I'M REALLY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!

***

"So..." Sendou began after walking for a while with Rukawa, "What do you think of this place?" Rukawa, though only stared in another direction trying his best to ignore the man beside himself. Sendou sighed. "Rukawa, don't make this any harder that this is." Silence reigned again. "If that's how you like it, fine, but - "

Sendou was suddenly cut off as Rukawa held his arm. "I never liked you, Sendou but look at that over there. I don't know if that car seems familiar to you but..." He pointed to a red car approaching slowly as if searching for something.

The Ryonan ace's jaw dropped and grabbed Rukawa's arm with a vice grip that seemed as if it was an emergency. He literally dragged him back to where Rika was not minding hit mutters nor his mumbles. Reaching Rika, she greeted them cheerily, "Hey, guys. Are you two good now? I'm fine now, by the way. I healed rather faster than I expected."

"That's very good, Rika but, we have the problem of your sister near here." Sendou said quite hastily as if something was running after his words.

She stood up very quickly as if something pinched her bottom. "You're sure about that?"

"I saw her car," Rukawa sort of backed up Sendou, "I wouldn't take any chances if you would."

Without even a backwards glance, she started walking fast in the other direction from where they came from. "There's only one place where her hunting will definitely stop. Come on." Sendou rolled his eyes and shook his head. He knew where it was and he was not happy to go there again.

***

At her car, Rina spotted them among the throng and hurriedly parked her car in a vacant position which was conveniently near her current position. She hurriedly got out of her car and ran to the direction she saw them go to, dodging people and pets in her way as fast as she could until she finally saw them turning a corner at a row of bushes to her left. She groaned 'Not there, please not there.' She groaned inwardly to herself.

As she rounded the corner she saw rows of those unsanitary portable lavatories and clenched her fists. It was all she could do not to scream. "Rika, come on out I know you're there somewhere."

As if an answer to her call, she heard muffled chortled from the fourth lavatory in the right row. She went behind it 10 paces apart and brought a handkerchief out and covered her nose. True, there was a bit of foul smell oozing from the plastic lavatories so she just shouted at them from a distance after confirming that they were there when one of the boys mentioned Rika's name. "Rika come on out!"

***

"Rika, are you sure this is a good idea?" Rukawa asked her, "I mean, this is unsanitary."

"I know it's a bit tight in here, but would you rather be out there?" Sendou grunted, "This is the only way we can be out of sight. Just move a little, Rukawa, I'll move here so we can all get better access to - " he cut himself from saying air as he stumbled.

Rukawa moved backwards and moved out so he won't be crushed by Sendou. Rika grabbed the nearest thing she could find - which was Rukawa - as she tripped trying to get out of Sendou's way. They all made grunts and yelps moving around the tiny space until the Shohoku ace accidentally got his left foot stuck in the toilet bowl which sent him groaning and the other two, stop moving.

***

The commotion they made inside made it seem to Rina - with luckily, no passerby's at all - that they were doing...something...with the plastic enclosure accentuating her wild guess as it muffled their voices and shook under their weight. "What on earth are you doing in there?" she demanded.

"Rukawa, get that out of there!" Rika's voice resonated from the privvy they were in making it sound like a moan more than a grunt.

"I'm trying but it won't budge." Rukawa's voice came through.

"Ease it out Rukawa," Another voice, which was Sendou's came.

"Here, I'll help you with that." The girl volunteered.

***

Rika pulled Rukawa's leg creating grunting noises and yelped as water splashed onto her. Sendou held onto Rukawa all the while grunting, "Rukawa, pull it out and...argh!" he screamed as his watch slipped into the smelly water. "Hurry up! I have to go get in, too."

"You wait, Sendou," Rukawa snapped. He grunted even more as he pulled his foot out quite disgusted at what he got himself into.

Rika pulled as hard as he could until his foot came off and the latrine shook vigorously threatening to tip over making all of them scream in surprise.

***

Rina's eyes went wide as saucers. She couldn't believe they were... "Rika! Sendou! Rukawa! Stop that! Even if there are virtually no people out here, that is no excuse for your nasty behavior."

"Oh, man," Sendou moaned inside, "well, here goes."

Panting, Rika commented, "Akira, why don't you just suck it? It would be much better than putting your hand in."

"There's only the handle of the plunger here," Rukawa commented sounding tired, "Maybe this will help."

"Oh my goodness!" She was on the brink of barging in on them by what she suspected, "You can't have that before me!" She paced around hearing moans and grunts and yelps thinking they were having a "good time."

***

"There, there..." she said eagerly as they anticipated that Sendou's watch would be hooked out. "Come on Kaede."

