Chapter III

"What's up, Sonic? Looking for Tails?" Youhei asked.

"Oh, I've come to have a word with Akagi. I hope he's not busy." Sendoh replied casually.

"He's at the stadium, busying himself with Shiozaki." Takamiya pointed out nonchalantly.

"I see...Well, thanks then," Sendoh smiled and headed for the gym.

Youhei started to leave as if nothing interesting took place.

"Where are you going now?" Oukusu asked disbelievingly.

"Pachinko."

"You're the one who suggested that we are to monitor everything that goes on in the stadium to uncover leads as to whom the diary belongs to. Now, a potential figure has run you in the face and you're going to Pachinko? I don't believe you." Noma said, trying to look disgusted. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Hey, potential figure you say? The owner of that diary is clearly someone from the Shohoku team, and the object of his desire is likewise. Tell me, how, in this tangled web of events, could Sendoh be involved in this?" Youhei eyed them one by one as a history teacher would in the vague hope of planting logic in his students' brains.

"..."

So the Guntai decided to call it a day; after all, they had had their share of the tedious work.

At the stadium,

"Oh, I think that's another good opportunity for our team mates."

"And mine too." Sendoh said, smiling amicably.

"Ten thirty on Thursday it is."

The players shook hands and as Sendoh turned to leave, he remembered something,

"Before I forget, have you, by any chance, noticed anything lying on the opponents' bleachers after the last practice game?"

Akagi looked at him for a few seconds and grabbed a ball before answering,

"You should've checked your stuff before you left. But you can ask the freshmen; they polish the gym after games." he said, referring to Sakuragi and the others.

Sendoh headed towards Sakuragi.

...

On their way to the Pachinko,

"You dufus, Ryonan's been having practice games with Shohoku almost every week. In short, you can't just rule Spiky out." Noma told Youhei knowingly, to which fatty and blondie nodded in agreement.

"Good point, but you haven't been reading carefully and you certainly have been ignoring little details in that diary that provide us all the vital information. The owner mentioned they won the practice game, which means they happen to be teammates." Youhei said and when he said it, he was without a trace of doubt.

The other three paused and thought for a while.

"Wait a sec, they shuffled the teams on their second practice game, remember? They even asked YOU to pick up the new practice uniforms from the shop and the teams were team A and team B! The members were shuffled, hence the name of the teams! And they've been doing that since then to improve the performances of their benchwarmers!" Ookusu exclaimed, pointing at Youhei as though he had been caught at a murder scene.

Youhei was flabbergasted.

"How could I forget…" he muttered guiltily

"Yeah, how could YOU forget," everyone else echoed in unison

They turned around and headed back to Shohoku where much of the gossip was to be sourced out.

On their way, they kept recalling the team line ups.

"Rukawa and Hanamichi were both on team A, so were Ikegami and Ryonan Gori and another Ryonan."

"Then it must be Rukawa eying the Ryonan coach! Taoka coached team A. It makes perfect sense, foxy hates Hanamichi, he hates Gorillas and he's not close with those other Ryonan boys and on top of that Taoka always likes his team to win!"

Everyone nodded, apparently considering the speculation.

"What about you Ookusu, watcha got on team B?" Youhei asked

"Well, we all know that Mitchy likes coach Anzai and he probably has made twenty one baskets on a practice game but I'm quite sure his toothpaste ain't strawberry flavored..."

"So? Anything else you can contribute, say something useful? Ooops my turn!" Noma said excitedly. 'It's Sendoh. He likes Akagi. How come we haven't noticed it before? When he was just here to see Gori, like, all the way to Shohoku which is like ten kilometers away. And what do you know, I'm a genius. Right now, he's probably looking for his beloved pink journal.' He continued.

"You're all morons. It's the other way around. It's Akagi. He's so in to Sendoh. How would Sendoh's diary end up the rooftop anyway?" Youhei was sounding like complete authority.

And they argued their way to Shohoku gym, making horrendous suggestions only cows could think possible. That's when they ran into Sendoh who seemed to have finished his business with Shohoku.

"Hey Spiky, have you been to schedule another practice game again?" Ookusu asked as if he had just run into an old pal.

"Yeah, you go and watch us; it's gonna be held here in Shohoku." Sendoh answered pleasantly.

Noma stepped up and stated in as as-a-matter-of-fact manner, 'Scheduling a practice game is one thing while looking for something you left behind is another.'

Youhei stared at Noma as though the latter had just spelled trouble when Sendoh's face lit up and said,

"Found something? My team mate asked me to mention it to Akagi but the freshmen who cleaned the gym after the game said they didn't notice anything. Well, uh, do you have it?"

"Team mate? Which team mate? Anyway what was it that he forgot to pack?" Youhei asked with great anticipation while rubbing his hands together for the goodies he was about to receive.

"Well, it's embarrassing. I wouldn't want to ruin his reputation, although it sure was careless of him...well, what is it that you found anyway? Maybe it's not the thing I'm looking for." Sendoh inquired.

"Something pink," Takamiya blurted out before anyone could stop him.

Sendoh's lips curled into a pleasant smile, with much difficulty in trying to hold back laughter. 'That may well be it, so, can I have it back? He was really worried about who might have had it, rather 'seen' it. ' He asked without a trace of embarrassment.

Ookusu, who was holding the diary and was about to take it out of his binder when Youhei grabbed his hand.

Youhei scratched his head, smiled shrewdly and stepped closer to Sendoh.

"We're not finished with it yet. Perhaps you'd like to tell us who the owner of this pretty thing is."

A/N: This story is almost done and for those who read this before, we're sorry for the two-year delay. Pardon me for the grammatical errors.