I wonder what my middle-school self would have said about the fact that in high school, the man I wanted to defeat the most would be coming over to my place on a regular basis. Haha… Really, what a joke!
It was Saturday morning, roughly ten o'clock. It was common sense to every normal teen that one should still be in bed, slamming the alarm clock and hating themselves for activating the snooze setting. But the current ace of Shuutoku, the shooting guard of the legendary Generation of Miracles from Teikou, the one and only Oha Asa fanatic, Midorima Shintarou… was not a normal teen.
Ever since the rickshaw thing started between them, Kazunari had dubbed Saturdays as "The Quest Day for Shin-chan's (Latest) Lucky Item!", or something along those lines. Sleeping till past noon after gaming straight into the wee hours of the morning quickly became history, as Shin-chan's text came to him at exactly 8am of every Saturday. Kazunari had lost count of how many variations the taller boy could come up with for: get your lazy ass out of bed, fool—I need the rickshaw to go to this so-and-so shop that was some ten kilometers away.
He hadn't realized all that effort to pester Shin-chan into exchanging numbers would result into something like this (and in all fairness, they had exchanged numbers just prior to the damn rickshaw thing).
It so happened that today, instead of taking their usual way downhill, they were going the opposite direction—behind the Midorimas (oh yes, Kazunari cursed his fate, but really, he cursed Oha Asa even more). It also so happened, that Shin-chan realized that they were heading the wrong direction, and that they should have turned a left halfway up.
"You mean to tell me that I climbed up this friggin' mountain for nothing?!"
"Hmph. Stop being so dramatic, Takao. That was a hill nanodayo."
"Shin-chan… have you ever considered being a slave-driver as a future career option?"
"No, I have not. Slavery is illegal here in Japan. What nonsense and you blabbering about now?"
Did he…? Kazunari blinked twice in quick succession. He took me seriously just now, didn't he. The black-haired point guard resisted the urge to slap his forehead with his palm, opting for the exasperated sigh instead (he seemed to be sighing a lot these days). And so, he made a clumsy U-turn, ignored the kid who was laughing his ass off at him and pushed off to find that dratted turning. Damn… I really have too much free time, don't I? Oi, oi… does killing boredom come at this much of a price? Wouldn't this be classified under extortion or something?
As they rolled down the hill at a relatively slow pace—the last time he flew down without using the brakes at all, Kazunari got berated for reckless driving ("it was cycling, Shin-chan!") and Shin-chan refused to sit on it again unless Kazunari promised to make full use of the brakes. On hindsight though, why did he go and re-convince the shooting guard to sit on it again?
"Look, look, Shin-chan!" Kazunari pointed, letting the rickshaw cruise down the gentle incline. "There's my house!"
Shintarou turned to look at it, slowly taking in the structure. A simple, modern-style house, looking much like any other in the neighbourhood. It had cheery pastel yellow walls with wide windows to let plenty of sunlight to filter in, and a roof made out of sky blue tiles. The front yard was neatly trimmed and lined with yet-to-bloom buds of hydrangeas and irises. The front door, also blue in colour, was open. The view showed a flight of stairs (no doubt leading up to the bedrooms), and a straight corridor that opened up into a quaint kitchen. There was a door to the left, presumably the living room.
In a word, cozy.
"Though it's nothing like your Japanese-themed three-story bungalow with a fenced garden and a water feature to boot!" Kazunari shrugged in good humour, getting ready to pedal again.
"Don't be a fool, Takao. The appearance of a house does not indicate anything about the people who live in it."
"Ah, that's true."
"Eyes on the road, Takao."
"I know that! Geez, Shin-chan, you really are—,"
"Kazu-nii?"
Both males turned to the owner of the voice—a young, short-haired middle school kid. A body that was still on the lanky side, shoulder-length hair that was black in colour with the ends of it all cow-licked, and that same piercing orange gaze.
"Mayu!" Kazunari was surprised. "Weren't you at soccer practice?"
"I forgot my shin-guards." She grumbled, more to herself than anything else.
"Yes, you did!" Another voice joined them, much exasperated as well. "Mayu, really! You should have packed your bag the night before!"
The woman, albeit probably in her early thirties, still showed the vitality of a person ten years her junior. She had jet-black hair that was up in a careless bun held together by a single hairpiece, and two strong arms on crossed over her chest as she puffed. Her eyes however, were rounder and softer, betraying her as she tried to withhold a stern expression.
"Sorry, Ma!" Mayu grinned, grabbing the guards from her. "I'll be off!" Passing by the two on the rickshaw, she paused for a beat, "By the way, Takao-nii, you sure you alright? For the past fourteen years I've known you, your brain doesn't start functioning until it's past one in the afternoon on weekends."
Shintarou coughed once. Kazunari shot him a look, two parts annoyance, one part resignation.
"I think it's functioning perfectly fine this morning, thanks." Kazunari huffed, pouting.
The exuberant girl giggled, "That's good. See you then, Kazu-nii, Shin-nii!" And with a wave, she was off.
"Kazunari! Is that the Midorima Shintarou-kun that you've been hyped up about since middle school?"
"Mom!" Kazunari groaned. "I was not 'hyped up' about him—I wanted to defeat him! There's a difference!"
"Yeah, yeah." She waved a dismissive hand. "Midorima-kun! How about coming in and having some snacks? I've just made some but I think it's too much for us to finish."
Kazunari glanced at Shin-chan, who was shifting uncomfortably, unsure of how to answer.
"No can do, Mom! We've gotta look for this guy's lucky item!" Kazunari gestured to behind him, where Shin-chan was sitting.
There was a strange sense of pride as he noticed how the ace's shoulders relax at his words.
"I was not asking you, Kazunari!" She called back, grinning at how her son threw his hands up in the air. "Anyways, come on in, Midorima-kun! There's plenty of time to look for your lucky item later."
She walked right up to the rickshaw, and patted his shoulder knowingly.
"I—,"
With deadly accuracy and another grin—this time bordering on feral, she dealt the final blow.
"Part of the menu includes freshly-made oshiruko."
Kazunari pressed a hand to his mouth to force the impending peals of laughter back down. Out of the corner of his eye, he just caught a glimpse of the wheels turning in Shin-chan's brain, obviously tempted. He secretly pumped his fist, Thank you, Mom…! I finally get a break from the Lucky Item Quest!
"I'll—," Shin-chan cleared his throat awkwardly, "I'll humbly accept your offer then."
"Right. Come on in then~!" She sing-songed, disappearing back into the house.
"Heeh~ Who knew that the great Ace-sama could be felled so easily?" Kazunari made no effort to hide his smugness, resting his cheek on his palm. "Maybe I should start using shiruko more often."
"Hmph. You can try all you want." Shin-chan met his side-glance with a slight smirk on his lips. "But we're still looking for my lucky item later. Cancers are ranked 10th today after all. I can never be too careful nodayo."
"Eeeeh?! Shin-chan, shouldn't there be a limit to how obsessed you can be?!"
