In a spartan-like office, six officers, who were Hanamichi, Mitsui, the spikey-haired man, the fox-eyed man and two other new faces; gathered together after the incident of Hanamichi with the 'alien' which in fact was a pet bat of one of the officers. The captain, who was among the group a large behemoth of a man working on a pair of bar-bells making his big bulging muscles bigger, spoke, "Private Sakuragi will be the only maintenance support unit staff. So everyone, he is a part of the Airbats team now."

"Pervert," said the fox-eyed man under his breath but Sakuragi heard him clearly.

"I am NOT a pervert!" growled the redhead, shaking a fist at him.

"What happened?" asked the captain curiously.

The spikey-haired officer chuckled, "He swiped Rukawa's underwear and saw him naked."

The captain put down his athletic equipment and looked at the raven-haired man. "So? You're both males. Guys in the shower see other guys in the shower naked."

"He was staring," the raven-haired man stated.

"A...sokka. And he took your underwear," the captain said contemplatively.

First Sargeant Mitsui who was standing beside the senior officer grinned, "A relative of yours Sendoh?"

"Hey!" two voices sputtered together.

"I didn't mean to do that!" protested the redhead, "That bat was attacking me! I-I was surprised!"

"What?!" cried the short officer who was standing behind him. The bat pearched on the young man's shoulder squeaked threateningly.
"Chi-chan would never hurt anyone!"

"You little...!" began Hanamichi before he was cut of by a bark of command from the captain.
"Enough, private!"

The room went silent except for the sound of the captain's booted feet clomping across the wooden floor.

Standing in front of the redhead, the captain placed his hands behind his back and said, "We shall forget about it for now. I am Captain Akagi, your new superior."

Directing towards the officer with the bat on his shoulder, he continued, "This is Sargeant Hikoichi."

The young officer nodded uncertainly while the redhead glared at the bat which glared back at him.

"Sargeant Akira."

"Yo," the spikey-haired officer saluted cheerfully with two fingers.

"And Sargeant Rukawa," the captain said motioning towards the raven-haired officer who refused to look at the redhead.

"Sendoh. Show the private his room and give him a tour of the facilities here," commanded Akagi.

"Yes sir!" Sendoh saluted smartly.

"Dismissed."

As Rukawa marched by Hanamichi, the redhead couldn't help but growl, "Baka kitsune."

"Do'aho," Rukawa growled back.

"Temme-!" began the redhead but Sendoh, upon seeing the captain's face grow dark, quickly pushed the private out of the room.

