Truths of Rikkai Dai : Niou Masaharu 02
Marui Bunta strolled into his homeroom class, 3-B, which he shared with none other than Niou Masaharu. As he passed by his silver-haired friend, he called out a short greeting. "Yo, Niou."
Usually Niou would reply with a fairly brief salutation as well, but today he didn't. Marui found that abnormal (but by this time he really should have been used to abnormal things), so he stood by his friend for a moment. And that was all the time Marui needed to hear Niou cackle softly to himself, "Now all I need is a screw driver, puri~!"
"A screw driver, why would he need a screw driver?" Marui wondered curiously. His genius-like brain worked to find any idea why Niou would need such an item. Then it hit him.
Petrified for a second, Marui thought that he would probably be using that screw driver to prank someone once again. Now Marui really didn't want to be the one who was going to fall prey to that Trickster! Again!
Scurrying off to his seat, Marui began concocting his genius-like plan to reveal Niou's purpose behind wanting a screw driver. But he was going to need some help with it after all…
Kirihara Akaya didn't bother to stifle his yawn. "Why am I here again, Marui-senpai?" He rubbed his eyes wearily, blinking unenthusiastically.
Marui began to explain. "Because, we're following Niou. He's definitely up to something, as usual. I heard him say 'Now all I need a screw driver, puri~!'" Kirihara's face contorted in a surprised expression as he heard his red-haired senpai mimic Niou and his catchphrase. The memory of laps, Sanada-fukubuchou, and a certain rock flowed back into his head. His face changed from shocked to horrified at the thought of that.
Getting over his initial shock, Kirihara continued to question. "How are you planning on figuring out?" Marui shot him a smug smirk.
"Well, it's all part of my genius-like plan!" The self-proclaimed tensai knocked his index finger against his head and slipped into his trademark pose.
Jackal, who had been standing off to the side of the pair's conversation, held his forehead. "Oh no… Where have I heard this one before…", the saner one checked his bag to make sure he had an Aspirin for the oncoming headache sure to come.
Blinking his deep jade eyes, Kirihara still remained bland. "So, what is your "genius" idea, Marui-senpai?", as he added the air quotes on 'genius'.
"We follow him."
Jackal and Kirihara exchanged unimpressed looks. "…We follow him…?"
"Why of course!" Marui grinned at his two companions. "I've already done that all day at school; now it's time for after school following!"
"More like stalking, don't you think, Jackal-senpai?" Kirihara muttered to his Brazilian teammate, as Jackal nodded his head in consensus.
Noting that the silver-haired tennis player was exiting the school gates, Marui yelled, "Oh look! He's leaving!" Marui jabbed a finger in the general direction of where Niou was headed. "Let's go!"
"Don't you think, if we're trying to follow him, we should be… more discreet?" Jackal tried suggesting. It was unfortunate that his comment fell on deaf ears.
Now, Niou Masaharu, being the exceptional trickster that he was, knew exactly what was running through the mind of Marui Bunta. Niou had followed people many times before, so he was aware of the fact that he was being tailgated by three of his teammates. Not like it took a genius to figure that out considering how blatantly obvious they were being.
"Puri~" he cackled as a smirk played upon his lips. Niou glanced behind him, noticing that the sidewalk behind him was bare. He'd love to give his teammates a little bit of… excitement, for lack of a better word.
"You! He almost saw you!" Marui whispered loudly at Kirihara, "Watch where you're going next time!"
Kirihara blinked once, and then snapped in return, "Well, I never wanted to be here in the first place you know!"
"If you'd like to follow someone, you'd better do it before he gets away."
All three heads whipped around to find the owner of the newfound voice.
"Y-Yukimura-buchou!" Kirihara stuttered unbelievingly as Marui and Jackal looked aghast. The Rikkai tennis captain was leaning over the bush the three were hidden behind, appearing all-too amused by their behavior.
"Why yes, I do believe that I am addressed as that," came the blue-haired captain's reply. A smile graced his pale face and he said pleasingly, "Keep an eye out for Niou, alright?" It was more of an order than a request; the three regulars were quite aware of that. Since of course coming from Yukimura-buchou; when was something not final.
"Yes, Yukimura-buchou. That's what we were doing right now." Jackal nodded his head in response to his captain's command.
"Well then, we'd better get going. Don't want to lose Niou." Marui stood up and sped off, followed by his two companions while Yukimura had that all-too-pleasant-and-or-sadistic smile on his face.
