Guest starring: Goro as Goro, Yoko as Yoko, Junen as Junen, and Takeshi as Takeshi. (aka The Bullies)
A/n: If you read this, Shrimpy, let me know if I've got them right! I really liked your bullies. :D
Disclaimer: 'The Bullies' © Shrimpy Lil Shaman
Chapter Three - Hontoo ni Taihen (Really Strange)
Yoh peered nervously down Aisle 10, and then leapt away from it while whistling innocently as a young couple pushed their cart by. Why did he have to be the one to do the scary shopping? It simply wasn't nice or polite to send a man down that aisle. He peered down the aisle again, swallowed hard, and then groaned while drawing his head back. The pharmacist wasn't there, but it didn't help to quell the fear of entering that aisle. "This isn't very fair," Yoh sighed sadly.
"Yoh-kun?"
"Geh!" Yoh leapt, and then whipped around in search of the one who had called his name. He froze when he found himself staring at a boy his age with long, reddish hair that had been pulled back in a ponytail. He wore a simple pair of blue jeans, and a white shirt that had the image of a smiley face with a halo and wings. "Uh... Hi there, Junen!" the shaman cried, forcing himself to sound happy and miserably failing. He went to school with Junen, and for the most part they got along. There were two big problems, though.
One: Junen was a human. And not of the special sixth-sense variety like Manta. He was simply a human, and it was likely he thought Yoh and his friends were a little touched in the head.
Two: Junen was the youngest member of a small group of bullies. Sure, he didn't actually harm anybody. He was more the source of common sense. The one that kept things from getting out of hand. However, his friends were particularly protective of their contrasting member and often punished people for being around Junen. Especially if it was Yoh or his friends.
"Yoh-kun, you've been standing here for like ten minutes," Junen pointed out with a frown. "I'm pretty sure there's a law against loitering here."
"Wow! Has it really been ten minutes?" Yoh laughed nervously, and then added inwardly, "It feels more like ten hours!"
Junen stared at Yoh for a moment, and then smiled. "Miss Anna and Tamao-chan are having feminine problems, huh?"
"Um... Yeah," the brunette laughed nervously.
"Well then come on," Junen said while grabbing his hand, and then dragged the shaman down the dreaded aisle.
"H-Huh! How can you come down here so easily?" Yoh cried.
"Usually the guys and I have to do the shopping when our moms' friend is visiting," he explained, and then looked over the variety of products. "So what do Miss Anna and Tamao-chan need?"
Yoh stared blankly for a moment. "Uhh..." He grinned nervously. "I don't know. I usually just run through and look away while I grab the stuff on my way."
The human stared at him for a moment. "Do they use pads or tampons?"
"How should I know?" Yoh wailed. He had been serious when he described his method of shopping for the girls.
Junen continued to stare before finally he sighed. "Yoh-kun, it's no wonder Miss Anna is always so angry with you. Do you even know how much they lose?"
"Lose what?" Yoh asked pathetically.
"Yoh-kun!" Junen yelled irritably. "You make Takeshi look mature!"
"Well, well. What've we got here?" Yoh froze at the snide tone. Except for Ren, there was only one person who talked like that. Junen's friend, Yoko. "Aww. Asakura's growing up," the brunette sneered while walking up, followed closely by Goro and Takeshi.
Yoko was like Junen in that he had a certain femininity, but at the same time he was perhaps the evilest of the group. He seemed to focus his bullying towards Manta, messing up his assignments and often getting him into debates that neither he or Manta would talk about, even with their friends. He wore an outfit similar to Junen's, however instead of a bright, happy smiley, his was black and had the look of, "Come here so I can beat you with a bat."
Takeshi was perhaps the oddest in the group, simply because he looked so plain. Short brown hair, with no build and no feature that could be described as handsome or pretty. His main bullying targets were Yoh and Tamao. For Yoh, his reasons were simple. The boy was always happy and dreaming, and was a complete nutcase. His reasoning for picking on Tamao was a little more complex, dating back to a rejection when he asked her to be his steady girlfriend. Like his younger friends, he wore jeans and a plain shirt. His smiley was one with the face of death, a knife sticking out of the top of it.
