Hora Hora! Seventh chapter!
Disclaimer: Me don't own Slam Dunk.
Fer-chan: This fic puts you in suspense? Now fer-chan, if it was Chains, then I'd accept it. But I never intended Slave to be suspenseful!
Jennifer: Hello! First time you reviewed, eh? I said hooray because I think Sendoh was a little bit mean to her! Ha ha! But don't worry, I'll work something out between them. *wink*
Frozenfemale: Ha ha! Your last sentence cracked me up!
Fiery-ice: What are you baking now??
Shirodachi: You know, you're a champion screamer. You totally beat out Rukawa's cheerleaders!
Devoted2Mitsui: Is porka nakaji? Sorry? I don't really get that question! Gomen! *gets startled at the change of scene* *sweatdrops* Now, now, let's not get violent, we can, um, settle this um, bye, *scrambles off for her life*
Kka: You are one dangerous person *counts all the knives kka has* I think I'll just go now… *quietly escapes*
Alexia: you'll find out, don't worry.
Lazuli: Suspense doesn't kill. Screaming does Tell that to your sister! Ha ha!
Unchained: It wasn't a cliffhanger!
Akane: I'll tell you, but you'll have to read. : )
Silhouette Panther: Find out. ^_^
Tensaispira: He he! He'll have to miss out on the food. Porka? Engaged? Married? Well, what can I say?? *scratches head with a good show of innocence and clueless-ness*
Moonglow: Loanshark! Ha ha! That cracked me up, especially with the loanshark craze in Malaysia right now!!
SLL: All my stories ended with problems? I didn't notice that! Ha ha! (PS: I didn't see many dirty HP fics *shrugs* maybe I wasn't alert enough! Ha ha) Porka is a bit thick-headed, isn't she? *looks at Porka and goes: Good! Therefore, you're not a Mary sue!* You will understand what's going on in the next few chapters. Relax!
Jo-sen7: Thank you! And yes! Akira is mean-o!
Tiran: I'm updating! Cool down!
Krappkarmin: Will not stop writing even if you cut off my hands (I'll type with my toes!!)
Leviathan: Porka's not perfect. She's a bit dull, and besides, I think she kind of likes having Aki adore her (because a certain someone wouldn't)
Joy: You think I'm going to tell you everything and spoil the fun?? No way!
Babypooh: Yep, she ran away! And I might join her, I need some exercise!
Patty g: Who can say what Sendoh will do?
Reika Zelon: Congratulations on getting rid of the pig image! I am proud of you!
Rapt142: No, I don't mind you calling me ntd-san. It's rather charming! When you actually do get some pizza, offer me some, okay?
Joana: He he *devil's horns pop out of her head* I can stop wherever I like, Joana! And you certainly won't like it in this chap!! He he!
Fiery frost: Are you related to fiery-ice? Just curious!
Dreamiegirl: See you in the next review too!
She had not gone any further than fifty miles when they caught her. Swearing acidly, she glared at the men circling her with big, stupid grins on their faces. They were on their stallions, looking mighty and proud of themselves at the successful capture. Porka suspected she was in for a bad time.
"Go on and run some more, slave," they mocked her. "We can still give you a chase or two if you feel like it."
Porka ignored that.
"Master Nakaji isn't very pleased with you," they went on. "You're going to be in lots of trouble, slave."
Since when was she wasn't in any sort of trouble? "Are you going to talk the day away or are you going to get it on and catch me?" she asked coolly. "Quite frankly, your stupid talk is starting to bore me."
They muttered angry curses at her, and then one of the men jumped down from his saddle and came forward with a rope. Porka watched him calmly, her stare unblinking and slightly intimidating. The man looked suspiciously at her, but continued on. "Come here, slave, we'll get you all tied up –" He stopped abruptly, more in surprise, when Porka pushed in what seemed to be a needle into his cheek. The pain didn't come until a few seconds later.
Then, he started to scream, dropping to the ground and twitching like crazy with his hands clutching at his face. The others looked on in bafflement; quite unsure what was going on and what was to be done about it.
Porka retrieved the needle she had dipped with Pork's venom (having prepared several – just in case), spared a thought – Sendoh was right, she is deadly venomous – and took advantage of the men's distraction. She rushed to the man-less horse and pulled herself up before kicking the animal into motion.
She was a fair distance away by the time the men stopped yelling at her and started to think of mounting their own horses. As they followed far behind, Porka thought of desperate means and ways to escape. She could go to the nearest town or village, probably, and then jump into the crowd. That should make it harder for them to locate her, or maybe even hide out in an unsuspecting farmer's –
Suddenly, a piercing whistle sounded in the air, and quite abruptly, the horse Porka was on stopped, answering the call. "What the-" She turned around and saw her previous, previous master not far away, on a huge horse himself. "Oh no."
Nakaji was grinning stupidly at her.
