Disclaimer: I do not own Mai Hime
The force of impact landed on the jaw of Natsuki. The strength behind the constant punches on her person created a moment of blindness and confusion. She felt her captor behind her keeping a firm grip on her arms, prevented her from defending or retaliating. Natsuki looked through one eye as the other was blinded by blood. She saw as her attacker's fist drew back once more to land on her face. 'No more.' She snarled as she landed a kick into her attacker's groin. The man kneeled over while whimpering in pain. Taking the advantage, Natsuki jerked herself away from her captor, who was in shock, and spun around to land a mighty upper cut to the man's unexpecting chin. The man flew backwards and hit his head rather hard on the brick wall behind him. Natsuki never allowed one moment of hesitation as she turned toward the man cussing as he tried to stand and attack her once more.
Balling her right hand into a fist, she slammed it into the man's nose. She heard the satisfying sound of the bone break. Spinning around, she delievered a roundhouse kick to the man's face sending him flying to toward the dumpster. Hearing the sound of the other man behind her getting up, she headed toward him. The man managed to get on his knees just as Natsuki stood in front of him. Faster than a blink of an eye, Natsuki slammed her knee against the man's neck. Her hands darted out to grab his collar and repeatly rammed his head against the brick wall finding blood making a pattern against the rough surface. Seeing that the man was knocked out, she let him go and turned toward the other unconscious man. 'They never learn.' She left the alley as dawn was breaking through.
A large crowd of students flooded the courtyard in front of school chatting amongst themselves. One girl stood at the side looking at her watch then over the crowd. Her foot tapped the concrete floor signifying her impatience as she bit her lower lip. 'Come on, where are you?' She glanced at her watch once more. It was almost time and yet no sign. The bell rang and the courtyard quickly emptied. The girl sighed as she took one last look around before starting her trek to her class. As she started walking up the stairs, a hand landed upon her shoulder, "NATSUKI!" the girl twirled around placing her hand upon her chest to still her racing heart. "Why do you keep sneaking up on me like that?" She demanded.
"Mai-"
"OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED?" Mai interrupted when she noticed the appearance of her best friend.
"Don't worry about it." Natsuki shrugged.
"What am I going to do with you? Was this why you were late?"
"Mai, you're going to be late if you keep talking." Natsuki didn't want to explain her night to her mother-like friend. 'I wasn't going to show up because I knew this would happen, but Mai would be even more worried and call me constantly until I saw her.'
Mai gave her look that told Natsuki that the conversation was not over, "Fine, let's go." Natsuki started to walk down the stairs when Mai called out, "Aren't you going to class?"
"No."
"You're here, you might as well. Why come to school if you had no plans on attending class?"
"Mai, I'm busy."
"Natsuki Kuga." Mai's voice dropped as she placed her hands on her hips. Natsuki knew that tone, it was the tone Mai always used when it meant she was in trouble. Not wanting to get into another fight, Natsuki changed direction and followed Mai. Mai's expression was one of victory. "You know, you should at least wear the school's uniform. You will only get into more trouble."
"Mai, give it a rest." Natsuki ran her fingers through her hair. She could already feel a headache building and the idea of her appearance would cause a disturbance with her teacher only intensified it.
Natsuki looked herself in the mirror for the first time today and saw why Mai's reaction was so severe. It wasn't as if she never been in fights before, but she usually skipped class so it never was that big of a deal. Her right eyebrow was cut open and some blood dried in an ugly mass over it with some of her hair matted with it. Her lip was bruised and cut and her eye was swollen. Her hands were a bloody mess with scrapes and open wounds, Natsuki looked at her clothes that revealed torn and unkept material. She turned on the faucet and plundged her hands under the flowing water. She hissed slightly at the stinging sensation. 'I'm amazed I wasn't kicked out of class.' She thought.
She cupped her hands to get a good amount of water then splashed her face a few times to get the sweat and blood off. Looking back up to the mirror, she saw the cuts on her face were looking better. One more splash and she turned the water off. Grabbing her hoodie tail, she dried her hands and face off. She looked a little more presentable not that she cared, but it should do enough for the teachers to stop annoying her. She looked at her rumpled clothes. Her black pants needed to be replaced, it had holes in them and beginning to fray quite a bit. Her dark blue hoodie hiding underneath her school's vest looked as if it needed to be washed. Combing her fingers through her hair a few times, she gave a satisfied nod and left the bathroom.
Deciding if she would head back to class or not, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and walked the campus. By the time she decided, school was almost over. So far, Natsuki had not seen the person she had come to school for. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was almost that time. She made her way to her destination. Finding the familiar tree in front of the school building, she jumped and pulled herself up on a branch. She made her way to the other side of the tree and gazed through the window opposite of her. There was a near empty room situationed across from her. Natsuki felt her heart speed up at the sight of the person inside.