Sendou, who was holding his breath just a while ago, was catching his breath urged Rukawa on, "Nearly...nearly..."

"Yes!" all three of them exclaimed together as the fox got it out. They paused a moment and stared at one another in complete silence. Without warning, they suddenly burst out laughing together boisterously.

"Let's fix ourselves, we're all so messy." Rika laughed.

"We don't smell like flowers either." Sendou added sending all of them laughing all the more.

Getting themselves fixed became very much a burden and a discomfort. They felt teach other's elbows against each other's heads and ribs. The toilet paper inside the privy got all used up as they wiped themselves from toilet water.

"I really don't care if she's out there now," Rika began, "I have to know what's her problem with me. I just have to know. I can't hide from her all my life. I have to face it, now."

"I don't think she'll take you anywhere else, though," Sendou smirked, "I'll be behind you and if she decides to take you away, I'll take care of it."

"So will I," Rukawa said blandly.

"But, will you even dare to be flirted by her?" she asked them doubtfully, "You know how she is."

"Say what you want, I won't change my mind." Sendou snorted. "Are we going out or not?"

***

Rina was crying as they saw her. Her shoulders shook an she was muttering something incomprehensible but catching words such as "ecchi", "sukebe", "hentai" and the likes. Rika took a deep breath and approached her sister slowly trying not to startle her. "Uh, Rina, what's wrong?" she gingerly placed her hand on her shoulder and as a reaction, the older of the two backed away.

"You stink, you pervert!" Rina scowled.

"P-pervert!" Rika exclaimed in askance. "What do you mean? I admit I stink but, what makes you think I'm a pervert?"

"You had sex with Sendou and Rukawa in there and don't you deny it! I heard you." She spat at her and growled afterwards.

Their eyes bulged at the accusation. No one spoke in disbelief. Was that how they sounded inside the lavatory? Realizing Rika had her mouth hanging open, she closed it immediately and tried her best not to laugh successfully. The other two boys did not even try to suppress their laughter and burst out boisterously. Rika shot them a sharp look with furrowed eyebrows and gradually, their laughter faded.

"Rina, what happened was Kaede got his foot stuck in the..." she paused a while to chortle then continued, "toilet bowl and Akira's watch fell in it. You know I'm not the kind of person who wants to do THAT. Don't get upset, onee-chan."

She sniffled, "You didn't?" her sister shook her head in response.

"I'm sorry for hiding from you, though." The younger apologized, "And I want to know, why are you this way? Why do you hate me? Why have you become nasty? You weren't like that when we were younger."

"It's because you're so perfect!" she scowled, "You always take the glory and I always take the shadow. I hate it! I hate you!"

That made Rika's throat tighten. Perfect? Is she even aware of what was happening between herself and their father. "Rina, do you even know what I'm going through?" Rina shook her head gingerly and just looked at her as if asking what. "Okay, just...don't get grossed out, OK?" She removed her coat and hat and her school uniform was patched with bloodstains. Looking beyond that, almost her whole body was wrapped with bandages - stained with blood - except for some bruised patches on her flesh. Her sister and her friends gasped at that. "Do you think that's bad enough?" she asked a bit amused, "You don't even know the toll my mind and my emotions took during the experiments. I'd rather take a beating from Richard any day." She literally spat her father's name. "Now you know. Do you still envy me? Besides, you are more beautiful than I am. I'm not perfect; far from it."

No one said a word but Rika found it very amusing and chuckled. It seemed to Rina that she was mad. "Rika, are you all right?"

"Yes, definitely," she gave her a wide smile as she replaced her coat and hat on, "I've had worse beatings and worse torture than this."

"I-I had no idea." Rina stuttered, "I'm sorry. I'll help you."

"Y-you will?" the injured youngster asked in disbelief, "Aren't you sick or something?"

"I'm not." Rina sniffed. "I didn't know your condition was this bad. I'm sorry." She apologized and hugged her sister. "I promise I'll help you out."

"Well, you can start by not squeezing me too tight." She laughed and her sister apologized while they laughed. "And in return, I'll help you with anything you want helping with." [Like catching blokes for instance.] Both sisters laughed.

"What did they say, Rukawa?" Sendou asked. "What were they going to catch?"

"I didn't understand either." Rukawa shook his head.

The sisters laughed. Using English slang proved to be quite useful.

***

ninny: Yes, Les Miserables! I'm glad you recognize it. Yes, Sendou's spelling is really Sendou; Sendoh is an English spelling.

dunkmoonX: Yes, Sendou knows it. Childhood friends sila dito sa story.

Kono sekai ga uso demo...I want to fly... ~Laruku