September gives way to October in the blink of an eye, and Rei all but forgets about Mao's concerns to concentrate on his new routine.
That sounds worse than it is, really -- two weeks into school, things just seem to fall into place. During the week, Rei wakes up early to practice his kung-fu before heading to school. On the way, he meets up with Max in front of his father's hobby shop (as it's on his way to school); Max is usually putting on his roller blades when Rei arrives, and he laughs off Rei's mock accusations of making him wait on purpose. Max finishes setting himself up and yells out to his father that he's leaving, grabbing his bag and setting off at a casual pace so that Rei can follow. Sometimes Max takes his bike; it depends on his mood that day. Rei doesn't know why he bothers, considering he has to slow down to wait for Rei anyway, but then again they don't walk home together, so who knows?
When they're almost at school they meet up with the Chief and Max grabs the other boy's bag from his death grip and speeding off, making the Chief scream out at him to slow down and running after Max, Rei following them both in a more casual pace and laughing at Max's energy in the morning. They get to school about ten minutes before the bell and hang around their lockers for a little while, grabbing their things for their class and letting Max take off his rollerblading equipment. They head off to class when the bell rings, with still no sign of Takao or Kai.
Takao shows up seconds before the late bell no matter what day it is, sliding into his morning classroom and screaming 'safe'. If Kai has a class with them in the morning, he's usually already in class before any of them, sitting in his spot in the far back next to the window and gazing outside. The seats around him are never taken, even though there shouldn't be empty spots in the classroom.
On the rare occasion the five of them share a class together, they sit around Kai, Takao in the seat in front of him, Max next to Takao, the Chief next to Max and Rei next to Kai. Takao is only ever on time for this one class, and the brief few minutes before and after class he spends sitting backwards on his chair and trying to make conversation with Kai. Rei, Max and the Chief end up responding to him instead most of the time.
At lunch, they all head to the roof to eat their bento. They sit in different spots, having the entire roof to themselves, and Takao picks from each of their meals with excuses that he's a 'growing boy' and ignores their protest. Kai, who was on the roof before all of them came to have lunch, doesn't eat anything. He spends most of lunch staring at the sky, sitting on top of the compartment that leads to the staircase. He doesn't add to the conversation the boys are having often, and most of the time when he does it's to give sarcastic and/or biting comments. The victim of these is mostly Takao. Because of this, he ends up as the butt of a lot of jokes. Rei feels it's fair revenge for all the cat jokes.
They bring their homework and notes up during lunch to work on it together. Max has trouble with history while Rei isn't all that fond of English and both of them sometimes need help on their Japanese. The Chief is usually their help for everything, whereas Takao is a notably bad student on, well, pretty much everything. Kai doesn't bring his homework or his notes; as far as Rei knows, Kai doesn't write any notes at all in class. When a question has baffled the Chief once or twice, however, Kai has surprised them by answering the question in a dry tone, not bothering to explain how he knows this.
When asked about Kai's prowess in school, Takao simply shrugged it off. "Eh, just trust him on it," he'd advised them.
True to form, Kai has yet to get an answer wrong.
Rei understands now how Takao could say that he and Kai simply got used to each other -- after two weeks, Kai is far less jarring, and the five of them have gotten used to each other's presence. There's a companionship, even if it seems rather forced at times. Rei suspects Kai is more a natural loner than a real punk/gangster, like the rumors said. He feels slightly bad for having believed them so readily.
Still. When the day ends, Rei walks back home alone -- the Chief is part of the Computer club and Max is a member of the soccer team. Mao herself is a member of at least three clubs, including the Badminton club (badminton is more popular in China than it is in Japan, but Mao never quite lost her love for it, and there's enough of a following for a leisure club if nothing else), so he doesn't see her often. Takao, for his part, not only lives on the other side of town from Rei, but also leaves school in a rush to go to his after-school meetings with Kai. Rei wonders what they do there, but doesn't bother asking. Even Max's teasing isn't enough to break Takao's insistence that they're just hanging out.
Rei spends his weekends with Mao, going out on what she jokingly says are 'dates'. Rei laughs it off, though, to be honest, he wouldn't mind dating her. Mao is a nice, pretty girl and a good friend first, though, and asking her is the last thing on his mind right now. Life just goes on.
Life goes on so fast that Rei forgets all about Mao's worries and talking to his old friends.
He feels bad about it, but, well, they haven't tried to seek him out, either. So the blame doesn't lie solely on him.
Besides, he's busy, you know?
So, except for that, Rei starts off October with a good feeling.
If only that feeling had stayed.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Takao, Max and Rei share their last class on Thursdays. They end the day with PE, something all three of them agree isn't what they'd call the best class ever. Usually, at this time of the year, all PE classes are spent outside, running on the track field. As it was raining today, their teacher had instead announced that they would run laps in the gym for the duration of class, something Takao decides to whine about for... well, the duration of class.
The bell rings and Takao proceeds to flop down on the floor, doing his own impression of either a beached whale or a dead jellyfish. Possibly both. The rest of their classmates head to the showers quickly, but Rei and Max stay behind to try and manage to make Takao get up and out of class already. Their coach left already, busy as he is with maintaining most of the school's official sports teams. Rei assured him that they'd close the gym behind them when they got Takao up.
"Taka~" Max tries, nudging him slightly with his foot. "Class is over, you gotta move."
