Chapter 3: Oniichan?

That morning, Hanayuki woke up with a heavy head, but still, she pulled herself out of bed and got ready for school. Stepping out of her house, she was surprised to see somebody leaning against the wall beside the gate. It was Rukawa, who appeared to be waiting for her, for when he heard the sound of the gate being unlocked, his eyes flew open and he straightened up to stand properly.

"Rukawa-kun? What are you doing here?" asked Hanayuki, locking the gate behind her.

Rukawa walked to his bike lying on the ground and mounted it, but he didn't cycle away. He just sat on the bike, supporting both the bike and himself on one leg, while the other leg was on the pedal. It was as if he was waiting for her to get on the bike.

Hanayuki raised her eyebrows at this. He wants me to get on the bike?

Seeing her silence, Rukawa sighed. Is it so hard to understand my actions? I mean, it's so obvious what I am trying to...

"Anou, Rukawa-kun. It's very kind of you to offer cycling me to school, but I would like to walk to school if you don't mind."

Rukawa turned to look at her so quickly, it was a wonder he didn't sprain his neck. What the... how did you know what I was trying to say through my actions? You are not supposed to know. Nobody is supposed to know. (Man, and he was about to say that it's so obvious what he was trying to say through his actions.) Rukawa narrowed his eyes.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I really would like to walk to school. I mean, I take the walking as a form of exercise. Besides, after what happened yesterday..." she trailed off, before continuing, "I think this walk would be able to help me freshen up a bit."

Rukawa looked at her for a moment longer before getting off his bike. This time, he stood beside the bike, waiting. As if...

He's walking me to school?

Hanayuki raised her eyebrows again. That was twice in a row she was surprised today, and only in a matter of a few minutes. If there are any more surprises, my poor heart wouldn't be able to take it.

They walked to school in silence, Hanayuki giving up trying to strike a conversation with Rukawa. It's not as if he would answer me anyway. I mean, he didn't even ask me to walk with him; he just walked off after a while, as if expecting me to follow him. And here I am, walking beside him...

Hanayuki sighed. All of a sudden, she remembered something. "Matte!"

Before Rukawa could react, she turned and ran back to her house.

What is she, crazy? She shouldn't be running like that, especially after what happened yesterday. He dumped his bike on the pavement and ran after her.

Despite her condition, she was running really fast. But Rukawa wasn't slow either. He was right behind her when she unlocked the gate and went in. He waited outside, but not for long, for she came out less than a minute later, holding a bento in her hand. She held it out to Rukawa, motioning for him to hold it for her (she was panting from the run, so she couldn't really speak at that moment) while she lock the gate. Then, she stood still for a while, catching her breath.

Rukawa just stood there, watching her. Stupid. He saw her glancing at the watch she was wearing on her wrist, and watched as her violet eyes slowly widen in their sockets.

"Ahhhh! We're going to be late! We'd better hurry up, or... or... Ahhhh!" She started running again, only to be stopped by Rukawa before she could go any further. "Ah, Rukawa-kun! You're blocking my way. We have to get to school quickly or we'll be late, and then we'll have to see the principal, and then we'll get a deten... ," she trailed off when she noticed that Rukawa seemed like he didn't care whether they were going to be late, or would have to see the principal, or even get detention. "Rukawa-kun?" He pointed, and her eyes followed in the direction of his finger. His bicycle was lying on the ground.

Rukawa walked to his bicycle and picked it up. Hanayuki, meanwhile, was still standing at the same spot, blinking stupidly at the sight of the bicycle.

Rukawa looked at her, and rolled his eyes. How slow can you get? He got on the bike, and in the exact same way, posed like how he did a while ago, with on leg on the ground and another on the pedal, hoping that, like before, Hanayuki would get the message.

She did, and soon they were off to school again, this time on Rukawa's pink bike. Fortunately, they weren't late, but not as fortunate as the fact that both of them were still in one piece, considering that it was Rukawa who did the navigating (you know what I'm talking about).

You could imagine the chaos that had erupted from the mere sight of both of them. The entire girl population of Shohoku High School (well, almost) launched into a wailing competition, each of them trying their very best to wail the loudest, as if she who wailed the loudest, loved Rukawa the most.

