Arisu, Rakio, & Takei

Sakata Akio's POV

We were waiting in the hospital corridors. My father cannot stop pacing back and forth while biting his nail on his right thumb. Nii-chan and I were patiently sitting on the bench and watching our father so tensed up.

As our mother's doctor went outside the emergency room, my father immediately ran to him. Nii-chan and I also calmly followed our father.

The doctor gently relayed the diagnosis he made for our mother.

Doctor: Is Hina-sama under stress again lately?

Hiroto: Yes, sensei. I guess it is my fault.

Doctor: She really is stressed lately and it did not only affect her but also the child she was carrying.

All of us were astonished as we heard the news. But the doctor did not let us talk and broke out the terrible news that followed.

Doctor: Sorry to break it to you, but the baby did not survive. It is better if you'll not tell her yet as of the moment as to not to add stress. She needs to rest and to be monitored for a few days in the hospital.

Hiroto: Okay, sensei. Is there anything else needed?

Doctor: No. We will only have her transferred in the VIP ward. That would be all.

The doctor left and left us dumbfounded. My father grabbed his hair in frustration and took a deep breath in annoyance. He gritted his teeth and pulled his hair.

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After my mother was transferred in the VIP ward, my father stayed beside her the whole night. He even took a day off and watched her all day even when she was already conscious. Nii-chan and I still went to school and went straight to the hospital after our classes.

It was eleven in the evening and my phone vibrated. I checked the caller ID and immediately answered the call.

Akio: Yow. What's up?

Rei: Come down. Tatsuo and I are outside the hospital.

Akio: Why all of the sudden?

Rei: Just come down.

Rei and Yamazaki-kun were giggling like little kids on the other side of the call. I ended the call and rushed to them.

As I came, the two were grinning from ear to ear.

What were they thinking of? The two then covered my eyes with their hands and replaced them with either a handkerchief or a bandana. It was so fast that I couldn't distinguish the color of the thing they used to cover my eyes.

Akio: What is this? You are giving me chills.

The two continued giggling.

Akio: Hey! This isn't funny. We look like girls in a surprise birthday. Though it isn't my birthday yet. What are you planning to do with me? Are you gonna kidnap me?

Tatsuo: Can you just stop babbling nonsense? Jeez. You're too inquisitive. Hey, Rei-kun. Wait.

The blindfold then was removed. And I saw a cute white furry puppy and a bunch of my favorite food.

Without having second thoughts, I grabbed the little furball and rubbed my face on its petite body, admiring it's cuteness.

Akio: What is the occasion? What's with these? Thank you, by the way.

Rei: Nothing. We just passed by a pet shop and decided to buy the three puppies left. I got the brown one and Tatsuo got the black one.

Two furballs then approached us from afar, with their tongues dangling from exhaust and excitement.

Rei: Do you like it? This proves our friendship. The three puppies are siblings. We thought of buying them because their fur matches our hair colors. These furballs will train with us also so that we would enjoy our school life more despite of our current circumstances.

Tatsuo: Yep! I was the one who suggested to buy them. Since they are siblings, this also proves our brotherhood! We then decided to include your favorites since you have a lot of problems lately, especially your family and your mother's condition. How is she?

I smiled at them with adoration. Who would have thought they'd be so thoughtful up to this point?

Akio: I really liked them. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness. Brothers, huh? I like the ring of that.

Tatsuo: Yeah! You should, because it was I, the mastermind, of this idea!

Tatsuo-kun said so proudly with his hands on his hips and his feet wide apart with his chin held high.

Rei-kun, as usual, smacked his head with an annoyed face.

Rei: Your manners are really so- ugh, never mind, you tactless idiot.

I just chuckled like I was tickled.

Akio: I am already used to him. This idiioooot.

I said while stretching down my skin on my left cheek near the eye with my index finger and stuck my tongue out, directing it to Tatsuo-kun.

Tatsuo-kun then pouted with his eyes widened and his brows crossed.

Tatsuo: You--

He charged towards me but Rei-kun separated us with his arms outstretched.

Rei: Stop this mini squabble. Let's decide on what to name our pups.

We both stopped our squabble and I immediately came up with an idea.

Akio: How about we use our initials to name them. I'll name mine Arisu (Alice). It sounded like the combination of our names A from Akio, Ri from Rei and Su from Tatsuo.

Tatsuo: Wow! That's brilliant! Hmmm. Takei? How's that? Though it is usually a surname.

Akio: Sounds great!

Rei: Rukio? But my dog is a female.

I rechecked the gender of my dog. It turns out it was a male.

Akio: How about we shuffle names? My dog is a male. I can't name him, Arisu.

Rei: Okay. I agree. So, Arisu will by my dog's name, Rukio will be Tatsuo's dog's name, and Takei will be Akio's dog's name.

Tatsuo: Yep! No objections! Shiriri!

Tatsuo-kun happily agreed and waved his hand at the same time.

I raised my puppy above our heads just like presenting the newborn cub from the movie I saw and announced its name.

