(A/N: Title translation; Kaneko scary? Impossible!) 

Nezumi didn’t show up for the first couple of classes which started to worry both Wataru and Michiyo slightly. Michiyo hadn’t seen or spoken to her since she left the library the other day, she had no idea how it ended but when Wataru showed up unharmed the next morning she at least hoped nothing bad had actually happen. Even though the two of them were still not really friends, she too was fully aware of what Saburou could do. And Wataru didn’t really think anything of it when she left the restaurant.

It was only after the lunch break that a single person crossed from the gate to the entrance of the school. Nezumi was slowly moving towards the building, she didn’t feel much like going inside after a morning like today. Alhough bruised from the past two nights, it didn’t stop her from getting into some fights this morning. In all honestly it was her who went off looking for the fights and emerged victorious with the victims blood stained on her knuckles. The reason that she went off looking for opponents this morning was merely frustration and for her to use as dummies as she trained herself. She was determined, now more than ever, to fight Wataru. Not because he was the one who had to pay for the murder of her dear friend but because he was the only one standing in the way of her victory over Saburou. If she could defeat Wataru then she would be strong enough to take on Saburou fully. And if Wataru was out of the way there was no way Saburou could get to him or his friends.

“Ah, Nezumi-senpai,” Apparently she hadn’t been able to creep inside without getting noticed. Which wasn’t hard since her overal appearence still stood out but at this time she’d expected everyone to be in class.

Slowly she turned around and face the fragile-looking boy. Ah right, Tsuchiya Satoshi, manager of the male tumbling team. The boy was alone in the hallway, probably heading for class by the look of his book bag when he spotted the yankee and decided to stop her. Once she had turned around he took a few steps closer and took slight bow.

“Have your wounds healed already?” he asked politely though she couldn’t understand why he would even care.

“Ah?” she tilted her head to look at the boy.

“Ano... Your wounds looked pretty bad yesterday so...”

Slowly she nodded, “Hai...” she replied. “Dai...Daijobu desu...” She noticed his eyes turn to the stains on her uniform and her knuckles and quickly hid them inside her sleeves. “Shouldn’t you get to class?”

“Iie... I have no classes now...”

“Soka...” she nodded, then turned around and wanted to walk away again.

“Ano...?”

“What?!” she snapped as she stopped walking.

“Are you bleeding? You have blood on your hands...”

“It’s not my blood,” she shrugged and wanted to continue walking. She hadn’t looked at him since she turned around the first time.

“Ch-chotto... ano...”

“Mattaku...” she sighed as she cocked her head back slightly, still not looking back at him.

“T-take care, ne?” he nodded and showed a gentle smile before turning around and walking away.

“Eh?”

Nezumi couldn’t help but feel just slightly guilty for snapping at him like that. He was only showing kindness. Although she still didn’t quite understand why. He, of all people, has the least to do with her. Other than being a friend of Wataru.

“Nezumi-chan!”

She let out a frustrated sigh as someone else called her name, “God! Can’t a girl just get to her class in peace?!” she turned around and face the person who stopped her. “Ah, Kinoko-atama...”

“Where have you been all morning?” she asked as she approached her and stopped right in front of her. She seemed slightly pissed by the fact that she’s late. At least she’s fallen back into her behavior.

She shrugged. “I had... stuff to do.”

“Your fight didn’t end well I assume?” she continued.

“Assuming by what?” Nezumi tilted her head.

“Well,” she placed her hands on her hips. “Judging by the amount of fresh bruises you carry compared by the lack of bruises on Wataru... I assume you were just in way over your head.”

Nezumi scoffed. It annoyed her that the girl was trying to sound like she knew what was going on or what she was talking about when in fact she hadn’t a clue.

“Maybe because it wasn’t Wataru that I fought last night,” she replied and crossed her arms. “but Saburou.”

“Eh?!”

“I know what you want to hear,” she then continued. “You were right. Happy now? It was another trap set by Saburou and I fell for it. You were right, great job!”

“Well, you didn’t have to say it like that but... I told you so!”

Nezumi rolled her eyes as she turned around again and marched off. Yes, most things had turned back to normal again. She was still the same annoying little brat.

Nezumi took a detour before going to class to stop by the bathroom and clean her hands from all the blood. In all honestly she didn’t feel like answering any other questions about where she was this morning.

