After the sound of the other line hanging up beeped through her ears, she placed her phone away and turned to the man standing right behind her. This didn’t feel right at all, but she had no other choice. She had to make sure that he would leave her alone, leave the school alone and not ruin any more things that were so important to her.

“She is on her way...”

“Good,” he smirked as he emerged from the darkness.

“Now I want you to leave me alone. Forever.” She told him without looking at him. She kept her gaze averted from his and stared into the distance.

“Oh? Leaving so soon?”

“I am not going to sit around and watch,” she said. “It’s bad enough I’m involved in all of this...”

“Did you think your part was over?” he chuckled. “You’re our best witness...”

The door behind closed with a loud sound as a dim light revealed all the yankees carrying their weapons and ready for the plan to unfold. Michiyo looked around, hesitantly at what was going to happen.

“Better yet, you should share the pain of your friend!”

Immediately someone flung towards her with a pipe in hand, barely scraping over her head as she dodged the hit. “Wait, what is this?!”

Another yankee approached her, trying to hit her with a wooden plank. She ducked and turned around, quickly kicking in the back of his knees to bring him to the ground. Meanwhile she heard the roaring chuckles of a very amused Saburou. He was just having fun with her until Nezumi would arrive.

“Wait, please wait a minute here,” she quickly said as she turned to Saburou, “I helped you out!”

“Didn’t you say that those who sell out their friends are the worst?” he smirked as he crossed his arms high across his chest. “That it’s considered betrayal?”

“What? Yes! But... But Nezumi never was my friend!” she replied quickly. True, the two of them had never once actually been friendly to each other nor could they ever be considered friends.

“Once, you were a yankee, ne?” he continued as he watched how someone else raced towards her to attack. This time without a weapon but with his bare fist.

“I’m not anymore, you know that!” she dodged the punch and kicked him aside. True, once she was a yankee but that was just a brief moment. And never again. Surely she knew some moves that a yankee would never forget but still, she wants nothing more to do with this.

“You were just bait for us to fish out Nezumi with!”

“I know.”

“Did you think we would let you out this easily?” he continued. “Get her!”

The warehouse was dark. Either the lights were turned off or had broken and the only light that entered the large, abandoned building were the rays of sun escaping through the damaged, filthy windows high up.

“Kinoko-atama!” she called as she entered the warehouse. There she was, surrounded by the many members of the yankee team, scratches and bruises all over. And in the middle was Saburou, his arms crossed and a very amused smirk on his face.

“Yokoso...” he spoke calmly. “To our little reunion.”

“I’m your opponent,” she spoke as she clutched her fist tighter.

“Ah? You actually came to rescue this worthless girl?” he slightly tilted his head as he looked at her. “Can it be... you’ve grown weak?”

With a scoff she moved forwards, “No matter how many grunts you gather...” she briefly looked around. “If you touch an innocent bystander I won’t let you get away that easily.”

“Well see about that,” he smirked. “Get her too.”

As soon as he spoke those words the group of yankees turned and raced towards her with their pipes and planks raised into the air and their battle cries sounding through the huge warehouse.

Nezumi, too, let out a cry for battle as she flung forwards to the approaching fighters. She pushed the first one aside, grabbing hold of the pipe which the second one was holding and kicking the very same yankee in the gut as she ripped the pipe out of his hands, swinging it around to keep the others away. She turned around to glare at Saburou who still stood there with his arms crossed and watching the fight going on. She then turned to punch the next one out of the was as she grabbed hold of the pipe and swung it over her shoulder. Someone surprised her from the side and hit the side of her head, leaving behind a clear scratch. She brushed the hair out of her face and kicked the yankee out of the way. Slightly gasping for air as the next horde of yankees approached her, she moved to the center of the group as she got surrounded.

