~ Chapter one - "Save You, Save Me" ~

Shishido Ryou was not paying attention to the class – he was thinking. How did it happen to him to be actually involved in some kind of gang after only three weeks of Senior High? He indeed often had had fights – he was hot-tempered and not very social type after all – but he had always done it alone and had no problems with it. Few bruises and fractures did not count. He was perfectly fine being alone. So… how did he end up in this? Even not a normal 'gang'! And what was with this "We're gonna rule this school!" attitude when they had only three people in a gang counting himself?! Well, four actually, but he could not (and did not want to) imagine Mukahi fighting. That was a nonsense. So why did he say 'okay' when they asked?

'Gosh, that's stupid' he thought.

A dark aura behind him dragged him out of his thoughts. Sensei stood there glaring at him.

"Shishido-kun, am I not good enough for your attention? Or are you the only one who doesn't need to pass the Japanese History Exam in the end of the semester?" she said sweetly. Way too sweet actually.

"Errrr… sorry, sensei, I just…" Shishido tried to find the excuse.

"You just want to stay after classes. Okay then, let me grant your wish…" the teacher cut him off. "Well, doesn't anyone know the answer? Like… awww… sleeping so sweetly, Akutagawa… maybe YOU know the name of the man in question?" She was definitely in a bad mood: just looking around Ryou found five boys standing – obviously for not answering this same question Ryou himself even hadn't heard. The sleeping blond though lifted his head and looked up before answering:

"It's Akechi Mitsuhide, sensei…" he said in a sleepy voice before adjusting his head back on his arms and his eyes sliding shut. "He was Oda Nobunaga's 'right hand' and when Nobunaga got him somehow kicked off the palace he decided to get revenge on him~ zzzzzzzz~" and the boy went back to his sleep.

Despite the fact Shishido had been studying with Akutagawa Jirou since elementary school (they were not quite close but still knew each other) his eyes (and eyes of the whole class and even the teacher herself) went wide – no one thought the boy even heard the question and him knowing the answer… wow, that was amazing if you ask Shishido.

"Ah… my…" the teacher almost got out of her shock. "Why all of you are not like that? He seems to listen to the class even being asleep… and he does his homework too… My God, such a child…" she was obviously delighted. Unlike the standing boys – they actually seemed… well, pissed off would be that one word. Ryou thought this was not a good sign.

There were times when Shishido Ryou hated to be right. This time seemed to be like that. After the bell rang and sensei left five boys from earlier plus three more from their 'company' came to Akutagawa's desk. The boy was awake and had just pulled out a bento from his bag.

"Oi, Akutagawa… need to talk to you." said Sarino, the tallest boy in the class. The blond raised his head and blinked at him. Shishido stood up to interfere if something was about to start right here.

"What?.."

"Let's go, you'll eat later…" Areki added. Jirou shrugged and stood up.

"'Kay" he said, following them outside. Ryou stared: does not the boy understand what they are up to? He won't be able to eat anything but baby food for at least a month after that! And no one in the class would stop them…

Only because Ryou had some kind of high morals and a little sweet spot for the always sleeping blond ('cause hey! how can one study with such a creature for half of one's life and NOT have a sweet spot for him!) he now seemed to have eight-to-one fight. 'Great… Or wait! It's not necessarily eight-to-one…' he thought and gritted his teeth, moving to the door.

If there was anything that Shishido Ryou hated more than being right when he did not want to then it was to ask for help. But in this case… he did not need to just show off, he needed to save one little optimistic idiot from having his insides shaken upside down.

"It's so lame," he sighed and ran out of the classroom. Two doors up the corridor was classroom "1-A" and the head of his so-called "team". So he rushed there and cracked the door open, eyes finding the boy he needed on an instant.

"Oi, Atobe, I need your help. Now." he almost shouted from the door. Atobe Keigo turned his head from a book he was reading to look up at the intruder. His eyes at first widened a little and then narrowed – Shishido Ryou would never ask for help from him if it was not something REALLY impossible. And knowing Shishido (not for very long but he had his 'Insight' after all!) he could guess that there were very few things the boy considered impossible. So… no time for talking, he'll ask everything later. Keigo removed his long legs from his desk, stood up and came near the slightly shorter boy.

