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Chapter Two
So, You Really Want to Play a Game?
Karou
This was even worse than the day after Tamaki and Haruhi got together. On the second thought, no, it wasn't. This day and that day felt just the same, but they were both unbearable to the younger Hitachiin twin, who felt the brunt of the curse.
Yawning, Karou quickly ran down the stairs, already in his school uniform. It was earlier than what he was used to, but for some reason, he didn't really care about waking up an hour before the expected time. Well, maybe it was because of Hikaru's mood, which any sane person would avoid.
The reason why he was fuming was because of that Rin girl. Karou knew it would feel a lot easier to pin everything on her for the whole thing, but that would be unfair to himself and Hikaru. His brother's attitude these days was also to blame, but perhaps it was also Karou's fault. He should've stepped in before that had happened. But he knew there was nothing he could do about it now. As he entered the dining room and sat down on the nearest chair to eat some breakfast, he recalled the events that happened after Rin had left.
He remembered Hikaru standing for a few seconds, still staring at the door. After Kyoya had put on his trademark 'I'll-Make-Your-Life-Miserable-If-You-Don't-Obey' smile, Hikaru had shrugged it off and sat back on the couch, entertaining the next batch of fangirls. But as the two pretended to flirt and looked in each other's eyes for the next few hours, Karou instantly knew the minute he saw Hikaru's topaz-colored eyes that he did not just shrug it off. Instead, they resembled raging yellow firecrackers bursting on New Year's. Thankfully, the customers didn't seem to notice.
After the last giggling girl had exited the room, Kyoya had immediately opened his notebook. "Rin Gota," he had read, clearing his throat as he did so. "Age, fifteen. A scholarship student who originally came from Chiyoko High, but managed to get the second-highest score of all the applicants in the entrance exam. Before she transferred, she was the highest scorer in almost all of the tests last year in her school. Her mother apparently left when she was six, and her father's occupation is currently a worker in a construction company. Rin has a fiery temper, and apparently is easily agitated when challenged with competition. Likes are: studying, ramen, indie and classical music. Her dislikes range in many different varieties, but I can easily assure you that she hates spicy food and losing. Works in two places, a chef in a cosplay restaurant and in a grocery."
"Oh!" Honey exclaimed. "She must be really smart!"
"That is obvious enough." Kyoya shut his notebook with a bang. "By the way, I suggest that the Host Club doesn't interfere with her affairs anymore. I think that she has learned her lesson, and she would be a fool to come again."
"So that's it?" Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
"Hikaru…" Karou began.
"There would be nothing to gain from attacking her, aside from your personal satisfaction," Kyoya said flatly. "If you wish to seek revenge—although I find this quite humorous—go ahead."
"You should probably leave her alone," Haruhi murmured. "I don't think that it's a big deal."
Hikaru blinked. Then, a ghost of a smirk flitted over his lips. "Whatever."
Karou knew that statement didn't mean anything when he said it. This was proven when they headed back home in the limo, and when Hikaru asked innocently, "Where did you put the superglue again?"
He groaned in response.
"Come on," Hikaru persisted. "It's also another chance to fool somebody again. We haven't done it for a long time, so it's a good opportunity to renew our skills—"
"You know, Ha—Kyoya's probably right," Karou said, catching himself just in time before uttering Haruhi's name. "It's not a big deal."
Besides, I know why you're doing this, were the words he wanted to say. You're doing it because you're still angry at Haruhi. You still don't want to let go, even if you know and tell yourself that she never liked you that way in the first place. But Rin isn't the right person to take it out on. She's . . . well, kind of stuck-up. Selfish. Uncaring, almost. Like you. But still, whenever he tried to say it, he froze.
Hikaru plowed on, ignoring Karou's obvious hesitation. "Not a big deal? You wouldn't have said this before."
You can be so thickheaded sometimes. "That was before," Karou pointed out.
Hikaru shrugged nonchalantly as he turned to the window, his back against Karou. "There's always a now," he countered. "Besides, she's really annoying."
"I don't think she's annoying. Just really thickheaded."
"Has that ever stopped us from teasing Tono?" There was an edge of irony in his bitter tone.
He did have a valid point there. Nothing stopped them from teasing Tamaki.
"It's in our bathroom," Karou said wearily. "Third drawer, near the basin."
