Disclaimer: I don´t own Azumanga Daioh :(
A/N: Soo, I managed to
write another chapter within a month, I´m almost not
disappointed :p. This will take things abit more into the M rating.
There will be minor sexual references, some violence, abit more angst
and to end it off a wee bit of teaser shoujo-ai.
I think I need some more practise with delinquents and describing surroundings :-/
The chapter is perhaps abit short, but it seemed a nice place to wrap things up.
I hope you´ll enjoy it and I thank all of you good reviewers out there for being motivated to write this 3.
PS:"..." insinuate a switch of scene.
Dark clouds were gathering above the city as Kagura listened to Tomo´s story at a cafe. They were the only customers left in the cafe, the other customers had left one after another when the storm had started to build up for real.
The wallpapers had sunflowers all over a pastel green. The young waitress in her white and red uniform was muttering to herself by the cash register, apparently some customers thought they could just order a coffee and stay for hours.
Not that Kagura heard anything as she was too pre-occupied with Tomo´s narration. The whole thing was unbelievable. Tomo being delinquent was nothing new, well, not to a lesser degree at least, but for her to actually shoplift, get a delinquent boyfriend and getting in all sorts of trouble like that? Kind of a shocker.
What amazed her even more was how Tomo had managed to keep it all hidden for such a long time. Yomi as well, then again, the two were kind of close.
"So now I´m being accused by Shinjiro´s little lapdogs for getting him in the slammer. Sheesh, I´m pretty much kill-on-sight for any of those thugs, and there´s quite a lot of them."
" No way! Have you had any trouble with them yet?"
"Well...it wasn´t that bad when there was schooldays, I only had to deal with them during weekends then, but it gets a lot worse during vacations. I´ve pretty much been hiding and running all summer."
"Why don´t you tell the cops!? I´m sure they coul-"
" Do what? Take them in for interrogation, only to have them mention the numerous times when I was in on something illegal? I can´t allow myself to get something on my permanent record." Tomo sat back, pulled up her legs and hugged her knees, before continuing in a softer voice. "Besides...they´d probably arrest my parents...and I would have to move in with another family."
"Wait! Arrest your parents!?"
"A little louder please, I think somebody in Hokkaido didn´t hear you."
"S-sorry, but arrest your parents?"
Tomo sighed before continuing, this wasn´t something she´d told anybody, well except Yomi.
"Y-you could say they have an unhealthy habit...or two."
"Unhealthy habit!? Please tell me it´s that they smoke a pack a day or something like that."
" Sorry, can´t do that, it´d be lying. And we all know how Tomo´s all about honesty, rig- SHIT!"
Tomo leapt to her feet and
looked down the street to her right before glancing back up to where
she´d spotted the boys.
Sure enough, there were
two of Shinjiro´s thugs, and after looking down the street the
other way she had spotted three more.
"W-what is it Tomo? All I can see are some delinquents smoking on the...oh...they´re not, aren´t they?"
"Yes, they are, I will remember those ugly mugs to the end of my days, which might not be so far off considering. Sorry to drag you in to this Kag, but I´m pretty sure those are guards."
With that Tomo grabbed her schoolbag and ran up to the counter.
"Excuse me, is there a backdoor we could leave by?"
The sour-faced waitress
frowned before she smiled a fake apologetic smile and said: "I´m
sorry, but the backdoor is for personnel only, now-"
The rest of her sentence
went right over Tomo´s head as Tomo spotted an open door
through the kitchen. She grabbed Kagura by the arm and dragged her
towards the kitchen. As they passed through the kitchen they
accidentally knocked over a few pots and pans, somewhere behind them
they heard yelling. Suddenly as they were closing in on the exit a
young man in his early twenties blocked their path. He had a fag in
his lips and wasn´t a very good shaver.
Tomo didn´t hesitate a split second as he appeared, just gave him a swift kick to the groin and ran past when he fell over, cursing. Kagura flinched in empathic pain.
Once outside they came into a parking lot and on the other side were another four thugs. Tomo didn´t hesitate a second before she ran to her left towards an alley across the street. Kagura wasn´t far behind. She could hear the boys shouting and that they were running towards them. As they entered the alley a thunderclap rang out and an incredibly heavy rain started to fall.
Dodging and weaving Kagura
barely managed to keep up with Tomo, she wasn´t used to running
this way, jumping around corners and such. She could hear many heavy
footsteps behind her as well as male voices taunting them.Ahead of her Tomo ran out
of sight around a corner, Kagura wasn´t far behind, but as she
turned around the corner her foot caught on something and she fell
flat on her stomach.
Even before she had
regained her wits she heard the footsteps behind her fall to a halt.
Fear in her mind she looked over her shoulder. And the whole alley
was full of males. Some were still in their school uniform and some
wore random clothing, a few were bald and some had nothing on their upper
bodies.
Kagura glared at them.
"Sooo, waddya think we should do with this one? Looks rather feisty to me." A big one in school uniform walked up to her and hoisted her up by her arms, he then got both her arms behind her back. Kagura tried to fight him, but he was too strong.
"I dunno Kon-kun. She looks pretty fine, mighty finer than that brat I´d say. And these boobs! Yes, this one will be a lot better than that brat."
The bald one, in school uniform, who had been talking stepped forward and made as if to grab Kagura´s chest. Kagura quickly remedied that by kicking him in the nuts, no sympathetic pain this time.
Out of nowhere a punch came and threw Kagura´s head to her right and her head spun, before she could realise what had happened another came. After a few seconds she was pretty sure she could taste blood in her mouth and add a few loose teeth.
"We can´t have that kind of behaviour from bitches like you! I think you should apologise to Yoshi-kun, he´s such a fragile young boy who doesn´t have a lot of confidence with uptight bimbos like yourself."