The first one ran up to her but she blocked it and kicked him aside. The second one managed to press the pipe against her gut and kicked her to the ground. But she quickly got back up and managed to block the plank that was aimed for her head, kicking up her knee underneath and pushing the yankee away with her hands. These were certainly a lot stronger than the guys she fought before, meaning Saburou was serious this time. But as usual he merely watched the entertainent as he let these fools do all the hard work.

As one of them punched her face, another one sneaked up and swung the plank against her back. She stumbled in the middle of the group trying to maintain her balance. If she would lose out now it would be bad for multiple reasons. The first being that Saburou would have won and could have his way with her, not to mention that it would bring Michiyo in more danger than she already was and even though they weren’t exactly each others friends, she didn’t wish Saburou’s cruelty down on anyone. Not even Wataru. Another one headed for her with a raised weapon but she bowed down and pressed against the guy’s body, pushing him far back until he lost his balance and fell to the ground, now past the group of yankees and standing right in front of Saburou and Michiyo.

She looked at Michiyo for a moment before looking up at Saburou with a smirk on her face.

“Impressive,” he told her. “But surely, I’m convinced you’re merely holding back...”

“Believe me,” she smirked as she brushed her arm past , looking down to see the faint stain of her own blood that she had been tasting in for a little while now. The bitter, iron taste. “I’m just warming up.”

“Good.”

Again she turned around to face the horde, this team seemingly more exhausted in contrary to what she pretended to do. She wasn’t warming up. She just wasn’t focused enough and somehow couldn’t focus on the fight. Or so it seemed to Michiyo. She took a lot more hits than the beginning of the fight, finding it slightly more difficult to keep her balance and stay up.

“Nezumi...” she whispered. This was all her fault. She knew she shouldn’t have done this. She could’ve warned her. Or Wataru even. Or just go to the police and let them deal with it. They were with too many and too strong.

As soon as kicked a guy aside she ran towards Michiyo and pulled her up from the ground. A group approached her and she kicked back the first, feeling the sting of the iron pipe colliding with her back. “Run!” No matter what, she had to get out. Whether or not Nezumi would lose, if Michiyo was gone she had nothing to lose really. And maybe, just maybe she could focus enough on the fight itself. Maybe it was the fear of losing controle and getting fired up and in the process hurting an innocent that held her back and kept her so distracted. She had once promised never to let herself go like that, not even for a fight like this.

“Give up.”

Pressing her lips together she tried to keep in the cries of pain as another one slammed his pipe onto her back. She took a breath, turned around and kicked her leg into the air and forced him to the ground as she hit his head. She lost her balance and fell to the ground, Michiyo crouching next to her as Nezumi tried to catch her breath.

“Me? Give up?” she managed to smirk faintly. “Never.”

“...Baka...”

She got up, stumbling forwards to make a path through the horde of yankees. She stopped and looked around as she found herself surrounded again by the horde. “...Kuso...”

She stood eye in eye with one of them, who raised his pipe as the others let out another battle cry and mimicked his motion, ready to strike. But before anything, one of them fell forwards and dropped his pipe. Nezumi looked down at the fallen yankee and back up to where he first stood.

“Kinoko...atama?”

“You sure are stubborn, ne?” she grinned as she stopped right next to her, now standing shoulder to shoulder.

Nezumi glanced aside for a moment before turning around with her back towards hers and stared at the guys in front of her. She raised her fists in front of her face, ready for another fight.

“Would you look at that,” Saburou chuckled as he relaxed his arms to his side. “Now we have Mickey, and the mouse.”

One of the guys moved forwards but before she could do anything the guy was punched aside by Michiyo.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are,” Michiyo replied with a slight chuckle and turned around with her back against Nezumi.

“I must admit, I’d never expected to ever see you fight,”

“I’ve never expected to help you fight.”

She chuckled, “Well, it’s my first time in a fight that I can’t win alone.”

