"One for Gamble! Two for the enjoyment! Three for…"
School Rumble is not owned by me...nor are the songs by Janne Da Arc, by Kitade Nana, and from Guilty Gear.
My fanfic! And my apologies…
#19 BLACK JACK
One Saturday afternoon, Tenma calls Eri, Mikoto, and Akira for a study session. Obviously, that would put Keiichi into a bad situation and make his test for his peers useless. However, even Akira, Eri, and Mikoto have no knowledge of this. The other problem is that Keiichi has no knowledge of this until…
"Wow! You're really smart, Eri-chan!" Tenma praises Eri.
"It's nothing!" Eri replies, "Just ask me for help in any non-Japanese questions!"
"Right…'cause we all that's your weakness!" Mikoto chuckles.
"Shut it!" Eri snaps back.
"Don't take a joke so seriously!" Mikoto continues laughing.
"That's just the way Sawachika-san is…" Akira explains.
"I guess that's true!" Mikoto continues laughing.
"Geez…" was all that Eri could retort, before Tenma started giggling too. "Tenma! Not you too!"
"Sorry! I can't help it! It's really funny!" Tenma continues giggling.
At that moment, a knock is heard coming from Tenma's door. That causes the group of girls to look to the door. The door opens, and the one knocking the door is revealed— Keiichi.
Keiichi opens the door, "Tenma, have you seen— WHAT THE HE—"
"Wa? Yamazaki, what are you doing here?" Mikoto stops laughing.
"…In very casual clothes?" Eri adds after looking at Keiichi's attire— a white sleeveless shirt and blue shorts.
"Uh…" Keiichi, once again, is speechless.
"Well?" Eri impatiently asks.
"Guys," Tenma draws everyone's attention, "I have a very good reason for this!"
Keiichi reads Tenma's mind and slaps his forehead: "I don't know what to say!!!"
"So, what is your explanation?" Akira asks.
"Uh…" Tenma can't make her words leave her mouth, "Kei-kun is…uh…"
"Idiot sister of mine!" Keiichi decides to think of an excuse of his own, "I'll be staying here for a while, since my apartment has been infested with ants."
"Ants?" Mikoto repeats, just to make sure she heard correctly.
"Why would ants be that big of a problem?" Eri asks Keiichi.
"What's wrong with you?" Keiichi retorts, "They bite and eat wood! Plus, they excrete poisonous gases."
"Ants eat wood?" Tenma asks Keiichi.
"Tenma, of course, they do!" Keiichi replies in an un-amused tone.
"Don't you mean termites?" Eri tries to see, if Keiichi is using the wrong word again.
"Huh? White ants? Okay, I'll ask: what does 'ari' mean in English?" Keiichi asks Eri.
"That means 'ant', you idiot!" Eri teases Keiichi.
"Huh?! Then what is 'termite' in Japanese?" Keiichi feels slightly embarrassed.
"'Shiroari'— it literally means white ant," Eri explains.
"My mistake…" Keiichi sighs.
"So, your apartment is infested with termites?" Eri asks.
"Yep," Keiichi answers.
"How long will you have to stay here?" Mikoto asks.
"Huh? For few more days…probably," Keiichi answers.
"'Probably'?" Eri asks.
"The exterminators haven't given me a call yet, so I'm sure they're still…uh…destroying the termites," Keiichi explains.
"And how long have you been staying here?" Eri asks.
"Three days," Keiichi answers but is beginning to feel annoyed since, he's being quizzed.
"You make yourself at home really fast!" Mikoto comments.
"Huh?" Keiichi doesn't understand.
"She said that you're quick to make yourself at home," Eri explains.
"Okay…" Keiichi replies and makes a quick observation of what the group has been doing, "So, are you done studying?"
"Yeah!" Tenma exclaims.
"Tenma needed the most help, though!" Eri giggles.
"Eri-chan!" Tenma pouts.
"Great…" Keiichi takes a deck of cards from hammerspace and places it on the table, "While you're all here, let's play a little game!"
Eri looks at Keiichi suspiciously, "We had better not be playing strip poker!"
Keiichi gives Eri an un-amused stare, "Okay, I'll bite: why did you ask that?"
Eri leers at Keiichi, "Since I know that you're a pervert, like all the other guys in class!"