The horse, not following her instructions and angry kicks anymore now galloped back toward its rightful master. Porka toyed with the idea of jumping off and running on foot, but realised they could catch up with her in less than a few seconds.
She sighed and slumped in defeat as the horse brought her to Nakaji.
It was definite.
She was in for a horrible time.
"GONE??" Aki screeched unceremoniously. "What do you mean, GONE??"
Sendoh stared dazedly out the window, immobile. "Not here. Unavailable. Vanished. Moved out." He muttered. "And not coming back."
"WHAT??" Sendoh wished Aki could talk without screaming. "WHY??"
"I don't know," Sendoh muttered, looking dazedly out the window. "How should I know how a woman's brain works?"
"It's must be your fault," Aki accused furiously. "You're always screaming and bullying her."
"Me?" Sendoh whirled around. "Me? Bully her? Scream at her? I'll have you know it's usually the other way round." He turned back to stare with fierce eyes at the grassy lawn.
"You must've said something to her," Aki continued, furious that his brother was taking it all so calmly. "You must've hurt her feelings." Sendoh's eyes darkened slightly. "You should go and get her back."
"What for?" Sendoh countered. "She ran away willingly, didn't she? It's her choice, isn't it? If she wants to run, then she can run all the way to the North Pole." He jammed his clenched fists into the pockets of his trousers. "I'm not giving a rat's arse about it." It only made him angrier to know that wasn't quite true.
"But I WANT HER BACK!" Aki yelled, performing yet another tantrum. "I LOVE HER, AND I WANT HER BACK!"
Sendoh remained silent for a second. Then he turned to face his livid brother. "You go to your room and rethink that statement," he said slowly but firmly. "It's about time we stop this foolishness. You do not love Porka, and neither does she love you." She loves me, he thought briefly, and little defensively. I'm the one she wants. "When you've realised that, you can come back out and talk to me like a sensible boy."
Aki glowered at him. "I hate you!" Then he ran out of the room.
"Everybody seems to nowadays." Sendoh murmured. He watched Aki go, and for the umpteenth time, turned to the window. Quite casually, he reached for a nearby vase. Without even a slight flicker on his face, he flung the vase and it went flying across the room and shattered when it collided with the wall.
His maids, who had been anxiously watching him, turned blue at the rare sight of his temper. When his sultry blue eyes gazed stonily around the room for something else to break, they quickly hurried in to remove every pottery and breakables from his view, terrified down to the core. When he gave them a cool look, they quickly went out again, shuddering.
"We better stay out of his way for a while," Ayako told the others in the house as she returned from delivering breakfast to Sendoh (which was previously Porka's chore), her face pale and fearful. "He barely slept last night. He's broken every piece of furniture in the room. He might not be able to differentiate between wood and human, and break one of you too."
All the maids and stable boys looked gravely at her. "That bad?" one of them muttered nervously. "That is so unlike him."
"That's the thing about cheerful people," one maid said with a shake of the head. "They don't get angry very often that when they actually do, their temper blows out of proportion."
"What was it that got him so mad?"
Ayako sighed. "Porka." She informed them as she started to clear the table. "She ran away."
The maids gasped and started chattering at the same time, demanding why and when and how. "I don't know!" Ayako said exasperatedly. "When I see Porka, I'll ask her!"
"I still don't get it," one stable boy muttered. "I mean, they're always fighting, aren't they? Shouldn't Sendoh be glad that she's gone?"
"Well, he's obviously not glad, is he?"
"Is it because Porka ran away without returning his money?"
"No," Ayako shook her head. "She did return his money. The exact amount she received from him."
"Then??" the rest said exasperatedly. "What's the problem??"
Ayako calmly looked at them, her eyes mysteriously twinkling. "He's about to fall in love with her," she smiled.
"About to? What do you mean, about to?"
"He hasn't fallen yet. He seems to be very careful not to." Ayako explained.
The maids looked at each other, and then suddenly sighed together.
Ayako raised an eyebrow. "What? You think it's romantic?"
"No," one answered mournfully. "We've all lost any glimmer of hope to have him for ourselves."
"But we think it's romantic too, of course," another chirped.
"Yes," the rest agreed. "Very romantic – in a strange way."
They sighed again.
The stable boys looked at each other. "Did you understand that?" one asked.
"No."
There was a sudden sharp bang from the top floor. Peering cautiously out of the kitchen, they saw Sendoh coming down the steps. He looked calm and in control enough, but they remained frozen where they were safe behind the kitchen walls. Sendoh's eyes still looked a little bit wild, and he was moving with unnatural stiffness that they decided not to risk approaching him.
He looked their way, making them jump at being caught spying. "Get me a horse."
One of the stable boys leaped to his feet and rushed out the kitchen towards the stable, as if a bear was hot on his trails.
"Where are you going?" Ayako asked with care, making sure she was quite a distance away from her Master in case he started to throw things again.
