[Hansuke]

By the time I had awoken from my blackout, it was already past eight. Kiyoshi had long gone home and had apparently shut up about the whole "Seven Barians" gang thing according to Riichi. Honestly, who says that kind of shit then refuses to say anything more about it?! Fortunately, that left my oh so wonderful brother with no other topic to talk about except the one where he explained why the fuck some orange haired punk was chasing him on the first day of school.

"You should have seen him, Hansuke." Riichi was lounging on my favorite chair and was dangerously close to falling over with how far he was leaning away from my desk. "He was all over this poor kid. Yuuma was his name. Pretty cute, definitely didn't deserve all the shit this guy was spouting at him. You could tell he was only in it for the sex."

My mouth, which had been poised to tell him to sit properly before he broke my chair, snapped shut in an instant. "Only in it for the sex…?" I parroted like an idiot. No doubt my face was drained of any color, but Riichi didn't seem to notice it.

"Yeah, only in it for the sex. Damn, I really hate those kind of people. So, naturally, I told Yuuma to stay away from him - Vector, the carrot guy. But, once he figured out I was the reason Yuuma wasn't-"

But at that point, I had stopped paying attention to him. Flashbacks to a previous school, a previous life were rushing in my mind. I had done some… regrettable things that Riichi didn't know. Couldn't know. Things that, if he did know, would tear a canyon in our relationship, one I couldn't even begin to think on how to bridge. My mouth was dry as Riichi rambled on. It wasn't the right moment to tell him, though, so I stayed silent, grunting occasionally to let him know I was still half listening.

Once he was finished, I tried to give him a tongue lashing for his stupidity and useless ability to make enemies so quickly, but it didn't have any heart in it. He got the message, though, and as soon as I was done, he left my room to go order some takeout for dinner.

I had a headache for the rest of the night.

The next morning required careful planning since neither of us particularly wanted to die when we were just nineteen. We called over Kiyoshi to pick us up in his car; if I drove in my truck, we'd be targets whenever we went for a drive. Though, getting into a white van didn't seem like a better alternative. When asked why exactly he had a white van instead of a more less suspicious looking vehicle, the mute would only wave us off and say he required a lot of room to move around his equipment, whatever that meant.

Riichi and I rock-paper-scissored to see who would sit in the only available front seat while the other hung on to dear life in the back when Kiyoshi went rampant down the streets. I threw down paper and let's just say that during the ride, I wished I had an actual paper bag with me. It was amazing how he hadn't gotten into an accident… yet.

Kiyoshi was instructed to go around back to drop us off so that we wouldn't draw too much attention. Plus, seeing two high schools coming out from a white van with tinted windows didn't sell for the ideal image and no one wanted to get the cops involved. Our friend was going to just leave after we got out of the van, but I paused. Before heading into the lion's den, I needed to at least know who the lions were.

I had to squeeze myself through the gap between the two front seats to reach Kiyoshi and stop him from getting ready to leave. He looked at me with questions in his eyes and bit of hesitancy, like he knew what I was about to do. Didn't stop me from doing it, but I did let a quick moment pass so he would be ready for it. It also allowed me to prepare, too, since I didn't want to faint again just before school started.

"Who is this… 'Seven Barians' group you mentioned yesterday?" Riichi stopped, already halfway out of the van, and turned to face Kiyoshi as well. "How are those two who chased us yesterday connected with them?"

It took a while for Kiyoshi to gather up his thoughts and bring out his phone with shaking hands. I read aloud for Riichi as he began to type.

"The Seven Barians Gang is the most dangerous gang in Heartland. They deal with almost everything illegal that happens around here." I frowned and interjected, "Yeah, you told us this yesterday. What else is there about them?"

"Hey, just let him type, we're in a bit of hurry, y'know." Riichi muttered from beside me. Always quick to rush to his defense, that Riichi. He had climbed back up into the van and was leaning over to read the text, so I figured continuing to read it outloud would just annoy him. Kiyoshi continued to type.

[Well, the guy with the bike that Hansuke destroyed]

"Not my fault, by the way."

[was probably the leader of the gang. His name's Kamishiro Ryouga, but everyone calls him 'Shark'.]

Riichi scrunched up his nose. "What the hell is with these guys and their weird ass names?"

"Code names?" I offered weakly and was met with a scoff.

[The other one is, as you know, Vector. He plays a big part in their gang and thinks he should be the one to lead them, which is why you overheard them fighting like that.]