The guys... well, being guys, most of them either ignored them or were totally oblivious to them (one of the good points of a guy, I suppose?).

As was the case with Rukawa and Hanayuki. Rukawa, being Rukawa and a guy, ignored the wails, although they were starting to give him a headache. Hanayuki, on the hand, couldn't get it through her not-usually-thick head as to why the girls acted the way they did, and so decided to ignore them as well.

It took a few rings of the bell (the sensei had to ring it a few times because the girls were too busy wailing to hear the bell) before silence finally descended upon Shohoku High School that morning.

Class of 1-10...

"Ah... today, your ah... homework will be on, um..." Takota-sensei was being rather nervous that day. Actually, rather would be an understatement. Very would be more like it. Takota-sensei was being very nervous that day. So much so that he was actually stuttering, a problem he had never encountered before, even when he was nervous. Not that anyone could blame him, though. He had never come across this scene before, and had never even dreamt of it happening. He still couldn't believe that he had lived to see the day Rukawa Kaede would not be sleeping in class. Or even pay attention in class.

Yes. Our dearest Super Rookie Ice King was actually paying attention in class. But do not be fooled. He was paying attention, yes... but not to the sensei standing at the front of the class. He was paying attention to his own thoughts, which had refused to grant him peaceful sleep ever since he found out who his seatmate was. His thoughts wandered back to the incident a while ago.

-Flashback-

Ignoring the commotion around them, Hanayuki accompanied (or followed...) Rukawa to the bicycle shed, to show her appreciation for his help. She thanked him, and then excused herself, before he could say anything. Then, he realised that he was still having her bento. He didn't know which class she was in, and she had all but disappeared after leaving the bicycle shed, so he decided to head to class, thinking that she would come for the bento later, since she seemed to know more about him than he her.

As he settled into his chair, putting the bento on the desk next to his, he looked out of the window, reminiscing about the ride to school just now. He didn't notice his seatmate coming into class, although he did notice that wails were starting to echo from every corner of the room. He didn't even notice her sitting down beside him, until she spoke to him. "Rukawa-kun, this bento is for you."

Remembering the bento, he turned around, his hand reaching out to take the bento from the 'filthy little hands' of the girl sitting next to him, when he found himself looking into a pool of violet eyes. Hmm... they look familiar. Now where have I seen them before? His eyes widened when he realised that they belonged to the same person. And that person had been sitting next to him from the very beginning.

-End of flashback-

He sneaked a peek at Hanayuki sitting beside him, who was taking down notes from the board. He had been trying to make himself comfortable and drift off to sleep since the first lesson; they were now in the third, but he had yet to succeed. He even tried to fake sleeping, deliberately snoring loudly, in hopes that the sleeping angel or demon or whatever the thing was which controlled his sleep, would be fooled and give him back his sleep.

Unfortunately, the timing of his snoring, mainly whenever the sensei paused while reading out notes, almost drove the sensei to the brink of insanity, or more accurately, to the brink of the class window. For those of you who didn't understand, here's a peek of how it was:

"Central transition metal ion is linked to the ligands on an electrostatic basis."

Snore.

"Ligands on their own possess an electric field and upon bonding to the metal ion, causes electrostatic repulsion."

Snore.

"Bonding causes the 'd' orbital to split into 2 levels."

Snore. (The sensei's leg started twitching towards the window.)

"Energy difference depends on the type of ligand and the nature of metal ions."

Snore. (He was nowhere in front of the board which is in the middle of the class.)

"When ligand field strength increases, energy difference increases."

Snore. (He was right beside the window.)

"When a 'd' subshell electron is promoted to a higher orbital, radiation in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum is absorbed."

Snore. (The window was opened.)

"The light energy not absorbed is seen as the complex colours."

Snore.

That's it. Good bye cruel world. He tried to jump out of the window, but knocked himself unconscious on the low window pane in the process.

The whole class sweatdropped.

After recess, back in the classroom of 1-10...

Hanayuki entered the classroom, followed by Rukawa. They had just come down from the rooftop after spending the whole recess in each other's company. Well, if you could call it company.

