Thank you for reading! Special thanks to those who reviewed, faved, and C2d this story~! I really appreciate the time. :D
DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Slam Dunk
…
CHAPTER 2: Lethargic
SHOHOKU
"Noooooooooooo—
.
BAM!
Akagi hit (note: tapped) her head to shut her up.
"ITTE! That's sexual harassment you idiotic basketball-gorilla!" she yelled, gritting her teeth, while Akagi frowned even deeper in annoyance.
Kogure sweat-dropped, looking alternately at the tall teens in front of him. "Oi, Oi…" he uttered, both hands up in an (vain) attempt to calm them. He was already red from embarrassment, whipping his head around and noticing the crowd they attracted. Kogure gulped the awkwardness down and politely asked the audience to please get back to whatever they were doing before the fiasco.
It was then that his eyes ended to young Haruko, staring at the mysterious red-head in worry. "But…" Haruko began, though only catching the girl's attention with what she said after. "Why do you dislike basketball players?"
Silence
Hanamichi mentally shook whatever attacked her and pointed rudely at Gori. "I'm sorry he's your brother, but don't you think what he just did was hateful? Hitting a woman, and Sakuragi Hanamichi no less!" She exclaimed as if it answered everything.
Gori's eyes twitched. "You're not a woman, ahou. You're a monkey."
"Mou—Nii-san..."
"Akagi." Kogure seconded the reaction. You're not helping with the recruitment process! He mentally yelled, when—
Staaaaaaaaare
"W-What is it?" Kogure flinched at the girl who was glaring him down. Her eyes jerked.
"If you're thinking of recruiting me, then I'm outta here." She stated and turned around. Kogure and Haruko opened their mouths to try and convince her, but it was too late.
Because she jumped down the window again.
"S-Sakuragi-san!" they yelled and ran to the window, shocked and quite frankly terrified for the oddball, even Akagi. But instead of a gruesome sight they saw her safe and sound and they lost their footings at how she went all the way to the ground and was completely unperturbed by what she had just done. The girl then just stomped to the gate and did not even bother turning back.
"She's going to cut classes, isn't she...?"
Haruko only nodded, sweat-dropping. "A-Ah."
Akagi, meanwhile, only tutted. It was going to be an interesting final year for him, that's for sure.
...
Hanamichi found herself in a random alleyway in the city of Atsugi, after hours of wondering around. She was pulled out her trance by whistles and it was from a gang of three. She didn't take her eyes off the ground in seriousness. She was not in a good mood.
"Nee-san, you seem lost." One said in such disgustingly suggestive tone that she looked up. Eyebrow raised, she catalogued the intruders and, if she was to be bothered in describing them, she'd say they were: the rangy one, the fat one, and the tiny mouse, respectively. "Wanna hang out with us for a while?" The gangly rat said as he wiggled his eyebrows, and the others snickered. "It would be f—"
He was cut off by a foot on his face.
The other two gaped, shocked, before realization finally dawned on them. Their careless body language morphed to alarm, anger, and hostility, which suited her just fine. As the thin one finally caught himself—taking a much longer time than he thought—he put one of his hands on his bleeding nose and sent Hanamichi his strongest glare, with the others following suit. "You have some nerve, eh?" He looked to his two companions and then back to her. "You do realize you're outnumbered."
The tiny mouse cackled and licked his lips, while the fat one smirked though not as confident as he was staring at her hair.
Hanamichi put her hands in her pocket and stood still, hawk eyes coolly watching as the mouse and the fat one approached her predatorily. The moment they were less than a meter away, however, they did not even manage to utter another insult, both faces meeting the wraths of her leg and her ankle, robbing them of their footing in a single hit each.
It was here that fat guy finally recognized her, if his wide eyes filled with terror was any indication. "Red hair...!" He yelled, pointing rudely at her, gulping. "C-Could it be t-that famous middle school girl?"
The gangly one looked at his companion's expression in distaste. "What?"
"Sakuragi-or-something." The fat one, still on his bum, hurried to speak. "The girl who could beat up a dozen gangsters by herself!"
Some silence passed by the three, but their pride won over whatever form of self-preservation they believed in. "Probably a rumor." He sneered. "She's tall but she's a girl, man, do you hear yourself?"
They stood up and surrounded her, circling around her as if they were a pack of wolves and she was the sweet little rabbit. The metaphor was disconcerting in itself, and their pompousness was making everything worse. For them.
She sighed, tapping her feet to ready them for action. She then looked up and stared at them, making them wince at the sight of her intimidating eyes. They quickly caught their composure and acted even more arrogant to mask their fear.
Instinctively (and for the sake of their prides) they went in for an attack—at the same time.