"I'll be heading outside now." Ryou said. "Find Oshitari and Mukahi and come there too. All questions later, I know you can track me down by my cell phone." seeing Atobe twitching his brow but still taking his own mobile and calling, Shishido rushed downstairs. 'There is only one place where they can be. The only one without Sakaki's cameras.'

'Down the corridor, then two floors down the stairs to the main hall, outside the building, to the right, round the corner…' Ryou pushed students out of his way and prayed not to meet a teacher. No one seemed willing to stop him – the boy looked rather scary when obstacles needed that. 'Left, left, right… here it is!' he jumped from behind the last corner and stopped. He was right – there they were, all seven of them standing around Sarino and Jirou. The last was sitting on the ground wiping his bleeding lips with his sleeve.

"I did not do anything to you, what do you want from me?" the blond asked, standing up. He looked… puzzled.

"Stop acting so cool, Akutagawa, there is no one to look at you! And don't ever dare putting us into a bad light while answering teachers' questions! You, stupid sleepy moron!" Sarino shouted and hit the boy into the stomach with all the power. Jirou bent down and gasped in shock. Before he could see they all were near him smashing hits onto his shoulders, hands, head… someone hit his legs and Ryou saw Jirou falling, his hands around head, protecting his face.

"What do you think you're doing, you fucking sons of a bitch! Beating up one boy like that!" Shishido cried out, attracting their attention. One by one they turned to look at him. Sarino went forward smiling arrogantly.

"He should know his place. We're just showing him what it is like to mess with yakuza. Have any problems with it, Shishido? Wanna join him maybe?" he stretched his fists.

That made Shishido go wild in a moment and he dashed to the boy, aiming for his stomach. Sarino tried to escape the impact but… Shishido Ryou may not be very strong type but he was extremely fast and had much sharper reflexes than anyone. The blow was accurate and strong enough to push the boy aback. That's when the gang came forward. They tried to make Shishido fall too but he was way more experienced fighter than most of them. He dodged, jumped, used his hands and legs at the same time… there were some hits that managed to reach him but he was still standing and two of his opponents weren't. Though he had almost reached his limits. 'Shit, Atobe! What takes you so damn long?!'

"Stop it!" a feeble voice called. Beating some random boy Shishido turned around and saw Jirou trying to get up. The boy's hands were shaking and he could not stand properly but he reached his hand in the direction of the fight and pleaded. "Stop it… please… don't… don't hurt anyo…" he coughed.

With the corner of his eye Shishido saw Sarino raising his clutched fist aiming for Jirou's head.

"Jirou, careful!" he turned and hurried to the boy but someone managed to footstep him and he started to fall. 'DAMN!!! Curse you, moron!!!' he wanted to scream, moving his hands to cushion the impact of hitting the ground when someone stopped his motion by grabbing his collar and pulling him backwards. He flapped his hands and turned his head to see Oshitari Yuushi behind him.

"You're okay?" the bespectacled genius asked, releasing him and turning to hit Areki in his nose.

"Kind of. Thanks." Shishido answered, beating up the boy who seemed to make that one footstep. 'Shit, Jirou!' he remembered and wanted to dash to the boy but stopped. Jirou was standing, wide-eyed, and looking at the hand that tried to hit him. The said hand was not moving. Sarino's eyes were almost as big as Jirou's and he tried to struggle. But between him and Akutagawa stood Atobe Keigo, his eyes flaming, his fist on Sarino's wrist, stopping that hand from hitting the blond.

"What do you think you are doing, you, a bunch of imbeciles, aan?! Messing up with ore-sama's team…" Atobe was not even raising his voice a little, but everybody stopped. All the fighters froze. Sarino growled and tried to hit Keigo with his free hand. Shishido did not quite catch the move Atobe made but a second later Sarino was lying with his face on the ground, unconscious.

'He is not dead, right?' Ryou thought.

He was not the only one to think like that – Jirou had fallen on his knees, crept to Sarino and tried to find his pulse.

"Don't worry, ore-sama's attacks are high-leveled and accurate, he is alive. But he won't get up for some time." Atobe turned to face the blond.

