Once Again Daze (Kagepro x Knb x HQ Fanfic)

3. takane

"Hey, Takane, wake up!"

Takane jerks her head off the desk-- no, there wasn't a desk. She was sitting down, legs crossed over each other, and a lunchbox in her hand was held firm by another, much tanner hand.

"Haven't you been taking your pills? I can't believe you almost fell asleep eating ," Daiki retrieves the lunchbox from her hand and puts it aside for safekeeping.

Takane blinks. Then, she groans, pinching the bridge of her nose and mumbling something incoherent. Her head spins and swirls, so she squeezes her eyes shut and tries to ride it out with gentle breaths. It doesn't help, and she's seeing colours.

"Are you listening to me, Takane?" Daiki was speaking again, his grating voice loud and inconsiderate.

"Shut up for a sec, will you!" Takane sends a punch shooting straight at him. It collides with his forehead and sends the much larger boy doubling back in pain.

There are tears in his eyes when he looks back, offended, "I was just worried!" he complains, and Takane huffs stubbornly, not apologizing.

She sighs, trying to down her cranky, just-woke-up mood.

"Dai-chan, I found Ene-chan's medicine!" and there comes Satsuki, sliding the door of the rooftop open before dancing in with all her booby glory.

Takane doesn't hate her, but her body structure is absolutely criminal for her age. What the heck with those milk jugs, seriously. She and Momo both! Oh crap, their names are similar.

"Oh, Satsuki, sorry to trouble ya," Daiki calls out to her, "c'mon, Takane, eat your medicine or you're not gonna last the rest of lunch."

Takane clicks her tongue, a snarl biting through her lips, "I'm supposed to be the elder one here," she insists, a hiss through her throat.

"Yeah, yeah, just eat your dumb pills already."

-

"So, did you pass your basketball tryouts?" Takane asks, looking at her brother who was wolfing down that monster of a sandwich, "also, you're eating too much."

"Hm? Yeah, got into first string," Daiki downs a mouthful of milk, "and no, you just eat too little."

At that, Takane juts out her arm and lands a mad karate chop over his head. He splutters, shrieks, and spits out his milk. He looks terrified.

"Satsuki-chan, you're going to join too?" Takane sits down like nothing happened, continuing her lunch with a nice tamagoyaki, "you know you can break free from this little idiot, right?"

Satsuki keeps a concerned eye on the boy, but smiles at the older girl anyways. "It's fine, I think I'll like it there," she assures her, holding out a box of tissues for the boy, "the other managers are really nice, and I think I like managing."

Takane hums, mildly uninterested.

"I know, Ene-chan, you aren't in any clubs, so why don't you join the club too?" Satsuki suggests cheerfully, "the captain of the club is your classmate, isn't he?"

"Of course I can't, you know I'm not fit for clubs," Takane raises an eyebrow, shaking the pill canister if Satsuki's direction for good measure, "and you mean Nijimura-kun? No way in hell, he's enough of a bumbling busybody already."

"That's because Dai-chan barged into your classroom last year and demanding him to take care of you, right?" Satsuki beams, and Takane chokes on a ham. Daiki spits out his drink again.

"Stop reminding me, god," Takane buries her face in her hands, "my elementary school skipping younger brother just barges into class and declares war against the class monitor. That was embarrassing."

Daiki slams his hand on the ground, "you fell off a flight of stairs because you fell asleep midway and then walked yourself to the infirmary! You think I'm gonna let that lie quiet??"

"You didn't have to challenge him to basketball and then crush him in a game!" Takane threw her hands into the air, exasperated, "if he fell a string you'd have been responsible, you gorilla brained ganguro!"

"What did you just call me, you twintailed gaming otaku??"

"My twintails have nothing to do with this!"

"Otaku!"

"Gorilla!"

"NEET!"

"Ugly!"

-

Ultimately, Satsuki's unrelenting bouts of laughter manages to stop their dumb bickering.

Daiki wolfs down the rest of his lunch, plus Takane's leftovers, before he cleans everything up in a second and stands up, ready to walk his sister back to her classroom.

Takane simply sighs, and all through the way, she insists she doesn't need an escort. Satsuki follows them with a smile on her face, because she knows they fight out of love.

Takane stares at her pills for a moment before she tucks it into her pocket. Seriously, time's turned back and things are better now, but why'd this illness have to come back with her too?

She's glad that there wasn't a need to shift her into a special needs class (like last time, with Haruka,) but the issues that's brought about are of the same nature. She falls behind in class, can never get enough sleep, and is in danger of basically every sharp edge in this building. What is she, a toddler?

Stuck with a gorilla of a younger brother and a milk jug pink bombshell thing as her only female friend, Takane thinks that this is still much better than before.

Last time, she'd lost all her friends eventually and soon was only left with Haruka. They got angry because she fell asleep during conversations. Okay maybe that seemed rude to them, but it wasn't on purpose! Haruka was much more understanding about it.

But this time, she has an overprotective younger brother and a friend that'll always stick by her.

She hopes she'll meet everyone in the Mekakushi Dan again, this time in her real form, not as an astral cybernetic projection--- but for now, she couldn't ask for anything more, really.

-

"Thanks," Takane mumbles, and Daiki whirls back in a double take.

"Did you say something?"

Takane flushes, "hurry up and get back to your damn class already!" she all but screams, kicking him in the back of his knees, "and don't you dare be waiting for me at the school gates after school, got it?"

"Huh? You're planning on walking home alone?" Daiki sounds infinitely appalled.

"You're overbearing, get off! I can at least walk home on my own!"

"No you can't!"

"Yes I can!"

"No you absolutely can't!!"

"I said I can , are ya even hearing me??"