Chapter Two: Trouble

"So what do we do about this?"

They had decided to settle the matter in the clubhouse after practice. Being the national champion team they were, canceling practice rain, sleet or hail (if it ever did sleet or hail) or even in such a dilemma like this was not an option. However, since they were Rikkai and all, practice proceeded without much physical trouble, only the trouble that had stuck their minds existed.

"I think he's hungry." Having been recently informed of the latest news, Marui had taken up an immediately fascination with the toddler, poking at his chubby little cheeks and prompting him with tennis balls just out of his reach and even tried to smuggle gum into his mouth before Jackal slapped it away, informing his teammate that Kirihara wasn't a toy to be playing around with.

"So what do we do about this?" Yagyuu repeated calmly ignoring Marui's comment. Kirihara giggle happily in the center of their little circle.

"Yanagi will explain what he did," Yukimura stated clearly without hesitation, "and then he will change Akaya back to normal."

At this, everyone turned to the said person addressed, who had kept quiet for a while since. Yanagi, unlike the rest of them, wasn't part of the circle formed and was reflecting by himself in solitude over in the corner. He was, however, brought back to reality when Yukimura's voice cut through his thoughts. He took a deep breath and began to 'attempt' to explain.

"Well, after the dramatic success" –everyone stared at Yanagi with skeptical eyes— "of the Magical Chemical 3.8, I decided to experiment some more." He paused with an unusual un-Yanagi-like smirk. Sanada motioned for him to go on with a nod, wishing to see that hint of evil off as soon as possible. "And… well, Kirihara just happened to be the specimen I was experimenting on and-"

"Yanagi, you of all people should know better than this," Sanada scolded sternly.

"Ball," Kirihara exclaimed as he picked up a stray tennis ball and chucked it at Jackal, who caught it before it had the chance to smack him on the head.

"Yes, well-"

"You are never like this, and I won't accept this kind of behavior and your… testing of chemicals on team members," Yukimura reinforced, seemingly oddly flustered.

"I know, but-" Yanagi was completely defeated.

"So you are going to fix this and you better fix this fast." The captain and the vice-captain chorused. Yanagi could only stay silent. Everyone else could only stay silent… well, almost everyone else that is.

"Me want to play!" Kirihara screeched in such a voice that it just wanted to make some people wince. They didn't need anyone to spell out that when Kirihara was thirteen that he was a demon, and they certainly didn't need any telling that now he's two he must be the ruler of Hell himself.

"What do you want to play, Akaya," Jackal asked in a soft and patient voice. Kirihara turned his wide emerald towards his responsible teammate and broke out in a wide grin. Jackal shivered. His senses told him that something bad was going to happen, and considering his previous position as 'babysitter' for the prestigious youth, his predictions weren't that far off.

"Kid, you're not strong or tall enough to pick that up," Niou told him bluntly with a hint of amusement in his eye. He and Marui were asked to keep and eye on Kirihara while the rest of them discussed and tried to settle the issue at hand. Of course, both of them knew well enough the only reason that they had to babysit was because the rest of the team didn't need their two cents and interruptions… and because they didn't want to be the next victim of Kirihara's wicked little mind. Enough chucking balls, spit covered glasses, pulling of hair, and screeching for them that day, thank you.

"No!" Kirihara insisted as he tried to lift the racket, which was just barely shorter than him, off the ground. Marui tried to stifle his laughter as he watched Kirihara attempt and then get caught off balance and tumble to the ground, landing on his bottom while his eyes began to grow abnormally huge and watery.

"Aw, don't cry!" Marui said exasperatedly as he hurried to his side and tried to calm him. It was then he realized that he didn't exactly know what to do to calm Kirihara, so instead he ended up rushing to his side and coming to a complete stop, paralyzed like stone, dumbfounded.

"Marui! You have two younger brothers! Can't you do anything?" Niou asked tauntingly. Marui frowned.

"We're two and four years apart! (though this isn't officially confirmed) You think I know how to change diapers?" Marui whined as he chewed viciously at his gum. That always helped.

"He isn't wearing diaper," Niou managed to say through the din of Kirihara's pitiful sobbing. "He's wearing a toga. Well, technically it's a blanket actually."

"Then get him some clothes!" Marui cried as he tried to pick Kirihara up in order to comfort him. However, being inexperienced with children, he managed to clamp his arm around Kirihara's chest leaving the rest of his body dangling. Kirihara only started sobbing harder.

"Can't we play something else?" Niou suggested. "Like badminton or something?"

Kirihara's crying subsided as he looked at Niou with those eyes of his. "Bad." He said. "Me want to play bad."

Marui and Niou stared at him dubiously. In a flash, the whirlwind of tears and cries had become a pair of joyful eyes and a wide smile, and in their minds, that just wasn't right. And if it wasn't right, then that meant that something had to be wrong.

"Okay, Akaya," Marui said cheerfully. That's how Jackal does it. "You want to play badminton?"

"No," Kirihara answered immediately, shaking his head. "Me want to play bad."

"I think he's saying he wants to be bad, as in 'cause trouble'," Niou noted. Marui's face sagged. Niou was definitely not going to be a good influence.

"Well, shall we cause havoc, Akaya?" Niou said with false innocence as he plucked the child out of Marui's hands and tucked Kirihara under one arm like a tennis racket and proceeded to walk towards the entrance of the school. It took a second for Marui to register everything, but once he did, he started sprinting after Niou and Kirihara immediately.