Her body needed no commands as it effortlessly avoided each attack the idiots threw at her, kicking them to the ground each chance she got. "Use your hands!" One yelled, face increasingly crimson in anger and humiliation. Hanamichi did not even smirk.
"I don't need to."
By this point, most of them struggled to stand straight, though their eyes did not leave her, intent on making her suffer as she had done to them.
Hanamachi remained cool and watched them approach her again as if they were going at it in slow motion. She gracefully avoided another punch, her shin connecting straight to the thin one's gut. She used the momentum from one kick to fuel another and knock the other one out. The last one, as he was the smallest, was finished off with a head-butt. The first one she hit got up but used an upper-cut as a finale.
And so… not even a minute later, the alleyway was covered with the half-dead trio's bodies. She just stood there for who knew how long—after getting reminded of that blasted sport, she started thinking of why she was doing this in the first place.
Then she remembered. And a strong fighting aura of annoyance surrounded her.
Unbeknownst to her, her gang had arrived a few minutes prior. "Uwaaaaa… Sakura sure is angry."
"She wasn't this angry when she was sent outside…" Mito whispered in contemplation, and Ohkusu recalled a few rumours.
"I heard that she jumped from the 3rd floor."
Noma, with his precious mustache, added "She used a tree though."
Nozomi chuckled. "But looking at her now, somehow I think she'd be fine even without the tree."
"A true red-headed monkey." Nod, nod. Mitp froze a millisecond earlier than them though.
Crack
They shivered and whipped their heads towards it source. It was Hanamichi, unsurprisingly, already a meter away from them and was pressing her knuckles.
"I can hear you, you know." She mumbled, and they could feel the killing intent strong.
And they quickly ran for their lives, afraid they might turn to the idiots she had just beat up.
…
Sakuragi Hanamichi walked home alone, the gang managing to escape her clutches. Lucky for them, she lost her way.
How tiring... she thought, passively kicking a pebble out of the way. She really wanted to just lie down in the middle of nowhere and wake up when the world was a less infuriating place. But then—
Clank
She stopped her steps and looked at where she was going when she heard a little metallic noise. It was a bike, she realized, and her auburn eyes met familiar cerulean ones.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, genuinely surprised, and he remained stoic. He pointed at a name plank.
It said 'Rukawa Residence'.
She whistled at the sheer size of the house—even the gate was grander than hers. He lived in a huge one, that Rukawa.
"What about you?"
She shrugged. "Dunno."
He lazily looked at her from head to toe. "You look bad."
She blinked at this, habitually never taking offence for comments about her appearance, tilting her head down to get a better look at herself. Her uniform was unharmed but she had a lot of wounds, particularly on her leg area. She never used her hands in a fight, after all.
"I always look this way." she sneered and Rukawa's expression did not change.
"Then, you always look bad. Ahou."
Her eye twitched. "Urusai."
Well, that's what she said.
So she had no idea how she ended up inside his house and was currently drinking tea (not provided by him, but by a familiar looking old woman) as he took something out. She was asked to wash her wounds as he ordered her to, though.
She did not like getting ordered around, but that was somewhat of an exception. For some reason… she didn't quite mind. She sat and looked around. That house was really something—the inside was design contemporarily, but the colors chosen gave off a really warm welcoming feeling. She knew this, yes, for her mother's an Architect and Interior Designer.
It didn't take long for Rukawa to emerge with a medical kit. It wasn't a normal first aid kit, too—It looked more advanced.
"My parents are doctors." He said, answering her unvoiced questions. She stared at him as he readied the cotton and the solution.
"So I'll assume you know what you're doing."
"Hn."
"So are you going to be a doctor, too?"
"Probably."
"But do you want to?" she asked and he paused... unconsciously increasing the pressure on her wound.
"Ow!" She let out, though he remained impassive and continued on cleaning her wounds. He remained quiet throughout afterwards, and she comment on it for fear of what he might do to her wounds.
"D'Ahou."
"Haaa?" Where did that come from?
She watched him as he put on the band-aids rather skilfully. Hanamichi didn't ask why he was doing this—She didn't peg Rukawa to even bother doing this, especially for her—she merely assumed that the doctor blood was literally at work. I.e. if he saw injured people he would automatically go to doctor-mode.
But the oddest thing about everything was… she was having strong sense of déjà vu.
He stretched when he finished. And she mumbled a very silent thank you that was, unfortunately, audible enough for him to hear. He did not say anything, nor smiled, and looked up to catch her eyes.
"D'Ahou." He stated but she did not retaliate. The Déjà vu was too strong. He did not look back to her and just sat on the couch as if nothing happened.