"I am dead," Takao announces dramatically, "Tell my ancestors I'm sorry for leading the most boring life ever, but at least this time I wasn't killed by a ghost."
Max shakes his head with a laugh and Rei raises an eyebrow.
"But the dead don't talk," he points out casually, and Takao raises his head with a huff, insulted.
"This is my dying confession, geesh. Don't mess it up now! So, uh, what else... Awww, man, now I don't know what I was going to say."
"Well, you can't possibly die now," Max says with a grin, "Everyone knows you can't die without giving a dramatic death speech. So up you go!"
Takao turns around so he is lying on his back and whimpers. "Noooooo, I don't wannaaaaaa," he moans, crossing his arms over his face. "I want to lie here foreeeever... Or at least until my entire body stops feeling like it's made of painful ... painfulness."
"You're really eloquent," Rei assures the other boy with a grin. Max scrunches up his nose.
"C'mon, Taka, you stink. The shower'll make you feel better, too. And the day's over! We can go home! Why would you want to stay in a smelly gym?"
"It makes me feel at home," Takao deadpans in a mumble from somewhere underneath his arms. "I am a smelly gym sock."
"You sure smell like one," Rei admits with a laugh. "Well, if you're going to be a smelly gym sock, me and Max are gonna get going. Nothing we can do with an old, lonely, smelly and ugly gym sock."
Takao sits up and points at Rei, outraged. "Hey! I never said I was ugly or old!"
"Oh, look, he's not dead anymore," Rei grins.
"Taka, gym socks aren't really known for being pretty or brand new..." Max reasons. Takao crosses his arms with a pout.
"You guys suck. Fiiiiine, fine, let's go shower already," Takao sighs. "Help me up," he tells Max, but just before Max grabs his hand to raise him up, Takao's eyes widen and he pulls Max down quickly. Rei steps back and turns to look at what Takao has seen just in time to dodge the projectile thrown at him -- he snaps his head back to see what it is and is surprised to see one of the school's weight disks (twenty pounds, it reads) hit the wall, hard, denting it.
What the hell?
"What the fuck, dude?!" Takao yells out angrily, scrambling to pull himself and Max up, suddenly not tired at all. Rei turns back to see who he's addressing and sees what he thinks is a first year student. He's seen him in his middle school before, Rei's sure of it. He seems like a typical student, if Chinese, but there's no doubt he's the one who almost crushed both Rei and Max's head with that weight.
"So you are as good as they say," the guy says, calmly addressing Rei. Rei stares at him, shocked.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Takao seethes, and the guy barely glances at him. "Are you nuts?! You could've seriously hurt us with that! You don't just throw that stuff around!"
The guy bows slightly. "I apologize. I didn't mean to hit you or your friend. My target was only Kon Rei."
"Target?" Max asks. "Uh, sorry to disappoint you, but unless Rei is suddenly affiliated with the yakuza, you're attacking a random high school student for no reason. And you could've given him a concussion, or worse, if you'd actually managed to hit him!"
The guy straightens up, face serious. "I was assured his abilities would make it so he could easily dodge such an obvious target."
"Yeah, if he saw it coming! You attacked from the back!" Takao accuses, quite sensibly. He's taken a step forward, ready to start a fight and protect his friends.
Rei is completely lost right now.
"You were looking," the guy objects. "This isn't why I came, however. Kon, I demand a match."
"... If you don't mind my asking," Rei asks, calmly, trying to appease the obviously crazy person in this room, "Why do you want to fight me?"
The guy bows again, and Rei, Max and Takao share a worried look. The only time Rei has seen someone act this way was in Takao's shounen manga. There's no way this guy can be for real, but if he isn't, then this is the worst joke Rei has ever had the displeasure of being the butt of.
"I apologize, I have been extremely wrong. My name is Bruce Li, but you can call me Bruce, and I was told that, in order to join the Bai Hu Zu clique, I needed to prove my worth and defeat you in a fair fight, as we are both kung fu specialists."
There is a long pause following this declaration as ... Bruce Li rises himself up and stares at them with the straightest of expressions.
This is probably the worst joke Rei has ever heard in his entire life. Takao and Max seem to share the sentiment as all three of them stare at Bruce Li with a gormless expression, unsure of how to take this.
"... Your name is Bruce Li," Takao starts, clearly preparing a speech on how stupidly retarded that is, and Rei can't even summon the energy to cut him off, considering the circumstances. "You're a kung fu specialist, and you want to fight Rei to get accepted into a high school clique?"
"Yes," Bruce answers, still with a completely straight face.
"Okaaaaay then, we're going to go ahead and call the asylum, since it's clear we've got one loony on the loose that really needs to take his pills right around now," Takao deadpans slowly, staring at Bruce as if he has more than one screw loose. Which is probably the case.
"Do not mock me," Bruce says, eyes narrowed, taking on an offensive pose. Takao, unbothered, crosses his arms behind his neck and raises his head up to stare at the ceiling.
"Don't worry! They have nice pajamas for you back there, and you can happily draw with your widdle crayons all about those nice Bai Hu Zu and your magical adventures in the land of your typical Shounen Jump story. You'll have a blast."
Bruce doesn't waste anytime after Takao's spiel to move towards the boy, quickly, and Rei moves at the same time, blocking Bruce's roundhouse kick with his arm as Takao jumps backwards, eyes wide. Max is looking distinctly uncomfortable as both Bruce and Rei straighten themselves up, both taking defensive positions.
