Slam Dunk Fan Fiction ❯ Hello, Goodbye ❯ Not an Angel ( Chapter 1 )

Title: Hello, Goodbye

Author: ivybluesummers (ivybluesummers@yahoo.com)

Chapter One: Not an Angel

Warnings: Shounen-ai (I think). Includes violence.

Disclaimer: Slam Dunk is not mine.

Much to the darkness that crept into the pavements of Kanagawa, the snow breezing through the air didn't make it easier for me to abandon the feeling of discomfort, to a large extent of coldness and even with my coat and scarf, I still feel cold. I looked sideways to look for fast vehicles that would kill anybody who dares to violate the traffic law, and when I realized I was... well laws are made to be violated, aren't they?

The other side of the street was full of establishments who sell goods, maybe clothes or food or anything that would satisfy anyone's materialistic craving, where its owners are drowned with the plebiscite of capitalism's deadly delusion of lending a hand to those who think they cannot make it on their own. The everyday noise from conversations, stray animals' moans, and train buzzes (trains here are maybe kilometers away, but the sound can still echo throughout Kanagawa especially during midnight) makes my ear numb, and for as long as I can remember, the echoes of such already made an impact that they are music. Music from the most-top wannabe country, where rationality, technology and reality have stretched their limits beyond imagination. Believe it or not, I might as well want to live in any place but here... well of course except America. I hate America.

I walked down another pavement, and as I looked in my watch, it's been thirty minutes after ten. Nobody will care even if I sleep in these stoned pathways. I've been away from home for the last two years, and surely, yet surely, independence was something that I longed for, from my childhood to my high school days. I've kept myself too kind and too benevolent to people who carried on surrounding me and my life, and quite frankly, I got fed up. Well, not fed up, but I got the anorexic appetite. I still am kind and benevolent. I stopped at a ramen house. Steam was all over the establishment that it was hard to tell that they were really serving ramen. But it says so in the entrance door, so I went in.

"What d'ya want?" the not so welcoming waiter asked.

I took off my coat and scarf and put it in a vacant chair. I sat on the next one and I looked at the waiter. There was a menu placed on the maple-wood-made table, but I brushed off my thought as I looked at the waiter, who was getting very impatient by the second.

"Umm... Well what do you serve here?" I asked, cheerfully.

"There's a menu there." The statement seemed to imply that I was dumb not to get the idea.

"Oh," I feigningly gasped. "Well then, just bring me water and come back for my order." I said.

The waiter went away and heaved a sigh of relief. I sighed, too, of relief. I can understand his short temper, because the whole place is being swarmed by starving fat, and normal people who keeps on yelling on their orders. I sighed again. When was the last time I heard roaring sounds? Oh yes, the one where Shohoku High School reaped its second triumph as the champion in the Kanagawa Winter Cup. Everyone in the gym/auditorium screamed, even the ones who were cheering for Kainan. I sighed again. When was the last time I played basketball?

"Here." The waiter said. "Your order?"

I haven't even touched the menu. I paused for a moment, then smiled. "Oh, just give me your most special dish. And," I paused again, clutching his left wrist, looking his face with shock. I tried to ease his shock with a smile. "A nice clean glass of water."

It has been a year and a half since I played basketball. After graduating from Shohoku, I was kept busy from college entrance exams and all, but I made to a point that at least I should play even once or twice a week. I did, for I had spare time back then. College life wasn't that bad, I thought once, but as soon as lessons and examinations and academic competition became a fast-paced hassle, like bullets that come out from nowhere, I was stretched with daily doses of assignments, projects and other scholarly works. I can only visit Shohoku High once every month, but I know Miyagi can handle everything. I heard from Akagi that two more players joined the basketball club, whose skills and adeptness in basketball can be compared with Jin and Fujima.

I looked at my watch. It's nearly eleven in the evening. I ate my food fast and left the ramen house, observing that the waiter who was rude to me became convivial to the ones who just stepped in their restaurant. I smiled. Force, physical or psychological, has very good metamorphosing effect to people. If only...

I headed for my apartment near the university. I walked another stretch, noticing that I had been alone from the past fifteen minutes. I yawned as I, again, looked on my watch to see it has been ten minutes pass eleven PM. Time fades too fast, I thought. Then I took a shortcut from one of the not-so-short pavements I walk into to go home.

Suddenly I felt my heart quicken its beats, but there was no one in the alley so I went in and marched as fast as I could. It has been rumored, or I'd rather say, it's been a fact, that this alley is a punks' territory, and the sound of it makes it not easier for me. I heard cats purring from the side, I looked, and then marched fast again. I heard another noise, but this time, it was different. The cracked can of cola echoed through the alley, my pulse quickening and quickening by the minute. I walked furiously fast but not running, for I don't want those punks to sense my trepidation. Then another sound.

"Hey, glasses boy." The first one asked, with a voice of reprimand and command all at the same time.

I stopped, swiveled slowly to face them and my heart throbbed as if it wants to come out of my body. They were three punks whose not-so-gothic fashion was not fitting to them. The first that I saw had three hoops in his right ear, with a spiked yellow hair, the other with the same stylishness, only that his hair had blue and green hues. Then I looked straight. He must be their leader.

