Chapter XI: " Re-match"
" I've been waiting for you." the girl was still smiling, though expressionlessly.
Mitsui just blinked once.
" Do I. know you?"
The girl fell to the ground. " WHAAAT?!"
She recovered soon, though. Brushing herself off as she stood up, she gave him a dirty look. " Did they hit you that hard on the head?! God." She crossed her arms. " :Let's try that again. I've been wait-ing for you."
Then Mitsui remembered. " Oh yeah!" he slapped his hand to his forehead. Why didn't her remember earlier?
" You're that little girl! The one who was trying to act like a punk!" He smirked. Mitsui remembered her now, very clearly. Ishikawa.
Ishikawa frowned. " Don't call me that!"
In a few seconds, she had crossed the whole room and was in front of him, delivering a punch to his face. Mitsui's eyes widened. She's fast.he blocked her attack, though.
Mitsui raised his eyebrows coolly. " What do you want, then? Isn't it way past your bedtime?" He smirked once more as he blocked another punch from her.
" No." Ishikawa's voice was cold as steel. " Stop referring to me as a child." She tried to execute another punch. This time Mitsui just avoided it, sidestepping it.
" So what do you want from me?" he asked easily. Mitsui would grin if the scowl on the girl's face wasn't so big.
Ishikawa stopped trying to attack him and just looked at him level- headedly. " I want a re-match."
" Huh?" Mitsui's brow furrowed. " Re-match?" Re-match for what? He decided it wasn't worth wondering over, anyway. " No."
She scowled, and before Mitsui knew anything, had tried to punch him again. Mitsui avoided her attack just in time.
" I insist." Ishikawa's eyes shone with something that looked like.Mitsui peered closer.determination? " I really think we should fight once more."
Now Mitsui remembered what had happened clearly. He remembered that fateful day last week.it was apparent that he had broken her wrist, judging from the bandage.cast on her arm. Maybe that was why she wanted to fight again. Mitsui shook his head inwardly. It wasn't even a fight! He scoffed. Girls. He sidestepped another punch. But.he had promised Anzai-sensei he wouldn't fight again. Which meant that.
Mitsui shook his head at Ishikawa. " No can do, kid," he drawled out. " I don't have the time."
Now that got the girl really pissed off. Mitsui had to block about two punches and duck one kick to his head. He frowned. What's up with her?
She spoke again, slowly and calmly. " Don't act like I'm not important enough to be listened to, Mitsui-sempai," she started. " I know I'm a lot less stronger than you, but it doesn't mean you can treat me like a nobody."
Mitsui said nothing for a moment, than sighed. Damn. Running a hand through his spiky, blue-tipped hair, he bent down until they were at eye level with each other. " Look, kid," he started, " I'll level with you."
He locked gazes with her. " I don't fight a-ny-more." He emphasized each of the syllables, enunciating each of them clearly as possible. " I've retired from fighting. I do basketball now," he explained as patiently as he could to the poor kid.
Understanding dawned in the girl's eyes. Ah. Mitsui smiled in relief. " Get it?"
Ishikawa just stared back at him.
" So that means I can't get back at you."
Mitsui shrugged. " More or less."
He expected Ishikawa to explode, or to at least retaliate. But after staring at him for a very long time, Ishikawa merely turned around. Slowly she began to walk away, towards the exit. Mitsui just stood there, gaping after the girl. Within minutes she had already disappeared from his sight.
Mitsui frowned. That was weird. Shrugging again, he picked up his basketball, which lay at a distance not too far from him. Girls these days are hard to understand.
~*~
" Tanizaki-san."
Ruona sighed irritably. She had been walking around for the past thirty minutes or so, trying to shake this.weirdo off her tail. She had tried a lot of things.walking past policemen.walking into the thick of a crowd.and none of them worked. He was still behind her, pleading.and pleading.
Ruona really couldn't take it anymore. She may have been expressionless, but hey, expressionless people had limits too!
She stopped dead in her tracks, and spun around ferociously. The poor guy was caught off guard. He stumbled back, pushing his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. " Eh?"
Ruona sighed. " What do you want?"
The guy seemed shocked for a moment. " You-you talk?!"
Ruona rolled her eyes inwardly. Apparently, I do. She however, did not express it verbally; a glare was all the guy needed. He cringed. " Right, sorry, sorry." He held up his hands in surrender.