"What the heck is wrong with you?" Keiichi asks in a serious tone and leers back.
"Nothing…" Eri tries to leer even harder and leans closer to Keiichi.
Keiichi does the same until both of them try to push each other away by using their foreheads, "We'll talk about this on Friday, okay?"
While that's happening, Tenma and the others pack up their books and clear the table for whatever game Keiichi is planning for them to play.
After a while, Tenma asks spontaneously, "What's strip poker?"
"I think I should know, too…" even Mikoto doesn't know.
Keiichi feels a little shocked from having heard that and slips off Eri forehead, causing him to fall on the table, "Wha—"
Eri also falls, but on Keiichi, "Geez…"
Akira begins to explain, "It works the same way as draw poker, but, instead of the loser losing chips, he must have one article of clothing re—"
The shades of his sunglasses fall over his eyes, as Keiichi quickly covers Akira's mouth to stop her from continuing, "Akira, I'll explain it to Tenma and you explain it to Mikoto…later…not now…" Keiichi removes his hand from her mouth and waits for a response from Akira.
"Understood," Akira just states.
"Sankyu…" Keiichi sighs.
"What's the problem about it, Yamazaki?" curious, Mikoto asks Keiichi, "Is it a bad game or something?"
"It's something played only within the confines of one's home, and I rather we not play that!" Keiichi explains.
"And what's 'confines'?" Tenma asks.
"It means 'inside'." Akira answers Tenma.
"Okay!…Kei-kun, so what game are we gonna play?" a curious Tenma asks.
"It's probably worse than strip poker…" Eri replies to Tenma.
Keiichi gets slightly annoyed from Eri's comment. After a not-so-brief moment of silence, he makes a dark and sinister grin, "Blackjack!"
"Okay!" Tenma responds, "That was the game with the full house and straight toilet, right?"
"That was an icebreaker!" Keiichi slaps his forehead, "And that game is called poker…and it's straight flush, not—"
"Okay, then, what's blackjack?" Tenma asks.
"Akira, please explain it to her," Keiichi massages his temples, due to his forming headache that Tenma is giving him.
After the explanation, Akira is chosen to be the dealer, and coins are used as chips. Once the game starts, Keiichi snickers, causing Eri and Mikoto to feel uneasy. Or, in Mikoto's case, more uneasy, since she still remembers Keiichi's confession to her.
Around the middle of the tournament, Yakumo gives her older siblings and their friends refreshments. Keiichi had milk tea, and the others had barley tea.
"Decision?" Akira draws a card, before asking Eri for an order, "Four."
"A six? Why did you get milk tea?" Eri gets a little jealous of what Keiichi has, "Hit me."
Akira places the drawn card over Eri's first card, "Four. Total ten."
Eri groans, "Argh!"
Akira draws a card and asks Keiichi for an order, "Decision? Ace."
"Yakumo is used to it. Since I started staying here, she knows that like milk tea," Keiichi replies, "I have a King. So, hit me!"
Akira places the drawn card over Keiichi's first card, "Ace. Total twenty-one. Blackjack."
Eri is in shock, "NO WAY!"
Keiichi snickers, "Card counting isn't my only way of winning this game!"
Near the end of the tournament, Keiichi and Eri have been able to win most of the time. Akira is in second, and Mikoto is at a close third, while Tenma is failing a little too easily.
At one point, Keiichi begins singing to himself, as the game progresses, "Kimi to atta BATTARI/ koroshimonku BACCHIRI/ yoku kimatta HATTARI/ ima sugu koi ni ochite kure/ Kimi to futari jikkuri hitome kakure shittori/ hadaka ni nari mattari kimi no subete wo misete kure/ KISU shita dake sorekkiri karuku FURArete GAKKARI/ kuyashisa dake ga tappuri/ koko de hiku wake ni wa ikanai koi mo tsuneni GYANBURU/ make wo shiranai Black Jack/ mada mada mada KUURU FEISU/ itsumo ore wa muteki no Joker!/ KIREI na onna wa iranai KEBAI JUERU mo tsumaranai."
That last line made Eri and Mikoto get slightly annoyed at Keiichi. ("Kirei na onna wa iranai" means "A beautiful girl isn't around") Tenma, however, didn't mind, and Akira doesn't care.
