Wall-Chasing, Still So Far Away (1)

"Kyosuke."

"Tomoe."

"I heard you've returned to Stride... Kyosuke?"

"Honan is the only place for me."

"I knew you'd say that." Tomoe paused for a second. "I'm back in Japan now. Maybe we'll see each other soon, if we do..."

"Maybe you'll change your mind... Later."

~*~

Shun's POV

"It's here..."

"It's finally here... End of Summer..." Heath suddenly said, catching my attention after getting a pouch of candy from my pocket and sat beside him. He suddenly stood up and slapped my back hard, finishing his sentence.

"Final Tournament!" He yells while I was shocked at what just happened.

"Yay!" Kohinata cheered. "None to soon!- Have we been through this before?" Riku complained, remembering the time when the exams had just ended. "Eh? Ichinose-kun...?" Kohinata noticed my reaction, I was quietly counting while staring at the floor.

"Two... Three... "

"Five...... Eight..... Nine..."

"Twelve..."

"Sixteen..."

"Nineteen...."

"Huh?-" Heath and Riku looked at me, noticing that there was something wrong. Twenty-one was my final count, it was a big number and I didn't like it. Twenty-one of it was scattered, twenty-one of it is considered 'dirty.' Twenty-one pieces of candy was wasted. I was considering the 5-second rule but Heath stepped on some of them. I stared at the candy left in my plastic pouch.

"Only three left?!" I was in disbelief, from the many I bought, this was left. I was choosing to whine or not, but I thought of something better.

I stood up and faced Heath, who knew what he's done. I looked at him in the eyes and breathed in, and smiled by force. "Later, before you go home, go with me and..."

"Go with you?! For what?!" Heath immediately questioned.

"You need to treat me twice the candy you made me waste! It's an obligation!" I stated the condition I thought of earlier, putting a bit of 'profit' into it.

"I can just leave earlier than you or just run away." Heath points out, I didn't think about that so I didn't come up with countermeasures for it. I was just left to mentally criy while he grinned victoriously.

"Just you wait!" I say, obviously not knowing what to do and just kept quiet. 

"Pshhh... Well back to what I was saying, a total of four schools have advanced to the finals. It's time to determine the best team in East Japan." Heath went back to the main topic. Dan-sensei stepped forward. "Is everyone here?"

"I guess so." I answered. "What is that thick envelop?" Riku noticed and asked.

"Registration documents for the final tournament. The final tournament starts off with a time trial to determine the pairings." Dan-sensei explained.

Riku opens up a booklet and looks for our upcoming opponents, "It take form of a normal race. We're running with..." I went beside him and read the contents. "Kakyoin High School from Miyagi? Has anyone heard about them?" I questioned, looking over to the rest.

"I've never heard of them. They weren't in last year's best 8, neither best 16." Kadowaki thought about it while Nana suggested that maybe they were a new entry.

"Then this could be easy!" Riku happily said.

"Yudan..." Dan-sensei started. (not paying attention...)

'...Kinmotsu?' was Kadowaki and Kohinata's prediction. (...could result failure.) Dan-sensei looked straight and finished; "...Kyoteki!" (...could result failure.)

"He avoided saying the same one as last time!" The two were shocked. "Well... it means the same thing..." Heath softly said.

"High School Stride teams can rise or fall significantly in one year..." Dan-sensei explains and looks at all of us. "You should know that better than anyone else." Everyone turned quiet.

"Well, whoever it is, it doesn't matter. We just do our very best." Heath motivates us and fills us with hope.

"Right!" Riku and I cheered. "Uhuh!"

~*~

Practice just ended and I was beat, even if its just practice, I gave it my all, I really wanted to improve and make up for my past mistakes. I walked out of the school gates and saw Riku, Takeru and Nana.

"It's late, I'll walk you home." Riku offered Nana with a smile.