"Why are you in this alley, glass boy?" he teasingly asked, walking straight forward at me as if he would hit me, but he turned around and playfully ruffled my hair at the back as he impersonated a professor and babbled something about math. His babblings were full of mistakes.

"Well, glass boy, do you know the answer?," the yellow hued punk asked, of course in a teasing way. He held a rusty steel pipe, and the other was holding a chain, spinning it about the air. I bet their leader has a knife hidden in his pocket somewhere.

"Well, do you know the answer?" the yellow boy asked, shouting.

I kept my mouth silenced. My body trembled in agitation, my muscles beginning to twitch every half-second or so. "Why are you in this alley anyway? This is our territory."

"Glass boy, questions are piling up. If you don't answer our questions, I might as well punish you. I am your professor, after all." their leader said, and yet again impersonated a professor's voice. I sighed without them noticing. "Please, I don't have time for this."

"Oh really," the blue and green boy said, as if to signal his attack. I have the feeling that they will not leave me and will beat me to death until I answer their questions. This time, I am fed up.

The guy stroked his chain by the midair and I dodged, bowed myself down as I slid myself through their leader's legs. I stood up as their leader frowned bloodily in pain as the chain hit him, and I clutched his left muscular wrist then kicking his balls, and sending him to a deep pain, screaming and shrieking as if he had been in hell. The other swished his pipe, but I dodged, hitting the wall and making a penetrating sound in my ears. The pipe and the wall made an orange glow because of the friction, and as the other one strike his chain, I held on to it as fast as I could, not missing a chance to let it pass the air, held on to it strongly as I dragged towards me, and with a second or so, raised my right arm to give the blue and green hued punk a taste of my fist, sending him flying to the dumpster. The other one looked shocked, lost grip of his pipe and ran away. I ran to chase him as I pick up the steel pipe, not screaming in force to not let the punk how close I am to him as I forcefully seize his arm, twisting it in his back and he screamed. I kicked him hard on his spine, knocking him down. I walked slowly with face straight, saw their leader standing back up to his knees as he reached for his knife, but was startled to realize it was not in his pocket.

"Looking for these?" I said, playfully rolling it over my palms.

The man gulped. I hit the blue and green hued punk's left shoulder back with the pole of the pipe and he weakly screamed, tossing the pipe on the side as it made rust and metal sounds. The man gulped again.

"Looks can be deceiving, don't you agree?" I asked with a kind demeanor I used when I am with my friends. "I think I'm going to keep this knife. This is going to be a very good gift from you guys, I really appreciate it."

"Take it, it's yours, leave me alone."

"Okay, okay, ease up, will you..." I was smiling again. "I just want to pass through this alley because it's already," I looked at my watch. "it's already midnight and I have to get to my apartment. I still have a class tomorrow morning, you see, and someone's waiting for me at the apartment." I walked towards him and he scrammed about. "Thanks for your hospitality, I won't be bothering you anymore." I looked the two other guys, who seemed to be unconscious from my assault. "Sorry for the trouble I caused you", I said as I walked out the alley and began my walk towards the apartment.

"Where have you been?" my roommate asked.

"Oh, just took a long walk, that's all." I smiled.

"Now where did you get those wounds!? Look at your left arm, Kogure, the scratches are bleeding. Let me get the first aid kit." He said as he left the living room and went for the first aid. Those punks got me after all. Maybe I got it when I clutched the spiky chain. Oh well. What am I going to say to Akira when he sees this?

"That Krav Maga of yours surely did pay off", Marx Shuichi, my roommate, said with a grin. "I'm regretting now that I didn't enlist myself when I had the chance to. Now that school is getting and getting harder, I may have no time to learn it, even date for that matter." I stretched my wounded/scratched arm to him as he cleansed it. It stung, but it didn't really matter anyway.

"Don't be so rash on yourself, Marx. Sooner or later that girl of your dreams will come to you." he knew who I was talking about.

"Yeah, well... I just hope so. Girls are so hard to court!"

"Not only girls, you know." He laughed when I said this, and said in a teasing way, "Yeah..."

"He just called five minutes ago, looking for you. I said you're still not here, and I'll just let you call him." He said, finishing his job with medical tape to fasten the white cloth in my arm. "Thanks." I said.

"No problem. I'm going to study in my room, maybe an hour, so I'll leave you the rest of the apartment." He said, approaching his room.

"Okay," I said in a very gentle voice like I used to everyday, then searched juice at the fridge, a glass before steadying myself to the living room's sofa as I grabbed the phone and dialed a very familiar number. "Hello," I said, and I can picture a smile growing big in the person's face on the other line.

"Hello yourself..." the husky yet warm voice responded.

NOTES:

1. I am so fed up reading fics with themes like Kogure-always-get-beaten-up-and-put-into-hospital. It's time to let Kogure prove his worth.

2. I write fics mostly to incorporate philosophy. It is my course, after all. Notice the allusions and know that they mean. If you do find them, then I'm proud of you.

3. Krav Maga is a style of fighting, like Taekwondo or Karate. I dunno the details, though. If you want, you check it out on information sites.

4. The dialogues can be rhetoric, and if you read the succeeding chapters, you might get more confused of what they'll try to say. The story from now on will be comprised with confusing plots, but if you'll just try to open your minds you might get the flow of the story.

5. I need reviews.