"Takao, I get the feeling the guy is serious," Max points out nervously and Takao throws him a look.
"This might come as a shock, but I kind of noticed!"
Rei's eyes are narrowed, taking in all of Bruce's movements. The guy's reasoning was nuts, but he was a definite threat. "What makes you think winning against me in a fight will make you a Bai Hu Zu? If you hadn't noticed, Takao has a point; it's just a school clique. There's no initiation to enter the group. You just... are."
"They wear pink on Fridays," Takao mutters under his breath and Rei shoots him a look as Max laughs somewhat nervously.
Max raises his hands up in the air and approaches them both slowly with a friendly smile, trying to play peacemaker. "C'mon, guys, really, there's no need to fight. We can settle this in a friendly chess match or something! Let's just run along and, uh, not fight to the death... Violence never solved anything!"
Bruce doesn't even blink. "No! I will fight Kon Rei, it is my destiny to do so!"
Takao slaps his forehead with his hand, effectively facepalming. "Y'gotta be kidding me," he mutters somewhere underneath his hand.
Rei is tempted to do the same, and Max's friendly smile drops a little as he stares at the crazy person with a completely befuddled expression.
"It might be your destiny to fight Rei, but it's not Rei's destiny to fight anyone!" Takao explodes, then points at his chest with a thumb. "If you wanna fight Rei, y'gotta go through me first!"
Rei and Max share a completely horrified look as they stare at Takao. "Are you mad--" Rei starts to object, but Bruce interrupts, head tilted slightly to the side.
"I don't understand. Are you also a kung fu specialist?"
Takao shakes his head, rubbing underneath his nose in a self-confidence move worthy of the worst kung-fu movies Rei has seen before he gestures to the pile of shinai hidden in the far end of the gym for the kendo club. "No, but I am a kendo expert!"
Rei stares at Takao blankly. "... And he says Bruce is from a bad shounen manga," he mutters darkly.
Max gestures for Rei to approach and Rei does, throwing a doubtful look at Takao at the same time. "It's true Takao's pretty good at kendo," Max explains in a whisper, "But I don't know what he's planning. This guy doesn't look dangerous, but... Rei, why do you think he's after you? Who could've told him to try and beat you?"
"I don't know," Rei whispers back, urgently, Bruce staring at Takao and seemingly considering his options. "The strongest kung fu master I've known was also eccentric, so I'm worried Takao's underestimating this guy. If he gets seriously injured on my account--"
"If you can't beat me," Takao continues, loudly, "You definitely can't beat Rei. So, what do you say?"
Bruce, being that he is batshit crazy and practically named after Bruce Lee, seems to consider this at length before nodding. "All right! Kinomiya Takao, I accept your challenge!"
There is a pause, and then...
"Dude, how'd you know my name?"
Rei would like to note that Takao's priorities are completely, totally, 100% screwed.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Rei grabs at Takao while Bruce readies himself, waiting patiently for his opponent to get his weapon.
"Are you out of your mind?" Rei hisses under his breath. "First off, I can fight my own battles, and second off, this guy isn't kidding around, Takao! I'm not standing by watching him make mince meat out of you just because you want to play hero!"
Max is standing close enough to them to listen in on their conversation with it still looking inconspicuous enough to fool Bruce. ... Considering Bruce's reasons to want to fight Rei, this is probably way easier than it should be. Still, there's no harm in being cautious. Takao motions to Bruce quickly before whispering back:
"I'm trying to stall! Someone's bound to come sooner or later, right? A janitor or something... I don't trust that guy not to try and pull a dirty trick if you're the one he's fighting, considering you are the one he really wants to beat, man. Trust me on this, okay?"
Takao gives Rei a quick grin, as if trying to appease him. Takao's logic isn't that far-fetched, but it's not reassuring Rei at all. Rei scowls.
"What if someone doesn't come by?" Rei starts, but Max shakes his head and Rei stops to see what the blond is going to say.
"Let's just give Takao a chance, alright? There's a lot of team practices after school, and since it's raining they're going to come in here soon enough."
"I can stall too," Rei tries to object, but Max shoots him a worried look.
"Rei, he really wants to beat you."
"What makes you think he won't just crush Takao in order to get to me? If he's that taken by it --"
Rei is interrupted in his rant by the sudden realization that Takao has slunk off sometime in their conversation and is now calmly brandishing his shinai while standing in front of Bruce, who looks as equally prepared.
"You ready?" Takao asks, goading.
"Yes. Prepare to meet your doom, Kinomiya Takao," Bruce answers, all seriousness and practically no inflection. Takao makes a face but doesn't comment.
"... Guess you don't have a choice in the matter, Rei!" Max announces brightly.
Rei groans loudly. Shouting out 'wait, I object!' at this point would probably just end up with Takao shouting back 'overruled' and completely ignoring him.
Takao, Rei thinks worriedly, I hope you know what you're doing...
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Takao, it turns out, actually did know what he was doing. Will wonders never cease?
The fight starts off with Bruce running in with an offensive move that is blocked (with minor difficulty) by Takao's shinai. The fight follows suit. Bruce attacks with a melee of kicks and punches that Takao dodges when he can see them coming or simply blocks with the shinai. Rei is completely bewildered by the defensive style of Takao's kendo, but he doesn't take the time to ask Max why that is; if it looks like Takao is going to be in trouble, Rei has promised himself to step in quickly.
