Shot
"The glasses don't really suit you."
Okegawa Kyotaro clicked his tongue, resisting the urge to run his fingers through his bangs so that they were slicked back on his scalp. The glasses, rectangular with red-tinted lenses, honestly did not fit with his facial structure and having more than a few hairs tickling his forehead was bothersome, but it was a better disguise than none at all.
"Your hair is kind of cute, though."
Halting in his tracks, he turned towards the wall of a building and promptly smashed his head against it. He ignored the raised voice of alarm and bits of brick crumbling around his face. For some reason, his face was burning. His mind was reeling. Lifting his head, he smacked it against the stone once more.
"O-Oi! Ban- mmph!"
Shooting a palm over the offending voice's mouth, Okegawa stared into his companion's eyes, "We're out in the open, Mo… Natsuo."
Kurosaki Mafuyu, currently under the guise of the somewhat charismatic (at least with the ladies) Natsuo, stilled for a moment before nodding. She sighed as the hand was removed, "Sorry… senpai?"
Okegawa grimaced, "No."
"Uhhhh, Kyon?"
"N. O."
Natsuo paused in thought before smiling goofily and snapping her fingers, "Princess!"
"Stop," he pinched the bridge of his nose, marveling at how such a princely character could go from ten to zero so quickly. "Remind me again why I'm spending my afternoon wandering the neighborhood with you?"
"Well, students have been getting harassed around here lately, so Saeki-sensei wanted us to investigate. While we're patrolling, Hayasaka-kun, Ninja, and Aki are making sure everyone gets back to their dorms and homes safely."
"We deal with the scum; they handle the rest. Got it," he shoved his hands into the pockets of his borrowed hoodie as they continued their steady pace down the sidewalk. This was going to be a long afternoon…
"Oh, remember that place!" Natsuo tugged at his sleeve, pointing at the arcade they had visited the day they became friends (and almost got busted by security). Her cheeky grin grew wider. "If we weren't patrolling, I'd definitely win you another Nekomata."
… But at least he had good company.
They bantered in a similar fashion for the next hour, always attentive of people and alleys and any possible location or situation for shady business. Not long after their second circuit through the area, did they finally encounter some ruckus. The ruckus being several sleazily-dressed men surrounding two students (defenseless princesses bravely trying to stutter out their refusals and escape). When a girl shrieked as a guy grabbed her arm, Okegawa and Natsuo swung into action.
The thug who grabbed the girl screamed as he felt his wrist snap under an iron grip. Natsuo flung the man aside while she placed herself between the rest of the lowlifes and the girls. As the men in front of the group surged forward, Okegawa barreled into them, toppling them down like a line of dominoes. Struggling to rise, the scum shouted in protest when they noticed Natsuo ushering their prey out of the alley and telling them to go straight back to the dorms. The one at the back of the group yanked something from his jacket, pointing whatever it was at Okegawa's towering frame as he steadily mowed his way through the frazzled gang.
"I'm not gonna let a couple of brats mess with us!" the thug's expression grew darker as the girls finally disappeared from view. Natsuo whirled back around to rejoin the fray, eyes widening as she caught the glint of metal and the click of the safety coming off. She dug her foot into the ground, propelling herself forward.
"Banchou! Watch ou-!"
BANG!
Okegawa grunted as he was pushed aside, his eyes glued on Natsuo. She stumbled for a split second but continued to speed forwards. Before the gun-toting bastard could lower his still smoking weapon, his vision was full of brown. A hand snatched the gun away. Click! Plink! Clink! The bastard gaped as pieces of metal fell to the pavement.
"Guns are illegal," Natsuo stated coldly, pocketing the ammunition of the dismantled gun. As she raised her other hand to strike, the thug crumpled to the ground, having been struck with a heavy blow to the back of the neck. His body was the last to join all of the other unconscious men. Sighing with relief, Natsuo peered up at Okegawa. "No one escaped?"
"Nope."
"Nice work! Now, we can call the cops and Saeki-sensei and-"
"You're hurt."
"Wha…" Natsuo glanced down at her left shoulder, numbly registering the blood blooming and staining the cloth of her jacket. "Oh… that's not good."
"I'm calling an ambulance," Okegawa ground out, whipping his phone out and resisting the urge to pound all of the thugs into a fine paste. As he dialed the numbers, Natsuo snatched the device from his hands with a big 'NO.' He stared blankly at his now empty palm for a moment.
"WHAT?! WHY?!"
"My… my parents can't know about this," she explained, sweat beading on her forehead as she ripped off the jacket sleeve of her bad arm. "Can you tell me if the bullet went through? There's a hole on the other side, right?"
"I.. yeah," he affirmed weakly, realizing he had never seen this much blood coming from a comrade before. Natsuo hastily wrapped the torn cloth tightly around her upper arm and shoulder, patted it (and winced) once, and nodded. Before Okegawa could say anything else, he was handed back his phone and relinquished his own jacket to hide his friend's injuries.
Turning towards the alley exit, Natsuo lead the way out, "We should get moving. Call the police while we goooohhhh…" Her impressive display of control slipped as the adrenaline ebbed and her legs became jelly. "Owowowow uggggggghhhhhh!"