Hanayuki had stopped altogether trying to make a conversation with Rukawa. She just sat there in front of him, eating from her bento. Rukawa was... not really Rukawa. He didn't attempt to make a conversation, if that's what you think. Like Hanayuki, he just sat there opposite her, eating from her bento (the one she prepared for him).

So what's the problem you ask? Well, he was supposed to be sleeping, that's what the problem is, but he wasn't. In fact, if I told you what he actually did before this, you would immediately embrace the thought that he was not being himself that day.

You see, Hanayuki didn't follow (or in this case accompany) Rukawa to the rooftop, nor did she go there to find him. At least, she didn't out of her own will. Rukawa had 'accidentally' (if you know what I mean) left his bento in class, so obviously she had to make it her duty to send it to him on the rooftop, since she was the one who had prepared it in the first place.

Although he was a little bothered by her silence, because for as long as he had been associated with her (by the way, the grand total would be, what, 3-5 days?), she definitely had been talking more than she did today, he decided that he didn't care. It's not as if I like noise anyway, he thought as once again he launched into his trying-very-hard-to-sleep mode.

A moment later, the sensei came in and started the lesson. Not even 5 minutes later, he was interrupted when there was a knock on the door, before it slid open.

Akagi had found it very hard to concentrate on things that week. There were so many things jumbled up in his mind, he had even found it hard to relax. His hand reached up to massage his head.

First, there was that redhead, Sakuragi Hanamichi. At the beginning of the week, he had come across this gangster-like boy who had said that basketball was child's play, resulting in a challenge game between him and the boy. Not only did he lose the game, he had also been embarrassed in front of the whole school when Sakuragi had accidentally pulled down his pants to reveal his um, bottom to the crowd who had gathered to watch the game.

The next day, they had found the locker room broken into by none other than Sakuragi, who by the way was also wearing his jersey when they found him and bragging that he would beat Rukawa the way he did Akagi. Akagi ignored him, but it only made Sakuragi more determined to get on the good side with Akagi.

So, after tormenting Yasuda for information about Akagi (he found out that Akagi was a neat freak and liked disciplined people), he had sent Akagi a box of bananas, complete with pictures of beautiful girls (Yasuda didn't tell him that Akagi likes bananas and pretty girls, he just assumed Akagi did since in his opinion Akagi looked like a gorilla, and all gorillas like bananas. As for the pictures of the girls, he assumed that all guys would like them), embarrassing Akagi again right in front of his classmates as the things were sent by the redhead himself (in a disguise of course, which was later uncovered by Akagi) to his class.

The day after that, the locker room was once again broken into, only this time they went in to find a sparkling clean room. Sakuragi had actually enlisted the help of his gundan to clean up the place after hearing Akagi reprimand Yasuda the day before about not cleaning up the locker room. Again, Akagi had ignored him, complimenting his juniors instead, infuriating the redhead even further.

I wonder what he'll be doing next, Akagi thought to himself. He had to admit that this boy had guts. I like that in a guy (He didn't mean it THAT way, you hentai!), he thought as he continued walking down the corridor. Looking around, his mind was brought to the second thing which was boggling his mind. The new basketball team coach.

He wouldn't have mind if the new coach was a devil in disguise. He wouldn't even have mind if the new coach was a young and inexperienced one. But, of all the things that could've happened, it had to happen this way.

I mean, she's younger than me for goodness sake!

But then, a challenge was a challenge; he had lost it and so had his other team-mates. He would have to accept the fact that their new coach was only 15 and a female. Which was why he was walking along the first-year corridor in the first place. In his dazed and shocked condition after losing the challenge two days before, he had conveniently forgotten to ask for her name and how to contact her. The only thing he knew about her was the fact that she was a student of Shohoku High School, so here he was.

He wasn't alone though. His vice-captain, Kogure had come along with him, but they had split up to cover more ground. Towards the end of recess time, they still didn't manage to find her, and were about to give up when Lady Luck decided to smile upon them.

