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A/N: Hopefully this chapter could compensate for the previous made of fail chapter. (faints in shame) (Although it REALLY helps to listen to ES21 opening and ending themes when I was making this chappie)
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Chapter 4
Flu-Ridden Hero
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It was like his newly found habit… or addiction. Take a pick whichever you like.
Juumonji strayed once more at Tsuyu Tei Part, almost sure that the girl he had been watching (or stalking) for the past week would be there, probably sitting on the same bench, at the same time like yesterday. He sneezed. And off away his train of thoughts as he instinctively pulled out a white handkerchief and wiped his nose.
"Damn." He said, 'It was just last night that I got soaked up real bad and now it's a full-blown cold?!' he shivered as cold wind swept past him. 'Maybe it wasn't a good idea going back here… she's probably sick too… wait, I don't have to think about that bunny suit girl.'
He stood up and headed for the nearest pharmacy. He needed his anti-cold tablet as soon as possible.
Unknown to him, however, Mikuru arrived right after he left for his medicine.
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Mikuru sat on the same bench where they had their last fight. She would wait for him until ten in the evening like the usual; she had sent him an SMS message about meeting up there at eight, so that they could make up already, but she knew that he was going to be late for two hours. Well, that is if he was going to come, of course.
Yueno and Ayashi had already voiced out their concerns for her welfare when it comes to her relationship with Hideyoshi; her four-eyed friend had already told her that Hideyoshi made her look pathetic whenever she would wait for him to come. She could now almost imagine Yueno's glasses flashing in the dark, saying, "What the HELL?! Mikuru-chan! What the heck are you doing! PUNCH HIM IN THE GUT! How dare he make a GIRL wait! Lemme get him and let us beat him into an imaginable pulp!"
She smiled a little as she remembered her friends. Speaking of friends, her stomach grumbled.
"Oh… seems like my friendly tapeworms are hungry…" she said thoughtfully. She stood up ungracefully, "I wonder if there's any bakeshop nearby…"
Stretching her hands, Mikuru walked away from the bench. She looked back at the bench, wondering if the person she was waiting for was going to come.
Right when she pranced off to the nearest bakery, Juumonji arrived from his short trip from the pharmacy.
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Juumonji walked towards the spot where he usually occupied whenever he went by at Tsuyu Tei; he immediately looked over the other side. Aoko Mikuru wasn't there. Although he pretty much didn't care, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
That meant he was wrong in thinking that she was going there.
"Ah, wait. I'm such an idiot." Juumonji cursed, suddenly remembering he hadn't eaten yet. He could almost see their manager (and foster older sister), Mamori telling him that he should eat first before taking any kind of medicine. "And water too." He said, walking to the convenient store just some steps away.
Right after walking out, Mikuru walked gracelessly, a plastic of "take out" from the fast food swinging wildly beside her.
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Mikuru stared at the blonde guy who just walked off. She knew she had seen him somewhere before but she just couldn't place her finger where.
"Ah well." She shrugged. It wasn't important anyway. She walked back to her usual spot, frowning as she found that her ex didn't come; she checked her wristwatch, "Ah well, it's still nine anyway… I'll just leave a little later."
She sat on the bench and took out her order. It was a number seven value meal, beef burger with fries and soda.
"I really should be eating healthier stuff than this." She sighed after biting off a portion of burger, "I could now see Ayashi fussing over this…"
Mikuru stared at her watch, for a little while, frowning as the hands ticked softly. She raised a brow as three sets of feet appeared before her. She looked up.
'Punks.' Was her immediate thought.
"Oi, such a cute little girl from Shakugan Junior High!" one of them said, he had shocking orange hair, she was absolutely it was dyed. She looked at the other guys, one had neon blue dyed hair, while the other was pink.
'Yueno would curse these people to go to hell for having this kind of fashion statement.'
The blue haired guy grabbed her wrist, "You waiting for someone, chick? Wanna go play with us instead?"
"Let me go, ugly!" she pulled her hand away.
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"Let me go, ugly!" he heard someone scream. Juumonji felt his feet run on their own while his mind registered who owned the scream, 'That voice.'
He almost skid when he arrived, and there she was being harassed by three big guys. Big punks with unsightly hairdos.
"Lemme go!" Juumonji saw her try to slap the blue-punk guy, but since he was larger than her, he only grabbed her right hand. This did not stop her though, as she used her left to slap him.
"You bitch! And we were thinking of going easy on you!" the blue-haired guy shouted at her. The two others held both her arms so that she couldn't run away, something Juumonji remembered as he used to do that too. The punk raised his fist, and was about to strike Aoko's face.
"Shit!"
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Mikuru did not dare close her eyes. She had probably seen too much Western movies wherein something bad happens whenever a girl closes her eyes: either she gets kidnapped, or she gets drugged. She didn't want either; Mikuru closed her fists. She couldn't let these punks beat her! She wouldn't like to think otherwise.
The two other guys suddenly sneaked up on her and caught both her arms. She kicked around, but since she was a little short (although not shorter than Yueno) she couldn't bring the two guys down.
There were times she hated being a girl, and this would definitely add in her list of "Whys".
She almost squinted when the punk flew his fist towards her face's direction. Then it stopped just seconds away from her face. About two inches.
She immediately trailed the hand which stopped the punch.
"Ah!" she gawked at him, "You're from Deimon!"
