Taking a look around the area, she noticed a lot of yankees walking around. Most of them not even worthy to call themselves that, as she’d soon taken care of that matter. What to say. She was bored and so happen to come across a group of wannabees who were trying to scare her. See, that is why she loved how her appearance could be deceiving. People thought she was just a helpless young girl, it was so much more fun to see their faces after she kicked their heads to the curb or when they cowared in fear. It was a nice way to keep herself entertained.

Even though Azuma Wataru refused to fight her this time, she was certainly not letting the matter go. No matter what, she was going to fight him one day and she’d make sure he wouldn’t live to tell the tale. And in the meantime she just kept herself busy with those wannabe yankees running around, maybe she’d find a challenge somewhere... though it was doubtful.

The next couple of days she noticed Wataru hanging out with an unlikely group of guys with whom he disappeared after school for their activities. They were nothing like the others. They didn’t really look interesting enough to even be close to a yankee, they seemed the type that got their lunch money taken instead.

So those were the guys that kept him from fighting her. It was because of them that he couldn’t figh, because they would otherwise get disqualified if he did. But from what, she wondered.

“Ah, Akimoto-san,” Oh, her again. Saruwatari Michiyo, why did they always seem to cross paths and she always felt like talking to her? Nezumi tought she had made it quite clear that she didn’t like her and thought it was mutual. 

“Nani, Kinoko-atama?” she sighed. She didn’t even bother looking at her, instead she stared down at the carved drawing in her desk that she had been working on since yesterday. Whenever she got bored she usually did things like drawing on, or carving in tables. Whose smart idea was it to give her a compass anyway?

She sighed. “I have a name, you know...”

“I know,” she nodded and looked up at her with a grin. “But I like the nickname better.”

“What if I started giving you a nickname,” she said. “You wouldn’t be grinning then.”

“I already have a nickname,” she scoffed. “But feel free to use it whenever, just don't wear it out.”

Ha, she thought she could outsmart her, did she? Obviously she didn’t know her that well, she had heard every comeback in the book.

“Anything else?” she asked slightly bothered since the girl was still standing in front of her desk.

Michiyo rolled her eyes, “I was wondering whether or not you had decided on an extra activity...”

She raised an eyebrow as she looked up at the preppy girl. Was she being serious? Did she actually think Nezumi would be interested in doing some extra schoolwork after school?

“Majide?”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll find something, even for you” she said with a slight smirk before heading back to her seat. What was that supposed to mean, even for her?

After class she decided to follow Wataru around. She had figured a new tactic to reach her goal. She knew for a fact that he was extremely short tempered, so what better way to provoke a fight than by annoyingly following him around until he reached boiling point.

Following him after school led her to the gymnasium where he met up with some other guys, the not so yankee-looking boys she had seen hanging around earlier. They disappeared into the changing rooms and she decided to hide out on the inside bleachers to see what kind of after school activity kept them busy.

She had a very hard time holding in her laughter when they returned wearing bright pink t-shirts and white leotards. What kind of freakshow was this? The infamous Azuma Wataru wearing pink? Well, in all honesty it did match his bright red hair. She would have expected this from those other guys like that Takanaka kid who apparently was the captain, but they must have been forced to do this. It couldn’t be any other way, unless they actually liked wearing these weird suits.

“Yoshi, let’s do this, we don’t have much time today,” Takenaka Yuuta said as he and the other guys moved to the center of the matt that was spread across the ground.

From up there she had a perfect view of all the guys and she took her time to take in each appearence.

Obviously Wataru stood out with his bright red hair and rather stoicly expression. You wouldn’t be able to tell that he was the leader of a yankee gang if you saw him like this though.

Then there was this guy with messy blond hair. His name was Tsukimori Ryosuke. From what she had heard and seen so far he was quite the flirt, but people said he was an incredible fighter as well.

The third yankee is Nippori Keiji. Slim, toned and with jet black hair swept up into a quiff. Though a year younger than the others, he didn’t seem to have any problems getting on with the rest of the group.

Those being the three core yankees that were mostly in her interest, she turned to the other guys. They still seemed like an unlikely bunch to be hanging out with Wataru.

This Yuuta kid had black hair in a simple bowl cut. There wasn’t much special to say about his rather casual and innocent appearence other than the mole under his left eye that added a little cute factor to the whole boring appearence.

And then there was Hino Tetsuya. His black hair was cut in a simple matter. Somehow he seemed a little bored with the whole situation, not looking as excited as the others.

Kiyama Ryuichiro was another surprise to the entire group. To Nezumi he seemed more the loner than a teamplayer. His black, messy hair aside there wasn’t much to say about his appearence.

Tsuchiya Satoshi was probably the most adorable of the entire group. And coming from Nezumi that meant a lot. He seemed younger than most of the guys and a rather innocent and nervous type of guy. The type of guy yankees would usually beat up for lunch money.

Mizusawa Taku, another one of those average looking guys, but he seemed like a nice guy. He wasn’t her type of guy but he could pass for good looking.

Lastly there was Kaneko Atsushi who really stood out from the group in a different way. He looked like the nerdy type of guy with his glasses and rather blank appearence. Another one of those guys who wouldn’t last a day at her old school since he would be the target of any and all tricks and pranks.

