Part 4: The Cinderellas of Kanagawa.

Monday after-hours: Kainan Basketball Team Room

"Hmm.... tall, blue eyes, pale skin, spikey hair, lanky, with dragon earring, wear make-up and a black boot size 48 European. Jump really high and can run very fast too. Oh! And can speak a perfect English, since he had his conversation in English the whole time." Hikoichi stated the description. They met in Kainan High School after both of the team finished their practise. Hikoichi had to rush to Kainan to see them.

"And…."Hikoichi continued. "He watched you guys in the IH competition too. So, that makes him a little bit knowledgeable in the game of basketball. He also know the story about Kainan bird."

"But he could be wearing a contact lense, and pour half of the whitening powder on his skin, wore a wig and read up about us Kainan and read the Basketball Weekly Magazine, found out about Rukawa's one-eye days." Jinn said.

"It could be anyone!" Hikoichi agreed.

"Yea, but anybody who's that tall should join the basketball club. Beside, we think he's not more than twenty years old. Whoever it is, he has to be IN your black book." Jin reasoned.

Maki was still absent-mindedly looking at the black boot. He turned it around, for God knows how many times that day. He silently tapped his fingers on the base of the boot. Suddenly, he heard a hollow sound.

"What is this?" Maki asked himself.

"What is it?" Kiyota asked.

"It seems… hollow." Maki fiddled with the heels of the boot. The base opened, revealing an empty space underneath.

"eek! What is he? James Bond?" Kiyota asked.

"Well, he certainly not Cinderella if you want it as your answer. I guessed this is where he put his small screwdrivers he used to unscrew our bird from the wall." Maki said.

"Well well…he really is determine to take our bird eh?" Jin observed.

"Yea…" Maki agreed. What kind of person is this? Maki took off his training shoes and sock, and started to put the black, leather boot on.

"err… Maki-san, what are you doing?" Kiyota asked.

"I'm trying to…" Maki pushed his feet into the black boot "wear this boot." With one last push, his foot was in the boot. "There." Maki said with a satisfied look.

But not for long. "Ouch!"

"Why?"

"Just want to be in his shoes. You know, started to think like him. His feet is a little smaller than mine."

The three students looked at the Kainan captain while he's trying to stand up, right feet is in the high-heels boot and the left feet is still in the flat training shoes. Maki found it difficult to stand up with the imbalance between his feet. But he tried to walk. He succeeded in taking a few steps before he caught the chair in the middle of the room to prevent him from stumbling.

"There is no way anybody could run in this boot. He was smart in taking it off before he ran away. Although, I can't imagine anybody who can dance or even stand up and walk properly in this boot. He went all the way to even wear this extremely uncomfortable boots just to get the bird? Doesn't make sense at all." Maki observed. "Where can we find this type of shoes?"

"If you want to find something…"Hikoichi gave the moment of suspense. "You can always find it in Tokyo."

"That doesn't help at all, anybody in Kanagawa can go to Tokyo. It was just a train journey away!" Kiyota argued.

"True. But at least now we have the description of the suspect. Let's start checking the basketball club members." Maki ordered.

"Oh! Let's check their academic record as well, just to see if they can understand English or not, based on their English test result." Hikoichi suggested.

"How???" Jin was afraid at what Hikoichi have in mind.

"Checking their school's computer of course."

"But would it be… against the law?" Maki asked.

"I don't know, I just do it without thinking about the law." He answered.

Reckless.

"That is a good idea! We should do it." Nobody was surprise to find the agreement came from Kiyota.

Idiot

"Well…"Jin started to say. "We have to catch the thief as soon as possible so we can beat him up and stuff like that. If this is the faster way, why not?"

Maki was left without a choice. "Fine. But you have to be responsible for your actions."

"No problem. "Hikoichi said confidently and started to type something in the computer. After ten minutes, he managed to get the clearance to access Shoyo's students file. "Firstly, Shoyo. They had been your rival like…forever! This team has a lot of tall players. Hanagata?" Hikoichi asked,

"Well..."Maki started. "This man is tall, but not THAT tall. Hanagata with high heels will make him look like a giant. And this man, from my observation is at least 1.9 meter tall with his high heels, so, he's shorter than Hanagata."

"You have a good observation Maki-sempai." Hikoichi said.

Kiyota whispered. "That's cos he spend so much time with him last night."

"Ooohhh....."Hikoichi understood.

"Hasegawa?"

"The shape of the eyes are not right." Maki said, looking at Hasegawa's picture in the computer screen.

"Takano?"

"Too fat. This man is thin and lean and pale."

"Fujima? This guy received an A in his English exam."

Maki took a good look at Fujima's picture.

"Too innocent."

"Too innocent??"

"Well...."Maki didn't know how to explain. "This man, well... he has this cunning look on his face. Like, he's doing this...for fun. Once in a lifetime kinda thing. Happened one night only. Fujima doesn't look like the type of person to do so."

"Oh!"

In no time at all, they finished with practically everyone in Shoyo's team, and Maki didn't identify any more suspects. Next team, Hikoichi's team- Ryonan. They didn't need to log into Ryonan's profile since Hikoichi had every single data that they needed to know about Ryonan's team.

"Somehow, I don't believe any of the Ryonan's player will do that kind of thing. We're quite good, discipline players. But since you insist checking the Ryonan players' profiles…."

"Captain Uozumi?" Hikoichi asked.

Maki felt the urge of throwing up in picturing the guy he kissed is…Uozumi?

Quickly, "No. It's ALL wrong for him."

"Ah!" Hikoichi flipped through his book. "It's not me, I didn't do it."

"Koshino?"

"Too short. Not him. "

"Fukuda."

Maki glared that the shorter boy. Is he trying to make me puke or what?

"Sendoh?"

"Sendoh…." Maki tried to find an explanation why Sendoh is not the one.

There is none.

"The man has pale skin. Sendoh's quite tan."

"Yeah, but he can apply the whole body make-up lotion all over."

"Blue eyes?"

"Yes, Sendoh-sempai has blue eyes. And he can speak English quite well too. I heard him talk once." Hikoichi provided the information about his senior.

"But not the hair!"

"Ohhh…."Kiyota pipped in. "Maybe he decided to let his hair down for the night. Ha ha! That could be it! Has anybody ever see him without the spike? And blue and purple dye?"

"But Sendoh-sempai is not the type of person who would do such a thing!"

"I know…." Maki looked at Sendoh's picture in the book. He was smiling and looked like an easy-going type of person. He could easily fit into the flirty type of man. But why is he doing it? This game is getting very dangerous, especially if he messes around with another man's feeling and emotions.

"Spill it Hikoichi. I know you have something in your mind." Kiyota ordered.

Hikoichi was surprised the Kainan student knew about his doubt. "Well…Sendoh-sempai, he's not in school today. He also skipped the training. I heard he got a permission to do so. Something to do about doctor's appointment."

"Oh! He's not?" Maki asked.

"No."

"He probably selling our bird somewhere. He's afraid that we will catch him. Why… that man…" Kiyota waved his fist in the air, while Jin has to duck.

"What about the motives?" Maki asked.

"hhmm…" Kiyota and Jin thought about it.

"He usually hanging out with Sakuragi." Hikoichi provided the answer.

"Oh! So maybe he had that stupid monkey influence and he's doing it just because he wanted to be as crazy as Sakuragi?" Kiyota said.

"ah! No!" Sendoh-sempai is smarter than that. He wouldn't do such a thing in the first place!" Hikoichi answered.

"He's right you know." Maki supported him.

Everyone was quiet.

-tbc-