Takao ducks a punch thrown for his head but fails to notice the kick that follows suit -- it lands with a harsh sound right in his ribs, and Takao gasps for air as he's thrown back a few feet, sliding on the floor because of his socks (he'd taken off his shoes before the fight). Bruce uses Takao's momentary setback to try and land another hit on him, rushing in with a swift kick aimed at Takao's head. Takao barely has the time to raise his shinai with both hands horizontally and block the attack, gritting his teeth when he hears the wood crack. It wasn't meant for this type of bold fighting. Bruce steps back once his attack is blocked, looking for an opening and --
Yes, Rei thinks excitedly, he's let his guard down!
Takao's strictly defensive style so far has left Bruce over confident; since Takao hasn't moved for the attack once yet, he doesn't expect him to at all. But the question is, can Takao use this opening?
It doesn't seem so, as Takao takes an obvious step for the attack, shinai raised high above him and Bruce, noticing his error, ducks quickly, readying himself to hit Takao's stomach with his open palm -- Rei steps forward, ready to intervene, when suddenly Takao drops to the ground and kicks at Bruce's legs, making the boy fall down.
Max exhales in relief next to Rei, and Takao scrambles up fast enough to point his shinai at Bruce Li's throat, the boy horrified at his quick loss.
"I win," Takao announces proudly, a smirk on his face. Bruce's head hangs low when suddenly a voice sounds out from what seems to be the ceiling:
"That was lame!"
All heads turn to look at the ceiling at once, and Rei knows exactly where to look. He'd recognize that voice anywhere, and sure enough, on one of the ceiling fixtures of the gym is none other than Kiki. The small, green haired boy is sitting on the fixture, legs dangling, a bored expression on his face.
"Kiki?" Rei yells out, bewildered. "What are you doing here?"
Takao seems still stuck on the fact that someone is hanging from the light fixtures himself, pointing and gaping like... well, an idiot.
"I'm not hallucinating this one, right? There really is an elf on the ceiling? ... What the hell, dude?!"
... Rei personally wouldn't call Kiki an elf, but the description still fits, if nothing else. Kiki ignores both of them, standing up on his fixture -- Rei worries for a second that the light will fall, but it doesn't even budge as Kiki gestures wildly at Bruce.
"You really thought you could take down Rei with moves like that?!" Kiki asks, a deadpan expression on his face. "Seriously? You're barely a beginner, never mind Rei's level! Fail!"
Rei resists the urge to preen at the compliment. Resists. Bruce, however, doesn't resist his urge, which seems to be to scramble so he's on his knees, head almost touching the floor as he--
"I'm sorry I've failed you! Please don't kick me out of the Bai Hu Zu, I'll do anything! I swear, I'll get better!"
... Begs for... forgiveness?
Wait, what the hell?!
"Kiki, you put him up to this?!" Rei yells out, enraged. What kind of sick joke was that?! Kiki merely shrugs it off however, jumping down from his light fixture and performing numerous somersaults so that he lands safely in the pile of mattresses in the corner of the room. Takao gapes and Max stares, bewildered.
Rei is used to this, however, and simply crosses his arms, glowering as he stares at Kiki.
"Wow, you're tense," Kiki notes, sitting with his legs crossed. "C'mon, it's not like he would've been any match for you, right?"
"That doesn't excuse making a random student attack my friends and I! We could've gotten seriously hurt if that weight disk had hit us the first time, and--"
"Yeah, yeah, this is my caring face," Kiki waves him off, a completely blank expression on his face. It quickly turns to an innocent look at Rei's infuriated face, however, and he grins. "Awww, c'mon Rei. I just wanted to see if you'd lost any of your sharp reflexes in the, oh, what was it again?" At this point Kiki puts a hand on his chin, mock thinking. "Oh, yeah, in the three months since you ditched us!"
Rei deflates slightly at that. "I didn't ditch you," he starts, sheepishly, but Kiki cuts him off.
"Suuuure you didn't. And the guys next to you are totally not your new best friends, right? Give me a break, how dumb do you think I am?"
"Considering you hired that idiot as part of some half-assed revenge plan on Rei, I'd say very," Takao cuts in, a fist on his hip and his other hand holding the shinai tightly, knuckles white.
"Says the idiot who went to summer school," Kiki bites back, rising himself up so he's looking down on them from his spot on the mattresses.
Takao flushes angrily, taking a step forward, fist raised. "Why you --"
Max grabs the back of Takao's gym shirt, tugging him back. "Hey, hey, there's no need to fight," he chastises him, before addressing Kiki: "Look, whatever business Rei has with you doesn't give you the right to make people attack him, especially for promises like letting him join a high school clique. But if you let us be on our way we'll forget about this whole ordeal and you and Rei can talk this over like grown-ups..."
Kiki sneers. "Aww, isn't that cute, Rei found people just as prone to running away as he is!"
Rei's eyes narrow and he bares his teeth, pupils growing narrowed in his anger. Like a cat's, which Takao had been quick to point out when he'd first seen Rei peeved. (An incident completely unrelated having to do with juice and other condiments not meant to be put on human beings finding their way to his hair and, well, let's just say Takao and Max are less likely to throw food at each other now.) Kiki looks scared at first but stands his ground.
