Karasumori High, it was so much different from the school she was used to. There were so many differences, she could tell just by staring at the building and the students gathering in the court yard. They seemed to be happy to go to school, to learn and to chat with their friends, whereas at her old school the students were merely there because they were forced to go.

This school was known for excellent education and its after-school curriculum. She couldn’t imagine that students would want to stay at school after the last bell, just to do something they would consider to be fun. As long as it involved school, it wasn't fun. Not at all.

The more she thought about it the less reason she saw to be there.  But she wasn’t there just for education, for after school activities or even to make friends She’d never been the social type, nor really interested, nor was she good at school. No, her being here served another purpose.

The uniforms were different from her school as well. The girls wore normal school fuku, and the guys had to wear a black gakuran. Needless to say she really stood out from the crowd. The moment she received her uniform she did the best she could to make it more her own. There wasn’t much she could do with it though, so she merely added a chain that ran from the front of her waist to her back on her skirt, and decided to wear her black hoodie over it. She wondered how long it would take for some teacher to adress her on that matter.

There was just one bunch of guys that slightly stood out from the rest. Led by a guy with bright red hair, they crossed the schoolyard to another building. Most of them had chains hanging from their pants, opened jackets that showed their personal choice of shirt underneath. They were yankees, she could tell just by their appearence, not to mention the few bruises on their faces that gave away that they had been in a fight recently. Which meant that the guy with the red hair had to be Azuma Wataru. Very interesting.

Reluctantly she followed the directions given to her by the counsil to find her homeroom. It surprised her that they didn’t feel the need to her to her classroom to make sure she’d actually go, but then she reminded herself that this was nothing like her old school. But to be honest, a guide would have been helpful since her sense of direction was terrible.

On her way to her homeroom she noticed that a few students, who were lucky enough to have this hour free, were staring at her as she walked past them. The faint whispers as they pointed at her ever so subtly. These kids probably weren’t used seeing someone different, lacking a better description at the moment.

Luckily enough, she managed to find her homeroom somewhat easily, if she had to endure the staring monkeys any longer she would’ve done things she should not be doing on her first day, if she intended to attend this school for longer than that one day. Which was her purpose since she had a task she needed to fullfill, a mission if you will.

She was about to open the door and make her entrance when a voice stopped her halfway.

“Don’t you think you should knock first?”

It was a female voice that spoke up to her. She couldn’t quite make out the tone of her voice but it surely wasn’t friendly,

With a frown she turned to where the voice came from, “...Nande?”

“It’s impolite to just barge into a classroom, especially when it’s your first day,” she told her.

Ah, so she was one of those type of girls. The good student who always followed the rules. It wouldn’t be surprising if she was class president and captain of some sort of team or something. The way she appeared she must have been filled with confidence and maybe even some ego mixed with it.

She was wearing her uniform without any wrinkles or the slightest crooked thing. Her hair seemed to be styled to perfection, slightly curly as it playfully fell down to her shoulders as the top part was tied into a mushroom-like bun.

“Is that so?” she questioned the as she brushed some hairs of out her face. The nerve of that girl speaking to her like that, she might not know who she was or what she was capable of, yet, but she would soon enough, and she wouldn’t be so impudent then.

“Hai,” she merely replied. She passed as she swiftly knocked on the door of the classroom and awaited the approval to enter.

She didn’t know whether she really felt like these types of gestures were necessary, or just to spite the new girl but as soon as she entered the classroom she closed the door right behind her, leaving the new girl outside in the hall once again.

“Kuso...” she cursed under her breath as she threw open the door and walked inside. “Oi, Kinoko-Atama...!”

“Ahum...”

She turned around to see that not only the entire class, but also the teacher was staring at her. Not that she was intimidated by the teacher, from what she could tell he looked like a weak, nervous type of guy.

“Ah... soka...” She coughed slightly after glaring back at the girl one last time. She'd better stay out of her way as long as she attended Karasumori High.

“You must be the new transferstudent,” the teacher continued. “I am your homeroom teacher, Kashiwagi Yutaka desu. Hajimemaa!”

He surely sounded like an friendly, relaxed person. But it was doubtful he would be able to handle even a part of what her previous homeroom teacher had to endure.

He stared at her for a few moments as she tilted her head. Was he expecting something from her?

“E eto...” he started and turned to the class for a moment, “W-why don’t you introduce yourself?”

“Right,” she sighed as she took a few steps further into the classroom and stopped right in the middle. “Watashi wa Nezumi desu!”

There was a short silence in which everyone stared at her as if she lost her mind.

“Nezumi ka?” the guy with the red hair, Azuma Wataru asked mockingly.

That was who she was. Well, her real name was Akimoto Ayumi. You see, when she first joined her gang, she had to find her place in the group. Everyone had a specialty, besides fighting obviously. Since she wasn’t the tallest of her age group, and people assumed she was a cute, friendly little girl when they saw her, she managed to easily slip in and out places, look around and find out things other people would never be able to figure out. She was silent, fast and people barely ever suspected her. She could manipulate people with her inside knowledge, strike when people least expected it, and that is how she got the nickname Nezumi. She herself was quite proud of that nickname and preferred them to refer to her only by that name.

