Feeling Thoughtful: Enticed (Season 2)

Confrontation

"Wow! What a blowout tonight, Jim! Inei put on a show, scoring fifty-six points tonight, getting twelve assists, seven rebounds, thirteen steals, and two blocks all in one night! He is truly an excellent prospect! If he stays on target, he will be the first-round pick for the NBA draft!"
The girls sit in the stands looking down on Inei and the team walking off the court after a 62-94 victory away. As he exits the building to catch up with his teammates, he hears a voice.
"Wow. Disguising yourself as a player, are we?"
Inei rolls his eyes, turning and seeing Rina in the shadows. Inei grips his phone.
I'm too tired to beat her after tonight; I'll have to make it till a teammate comes and looks for me, or I can notify the girls.
As Inei lifts his phone, Rina attacks, striking one after another with her fists, Inei dodging all of them.
As long as I feel the current, I can dodge.
Inei continues dodging as Rina attacks, Rina then stopping, realizing.
"Your power is already returning..."
Inei tilts his head as Rina stands, then turns her head, putting a finger to her bottom lip, thinking to herself. Inei takes this opportunity to go to his phone, then before he knows Rina slowly pushes his phone down, standing right in front of him. The two lock eyes for a few seconds.
"Maybe there's more to this than I thought; I didn't believe him at first, but what he said is starting to show."
Inei hesitates as she is close, but then she turns away, letting her guard down entirely, Inei now realizing that she no longer intends to fight. Inei then puts his phone away.
"Look. Inei. You're in over your head."
Inei tilts his head again, Rina turning back and furrowing her eyebrows with her hands on her hips.
"Will you speak already?! I know you can! What I am trying to tell you is serious!"
Inei doesn't move, standing still and listening as Rina continues.
"You don't know what you're going go through. Azami..."
Inei's eyebrows furrow and Rina stops talking as she is slammed by a sprout of water from below, hitting her chin and knocking her back. As Rina comes to her feet, she looks to see Inei with his eyes glowing blue with white dots circulating within the blue of his eyes, a wave of water behind him.
Please do not talk about my friends.
Rina smirks.
"You know what, fine, have it your way. I'll let you learn."
Rina turns away, walking calmly and silently. Inei raises one eyebrow and swipes his hand to his side, water nailing Rina right in her face and knocking her over. He turns doing it again to another Rina and then forward to hit another Rina.
"Judo is the power of thinking. I have the imagination power; if it can exist, it can happen with my power. Even if it's multiple versions of myself."
Inei looks around; the Rina shadows are all gone.
"Judo is superior because I can change your feelings based on what you see."
Inei grits his teeth, raising his foot and stomping, a water cylinder rising around him and shooting out in every direction. He looks, finding the honest Rina soaked. She covers herself with her arms, turning bright red with anger.
"You can be a pervert!"
And with that, she runs off without another word, Inei checking around him, feeling nothing around him.
"Inei! Get your ass on the bus!"
Inei turns, seeing the coach standing there.
"We aren't going to wait on you all damn night! We're tired!"
Inei nods and runs off to the bus, sitting in his seat, thinking to himself.
I reacted prematurely. What was Rina going to say about Azami? Does she know something that I don't? It's not like I didn't know Azami knew martial arts until Azami told me, and Azami still hides it from her friends. Maybe there is more to Azami than she would say to me.
Inei then shakes his head, smacking himself.
No. Rina means nothing but to bring anyone she sees down. She was going to fill my head with some lie about Azami. Azami would never hurt me or intend for anything to be harmful to anyone. These thoughts shouldn't exist, and I should trust Azami because she is my friend.
"Inei, dude, you alright?"
Inei jolts, turning to Takiya, who sits across from him, looking at him with a concerned look.
"You know, you had a hard game, but you look exhausted; you shouldn't push yourself that hard."
Inei glares.
You'd hate me if I didn't do as well as I did. But about the fight.
Inei closes his eyes, sighs, then nods. Takiya lifts an eyebrow.
"You sure? That cut on your arm there seems to be a bit mild."
Inei's eyes shoot open, and he looks at his arm. A drop of blood slowly falls down his arm to his wrist from the cut. Inei goes through his bag and finds his medical supplies. Takiya kind of furrows his eyebrows.
"Dude, we are teammates. What's up?"
As Inei finishes bandaging his arm, he shakes his head.
No one else can know, she'll attack them, and they won't have a way to defend themselves.
Inei glances at Takiya.
Regardless of how strong and significant they are, they do not know how to fight; she does.
Takiya then sighs sadly then shrugs.
"Suppose you still ain't talkin' then, huh? That's fine. Just know we are all here for you if something is going on."
Inei nods, and Takiya puts on his headphones and turns the other way, looking out the bus window. Inei looks forward, then down at his phone; a text message from all five girls fills his phone, in order, the first text being from Azami, then Chura, Aneko, Yui, and lastly Yasu. Inei clicks on Yasu's message, it reading:
"Good job Inei! What an impressive win!"
Inei thanks her and then goes to Yui's message.
"Yay! Another win for us! You are making our volleyball team look bad now, lol!"
Inei smiles and tells her that they're still good. Inei then moves on to Aneko's message.
"I don't know how a loser like you wins, but good job."
Inei smiles again and then tells her that she should be calling him a winner then. Then he moves on to Chura's message.
"What a win, Inei! I should reward you for your hard work."
She had put a smirking emoji at the end, Inei blushing and squinting at what she had said, and responded by saying that ice cream would be just fine. Finally, he reaches Azami's message.
"Hey Inei, first, good win; second, do you trust me?"
Inei waits for a moment, looking out of the window. He then looks back at his phone.
"Of course I trust you; why do you ask?"
...
"I don't know. I just had a feeling to ask. We've only been friends for a bit now, but I felt it right to ask because, as your friend, I trust you, and I wanted to know if you feel the same."
...
"I do trust you, and nothing can change that."
...
"Not even Rina? Even if she says things?"
Inei hesitates.
"Why do you mention her?"
...
"Answer the question, Inei."
...
"Not even her. Now answer mine."
...
"I know you've been with her for some time; sometimes feelings happen."
...
"Well, it's not gonna because I don't want it to because I have great friends."
...
"I'm glad to hear. Thanks, Inei!"
...
"No problem."
Inei slumps back in his seat, tilting his head back to look at the bus's roof.
She thinks I'm dumb.
Inei closes his eyes and falls asleep.