"Don't think I forgive you for stealing my seat though." She added stubbornly, keeping her cool and half-waited for him to say something…
"Hm."
That was not—
"D'Ahou." He said just before sitting on a recliner and doing a shoo-ing motion with his hands. Hanamichi opened her mouth to protest the extremely rude dismissal, but then she heard his snores.
"Wh-WHAT?" She yelled from the top of her lungs and pointed rudely at the snoring boy.
"Ah. Haha." The old woman from before, laughed certainly not helping her imminent hyperventilation despite not actually having the syndrome in the first place. The woman, who looked like she was about her late 30's, was wearing a very amused face. "Better not wake him up, though, miss… he could kill anyone who wakes him up."
She scoffed at this. "I'd like to see him try."
She almost knuckled rude bastard in the forehead, but the slightest movement sent a jolt of painful electricity up her leg and she knew the medicine was still at work and her eyes twitched at the throbbing it created.
With a huff, she just pointed rudely at the sleeping figure and exclaimed, "I'll deal with you later!" She said. And turned around to the door, saying goodbye to the maid.
Though she really didn't feel very mad at anything anymore.
…
RUKAWA RESIDENCE
Awchoo!
Hours later, Rukawa woke up from his slumber and the first thing he saw was the colourful living room ceiling. He frowned, judging the slight discomfort at the back of his head, he realized he must have fallen asleep on the recliner again.
He was surprised. He had closed his eyes to dismiss her and hope she get the message to go away. He frowned at the fact that he even helped her since he was sure he couldn't be bothered with someone else.
Regardless, he fell asleep like that when there was a guest? He usually could only fall asleep in class or when he's alone. Usually. That Sakuragi must have been extremely boring.
Boring?
Somehow that wasn't right. But he shrugged the thoughts off, and turned his head to a random direction and saw Maya, his Nana, folding clothes a few meters away.
"Where is she?"
"She went away after you slept. Quite hurriedly, too." She said with an annoyingly knowing smile, standing up with a batch of clothes she had just finished folding.
"What time is it?"
"7:00pm, Kaede-san."
"Time for dinner, then." He shrugged and walked to the dining room. He frowned when he felt he was being stared. He frowned and looked at the woman.
"What is it Maya?"
"She was very offended when she left."
"Hm." He mumbled, taking the cutleries from the drawer.
"She's quite a unique girl… isn't she?"
He paused his steps and looked at her analytically. "Why are you being especially talkative today, Maya?"
"I just thought she was interesting, Kaede-san." She smiled. "Such intense energy—and it was not just her hair color." And then, the smile turned rather smug. "I didn't think Kaede-sama was the type to feel comfortable with her."
CLANK!
"See, Maya? Even the spoon disagreed with you." He muttered, taking another spoon, and sat down the chair to start eating. He ate a lot, but he was quick and he stood up immediately afterwards. He gestured to take his basketball and key to his pink bike.
"You're going to sacrifice sleep to play basketball again, Kaede-san?" she said with an amused tone of voice that told him she knew something. He sighed. He was not in the mood for the woman's mind games. She might be closer to him than his own mother, but there was only so much prying he could take.
But before he could completely leave the house's interior, Maya spoke up. "It's her isn't it? That girl from the courts…? All those years ago..." Rukawa didn't say anything. "She hadn't changed a bit."
He remained impassive and grabbed the ball, before finally going out. He jumped to his bike and went to the public hoops since his parents objected into putting a court inside. He parked his ride and stared at the basket.
"Tsk." He muttered in annoyance and hurriedly dribbled his ball.
He sprinted to the basket and made an impeccable shot. It was something that, somehow, never stopped giving him a sense of fulfillment—no matter how many times he did so. He let out a deep breath and watched the ball bounce until it had finally lost all of its kinetic energy. A fleeting moment of pensiveness passed through, as Maya's question echoed in his head.
"Not true." He said, finally answering.
She had changed.
That Sakuragi Hanamichi.
The girl who got him into basketball in the first place.
.
.
END OF CHAPTER 2
Coming Soon:
CHAPTER 3: Basketball
REPLIES TO ANGELS:
mrsklemzack- Thanks for the review! I hope you continue liking this, but you can be hoest with me. :D
Guest [7/2/12]- Here it is~! Hehe. I hope you liked it and thank you for the review!
Guest [7/2/12]- Yeah, i was having problems on how to portray her. XD I'll do my best~ Thx for the review.
Akela Victoire- thanks for the review! I'm relieved to hear that LOL
DuckiPray- yay! I made someone laugh. XD I'm glad to hear that and Haruko is such a nice girl to let pass, ne? But who knows... Thanks for the review!
Chibi'prince-sama- Cute penname. XD And thanks for the review, btw~!
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