Disclaimer: I don't own La Corda or any of the people in it... :(
(A/N: Sorry for the cliffie you guys!!! here's a new chappie! :D)
"...Kazuo... He was best friends with Niriya, until Niriya started spouting lies about me... Now he's just pretending to be friends with Niriya so that he can keep an eye on what that idiot is doing," Kaho said.
Mio and Nao looked at Kazuo suspiciously.
They turned to face each other and began whispering to one another.
"Do you think we can trust him," murmured Mio.
"Well, Kaho-chan seems to trust him, and he seems to be on her side in the Niriya crisis, so i suppose we can trust him," mumbled Nao.
They nodded to one another and turned to Kazuo and said, "Welcome to Seiso Kazuo-kun."
Nao looked at his uniform and said, "You're in General Ed, right?"
Kazuo nodded and turned to Kaho again.
"My father is friends with the principal, so he arranged for me to have all my classes with you," said Kazuo.
"EH?!?!?!?!?! Kazuo-kun! Ypu don't have to," exclaimed Kaho.
"But I want to Kaho-chan... I need to make sure that no matter what Niriya does, you'll be okay," said Kazuo, affectionately ruffling Kaho's hair.
"KAZUO-KUN!!!! Stop messing up my hair! It took me FOREVER to get it that neat," exclaimed Kaho unhappily, trying unsuccessfully to get her hair to lie flat.
Kazuo smiled, making the surrounding girls squeal...
Hr hugged Kaho around her waist, picked her up, and sat her down on a table that chanced to be nearby.
Mio and Nao were still standing in the same place, about 20 feet away, looking shocked at what Kazuo just did to Kaho.
Kazuo looked at Kaho seriously and said, "What has Niriya been up to theses past few days?"
Kaho turned to her binder and pulled out a dvd copy of the videos and recordings that Amou had taken.
"Here," she said, "I have another copy, but if you want to know what's happened, just look at that. It explains everything... Now I have to go before I'm late for ENS, okay onii-san?"
(A/N: Kaho considers Kazuo to be her older brother, and Kazuo considers Kaho to be his younger sister... But no one knows that other than Kazuo and Kaho...)
"Arigatoo Kaho-chan," said Kazuo, leaning in to give Kaho a kiss on the cheek.
Mio, Nao, and Kazuo's already assembled 'fan club' saw this, and nearly fainted.
After Kazuo did that, Kaho threw her arms around him, and kissed him on the cheek as well.
"Have fun at school onii-san," she whispered into Kazuo's ear.
Kaho hugged him tightly, and then let go, jumping off the table onto the ground, heading over to the locker rooms.
Kazuo's eyes followed Kaho, and a small smile crossed his face, until an incredulous, but cold voice was heard behind him.
"Kazuo-sama? What are you doing here," asked Len.
Kazuo turned around to see his cousin standing right behind him.
"Len-kun," he said in surprise, "I didn't know that you went here. I transferred here for the sake of an old friend that needed help... I'll introduce you to her later... Right now, I have to watch this."
Kazuo Hikotu held up the dvd that Kaho had given him and began walking away from his astounded cousin.
"Ja ne Len-kun," he said, raising a hand in farewell without turning around.
Len was still standing there, dumbfounded, when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
Len was surprised to see Mio and Nao looking expectantly at him.
"Nani," he asked impatiently.
"You know Kazuo-kun," asked Nao incredulously.
"Hai," said Len, looking extremely annoyed, "He's my cousin... My mom's sister's son. Kazuo Hikotu."
Mio and Nao looked at each other with signs of surprise on their faces.
Nao thought, 'Oh crap... What are we gonna do? Kaho's cheating on Len with his cousin...'
(A/N: I thought that i should repeat this again... Kaho and Kazuo only have brotherly and sisterly love for one another... nothing more... But, the others don't know that, so they make the wrong assumptions...)
Mio thought, 'I don't know... Although it seemed like Kaho-chan was cheating on Tsukimori-kun, she didn't look at Kazuo-kun the same way she looks as Tsukimori-kun.. Hmmm... I'll ask her about it later...'
Len just stood there impatiently, waiting for the girls to say something that indicated the need for him to still be there...
