"Confrontation"

The next couple days following the incident at the school were uneventful. The group was back to their usual antics and Duos hadn't been seen since the day of his first appearance. Now it was Friday and two days until the Watanagashi Festival.

The day passed by effortlessly, and to everyone's surprise, their teacher ended class for them half an hour earlier than usual. Mion now found herself going through her locker looking to pick out today's game.

"Mmmm, not this one…" she said, lifting the case of a large board game over her head and dropping it behind her. None of the games were speaking to her today; she kept shifting about till one got her attention.

"Here we are!" she said as she pulled a deck of cards out from under another box. They hadn't played this game in months.

"Mi-chan which game are we playing today, which game?" Rena cheered excitedly as Mion came over and placed the cards on the table where all her friends sat.

"We're playing one of my personal favorites today. We're gonna play "Murderer", you all remember the rules right?"

"We have to find out who the murderer is, what they used, and where they did it, right?" said Keiichi.

"Exactly!" said Mion, "The first person who can determine who, what, and where the murder happened is the winner. The person who wins the least number of times will be subjected to the winner's punishment. Oh! And I added a few little extras since the last time we played this."

"Like what?" said Keiichi.

"I added some extra culprits to make the game more interesting, since you always lose first every time we play this."

She watched as Keiichi rummaged through the deck until he stopped and pulled out one of her new cards.

"Childhood Friend…?"

"Yeah, I decided that it would leave more to the mind if you had culprits with broader titles," she showed him a few more of the new cards.

"All you're doing is prolonging Keiichi's inevitable defeat," said a spiteful Satoko.

"Oh yeah? I'll show you who's going to be the one prolonging their defeat. I'll be the one giving you the punishment while you weep in awe over how great I am at this game!"

"Bring it then, you'll be eating my dust before you can even guess the weapon!" said a vengeful Satoko.

A cheer rose up amongst the group as they all prepared themselves for the game. Each one of them eager to test their skills and inflict punishment on the others…

After several rounds of the game and to everyone's surprise, Keiichi was in first. But what was more shocking was that Mion was in last.

"Guuuhhh… I can't believe I'm losing this bad."

"Hey, you picked the game Mion, you can't complain when you were the one that picked it," said Keiichi, taunting her with his cards.

"It is weird it is, Mi-chan never loses this badly," added Rena.

The rest of the group eyed Mion with quiet satisfaction as they could see that their leader was finally taking her turn to come in last and suffer a punishment. All of them, especially Keiichi relished the thought of this rare occurrence, before they were interrupted by Mion standing up.

"I'm going to the bathroom, back in a bit," said Mion as she darted out of the classroom and down the hallway leaving her friends to fall into discussion over what Keiichi should have Mion do as a punishment. She ended her running soon after and slowed down to a walk as she pondered the game.

"What's up with me, I can't guess anything today! Wonder what Kei-chan's gonna do to me after this one… He'll probably make me wear something humiliating… Guess what goes around comes around… Or something like that.

"Or maybe he'll…" She stopped walking.

"Oops…"

Lost in thought, she had walked out the front door of the school and now found herself standing in the openness of the schoolyard.

"Jeez what was I thinking, bathroom's the other way!"

"Can't find your way to the bathroom?" said a voice from off to the side.

Turning slightly to the side she saw a figure lying in the shade of one of the school's walls. The figure was casually smiling at her and shaking its head left and right in disapproval.

"You're…" her words trailed off.

"Duos. If you don't remember then I'll-"

"You pulled that stunt at the school a few days ago. How could I forget!" she said angrily.

"Point taken, if you'll just-"

"What are you doing here?" a slight edge in her voice.

"Thought I'd drop by and see Keiichi after his school finished, guess you guys are still busy."

"Well yeah, we still have club activities and we won't be done for a while, so you'd be wasting your time waiting around," she turned her back on him and made her way back to the front entrance.

Duos raised his head slightly.

"Oh really? I thought you guys would be done soon considering how bad you were doing in there."

She stopped and turned around to see Duos giving her a triumphant smirk.

"Were you watching us?" a look of disgust crossing her face.

Duos just smiled at her.

