Okay! After a loooooong break, your worst nightmare has come back to haunt you!! Hehehe, anyway, this is an improvement of chapter length so I'd like it if you guys appreciate it. Okay?
Here's the 8th chapter! Itadakimasu!!
8 ~ Loveless
"You okay?"
Sendoh stared at the undoubtedly the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world as she stared at the glass window viewing the whole fair scene outside. She looked beautiful in her water-blue kimono while her hair shimmered under the golden rays of the setting sun. But beside that, the expression in her face is far from her cheerful attire, ever since they went on rides. Sendoh tried to keep a conversation with her hours ago, but when he noticed that she wasn't in the mood for any, his words eventually dwindled to nothing. Now they were riding the ferris wheel for three times, and her face became worse—or sadder—than ever.
Ellyta obviously didn't even hear a word of what he said as she proceeded on her routine—which she had already done for a good 20 minutes they rode in the ferris wheel—unmoved. The exasperated ace player of Ryonan waved in front of her totally blank eyes in failure, then grabbed her shoulders and shook her vigorously. "Hello! Oi, Elly! Please come back to our world!"
Suddenly a hand struck Sendoh hard and made him bump hard on his own seat. "Oh I'm so sorry, Sendoh-san!" The blonde knelt down in front of him and patted him in apology. "I must have dozed off. Did I slap you that hard?"
"Nah." He stuck out his tongue and grimaced in pain as he struggled to go back to his seat. "You just broke a couple of my ribs, not to mention my cheekbone and my back muscles…"
She shot him a disappointed look as she helped him to his seat as she would to a trembling old man. "I'm starting to doubt whether you really do something every practice. You respond to little pain like a whining, spoiled child! Aren't you ashamed as captain of the Ryonan team?"
"Blame that to my grandma," he said back with a smile. "But at least I got you back where you came from."
Ellyta shook her head sadly. "Sorry. Was I a bad company? I just want to take a break from everything, but…"
"Are you kidding? I thought I was!" Sendoh interrupted her apologies. "I was starting to think you were really bored of me. But never mind that now. Is this because of a certain cool raven-haired Shohoku basketball player?"
She nodded. "Yup."
"Yappari (I knew it)!" He crossed his eyes in amusement. "He turned you down, eh? I knew that guy's unbelievable."
Ellyta stuck out her tongue at him. "I understand how Rukawa feels, though." She remembered the way he looked at her when he said the things to her very coldly at the gym before. The mere thought of it made her shiver, although the weather was still relatively warm.
"I don't. Why can't he just let go of whatever's happened before? Give himself a break or something? He's going to have a sorry existence if he doesn't."
Ellyta smiled wryly. "But he won't. He's that kind of a person."
Sendoh sighed a little as he fiddled with the last lemon from his brown paper bag. "Man, then I can't believe I'm losing to that kind of a guy!"
Mitsui nearly spat out the food he just took in from laughing while looking at Miyagi's shirt, newly spilled with Sakuragi's orange juice. Ayako inched away from him to avoid having a wet outfit herself. "Ryota! First the Neanderthal fight, now this. The restaurant'll put up a sign next time that says, 'Miyagi and Sakuragi: Not Allowed to Enter'!"
"They might as well," Yukino agreed silently as she passed the table napkins to Ayako. Ayako practically threw them at the sophomore's mortified face. "Here! Wipe yourself before the waiter sees us like this."
Miyagi shot an angry look at the laughing Sakuragi as he blot out the excess liquid that clung to his brand-new shirt that cost him his three-weeks' allowance. Mitsui shook his head in mock disappointment and leaned toward Yukino. "You can now imagine what'll happen to our club next year, can't you?"
The milky-white girl smiled, her violet eyes sparkling. "Sou desu ne."
Sakuragi noticed the intimate exchange. "Hey, how'd you guys meet anyway?"
"It happened a month ago. I bumped into her when she was carrying that armload of flowers and trampled half of them. Her father in the shop was really mad, but Yukino-chan promised she'd pay them with her next month's paycheck. But I couldn't agree to that and volunteered to work there for the next four weeks every after basketball practice." Mitsui fingered the embedded pattern of the tablecloth and grinned at the curious four. "I guess I was stuck with her flower shop then, but it really was worth it."