Jirou's head shot up, his eyes widening even more (Shishido did not even believe it was possible), hands falling and jaw dropping.

"K-…Kei-chan?!!!" he managed through his shock. Atobe wrinkled at the name, but then half-smiled.

"Long time no see, Jirou. And you can call me Atobe from now on. Atobe Keigo." and Atobe turned to Shishido. "Now what was this all about?"

As long as they did not need to fight anymore (all the opponents who could stand ran away) Shishido explained the situation, while Oshitari approached a still highly shocked Jirou with few bandages and Mukahi, who seemed to take his part in fight too considering the state of his uniform, was just bouncing around listening.

"…and that's when you interfered." Ryou finished and came to help Jirou stand up.

"Whoa, you're super naïve, Jirou!" Gakuto jumped to the blond and looked at him curiously.

"I just did not think it was bad to answer sensei's questions if I knew the answer…" Jirou answered, accepting Shishido's hand. Gakuto laughed.

"It's Hyoutei, baby! Welcome to reality!" he patted the boy's curls lightly.

"He's been in Hyoutei for much longer than you, stupid." Shishido said.

"Well yeah, but he still did not catch the rules. And I'm not stupid, Ryou!"

Shishido just 'hmph'ed and smiled sheepishly.

"I'm not!!! I'MNOTNOTNOTNOTNOTNOT!!!"

"Shut up, Mukahi. Shishido, Jirou, you can not return to your classes like that. I'll call a car, it will bring you home. Shishido, make sure there is someone to take care of him at home and then return to your dorms. Oshitari will make up some kind of story for school." Atobe said. Gakuto pouted but shut up. Shishido nodded. Oshitari just rolled his eyes. Jirou barely stood and seemed to drift away and falling asleep on Shishido's shoulder.

When the car came they put sleeping blond inside and Ryou climbed near him. Atobe gave the directions to the driver (and how the hell he always knew where people live?!) and closed the door. The car left school grounds.

"Hehe… I like him! He is cute and sweetly naïve!" Gakuto grinned.

"I guess he is one of us from now on?" Oshitari asked Atobe.

"It's for him to decide. But ore-sama thinks so. Let us go now…" and he turned to go to the school.

"Hnnn… and what's with this 'Kei-chan', Atobe, a?" Oshitari's voice reached him. Atobe didn't change his direction.

"Fuck off, Oshitari…" no one saw, but Atobe Keigo was smiling.

***

Shishido was sitting on a classroom's windowsill staring outside. He did not know what made him wake up and come to school this early but he found Jirou here. It's been two days after the fight already and they were the ones in the classroom, though it was almost an hour before the lectures. Jirou's desk was the nearest to the window, he was sitting leaning his head on a desk and rolling tennis ball on the smooth surface. He still had few bandages on his face and a little bruise in a left corner of his mouth. They did not have a chance to talk, 'cause Jirou was absent yesterday and the day before Ryou had just handed unconscious boy over to his brother without explaining anything. Well, to say the truth the older boy did not ask anything, he just sighed and started to treat Jirou's wounds. Fortunately, there weren't any fractures or internal damage, only bruises, no help or hospitalization needed, so Ryou went home.

Silence was awkward but somehow peaceful… and maybe they needed to talk… right? Ryou had no idea. He was just sitting on a windowsill staring outside.

"Ne, Ryou…" a voice called, "what are you doing here? I mean, with Ke-… Atobe and others?"

Ryou decided not to turn around and see if the blond was staring at him. He answered more for himself.

"I don't really know myself… it just happened somehow. You see, Gakuto and I used to live in the same neighborhood and… well, played together when we were children. He too attended Hyoutei Elementary, but different class so you might not met him. But when we were to go to Junior High his family moved to England so we lost track of each other. And then I met him here on the first day of the semester. Well, to be honest, he'd just found me himself. Said he knew I was still here. Oshitari was with him and they asked if I was interested," he stopped for a few seconds and then continued. "Hyoutei Senior is kinda different from any other senior school and even from Hyoutei Junior. It's a dangerous place. This is a business school, the yakuza children is a common thing here, so having strong alliance is good. I'm strong but… I just thought 'hey, why not?' – they didn't ask for any vows or something. It's not like we are just Atobe's subordinates, it's much more of a team than a gang. It imposes me, so… I agreed." he turned his head to Jirou who was listening carefully. The boy was smiling slightly. Shishido bit his lower lip and stayed silent for a moment before asking: "And what about you? Don't you want… well, Gakuto said he wants you with us and no one is against, so… what d'ya think?"