"Well yeah, you were making such a commotion, that I found it impossible for me to ignore you guys. Besides, you got so absorbed in your game you never even noticed me when I glanced in. And I thought Keiichi was the dense one."

Her disgust quickly elevated to anger. She began to feel a familiar feeling.

"You should have more regard for other's privacy Duos…" a slight tinge in her voice.

"The school's a public place isn't it?" said Duos, trying to resist the urge to laugh.

"I mean seriously, it's not a big deal."

She couldn't resist any longer. She began walking over to Duos, who was just starting to stand.

"Look I was just trying to be fu- GYAAHH!"

Duos never saw her coming. She had been swift in her movements and before he could raise his head, she delivered a sharp kick to his stomach, dropping him to his knees. He hacked and coughed a few times before collapsing on his side. The same person that had struck fear into her school was now retching at her feet.

"Guh… The hell…?"

She looked down at the distraught Duos who was lying on his side, clutching his stomach. His eyes were closed, not even bothering to look and see if that was all she had in store for him.

"Curiosity killed the cat Duos," she said as she lined up to kick him once more. To her anger however, Duos only chuckled.

"You won't be laughing for long," she wound up her second kick, and began to follow through but was stopped short.

Her leg was caught.

She looked down to see that Duos had grabbed her leg mid strike and was now looking up at her with a familiar grin on his face.

"I still got some lives left…" the words caught her off guard, and before she could break free, Duos flipped her, causing her to land sharply on her back.

"GAH!" she winced at the pain, but quickly tried to regain her stance. She was almost up again but was flipped a second time by a now standing Duos.

"You're not going to kick me again, I'll tell you that," Duos seemed to have already recovered from her kick.

She scooted backwards as Duos began to approach her knowing that if she stood up a second time she'd only be flipped again. She continued her backwards motions until her hand brushed against something sharp, a small piece of scrap metal, not much bigger than her hand. She gripped the metal firmly and stopped her movement.

"Alright, I think were done, let me help you up,"

She didn't move. She only starred angrily at the disheartened Duos.

"Look I'm sorry, I took things too far, let's just-…"

Now she moved. Quicker than her first movement she lunged at Duos, jabbing the piece of metal into his chest… Almost.

She had managed to break through his clothing, but Duos had grabbed her hand just short of a piercing blow.

"You're going to pay for what you've done Duos."

Both of them struggled to force the metal away from each other, but it seemed like she had the upper hand. One more push would do it.

"Alright! Alright! Let's just stop before someone gets hurt." Duos was slowly losing the battle. His hands were sweaty and he was about to lose his grip. She could feel that if she pushed now Duos couldn't stop her. With one final push, she shoved the piece of metal forward, but Duos moved with her strike, moving slightly out of the way to allow the metal to tear through his clothing, but not his flesh.

"Not quite!" She grabbed the torn fabric and swung the metal in an ark above her head, aiming the point at Duos' neck.

But Duos was ready this time.

In a quick snapping movement, he struck her knee with his own crippling her strike, the slash fell on fabric for the second time.

She stumbled backward and nearly collapsed from the blow, but the defense had proven more costly for Duos, as he stumbled and fell to the ground a few feet away from her.

She went to move in for the final strike but stopped, astonished by what she saw lying before her. Duos' clothes had been cut away during the fighting, and had revealed something morbid beneath them.

"You done now?" said Duos through a hiss of pain.

She gave no response and could only look upon Duos with utter shock.

Scars. Dozens of scars covered Duos' exposed chest, each of different lengths and some deeper and more apparent than others. She began thinking that there must have been a horrible accident to inflict such damage on one's body, but that thought was short lived as she came to a more gruesome realization.

There were words.

She looked closely and saw that the scars were placed so that they formed words amongst Duos' flesh.

Had someone carved the words into him?

She stepped back and dropped the piece of metal, now only gazing at the mass of scars on Duos' body.

"Get a good look?" said Duos as he began to pick himself up. He was having trouble with his footing.

"Where did those come from?" She asked with an almost sympathetic tone.

