Part 6

Hanamichi continued to stare up at the ceiling, dazed at what Rukawa had just said a while ago. He couldn't believe it. No matter how much he tried to make any sense out of it, he just couldn't believe it. Last time he checked, he was in love with Haruko, but now... He turned over to lie on his stomach and sighed. Then, his eyes widened. He's a demon, right? Demons are evil, right? Maybe it was all just a joke. He buried his nose into the pillow, a little disappointed when he thought of that. What the hell is wrong with me?

"Ah! Sakuragi-kun! You're awake!"

Hanamichi turned over again and smiled when he saw his sempai and teammate, Kiminobu Kogure, walk in, carrying a bentou in his hand. "Yo, Megane-kun."

Kogure chuckled at that reply. "You're still the same even though you're sick." Then, Kogure's eyes widened when he looked closely at Hanamichi. "Matte." He touched Hanamichi's forehead and blinked in surprise. "Your fever's gone!"

"Huh? What fever?" Hanamichi gently brushed Kogure's hand away, then he remembered. Oh yeah...Rukawa said that he had to give me a fever because Haruko caught us- His train of thought stopped at that as a blush made it's way to his cheeks.

Kogure raised an eyebrow in confusion, then rubbed his head. "Wow. That was a fast recovery. Maybe you ARE a tensai, after all."

Hanamichi jolted out of his memory and laughed nervously, "Ah-Ahahahahahahahaha! Yahari no tensai desu! NYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Kogure smiled at that and laughed a little. Then, he place the bentou on top of Hanamichi's lap and said, "It seems like you didn't have any lunch, so I bought his from the canteen."

"Sou su ka?" Hanamichi opened the bentou and sniffed in the smell of ramen and a few pieces of tamago. He smiled gratefully at Kogure. "Arigatou, Megane-kun!"

Kogure nodded back. "You're welcome." Then, he heard shuffling from behind the curtain, and he gasped. "That's right! Hanamichi, I want you to meet a new student. He said he might try out for the basketball team."

"Hmmm?" Hanamichi said through a mouthful of ramen.

Kogure stepped aside. "Come on in, Mitsui-kun."

Hanamichi saw a pair of shoes from the floor and automatically lifted his head up to the face. When he met ice blue eyes, he stilled. Those eyes. And that hair...It was exactly like Rukawa's. He had tanned skin and a scar on his cheek, but when Hanamichi looked closely, he could see a dark aura around the boy. He narrowed his eyes. "What the-"

"Nice to meet you, Sakuragi-kun." the boy interrupted as he stepped forward. "My name's Hisashi Mitsui. It's nice to meet you."

"A-Aa." Hanamichi got out, looking Mitsui over. He has it. He has the same aura as Rukawa.

Just then, the paging system sounded, and it announced: Kogure-san of Year 3 Section 4, please come to the Principal's Office right now. Again, Kogure...

Kogure's eyes widened with curiosity at that. "Why am I being called?" He shrugged and waved at Hanamichi. "Well then, gotta go. I'll visit you before practice starts, okay?" Then, he turned to Mitsui. "Sorry that I won't be able to accompany you to your new classroom."

Mitsui shrugged, a warm smile on his face. "That's okay. I'm sure I can find my way there."

Kogure nodded then went out of the clinic, his footsteps slowly fading away. finally, when they couldn't be heard anymore, Hanamichi looked up at Mitsui and crooked an eyebrow. "Let me guess...a relative of Rukawa?"

Mitsui grinned. "Definitely a tensai. And yes, I am his cousin." He sat down on the bed and said, "Come out already, Kaede. I know you're here."

Hanamichi gaped at that. Then, he watched as a vision of Rukawa started forming in front of him until finally, the real figure of Rukawa was there. And Rukawa wasn't happy. "What are YOU doing here? Actually, why are you a STUDENT here? I thought you hated mortal necessities."

Mitsui was disappointed. "Hey, come on! I look like a 17 year old student! And I do hate going to school and stuff, but hey," He gestured to where Kogure just disappeared from. "After meeting that Kogure, I think I'm starting to rethink that dislike of mine."

Rukawa snorted. "Just like you to chase after an innocent boy."

Hanamichi's eyes widened even more. "You LIKE Megane-kun? NO WAY!"

Mitsui grinned. "Oh yes way. Just like your darling Kaede here like's you. Or should I say, LOVES you."

Hanamichi shut his mouth and blushed hard at that.

Kaede stepped forward and crossed his pale arms across his lean chest. "You haven't answered my first question."

Mitsui sighed at his cousin's position, which meant that if he didn't answer that question, he was going to be burnt. He stood up and shrugged. "I'm here to help you." When Kaede merely raised an eyebrow at that answer, Mitsui continued. "I know what you're planning, Kaede. I heard you talking it over with Hanamichi. Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I just wanted to see if you were okay. Anyway, Akira said that since you are our cousin, we want to make your life a happy one for the time being, so we'll do anything to make you happy, saving HANAMICHI over here as priority number one."

Rukawa glared at that answer. "I don't need your help."

Mitsui snorted in disbelief. "Believe me, you do. You have a very thin chance of asking Death to spare his life, and it's really hard to find, much less, as an angel for help. Akira told me to enter this school so that...umm...so that it would be easier for me to spot an angel." No way was he going to tell Rukawa that he was there to make ACCIDENTS that would bring his cousin and Hanamichi together.