A beautiful girl sat at her desk typing on her laptop. Natsuki knew who this person was the moment she saw her, it was the Student Class President. The girl at first annoyed her greatly because of her position and the type of person she personafied. Natsuki hated Mary Sues and Shizuru Fujino was one of the biggest she had ever seen. Everything this girl does seem to scream perfection. Shizuru seemed to be the poster child of every parent's dream come true.
She was filthy rich, gorgeous, calm, collected, intelligent, witty, charming, athletic, and had everyone eating out of the palm of her hand. This girl could do no wrong in the eyes of the public. She even had fan clubs named after her that consisted of both genders! What made the matter worse was that she was dating a guy that seemed to be cut from the exact same mold as she and he was the Student Class Vice President. They were the absolute perfect couple. They always drank tea!
Natsuki could never understand their facsination over the beverage. It wasn't that good. 'I guess it is because she was raised in a traditional home that tea is the only acceptable drink allowed other than water.' Natsuki had never seen the woman drink anything but the two liquids. Unknown to Natsuki, she had no idea why she found this girl so intriguing. She hated their types, yet that one time they met face to face for the first time seemed to have changed that. Shaking her head, Natsuki rid herself of reminencing. She tightened her hold on the tree as she walked a little around the trunk to get a better look. The girl was once again taking a sip from her cup just as the door to the room opened.
Members of the student class filed in and taking their respected seats. Shizuru stood up from her seat and begun talking. Natsuki wished she could hear the girl's voice. She leaned a bit closer as to remain hidden but close enough to see Shizuru easier. The girl really was breathtaking in every sense of the word. Natsuki's eyes never strayed away from the beauty. Before Natsuki knew it, the meeting was adjoured and nearly everyone left the room. A few stayed behind to have a few more words then only one stayed behind with the president. Natsuki felt her teeth clench. It was Shizuru's boyfriend. Reito walked over to Shizuru and sat on the edge of her desk while Shizuru took her seat. They chatted for a good bit and laughed.
Natsuki wondered what could they be talking about that would cause Shizuru to laugh. It was rare to see Shizuru allow herself to act without any type of guard and Reito was one of the very select few who was allowed to see it. Jealousy saturated Natsuki's emotions. Natsuki wanted to hate this guy so much, but she could not bring herself to do it. Despite the fact that Reito was dating the object of her affections, he made Shizuru truely happy. Whenever they were together, Shizuru's expression would soften and her tone of voice seemed to have changed slightly different. Of course, she always seemed to have this reaction whenever she was amongst friends.
The two seemed to be getting quite comfortable with one another as Reito leaned in Shizuru's direction. Natsuki's fingers dug deeply into the bark of the tree that it crumbled under the pressure. Natsuki's scabs on her knuckles cracked open and blood escaped from its prison. Natsuki leaned in just as Shizuru leaned toward Reito. 'No!' Natsuki's heart cried out. Natsuki placed her foot on a small branch, the branch groaned under the weight. Putting more of her weight on the branch, Natsuki wasn't paying attention when the branch under her foot cracked. A web of splintered wood laced around the branch weakening it. The couple seemed to stop a few inches away from each other as to whisper sweet nothingness to one another.
Natsuki wanted to scream to stop the intimate moment. She placed more weight on the branch to stand on it when the branch finally gave in and broke completely. Natsuki's eyes widened greatly when she felt herself tipping foreward. Thankfully, she had quick reflexes, her hand grabbed onto another branch but only her fingertips managed to wrap themselves around the branch. Her body screamed at her because it could not maintain the weight. She was about to take a better grip of the branch when she heard the window opening. She let go and felt herself hitting branch after branch before slamming into the hard ground.
The air was knocked out of her body as she struggled to feet and ran into the shadows of the building. She pressed her back against the wall as she heard voices above her talking about the disturbance outside. She held her breath as the two could not figure out the reasoning behind loud sound and why branches littered the school ground. After what seemed like an hour, the window closed and the voices were cut off. Natsuki let out her breath only to regret it as her ribs ached. Holding her side, she felt as if she may have broken a rib or two.
Nursing her wounds, Natsuki sat on her sofa while giving up on the bandages. 'What a day!' She shook her head. She glanced around her near bare studio apartment. The only furniture she possessed was a sofa-turned-bed, desk, and chair. She rarely was at her place to really have any luxeries. On the floor was bandages and alcohol, she leaned back on her sofa and looked ahead of her blank wall. She turned her eyes to her desk which sat upon it a desktop computer. She made her way to it. Turning on the monitor, she typed in the website she was well familiar with. She took a deep breath as she was automatically signed in. She clicked on her profile to see if she had received any messages.