She found herself late for another class, but in her opinion Kashiwagi should be happy she showed up at least. She opened the door without knocking and shoved it closed behind her again. Everyone turned their heads towards her and Kashiwagi stopped talking as she entered.

“A-ah... Akimoto-kun,” he said as she walked straight passed him towards her seat. “You came.”

“Obviously,” she sat down on her chair and threw her bag next to her, ignoring all the stares.

“Ah... Yes... Welcome back,” he nodded. At least he was smart enough to know that any discussion would be invain. She didn’t seem to care much about being late and that attitude, though sparking many whispers from her classmates, was something Kashiwagi decided to accept.

Honestly, the would’ve been better off not showing up for class at all. Instead of doing the assignments or listening to what Kashiwagi tried to teach, she had her focus back on the countertop of her desk in which she was not carving more useless signs and things. It was not until the bell rang and the voice got drowned by the sounds of shifting chairs and louder talking that her attention was drawn back to the classroom itself.

“Oi, Nezumi.”

Oh great. Now him too? What, did his little buddy tell him about earlier? Or was he still so determined to take on Saburou when he’s not even up to fighting me? Why can’t he just stay out of my business and focus on his useless tumbling...

“About the whole Saburou thing...”

“Wataru,” she said as she stood up, her eyes directed to the blackboard up front. “Unless you’re going to say that you are staying out my business... I don’t want to hear it.”

“You heard him! I’m involved too!”

“You’re not,” she shook her head slightly. “He merely abused your name, you have no involvement in anything that is going on with Saburou. Or me.” She then turned to look at him finally, “So unless you want to put your friends and your stupid tumbling at risk... You better mind your own business and forget all about it.”

That being said she picked up her bag and threw it over her shoulder as she passed Kiyama on her way out of the classroom. She merely brushed shoulders with him as she stubbornly kept her gaze forwards.

“Please excuse her...” Michiyo apologized as she witnessed the rough conversation.

“Ah?”

“Michiyo-chan?” Ryosuke frowned. She was the last person he’d expected to get herself involved in this conversation. Especially since she seemed to be far from liking neither them nor Nezumi.

“In a way... I think she means well...”

“Do you know anything about this?” Kiyama frowned.

Silently she nodded. Maybe this wasn’t the best thing for her to do, and surely Nezumi would hate her even more. But even she knew that Wataru’s assistance might be the only thing to keep her from the same fate as her sister. She knew what Saburou was capable of, although no one confirmed it, she had the slightest suspicion that he had more to do with the murder than Wataru.

“Well?” Wataru urged on. “Tell us!”

“Not here,” she shook her head as she noticed the few curious students hanging around, all wondering why Michiyo was even talking to them. “Your changing room, in a half hour...” with that she left the room as well.

“Saburou is very dangerous. He is, simply put, a murderer,” she explained as she leaned back in the old couch that was placed on the bottom floor of the male tumbling dressing room. Everyone had gathered to hear her story out. “He killed someone very close to Nezumi.”

“And you know this, how exactly?”

“That person, Mizumi, was my older sister...”

There was a brief silence in which some of them blankly stared at her. None of them knew she ever had a sister, which wasn’t surprising since they hardly knew her other than being the class representative and captain of the female tumbling team.

“When Nezumi first came here she was lead to believe that you, Wataru, was the one who killed her... That is what Saburou claimed,” she continued. At least Wataru seemed to start understanding why Nezumi was so hostile towards him. “When in fact he was the one who betrayed their leader...”

“Your sister was a yankee leader? Sugoii ne!”

“It seems that Saburou is now after her...” Michiyo sighed, not paying much attention to Nippori. “She is fully aware of the danger she’s in and the fact that you are meddling with her she feels like she is risking your safety as well.”

“She is!” Ryosuke nodded after which he received some glares from the others. “What? It’s true, isn’t it? She lead Saburou right here when she came her herself and now Saburou isn’t only after her but we’re at risk as well! I bet he was the one who trashed the gym too!”

“No!” she jumped up and turned to Ryosuke. “That was my fault. He wanted me to trick Nezumi and at first I refused but I ended up having no other choice...”

“And that happened two days ago?” Kaneko wondered.

Silently she nodded.

“And then he send her a letter, pretending to Wataru, to lure her into a trap...”

“Which is what happened last night?” Mizusawa added.

“Well, if that Saburou is really that dangerous, what makes her think she can pull this off alone?” he rested his arms on the back of his head as he leaned back into his seat.