He took out a blue spiral notebook. " I am Kiminobu Kogure," he began hastily, " And I was assigned this project for my communications class. I am supposed to interview an accomplished person and write an autobiography on this person." His eyes looked pleading from behind his glasses. " And it just so happened that I was assigned to interview you."
Ruona observed him quietly for a moment. Finally, she spoke. " Then why didn't you just say so earlier?" her blue eyes scanned him over quickly. " Then you wouldn't have to go through all this trouble." Really, for a project. Ruona cleared her throat and waited for Kogure to reply.
Kogure looked exasperated. " Which is what I have been trying to do for the past few days!" He threw his hands up in the air. " But you don't listen!" He ran a hand through his messy hair, annoyed.
Ruona's eyes widened, and she quickly stepped away. The surprised look in her eyes started to glaze over into nothingness once more. Kogure caught this movement, though.
" Wait." He grabbed Ruona by the arm. Ruona looked away, though. " What?" she said coolly.
Kogure sighed. " Look, I'm sorry for what I said earlier." He released his grip on her. " It's just that, I don't know, I'm really stressed out and all that, but--" Kogure nearly threw himself at Ruona's feet after that. " Please, please listen to me, let me interview you! I skipped basketball practice just to be able to do this.that's how important this is to me." His brown eyes met her blue ones, then after a brief moment flickered away. " Please, Tanizaki-san."
Ruona blinked once. " Okay."
" Please." Kogure stopped short, then looked back up at her again. " What did you say?"
" I said okay." Ruona repeated. " You can interview me."
Kogure blinked. " That easily?"
" Yes." Ruona was amused at his mannerisms. " Why are you asking?"
Kogure straightened up, scratching his head. " It's just that.well." he mumbled. " You've been giving me such a hard time."
Ruona just raised her eyebrows. Kogure gulped. " Never mind."
The two settled at a playground nearby. Already it had started to get dark; only street lamps illuminated the faces of the two. Ruona glanced at the sky, then at her watch. " I don't have much time on my hands."
" That's alright." Kogure sat down on an empty swing. " We can do this thing bit by bit."
Ruona settled down into the swing next to him as he took out a ballpen, uncapped it and started flipping through pages in his notebook. " First question."
She swung back and forth gently on the swing as she watched the unsuspecting senior, frowning as he bit his lip, staring at his questions. Finally, he looked up. " Whole name?"
Ruona was a bit taken aback by the question. " Ruona Tanizaki." When Kogure turned to look at her, Ruona quickly shook her head. " My mother's maiden name was Kamura."
" Okay." Kogure wrote it down into his notebook. Clearing his throat, he asked his next question. " Date of birth?"
" October twenty-six." Ruona said without a thought. She watched him once more as he printed it neatly beneath her name. Ruona couldn't help but admire his steady efficiency, the way he handled things. This guy must be an honors student too.
" Where were you born?"
" I was born in Kobei." Ruona recited clearly.
Kogure turned to look at her again. " You're not from Kanagawa?"
Ruona shook her head. " My mother is a native of Hyogo. She met my father there, when he was on this business trip. They got married there, and I was born there. When I turned two, we moved to Tokyo, but then we moved to Kanagawa after." She then noticed that Kogure had stopped writing. "Aren't you taking this down?"
Kogure jumped. " Oh, right, right." Frowning with concentration, he wrote something on his notebook down furiously. He cleared his throat again. " Anything you like to do in your free time?"
" Well," Ruona began quietly. " I like playing the violin."
" Uh-huh." Kogure started writing once more.
" .and piano," Ruona finished. " I also enjoy reading books at times."
" I see."
For a few seconds, there was nothing to be heard but the scribbling of ballpens and the creaking of the swings as they swung gently in the wind. Ruona sighed inwardly, and closed her eyes. She didn't know how much to reveal to him. She never did like it when others meddled in her personal affairs, more so her life.
No one in school knew anything about her, or about her past. No one, not even Ishikawa. And here he was, an almost complete stranger, about to interview her on her life story. He would learn things about her that no one even knew. He would know why she acted so cold and strange. He would know.her deepest emotions and feelings.
That was, if Ruona would let him get away with it.
She planted both feet firmly on the ground, and rose from the swing. The chains protested, but still held. Kogure looked up in surprise. " Yes?"
Ruona just glanced at him. " I have to leave now."
