Disclaimer: We do not own the SD boys but we sure as hell want to own Akira
Sendoh drool We also do not own the songs featured in this fic. DOA2 is a property of Tecmo.
A/N: This is titled as such BECAUSE it will involve the whole Kanagawa later on in the story. Blues because it's a bit angsty on Kosh's side and blues is a genre of music… We tried to make all the titles of the chapters to be actual song titles but not just blues. We just figured things should be related to music a bit. Reviews please!
CHAPTER 12: THE SPACE BETWEEN
When Koshino reached home, he told his brother what had just happened.
"So you think I can ask her to be, er, you know, in a relationship?" He asked him excitedly.
"Ah, you see, it's quite too early. I mean, it has nothing to do with being young and inexperienced but you've only asked her out once and the way you described her it seemed as though she's not that easy to, say, get."
"But come on, she already knows about how I feel and she said it's okay. Do you think it's a sign?"
"No it's not a sign. It already happened to me more than twice, you know, telling a girl I like her then receiving an Ok for an answer and ending like dumped garbage in a sewer, mind. Don't hope too much, Ok? That's all I can give you for advice." Said Waki but the younger one was persistent and said,
"Maybe because these girls didn't want to hurt you I mean, Ayako she's the kind of girl who speaks her mind, she's like that, I know it."
"Or maybe you hope so. Hiro-chan, d'you really think this girl isn't out of your reach? I mean, you've told me before that you knew the competition you're in."
Hiroaki paused for a while and hesitated but answered anyway, "You're the one who told me things don't always go the way they seem. I think I'm goin' to bed, 'night." He said sounding irritated.
He lied on his bed, absorbing everything his brother told him. They would have no practice the next day so he decided he'd go to the Discouri Arcade Heaven tomorrow.
He woke up at 8 and at 10 he headed to the Arcade center. He bought 18 tokens though he usually bought 3. He wanted to concentrate with the game but there were already premature noises coming from the entrance.
After losing a token, he turned to the source of the noise and saw a tall red-haired guy none other than Sakuragi—again. He tried to look away but realized that it was too late because Hanamichi had already spotted him.
"OI HIROAKI-KUN!" he yelled over the crowd, eliciting some wincing at his loud bellow and waving frantically. Hiroaki covered his face with his hand.
Boy, he sure could embarrass you even in this loud crowd…
To his dismay, Sakuragi came bounding towards his direction, a wide grin pasted all over his face.
"Ohayou Kosh!" he greeted him loudly and Hiroaki noticed his guntai tailing him.
"Good morning to you too, Sakuragi-kun." He said politely and was about to turn and walk away when Sakuragi challenged him to a game of Dead or Alive 2. The piece just arrived this week and Sakuragi was amazed by the *aesthetics* especially when it came to the women's figures.
Koshino almost smirked. He was good at this game because he found a character that well suited his playing style and the fact that he had a Dreamcast at his house. It was Ryu Hayabusa the onmitsu. Sakuragi, taking a special fancy on Lei-Fang's looks picked her, not knowing that she was no good for newbies.
He also found out a way to use this opportunity to work to his advantage. He would talk Sakuragi into revealing all he knew about Ayako and Ryota while playing.
Koshino relied more on instinct than strategy while playing the game. He just had to place his hand near the counter button and Sakuragi being the amateur that he was kept the ever-popular button mashing style, which was not really suited to a fighting game with DOA2's engine. In Soul Calibur perhaps, it would work but not here.
"So Sakuragi, do you think Ayako likes Ryota?" he began, not keeping his eyes off the monitor.
"Huh?" he asked before the question registered. "I'm not really sure but if you ask me if she likes you better than Ryochin, then no! Nyahahaha!" he laughed his irritating laugh which really pissed off Koshino that when Lei-Fang (Sakuragi) threw her next punch, Hayabusa (Koshino) countered it perfectly and used the three direction combo called Sen Izuna which resulted in a really large portion of Lei-Fang's (Sakuragi) life being chopped off.
Sakuragi cursed loudly, "Chikusho!"
Next round…
"Who do you think is more… er… obsessed between the two of us?" he asked a boy hell-bent on destroying the arcade piece with his button mashing.
"Eeto… That's hard to tell but you know, Ryochin never went to this extent before," he paused and concentrated a bit with the game before continuing with an evil smile on his face. "You know, trying to corner a poor guy like me in the arcade just to find out things about Ayako-chan…"
Koshino froze and he stopped moving his hands and Lei-Fang(Sakuragi) smothered Hayabusa(Koshino).
