CHAPTER THREE: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

The images kept on playing in his head. Even though it had been a week since he watched that video with two of his friends, he still could not get over the agitation and anxiety that the inexplicably unnerving experience had induced within him. He found it difficult to sleep at night, having to deal with the residues of that weird montage playing in his head. It was sheer torture living in the morning with those same random pictures reeling at the back of his mind, consequently filling his vision with a gossamer of anticipative terror.

Yes it had already been a week, and yet he still hadn't overcome all of this.

But that exactly was the deal. It had been a week... Just a few more minutes to the opportune--

"Jin-san, watch out!"

Soichiro Jin snapped right back to the present just in time to see a diminutive, yet ominous bulk of furry matter looming right in front of him. His eyes locked with those of the little black imp's flashing green orbs before his reflexes kicked off and subsequently swerved the bicycle to the right, just as the bristling cat snarled and ran off into a darkened alley. Jin felt the load behind him spring off with a crisp swearword as he struggled to keep his unsteady vehicle in cahoots with gravity. He instinctively pressed his straining hands on the breaks and stomped his feet on the ground to keep the bike and himself upright.

His noble feat now successfully accomplished, the still agitated guy looked over his shoulder to check on his fuming rider who was grumbling impatiently on the sidewalk. "Daijoubu, Nobunaga-kun?"

"What the hell were you thinking, Jin-san?" the longhaired junior demanded as he strode huffily toward his senpai. "This is, like, the umpteenth time you've done this for the week, and it's only Monday, for gawd's sake! This is not the proper way to treat Kainan's super rookie!"

Jin was almost tempted to retort, "And you think it's proper to talk like that to your captain?" but abruptly held his temper back from messing with the already messed up situation. He instead thought of a subtly sallying remark and abstractedly delivered it as he turned his gaze to the dusky alley to his left. "You're no longer a rookie, Nobunaga-kun. That was last year."

He didn't have a chance to know how well or badly his counter had worked. For, as if on cue, his eyes were once again caught in the hexing glow of those green orbs, blazing sharply in the cryptic darkness. The feline creature was staring straight at him, silently dispatching an inauspicious message concerning his life.

Or his imminent lost of it...

And he even thought for a while the monitorial creature was baring its white fangs at him in a taunting sneer that sent a scathing chill sprinting up and down his spine.

Then again, do black cats sneer?

He knew his imagination was once again running off to the farthest end of insanity. He was slowly losing hold on his calm... And just before he fell off the abysmal chasm of absolute fear, he heard a distant buzz that gradually formed into the lone syllable of his name--then into the title that he had least expected to hear from the boisterous saru's lips.

"CAPTAIN!"

The light incessant slaps on his face completely woke him back to reality. He blinked and gazed into the anxious face of his junior peering closely into his gradually clearing vision.

"God you scared me!" Kiyota exclaimed, sending a considerable spray of saliva all over his face to prove, perhaps, just how discomposed he had become.

"I'm okay," Jin said with as much assurance as he could master while he wiped the faintly seething little droplets off with the back of his hand.

"You're okay?" Kiyota repeated tauntingly, releasing yet another set of sprinkles that all but made the older guy grunt with impatience. "You blanch so suddenly like you've seen a ghost and you say you're okay?"

"Nobunaga-kun," Jin said calmly though in a rather reprimanding tone as he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. "If you keep on talking like a hose..." He gently damped the smooth fabric on his face and continued, now managing a wry smile, "...I think I just might fall sick in a minute or two!"

"JIN-SAN!" the younger guy snarled, his temper obviously not flexible enough to tolerate that underhanded attack on his ego.

"Kidding," the gentle-faced lad chortled as he stuffed his hanky back to his pocket and gripped the bike steers, looking all set and ready to resume their drive. "Hop on. It's getting late."

"Oh, c'mon! It's only six thirty!" Kiyota whined, crossing his arms on his chest to exhibit his resolute nature. "Let's get something to eat first."

"Your mom's cooking dinner for the both of us tonight," Jin was getting really annoyed, yet somehow managed to keep a cool and calm manifestation of himself--like how he always did. "Come on."

A loud, submissive groan tore from the younger guy's throat before he hitched onto the bicycle, placing his arms, one over the other on his senpai's back. The vehicle wobbled slightly at the additional load but was soon steadily treading the path leading out of that creepy part of town, back to the present civilization.

Or so, that's how it felt to Jin...

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Nobunaga Kiyota knew something was terribly off with his senpai. It was so not-him to zone out while on his bike. Of course, not to mention it happening for so many times in one day. That cat was nothing compared to what they had nearly run into earlier today--a post, a mailbox, a limping old lady, another post, another mailbox, a stalled car-- The list went on as long as you could never imagine. Especially not from a guy like Soichiro Jin.

