CHAPTER 11.5 (EXTRA)
"Yo!" Niou Masaharu greeted his fellow team mates with a sleepy yawn. "Where's Yukimura and fukubuchou?" He asked as he couldn't see any terrified first years anywhere, which was a sure sign that the two were up and about.
"You're late again," Marui said, not addressing the question, from the bench where he had a pink box on his lap.
"Sorry, I met a cute girl who was lost," Niou excused himself. He grinned.
"You overslept, didn't you Niou-kun?" Yagyu said exasperatedly, not convinced by Niou's excuse.
"You should become more me, the Genius," Marui lectured pompously and opened his box. It contained brownie torte. "I managed to bake this cake, eat some of it, wake my brothers, and run to the candy store before coming to practice on time."
"I would rather have stupid singing class all day then be you. Do you ever shower?" Niou smirked as Marui took a bite of the torte. He threw his tennis bag at the bench and picked up his racket.
"I do shower, every day. How do you even think I get my genius hairstyle perfect every day?" Marui shouted indignantly as he pointed at his own hair, which was looking rather ruffled.
Niou sighed. "Puri, It's not funny annoying you anymore. I'm bored."
"Thank you- and, you shouldn't say the b-word here… you know, he-who-should-not-be-named can hear you within a 4-mile radius," Marui said as he looked around to make sure nobody was listening.
"I'm not scared of the Emperor; I'm more scared of the Demi-God." Niou shivered. Now there was someone to be afraid of, and ultimately admire.
"Did someone call my name?" A familiar gruff voice asked behind Niou. Marui stuffed the cake behind his bag and hurriedly starting doing fake push-ups. Yagyu exited quietly and quickly, leaving the two other ones to fend for themselves.
"Sanada fukubuchou, good mor-"
"200 laps around the court!"
"Okay." No one dared to argue with Sanada.
This is so boring, Niou thought as he jogged around the tennis court. It had been seriously dull since their second year baby had left with the Seigaku team. He had to admit that he missed his apprentice and, though he would never say it, friend. Now he had no one to annoy except Marui, Jackal, the first years, the teachers or the principal.
Akaya had formed a hole when he had gone with Tezuka.
"Everyone is dismissed-" Yukimura declared to the team.
"Finally." Marui and Niou sighed in relief.
"-except the regulars." Yukimura finished with his most radiant smile.
"Come on!" the regulars shouted in unison (actually, only Marui and Niou). They had been worked too hard. First it was 500 laps, then 1000 swings, than 500 new laps and then practice matches, and then 2000 swings- they needed a break now!
"I have something important to say," Yukimura said as he eyed every member and ignored their disgruntled mutterings. "Akaya's okaa-san is coming back home in three days."
"What?!" The team gasped in surprise (actually, only Jackal).
"When did you get that information?" Yanagi asked. He hadn't heard about it and if he was correct, 98% of the time he got the important information first.
"I have my ways... anyways, what are we going to do? She's going to expect Akaya to be home. After all, she has no idea Akaya is with Seigaku."
"You don't have a plan?" Yagyu asked, voicing all of the regulars' thoughts.
"Do you want some cake to spark your mind again?" Marui offered.
"Are you having a relapse?" Sanada started panicking as he picked up his phone. Yukimura always had a plan. He needed to call an ambulance… now, how did he dial again?
"No, nothing's wrong with me. And, I already taught you how to dial," Yukimura said a little sharply. "I just don't have a plan. I thought this would be a good opportunity to make use of our teamwork. We haven't done anything like this for a long time."
"Easy answer. I can just be Akaya. It's easy- pupinaya." Niou said and sang the last word.
Yagyu had the urge to smack his partner in the face. Instead, he settled for a sharp, "Niou!"
"That's impossible!" Marui exclaimedas he shoved Niou off.
"Why? I'm perfect at stuff like that... pupina."
Yagyu sighed. Pupina was at least much better than pupinaya, which sounded like papaya.
"You don't have Akaya's childish innocence or naivete," The genius said critically while Niou gave him the evil eye.
"Even though you might look like him, you'll be too tall. She'll bust your cover as soon as she looks like you."
Marui shuddered at some memory.
He pushed on with his explanation. "And you don't want to see her angry. You should have seen her that time when I accidently punched Akaya in the face while we were having a food tennis match in the kitchen. She was screaming at me and said that I had to buy Akaya a new pair of shoes. That woman… or that son… well, the power of moms are terrifying... that's what Jackal said," Marui said as he pointed at Jackal, who wore a very confused expression.