“Weren’t you listening?!” she snapped at him which startled him. “She is taking this on alone because she doesn’t want anyone to end up the way my sister did. Dead!”

“But... Won’t she end up like that then?”

Wataru sighed, “That guy tried to blame it all on me... She can’t expect me to sit back and take that crap!”

“Yeah! He tried to ruin aniki’s good reputation!” Nippori nodded in agreement.

“Which wasn’t that good to begin with,” Hino added earning a glare from Wataru and a shaking fist gesture from the protective Nippori.

“Whatever you do...” Michiyo sighed as she moved towards the door. Clearly none of them had been really listening. Somehow she understood Nezumi’s point although they barely ever talked but it seemed to hard to grasp for these guys. Or maybe they just really were punks who unconsiously were after another fight. “Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Nezumi made her way down the normal path heading home. She had barely talked to anyone after this morning and wanted to keep it like that. She still couldn’t get over the fact that Wataru was so stubborn. If Nezumi couldn’t handle Saburou alone what made him think that he could do it himself? Maybe he was just overconfident or maybe he just had no idea what he was talking about in the first place. After all, he didn’t know Saburou the way she did. And especially not now that all the cards had been thrown on the table.

“Oi, you!” she heard a voice in the distance. Some punk was harassing someone on the street but she chose to ignore it. She had enough fighting for one day, even though she felt like she needed to get stronger to get revenge on Saburou, she still felt the sting of the wounds she had already as a reminder of the past couple of battles with him. “Are you lost?”

“Iie, daijobu desu,” the voice replied and Nezumi stood still. She recognized that voice. In fact, for a moment she even loath the voice that was meddling with her this morning. And as she looked up her suspicions were confirmed. Satoshi.

“Really? You look very lost to me...” the guy who was speaking threw his arm around the young boy’s shoulder who seemed nervous and unknowing of what to do.

“I’ll be on my way,” he reluctantly replied and wanted to walk away but got pulled back by one of the other punks. They were looking for trouble or amusement and poor little Satoshi was unfortunate enough to become their victim.

“Ah, come on. Play with us for a little while... Be a nice little boy.”

“I don’t have time to...-”

“Oi! We said you’re not going anywhere!” a third guy gave him a slight push that landed him against the wall.

For a moment Nezumi considered turning around and to walk a way like nothing was happening. But somehow she just couldn’t let the poor guy get harassed like that. Especially not since he showed so much kindness towards her. From the beginning even.

“Oi teme!” she called as she jumped out of hiding and kicked one of the guys out of the way before standing in front of Satoshi and extended one arm to the side to shield him. “Leave him alone.”

“Nezumi-senpai...”

“Are you looking for trouble, little girl?” the guy whom she had just kicked got up and glared at her.

“Trouble? Nah... Entertainment more likely...” she tilted her head.

“Ah?” another one smirked. “Then... Let’s have some fun?”

“Chotto matta!” she held up her hand just as the guys were preparing to launch forwards. “Only I will fight you. Don’t you dare touch him,” she nudged back to Satoshi.

“How sweet,” one of them coughed. “He didn’t look like much anyway...”

Nezumi raised her fists and instead of waiting for any of them to make the first move, she launched herself towards them. And here she had told herself not to get into any more fights today, still she couldn’t resist the challenge, nor did she want poor Satoshi to get harmed.

The first one turned around, his hands clenched tightly as he blocked her first punch. She swung her other arm towards him but he caught it as well. Not focusing on the parts that are now left defenseless she easily kicked up her leg and hit the bottom of his ribs with my shin, sending him backwards as he clutches his stomach.

The rest of the group had her surrounded now and started flinging kicks and punches at her. Although she did a decent job at dodging most of them, she couldn’t help but get hit once or twice. Her focus was gone. One of the yankees surprised her from the back as he held her in a hold. The first guy walked up to her and pumped his fist right into her gut, and as she focused on the blow, it was soon followed by the hard, cold and iron sting of a pipe against the face. She dropped to the ground, still trying to catch some breath which he had punched out of her as she got back to her feet. This was not going according to plan. Normally she would’ve easily defeated the whole group by now, and yet she found it more and more difficult to dodge and counter the attacks fired at her. She looked up to see that some of the guys had turned their attention back to Satoshi as they approached them. She quickly got back to her feet and raced towards them, kicking and punching them out of the way before turning around and shielding Satoshi from a blow with the steel pipe.

