As she took another swing forward, she placed all her strength and weight in her fist as she placed it on his face, the force impacting with his jaw and forcing his entire head to move the way her fist had forced it, his body soon following as he landed on the floor. Blood was running from the corner of his mouth as he stayed down for the count this time. Which was the first and only smart move he had made since the moment they crossed paths.

She stood before them, legs spread apart as her arms were to her side and she looked down at her three victims. Surely they could be admired for lasting so long against her, but they were fools to try and cheat by pulling a three-to-one fight. She had warned them it was a mistake to mess with her for whatever reason they had to start talking to her in the first place. After all, she would never back out of a practice fight, but they had no idea what they got themselves into by bothering Nezumi.

Slowly she raised her right fist and stared at it for a moment. The spatters of blood stained her rather pale skin but as usual the sight of other people’s blood on her hands gave her that certain rush. Some would say she was wicked for craving to see blood on her own hands in a battle, but it only answered her question whether or not she was strong enough. Strong enough to force someone’s life liquid out of their veins. The trophy of a yankee.

She smirked as she turned around and headed out of the alley. These guys were merely part of the many victims that she would go through until she got her final battle. Whether it was voluntarily or not, Wataru would eventually fight her.

She stopped and stared up at the clear blue sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight which made her realise that this was one of those rare, perfect days. She remembered how these were usually the days that Nezumi and her gang skipped school and went out. Looking for excitement, adventure and fun wherever they could find it. And they usually ended in beating up poor unfortunate souls that thought they could outsmart them, beat them or just crossed their path at the wrong time. Ah, how she missed those days.

“UAAAAH!” the guy really thought she was an idiot. She turned around, already expecting this desperate attempt to save his face and manage to block his punch with her hand, throwing her knee up into his gut and forcing all the air out of his body as she pushed him back and he landed on the ground again.

“Nice try...” She shook her head. “But you failed...” Briefly she looked up at the old fashioned clock hanging against one of the stores outer walls in the distance, then turned back to the guys on the floor. “And you made me late for school... tsk tsk...” she grinned as she turned around, picked up her bag from the ground that she dropped in front of the alley and headed her way to school. This was some nice morning exercise if she could say so herself.

Calmly she walked up the courtyard and headed for the entrance of the building. Since she was already late for class she wasn’t even going to bother to rush herself to get there. And she didn’t even bother to clean up her knuckles from all the blood.

“You’re late,” she heared as she passed the grassfield and stopped with a sigh, throwing her head back as she turned around with a bothered face and looked at her.

“Dakara nan nano?”

“Every student must be on time for class, those are school rules,” she told her. It was only now that she realised she was sitting on the bench and reading a book. So far she hadn’t looked up at her, yet she kept on talking.

“Psh... Then why aren’t you in class?” she scoffed then a frown appeared on her face as a thought came to mind, “Don’t tell my you are skipping class?!”

“Baka, of course not!” she replied as she finally looked up from her book.

“Oi, who are you calling baka, Kinoko-atama!” she snapped at her but she didn’t really seem impressed.

“You’re just lucky the teacher is sick and we have no replacement today,” she got up from her seat and closed her book, holding it against her chest with one arm as she took a step towards Nezumi.

“Teachers actually get sick?” She frowned again. She had never experienced a teacher calling in sick at her old school. Those teachers seemed like robots, or aliens, unable to feel anything or get sick. 

“Seriously...” she sighed as she shook her head. She then looked down with a slightly concerned face, “Are you bleeding?”

Nezumi looked at her fist for a moment, then looked back up at her with a proud grin, “No, I’m not.”

“Then why is er blood on your hands...?”

She raised her stained fist and looked past it at her face with a proud grin, “I had to take care of some... punks on my way to school.”

“You were fighting?”

“Betsuni,” she shrugged. “You could hardly call it a fight,” she laughed as she thought back at the other guys who were probably still trying to get up from the ground after she punched their lights out.

“Pride comes before the fall,” A serious frown appeared on her face as she looked up at Nezumi and forced her fist down, “Don’t mess with the wrong people around here.”

“I am the wrong people,” She grinned with her head slightly tilted, “Dakara nan nano? Why do you care?”

