Ok..another update! Ahahaha.. and I'll probably be away for a week due to busy schedule so yeah.. Please don't expect any updates for next week.. So enjoy this latest chapter.XD


“Gaahh!!! Finally… I can go home!” Rika stretched her arms as her clock showed that it’s already time for her to leave. She was fixing her things when somebody knocked on her door. “Come in!”

As soon as she said that, Mari’s head popped out from behind the door.

“Hi there! I’m going home now!”

“Sure! Take care!”

“ Thanks. And before you go, please see Mr. Nishida. He wanted to talk with you earlier, but it seemed that you went out this lunch.”

“Yeah. I went to see some friend. Ok. I’ll go to him after I’m done with this.”

“See you tomorrow!”

Rika quickly finished her packing and went to Mr. Nishida’s office. She knocked twice before she heard Mr. Nishida’s voice, permitting her to come inside his office. Rika saw the old man sitting in front of his desk.

“Ms. Ishikawa! I wanted to talk to you earlier but I can’t find you anywhere.”

“I went to a certain restaurant to meet someone. ” Mr. Nishida grinned at her, at which Rika knew what that certain grin means. “I was with my friend... and it’s a girl ok. I still don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Hahaha!” Mr. Nishida chuckled. “I know. If you already have one, your father will tell it to me too. Anyway, Ms. Abe sent me some reports earlier. And she also sent a CD for you. I don’t know what it contains but she said that it’s important for you. I have a hunch that it’s the project you did in Hokkaido.” As he said that, Mr. Nishida gave Rika a transparent case with a gold CD inside. “You can go now.”

“Thank you.” Rika studied the CD. She noticed that the burn marks only few, meaning the data inside were a lot smaller. She went to her office and removed her laptop from its case to know what’s inside the CD. And when she found out what it contains… she was touched. It was the video of the program that the Hokkaido branch did for her before she went back to Kobe. And she forwarded it to her part where she sung Asu e no Tobira.

”Ehh.. well. It’s hard to admit but I sounded really weird there.”
Rika scanned the content of the CD and then she remembered the CD Miki gave her but decided to view it at home for if she viewed it in the office, she might go home really late. Instead, she went to Kuwagata’s blog and decided to give some lectures on the three fans that were fighting.

Charmy
Sorry to intrude but if you should know, this isn’t the right place to fight like that. This is a fic blog and not a flame forum. Sorry for the term but that’s the reality. If you want to fight, then fight somewhere else. Please respect Kuwagata’s blog as she was just trying her best to make us happy with her fics. But sad to say, you are destroying it. I know there are various worshippers. I for one is a TanaKamei fan but I respect every fic that ends with TanaShige or KameShige. Why? Because they are still Three Tums. They are still part of the group that we worship. I hope I will not see any hints of fighting in the next chapter. Kuwagata’s my favorite writer that’s why I stepped up so as not to further ruin this blog. Please be open minded.

“There! I hope they will stop bickering on the comments page.” Rika said as she posted her comment on chapter 8. She was about to turn off her wi-fi signal when Kuwagata’s blog reload and revealed a new chapter.

..............

Chapter 9

“HEY! PASS THE BALL!!!” Reina shouted as she saw Eri coming up to Risa but instead of helping, she made it worse. Risa lost her focus and so Eri was able to steal the ball away from her.

“YOU’RE SO LOUD!!!” Risa glared back at her friend. They were having a three- on -three competition. Reina, Ai and Risa made the first team while the second team consisted of Eri, Sayumi and Kusumi; Sayumi’s classmate and Eri’s cousin. It was more of a handicap match again. Risa was guarding Kusumi; both playing as the center. Sayu was playing as the forward so Ai was guarding her and lastly Reina was trying to steal the ball from the point guard of the other team, Eri.

“You’re really good at dribbling.”

“Come on! Apply what I’ve taught you. It’s your time to show your friends what you’ve learned. But still, we won’t get easy on your team.” Eri whispered. Reina smiled and quickly, reached out her hand towards the ball but Eri was quicker. She did a bounce pass towards her cousin. Kusumi acted like she was about to shoot so Risa jumped up to block it but it turns out that it’s only a fake. Kusumi dribbled the ball once and did a fade away shot. Their lead was added with another two points. And their time was almost up; Eri’s time was almost up. Ai called for a time-out.

“We can still win. Their lead is only seven points. We can do still do at least three, three-point shots or two, three point shots and a quick jumper within two minutes. We just have to tighten our defense and not let them get a shoot from now on.” Ai started. She was about to tell her two friends what to do when Reina suddenly speak up her mind.

