Rakka eda ni kaerazu
~ Fallen blossoms do not return to branches ~
-- a Japanese proverb
Chapter Seventeen: Saturday
Summer, Present
Kanagawa, Japan
Neighbourhood basketball court
"Do you really think we can win?" Kogure asked the girl sitting next to him.
"Why not?" she countered.
Kogure was silent for a moment. Then in a heartbreakingly reflective tone, he added softly, "If we don't, it will be my last game."
My last game.
"No!" Her intensity surprised even herself. "It will not be the last. You are going to achieve your dream."
Kogure looked at her. Michiko was all angry and fired up.
He smiled. Here was someone whose dreams were bigger than his. Here was someone who believed.
"We will win."
His words were uncertain. But he repeated them again.
And again.
His voice grew louder and louder.
Until he had shouted, "We will win!"
Spirit.
Courage.
Heart.
Summer, Present
Kanagawa, Japan
Shohoku High School
It was late.
Akagi and Sakuragi were still practicing.
Rather, Sakuragi was practicing, and Akagi was coaching him.
The balls bounced haywired as Sakuragi tried to get them into the net.
The gym door opened. Quietly, unobtrusively.
"Megane-kun," Sakuragi greeted.
Kogure smiled back.
"Anything I can do?"
If we don't win, the match with Ryonan will be my last game.
The words, said with so much feeling, touched even Sakuragi.
In the shadows outside the gym, a girl stood, a smile on her face.
Spirit.
Courage.
Heart.
"Kogure-kun, Shohoku, ganbatte!" she whispered.
"I'm here to help too."
Summer, Present
Kanagawa, Japan
Shohoku High School
Kogure waved to his friends as they walked home, two tall, imposing figures, turning the corner.
Michiko was beside him.
"I'll walk you home. It's very late."
She nodded her thanks.
In the darkness of the summer night, two friends strolled toward home, their way lit only by the occasional streetlight.
Kogure stopped.
Michiko followed suit.
"Why? Have you forgotten something from school?" Michiko queried.
"No." Kogure's voice was filled with awe.
Michiko followed his eyes, which were directed at the sky.
There were many stars. But what was new? Still, she had to admit that they were beautiful.
"I just saw a shooting star." Kogure's voice was barely a whisper. He had just seen something beautiful. A dying star, yet its last moments were so beautiful.
A dying star.
Its last moments were beautiful.
"It must have been beautiful," Michiko said wistfully, joining him in peering into the depths of the night sky, whose vastness was incomprehensible.
"But not as beautiful as you."
Michiko thought at first that she was hearing things. Kogure Kiminobu? Saying such a line?
She looked at him.
He was looking straight at her.
She gasped.
Kogure looked down at the ground, at his shifting feet.
"Michiko-chan, I…I…"
Michiko smiled, enjoying the sight of the basketball player visibly squirming. Kogure was no smooth-talker, unlike Fujima, and her heart went out to him as he struggled to get the right words out.
Finally, in a last, humongous effort, Kogure stammered, "Michiko-chan, I think you're really great. And I like you a lot."
That done, his eyes looked hopefully at her.
She was smiling. Ever so slightly. But she was smiling.
Michiko searched her heart. For something that told her she loved the boy standing in front of her. She didn't want a false relationship, or one based on obligation. She wanted a relationship that was real. That would stand the test of time.
She looked.
She spent an agonizingly long time looking within herself.
Kogure was anxious. Had he offended her?
But she was smiling.
"Kogure-kun," she began.
It was amazing how a voice alone could stir up so much feeling.
"Kogure-kun, I like you a lot too."
She moved closer to him, closing the distance, the distance of etiquette and propriety, which had stood between them.
His arms, as if on their own accord, enfolded her in their embrace.
Michiko was happy.
No thanks to her half-brother.
He had predicted, nonchalantly, that she would end up with Kogure, ever since the match with Kainan.
He was too wise for a younger brother. Then again, they were almost the same age.
His turn would come too.
And she promised herself that she would get back at him.
Later.
Right now, she was walking hand in hand with Kogure.
On a summer night.
"Kogure-kun, what was your wish when you saw that shooting star?"
Kogure Kiminobu looked at the face of the girl in front of him, and replied, "Courage. I wished for courage."
She stopped, leaving the key in the open door, and turned around again.
She touched her hand to his heart, and said softly, with the utmost confidence, "You don't need to wish for courage. You have healthy supply already. I saw it when you were playing basketball."
A dying star.
Its last moments were beautiful.
'More beautiful than you know, Yoko-chan,' Kogure said softly as he watched the door of Kawasaki Michiko's apartment close.
~rurouni
Thank you cookies and unchained for your reviews!
cookies: rukawa is cool...'cept that Kogure is the main Shohoku character here! ^^;;
unchained: pleased to make your acquaintance! hope you're still reading tho....