Disclaimer : Slam Dunk is owned by Takehiko Inoue. Rani is mine!
Note: Sentences in italics are thoughts.
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Yumehime - I am so glad you liked it.
mskitsune - Glad you're still reading.
arashi tissue - bonking with ice cubes? *gasps* ore wa hentai!? LOL. You are something else! But then again, I am too, or else how could I write this? Nyahahahah!
tsongmandude - Thanks for reading my fics. Here's the next installment!
shinichimaki gal - An admirer of the hunkiest guy in Slam Dunk huh? wink I'm glad it made you laugh. Ohhhh...I love Kogure. If only he exists in real life sigh.
Zirc - Thanks for the compliments. I don't have any idea who Rani Mukherjee though.
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Madness
Chapter 6: Happy New Year!
It's thirty minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve. Kogure and Rani decided to spend that time together at home and just watch the New Year celebration at the Tokyo Tower on TV. It's the year-end countdown event to celebrate the coming new year with fireworks and releasing two thousand and three balloons.
Kogure is busy arranging food on the table. Rukawa on the other hand is unloading a bottle of Japanese rice wine.
Rani just looked at the two men arranging mochi (rice cakes) and sake (rice wine). "So this is what the Japanese do for New Year, huh?" This is her first real experience of Japanese New Year since on the first new year she was there, she was on duty at the hospital.
"Uhuh," Kogure answered. "New Year's Day is also Rukawa-kun's birthday, so I invited him to come since he doesn't have any close relatives anymore."
"Really?" Rani asked in surprise. Then she turned to Rukawa and dug her elbow on his rib. "You haven't told me! I haven't gotten you a gift!"
"It's not necessary," Rukawa answered.
"Don't worry about it, Rani," Kogure said to his housemate. "We'll give him a gift later."
"Alright," she said. Then she turned her attention to the foods at the table. "So which one of these is kazunoko? I heard Maru said that it's a food especially for New Year."
"Kazunoko is usually served by families," Kogure stated. "It has been a traditional belief that in eating kazunoko we wish to have many children and hope that our family can prosper."
"Ohhhhh….. So why don't we have that? Don't you wish you'd have many children with Maru? Heheh….." Rani teased.
"Maa…we just went out twice and you are already talking about having children?" Kogure retorted.
"If I know, you can't wait to get married and have dozens of children!" She slyly glanced at Kogure and winked at Rukawa. Rukawa gave out a chuckle.
She turned to Kogure and pouted. "Kogure-kun, don't neglect your little but older sister, ne?"
"What? How can you say that?"
"Hehehe…I was only kidding you, lover boy." Rani patted Kogure on his back. "So have you proposed yet?"
Kogure sweatdropped at Rani's question. He can't even confess yet and Rani is already thinking about proposing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
10….9…..8…..
7…..6…..5……4…..
3…..2……1
"Happy New Year!!!!!!!" Rani yelled at the top of her lungs. She gave each tall men a bear hug as the two thousand and three balloons were released at the Tokyo Tower.
Rukawa was all shook up while Kogure went to his room to get something. When he came back, he has a gift bag and something red on his hands.
"This is for you, Rukawa-kun. From both of us." He handed the gift to Rukawa.
"Hai. Arigato," Rukawa mumbled.
"Happy Birthday, Rukawa-kun!!!!" She gave Rukawa another big hug and shook him violently. "Boy, would you want me to call for a lady-of-the-night as a gift? Hahahahah!!!"
Rukawa sweatdropped. "No thanks," he answered.
"Maa…don't be so cruel, Rani." Kogure grinned. "I will collect from you later. And this is for you." He handed Rani a red doll.
Rani stared at the red doll with no arms, no legs and no eyes. She's trying to make out what it is.
"It's a Daruma doll," Rukawa answered when he saw the look of confusion on Rani's face.
"A doll?" Rani raised an eyebrow and looked at her housemate. "Kogure-kun, I am a grown woman, you should have given me a live man instead of a doll, you know?" She pouted.
"So wish for a man," Kogure nonchalantly said.
"Eh?"