What had he done to deserve the blame? His bald head. It had to be the most misunderstood object in the entire universe. Nobody understood that he liked his head bald, not just because he was bald because his hair wouldn't grow for some reason.
"Jackal, 100 laps for punching Akaya that time," Sanada said. He believed that Jackal had punched Akaya.
Jackal sighed as he turned to run the laps. He knew it. People hated his bald head.
"I think I have an idea," Yagyu declared and took a step forward.
"Great. Renji, write it down," Yukimura said with a charming smile.
"Let me go back home! I don't wanna do this!" Mizuki Hajime yelled angrily at the Rikkaidai team (who were all grinning madly from Yagyu's mad idea) from the bushes from behind The Kirihara Household.
He had gotten kidnapped from his room while he was doing his homework; the next thing he knew he had been drugged. And somehow he woke up dressed as Kirihara Akaya.
It was disgusting. The clothes he was wearing hadn't been washed for years and it made him feel dirty.
"I'm so happy you willingly wanted to do this for us," Yukimura smiled, cocking his head slightly and examined the outfit. It would do.
"You kidnapped me AND WHY THE HELL AM I DRESSED AS KIRIHARA?!" Mizuki shouted back, thoroughly impatient with his circumstances.
"We'll tell you later- your mom is coming home soon. Just don't talk and be in your room. He has some nice manga under his bed if you want to pass the time," Niou informed the manager.
He couldn't quite understand why Mizuki Hajime of all people had been chosen as the person to play Akaya. Although he slightly resembled him, Mizuki didn't have the same childlike innocence. That kind of annoyed him.
"His mom is coming home?- what's going on?" Mizuki asked, truly confused. He struggled to maintain a calm composure. Goddammit. He has forgotten his phone at home. That meant he couldn't call 110 for the police.
"Just do it. If you do it, no one will get hurt. If you don't, well..." A strange iciness was being emitted from Yukimura, whose pupils had turned cat-like.
Mizuki gulped and starting cursing Rikkaidai under his breath.
The St. Rudolph manager opened the door to The Kirihara Household. It was cleaner than he had expected. Kirihara's room was probably in the second floor. He walked up the stairs while looking over the pictures.
The first photo… was probably the family. He recognized the boy who was smiling, the father holding him up. The woman was looked like an incarnation of Hell and the girl looked like someone he had seen before. The father, too, reminded him of another guy he had seen from somewhere before. But he just couldn't remember from where.
The rest of the pictures where of a lot of people and a one eyed elephant. He didn't question that one.
As came up he looked over the hallway. It was probably the one at the end, with the large KEEP-OUT sign scrawled in black-sharpie, messy handwriting.
A girly scream was heard all of a sudden by the Rikkaidai regulars.
Was that Mizuki?
"What did you do to his room?" Sanada asked as he looked over at Niou and Marui. It was probably some booby trap.
"Surprisingly, we haven't done anything," Niou said honestly.
All sorts of clothes were scattered across the room. Comics and old Jump magazines were actually in a sort-of pile. He had to give credit for that… but was that a sandwich? He couldn't tell under the nest of mold. Mizuki shuddered. He was a clean freak, okay, but anyone would've freaked out upon seeing Kirihara's room.
Suddenly he heard a voice coming from downstairs.
"I'm home, honey! Come down so we can eat something. It's pizza!" A female voice shouted. Probably his "mom".
Mizuki started to sweat... he would have to go downstairs, maybe talk with this stranger, and eat pizza with the stranger. Gritting his teeth, he began descending the stairs, one slow step at a time.
The older woman started to put her bags down. She was exhausted after sitting on a plane for five hours, going on a train for three, and then taking the bus for one and a half. The next day she would leave for Hokkaido.
But, first she wanted to visit her beloved son, whom she had missed him so much. She was always abroad, and as a result had missed celebrating Christmas with the family. Even though it was a western tradition, they had liked celebrating it.
She found some plates and set them on the table in the living room. She was lugging over the pizza box when "Akaya" came down the stairs.
"There you are!" She beamed at what she believed was her son. He was looking down at the floor.
"No need to be awkward, honey…" She smiled and gave him a tight hug. "You're awfully quiet." The woman smiled, but her eyes were searching.
"You must be hungry! I bought our favorite pizza, bacon and pineapple. Let me tell you about Turkey!" She said and tried to hide the worry in her voice as she pushed him over to the couch. Still, her "son" said nothing.
