"What the hell is going on ?!"
Everybody turned to look at Sakuragi, the source from where the sentence was shouted out. Haruko blinked. Yohei raised his eyebrows. Mitsui's eyes twitched. Miyagi's neck was craned forward. In short everybody was surprised that Sakuragi said that. It was so . . . unlike Sakuragi.
Sa, Ku, Ra and Gi almost cried. How can.. how can their idol say that ?!! Did he not appreciate their hard efforts ? To fight the Rukawa brigade is tough work . Sa lips trembled. Ku held her pom poms close to her face , sad. Ra and Gi bit their lips.
"How in grateful.." The Rukawa brigade whispered.
"At least our Rukawa does not do anything bad to us," Ru whispered to her team members.
["Our?" Rukawa thought as he sweatdrops.]
"I didn't expect that reaction from him," Yohei uttered.
"That is kind of mean isn't it ?" Fujii whispered under her breath.
"Sakuragi kun. . ." Haruko trailed off.
"Sakuragi kun," Haruko called out. "They are just trying to-" Haruko's attempt to convince Sakuragi that the brigade was not that bad was interrupted by-
"NYAHAHAHAHA !!" Sakuragi laughter interrupted Haruko.
"The tensai has his own fan club !" Sakuragi continued. Everybody sweatdrops.
Finally.. finally I have my own fan club.. take that Kitsune !!! Sakuragi thought with a glint in his eye.
"YAAHH !! Sakuragi !!" The Sakuragi brigade shrieked while the Rukawa brigade looked at them in disgust.
A vision where Sakuragi is standing tall in the middle while Sa, Ku, Ra and Gi circled him and cheering for him. Haruko was clutching a bouquet of flowers intending for Sakuragi. The Rukawa brigade and Rukawa were down on the floor. At least.. this is what is playing in Sakuragi's mind right now.
"BAKA !!!" Akagi suddenly appeared both in Sakuragi's daydream and reality to bonk his head. "KEEP ON PLAYING !!"
Sakuragi cowered. Miyagi and Mitsui laughed at Sakuragi's expense. Rukawa shrugged. Akagi marched towards the entrance of the indoor court. He glared at both the Rukawa and Sakuragi brigade before he slided the sliding door shut.
"HEEEYYY !!!" the Rukawa and Sakuragi brigade protested in unison.
"You can't let expect us to stand here and cheer for Rukawa!" Ka cried out. No answer.
"This is NOT fair !!" Both the Rukawa & Sakuragi brigade exploded. They stopped and turned to glare at the opposing brigade. Ru, Ka, and Wa lifted their chin and glared at the Sakuragi brigade. Sa, Ku, Ra and Gi looked up and gave them dirty looks.
Yohei, Haruko, Nomi, Fujii, Takamiya, Matsui and Ookutsu stood in the middle of the brigade's path. Each of the non-brigade (?) person looked at each other and silently sighed. The silence was almost deafening.
Haruko, Fujii and Matsui felt really uncomfortable to be in the 'middle' of the two fighting brigades, while the Sakuragi Gundan silently gave each other signals on which brigade should they bet on. (Yohei and Nomi voted for the Sakuragi brigade while Takamiya and Ookutsu were for the Rukawa brigade.)
"This is all YOUR fault !" Both of the brigade burst out to each other. They started pointing and blaming the other brigade. The middle people, that is, the non-brigade (?) group, took a step back simultaneously.
"Our fault ? Excuse me ?!" Sa said sarcastically.
"We never got this kind of problem before YOU arrived !" Ru scolded.
"You have been on my, I mean, our nerves since forever !!" Ku shot.
"You don't even know much about that freaky red headed guy !!" Ka argued.
"Rukawa hardly talks !! Maybe he should've been called frozen river !!" Ra hollered.
"At least we know what Rukawa likes, where he goes for his daily sleep, where he lives, where.. EVERYTHING about Rukawa !! We know !!" Wa growled.
"Oh, yeah !! We did our research too !! We have mostly been an underground team, but we've decided we should get out !!" Gi barked.
"Are you even from here ?!" Ru asked the Sakuragi brigade.
Good point.. where are they from anyway ? Yohei wondered as he continued to watch the fight. Yohei rubbed his chin as if he was thinking something. And…
please, please let the Sakuragi brigade win. I really need that money.
"Yeah, we've never seen you around before !" Ka raised her voice even higher.
"Well, I'm sorry that we are all not from here. Pity. Is not we can cheer for *sigh* our Sakuragi," Sa said as she trailed off to dream about the loudmouth, self-proclaimed tensai.
"Lucky for us, Hikoichi managed to provide us Sakuragi's basic stats and data," Ku added.
"You mean, WE managed to make Hikoichi provide us Sakuragi's basic stats and data," Ra said to Ku.
Hikoichi ? Haruko frowned. That name is familiar. …Hey.. isn't Hikoichi that reporter cum basketball player of Ryonan ??
"Yes, we, the Sakuragi brigade are from Ryonan !" Gi said out loud proudly.
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dir : Thank you so much for the reviews for the first chapter. I never
thought it will get that kind of response. Thanks ! I hope that you will enjoy
this second chapter. ^^*