"GOD!" Kirihara's use of the Lord's name in vain could be heard all over St. Rudolph. He was standing in the cafeteria, his arms raised over his head. The rest of his team was looking at him, exasperated. "I'm so SICK OF ST. RUDOLPH!"

"Then leave," Yagyuu spat, clearly fed up with Kirihara's whiny bullshit.

Kirihara pouted and flashed him a venomous glare. Yanagi tapped his pen against the binding of his notebook absently. He and the others had returned to St. Rudolph's after they had aided Yamabuki, as they had nowhere else to go. The entire team was suffering from stir craziness, but it was only because of the massive amounts of zombie activity outside. Akazawa strictly forbid the team to go outside of the school without permission because of it. Rikkai had to fight through thick hordes of zombies just to get to St. Rudolph's gates. Something about heavily defended buildings really attracted the zombies for some reason. Idk why. I'm not a zombie expert.

"Maybe I will!" Kirihara yelled. Marui angrily smacked his gum like it owed him money (I still don't know what this means), obviously annoyed by the whole situation. Even Jackal looked like he was at the end of his rope. "I'll be the one that goes to find Sanada and Yukimura, since nobody else wants to do it-!"

Yanagi reached over and wrapped a hand around Kirihara's arm and tugged him down into his seat. "Sit down, Akaya," he muttered. "You're being too loud."

Kirihara flushed red in embarrassment for being scolded by his senior and turned his head away, tugging his arm out of Yanagi's hold. At least that shut him up. Niou let out a massive sigh, leaning his whole body onto the cafeteria table he and Yagyuu were sitting at.

"Kid's got a point though," Niou mumbled. "This place is mega lame."

"We have nowhere else to go. We have no choice," Yanagi reminded them.

"They don't even talk to us," Marui said, finally stopping his annoying gum-cracking. "What the hell is their deal?"

"They probably have their own problems," Jackal said, but he didn't sound too convinced.

"Yeah right," Niou sniffed, gesturing to the grand lunchroom they were sat in. "How could anyone have any problems when they're living in such a high class place? Only fucking brats would have problems living here. We lived in a stupid hospital and they're living it up like billionaires."

Yanagi leaned forward and sighed thoughtfully. "Everyone has their own problems, Niou."

xixixoxoxooxoxox

"Yuuuuuta," Mizuki called, drawing out Yuuta's name much to Yuuta's dismay. Mizuki was laid on Yuuta's bed in an ugly rose shirt with a book he had been reading. Yuuta had been on the bed as well, watching a movie on his dorm room's TV, but he had gotten up and walked over to the window and was now looking out of it, watching the street below.

Mizuki finally got tired of wearing Yuuta's name out and he slid his glasses (yeah he wore glasses to read. you got a problem with that?) off and set them beside his book on the bed. "Yuuta," Mizuki said one last time, but with a serious tone. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Yuuta replied immediately.

Mizuki scowled. "I don't particularly like liars, Yuuta."

"I never asked you to like me, Mizuki."

"Well!" Mizuki raised his eyebrows and looked back down at his book. "Fine! Be like that, Yuuta, and we'll see what happens."

There was a moment of silence before Yuuta cleared his throat with a cough and looked over his shoulder at Mizuki. Mizuki huffed triumphantly and sat up on the bed, giving Yuuta his full attention. "Yes?"

"I'm worried about Syusuke."

Mizuki felt himself grimacing at the name. Though their rivalry was probably long over and frankly stupid to even consider continuing, the name still sent a pang of frustration through Mizuki. On the other hand, he had heard about Fuji's disappearance and knew how much it had hurt Yuuta. Tezuka Kunimitsu himself had made a special visit to St. Rudolph just to tell Yuuta the news, so that's how you know it's bad.

Yuuta rarely spoke about how he felt about the whole ordeal. Well, it wasn't like the St. Rudolph members had been openly digging for questions, either. Even Mizuki hadn't, though he had wanted to. It didn't seem appropriate, somehow. The only mention he had made of it to Yuuta was when he and Akazawa asked Yuuta if he wanted to go to Seigaku, but Yuuta had declined.