“Risa was letting Kusumi free.”

“Hey! I’m not… You’re the one who’s not guarding your vampire friend. Oh, that’s right… You can’t block her right?”

“Chotto! That’s a low blow! I’m not that short. Wait till I grow taller and I’ll be making slam dunks right at your face!”

“Sure, I’ll wait for that time to come… If that day will really come.” Risa mocked. Reina was about to walk right up to Risa when she heard Ai raising her voice to get their attention back to their game plan.

“OKAY BACK TO BUSINESS…” This wasn’t the first time that Risa and Reina fought while playing basketball and she’s always the one who settle their differences. She’s the mature one and those two need some guidance with their fiery attitudes. “As I was saying, we have to tighten our defense from now on. Reina, I noticed that you were much better now than before. I know she’s the one who taught you what you learned now. You know her better than we do so can you try to share to us what she’s like when she’s playing?” Reina thought about it. Ai was right. The first thing you need to know when you want to win was to know your enemy better. Reina shared with them what she observed when Eri and Sayumi were playing together. Ai now knew what to do.

“Woah… Now I really wished I didn’t join the futsal club and stick with basketball. I never knew our team’s really good!” Kusumi said. She was always hanging out with her cousin and friend before but ever since she auditioned for the futsal club of their school, she’s so tired from their practice that she rarely visited her sick cousin for the last year. She only got her updates from Sayumi who was her classmate.

“Well, it will become better if I was on that team right? Well, not as a player but their good looking muse.” Eri and Kusumi looked at each other and laughed out loud.

“EHH? WHY WOULD THEY WANT YOU AS THEIR MUSE???” Kusumi replied and continued her laugh.

“Come on Sayu… I know you’re narcissistic and all but… I never expect it to be this worse.” Eri added and joined her cousin on laughing.

“Fine, laugh at me now but I’ll not entertain you if I become the next Miss Universe…”

“Okay, let’s stop joking around and get serious… Look at them,” Eri pointed towards Reina’s team, “they are really finding ways to beat us.”

“Yeah, serious… We need to get serious.” Kusumi followed her cousin’s lead to ignore her best friend deliberately.

“YOU TWO ARE REALLY MEAN!!!!”

The game resumed with the ball in Ai’s possession. She will be the one who will be making the inbound pass. Sayumi was tightening her defense but then, Ai outsmarted her and passed the ball in between her legs. Reina caught it up and immediately ran towards the hoop. She did a crossover dribble against Kusumi who suddenly appeared in front of her.

“She’s fast…” Kusumi tried to stop her but she only made it worse. Kusumi lost her balance when she tried to get the ball and fall on her knees. Reina lost her footing and dived forward… towards Eri who was in front of her.

“Hey Eri are you…” She was really worried about her best friend for even if Eri’s taller than Reina, Reina’s still heavy and will squish her friend. Sayumi stopped her tracks as she approached the two after 5 seconds of not moving. She saw Reina’s lips touching her best friend’s lips. And they were not trying to move from their position. Sayumi couldn’t control herself. “Hey, you’re squishing my friend!” Sayumi pulled Reina away from Eri.

“Ahhmm.. Ano… gomen…” Reina tried to explain but her mind was totally shut from the previous experience.

“Gomen! Did the two of you have some serious injuries? I’m really sorry! It’s my entire fault!” Kusumi apologized loudly but Sayumi didn’t notice her and instead look at Reina angrily.

“You know. You’re messing with her mind lately and I won’t allow that!”

“Ehh? I’m what?” Reina asked curiously. This is the first time that she saw Eri’s best friend that angry.

“NO!!! It’s really nothing! Sayumi was just joking around… riiight?!” Eri looked at her best friend with pleading eyes. Sayumi sighed. She can’t resist her best friend no matter how hard it is for her part.

“Ahahaha… And I think Reina really fell for that.” Sayumi laughed and patted Reina’s shoulders. “Come on. Let’s continue the game. It’s Reina’s turn on the free throw line.”

Reina went to the free throw line, still confused at what Sayumi said earlier. Risa and Sayumi were already blocking out each other.

“Isn’t that too early to do? Reina’s not dribbling yet.” Ai asked the two ‘hyper’ girls who just ignored her question. Ai just sighed and noticed Koharu doing something weird, with her hands in a ‘kamehameha’ position, towards the direction of Reina.

“Uhhm, what are…” Ai didn’t finish her question for she ‘heard’ what Koharu was mumbling.

