Mako strode confidently down the halls of Konru State High school. It didn't have the best ratings, but it was, frankly, the only school in the entire town. Mako approached her classroom as the bells rang, quite conveniently. She ducked in and took a seat at random, hoping there was no particular arrangement. Students filed in, taking seats wherever they chose, much to her relief. Some of the students eyed Mako with surprise, smiles, or sneers, nonetheless they kept their business to themselves and things seemed calm.
That is, until one particular boy walked in.
A flurry of paper airplanes, scrunched up balls, and even origami shuriken, was hurled in his direction as he entered the room. Seemingly a normal occurrence, all he did was brace and suffer the assault as the entire class laughed as he submissively took his seat in the front corner opposite the door, which was coincidentally isolated and spaced further from the rest of the students.
Once everybody had settled, the door opened to admit a blue haired, shambling figure wearing a pair of overly large shades, ruffled shirt, poorly done tie and baggy black suit pants with matching loafers. Mako immediately recognised the man.
"Good morning everyone. My name is Aikuro Mikisugi. I'll be replacing your normal history teacher until he recovers from a rather unfortunate incident." He kept to his monotone, droll voice that showed seeming disinterest yet compliance to his job.
Mako, surprisingly, refrained from calling his name out. Instead, she was seemingly focused on the depressing figure of the boy in the corner. He was slightly taller than Ryuko from what she saw earlier, with short dark brown hair, Mako couldn't make out his eyes or other features from where she sat. One thing was clear from his posture and body language, he was a victim of severe bullying. Mako diverted her attention to Mikisugi's lecture, who was droning on about something before she dozed off.
By the time the class ended, Mako awoke and shuffled out of the classroom along with the rest of the students. A hand reached out and grabbed her though, and Mako was dragged out of the crowd to come face to face with Mikisugi.
"Mr. Mikisugi!" Mako's face lit up.
"Hey. What's up kid? Didn't realise you'd be here too." Still acting as the undercover teacher.
"I could say the same Mr Mikisugi!"
"It's funny how things work out, isn't it?" Mikisugi pushed his glasses back up casually.
"Does that mean you're taking up teaching for a living? For real this time?"
"Sure am. I guess I got used to pretending to be one that eventually I got so good at it. I may as well take advantage of it. Instantly earned me a place here as a substitute."
"That's so cool! I look forward to coming to school more now that I know you're here!"
A sudden crash outside dragged their attention away and Mikisugi exited the classroom to investigate. Outside, a group of four boys were holding the dark-haired boy against a locker by his shirt. Mako could make out more of his features now. He had dark brown eyes, an average looking face that wasn't ugly but not exactly handsome, and was Caucasian.
"Listen here new boy, you don't pay up, and I'm going to have to teach you the hard way why it's a bad idea to forget bringing your protection fees!" The leader stood before him, arms crossed, and looking very confident with his two cronies holding the boy up for him.
"I'm sorry, I just forgot. I swear I'll bring double tomorrow." The boy spoke calmly which seemed to infuriate the others.
"Not good enough, you know what happens when you screw up." He showed no hesitation delivering a punch straight into his gut, causing him to cry out and gasp for breath.
"What do you think you're doing?" Mikisugi walked up to the bully with a calm expression.
"Oh, nothing. Just teaching this punk a lesson. You'd know about that kind of thing wouldn't you?" The boy's remark triggered the other three boys to laugh at his seemingly clever joke, though Mikisugi gave no reaction.
"Tell you what, you let him go and I'll refrain from calling your parents about what I've seen here."
"Go ahead, tell them. They know what we're doing, and they're sure as hell proud!" The boys high fived one another.
"Very well then, I'll be sure to teach you all a lesson myself then." The boys laughed even harder this time.
"You? A scrawny, pathetic, crippled old guy? You must have a death wish talking like that!" The boys attention shifted away from their victim as the four of them approached Mikisugi.
