Not much to say. Hope you enjoy the chapter! Replies are at the bottom, as per usual.

--

In the Rough

Chapter Six: Pink is the New Blue

--

Believe me; I would love nothing better than to tell you that the moment the taxi cabs pulled up, everything was magical and full of love and wonder…

But I'm not Mimi, so I'm not going to sugar-coat it. What happened was this:

The first cab, holding Hoshi, Miyako, and I, rolled up, and Taichi waved to us. Then, apparently, a scuffle broke out in the cab behind us, as Daisuke and Yamato both desperately wanted to see Tai (different reasons, of course). The door was flung open, and out came Takeru, his elbow slamming against the pavement with a sickening "crunch". His yelp of pain cut through my ears, and Taichi was with us in a second, ordering the cabby to take Takeru to a hospital immediately.

As his brother, it was Yamato who volunteered to take him. For a fleeting moment I was jealous, imagining how utterly romantic it would be if I rode with TK and held his hand, reassuring him…

Then reality hit me, and I remembered dumbly that one: I was a minor, and I couldn't ride in the cab without one of the older kids anyway, and two: my English was terrible. It was better if Matt went with him.

But what happened next melted my heart. Yamato started to get into the car with Takeru, when Tai leapt forward and grabbed Yamato's upper arm, steadying him. He pressed his lips to Yamato's and squeezed his arm gently, then let him go.

The cab swerved off in the direction of the hospital. A few moments of silence dragged on, before Taichi snatched me up in a bear-hug and fluffed my hair.

"Pika-pie!" I would never get used to his voice being that deep. I was mentally holding on to gangly, awkward, pre-pubescent Taichi.

"Oniichan," I hissed playfully, swatting his hand away from my head, but returning the hug tightly. "You think I want hair like yours?"

"'Course you do. It drives the ladies wild. And Yama-chan."

"I don't want to drive the ladies wild," I muttered as he released me, then paused. "Or Matt."

Daisuke piped up from behind me, "You drove Yamato pretty wild with that kiss, Taichi-senpai! Did you see the look on his face?"

Now, most normal men would've shrugged this comment off modestly, or perhaps have been a little embarrassed at Dai's boldness…

But Tai was not normal, as all of you know by now.

"Hell yeah I did! You gotta keep 'em wanting more, little man! Took me years to learn, I'll have you know!"

"Wow! Will you teach me that, Taichi-senpai?!"

"Of course I will! The world had better watch out for two sexy romantics such as us!"

Both fluffy-haired boys roared with laughter. I really didn't see what was so funny. Ken actually looked uncomfortable.

"So!" Taichi clapped his hands together, eyes sparkling mischievously. "Who wants a hamburger?"

--

I have no idea how Taichi managed to make everyone feel so at home in the midst of Takeru breaking a major bone, but he did it. He and Ann sat there, swigging 7-Up like no tomorrow while the rest of us sampled the greasy slabs of meat Tai called "hamburgers."

"So… Tai-kun," Sora spoke after gratefully finishing her burger, "anything new since the last time I saw you?"

I noticed with mild interest that Sora used "I" instead of "we."

Taichi tilted his head to one side, abandoning his third try at translating a hilarious joke from Japanese into English. (It wasn't working, needless to say.)

"Oh, not much. Annie here has done a pretty good job at being my partner-in-crime, but I don't think she could ever fill your shoes."

Sora blushed slightly, looking down at her empty plate.

"Sora…-san," Ann commented in very faulty Japanese, "your eyes… are a very pretty color."

"Oh," Sora blinked. "Well, thank you very much. I was just admiring your necklace. Where did you get it?"

"This?" Ann glanced down at the butterfly pendant. "At a little jewelry store in Manhattan."

The two quickly switched to English when Ann discovered Sora was more adept at it than she was at Japanese. While they chattered about some sort of reality show they found they had in common, Taichi looked to Koushiro.

"So, Izzy, how's life in cyberspace?"

"Fair enough." Koushiro looked surprised that someone was conversing directly with him for once. "I recently compiled a rather interesting collection of data concerning advances in the stock market."

Taichi stared. "Okay, I understood the last part about the stock market… so I'm gonna say "cool"!"

Koushiro rolled his eyes. "I could ramble on forever about nothing, then suddenly insert the word "soccer", and you'd jump up with boundless enthusiasm, I'd bet."

Both Tai and Daisuke, who had been flicking a quarter back and forth, quickly turned to the genius.