" Oh." Kogure managed a monosyllable. He closed his notebook. " Well, too bad," he said as cheerfully as possible. " Thank you for your time."
Ruona nodded at him, bowing slightly. " Next time."
Turning around, she began to walk away slowly. Kogure just looked after her in astonishment.
" Next time," he finally murmured in reply. Pushing his glasses up once more, Kogure made his way out of the playground, clutching his notebook in one hand.
~*~
Raiyuu yawned. " Boring." She clicked off the TV and turned to Sendoh, who was settled at the table, doing his homework. " There's nothing good on now."
Sendoh raised his head to look at her, then looked back down at his schoolwork. " Then go do something useful. Homework, perhaps?" he raised his eyebrows at her.
" I did it already." Raiyuu stretched her arms up above her head. " All in school. We had one free period today," she explained.
Sendoh scoffed. " Which takes away the whole concept of home-work. Work you do at home." He glanced at his sister once, then back at his work again. " Stupid equation."
Raiyuu smirked. " Don't take it out on me that you have a pile of homework to do while I'm just sitting here, doing nothing." She rose from the couch and joined her brother at the table. " That's a load you have there."
Sendoh tossed a worksheet at her. " Maybe you'd like to help me."
Raiyuu pushed it away. " No thank you. And besides, I'm younger than you. I don't know the answers," she grinned.
" Good point." Sendoh took his homework back. " I don't want to get zeroes."
Raiyuu glared at her brother. " Hey, I'm not that dumb!" she pointed out. " What do you mean, zeroes?"
Sendoh glanced at Raiyuu again, amusement on his face. He leant back in his chair " You're right. You're not that dumb." he began.
" Good thing you know." Raiyuu crossed her arms in satisfaction.
" You just know a lot less than I do." Sendoh finished, a smile forming on his face.
Raiyuu glared at him. " ONIICHAN!!"
" Fine, fine. I'll keep quiet." Sendoh leaned forward once more and started on his work once more. All was quiet again, Raiyuu just staring off into space. Until.
Sendoh sighed as he pushed away his finished homework and reached out for another one. " It looks like Ryonan's going to have a pretty good season this year."
" Oh?" Raiyuu was drawing a smiley face on a sheet of paper. " Why do you say that?"
" Uozumi's the team captain this year." Sendoh explained. " He always believed in training hard and aiming for the best. And we have Ikegami.Koshino." he started rattling off players' names and their plays. Raiyuu yawned again and tried not to look bored. She would never understand Akira-sempai's basketball jargon.
" .Shohoku is better this year, too," Sendoh remarked. " But I don't think they'll be able to defeat us."
That sparked Raiyuu's interest like fire to gunpowder. " Oh?" Raiyuu added fangs to her smiley face. " Why?"
Sendoh eyed Raiyuu before he went on. He knew she would react to that. " They are not too coordinated, and they can't read movements that well. And that Sakuragi character." Sendoh chuckled, and did not say anything else.
Raiyuu scribbled over her smiley-vampire-face. Turning to her brother, she shook her head. " Of course not!" she exclaimed. " Oniichan, have you seen them recently? We have Mitsui Hisashi.he was an MVP in junior high, and is good at three point shot.Rukawa, and Takenori Akagi. He's the captain of the Shohoku team," Raiyuu put defensively. " His specialty is his slam dunk." All those times staying after school to watch basketball practice really paid off.
" You forgot to mention Miyagi Ryota," Sendoh put in. " Your boyfriend."
Raiyuu could feel herself turning red. " He is not my boyfriend." " And besides," she added, " that's not what we were talking about awhile ago." She gestured towards the window, in the direction of Rukawa's house. " Rukawa's also really good at--"
Then Raiyuu noticed someone moving outside her window. She frowned.
Mizuyuki was outside, beckoning to her.
Raiyuu stifled a scream. She jumped, surprised at her friend's sudden appearance. Sendoh frowned at his sister's sudden reaction. " Really good at what-?"
Raiyuu shook her head. " Never mind." Running over to the window, she opened it.
" Mizuyuki!" she exclaimed. " What are you doing here?"
Mizuyuki smiled brightly at her. Apparently she thought there was nothing wrong about sneaking up to someone's window at eight in the night. " Do you know which room Rukawa sleeps in?" she pointed towards Rukawa's house, which was right next to Raiyuu's.
Raiyuu grimaced. " Why do you need to know?"
