CHAPTER ONE
"Kogure…" Akagi, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside his coffee-table, slowly addressed his teammate who sat across from him. Anyone who knows Akagi could tell from that tone that his patience was been pushed beyond breaking point.
"Yes?" Kogure replied anxiously.
"Tell me again, why you had to drag that thing into my house with you?" Akagi pointed to the spot beside where Kogure sat, where a tall, blue-haired figure was happily snoring away, his head rested comfortably in Kogure's lap.
"Ah…ha…ha…" Kogure laughed nervously "come on, give him a break, this afternoon was pretty tough!"
"Hmph…" Akagi grunted "every afternoon's tough with that obnoxious money around," meaning Sakuragi, naturally "if only we could take away some of that energy and store it into Mitsui, then maybe we can finally restore the balance of nature…"
Kogure smiled and shrugged "Well…having a lot of energy is no setback, we should be thankful"
"Heh…" Akagi shook his head, then turned his attention back to his original complaint "But really, if all he wanted to do was just sleep, he could've gone home instead of following us here! We're meant to be concentrating! Doesn't he know we have finals soon? Doesn't he have a bed at home?!"
"Ah---Akagi…!"
Before Kogure had time to stop him, Akagi has already leaning over the coffee-table, bellowing at full force:
"Get up this instant! Mitsui Hisashi!!"
"Wah!" The sleeping boy sprinted up as if he had been whipped. "Yes! Captain!"
"What the heck do you think you're doing sleeping in my house?! Go home already if you're so tired!!"
"I was just taking a short nap! What's the big deal?!"
"A short nap!? What are you…"
An all-out fight could've begun here, were it not for the phone that started to ring.
"Grr…" Akagi growled, eyeing the other two as he headed for the phone "I'll deal with you in a minute!"
"Whew!" Mitsui whispered to Kogure as he sat back down "close one!"
"You really that tired?" the other boy whispered back, a little worried.
"Nah, it's alright…just had a tough time drilling our self-proclaimed genius that's all…" Mitsui closed his eyes again while he spoke.
A few minutes later, Akagi returned, looking angry and a little confused.
"Everything all right?" Kogure inquired quickly.
"I'm not sure…that was Haruko on the phone" Akagi replied "She's with a bunch of friends at that festival, and apparently she invited Sakuragi along too, but he hasn't turned up and she was wondering if I was holding him prisoner…" he frowned "…wonder where she'd get an idea like that?"
Kogure stifled a laugh.
"Ugh, whatever…he'd just better have a good explanation of this tomorrow and…oi!" He finally noticed that Mitsui was not even conscious "Mitsui! Get up or…"
Before he could finish, the phone rang again, and again he had no choice but to leave his threat half-delivered.
"Saved by the bell no. 2" Mitsui grumbled, not bothering to open his eyes.
Kogure was about to reply, but they were both startled by Akagi's yells from the next room.
"What?! Sakuragi?! Where?! What the hell happened?! Slow down will you…?!"
The two of them exchanged a look, not sure what to make of it, but immediately feeling worried nonetheless.
A few minutes later, Akagi returned looking more than a little worked up.
"Hurry up and move it, we're going to the hospital"
Mitsui was on his feet in a second. "The hospital?! What happened? Is it Anzai-Sensei again!?"
"No, no" Akagi quickly shook his head "Not that at all. That was Sakuragi calling from the hospital"
"Is he alright?" Kogure had gotten up as well.
"I can't quite tell" Akagi replied hurriedly as grabbed his jacket and headed for the door "he was all upset and sounded very broken up, all I could catch was that he wants us to get down there quickly"
"Broken up?" Kogure murmured as he followed "I hope he hasn't gotten into a fight or something.
"If he was able to make a phone call at least you know he's okay, for now" Mitsui assured as he slammed the front door behind them "don't get too worked up yet".
With that, the three seniors made haste and headed in the direction of the hospital.
* * *
My head is gonna explode!
Sitting hunched over on a lonely hospital bench, with his head buried in his arms, that one thought ran through Hanamichi's head over and over again. He truly felt as if he was about to be ripped into two, the way he was aching all over.
After the nightmarish sight of Rukawa's mangled form upon the scene of the accident, he must've passed out again; because the next thing he knew, he was waking up in a hospital bed, bruised and bandaged.
The first thing that came to his mind was: I have to find somebody!
Somebody, just anybody…just so he didn't have to deal with this alone, just so he would have to face the fact that he....
I killed Rukawa…
He never knew he could feel this scared.
