Chapter 6:

"Awesome! Where's the zombie?" The blond boy popped out from behind the bench, scaring the living bejeepers out of Akaya.

His face fell when he saw that it was only a frightened boy in front of him. "Who are you?" The blond boy asked and yawned, quickly losing his interest.

"That's Kirihara Akaya, our pris... ahem, the person we're taking care of today," Atobe said, a gleam in his eye as he looked at Akaya.

"Kirihara, huh?..." Jiro said and studied Akaya thoughtfully.

"What is it?" Akaya asked uncomfortably.

"Kirihara Akaya! Ah! I know- you're that annoying second year who steals cake from Marui-sama!" Jiro said, fascinated. Akaya only looked dumbly up at the blond-haired boy. How did he know that Akaya regularly took cake from Marui? Even Marui himself didn't know that.

"I'm Akutagawa Jiro." Jiro greeted the still shocked Akaya (who had thought his secret was only known by Niou and himself).

He seems to be awake... this is unusual, Atobe thought, a smirk curling up on his face.

Jiro turned to Atobe with a bright smile. "Can I look after him? Please? Pretty please with ice-cream and a cherry on top?" Jiro asked…begged Atobe.

"Ore-sama does not care. Do what you wish." Atobe flicked his fingers gracefully and walked away. Then, he tripped over a flowerpot. He cursed and tried to regain his dignity while the rest of the regulars laughed at him.

"Wait, Jiro!" Chotarou yelled after the two, who were about to go for lunch.

"What is it?" Jiro asked. Chotarou gave him a thick book. Before Jiro could ask what it was, Chotarou answered, "It's a manual, in case you have any questions about Kirihara-kun."

"A manual?" Both Akaya and Jiro stared at it with big eyes. "Written by Kuwahara," Jiro read aloud.

"That's kind of creepy, and who the hell is Kuwahara anyway?" Akaya muttered to himself.

Somewhere, Jackal sneezed in his lunch. "Jackal, 100 laps for sneezing!" Sanada shouted from the other side of the table.

"Roasted lamb, please," Jiro told the waiter, yawning. "I don't know what to get..." Akaya mumbled, staring at the exotic list of foods (what the hell was a canapés?).

The waiter smiled, albeit a little impatiently. "Well, we have a deal for you. If you can a eat a bowl of cavatappi and fettucine al dente in less than five minutes, you may order for free. However, if you don't manage to eat it all, you will pay ten dollars."

The waiter didn't mention how big the bowl was. It was about the one-fourth the size of a bathtub.

"Yosh!" Akaya pumped his fist, psyched.

"Ready, set, go." The waiter started his elegant stopwatch and leaned back, satisfied. This was going to be an easy ten bucks. No kid could eat that much in less than five minutes. Much a less a five-year old chibi.

Akaya set down his bowl and chopsticks. "Done!" He said, patting his belly and belching happily. "Jiro-san, we got our meal for free!"

The waiter's eyes bulged as he looked at the clean bowl. There was not a single noodle left. He looked up in fear. That is a kid to watch out for... the waiter thought and slunk away.

Meanwhile...

"I'm hungry." Marui mumbled as they walked out from the school property. "You just ate a whole cake by yourself, fatso," said Niou, who flipped his hair and winked at a couple of girls.

"So...? A tensai should have a big appetite. You know, to fuel my tensai-ness."

"Whatever you want, Bunta. Whatever you want to fantasize about."

"Oi, wake up!" The waiter shouted at Akaya and slammed his hand down onto the table. Somehow, this boy was majorly pissing him off.

"...Whaaa?" Akaya asked sleepily and opened his eyes. "You can't sleep here," The waiter said, annoyed, his brow twitching slightly. He had already tried to wake up the blond boy. He swore the boy was either a rock, or dead.

"I'm not sleeping, I'm taking a nap." Akaya corrected and smiled cheesily up at the waiter, his eyes feigning complete innocence. "It's the same thing!" The waiter nearly tore his hair out in annoyance (not that he had a lot left).

"Kami, what's wrong with him? Screaming at a child..."

"Should I talk to the owner about this?"

"We can't have waiters screaming at innocent children here." Some people started muttering to each other. The waiter blushed in embarrassment and turned around. "I'm sorry for the noise, but..." Some more mumbling stopped him in the middle of his sentence.

"How awful, he just turned away when the child is about to cry."

"Should I go up to them? The child is crying for god's sake."

The waiter turned around again, only to see large green eyes brimming with tears.

"Don't cry!" The waiter shouted in a panicked voice as the child started sobbing. He tried to pat the boy's head, but it only elicited more sobs from Akaya, who was enjoying the scene to the fullest.

"Stop crying." The waiter said sternly, trying to intimidate Akaya so he would stop crying. Unfortunately, Akaya had an excellent resistance to those kind of tactics because of... Sanada...

When that didn't work, he tried again.

"Don't cry, smile." The waiter said and tried to smile encouragingly, but it turned into something that... well, to put it simply, he looked like he wanted to eat/kill Akaya.

Akaya sobbed, and added a hiccup for good measure.

"What if I give you free ice cream?" The waiter said with a last glint of hope in his voice, but Akaya continued to (fake) cry.

"All you can eat for one week! Free!" The waiter shouted desperately, aware that if he didn't calm this kid down, his job was done.

"Okay!" Instantly, Akaya calmed down and stopped crying. "I'll start off with a Jumbo Ice-cream Cone, please. Chocolate and vanilla, as much chocolate sauce as possible. And sprinkles!"

"Ok... okay," The waiter said, taking comfort in the fact that people weren't staring anymore. What would he tell the manager? That he had promised a kid with the appetite of an elephant an All-you-can-eat-for-one-week deal? He was so dead.

He looked back to see the boy with a very satisfied smile on his face. The waiter groaned- he had been tricked!

Alas, the influences of Niou Masaharu.

"Are you sure this is the right bus?" Niou asked as they found a seat. "Are you questioning my tensai skills?" Marui asked, taking on an offended look.

"Pupina. When have your so-called genius right? If I remember it's always Jackal- the dude with the horrible fashion taste- who always had the directions." Niou whistled, not really caring if they landed in Tokyo or landed in Paris.

They were pretty much the same anyway, right?

Meanwhile, poor Jackal who's attending a cram class...

"I suddenly feel I like I should be offended..." Jackal said while answering some questions in English class. "You may be correct, Jackal," Yagyuu said, who was attending the class as well.

Meanwhile, poor Jiro who missed out on everything (oh well)...

"What happened?" Jiro asked as he opened his eyes, just waking up. He saw the gigantic ice-cream cone Akaya was currently devouring.

"I want ice-cream too," He whined, not knowing anything. Then he realized that he had slept right through lunch. "Oh well," He said, grabbing a chunk of ice-cream from Akaya's cone.

"Hey!"

End of Hyotei arc part 2