Many thanks to Shinichi Kudo, Mainime, and dollarbanks for reviewing my silly little story! It's my first time writing a fan fiction.. And it's really encouraging to see people are actually reading it.. :)
Chapter Six
Tensais, lumps, and plans.
"Nyahaahahaha! Ore wa tensai!" The red haired man exclaimed, as his long, muscular form gripped the rebound with a superior leap that out jumped three players.
Kyouren watched from her honorary place by the benches, where Haruko was cheering, and Ayako was smiling contentedly. She was filled with a strange mixture of pride, awe, and nagging irritation at the ear-splitting show of arrogance. Her mind had been so encased in that image of the red-haired giant she barely paid attention during the rest of her classes, unable to touch the tantalizingly colorful bento lunch Mrs. Nitta had prepared for her, barely able to respond to Haruko's friends, as they asked her questions about her life in America.
Even now, sitting, watching practice, her eyes remained distractedly on the arrogant red-head, even though a certain ex-gangster was executing three-pointers in full glory. Ayako had noticed, but Kyouren didn't care, even though her senpai was tapping her fan against her chin, and staring at her in the most obvious way. Kyouren's eyes were glued on Sakuragi as he dribbled his rebound down court, sprinting and leaping for a dunk over two wary freshmen.
Thunk.
Her eyes widened, as she saw the giant go crashing down to the floor, thankfully landing on his feet. A tall, dark haired figure had blurred momentarily in front of Sakuragi, a long pale arm slapping the ball out of his grip and momentarily upsetting his balance.
"You fool Kitsune! Why are you always stealing my glory?" Sakuragi barked, his face a hairs breadth away from the tall, lean form, glancing back at him with lazy feline grace.
"Sakuragi you baka! He's supposed to block you.." Miyagi yelled from behind him, restraining his furious companion.
"You shouldn't have tried that with three people under the basket, baka." Mitsui remarked cooly, wiping the sweat off his brow.
Sakuragi's face was turning as red as his hair. Kyouren watched as he turned on Mitsui, his hands clenched into fists. "Naaande Micchy.. How dare you judge this tensai, you flunky!"
Mitsui turned red in the face, ripping the towel off his shoulders and flinging it to the ground. "Who are you calling a flunk, you red-haired idiot monkey?"
The entire practice match was put on hold. Miyagi was pulling on the tensai's long arms, and three freshmen stepped in to restrain the enraged Mitsui, who was about to burst a blood vessel.
My brother is an arrogant fool. Kyouren thought, but her lips grazed into a smile. Arrogant and foolish he was, but there was no denying his talent in basketball, and his passion and pride for the sport. Strong. My brother is strong.
Ayako noticed the small smile creeping on her juniors face as she observed Kyouren. Those chocolate colored eyes, which always seemed so adamantly attached to Shohoku's sharp shooter, had been entirely enraptured by the performance of Sakuragi Hanamichi. True, she thought, his performance was eye-catching and he was immensely talented, but no more or less than the three other core players. Scratch that, she thought, finally noticing the tumult and the yelling off to the left side of the court. That red-haired loud mouth was downright distracting– and not in the good way.
Paper fan held tightly in her fist, she stalked up to the scene.
Whap! Whap! Whap!
"The HELL do you think you're doing? I'm you're SENPAI!" Mitsui yelled, nursing the sting on his face as the white fan slapped him smartly. Ayako shrugged cheekily at him, as if to say ,then act like one.
But to the less fortunate, she scowled hovering the fan in front of her menacingly.
"Ryouta! You call yourself a captain.. Brawling in the middle of practice?" Miyagi squirmed under her gaze, half taken by adoration and half paralyzed by shame.
"Sakuragi Hanamichi.. You will take yourself to the opposite side of the court. It seems you've forgotten about all the other ways to make a basket."
"Ayako-saan!" The red haired man wailed in protest, but Ayako was already motioning to Haruko.
"Haruko-chan, why don't you drill Sakuragi on his lay-ups and jump-shots?"
Ayako chuckled to herself at her own cleverness. The co-manageress was the key to shutting up Sakuragi Hanamichi, as well as getting him to take it easy on the court. He was fresh out of the hospital, and at this rate he was going to pull something, if not involve the entire basketball team in an all out brawl. Congratulating herself on cleaning up the mess, she resumed her place and watched the practice match on the other half of the court.
Kyouren watched with utter amazement as Sakuragi, who seemed so adamant on playing the game, sauntered happily up to Haruko, all smiles and sunshine in his face. She watched the giant awkwardly follow the pale, lithe form of Haruko who tossed him balls as he layed up and made jump-shots off the backboard. Every time she encouraged, "Nice Sakuragi-kun!", the red-haired fool put a hand behind his head and laughed, "Nyahahahaha!".
