Chapter 7: Prelude to the revelation II
Shohoku went on to win the next two games of the finals against Takezato and Kainan. Takezato had been fairly easy, but Kainan was a different story altogether.
Although Maki was no longer in the team, Kainan was still as strong as ever. Jin, the new captain of Kainan, had improved a lot, as had Kiyota. Together, they made Kainan a fearsome package.
It was only fair to fight fire with fire, and up against Kainan's incredible duo was Shohoku's very own incredible duo. Fortunately, Rukawa and Sakuragi realised from the very beginning that they wouldn't be able to beat Kainan if they didn't work together, so they did, right after the game began.
And what a team they make. They were almost unbeatable, if not invincible. Throughout the game, the stadium was filled with cheers for the two boys. Whenever Rukawa got the ball, the audience would cheer for him to pass it to Sakuragi. Whenever Sakuragi got the ball, the audience would root for him to pass to Rukawa.
Of course, in between, there were minor slip-ups, such as the time when Sakuragi asked for the ball but Rukawa scored by himself, and the time when Rukawa passed the ball to Sakuragi and asked for the ball to be passed back to him but was ignored.
Looking at the bright side, however, these minor slip-ups served as major confusion devices against Kainan. By not passing to each other once in a while, they confused their opponents enough to take advantage of the situation. Kainan couldn't be sure anymore whether Sakuragi was going to pass to Rukawa, or Rukawa was going to attack by himself.
Anyway, with 2 wins under their belt, they only have Ryonan left to beat, if they were to be crowned Kanagawa's number one team. And they were determined to take the title at all costs.
---
On the day of the final game against Ryonan...
"Hisashi-niichan, you have to make sure that you record every single thing, you understand? I don't want to watch it later only to find out that some parts are missing," Hanayuki instructed Mitsui, as she handed him the video camera.
Mitsui waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I will, don't worry. Kogure here will help me, right Kogure?"
"Of course. Don't you worry about a thing, Yuki-chan," Kogure assured her.
"Thank you, Kogure-sempai. I mean, I didn't see you for so long, and when I finally do, I ask for a favour," said Hanayuki.
"It's ok, Yuki-chan. I used to be a member of the basketball team myself. I would be more than happy to help you guys out. Just make sure you guys win this game," Kogure said.
"That's right," Akagi added. "You guys beat Kainan. You're not going to lose to Ryonan."
Hanayuki nodded her head. "Hai. We won't. Oniichan and Kaede won't let them win. Anyway, I had better go back down now." She crossed her fingers on both hands and held them up in front of the ex-members of Shohoku's basketball team. "Wish us luck."
"Good luck!" said Akagi.
"Ganbatte!" said Kogure.
Mitsui just winked at her and gave her a thumbs-up.
Hanayuki smiled and turned to walk down to the court.
---
About 45 minutes later...
There were 10 minutes left in the game, with the first-half finished and done with, and the second-half halfway through.
"Pass!" Sakuragi shouted. Tendo, who was having the ball, did a fake and passed the ball to his senior.
"Yosh!" Sakuragi caught the ball and charged for a fast break. Behind him, Miyagi and Rukawa ran to catch up.
"Hanamichi, don't screw up!" Miyagi shouted to the redhead.
"Nani??! The Tensai does not screw up! Watch this!" He jumped up to dunk the ball. "Slam dunk!!!"
Unfortunately, Sendoh jumped up at the same time and blocked him, slapping the ball out of his hands. The ball was about to go out of bounds when Sakuragi jumped after it and whacked the ball back into the court, into the hands of a waiting Rukawa.
"Rukawa, you'd better get the ball in!" Sakuragi yelled.
Do'aho... Rukawa jumped up to shoot, but once again, Sendoh blocked the shot. This time, the ball went into the hands of Sakuragi, who had run back onto the court. Too fast for Sendoh to handle alone, Sakuragi made his shot, and the ball went in.
The score on the scoreboard changed from 55-54 to 57-54, Shohoku still in the lead.
The Shohoku bench erupted into cheers, along with the audience.
"Shohoku!"
"Rukawa!"
"Sakuragi!"
"Nyahahahaha! Tensai Sakuragi!" Sakuragi laughed, as he ran back to defend.
Sendoh heaved a big sigh and smiled a little. Not bad... not bad at all. He looked at the Shohoku bench, where Hanayuki was discussing something with Anzai-sensei. I see you have gotten them to work together, Hana.
"Sendoh!"
Sendoh caught the ball and dribbled it on the floor, as he advanced slowly to Shohoku's side of the court. But I'm not going to lose either!
Quick as lightning, he drove past Rukawa, who was guarding him and jumped up to shoot. Sakuragi and Tendo both jumped up in front of him, only to have Sendoh back-pass the ball to Koshino, who then passed the ball to Fukuda, who jumped up and dunked.
