Disclaimer: I don't own SD, just borrowing characters.

Chapter IX: " Foolishness"



Third day after the fight. Ishikawa still hadn't come back to school; Otherwise, everything else was back to normal. People had stopped demanding answers as to why Ruona and Raiyuu looked like…well, what they looked like now. Raiyuu's arm was still sprained, though, and Ruona still had that enormous black bruise on her left eye. Mizuyuki, as usual, was just fine.

Things were dull now. A bit too dull, Raiyuu realized as she walked back to her house, deep in thought. Wonder if Mitsui and company have anything else planned out for any of us…

She stopped short as she heard the sound of a basketball, dribbling on the court near her house. She sighed and checked her watch. 5:30 pm. At this time, Akira-oniisan wouldn't be home yet, and neither would her parents. She could stay and watch the people playing for a while.

Shifting her course, she turned, heading for the basketball court. As she got within sight of it, though, she noticed there was only one person playing. Strange, she frowned. It sounded like they were more than one.

That person moved gracefully, as if he were in a dream. Dribbling the ball, he ran and shot a basket as he flew into the air. The ball fell to the cement floor, bouncing away as he just stood there, panting, trying to regain his breath.

Raiyuu came closer and picked up the ball gently, which had rolled to a stop beside her. Holding it with her free hand, she walked over to the guy playing. " Nice shot."

" Thanks." The man turned to look at her. Raiyuu couldn't help but stare, though.

She knew this guy. She had met him once before…

Curly brown hair…brown eyes…one pierced ear…

He grinned back at her as he took the ball. " Raiyuu Sagara, if I remember correctly?"

" Miyagi…Ryota Miyagi!" Raiyuu was now grinning too. Yup, she knew him all right. Her 'saviour' from those-who-hated-Ryonan. That sophomore guy!

Everything came back to Raiyuu in a flash. Miyagi Ryota, the one who had stopped Naoko from attempting murder with her ballpens. He was really nice to help her…

" Say, what happened to you?"

" Huh?" Raiyuu then noticed Miyagi was staring at her sprained arm, then going upwards, pausing at the bruises by her neck, and the long, red scratch on her cheek ( the stick one of them used had caught on her skin.) " Oh! I mean," she stammered out. What would she say now? " I, um, uhh…"

Miyagi just stood there, looking at her for an answer.

" I, hmm…fell?" she tried weakly.

Miyagi looked at her another moment before he began to laugh. " Give me a break. That's the oldest excuse in the book!" He gazed at her with interest. " What really happened?"

" Uhhh…" Raiyuu began tentatively. She didn't really want to tell him, but…

" My friends and I…kinda got into trouble with this guy named Mitsui," she went on hurriedly. "Let's just say we all had a little…party. A not-so-nice party."

" Oh." Miyagi shook his head. " That's tough." He frowned. " You get in that much trouble?"

" No!" Raiyuu retorted. " Besides, look who's talking about much trouble." She gestured to Miyagi himself. For first time, she had noticed that his face was plastered over with…bandages. A lot.

Miyagi looked sheepish. " Me? Trouble?" He shook his head furiously. " No!!!"

Raiyuu rolled her eyes. " Admit it. You were beaten up."

" Well, not any worse than you." Miyagi scoffed, his 'innocent' expression gone. " You must've really pissed Mitsui off."

" You must have, too." Raiyuu crossed her arms. " Mitsui mustn't like you that much, judging from how you looked like."

Miyagi raised his eyebrows. " I landed Mitsui in the hospital, so don't talk to me like that. See his teeth yet?"

Raiyuu shook her head, a bit puzzled at the weird question. " Nope. I don't stare at people's teeth all day."

Miyagi laughed. " I didn't mean it that way. In case you haven't noticed…" he leaned in close so only Raiyuu could hear—" His two front teeth are missing."

Raiyuu choked back a laugh. " You did that to him?!" she said when she finally recovered from laughing.



" Hai." Miyagi nodded solemnly.



" And he did that to you." Raiyuu pointed to Miyagi's face.



" Hai." Miyagi sweatdropped. He frowned. " Did anyone ever tell you it's rude to point?"



" Oh. Sorry."



Raiyuu withdrew her hand. She hadn't said another word before she heard a sound from behind her. A sound which sounded just like ahem.

Miyagi and Raiyuu spun around to see Sendoh standing behind them, one eyebrow raised. He was looking pointedly at…them.

It was only then Raiyuu had noticed that Miyagi had not left her side since he had leant in close

to tell her about Mitsui's teeth. She cringed. She could imagine what was going through her brother's mind…

Sendoh was frowning. Moving closer to the two, he glared at each of them.

Raiyuu and Miyagi shrank back in fear.

Finally…

Sendoh raised a hand. " Move." He still had that look on his face.

Instinctively Ryota and Raiyuu slid one step away from each other. Miyagi swallowed.



" Go." Sendoh pointed sternly towards the open road.



Miyagi backed away slowly, clutching the basketball. " See you around," he murmured to Raiyuu. Before he turned to run, however, he muttered to Raiyuu, " Your boyfriend sure is overprotective." He then took off .

Raiyuu stared after him, horrified. " He's not my boyfriend!!" she yelled after him. Which was not a very good thing to say.

She turned back to her brother. " Uh…hi?" she tried weakly. " Um…nice day, isn't it?"

Sendoh just frowned back at her.

