As Saburou charged towards her, Nezumi was momentarily distracted by the idea of making a run for it. Although the doors had closed once she stepped in doesn’t mean she couldn’t get out. But then she would look like a coward in front of Saburou. Something she didn’t want either. But was she up for the fight against him?

He raised his clutched fist forwards but she managed to block his arm with both of her hands, bending her knees slightly to endure the power with which he had swung his limb, now unable to protect her stommach from his other hand as he quickly and roughtly ed his fist into her gut, forcing out all of the air and breaking her concentration completely. Before she knew it his fist had been thrown against her right cheek, soon she could taste the blood that escaped. He swept out his leg and connected with her ankles, throwing her off balance.

While she was still covering from the impact of the punch she found herself flat on her back, managing to snap back to the fight in time to roll out of the way of his mud covered heel that was about to impact with her ribcase. Quickly she got back onto her feet and narrowed her eyes. She had to focus now, she obviously felt the sting and exhaustion of the other night. The bruises covering her body left her more vulnerable for pain. But she couldn’t let him win this easily.

She charged towards him this time, her left fist raised into the air and as he prepared to block her arm, she quickly raised her knee that dug deep into his gut. He was briefly brought out of concentration which gave her the opportunity to raise her leg into the air and swing it against the side of his body, hitting a weak, unprotected part of his ribcage bringing him out of balance. She gave him another push that launched him into the pile of boxes stored closeby.

Saburou was barely impressed by this and got up almost immediately, this time pulling out a large iron pipe from one of the damaged boxes he just stumbled into. With a roaring battle cry he approached her with the pipe raised high above him, swinging around as soon as he came close enough. She bent backwards slightly to avoid the first couple of swings but was too slow to react to the roundhouse kick he planted onto her back, followed by the painful cold sting of the iron impacting with her shoulderblades. She stumbled forwards onto the ground, her face hitting the hard, dirty floor. Saburou approached her and kicked her aside with the nose of his shoe, Nezumi rolling over the floor letting out a few hushed moans of pain.

“You know,” he smirked as he rest the pipe on his shoulder. “I expected more... From the notorious Nezumi”

“I... Have only... begun!“ she hissed through breaths. The sting on her back was excruciating.

“Funny,” he chuckled. “That’s what Mizumi said... Before I ended that miserable life of hers.”

“Eh?” she coughed as she clutched her hands on the ground and slowly tried to get back up onto her knees.

“She had it coming,” he continued as he watched her try and get up. “She wasn’t fit to be our leader. She rather solved things with words than her firsts, she even wanted to betray us. I had to stop her.”

“Y-you?!”

“But I knew you’d want to avenge her death...” he said as he tilted his head. She was now crouched down on the ground and desperately sought her balance before trying to get back up completely. “And from what Mizumi told me... We didn’t want to mess with you...”

“You killed Mizumi!”

“When you went after Wataru... I had hoped he would take care of things,” he continued, gently bouncing the pipe up and down as he circled her again. “But once I found out he was a sissy, I had to step in myself...”

“How could you do that! She was our leader! She kept you out of jail! She saved your life!!”

“And I sincerely thanked her for that...” he smirked once more.

“You keep saying that I’m a traitor for wanting revenge,” she said through gritted teeth. “All this time you were the one who betrayed us all!”

“Finally, our little Nezumi caught on,”

“YOU MONSTER!” she rushed forwards and swung her arm around, impacting with his left side jaw, taking him off balance for a moment before swinging up her leg and hitting his head. He stumbled aside and quickly rubbed his hand against his jaw before a smirk appears on his face.

“That’s more like it,” he said before taking hold of the pipe once again and charging towards her. He swung around the pipe like a baseball bat trying to hit her. But this time she was prepared and dodged.

He grabbed hold of her arm as she tried to lay another punch on his face, twisting it around and causing her to yelp in pain. He brought up his knee and hit her side before pushing her away and as she stumbled away followed her with the pipe still in hand. He swung forwards, this time hitting the side of her head, knocking her against the pile of wooden boxes behind her. He dropped the the pipe and instead wrapped his fingers around as he lifted her up against the boxes.

“Pathetic,” he sneered as he tightened his grip around . Nezumi felt the difficulty of breathing and swallowing increasing the more his grip tightened. She stared straight into his eyes, his once brown eyes that had now turned wickedly dark. Like pools of darkness that struck fear into anyone unlucky enough to ever see them.

Suddenly, a force from aside pressed against his shoulder, forcing him to release the girl and stumbled onto the ground as Nezumi slid down onto her knees. He looked up to see what happened. Wataru had just arrived, slightly out of breath, and barged in with his fists clutched tightly by his sides. He was alone, his friends were all back at the gym cleaning up.