"Wonder what's happening in there," Marui said, half asleep.
"Puri… zzz... pupinaya..."
Yagyu mentally slapped Niou.
"Do you have it set up?" Sanada asked Yanagi, who was sitting in front of a hi-tech laptop.
"Done. Now we have 90% of the house covered," Yanagi muttered to himself as he set the computer down at the ground so everyone could see.
"Great job, Renji. I should have picked you as vice captain instead," Yukimura said pleasantly as he looked at the screen.
Sanada flinched. What had his best friend just said?
"You should have seen Karga, the chief I told you about last time. He was so angry at me- I thought he was going to explode!" The Kirihara mom laughed loudly. Mizuki wished he had a remote that could control her. He would've pressed the mute button.
She stopped laughing. Usually, her cute son would have laughed along with her. "Akaya…?" The name came out quietly, concerned.
Mizuki made a "hmm" sound and continued chomping on his pizza as an excuse not to talk.
"Is something bothering you? Did something happen at school? Is someone bulling you? I can talk to the principal again. Please, tell me if something's wrong." She sounded like a beggar, something that made Mizuki feel bad.
He opened his mouth, swallowing the quite delicious pizza.
The Rikkaidai team turned on the audio so they could hear better.
"Akaya… Is it because of me?" She tried to look at his face, but Mizuki refused and turned away, his face turning bright red. This was so embarrassing.
"I know that I haven't been the best mom, and I'm sorry… this will be my last business trip for two years… so we can spend time together now, as a family." Akaya's mom paused, obviously having an emotional breakdown in front of a complete stranger.
"We can go lots of baseball games, like your favorite ones. And... isn't that great?" She tried again, her eyes pleading. Mizuki felt that this woman, no matter how scary-looking, was actually a really soft softie.
"Hey, where did Seiichi go?" Sanada asked as he looked at the empty space where Yukimura has been sitting. A flash of movement behind the door alerted him to Yukimura's presence.
"I have a feeling of what he's going to do," Yanagi said as he closed his computer. Marui and Niou grunted unhappily.
"Let's follow him." A quick group of nods and the team jumped to their feet and stealthily tramped down the hallway after their captain. They stood behind Yukimura when the door revealed to open Akaya's mom. Behind her, sitting on the couch still, was a rather dejected-looking Mizuki.
"Yukimura-san and the other guys," She greeted, beckoning her hand to come in. She had regained composure surprisingly quickly.
Sanada's aura visibly darkened as he was grouped in the category "other guys".
"Can you please help me?" She asked honestly once they were all in the house and had a slice of pizza. "Akaya's been depressed ever since I got home. It makes a mom sad when she sees her child like that... so, can you help him?" She pleaded, ignoring her "son's" glaring daggers.
"That's why we're here. We have something to confess." Yukimura declared with a contrite smile. "And I'm really sorry about this." He bowed deeply and formally, and soon the others followed. Niou sank about one inch before rising up again, while Sanada went the full ninety-degree angle.
The woman's eyes widened. "What?"
"I also have something to confess…" A rather unfamiliar voice said from behind her. She turned to see her "son" with a wig in his hand. Who was this kid? Where was her son?
"What's going on?" She asked as she turned back to the team. "Where's Akaya?"
"It's a long story," Yanagi said. "Let's start from the beginning.
"So… my son is…"
Yukimura nodded.
"Aw... why couldn't I have come back earlier? I wanted to see him so badly. He's so adorable!" Akaya's mom exclaimed, disappointed but not mad.
"Oh, I do have a picture…" Yukimura said and let her see his phone. She squealed. Chibi Akaya was hugging a teddy in his sleep while drooling. "Can you send it to me?"
"Of course."
"What's your email, then?"
"Kirihara mom one-oh-eight-seven at gmail."
"'Kay. Sent it."
"Thanks so much!"
"Can I go home now?" Mizuki asked.
END
OMAKE:
"Hey, buchou, have you seen Mizuki-san?" Yuuta Fuji asked Akazawa who was busy shouting at the other members of the St. Rudolph boys' tennis team.
He turned, surprised. "Is he missing?"
"Yeah. I checked everywhere. His room, the music room, and even the toilets, just in case he was stuck. Nowhere to be found! He was supposed to play a match against me today."
"Yuuta." The captain said and put a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "Just enjoy the silence of not having anyone screaming about dirty laundry."