If this was the only way to make Hikaru stop the whole 'Destroy Gota' operation, he figured that it would be better to side with him in the process. With him there, at least he could stop Hikaru from asking a sniper to fire three bullets at Rin's head. Hopefully, the worst thing that could happen was Rin having her heart broken. Okay. Maybe that wasn't a good thing either. At least it was better than the other scenario. If things went the right way, maybe a few tricks with her would set Hikaru back in his normal mood. Besides, from what he had seen from Rin, she didn't seem like the type who would fall in love with any of the hosts, let alone a guy who had pissed her off.
As he took a bite of a croissant, he heard footsteps enter the room. "Oh," Hikaru said, slumping down on the seat next to Karou. "You're already up."
"Morning," Karou swallowed. "You too?"
"Just woke up," Hikaru said. "But I'm preparing for the operation today." He smirked. "It's been a long time. What has it been, three weeks?"
"Two and a half," Karou corrected. "You forgot the time when we threw Tamaki's shoes into the trash can."
"Right."
"So, what's your plan?" he asked curiously. Hikaru had never given him the details of the prank they were playing today. When they had entered the house, Hikaru stopped talking. Karou assumed that it was the best to do the same, so the entire night had been spent in silence. It had almost reminded him of the days before the Host Club, when they were bored of the whole world.
His brother simpered in reply. "You'll find out later," he said. "I'll tell you what to do later."
"Eh, come on! At least give me a hint."
"Super glue."
"That's it? And I'm your brother…"
"It's only a secret now. You're going to find out later."
But it was the first time that one of them had a secret and refused to tell the other. That fact only made Karou queasier, but he tried to jovially grin back.
Rin
Her footsteps almost made no sound as she quietly put one leg over the window. Well, if she had it her way, they would make no sound at all. She couldn't risk anything by waking Him up, and if He woke up when she was leaving, she was going to be late. It wasn't worth it to be held up and against her will.
The wind fluttered in small waves, casting a cool breeze. Even that couldn't take away the taste of alcohol and tobacco printed on her lips as she hung her mouth open for a few moments, hoping to get rid of the nasty blend. However, it wouldn't budge. She knew that it was better to buy mint or something spicy from the supermarket . . . but the funds for this month were running out. Rin was already running out of money thanks to the vodka He bought a few weeks ago, so she had to save up. Maybe she could work a couple more hours at Sweet? Or maybe He would get mad at her for being late again . . .
Trying to hide her brief lapse of fear, she blinked rapidly as she walked towards the bus station. Once she got farther away from the dingy apartments, she couldn't help but to let out a sigh of relief. At least that part of the day was over. Rin could worry about Him again when she went back home. She turned right, trying not to notice that she was still walking as fast as she could. I'll just try to look for something from Dai's place, she thought. He'll probably understand.
A few minutes later, she was at the bus stop, her foot tapping impatiently. Just when she was debating whether to ask a ride from Dai or one of the members in his gang, the bus arrived, a trail of acrid smoke trailing obediently behind it. Wrinkling her nose, she stepped on the bus, and chose a seat near the front.
While waiting for her stop, she thought of her encounter with the Host Club yesterday. Rin didn't think that she had to worry about the other members. They didn't seem so bad—not even Hikaru, the boy who had gotten pretty annoyed at her because of her words didn't seem like a threat in her eyes. He was probably just some stuck-up rich kid. As for Glasses . . . he was the real deal. Although she had faked her nonchalant attitude yesterday, she did know the Ootorii name. When Clara would hang out in the employee's room to spy on the workers in the grocery store Rin worked in, she would always comment on how the Ootorii's were making life harder, since they were buying out almost all the other groceries in Japan.
"It's not only groceries, they're also in the medical field and the police system," she would complain, her clear American accent echoing inside the almost-empty staff room. "Pretty soon, they'll own the world! My Father does not approve of this."
She thought Clara was a paranoid, snobbish social-climber. But she did have some sort of reputation in their world. She made a vow to ask Clara later on what else the Ootorii's did. She wouldn't want to stay in any place Kyoya had influence on. He'd probably . . . what did rich kids do with their rivals anyways? Exchanged brags on how powerful their parents were? Asked how many sport cars each one had?