“It will miss… miss… miss… misss…”

Ai sighed again and this time, found the ‘vampire’ looking at the sky in a state of trance.

“Am I the only one focused on this game?”

Reina dribbled the ball and shot it. With her mind drifting somewhere, she forgot to apply enough force for the ball to even touch the basket. Eri’s team automatically got the possession of the ball.

“GAAAHH!!! WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH YOU?!?! That’s an easy shot!!” Risa shouted and looked at Sayumi. “YOU! I didn’t hear what you told her earlier but it sure is messing with her mind… That’s really cheap!”

“Yatta! My mantra worked!” Kusumi shouted with glee. Sayumi smiled and shook her head slowly. She then looked at Risa who now had her hands crossed over her chest.

“Well, basketball is not really a physical game. It’s more of a mind game. If you lose your focus, you’re finished. That’s an important lesson in this game. And if Reina can’t overcome it, you two will have to do something to bring her focus back… or else, lose this game. Risa was amazed at what Sayumi had said.

“Woah.. Reina has good teachers… I wonder if we could recruit her as a coach… Naahhh… That can never happen. She’s still a student.” Risa quickly went to Ai.

“Ai, we need to do something to Reina. She lost her focus and at this rate, we will lose if we don’t do something.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. I know how to bring her focus back. I’ll use that thing.” Ai grinned and walked towards the direction of Reina.

“What thing?” Risa asked.

“’THAT thing!” Ai shouted back. Reina looked back at her friend when she heard Ai yelled behind her. She didn’t really hear what her friend said for she was thinking about what Sayumi said earlier.

“I’m messing up with Eri’s mind? What the hell did that mean? Is it because she was teaching me basketball and thus making her sleep, less? Wait...I’m the one who’s experiencing that. She’s really asleep every morning. I’m the one who doesn’t have enough sleep…” Reina’s thoughts was cut short when Ai tapped her shoulders and whispered something.

“I’ll treat you for a week if we will win this one. I know a good restaurant with yakiniku as their specialty… So stay focused.”

TBC

……………………
“Overtime?” Rika closed her laptop forcefully as she heard a voice from out of nowhere. She looked around and saw a head poking out of the door.

“Yoshizawa-san! Geez, you scared the hell out of me. Please knock on the door next time.” Hitomi opened the door wide enough for her to get inside the room. She walked towards Rika’s table.

“I did. Maybe you just didn’t hear it. I can hear some noises that sounded like a muffled scream… or rather, a squeal.. and then it felt like there’s a magnitude 5 earthquake. So when I knocked and nobody answered, I peeped to see whether there’s someone inside. Apparently, I just found a Three-Tums addict who likes reading fanfics made by my friend. So how’s the latest chapter?” Rika wanted to laugh for Hitomi caught her. She wanted to go home early but she got hooked on the new chapter. It seems that Kuwagata was on a roll this day with two chapters.

Rika blushed from embarrassment. Her co worker heard her squeal and felt her jumping around when she read that Reina fell into Eri and accidentally kissed her lips. “Well, the chapter’s really good. So, Kusumi was Eri’s cousin in there… Before, I was thinking why she inserted Kusumi on her dream… Now I understand…Your friend, she’s improving. I didn’t know that she’s a fast writer.” Rika said what she observed, “Normally, she would update once a week or once every two weeks but now, she’s updating almost every day, and twice this day. That hiatus really helped her.”

She motioned Hitomi to sit on the chair in front of her desk. Hitomi shook her head and remained standing. “Well, I believe she’s inspired to write every day… and if it’s based on something, expect it to be updated frequently than her fanfics with original plots.” Hitomi explained. Rika was somehow disturbed at what her colleague was acting.

“What’s with that look?!? Is it an illness from this company? Miki has that look… so as Mari and now, Hitomi. Maybe tomorrow I’ll see Mr. Nishida with that look.” Unknowingly, she gave Hitomi a blank look; a sign that she was immersed deeply with her thoughts. When she finally noticed her colleague looking at her quizzically, she immediately asked something related to their previous topic.

“Ahh, so since she got the plot from Taiyou no Uta, it’s just easy to edit the story instead of creating one… But isn’t that plagiarism? You know… the story’s still based on the movie.” Hitomi blinked several times. Rika wanted to laugh at her. Hitomi’s really cute when she’s doing that.

“I didn’t think about that one…” Hitomi whispered.

“What?” Rika asked. Instead of answering, Hitomi finally sat on the chair and stayed silent for a couple of seconds.

