Gomenasai! Haven't managed to edit this baby in a long long time because I'd suddenly experienced this writer's block. I can't seem to think of a way to break out of it. Hope you won't mind me...

Chapter 4: Untitled anger

"Ani-chan..."

"Ne?"

"Where are we?"

"I don't know. I suppose Mum and Dad must have lost us after we escaped from the burning house."

"What do we do now? I don't want to be left alone, ani-chan!"

"Sa, sa, it's ok, imoto... Don't worry ok? Even if we may never find Mum and Dad again, holler for me and you'll see me getting to you as soon as possible."

"I don't want 'as soon as possible'! Promise me you'll always be by my side...!"

"Ok... sure... I, Uchiro Aoiyama, promise Sakurayume Aoiyama that I'll never leave her alone by herself!"

"Let's cross our little fingers to seal this, ok?"

"Sure..."

"Naze? Why did such things had to happen?"

"Sakurayume, I'm home..."

There was no response. The house was eerily quiet, unlike when Sakurayume was sewing those torn clothes that the both of them kept wearing because they were dirt poor.

"Sakurayume?"

Still no response.

"Where'd she go to? Besides school and home, she travels to nowhere else."

Then his minds travelled back to the time when Kami-X spoke of her sister...

A few months before...

"Oi, Uchi, who's that gal in your house? A slave of yours?"

They were talking in a pub, somewhere that Uchiro can access only because he's a gangster.

"Mind your language..."

"Well, what is she to you then? A toy?"

"Enough!"

Uchiro stood up, and gave Korosu a roundhouse kick across the face. The impact sent the hapless and shameless gangster crashing into a few tables nearby, scaring the wits out of other pub goers as they hurriedly made for the exit.

"Never speak of my sister in this manner!"

"Wow... what a gutsy subordinate, huh? You know, I'd wish I had such a sister to bed everyday. You, young man, you really don't know how to appreciate the things nearby you, huh?"

"If that is what you call appreciate, pity the girls who were with you in the past."

"Ehehehehehe... well, those girls sent themselves crashing into my lap... Not my fault, right?"

"Wrong. You exhorted them, tortured them, ruined them."

"So be it may. Do you think I give a (expletive)?"

"Whatever it is, Kami, if I see you laying your hands on my sister, you're going to get it from me."

"Oh, sure sure, I won't touch her. After all, we still do have a 'code of honor', don't we?"

"Uchiro, have you thought of approaching the police?"

Uchiro found himself snapped back to reality. Anzai was still with him, and this time he didn't feel so scared as he did a while ago.

"Approaching the police? Hah! I myself had a hand in greasing their palms. Would they be convinced if I said my sister was kidnapped by my partner, the notorious gangster of Kanagawa?"

"..." The wizened old man suddenly found nothing to say.

"Thanks, though, Anzai-sensei. You actually inspired my senior, Mitsui Hisashi, during that year which Takeishi won the championships, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say so, young man. He played it straight from his stash of abilities. I regretted not noticing his absence from the Shohoku team when he dropped out for 2 years due to his ankle injury, and now... I don't wish to see you going down the same route he did."

"But Anzai, what about my sister...? I can't rest one night, sensei, if I don't find her."

"All is up to fate, Uchiro. If you'd put your faith in me, you will be able to rest. Now, do you want to put your faith in me, trusting that I will help you as much as I can?"

"Sensei..."

Meanwhile...

"Ah, school's finally over!" Yawned Youhei, the leader of the Sakuragi guntai. "Oi, Sakuragi, are you going to the arcade today? I heard they added a new machine today, and I'm eager to..."

"No thanks, Youhei, I'm going to basketball training."

"Sakuragi, you've changed... you used to like skipping such trivial things as school, but now you're completely absorbed in it. Even today in class, when normally you would have given that teacher a roundhouse punch, you actually said sorry to him. If I didn't know you, I thought you'd gone through some sort of brain transplant..."

"Well, all for the better, huh? At least now I can confront people without resorting to fists."

"OK... hey, can't talk anymore, the rest of the guntai is waiting. I guess I'll tell them the wimpyness that got over you."

"Youhei!" Growled Sakuragi, almost back in his gangsterly manner.

"OK OK, just kidding."

As the guntai left him alone, the redhead was thinking, "Have I really changed that much? A year ago today I was cussing, swearing at Gori, now I wish for him to actually come back..."

But inside the court, more surprises await...

"Nani kore... it's 3pm already and that fool of a brother is still not here... What the heck is he up to...!"

Mai was pacing up and down the empty basketball court, its emptiness amplified by the echoes of her own footsteps, which became louder and louder as she grew more and more impatient. Eventually it became stomping altogether, until... the appearance of a small, innocent basketball lying right under a basket.

"The ball... anata did tell me that the basketball itself is like the world... when you release it from your hands, it feels as if you've liberated earth itself. That feeling, no matter where you bring the ball to, is..." She suddenly paused, a red-hot feeling rushing up her face with such speed that she didn't know how to react initially.

"...as nice as love has ever been." Continued another voice.

Mai turned around, knowing that particular voice so well she may never forget it for her whole life.

"Kanaga-kun!"

Kanaga only weakly smiled back, and opened up his hands to embrace her as she crashed into his whole being, unwittingly sending something wooden clanking on the just-as-wooden floor. When she looked carefully at the whole of Kanaga's being, she was stunned. Then, she just started weeping.

"Sa, sa, anata, don't cry... I'm still here, aren't I?"

"But your legs!"

Just then, Arashi made a sudden appearance, shocking the heck out of Mai.

"Sis, I thought I might wanna tell you about THAT but it seems now I don't have the need, do I?"

"Why, what's with you! Why didn't you tell me earlier about this?"

"Would you have believed me if I'd told you your lover... he..." Arashi stopped suddenly, as though saying the truth hurt himself just as much.

"Damned it, why him out of so many other idiots out there!"

A whoosh!

Arashi turned around fast enough to pick the pass, a familiar sound entailing its executor.

"Kanaga, you...!"

"I haven't lost my hands, that's for sure!" Shouted Kanaga, his sound now much fiercer than the few times Arashi had heard him screaming. "Now, don't just stand there and complain. Just shoot at those effing baskets until it breaks! Don't look back!"

"Ka... Kanaga.. you..." Stammered Arashi, as he looked back at the physically challenged man he once hailed as a "hero".

"Don't look back, damned it! DAMNED it!" Growled an impatient Kanaga.

Mai's love struggled with the stretches as he inched towards a nearby basket of balls that Sakuragi had just laid out for training. With the red head looking on in complete surprise, he hurled ball after ball at Arashi.

"What the hell...!" Sakuragi practically stoned and gaped as he watch Arashi avoiding the "cannon-balls". "Those passes... but how... he's not even using his waist's power to generate the motion!"

"I lost my most precious commodities in a freak accident, and you! You have your limbs intact still, baka! So get down to work before I start killing someone! NOW! NOW!"

With one final throw, he hurled the ball towards a nearby door, which so happened to be opened by an innocent Miyagi.

There is absolutely no need to guess what happened in that split second. Pure pain.