A/N: I don't own any of Slam Dunk Characters (I wish I could), but I own Ikeda Kira!

This is my first fanfic so be gentle with the reviews. It's a bit dark!

ON with the story... enjoy!

Chapter 1: The new Kaede in Town:

"C'mon, are we going out after the practice or not?" Rukawa Kaede asked cheerfully.

"That annoying grin is killing me!" Miyagi whispered to Mitsui, while looking at the cheerful man before them.

Shohoku Basketball team members were not used to the idea of their gloomy Ice-Prince Rukawa Kaede being unusually cheerful and outgoing. He never said more than a 2-words sentences, and now he was asking them to go out after practice. It was a 360 degrees change in the 'cold brat's character' after a major accident he went through. He came back to the team after a month recovery and he was all merry and cheerful all the time, which scared them, until Ayako-San explained what happened to them. She even asked them to be gentle with him and not to mention the accident in front of him.

Yet the team was always waiting for the moment in which Rukawa would flip back to his old 'rude' self, but that moment never came…'yet'

Rukawa Kaede was transferred to Kanagawa's General Hospital after being hit on the head and stabbed by a violent boy gang in weird circumstances. He was saving a girl from being abducted by the delinquent boys, when they ganged against him. Rukawa had a severe concussion that altered his personality to that smiling 'clown' as Hanamichi referred to him. They thought that the effect would wear off once he was back to his normal life, but it did not. On the contrary, Rukawa participated in all social gathering events, team outings and school events. He even approached girls and asked them out every day!

The change in Rukawa's character was as scary to everyone who knew him as his glares were before that accident! It seemed that they were in a parallel universe where unicorns existed.

After the team practice, the team members were getting ready to leave when Rukawa asked them if they were going out of not, and when they did not reply, he went to greet his "RU-KA-WA" fan girls. He was amazed that there were lots of girls who would gladly die to just talk to him.

"I am in heaven!" He thought to himself. He could not remember why he used to ignore such beautiful girls before his accident!

"That baka is not leaving any girls for the rest of us!" Mitsui was annoyed, "Let me hit him on the head, so maybe his old personality would revert back!"

"Stop it, Mitsui, his head is still sensitive, man, and you can cause him more damage than help, what are you doing?" Miyagi held Mitsui back to stop him.

Rukawa Kaede knew that there was something different about his character and lifestyle after his accident because people kept commenting on the change in his behavior and some of them made "funny faces" when he talked to them. Some girls actually fainted when he asked them out, not believing that their Ice-Prince would find patience and energy to ask them out, let alone talking to them. The news seemed so unusual to the extent that he found other teams' members visiting him to check out his new personality. Nobody believed that Rukawa would be a more comical character than Hanamichi or Nobunaga, yet he had better luck with girls more than both of them. In fact, he had better luck than all of the handsome basketball boys in Kanagawa.

He never ran out of options to go out with girls on daily basis if he wanted to!

Ayako was watching his interaction with the sophomore girl in her class, and she got frustrated with Kaede's behavior, so she walked up to them, and asked the girl to leave.

"Hey, Hanami! I told you to leave Kaede-Kun alone. He is not in his right state of mind, and he will not be dating you. You know very well that he has a girl frie…." Ayako stopped in the middle of her sentence, "A friend, so please go find another fish in the sea." She was pushing her classmate away from Rukawa with a grin.

Ayako was hoping that Kaede would not have noticed that was about to say "Girlfriend". Ever since people started telling him that he had a girlfriend, he would flip in a second and cause a scene. He couldn't remember having one, so how could he forget her if he didn't meet her in the first place?

"Ayako-San, what are you doing? I have been trying to muster some courage to talk to her for days!" Rukawa sighed desperately.

"Muster some courage? That guy is really pushing his luck!" Mitsui was fuming, "Hey, baka, have you seen yourself lately?" Miyagi was pulling Mitsui back again to stop him from killing Rukawa, who looked innocently confused.

"Kaede-Kun, I don't think you will like your lifestyle when you fully recover from your head injury. Believe me, you will thank me later." Ayako warned.

"I don't have a head injury, and I feel perfectly fine, why don't you believe me?"

"Because I have known you since you were a little kid in Tomigaoka Junior High, and I know that this is not right. As much as I like your new outgoing perspective, dear, but this is not you."

"Or maybe this is a second chance for me to change, and you are trying to deny me that, because of your fear of that girl."

"It is not about that girl, which happens to be your girlfriend by the way, but it is about you regretting that when you remember everything."

"I don't know that girl, Ayako-San, so please stop mentioning her to me. She means nothing to me!" He warned furiously.

"You can't simply forget her. I know you both since you were young. You were inseparable, and now you say that you don't remember her?!" She pointed her finger at him, "I find that hard to believe, unless this is your way of cruelly punishing her for what happened, especially with her current situation."

"I don't know her situation. In fact, I don't know her at all! Whether you believe me or not, that's your problem, and also, I find this as a golden opportunity to remind you that this is none of your business, Ayako-San." Kaede pushed her away on his way out of the court.

"Te me! Be polite when you talk to Ayako-San." Miyagi closed that gap between them and punched him on the face for being rude.

"Shut up, Baka!" Rukawa roared, while punching Miyagi back.

"Here it is! That's more like our arrogant Kitsune. So, you were pretending that you had amnesia all along!" Hanamichi jumped on Rukawa to stop him from hitting Miyagi.

"Separate them, quickly!" Mitsui ordered the rest of the team to disengage Rukawa from Miyagi and Hanamichi.

"I am not whoever you think I am, or I was. You all know nothing about my life, so stop pretending that you care."

They all thought that he regained his memories and reverted back to his old self.

"I am sure that I hated you guys before the accident for interventions like this, this is my life, not yours!"

"I am so sorry, Kaede! I didn't mean to stir you up like this." Ayako said, while pacing up to him to wipe the blood on his face, but he pushed her away.

"Leave me alone! I just don't understand you! You say you hated the old version of me, and yet you want me to go back to it, because I am "too cheerful"?! That makes me wonder if I was ever that bad as you portray me or that you are a group of horrible judgmental people! Humph, you ruined my day… Ja ne."

Kaede stormed out of the school court after picking up his sports bag furiously.

"How can I forget the existence of a person and remember the rest of the world? That doesn't make any sense!" He mused!

But when he remembered that girl's face, when he woke up after the surgery, it felt weird! As if this girl had known him for a very long time and was shocked when he couldn't remember her.

When he woke from the surgery, the doctors told his family that he might have some fogginess and loss of memories due to the criticality of the surgery. It was not till later when his mother figured out that there was something not right about her son's health. Whenever she mentioned the name of that girl, he would give her a quizzical look as if he had no idea what his mother was talking about. It was then confirmed by his doctors that he had a rare condition of "selective amnesia", and the only person wiped out of his memories was that girl!

He must have suffered a lot because of that girl, that's why his mind wanted to erase her out to keep the mind intact. It was either that or full memory loss.

The thought of having selective amnesia didn't make any sense to him. How could he just forget one person? Moreover, he was told that his character seemed to have changed along with that amnesia. He was never that cheerful and merry extrovert around people. On the contrary, he was told that he loathed talking to people, being around girls and any sort of social interactions, unless it was with her.

End of Chapter One!

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