The yankees ran up to them and they briefly seperated from each other, each taking on their own group but still kept an eye out for the other. As Nezumi kicked aside some of the guys, Michiyo punched some of them in the guts before blocking a hit from one of the pipes and holding it up. Nezumi turned around, took hold of the same pipe and used it to keep her balance as she swung around and kicked the guy in the gut.

“THE COPS ARE COMING!!”

A rather useless looking guy ran into the warehouse looking distressed. Immediately the others stopped fighting and lowered their weapons.

“Just when it got interesting...”Saburou scoffed, “You got lucky this time!”

Immediately they turned towards the exit and ran as fast as they could. Carefully and slowly both Michiyo and Nezumi got up and kept their balance.

“How can you fight if you’re afraid of the cops?”

“Cowards!” she called after them before turning around and stared at Michiyo, “Are, is this what they teach you at your stupid tumbling practice?”

She shrugged, “Let’s just say I had a great teacher.”

“Impressive,” she nodded with a grin, “Let’s go home.”

She turned around and wanted to walk away but Michiyo stopped her immediately.

“Chotto!” she called. “There is something I need to tell you.”

“Can’t it wait?” she sighed as she glanced back. “I’m exhausted and I just...-”

“It’s all my fault!”

“Nani?”

“The call... Saburou asked me to call you here...” she explained carefully. She couldn’t bare to keep this a secret with what she had just seen. For some reason Nezumi came to rescue her, she couldn’t live without confessing this. “It was a trap. I was supposed to call you here and they would gang up on you... I’m sorry.”

Nezumi blinked as she completely turned around and stared at the girl. The preppy, obnoxious girl that had bothered her from the first day they met. She actually coöperated with Saburou to trick her into coming here?

“Naze?”

“Eh?”

“Why would you work with Saburou?”

“If I didn’t he would never leave me alone. He was the one who ruined the gym as well...” she explained. “I didn’t want this to happen...”

She narrowed her eyes, “What’s his business with you?”

Michiyo kept silence. Did she really wanted to answer that question. Especially after all the things she had heard in the past couple of days.

“Tell me!” she stepped forwards.

“Because!” she said. “He knew my sister...”

She arched a brow, “Your sister?”

“Mizumi...”

“Eh?!” her eyes widened in surprise. “Mizumi? Masaka! I’ve known her all my life! She would’ve told me.”

“Did she tell you about her family?” she wondered.

“The family that left her? The family that disowned for who she was?!” she replied harshly.

Michiyo nodded. “For a brief moment, I wanted to be just like her. And so I followed her and told her that I wanted to become a yankee as well... She taught me so much but our parents were against it. It was too dangerous and when Mizumi didn’t want to quit... They left her behind...”

“Masaka...” she shook her head. Mizumi had told her about her family and how bad their relationship was. Indeed she had mentioned a sister but nothing more than that. She would’ve told her about her sister as a yankee, right? They were best friends, right? She would’ve mentioned it to her at some point, wouldn’t she?

“It was Saburou who wrote my family a letter to tell us that Mizumi had died. But my parents, they didn’t seem like they cared...” she continued in a slightly sadder tone of voice. She then looked up at Nezumi and grinned. “She had written me a letter once too, telling me how she had met someone who wanted to be a yankee as well. How she reminded her of me.... I never expected that it would be someone like you...”

She scoffed as she looked up with a frown, “Baka!”

“Eh?”

“Don’t insult me!” she told her. “She couldn’t possibly be reminded of you. We are nothing alike. You’re a goody nosy brat and I...” she pointed at herself as a grin appeared on her face. “I am simply awesome!”

Michiyo laughed, “Ne, don’t be so cocky!”

“But I must admit... you were pretty awesome back there...” it has been a while since she last fought back to back with someone. The last person was Mizumi, the two of them made such a great team.

“I was, wasn’t I?” she grinned. “But please, Nezumi, don’t tell anyone about this...”

“Do you think I’m a fool?” she smirked. “It would damage my reputation too!”