“Hmmm, when I think about it, I think that’s not considered plagiarism. She didn’t copy the whole story although the idea’s still there… but it’s really different. That’s my opinion.”

“Ahh... Well, anyways, there are lots of other writers doing that in forums…” Rika added. In her own opinion, Hitomi was still editing Kuwagata’s story. At first, it looked like it was a rip-off from the movie but as the chapters pass by, it was making its own story; the story between Eri and Reina’s friendship. But deep inside, she would really like it if Kuwagata will follow the storyline of ‘Taiyou no Uta’ because that would mean that Reina would fall in love with Eri. Usually, normal persons would be disgusted in reading this kind of fics; boy-boy, girl-girl. People who read it are open to the idea of the third sex. The misconception of normal people is that those people reading or writing are gay too. But it’s different from her… and Ayumi. They were just open minded persons that love reading anything which involves their favorite group or pairings. Rika just sighed. She really wished that she could stay up in her own world. Surfing the net for 24hours, reading fics, downloading stuffs, writing fanfics… She would be the happiest girl if that happens.

“Hey, what are you thinking right now?” Hitomi asked.

“What do you think your friend will do about the ending? Will she end it like what happened in the movie… or she will change and make up another ending?”

“Hmmm, I guess she will end it up like the story. She’s a really sadistic person and she likes it when her main characters die. But she’s a masochist too… sometimes. ”

“I see… I really hope that she will not kill Eri. I know it does not exist in real life but… Can I give an idea and then relay it to Kuwagata?”

“Shoot.”

“Well, I hope that Reina will find a cure on Eri’s disease… and then, Eri will live longer. I hope it ends with TanaKamei… I still like the KameShige pairing but… I really think that it’s best to end it with TanaKamei.”

“What if she made it into a TanaShige… would you still read the ending all throughout?” Rika thought for a moment. Hitomi was right. It’s possible to make it into a TanaShige if Eri died like that. But she felt like it’s more of a friendship than love. Sayumi’s character was difficult to understand. One thing’s for sure, Ayumi will be delighted if that happened.

“Yeah… I’ll read it… It’s because not all fics end in a happily-ever after type. Sometimes they end bad and we often think because the author planned it to be like that… But we don’t think about why the author did that. If we look deeper… maybe we can get some lessons from that.. Like if Kuwagata killed Eri.. It means that life is short and you have to enjoy every single time that you’re alive.”

“Woah… nice analogy there… That’s... really… deep.” Hitomi replied, amazed at what her boss said. Now she knew her capabilities as to why she became one of the people in this company with high ranks… that is... besides from her being the heir to the company someday.

“Darou? Well... in short. I will read it because Kuwagata made it.” Rika answered. She then noticed something on Hitomi’s collar. “Ehh? What’s that? She pointed at it. Hitomi looked at the direction Rika was pointing and smiled.

“This? Your father sent me away again to do visit our supplier in Tokyo. And then I got sleepy after taking my lunch…” Hitomi paused for a while. It seemed that she’s choosing the words that she will say next. “I ordered a coffee and the accident ensues.”

“Hahaha! How clumsy can you get? What happened?” Rika laughed.

“Yeah… I saw someone as I was drinking my coffee. I was surprised and yeah… it’s just a small drip. No biggie.” Hitomi chuckled nervously.

“Why were you surprised? Is she your long lost friend or your enemy?”

“Ahhhh… my friend… but I didn’t go to her. She was with someone else.”

………………………
“AHAHAHAHAHA!!!! MY VERY FIRST THREE-TUMS CD WITH THEIR SIGNS!!!!!” Rika squealed with delight as soon as she reached her home. She almost forgot that Miki gave her that CD because of Kuwagata’s update on the net. She quickly opened the CD which she was dying to open while she was still in her office, afraid that she will really lose her image because she might not be able to contain herself. A small piece of paper fell off from the inside.

“Ehh??? What is this?” Rika picked it up and read its contents. “Hi there! Type this url when you’re surfing the net. It’s really cool…. Is this for me or Miki’s friend wrote this for Miki and she forgot to remove this before giving it to me?” Rika asked herself. She got her bag to get her laptop and check the site. She squealed with delight as the URL she typed is actually a web address of a Three-Tums forum that she hasn’t discovered until now. And she noticed that it’s different from the other forums… all of the sub forums were moderated by ONLY one moderator.

“Woah… this person’s really an addict when it comes to Three-Tums… Wait…” Rika looked closely at the name shown in her monitor. “Kabuto…mushi… It’s a beetle too right? Just like Kuwagata… EHHHH?!?”