"Heiwajiba!"
"Heiwajiba!"
"Come on out here and show us what you've got, Heiwajiba!"
A motley crew of scared boys posing as strong men overtook the main courtyard in front of Raira Academy. All but one were thinking the same thing, that this was crazy – suicide even, but if they ran, the shame would be far worse. The lone confident leader had no idea what he was getting him and his buddies into, his stupidity had lead to his position as leader; no one else was thick enough to take it on.
"I told you guys," he said grinning, his uwabaki sunk into the mud. He looked more like a smug toad than the shogun he called himself, "I told you it was a lot of talk, this guy's strong, but he's not gonna try and take on all us at once!"
His posse nodded sheepishly, some unclenched, others continued to back away.
"Alright, one more time! If Heiwajiba doesn't come out in 10 seconds, we're claiming this block! Come on out and fight! You had no problem with 15 guys, so how 'bout 25?"
Kyohei Kadota leaned against the only tree on the Raira campus, he always made sure to get outside first so that no one could take it from him, not that they'd try. He loosened his tie and took out his book, un-creasing the dog ear he picked up where he left off when all of a sudden some punk at the gate started yelling. He stopped and Kyohei resumed, however, every time he tried reading, the assholes with no uniforms at the gate would start hollering again. It was clear what they were after, right from the start, why else did non Raira kids come by these days? These idiots were no different from every other idiot that came by looking for trouble. Without looking up, Kadota had guessed they were all carrying crude weapons,
"It's Heiwajima" Kyohei loudly, but calmly, said to none of them in particular.
"What the-who the hell asked you?" The little, overly loud one at the front spat, "Get lost!"
"His name's Heiwajima, he wont come out and beat you into this slug if you don't have the decency to get even his name right"
"Heiwajima?"
"Good job"
"Listen, y-you looking for trouble?" Apparently Kyohei's calm demeanor was unsettling to the Napoleonic leader, who clutched his metal pipe a little closer
Kyohei Kadota lifted his head and gazed at the kids, some obviously still in middle school, crowding around their boss to give some sort of illusion of strength; he almost smirked. Clapping is book shut he wandered over to the boss man, who was at least two heads shorter, he and his comrades continued to sink into the murky lawn – this did not seem to catch their attention. Kadota put his book under one arm and swung his bag over his shoulder, and then, without hesitation or trouble, ripped the pipe from the young man's trembling hands, whacking his knee along the way, and flung it across the field. The boys gaped, some of them dropped their boards, rocks, and whatever else they had picked up along the way and others just froze. The leader buckled to one side, he could not steady himself, and no one tried to help.
"Heiwajima's coming, I'm just his delivery boy" the smirk came and the rag tag gang fled, their boss hobbling quickly behind. The smirk immediately left Kyohei's face and was replaced with disgust, more at himself than at them. He looked to the left side of the gate where smoke was billowing from someone leaning, ironically, on a "No Smoking" sign. A tall blond kid, quite a bit taller than Kyohei, stomped his cigarette into the mud and said flatly, "Well that was easy."
"Would have been quicker if you'd stepped up yourself"
"Now you know that's not true. Thanks for correcting them on my name, I wouldn't want the little pricks that come around trying to jump me getting that wrong."
Kyohei threw his bag over by the blond and started opening his book, "Well now that you're afternoon has freed up, stay awhile"
"I've gotta meet Kasuka, he's expecting me"
"Yeah, in an hour, just sit here and chill out for a minute or two – even you are allowed to do that"
Kyohei's companion turned noiselessly on one heel and went through the gate, twirling a pen in his hand, a slim shadow quickly followed behind, "Yup, just a calm day alone – good luck with that" Kyohei sighed and combed his hair back with his hand, a nervous tick that he couldn't seem to beat, "at least he usually splits once Kasuka shows up." Finally having the peace he'd been hoping for, he sat on a rock, and started reading page 34, only to discover, that pages 35-40 had been ripped out with 'Looking for something, Dotachin?' scrawled in frilly script across 41, for the first time in weeks, Kyohei Kadota lost his cool, this time, twice in a single afternoon.
"IZAYA!"
Students continued to file out of the Raira campus. A nerd with broken glasses and a cheesy grin waved excitedly at Kadota, ignoring his frustration. Kadota nodded in return, he wasn't a barbarian - just pissed off. Dark clouds began to reform, everyone had thought the storm was over, but a blinking eye hung overhead.