" Looks like, from the way you were hanging around him," he said, watching Raiyuu's face turn a bright red. Somehow, Raiyuu knew oniichan would misunderstand it…deliberately.

" Oniichan, I don't like him--"

" That's what they all say." Sendoh crossed his arms. " A good thing I stopped by here before going home. Who would have known what you two might have been doing by then."

" ONIICHAN!!!" Now Raiyuu's face was crimson. " IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!"

Sendoh was still ignoring her as they started walking home. " I know that guy. He's part of the Shohoku basketball team, isn't he?" he added thoughtfully. " And he's a sophomore…I didn't know my little sister preferred older men…"

" Baka!" Raiyuu tried to hit her brother on the head with his school bag. He blocked the blow, though. Sendoh was taking all the pleasure in teasing his little sister.

" I do not LIKE older men!!" Then Raiyuu stopped walking. " Basketball team?" A wonder, since she had never seen him in practices…she didn't know he was a member…

She ran on after Sendoh. " Hey, oniichan, he's part of the basketball team?" No wonder he was so good at basketball…

Sendoh smirked at her. " Oh, little Raiyuu didn't know her boyfriend was on the basketball team?"

" ONIICHAN!!!!" Raiyuu was now fuming.

" Hey, I was just joking! Keep your head on—hey, hey! Don't mess with the hair! Stop it! Raiyuu, NOW! don't!"

~*~



Mizuyuki skidded to a stop, panting hard. Raiyuu had borrowed her Mathematics notes for their class lecture. Now she was the one who needed the notes. And just her luck—Raiyuu was nowhere in sight.

" Oh no," she murmured to herself, picking up her pace again. If she couldn't find Raiyuu, there was always Ruona…she was already the top student in all the classes, in such a short matter of time. Mizuyuki couldn't understand how that was possible.

The bell rang, jolting her out of her thoughts. Mizuyuki cursed silently. She would have to enter class without her notes. Sighing to herself, she turned back around the corridor, heading towards their classroom. I'm going to strangle Raiyuu the next time I see her! Sliding the door open, she resolutely entered the classroom—

And promptly bumped into someone. Or rather, the person had bumped into her. Mizuyuki fell to the floor, wincing. " Ow!" Looking up, she noticed that the person who had bumped her was no other than…

Kaede Rukawa glanced at her out the corner of his eyes. Mizuyuki frowned at seeing him. She didn't know why, but she just absolutely…didn't…like…HIM. For one thing, he thought he was well above everyone else. That disgusted her.

Mizuyuki groaned and rubbed her elbow. " Ouch!" It had hit the floor hard, and hurt a lot. She was already infuriated at the pain, but her mood grew even worse when Rukawa just stepped over her, not even bothering to help her up. It was as if she weren't even there.

That flared up Mizuyuki's temper. By a lot.

Reaching down with her right hand, she grabbed her shoe, and threw it at Rukawa's head. " Hey you!"

The shoe made a loud thonk sound as it bounced off the back of his head. Silence filled the corridors as people realized what Mizuyuki had done.

Rukawa turned around stiffly. " What?"

" You didn't help me up." Mizuyuki crossed her arms. " That was rude. You didn't even apologize."

Rukawa shrugged. " Sorry." He didn't sound like he meant that, though. He turned around again.

Another shoe hit the back of his head. Rukawa turned back to Mizuyuki, frowning.

" What now?"

" You still didn't help me up." Mizuyuki pointed out. She had to teach this Rukawa a lesson.

Rukawa shrugged again. " You have your own feet. Do it yourself." He turned back around and started walking down the corridor.

Fury radiated from within Mizuyuki. " That's RUDE!!"

" So is throwing your shoes at people." Rukawa retorted. Bending down, he took hold of one of Mizuyuki's shoes. He also picked up the one a few meters away.

Mizuyuki was puzzled at his behavior. She cocked her head. " What are you doing now?"

Rukawa looked back at the girl, his face still calm. " Getting your shoes."

That made Mizuyuki frown. " Why?"

Rukawa just looked at her pointedly, then turned and ran, still holding her shoes in one hand. " So you won't have anything to throw at me anymore."

Mizuyuki looked down at her feet. Her shoeless feet.

So you won't have anything to throw at me anymore…then it clicked.

" Hey!" she screamed. Scrambling up, she ran after the retreating Rukawa. " GIVE ME BACK MY SHOES!!"



~*~

Ruona cocked her head as Kaede Rukawa ran by her, carrying school shoes. A second later, she saw Mizuyuki running after him in sock-clad feet. Ruona shook her head. " Baka."

She had barely taken a step forward before someone popped out in front of her.

" Tanizaki-san?"

Ruona would have screamed if she showed feelings. Unfortunately, she didn't. Instead, she looked calmly at the brown-haired senior in front of her, the one with glasses. The day before yesterday, he was holding a notebook. Today he was holding a tape recorder.

" Tanizaki-san, I have a few questions for you to answer--"

Rukawa sped by him at full speed, followed by a screaming Mizuyuki. Ruona watched as Mizuyuki collided into the poor senior, who in turn, got himself tangled up in the cord of his microphone. Mizuyuki barely muttered an apology to him before she set after Rukawa again. " COME BACK HERE!!"

Ruona sighed, shaking her head once more. Really.

She turned around and headed towards her classroom again. With luck, she wasn't late yet.



Author's Note: hai...I know...OOC Rukawa O_o heh, I was too lazy to change that part. Besides, I found it stupidly amusing : so? R&R please!