Akio: Behold my fellow comrades! I hereby present to you, Takei!

The two then chanted "wan wan," imitating the sound of the dogs.

We all laughed about the crazy lines we just had.

I lowered Takei and it was Tatsuo-kun's turn to raise his dog.

Tatsuo: Here, I raise a dog to the stars, the amazingly handsome like me, Rukio!

Rei: What's with those unnecessary lines?

Tatsuo: You're such a mood killer!

Rei: Because yours was weird. Anyway, it's my turn.

Arisu was patiently waiting for Rei-kun to pick her up while wagging her tail and looking up to him.

Rei-kun carefully picked her and raised her above our heads.

Rei: The only female, with the best name, Arisu!

Akio: Glad you liked the name.

After eating the food they brought and talking a lot of random stuff, they handed me the dog food and other necessities the puppy need since I cannot go home for the meantime.

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Days passed, my mother was discharged. I also resumed training the day after I had Takei.

Despite of being 3 months old, the puppies were with us training after school. We don't have to worry about leaving our pets during classes because our school also has a mini zoo and there was a huge empty cage available and left them there with water and food, of course.

We enjoyed our training with our pets around. It really was a good idea having them.

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Time flies so fast, the next tournament was approaching. After all the events that occurred, I forgot that I am not going to participate anymore.

Even though, I trained with them and still tried not to slack too much and executed our drills properly. In my opinion, training with them is part of my support for them for the upcoming games they'd play.

While training ourselves, a familiar figure was drawing nigh the shrine we were training on.

It was Kai-senpai.

Akio: Hello, senpai. What brings you here? How did you know we're here?

He messed my hair and smiled forcibly.

Kai: Nothing. It's just that I'm checking up on you guy. Are you sure you're not gonna join us?

I raised my brows in astonishment. If this was written in a comic book, a lot of question marks have already popped out around my head.

Akio: Did you really have us followed just to ask that, senpai?

He just shook his head.

Kai: Never mind, Akio-kun. We'll just deal it with ourselves.

Akio: You're making me worried, senpai. Is there something going on?

Rei-kun and Tatsuo-kun just noticed Kai-senpai's presence and approached us.

Tatsuo: Ohh. The weird senpai is here. Hello senpai!

Rei-kun smacked his head.

Rei: Don't mind what he said, senpai. I would like to apologize on his behalf. Excuse our manners.

Kai-senpai just snorted.

Kai: Haha. Weird? Yes, that's fine with me. I get why you called me weird. It's okay.

He enjoyed the word that Tatsuo-kun used to describe him and didn't take it negatively.

Kai: Anyways, I just dropped by to say hello. Let's take a groufie.

He immediately grabbed his phome from his pocket.

Kai: One, two, threeee.... Say cheese!

The three of us were surprised and was slow on the uptake that we weren't able to pose.

Akio: Senpai! We weren't prepared. What was that for?

Kai-senpai viewed our photo on his phone.

Kai: Ooh. The picture came out just fine. I gotta go! I have forgotten an urgent errand. Let's take a better photo next time! Bye!

He ignored my question and ran off the shrine.

We were left flabbergasted and our facial expressions were indescribable.

Tatsuo: He really is weird. He followed us just to say his greetings.

Rei: I doubt that. Did he say anything to you, Akio-kun?

Akio: Hm, yeah. He asked if I really won't join them. Something seems to bother him. He said he also came to check on us.

Rei: Huh? Would it affect us? Why was he troubled?

Akio: I don't know. We haven't spoken properly. He just ran off.

Tatsuo: That's weird, though he really is weird.

We just brushed it off, resumed our training and ended our day.

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Third Person POV

After Kai left the shrine, he headed to the meeting place they've agreed with the guy he's working with. They met in a basement of an abandoned building, not far from the school.

Guy: Still no? It's okay if he wouldn't join yet as of now but I feel assured if he's with us.

Kai: Why won't you show yourself to him? You're close, right? That way, you could directly tell him about everything.

Guy: I can't just pop out out of nowhere and spill the beans. It is also difficult for me to move closer to him since we don't know if there are guards following him.

Kai: So, it's okay if I get caught and not you? I even look like a suspicious person to them right now.

Guy: Because you just approached them in their training spot and even took Akio-kun's hoodie the other time. It took me a long time to realize it was weird having Akio-kun's hoodie. I sound like a pervert. Nevertheless, I know your having a hard time balancing everything. You just have to protect those kids first. I will do the rest of the finding of evidences. I will also seek help from the other team. The opposing team are on the move. They might find our base anytime or attack those kids, especially Akio-kun. They want to have the school and kick out Sakata-san. It is very complicated and there are a lot of groups involved. But this group I am talking about right now is a non-government group that has formed alliance.

Kai: What?! This is the first time I have heard of this.

Guy: They've been under the radar for a couple of years that's whybwe haven't noticed them. I will handle this with our other members. Just take care of the kids. That's all you need to do.

Kai: Okay. Understood.

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END OF CHAPTER 18