He raised both his brows, as if acknowledging her presence. He gripped the guy's arm, and hissed at the punk, "Pick someone your own size."
Mikuru felt the two guys' hold on her loosen, so she took the chance, "Kyyyyaaaahhh!"
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Juumonji dusted his hands as he dropped the bloody pulp of the blue guy on the ground. It had been a while since he kicked someone's ass outside the field, somehow he missed it, but he would rather stay being a lineman.
"Wait, there were three of them…" he hastily twisted his head at the girl's direction. His jaw almost dropped when she brushed her shoulder. The two guys were squirming on the ground, their hands covering their crotches. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to know what she did to them.
She turned to him, "Anou, onii-san (1)…"
Juumonji looked away, "It was nothing. I'm sure other people would do that too."
"You still helped." She shrugged, "Aiiiee! My food!"
Her 'take out' (2) was scattered on the floor; the burger had been stepped on, the soda spilt on the ground, and the French fries weren't edible anymore.
"And it was 6oo yen too. Drat." She scowled.
Feeling guilty about what happened to her food, Juumonji wanted to treat her out. 'I'm broke. If that old bastard didn't put my account on hold…'
"Ah well. Can't do much about it, better go home." She sighed. Aoko then looked back at Juumonji, she seemed like she wanted to say something.
"What?"
"A-ah…" her shoulders lifted up as if she was surprised, "A-anou… uhm… you're from Deimon, right?"
"We've met before." Juumonji said, feeling a little cold. It seemed like his cold was back again. "You're Aoko Mikuru, classmate of Hiruma-san's aunt?"
"Ah, no. We're not classmates, I'm a year older than she is." She shook her head, "We're housemates… I'm sorry I forgot your name."
'So, she forgot it…' Juumonji stopped and said, "Juumonji Kazuki."
"Ah… so it's Juumonji-san." She scratched her cheek with her finger, "Anou… tha-"
"Aaachhoooo." He sneezed. 'Damn.'
"You got a cold?" she asked him, "I… I have a spare tablet with me." She rummaged in her bag, "Ah, found it!" she took Juumonji's open hand, and placed the tablet on it, "This is my thanks for helping me earlier, Juumonji-san."
"… you don't have to – h-hey!" he looked up, the girl was already flouncing off to somewhere. "That girl, she didn't even listen to me…"
He had already bought a whole sheet of tablet from the pharmacy.
Juumonji smiled a little, "Well, better keep this as a souvenir then." He pocketed the tablet, and walked back home. Now he wondered what their supper was going to be.
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In the Minato residence…
Mikuru's brow twitched, as the disaster that was supposed to be shoved under her nose, blew up in front of everyone to see in the mansion, "YOU WHAT?!"
"S-sorry, Mikuru-chan…" Ayashi apologized, "I tried to cook because everyone was already hungry…"
"You should've remembered that you have this "blow up kitchen syndrome" going on." Mikuru shook her head. "Or at least called Yueno to fix something for you guys."
Maybe she should've just eaten those take out spillage after all.
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A/N:
Onii-san – big brother
Take out – I'm not sure how it's called in other countries, but in the Philippines, when a customer wants to buy food from a fast food chain, but won't eat the food inside the building, it's called "take out"
I just reread (for the sixth time) the first volume of ES21, and I just realized how DIFFERENT Juumonji-kun looked like in the first tankobon from the Juumonji-kun now; I must say that now!Juumonji-kun looks a lot better than the Volume1!Juumonji-kun, especially in some pages like… page 22 (fifth box), page 24 (first box), page 41 (first and second box, GAWD this was the WORST picture of Juumonji-kun that I had ever laid my eyes on), page 46, page 53, page 54. VERY different from the Juumonji-kun from, say, Deimon VS Taiyou, and Deimon VS Seibu.
And another thing, there's this part in Deimon VS Oujou (Fall Tournament) where Musashi said something about Juumonji, I think it was: "He's the same type as I am." At first, I read it as, "He's my type." I was like OMG MUSASHI IS SSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO GAAAAAAAAAAAAAY (closet!Hiruma/Musashi and closet!Hiruma/Musashi/Kurita shipper), then I reread. Apparently, I had misread the whole speech balloon. OMG. I love whoring Musashi SO much.
Who wants to bet that Marco from Hakushuu Dinosaurs is THE REAL EYESHIELD 21? (By TRES21, the guy who Kakei met) I do. The latest chapter was OMG. Kisaragi, as much as I think you're a bishounen, I can't help but hate you and love you at the same time. This is SO wrong. (So it's basically [SPOILER Gaou VS Kurita (strength), Kisaragi VS Monta (catching ability, or catching tactics), and I think, it's not Marco VS Hiruma, but Marco VS Sena (speed).
I don't want to put anything here because I don't want to jinx Deimon. It happened once already that I placed something in my fanfiction and it happened. I hate it. (Harry/Ginny, UGH.)
I'm now rereading Volume 2 as I'm typing. What can I say? Chapter 9's splash is LOVE. One of the reasons why I love HiruMamo is this chapter. (HiruMamo was supposed to be my CRACK OTP, since I was almost convinced by some of my RL friends that it was SenaMamo, but I found it too… err… squicky and incestuous-in-a-bad-way (I do consider Sena and Mamori as siblings) so I couldn't ship it. Then I read Wikipedia, although it does have a very bad reputation, and read that "Mamori's relationship with Hiruma changed as the story progresses". I squeed when I read that part.)