"Eiji-kun?"

Eiji's eyes were red and dry. Crying did that. "What?" he snapped. He was still upset. The rain had soaked his clothes thoroughly as he curled up to try and stay warm.

Rika was very concerned. The only other time she had seen Eiji in tears was on the train. "What did my father tell you?" The rain pitter-pattered on her umbrella to a steady rhythm.

Eiji rested his chin on his knees. He was shivering. "Quit tennis, go into hospital and stay and my body will stop function before nationals, in short. Basically, I'm going to die anytime I could die, even right now."

"What?" Rika asked. "You'll make it to Nationals, I'm sure of it." She held the umbrella over Eiji's head. "Trust me, you will."

Eiji grumbled. "That makes one of us, nya." His voice was so hoarse it was hard to understand. "Rika-chan, I don't tell anyone how scared I am, so you better not tell anyone, okay?"

Rika nodded. "Sure, Eiji-kun."

"I'm terrified! I can't sleep at night because I'm scared I won't wake up. I can't concentrate because I can only think of what it would be like with me gone. I'm so afraid that they'll just overdoes me to put me out of my misery when I go see the doctors. I hold a pen and I have to try to hold it, I'm afraid I'll snap or drop it. I'm scared of what my family really things. I'm afraid Fujiko is just pretending he doesn't side with those who don't believe me. I'm terrified of what'll they'll all do to me next. I'm scared the only thing everyone feels for me is pity. I'm afraid people only like me because they pity me." Eiji was crying again.

"Eiji-kun, I like you," Rika blurted out.

Eiji shook his head. "It's only pity! You like me because you pity me, just like I said."

"No, Eiji-kun, I don't pi-"

"You do!" Eiji said, slapping Rika's hand away. "Get away from me!"

"Eiji-kun, I lov-"

"You pity me! You can't wait until I die because you won't have to feel sorry for me!" Eiji continued to shout. "Get away from me! I hate you! I hate you! Get away!"

Rika did. She left him alone again as he buried his tears into his knees. She looked back to see him curled up, soaked through with rain and tears. He obviously didn't want her to be around him anymore.

She walked for a while, ending up at another park. She crashed into another, his body warm like he had been inside not long ago, although still wet from the rain. "Kobayashi-chan?" The mildly feminine voice asked.

"Ah! Fu-Fuji-kun," she stuttered. "I'm sorr-"

Fuji smiled. "It's no matter. What are you doing here?" he asked.

Rika couldn't hold back tears now. "Eiji-kun… he yelled at me. He said he hates me," she cried.

Fuji's grin grew wider. "Really? Jaa… why don't we take a walk and you can tell me what happened," he suggested. Rika nodded and explained everything – apart from Eiji dying – to the smiling tensai. He held her abnormally close, usually uncomfortable for Rika to hug someone almost a stranger but he was so warm and it was raining.

"I know that was abridged, Kobayashi-chan. I know just how sick Eiji is," Fuji said with that creepy smile plastered on his face. It was like… he enjoyed Rika's misfortune.

"He told you?" Rika asked.

Fuji shook his head. "My sister knows his older brother. They speak often and my sister doesn't speak quietly. I overheard everything."

"You don't mind him lying to you?"

Fuji, again, shook his head. "I'd rather him lie than yell at me for knowing," Fuji said with a hint of teasing in his voice. He had opened his eyes.

Rika looked down. "I guess you're right."

They had stopped, looking over a ledge to a path leading to a pond. It was beautiful, even in the rain. The ledge would have had to of been at least four metres or more high.

"Why are you taking my best friend away from me?" he asked abruptly. He was harsher, angrier. Jealousy was a terrible sin.

Rika paused. "What?"

"Eiji. He's my best friend. Before you came along, everything was fine. Eiji wasn't as upset and he was always with me. Why?"

"I didn't… Eiji-kun… I didn't take-"

Fuji was very upset. He had already lost his brother but he refused to lose his best friend. "Why'd you do it? Does it make you feel good, stealing the helpless and destroying them in front of their friends?" Fuji was yelling. They had stepped closer to the ledge now.

"Fuji-kun, I don't want to ste-"

"Don't lie to me!" he yelled. Eiji had made him uncharacteristic as well. He wasn't taking the words of Eiji's coming death well. "I heard you confess to Eiji and I'm so glad he rejected you. You deserve it, you little bitch."

Rika panicked. Her heart was racing. She wasn't a bad person. She had done nothing wrong. Fuji was just jealous he now had to share, just like a child. But those eyes that he stared at her with, they held many strong emotions that had been held back for a very long time. They were terrifying Rika.

