Telly: Chapter 4!

Vaness: What's amazing is that we actually wrote like 22 pages in four days... (Some stuff not posted yet, heh!) But of course we took like two weeks (or maybe a month I think?) to actually upload it to FFN. Silly us...

Telly: My friends would attribute the 22 pages to double-line paragraphing... but what the hell, everybody does it, especially on FFN.

Moving on...

Spoilers for a certain School Rumble Nigakki episode containing Karen, Imadori and Karen's little brother. I think it's aired but I'm not sure.

xxxxx

Chapter 4:

"A relatively peaceful intermission happens

But the problems have not died."

xxxxx

"OKAY!" Hanai said to the class during lunchtime. "The survival game is in a month, but we must prepare! We cannot afford to be beaten by 2-D!"

The class muttered its assent before returning to what they had been doing before.

"LISTEN!" Hanai slammed his fists onto the table. "We have to apply the lessons learnt from the previous survival game into this one!"

"What lessons did we learn?" someone random mused in the background.

"We learned about Hanai and Suou," Suga said with a wicked grin and several people sniggered. Mikoto's eye twitched and she opened her mouth to say something, but Hanai interrupted her.

"Well yes," he said. "I was just about to get to that."

"Hanai—" Mikoto said, looking at him strangely but he held up a hand to stop her.

"In the previous survival game, we all unconsciously operated in pairs. That's why I think that a basic cell unit should consist of two people, and it might as well be with people you actually get along with. You have three weeks to tell me whom you wish to pair with. Next week we shall discuss strategy! Dismissed!"

Mikoto's look turned even more strange. 'He's getting too serious about it... and besides, it's not like we're his troops or anything...'

"But you know, it does make sense," Eri said. "Who are you pairing up with, Mikoto?"

Akira's eyes gleamed and Tenma gave her a smug smile before the both of them turned to look at Mikoto.

Mikoto turned red. "Don't look at me like that!"

"But seriously, Mikoto..." Eri said. "You went on a date with him, what, a month ago? I think it's obvious you two like each other! Don't tell me you haven't told him yet?"

Mikoto looked even more uncomfortable. "I'm getting to it! This sort of thing can't be hurried!"

"Well, don't take too long, Mikoto..." Eri warned. "Before he loses patience and blows you over!"

xxxxx

"Ichi-san!" Imadori called to Karen as she left the classroom.

"Hey, Imadori-san..." Karen replied, giving him a small smile. "What is it?"

"Ichijou. Just wondering, but can I come to your house tomorrow?" Imadori asked her. "I want to see Kousuke again and talk more."

Karen turned red. "Um... sorry, but I can't... I have someone coming over and I have to teach Kousuke how to fight later on..."

'It's gotta be that Takamura guy...' Imadori thought darkly. "Kousuke? Fight? Why?" he asked.

"I'm not that sure myself..." Karen said. "But I think he's getting bullied... and it'll be good if he can defend himself..."

"Bullied?" Imadori echoed. "I'll teach those brats!"

"Don't worry over something like this, Imadori-san," Karen said. "It's only Kousuke..."

"It is not 'only' Kousuke, Ichi-san," Imadori told her with the sudden seriousness that appeared in him randomly. "I will be seeing you." He turned and walked away.

xxxxx

Harry was brooding on the rooftop.

Very uncharacteristic of him, sure, but even he had his down days.

Tougou was obviously straight, in fact severely so. Harry didn't know what had possessed him to say what he'd said, but he attributed it to getting off his chest and warning Tougou about it. Harry was more than aware of Tougou Senior's feelings towards homosexuals. How to hint it subtly, just how?

"Eeeeeh, I never thought I'd see the great Harry McKenzie, moping alone on the rooftop!" a soft voice joked.

"Masaki-chan... just leave me alone..." Harry said without looking at her. "I need to brood by myself for a while."

Tougou Masaki did not let him be, but instead went to sit right next to him.

"Masaki-chan, what did I say?" Harry said, slightly annoyed and Masaki looked at him.

"Just because you're depressed all of a sudden doesn't mean your emo takes up the whole roof, you know. Don't be selfish. I have the right to brood too," she replied.

Harry laughed, a genuine laugh. "I doubt your problems are as bad as mine."

"Want to bet?" she asked. "What are your problems?"

Harry stared into the mountains for a while.

"I like boys," he said. There. He'd said it. "And I'm trying to figure out how to hint it tactfully to your father."

"So Inaba-chan was right!" Masaki said, slightly disappointed. "All the good boys are taken or gay!"

"Sorry, Masaki-chan," Harry said. "It's not that I don't like you or anything, but you understand that I can't..."

"I'm only disappointed because I lost a bet, that's all," Masaki said. "I'm also trying to think of a way to break it to Father." She got up and walked away to the door, adding, "Good luck in finding someone, Harry. I hope you're as lucky as I am with Inaba! And please don't tell nii-san anything about this."