"Daruma doll is a wish doll that's why it has no eyes. What you do is this." Kogure took the doll and pointed to the doll's eyes. "You paint the eyes on the doll yourself. First you paint one eye on, and then make a wish, and when the wish is fulfilled you paint on the other eye." Kogure educated Rani once again on some of the things the Japanese do for the holidays.
"Honto? Is it true?" Rani asked excitedly.
"Hey, it worth trying."
"Wait, I think I have some colored pen here." She ran to her room, grabbed her blue sign pen and went back to the kitchen.
"Blue?" Kogure raised an eyebrow.
"This is all I have." She shrugged and started painting the left eye of the doll. "Should I tell it to you two? Maybe it would invalidate my wish if I say it." She grinned.
"You don't have to," Rukawa told her. "C'mon, finish that so we could start eating."
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"C'mon, you can do better than that, Rukawa!" Sendoh coaxed Rukawa who's dribbling the ball and trying to get pass by him. Mitsui on the other hand is concentrating on defending against Kogure in case Rukawa pass the ball to him.
"Shut up and just try to stop me," Rukawa snapped.
Sendoh gave out his infamous toothpaste smile, which he very well knew could irritate Rukawa.
When Rukawa knew that Sendoh wouldn't let him get through, he stepped back and did a clean and perfect fade-away shot.
Right on the net.
"It's only natural that you should win, Rukawa. But at least we gave you a hard fight," Sendoh said still smiling. Rukawa ignored him.
After the game, the four men all slumped to the ground. Kogure found this opportunity to talk to Mitsui.
"Anou….Mitsui-kun," Kogure approached his friend who was busy wiping his sweat. "I need someone to accompany Rani to this festival in Osaka. I've promised her that but I can't miss this date with Maru so maybe you could accompany her?"
"What!?" Mitsui barked at Kogure. "No way am I going to be seen in public with that….that hentai!"
Kogure sweatdropped. "Mitsui!"
"Besides I don't speak English," Mitsui added.
Ok He has a point there. Kogure thought that he had to do some more convincing. "But she can speak some Japanese."
Mitsui shook his head and got up.
Kogure's shoulders sagged in disappointment. I can't ask Sendoh since he is also not free at that time. Maybe I better ask Rukawa-kun.
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~ ~BLAAGGGG!!! ~ ~
Kogure and Rukawa both cringed at the sound of what seemed to be the house shaking up and crumbling down. They were in the living room watching NBA games on TV. When they both turned around, they saw Rani with a scowl on her face looking at them.
"I-Is there anything wrong, Rani?" Kogure asked.
Rani crossed her arms in front of her and asked. "Ok, who's the wise guy who last used the toilet?"
Uh-oh…. "W-Why?" Kogure is getting a bad feeling about it.
"Because there were yellow droplets on the rim of the bowl", she answered in annoyance. "Arghhhh!!!!!! If there is one thing on earth I couldn't stand, it's a messy toilet bowl!"
Kogure and Rukawa looked at each other. Kogure knew he hadn't used the toilet for the past hour so it had to be Rukawa. "Anou….Rani, leave it to me. I'll clean it," Kogure offered.
"Never mind, I already did." She scowled as she stomped to her room and shut the door.
Right after Rani had closed the door, Kogure looked at the wall calendar hanging at the living room and started counting. Yup, it's definitely coming. Rukawa just looked at him wondering what he is doing.
"Anou…Rukawa-kun, gomen," Kogure faced Rukawa. "She's really picky about these things. Normally, she wouldn't rant about it. I guess it's just that time of the month."
"Nani?" Rukawa asked.
"You know, that woman thing," the bespectacled man tried to explain. "That time of the month when they get easily irritated."
Rukawa nodded when what Kogure said started to sink into him.
"Did you happen to see the toilet paper in there?"
"Hai."
Kogure sweatdropped. "Anou…that's what the toilet paper is for, Rukawa-kun."
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A/N: I guess I don't have to explain what that 'woman thing' Kogure is referring to heheh... I trust that you already know. I never thought it's so hard to create a female OC and not turn her into a Mary Sue. I want her to come out like a real person with real hang-ups. The works, you know. I don't want to create a goddess or a saint whom every Slam Dunk characters would be fighting to be her boyfriend. Even more so, make them all fall in love with her at first sight.
Heh. That's all for now.