Rika gasped as she clutched onto Fuji's shirt, her feet barely holding her over the ledge. "I'm sorry!" she cried. "You can have him! I'll never bother you or Eiji-kun again. Please…"

Fuji had calmed down again, eyes closed and his face held that devious smile. Rika realised the pain in his eyes hadn't gone away, just hidden once again. "Saa… please do that," he said, grabbing her hands. He held her still. "But an eye for an eye."

He let go. Barely two seconds later, there was a sickening thwack. Fuji pulled his camera from his bag and perfectly aligned it. The picture was beautifully horrid. Mangled limbs and blood tainting her face, her hair was swept from her eyes as she was soaked through the rain.

Jealousy, supposedly the least satisfying of the deadly sins, thrilled Fuji. Rika got what he thought she deserved. All the pain and suffering she had put Eiji through was atoned for.

Fuji smiled. The picture was going on his wall.

-Two hundred and Sixty Five Paper Cranes-

No one looked at Eiji or Fuji the same way. Students were outraged, cruel and yet scared of the pair. Rika had been admitted into hospital after her fall and remained unconscious for a while. Ever since Rika 'fell', Fuji had been sporting the sort of grin that said 'I did something horrible and I liked it. You should be terrified.'

Eiji felt worse when Momo began to tease him, asking where his 'girlfriend' was when Rika didn't turn up near the end of practice. Eiji had shouted at him once, that occasion he could faintly remember but only because he knew he had done it. Momo never teased Eiji again after that day.

"Excuse me, Nakamura-sensei," the ever-so-confident voice of the vice-principal interrupted. The class stood at once.

"Ah! Nakakuchi-sensei!" Nakamura-sensei smiled. "Class!"

"Konnichiwa, Nakakuchi-sensei!" The class bowed in unison as per school regulations.

"Good afternoon, 3-6. Please, sit," Nakakuchi-sensei nodded. "Nakamura-sensei, is it alright if I borrow Fuji Syuusuke and Kikumaru Eiji?" Behind him stood Nurse Kobayashi and Ryuuzaki-sensei; neither of the pair looked at ease.

Both of the boys stood and looked at each other. "Go," Nakamura sensei instructed. "Get the notes off of someone when you get back."

"Hai!" they both chorused. They followed diligently. The hallways were empty and some classrooms empty too. They reached the office of the vice-principal silently. Inside sat Dr Kobayashi, Shou and Yumiko – Eiji and Fuji's older siblings respectively.

Nakakuchi-sensei sat down behind his desk and the two women standing beside him. "Boys, we'll get straight to the point. Your behaviour is unacceptable."

Eiji didn't expect that, but the expression on the tensai's face showed that he knew it was going to happen.

"Yelling at fellow students, hitting, pushing, severely injuring another student, causing conspiracy and alliances so the school is split into two rival groups," the vice-principal read off of a list. "Fuji engaged in a fight and Eiji misses quite a few classes – so many he's almost failing the year."

Eiji shrank back into himself. He had done nothing wrong. People fought over whether he spoke the truth or not but that was not started by him. He skipped class because he felt unwell or other students bullied him enough to need fresh air to calm down.

"Tezuka and I have already warned you Fuji. Eiji, you were there," Ryuuzaki-snsei said. "We shouldn't have to be here right now."

Nurse Kobayashi nodded. "I've also warned Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun was there that time as well."

"Do you understand why we have you here?" Dr Kobayashi asked. Now was probably an optimal time.

Fuji remained silent but nodded slightly. Eiji looked completely confused. He could not remember anything about what they were saying. Okay, he remembered hitting Rika once months ago now. But yelling? Pushing? He had done nothing of the sort.

"Eiji, you look like have no idea what's going on," Shou pointed out. He was the older image of Eiji, albeit his hair was more brown than red.

Eiji nodded a little. "I remember I hit Rika-chan a few months ago and occasionally I'll talk back to people who pick on me, but that's it," he explained. "Honest, nya."

Fuji looked quite surprised at this. "You yelled at Kobayashi-chan the other day," he pointed out. "When it was raining."

This definitely alarmed Eiji. He'd remember yelling at someone, particularly Rika of all people. "I don't remember that. What are you talking about?" His voice sounded panicked.

"Rika said the same thing. You were really upset and crying. Then within an instant, you snapped and were yelling, screaming at her that you hate her," Dr Kobayashi recounted. "Then Fuji-kun dropped her from the ledge."

"I believe she slipped, I grabbed her hands then let go," Fuji pointed out. "I didn't drop her."