Jirou suddenly changed his position, sitting with his legs on a chair, his hands around his legs and his chin on his knees. He stared at the ball in his hand.

"I don't like fighting…" he said. Shishido frowned.

"Fighting is not what we are together for. Actually your case was the first since I joined. We do not start fights. This 'team' thing is more for self-protecting than for attacking. Here in Hyoutei Senior if you have any kind of problems with yakuza you can't handle it just by yourself – yakuza children are way worse than adult ones, they don't mind attacking a single opponent with a whole gang. They do not know there is such thing as code of honor. This is the reason we need each other." Ryou jumped off his place and sighed. "In the end it's for you to decide. But no matter what your answer will be… you can always ask me for help." he grinned. "Well then, I still have 25 minutes left so I'll go have a snack. Wanna with me?"

"No, thanks. I'll stay here…" the blond smiled. Ryou shrugged and left.

When in few minutes first children started to come in, Jirou stood up and went to the window Ryou was sitting on before. He watched birds flying above for some time and then he reached for that sky with his hand, smiling to the sun. One of the birds flew to him and sat at his palm, chirping. Jirou smiled wider.

Two floors down Atobe Keigo looked up at that same sky before entering the school building and saw a shining sunny blond with birds flying around him. He felt a little envious and a lot warmer somewhere deep inside him. 'Good view to begin a busy day with… don't you think so, grandfather?' he smiled to himself and disappeared in the building.

***

"Oi, Atobe, it's not like I'm really busy but you know – I still have things to do. Why don't you just tell us what you wanted and we'll leave?" Shishido asked standing in front of his 'buchou' who was not reacting at all. The four of them were here for good 15 minutes already and Atobe did not tell why he called them. He was just reading a book with a difficult name in some foreign language. Shishido scowled and sat on a desk behind him. He would have left already (he didn't give a damn to what Atobe wanted) but he was naturally curious why Oshitari and even Gakuto did not make attempts to leave. The genius was sitting with his legs on a desk before him. He was reading too but just some sappy novel as far as Ryou could see – girls in class read those things a lot – and Gakuto was sitting turkish-style on a desk behind him eating an apple, glancing to Oshitari's book from behind his shoulder and giggling. Shishido crossed his arms. "Okay, how long will we sit here doing nothing? Is this some kind of ritual? Like praying or so? Classes ended half an hour ago. I'm bored, hungry an-..."

"Don't you see it, Shishido? He is waiting…" Oshitari's voice came from the left. Ryou turned to him, but the genius did not lift his head and continued reading.

"Waiting for what? A Second Coming?" Ryou rolled his eyes.

The book in Atobe's hands slam shut and he smiled a little staring at the closed classroom door. The door slid open and there was Jirou, standing with somehow puzzled look on his face. Atobe smiled and leaned back into his chair.

"Right about time…" he laced his fingers and looked at Jirou for a few seconds. Shishido saw that Oshitari also put his book away and Gakuto stopped eating and just stared at the blond with wide grin when Atobe spoke. "Welcome to 'Eternity', Jirou. We are happy to see you here." Atobe waved with his hand to show the blond a place at the desk behind his own. The boy stared at him with wide eyes and then blinked and went to sit where he was shown. Shishido stared at Atobe too – he was never greeted like that. And what was with this 'Eternity' thing? He did not hear this! 'What the fuck?' he wanted to ask but just blinked a few times.

"Ore-sama guesses you want to know what's going on. Now, when all the participants are here, ore-sama will tell you…" Atobe looked at Jirou again and then his gaze moved to Shishido.

"Hell yeah…" Ryou spoke, still a little shocked. Atobe was smiling indulgently, Oshitari was smirking and Gakuto was still grinning. Next phrase stunned the brown-haired boy even more.

"We are going to be this school's 'mafia'. Ore-sama will change this school."