Hi again, folks. I've got more of the story now. I 'm in serious need of reviews, so anything you say would help.

Please note: the names and places associated with this story are not mine, I claim no copyrights to them.

By the way, I was watching the baseball episode before I wrote this, so there are some definite allusions.

BEGIN

A soft moan issued from the wall. Naota let the last chord fade off into silence, and then set down his guitar.

The guitar was an acoustic Ibanez that his brother had sent him two years ago as a birthday present. After Naota had gotten over being upset with his brother for still refusing to return home, he attacked the guitar with a burning fury.

It actually sounded pretty good.

Naota walked down the hall. The smell of frying eggs flowed up through the floor. He winced, and pushed back the memory that the smell brought up.

He opened a door into a neighboring room. Inside were an old bunk bed, a plain bookcase with a few pieces of school literature, and Haruko, bundled up in a twisted bed sheet with an ice pack on her head.

Naota leaned against the doorframe, trying to look nonchalant. Inside, however, he was quivering with anticipation.

"Good morning, Haruko. That icepack helping at all?"

Haruko rolled over to face him. Both her eyes were bruised and scratches framed her eyebrows with a sunburst of welts. A thin strand of drool curled from the corner of her mouth.

Naota tsked. "Guess that answers my question."

The line of drool disappeared under a swipe of her tongue. She swallowed, sat up, and stared blankly into space. "Was that entirely necessary to bean me? As I recall, I was the one who dished it out."

An eyebrow twitched slightly within Naota's forehead.

"Some things are...different."

Haruko's eyebrows arched dangerously. "Like Sameji?"

Naota blushed profusely, and quickly changed subject. "So are you coming to eat or what? Eggs are cooking downstairs."

Her face brightened significantly. "Is there any curry?"

He smirked. "No, but Mamimi flames them with a little bit of it, if you know what I mean." Her eyes narrowed momentarily, but she smiled nonetheless. "Okay." She stood up and left the blanket, wiping her face on her sleeve as she stomped downstairs.

Naota sighed, slumping against the wall. For some reason, the conversation had taken a bit out of him. He glanced down at his hands, pressed them against his thighs and stood up.

"-ing little-" "Why I otta-" "I'll kill you!" "Fear my fury, you stupid brat!"

Naota stumbled downstairs. Eri and Haruko lay on the floor, pounding each other with their fists and screaming expletives at one another. A short distance away, Mamimi sat huddle up on floor with her back to the wall, shaking uncontrollably as she wiped egg yolk out of her hair with a damp, flower-printed rag.

Blinking a few times, he stepped over the two flailing bodies and held out his hand to Mamimi. She looked up at him with dripping eyes.

"Takkun..."

"Let's get you cleaned up."

Mamimi smiled and tentatively took his hand. They both walked past the fighting pair and went upstairs.

...

Haruko stood up, shaking an unconscious Ninamori furiously. "Mua hahaha haa! I am victorious!!! Hmm? Hey...w-where did everybody go!?"

The sudden flush and whine of a shower turning on snapped her attention to the stairway. Her mouth burst into a wide grin. "Well, well, little Ta-kun. Hide and seek, is it?"

She dashed up the stairs, Eri flapping in her grip like a banner in the wind. She reached the bathroom and kicked open the door.

Steam erupted from the open doorway like a blast of gunpowder, roaring through the hall and making Haruko's arms flap limply.

She pulled up the limp Ninamori and held her before her like a shield. Slowly she crept into the steam, and pulled out a jet-black V-shaped guitar from behind her back.

"Naota has been a baaaad boy!"

From within the steam, a voice emanated. "Haruko? WHAT ARE YOU—GET OUT!!!"

She grinned and took aim. "Prepare to receive, HERE I COME AND GET IT!!!"

With a loud bang she swings the guitar, landing a hit on something solid. A loud thump reverberates through the ground as two bodies slump to the ground.

Haruko drops Ninamori beneath the steam and opens a window. The thick fog-like cloud clears, and the scene becomes visible.

Ninamori lays flopped out on the floor like a rag doll. In the corner, an unconscious Naota holds an equally unconscious (if slightly less clothed) Mamimi. There is a large goose-egg on the side of Naota's head, but the only mark from a guitar is a slight v-notch on Mamimi's temple.

Haruko stared at this for a moment.

"Oops."

She looked back and forth between the three collapsed forms, and sighed. Shrugging, she shucked her nightgown, stepped over the bodies, and took a long relaxing shower.

"Guess I'll have to aim better next time. Sameji shouldn't have to go through what's ahead of her."

...

Mamimi moaned, and rolled tighter into Naota. On the point where the guitar had hit her, a small, finger-like protrusion formed...

END

Well, one more chapter down. Please tell me what you think and any suggestions for Chapter Three!