“I don’t, but as class representative I just don’t want anyone being late for class for such a foolish reason,” she bit back as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Now excuse me, I have practice.”

Nezumi watched as she brushed past her and headed for the gymnasium with her book pressed under her arms. Nezumi didn’t know why but it felt like she was slightly overreacting. What did she expect, she was a yankee after all, of course she would fight or mess with the wrong crowd. She needed a challenge to prepare herself for her goal.

She shrugged off the thought and turned around, her attention drawn to the complaints and yells from an all too familiar voice in the distance. Apparently the male tumbling team wasn’t allowed to practice inside anymore. Or not today at least, so they chose to practice outside instead. She was amazed by the fact that none of them seemed to be really bothered by humiliating themselves, especially Wataru and his friends, since they seemed to have quite a reputation. How can anyone take you seriously as a yankee when you prance around wearing tights and pink shirts.

They were standing in a certain formation as they leaned forward and raised one leg into the air, it looked more like taichi exercise than tumbling but whatever, it was actually quite amusing.

“Are you sure you’re not a ballet dancer?” She chuckled as she placed her hands on her hips. Wataru broke his concentration and hopped on one foot to try and gain back his balance as he bumped into Ryosuke who bumped into the next until all of them ended up on one pile onto the ground.

She couldn’t help but laugh at this amusing sight, which only seemed to bother Wataru more as he jumped back onto his feet, cursing under his breath and approached her.

“What do you want now?!” he bit at her. Ah, the way he spoke to her was starting to progress in terms of annoyance. If she kept this up a battle will be inevitable, perfectly according to plan.

“You know what I want,” she told him as she stared right into his eyes. The red hair complimented his eyes and face actually, not that it really matters to her but it had to be said either way.

“Mou, iya desu...” Ryosuke sighed.

“Aniki, just fight her already!” Nippori said as he rubbed his knee slightly.

“See, even your friends are saying it,” Nezumi grinned. Finally someone in the group was getting wise. “Ne, anata ga kowaidesu ka?”

“I’m not scared!!” he yelled as he turned his hands into fists.

“Ne,” she took a few steps closer, now standing face to face as she felt that this time the challenge would get a lot more serious than last time, as a smirk appeared on her face, “Okotteru?”

She didn’t know what changed since the last time they spoke and she challenged him, but she finally felt like the spark of the hot-headed yankee was finally lighting up again. Maybe that was the reason he started tumbling, maybe he wanted to tame that side of him, but unfortunately Nezumi wouldn’t let that happen before she got my battle.

“Ore wa oko~tsu tenai yo!” he replied as he leaned a little towards her, trying to intimidate her. How unfortunate that he didn’t really impress her in his current outfit, with the pink shirt and white tights and all...

“Then bring it... Wa-ta-ru” she tilted her head slightly.

“I’ll show you..-“ he growled as he glared at hher but before he could even act the way she had hoped he would, someone had to spoil the fun.

“Wataru...” Yuuta said seriously as he finally got up.

Wataru stared at her, his temper flaring which showed in his eyes, but he merely scoffed as he relaxed his hands and took a step back.

“Ah~ you’re not worth my time,” he then said, slightly looking away.

She frowned and crossed her arms as she looked from him to Yuuta who merely stared back at her with the same serious face. That guy might be the captain of this team, but she didn’t see why Wataru let him boss him around. He could easily take him on so why would he let him give orders.

“Hot blood in such a frail body...” Nezumi said as she turned back to Wataru. “I won’t give up on this.”

That being said she turned around and walked away. Apparently the skies lied to her. If Wataru had fought her just now, it would’ve been just like old times sake, fighting on the clear blue days for fun, entertainment and other reasons. And if that stupid boy hadn’t stopped Wataru, the fight would actually had happened. But she wasn’t worried about it. This was just the start, it only gave her time to practice with random victims.

“Oi! What is that supposed to mean?!” she could hear him call after her. “I DON’T HAVE A FRAIL BODY!”

“Aniki’s body isn’t frail at all,” Nippori quickly agreed.

“Just leave it, Wataru.” Ryosuke sighed.

Yuuta shook his head. “Let’s start again.” 

“GAAH!”