"Look, Kiki, I don't care what your petty grudges are--" Rei grounds out, but Kiki interrupts him, outraged.
"Petty grudges?! We were best friends for years, Rei, then suddenly you up and leave for America and forget all of us, not only for the summer, but during the school year as well? This isn't a petty grudge! You betrayed us, Rei! Totally shattered our trust! Lai can't get over it, and Mao was devastated -- well, until you started talking to her again, but of course you'd talk to Mao; you're not going to give up your little hidden romance now that Lai has no way of knowing, huh?!"
There's a pause as Rei assesses this outburst and Kiki tries to catch his breath.
"Wow, talk about over-dramatic," Takao mumbles under his breath, and Max nods emphatically, mouthing back what seems to be 'nutsy drama queen elf'.
Rei has a hard time keeping his smile down. He breathes to calm himself before looking up at Kiki with the most neutral expression possible.
"Believe what you want, Kiki, but I'm not having any more of a part in this. My friends and I are leaving now, and don't try to stop us."
"Fine," Kiki answers airily, and Rei's eyes narrow at his tone. There's no way there's no catch involved -- not with Kiki in the picture.
"But...?"
Kiki grins innocently, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "But... First, I think we need to teach little Bruce-y here exactly how a real martial arts experts fight, don't you?"
Rei glances back -- he'd completely forgotten about Bruce's presence, to be honest, and is unsurprised to see him still in his 'bowing-for-forgiveness' pose, his head slightly raised so he can stare at them expectantly now that his presence has been remembered. Takao and Max turn back to stare at him with identical confused looks, probably wondering what kind of weird universe this gym is set in. He's stating to wonder that himself, honestly. Rei looks back at Kiki, scowling.
"I'm not fighting you," Rei tells him decidedly, and Kiki shakes his head.
"No, not you, Rei. Your stick wielding friend and I -- we're going to have a... friendly demonstration. Just to show poor Bruce a thing or two, you know?" Kiki asks, an innocent smile on his face still, and that's seriously starting to unnerve Rei.
Rei looks unsure, looking back and forth between Takao and Kiki. "I don't know, Kiki, we should just go --"
"I promise on sensei's head I won't hurt him," Kiki swears with a serious expression. There's still this air about him, but -- but none of them would swear on Tao's head without thinking about it thoroughly. Right?
"I'll hurt you, you little brat," Takao seethes. Max shakes his head hopelessly, and Rei throws a look at both of them.
"Look, I really don't think--"
"Don't worry, Rei, I'll show this punk!" Takao interrupts him, headstrong as always. "Bring it on!"
Will anyone ever listen to his opinion? This is a bad idea!
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Bruce and Max are standing on one side of the gym, Rei standing on the other -- closer to the door, but also far closer to Kiki and Takao, in case he needs to intervene in the battle. Kiki and Takao are facing each other, and Takao looks extremely peeved.
Rei, for his part, demands to know when his life turned into some manga story that makes no sense whatsoever.
"Alright, Kiki -- keep this clean. You promised not to hurt Takao," Rei reminds him, and Kiki grins at him innocently, waving off his concern.
"Don't worry; I never go back on my words."
Why does that sound ominous...? Before Rei can object (ever, really -- all this has been done far before Rei can object to anything, which is cheating), Takao charges Kiki without warning and the fight commences.
Takao goes for a full frontal attack, swinging down his shinai with as much strength as possible -- Kiki dodges it, effortlessly. Kiki's main strength being his agility, Rei isn't surprised -- he's small and quick. Takao isn't deterred, however, swinging his shinai left and right and trying to hit Kiki, who continues to dodge before Takao can do any damage. Maybe Kiki is only trying to teach Bruce how to dodge? Rei hopes that's the case.
Takao swings down at an angle on Kiki, and this time instead of dodging, the boy hits the shinai at an angle -- a great cracking sound follows, and Rei's eyes widen as Max shouts out:
"Watch out, Rei!"
Rei knows he doesn't have time to dodge, and braces himself to receive it on his arm (raising it up quickly so it doesn't hit his face) when something whizzes past him, hitting the projectile and stopping it in its track.
Part of the shinai falls down, broken in a way that it almost looks like a stake. Next to it, a chunk missing from it is a ...
Potato?
The five boys in the gym stare at the inert potato, completely baffled. Takao is still holding his broken -- and thus useless -- shinai with both hands. Kiki, for his part, moved away after his hit on the weapon that almost skewered Rei. Bruce looks as if he finds this totally normal -- as this is Bruce, Rei supposes it probably is, for him -- and Max is ...
Suddenly waving wildly at Rei, a huge smile on his face. Uh? Rei turns around to check if Max is saying hello to someone or if he's just lost it because of rampant potatoes.
Max, it turns out, hasn't lost it. This is good. And potatoes do not fly out of nowhere, either. Rei knows this because one Kai Hiwatari is leaning against the wall, casually, an open potato bag next to him and a serious expression on his face.
...
Potatoes?
When did Kai get here?
"... Uh, hi?" Rei mumbles uncertainly, but Kai doesn't turn his glare away from Kiki and Takao. Max is more enthusiastic.
"Nice timing, Kai~! You sure have some wild potato throwing skills!"
...