"Same difference, Syuusuke. Rika-san is in hospital because of you," Yumiko scolded. "I can't believe my own brother would be this cruel. You just wait until Mother and Father arrive home tomorrow morning."

"You called them?" Shou asked. "Wasn't your father representing his business overseas?"

"Exactly. Syuusuke's very lucky the main meeting was yesterday," Yumiko sighed.

The room went quiet. Ryuuzaki-sensei sighed. "Well, even so, you've both been warned and thus a punishment had to be decided," she explained.

Nakakuchi-sensei nodded. "Yes. Fuji-kun, we've agreed that in your state of mind of late, you are a danger to other students. You'll be suspended for the rest of the week. In that time, you have the choice to either sort out what is going on in your head with a family member, friend and/or a counsellor."

Fuji shrugged. "Sounds alright," he said with a small smile.

"In a sense, I guess," Nakakuchi-sensei shrugged. "But it's not a holiday. Eiji, you are also suspended until the end of the week to regain control or gain some sort of techniques to become calm when you become angry or frustrated. We do not need another over-emotional teenager in our school."

"I understand," Eiji nodded.

Nakakuchi sensei smiled. "If Shou and Yumiko both agree you're in good enough condition to enter school again, come Monday, the suspension will be recorded as a verified school absence with a doctor's certificate from Dr Kobayashi if he and his co-worker, psychiatrist Mei Ichirou, deem you are unlikely to cause trouble again. Understand?"

"Un," the boys agreed.

-Four Hundred and Three Paper Cranes-

"Hey, Aniki," Yuuta asked as put his books on the table and his school bag on a chair. He had come overnight to have dinner with his parents upon their return to the country. Yumiko had agreed to drive Yuuta to school again.

Fuji looked up from his breakfast. He was still in his dishevelled pyjamas and his hair was messy. "Hmm?" he asked with chopsticks in his mouth.

"Don't you have to get ready for school?" Yuuta pointed out. He held up his tie in his fingers. "And can you tie my tie. Mizuki usually helps me."

"Mifume? I've never heard of him," Fuji commented with a sly smile. "Well, I'm not going to school today." He began tying the tie. "I thought a thirteen year old, turning fourteen, should be able to tie his tie."

Yuuta blushed. "Aniki! I can do it, it just looks bad and takes an hour," he replied. He began to look series. "Why aren't you going to school? You're not sick, are you?"

Fuji chuckled. "Jaa, maybe. No, I've been suspended for yesterday, today and tomorrow."

"Suspended?" Yuuta asked. Sure, his brother would pull a prank every so often, but nothing to get suspended. "What for?"

"Danger to other students, apparently," Fuji shrugged. "They think I've been rather reckless of late and they didn't like the way I treated Kobayashi-chan,"

Yuuta took his tie from his brother. "What did you do to Kobayashi-san, Aniki?"

"I dropped her from the ledge near the pond at the park," he stated plainly.

Yuuta paused for a moment. "Is Kobayashi-san okay?" he asked. He wanted to know how badly she was hurt before he asked 'why'.

Fuji shrugged. "Conscious. If I only got suspended for three days, I take it as she's not dead."

Yuuta took a deep breath. "But why do it, Aniki? What did she do?" he asked.

Fuji's hand curled into a fist. "It's hard to explain," he admitted. Yuuta tapped his arm as Fuji searched for the right words to say. "I was protecting a friend… and I was a little jealous, I guess."

Yuuta knew there had to be a reason. "Protecting who, Aniki?"

Fuji couldn't like. Not to Yuuta. "Ever since Kobayashi found out Eiji has –" here, Fuji paused momentarily – "anaemia, she's been trying to make sure Eiji's okay. Ever since, he's been more upset and frustrated. All of the attention she gives him makes him retreat to himself and avoid even me. I want my best friend back." Fuji smiled. "But it's okay."

"Aniki, couldn't you just tell Eiji-senpai this?"

Fuji shrugged. "I could, but he's with his aunt in Kumamoto where he's being 'punished'." Fuji chuckled. "More like spoiled."

Yuuta nodded. Eiji's aunt spoiled everyone rotten, even strangers. "I can see your point," he agreed. "Call Eiji then."

"Yuuta, time to go to school! Syuusuke, get changed. I want you ready by the time I get home!" Yumiko called.

-Four Hundred and Eighty Two Paper Cranes-

(A.N: This chapter is choppy because, as I said earlier, this was originally a oneshot so it had to have some time skips. But I think it's not too bad. I hope it's not too bad. ^^;

Please review!)