitsui passed Kogure a napkin. "Sakura's headbutted the floor again."

The door to Sakura's room opened slowly. With heavy and deliberately slow stomps, the tall red-head moved out of the doorway past the living area to the kitchen area. She opened the fridge stiffly and took out a large bucket of ice-cream. Then she stomped back to the living area and dropped into a chair.

Sendoh, Mitsui and Kogure watched her carefully.

"Ah, Megane-kun, you've arrived!" Sakura said. The words, in theory, were friendly, but the way she said them with the dancing tic on her face and the vein-popping wide-eyedness spoiled the effect.

"Uh, hai, Sakura-san," said Kogure. "It's good to see you again."

Sakura nodded, then turned to Mitsui with the same large stiff eyes. "Hey, Micchy, are we still going to that bar tonight for dinner?"

"Hai…?" Mitsui said uncertainly.

Sakura's head jerked in another nod. With a jerky flourish, she flipped the lid of the ice-cream bucket open and stabbed at its chocolate innards with a spoon.

The three guys continued to stare at her. Sendoh dared a little further by asking, "Sakura, what's—"

"Nothing!" Sakura shrieked. She stuffed chocolate ice-cream into her mouth. "Nothing nothing nothing! The tensai is perfect, as always! Why do you ask silly questions, Akira-san?! Everything is happy happy! Megane-kun is here, we are all happy! Yes!"

Kogure cleared his throat, trying to calm the atmosphere. "Hey, that game should have started by now, if we watch now we can see it live. Do you have satellite?"

"Yeah, sure," said Mitsui, who was still watching Sakura carefully in case she made any sudden movements. He reached out for the remote and switched on the tv.

Just in time to catch the first five minutes of the All-Japan vs South American All-Star game.

Sakura's eyes popped even larger. A small dribble of chocolate escaped the right crack of her lips.

The camera focused on All-Japan 9, Rukawa Kaede, doing his thing on the court. He jumped to make a block against one his opponents. The commentator was saying, "Would you look at that! All-Japan's newest member, hotshot Rukawa Kaede does a spectacular block against the South American super power forward Enrique Fernandez! I tell you, this kid has been sizzling since his debut just a few months ago – you keep your eye on him, all you basketball fans, because he's on his way up and up!"

Sakura swallowed the last of the ice-cream, then kneeled down on the floor and slammed her forehead against it again. Kogure, Sendoh and Mitsui clasped the armrests of their chairs to counter the tremor that passed through the apartment floor and various pieces of furniture.

After a while, Sakura raised her head. Her lips moved outward into what could be considered a smile. "Why don't we go to the bar now?"

"It's 2 in the afternoon," said Mitsui.

"It's all right I'll go for a walk now!" Sakura said, jumping to her feet quickly. "I'll see all of you at place at 9. It's 9, right? Right! Okay, I'll go for a walk now, and see you guys later! Okay? Hai! Hai, okay I go now!"

The door slammed shut.

Kogure was the first to speak. "Anyone care to recap?"

Sendoh got up and went to her room. After a while he came out, holding the magazine. He dropped it on the table and pointed.

Kogure adjusted his spectacles to read. "Oh, a gossip column. About… Rukawa?!" He took the magazine quickly to read it more closely as

Mitsui peered eagerly over his shoulder. "Hmm hmm… Rukawa and Tamaki? Tamaki as in Blue-Streak Tamaki the singer?"

Sendoh sat down and interlocked his fingers. "Hm…"

"Rukawa would never…" Mitsui trailed off.

"He wouldn't," Sendoh said firmly. "But apparently Sakura believes that he could, and did."

"Should we go after her?" Kogure asked.

"Let her cool down a bit," Sendoh said. "Then afterward when we meet up for dinner, maybe we can talk some sense to her."

Kogure adjusted his spectacles calmly, a little smile twitching across his lips. "Hey, that reminds me, there's something else you'll find very interesting…"