“Satoshi-kun...” she coughed as she tried to swallow away the tears that stung her eyes out of pure torture. “Hayaku ne... Go home...”

“Demo...”

“I can’t focus if I keep having to look back for you...” she managed a smile. “Daijobu ne, go.”

She turned around and accompanied by a forceful shout she kicked her leg into the air to kick away one of the guys who got closer again. She then gave Satoshi a gentle push away before turning her focus back on the group of punks who seemed to have multiplied when she wasn’t looking.

Satoshi hesitated before making a short sprint away, looking back to see that Nezumi was anything but fight in this fight. She was being thrown around and to the ground by the outnumbering punks and it was his fault. He had to do something, but he wouldn’t stand a chance against them if even Nezumi failed to put up a good fight. A thought then ran through he mind as he turned around and sprinted away.

“Satoshi?!” Wataru called into the darkness of this evening. It’s been a half hour now that he had been searching for their team manager. Satoshi was supposed to pick up something at home before meeting everyone at the restaurant. But he never showed which worried everyone. Especially with the whole Saburou ordeal going on. So they all when their separate way to look for their friend. “Oi! Satoshi?!”

“Wataru-senpai!”

Wataru looked up and spotted Satoshi heading towards him. He looked rather distressed.

“Satoshi! Daijobu desu ka?” Wataru immediately frowned as the boy came to a halt and tried to catch his breath.

“You need to come help!” Satoshi told him while still gasping for air. “You need to help her!”

“Chotto! Who?”

“Nezumi...”

Satoshi had told Wataru where he left Nezumi and although he refused at first, Wataru told him to go back to the restaurant and tell everyone what was going on, making him promise to wait there until he’d get back. The fight still wasn’t over but it wasn’t far from it. Nezumi was on the ground, grasping the rubble with her hand as she tried to get back to her feet.

“Nezumi!”

“Are, he’s brought another friend?” the guy smirked.

“Teme...” Wataru growled as he marched towards them and roughly pushed aside the guys surrounding Nezumi, standing eye to eye with who appeared to be their leader. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re Azuma Wataru, right?”

“So what if I am?”

The guy chuckled before glancing back at his gang, “I think we’ve had enough fun for tonight. Ikuze!” with that he and his friends reluctantly marched off. For whatever reason they didn’t feel like fighting Wataru.

As she found her ground and balance she quickly swiped her sleeve past her lips to clean some of the blood. “Koko de nani eru no?” she glared at Wataru, completely ignoring the other boy. She had told him to go home, not to go and get Wataru so he can play the hero again.

“Oi! You should be grateful I saved you,” he scoffed. “Again.”

“I didn’t ask for you help!!”

“You sure looked like you needed it!”

“I was doing fine!” she said through gritted teeth. “Had them right where I wanted...”

“Sure you did,” he then looked down to the ground where a few drops of crimson liquid had landed, before looking back up to see where it was coming from. Her arm seemed to be bleeding. “Ikou,” He wanted to walk away but a few steps ahead he looked back to see that she was still standing at the same place, just staring at him with focused narrowed eyes.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Eh?”

“No matter how many times I tell you back off... Somehow you keep ending up in my problems...”

He thought about it for a second before shrugging, “I guess that fighting is just in my heart, ne?”

Ah, remembered the words she said to him on one of the first days they met. He was so determined to decline every challenge, but she assured him that he couldn’t run from it. He had the yankee soul within him and he could never change that.

“So desu ne...”

“Ne, are you coming or what?” he crossed his arms and she reluctanly decided to follow him.

As the door opened and Wataru was warmly welcomed back, Nezumi hesitated before going inside. Partly because she still felt very awkward with all of them. She had loathed them up to certain point. And because she could definitely hear the voice of Wataru’s mother inside, someone whom she might not want to face right now since she had no idea how she would react to the fighting ordeal.

“Oi, ka-san!” he then proceeded. “Can you give me the first aid kit?”

“Why? You’re not hurt are you?” she sounded rather unimpressed instead of worried.

He scoffed, “Not me but...” he turned around to the door. “Oi! Come in already!”

Hesitantly she walked inside, some of the guys seeming rather surprised to see her again, only this time hurt even worse than last night.

“You sure make a habit out of dropping by covered in blood, ne?” Ryosuke grinned.

“You’re so funny,” she said sarcastically as she was motioned by Wataru’s mother to sit down on the stool by the bar.

