Shinichi nii-chan

Genre: Romance/Humor

Pairing: Maki X OC (Hoshino Shina)

Disclaimer: Slam Dunk is the intellectual property of Takehiko Inoue sensei.

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Chapter Four

"Shinichi nii-chan~~~" Shina's voice drifted into Maki's room before she even attempted to climb the stairs. Maki sighed and put down his notes, listening to how she stomped her way up the stairs. He wondered when the steps would collapse. It wouldn't look nice if little Shina ended up sitting on a pile of cement and wood wondering what had happened before she tried to make her way up Maki's stairs. However, that's not the main point.

"SHINICHI NII-CHAN~~!!" She burst into Maki's room and flung herself headlong onto his king-sized bed, "Do you think I should re-bond my hair?"

"Re-bond as in sitting in the salon for hours and iron out your hair?"

"Something like that," She tugged at strands of her puffy, wiry hair, "I'm tired of WWC!"

"What is WWC?"

"War With Combs. Do you think I'll look good with re-bonded hair?"

"Sure," Maki shrugged, moving back to his work.

"So when I go to university I'll look like just any other sweet, pretty freshmen," Shina grinned blissfully.

"And grab the attention of boys?" Maki smiled, though he felt something strange when she mentioned going to university. It would mean that she had to leave home. He guessed that he would probably miss her, since he had been with her all his life.

"Not in the way your Kane Akihara does," She rolled over, looking at Maki from an upside-down point of view.

"Kane," He laughed, "Did not spike her hair just to grab attention of boys, she doesn't give a damn about them,"

"Not even you, sexy nii-chan?" Shina teased.

"I can't believe you just said that!" Maki stopped what he was writing and turned to glare at Shina, "Do not harbour ill intentions against my virgin body,"

"Nii-chan, you are still a…a…" Shina looked incredulous.

"What's the big deal," Maki's nose turned red. He decided that writing his Economics notes would be safer than a conversation with the insane individual mutilating his meticulously made bed.

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"No…you do it like this…" Kane snatched the pen from Fujitaka and started writing the solutions to the question. Fujitaka stared at her dreamily, and it was pretty obvious that he wasn't interested in finding out the solutions to the problem.

"There you go, understand?" She put the pen down.

"Aye…" He replied, albeit absent-mindedly.

"Are you listening or not?" Kane frowned hard.

('She looked good even when she frowns…')

"Aye…"

Angry that he was not vaguely paying attention, Kane gathered her notes in a sweeping motion and clipped them into her folio before standing up to leave. The chair that she sat on was pushed away violently. When he finally realized what was going on, Fujitaka caught up with her, "Kane…"

"There's no point in trying to help someone who does not even have the interest in whatever I want to say, and I don't have the time to waste with you," She flared. If looks could kill, Fujitaka would be deader than a block of wood.

"Look Kane, I'm really sorry, I was…" He tried to find a reason.

"Shut. Up." Kane told him off firmly before quickening her steps towards the locker room. She still had something on.

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"Oh my god, is that you, Shina?" Maki stared at the petite girl, who now had shoulder-length straight hair. The whole treatment process was long and tedious, lasting for about five hours. There was still a protein-treatment process that she had to go through to complete the entire re-bonding treatment, but that would be due only a week later. She looked quite different, apart from the fact that she still had pimples splattered across her nose and forehead, with thick blue-rimmed glasses camouflaging her large brown eyes.

"Whoah," Maki touched her hair. It felt smooth and silky. Shina looked up at him, eyes shimmering in bliss, "Don't you think I looked so much better, Shinichi nii-chan?"

"Yeah, you do…" His voice trailed off. He missed messing up her puffy hair already. At least he got to tug her pigtails in the past, but now her hair would be so smooth that a tug would take the braids off, an action, which would get her screaming in fury, and ignore him for days.

"You still looked chubby," He pinched her cheeks playfully. Shina sighed, "Can't help it, Shinichi nii-chan, that's puppy fat,"

"Oh really," He raised his eyebrows skeptically, "I hope it is,"

"What do you mean!" She glared at him indignantly, fingering her hair unconsciously.

"Nothing," He shrugged.

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"Nee-chan!" A little bundle of energy whipped his way into Kane's arms as she opened the door.

"Heyah, Ryuu-chan, how are you today?" Kane nuzzled her seven-year-old little brother affectionately, "Are you a good boy?"

"I learnt ten words today!" Ryuuchi announced proudly to his eldest sister.