"I'm going to find Porka," he answered, with a little tightening around his eyes. "I believe she owes me breakfast."
"I just sent you your breakfast."
"You did. Thank you. But I want my breakfast delivered by her."
"But you can't just go and drag her back," Ayako protested, not at all insulted that he preferred Porka to her. "She returned your money, so therefore you're no longer her master."
"I'll fix that."
They watched quietly as he galloped away into the daylight. Ayako released a grin as soon as he disappeared. "You know what I think?" she said to the maids. "I think he's already falling."
Once again, the maids sighed.
Porka stared gloomily at the ropes that bound her to one thin but strong pole. She was tied up in the middle of the temporary camp Nakaji's men had set up in the hot scorching sun. Occasionally, she felt nauseous but managed to keep herself from fainting into unconsciousness.
Nakaji sat not far away, nicely shaded by a cloth spread over him like a roof, drinking ice-cold water and still giving her that stupid grin of his. "Having fun, Porka?" he asked cheerfully. "Is it as much fun as you had when running away from me?"
Porka forced a smile. "Almost. But that's okay. You did your best."
His lips twitched slightly at the perky reply, but he kept the smile in place. "I've barely started, Porka," he informed her. "You can be sure you have more to look forward to." When Porka looked away almost nonchalantly, he threw the glass of water at her. It missed, but she got rather wet. "How dare you!!" he yelled now. "How dare you break the rules of our contract and humiliate me by disappearing right under my nose!! How dare you run away without leaving the slightest compensation for your doing?!"
"I was pressed for time," Porka explained. "And I didn't have enough money to pay you back." She let out a breath. "And I still don't."
"Then you'll pay in other ways," Nakaji snarled at her. "In ways you couldn't even begin to think of."
She looked steadily at him, though her face was rapidly losing colour. "How exciting," she murmured, tone deceivingly calm and dry. "When do we start?"
Nakaji flung himself out of his seat and took the trouble to raise his hand and slap her across the face. The blow took the breath away from her, and Porka slumped to the side, her cheek throbbing with pain. She hadn't been treated in that way for so long now that she had forgotten just how painful it was.
No wonder she ran away from Nakaji.
"You impertinent wench!" Nakaji was telling her. "You rude, disgraceful piece of a cow! I bought you for two hundred, and what do you give me in return?? NOTHING but trouble!"
Porka glared at him. "It was just measly two hundred. You overworked me way beyond that amount, Nakaji."
"Master Nakaji," he corrected sourly. "Our contract is still on, Porka. You're still mine."
"Not if I can help it."
That got her another slap. Porka thought that if she received one more, her head would simply snap off her neck and fall to the ground. When she managed to drag her face up, Nakaji's fist was in the air and aiming for her. He was in mid-swing when he was interrupted.
"Someone's here to see you, Master."
Nakaji grunted irritably at the messenger. "What does he want??"
"I don't know, Master. He wasn't very specific about what he wanted."
Nakaji turned his attention to the messenger and kicked him in the shins. "Idiot!" he roared. "You should always ask for specifics!!"
The messenger scurried away, whimpering in pain. Porka almost laughed with helpless sympathy for the pathetic man, but wisely kept her mouth shut.
Nakaji turned back to Porka. "Where did we stop?" he asked. "I believe I was in the middle of doing something very interesting before that fool came along." He raised his fist again. "Ah yes, I was just about to –"
"He says you have something that belongs to him, Master, and he wants it back." The messenger reported hastily as he rushed back in.
Nakaji glared at him. "What a nuisance! Why didn't you shoo him away??"
"He had a rifle, Master," the messenger informed, shaking at the memory, "and it was pointed right at my forehead."
"You useless dung!" Nakaji gave him another kick. "I'll shoot you myself! Call that annoying man in and I'll deal with him!" The messenger went away again.
Nakaji spat a huge amount of saliva to the ground. "I'll finish with you later," he muttered, grabbing Porka's chin and lifting it so they were eye-to-eye. "And you can be sure I won't be as gentle as I was this time."
Porka was about to follow his example and spit in his face when the messenger came back. "He's here, Master."
Both turned, and Porka's eyes all but dropped out of their little sockets. "Sendoh!"
He was looking at her intently, his eyes catching in every bruise – big or small – on her face, her arms and the rest of her body. When he saw her bleeding lips and swollen cheeks, his eyes narrowed.
"What do you want?" Nakaji demanded crudely, striving to stand as tall and as erect. "Who do you think you are ordering around wanting to see me?"
Sendoh turned his attentions. "Did you do that?" he asked a little too quietly, cocking his head at the battered and weary Porka, who continued gaping in disbelief.
Nakaji drew himself up. "So what? None of your business."
Sendoh stared at the man before him.
Then, quite suddenly, his fist flew out and he slammed Nakaji in the face.
Wahoo! Imagine Sendoh punching someone! *droolz*