"Mayaku na SURIRU ga hoshii no sa ashita no koto wa/ Kono KOIN ni yudaneru/ One for GYANBURU! Two for the goraku!/ Three for sex! Last, my honey?"
That last part made Eri, who was taking a drink of barley tea at that moment, blow out a mouthful of it to the person sitting across her, who just happens to be Tenma.
"Eri-chan! What was that for?!" Tenma cries.
"One for GYANBURU! Two for the goraku!/ Three for sex! Last, my honey?" Keiichi continues singing before he notices that his sister is soaking wet and unfortunately wearing a white top.
"Sawachika, why did you do that!?!" Mikoto barks.
"It wasn't intentional!" Eri states in her defense then points to Keiichi, "It's because Keiichi over here sang that stupid song of his!"
"What's wrong with the song 'Black Jack'?" Keiichi retorts to Eri then looks at Tenma, "Maybe you should change or something."
Tenma replies, "I think I'll be fine until after the game."
"That's not a suggestion," Keiichi starts to explain and tries to avoid looking at Tenma, although no one could tell, since he had his sunglasses on, "Have you forgotten what kind of blouse you're wearing right now?"
Tenma looks at her top, which is now slightly transparent, "WHAAA!!! I have to change now!" Tenma begins looking for a towel and another top.
"Sawachika, this is all your fault!" Mikoto scolds Eri.
"My fault? It's Keiichi's fault!" Eri points at Keiichi again, who is turned at the opposite direction of where Tenma, who is changing at the moment, is.
"I still don't see how it's my fault!" Keiichi retorts.
"Either way, this game is over," Akira calls the end of the tournament, "Keiichi wins."
"No way!" Eri scowls.
#20 KASENAI TSUMI
One day during the afternoon break, Keiichi and Kenji are discussing about the next plan while eating lunch.
"I thought of an idea last week," Keiichi says before taking a slurp of yakisoba.
"To get me and Tenma-chan together?" Harima talks with his mouth full of curry rice.
"Of course," Keiichi sighs, "Here's the plan…" Keiichi stops and starts thinking.
"What's the plan?" Kenji asks.
"Nevermind," Keiichi replies, "I want the plan to go perfectly, so I can't let you know."
"WHAT?!" Kenji yells and holds a fist in front of Keiichi's face, "Are you playing me for a fool?!"
"Of course not," Keiichi sighs, somehow making the shades of his sunglasses fall before his eyes, "I just think the plan would work out better if you didn't know!"
"How can it work, if you don't tell me?!" Kenji barks.
"Just wait for a few days," Keiichi tries to calm Kenji down.
"This had better be a good idea…" Kenji scoffs.
Later, during homeroom, Keiichi starts the plan.
"Tenma, have you heard about that water show at the new aquarium?" Keiichi whispers to Tenma.
"Huh? Yeah, why?" Tenma asks back.
"Why don't we— you, Yakumo, and I— go get tickets and watch it on Saturday?" Keiichi suggests.
"That sounds great!" Tenma giggles.
"Great!" Keiichi sighs, "Later today, I'll get tickets for the show, okay?"
"Okay!" Tenma replies with a lovely yet childlike smile.
After Keiichi buys the tickets, he gives Tenma two tickets— one for her and the other for Yakumo. He obviously keeps one for himself. Tenma is still excited and can't wait until Saturday; Yakumo feels very thankful to Keiichi; and Keiichi has ulterior motives for the show. Before Tenma puts the tickets into her purse, she writes down her name on one ticket and Yakumo's name on the other ticket
Late that night, while Tenma is sleeping like a baby, Keiichi intrudes the sanctity of Tenma's room (even though her room wasn't even locked). His mission is to find and take Yakumo's ticket. While looking for Tenma's purse, he trips over an object hidden by the darkness and causes a loud crashing sound. Fortunately for Keiichi, Tenma doesn't wake up, since she is a heavy sleeper. Keiichi sighs and picks up what he just tripped on…her purse! With the aid of the moonlight, Keiichi searches through the purse and finds the tickets. He looks at the tickets carefully. After having done so, he takes one and returns the purse back on the floor, before leaving the room…just like a thief in the night.