"Good~ Let Nee-chan kiss you," She smacked a kiss on his cherubic cheek loudly. Ryuuchi grinned happily and dragged her into the house.

"Gomen ne Ryuu-chan, you go and play with Mina-chan alright? Nee-chan's got to do work," She ruffled his soft downy head lovingly.

"All right, Nee-chan…"

"What took you?" Mrs. Akihara glared at her daughter as she moved into the kitchen, "Fooling around as usual, I know,"

"I had lessons, 'kaa-san, you knew it," Kane replied tiredly.

"Ch, who knows what you are up to," Mrs. Akihara snorted scornfully.

Kane had never shared a good relationship with her parents. They had wished for a boy when they had their first child. Both Mr and Mrs Akihara agreed the name of the 'son' that they wanted to be 'Kane', without realizing that she was going to be a daughter. She was brought up like the son they never had, before Ryuuchi was born.

By the time they really had a son, Kane was already an independent youth with her character and physique molded to be like that of a boy's. She became rebellious, even though she remained at home every night to help with housework. She learnt to refute her parents' statements rudely, which made the confliction between the parents' and her worse. Despite the way her parents treated her, Kane never bore hatred towards her parents. She wanted their love and attention, and she used to think that by being rude to them she could get more of their attention.  Time had proved that it wasn't to be so, and her parents were angry and frustrated at the way she behaved.

It was the lack of true communication, but neither party realized it. If they would just open up and talk to each other, things may be different.

Kane was previously a student in the Tokyo University. Her grades were good enough for her to enroll there, and she had thought that by going away she could avoid getting into more conflicts with her parents.


A mail from her uncle (the lecturer) informed her that her father contracted cancer, and may not live too long. Her parents didn't know that she knew of the situation and were still under the belief that she came back to Kanagawa because she was lazy and could not cope with work in the prestigious university.

After so many years at war with her parents, Kane was tired of trying to explain things, and she had realized that she should probably try to care more for her parents and make things up by helping out at home.

She loved Ryuuchi whole-heartedly – he was the only person at home who shows her his affections openly.

The telephone rang and Kane went to answer it.

"Akihara residence, Kane speaking,"

"Kane? It's Fujitaka here, I'm sorry that I wasn't paying attention just now, I…"

"Look, you don't need to explain anything, I was supposed to pick the groceries up and come home to my brother who hadn't seen me for twelve hours of the day, you wasted another hour of my time,"

"Kane, I'm really sorry, it's just that I really like you and…"

"No I'm sorry Fujitaka, you'll just have to look else where. I want to spend as much time with my family as possible, and not waste time on a Casanova like you,"

"Kane…"

"If you want to know, I love my parents and brother more than anything else. Get it? I don't care if I don't get a boyfriend ever in my lifetime, but I want to treasure my family with all of my time. Boyfriends are not in, not when they'll probably waste some more quality time of mine when I could spend it with cooking for the family or coaching Ryuuchi on Taekwondo. Sorry Fujitaka, bye,"

She heaved a deep sigh of exhaustion as she replaced the receiver. When she turned, her mother was standing behind her. She had apparently heard most of the conversation.

Kane stared awkwardly at her mother, and both of them remained silent. The air seemed to fizzle and crackle.

"Nee-chan, I didn't know how to do this question…" Little Ryuuchi came out of his room.

"Eh, right, c'mon, Nee-chan will help you…" Grateful for the distraction, Kane ushered Ryuuchi into his room hurriedly. Her mother just stood there, looking at the slender figure with meticulously spiked short hair. She never knew…

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Kogure picked a carton of milk off the shelves and checked the expiry date before placing it in his shopping cart. Women who passed by gave him admiring looks. It wasn't every day that a young man would do household shopping. Most probably, he would know how to cook as well. Ah, speaking of perfect men!

He walked past the storage of chilled meat on the shelves, looking through the large variety of meat carefully. A wallet tumbled out from the handbag, which belonged to a girl walking in front of him. "Excuse me, Miss, you dropped your…"

Kogure's eyes widened in recognition when he saw the girl's face. He remembered. The last time when the senior basketball players from the four major high school teams were invited over to Maki's house for a graduation gathering, he had seen the girl fluttering in and out of the kitchen, helping Maki with the food and preparation. Maki had addressed her rather affectionately, and she calls him 'Shinichi nii-chan'.

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[Author's notes: This is a rather long chapter, for my standards. I can't help it. There were so much work in school, and can you believe it, the more work I have, the more muse I have for writing. Keep me bored and I'll never write a single word. ^__^]