"Do'ahou."
Sglanced up at the only man who could have said it. Rukawa was standing a few feet away from her, supposedly marking Mitsui, who was also observing the antics of the silly tensai. She scowled at the back of his arrogant mop-head, only to be gripped in surprise as he turned to give her a questioning glance. Had she actually made that snort of protest? Mitsui was also looking at her in mild interest, as if waiting for her to continue.
She muttered incoherently to herself, turning pink. But the two players had streaked off towards the basket, as Miyagi shot a blurring pass to Rukawa. She watched as he shot off down court, faked and shot right, past a cursing Mitsui, and swiftly laid up the ball, barely flicking his fingers.
"Nice Rukawa-kun!" Haruko shrieked from the other court.
Kyouren scowled darkly at her friend, then noticed the storm cloud that was Sakuragi looming behind. He was waving his hands anxiously in front of Haruko's face, picking up the basketball and whirling around his back, between his legs, desperately.
Something clicked inside her head. Haruko.. Sakuragi.. Sakuragi is madly in love with Haruko! It was obvious that Sakuragi was very taken with Haruko, the pretty and gentle co-manageress. But now she was fully understanding the tensai's competitive arrogance towards Rukawa Kaede. All because of Haruko.. A wave of sympathy came over Kyouren. She glanced at Mitsui, who was guarding the ball gripped between his hands with admirable fervor, as Rukawa loomed behind him, arms outstretched.
"Yosh."
"Nani Ren-chan?" Ayako asked, looking curiously at her.
Kyouren smiled mysteriously at her senpai, a mischievous light dancing in her eyes. "I've finally found something I can do to help the basketball team senpai." And myslef! She added. All she needed to do was help Sakuragi win over Haruko, and then when the deed was done, Sakuragi would be forever indebted to her. That would certainly help with the messy business of suddenly becoming his long lost twin sister. As for the basketball team.. They could benefit immensely if Sakuragi and Rukawa actually cooperated.She chuckled gleefully, now all she needed was the perfect plan..
"Oi! Watch out!" Mitsui called urgently towards the benches, as the pass one of the freshman directed towards him slipped way past his fingers.
"Hm?" She blinked, and was immediately smacked in the head by the orange ball. She promptly slid off the bench, bright lights dancing in her vision. The game stopped momentarily, with a nervous Ayako and half the team hovering over the semi-unconscious girl.
"Ren-chan!" Haruko wailed, but Sakuragi and Miyagi were unable to share her lament.
"Ahahahahaha! Did you see that? It got her right in the kisser." Sakuragi roared, while Miyagi tried to stifle his laughter. Even Mitsui was twitching with laughter, ignoring the disapproving glance of the feisty team manager.
Kyouren was aware of a few concerned faces hovering over her. One was Ayako, the other Haruko. And standing in the background, smirking down at her was Mitsui. Flushing red-violet, she stood up suddenly, smacking her injured forehead into the clipboard Ayako was clutching, with a resounding thonk. Dull pain throbbed into her forehead, it was going to leave a bump.
"Oi careful there." Mitsui grunted, kneeling down to inspect her bump with his hand. He felt a bit responsible, since he missed the pass. Besides she didn't look too well, all flushed and dazed.
Kyouren marveled at the touch of his palm against her forehead. His hands were rough, yet warm, as his fingers brushed gently across her bump. As he leaned forward to pick up a frozen water bottle and a towel, she inspected the silvery line of his chin scar, blushing furiously. He handed her the wrapped bottle to hold over her bump, then jogged over to the court with the ball.
Sakuragi and Miyagi didn't miss the flush and the glowing eyes of momentarily love-struck Kyouren. They glanced at each other mischievously, chuckling as they jogged back to their stations.
After practice, Kyouren waltzed towards the yellow bike locked on the iron rack, an extra spring in her step. She felt like congratulating the freshman for his awkward pass. She touched her bump gingerly, wincing, but reveling in the memory of the warm hand touching her forehead. Mitsui Hisashi.. Her first day of school had ended well. All the disasters leading up to that one moment was well worth it.
"Stop touching it. It'll swell." A voice mocked, from behind her.
Rukawa was walking up to his red bicycle, fiddling with a chain and key to unlock it. She bent down to do the same, although Rukawa had commented she didn't need a lock, since no one would want to steal such a hideous contraption.
"Mind your own business." She retorted, not unkindly, as she dropped her book bag into the basket of her bike.
"Hn. Suit yourself, melon-head." He retorted, zipping off towards god knows where, as Kyouren raised a fist at his back in anger.
"Hahahahaa.. Melon head, that's not bad for the kitsune-otoko." Sakuragi guffawed, changed back into his uniform and carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder.