He had been alone when he had awoken, and no one was there to distract him from thinking the worst. His mind just kept relaying that blood-filled scene over and over again until the images started to blur together into a tangled, scarlet mess. The pain he felt all over confirmed with bitter certainty that he was not dreaming, not in the least; but for a long, long time, he couldn't even move – not because of the pain alone, but because he was too scared.
Too scared that as soon as he moved, someone would notice him, and come to him to deliver the news that Rukawa was dead.
He didn't want to know.
He didn't want to know that side of fear which he had never seen.
After what seemed like an eternity of just lying there, willing himself not to move in this surreal situation, he suddenly seemed to snap out of that self-induced hypotheses, and a name came to his mind – Akagi Takenori.
He couldn't understand why that was the first person he could think of, but he suddenly felt a lot more relieved to have finally thought of someone. Their captain, the team's pillar of support…surely he would be able to handle this situation somehow?
Pushing those terrifying thoughts out of his mind as well as he could, he forced himself out of the bed and out of the room towards the nearest receptionist desk on that level, ignoring all protests from the nurses who tried to stop him.
When he had demanded to use the telephone, he had been calm enough, still keeping his composure, but as soon as the voice on the other end spoke, he lost it again.
Completely lost it.
He suddenly realized he had no idea what to say, he had no idea how to explain what was going on, the only thing he could muster was:
"I'm at the hospital, can you get here? I don't know what to do…"
Akagi had clearly being alarmed at the unstable tone of his voice, and had asked him an array of questions, none of which he heard. All he could manage to do was yell "I don't know! I don't know! Please get here! Help me! I don't know! I don't know!" over and over again until, without even knowing it, he was crying in hearty sobs into the speaker.
Somehow, he had managed to end that phone call, since then, he had retreated to this bench, in an unnoticed corner of the halls, and tried his best to hide himself from the world.
He had never been so scared.
He still hadn't dared to ask anyone of what became of Rukawa, though the urge to do so was now driving him to the brink of insanity. All he wanted, all that he needed, was for someone to tell him that Rukawa was fine, or at least going to be…that's all he was asking for…
But no one approached him, and he approached no one. Something in his subconscious rendered him helpless to do so…as long as he kept denying it, Rukawa was still alive…
Even if it was just a lie…
It was all he had to hold on to…
My head's gonna explode…
* * *
"Over there!" Kogure exclaimed as the three of them stepped out of the elevator, pointing in the direction to where a curled up, redheaded boy was sitting "He…looks alright…" Kogure added hesitantly.
Upon arrival at the hospital, Akagi, Mitsui and Kogure could only inquire about whether someone by Hanamichi's appearance had been admitted, for they knew no further information. Luckily, thanks to his distinctive appearance, the nurses were able to locate for them the room to which Hanamichi had been sent. What they didn't expect though, was to see him sitting in a corner like that, instead of being in the room they had being directed to.
"Sakuragi!" Akagi called out "Are you all right? What happened?"
The boy on the bench showed no sign of having heard.
"Oi!" Akagi tried again as they reached him "Can you hear me?" He reached out to grab his shoulder.
Upon contact, Hanamichi finally snapped out of his stupor, looking up, he suddenly reached out and gripped both Akagi and Kogure by the arm, and cried out:
"I killed Rukawa!"
The three seniors immediately stiffened, not believing what they had just heard.
"What…?" Kogure whispered, wide-eyed.
"I killed Rukawa!" He was suddenly so sure of it, Hanamichi could do nothing but blurt it out to anyone who would listen "I killed him! I killed Rukawa!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Mitsui demanded, sounding both angry and frightened "What in the world happened Sakuragi?!"
"I don't know!" Hanamichi's grip tightened "I don't know what happened! It just…it was all so…I don't know what happened! But…but…" He stuttered, almost as if he was about to cry "So much blood…there was so much blood! I killed Rukawa! I killed him!"
"Did you two get into a fight?" Akagi feared the worst "You didn't get into another gang-bash did you?" He didn't even want to think about what the consequences could be if that were true, it would've been far too tragic.
But Hanamichi wasn't even paying attention to his question, or if he was he didn't understand it, he just kept on speaking in broken, choked-up sentences anything that seemed to enter his mind.
"So much blood…I didn't want that to happen…it wasn't meant to happen…I didn't want to…I don't want him to die! I never wanted him to die! It wasn't suppose to …I don't know what happened…I killed Rukawa…no, no! He's not dead! He can't be dead! But…but there was so much…so much blood…I don't want him to die! I don't want him to die! He can't die! I don't want him to die!"