"It's kinda cute, isn't it?" Haruko smiled at Yukino. "You look really lovely tonight, by the way."
"Thank you." Yukino had on a white kimono with a simple elegant flower design that matched her eyes, and the pureness of it really made her long black hair stand out, which held a beautiful white flower. Her kimono strangely created winter season in herself, a contrasting weather compared to the night.
Sakuragi could only blink. "Oh." The story must have made him speechless.
"I guess the three of us are officially attached now," Mitsui draped his arm around his date.
"Correction. TWO of you may have," Ayako disagreed. Miyagi could only react with a whimper. Why am I always unlucky enough to have these kinda clothes, does water really hate me that much?
Haruko looked at her red-haired date next to her. "You really think so?" Sakuragi smiled nobly: a perfectly refined technique he worked with the night before. He called it "Tensai's Smile". (What else ^_^) "Dayjoubu (Don't worry), Haruko-san! You are always safe with Tensai Sakuragi."
Mitsui smirked at his statement, but didn't bother to make a comment and continued on the subject instead. "And I hear Akagi's starting to talk often on the phone with a senior girl from the prefecture of the university he's planning to enter. Aren't we getting mature already or what?"
Miyagi looked at Ayako as she started to look back. When their eyes locked, they immediately glanced away as if a jolt of electricity zapped them. Did he imagine it, or were her cheeks blushed when she looked into him? Does this mean…
"Hehehehe! It means Rukawa's still a no-good junior-high kid with no know-how about women and dates!" Sakuragi snickered. "Poor Rukawa! He's the only boy left without a girl!"
"Careful, Hanamichi." Miyagi pointed to Haruko while her eyes started to change into bright pink hearts. "You might lose her again to that kitsune."
"No! HARUKO-SAN!"
In the abandoned playground of Shohoku just as darkness subdued the whole neighborhood, a tall figure can be seen at the entrance looking towards the direction of the swings. The howling winds made the place seem like a cemetery—a perfect place for the destroyed and the depressed to play in.
A colorful ball rolled by and went against the figure. The dark figure picked it up and carefully removed all the dirt and leaves that stuck onto it. Handling it almost lovingly, he limply threw it away when pain suddenly flashed inside his heart.
Why did I come here? he asked himself while walking to the swings and taking a seat to one. He glanced around the whole scene of the place: dead and dreary, while falling leaves tried to cover the darkness, they gave up and only followed the winds. It certainly matches my mood.
As he pushed his feet against the ground, causing the swing to move to and fro slowly, a memory of the playground when it was cheery suddenly appeared before him:
A little boy was carefully handling a big ball. He bounced it hard to the floor; it went back and hit his face. Angrily, he tried to bounce it off again when a little girl about his age went to stop him. "What are you doing—hurting yourself? That isn't how basketball should work!" She took the ball away from the boy. "It's not even dribbling!"
The boy could only stare at the ball. "Why do you want me to play it so much?" The girl dribbled the ball slowly and shot it in the air. She picked it up and dribbled again. "Now THIS is a dribble."
She handed it back to the little boy and urged him to imitate. He bounced it off with a little less energy than before and grabbed it back again, then did the bouncing once more. "You didn't answer me yet!" he grumbled.
"Nice start! But you shouldn't grab the ball and then bounce again; it's a double dribble in games. But you did well for a beginner." A teenage boy of about thirteen came into vision and went near the boy. The girl grinned at him and went a couple a feet away to watch. "You want to know why? Well, it was my idea, because I want you to become a great player when you grow up. You are taller than a normal kid your age and I think you have the potential to do it."
He jerked his finger towards the little girl. "My sister couldn't do it, of course; she's a girl and females' games aren't that popular in America or Japan. So she'll be playing strategist instead." He took the ball and stared hard into the boy, who was listening intently without even blinking. "I don't want you to just waste your life doing nothing. Would you want that?"
The boy knew he expected it, so he answered: "No."
"I thought so. Your height and talent would be all a waste. Besides, you develop skills of communicating with your fellow members and teamwork and strategy is also needed. It's an all-round sport if you think about it." He ran a hand through his spiky blond hair and handed the ball back to the little boy. "Here. Give it another try."