“Ah~?” he tilted his head. “Look at that, your little friend came to see you suffer.”

“Coward!“ he yelled as he took a few steps closer. Sure he had promised not to fight, and maybe he and Nezumi were barely even friends, he couldn’t do nothing. Especially not since Saburou used his name to lure her here and if anything were to happen he would ultimately get blamed for it.

“Well... I guess I am outnumbered here...” Saburou slowly got back onto his feet and brushed his sleeves for a moment before turning to Nezumi. “This is not over!” he turned around and disappeared out of the other exit on the far side of the warehouse.

Wataru turned to Nezumi and crouched down, “Daijobu desu ka?”

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she’s gasping for air, rubbing where the feeling of his grip still was still stinging her skin.

“Michiyo-chan mentioned the letter...” he started.

“You shouldn’t have come!”

Wataru frowned, “Oi! I just saved you!”

“Baka!” she pushed him aside as she tried to get back up, leaning against the boxes. Maybe it was just to clear his name, but just by coming here and stopping Saburou from doing what he wanted he became even more involved in all of this.

“Oi! Nezumi!”

She clutched one first, ing it forwards aiming for his jaw. But she was uncoördinated and missed almost immediately, losing her balance on the way and stumbling forwards. Before hitting the ground, Wataru had moved forwards to break the fall slightly as she fell onto her knees instead.

“Let’s go,” he said as he wrapped his arm around her upper body and forced her to stand up. The first thing they needed to do is get out of there before a group would return of even the police.

The door to the café opened and Wataru lead the way inside with Nezumi hesitantly following. She didn’t quite get why he was being so nice. He could’ve just left her there to her fate after Saburou left but he insisted to come with him to take care of some of those wounds.

“Aniki!” Nippori called as soon as the door opens. After cleaning up the gym all of them went to Wataru’s home since none of them knew where he went. He wasn’t there to help out with the cleaning like he promised so they expected him to be there.

“Eh? Nezumi too?” Yuuta looked up surprised, followed by the others as she carefully walked down the few steps and sat down on the chair that Wataru pulled up for her.

“What happened?” Ryosuke frowned as he looked from Nezumi to his best friend. “Did you two...”

Wataru scoffed, “Of course not!” he moved into the kitchen to get the first aid kit. His mother had left a note that she would be back later that night which was for the better. For some reason he didn’t want her to get involved with this as well. “It was Saburou.”

“Daijobu desu ka?” Satoshi wondered as she merely stared down.

Slowly she nodded. She didn’t like being here. At all. Especially not with all of them around. It was bad enough that she was beaten so shamelessly by the person she loathed more than Wataru, only to be saved by the second most hated guy. And everything seemed so confusing after finding out that she had been directing her anger towards the wrong guy. Surely she didn’t like Saburou but now that she knew that he was the one who betrayed them all along...

“Itaii!” she suddenly snapped as she felt the sting of the cotton against the scratch on her cheek. Wataru had ever so forcefully pressed it against her wound when she was deep in thoughts. “Baka!”

“Do it yourself then,” he scoffed as he threw the cotton away.

“So, what happened?” Kiyama continued, mostly towards Wataru.

“Saburou tricked Nezumi... By pretending to be me... I think” he hestitantly explained although he didn’t really understand it himself.

“That bastard! Trying to frame aniki!”

“Why would he do that though?” Ryosuke wondered.

Wataru shrugged, “Who cares. I’m not letting him get away with this!”

“Wataru!”

“Oi! I’m not saying I’m going to look for the fight, but if he crosses my path...”

“Iie!”

Everyone turned to the girl who had been silence for a while. She was still distantly staring down.

“Eh?”

She shook her head, “You can’t! You don’t know what you’re talking about...” Wataru scoffed but she only shook her head again. “You have no idea what he’s capable of! Tonight... it was nothing compared to what cruelty he holds inside! He kills. He killed! And if you hadn’t... You need to stay out of this!”

“I’m not a coward!”

“You wouldn’t even fight me!” she replied, now looking straight at him. “Believe me, you wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”

“Well, it’s a little late for that now,” he shrugged stubbornly. “I’m involved in this now whether you like it or not!”

Nezumi jumped up, shoving her chair back as as she slightly raised her clutched hands, “Baka. You just signed your own death.”

With that said she turned around and stormed out of the café. This was getting too serious. She had never wanted it to get this far. She merely wanted to seek the person who killed her friend, only to find out he was right under he nose the entire time. And now, thanks to her, innocent people got involved in a fight that only she should solve. Michiyo, Wataru... Too many people are now at stake thanks to her...