(Chapter 3: Meeting Rukawa Kaede)

Kira met Sakuragi in front of Shohoku High School with an excited, yet skeptical heart. That Sakuragi Hanamichi seemed like a good guy, but definitely unable to be counted on. Kira only hoped that she would get to meet Rukawa at least once through his crazy scheme.

Half-an-hour later Sakuragi appeared with a motorcycle borrowed from his friend. Tossing her a helmet, he motioned her to get on.

"Come on." He urged. Kira only swallowed hard as she got behind him, praying for her very life.

"Do you know how to drive this thing?" She asked nervously, securing the helmet and holding tight to her bookbag. He turned back and gave her a thumb up sign.

"Yeah!" His voice was muffled. "I'm practically an expert!"

But as the engine came to life, Kira found herself being literally thrown at the gates of hell. The motorcycle sputtered and screeched as it roared down the street, smoke rising behind them.

"Sakuragi!" She screamed. "Are you sure you know how to drive this thing?! How could they have given you a motorcycle license for the way you drive?" Then she understood.

Sakuragi doesn't have a license.

He didn't answer, and Kira could only pray—and duck as they zoomed past crowds of people and avoided trees, people, cars, and the side of houses.

It was after running through two garages, wrecking the front of the motorcycle, and scaring Kira half to death, did they arrive at the field of warehouses. Kira had sworn up to millions of times never to trust Sakuragi ever again.

She quickly slid off the motorcycle and got unsteadily to her feet, feeling the world swimming around her.

"This way…" Sakuragi whispered as he grasped her hand and led her around a certain warehouse, tiptoeing and crawling past the people guarding the house. "He is here, see?" He pointed to an expensive looking bike. "That's his bike." They sneaked past the watchers toward the most desolated side of the storage building. Kira wasn't very sure of what Sakuragi was doing, but her heart was nevertheless pounding loudly as they snuck around toward the back entrance.

Once they got in, it was a battle with large piles of boxes and debris left by the previous owners of this warehouse. Kira pushed an old tire from away from her as she bit back a cry of pain from stepping on a broken bottle.

"This warehouse was abandoned." Sakuragi explained in a whisper. "And some of the boys started meeting here, eventually, Rukawa appeared. He doesn't say anything or do anything. He just sits there and watched those idiots fool around on the stage left behind."

"So how come it's his nightclub?" Kira whispered back, clutching onto his arms, in fear of loosing her way in the dark.

"Because they respect him. Even though he's rude and can't even pass exams at school, everyone know how rich he is and how good at basketball he is. Though I'm sure I could do way better with my hand tied behind—"

"Shhh! I hear something!" Kira's heart thudded hard. Sakuragi looked around, then pointed surely at the curtain in front of them.

"There!" He whispered loudly, before giving Kira a push. They burst through the curtains, only to be blinded by dozens of lights and a blast of thunderous music.

The crowd below the stage cheered.

Gaining her sight back, Kira looked down and saw dozens of boys sitting around the tables. Mostly all of them weren't lacking tattoos or piercing or despicable clothing. Some of them were drinking, some of them were smoking, and some of others fighting. The rest were wolf-calling and whistling.

They were on stage!

"Sakuragi, what have you done?!" She cried in horror at the field of males gaping at them. Sakuragi looked about wildly, then commanded.

"Dance!"

"What?!"

"That way, they can't throw us out!" The redheaded basketball player immediately began dancing and moonwalking clumsily. The cheers grew louder until it was almost deafening.

Coming from a respectable background, Kira's modesty was greatly offended by the brazenness of the male audiences and their whistling. With her face red and her pride hurt, she faced the audience, and before she could comprehend what she was doing, her voice was echoing through the tall ceiling of the warehouse,

"QUIET!!"

Silence immediately fell upon the large storehouse. The music was turned off and the boys grew silent. With their eyes wide and their drinks and smokes paused in midair, they stared at the single female among them all. Sakuragi had stopped dancing too, and was watching her with incredulous eyes.

Kira was breathing hard, as she suddenly panicked at what she had done. She wanted to flee from all the menacing eyes, but the watchers had already arrived at the lunatic scene and was blocking her exit for the backstage. Realizing that she couldn't flee, and that she didn't want to flee without meeting the person she's come to meet, Kira spotted her savior at the other end of the stage.

A broken-down, beat-up, old forlorn piano.

An idea popped into her head, as she turned and smiled sweetly at the dozens of males below the stage.

"I'm not much for loud music and wild dancing." Her voice sounded tiny in the large room, and seemed to disappeared into the high ceiling. "But, since I am on stage, I will perform a short little number for your pleasure as well as mine."

To everyone's surprise, instead of performing something short and clownish, the girl walked solemnly towards the discarded piano, and sat down.

They say that soothing music will calm the beast, she thought silently. We shall see if that is true. Fingers and twelve years of training, don't fail me now!

Without hesitation, her fingertips pressed down upon the keys, drawing from it the soul of a melody so alluring and soothing that the boys below became quite intoxicated. They made no complains about their change of programs, no whistles, no brash remark, they only sat and listened like children, their drink and smoke forgotten.

Peeking for the corner of her eyes, Kira saw that her plan had worked, and indeed, the "beasts" have been tamed. But then her eyes found Rukawa in the mists of people. It only took a small movement of her head to look upon him for the first time in the person. That was all it took. Her fingers stilled and refused to move, no matter how hard she tried.

The intoxicated crowd seemed to blur into a long fading background scene. He was the one familiar face among these last few hours of nothing but strangers. He'd been a face she'd been waiting to see all her life.

Her fingers and body began shaking uncontrollably as she tried to stand up. Rukawa's dark midnight blue eyes stared straight into hers.

A moment ago, she'd thought he would be ordinary, like another student or another boy, but now he was anything but an ordinary teenager. He was the one she's been looking for.

She fainted dead away.

When Kira's eyelashes fluttered open, she realized the large room was now quieter, though the sound of laughing and fighting was far from low. She was startled as she found that she was lying on a low couch, the side of her head resting against something warm…that was rising up and down. Soft material brushed against her other cheek as she looked up and into the deep eyes of Rukawa Kaede. With a gasp, she bolted from his side and sat up straight. He gave a ghost of a smile, his arm draped against the back of the chair.

"You played wonderfully." He said quietly, his voice almost lost among the noisy boys in the background. But she heard him, and clung on to his every word, every movement. With eyes that never left him, she replied just as softly, as if they were the only two people in this world.

"Thank you."

"I should very much like to hear you play again."

Thus, fate and destiny had pulled Rukiko Kira and Rukawa Kaede together for the first time and most certainly, not the last.