"Kogure!" Akagi commanded, seeing that Hanamichi was completely losing it "Go to the receptionist desk and ask what they know about Rukawa's condition" the way Hanamichi was rambling, there was no way they could get any information out of him, what bits and pieces he could pick up was chilling him to the bone…Rukawa's dead…and Sakuragi's responsible for killing him?! How did things get like this…?!
No, they had to find out exactly what happened before they're all driven to a frenzy.
"Ah…" Kogure had grown completely pale by this point, shaking free of Hanamichi's grip with help from Mitsui, he hastily stumbled towards the desk.
* * *
I killed Rukawa?
I couldn't have!
Then why am I saying it?
Why can't I stop myself from saying it?
What?
Who is this…?
Gori…?
What is he saying?
I can't hear him…
I can't hear anything!
What?
I don't know what is going on, I don't know what happened!
Wait…no, I do remember what happened…
I killed Rukawa…
But that makes no sense!
It can't be true, because it makes no sense!
Where am I then?
This must be a dream…
That must be it…
It's all just a dream…
I must be asleep on the top-level of the school building again. Any moment now Rukawa's going to wake me up and call me a fool…and then I'll hit him…because he's not dead, he can't be that arrogant if he's dead…
But…
But I can't wake up…
Why aren't you waking me up?
Where are you Rukawa?!
Get out here!
When have you ever dismissed me like this?! Why aren't you responding?!
Where are you…?!
Rukawa…?
* * *
"Is he…"
Mitsui and Akagi spoke at the same time when they saw Kogure returning, they each hand a hand on Sakuragi's shoulder, in case he started to go into a frenzy again; although right then Sakuragi wasn't doing much besides trembling and murmuring inaudible, broken phrases.
"They're still operating" Kogure replied as calmly as he could "It was an accident…with a taxi that Sakuragi was apparently taking…"
"Oh..."
"They said that Rukawa had somehow gone off course on his bike and…yeah…" Kogure's voice faded, the rest didn't need explanation.
"But he's not…" Mitsui ventured cautiously "he's not dead right?"
"No! No!" Kogure quickly assured, shaking his head rapidly "He's not…but…it was a pretty serious accident and…" he didn't know how to finish.
"Should we…"Akagi began hesitantly "…should we contact his family?" he looked around.
"Do you even know how to contact of his family?" Mitsui asked.
"There must be someone who does!"
Kogure thought for a moment, but gave up "I don't know, he never mentioned anything about them or…I don't know! What are we suppose to do?!" he started to feel panicked as the realization of exactly what's happening started to set in "How are we suppose to deal with this?!"
"Stop!" Akagi held up a hand "Don't panic okay? That's the last thing that would help" He took a deep breath, and tried to sound in control, like the captain they've all grown used to see him as "The first thing we do is find out Rukawa's condition…which means we're…just gonna have to wait"
"Oh my God…" Mitsui collapsed on the bench beside the still-stricken Sakuragi "Waiting…" He buried his face in his hands "I hate having to sit around and…not knowing what the hell is gonna happen…"
"Maybe we could…call more people?" Kogure suggested hesitantly.
"Like who?"
"Umm…Ayako? And Ryota…?"
"But…why? How's it gonna help? Wouldn't we just worry them…?"
"I don't know!" Kogure was getting beyond frustrated "I just think they should know what was going on, they'll have to find out anyway…and…oh I don't know, I just think it'd be easier on the rest of us if there were more people here; maybe they'd know some way to contact Rukawa's parents or something…"
"This may be a good idea" Akagi mulled.
"Then we should call Anzai-Sensei" Mitsui said "We really need an adult here…"
"Okay" Akagi nodded "Kogure, you contact Miyagi and Ayako, Mitsui, you call Anzai-Sensei, and I'll stay here with Sakuragi…"
The two boys immediately acted upon those instructions, almost relieved just to have something to do, and to have someone to seek help from, regardless of how helpful they may be.
Akagi sat down on the bench, and looked at Sakuragi, he didn't know whether or not he should say anything for the boy looked so tensed up he was scared any little thing could cause him to snap again.
The only thing left for him to do was to wait.
* * *
I'll do anything…
Just don't let him die…
Whatever it takes…
I'll do it…
Whatever the price…
I'll pay it…
I won't fight with him anymore…
I'll let him win…
I'll stop picking on anything and everything he does…
I'll do anything it takes…
Just don't let him die…
Why…
I never really hated him…
I never wanted anything to happen to him…
Nothing is significant now…
Don't let him die…
I'll do anything…
Just don't let him die…
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A/N: Serious writer's block, hence all the internal monologue. Ugh.
I'm thinking of incorporating some MitKo-ness into this fic, you know that may be feasible?
Next update…will happen eventually…^^;;;;;