Sendoh exchanged a high-five with Koshino, smiling. See that, Hana. I'm not going to make it easy for you or the guys.
Hanayuki looked at the scoreboard. Ryonan was leading by 2 points, and there were only 2 minutes left to play.
"Come on guys! Play harder!" Ayako cheered.
Just then, Uekusa managed to steal the ball from Miyagi. "Fast break!" he shouted to his team-mates.
Sakuragi and Rukawa were instantly on the run, and they were not called the two fastest people in Shohoku for nothing, as they arrived to defend their basket in no time at all. The ball was passed to Koshino, who was quickly marked by Mikage.
Due to Mikage's excellent defense, Koshino had no chance to pass the ball out. He was almost called for a 30-second violation when Sendoh appeared near him and Koshino was able to pass him the ball.
Rukawa was immediately on to him, and like so many times before this, they went on a brief one-on-one, before Sendoh, again like so many times before this, succeeded in breaking through Rukawa's defense and attacked.
However, on hand to assist Rukawa was Sakuragi, who swatted the ball away 'Gori style', as he would call it. Mikage, who caught the ball, was right before the three-pointer line when he jumped up, releasing the ball with much ease, and with that same amount of ease, the ball went into the basket beautifully.
The tables were turned, and Shohoku was once again in the lead, with the score of 88-87. With one minute left on the clock, the two teams battled it out to see who was going to take the title of Kanagawa's number one.
Ryonan's ball, Fukuda passed to Sendoh, but the ball was intercepted by Tendo, who passed the ball to Miyagi. At once, all 5 players of the Shohoku team went for a fast break, running onto Ryonan's side of the court.
Uekusa tried to steal the ball from Miyagi, but the latter was much quicker and went around him, passing the ball to Sakuragi in the process.
With a roar, Sakuragi charged towards the net, ignoring Rukawa's signal for the ball.
"Do'aho, pass me the ball."
"Forget it, kitsune. I'm not going to pass to you this time."
Stopping suddenly, he prepared to shoot, but Fukuda was already in front of him, blocking his view of the basket.
"Che! Fukuda, do you think you can stop me so easily?" asked Sakuragi. With a flick of the wrist, he threw the ball towards the basket, even as Fukuda bumped into him to stop him.
"Rebound!" Sendoh shouted. He watched in mixed horror and amazement as the ball went into the basket without so much as touching the rim. In addition to the 2 points scored, Shohoku was also awarded a free throw.
Having practised the free throw ever since he first made one, Sakuragi put the ball in easily, Sakuragi way of course. The score was 91-87, with 20 seconds left to play.
Less than 10 seconds later, Sendoh retaliated by sinking in a three-pointer, taking Rukawa by surprise, and cutting the lead to 1 point.
10 seconds left, Shohoku was having possession of the ball. Doing a fake, Mikage got past Koshino and bounce-passed to Miyagi, but Koshino managed to recover quickly and tapped the ball out of the way, tripping and falling over in the process.
The ball went to Uekusa, who quickly passed it to Sendoh, who was already running to attack. Stopping just before the three-pointer line, he jumped up to shoot, and found his line of sight blocked by Sakuragi's outstretched hand.
The ball flew towards the basket and bounced off the rim, with the rebound caught by Tendo. The buzzer sounded, the referee blew his whistle, and the game was over.
Shohoku emerged as the new number one team in Kanagawa, winning the ticket to the National Championships as well. Although Ryonan had lost, being the second best team, they also won the ticket to the National Championships, which was comfort enough for them.
Up in the audience stand, Mitsui and Kogure were so elated that they jumped up and down, shouting their heads off. Later, they went down to join the Shohoku team in their celebrations.
"Good job guys!" praised Mitsui. "You people did really well."
"Nyahahahaha! Of course, Mitchy. This is the Tensai you're talking about. Nyahahahaha!" bragged Sakuragi.
Kogure laughed. "Maa, I guess you're right, Sakuragi."
"By the way, Hisashi-niichan, Kogure-sempai, where is my video camera?" asked Hanayuki.
"Oh, Kogure's having it," said Mitsui.
"Anou, I'm not having it, Mitsui. Didn't you take it with you when we were coming down just now?" said Kogure.
They both looked at each other, before saying together, "Oh, no!" and rushed back upstairs to where they were sitting before in the audience stand. Minutes later, they returned.
Hanayuki looked at what remained of her video camera. She blinked a few times, as if to make sure that she hadn't seen wrongly.
"This is my video camera?" she asked, after a long moment of silence.
"Ehehehe..." Mitsui rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, while Kogure bowed repeatedly, apologising profusely.
Miyagi whistled. "My, my. Look at the state of that camera. It must have dropped to the ground when you guys were coming down from up there, and then people must have kicked it around like, real hard."