"Are you sure? You always run home." Nana turned her gaze to Riku. "It's fine! I can't allow a young lady like you to go home all alone at the hour!" he insisted.

Takeru suddenly ran, going ahead without a word. "Oh! Fujiwara-kun! Good work today! Take care!" Nana half yelled to say her goodbye to Takeru.

Just as soon as Nana's phone rang, I suddenly remembered Heath's debt of candies he owed me. As instincts, I ran back checking if he was still there with Kyosuke. By the time I was by the club room, I only saw Kyosuke walking out. I approached him. "By any chance did you see Heath?"

"He already left earlier." He told me. "Really?! That guy! Next time for sure!" I promised to myself with determination.

"Even if he was here, It's not safe to just walk around at night. Especially if it's just for candy." He says as we walk together out of the school gates.

"Just? It's an important thing, it not 'just' candy- Wait, where's your bike?" I asked. "Finals are coming up, so..." He grips his bag firmly, I have no idea what's happening.

"Race you to my house."

"Huh?" I couldn't process what he said, it's was the first time I heard those word from him.

"Loser gets a forehead flick." He informs me and ran off.

"Hu- EH?!" I yelled and ran after him. Its been long doing this, competitively running for fun but with carefulness. I've missed it so much.

~*~

Kyosuke and I walked to our team's agreed location for our short trip to the End Of Summer Finals. I was trying my best to stay awake and stay hyper but I had to wake up extra early this morning.

"Stop dozing off, we are almost there." Kyosuke noticed my sleepy state.

"Well it is actually your fault! You suddenly declared a race and ran off, because of that I lost and you flicked my forehead real hard!" I ranted, emphasizing the crossed band aid on my forehead.

"And how does it make me cause of you sleepiness?" he questions, he had a point, a bit, so I just stuck my tongue out like a child.

Since we were cousins, yesterday, he offered me to eat there as well, I did eat and watched T.V. for a bit but I kinda dozed off while doing so. He didn't wake me up that day, and only woke me up the next morning, extra early telling me that I had to go to my house and quickly prepare everything I needed now.

"Well! You could have-!" I wasn't able to finish my complain because I... tripped... on... something, doubling the pain on my forehead; forehead flick and this. I tried to suppress the stinging feeling on my forehead with my palm and checked what I tripped on. It was a foot, looking up, it was particularly Heath's foot.

"Ops...?" Heath says with a mischievous smile, I am definitely going to get my payback sooner or later.

"Kyousuke and Ichinose is here. Now, where are those first years?"

"Oh, speak of the devil..." Kohinata said, noticing Riku and Takeru competitively running to us. When they got to us, Riku landed himself on one of the square couches while Takeru held on his knees, both heavily breathing. "Dang it, he beat me..."

"Did you race here?" Kohinata asked.

"Not really." Takeru replied. "We met on the way, and we sort of... He went the wrong way." Riku explained.

Takeru looked at Riku, his hands still on his knees, "I didn't ask you to follow me."

"Who would think you'd so confidently run the other way?!"

I was still seated on the floor, laughing at their situation. "So you were lost and racing at the same time!" Nana summarized the situation. "I wasted so much energy from such an early hour! I had breakfast, but I'm hungry already!" Riku laid down on the couch, whining.

"You have horrible fuel efficiency." Takeru says yet his tummy growled, making everyone stare at him.

Nana jolted a bit and remembered something. "Great timing! I made Onigiri!" She clapped her hands with a cheerful smile.

"Really?!"

"Seriously?"

Nana nodded and showed us the bento filled with Onigiri. "Oh! The staple of youth! Rice balls hand-made by a girl!" Kohinata and Kadowaki was pleased and excited.

|In Plane|

Everyone was enjoying the hand-made onigiri while I was also munching on one. I had separate seats from the others. I was seated behind Nana's seat, so I could always ask for more food.

"Please have some, Dan-sensei. I made lots." Nana offered Dan-sensei, who was seated on her right. Dan-sensei declined, "Thank you, but I had breakfast." Then I heard a tummy grumble. "No, I really did..."

