A Reckless Break

Hibari finished filing the last paper, one dealing with the upcoming festival security. No delinquents would dare steal at this festival, not that he had seen a delinquent in almost two months. His gaze drifted out the window into the darkening night. She would be there, that strange herbivore, waiting for him. For the last month and a half, she had broken into his routine. In the morning, she stood with her eyes nearly closed and her head bobbing, waiting for him t open the school gates. He would ignore her, but she followed him faithfully into the disciplinary committee room and watch him file papers. She had even asked to help once or twice, but a glare had silenced the noisy herbivore. As if he would trust anyone else with Namimori affairs. Eventually, she would fall asleep and then startle awake as the first bell rang. Quickly, she would excuse herself and hurry to class, and he would be rid of the strange herbivore until lunch. Inevitably, she would turn up on the roof, leave a wrapped bento next to him, and eat quietly as far as she could from him. He would leave her as the lunch bell rang so he could herd the more rowdy herbivores inside. The herbivore would not start following him until 2 hours after school ended, after he attended meetings with the disciplinary committee, teachers, administration, or detention students and filing papers. Even now, she was waiting for him outside by the gate, and as soon as he left Namimori Middle, the chase would begin.

Each day, he made the chase harder, growing more and more amused and perplexed by how the herbivore followed him. She had no grace and would bumble her way through most of the obstacles, but the strange herbivore kept going, never falling too much behind him if much at all. When he tired of leading her around, he would enter the shrine, and the herbivore would go to her two story house five streets over. And the next day she would be once again at the gate. Only on Sunday, their day off, would the herbivore leave him completely alone. Considering that her grades had remained steadily right above average, the herbivore probably used that day to study and catch up on her school work, which gave him another reason not to bite her to death. Namimori Middle needed more diligent students.

He scowled almost unnoticeably. One should never give an enemy reason to think she is winning. His father had said that more than one battle had been lost by a show of emotion. But he still scowled as he saw her standing there.

"G-good e-evening, Hibari-san…"

He brushed past her, forcing her to hurry to catch up to him. He leapt to the roof and glanced back to watch her scurry into an alley to keep parallel with him. He took advantage of his position to scout the nearby area, and he blinked. There, 23 meters away, four males were scowling and kicking over trashcans. Hibari identified them quickly as belonging to the yakuza who had dared to take more than one stands at the last festival. He had thought he had taken care of that infestation of cannibalistic herbivores completely, but apparently he hadn't. Jumping from his perch, he sped toward the four. A feral grin grew on his face. He had gone too many days without disciplining someone.

The first didn't register anything save the wall and intense pain in his chest. The second realized he was in the air with a before-pain numbness in his side and the ground rushing up to meet him. The third wouldn't know what happened until three weeks later when he woke up in the ICU. The fourth soiled his pants as Hibari stood with a full blown grin in front of the yakuza lackey. The man shook and took a step back, regretting ever entering into the yakuza, especially the one which sent him to Namimori to "check if the area was safe." He had thought the stories of a super strong bloodthirsty teen were exaggerations. But this Hibari boy existed and now stood ready to "bite him to death" as the stories said. The man closed his eyes, partly to avoid seeing the blows and partly out of a childish belief that the monster would go away if he couldn't see it.

Hibari swung his tonfa at the pathetic excuse for a male but it struck something harder than the whimpering herbivore's face. Fiery orange eyes met his as gloved hands held his tonfa in place. He narrowed his own eyes.

"…What are you doing, herbivore?"

"Stopping you."

"Get out of my way or I'll bite you to death."

"If I get out of the way, you'll end up biting these men truly to death. There's no need for that."

"I don't take orders from you, herbivore," he warned, though his whole body tensed in anticipation of a fight with this orange-eyed challenger. This was the one he had sensed, all those time the strange herbivore should have radiated fear but didn't, should have given up but continued on, should have back off but took a step closer. She wasn't a mere herbivore, but even now, he knew she wasn't a carnivore. She lacked the need for battle, the desire for domination.

A movement distracted him from his thoughts. She shook her head and firmed her stance. Without warning, he swung his second tonfa at her midsection, but she angled herself, pushed down on the first tonfa, and flipped over his head. He immediately changed the direction of his swing, and she used her free hand to strike his arm and redirect the swing a millimeter, enough for her to dodge. She landed 3 feet away.

"Is there anyone you do listen to?" she asked calmly, her stance once again firm and ready. 'instead of answering, as if he would have fallen for such an obvious distraction, he unsheathed the chains in his tonfas and spun the ends towards her. She dodged his with near effortless grace. His eyes widened a fraction, and he growled inwardly at the thought of once again showing her weak emotion. But it appeared that she had been hiding more than he had thought. With a flick of his wrists, he sent the chains twisting and turning erratically but still aimed at the target. She dodged them as he expected, but he had already charged towards her new position. Both tonfas missed as she twisted to the left and back, but the chains were already looping back. One end grazed her head, but she managed to spin out of the way. Hibari was already on her, swinging a tonfa towards her head and the second towards her hip, but she jumped over him and slipped through the encircling chains. Tightening his hold on his weapons, Hibari spun in order to keep from becoming entangled in his own chains. He quickly tried to relocate his target, but the herbi-no, she was certainly no herbivore-stood on the edge of a building out of the immediate range of his tonfas and chains.

"You're prey's gone," she said in a flat tone in a tone completely unlike a herbivore. And, yes, the three cannibalistic herbivores were gone. "You're bloodthirsty and undisciplined. You couldn't even finish what you started before looking for another fight. I can't have such a man as a guardian, or even in my familigia. I will not spend any more time on you. Do not execute your poor excuse for justice in front of me again."

The words stunned him long enough for her to disappear. He stood there, before adjusting the grip on his tonfas. In an instant, dust filled the alley as the walls faced imminent destruction. They were only spared as the memory of where he was permeated through Hibari's rage. He was in Namimori, his Namimori. But those words echoed over and over in his mind.

"…your poor excuse for justice…"