Hanayuki took a deep breath. "Well, I guess it's... fate. To tell you the truth, I just bought this, like, a week ago, and now it's... um, gone to camera heaven. I guess the camera god must love it much, much more than I do."
"Huh?" Mitsui and Kogure looked at her, bewildered.
"Never mind," said Hanayuki, shaking her head. "It's ok. As long as the tape is fine."
Mitsui shifted on his legs uncomfortably. "Er, that's another problem."
Hanayuki raised an eyebrow. "What is?"
"The tape was not in the video camera when we found it. It must have dropped out or something."
"Oh."
"Gomen nasai, Yuki-chan," Kogure apologised.
Hanayuki sighed and smiled. "It's ok. Forget about it."
"I'll pay for the damages," Mitsui volunteered.
"No, really, forget about it," Hanayuki insisted.
"Yeah, just forget about it. Come on, guys. Let's go celebrate somewhere," said Ayako.
"Aya-chan's right. Let's go celebrate!" Miyagi shouted.
"Yeah! I propose we head to the nearest karaoke bar later tonight," Mitsui suggested, who was only too glad to get over the whole thing.
"Yosh!" Everybody cried out in agreement.
"You guys love going to karaoke bars don't you?" Hanayuki remarked, laughing a little.
"Now, now, Yuki-chan. Don't you dare say that you don't like it as much as we do," said Ayako, wagging a finger at her.
"I'm not going to say anything, Ayako-san," Hanayuki replied, putting on her best innocent expression.
Just then, her hand phone began to ring.
"Moshi moshi," she answered. Her lips curved into a small smile. "Hai, hai. Wakatta yo. I'll be there soon. See you then."
Turning to the others, she said, "I've got to run now. I need to go somewhere. As for the plans for tonight, you guys decide among yourselves and then give me a call, ok?"
"Where are you going, Hana-chan?" asked Sakuragi.
"Somewhere, oniichan. Don't worry, I'll be fine, and I definitely won't miss tonight's plan, whatever it is."
"But-"
"I'll see you tonight, ne?" said Hanayuki, cutting him off.
When Sakuragi opened his mouth to speak, Hanayuki cut him off again. "Daijoubu yo, oniichan. Stop being so... motherly. I already have one at home, and that's quite enough for me."
Sakuragi ran out of things to say, and Hanayuki smiled and said, "I'll see you tonight, oniichan. Ja ne." She fluttered her fingers in a little wave before turning on her heels and half-ran towards the exit.
"Well, people, we'll definitely have the celebrations tonight. We meet in front of our school gate, and then from there, we'll decide the time and the place," said Miyagi. "Any objections?"
When nobody said anything, he continued, "Good. Now we all go home and take a nice hot bath. Ikuzo."
While everybody followed Miyagi's lead and headed towards the exit, Sakuragi and Rukawa fell behind.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, kitsune?" asked Sakuragi, careful not to let the others hear him or notice that he was talking to his mortal enemy. "About Hana-chan. And who the caller is."
"Let's go, do'aho," said Rukawa, without looking at the other person.
"Go where?"
"Where you think Yuki is going."
---
Sendoh was listening to Koshino's grumblings when he saw Hanayuki leave the stadium.
"Sendoh, are you listening to what I'm saying?" Koshino demanded.
"Hai! Of course I am. Go on, go on," said Sendoh, only to be distracted again when he saw Rukawa and Sakuragi leaving the stadium together, just seconds after Hanayuki.
Rukawa and Sakuragi together? Hmm... that's weird...
"Sendoh Akira! Are you listening to me?!"
"I'm sorry, Koshino, but I can't listen to you right now, so how about I give you a call later?" said Sendoh, giving Koshino the most apologetic smile he could muster. When he saw that Koshino was about to erupt like Krakatoa, he quickly left the scene and rushed to the exit, cringing as Koshino shouted after him.
---
"Yappari, it was him who called her," said Sakuragi. They had managed to catch up to Hanayuki, and had followed her all the way across town to her destination. Both of them were less than happy to see her entering Fujima's house, especially Rukawa. (A/n: Yappari means I knew it, or something along that line.)
"Kitsune, although I don't like you, but if you want to be with Hana-chan, I suggest you do something right now. From what I see, you're losing bad, and losing fast," said Sakuragi, glancing at Rukawa.
Rukawa just kept quiet.
"Oi, kitsune! Are you listening to me?"
Ignoring him, Rukawa left their hiding place and walked up to Fujima's house gate.
"Kitsune, what do you think you're doing?" Sakuragi asked, as he followed the other guy.
"I'm going in," came the reply.
Sakuragi pulled him back. "Are you serious?"
"Let go of me, do'aho."
"Come on, Rukawa. I know you're upset and all, but don't you think it's a little too hasty barging in like that. She'll know that we've been following her, and that won't make things any easier for you," reasoned Sakuragi.