'I want to introduce Kaho to Itoko-san already so she won't get confused,' he thought anxiously.
Finally, when no sound of acknowledgement came from the girls, he said coldly, "If you two no longer need my assistance, i shall take my leave now."
They looked at him and nodded mutely, still mulling over the thought of Kaho and Kazuo together.
"Ja ne Tsukimori-kun," said Mio, remembering her manners.
Nao just nodded in Len's direction, not really caring about her manners.
Len began walking back to the music building while brooding over Kazuo's sudden entrance into his life.
'I wonder who itoko-san transferred here for,' he thought, 'Anyway, i must introduce Kaho to itoko-san soon before she mistakes him for me.'
Len walked into his Music Theory class and once again immersed himself in music, and fenced himself away from the rest of the world, only paying attention to the teacher, and his textbook.
(A/N: Itoko means cousin)
*************
Kaho was back in the locker rooms, changing out of her PE clothes...
ENS had just ended, and Kaho was getting ready for her lesson on the rooftop with Len...
She had gotten into the locker rooms late because the teacher had forgotten the time and had been lecturing them about the importance of health.
Kaho flung her uniform on, and decided to leave her hair up in a ponytail.
She grabbed her violin case and her binder and rushed out of the locker rooms, running to her locker to grab her lunch.
Once she arrived at her locker, she hurreidly put her stuff down, turned the dial to her combination, opened her locker, grabbed her bento (lunch), closed her locker, grabbed her stuff up off the ground, and ran to the music building.
Finally, she arrived up at the rooftop, but, for the first time ever, Len was late.
Kaho merely shrugged and thought to herself, 'everyone's late once in a while,' and began setting up her stuff...
Kaho took out her music stand, pulled her violin out of its case, grabbed her bow, took a deep breath, placed her bow on the violin's strings, and began playing the first measures of Ave Maria.
Memories of her and Len flashed through her mind as Kaho played her favorite song.
She remembered their first kiss, the concours, the way they first met, Kaho watching Len perform along with his mother, and more...
After the last measure had been played, Kaho relaxed her arms, lowered them, and let out a deep breath.
Suddenly, the sound of clapping came from behind her.
Kaho's eyes shot open, and she quickly turned around, only to see Kazuo gazing at her with pride.
"You never told me you could play the violin, Kaho-chan," he teased.
"O-onii-san," she exclaimed, "I didn't know you were sitting there! Gomen! My playing's not very good, but I'm trying my hardest, and i practice in my spare time."
Kazuo stood up and walked over to Kaho.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "Kaho-chan, It was good..."
Kazuo then gave her a big hug, just in time for Len to come up the stairs, and through the door, and see them hugging.
Len dropped his binder in shock.
'W-what is Kahoko doing with Itoko-san,' he thought.
'Surely she couldn't think that he is me! I know that we look alike, but his hair is a shade darker than mine, he's an inch taller, he's a couple months older, and his voice is deeper,' he thought.
Upon hearing the sound of Len's binder dropping, Kazuo and Kaho looked up, seeing the dumbstruck Len standing in the doorway.
Kazuo and Kaho looked at heach other, then back at Len, and broke apart.
Kaho opened her mouth to explain to Len what they had been doing.
Len saw the guilty look on Kaho's face and misinterpreted it to be something else.
'So that's it,' Len thought sadly, 'Kahoko was cheating on me... All this time, i was just a rebound guy for her, and now she's fallen for my cousin.'
Len shook his head.
"Kaho, I don't need an explanation. I know that I'm just your rebound boyfriend. I understand that you didn't really love me in the first place. I'm sorry for dumping all my affections on you," said Len sadly, looking at the ground.
Len bent down, picked up his binder, turned around, walked through the doorway, and began walking down the stairs.
Kaho ran after Len, determined to catch him and explain exactly what was going on.
By this time, Len had already reached the bottom of the stairs, and was waking swiftly away.
Kaho began running down the stairs, taking them two at a time (which is very dangerous), when a mouse scurried across the step Kaho was about to land on.
Kaho shrieked, causing Len to turn around and see Kaho twist and try to change her direction, and keep from stepping on the mouse.