No, it doesn't sound any more logical when said out loud. Takao, Rei and Kiki stare blankly at Kai, who is completely unmoved by their stares.
"... I knew you had teleporting abilities," Takao mutters loudly, sulking at Kai's general direction.
Kai, being Kai, ignores him to concentrate on Kiki.
"Try to be more inconspicuous next time you plan a move that's meant to skewer people," Kai deadpans, and Rei realizes with a jolt that Kiki had purposefully tried to skewer him.
"Kiki!" Rei yells, outraged. "What the hell?! You tried to seriously injure me this time, and don't deny it!"
Kiki glares, all pretenses dropped. "So maybe I did. I never said I wouldn't hurt you, just your friend. It's your own fault you weren't cautious enough!"
"Why the heck would you want to skewer Rei with wood?!" Takao explodes, gesturing wildly. "He's not a vampire!"
More importantly, why is Takao's first thought that Kiki believed Rei to be a vampire? Does he look like a bat? Rei takes a short breath, exhaling slowly before looking at Kiki seriously.
"Do you have any idea what you were trying to do? You're seriously trying to hurt me because I left for America this summer and neither of us talked with the other for one month?"
Kiki's fists ball up as he glares at Rei heatedly. "Don't try to put the blame on me! You're spinning it around so that I'm the bad guy here! If Lai was here, you'd know that you were an idiot for ditching us for those losers--"
"And how would I make him know that, Kiki?"
Kiki freezes, caught in the act and Rei turns to look at the gym's door -- Kai has moved away from it slightly. Lai and Gao are now standing in the entrance (next to the abandoned sack of potatoes, and Rei isn't even going to bother thinking about that one), Gao a strong presence in Lai's back. Lai is looking critically at Kiki, arms crossed. Kiki backs away, looking around nervously. Rei throws a quick look at Max and Takao. They've seemingly gravitated towards Kai and Rei, standing closer now than they were a few minutes ago. Takao is still holding onto his broken shinai like a weapon and Max is throwing worried looks around.
Bruce is bowing again at Lai's arrivals, but instead of being on his knees this time he's only bent his body in half, which is ... slightly better, Rei guesses.
Sorta.
"I apologize for failing my initiation," Bruce starts, but Lai just stares at him blankly and shakes his head, ignoring him.
"I don't even want to know what Kiki said to you," Lai mumbles. "Kiki, you're done here. I don't care what business you think you were finishing with Rei; if he doesn't want to talk to us, we're not going to talk to him either."
Rei's hackles raise at that and he growls. "Now hold on a second, Lai! You didn't try to contact me, either! Just because I make new friends doesn't mean I've ditched you!"
Gao looks back and forth between Lai and Rei, as do Max and Takao. Kai is leaning against the wall, eyes closed, but Rei has to admit -- the presence at his back is comforting. Bruce is looking confused, and Kiki is staring at the wall, arms crossed and ... well, pouting.
There are way too many people in this room, Rei decides, even though it's a gym and can definitely hold more than this.
"Just be glad I'm not letting Kiki get away with harassing you, Kon," Lai snarls, "We're leaving."
Suddenly the other presences in the room seem to disappear as Rei concentrates solely on Lai, feeling the injustice of it all. Lai has always been like this, letting his emotions get the best of him and having a skewed sense of both justice and friendship.
"Not letting him? That's bull. We could've gotten seriously injured! What kind of moral is that?!" Rei objects, gesturing wildly. "It's true I didn't try to talk to you last month, but I was busy, and I didn't see you try, either. Even if I had ditched you, that's no reason to be violent!"
Lai's eyes are narrowed, and the tension in the room seems to escalate. "I haven't been violent! I could be, considering I don't know what exactly you're planning to do to my cousin. What is it, Rei? You'll just sleep with Mao and then ditch her, too?"
Rei sees red, and before anyone can stop him (or even tries to), he's managed to land a punch right in Lai's face. It feels good, really, but he regrets it the second he hears the resounding crunch as his fist impacts.
Oh, poop.
Lai holds a hand to his face as he hisses out: "You're going to pay for that, Rei!"
He moves himself then, and it becomes a series of dodges, kicks and punches between him and Rei. Rei wonders half-mindedly what's going on with the others, but can't exactly spare the time to look -- Lai manages to tackle him to the ground, and they both wrestle around for a while until Rei hits Lai's sternum right with the bottom of his palm, knocking the wind out of him for a while and using the opportunity to turn them around so that he's the one on top. Lai gasps in pain and then brings a leg up to kick Rei in the stomach and off of him.
Fuck that hurts, but Rei doesn't have the time to breathe as Lai comes at him again with a punch that Rei can barely duck. The kick Lai sends out does manage to hit his head, however, and the next few minutes are a blur of screams and yells and punch-kick-dodge-hurt-roll-fall-bite-scratch-punch-holyshitmykidneyineededthat until --
"My goodness, what's going on here?" Principal Daitenji's voice sounds out.
Everything stops.
... Well.
Shit.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Rei, Max, Takao and Kai are summoned first to Daitenji's office.
As it happens, while Rei and Lai were having their own little fight, Kiki had decided this meant an all-out war and had started to attack Takao, who had managed to fend off his attacks as best he could. Bruce had followed suit, attacking Max, and Gao and Kai had been brawling.