"Akagi, I think I saw her walk into that classroom over there," said Kogure excitedly (ok, so maybe he wasn't really like, excited in the sense of excited, he was only um... excited in the sense of relief because they had finally found her after walking around for so long). They headed towards the classroom which Kogure had pointed to, and Akagi, after taking a deep breath, knocked on the door. Here goes nothing.

Rukawa watched as the captain of Shohoku's basketball team entered the classroom, towering above the rest of the students in the class (well, obviously... since he was standing and they were all sitting down), even Kaneshiro-sensei. He couldn't hear what the guy was saying to sensei, but he soon found out.

"Let me get this right. You are looking for someone."

Akagi nodded.

"You saw her entering this class just now."

Another nod.

"But, you don't know her name."

Akagi nodded again, this time a little hesitatingly.

"Is this some kind of a joke, young man?" Kaneshiro-sensei demanded.

Akagi gulped, but managed to maintain his composure. "No, sensei. I mean, I do know her, but I..."

"You don't know her name. This is ridiculous. How can you know her and not know her name? Please leave the classroom now. You are disturbing my class." He turned to face the class, about to continue with his lesson when Hanayuki stood up.

"Anou, sensei. I think he's looking for me."

They know each other? Rukawa wondered.

Kaneshiro-sensei looked at her as if she had just said something ridiculous like Akagi. "And how do you know that, my dear girl?" His voice was clearly dripping with venom.

"You can ask Akagi-sempai, sensei," she calmly answered. Kaneshiro-sensei turned towards Akagi, who nodded his confirmation and said, "That's her alright. May I see her for a moment, sensei?"

Narrowing his eyes and looking at the both of them, Kaneshiro-sensei finally relented. With that, Hanayuki walked out of the class with Akagi.

I wonder what they are talking about, thought Rukawa.

"Can I help you with anything, Akagi-sempai?" Hanayuki asked as soon as they were outside the classroom. She immediately noticed Kogure who was waiting outside. "Kogure-sempai," she acknowledged, before turning to face Akagi again.

"It would be of great help, if you could first and foremost, tell me your name, er... sen... sen..." Akagi replied before trailing off when he realised that according to the norm, he would have to call the younger girl as sensei.

Hanayuki noticed this and quickly said, "Please, Akagi-sempai. Do not call me sensei. It makes me feel so much older than I am, when the truth is I am actually younger than you are. Just call me Hana or Yuki. I'd really like that." She paused to look at each of them before continuing, "By the way, that's my name. Hanayuki. Tsukino Hanayuki."

"Ah... finally we know your name. We are so sorry we interrupted your lesson, ah... Yuki-san. We forgot to ask for your name the other day. How forgetful, ne?" Kogure said with a sheepish smile on his face.

"You weren't the only ones, Kogure-sempai. I was forgetful, too. I didn't introduce myself properly in the first place." Hanayuki returned his smile (although sheepish, but a smile nevertheless). "And please, drop the 'san' from my name. I don't really like it."

"Um... but we can't call you by name. It seems so... improper, with you being our coach and all. How about Yuki-chan, or Hana-chan?" Kogure asked, scratching the back of his head as if trying to dig out some ideas from inside about what would be the best way to call her.

Before she could answer, Akagi cut in. "We'll call you Yuki-chan from now on." When he saw the protest in her eyes, he quickly added, "At least it's better than Hanayuki-sensei or Yuki-san, isn't it?"

Hanayuki seemed to be contemplating this, and then finally agreed. "Ok. But then I'll call you both Akagi-sempai and Kogure-sempai. You are after all still my seniors. No buts," she concluded, raising her hand to stop them as they were about to protest. "Anyway, what did you want to see me for? I'm sure it's not just for the name," asked Hanayuki.

"Oh, yeah. We wanted to ask you if you would be coming to today's practice. As you would have known, we'll be enlisting new players today. Perhaps you would like to see them as they turn up," Kogure explained.

"Ah... that would be interesting. But I'm afraid I won't be able to make it today. I have something else I have to do. In fact, I don't think I'll be coming for the whole of next week either, at least until the next Monday. So both of you will have to handle everything for the time being ne, Akagi-sempai, Kogure-sempai?" Hanayuki looked at them with a smile.