Well, my dad is the number one jerk in my head, but in reality he's a scumbag who'll never get anywhere. As for sport cars, eh, who needs it? You snobs need to walk! It's for free, and it does this great thing! It helps you lose calories! I know right, that's so cool!
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice she was nearing her stop. Letting out a muffled curse, she quickly dashed out of the bus the moment the doors opened. As she leaped off the vehicle, her bag bumped against her waist, throwing her off-balance. Rin yelped as she fell right on the rough pavement, landing on her side. Just as that happened, the doors of the bus closed, and it sped off, sending the smoke right into her face.
Rin coughed madly. That was just embarrassing, she thought, doing her best to bring herself up on her knees, glaring at the fading form of the bus angrily. Obviously, this wasn't going to be her day. She really hated Fridays. They always made her feel the need to run through time, and set the pace of life to Saturday instead.
Well, she wasn't going to let that bring her down. Making sure there was nothing black on her face, Rin then stood up, dusting off rogue patches of ash on her pants. Today, she was going to live through a day with a bunch of rich bastards, learn a couple of things at school, ask Clara, the moronic 'Highness' who the hell the Ootorii's were, and try stay under the radar from Him when she went home.
Lovely.
She tried to forget about the whole incident as she walked to the school. As she got closer to it, she started to realize how absurd the color was with the bright pink; like a design of a dollhouse made for a little rich girl. She scoffed at the irony, and put on the usual bored, cold face that was almost a part of her. It always did its job: to keep others away.
Sure enough, it did its work. As she headed towards the classroom, people seemed to read her flint-filled eyes and gave her a small berth. She didn't want to attract much attention, but the more people learned to keep out of her way, the better. It would save a lot of trouble.
Rin entered the classroom and sat at her usual desk. It was almost time to start the class, and most of the students were already there, chatting and gossiping about the latest rumors. Knowing that it was too late to try to review her notes, Rin watched a group of girls. Their faces were bright and naïve, talking with their friends about makeup. She didn't even bother to fake that she had no idea what they were talking about with all the names they uttered. Finally, after a friendly argument about which brand was better, they moved on to a different topic that was still useless: their favorite brands of shoes. Rin had no idea whether to groan or to be envious that they could afford things like that.
"Oh, look. It's the commoner." Suddenly, Hikaru plopped down behind her, putting his things on the ground. He grinned lazily. "You're watching other people talk? It's quite pathetic."
His twin Karou sat on the seat next to him. He looked at Rin with an expression she couldn't read—apologetic perhaps? Guilt? Sarcasm? Nothing? Wow. He was definitely a different case from his twin.
Rin resisted the urge to snap back a retort that would probably tell him that he was the one that was pathetic, wasting his time talking with her. Instead, she gritted her teeth together, and looked straight ahead. Rin muttered a curse under her breath, too soft for him to hear.
The stubborn old mule wouldn't give up. "You're friendless, aren't you? I never even noticed you until yesterday. I must admit though, your personality does pop out from a crowd. But still, other girls don't like you, do they?"
His words: fifty percent true. She didn't get along with most people, that was certain, but somehow, nice girls always seemed to flock to her. Maybe it was because they pitied her, or maybe it was because they were curious about her dry personality, but she welcomed it with half-open arms. Just because she kept her distance, it didn't mean that she wanted to be friendless. Early on in life, she had realized that nice people were one of the best type of friends—they didn't pry too much, didn't get upset if you were in a funk, nor did they talk about you behind your back. Personally, Rin liked it when a person was nice and quiet. If they rarely talked, there was a lesser chance of them hurting you in the end. The only exception to this rule was one of her old friends in school, Yuki, who was a friendly, outgoing brown-haired guy. He wasn't so bad . . . most of the time.
"Just leave me alone, okay?" Rin asked, trying to keep the anger out of her voice. Putting a bright smile on her face, she turned back. She wanted to keep things as diplomatic as possible; if she offended this guy, she had a chance of losing her scholarship. "Maybe what I did was a little rude, so I'm sorry."
Hikaru scoffed. "And you think I would give up the game just like that?"
"Well, I don't remember agreeing that there was a game in the first place."
He leaned closer, too close for comfort, now that she thought of it. "Game on."
The brunette looked at him in utter contempt. "What the hell do you want then?"