" Hello." Sendoh glared suspiciously at Mizuyuki. He had somehow managed to wedge himself between the two. " I'm Raiyuu's brother." He glanced at Mizuyuki, and back at Raiyuu.
Mizuyuki looked awe-struck. " You're.you're.Sendoh Akira." she pointed a finger at him. Obviously she recognized the ace of Ryonan.
Sendoh glanced at her strangely. " I know."
Raiyuu waved a hand dismissively. " Hey, wait!" she said. " Mizuyuki, why do you want to know where Rukawa's room is?"
Mizuyuki grinned evilly. " I plan to do something bad to him." she rubbed her hands together.
" And that is.?" Raiyuu crossed her arms.
" I," Mizuyuki said importantly, " Am going to steal his basketball jersey, and only return it to him after the first half of his next game." She smiled smugly.
Silence.
" That's stupid," Raiyuu scoffed.
Mizuyuki mirrored the look on Raiyuu's face. " Then give me a better idea."
Raiyuu thought for a moment. Finally, her face brightened. " Throw tomatoes at Rukawa's bedroom window."
Mizuyuki rolled her eyes. " That idea sounds even worse! Oh, by the way," she asked nonchalantly. "Where's Rukawa's bedroom window anyways?"
Raiyuu pointed upwards, behind Mizuyuki. " There."
Raiyuu, Mizuyuki and Sendoh all looked up towards Rukawa's window.to see Rukawa himself standing there, holding a pail of water up expressionlessly. " Idiot."
Rukawa threw the water on Mizuyuki, soaking her wet. Mizuyuki growled in anger. " Kuso!!"
Rukawa's face was still deadpan, as usual. " Go away, kitty."
He threw the empty pail at Mizuyuki's head, which hit the aim dead center. Mizuyuki made a fist at Rukawa. " SHIMATTA!!"
Rukawa took no notice, however. He trudged away from the windowsill. " Baka neko..."
Mizuyuki fumed. " Rukawa.." She stormed away, soaking wet.
Sendoh sweatdropped as he watched Mizuyuki walk away. " Your friend is unusual."
" You think I don't know that?" Raiyuu murmured. Turning away from the window, she headed back towards the living room. " I think I'll just go watch some TV."
" I've been waiting for you." the girl was still smiling, though expressionlessly.
Mitsui just blinked once.
" Do I. know you?"
The girl fell to the ground. " WHAAAT?!"
She recovered soon, though. Brushing herself off as she stood up, she gave him a dirty look. " Did they hit you that hard on the head?! God." She crossed her arms. " :Let's try that again. I've been wait-ing for you."
Then Mitsui remembered. " Oh yeah!" he slapped his hand to his forehead. Why didn't her remember earlier?
" You're that little girl! The one who was trying to act like a punk!" He smirked. Mitsui remembered her now, very clearly. Ishikawa.
Ishikawa frowned. " Don't call me that!"
In a few seconds, she had crossed the whole room and was in front of him, delivering a punch to his face. Mitsui's eyes widened. She's fast.he blocked her attack, though.
Mitsui raised his eyebrows coolly. " What do you want, then? Isn't it way past your bedtime?" He smirked once more as he blocked another punch from her.
" No." Ishikawa's voice was cold as steel. " Stop referring to me as a child." She tried to execute another punch. This time Mitsui just avoided it, sidestepping it.
" So what do you want from me?" he asked easily. Mitsui would grin if the scowl on the girl's face wasn't so big.
Ishikawa stopped trying to attack him and just looked at him level- headedly. " I want a re-match."
" Huh?" Mitsui's brow furrowed. " Re-match?" Re-match for what? He decided it wasn't worth wondering over, anyway. " No."
She scowled, and before Mitsui knew anything, had tried to punch him again. Mitsui avoided her attack just in time.
" I insist." Ishikawa's eyes shone with something that looked like.Mitsui peered closer.determination? " I really think we should fight once more."
Now Mitsui remembered what had happened clearly. He remembered that fateful day last week.it was apparent that he had broken her wrist, judging from the bandage.cast on her arm. Maybe that was why she wanted to fight again. Mitsui shook his head inwardly. It wasn't even a fight! He scoffed. Girls. He sidestepped another punch. But.he had promised Anzai-sensei he wouldn't fight again. Which meant that.
Mitsui shook his head at Ishikawa. " No can do, kid," he drawled out. " I don't have the time."