"Yukimura-buchou certainly is all-knowing." Kirihara shuddered. Then as Niou's figure came into his line of vision, he pointed out, "Hey look. There's Niou-senpai."
Sure enough, the Trickster was sauntering along casually, hands stuffed into his pockets.
"Okay, let's follow him."
And he led them around to various places in the town. He led them to the pet store, where he had incurred the loud barking of a dog and quickly evacuated before the employee could reprimand him. Somehow Kirihara made the assumption that this happed regularly. Then he had strolled over to the flower store.
"Why would Niou-senpai go to the flower store?" Kirihara tilted his head to the side as the three of them headed into the shop after the silver-haired male. "I thought Yukimura-buchou was the one who liked flowers."
"I don't know. We're just supposed to follow him," Marui snapped irritably, popping his green apple gum bubble. He was annoyed by the fact that his plan didn't seem to be working at the moment. Then again since when did his plans work?
"I don't think you can get screw drivers from a flower store…" Jackal pointed out, sighing as he knew that he would be ignored, per usual. After all, he practically worked with Marui Bunta the whole day; it was inevitable that he would be used to the self-proclaimed genius' behavior.
Niou had been preening the petals of a rose plant, and after he decided that he had stalled his trailers for enough time, he exited the store, whistling contentedly.
"Maybe he'll actually visit the hardware store now!" Marui eagerly called for his companions, who were despondently lifting their feet after him.
"I bet he's just leading us on some kind of pointless wild goose chase," Kirihara muttered, knowing (and being subject to) his senpai's devious mind.
Now, Niou had finally walked into the hardware store, and to the section where power drills, nails, hammers, but most importantly—where the screw drivers were held.
"Okay, now let's wait here and see what he is going to do," Marui instructed to Jackal and Kirihara. However, his commands weren't exactly obeyed.
Jackal, who usually carried an imperturbable attitude about him, was now fed up with having to sneak around and hide, especially with his doubles partner's conduct. He therefore strutted from his hiding place (which was behind a shelf of nuts, bolts, and planks of wood) and confronted Niou. Marui was practically leaping to restrain Jackal, but Kirihara, seeing that his red-haired senpai was acting strangely, held onto him and kept him from jumping forward.
"Why do you need a screw driver, Niou?" Jackal watched as Niou turned around to face him.
A sly smirk danced on Niou's lips. He smoothly replied with a chuckle. "Why, for a birdhouse of course, puri~!"
Marui and Kirihara fell into a heap out of their hiding place, blinking stupidly and Jackal just stood dumbfounded. Sniggering, Niou passed by the three unmoving tennis players and went to purchase his screw driver.
Kirihara was highly vexed at the moment. "I spent two hours, following Niou-senpai everywhere, to find out that he wants to use the screw driver for a perfectly normal purpose! To build a birdhouse!"
Jackal nodded his agreement as Kirihara continued to verbally thrash Marui, who was looking utterly shocked with his failure. "Not so genius-like anymore, right Marui-senpai?"
"But it's not my fault!" Marui protested. "Yanagi told me that this was the best way!"
"…Yanagi?" Jackal questioned, exchanging a look with his lower classman.
"Yeah. He told me to follow Niou to see what he was up to!" Marui wailed, tossing back his head in despair.
"Well… He stalks people himself, doesn't he, Marui-senpai?" Kirihara put forward, while the bubble gum addict sighed.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Jackal, however seemed to think back to several other incidents, ". . . Doesn't Seigaku stalk their teammates a lot?" but he was promptly ignored.
Niou snickered at the thought of putting his teammates in such a state of confusion. However, on his way out, he wasn't expecting a visit from Yagyuu Hiroshi.
"Niou-kun. I saw the way you were behaving. You shouldn't do things like that," the ever-gentlemanly Yagyuu scolded. He began pulling on Niou's ear and dragging him off before the Trickster could explain himself. Not like he actually could explain himself.
"Wait! But you do those kinds of things when we play tennis!" Niou flailed wildly in his doubles partner's hold.
Yagyuu ignored him, and Niou sighed in defeat. Of course he was ignored. Yagyuu was probably thinking that he was the reason why he does those things playing tennis. Totally not true! Yagyuu does that of his own free will! Well actually Niou bugged him nonstop until he agreed. . .
Then, the Niou-trademark smirk slowly found its way back on to his face.
Surely, the other regulars would be surprised when they found all of their tennis lockers were disassembled one day.