And then there was Goro. If he didn't hang out with Yoko and Takeshi, he may have actually been a very nice boy. Many other students feared the bullies simply because they had Goro, who was rumoured to have put somebody in the hospital a few years back. Like Junen, he seemed very much to like Yoh. Perhaps it was because he was a little slow. However, his friends came first, and he was the worst person to put in protective mode when it concerned Yoko or Junen. Completing the fashion trend of the group, he wore jeans and an oversized shirt with a simple smiley.
"Y-Yoko. Takeshi. Goro!" Yoh said with a nervous smile, and then made a 'V' with his fingers. "Yo!"
"Junen, why are you associating with the enemy?" Takeshi snapped.
"Oh! Well," the red head began with a nervous grin, "it seems Miss Anna and Tamao-chan are due as well."
"Great. We get to go plug shopping with Asakura," Yoko groaned.
"N-No! That's fine, Yoko," Yoh laughed nervously. "You can go about your business."
"Guys, be nice," Junen said with a frown, and then lowered his voice to a whisper. "I think Yoh-kun may be new to this kind of shopping."
"Is that so?" Yoko replied, and then he and Takeshi looked at each other with smirks.
Junen's eyes widened, realizing they were planning something, and then began pushing them away quickly.
Goro watched as his friends were ushered away, and then looked at Yoh with a smile. "Is Tamao-chan doing okay?"
"Yeah," the shaman replied with a smile, and then looked to the shelf worriedly. "What's the difference between these, anyway?"
"Um... Junen says these ones are so girls can swim when they're bleeding," the giant boy explained while pointing to one shelf. "He said they can make you really sick, though."
Yoh watched as Goro looked through the shelves, and then smiled a bit. "Are they like bandages?"
"How should I know?" the boy asked while looking back confusedly. "I don't need them. Just my mom."
"Oh. Yeah," Yoh replied with a laugh.
"Girls shouldn't use them if they're still clean, though," he continued, and then picked out a package and gave it to Yoh. "I think Tamao-chan needs these."
Yoh looked at the package for a moment, and then looked up. "How do you know?"
The bully blushed while glancing away. "One day at school she was crying and wouldn't move. The guys didn't like it, but Junen and I told her we'd help."
The shaman smiled as the bully explained, and then gave him another 'V' with his fingers. "Yoko and Takeshi are lucky to have you two." He looked back to the shelf nervously. "But what about Anna? I don't think even you can help on that one."
Goro laughed nervously. There was only one person he was truly afraid of. "Perhaps you should get the same for her."
After retrieving the product, Yoh watched as Goro went on to choose a number of packages, and then smiled again. "Sankyuu, Goro."
The bully blushed while looking back, and then nodded while moving on to rejoin his friends.
-
Tamao smiled weakly while brushing the mass of blonde hair that rest in her lap. "It's not so terrible, Manta-sama," she said nervously. Since Anna had explained to her Manta's situation she had been somewhat uneasy. Should she be nervous or pitying? Should she be sympathetic or empathetic? Perhaps she shouldn't say a word, but maybe it would better to encourage her friend.
Manta was curled on her side tightly, her arms wrapped in a deliberate fashion around her chest in case one of the guys should happen to come in, and her expression somewhat agitated. "Tamao, why is it you hit me when I gave you a mistletoe kiss last Christmas, and now you're letting my head rest in your lap?"
Tamao blinked. "Well... It's not like you can do anything dirty... right?"
"I can think of things," she pouted angrily. It was nice having a girl's attention for once, but this was certainly not how she wanted to gain it.
Tamao stared blankly at her companion. Somehow she was capable of being completely naive around other girls, but once she was around guys she panicked. How did that work? In any case, she was baffling the blonde, and could only smile nervously. "Well, I suppose if somebody here did it, it couldn't have been Yoh-sama or HoroHoro."
"Why not?" Manta muttered.
"Well... They don't like shopping for just me and Anna. Do you think they would want to shop for another girl?"
It was a good point. It was also a good thing Manta hadn't caught onto what kind of shopping she was referring too. She was already upset as it was.
"Tamao-chan? Manta? Lunch is ready," Ryu called through the door.
"Hai!" Tamao called back.
"I'm not leaving this room," Manta replied.
"Hmm? Manta-sama?"
"I'm not going out so those hyenas can see me like this."
Tamao smiled weakly. "Ren-sama and HoroHoro have gone to train, and Yoh-sama is still out."
