Carnival Delight!

By coolpriss

Disclaimer: Nah-uh. SD's not mine. (duh) But the fic is though, and it's nice to hear from you guys so please read and review!!!

Chapter 5: Things that go Bump in the Night!

"Hoooh…I didn't know the world could spin so fast…" Sakuragi moved his foot slowly and carefully. He was seeing double images of everything. He closed his eyes and shook his head hard.

The Shohoku Basketball Club stood there, collecting their senses that were jumbled together by the Octopus ride. The sky was now dark but the carnival was as bright as ever, lit up by blinking neon lights that decorated the rides. Korky, finally left behind as Mitsui learned from his mistake and was now also back to his senses, was approaching the group with his usual huge, clowny grin.

"The Vertiginous Octopus! It never fails to leave you feeling totally disoriented and hazy! And everybody just loves that feeling! Except me…" he added with a lower voice.

"Right," Mitsui sighed and rolled his eyes, itching to grab the clown and stick him onto one of the Octopus seats and leave him there.

"So, what ride shall we try next?" Kogure stepped between Korky and Mitsui, as if reading the latter's thoughts.

"Ne, ne! How about that one?" Haruko pointed eagerly at a ride in which groups of people were seated in a log that would, slowly at first then rapidly gaining speed, descend into a 'river'.

"Ah! The Wet And Wild River! It is guaranteed to leave you feeling refreshed and adventurous!" Korky nodded knowingly.

"Well of course it'll leave you refreshed; you'll be soaking wet after that ride!" Miyagi argued. Ayako's right. He shouldn't be scared of clowns! It's silly! Besides, as long as he's far from the clown, he's gonna be safe…

"Well, how about that one, then?" Haruko was now pointing at a huge rocket ship that seems rooted to the ground.

"Ah! The Special Space Shuttle! That is one of the greatest works of art of 'The Lost Paradise'! The walls of that ship have the best holographic representation of outer space. With its anti-gravity system, you'll feel as if you really left the earth far below you!"

"I'd like my feet firmly planted on the ground, at least for now, thank you," Akagi refused.

"Why, Gori, I didn't know you had a weak stomach! I thought gorillas are used to spinning around since they do swing from tree to tree…" Sakuragi snickered.

"Baka! You're the one who can't even stand straight after the rides!" Akagi delivered another blow onto Sakuragi's skull.

"Hey, what do you think of that one?" this time, it was Ayako. She was nodding towards a huge, spooky mansion. "Looks like fun…" she wriggled her eyebrows uncannily.

"Excellent choice! Our Haunted Horror Train would surely send chills up and down your spine…you would definitely be scared out of your wits! Filled with ghosties, ghoulies and long leggedy beasties, it is the perfect -- "

"Yeah, we get the picture!" Mitsui cut him short. "C'mon, let's see if it's worth the ride."

Everybody started to walk towards the ride except Haruko.

"Haruko, are you coming?" Akagi turned to his sister.

"Anou…" she fidgeted, blushing. "I'm scared, onii-chan…" she whispered.

"Aahh! Never fear, Haruko-san! Tensai Sakuragi is here to protect you!" Sakuragi puffed out his chest and gave her a 'super-hero smile'. A dream bubble appeared with Haruko screaming and burrying her face on Sakuragi's chest. "Nyahahaha!"

Akagi's fist once again crushed Sakuragi's dreams. "Daijobou, Haruko. I'll sit next to you, okay? Nothing's gonna hurt you, I promise." He glared venomously at Sakuragi.

"Shiku'sho…Gori…" Sakuragi muttered. He scowled at Akagi as the brother and sister climbed up to an empty car.

"I think you should sit yourself now too," Korky told him, matter-of-factly.