"What was that about soccer?!"

--

We got a call from Yamato while hanging around in the hotel lobby. Takeru had, as Jyou had surmised, broken his radius. Daisuke was a bit confused at first.

"But I always though a radius was half the diameter of a circle!" he cried. "Aww, man, just when I thought I was doing so good in math!"

"You're not alone, buddy," Tai muttered.

Visiting hours were already over for the day, so Yamato was on his way back to the hotel.

"Taichi, sweetie," my mom crooned, delighted to see her son again, but concerned as to why he was rifling through a bag he had packed to stay the night at the hotel with us, "what are you looking for?"

"Oh… um… nothing much…"

"Do you need help?"

"NO!"

My mother looked rather startled, but Tai recovered quickly. "Aha, no, Mom, it's fine- nothing important. In fact, you should probably be getting back to your room soon, yes siree, that sounds like a good idea!"

"B-but, Tai," Mom protested as Taichi all but shoved her out the door. "We've barely gotten to talk with you!"

Tai paused, then got her out in one final push. "No worries, Mom; I'll see you tomorrow! Right now, though, I've gotta get ready!"

Mom raised an eyebrow. "Get ready for what, pray tell?"

Taichi paled considerably. "Um… did I say "get ready"? I meant ready for bed, is all… gotta get a good night's sleep for the big game!"

Our mother was not convinced.

"Tai…" she said warningly, beginning to raise her finger to wag it in my brother's direction.

"Ah! No, Mom, not the finger! I'm being serious; it takes a while to get ready for bed, and I'll need privacy!"

I burst out laughing at the double meaning of this, which quickly died down into quiet snorts as I caught Tai's venomous glare and our mother's surprised look.

"Well, if you're sure…" Mom trailed off, and suddenly I yelped as Tai shoved me out right after her.

"Of course I'm sure! G'night, now!"

"Oniichan," I hissed as soon as she was out of hearing range. "What exactly are you planning…?"

He winked at me in conspiracy. "Don't come down this way anytime soon, Hika-chan. You might set off one of the tripwires."

"… Tripwires?"

"Yeah. They trigger the massive amounts of chocolate whipping cream to fall from the ceiling. Mind you, it took me a while to convince the hotel manager, but…" he paused. "You didn't just hear that."

"Like I wanted to," I couldn't help but mutter, extremely bothered by the thought of my brother covered in chocolate whipping cream.

"Goodnight, Hikari."

"Goodnight, Taichi."

--

Since I had been woken up so early the previous day, and we didn't have to leave the hotel until about nine to pick Takeru up from the hospital, I had rather expected to sleep until eight.

However, I now know not to underestimate the combined hyperactivity of Taichi and Daisuke.

"HIKARI-CHAN! HIKARI-CHAN, WAKE UP!"

I think I might have screamed. Tai and Daisuke had bounded into my room (could have sworn I locked the door…) and flopped onto my bed, bouncing up and down with enough inertia to knock me back.

My head hit the wall. It hurt.

"Ugh… guys, what time is it?" I limply reached for the clock on my bedside table.

"It's almost six, Hika-pika!"

"That's later that five!"

"Ahaha, right you are, Dai!"

"Wee!"

I groaned, trying to pull the pillow back over my head, but it was promptly yanked away, by my brother or my friend, I couldn't tell.

"Okay, I'm up, I'm up!" I yelled. "Geez… no more sugar for you two…"

"No worries, Hika! I had more than enough last night! HAHA!"

"Oh, I get it! Hahahaha! That's so funny, Taichi-senpai!"

I groaned. "Yet again, Tai- too much information…"

"GET UP, HIKARI, YOU LAZY BUM!"

I was spared for the moment, as Sora, Jyou, and Koushiro passed by the open door, and called out that they were headed down for the continental breakfast.

At the mention of food, both boys flew from my room after the others, laughing and trying to knock each other down. After realizing they shared the trait of being a human Weeble, they began trying to knock Koushiro down. It worked a little too well, and there went Koushiro, toppling down the winding staircase with a shout of indignation.

"You guys!" wailed Sora, chasing after the computer genius. "We don't need any more broken bones!"

--

We had already eaten our fill by the time Yamato was ready to join us.

Now, when I say "ready," I mean that he still had a horrible limp, and the copious amounts of concealer on his neck were visible, even to the untrained eye.