He sighed and closed his eyes tightly. Yes, something was definitely going on with his Captain. Something so disturbing that it had managed to break into the usually calm guy's sense of himself. Something really bad that blotted the guy's sense of the world surrounding him.

Something Kiyota felt concerned him as well, but the truth of which he was too afraid to acknowledge.

Oh and had he mentioned that they even nearly collided with an on-rushing truck last week? They hit the pavement just in time to save their breaths but were awarded with a lump on the head and some ugly bruises on the arms and legs. It was a horrible experience he never wished to encounter ever again.

How was he to know this was far from being over?

Or was it?

Why was his senpai still thinking of that thing in the first place? Didn't they do what was supposed to be done to save their asses from that damn curse? The anathema of unprecedented absurdity? God! He could not believe the usually shrewd new captain of Kainan High's indomitable basketball team would actually fall so easily for that kind of baloney!

Well, he would admit that he did feel a tad agitated while viewing that weird montage and had even blanched and numbed all over upon hearing of people dying like flies after a week of getting acquainted with it.

Okay, so not exactly like flies as what he had seen on the television this morning. The blank staring eyes, the wide gaping mouth, the unspoken terror marring that guy's face-- The mere sight of it scared him cold that his mom had to actually shake him out of the trance he had suddenly fallen into. The kind of trance that the likes of Nobunaga Kiyota, brave and dainty at sixteen shouldn't wallow in, but which had engulfed him whole without warning.

It had been a week after all.

Then again, what was there to worry about? They did pass a copy of that video to another person and had even made sure that person watched it and passed it on to another innocent person to be recorded again and-- The chain would undoubtedly go on and on and on like that until, perhaps, it got in the hands of someone bitter and agonized and depressed enough to keep the curse to himself and break at last this seemingly endless ring of… absurdity. He could not think of any other word but that.

But that would only get rid of one copy. One out of a dozen others strewed all throughout the district.

No, they didn't need a willing victim at all. What they needed was a miracle…

Kiyota himself was dazed at the direction his own thoughts had taken. He could've kicked his own ass off to the moon if only nature so allowed. Damn, he could not believe this whole deal was getting to him as well! The fear he was trying to bury deep behind his usual cool and nonchalance was slowly taking its toll, leading him to over exaggerate the situation.

Who needed a miracle? All that seemed to matter at the moment was getting some pragmatic sense into his Captain's fogged up head. And he felt he could do just that without any celestial intervention, whatsoever.

Or so he thought.

"Jin-sa---" He had meant to speak in a calm, soothing voice but ended up shrieking at the sight that met him when he opened his eyes.

A girl, her long dark hair flailing like a mess of threads in the light breeze, had just appeared in front of them…

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For the umpteenth time that day, Kyoko was faced with the unevadable consequence of zoning out while on her skates. She had kissed the ground about twice, slammed into a post, a tree, a mailbox, a brick wall and many others that were too damn painful to even think about that she actually thought herself as being the reincarnation of a cat with multiple lives. And if that were so, she felt her luck was slowly wearing out for the last rattling contact she had with a stalled car was the twelfth mishap of the day.

She knew she was stretching her fortune out a little too far…

And yet, here she was again--after rounding a corner while deep in thoughts--faced with yet another adversary, which looked all set and ready to bring her further damage.

Not again! was the first thought that crossed her mind as she squinted her straining eyes and realized that the wobbly object approaching her blurry sight happened to be a bicycle. A BICYCLE for crying out loud! She hadn't thought it possible for a single person to actually have two horridly similar misfortunes in one day.

was the first thought that crossed her mind as she squinted her straining eyes and realized that the wobbly object approaching her blurry sight happened to be a bicycle. A BICYCLE for crying out loud! She hadn't thought it possible for a single person to actually have two similar misfortunes in one day.

If this person turned out to be the same creep who ran her down this morning, she swore she would strangle him until his sleepy head dissevered from his pale, sickly body.

And as though manifesting their all-out support to her fresh new scheme, every wound and bruise she got from that incident stung her simultaneously, pricking her thrashing heart with vengeful contempt.

But she couldn't possibly meet the adversary head on with just that, right? So she had no choice but to depend on her reflexes to evade the mangling collision. And as she did so, she felt the ground slip off from under her, subsequently (and helplessly) bearing her down. Her butt almost burst from the impact of muscles against asphalt, but she was much too busy shouting curses after the fleeing bike to even take notice. She made out two breathing maggots on that vehicle. Two maggots who didn't even care enough to stop for a few seconds to check on her. The nerve of those people!