Riichi and I hummed an acknowledgement before he asked, "So, why the hell is their name, like, Seven Bari-whatevers?"

[Cause there's seven of them who run the gang.]

"I thought you said that Shark guy was the leader."

[He is. He's the main leader who oversees everything. The other six run parts and try to focus on their part and their part alone. Or… I guess that's what they're supposed to do.]

I raised an eyebrow at Kiyoshi, who couldn't see it because of how he was looking at anything other than my brother and I. "How do you know all of this? It's almost like-"

Before I could finish, Riichi let out a shout after looking at his phone. "Shit, man, it's already almost time to get to class! We gotta go." And with that, he leapt back out of the van, pulled me from the back, and said a quick goodbye to Kiyoshi. I gave him a glare that said that the conversation wasn't over, but the mute was already putting his van into drive and staring straight ahead.

Riichi was still pulling me forward towards one of the back entrances to Heartland Academy and he would have kept going straight into the hornet's nest if I hadn't forced us to stop.

"Are you forgetting that two very high ranking people from a very dangerous gang are looking for our asses in there?" The sheepish look I got confirmed it and I sighed. Some things never change and as if to prove my point, my bro dropped down into a squat, an arm slung around his face in some cheap impression of a ninja, eyes squinted in faux determination. It's like babysitting a four year old that never leaves with this guy.

"Don't worry, bro," he turned swiftly around, as if he had heard a suspicious noise. "I'll sneak right past them. Won't even know what hit them."

"Please take this seriously."

After somehow getting Riichi to stand up like a normal person so we wouldn't attract any unwanted attention from, well, anyone, we made our way inside. We glanced around the hallways and once we were certain there was no sign of bright orange or blue hair, we started to creep down to our respectful classes, sticking to the sides of the hallway rather than walking right down the middle with the rest of the crowd.

Soon, we reached the point where we had to split up. Riichi was insistent that he would be fine without my help, but I couldn't help but worry. Though he was a pain in the ass, he was still my twin brother.

And as I watched him slink across the wall and almost run straight into an opening door, I wasn't so certain that the next time I saw him he'd be in one piece.

My journey to my first class went fairly easy up until I rounded the final corner. Somehow, that 'Shark' guy must have figured out my schedule because he was standing across from my art class' door with the nastiest scowl you could imagine on his face. Panicked, I dove back around the corner I had come from, hoping he hadn't spotted me.

Honestly, I had no idea what to do. There was no doubt that the fucker would stay there until I showed myself to him, but if I did that, I was royally screwed over. No way was I going to run for my life two days in a row.

I was so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn't notice someone approaching me until it was too late.

"Hansuke! Good morning!" came the chipper call along with a light tap on my shoulder and, surprised out of my wits, I may or may not have shrieked in absolute terror.

Thankfully, it was not the Octo-Fucker or the Carrot Shithead. Instead, it was my classmate Chitaro Ariga and we both had our first class - art - together. He sported his usual turquoise beret and was of course holding onto his beloved sketchbook. It was, in fact, the sketchbook that made me give him the nickname 'Arty' because he always carried it around (and I was also bad at remembering people's actual names, but he didn't have to know that).

Quickly, I recovered from my shock by clearing my throat. "Good morning…" Honestly, I didn't know whether or not I liked Arty. Though he was friendly and I had talked to him for some of the time in class the day before, he also gave off this… weird vibe. I mean, the guy had literal pointed ears like some kind of elf! But he had been the only decent looking person in my class, believe it or not, so now he was more or less my friend.

"What are you doing here? Class is about to start soon."

It was then, looking at Arty's sketchbook, that I came up with a plan that, I'll admit, wasn't one of my best.

"Hey," I started, ignoring his question all together, "I heard that, uhm, that guy over there" - I pointed to Shark, who still stood with his arms crossed having not heard my embarrassing shout a moment earlier - "wants to talk to you about that, uh, modelling thing you mentioned yesterday."

Arty had been looking for someone to model for his new project; some kind of comic involving superheroes. He had asked if I wanted to help him, but I declined, not wanting to waste any of my precious time sitting in front of someone for however long it took. He had been disappointed, but understood and didn't bother me further about it and now, hearing that someone was actually interested, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Really?" He glanced over to where I was pointing and I saw that light get instantly squashed with fear. Apparently, this Shark guy actually was someone known to be locally feared. "O-oh… Are you… sure it was him who said that?"