Later, we found out that it was another guy, who was seated on Nana's left. I didn't really mind at first so I just joyfully bit on the onigiri but I overheard their conversation.

"Thank you! I just came from Frankfurt, but my flight was delayed and my teammates left me. I missed breakfast too. What a day!"

After hearing that, I immediately peaked at the space between their seats and looked at the green-haired guy. "Are you attending EOS?" Nana asked.

"Yes. You too?"

Nana nodded. "Really? I'm Natsunagi Toya. I'm going to be a Relationer at Kakyoin High School." He introduced himself.

"Really?! I'm also a Relationer, at Honan High School. I'm Nana Sakurai." They continued to talk but I ended up losing myself in my own thoughts.

"Kakyoin..." I whispered as if I was talking to the onigiri.

~*~

"Wow, how lively!"

"It's not hot at all, this is great. I'm feeling the northness!" Heath confidently said making Kohinata and Kadowaki laugh.

"Northness?" I questioned, hearing it for the first time.

"Okay, maybe that's not a word..." Heath said.

"The final tournament totally lives up to the hype! The attention is getting unreal!" Riku exclaims.

"Stop over-reacting." Takeru told him.

"I'm not over-reacting!... There are a lot of big guys. I wonder if they're third years." he looked around at the other teams.

"You guys are still skinny. Tall, but thin." Heath pointed out.

"I'm still growing!" Riku exclaimed.

"Me too!" Kohinata and I simultaneously said.

Kadowaki went towards us, "Wake up to reality, Kohinata-shi, Ichinose-kun!" 

"What? I am looking at reality straight in its eyes!" Kohinata stated. "Uhuh! I grew half a centimeter for the past two months!" I tell with determination.

"When the time comes, you two will grow. Perhaps you will awaken a power you didn't know you had." Kyosuke told us.

"Huh? Did he cheer me up?" Kohinata confusedly question looking at me and Riku.

"I see it now!" Kadowaki adjusted his glasses. "Here at the final tournament, the dragon sleeping within Kohinata-shi... awakens!"

"I am a sleeping dragon!..."

"Go Kohinata-senpai!" I cheered while Kohinata acted out Ken, Chan and Lee.

"Kyosuke, stop feeding those idiots. They won't stop." Heath told him, but Kyosuke chuckled at us.

"Wait, does he think that's funny...?"

~*~

"Saisei High School pulls off a final perfect Relation! Suwa Reiji, the final runner of Saisei, shows an incredible sprint!"

I looked over to the huge screen at the top, the win of Saisei. I was currently walking around the stadium but of course with the permission of the others, I just wanted to walk around the stadium to satisfy myself.

"The record is... only 0.8 seconds away from the best, 5 minutes 5.48 seconds!"

"Wow... That's Saisei for you." I smiled in awe and excitement. "I can't wait to run with them again!" I whispered to myself.

Nodding to myself, I decided to go back to the others since it was the introducing of the next teams. I walked, lost in thought, until I bumped into something or someone, making me fall on my butt.

I gazed forward looking for the thing or person I bumped into to but I saw nothing. I only saw a neatly folded paper on the ground. I heard fading footsteps from behind. I quickly grabbed the paper and attempted to return the paper. By the time I looked back, the person was already out of my sight.

Curiosity killing me, I opened my hand, staring at the neat paper. I unfolded the paper and read the hand-written words on the square paper. I was shocked and confused at the same time. I have no idea what this is.

"It worries me that you are here. I think you've caused some trouble. You might be confused right now but you will found out later and we will see each other later~ Until then, take care, Shu! :)"

~*~

Sorry for not updating for so long!! GOMEN-Nasai! Part two will be up soon! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR CONTINUOS SUPPORT 'TIL NOW!! I will really really try to update more often! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you!! (/>_<)/

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