Sakuragi turned angrily to the clown. "Why does he always have to destroy my chances with Haruko-san!" he shook the buffoon powerfully. Then a noise from behind him caught his attention. "Oi! Why are you leaving with out me?! Wait! Oi! Oi! Wait for me!!" Sakuragi ran to catch up with the moving train. He grabbed the back of the last car and hopped in the one vacant seat. It was dark inside. "How dare you leave me behind!" he stormed. Then he glanced at his seatmate. "Rukawa!!! What are you doing here? Get away from me!!"

Rukawa rolled his eyes towards Sakuragi. "You were the one who jumped in here uninvited, do'aho."

"Nani?! Te me…" A girl's head with one eye popping out and blood oozing from her mouth and forehead suddenly came to Sakuragi's view. The redhead stopped talking and blinked curiously. The image was gone. "Rukawa!!" he was back at shouting for the Kitsune to leave him alone again. Cobwebs enveloped his huge head but he just irately shook them away.

"You're always getting in my way with Haruko-san! Kitsune! Go away! You should be the one sitting beside Gori and Haruko-san's supposed to be sitting beside me!"

He was ranting all throughout the ride, not even noticing the bleeding hands that fell on his head. By the time light surrounded them again, Sakuragi has managed to destroy three skeletons, throw out two monster-actors, punch a white lady right in the nose, and break the eardrum of a mummy.

"Eh?" Sakuragi took a surprised look around as the train slowly turned into a halt. "What happened?" He saw Haruko wipe tears from her eyes. He jumped out of the train and rushed towards her. "Haruko-san! What happened? Did Gori hurt you?"

"Iie, Sakuragi-kun," Haruko smiled weakly. "A hand fell from nowhere and I just screamed and screamed. I was so scared but onii-chan protected me."

"Eh? So it's over?" Sakuragi looked confused.

"Yeah, and we didn't hear or understand a single thing," Ayako threw him an annoyed look.

"Thanks to you, Hanamichi no baka!" Miyagi added. The two were sitting on the car right infront of Sakuragi's.

"Nani…? Baka?!"

"Don't worry, you didn't miss anything good." Mitsui told the two, yawning. "It was really quite boring…"

"But you have to admit, Mitsui, their light and sound effects are quite nice," Kogure smiled. "I even got pretty scared with that white lady's scream…it was so real…"

"Ah, the mixed reactions! So, where to now?" Korky bounded over the team.

Haruko squealed with delight as she hurried over to a spacious lot where small, colorful cars were zooming everywhere. "Bump cars!"

Ayako grinned. "Sounds fun! C'mon!"

"Hai, Aya-chan!" Miyagi trotted blissfully behind the beautiful manager.

"Don't you guys ever get tired?" Mitsui shook his head as he followed his teammates.

Kogure clapped a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, Mitsui! It's fun! We're here to relax and work on our team spirit so why don't we just enjoy this opportunity?" The glasses-boy grinned.

Mitsui shrugged his shoulders and returned the grin. "Aa."

Sakuragi was the only one left standing there, along with Korky who was blabbering away about how 'great fun it is to crash into other's cars without hurting yourself since their bump cars are ever-so-sturdy'. The redhead suddenly burst out laughing.

"Nyahahaha! It's time for the tensai's revenge! They've been making fun of me, especially that Rukawa! Ha! They'll see! I'll bump them so hard, they'll be flying towards the sea! NYAHAHAHA!!!!"

Sakuragi stalked evilly towards the entrance of the ride, leaving the sweatdropping clown shaking behind him.

"I think this job is getting more dangerous by the minute…I wonder if I should quit…my precious life is more important than money anyway…"

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A/N: There. Sembreak's coming soon so I'll be able to finish this fic probably by the next couple of weeks. Thanks, minna-san for reading and reviewing!!!! But it ain't over till it's over! There's still a few more chapters to go!!! But first, what do you think of this one? As you might've noticed, there's some very light yaoi in this fic, I'm sure you could guess the pairings. About Miyagi's earring, I think it's on his right ear, although I'm not really sure. I've seen one red earring and one green, which led me to judge that he has got lots of circular earrings of different colors. ^_^;; Anyhow, please read and review!!!