Rukawa forcefully shoved Sakuragi aside and reached for the gate, but before he could even touch the handle, the gate swung open.
"Are? Oniichan, Kaede, what are you guys doing here?" asked Hanayuki, a surprised look on her face.
Not wanting her to know that they had been following her, Sakuragi hastily replied, "Iya! Nandemonai! We just happened to walk past this place. That's all."
"Oh, really? What a coinci-"
"What are you doing here, Hana-chan?" Sakuragi asked, cutting her off.
"Well, you see, I bumped into Fujima-san on the way, and we talked a little about our victory today. When I mentioned that we were going to celebrate by going to a karaoke bar, he told me that he had a karaoke lounge at home, and said that we could use it, free of charge. He then asked me to follow him here to have a look at it, so I did," said Hanayuki. "You really should see the place. It has everything a karaoke lounge should have. And, we don't have to pay a single yen."
"Uh-huh... is that so...?" said Sakuragi, stealing a glance at Rukawa, who was remaining silent.
"Yeah. That's why I've decided to have the party here, at Fujima's house. I'm now on my way home, and I'll be calling everybody to tell them about it. Of course, I wouldn't need to call you guys, since I'm already telling you about it now. Anyway, be here at 7. I'll see you two then. Got to get back home now. Ja!"
It took her less than 10 seconds to finish saying everything, one or two seconds to hail a cab, one second to get in the cab, and another for the cab to speed off, leaving behind a trail of smoke and dust. All in all, Sakuragi and Rukawa never had the chance to interrupt or stop her, and they stood there watching the taillights of the cab, covered from head to toe in dust.
---
Meanwhile, from behind a tree across the street...
Sendoh let out a deep sigh, as he wiped off the sweat from his forehead.
"Mission accomplished."
---
That night...
Ding dong!
"Coming!" Fujima called, as he made his way to the door. Here goes...
"Hey Fujima, it's about time you open the door."
Fujima smiled. "Hey there, Mitsui."
"Hello Fujima-san."
"Welcome, Ayako-san."
"Thank you for inviting us here, Fujima."
"Don't mention it, Kogure. Come on in."
"Yo Fujima-san!"
"Sendoh?"
One by one, said people came through the door, along with the rest of the Shohoku team, chattering and laughing loudly and happily.
"Man, Fujima is rich. I mean, look at this house!"
"Yeah! Look at the number of corridors they have. There's one on the left, one on the right, and one right in front of us."
"Whoa! Look at this antique vase. It looks so... antique!"
Hanayuki, who was the last to enter along with Rukawa and Sakuragi, smiled at the remarks, while Fujima chuckled.
"Hey, Fujima, where is Aoi-chan?" asked Sakuragi.
"Oh, she's not in. Midori-kaachan took Aoi-chan with her to visit her relatives. They won't be back until tomorrow afternoon."
"All the better! After all, we're here to PARTY!!!" said Mitsui. "Look what I've brought." He put down the heavy-looking backpack he was carrying and opened it.
Hanayuki frowned. "Are those alcoholic drinks I see in the bag?"
"Aw, come on, Hana-chan. How can you celebrate something without alcohol?"
Hanayuki looked at him disbelievingly. "Hisashi-niichan, in case you hadn't realised, three-quarter of the people here are underage, including me."
"That's why we're here, Hana, so that we can do it without getting caught," Sendoh put in.
"How come you're here anyway, Sendoh?" Miyagi asked.
"Hana invited me to come along. I called her this afternoon and she told me that you guys were coming here to celebrate your victory. Although we were the losing side, I never say no to a party, so-"
"-he shamelessly decided to butt his head in and join us," Sakuragi finished for him.
"That's not a very nice thing to say, Hana-kun," said Sendoh, pouting a little.
"What did you call me, teme Smiley!!!"
Whack!
"Itai!!! Ayako-san, what do you think you're doing, bringing along the fan to a dinner party?!" said Sakuragi, clutching his head.
"To keep you under control, baka. Now get going, before I whack you again," she ordered.
"Maa, maa. Let me take you people to the dining room," Fujima intervened, laughing a little.
Muttering under his breath, Sakuragi followed the rest of the people to the dining room, with Ayako right behind him. She stopped beside Rukawa, who didn't show any signs of moving.
"What are you waiting for, Rukawa? Get going," she said to him. "Come on!"
Grudgingly, Rukawa complied with his sempai's orders, but not before he glared at Sendoh, who sweatdropped.
As soon as they were alone, he slipped an arm around Hanayuki's waist.
"So far so good, ne, Hana?" he said, in barely a whisper.
Hanayuki sighed. "Let's hope it lasts the night."
---
Author's notes: Okie... so I didn't get any reviews for the last chapter. It's ok, I guess, though I can't help but think that it's because it wasn't a good chapter that I didn't get any reviews. Anyway, thank you for reading.