Now that got the girl really pissed off. Mitsui had to block about two punches and duck one kick to his head. He frowned. What's up with her?
She spoke again, slowly and calmly. " Don't act like I'm not important enough to be listened to, Mitsui-sempai," she started. " I know I'm a lot less stronger than you, but it doesn't mean you can treat me like a nobody."
Mitsui said nothing for a moment, than sighed. Damn. Running a hand through his spiky, blue-tipped hair, he bent down until they were at eye level with each other. " Look, kid," he started, " I'll level with you."
He locked gazes with her. " I don't fight a-ny-more." He emphasized each of the syllables, enunciating each of them clearly as possible. " I've retired from fighting. I do basketball now," he explained as patiently as he could to the poor kid.
Understanding dawned in the girl's eyes. Ah. Mitsui smiled in relief. " Get it?"
Ishikawa just stared back at him.
" So that means I can't get back at you."
Mitsui shrugged. " More or less."
He expected Ishikawa to explode, or to at least retaliate. But after staring at him for a very long time, Ishikawa merely turned around. Slowly she began to walk away, towards the exit. Mitsui just stood there, gaping after the girl. Within minutes she had already disappeared from his sight.
Mitsui frowned. That was weird. Shrugging again, he picked up his basketball, which lay at a distance not too far from him. Girls these days are hard to understand.
~*~
" Tanizaki-san."
Ruona sighed irritably. She had been walking around for the past thirty minutes or so, trying to shake this.weirdo off her tail. She had tried a lot of things.walking past policemen.walking into the thick of a crowd.and none of them worked. He was still behind her, pleading.and pleading.
Ruona really couldn't take it anymore. She may have been expressionless, but hey, expressionless people had limits too!
She stopped dead in her tracks, and spun around ferociously. The poor guy was caught off guard. He stumbled back, pushing his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. " Eh?"
Ruona sighed. " What do you want?"
The guy seemed shocked for a moment. " You-you talk?!"
Ruona rolled her eyes inwardly. Apparently, I do. She however, did not express it verbally; a glare was all the guy needed. He cringed. " Right, sorry, sorry." He held up his hands in surrender.
He took out a blue spiral notebook. " I am Kiminobu Kogure," he began hastily, " And I was assigned this project for my communications class. I am supposed to interview an accomplished person and write an autobiography on this person." His eyes looked pleading from behind his glasses. " And it just so happened that I was assigned to interview you."
Ruona observed him quietly for a moment. Finally, she spoke. " Then why didn't you just say so earlier?" her blue eyes scanned him over quickly. " Then you wouldn't have to go through all this trouble." Really, for a project. Ruona cleared her throat and waited for Kogure to reply.
Kogure looked exasperated. " Which is what I have been trying to do for the past few days!" He threw his hands up in the air. " But you don't listen!" He ran a hand through his messy hair, annoyed.
Ruona's eyes widened, and she quickly stepped away. The surprised look in her eyes started to glaze over into nothingness once more. Kogure caught this movement, though.
" Wait." He grabbed Ruona by the arm. Ruona looked away, though. " What?" she said coolly.
Kogure sighed. " Look, I'm sorry for what I said earlier." He released his grip on her. " It's just that, I don't know, I'm really stressed out and all that, but--" Kogure nearly threw himself at Ruona's feet after that. " Please, please listen to me, let me interview you! I skipped basketball practice just to be able to do this.that's how important this is to me." His brown eyes met her blue ones, then after a brief moment flickered away. " Please, Tanizaki-san."
Ruona blinked once. " Okay."
" Please." Kogure stopped short, then looked back up at her again. " What did you say?"
" I said okay." Ruona repeated. " You can interview me."
Kogure blinked. " That easily?"
" Yes." Ruona was amused at his mannerisms. " Why are you asking?"
Kogure straightened up, scratching his head. " It's just that.well." he mumbled. " You've been giving me such a hard time."
Ruona just raised her eyebrows. Kogure gulped. " Never mind."
The two settled at a playground nearby. Already it had started to get dark; only street lamps illuminated the faces of the two. Ruona glanced at the sky, then at her watch. " I don't have much time on my hands."
" That's alright." Kogure sat down on an empty swing. " We can do this thing bit by bit."
Ruona settled down into the swing next to him as he took out a ballpen, uncapped it and started flipping through pages in his notebook. " First question."