“Nezumi-chan, how did you get so injured?” she wondered as she turned around to get the first aid kit while Wataru sat down by the others.

“Maybe she shouldn’t try to play the hero everytime,” he chuckled and the others grinned too.

She merely scoffed, “Well, if you would do a better job in protecting your useless friends then I wouldn’t have to go out and save them every single time!”

“Who are you calling useless?” Kaneko stood up.

She grinned, “Assuming you are his friends...”

“We’re not useless!”

“I’d like to disagree with that,”

“Oi! Don’t you insult them!”

“Like you don’t do that all the time?” she crossed her arms.

“That’s different,” Nippori replied. “We’re allowed to insult them.”

Kaneko frowned as he now turned to Nippori “No, you’re not!”

“Oi!” he replied. “I’m trying to defend you here.”

“I don’t need you to do that!”

She grinned as she got off the stool and stood next to Kaneko, “Yeah, let your useless friend defend themselves!”

“Urusai yo!” Kaneko snapped and Nezumi jumped back with a shocked face.

She let out a nervous laugh, “Kowai desu...”

“Eh? Honto?” Kaneko seemed to get a bit of hope now that she actually called him scary.

She scoffed, “Betsu ni,” she returned to her stool as Kaneko fell to the ground in disappointment. He fell right into that one. The others merely laughed and for a moment they actually seemed to get along.

“Sumimasen,” Satoshi now got up and stood right in front of Nezumi, quickly bowing down. “It’s my fault... gomenasai.”

Nezumi stared at him for a moment and blinked. He was actually apologizing to her for getting her in trouble? How sweet.

“Ne, dai-jou-bu,” With a gentle smile she ruffled her hand through his hair, “It’s not like you forced me to rescue you. It was my choice – granted I hadn’t thought it through... ”

“Nezumi...”

“Nani?”

“Do you think those guys also work for Saburou?”

His look had turned more seriously and quite frankly ruined the good mood that Nezumi was getting into, making fun of the guys and fairly enough letting them take a stab at her as well. Nezumi looked down for a moment, even though he might’ve said that fighting was in his heart she still didn’t agree with him trying to get involved with something as dangerous.

“Tabun... Wakaranai...” she simply replied. She hadn’t even thought of that when she faced the punks in the first place but now that he mentioned it. There could’ve been a pretty good chance that they were.

“Is it true that he killed someone?” Yuta questioned and she looked up. Surprised. How could they possibly know that?

“Michiyo-chan told us,” Ryosuke explained when he noticed her surprised look.

Michiyo, the person who had practically begged her not to mention this to anyone had now gone and told them herself. It made her wonder what exactly she had told them and more importantly, why she did tell them in the first place.

“Hai...” she nodded. “And he’ll do it again...”

“Don’t you think the next one might be you then?”

She shrugged. “Osoraku...”

“Mattaku...” Wataru scoffed. She looked up at him, he still had the same serious look in his face. “You don’t sound like you care much if you die or not...”

“What do you know?” she snapped back.

“What I know is that Saburou is dangerous. And you can’t take him on your own,” he stood up, never taking his eyes off of her. “You might not like it but somehow we got involved. And no matter how much you decline, you can not fight him on your own!”

“So?”

“So? So stop being so stubborn and let us help!”

“You are the stubborn one!” she replied. “Don’t you think I’m scared? Don’t you think that I don’t know what I am risking here? But the fact is that I know how Saburou works. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants and if you get involved will mean he’ll go through you to get it!” she practically yelled, ignoring the fact that his mother was here as well. “And I don’t want anyone else to die. No matter how much I hate you guys!”

“It doesn’t matter,” he continued. She wondered whether or not he was actually listening to her. “I am not going to leave you alone until I know that Saburou can’t harm anyone!”

“Eh?” what was that supposed to mean, not leaving her alone. Was he going to stalk her, or protect her. What was he planning and thinking.

“Besides, it’s obvious that even without fighting, the team is still in danger...” Yuta added. If Saburou keeps going after members of the team soon enough there won’t be a team to enter in the competitions. He himself wasn’t planning on fighting but he wouldn’t go as far to stop Wataru. He too understood now why Nezumi was acting the way she did and although he didn’t quite understand yet why Wataru was so keen on protecting Nezumi all of a sudden but he was sure that Wataru knew what he was doing.

“And where Wataru goes, I go,” Ryosuke nodded.

“Yeah!”

“The point is... We are involved now. And there is nothing you can do about it...”