"You're such a whore," Sora muttered, rolling her eyes humorously. It was obviously a joke, but since Yamato was already in a sour mood, it was the worst thing to do.

"What did you just call me?" he hissed.

"Calm down, Yama," hushed Taichi, frowning at the pair. "She was kidding."

"Really? Because I've never known Sora to kid, Tai. So, go ahead, Sora; say what you really want to say to me. God knows I have a few things to say to you."

The silence stretched on. The only noise was Daisuke noisily guzzling his orange juice, and he seemed to be the only one who hadn't noticed the tension.

"Matt…" Sora said hesitantly.

"Excuse me!"

All turned. A pair of young boys, probably around twelve, had appeared, grinning widely. The left one held a pen and notebook in shaking hands.

"You're Tai Yagami, right?"

"That's me," my brother supplied with a smile.

"Can we have you autograph? We're going to see your game today!"

Taichi's smile grew even wider than the boys', and he nearly snatched the writing utensils away gleefully.

"Who am I making this thing out to?" He asked, signing his name with a flourish.

"I'm Todd," he supplied, "and this is my brother, Jack."

"Todd… and… Jack. Got it."

"And… um," the one named Jack looked a little embarrassed. "Can he sign too?" He pointed at Matt. "My older sister is too shy to come over here, but she's a big fan."

Taichi glanced over at his boyfriend, who blinked.

"Sure he will. Oi, Yama! Fangirl alert!"

Yamato gave Tai a discouraging look, then smiled his gorgeous smile and wrote his name down, the flowing cursive looking very odd with Taichi's messy version.

"Here you go."

"Thanks!" Todd beamed.

The two then scurried back to their table, where Jack handed the piece of paper with Matt's signature to a teenage girl. She squealed with delight and hugged the autograph, which made Taichi laugh out loud.

"Shut up. I can't wait until you start getting swarmed by adolescent girls three times a day."

"Aww, Yama-chan, you know you're jealous."

"In case you didn't notice, Tai, they wanted my autograph too."

"Yeah, whatever..." my brother grunted.

"Whatever yourself!" Yamato snapped, but he was smiling.

"At least running from all those fangirls might give you a bit of a workout, Mister Flabby-Abs."

GASP!

"What! You're calling me fat?"

"Well, I suppose we can't all have my hot bod."

"Oh, you wish, Yagami. I'm not the one who can veg out on a sofa for three days with nothing but a bag of Fritos, and still be loaded with energy."

"Flabby-Abs, Flabby-Abs!"

"Shut up, you walking shrub!"

My eyes met Ken's, and I could see he was suppressing a chuckle at their antics. I was used to it by now, so I simply followed as Sora quietly led us out of the building.

"We'll just let them work this thing out…" she mumbled.

The last thing I heard before we were in the cabs was Yamato's horrified wail of "I do NOT have bad cuticles!"

--

"The food sucks, the bed sucks, the television sucks, and you guys suck."

"Why, thank you, Takeru," Ken said dryly. "We love you too."

The blonde sat quite unhappily, propped up on a multitude of fluffy pillows. A half-empty juice box was held in his good hand, while the broken one hung in a sling.

"But you suck most of all, Daisuke. You're the whole reason I'm stuck in this stupid place!"

"I only wanted to say hello to Taichi-senpai!" the redhead defended hotly.

"So you tried to get there before Matt?! Are you that much of an idiot?!"

The two of them began bickering, until their argument began to sound eerily similar to the one we had just left.

Ken leaned over and whispered to me, "I sure hope those two aren't going to end their arguments the way Yamato and Taichi do."

--

After the doctors allowed us to remove Takeru from their care, it was nearly nine 'o clock. We met with Tai and Matt (once again holding hands, fighting forgotten for the time being) at the bus station. From there we were headed to Mimi's house.

"Now, before we get there," Taichi informed us in the back of the bus, "there are a few rules. One: do not attempt to rearrange anything in Mimi's living room. That girl has the strangest little figurines, but if you touch one, she will know. Trust me on this. Rule Number Two," he held up two fingers to illustrate, for those of us who couldn't count that high, "is no running, because you will crash into something. You might not see the Roman columns or strategically-placed bookshelves, but they are there."

We stared, but Tai didn't seem to notice.

"Rule Three: no displays of affection. Not because it offends Mimi- on the contrary, she will immediately rush the scene with a digital camera. It overexcites her, and that is not a good thing."