Before Hikaru could reply, the teacher came in the door. Not wanting to get caught, Rin abruptly swerved her head away from the twins' direction. She could hear their barely muffled snickers echoing behind her. Her hands started to clench together.
Suddenly, another person stepped into the room. Murmuring a hasty apology to the sensei, Haruhi went over to her seat. She set herself beside Karou.
"What held you up?" Rin heard Karou (or maybe Hikaru? She still wasn't a hundred percent sure which was which when she couldn't see their faces) ask. "You're normally earlier than us."
"I overslept," Haruhi whispered, as the teacher began his lecture. "I was studying late last night and Dad left early, so it was quiet." She sighed. "Thank God it's almost the weekend."
Well, Karou and Haruhi seemed normal. It was only Hikaru that was causing all this trouble. She didn't think that he would settle down if she talked, which was proven earlier. Rin wasn't going to beg him to stop either. She still had some pride within her, especially when it came to rich, noses-held-in-air-too-much kind of guys. Which meant that there was no other way to deal with him than to teach him a lesson.
For the first time in months, Rin grinned. Pretending to take down notes, she jotted down ideas in her notebook. Her and her friends were notorious for this kind of thing. Now, what would it be this time . . . Operation Chimera, or Plan A?
Plan A was so, so much fun.
Karou
[Taken from the passed notes of Operative H and Operative K. Distributed during Japanese class. Highly classified - show at your own risk.]
So, at lunch, I wanted you to distract her.
Huh? Who?
Rin Gota! Who else?
Well, there are other people that you would've wanted be to distract… :D
… :/ but seriously…
Why would I do it if you won't even tell me what's going on?
Surprises are a lot better.
Not for me.
Well, for me anyways. If you won't do it, I'll ask Honey-senpai or Mori-senpai.
They wouldn't do it if they knew what you were up to.
…please?
Fine. *sigh* As your younger brother, I'll do it.
;) Lol, sensei's noticing us. Eat the message or something so he won't notice.
Rin
If she wanted to be a referee in one of those American wrestling shows, this would've been the time she would say, "Let's get ready to rumble!" Unfortunately, since Rin had no interest in watching men trying to topple each other over, she didn't say it aloud.
Her mind was already prepared for the launch against the two Hitachiin twins. Rin had found a way to make it look like she hadn't done it, and a way to pull it off in a place like this. Unfortunately, she didn't have the items yet. But still, an idea was better than none, especially with the details written down in her black notebook when the sensei gave them a couple of extra minutes for their own use.
Feeling relaxed, Rin sat herself at an empty table. It was lunchtime, and as the students came in and out of the cafeteria; the smell of mouth-watering dishes made her want to scream and lunge for the food as they dumped their half-eaten remains into the trash can. Sheesh. She would've killed somebody to have a taste of the duck that smelled like toasted honey and fresh lemons.
Rin glared almost angrily at the small container of instant ramen in her hands. "Isn't this school supposed to give you free lunch or something?" she demanded, still staring at her home-packed lunch. "You still have to pay?"
"You know," an amused voice said behind her, "I don't think that it's a good thing to talk to food."
Rin raised an eyebrow. "Oh," she replied dismissively, not bothering to look back "You."
"Which one?" Karou asked. She could almost hear the smirk in his voice as he sat himself across from her.
"Karou," Rin answered, half-guessing. "Your voice is lighter than your brother's."
"You know, you're the second person to figure that out."
"Hooray." Her voice dripped with thinly veiled sarcasm. Rin had nothing against him, but somehow, it felt kind of weird that Hikaru wasn't with him. So that's exactly why she asked: "Where's that jerk of a brother of yours?"
Karou's shoulders stiffened at the mention of the word 'jerk'. "Actually," he began, "he's not so bad once you get to know him—"
She coughed.
"Okay, maybe half of the time we are jerks," Karou amended.
"Knew it." Rin smirked.
For a brief moment, they almost seemed like friends. Rin caught herself enjoying the whole exchange, which was really weird, since she didn't expect to hate Karou, yet she didn't expect to become buddies with him either. She would've thought that the same thing went down with him.
It was rather suspicious. "What are you doing here?" she snapped, tone suddenly reverting to her natural, harsh one. "Aren't you supposed to be eating lunch or flirting with him anyways?"
He shrugged. "Well, maybe I decided not to eat lunch. Maybe I decided not to eat with him. That's normal, isn't it?"
