It was a normal sunny morning in Kanagawa where the sun shone its early bright rays of light, the birds twittering its first song for the day and the early risers breathing in the fresh morning air.
A mini yellow scooter was puttering along the near empty street, its rider wearing a white helmet, singing a ditty with an equally cheerful bat perched on his head. It was all well in the peaceful scenery when suddenly the scooter screeched to a halt ignoring the warning horn that an oncoming trailer truck was making when the truck driver realised that there was an obstruction on the road. When the scooter still did not move, the truck was forced to swerve but with the heavy load on its trailer, the whole long haul vehicle tipped over to crash onto the concrete road.
Oblivious of the wreckage he created, Hikoichi looked on at the direction of a clean white building where a sign hung on the door stating a soon to be opened book cafe at that establishment. The young pilot's blue eyes sparkled as two words circled ecstatically inside his head - Books! Books! Books! Research! Research! Research! Books! Books! Books! Research! Re - well, you get the idea. Once the automatic response was gone from his system, he continued to read the remaining words on the sign:
"To celebrate the Grand Opening, a read-a-thon competition will be held and the winner will receive a year's free membership with free coffee and free books to read."
~~~~~~~
High up in the blue sky, two T-4 fighter planes, the 611 and 612, flew gracefully in the air. Inside the 611, two pilots were talking in their cockpits filling the airwaves with their voices.
"A new book cafe?" Sendoh iterated.
"Uh-huh!" Hikoichi nodded from behind the second cockpit, "They're gonna open next week! Wanna go?"
"Hmmmm... I wonder if Hana..."
"Hey, you guys! What's going on up there?" Hanamichi's voice cut in through their conversation.
In the 612, Rukawa spoke before Sendoh could answer, "You like coffee, Hanamichi?"
Hanamichi blinked, "Uh... yeah... but, why..."
"Let's go to the new cafe that has just opened," Rukawa said.
"Just us two," he added distinctly.
The redhead blushed, "Uh..."
"Chotto matte! Hanamichi was talking to me, Rukawa!" Sendoh protested.
"Hanamichi-kun, Hikoichi was telling me about this new book cafe in town, so I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me to see its grand opening."
"Uh...."
"I asked first, Sendoh," Rukawa growled.
"Well, I would've been first if you hadn't butt in. He was talking to me remember," Sendoh pointed out.
In the control tower with Hanamichi, Akagi sighed while Kogure sweatdropped.
"Yaro," Rukawa cursed before he suddenly shifted his stick to send his plane down to the ground. Sendoh followed suit and soon the two planes landed much to the surprise of the ground personnel on the base upon seeing that the Airbats' practice ended earlier than scheduled.
"Hanamichi!" Rukawa strode towards the redhead who was waiting for them on the ground in puzzlement, "You're going with me."
"Chotto!" Sendoh cried out as he ran towards the two with Hikoichi trying to catch up to them, "He's going with me, Rukawa! Right, Hanamichi?"
"G-Guys! Hold on! I... I think we should all go together..." suggested Hanamichi weakly as sparks flew between the two dark-haired pilots.
"Iie," the fox-eyed pilot stated as he glared at Sendoh, "Pick which one of us you want to go out with."
Sendoh crossed his arms, returning the glare, "Yeah, Hana-kun. Pick which one of us you'd rather go out with. With Rukawa here it'll be a task to keep him awake even if you give him ten cups of coffee."
"And this hentai here won't be able to keep his hands off of you with all the coffee he's going to take..." Rukawa stopped, frowned and turned to the regard the redhead closely with his glittering blue eyes, "Unless you want him to...."
Hanamichi gulped, "N-No..."
Sendoh pouted a bit, but he recovered with a frown of his own, "Rukawa!"
~~~~~~~
"You stopped training without authorisation, had a near collision with an air-carrier AND ignored orders from the control tower!" Taoka shouted at them as he banged his fist on the table, "Captain Akagi, do you have anything else to add to that?"
Akagi regarded his team members who have changed out of their overalls and were standing in attention inside the Central Airshow's commander's office. Rukawa and Sendoh did not have a look of contrite on their faces and Akagi was sure they did not feel it at all. They were the best pilots he knew and they wouldn't do a dangerous fly by beside a carrier if they knew they weren't good at maneuvring but disregard for authority was something to be looked upon.
"So, you two stopped training because you wanted to ask Sakuragi out on a date?" Akagi asked lowly.
"It's at this new book cafe in town!" Hikoichi told him, "They've got this read-a-thon competition and the winner will get a year's membership free!"
Akagi grew still, "A read-a-thon competition?"
"Uh-huh!" the short pilot nodded.
"Hmmm...." Akagi scratched his chin, "Alright! The Kanagawa TTS Airbats will partake in this competition!"
For someone who was expecting a reprimand from the captain for his obviously disrespectful pilots, Commander Taoka keeled to the floor in surprise.
"W-WHAT?!!"
"I have never lost a read-a-thon before and this will be another achievement this unit can claim for ourselves," Akagi nodded decisively.
"Sugoi!" Hikoichi laughed, before he stopped to asked Sendoh, "Ne, what's a read-a-thon competition by the way?"
"Well," Sendoh began, "It's a competition where you read books picked by the judges and don't stop until you're the only one left reading."
The short pilot's expression fell, "What?! That's boring!"
It was well known that the hyperactive young man could never stay with one book if he could help it. The only time Hikoichi would do so voluntarily is if that book would be useful for his research and knowing the books offered in a book cafe, the literature there were not those he normally read.
Imagining himself reading a book, let alone more than one, was enough for Hanamichi to whine out loud. Even if he thought whining was above the tensai's status.
"But I just want the coffee!"
"No objections, private!" Akagi barked, "We will all enter this competition for the glory of the unit."
"W-WHAT?!!!" Commander Taoka demanded.
"Oh no," groaned Sendoh, "This is all your fault, Rukawa."
"You wish," Rukawa growled.
Mitsui, who from the beginning was standing quietly in the office, looked at the scene with a grin on his face. Akagi and Taoka were beginning to argue, Sendoh and Rukawa were still glaring at each other fit to kill and Hanamichi and Hikoichi were giving plaintive cries of "I don't want to read any stupid book!!" and "It's so boring!!".
"This is going to be interesting..." The first lieutenant smiled, scratching his scarred chin.
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