She always thought such a thing was a waste of time, but it was something she was forced to do because of school and Mai. Her assignment was to upload a blog on the school's intranet and all this blah about keeping a personal diary and stuff. Natsuki made an alias so she wouldn't have to worry about anyone bothering her. She had to write in it once a week to talk about her feelings. She rolled her eyes at the project, 'This is stupid.' She huffed. So far, no one has bothered her on here. She was used to seeing no private messages and it only made her happier. No one PMing her meant no need to add more to this ridiculous assignment. As for her diary, she only wrote a few sentences. No point in going into long descriptive details on how her life is going in the week.
Besides, she doubts anyone ever reads her blogs in the first place. Who wants to read about how she had to fight every night to stay alive on the streets. Sure she attended school, but it wasn't her choice. She would have dropped out, but her dead parents last request was for her to finish school and get into college. Despite her relunctance, she loved her parents that she would honor their wish. She had been known for getting into constant trouble outside of school and inside, but she kept her grades up. She found the subjects she had to take were boring. She knew the material and rarely had to study to keep her grades from slipping. It also helped that Mai kept on her to not skip school too much.
Her stomach growled notifying the owner to eat. Natsuki got up from her chair and made her way to the small kitchen. She opened the fridge to find inside it nearly bare. One bottle of rum and a Chinese carton rested inside. She grabbed the carton and opened the lid. She almost threw it out of her hand when she took a whiff of the moldy substance. "I guess Chinese is out of the question." She threw the carton away. She tore open the cabnets finding them empty. Her stomach growled angrily at her for forgetting to feed it. She placed her hand on her stomach, 'It's been yesterday since I last ate.' She headed for her wallet to find it held nothing inside. 'Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait until I get paid again.' She headed back to her computer.
She sat down once more and clicked on the tab to write her weekly blog. She wrote about how hungry she was and that she really should consider heading for the supermarket. She was about to submit when she figured to place one more entry before completing the blog. 'I'm craving for some pho.' She hit the submit button and exited the page and turned off the monitor. Her stomach would not stop complaining that she felt herself getting annoyed. "I don't have any money so quiet down." She argued knowing how stupid it must look that she was talking to her stomach. She looked at her watch seeing that it was almost time for work. She shed off her school clothes and put on fitted jeans and a dark grey tank top. Placing her hair up in a ponytail, she grabbed her keys and headed for her bike.
Exhausted, Natsuki clocked out of work. Running her hand over her tired face to keep herself from falling asleep. It was well after three in the morning, she made her way to her bike to find a gang of guys surrounding it. She narrowed her eyes as she strode toward them. "Get away." Her voice left no room for arguing. The boys turned toward her. She tightened her hands into fists waiting for them to make the first move. She guess it was her own fault for working and living in a dangerous part of town, but she was unable to afford a place anywhere else as well as finding a job. Her job was working in the warehouse to place equipment into delivery trucks.
"You own this bike?" One of the guys couldn't believe it. Natsuki felt her temper rising at an increased rate; she had heard the same thing over and over in her mind and frankly she was tired of it.
"Get away." She repeated coldly.
"Don't be so rude, little girl." The same guy had a confident grin on his face. He nodded to his four buddies; they begun to surround her.
Natsuki knew there was no point in talking to them any longer. She was exhausted, hungry, and her body was aching. She wanted to just sleep. She closed her eyes to allow her dry eyes to moisten a bit then opened them. She took a more defensive stance. The boy that seemed to be the leader of the group walked up to her. He reached out to touch her face when she grabbed his wrist with her thumb pressing against a pressure point on his palm. Shock washed his face as he fought against her strength. He found his arm being pulled down by this mere girl. Natsuki kept her facial expression neutral as she pulled his arm back causing the boy to lean back. Without warning, she jerked his hand all the way back, hearing the sound of the bone snapping.
The boy's howl of pain echoed in the night. The other guys watched in surprise. "Kill her!" The leader screamed. Natsuki grabbed the leader's head inbetween her hands and brought her knee up into the boy's face. She then turned to the advancing members coming at her. She felt a presence behind her that she ducked then swept her foot to trip one of them on the street. She then pushed off her left foot and sprung upward with her fist aimed at another boy's chin causing him to fly backward. Not breaking momentum, she swiftly moved to another boy and grabbed his shirt. She manuevered her body to bend against his body and threw him at the other approaching boy. As she righted herself, she found that three of the boys were getting up including the leader.
The guys seemed to of had enough of her that they drew out knives. 'Great. Just what I fucking need!' She gritted her teeth. She backed up. The other two guys started to untangle themselves from each other and got to their feet. She stopped and had resumed a stance readying for a fight. "Kuga! Don't suppose you would like some help." A voice behind her caused Natsuki to smirk.