I nodded and lied straight through my teeth. "Oh, yes, I'm sure! I heard he's always wanted to be a superhero." Deep down, I knew that it was a bad idea. Sending poor Arty to distract Shark while I snuck into class could easily go wrong in many, many ways. Not to mention, it was somewhat morally wrong. But, it was my only option! No way was I going to let some punk get in the way of me passing my classes and finally escaping the hellhole of high school.

Seeing that Arty was still hesitant and that time was running out before the bell would ring, I hastily pushed the other boy towards the blue freak. "Go on then! Before class starts!" And so he stumbled over, nearly bumping right into the gang leader. I saw Arty try to say something - maybe an apology of some sorts - but once I saw that Shark's eyes had moved from the door to my now probably dead friend, I fucking booked it.

And, by some miracle, it worked. Shark was too busy dealing with Arty blabbing at him to notice that I had slipped successfully into the classroom right as the first bell of the day rang. Too scared to get caught at the last minute, I didn't look back to see what would happen to Arty. All I knew was that he didn't show up for that class.

As the teacher did rollcall, I clasped my hands together and thanked him for his sacrifice, silently praying for his safe return.

[Riichi]

If there was one thing I knew about my brother, it was that he was the world's biggest worrywart. He'd give himself a heart attack over the simplest things and our situation probably wasn't the best for his health.

So, since he was so worried and sure that I was going to be dead meat by the time the school day was done, I made especially sure to prove him wrong.

Everything went well after Hansuke and I went our separate ways (not including my almost collision with a door that might have broken my nose). Then, halfway to my class, I heard it.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?! WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT LITTLE SHIT?!"

Someone wasn't happy and I recognized that voice to be none other than the orange piece of shit, Vector. It wasn't long before he came into view and - by some sort of grace - I was right by my locker. Not thinking of any other way of escape, I fumbled with the lock, threw it open, and climbed my way inside. I never really kept much of anything in my locker, so it was an easy fit, more or less. And then, I held my breath.

It was hard to tell exactly where Vector was from in the locker. I couldn't see much from the slits and he quieted down after his shout, so I couldn't hear him. Plus, there were other students still milling around that blocked any chance of a clear view of the hallway that I could get. For a few seconds, I thought of staying in there until I knew for sure that the coast was clear, but then again, Hansuke would find out that I was skipping class, start to yell at me and I really didn't need another lecture from him, so I waited for only a few minutes. Once my watch told me it was a minute left before the bell rang, I slowly opened my locker door and peered out.

I must have had the worst luck because right as I poked my head out, Vector was there at the end of the hallway. It seemed like he was just about to give up on finding me when our eyes met and his purple - fucking purple of all colors - ones flared up in newfound anger.

I was fucking fucked.

The next half minute flew by in a somewhat blur. I scrambled out of my locker, not even bothering to lock or even close it, and sprinted in the complete opposite direction than where I was supposed to be headed (my first class of the day). I heard footsteps quickly following me and I could swear that my heart was in my throat and threatening to jump out of my mouth.

I hadn't paid attention to where I was going, however, because the next thing I realized was that I had reached a dead end. What kind of a school had a hallway that led to a fucking dead end of all things?! The only place I could go to would be into a janitor's closet off to my right, but I really didn't want to hide in there because really, who knows what lays in the deep depths of a janitor's closet. I certainly didn't want to find out, so my half working brain supplied something better and perhaps just as - if not more - stupid.

There wasn't much time before Vector caught up with me, so I had to act fast. Thankfully, the closet was one that anyone could lock and unlock with a simple twist (really, Heartland Academy was too trusting a place) so my plan would work. I unlocked the door and flung it open, making sure it flung into the wall to make a very loud noise before closing it shut with another equally loud noise. Then, I did a 180 and ducked behind a, yes, a trashcan.

Brilliant, aren't I?

Fortunately, Vector was too lost in his own rage to properly think things out. He had heard the door slamming open and shut and upon seeing the dead end, came to the conclusion that I must have been inside the janitor's closet. Not looking around at his surroundings, he actually went straight into the closet. Sucker!

Before he could figure out that there was nobody but him in that small, dark area, I jumped from my hiding spot and shut the door as his back was still to me.

Hearing the sound of the door lock and finally being free from my tormentor, let me tell you, was the best feeling I'd ever had.

The next sound brought along the worst feeling, however, because it was the bell signalling the start to a class I was nowhere near. After checking to make sure the angry carrot inside, who was slamming himself against the door in attempt to break free, couldn't actually get out, I began the long run back the way I came.

Morning 01. Twins: 1. Barians: 0.

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