Disclaimer: I don't own Slam Dunk.

The score was 0 : 9. The "King of Street Fighting" was facing the "Giant Gorilla" in a one on one. But, unfortunately for the former, in a game of basketball. Akagi Takenori had already scored nine points before Hanamichi could score a single.

Then there was a loud dunk, which made the redhead lose the game. Score was now 0 : 10. Sakuragi had lost. The crowd that had gathered in the gym was disappointed and started dispersing.

"This is really very bad... I can't remember the last time when Hanamichi was embarrassed like this."

"I think he is going to erupt and beat the basketball captain up."

Akagi pointed his finger towards Hanamichi, claiming "Even if you practised basketball all your life, due to your attitude..." he continued while slowly pointing his thumb towards himself "... won't be able to make it into our basketball club. And you thought that you could beat the captain of Shohoku without even knowing how to play basketball."

Akagi felt the redhead's eyes burning on him. But, he didn't cared. He would never let anyone get away so easily, especially after having humiliating him and his beloved basketball. Picking up the basketball, he jested " So, basketball was a child's play for you? Too bad that you are still an infant."

That's when Haruko arrived, having heard that a infamous redhead had challenged her brother. "Anyone but him…" she prayed.

But, only to see the very redhead that she had suspected hitting her brother with a punch square in the face.

"Here it goes" said Yohei, unable to jump in the battle of titans.

"As expected" uttered the famous 187 inch tall basketball player, who had his head busted the previous day, thanks to the very redhead.

Blows started getting exchanged one after the other. The harder the blow with which Akagi would react, the much more harder would be the punch that he'd feel on his face.

Hanamichi might had lost to Akagi in basketball, but whenever it came to fighting, no-one could ever defeated him. He wasn't just very experienced in the art of fighting, he turned out to be stronger and much more faster than Takenori.

Hanamichi soon had Takenori cornered and started raining several punches, each connecting. Just when he took Akagi down, he heard a girl yelling "Stop" behind him. He recognised the voice to be that of Haruko, subconsciously letting her pull him back.

Haruko had tears rolling down her cheeks, which made him freeze.

"How dared you!"

Akagi wiped the blood off his nose only to see his sister standing in front of him. His eyes opened wide as he saw his sister greet the redhead with many slaps from her right hand.

"First you went after ... and... then you hurt my brother."

When Haruko tried channeling all her pent up rage in one last slap, Sakuragi took a step back by instinct, his body rebelling against his shocked mind, acting on its own. Haruko, who had gotten winded, missed and dropped to her knees. The whole crowd in the gym stood silent, none uttering a word.

A frown came across Rukawa's face, as he turned and walked away.

That's when the Sakuragi legion came to the rescue. Some tried taking the traumatised redhead away. The others dispersed the crowd.

Takenori put his hand over his sister's shoulder. She turned and hugged him. Then she started crying.

"I was going to tell Haruko about what had actually happened at the roof with Rukawa. I don't know if she would believe or even listen to me now" said Yohei.

The other three members of the legion looked at him with sad expressions on their faces. Then they looked at Hanamichi, who now stood devoid of expressions.

'I don't feel anything... Did I really had feelings for her?'

Hanamichi took a step towards the siblings. His neck slightly bended toward the right, as a grin formed on his face.

" I regret letting that Rukawa go. It would had been fun beating the lights out of him, if it weren't for you. Yet, I can't find words to thank you for providing me with such a better substitute... beating this giant gorilla of yours, provided quite the entertainment. "

-X-

Few weeks passed, and things went back to normal. The Red head was never seen near the basketball court again. Shohoku lost to Shoyo in the qualification match and Takenori's dreams were crushed.

"I never liked him. I thought that I might had misunderstood him..." said Haruko, when one of her friends asked her about the redhead one evening"...but then it got crystal clear that he was a bad guy."

End.