Kaho didn't step in the right place, and the only place that her foot came in contact with was air.
Kaho began falling down the stairs.
Despite Len's feeling of betrayal, he still rushed to catch Kaho before she hit the ground.
Len wasn't fast enough.
Kaho fell to the ground seconds before Len got to her.
Kaho cracked her head against the ground, hard.
Kazuo had rushed down the stairs after Kaho, hoping to explain to his cousin exactly what happened.
He too saw Kaho's spill down the stairs.
Kaho looked up weakly at Kazuo and said, "Onii-san, please explain to Len what happened."
Kazuo looked at her weakly and said, "Hai Kaho-chan, but first, let's get you to the health office."
Kaho started to nod weakly, but her eyes rolled back into her head, just after she said, "Len, ashiteru."
(A/N: Ashiteru translates into i love you.)
Len cupped his hand on the back of her head and felt something warm and wet.
He pulled back and stared at his hand in horror as he saw the crimson liquid seeping out from Kaho's head.
Kazuo saw the blood on Len's hand and immediately picked Kaho up and began walking to the office.
"Len," he said sternly, "I'll explain everything later, but first, run ahead and get help."
Len nodded and took off in search of help.
The courtyard was crowded with students, since it was lunchtime, and no teachers were in immediate sight.
But all len could think was, 'Kahoko, my precious Kahoko, stay with me. 'll never doubt you again, just stay with me.'
Tears began running down his face, and he shook his head, both to shake the tears off his face, and to try to clear his mind.
Several students noticed this, and the whole school grew quiet except for a couple murmurs, which were other students aksing one another what could make Len react like that.
Len spotted Kanazawa and ran over, yelling, "Kaho is injured, get the nurse."
Upon hearing that, Ryo and Kazuki ran up immediately, offering their help.
Kanazawa understood Len, and he pulled out his cell phone, paging the nurse, telling her to come to the music building right away, because a student was hurt.
"Tsukimori,what happened," asked Kanazawa.
"Come with me," Len said, bringing Kanazawa to Kaho.
"Oh shit," said Kanazawa, when he saw Kaho.
He immediately walked over to Kazuo and began taking the limp Kaho's pulse.
(Kaho was still in Kazuo's arms)
After mutterign a couple curse words under his breath, kanazawa whipped out his cell phone again and dialed 911.
"Operator," the voice in the cell phone said.
"Send over an ambulance to Seiso Gakuen Academy immediately. One of our students need to go to the emergency room immediately," Kanazawa said quickly.
"Will do, we are sending over an ambulance right now, get your student on a stretcher and bring them to the front of the school," said the operator.
"Hai," said Kanazawa, "Arigatoo."
He hung up, and looked over at Ryo and Kazuki.
They had heard the operator say stretcher, and happened to be right next to a Health class, so they grabbed a stretcher from inside a supply closet, and placed Kaho on there.
At first, they had looked at Kazuo and Len and wondered what the heck had happened, because they looked almost exactly the same, but shook their heads of the notion, because Kaho was lying on a stretcher, unconscious, and barely breathing.
Hihara and Ryo picked up either side of the stretcher and began carrying Kaho to the front of the school, through the crowed courtyard.
Once the other students saw Kaho, the Gen Ed student from the concours on a stratcher, the rumors and talking finally began.
But no one in Kaho's 'rescue' team bothered to correct the foolish students.
Their main priority was to get Kaho out to the front of the school.
Amou followed them, making sure none of the other students got too close to Kaho, or kept the boys from their task.
Once they got to the fron of the school the ambulance roared to a haly, and tha paramedics ran out of the back, picking Kaho's stretcher up and placing it in the ambulance.
Len and Amou were chosen to ride in the ambulance with Kaho while the others would follow in Kanazawa's car.
Kaho opened her eyes for a moment, and said, "Len, gomen."
Kaho herself was resting, lost in a sea of blackness.
Len took ahold of her hand, kissed her forehead and said, "I love you too Kahoko, don't leave me."
(A/N: CLIFFIE!!!!! Wait until the next chappie to see what happens! Sorry the chapter sucks so much... I had to type this as fast as possible... If i spelled anything wrong, or my grammar is incorrect, please pardon the mistake...)