During the afternoon break of the next day, Tenma is completely sad refusing to eat her lunch. Keiichi is eating with Tenma and her group and acts quite pissed. Eventually, the collection of negative feelings becomes too big that…
Mikoto asks not specifically which of the two, "Is there anything wrong?"
"I—" Tenma begins to explain.
"She lost Yakumo's ticket to the water show!" Keiichi exclaims in anger.
Tenma reacts by shrinking down on her chair.
"You two and Yakumo are going to the water show?" Eri asks.
"Now that Tenma has lost Yakumo's ticket, only two of us are going!" Keiichi scowls.
"I'm sorry, okay!" Tenma almost begins to cry.
"Yeah, yeah, I know!" Keiichi continues his act, "…but being sorry won't be enough to be forgiven!"
"Yamazaki, I think you should stop now!" Mikoto yells at the guy who confessed to her.
In response, Keiichi gives Mikoto a cold stare, since it was not her business.
"Ah," Mikoto can't think of a thing to say and wonders, if Keiichi really is a good person to be around.
"Keiichi, why don't you just give your ticket to Yakumo?" Eri suggests.
"I rather not," Keiichi coldly replies.
"Uh…look it's…"Eri, in an attempt to change the subject, points behind Keiichi, "…Hige…" Eri finds out that the person she's pointing to is none other than Kenji.
"Perfect timing, Kenji!" Keiichi grins.
Kenji sees Eri pointing at him, so he walks over to her, "You calling me, ojou?"
Eri scoffs, "Why would I call some Hige like you?!"
Kenji scoffs back and looks at Tenma, who is on the brink of crying, "Te-Tsukamoto-san, what's wrong?"
"I lost Yakumo's ticket to the water show!" Tenma's tears starts flowing down her face like a million tons of water on the Niagara Falls.
"You were going?!" surprised, Kenji asks.
"Yeah, she was supposed to go with her little sister and Yamazaki," Mikoto explains, "…but she lost Yakumo's ticket."
"Now, Keiichi's verbally abusing Tenma!" Eri yells.
"WHA—" Kenji is about to grab Keiichi by the collar, until Keiichi stands on his own.
"This is the plan. I hope he can read my cues, that oaf," Keiichi sighs, "Tenma, tell you what— I don't feel like going anymore, so I'll just give the ticket to Kenji, okay?"
"WHAT?!" Kenji screams, causing Keiichi's sunglasses to unbalance and its shades fall before Keiichi's eyes.
As he adjusts his sunglasses, Keiichi cough-talks, "Plan!"
"Kei-kun, you don't want to go now?" Tenma continues crying.
"Are you saying that you don't see your childhood friend now?!" Mikoto scolds at Keiichi but receives another cold leer, making her shut herself up.
"Whatever you say…" Keiichi replies then hands the ticket to Kenji and whispers to him, "The rest is up to you…don't mess up!"
"Are you trying to kill me with ecstasy?" Kenji whispers back.
"Ask me after class!" Keiichi leaves the room, going to no particular place, "Sometimes I wonder: 'Are the lengths that I make others go through to make my plans succeed a little too extreme?' I'll try to be a little more considerate next time…"
#21 DREAM MAKER
On Friday, before homeroom ends, it starts raining. Tenma, Mikoto, and Akira take their umbrellas and leave the school, but Eri has to stay and wait for her student. Keiichi, who is busy talking to Kenji about the date that's going to happen in the next day. Keiichi just assures Kenji that he'll do fine and all that he has to do is not mess up. Keiichi adds that he'll be there for support just in case. With that, Keiichi heads to meet her weekly date…the spoiled princess.
Eri impatiently waits for Keiichi but not out of a teacher's willingness to teach a student…it's because she doesn't have an umbrella.
Keiichi, with his gym bag in hand and an umbrella on the other, walks behind Eri and opens his umbrella.
In reaction, Eri turns to see who is kind or infatuated enough to do such a nice thing. To her dismay, it was only Keiichi.
"Eri, isn't Nakamura going to pick us up?" Keiichi asks as he takes Eri's hand and walks into the rain.
"Nakamura is doing an errand right now," Eri sighs and follows him, "We'll have to walk through this rain."