Harry turned to look at her in surprise as she left. Well... he certainly hadn't expected this.

xxxxx

Kousuke ran, Kousuke ran, Kousuke ran!

...wait. Why was he running? He knew how to fight now, didn't he?

Stopping, he turned around to face Harima and his cronies, who skidded to a stop, slightly surprised.

"Realized it's no point running?" Harima asked, sneering.

"I don't need to run from someone like you!" Kousuke said, glaring at him.

"You don't acknowledge me?" Harima asked. "Kousuke, I'm hurt..." He took a step forward, but Kousuke did not take a step back. "You want to fight?" Harima continued, eyes narrowing.

Kousuke brought his arms up and took the stance that his sister had taught him. "I can take you on anytime, Harima! And don't call me Kousuke!"

Harima chuckled. "Interesting. Well... if you say so, Kousuke. But don't go crying to mummy when you get out of this!"

Then he leapt and Kousuke barely dodged the blow. "This time Mio isn't here to save you!" Harima breathed as he swung his foot up to kick Kousuke in this chest. Kousuke blocked the blow and went in to immobilize Harima as he'd been taught, but he wasn't strong enough. Harima broke free of his tentative grip easily and socked him in the stomach. Kousuke crumpled immediately and Harima grabbed him by his shirt cuff.

"You've still got a long ways to go, Kousuke..." he said, smirking.

"My, my, kids these days..." an outside voice floated in reprovingly and all the heads turned to face him.

"..." Harima and his gang said.

"Blue Dojibiron!" Kousuke yelled delightedly.

"Okay kids, don't do bad stuff like this in the future, yeah? It ruins your future and makes you have no friends, you know!" Blue Dojibiron's easygoing voice said as he wagged a finger in an admonishing manner.

Harima's eye twitched. They weren't kids! "You've got to be kidding me... just who the hell are you?" he shouted.

"I'm Blue Dojibiron! I mean, I would have thought it was obvious..." the masked figure said, looking as if he was rolling his eyes. Which he probably was, under the mask.

"You're from high school, aren't you?" Harima asked, ignoring his answer. "Well, tell you what! I have a brother in high school who's really strong and I'm going to tell him to beat you up!"

Imadori sighed mentally. Well, this kid was on a really high horse. "In case you wanted to know, I'm pretty strong too," he said. "I could probably beat your brother!"

Harima snickered. "I'd like to see you try!" he said. "We're leaving!" he said, and he and his gang disappeared.

Imadori looked at Kousuke and Kousuke looked back.

"You can play Blue Dojibiron really well, Imadori!" Kousuke said.

Imadori grinned. "Thank you. And wait till you've learned more about fighting before taking on that guy again, yeah?"

xxxxx

Even an idiot could figure out that Ichi-san had become happier after meeting that Takamura, Imadori thought, annoyed. There was something going on and he didn't like it...

"Good morning, Imadori-san!" Karen greeted him, smiling serenely, gliding like the wind to her seat.

"Hi, Ichi-san," he said in return but his mind was elsewhere.

xxxxx

Walking home, Imadori found himself in front of Nishimoto's video rental shop. As he stood there, debating whether or not to go in, Nishimoto's head poked out.

"Ah, Imadori," he said. "I'm having a giveaway right now. Feel like coming in?"

Well... like any other boy, Imadori sure wouldn't say no to free good porn. After all, he was only avoiding D-cupped porn... any other porn featuring models with different-sized cups would be okay.

"Welcome to the Treasure Giveaway, Imadori," a yukata-clad Nishimoto said, ushering him in. "Do not waste time; we must be careful." As he was led in the 'treasure trove', Imadori looked around, almost drooling. "Feel free to pick anything," Nishimoto continued. "Everything," he paused regretfully, almost dramatically, "everything has to go."

"As expected of the Buddha!" Imadori said happily. "Well, I'll start choosing now!" Flitting from shelf to shelf, he picked some of his usual titles automatically before remembering he was cutting his addiction to D-cups and reluctantly putting them back. This did not go unnoticed, but Nishimoto did not comment.

Picking up some modest porn, Imadori started flipping through the titles on the next shelf before he froze.

"Nishimoto... I never knew you stocked this kind of treasure..." he said and Nishimoto went over to take a look. Seeing the DVD, he chuckled. "Well," he replied. "You need some porn for the ladies too."

Imadori's eye twitched. Suddenly the idea of porn was a little less appealing... but as long as he ignored the gay porn and focused on the A-to-C-cupped porn, he'd be fine.

Thanking Nishimoto, he exited the video rental store and went home, new porn titles gleefully in hand.

xxxxx

Ignore the timeline and just listen to what the story tells you about the whole 'date was one month ago, which means it must be like December or January!' thing. It's the beginning of October right now.

Please r&r!