SLAM DUNK: A PLAYER'S HEART
Chapter 8: Useless Revelations
"Sacrifice not choices is the measure of true knowledge!"
Vanessa Arrha A. De Leon
2 weeks have passed ever since they arrived at the Kirro Inn. The December air had already left and took away its traces with it. 1 more week to go and New Year would be coming, then the game, afterwards, they would all be packing up to return to Kanagawa.
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"Ikakou! You can't do that to Ran!"
"Gomen, Yno, but I don't want to see my company in ruins..."
"But, it's at the price of your daughter's life!"
"She's not my daughter, we're not blood relatives, nothing at all. She's your daughter from that bastard back in Japan!"
"Iieee... How could you say that?"
"No! Yno, if Takiko-san's son wants Ran, I'll give him Ran, if that's the only way to keep the Senada Corp. alive!" Ikakou Senada said this as he walked out of their bedroom, leaving his wife back there, crying because she could not do something to protect her daughter.
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When Rukawa arrived at the inn that day, the first thing he notice was Sakuragi, tense and sweaty walking back and forth the inner halls of the inn.
"What's going on, doaho?" Rukawa asked.
Sakuragi didn't answer Rukawa's question, instead he waited until Akagi arrive before telling them what happened.
Finally Akagi arrived...
"What's going on, Gori?" Sakuragi asked Akagi.
"Our host said Ran just left this morning." Akagi replied.
"Why?"
"I don't know, Sakuragi!"
As the two argued over it, Rukawa proceeded to his room. Why did Ran go? was all he could think about, as he laid on Ran's unkept futon on the floor.
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That night, as Ran prepared to sleep, she thought about the people she left back at the inn. She sighed as she spread out a comforter evenly on the floor.
What was I thinking? Why am I even here?
That night, all she did was try to sleep but to no avail. She closed her eyes only to block the words that she kept hearing over and over.
"I don't want to be alone..."
She didn't want to be alone, either. But what could she do, if she let herself be swept away by Rukawa, at the end Rukawa would still end up alone.
I can't...
Seeing that trying to sleep will not be working well that night, she stood up and walked towards the small balcony of her rented room at the Orchard Lodge, 3 kilometers away from the Kirro Inn, hidden behind the large yet barren sakura trees and the lush evergreens of Saka. As she was about to reach the balcony door, something began to ache within her.
She clutched her chest painfully and shouted out soft cries of pain. She steadied herself down. Afterwards, feeling that everything was now okay, she took a step forward, and then another, until she realized she was already toppling over. Her legs and arms were paralyzed. All she could do was wait and lie there until the pain goes away.
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"Ran! What happened to you?" Ryuko Tsubame (her host at Orchard Lodge) called out as she walk into the door and saw the 16-year old girl lying on the floor.
"Help me, Tsubame-chan!" Ran called out.
Tsubame tried to lift Ran up. Fortunately she was able to gently lift Ran and placed her beside the door. Ran sighed as she felt the paralysis and the strain going away.
"Arigatou, Tsubame-chan!"
"That's alright, but what happened?"
Ran lowered down her head, a little hesitant to reveal all that she's kept for one month from all people around her.
Ran laughed softly, although there was a hint of pain and sadness onto it.
"I'm sick, Tsubame-chan!"
"Nani??"
Ran laughed again, "Yes, I am! And I don't even know the name of my sickness!"
"How??" Tsubame asked shakily.
"It's an out of the ordinary thing. You see, it's a sickness wherein all the blood circulating inside my body clot, so it affects the mechanism and it stops for a while. But after a few minutes, the blood flow starts to go normal again and I'm okay by then..."
"Is it deadly?"
"At this point, no! But my doctor said that if headaches began to develop then it's already in the critical case..."
"But why headaches???"
"It means that even the blood circulation in the brain is affected as well."
They stood there silent for a while. Tsubame not even trying to say a word.
"I---"
"Tsubame-chan, you have to promise me, that you will not tell anybody!!" Ran pleaded.
"Demo, Ran---"
"You have to promise..."
"Why?"
"I don't want anyone to make any sacrifices because of me..."
"But then, is there any use in telling me this?"
"No, I just told you this for you to understand me more..." Ran said as she put her hand over Tsubame's.
"Where are you going after this?"
"I've thought about it, I'm going back to the inn tomorrow."
"Can't I do anything?"
"No! There's nothing you can do, even I can't do anything about it!"
Few tears fell from Tsubame's cheeks. Her face spelled the disappointment and the pity that's taking over her. Ran walked to her and hugged her tightly.
"Gomen, Tsubame-chan!"
"But Ran, maybe----"
"No! I've come to accept it, just promise me that this will be kept a secret between us..."
no reply
"Onegai..."
"Yakusoku, Ran-chan!" Tsubame replied as she buried her face into Ran's shoulders.
-------TO BE CONTINUED;)------
A/N: Thanks for all those who reviewed patiently. This chapter ain't much but somehow it explains a lot on Ran. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading it, please don't forget to review...