"I see…" Keiichi, still holding onto Eri's hand, replies.
The two walk through rain, clutching hands, under a blue umbrella. It seems almost romantic…so much that, if a person didn't know any better, he would say that they were going out.
More than halfway through, Eri asks Keiichi, "Can I have my hand back now?"
"Hm?" Keiichi looks at his hand and finds that he had been clutching hands with Eri the entire time. He quickly releases her hand and replies, "Sorry about that."
Eri just looks ahead.
"What is it about the rain, anyway?" Keiichi thinks, "It can represent tears; it can bind the heaven and the earth; and it can make people act…differently…more sorrowful…or even kinder…"
Keiichi reads Eri's mind: "Sometimes I wonder why Keiichi seems so hard to be kind to…yet, I can't seem to get mad at him right now…Why?"
"She's thinking the same thing I am…but I'm sure everything will change once we start the lesson…" Keiichi sighs, "The rain is quite the mystery, huh?"
"What?" Eri responds and looks to Keiichi.
"I've read before that Shakespeare believed that it would be more dramatic if a person's tears were like the raindrops from the heavens…" Keiichi explains, "According to some writers, including myself, the rain connects the heavens and the earth through sadness or joy…"
"What does that have to do with anything?" curious, Eri asks.
"I mean that those things that I heard and believed in, were confirmed now…" Keiichi explains.
Feeling a little embarrassed that he may be talking about her, Eri responds by looking away with a huff, "I don't know what you're talking about!"
"I mean, like right now, I can't bring myself to get mad at whatever you said earlier today…I even held your hand unconsciously…" Keiichi explains.
"You mean when I told you that you sucked as a writer?" Eri tries to prove him wrong.
"I still can't bring myself to get mad at you…" Keiichi sighs.
"Or when I told you that your sunglasses look dorky?" Eri tries again.
"Yep…Sometimes, I think they are, too…" Keiichi is still a little relaxed.
"Or when I told you that you suck at Japanese?" Eri tries one last time.
"It's true, after all…I'm still trying my best, though…" Keiichi replies.
"I give up!" Eri sighs in defeat.
"You know, sometimes I think that you are the most arrogant person I've met, but at the same time, you're also a kind person…" Keiichi chuckles.
"What's that suppose to mean?!" Eri overreacts, "Do I look like some cute girl you can take advantage of?! I think not!" She ends with a scoff.
Keiichi just laughs heartily.
In reaction, Eri blushes then tries to change the subject. She sees he mansion about a block or so away and points, "Keiichi, there's my house! Let's hurry! I don't want to stay in the rain any longer!"
"As you wish!" Keiichi grabs Eri's hand again, much to her surprise, and runs to her mansion.
In the end, they find themselves soaking wet from running in the rain, even though they were using an umbrella.
Eri enters her room and locks it, making sure nobody, especially Keiichi, enters while she changes.
Keiichi, however, finds the bathroom and changes into his casual clothes. "Always be prepared, huh?" Keiichi sighs, as he dries his long hair with a towel from his gym bag.
Upon entering the study, Keiichi finds Eri dressed in a long carnation-colored dress. It revealed her collar, some of her shoulder, and a little of her back. Its sleeves ended on her wrists and had some lace in the end. On its hem was lace that, upon close inspection, is patterned with cherubs.
Eri observes what Keiichi is wearing: his usual blue sunglasses, a blood-red opened jacket, revealing a white undershirt; the black fingerless gloves, which he usually wears; and blue jeans which extend a little bit past his small black leather shoes.
Keiichi takes a seat…and just as he had predicted, Eri's mood changed.
Eri gets straight to "teaching" Keiichi. Her version of teaching, by the way, was full of reviewing first grade things…which Keiichi knows… Even though Keiichi had told her that he knows all of that perfectly, she doesn't believe him and just continues.
By the end of the session, Eri continues what they had spoken about a few days earlier.
"About the strip poker thing…" Eri begins.
"Yeah, I'm curious to why you thought of that, at all…" Keiichi replies.
"Because you're a pervert!" Eri states.
"How am I a pervert?" Keiichi asks.
"All men at this age are perverts. It's a known fact everywhere!" Eri explains.