"Anything else?" Koushiro asked dryly.

Taichi pondered. "No, I don't think so. Yama-chan?"

"That's about it."

My brother grinned. "And here we are."

I looked out the window. Before us was the biggest, pinkest house I had ever seen. And watering her flower garden out front, humming to herself and pausing to brush dirt off of her pretty sundress, was Tachikawa Mimi.

--

As we stepped off the bus at the street-corner, Mimi looked up, and her whole face brightened. Her hair was its natural chestnut color, and was piled on top of her head stylishly.

"Tai! Sora-chan! MATTY, IT'S YOU!"

Her watering can was thrown aside, and Mimi flew to Yamato, knocking him back in the most forceful glomp I had ever seen.

"Matty! I haven't seen you in years, and you still look amazing! Your hair's so soft! I'm jealous. Hmph."

Yamato managed to gasp, "Hello, Mimi," through the model's chokehold. Tai and Sora were snickering on the side, until Mimi finally released the blonde and turned to the rest of us (though she was still clinging to his arm affectionately.)

"Sora-chan! Goodness, when was the last time we talked in person? Your hair is shorter than I remember."

Sora subconsciously reached up to finger one strand of her cinnamon hair, blushing slightly.

"Yeah. I got it cut back when the weather was hotter."

"It's a good look for you," Mimi decided.

A few seconds passed before Mimi ripped herself from Matt in order to hug Sora tightly.

"I missed you," she mumbled, though Sora was too red to say anything back.

After greeting the rest of us, and giving Takeru and me a conspiring wink (I glared, but I don't think TK noticed), Mimi opened her silk-clad arms in a wide flourish.

"Well, everyone, welcome to casa de Mimi! I hope it's not too…"

"Pink?" Jyou supplied.

Mimi gazed at the doctor dryly. "Sure, sure… well, come on in!"

It wasn't quite as pink on the inside as I had imagined, but Tai was right about the figurines. Hundreds of Precious Moments lines every available surface.

Daisuke seemed to be under the delusion that they were action figures, and he had been about to attack Takeru with the Precious Moments "Fishing with my Grandpa" figure, before Tai snatched it away and shook his head at his young counterpart.

"So," Mimi told us after giving the tour, "I'm gonna go make a snack, if Matty will come and help me. I miss how the two of us used to bake together all the time…"

She sighed wistfully, beckoning the singer after her.

The two of them went to the kitchen, while the rest of us sat around on plush loveseats, taking in our surroundings.

"So," Tai directed at Hoshi, and she looked up. "How long have you and Hika-pika been friends?"

Hoshi thought for a moment. "Not long at all. She was in my PE class, but we've never really talked before."

"Ah. Hika's not much of a social butterfly, after all…"

"Tai," I hissed, "why do you have to criticize me for it? I'm just a little bit quieter than you are."

"Yeah, but not--"

BOOM.

An enormous cloud of floury smoke puffed out from the crack beneath the kitchen door, and we all listened quietly to the raucous coughing and screaming.

"Ach… MIMI, I said TWO cups of flour! How many did you put in there?!"

"Two, just like you said!"

"What the… you used FIVE cups of flour, Mimi, not TWO!"

"Two, five, what's the difference?"

"… The difference is THREE CUPS!"

"WELL, SOR-RY!"

The door swung open, and amidst another white dust cloud, out stumbled Mimi and Yamato, covered from head to toe in flour.

"I can't BELIEVE this!" Matt wailed once he got a good look at himself in the hall mirror. "Dammit, Mimi, I can't go out looking like this!"

"You think I'm any happier about it?" she cried in exasperation. "We have enough time to take showers before the match, so calm down, Matty."

Yamato continued to grumble as Mimi showed him the way to the guest bathroom, then grumbled even more when Taichi tried to sneak in with him.

The whole house heard the furious shout of "You're gonna make me late again, Tai! Get OUT!"

A very sullen Taichi stomped back into the living room and collapsed onto the sofa.

"I wasn't even three steps into the bathroom before he booted me out," he complained. "It's like he's got… Taidar, or something!"

"Taidar?" Koushiro asked, amused.

"Yes. It's a word now, because I say it is."

For those interested, other words Taichi claims to exist include 'un-eatable,' 'de-walking,' and 'sexalicious.'

Mimi was out of her own shower not even fifteen minutes later, primped and pretty as usual. After another half-hour, we began to worry.