"Anna is one of them," the blonde growled lowly. "I know she's the reason I'm like this."
Tamao shook with a nervous giggle, and then grasped her hand. "Manta-sama, I'm sure Anna would never do something like this. It's too juvenile. And you know she wouldn't tease you."
"She will give me the look. That's how she teases," she replied angrily.
"Miss Anna says if you won't come down and eat you may starve," Ryu called regretfully through the door.
Tamao watched quietly as Manta's expression changed, and then smiled weakly. "I suppose we should get you into something more conservative than a yukata, Manta-sama."
-
Ryu sighed while sitting down at the table, and then took a long drink from his glass of juice before wiping his mouth and looking up to Anna. "Is Manta as attractive as Horo made her sound?"
"You saw her for yourself," Anna replied cooly, and then quirked an eyebrow when Ryu made an unsettled grunt. "What is it?"
"I... I generally kept my eyes shut if I was facing her," Ryu replied sheepishly.
Anna's cold glare faltered, and then grew curious. "The great lover Bokuto no Ryu looked the other way?"
"It seemed... Hell. The idea of Manta being anything but Manta is just weird. I didn't know what to do or think."
Anna smiled a bit. "That's the nice thing about you, Ryu. You know your place."
The brunette stared unsurely for a moment, and then smiled weakly. "Thanks, I think."
"Horo exaggerated earlier. The only thing that separating Manta from Tamao and I is her breasts, which happen to be a bit more developed than ours. She's no more attractive than Tamao is."
Ryu struggled to fight down a blush. Frankly he considered Tamao the prettiest girl in Funbari, so using her as a comparison for Manta didn't help him to establish a mind set.
"Thank you for making lunch, Ryu-san."
The battle of the blush was lost at the sound of Tamao's voice, and he grinned at the girl. "It's nothing, Tamao-chan!" he replied enthusiastically, and then looked towards the door thoughtfully. "Manta?"
Manta stood stalk still. Her hair still hung down to about her shoulder blades, and she appeared to be Tamao's height. As Anna had mentioned, her chest was more developed, and appeared to have a fuller figure in comparison to Anna's petite frame. The facial characteristics seemed to be the same, aside from her face being less rounded and her eyelashes being a little more noticeable. Still, there was a childish quality to it, and her nose remained small.
It seemed her scars remained as well. The fine, straight lines carved by Faust were visible where the shirt she wore didn't cover, and her nose was still sunken in. An injury that would remain after Hao's follower had kicked her during the tournament. He also noted that she tilted slightly to the right. He considered questioning the tilt, but decided he was more interested in where Manta got his clothes.
"Whose clothes are those?"
Apparently, Anna felt the same way.
"Well, my jeans fit him quite well," Tamao said with a smile.
"She eats as much as you do. It makes sense."
Ryu's eye twitched. About the only time he actually got upset with Anna was when she nagged others about how much they ate.
"Um..." Tamao began making little nervous mumbles while pressing her index fingers together. "None of our shirts fit her too well. I would have borrowed one of Ren's, but you know how he is. And Horo's laundry was all dirty, so..."She looked at the floor and idly drew patters with her foot. "I borrowed one of Yoh-sama's shirts."
Anna was obviously upset. Her breathing had become so light that you wouldn't have been able to hear it at the dead hour of night. Her hands were clenched lightly and her eyes had narrowed considerably. "Ryu has plenty of shirts."
"Whose underwear is she wearing?" Tokagero asked with a smirk after materializing behind Manta. True, the spirits couldn't see the physical changes Manta had gone through, but that wasn't going to stop the bandit from poking fun and fanning the flames of hate.
"Tokagero," Ryu scolded firmly.
"Dammit," Ponchi complained while floating in through the window. "And here I thought we'd get to see some boobs!"
"Yeah!" Conchi whined while following his pal.
"I'm looking at a couple of boobs right now," Anna said icily to the yamagami, and then looked to Manta. "After we eat, you're getting your own clothes."
"Huh? So hastily, Anna-sama?" Tamao squeaked. "What if he becomes himself in the morning?"
"Well then I guess you'll have some extra clothes, won't you Tamao?" she replied cooly.
Ryu and Tamao shivered nervously while Manta gave the Itako an annoyed look, and then sat down and began eating quickly. There was no way in hell she was about to go out into public looking the way she did.
