A/N:

Okaaaaay… I hope this goes well… a non-yaoi RuHana! Gyaaaaa! Okay, just to preview you… this is a prologue, I haven't had time to write the next chapter but the idea is solid in my head. What comes next is a changed Rukawa! How changed? Read and see…! Yes, he gets a pair… hohoho… Anyway, please R&R! Hope you like it… ^_^;;;

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His life had just fallen back into its right place, for the first time in a long time. He was beginning to feel oddly… happy. A feeling that had failed to grace him with its presence almost his whole life. And in a week he will be leaving for Hiroshima to join the many other basketball teams from all over Japan to compete in the National Inter-High Basketball Championship.

All right, so maybe there is one little thing that bugged Rukawa Kaede at his almost-perfect stage of life right now, that Sendoh Akira is now playing big brother on him. The nerve. But he could live with that, for now. Nothing could bug him at the peak of his world at the moment. Having his sister and mother back in his life had completely changed the person that Rukawa Kaede was. Even Sumire was quite astonished by the change. She and Sendoh had caught definite smiles surfacing on the boy's pale face once or twice when they sat at the dinner table talking. And yes, he definitely is more outspoken now even though his vocabulary still consisted mostly of "do'ahou"s, but it's definitely progress.

So why did this happen?

Why!?

Rukawa found himself shaking as he watched the girl sprawled motionlessly on the concrete. He didn't even know who she was, but he knew she was from Shohoku. 1st year? 2nd year? He doesn't know.

"Ru… Rukawa… -kun…"

His eyes widened as he heard her weak voice calling his name. Catching sight of the blood pool she was lying on, Rukawa's eyesight blurred and he felt dizzy.

Why did she do this, he doesn't know. The reason why anyone would do this at all for him just completely escapes his common sense. And he doesn't know whether he should be grateful that it wasn't him that was lying in that pool of blood, or whether he's better off there.

He had noticed that this girl had been following him from a distance ever since he left the Shohoku school grounds. Basketball practice had ended early that day. Rukawa remembered seeing her among the many girls that swamped the Shohoku gym at every practice time with their screams and squeals of admiration everytime he made a successful shot, and he could only wish that they would just go away and leave him alone.

Engrossed in his thoughts, he didn't see the car coming right at him as he stepped off the sidewalk towards the street. The next thing he knew was hearing a shriek screaming his name and the sound of screeching brakes.

Everything went in slow motion. His cobalt blue eyes suddenly caught a moving image of the car coming right at him, and he froze in shock, his mind drawing a complete blank. Just when he thought that his days are finished, suddenly he felt a force pushing him out of harm's way. He toppled towards the middle of the street, and heard the inevitable deafening sound that signifies impact between hard metal and soft flesh.

"Why…?" he found himself muttering inaudibly.

And as if she heard him say those words, she smiled a faint smile and locked her gaze upon her beloved Rukawa-kun, before her last breath finally left her mortal body, leaving Rukawa frozen at where he was while the automobile driver hovered in panic over him and the now dead girl.

Everything went by so fast. He didn't even remember anymore what sort of questions the police had asked him earlier. His name, his address, his school? Or perhaps his relationship with the victim who had saved his life? He didn't even remember what answer he gave. All he could feel right now is his palm had stiffened from the dried blood that had stained them as he helped the paramedics with her lifeless body.

Rukawa didn't go home to his father's house. He needed someone, and that someone was his sister, Sumire. But she wasn't home either, and neither was his mother who lived in that same house. Of all the times that house had to be empty, it had to be today. And so his steps had brought him down to the only other place he could go to right now.

The door to Sendoh Akira's house opened, and Sumire found herself looking at her blood-stained brother.

"Kaede!!!" she screamed upon seeing him. "Nan da yo! What happened!?" she exclaimed in panic as she instantly grabbed onto him at the sight of the blood on Rukawa's shirt.

He wanted to tell her everything, but no words seem to be able to escape his lips. So instead, he just stood there silently, looking at her with his deep cobalt eyes.

She brought him in, and with a worried Sendoh, they both tended to him. Rukawa was just there, sitting silently while the two examined him from head to toe if there were actual open wounds on him that needed tending. It wasn't until awhile when they realized that the blood wasn't Rukawa's.

Sumire had helped him change into one of Sendoh's clean shirts which fitted him just perfectly. And now she just sat there in front of her still-silent brother, hoping that he would start telling her about what had just happened to him.

"I'll leave you two alone…" Sendoh said softly, and he kissed Sumire's cheek gently as he thoughtfully retreated, and giving Rukawa a brotherly pat on the shoulder before leaving the room.

And then there was utter silence again.

"Kaede…"

Rukawa finally looked at his sister. "She died… onee-san…" Rukawa mumbled. "She died…"

"Who? Who died?"

"Wakaranai yo!" he suddenly exclaimed as both his hands grasped onto his skull in frustration. "I don't know! I don't know!!!"

And instantly at that moment Sumire flung her motherly arms around her only brother and pulled him into her embrace. "Gomen ne, Kaede…" she said softly as she ran her fingers in his soft raven hair, calming him. "It's all right… daijoobu…"

No, it's not all right, onee-san...

It will never be all right again.

Ever.

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to be continued…