Okegawa wasted no more time in scooping her up and rocketing out of the alley. He barely remembered phoning the cops or Natsuo telling him the directions to her apartment. The world was a blur until they were inside with the door soundly shut. His shoulders heaved as he gulped up air. Smacking his back against the wall, he slid down to the floor.
"What do we… what can I do, now?" he asked, watching as Natsuo flung off her wig to become Mafuyu once more.
"Ugh, uh," Mafuyu wriggled out of his grasp and staggered to her feet, using the wall to support her. "First aid kit is in the bathroom. Should have some sewing stuff… somewhere. Umm, towels. And I… I'm, uh…" She had not even made it a few steps before she slumped to the floor and laid on her side . "Just gonna rest here… Maybe get me a blanket from my room? Need to maintain my temperature or whatevers to prevent shock, I think."
"Yeah, okay." Okegawa was on his feet, again, and gathered all of the requested items with some verbal, tired guidance from Mafuyu. When everything was piled next to her, he knelt down beside her as she used her good arm (which was poking out of the blanket cocoon she had wrapped herself in earlier) to arrange everything.
"You're gonna stitch this up for me."
"... We can't just call the others?"
She shook her head, "There's no time."
"I-"
"Banchou," Their eyes met. "You can do this."
"...Okay, tell me what to do."
0o0 🐇 0o0
"-orse. Morse!"
"Oh, good morning, Nekomata-saaaannnn! What happened to your wonderful mustache?"
Okegawa resisted the urge to rip Mafuyu off her bed by the collar and headbutt her in the face. Instead, he groaned and leaned heavily against the mattress, back stubbornly facing her, "You've been out for about an hour. If you don't start talking sense, I'm hauling you over to the hospital."
"Pffft," She lazily flailed her good arm at him, tapping out 'I'm fine' in Morse code over and over on his shoulder. "It's just a bit of blood loss (and a load of pain, but I'll handle it). Not toooo bad, and your stitches are good. Hehe, maybe I should introduce you to the Crafts Club?"
"Those macho assholes? No, thanks. They denied my request for a Nekomata quilt…" He muttered the last part to himself. When her tapping ceased so she could cough into her hand, he passed her a bottle of water he had found in her fridge. She chugged it.
"Did you tell Hayasaka-kun and the others, yet?" she asked once the bottle was drained and tossed into a bin by the door.
"Uh, no," he glanced at her, finally turning a bit so that he could rest his arm on the bed. "I kinda… forgot."
"It's fine. Would be kinda weird to say I got shot when Natsuo is the one who was patrolling with you."
"Mmm, what were 'you' supposed to be doing, anyways?"
"Oh, T… Saeki-sensei told them I'd be with him sorting out some other club stuff."
"...Should we have texted him about this?"
They stared at each other.
"We're dead," Mafuyu declared, shifting her head towards the ceiling as she tapped 'rest in peace' on Okegawa's arm. "We'll both be held back a year and be servants to him for eternity to atone for our sins."
"God, if Kawauchi and Gotou graduate before me…" he grimaced, raising his left hand to tap out 'end me' on the back of her right hand.
She laughed deliriously, "Man, I didn't have to deal with this the last time I was shot."
"You… you were WHAT?!" Okegawa straightened up and leaned closer to her, countless questions on his lips.
"Not a real gun!" she amended, cowed by the intensity of his eyes. "Airsoft! Back home, my friends and I (but mostly my friends) were being stupid and pissed off a league or something. They tried to gang up on us at a park, but we managed to beat them! It was fun!"
"Except for the part where you got shot."
"Ah, yeah… Multiple times. Who knew rubber pellets could hurt so much?"
"You couldn't dodge?"
"Some of my guys were under fire," She reasoned. "I had to protect them."
Her eyes challenged him, asking for any type of argument to soundly be crushed by her resolve. Okegawa sighed, breaking her gaze and running a hand over his face to hide a blush, "I would have done the same… I have done the same."
"Ohhh?" Her eyes sparkled.
"Yeah, middle school. Some asshole thought it would be a good idea to drop shit on a buddy of mine. I nudged him away, ended up with a banged up shoulder, and threw the asshat into a wall."
"Poor wall," Mafuyu hummed, a tight grin holding back more laughter. "I tried to kick through a wall once and busted my leg."
"Why?"
"I thought it'd make a cool dramatic entrance. My friends agreed. My parents… not so much."
Okegawa chuckled, "Reminds me of when-"
0o0 🐇 0o0
"So there I was, noodles in one hand, stapler in the other, back against the fence of a petting zoo with a goat nibbling at my skirt…"
"And the clown?"
"Oh, the clown was there, bowl still on his head. Mad as hell. Hah! You should've seen-"
SLAM! The door to the apartment swung open violently. Mafuyu and Okegawa froze as they heard stomping approach the bedroom and the jiggle of the handle.
"Oi, how'd the patrol go? I didn't get a call or text. Okegawa still isn't at his dorm and…" Takaomi paused as he entered the room, locking eyes with Mafuyu, then Okegawa, then the drying blood on Mafuyu's arm.
"What. Happened?"
End