A sucker punch from the far left, though Mikisugi had seen the boy clench his fist moments ago. With ease, the teacher let the boy throw his weight forward and helped him along, sticking out his leg and letting the boy trip over his own momentum. From the right this time, Mikisugi deflected the blow and used the boys arm to twist his body and shoved him into the leader, causing them both to sprawl over one another in a heap. The last boy on the far right, after having witnessed his friends get beat, hesitated to make a move.
"Alright! Enough! You win this time! But you just wait until my dad hears about this!" The leader stood up and pointed a menacing finger at Mikisugi. He suddenly swivelled to face the dark-haired boy. "And you! Punk! Don't you think I've forgotten about you! You'll pay for this!"
With that, the boys stormed off, shoving aside students and making threatening moves against them in order to clear a path. The dark-haired boy kept his eyes to the ground, turning back to the lockers and opening one of them. A note was pinned to the inside. Mako could clearly make out the writing.
'Kill Yourself'
The boy absentmindedly rifled through his belongings and replaced whatever stationary and books he needed for his next class into his arms. Mikisugi had clearly seen the note too.
"Hey, you there. What's your name?" Mikisugi called after him.
The boy turned hesitantly, his eyes sombre as he looked up. "Mason." His voice sounded empty, as though devoid of life.
"Aren't you going to lock your stuff up? That's why they call it a locker, after all."
"Why bother. They'll just break it open and throw my stuff across the halls. Like always."
Mikisugi frowned. "Can I ask why everyone is treating you this way?"
Mason simply shrugged his shoulders, "I'm weak. My parents are dead. I'm a nobody."
"Your parents? You live alone?"
Mason nodded solemnly.
"I have an idea! The Mankanshoku's can take you in!" Mako interrupted, though both Mikisugi and Mason stared at the girl blankly.
"I don't think that's going to work, Mako." Mikisugi whispered.
"I have to go." Was all Mason had to say as he turned and made his way down the hall, Leaving both Mikisugi and Mako to watch his hollow form fade into the meld of students.
Ryuko stood behind the counter serving a customer, placing the three magazines they had just purchased into the iconic bag that Tsumugu had designed. A flaming red Mohawk emblazoned horizontally across with a pair of grenades high above it and a green motorcycle underneath.
What a crummy logo. Ryuko thought to herself.
Ryuko handed the bag to the punk rocker looking guy, watching as he made his way out the door. Ryuko stuffed the cash into the register and leaned back in her seat, letting out a soft sigh. She hadn't realised how dull normal life was after all the excitement of Honnouji Academy. It was 3:45 P.M. and her entire day had consisted of nine customers coming in and buying something, with another three that found nothing of interest. Overall, a dull day.
Tsumugu emerged from his office and approached her. "We'll be closing at four, so you can start preparing to leave now if you'd like."
Ryuko shot up out of her seat and approached him as menacingly as she could muster. "First I wanna know what your game is!"
"Very well. I've been designing a platformer that can be played on the computer and console. I'm calling it-"
"No you idiot! I mean what are you doing here?"
"Who says I'm not allowed to go where I want?"
Ryuko growled in frustration. "Quit avoiding the question! I want a straight answer!"
"Very well then. I'm here out of my own volition to start a normal life. After the events of Ragyo and the Life Fibers, I decided to leave Nudist Beach and take up a simpler life."
Ryuko seemed dumbfounded by the response, unable to come up with a retort.
"Does that answer your question, Matoi?"
Ryuko folded her arms and exhaled slowly. "I'll take your word for it. Though you better not have been following me!"
"I have no desire to follow a hot headed brat like yourself. Believe me."
"Why you…!" Ryuko resisted the urge to punch him with much effort.
"We'll keep our interactions to work only, if that helps. You'll never have to talk to me outside of our business in regards to this establishment."
Ryuko forced herself to calm down and look at the situation more reasonably. "Very well, I can agree to that."
"Good. I'll expect you back tomorrow morning." Tsumugu went to the register and began counting out the cash that had been made for the day.
Ryuko made a few final replacements of the stock they had sold before making her way out and heading back to the Mankanshoku's. As she stepped out, a boy sprinted past, gasping for breath, with four other boys giving chase. Ryuko immediately recognised the four from earlier that morning, and she stepped back as they threatened to send her careening into the pavement if she got in their way. As soon as they had passed her, she could hear shouting as one of the boys tackled the first guy to the ground.