"Shut-up." She growled, secretly pleased to have run into Sakuragi. Behind him the brown head of Miyagi popped up like a button mushroom, chuckling heartily at the comment.
"You know Kyouren-chan, maybe you should ask Mitsui to kiss it better for you." He quipped.
"Naani Miyagi-senpai?" She shrieked, fighting the redness creeping to her cheeks. Was she that transparent?
"Hey here's your chance, he's right behind you!" Sakuragi feigned, chuckling as she turned visibly pale and whipped her head around. "Gotcha! Nyahahahhaaa.."
"Sakuragi-san!" She wailed, a hand flying automatically to her forehead, for falling for that dumb trick. Whap! She had completely forgotten about her bump, and had slapped it, sending stinging pain shooting up her temples. Her eyes streamed with tears. "Ow.." She cried out, plopping in the dust.
"..."
"..."
She half expected Sakuragi and Miyagi to be rolling in the dust laughing at her. When she peeked out from beneath her hands, her jaw dropped open. Sakuragi was looking down at her with a mixture of concern and sympathy, tears in his eyes. Miyagi looked similarly at her, suddenly clutching one of her hands to him.
"Uh.. Ryouta-san..?" She got out.
"Don't cry you poor, brave girl." Sakuragi spoke first, reaching out for her other hand. Kyouren was momentarily frightened– had they both gone mad? "Ryou-chin.. Shame on us for tormenting this poor girl.."
Miyagi sniffed, "Sou da! When we two know what it feels like.." He faltered, wiping away a stray tear.
"W-w-what what feels like?" She got out finally.
"Unrequited love." They repeated in unison.
Kyouren pulled her hands away from the starry eyed duo, who seemed lost in their own sorrows. Who knew that men were such idiots? Wait Kyouren... this is your chance, seize it!
"It's true.." She burst out, half-convincingly, as the watery-eyed twits focused their attention on her. "I like Mitsui! But he could never like such a pathetic thing like me.." She tried, slapping her bump for good measure to provide a fresh onslaught of tears.
"Haruko-san." Sakuragi mumbled. "That damned kitsune-otoko keeps getting in my way.." He growled.
"Aya-chan.. She never takes me seriously." Ryouta wailed.
"This isn't the place for this." Kyouren sniffed, dusting herself up as she stood. "I'd be honored to treat you to lunch." She spoke with watery eyes. Her bump was glowing red with the discreet pinches she had been giving it. She prayed it wouldn't swell to the size of a melon, like Rukawa had warned her, great opportunity or no.
At the udon shop Sakuragi suggested, the owner almost kicked them out, yelling at Sakuragi that he wouldn't take store credit. It wasn't until Kyouren showed him her wallet, loaded with wads of yen, that he allowed them inside. Sakuragi muttered darkly as he slurped through his fifth bowl of udon. Miyagi was relating his sorrowful attempts as wooing Ayako to Kyouren, who nodded sympathetically, but was impatient for Sakuragi to finish eating.
When finally he patted his round stomach, and burped, he threw an arm around Ryouta. "But we have basketball, ne Ryou-chin?"
Ryouta shook his head, his eyes still glimmering suspiciously.
"Don't despair gentlemen." Kyouren proclaimed, clearing her throat. "I have a proposition. I'll help you get your girls."
Sakuragi and Miyagi looked at her curiously, about to ask her how, when the door thumped open loudly, and four young men dropped in.
"Oi, Hanamichi!" Mito Youhei called out, the three other members of the gundan trailing along. They nodded at Miyagi in recognition, but they glanced at Kyouren curiously.
"We had detention.. Too bad we missed the foul out king." Takamiya grinned, dodging an head-butt of rage from Sakuragi.
"Hey who's this? Your new girlfriend Miyagi?" Ooksu asked, pointing a finger at Kyouren.
The respective pair looked at each other once, blanched, then turned brilliantly red.
"Iie!" Kyouren shouted, while Miyagi babbled about his faithfulness to Aya-chan.
"Masaka! Then there's no way she's Sakuragi's girlfriend.." Ooksu was abruptly cut off as Sakuragi's head came into contact with his face. He fell down with a crash, letting Noma pick up where he left off.
"So who are you, missy?" He asked, smiling brilliantly at her.
"Itou Kyouren.. A good friend of these two." She winked conspiratorially at Miyagi and Sakuragi, who grinned back at her.
The gundan looked puzzled, noting the dreamy looks on Miyagi and Sakuragi's faces. The three were up to something. And it wasn't everyday two rough-housing, slacker basketball players made friends with a girl.
"What's that on your head?" Ooksu asked, recovering from his head butt, poking the bump on Kyouren's head.