The guy she had kicked got up from his knees, went over and punched her once in the stomach, then once again in the face. After a few more half-hearted punches the anger on his face changed to lust. He ripped open Kagura´s uniform top and admired her chest for about a second or so before he said. "I think she should apologise to little Yoshi as well...kiss and make up so to say."
The other guys roared in laughter at his pun.
Without warning the guy behind her brought her to her knees. Her kneecaps hurt as hell as they smashed into the concrete, the puddle of water she now kneeled in was cold.
The guy in front of her had pulled down his fly and gotten out his limb. Kagura resolutely shut her mouth, but it was not to be.
"Think you´re smart aren´t ya?"
He clenched her nose together and shut off her air-supply. ´Nonononono´ Kagura repeated over and over in her mind as she felt the tightness in her chest grow. She stared at the thing in front of her face and wondered if she could bite through it. As she pondered she could hear a pitter-patter of footsteps in the water growing closer. And then suddenly a sickening crunch and a battlecry could be heard above her. The guy in front of her took a few steps back before he had a fist-sized stone hit his nose.
Kagura couldn´t help but stare as Tomo charged out from behind her into the gang of delinquents. She was armed with a lead pipe which she wielded with all her might as she broke noses and caused bruises to a big degree. The small space and confusion worked to her advantage with her small frame and speed.
"KAGURA, RUN DAMNIT RUN!"
Kagura snapped out of her shocked state, got to her feet and leapt down the alleyway away from the ruckus. She heard a loud "Clank!" and suddenly Tomo was at her side as they dove through the rain.
Finally the girls had escaped their followers, they were hiding in a cluster of bushes in a park and had been doing so for the last 15 minutes.
Kagura was hugging her knees and sobbing uncontrollably. Tomo weren´t really good with these situations. Her and Kagura were soaked to the bone and it was starting to get a bit chilly. Tomo laid her left arm over Kagura´s back and leaned her head on her shoulder, trying to hold back tears of her own.
"I-I´m s-so sorry Kagura, t-this is why I never told anybody else. I didn´t want for anybody else to get hurt."
"SHUT UP!"
Kagura´s sudden outburst caught Tomo off-guard and she fell on her butt on the muddy ground.
"ANYBODY ELSE!? How the hell can you deal with this!? This kind of thing happens every weekend for you!? And what abou-...what did you say?"
"Pretty much...You know there have been times when they´ve actually caught me...after they were...finished with me...they left me in a pile of garbage in some alley, I just fell asleep then and there..." Now it was Tomo´s turn to sob uncontrollably. "..it hurt so much Kagura! They´d tormen-"
"Hush...just, hush. Tomo."
Kagura forgot her own shock as she comforted the shaking girl as Tomo confessed about all of her experiences. When it didn´t seem like Tomo was going to stop Kagura got an arm around her and helped her up. It didn´t take much effort concerning Tomo´s frame. Kagura looked around for the first time in a long while and realised she knew this park, it wasn´t very far from her neighbourhood. With Tomo on a drag she started moving them towards her house.
Kagura opened the door and stumbled into the hallway. She kicked off her wet shoes and socks and stepped into her slippers. They were incredibly fortunate in the fact that Kagura´s mother had to travel to a lot in her job and thus had the house to themselves. Suddenly she realised she was alone in the hallway, when she checked Tomo was standing outside looking rather hesitant.
"Ah, uhm, are you sure this is ok?"
"It´s ok, we´re the only ones here. Now get in here and get out of that wet uniform!"
"I didn´t know you played on the other team Kags, will I be safe here all alone with you in this big old house?"
It took a second before Kagura realised what Tomo was insinuating and she blushed furiously.
"Shut up! If there are anybody who should be worried here it´s me! With your obvious obsession of a certain spectacled girl!"
Now it was Tomo´s turn to blush. "It´s nothing like that and you know it, we´re only friends. Now, where´s your bathroom?"
"Upstairs and to the right."
"Thanks."
As Tomo stormed up the stairs Kagura looked after her. ´Why had she blushed at that? These kinds of banters were usual among the two, albeit Ayumu and Yomi were also in on the fun sometimes. At least it used to be just fun, now that it was just her and Tomo all alone it seemed...kind of like flirting? Kagura blushed once more at the indecent thought, but couldn´t get it off her mind. Somehow she felt she´d grown closer to Tomo these last two days...
She was still contemplating the issue when Tomo came trotting back downstairs.
"Hey, sexy! How about we get out of these wet clothes and into something comfortable, even though you´re exposing a lot already."
Kagura looked at herself and realised her blouse was half-open and so wet you could see through it and her skirt clang to her thighs.
Tomo was just as wet, but didn´t look as trashy. She looked more like a lost little child who you can´t resist going "awww" at.
"Shut up, you look like a little kid you brat. I got extra pyjamas upstairs."
"Oooh, now you´re obviously trying to get me into bed with you."
After a while they both managed to get into their pyjamas, eat some food and eventually get to bed. There was only one problem. There was only one bed.
"What´s this Kagura-kun? Surely you cannot deny the facts now, inviting me into your bed."
"Shut up, it´s big enough for the both of us. Now unless you want to sleep on the sofa downstairs get in bed."
"Ok, ok."
As Tomo went under the cover Kagura turned off the lights and followed her. Unfortunately Kagura didn´t manage to fall to sleep. She was worried about what had happened and couldn´t stop thinking about it. Suddenly she felt Tomo´s hands embrace her, after those followed her legs. Kagura heard Tomo mumble something followed by her name. When she turned around to tell Tomo to get off she noticed her friend was sleeping.
´So this is subconscious, huh? Well, it´s something more to tease her about.´
Her thoughts about that afternoon slipped away and Kagura fell asleep in the embrace of Tomo, safe and away from the cruel world for now.