Drat. He did have a point there. What was wrong with her? She wasn't this judgmental before. "I have all rights to be paranoid."
"And why is that?"
Rin didn't say anything. Instead, she gestured to the mob of girls behind them who seemed like they were going to explode anytime with a flick of her head. If this was an anime, fire would be raging in the corner. It was rather amusing yet at the same time disconcerting that she was attracting this much attention talking to a guy.
"Oh." The corner of Karou's mouth twitched upwards, as if he was going to burst in to a fit of laughter in any second. "That."
She chuckled. "I don't get it why the Host Club is so popular in the first place. So aside from talking to them . . . what else do you do?"
"I think that's the main point of the whole club."
"You aren't serious. Right?"
"Well, it depends who you ask. It was all Tamaki and Kyoya's idea. If you really want to know, ask them why this idea's so popular."
Rin shuddered. "No way am I touching either of the two without a ten-foot pole."
"Are you scared?" Karou teased.
She rolled her eyes, faking an icy wall. "Not really. But since all of you in the club seem like a bunch of idiots, I don't think that I want to risk getting infected."
"That's us. The Idiot Club—a place where we manage to gain a lot of customers. I wonder how we do that . . . ?"
"So you are capable of sarcasm," Rin noted. "So you are somewhat like your brother."
"What was your first clue?" She couldn't tell if he was serious or not.
"Technically, your comments have the same subtext, except that you say it nicely and Hikaru comes off as a grade-A asshole—pardon my language." Deciding that it would be better to stop her ramen from going colder than it already was, she took a small bite.
"So . . . 'grade-A asshole'. That's what you think of me."
"Hey, Hikaru," Karou said. Again, there was no detecting whether he was excited or disappointed in his tone. Jeez, this guy was pretty weird.
A bit surprised, Rin turned back to see Hikaru beside Karou, somehow looking casual with the way he leaned himself against the chair. The brunette's mind raced quickly. I knew it. They were planning something. But what was it? Could Karou be…?
"That's my first nickname. I have a whole bunch of them under my sleeve," Rin continued calmly, the sarcasm as clear as day. "There's 'Idiot', 'Rich Bastard', 'Kid-Who-Relies-On-Parent's-Cash-To-Get-Here'—"
"We're both fifth and fourth in the whole batch," Hikaru interrupted. "What were you?"
"Number one," Rin retorted. Beat that.
The redhead shrugged. "Big deal. Ouran's a lot harder than stupid public school education. How do you think you're going to get number one this time?"
"Easy: because I bother to study."
"Bothering won't help you this time." Hikaru smirked.
"You're really a jerk, you know?" Rin hissed. "I bet that's why you don't even have a girlfriend."
"Um, we should be going now…" Karou began, but it was too late. Hikaru had already shot back, "I don't see you having a boyfriend either."
"That's because I don't bother having one!"
"This is probably the moment where I should be saying that we're even, but then again there's no way that I would reach to your level."
Rin grinned. "You mean that I'm higher than you?"
"I think I mean the other way around," Hikaru replied darkly.
"Instead of insulting me, why don't you just leave me alone?" Rin snapped. "I don't want to be seen talking with someone like you."
"And you said that I'm the snob." Hikaru smiled cockily as he stood up and nodded at Karou. "Come on. Let's go. There's no way that she'll ever amount to anything in this place."
Rin bristled, but willed herself to keep calm. There was no need to lash out when she was arguing with a rich bastard. She caught Karou's apologetic stare, but she averted her gaze. Not bothering to say goodbye, she took a bite of her ice-cold ramen. It wasn't the way she liked it, but it was better than nothing.
As she ate, her head was filled with murderous thoughts. Why did Hikaru have to ruin everything? It wasn't fair! If it weren't for him, she might've been able to enjoy this school, however so slightly. She might've been able to befriend Karou or somebody else, but he always seemed to jump into every situation, which was more than annoying in her book, even if they had only met for a couple of minutes. Moments like these were rare for her.
Why am I worrying about him in the first place? Rin tried to figure out the reason. When her mind tried to delve into the idea, all she got was a blank mist. Nada, zilch—nothing. She frowned. This was a bit strange. So she was fighting and wasting her time with a senseless, idiotic, rich jerk and she had no reason to do it?