Or so that's what Rei gathered from the pose they were all found in and their numerous injuries. On their side, Takao was nursing numerous bruises on his sides and back, but nothing too physically evident unless one looked at his leg, where a huge scrape had been made by the broken shinai at one point through some means or another. Max, for his part, was nursing a black eye, the whole left side of his face swollen. He was holding onto his ribs, where Bruce had apparently managed to land a strong kick. Kai didn't look that bad for a guy that had just taken on Gao, who was quite his size both height wise and weight wise. He had a huge bruise on his right cheek, a split lip, horribly bruised knuckles and had spit out blood in an handkerchief Principal Daitenji had given him -- not from any internal bleeding, like Rei had feared, but from apparently biting off a chunk of his tongue when Gao punched him in the face. Except for that general... jaw damage, Kai only sported minor bruising that they could see.
As for Rei himself, he has scratches and bruises pretty much everywhere on his body and a possible concussion from receiving an elbow in the head, followed with his head bouncing off the hard gym floor. Or so Takao said -- Rei himself didn't remember that part of the fight at all. ... Which probably did point towards a concussion. Goody.
On the other side, Lai was sporting two black eyes (and thus looked like a raccoon, in Rei's humble opinion) and the same kind of bruises and scratches Rei did. Kiki also had a huge gash on his arm from the broken shinai and bruises on his side, whereas Bruce had a broken nose and had thus been rushed to an hospital. It seemed Max had a mean left hook when provoked. Gao, for his part, looked worse for wear with dark bruises all over his body and Kai having cracked one of his ribs with a hard kick. This says far more about Kai abilities than it does about Gao's, however.
Rei considers thus it can be said that they won.
...
He's not sure if that's a good thing.
"I can't believe you boys would do something like this!" Daitenji's voice sounds out as he paces back and forth behind his desk in his small office, all four of them sitting on chairs in front of him. (Rei was surprised there were four chairs too, really. Apparently people need to be called in four at a time a lot, or something.) "This kind of violence... Kai, I'm especially disappointed in you, m'boy," he adds, sternly, and Kai gives him a look that Rei translates to mentally as 'this is my caring face'. It does not look very caring. "You'd promised you were done with all this-- this gang violence. And bringing these three boys in with you..."
Kai doesn't even object, simply shrugging before spitting in his handkerchief once more. He hasn't taken it away from the front of his mouth yet, and it's starting to get ... really red. That must hurt a lot, Rei thinks stupidly.
Stupid concussion. Making him. Stupid.
"Uh, sir," Rei starts, sheepish, "Actually, it was my fault. Well, sort of..."
He proceeds to explain the entire story -- retarded though it may be at points ('And then Bruce attacked us because he wanted to get into this clique, you see' being one of the strongest examples)-- to Principal Daitenji who sits down, tapping at his brow with another handkerchief in a nervous gesture everyone this side of Japan can recognize, listening intently. When Rei's astonishing tale is over, he shakes his head.
"... That's the reason for all this senseless violence? My, my..." Daitenji shakes his head again, hopelessly. "Well, first, I'm going to say I'm sorry to have accused you so quickly, Kai m'boy, do forgive me."
Kai takes off his handkerchief, finally, revealing an extremely bloody mouth and chin. "M'used to it," he tells Daitenji with a straight face.
Takao gapes at Kai. "Holy shit, dude, doesn't that hurt? I mean it's -- bleeding. Like. A lot."
At least Rei's concussion doesn't make him that stupid. Kai makes a 'no durr' face at Takao.
"You noticed that on your own?" He drawls, and goes back to spitting blood in his handkerchief.
"D'you reckon you lost a tooth in that mess?" Max asks. Kai groans in his handkerchief, which is probably Kai-speech for leave me alone I'm bleeding, and Daitenji coughs to get their attention once more.
"That said and done, while I know you were provoked, at least to a degree, I'm still going to have to suspend all four of you for three days and tell your parents and/or tutors about this." Daitenji's sentence is met with a chorus of groans and he frowns at them, looking serious. "You put someone in the hospital, boys. This is a school, and I will not tolerate that kind of behavior from anyone attending it, even if it's outside of school hours. Do I make myself clear? I'll deal with Lai and the others, too, but provocation is no excuse for what you did. I have a zero tolerance policy on violence and conflict. If such a problem should arise again, you will either try to talk about it like grown-ups or fetch someone older to deal with it for you. Understood?"
A meek chorus of 'Yes, Principal Daitenji' follows his speech, though Kai remains suspiciously silent. This probably has more to do with being busy spitting out blood then anything else, however.
"Good. Now go home, though I advise you to take a trip to the school nurse before doing so," Daitenji's tone softens and he dabs at his forehead again with a sigh. "You all look terrible."
They rise in sync and head out the door, though Rei bows a little before he does so. Kai doesn't get out first, raising the handkerchief with a hand and raising one eyebrow, clearly asking what he's supposed to do with the bloody thing.
"Just... keep it, m'boy," Daitenji advises him, and Kai shrugs, spitting in it once more. "Oh, one last thing -- tell Lai and the others to come in, would you? My secretary left already."
Oh, fun.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
"I'm sorry I dragged you guys into all this," Rei tells them as they head home, after deciding together to just bypass the nurse and fetch their uniforms instead. In Max's case, he also says he'll tell his dad and they'll head straight to the clinic, mostly to make sure he doesn't have a cracked rib of his own.