"We got you now asshole!"
"We'll teach you what happens when you humiliate us like that!"
Ryuko watched as the boy on top of him started raining blows down on his face, another two stepping over him as they stomped down on his stomach and kicked him in the side.
"What the hell do you guys think you're doing? Leave him alone!" Ryuko shouted, though her words fell on deaf ears.
Ryuko ran full speed towards them. "I said-!" She winded her arm back, her hand balling into a fist. "Leave him alone!" Ryuko threw her punch hard into the boy closest to her, who had turned his head just in time to receive the full force of her punch straight to the side of his face.
The boy reeled backwards, blood running down his cheek from where Ryuko's hit had caused a laceration just below his left eye.
"This bitch made me bleed!" He said in astonishment as touched the blood on his face.
"I'll do a hell of a lot worse than that if you don't scram right now!" Ryuko challenged.
The boys hesitated at this, though they dragged their victim up and one of the boys drew a knife and held it to his throat.
"You touch my friends, I slit this bastard's throat!" He dared.
Ryuko tensed, though they seemed more than intent on acting on the threat if she made a move.
There was the sound of a gun cocking, and Ryuko spun around to see Tsumugu just behind her, holding his signature needle gun and aiming it at the boys.
"Put him down, or I'll shoot." Tsumugu left no trace of hesitation to be heard.
The boys eyed the weapon, and after noticing that it was filled with needles, they bellowed with laughter.
"Needles? You can't be serious." Without another word, Tsumugu pulled the trigger and several needles connected with the boy's arm who was holding the dark-haired boy hostage.
"What the hell?! I can't move!" He shouted.
"These needles are infused with a paralysing agent that renders your body completely immobile while one is inside you. They might not be lethal, but starving to death while frozen like statues is a very real possibility."
The boys seemed to get the message as the three who could move began to back up, hands raised. "Okay, we get it. We'll go."
"Get me free right now! Or I swear my father will hear about this!" The boy screamed. His friends quickly running up to pull out the needles. The leader spat on the ground, next to the boy who had dropped to the ground before all four of them scrambled down the street and out of sight.
"Good job, Tsumugu. Nice to know you haven't softened up." Ryuko commented.
She turned back in time to see the dark-haired boy getting back on his feet, and without a word, walking down the street towards where the boys had gone.
"Hey! Wait! Are you hurt?" Ryuko called after him, he stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her, but otherwise remained silent.
Ryuko could really appreciate his appearance now. If not for the many scratches and cuts all over his face, she might have considered him handsome.
"Thank you for the concern. But I'm afraid you've just made things a lot worse for me now." He spoke softly and monotonously.
"Are you talking about those guys? If so I can make sure they don't ever touch you again."
"No, No." He raised two hands defensively. "People have already tried helping me, and things only got worse. So just leave me alone. I can deal with it." The boy spun and walked away before Ryuko got a chance to respond.
"Damn. Poor guy. Surely there's got to be something-"
"Ryuko!"
Mako came charging down the street towards her, lunging in a tackle that made Ryuko pick her up, spin her and plant her friend down on her feet.
"Ryuko! You'll never guess who my teacher is! It's Mr. Mikisugi! I never expected to see him again, but he's teaching history again!"
Ryuko turned her death glare towards Tsumugu. "Care to explain what the hell he is doing here too?!"
"I thought we expressly agreed that we wouldn't talk about anything besides business affairs." Tsumugu regarded her calmly.
"You sneaky son of a-!" Ryuko almost threw herself in rage, but she eyed the needle gun warily.
"I will tell you that there is absolutely no connection between him and myself. We decided to stop being in contact after I split off from Nudist Beach. Rest assured, this is news to me too." Tsumugu said plain faced. Almost too plain faced.
Ryuko eyed him warily but decided to humour him. For now. "Very well, I'm going home then."
Both girls began to walk home, forgetting the incident involving the bruised and beaten boy.