But what she saw for a fleeting moment when the bike came close enough to her hazy, unaided vision bothered her. Yes, as she shouted "Damn you!" and "Go to hell!" after them, she was actually getting more and more agitated inside.

Never mind the boisterous, repugnant back rider who even flicked an angry finger at her and was currently countering her verbal attacks with his equally repulsive set. If their moms were to hear them now, those sensible older women might have to fight off the urge to mutilate their filthy tongues for good.

No, that wasn't what built the overwhelming anxiety in her heart. It was the look she saw on the driver's face a second before he swerved the vehicle off her path. The way his face blanched, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped open in obvious fright.

It was almost as though he had just seen a ghost… Or something worse.

Something like the thing she saw in school this morning…

An involuntary shiver crept up her spine and froze her tongue to numbness, consequently putting an end to her squalidly random discourse. They were already gone anyway, so there was no use shouting anymore--not that it ever was useful in the first place. All it did was wear her out and make her a little more susceptible to the smarting pain crawling all over her body. Not to mention the agonizing fear that was currently inhibiting her heart…

She would've cried right then and there if not for a guy who readily held out a hand to help her up. She didn't know why it was that even though she couldn't really discern his face, she knew right away she could trust him. That he meant good and didn't intend to hurt her in any way.

He was even smiling reassuringly that she was instantly thrown into a kind of trance which consequently got her hand moving of its own accord to accept the willingly offered aid.

And the moment their hands made contact, a wave of nondescript sentiments shot through her veins, straight into her heart. Along with it came a rush of the guy's recent memories, passing by her vision. And since her third eye didn't really need glasses to see, she was able to view each fleeting scene clearly and discretely-- though without much understanding of what it was all about.

However, one thing was apparent. This guy had just lost someone important in his life and that someone died in the same manner as did the guy she saw on TV this morning.

She didn't really wanna see that girl's face. But it was unavoidable since the guy refused to let go of her hand. He jerked her up with the strength and gentleness of a typical 'Mr. Nice-guy' and she was soon back on her feet, her head reeling more from what she just saw than from what had just happened to her. She was now freaking scared, dammit! It was the third time today she had seen that expression of unspoken terror.

The terror that had killed this guy's life essence… That which had snatched the happiness from his heart…

A heavy tear suddenly bailed out from her eye. She could almost feel the sadness welling up within that guy's persona. The sadness he was hiding behind his casual, nonchalant façade. How could he smile like that after what happened? Why was he acting so strong and cool and brave when he was really breaking up inside?

"Anou…" he said in a soft voice, finally letting go of her hand to brush the wanton tear from off her cheek with his thumb. And more drops all but fell off in place of it when the guy began to abstractedly caress her face with his soft, tender fingers. Slow and discreet, as though he was putting to mind every feminine curve and angle. She flinched a little as his thumb grazed the cut at the corner of her lips with the mildness of someone wanting to ease the pain harboring it. Then his hand traveled to the small bandage at the corner of her left eye, shrouding a cut inflicted on it by a shard from her broken glasses. These were the injuries she got from the accident she had this morning. Aside, of course, from the ugly scrape on her knee and the spasmodic aching of the bruises marring her skin which were all being soothed by this stranger's mere touch.

All these while, they were looking into each other's eyes. Silently asking a question they couldn't voice out for fear of dispersing the atmosphere of familiarity that was hanging around them. The familiarity that was pacifying each other's worries. Dispersing their respective pains and agonies…

Then, Kyoko felt something forming in her tongue. An almost unconscious intuition shortly turning into letters, forming into a word which rushed out from her lips as softly as the breeze that suddenly blew pass them-- "Oniichan…"

She didn't know what exactly made her say that. He didn't know how to react either. All that seemed to matter right at that very moment was--

The loud honking of a car horn from behind her dissolved the mild, soothing atmosphere surrounding her into an indiscernible dot. An intangible memory that seemed to have been more a part of a dream than the reality she had been rudely jerked back to.

All that could prove the authenticity of that experience was the blurry image of a tall guy with gravity defying hair walking away into the distance…

But even that didn't give a clear enough impression of truth.

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Mitsui looked at the images of the two Fujimas in the rearview mirror and sighed for about the hundredth time that day. They were sitting at each end of the backseat as far away from each other as lovers who just had a horrendous quarrel over some stupid, trivial matters.

And they were even blushing furiously for crying out loud! What was wrong with these people? They definitely were the weirdest siblings he had ever laid his eyes on.