"Nah, s'okay," Max tells him with a smile, waving it off. "I'm just glad the Chief wasn't with us-- I wouldn't want him getting hurt."
"Your friends are batshit," Takao adds. "No offense dude, but seriously. Are you, like, the sole non-crazy Chinese person? Tell me they're the exceptions, 'cause they're nutting fucks."
"You're overdoing it again, Taka," Max warns, and Takao huffs, shaking his head.
"If Kai hadn't magically shown up with his bag o' potatoes, who knows what would've happened. ... Speaking of, how did you get those an' how d'you know where to find us?"
Kai, who has by now chucked the handkerchief somewhere and stopped spitting out blood for the most part (but still looks like he came from a cannibalistic horror movie), shrugs. "I was passing through," Kai answers, and Takao looks surprised he bothered answering at all.
"With a bag of potatoes?" Takao asks, bewildered.
"Wasn't mine," Kai replies, matter-of-fact and casual. Takao gapes at him.
Rei and Max share a look and laugh, long and hard.
"The worst is, we totally believe you, man," Max tells Kai in the middle of his laughter, slapping him hard on the back. Kai looks absolutely affronted by this, moving away from Max so that he is no longer in his space. "That was one heck of a day. Lucky we're not doing that again, huh?"
"Don't jinx iiiiiiit," Takao moans, half jumping on Max and mock strangling him with one arm from behind. "My leg hurts enough as it iiiis, I have splinters in my booboo!"
Max chokes, both from the choke-hold and his own laughter.
Rei shakes his head as Kai stares at them as if they're a little stupid.
"Thanks for saving us," Rei tells him, amiably.
"Just don't get used to it," Kai answers with a jerk of a shoulder.
"Don't worry, I won't," Rei assures him with a laugh.
"Heeey, stop making friends with Kaiiiii," Takao whines, letting go of Max. "I'm the one he's BFF with!"
"Do I know you?" Kai drawls, staring blankly at Takao and moving past him.
Takao gapes at his back again as Rei and Max crack up. He yells after him, jogging slightly as he can't quite run:
"Kaiiii, you jerk, take it baaaaaack!"
Max smiles at them both before turning to Rei, a questioning look on his face.
"You okay? I mean, your friendship with Lai and the others is pretty much over, and you can't say that was a good way for it to end..." Max asks, softly. Rei grows somber and he shakes his head, sighing and looking at the sky. The sun is setting over Bey City by now, the sky turning orange.
"I wish things hadn't ended up this way, but there's nothing I can do now. That's the way things are going to be, I suppose. I feel bad for the part I had in ending my friendship with these guys, yeah, and I'm sad it did end, but... This whole clique idea is stupid." He trails off and grins at Max. "Besides, you guys are pretty good replacements!"
Max laughs. "Gee, thanks."
Rei suspects he'll never talk to Lai, Kiki and Gao again. His relationship with Mao will probably be strained, too. But these things happen. If destiny willed it so, he'll leave it at that.
Besides, what else can come out of this conflict?
(Damn it, Rei, you jinxed it again.)
LOOOOOOOOONG.
First: notice how I suck at action scenes. Now notice how I added a lot of them! HOW IS THIS INTELLIGENT? Well shut up the plot dictated it. Uuuh. :D; ... Yeah. So like at first chapter 7 was the last of this arc. And then it came to be over eight thousand words and I decided to just cut it into chapter 7 and chapter 8, because YEAH. Yeah. Juust. Yeah. Uh. I swear I'm not character bashing on Lai or Kiki, also called Lee and Kevin. And Gao didn't have any lines. Hurr. ALL THIS STUFF will be remedied in chapter 8. You know with how long this is I don't remember much from it except for FIGHT SCENES and LOOK HOW LAME I AM AT THEM and WOW THIS IS NOT FUNNY. It has some funny bits, but I think this chapter strives more on being generally interesting and action packed than funny. It's funny in some bits. I thank Mister Potato for that, who died so Kai could save Rei from imminent SCRATCHINESS. Being over dramatic is part of the parody, k. ... Why a potato? BECAUSE. I COULD. And I literally could not think of anything else right then, which ended up with me going 'WHO CARES, THIS IS A PARODY. I CAN HAVE A POTATO IF I WANT A POTATO!'.
You may notice here that not only do I suck at fight scenes, I suck at coming up with ideas when chapters get OVERLY LONG and WORDY and god Rei shut up no one caaares. Etc. :D; ... Yeah. Uuuuh. The routine bit at the beginning is me geeking out and watching too many high school driven anime. KAI IS BADASS. ...Nope, nothing else to say. /failure
Three sidenotes: First, schedule update is on my profile, if you're wondering when I plan on releasing the next chapter. Second, if anyone is interested, I'd be willing to write bigger, more contrite author's notes with DETAILS and Q&A and STUFF!!! at my LJ. This would include me posting the chapters there, etc etc just think of it as. Director's bonus. Third: Can anyone explain to me the appeal of Kai/Miguel? I mean, they don't even speak to each other in the show! ... Wait, that has nothing to do with the fic. Uh. Third: Thank you to everyone who faves/alerts/reviews! :) I swear I don't wait for five reviews to update, it's just ended up this way for the past few chapters.
Hope you enjoyed it,
-Zia
(PS: What Kenny? There is no Kenny!)