"Wait! Where are you going? They're going to kill us if they found out we left!" Marui said, panicked. Niou just shrugged.

"The law prohibits murder without set consequences," he said. Then he added smugly, "And we're going to have fun, right, Akaya?"

"Go Grandma!" Kirihara cheered. Niou nearly tripped over a stray empty bottle. When he recovered he could only sigh as he gave Kirihara an annoyed look.

"Well, you can't blame him," Marui said in defense of the two-year-old. "You have white hair. It's not like he's old enough to register people beyond their physical appearance."

"Hey," Niou called as he continued walking on, "since when did you become smart?"

"Shut up. I was always, am and will be a genius."

"Are you sure this was a good idea?"

After grabbing and dressing Kirihara in suitable clothes they found off a rack on the street (street vendors anyone?), the three, led by Niou had proceeded onto the arcade where he and Kirihara were happily trying to conquer a game that was all too bloody, gory, and vulgar in Marui's opinion. Marui himself was horrified. None of them knew what the chemicals could do, and if this was permanently embedded into Kirihara's mind… well, let's just say that he'd seen enough violence on the courts involving the boy already, and certainly didn't want to see more. He was never partial to blood.

"Now, should we use the poison gas and let the person die a slow painful death and cause little devastation to its surroundings or should we use landmines and give them a quick and presumably painless death while destroying everything within fifteen meters of the area?" Niou read it meticulously off of the screen. Script writers these days were just getting more and more creative.

"Niou!"

"Me want bomb!"

"Akaya…"

"Nuclear bomb. Ingenious, Akaya," Niou commented as he scrolled down.

Marui sighed as he chomped at his bubblegum. Niou really was a bad influence.

"I knew I should've went with them."

The group, which had been discussing the issue inside, (And came to the conclusion that Yanagi wasn't to blame due to the fact that he had been drugged- fed a strange juice himself created by one of Seigaku's members and was still deluged when he produced the poison- creation of his own. He got off with a hundred laps and a slap on the face.) consisting of Yukimura, Sanada, Yanagi, Yagyuu, and Jackal, were thoroughly infuriated but not all too surprised when they came out to find Marui, Niou, and Kirihara nowhere in sight.

"Yes, we probably shouldn't have left the three of them alone, Jackal," Yagyuu said in agreement. "I think Niou has already dragged them to some place not fit for Akaya's current age."

"I suspect that they've either snuck into an 'R' rated movie or are playing some violent games down in the arcade," Yanagi mused. At least that portion of his mind wasn't distorted.

"Yagyuu and I will check the theaters. You three go check the arcade," Yukimura said decisively. The others bore no complaints, merely nodding before they went their separate ways, going in a hasted sprint in search for their three (or was it technically two and a half?) missing team members.

"I guess they're not here."

The statement was blunt, and in some ways, an underestimate. The scene was despicable, and we're not talking about the rather explicated snippet being played on screen. Half the people in the torn up theatre weren't even watching the movie. Instead, and unhealthy amount on food was being chucked and… well, it wasn't a pretty scene. Not even the three people missing would want to come to a place like here.

"Let's go," Yukimura sighed. All that trouble of sneaking in for nothing. How did they do it? Well, actually, they didn't really need to sneak in. Apparently the guy up at front got a sudden call that his girlfriend was pregnant and dashed out before either of the two could even open their mouths. Lucky them.

Sanada was not pleased. Jackal was not pleased. Yanagi was… still mentally recovering from the effects of Inui juice that is still making him skippy. 'Oops' wasn't a word for Niou to be using in this situation.

"Daddy!" Kirihara screamed in delight, eyes shining in an evilly innocent way. Sanada winced. Had Kirihara not been a two-year-old currently, he would've earned himself one hell of a slap. Yet nonetheless, he took the child into his hands, reluctantly. Very, very reluctantly.

"Niou-kun," Yagyuu said as-a-matter-o-factly. No question needed to be ask as a mutual understanding past between them. Yagyuu wanted and explanation. Niou knew Yagyuu wanted and explanation. Yagyuu knew that Niou knew that he wanted and explanation, and Niou knew that Yagyuu knew that he knew that he wasn't going to give one.

"Sorry," he said feebly, not even bothering to make some grand excuse. Yagyuu just shook his head.

Meanwhile, sorry wasn't really cutting it for Marui as he earned a lecture from his doubles partner. He pretended to be actively engaged in the conversation, but it was kind of hard when he was the subject being bashed. Kirihara then inserted his two cents by dangerously leaning out of Sanada's arms and tugging at Marui's hair.

"Auntie, me go potty."

Marui grimaced. Oh yeah… don't you just hate it when people were incapable of registering you beyond your physical appearance, or judged you by your looks? And even so, since when did he start looking like an aunt?

"Marui, take him to the bathroom," Sanada muttered as he dumped Kirihara into Marui's hands. The boy wanted to protest, but you were just kind of paralyzed under the infamous Sanada Glare.

"You know, now that I look at it, Marui does seem aunt-like," Niou mused as he looked at the diminishing figure that was Marui holding Kirihara. Yagyuu gave him 'the Stare'. "Well, a lot of aunts give their nieces or nephews a lot of sweet stuff, right? So…"

"Niou-kun, it's not logical," Yagyuu said simply.

"But we are like a big, wonderful, loving…"

Everyone them gave him looks that clearly told him not to say anything beyond that. Niou took it as an invitation to finish with drama.

"Family."

Now that would be a scary thought, wouldn't it?

Happy Friday the Thirteenth upon a full moon.