The boy took it, but never did anything. Instead he just lowered his head and said, "Cloud, are you sure I could do it?"
The teenager cocked his head thoughtfully. "You wouldn't if you don't even try. Don't worry, I'll give you all the pointers you need to become a real pro."
"You really will?"
"Trust me."
After that another scene suddenly flashed before him. This time it wasn't a bright summer, but a cold winter season, and the same little boy after a few years held the same orange ball that was smudged with snow. The girl went to his side and took a deep breath before saying: "I'm sorry for the way things turned out."
The boy looked away and never replied. The girl sighed at his expression. "I wish I could change what happened, but I couldn't. No one could. But the least you could do is just continue on without fear."
"How can I continue like this?" He threw the ball furiously and it landed a few arcs away. Then he turned to the girl. "How can you continue without him?"
The girl smiled. "I asked Chiharu-san the very same question a few hours ago."
"And what did she say?"
She ran towards the ball and picked it up. She returned to her spot next to him and showed the ball to him. "She said, 'Why? Has he ever left you?'"
The boy couldn't utter a word to that. He looked at the basketball. Now the white was gone and it became cleaner than before. "I guess I'll take over from here," he said quietly, still uncertain of the decision that was going to take lead in him for the rest of his life.
The young girl grinned at him. "Who ever said you're going to be alone? Of course I'll come along! I'll train you in my brother's place. And I won't stop until you reach his dreams."
"You really will? Promise?"
"I promise."
He couldn't think more any longer; he could only grit his teeth and shot angry eyes at the colorful ball. His eyes became blurry and he could only blink it away in disgust. Liar! You should know how much it feels to be left behind without knowing the true cruelty of it!
Rukawa stood up and ran to the direction of his house. That's the only place he'll ever belong—nowhere else, nothing else…no one else.
"He really improved quickly then. After only 4 months he already learned how to do hard techniques. In his first game in elementary he did three successful fade-away shots that won the game." Ellyta recalled his past practices as she and Sendoh ate finger sandwiches she packed earlier. "But my brother wanted him to improve so much more—he was confident that Rukawa-kun could become like an ace player before he could even enter junior high school. He invited us to national games to see what the real players are like. He was part of the All-Japan Team, then, when he just turned sixteen."
Sendoh whistled in awe. "Sugoi."
Ellyta nodded. "They had a match with the American Team when Cloud saved us front-row seats. He was the point guard and he scored 50 points in the first half. Rukawa-kun and I noticed how energetic and happy he was at that day, but we couldn't figure out why. It was in the second half when something struck."
"What happened?" Sendoh popped the last bit of sandwich into his mouth and chewed slowly, trying to process everything she said and coming up with an inference of what happened.
The blonde lowered her head as the memories came flooding back to her mind. "It was in the middle of the second half…that my brother suddenly collapsed quietly and fell to the floor. There weren't any injuries or blood, but we heard his teammates say they should bring him to the hospital since they didn't feel a pulse. Rukawa-kun and I rushed to the nearest hospital to see if he's okay, but we only saw him covered in a dark blanket."
The Ryonan player couldn't find any words to comfort the girl, for she was trembling when she move on to the story. "The strangest thing was he was smiling, as if he's telling us he's only sleeping. But he never woke up nor came back to us."
"Rukawa-kun accused basketball for what happened to Cloud. But when I told him he should continue for my brother's sake, he started to train like crazy. But after a few months later I found out…" she stopped in midsentence. "Why? What's wrong?" Sendoh inquired.
"Oh. I think I heard something from over there." She pointed to the bushes behind them. "I'll go check it out."
"Iia, I will. Just stay there, ok?" Sendoh stood up and went towards the bushes slowly. As soon as he reached the spot, he started to move away branches to find a bush of red.
"Did you find anything?" Ellyta called from their seat. "No, just something red…" then something dawned to him. He quickly pushed away some more bushes in order to confirm if that red color was from…
"Sakuragi!"
~*Next Chapter – Invitations With A Secret*~
There! Reactions, or a little bit of help? Just put a review, and I'll keep on posting. Maybe after 5 reviews, I'll put the next chap. ^_^
Y'all come back someday!
PS These goodbye quotes aren't mine, by the way, I got them from Suikoden 3. I love that game ^^