It all began when they saw Kyoko standing at the pavement, staring like a total dolt straight ahead. She was gazing into space, seemingly unaware of her surrounding. She was unresponsive even as the car approached from behind and blared its horns loudly at her. She had flinched a little, true. But she remained in a trance until the older Fujima swung the back door open and called out, "Idiot, get in the car!"

The first thing all of them had noticed when Kyoko got in was the absence of her thick glasses. It took a few more seconds for them to realize how much of a mess she was from her face down to her knees.

She said she had been run over by a bike this morning, had met a number of other misfortunes throughout the day before getting nearly mangled by a meager bicycle--yet again--a few minutes ago.

Any other sensible person would've instantly thought she was only making up these insanely ridiculous accidents--what more with a BICYCLE! But Mitsui found it rather amusing. Sort of brought back some nostalgic memories of his days in Shohoku, when a certain dolt kept on getting hit by an onrushing bicycle recklessly driven by a certain narcoleptic airhead…

It was pathetic, yet downright hilarious to hear of another baka laying victim to that kitsune's unfaltering carelessness. How he wished he was there to witness the whole thing!

Then Fujima's hand suddenly shot out and touched a large bean-shaped bruise on his sister's thigh which her distractedly short skirt failed to hide. Kyoko had shrieked then and convulsively slapped her brother's hand off, crying, "Get your filthy hand off me you--!!!" She didn't get to finish what she was about to say. For upon realizing what had just come out from her lips, she bit it off, inched away from her brother and glued her eyes to the passing views instead while her face turned a shade of crimson as bright as that which had instantly blemished Kenji Fujima's fair complexion. The guy looked as though he was steaming from head to toe.

They were indeed the strangest siblings on earth.

Silence ensued in the car for a few moments, disturbed only once in a while by Hanagata humming out a random tune to break the suffocating stillness. Once or twice Mitsui found himself joining in, even drumming his fingers accordingly on the steer as they drove off into the night. And they were barely enjoying this drudging drill when Kyoko suddenly piped up in a small, rather discreet voice.

"Mitsui-kun?"

"Hm?" was all he said in reply, almost unable to keep his cool as intensified interest welled up within him. He felt like he could talk with anybody about anything at all just to ward off the strangling quietude. But, of course, showing that much excitement could ruin his perfectly gangly image. So he had to keep calm and as disinterested as possible…

"I met somebody at Shohoku," Kyoko began, her gaze still pinned firmly and pensively to… nothingness. "Well, not exactly met him. We just got to talk for a while and… I was wondering if-- Well, you might be able to tell me who he is, having come from the same school and all."

An almost inaudible grunt escaped Fujima's throat but which didn't miss Mitsui's highly acute hearing. He looked up at the RV and noted the deepening of the frown on the brunet's face. Hanagata noticed too but decided to keep his finger off the matter for the time being. The poor guy had been taunted a little too much in one day when all he ever wanted to do was help his troubled best friend.

"What's he like?" Mitsui inquired as he geared the car to the right of an intersection.

Delight and fondness suddenly lighted Kyoko's face like magic. "He's really nice and good-looking. Um… Very interesting guy and… And he plays basketball like a pro!"

Mitsui gathered every single information as he kept his unwavering attention straight ahead. And when he processed them in his head, only one image instantly popped out in response. Geez, not another dumb, squealing fan girl for that disrespectful baka! Did she really think that guy was nice? And c'mon, didn't he just run her over with his bike? How come she was talking with such high regards about that guy now? He could only groan inwardly over the whole deal. UGH! GIRLS!!

If this kid had gone a year earlier to Shohoku, she just might be talking of the almighty ace and certified heartthrob, Hisashi Mitsui, and the descriptions would've fit perfectly to the dot! But, seeing as he was at the university already, there was only one heartthrob left in Shohoku who could sway the hearts of stupid young ladies like this one… There was only one guy he could think of who barely fit such descriptions--aside, of course, for the nice part. If this girl thought that guy was nice, well, she ain't seen nothing yet.

"Well?" Kyoko prodded, a little impatiently.

"Rukawa," Fujima suddenly spoke up, his tone hard and huffy as though the mere mention of the name was torture enough to his tongue. "Kaede Rukawa."

"Kaede," Kyoko repeated with a wide smile on her lips. "Kaede Rukawa. Y'know him Kenj?" she asked, turning excitedly to his brother.

"We used to play against him," Hanagata replied, rather pensively. "And, yeah, I think he plays like a pro. Kenji himself has had high regards for that guy, right, Kenj?"