"Matty?" Mimi called out, nervously rapping her knuckles on the whitewashed door. "Are… are you okay?"

"DON'T COME IN HERE!"

Mimi hopped back, startled as the rest of us.

"… Matty?"

"MIMI, WHAT THE HELL WAS IN YOUR SHAMPOO?!"

"My… shampoo?" Mimi blinked, then gasped, raising a hand to her mouth. "Matt, which shampoo did you use exactly?"

"… It's a pink bottle!"

Mimi looked torn between crying and giggling madly.

"Um… are you sure it was a pink bottle?"

"YES, I AM QUITE SURE!"

"… Matty, that wasn't shampoo… that was hair-dye…"

The door swung open, and there was an audible intake of breath.

Standing in a loosely-wrapped towel, steam billowing out from either side, there stood Ishida Yamato, both his face and his hair an electric bubblegum-pink.

--

"Now, Matty," Mimi attempted to calm her friend, who sat quivering in his best "sexy/casual" clothes, grasping at handfuls of his neon hair miserably, "it… it really isn't that bad… pink is the new blue, after all…"

"PINK is the new BLUE?!"

"Shhh, chill, Yama," Tai murmured comfortingly, collapsing next to his boyfriend and wrapping a comforting arm about his shoulders. "It's not the end of the world."

"Yes… it is."

"No, it's not." Tai insisted.

"Yes… it is."

"No, it's not."

"Taichi, shut up before I hurt you."

My brother quietly slunk away, and Jyou sighed and glanced at the clock.

"We'd better get going. We're already late for the pre-game show as it is."

"Shit!" Taichi cried, grabbing his gym bag and giving Matt a quick peck on the cheek. "I gotta go. Ann's gonna be soooo mad…"

As Tai flew out the door towards the waiting cab, Yamato let out another wail of despair.

"How the hell does he expect me to show my face in public with PINK hair?!"

Mimi frowned. "Hey, I did it for a whole year. Pink hair is very hip."

"I don't WANT to be hip! I just want to avoid being publicly flogged!"

Daisuke looked rather dumbfounded. "Publicly flogged? For looking bad?"

"Oh, yes," Yamato grumbled. "One time at a mall, I was wearing white after Labor Day, and a crazy fan actually screamed that I had "let her down," and then she kicked me in the groin."

Takeru snorted. "Must've taken her a while to find it…"

He immediately had an embroidered pillow chunked at his head.

"NOT HELPING, TK."

"We really do need to get going," Miyako interrupted, and we quickly followed her words. Yamato slunk after us moodily, and attempted to steal Takeru's floppy bucket-hat several times.

"Please, TK, just let me wear it this once!"

"No! It's my hat!"

"BUT I BOUGHT IT FOR YOU!" Matt wailed, nearing desperation. "Takeru, I'll give you fifty bucks if you let me wear that stupid hat!"

"… Stupid? Just for that, NO!"

"Fifty dollars, TK. Think of how many yen that is. You could buy a better hat with that!"

"Get off me, Yamato!"

The two fought the whole cab ride there. And I had to sit with him.

--

We arrived at the stadium shortly, after spending quite some time at the snack bar. (Iori wanted a Coca Cola, and Miyako wanted nachos. Daisuke wanted nachos too… wait, no he wanted a corndog. No, no, he wanted ice cream. No, wait, wait, no, he wanted a slushie. No, wait…)

Finally, we found our seats as whoever-it-was had finished singing the national anthem.

She then left the field, just as the announcer's voice boomed across the stadium. We had to restrain Daisuke from jumping out of his seat, as at first, he was thoroughly convinced it was Jesus.

"Goooood afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!"

"And Yamato!" we hollered hollered over the noise of the crowd, as was our tradition. He rolled his eyes, used to it by now.

"Aaaaand welcome to the New York National Chaaaampionshiiiips!"

The crowd chanted and cried with a frenzied excitement, banners for both sides waving in the air. I could see one or two with a familiar face from Tai's team painted on sloppily.

"We are prrooooud to welcome, all the way from south of the border, the San Cristobal Hurricanes!"

The cheering was so loud I think I temporarily lost the ability of my ears. When I regained it, I could hear the older kids booing enthusiastically.

"Aaaaand of course, the undefeated hometown team, with quite a few up-and-coming players from across the globe this year, it's our own New York State West Whitehawks!"

