Shadows and Lights

Chapter 26

"Shut up, Satsuki." Daiki growls, squeezing the top of her head gently. I raise an eyebrow but make no comment. 

"Yeah, we're done. I'll change and be out in a couple minutes." It takes me around five minutes to change back into my uniform and meet the arguing pair out in front of the lockers. "He causing you trouble, Satsuki?" I say teasingly. 

Satsuki giggles and waves me over. "Ne, ne, Akashi-kun wanted to talk to you." She says cheerfully. "He didn't sound as scary as usual." Either something real good is about to happen, or I'm about to get murdered. Probably the latter. 

I dial Sei's number reluctantly, walking with the two club members out of school and down to the nearest convenience store so I can stock up on snacks for the next week or two and escape the nighttime air. "Akashi." Sei's voice is calm, like always, but not intimidating. I raise an eyebrow. 

"It's Alex. I heard you wanted to speak with me..." 

"Yes." He says calmly. "It's been a while since you had that game with Kirisaki Daiichi." I nod slightly. 

"Yes. A while now." I confirm, paying for my snacks and thanking the cashier. "Did you have a question?" 

"I want you to tell me what happened with Hanamiya Makoto." My body tenses. I hold onto my bag more tightly. "After the Haizaki incident, I won't let this one slide." My eyes narrow at the sentence. 

"I don't want to talk about it." I reply icily. "And I didn't need a reminder of that time." Dark eyes dark eyes dark eyes. 

"What happened with Hanamiya Makoto, Alex?" Sei's always been unusually persistent in these sorts of things. "You ended up in the hospital again. We're not letting this slide. I couldn't get anything out of Satsuki and Daiki because nobody but you was there." I bite back a venomous reply and glare hatefully at a man who won't stop staring at Satsuki. 

"I don't want to discuss this, Seijuurou. It's done, it's over, and it won't happen again." Daiki's giving me a strange look, like I've said something completely out of character. I give him a rather sour expression in return before turning my attention back to where I'm walking. 

"Alex. It is important that I know." Sei's English startles me, as it always does. "This will not slide. I will find out the truth whether you like it or not." I grit my teeth furiously and try my best not to think of various ways to kill the short redhead. 

"I said I don't want to talk about it, Seijuurou. You should respect that." Ah, my boss is going to kill me. According to my schedule, I'll be late for my first shift this weekend. I'll have to call and tell her tomorrow morning, or after school. Whenever I have time should be fine. It isn't Friday quite yet, so hopefully she won't be mad as long as I tell her ahead of time. Sei growls into the phone. 

"I won't say a word to anyone else." By 'anyone else', Sei mainly means the rest of his beloved Miracles. My teeth are probably grinding audibly by now. 

"I will tell it once, and I will never tell it to you again after that. Is that clear, Sei? This isn't something I want to remember." I hear a noise of approval on the other end, followed by the rustling of paper and a popping noise. If I'm not mistaken, it seems like Sei's about to take notes. 

"Begin." Sei commands, clearing his throat slightly. I sigh loudly. 

"Yeah, fine." I mutter. "We'd just played Kirisaki Daiichi-" I accidentally catch Daiki's attention. "-and all throughout the game he'd been kind of violent. He even had me triple screened for at least a full quarter. Daiki wasn't there, so of course he wouldn't be able to tell you anything. Almost all my teammates got injured or hit several times throughout the game.

"In the end we won, but that was only after Satsuki and I changed our playing strategy so I was doing mostly offense with limited defense and screening. Hanamiya and one of his teammates both fell on me on two different occasions, one of which was responsible for my ankle. 

"After the game was when that incident happened. I'd called Daiki 'cuz I was getting ready to head home. He wasn't here yet when Hanamiya knocked my phone from my hand. I don't know if he heard anything I'd said, or if Daiki could hear what was going on over the phone, but Hanamiya was really... he was pissed. 

"He blamed me for his team losing, and he said he'd make certain players trash by 'breaking' them. I don't know how it started, but all I know is that something, probably his fist, hit my stomach, and I was doubled over. Somehow I ended up on the ground and he just kept kicking me over and over again until Daiki came rushing in and I think the team came out when they heard the weird noises. We went to the nurse, and then the hospital, and that's the long and the short of it."  We cross the street carefully. 

"Thank you." Sei says. I hear scratching noises from the other end. "Did the doctor ask you if you wanted to press charges?" I raise an eyebrow. 

"I was pretty out of it." I say, scratching my head as I try to think back. "I can't recall him asking, but then again I wouldn't really know. What would I do that for?" 

"Assault. Plus it could compensate your school for the bills they paid. You're lucky they covered that." I nod. 

"I know. It's not a bad idea, but I don't want to see him again." Sei must have a strange look on his face. 

"This won't slide. I think it's best to do this." I nearly run into a guy on a bike, who barely dodges me. 

"Can we continue this another time? I almost got run over by a bike. I'll think about it." To be honest, I'm not against pressing charges. That brat deserves to be punished for what he did, but I have other things to think about first. 

"Hai-chan!" Satsuki chirps, holding me half a popsicle. "Want some?" I laugh slightly. 

"Sure, Satsuki." I reply with a smile, taking my half of the cherry-flavored ice. "You really like cherry, don't you?" She nods enthusiastically, almost completely absorbed in what must be a flooding of her favorite flavor. 

The air has grown chilled, but it isn't ridiculously cold. Uncomfortable? Maybe a little, but tolerable. It probably doesn't help that my jacket's at home and my skirt is a little short. It would be better if there weren't any breeze, but the slight gusts that blow through fan warmer air across my face. It isn't unwelcome. 

Of course, deciding to succumb to the temptation of a popsicle wasn't in my best interests. My lips feel frozen after a while and I can no longer feel my tongue. I'm half afraid that if I talk, I'll bite off my tongue and won't notice. The fear is unwarranted, but it exists nonetheless. Soon all I'm left with is the popsicle stick, which I'm about to toss into the trash when Satsuki stops me. "Wait, wait, check the back! Maybe you've won something!" I raise an eyebrow as she speaks.

Although I'm half tempted to humor her, I'm positive that there's nothing on it, and even if I did win, we're too far from the store for me to be willing to go back and get anything. "What did yours say?" I ask, trying to delay the inevitable. Satsuki will get what she wants sooner or later, so I might was well attempt to prolong the time until she does.

The pinkette gives me a look of surprise before offering me her popsicle stick in her open palm. I take it from her, hoping I'm not touching the part that was actually in her mouth. Flipping the thing over doesn't offer me any clues, so I check the part beneath my hand. "There's nothing on this one." I say in surprise, my eyes widening slightly while I feign innocence. The pinkette rolls her eyes at me comically. 

"Of course not, Hai-chan!" Satsuki says. "You have the other half! It'll only be on one half or the other, not both, ya know!" I offer her a grin and polish off the other segment of the popsicle stick. 

"Of course, Satsuki. How could I forget?" Daiki rolls his eyes beside me. He knows I just don't wanna share the status of our popsicle with the pinkette. 

"Just finish your damn popsicle before I take it from you." Daiki says, whacking the back of my head none too gently. I let out an indignant yelp before glaring at him. 

"Rude." I shoot back. "Don't hit girls, Daiki." The bluenette rolls his eyes again. With the popsicle finished, I place it in my palm, letters up. In black ink, the status of our popsicle is glaringly obvious. Loser.