"Hey, look at it this way," Sendoh assured him humorously, "It's better than 'pervert'."


~~~~

Sendoh climbed up the stairs whistling a tune while Hanamichi followed him on his left side a bit way back. Looking Sendoh at that angle, the redhead was able to recognise the spikey-haired officer as the one flying the second jet earlier that day.

"Hey, was that you that was doing that low-level flyby this morning in a T4 fighter plane?"

Sendoh turned around and looked at the redhead in surprise. "Nani?"

"Yes it was!" grinned the redhead, "I saw you from my bike!"

"Ee! Jodan ja ne yo!*" exclaimed Sendoh in disbelief, "There's no way you can see from the ground!"

"I did!" persisted Hanamichi, "I saw you just now! That was one great execution!"

The spikey-haired man chuckled, "What are you, Superman?"

"Iie! I'm the tensai!" proclaimed Hanamichi laughing boisterously that Sendoh was struck at how young and openly jolly the new team-member was. Since the sargeant joined the defence airforce in the hopes of becoming the best fighter pilot in Japan, he has never met anybody like the redhead before.

(*What! No way!)

When the two finally reached the room assigned to Hanamichi, Sendoh opened the door and led the redhead in. At once, the air from the room thick with dust mixed in with the smell of old papers and cardboard boxes enveloped them that Hanamichi felt nearly suffocated. The spikey-haired man walked up to the window and upon drawing it open, the redhead could clearly see the sign of neglect around him.

"You'd be pleased to note that you've got your own private room," Sendoh announced, throwing his hands open to show the redhead his new quarters. There wasn't any sign of a bed and the shelves on the walls were stacked with boxes and dusty-tied up papers.

"Private room?" Hanamichi said incredulously, "This looks more like a surplus storage area."

Sendoh looked around him as well and Hanamichi thought he saw a hint of regret in the man's blue eyes. "Nah. Just a dumping ground for waste."

The redhead blinked in puzzlement as the spikey-haired man began to walk out of the room. "Well," said Sendoh, "I'll leave it up to you to clear it up, Sakuragi. Ja ne."

"Wait!" Hanamichi called to the man who was nearly out the door, "Just what kind of unit is the Kanagawa TTS exactly?"

Sendoh only gave him a smile before closing the door, leaving the question unanswered.

The rain was pouring the next day, nearly covering the visibility around the base with its curtain of water and mist. In a hanger distanced from the rest housed the jet planes of the Kanagawa Training Tactical Squadron. The lights were on and inside one plane was a fox-eyed pilot, finding solitude in the cramped but comfortably familiar cock-pit.

Suddenly the pilot heard a sound coming from the plane beside his and curious as to what has made it he sat up to take a look. There, crouching on fours on the left wing of the aircraft, was the redheaded mechanic who was wiping the surface from grease and dust. Seeing the labourious care the redhead put in his work, the fox-eyed officer could not help but watch and admire the diligence that the mechanic was unaware there was another person in the hanger with him. When he realised that he was staring, Rukawa shook himself out of it only to be surprised by the sound of Sendoh's cheerful voice calling, "Ohayo, Sakuragi!"

"Yo," the redhead greeted back.

"That's it?" asked the spikey-haired man in feigned hurt, walking up to the redhead leisurely, "After all you did see me nearly naked yesterday."

Hanamichi blushed as he sputtered, "I-I told you it was a mistake-!"

"Hai, hai," smiled Sendoh, waving his hand to placate to redhead, "Don't worry about it. He bites people all the time."

"Who? Rukawa?" the redhead scratched his head in puzzlement.

"Nani? No!" laughed Sendoh amused, "Chi-chan, the bat."

Hanamichi blinked, "Oh! Ahahahah!!"

Rukawa rolled his eyes as the two officers laughed heartily.
Then Sendoh held up a finger as he winked at the redhead. "However, Rukawa has fangs too if you're not careful."

"So-na," the redhead said standing up, "Why is that?"

"Ah, well," Sendoh answered as he watched Hanamichi climb down the wing, "He's got an attitude and when he got into a fight with one of the commander's kid, he was thrown in this unit - the Kanagawa TTS, the defence force dumping ground."

"Eh?" said Hanamichi as he stood in front of the sargeant, "So what does this unit do exactly?"

When Sendoh told him, Hanamichi cried out in surprise, "NANI?!! The blue impulse unit display team?! Wow!!"

Clenching his fist in victory, Hanamichi crowed, "Wahahaha! I'm actually a part of the blue impulse aerial display team!"

"Sakuragi," sighed Sendoh patiently, "It's not all that great."

Not speaking, the redhead allowed Sendoh to continue, "It's just a defence-force game. We're just put out as display. It's the lowest job a combat pilot can get - to not be able to use his skill to defend his country. Even the unit commander won't take us seriously because we're the airforce case problems."

The fox-eyed pilot who was sitting silently in his plane shared Sendoh's unspoken bitter feelings. Other than Akagi he hated his high officers to the bone.

"Ah, who cares about them," the redhead said suddenly, clasping Sendoh on the shoulder, "Just because the officers won't take this unit seriously, doesn't mean that we can't!"

"Huh?" Sendoh looked at the grinning redhead in surprise.
Rukawa sat up again in his seat to look at the redhead who was doing a pose of resolution.

"Let's make this the best acrobatic team ever!"

Surprised at the redhead's positivity, Sendoh only shrugged.

"I know you think I'm just maintenance crew but the tensai will soon fly with you guys!"

"Honto?" teased Sendoh, his smile getting its cheer back.

"Hell yeah!" Hanamichi nodded furiously, grabbing the collar of Sendoh's uniform to bring the man close, "Don't you live to fly?"

Sendoh stared at the redhead's face close to his with the brown eyes shining with passion and he smiled, "Yeah, I do."
And I live for a person like you, Sakuragi Hanamichi.

In his cockpit, Rukawa snorted in disgust, "Baka."



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