Okay, now I was deafened, particularly by the screaming contest Matt and Mimi seemed to be having on my left. As the side door of the stadium swung open, the cheering grew louder.

The entire Whitehawks team rushed the field, clapping, hooting, and pumping their fists to raise morale. Taichi ran out with the last few players, blowing kisses enthusiastically.

The crowd laughed expecting this sort of oddity from America's most offbeat athlete.

"You go, Tai!" Yamato and the girls screamed shrilly right next to me, and I could see Matt's eyes sparkling with joy.

"There they are, folks, the New York Whitehawks, led by captain Shane Harris, although by far the player receiving the limelight at the moment is the transfer from Japan who is quickly rising, Tai Yagami!"

In response to the crowd's roar of approval, Taichi turned a few more cartwheels, flashing the victory sign at the cameras, so the whole stadium saw his self-assured grin on the widescreen.

"That's my baby!" I heard Yamato crying next to me, pumping a fist into the air and laughing with his unbridled happiness. "That's my Tai-koi down there!"

"Aaaaand the starters have lined up on the field… the ball is placed…"

The stands were eerily silent now, as if a giant beast had been sedated for the moment. I noticed with a start that I had been holding my breath.

"Hurricane Juan Gutierrez takes the starting kick… AND THE GAME BEGINS!"

--

Replies to Reviewers:

Loodhuizen Inc.- Why, if it isn't Miss Emily, back from rehab. XD Yay for reviewing.

Musetta's Waltz- GELPHIE GELPHIE GELPHIE WHOO! Ahem. Why, yes, I do like Gelphie. :-D And I'm uber psyched about your Gravi-style fic. Gravitation is God's gift to fangirls. I wish I had a Ryuichi of my very own… (sigh)

Yumi-Ulrich4ever- I love Mira. :3 And sorry for lack of Yama-glomping. Weee… thank you so much for the review!

Angel Born of Darkness- Well, there's Tai… and soccer… just not together yet. ;-) And I do so care about Sora… she's just not that high on my list of priorities… (pokes Sora and laughs)

truely a lost-kitten- Thank you! (hands out waffle) Reviews mean the world to me.

yamato-taichi-4ever- (glompity-glomp-glomp) Aww, thank you! And it's so great that you joined the site! Welcome, fellow Taito-worshipper!

Sutzina Zion- I love your reviews. (big hug) You have such an elegant way of complimenting people :-)

Jillie062- Thank you for taking the time to review my story. And your opinion means a lot to me; I completely agree that if every character is in a homosexual relationship, it is very unrealistic. However, I definitely am not intending on making every last couple slash. I'm actually trying to keep a nice yaoi/yuri/het balance. Again, thank you for the compliments!

tineryn- (biiig hug) Thank you! I apologize for neglecting this story. I'll try harder!

Tresa Cho- Eeee! Thankies! If my stories make people happy, then I have served my purpose. ;-P I'm so glad you liked it!

Diamond Angel- Thank you for the compliments! And, oh, lordie, my grammar… I can't impress how many times my English teacher has gotten on to me about the "comma before quotation" thing… it's such a bad habit. I think it's a bit too late to go back and change this story now, as it would take quite a while, but as soon as I finish, I'll go back and change it. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

ccc- I know; Tai is the epitome of awesome. Thank you for reviewing; I'm so nervous about bad reviews! It means so much when people give me compliments.

The Digital Gate- Thank you! I love it when people go through and comment on individual sections of a chapter.:3

sugarhighnutjob- Thank you for the lovely review :-D I'm glad so many people think I've made Kari-chan likeable. I really enjoy writing in her POV.

And now it's time for… (drumroll)

JyouraKoumi's Reply Section!

Ahem. Last chapter's review from JyouraKoumi was this (copy/pasted):

"Never give propz to tha DeviL! Makes sence rite.."

Well, JyouraKoumi, I appreciate your concern for my wellbeing, but I am not "giving props to the devil". Honestly, I'm Christian, and would rather not become involved in any satanic worship.

And, no, actually, it doesn't make… "sence"… but I still am thankful for your contribution to my cause. Every comment you leave tacks on another review!

--

I'm actually beginning to feel that the interactions between Tai and Dai are quite similar to that of Rock Lee and Gai-sensei… I dunno; you tell me.

Also- I realize that there is no such thing as the New York State West Whitehawks, or the San Cristobal Hurricanes. I made them up for the story, so no hating on me, please.

-Beezlee-