And now, here was Yuuta, opening his heart to Mizuki. Mizuki almost wished he had a tape recorder with him so he could get this all on tape.

"Of course you are," Mizuki said, putting his personal feelings for Syusuke aside and trying to muster up his gentlest voice. "He's your brother."

"I know, but-" Yuuta paused and he frowned, looking at the floor. "I haven't seen him since this started. I mean, we haven't seen each other in so long."

"It's barely a suitable time to just pay visits," Mizuki mused. Yuuta still looked disgruntled, however, and Mizuki let out an annoyed sigh. "Yuuta, it's perfectly normal for you to be concerned, but what are you going to do about it? Especially now, after it's already been a few months? Tezuka only mentioned where he may be briefly, so it's not like even Seigaku knew for sure. For all we know, they've been searching this whole time-"

Mizuki stopped when he noticed Yuuta's tight expression. With another sigh, he lifted himself off of the bed and walked over to Yuuta, who was shaking very slightly. Mizuki grabbed his shoulders gently and pulled him close. Yuuta wasn't really a touchy person, but he quickly melted into Mizuki's embrace.

"I miss him," Yuuta muttered into Mizuki's shoulder. Mizuki wondered if he wasn't meant to hear that, with how quiet he had said it.

"Yeah, yeah," Mizuki said, patting Yuuta on the back a couple of times. He had to make sure this didn't get too intimate, and the friendly back-pat was the only way he knew how. "I know you do. But there's not much we can do about it, is there?"

Yuuta stilled in his arms. Mizuki felt a sudden dread. He probably shouldn't have said that. His fears were confirmed when Yuuta looked up at him with fiery eyes. Uh oh.

"Mizuki," Yuuta said, voice full of seriousness. He gripped Mizuki's shoulders tightly. "Rikkai will help us get him back."

Mizuki felt a groan coming on. There it was. He groaned loudly, rolling his eyes really hard, because really? "That is an awful idea. They're a bunch of mongrels, they'll probably run off and leave us for dead if we go anywhere with them."

"But they helped Yamabuki!" Yuuta protested. "Why wouldn't they help us?! And against Higa Chuu, who are responsible for why they're here in the first place?"

Though his reasoning made sense, Mizuki was so not into this plan. Mostly he was not into trekking across Japan to Higa's weird beach camp just to get told to go home. He wasn't much of a trekking kind of guy. However, Yuuta did appear serious about his idea, so a part of him just couldn't say no. Plus maybe the Rikkai members would chillax if they were finally allowed to go do something worthwhile... "Do whatever," Mizuki finally said, pushing Yuuta away. "Ask Akazawa if you're so adamant about this and see what he says." Yuuta's expression brightened and Mizuki turned away to hide his reddened face. He stomped over to Yuuta's bed and flopped onto it. "I'll be in bed if you need me."

xoxoxoxoox

Kai was bored. Similarly to how Kirihara was bored in St. Rudolph's cafeteria, but the difference was that he was stuck on the SS Higa and the rest of Higa Chuu were on land somewhere.

He sighed and wrung his hands through his hair. He was sitting in the captain's cabin, resting his legs up on the desk. He didn't mind the other people on the boat, really, but he just didn't know them very well. The rest of Higa Chuu were there, and there were a few other random team members that had managed to get swept up in Higa's business. Kai wished anyone he really knew was there - hell, he even wished KITE was there, even though Kite would probably just yell at him.

At least when Kite wasn't there, Kai could captain the boat as he saw fit. He saw himself as a pretty good leader, even though he was kind of impulsive. The crew seemed to respect him and sometimes even fear him. If Kite had taught him anything, it was that instilling fear was good sometimes! But not all the time. Even Kite liked to have a good time, you know?

But recently the crew was quiet and wasn't very busy. That was mostly due to the fact that the rest of Higa Chuu was on land, scouring for new recruits. Those times were always the most boring. And of course Kai was the only one left behind, because he was the only one who knew the boat well enough. One of these days Kai would get to go too. He was kind of getting homesick for the ground.