"Hai. You can count on us, Yuki-chan," Kogure replied enthusiastically. For some reason, he was beginning to feel at ease with her.

"Is there anything else? Because if you don't, I would like to get back in there, before Kaneshiro-sensei comes after me. You know how he is," Hanayuki said with shrug.

"That is all, Yuki sen-, I mean, Yuki-chan. Arigatou," Akagi replied with a bow, almost forgetting that he wasn't supposed to call her sensei. Hanayuki only smiled at his 'almost-mistake'.

"Arigatou. Sayonara." She bowed, and then disappeared into the classroom.

The afternoon came quickly, and soon the basketball gym was filled with its members, old and new. Akagi watched as Kogure and a few other second-years gathered the first-years to form a line. He mentally counted the number of new members, knowing fully well that the number would soon decrease by half. When he saw that the first-years were already in a line in front of Kogure, he walked up to them and stood beside Kogure, asking them to introduce themselves. One by one, they did. And among them were Rukawa Kaede and Sakuragi Hanamichi.

When Akagi arrived at the gym a while ago, he had found Sakuragi sleeping on the floor. The floor had been cleaned thoroughly, and the balls had been polished till they actually shine, with the name Sakuragi scrawled on each ball.

Facing such determination and persistence, Akagi finally let Sakuragi join the team, and now there he was standing beside Rukawa. Already, he was creating trouble with Rukawa, just because Akagi had asked Rukawa about his hobby but didn't ask Sakuragi. Besides that, upon hearing that Rukawa's hobby was sleeping, Sakuragi had immediately started to ridicule Rukawa.

This is not going to be easy, thought Akagi.

The doors to the gym burst open, and in came a girl with long black curly hair tucked under a cap, wearing a pink t-shirt and blue shorts. It was Ayako, the team manageress. Seeing the first-years, she launched into her cheery welcome-to-the-club self, practically peering into the faces of each and every one of the newcomers in her attempt to get to know them.

It was then made known that she and Rukawa went to the same junior high school, Tomigaoka. She even praised Sakuragi a bit, mentioning that the one-on-one game between him and Akagi was currently the talk of the school. This got Sakuragi into high spirits, only to be brought back down when Akagi placed him under Ayako to be trained in basics such as dribbling, since he was still an amateur in basketball.

One week (and a couple of days) later, Sakuragi was still doing his basics, but this time, it wasn't dribbling. Nope, he was now doing basic passing with Ayako, whose hands were practically hurting from the practice. But she didn't complain. As long as he stayed on the team, she wouldn't mind practising with him. She knew that he had the potential to be a great basketball player, and it was a great relief that he came back after walking out on the team a few days before.

At the entrance to the gym, three girls had gathered to see their beloved Rukawa practise. They had been appearing much more often these days, and everytime they did, they'll start screaming their lungs out whenever they see the ball in Rukawa's possession. They were a nuisance (I am sure everyone on the team thinks so), but nobody could do anything about it.

Sakuragi tried to politely ask them to leave, but was laughed at by the girls, who then further insulted him. Angry, he slammed the door shut right in their faces, only to make matters worse when the girls started banging on the door and shouting furiously.

He was about to go back to practicing when the door suddenly opened. With flames of fire practically bursting out of his eyes, he turned around, ready to chuck whoever that opened the door out of the gym, but stopped short when he saw that it was another girl and not one of the earlier three. He blinked at her a few times, before realising that he had his fist raised, and then, smiling sheepishly, put it down.

"Ehehehe... gomen. I thought you were one of those annoying girls. Er, are you looking for someone?" Sakuragi asked the girl.

The girl did not answer. She just stared at him, eyes unblinking.

"Um... hello? Anybody home?" He waved his hand in front of the girl's face. Still no response.

Sakuragi narrowed his eyes, squinting at her before shrugging and walking off. He wasn't even two steps away when he heard the girl call out to him softly.

"Oniichan..."

Author's notes: Despite some REALLY bad reviews, I'll still continue writing. So there. I thank everyone who had taken the time to read and review my fic, including the ones who gave me the bad reviews. Truly, I really do appreciate it. Thanks again from the bottom of my heart. Anyway, that's all for now. Ja!