CHAPTER FOUR

Kiku threw her pen down and rubbed her eyes, feeling exhausted. She had been working tirelessly through the huge pile of homework and also Latin for the past few hours, and was now very much sick of all this.

She yawned, but nevertheless still turned towards the display of beautiful instruments located on her right side. Considering her options for a while, she at last moved over to where the harp stood, and began to play a mournful tune. In a matter of fact, she hasn't played anything 'bright' or 'cheery' since her mother passed away.

Hands delicately plucking the strings and just generally making an awesome sound, Kiku's eyes were shut and her strained face seemed to relax. This was the effect music had on her.

Unfortunately the soothing peacefulness was disturbed by a certain redhead.

Ring, ring. Ring, ring.

"Yes, hello?"

"This is Akashi."

"...Right."

"I have told all of the GoM to meet up at Maji Burger after school tomorrow. Please be there."

Kiku frowned. "Why?"

"You should notify them of your return."

"And...why can't you have just sent them a text?"

There was a sigh on the other side. "I imagine they would want to see you in person."

"Midorima wouldn't." She contradicted right away.

He paused. "That's true, but it's only one person. What about Kise and Kuroko?"

"...I'll be there." Then she hung up, not wanting to here one more smug sentence from him.

After that, she went back to the tedious task of studying Latin.

At around 11:30pm, Kiku finally got into bed. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep, blackness consuming her. Her dreams were weird and confusing, filled with happy memories but also the deep sadness of the past, and she woke up the next morning unable to remember anything.

School just seemed to go past again really fast, and soon the girl found herself on the way to Maji Burgers.

Sighing, she pushed open the door and walked inside to the jingling of bells. She looked around and immediately saw the rainbow-haired boys, eating at a table.

Kiku smirked and walked over, placing herself next to a slouched and grumbling Aomine, who glanced at her lazily, then after 5 seconds shot up as if he was electrified. He stood, pointing a shaking finger at her.

"Y-y-you're back!"

All the GoM stared at them in silence for a while, then all erupted into chaos.

"W-What?! Kiku-cchi? No way! I missed you!"

"That was freaky..." Aomine sighed, sitting back down again.

Kuroko smiled at her. "Kiku-san."

"Huh? Kiku-chin? Wow, you're back." *Simply goes back to eating*

"You all haven't changed at all." But in heart she knew they did. They all seemed more cocky, more confident, although their personality stayed the same.

They all talked a bit more, with Midorima huffing in the corner (with his lucky item). Everyone seemed surprised that she came back without a word to anyone. It was even more surprising that Akashi, who knew everything by some creepy way or another, didn't know about this until he physically saw her.

The week passed, and it was Monday morning 6:00am on the dot.

Kiku had stumbled out of bed half an hour ago, and was now currently walking to school, a cup of coffee in a hand and looking pretty tired. Because of her late-night studying, her sleep was always limited, and having to wake up early for training didn't help.

Even though school had only started for one week, black shadows were already starting to form under her crystal blue orbs.

"'Morning everyone." The girl's clear voice called out to the members of the First String who were also here.

"'Morning!" Hayama Kotarou replied, grinning and showing his 'vampire teeth'.

Mibuchi Reo also gave a small smile. "Good morning, Kiku-chan."

"Huh? There's the shorty."

An irk mark appeared on Kiku's forehead. "Did you just call me short, Nebuya Eikichi?!"

"Erm..."

"166 centimeters isn't called short. It's average height!" She said indignantly. "Call me short again and your training is doubled."

With that, she walked off towards the centre of the room - it was time to start.

"Everyone, please come here."

For reasons the people themselves didn't know, everyone obeyed and walked over, feeling compelled to listen to her voice.

"I will set your training regimes and help you improve your basketball skills. Basically, I will be your coach, though sometimes Coach Shirogane will still come, got that?" Kiku looked around, not aware that she was radiating confidence and this scary coldness.

"Hai!" The players chorused.

She went on to explain how training would work. In the first 15 minutes, everyone was to run around the outside oval. Then, they split into three groups, each of the groups rotating around the training area. There were stations for improving speed, stamina, and strength.

After that, the last half an hour was spent on the personal training regimes, made especially for that one player.

Kiku, of course, did everything with them. Not like your usual coach, but then again everything about her screamed unique.

She lead the running with confidence, and made sure everyone ran faster than what they were used to. Because she was a girl, none of them wanted to be shown up by her, so they tried to keep up, thus improving their own stamina.

This was, of course, carefully planned out by her. In fact, she had a lot of little tricks like this to slap the team into shape even more. I mean, this is an awesome team and everything, but she knew they could become better. At least none of them were getting cocky or arrogant about their skills, or else she would really have to teach them a lesson.

Wait, on second thought, there was someone who was very sure of themselves - you guessed it, the 'Absolute Emperor', Akashi. Why he called himself that, or why others called him that, she honestly had no idea. To her, he was just this stubborn guy who was used to getting his own way in life.

Obviously, this was all gonna change. She wasn't going to let a redhead with mismatching eyes (who was only 6 centimeters taller than her, mind you) boss her around, no way ho-zay.

"Right, now we split up - Reo and Eikichi, Kotaro and Chihiro, and Akashi with me please."

She felt his cold topaz/ruby eyes bore into the back of her head as she lead him to their first station - strength.

"Akashi, we do a little more training than the others, just so you know." Kiku was about to explain more when caught sight of his unsettling expression. It was blank with the slightest bit of... well... curiosity mixed with irritation. It was by far the weirdest expression she'd ever seen on a person, and it was Akashi too. "...What?"

"Why do you call me by my last name when you call everyone else by their first?" He asked straightforwardly, the strange expression still etched into his face. Kiku had a weird desire to grab a camera and take a picture - this was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

She blinked. "Huh? Oh, well, I just got used to calling you by your last name." She went on, leaving Akashi with that vague answer.

The rest of the time at the stations passed in mostly silence, and everyone 'enjoyed' their difficult training regimes too. Sometimes Kiku caught Akashi giving her that creepy, calculating stare, and wondered what that was all about, but shrugged it off nonchalantly.

As she put it, "I don't have time to wonder what that creepy guy's thinking - I have too much on my own hands. Besides, he can be as creepy as he likes, it's got nothing to do with me after all."

~Lunch Time~

"Tajima." That annoying soft voice.

"Since when did you start calling me Tajima?"

He decided to ignore her. "Eat lunch with me." That was more of a command than a question, and Kiku hated orders.

"No."

Akashi turned his cold gaze on her, and red eyes stared into blue for quite a long time, then suddenly - and at the same time - both of them turned away from each other and rubbed their eyes.

"Ouuuuch." The boy murmured very softly.

"My eyes..." She whispered too.

Gawd.

Gah, lol.

I'm sorry, I think I've developed a habit of posting slightly short chapters... But it'll do.

Anyway as you can see I changed the name of this fanfic, soz cos I didn't warn you beforehand but yeah, it was to match my series =)

Please follow, favourite, and review - most importantly follow cos, as I've said on most of my other fanfics, I'm doing a challenge with someone to get lots of followers!

Anyway, until next time ^_^