Overall an unlikely group, and she still couldn’t tell what kind of activity this was that made them come together and wear those weird outfits. Until the music started and the group got into formation. Just as they started moving on the music, first with movements that had to be considered graceful in a way, then with jumps and flips, she finally realised what it was they were doing and it made it harder for her to hold her laughter.

How on earth did Wataru get involved in a rhythmic gymnastics team. It must have been an forced task because he failed everything else in school. There was no way in hell that the strong, intimidating Azuma Wataru voluntarily took part in such an activity.

Not that they were any good though. The moment they got around the considerably harder jumps, most of them tripped or bumped into each other and fell down. With a disappointed and rather irritated sigh, Yuuta got up and turned off the music.

With a wide grin on her face she emerge from the bleachers and started applauding as she slowly made her way down.

“Ah, you again?!” Wataru asked as he was still on the ground.

“Are, are...” she said as she stopped clapping and buried her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. “So this is what you do...”

“This is a closed rehearsal,” Yuuta replied.

“Of what? Falling? You’re so graceful at that though,” She couldn’t help but smirk.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Nippori frowned as he rubbed his elbow. He probably scraped it during his fall, but surely it would be nothing compared to the usual bruises.

“I heard your team obligations disables you from fighting,” she said, directed at Wataru of course. She couldn’t care less about the others, they had no business with her. “So I couldn’t help but wonder what was so important...”

“Who told you that?”

She shrugged, “A little bird told me,” but she soon shook her head. “Iie... Kinoko”

“Are you quite finished,” another voice asked and they turned to the door. There she was again. Kinoko-atama, this time wearing a gym uniform and joined by a few other girls wearing the same. She changed her mushroom-like hairstyle for a simple ponytail, but that wouldn’t stop Nezumi from calling her by her newly found nickname. “It’s our turn now.”

“But we barely even rehearsed,” Satoshi said but she didn’t really seem to care all that much. The way she stared them down gave Nezumi the impression that she really was a stuck-up girl who always got her way.

“Takenaka-kun, we gave you critical moments of our own rehearsal time and you wasted it once again,” she merely continued as the other girls sat down on the matt and started their warming up. “Now please, leave.”

Yuuta sighed and turned around. “Let’s go.”

“Eh?! Chotto matta!” Wataru called as he stopped Yuuta in his tracks. “You’re giving up this easily? We have every right to rehearse!”

Hmm, apparently he really was passionate about this which gave Nezumi the impression that it might not have been forced upon him. Or maybe in the beginning. Still the whole matter seemed rather strange, yet funny.

“Yeah! You heard him! Fight back!” she grinned with her fist into the air. Surely she could get some more fun out of this, especially if she could spite both Kinoko-atama and Wataru at the same time.

“Urusai yo,” she replied. “You need to leave as well.”

“Or else what?” Nezumi turned to her and crossed her arms. She couldn’t make her leave, so if she chose to stay, there was nothing she could do about it. Every moment she talked to Nezumi it started to annoy her more and more.

“Ikuzo,” Yuuta merely said as he continued walking. The other guys soon followed and Nezumi could briefly hear Wataru scoff before following as well.

Such a shame he gave up so easily, but it couldn’t be helped. He really was serious about this.

“Soe, anata...” she continued. “You should follow their lead.”

Nezumi glared at her for a single moment, then sighed as she turn around. Fine, let her have her stupid gym. It’s not like she cared, nor that she even wanted to be there when they start dancing around, the very thought made her sick.

Instead she hurried to try and catch up to Wataru and the others.

“Oi! Wataru! Chotto!” she called after him and reluctantly he stopped and turned around.

In a spare moment she pulled her arm back as she turned her hand into a fist, flinging it forward as she gained speed and closed in on him. Her punch was directed to his face, but instead of actually hitting him, she stopped mere inches off it, sllightly disappointed to see that he didn’t even flinch. Though in the corner of her eye she did manage to see a somewhat startled movement from the others. Yet Wataru just stared at her fist as if he had expected her to stop.

“Nani?”

“Masaka, owasure ja nai deshou ne?” She told him with her fist still raised in front of his face.

“Forgot what?” he merely raised an eyebrow, though she could tell by the tone of his voice that he was starting to get irritated. Good, that was exactly what she wanted.

“Our fight,” she grinned.

“Eh, if you wanna fight that badly, I’ll do it” Ryosuke frowned but she ignored him. She wasn’t interested in fighting anyone other than Wataru.

“Or me! No need to bother Aniki” Nippori practically smiled from ear to ear. The fact that he called Wataru aniki was both cute and weird. To be honest, the guy was just weird himself but it gave him a certain charm.

“Dame!” Wataru said as he tilted his head slightly to look at her. “No fighting.”

Oh how she expected this answer. At least she got his friends to cheer on the fight, now Nezumi just needed her opponent to agree.  “You might say you won’t fight, but fighting is in your heart.” she looked back up at him, “I won’t give up.”

With that said, she cheerfully turned around and skipped away towards the schoolgates. It was impressive that he still managed to keep his cool and didn’t even react to her punch. It only made her wonder what would have happened if she’d actually hit him. She guessed she’d find out soon enough, if her plan worked out right that is. And they always did.

Though, the things she had heard about Azuma Wataru and the things she had witnessed this brief time she had been here seemed to be about two different kinds of people. The stories she had heard of Wataru were about fights and action whereas meeting Wataru, she was starting to get the impression he wasn’t like that at all...