"He's skilled," Fujima supplied dutifully, yet half-heartedly. "He was voted Best Rookie in the Winter Tournament and almost beat Shinichi Maki to the MVP…"

"Wow," Kyoko goshed under her breath, her eyes widening and sparkling with so much admiration.

Yup it definitely was confirmed. Here, indeed, was another fine young lady gone insane over an impassive snob! Mitsui couldn't help but feel a tad sorry for this girl. She's never gonna get a chance with that creep EVER! She may be Kenji Fujima's sister, but for some unfortunate reason, she had somehow gotten short on the looks department. She looked rather plain and well… unattractive. And her thick nerdy glasses (which were currently not in sight) and long dark hair worn in braids added all the more disaster to her appearance.

Mitsui almost felt like clucking his tongue. Poor, poor creature indeed! He must admit, though, that she had a rather charming smile, showing off sparkly white teeth in perfect alignment. And, note--they're all real teeth. No dentures. He actually envied the young kid for that. But that wasn't enough to sway Kaede Rukawa's numbed emotions, of course. Not that he'd ever paid attention to girls anyway.

Now if Kyoko had been blessed with a head that somehow resembled a basketball, she just might stand a chance.

The raven-haired guy smiled at the flitting recollection of that recent joke as he geared the car to round another corner. Now, whose fearless tongue was it again that wove out such witticism? He had been laughing so hard then that he kind of forgot to take notice.

"Isn't he the coolest?" the overly enthused Kyoko exclaimed much to the growing annoyance of Fujima made too evident by a stifled grunt escaping his throat once again. "I mean, he's got to have the coolest hairstyle on earth!"

At this, Mitsui's brow nearly flew off his head and he all but puked. Damn! He had never learned to tolerate these stupid girls' exaggeration of Rukawa as though he was the greatest guy on earth or something. Coolest hairstyle??? That creep who wore a tuft of black mess on his head??? If that's the kind of hairstyle girls were falling for these days, then he should remind himself later to throw all his combs at home into the Pacific.

"Flamingly beautiful hair!" Kyoko added dramatically.

"Oh, please," Fujima grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Flamingly beautiful… God, this kid's sure got a sloppy vocabulary. Mitsui felt like chuckling at the sheer dumbness of it all. Rukawa's hair, flamingly beautiful??? It was like saying the sun was nothing but a very huge and fluffy pink cotton candy. The exaggeration was that moronic! He knew only one guy in Shohoku whose hair could pass for such a description as "flaming" and it wasn't Rukawa. Not in a million years--

Then again, this kid couldn't possibly be talking about that certain monkey now, could she? She did say the guy played basketball like a pro, right? And it would take a blind man to say that of the self-appointed Tensai's athletic prowess, especially if it concerned basketball--

Then again, Kyoko was without glasses after all!

"Stop the car!" the urgent order instantly snapped Mitsui out of his musings before he could even delve deeper into the fresh new thought that suddenly popped in his head.

"Wha--What--" he sputtered, feeling rather jolted by the authority dwelling in that tone. The urgency…

"I said stop!" Kyoko snarled, agitation and fury mixing into a horrible scowl in her face. "Pull over, dammit!"

Mitsui didn't know why but he found himself condescending to the command from a mere fifteen-year-old! The car had hardly stopped when Kyoko opened the door and jumped out into the street, skating off to who-knows-where.

"KYOKO!" Fujima called out, instinctively running after his sister who was zigzagging pass the on-rushing traffic.

"Damn these people!" Mitsui hissed as he and Hanagata stepped out as well to follow. Like they had any other choice, right? He'd just have to remind himself to strangle them both later…

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Fujima had never really understood what went on inside his sister's head. But whatever it was, he always knew it was something. Something that was beyond his level of discernment. His level of capacity as a human being.

He was a normal person after all. And Kyoko was… special.

He had heard her whisper, "It's her again," before she cried for Mitsui to stop the car. It was a soft whisper oozing with agitation and fright that pricked his ears and his heart with the gravity of the trouble his sister had just sensed. Hell, after years of missing and finally memorizing the rhythm of her mere breathing, how was he to miss something as clearly discernible as that?

Kyoko was indeed special… After all…

He reached the slightly darkened alley almost as soon as she did and had only a second to gasp at the sight that met him before the other guys arrived and halted right beside them. The moon was hanging right above the place as though it had appeared that night with the sole intention of showing them that unnerving sight.

"Holy sht!" Mitsui exclaimed under his breath. Hanagata just kept silent while a numbing chill began to branch out from Fujima's spine to every sentient vein in his body.

Kyoko simply gasped and dropped down to her knees, crying