"As long as you don't get in my way." She responded. Footsteps had gotten closer and stopped next to her, a man held a metal bat against his shoulder as another stepped on the other side of her cracking his knuckles. "What took you guys so long?"
"You know how Takeda can be. He was too busy looking at himself in the mirror." The older man remarked as he flexed his fingers.
"You're one to talk, Yamada, you were baby talking to your wife." Takeda retorted while patting the bat against his open hand.
"As much as I love hearing you two women bantering, how about you help me clean up this mess." Natsuki smirked. The gang started to noticed that the numbers were no longer in their favor. The leader snarled at Natsuki as he cradled his broken arm.
"GET THEM!" Natsuki merely rolled her eyes at the redundant speech as the group of men ran toward them. Natsuki allowed a joyous smile fall upon her face as she ran to meet them.
Huffing, Natsuki wiped her bloody chin with her arm as she looked over at the two guys catching their own breath. Five unconscious bodies laid on the street. "You okay, old man?" She looked over at Yamada leaning against the wall. He sported a nasty cut on his arm and some bruises on his face. He tried to chuckle but he grabbed his ribs.
"I'll live. What about you, kid?"
"I'm all right. Takeda, you okay?" She turned to the young man who leaned against the bat. He turned to give her a reassuring smile.
"Nothing I can't handle." He straightened up. He looked pretty beaten as well. "You look like you have the worse of it though." He commented.
Natsuki had received a deep cut on her stomach when she underestimated the distance of one of the guy's arm and the knife in his hand. She merely shrugged it off while her hand remained against the wound. She felt her body about to collapse from lack of rest and food, but she willed herself to remain strong. She hated the idea of looking weak in front of anyone. Her body was a museum of battle wounds and it would appear to hold more scars from tonights battle. Her wounds from yesterday reopened that made her appearance look worse than it was. Blood seeped into her eye as the cut on her eyebrow was open again along with another fresh wound nearby. "It looks worse than it is. Yamada, you had better leave before your wife kills you." She heard the sound of Yamada's cell ringing.
"Right. See you later." He stumbled off to his car. Takeda kept his eyes on Natsuki with concern.
"You sure you're all right?"
"Don't worry about me, Takeda. I'm starting to think that maybe Yamada was right about you." She saw the young man's face flame up.
"Whatever."
"You worry like an old woman. I'm tougher than I look." She pulled her hand away from her wound and masked the pain she felt. "Thanks for the help, see you!" She turned to her bike. Takeda watched as she peeled out and out of sight. He sighed before making his way to his car.
Natsuki dragged herself inside her apartment. Her hand held tightly over her stomach wound as she felt fresh blood spready on her shirt. She gingerly sat down against her couch and laid back. She lifted up her tank top only to stop as the fabric stuck to her open wound. 'Damn!' She slowly peeled it off causing her vision to become blurred. Swallowing back a gasp, Natsuki gave up the slow procedure and ripped the tank up. Her eyes watered and she sucked in her breath. Her stomach muscles clenched at the jerk, Natsuki took several deep breaths to keep herself calm as she closed her eyes waiting for the throbbing to lesson.
Pulling the tank all the way off her, she tossed it aside as she looked down at the angry wound marked on her abdomen. 'This is bad.' She thought as she tore her eyes away from it. Looking at her watch, she noted it was almost time for her to get to school. She reached down to grab the bandages and alcohol. She gritted her teeth knowing how much this was going to hurt. She first took several swallows of the alcohol before soaking one of the bandages with it. Taking numerous deep breaths, she pushed the bandage on her stomach. The feel of the alcohol soaked bandage touching her stomach nearly made Natsuki scream out profanties to the entire neighborhood.
She clenched her eyes shut and concentrated on not screaming. Her hold on the bottle in her hand tightened till her knuckles turned white and the muscles strained against her skin. She trusted herself enough to open her lips as she panted heavily. She lifted the bottle to her lips and swallowed some more of the burning liquid to help keep the pain at bay. She lifted the bandage feeling some of the stray fabric sticking to it. She tried to clean herself as best as she could. She felt like she was going to pass out soon. Fighting against the urge, she kept her mind alert to her actions. Sucking in air everytime the bandage touched the open wound, she felt her body shivering violently.
She set the bottle down. She noticed the wound looked cleaner but not better looking. She dropped the cloth on the floor allowing her body to rest for a bit. She then reached down once more for fresh bandages. She wrapped it around her middle ignoring the throbbing pain. Satisfied with her work, she looked around her. She felt her body shutting down. 'No, I need to go to school.' She fought against the heavily lids, "I want to see her." Her voice faded away as she lost the battle and blacked out.
AN: Another experiment, I wonder if this will even make people want to review it. If not, then I'll just delete it and try again.