“Squeak squeak,” one of his friends laughed. His hair was bleached blond and looked rather messy.

“It says here your name is Akimoto Ayumi...” Kashiwagi-sensei read from the note on his desk.

She sighed once more. Just because that was her name didn’t mean everyone should know about it.

“Hai, so desu,” she reluctantly replied.

Kinoko-atama raised her hand and rose up from her seat. She had a weird grin on her face that Nezumi really didn’t like.

“As class representative I, Saruwatari Michiyo, would like you welcome you to our class,” Ah, so she was right about her. Class representative. Figures.

“Domo,” she coughed with the roll of the eyes. She had her doubts if her words were honest though.

“Please take your seat over there, Akimoto-san,” Kashiwagi-sensei pointed over to the empty seat near the back of the classroom.

“Hai,” She nodded as she headed up to her seat. But before she could reach it, one of the guys sitting slightly up front shoved his bag in her way. She manage to stop right before tripping over it and stared at it for a moment before looking up at the guy.

“Got a problem?” he smirked.

“You should really watch where you place your bag, someone might trip and hit a ...wall” As soon as she finished her sentence she gave a hard kick against the bag, kicking it all the way to the back of the room, against the wall. The guy merely stared after it then turned back to her. She returned his stare with a pleased smirk as she walked on towards her seat.

She passed Wataru and couldn’t help but glare at him. He merely stared back, slightly confused at this expression he wqs receiving “Don’t you worry, Azuma Wataru, you will understand soon enough...”

After school she waited outside the schoolgates. She waited for Wataru and his gang to finally step out of the gymnasium. Apparently even they were involved in some kind of school activity which surprised her with such a reputation.

“Ah look, it’s Nezumi-chan!” the blonde haired guy smirked as they finally noticed her waiting in front of the gates.

“Nezumi-chan?” the boy with the black hair asked. He seemed slightly younger than the others, and she didn’t remember seeing him in their homeroom either, but maybe he was just in another class.

With a slight smile on her face she approached them.

“I knew even you wouldn’t be able to resist....eh?”

She completely ignored his player-type antics and directed her attention to Wataru.

“Anata ga Azuma Wataru desu ka?” She said as she stopped right in front of him and stared at him, “Ne?”

“And what if I am?” he asked, clearly not impressed.

“Good,” She nodded and took a step back, after which she held up her arms. “Fight me.”

“Eh?” The other boys were confused.

“Why would you want to fight me?”

“You have quite a reputation as yankee, Azuma-kun.”

He merely stared at her. He seemed hard to read, which frustrated her.

“So?”

“I’m sure you’re bored of always fighting those weaklings around here,” she smirked and looked at the guys around him. She still had her hands raised.

“Oi, who are you calling weak?” The black haired boy demanded to know.

She giggled slightly before turning back to Wataru, “So? Are you going to attack or not?”

He scoffed and walked past her with his bag over his left shoulder. His friends quickly followed. She blinked a few times as she lowered her hands and turned around, the smirk disappearing from her face.

“Oi! Doko ni iku no desu ka?”

He stopped and turned his head around, “I don’t fight girls,” he turned around again and walked away.

She just stared after him, slightly confused by this answer. Surely the almighty Azuma Wataru wouldn’t refuse a fight, whether it was with a girl or not. Might that have been because he really was that much of a gentleman and less of a yankee? Or maybe because he feared her strength? Or did he think she wasn’t strong enough? Well, in that case she should show him how strong she really was. Whether or not that was the reason, she would surely not give up until she had her fight. After all, that was why she was here.

“You’re waisting your time,” an all too familiar voice replied and she turned around.

“Ah, Kinoko-atama...” she frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you’re waisting your time if you’re really thinking about asking him out.”

Honestly, was that all those girls could think about? That really was the last thing on her mind.

“Kanchigai!” She bit back. “I don’t want to date him. I want to fight him!”

“Fight?” she repeated, only slightly surprised. Well, what did she actually expect looking at her. “Well, still you won’t have any luck with that...”

“Sonna desu ka?” she frowned again. What would she know about that? “Why is that?”

She sighed with a hint of irritation. Well, if she didn’t want her to ask any questions she shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. “You see, Azuma-kun is not allowed to get into fights anymore,” she explained. “If he or any of his friends get into any fights, their team will be disqualified.”

Disqualified? Oh, she probably meant that after school activity. She didn’t know a yankee like him would care about something like that.

“So desu...” She nodded and thought about it for a moment. If there was one thing she knew for sure it was the fact that a yankee never changed. Once a yankee, always a yankee. Whether or not he was forbidden to fight, she was sure she could lure him out if she made the stakes interesting enough. Which she would, sooner or later. She’d keep on challenging him long enough. She'd have to fight him whatever it took.

“Ja, matta!” she said as she turned the other way and walked off.