"Kai." The door to the cabin opened after there were a few knocks against it. Doumoto Gouki, the vice captain of Ginka Chuu, entered. He had black hair and steely eyes, and always had a serious air about him. He was very different to Fukushi. Gouki had a ring of keys in his hand. "The prisoner requested to talk to you."

"Ughhhh," Kai groaned, letting his head lean backwards. "Can't you just tell him I'm busy?"

"No," Gouki said immediately. Kai made a noise of annoyance. Damn, those Ginka dudes were annoying.

"Fiiineeee," Kai spat, swinging his legs to the floor and getting up from his comfortable position. As he walked by Gouki, he aggressively took the ring of keys and shoved past him. God, why was being captain so hard?

As Kai walked out into the sunny day, he yawned. The prisoner usually didn't request to talk to anyone, though he did engage in conversation if someone went to see him. There was usually someone down there at all times, but people can't talk 24/7, ya know?

Before Kai could get halfway across the deck, he spotted something in the water near the ship. It looked like...a rowboat?

Could Kite be back? he wondered, wandering over to the edge of the ship and squinting at the boat approaching. He looked around and waved over Gouki, who had just exited the Captain's cabin. "Look over there," Kai said once Gouki had come over. "Do you see that?"

Gouki rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a small spyglass. He looked in the direction of the oncoming boat. Before Kai could ask anything, the Ginka Chuu vice-captain nearly dropped his spyglass and a frightened expression came across his face.

"What?" Kai asked, feeling suddenly apprehensive. What was it?! When the boy didn't react, Kai grabbed the spyglass from his hands and looked through it himself.

He caught sight of the blue and white uniforms onboard the ship and didn't quite feel the same fear Gouki had. "Seigaku? What are they doing here?"

"S-Seigaku," Gouki repeated, still looking frightened. "I...I have something to do," he stammered before rushing off. Kai watched him boredly. Ginka Chuu always had some weird fear of Seigaku. Kai returned to spying on the team as they rowed over to the boat.

He continued to watch them up until they were right beside the boat, looking up at Kai with stony expressions. Kai called out to the crew to lower a ladder for them, though Seigaku seemed uninterested in climbing aboard at first.

"Uh," Kai muttered, frowning. "Seigaku?"

"Yes," Tezuka said, voice loud.

"Uhhhhhhhh," Kai raised his hand and ran his fingers over his head. "What are you doing here? How did you even get here?" He waved his hand at the ladder. "Uh, we dropped a ladder. You should probably come up, I guess."

Tezuka's intimidating expression slipped a little. Ryouma was looking smugly at the back of his captain's head. Kai was confused. What the heck was goin' on here?

Seigaku climbed up the ladder slowly, clearly out of shape after a few months of slacking on their workouts. Tezuka was standing tensely, looking around, but not letting his guard down. Kai was feeling a little uneasy - was Seigaku planning on taking over the ship and starting a mutiny? Kai wasn't sure that he would be able to swim all the way back to shore if they made him walk the plank. He hoped that wasn't the case.

"Where's Fuji?" Tezuka suddenly asked as Kai was thinking about walkin' the plank. He stared at Tezuka with a confused expression.

"Don't act stupid," Kaidoh growled, looking ready to beat someone up. "Bring us to him, now!"

"What are you idiots talking about?" Kai asked, feeling like he was being punked or something.

Tezuka looked shaken. Ryouma still looked smug. Momo and Kaidoh looked incredulous. "Are you kidding?!" Momo yelled, charging forward and grabbing Kai by the collar. The Ginka and Higa members on the boat immediately grew guarded as they watched the scene unfold. "You have Fuji held HOSTAGE on this boat, and we demand to have him back!"

There were a few moments of tense silence. Was Momo gonna punch this guy? Was he gonna spill the beans about where Fuji was? But before either of those things could happen, Tezuka stepped forward, draping a hand over Momo's shoulder. "Momoshiro," Tezuka said, voice uncharacteristically small. "I don't think Fuji is here."