"OW!" She cried out, clutching her wound and glaring at the blonde haired man. Enraged, she picked up the weapon nearest to her, a chopstick, and cracked him repeatedly across the head. Ooksu yelped "Gomen nasai! Gomen nasai!"
She chased him around the noodle bar, letting the gundan and the two basketball players watch in a mixture of horror and amusement.
"Kami-sama.. She's a monster." Noma gasped.
"She's like the female counterpart of Hanamichi." said Takamiya, still in wonder such a thing was possible.
"Nande? What that supposed to mean?" Sakuragi spoke, his head drawn back at a dangerous angle.
"You have to admit Hanamichi.. She's got your temper."
Though slightly miffed, Sakuragi had to agree with Miyagi. She certainly was as spirited as the tensai.
When Kyouren had paid for the eight bowls of udon, (Five for Sakuragi, Two for Miyagi, and One for herself) she had done full justice to Ooksu, who had sprouted many little bumps on her head, to equal her big fat one. She decided she liked her brother's gundan friends, who were friendly, sincere, and fun, if not a little silly. As she wheeled close to home, she couldn't help singing a little tune that Sakuragi had sung on the walk back towards school.
"Ore wa tensai.. Basketoman.."
She parked her bicycle by the front door, sniffing the air. It smelled like cooking rice and crispy fish. She burst through the doors, greeted by a smiling Nitta-san.
"How was school Kyouren-chan?" She asked, holding a soup ladle in one hand. "Your head!" She cried worriedly, noticing the swelled red lump.
"Perfect Obaasan! Oh this..? It's just a little basketball accident. It's fine." She brushed off, whistling the tune as she tromped upstairs.
Nitta-san shook her head, returning to the kitchen to make sure there was enough ice for an ice-pack.
She tromped into the bathroom to wash her face and change into her comfortable sweats. Catching her reflection in the mirror, she peered into her face. She looked nothing like Sakuragi, who she mused, must resemble their dad. But their eyes were the same, dark shade of chocolate brown, glinting with hints of amber, and she was pleased. She was well on her way to completing her ingenious plan. She could just picture it all..
Sakuragi, clutching a giggling Haruko's shoulder, his eyes full of gratitude.
"Kyouren you are the best friend a guy could have! I almost wish you were my sister!"
The basketball team winning the Winter Regional, Ayako-san proclaiming, "It's all thanks to you Kyouren! You got the players to work as a team!"
Mitsui giving her a congratulatory hug..
And then her confession..
"Sakuragi-kun.. I am your sister. Sakuragi Kyouren."
Sakuragi looking shocked, but pleased and happy. "I knew it.. I somehow knew there was something about you."
"Ore wa TENSAI!" She yelled, thrusting her fist up into the air. She laughed heartily, imitating with pleasure Sakuragi's loud, belt of "Nyaahahahahahhahaaa!".
"What the hell are you doing?"
Kyouren whipped her head around so fast, she felt her neck crack painfully. The bathroom door was wide open, the way she had left it, and Rukawa was standing there, staring at her with those wide blue eyes, his lips twitching suspiciously. He was still wearing his practice clothes and carrying his duffel bag, sweat sliding down his brow.
Sputtering uselessly, she shouted, "M-m-m-m-ind your own business kitsune!" Before shoving past him and slamming the door shut to her room. Hoping she didn't seem to suspicious, she pulled out her chemistry homework and attacked it with renewed vigor. Life was going well, she thought firmly.
Rukawa stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly as he dropped his gym bag to the floor with a thump. His lips twitched into a irritating smile, that finally ended in a short snort of laughter. Itkept happening recently– he couldn't control his laughter in front of that ridiculous girl. She's such a joke. He stripped off his sweaty clothes and stepped into the shower, relaxing in the warm soak closing his eyes. The days practice had been a good one.
In a split second, his eyes reopened, remembering something that the girl had said, as he had just reached the foot of the stairs. "..Sakuragi-kun. I am your sister. Sakuragi Kyouren." He thought he had misheard her, and was just about to investigate what she was doing, but he couldn't help letting it slip from his mind. She looked so ridiculous, dancing around and laughing like a maniac. But now he remembered it clearly.
What the hell does that mean?
He blinked. Whether or not it was true, it was none of his business. Why should he care about the tangled past of that strange girl, especially if her brother was that do'ahou. But he couldn't fully push the thought out of his head, especially at dinner, when he found himself starring at her, trying to find the resemblance in her face.
Sorry if this chapter was stupid and choppy.. And Rukawa seemed OOC in the last part. I'm suffering from trying to get this story moving.. And now that I've read so many other Slam Dunk fics I'm starting to realize my story is a HUGE flipping cliche. But I'm determined to keep going, since this is my first fiction. :)