"What about Hiroyoshi? He doesn't seem like a pervert," Keiichi sites a flaw in her generalization, aside from himself.
"Hiroyoshi? Who's that?" Eri asks.
"He's in 3-C, I think…" Keiichi tries to recall, "His last name is Asou, I believe."
"Oh, Asou…Mikoto's ex," Eri remembers.
"Mikoto's…ex?" Keiichi replies, "Oh, yeah. He said a few things about his not being the right person for her and vice versa."
"He likes her, if I recall correctly…" Eri thinks.
Keiichi manages to read that but misunderstands whom she was talking about, "Hiroyoshi still likes Mikoto? That must have been a sacrifice or a masochistic ideal for him…"
"We're getting off topic: you wanted to play strip poker since you wanted to see our bodies, just like those class perverts, right?" Eri states.
"We went a full circle back to that?" Keiichi sighs, "I'm sure I would just close my eyes if you guys had to strip!"
"You suck…" Eri states then explains, "Think about it: our lovely bodies surrounding you and the air is so ho—"
"Please do not continue!" Keiichi yells.
"I'm pretty sure you're just trying to stop yourself from nosebleeding!" Eri laughs, until she sees that Keiichi isn't even blushing.
"Sometimes, I wonder if you're trying to make people go insane…" Keiichi massages his temples.
"What is wrong with you? Seriously?" Eri asks rhetorically.
"That's what I what I want to ask you!" Keiichi sighs.
"You're not acting like a boy your age," Eri explains.
"And you are usually annoying!" Keiichi retorts.
"Why don't you just act normally, like everyone else?!" Eri retorts.
"And what's your definition of 'normal'?" Keiichi asks rhetorically.
"Normal is— Being normal means— Uh…" Eri can't explain.
"Idiotic…From what I have read…" Keiichi explains, "'Normal' would be something common and generally acceptable within a specific area. In the case of our class, a 'normal' young man would have decent intellect, above average physical attributes, and at least a little perverted, am I right?"
For a while Eri is speechless, since she can't admit that Keiichi is right. She replies, "…I don't believe in that stupid idea of yours…plus, why are you overanalyzing?"
"That's how I view myself as 'normal'…" Keiichi sighs.
Eri sighs in defeat, "You really should try telling the person you like how you feel…"
Keiichi looks at her quizzically, "How did that subject pop out? And who are you referring to?"
"Heh," Eri titters, "I'll just be rooting for you, okay?"
"Okay…" Keiichi is still dumbfounded.
"Well, the session is over!" Eri stretches her arms.
"Thanks, Eri," Keiichi gets up and pops his neck, "That was somewhat refreshing…"
"And the rain's gone," Eri looks out the window and sees the drops of water on the glass then continues, "If you're idea about the rain was right before…"
"Huh?" Keiichi looks at Eri curiously then reads her mind, "Oh, no! Surely, you don't intend to—"
"Nakamura! Get this idiot out of my house!" Eri yells at the top of her lungs.
Almost instantly, Nakumura appears out of nowhere and throws Keiichi and his bag outside the property and onto the pavement, "As ojou-sama wishes…"
Keiichi falls chin-first onto the pavement and responds, "I'll get back at you for this one day…Eri-hime!" After getting up, he pops his neck again and scoffs. He looks at the rain-coated grass on the ground near him and thinks, "I'll definitely get back at you!" This, he meditates on before heading back home.
Keiichi: Next time on School Rumble…
Tenma: Kei-kun's mad at me!
Keiichi: No, I'm not!
Kenji: Tenma's right beside me!
Keiichi: Don't mess up!
Eri: Isn't that Keiichi with Yakumo?
Haruki: Next time…
#22 Water Show Love
#23 Water Show Hate
#24 Water Show Drowning!
Yakumo: Ni—Keiichi-san…
Thanks Uzumaki Hamdi for the review, and I'll keep what you said in mind. I'll try to make the scenes more dramatic and have Keiichi lose once in a while, okay? Unless, I misunderstood the review...
What am I apologizing for? I promised that I wouldn't make this chapter longer than the last, but it just ended up this way!
Please do not torch me! I'll try to make the next one shorter…right after I finish my finals…
Update: Had to fix a few things and add a few things that I might have accidentally cut when I uploaded this.