She swung back and forth gently on the swing as she watched the unsuspecting senior, frowning as he bit his lip, staring at his questions. Finally, he looked up. " Whole name?"
Ruona was a bit taken aback by the question. " Ruona Tanizaki." When Kogure turned to look at her, Ruona quickly shook her head. " My mother's maiden name was Kamura."
" Okay." Kogure wrote it down into his notebook. Clearing his throat, he asked his next question. " Date of birth?"
" October twenty-six." Ruona said without a thought. She watched him once more as he printed it neatly beneath her name. Ruona couldn't help but admire his steady efficiency, the way he handled things. This guy must be an honors student too.
" Where were you born?"
" I was born in Kobei." Ruona recited clearly.
Kogure turned to look at her again. " You're not from Kanagawa?"
Ruona shook her head. " My mother is a native of Hyogo. She met my father there, when he was on this business trip. They got married there, and I was born there. When I turned two, we moved to Tokyo, but then we moved to Kanagawa after." She then noticed that Kogure had stopped writing. "Aren't you taking this down?"
Kogure jumped. " Oh, right, right." Frowning with concentration, he wrote something on his notebook down furiously. He cleared his throat again. " Anything you like to do in your free time?"
" Well," Ruona began quietly. " I like playing the violin."
" Uh-huh." Kogure started writing once more.
" .and piano," Ruona finished. " I also enjoy reading books at times."
" I see."
For a few seconds, there was nothing to be heard but the scribbling of ballpens and the creaking of the swings as they swung gently in the wind. Ruona sighed inwardly, and closed her eyes. She didn't know how much to reveal to him. She never did like it when others meddled in her personal affairs, more so her life.
No one in school knew anything about her, or about her past. No one, not even Ishikawa. And here he was, an almost complete stranger, about to interview her on her life story. He would learn things about her that no one even knew. He would know why she acted so cold and strange. He would know.her deepest emotions and feelings.
That was, if Ruona would let him get away with it.
She planted both feet firmly on the ground, and rose from the swing. The chains protested, but still held. Kogure looked up in surprise. " Yes?"
Ruona just glanced at him. " I have to leave now."
" Oh." Kogure managed a monosyllable. He closed his notebook. " Well, too bad," he said as cheerfully as possible. " Thank you for your time."
Ruona nodded at him, bowing slightly. " Next time."
Turning around, she began to walk away slowly. Kogure just looked after her in astonishment.
" Next time," he finally murmured in reply. Pushing his glasses up once more, Kogure made his way out of the playground, clutching his notebook in one hand.
~*~
Raiyuu yawned. " Boring." She clicked off the TV and turned to Sendoh, who was settled at the table, doing his homework. " There's nothing good on now."
Sendoh raised his head to look at her, then looked back down at his schoolwork. " Then go do something useful. Homework, perhaps?" he raised his eyebrows at her.
" I did it already." Raiyuu stretched her arms up above her head. " All in school. We had one free period today," she explained.
Sendoh scoffed. " Which takes away the whole concept of home-work. Work you do at home." He glanced at his sister once, then back at his work again. " Stupid equation."
Raiyuu smirked. " Don't take it out on me that you have a pile of homework to do while I'm just sitting here, doing nothing." She rose from the couch and joined her brother at the table. " That's a load you have there."
Sendoh tossed a worksheet at her. " Maybe you'd like to help me."
Raiyuu pushed it away. " No thank you. And besides, I'm younger than you. I don't know the answers," she grinned.
" Good point." Sendoh took his homework back. " I don't want to get zeroes."
Raiyuu glared at her brother. " Hey, I'm not that dumb!" she pointed out. " What do you mean, zeroes?"
Sendoh glanced at Raiyuu again, amusement on his face. He leant back in his chair " You're right. You're not that dumb." he began.
" Good thing you know." Raiyuu crossed her arms in satisfaction.
" You just know a lot less than I do." Sendoh finished, a smile forming on his face.
Raiyuu glared at him. " ONIICHAN!!"
" Fine, fine. I'll keep quiet." Sendoh leaned forward once more and started on his work once more. All was quiet again, Raiyuu just staring off into space. Until.
Sendoh sighed as he pushed away his finished homework and reached out for another one. " It looks like Ryonan's going to have a pretty good season this year."
" Oh?" Raiyuu was drawing a smiley face on a sheet of paper. " Why do you say that?"