"Nyahahaha! I won! Hey people, did you see that? I won round 2!" Sakuragi announced.
"You mean… he never asks things about…er… her?" Koshino swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Never! Now onto round three!" Sakuragi grinned happily, thinking perhaps that he could win again but of course he didn't. Koshino went back to playing properly and he defeated Sakuragi four times in a row.
"Oh no! You finished all my tokens!" Sakuragi sulked like a little boy. Koshino couldn't help but smile. He even experimented with other characters aside from Hayabusa and he still managed to defeat Sakuragi. He liked Helena…
Suddenly they heard loud cheers from the farthest corner of the arcade where the sporty games were.
"I wonder who that show-off could be?" Sakuragi pouted and headed towards that direction and Koshino followed. He also wondered where Sakuragi's guntai could be. They were here fifteen minutes ago. Whatever…
"Oi Ike Hisashi!" someone cheered with a deep voice but it was overwhelmed by shrill cheers that went, "RUKAWA! RUKAWA! L-O-V-E! RUKAWA!"
"Oh Mitchy's here!" he grinned but suddenly frowned. "… And Kitsune too." He said in disgust.
"Let's see," Koshino said and they squeezed their way onto the crowd. They didn't have much trouble because Sakuragi easily intimidated the other spectators.
When they got there, they saw Mitsui and Rukawa having a shooting match on the mini-basketball stands.
"Boy, everybody's here," Sakuragi noticed. "Even Yohei and the ugly pompom girls…" Yohei and the others were placing bets on who would win. Everyone seemed to be interested since the two players were already popular, especially Rukawa who was with the All-Japan team. He was also popular in the arcade because if the court wasn't available, he always came there, bringing only one token. Mitsui the fair was also quite popular because as a punk, he was always at those kinds of places and he was remembered with his performance against Shoyo.
"Everyone, please move out a little," Ron requested. "The players need some breathing space here!"
"Yo, Ron!" Sakuragi waved at him and he smiled back when he saw his teammates.
When they reached them, neither Mitsui nor Rukawa was making missed shots and so the battle depended on the speed of each player. Mitsui was shooting balls faster than Rukawa because the latter took more time in aiming unlike, Mitsui who was a veteran shooter.
The three-minute game ended and Mitsui won by an inch. He had 64/72 shots and Rukawa had 60/70.
"YAHOO!" the guntai yelled in delight. "MITCHAN!"
The other betters who had lost looked dejected. They didn't know that the less popular shooting guard was a better shooter than Rukawa.
"Take that, Kitsune!" Sakuragi told the foxy boy who muttered a faint Do-Ahou. Fortunately, Sakuragi didn't hear him. Rukawa walked away as they all congratulated Mitsui. Ron was rubbing Mitsui's hair as he told the crowd, "No surprises there."
Sakuragi, however, challenged Mitsui, "Beating that Kitsune sure was a piece of cake, but what about taking me in, heh?" Before Mitsui could take the challenge, Ron stood before them and said, "Slow down, Sakuragi, the champion needs rest, maybe some other time, eh?" at this Sakuragi snorted but he understood.
"Ok, how about you Kosh, I see you still have a handful of tokens, eh?"
Sakuragi said eyeing Koshino's tokens very maliciously. Koshino however wasn't himself, he was in deep thought of what Sakuragi told him earlier.
"Alright," He inserted a token in the Basketball machine slot.
"Ah, I ran out of tokens remember, you know, you, er," said Sakuragi as Koshino handed him half of his.
The game however didn't go well, Koshino got 59/68 while Sakuragi had 50 out of 74. Ron and Mitsui congratulated Koshino as Sakuragi's guntai were laughing really hard.
"I want a rematch, now!-" Sakuragi was yelling but,
"No, really, I need to go home now, I wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, take these and practice your shooting," Koshino said pulling out a handful of tokens from his pocket. He handed them over Sakuragi who looked as though he had just won a lottery.
"Gee just the way I wanted it." He muttered silently but Ron and Mitsui looked at him with an evil grin on their faces.
"But, he's not keeping those goodies by himself, is he, Hiro-chan?" Mitsui said to Koshino, his eyes still on the tokens.
"Ah, yeah, share your blessings, Sakuragi." Said Ron shrewdly.
"Right." Koshino said as he turned to leave, "Bye guys." He didn't care much; all he knew was that he had to be alone for now.
He walked out of the building looking down and lonely.
"Even Sakuragi's in favor of Miyagi, I mean of course he is, he's Miyagi's friend and all but…will she choose me?" Koshino muttered to himself on the way home.
TBC