He was really going to pay.
Although Rin wasn't a fan of Math, it wasn't like she was prepared to fall asleep. Resisting a yawn that threatened to escape her lips, she tried her best to stay awake. She was pretty tired, thanks to the late hour she had finally fallen asleep at.
The teacher looked up from his equations written on the blackboard to the sea of half-listening students. "Please open your books to page fifty-three," the teacher said. Rin liked him. He wasn't overly strict like the ones in her old school, and he made Advanced Math somewhat bearable.
Forcing herself to pull the book out of her bag, Rin put it on the desk. She opened the book.
The only problem? The book wouldn't open.
This was strange. Rin raised an eyebrow as she tried to pry the book open with one hand. Nothing. It was as if something had stuck all the pages together. Getting frustrated, she put one hand at the back of the book and made another attempt to open it with all the strength she had. It still wouldn't budge. Rin gritted her teeth together.
"Gota-san, are you alright?" the teacher asked.
"Um, yeah," Rin muttered, feeling the weight of all her classmate's eyes on her. Each of their books was wide open, on the exact same page. "It's just that my book won't open . . ."
He frowned. "Really?"
A blush rose to her face. If there was an embarrassment meter in some unknown dimension, the amount she was feeling now would probably make it burst. "Yeah." From the corner of her eye, she caught four or five students chuckling.
One of them was Hikaru Hitachiin.
He's behind this, Rin thought angrily as the sensei strode over to her spot to check the problem out. I knew it! He was probably asking Karou to talk to me or something like that so he would do the thing he did to the books while I was distracted. Baka! This time, I am REALLY going to kill him! This is the worst time ever!
Lips pressed against her own. The taste that refused to get off her tongue. The way He acted like He knew everything about her. Like He was her god, and she was just another pawn. He pressed further, muttering drunken words that she didn't want to hear, hands trailing down her—
It was too hot. So unbearably hot and agonizing. Scream, scream! Get out of there—no—don't show weakness. It'll hurt even more. She knew the pain would increase if she resisted, so she didn't. Didn't do anything. For now.
But she couldn't do anything, could she?
No, this wasn't the worst time ever. Caught off-guard for a second, there was some fear in her eyes as bright as day. Rin wanted to just melt away thinking of that. She then remembered that she wasn't alone, so she forced herself to turn back to her Ice Queen mode, winter forever frozen in her brown discs.
The sensei picked up the book and tried to open it. Just like what happened to Rin, nothing happened. "Hm . . . this is strange . . ." He brought the book closer to his nose and sniffed it. "Did you put anything inside?"
"No," Rin replied.
The teacher turned to the rest of the students. "Either she's lying, or one of you students did it. I don't think that it's the first one. Class, if you know anything about who did this, please stand up and share with us what you know. "
Silence. Nobody stood. Rin felt like screaming and wringing Hikaru's neck.
He sighed. "If nobody stands up, I'll have to tell this to the chairman."
Nothing. The class simply stared at him, looking as confused as ever. Even that redhead jerk looked bewildered, although she doubted that his actions were legitimate.
"You could use the extra books by the closet." The sensei sighed again. "I'm so sorry that this happened."
"No problem. It's okay," Rin lied. She should earn a medal for this.
As she padded over to the closet to collect the books, her mind was reeling from Hikaru's actions. Was he really that mad at her that he'd glue all the pages of her book together? Who knew with people like them?
Not only was that issue worrying her, she was also concerned about her studies. How was she supposed to review nightly when she had no books to begin with? She knew that these books were only to be leant to her during school hours. There was no way she would be able to cram for the quizzes and oral tests during recess and lunch. Her study methods were extreme to begin with.
Her grip harder on the books than ever, she sat back at her desk, not bothering to disguise the fury that was burning in her eyes. Instead of having one big problem, I have other things to solve? I. Hate. This. Place.
When the teacher wasn't looking, immediately, she ripped out a piece from her notebook. She scribbled down two words, and wordlessly passed it on to Hikaru without looking back.
She wouldn't need to look back to know that the cocky redhead smirked and chuckled when he read the two words on the paper that covered the entire piece.
Game on.
Plan A without a doubt. There would be no qualms in her head as she launched the next move on Hikaru Hitachiin: grade-A asshole.