" Uozumi's the team captain this year." Sendoh explained. " He always believed in training hard and aiming for the best. And we have Ikegami.Koshino." he started rattling off players' names and their plays. Raiyuu yawned again and tried not to look bored. She would never understand Akira-sempai's basketball jargon.
" .Shohoku is better this year, too," Sendoh remarked. " But I don't think they'll be able to defeat us."
That sparked Raiyuu's interest like fire to gunpowder. " Oh?" Raiyuu added fangs to her smiley face. " Why?"
Sendoh eyed Raiyuu before he went on. He knew she would react to that. " They are not too coordinated, and they can't read movements that well. And that Sakuragi character." Sendoh chuckled, and did not say anything else.
Raiyuu scribbled over her smiley-vampire-face. Turning to her brother, she shook her head. " Of course not!" she exclaimed. " Oniichan, have you seen them recently? We have Mitsui Hisashi.he was an MVP in junior high, and is good at three point shot.Rukawa, and Takenori Akagi. He's the captain of the Shohoku team," Raiyuu put defensively. " His specialty is his slam dunk." All those times staying after school to watch basketball practice really paid off.
" You forgot to mention Miyagi Ryota," Sendoh put in. " Your boyfriend."
Raiyuu could feel herself turning red. " He is not my boyfriend." " And besides," she added, " that's not what we were talking about awhile ago." She gestured towards the window, in the direction of Rukawa's house. " Rukawa's also really good at--"
Then Raiyuu noticed someone moving outside her window. She frowned.
Mizuyuki was outside, beckoning to her.
Raiyuu stifled a scream. She jumped, surprised at her friend's sudden appearance. Sendoh frowned at his sister's sudden reaction. " Really good at what-?"
Raiyuu shook her head. " Never mind." Running over to the window, she opened it.
" Mizuyuki!" she exclaimed. " What are you doing here?"
Mizuyuki smiled brightly at her. Apparently she thought there was nothing wrong about sneaking up to someone's window at eight in the night. " Do you know which room Rukawa sleeps in?" she pointed towards Rukawa's house, which was right next to Raiyuu's.
Raiyuu grimaced. " Why do you need to know?"
" Hello." Sendoh glared suspiciously at Mizuyuki. He had somehow managed to wedge himself between the two. " I'm Raiyuu's brother." He glanced at Mizuyuki, and back at Raiyuu.
Mizuyuki looked awe-struck. " You're.you're.Sendoh Akira." she pointed a finger at him. Obviously she recognized the ace of Ryonan.
Sendoh glanced at her strangely. " I know."
Raiyuu waved a hand dismissively. " Hey, wait!" she said. " Mizuyuki, why do you want to know where Rukawa's room is?"
Mizuyuki grinned evilly. " I plan to do something bad to him." she rubbed her hands together.
" And that is.?" Raiyuu crossed her arms.
" I," Mizuyuki said importantly, " Am going to steal his basketball jersey, and only return it to him after the first half of his next game." She smiled smugly.
Silence.
" That's stupid," Raiyuu scoffed.
Mizuyuki mirrored the look on Raiyuu's face. " Then give me a better idea."
Raiyuu thought for a moment. Finally, her face brightened. " Throw tomatoes at Rukawa's bedroom window."
Mizuyuki rolled her eyes. " That idea sounds even worse! Oh, by the way," she asked nonchalantly. "Where's Rukawa's bedroom window anyways?"
Raiyuu pointed upwards, behind Mizuyuki. " There."
Raiyuu, Mizuyuki and Sendoh all looked up towards Rukawa's window.to see Rukawa himself standing there, holding a pail of water up expressionlessly. " Idiot."
Rukawa threw the water on Mizuyuki, soaking her wet. Mizuyuki growled in anger. " Kuso!!"
Rukawa's face was still deadpan, as usual. " Go away, kitty."
He threw the empty pail at Mizuyuki's head, which hit the aim dead center. Mizuyuki made a fist at Rukawa. " SHIMATTA!!"
Rukawa took no notice, however. He trudged away from the windowsill. " Baka neko..."
Mizuyuki fumed. " Rukawa.." She stormed away, soaking wet.
Sendoh sweatdropped as he watched Mizuyuki walk away. " Your friend is unusual."
" You think I don't know that?" Raiyuu murmured. Turning away from the window, she headed back towards the living room. " I think I'll just go watch some TV."