Rukawa raised his eyebrow at that, then turned away. "You and that stupid step-brother of yours."

Mitsui grinned. "Come on. You don't want HIM to die, right?"

Rukawa raised his fist, and Hanamichi stared in awe as a black flame started getting bigger and bigger in his palm. He aimed it at Mitsui and replied with a diabolical grin, "See ya."

Mitsui heard the bell then stood up. "Right, right." He stepped out of the clinic, the shouted back, "Hey Hanamichi, if Kaede here hasn't told you yet, he's the number one hentai in Hell. Be careful, okay?" Then, with an amused laugh, he left to go to his first class.

Hanamichi blushed at that, then eyed Rukawa. "Number one hentai, ka?"

Rukawa shook his head and sat down on the bed. "That's him. He was just teasing you."

Hanamichi breathed a sigh of relief. Rukawa saw that action and grinned. "But you know, I can live up to his name too if I wanted to." Hanamichi's head snapped up at that, and Rukawa leaned in closer to Hanamichi, his tongue brushing Hanamichi's lips seductively. "Wanna see?"

"I-I..." Hanamichi swallowed and got out of bed, his nerves all jumpy. "I have to go to class!" He grabbed his shoes from the floor and ran out of the room. Rukawa stood there and stared at the redhead for a while, a small grin on his face.

"Do'aho."

* * * * * *

Hanamichi slumped down on his seat and gave Yohei a weird look. "You don't remember ANYHING?"

Yohei gave him a confused glance, aware that they were in the middle of class even though Hanamichi wasn't. "I told you, Hanamichi. You said you weren't hungry, so I went down to eat. That's all that happened."

"So, so you don't remember anything else?" Hanamichi pressed on.

Yohei nodded back. "That's it."

"MITO-KUN AND SAKURAGI-KUN! PLEASE STOP TALKING! WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A QUIZ!" The teacher in front, Saito-sensei, fairly shouted.

Hanamichi and Yohei backed away from each other. Hanamichi stared at his test paper, though he wasn't reading the questions. Instead, he tried to figure some things out. Rukawa must have erased that part of Yohei's memory. And if I ever tell Yohei again, Rukawa might erase it again. He sighed and slumped on his seat. Couldn't he tell ANYONE?!

No, because it's not allowed.

Hanamichi raised his head and he gasped when he saw Rukawa floating beside him, his wings stretched out. "KITSUNE!"

"SAKURAGI-KUN! I SAID QUIET!" Saito-sensei shouted again, annoyed that Hanamichi couldn't even follow that simple order.

Hanamichi glared at Rukawa heatedly. Damn you, kitsune...

Rukawa shrugged. It's the rule. Besides, you have a test. Get back to it.

Hanamichi was shocked at Rukawa's bossy attitude, then, he stared daggers towards him. You're not the boss of me.

And you're no tensai.

"TEME KITSUNE!!"

"SAKURAGI-KUN!"

In all 15 years of his life, Hanamichi has never been more irritated as he was that moment. He scratched his head in frustration and shouted at the lop of his lungs, "ARRRGHHH!!! WHY ME?!!!!"

* * * * * *

Satan stared at the report one his spies gave him. He read it without any emotion on his, but when he got to the middle, his mouth turned into a snarl. "My son...has fallen for a...MORTAL?"

"Yes, your great." The spy that was assigned to watch over Kaede Rukawa replied.

Satan crumpled the piece of paper in his hand and set in on fire. When all the pieces of the paper were turned to ashes, blew it away and called out, "Death, come here."

A portal was opened from the center of the arena, and from that portal stepped out a person in a black cloak. He floated towards Satan and knelt before him. "What is it, your great?"

Satan brushed back his hair. "It seems that you have a certain Hanamichi Sakuragi in your list that you have to visit 2 weeks from now."

Death nodded. "Yes, your great."

Satan smiled evilly. "Could you reschedule that to NEXT week?"

Death seemed surprised by this, by nonetheless, he nodded. "It shall be done, your great."

Satan stood up from his throne and went down the stairs towards his room. "No son of mine will fall for a stupid MORTAL, much more, a stupid BOY." HE slammed the doors open on his way out, and when he was gone, he slammed them shut.

Everyone stayed were they were for 5 seconds, then all started to murmur excitedly about the news. Everyone wanted to know the outcome.

Death approached the green eyed spy and whispered, "It seems to me that our dear prince was a little too late with his proposition."

The spy nodded. "It seems so."

Death sighed then murmured as he disappeared, "What will happen now, Hiroaki?"

The green eyes slowly turned to soft, brown one's as Hiroaki Koshino dropped his second personality. He slumped his head low and bit his lip to keep himself from bursting out. He had ruined it. He had ruined Kaede's life in a snap, and it wasn't even HIM who did it. It was his second personality. But still, it was him...and he had ruined Kaede Rukawa's life.

As Koshino clenched his fist tightly, blood dripping from the wound his nails created, he didn't notice Akira Sendoh looking at him with pitiful eyes from the side.

Sendoh shook his head, and for once, a smile didn't grace his lips. "Too late, Kaede. You were too late."

TBC