"Now wouldn't you like to know," said Duos in an all too familiar tone. Except Duos wasn't smiling this time. She watched as he picked up the taters of clothing that remained of his once white shirt that was now a mess of dirt and grass. He began to wrap the clothing around his body to cover as much as he could, and whilst doing so, she finally had a chance to take in Duos.

He wasn't that much taller than her, maybe an inch at best and had dark brown hair that was long enough to cover his ears, but only the slightest part of his eyes. She looked carefully at him and saw that his eyes were the same color as his hair, a deep brown. She also noticed that like the day they first saw him, Duos was wearing black jeans.

That would explain why he was always lounging in the shade…

His shirt was different though, he had worn a dark blue t-shirt the first time they met him, and it seemed to be the only part of Duos' style that seemed to change. However, the most astonishing thing she noticed about Duos was his build. He didn't look incredibly muscular, but he looked strong enough so that he could have easily overpowered her during their fight. Why hadn't he?

"What's going on out here?"

She turned to see her friends running out of the building, with Keiichi at the head.

"I was wondering when they would show up," said Duos as he finished tying the knots on the last bits of his ragged clothing. The scars were now completely covered by the tattered shirt.

"What's up with you two?" said Satoko as she grimaced at the pair.

She looked down at herself, and saw why Satoko had been concerned. She had seen Duos with his torn shirt but she had yet to address her own damages. Her clothes were filthy and caked with dust and there was a thin line of blood on her arm, oozing from a cut on her elbow. Aside from the lack of clothing, she wasn't much better off than Duos.

"So what's the deal?" said Keiichi. He addressed Duos more than herself.

"Just a misunderstanding between the two of us," said Duos. He wasn't acting arrogant anymore, he almost seemed apologetic.

"What did you do this time?" Keiichi was fuming, while the rest of the group stood to the side and let him berate the solemn Duos.

"Look I didn't pull the same stuff as last time, I was just…"

"Trying to be funny?" said Keiichi.

Duos was silent for a moment. He wasn't defending himself, and quietly accepted Keiichi's scolding. He looked like a boy getting berated by his father.

"Kei-chan it's not his fault,"

"How so?"

She glanced slightly at Duos and saw that he was looking at her a little differently than before, he had no malice in his expression and was smiling slightly at her. It was the first time she didn't feel enraged by that smile.

"I picked the fight with Duos Kei-chan…" She tensed with each word.

"You?" said Keiichi.

"Yes me, I 'overreacted' to something Duos said and it resulted in… well you can see for yourself what happened."

Keiichi was silent for a moment. He glanced at Duos, who was fidgeting with the pieces of clothing wrapped around his body, and then at her. She gave him an apologetic look and bowed her head in silence. Before she could raise her head Keiichi spoke.

"What did he say?"

"Eh?" She raised her head to see Keiichi staring intensely at her.

"What did he say to provoke you? It would have to had been pretty serious to start a fight, so what was it?"

She hesitated before replying, she had no idea how Keiichi would respond after all this.

"U-um… He… Was…"

"Yes…." Keiichi's gaze was unmoved; if anything it became more intense.

"He… was glancing in on us… during club activities," her voice was barely audible.

Keiichi continued to stare at her. Her response brought no change to his expression; he was unmoving and appeared unimpressed with her response. He continued to stare at her for a few more seconds before taking a few steps towards her. Keiichi was now only a few feet away, and from such a short distance his one word reaction hit hard.

"Really?"

He turned around and walked over to Duos and did the same.

"Really?"

Keiichi glanced at both her and Duos before surprising them both with a fit of laughter.

"Ha! That's why you picked a fight with him Mion? Because he wanted to watch us play the game? I mean, it can be quite the spectacle at some points," Keiichi was now smiling at her, devoid of any previous anger.

"B-but it's not right to spy on people, especially when he was watching and listening to everything we said or did," she was regretting defending Duos.

"She's right Keiichi-kun," said Rena.

Keiichi gave her and Rena another smile before turning to look at Duos.

"Hey Duos?"

"Yeah?"

"How long were you watching us?"

"About 10… maybe 15 seconds at most; I heard you laughing and saw you gloating after winning a hand or something and Mion getting frustrated about it; then I went and laid down in the shade."

"Still mad Mion?" Keiichi shot her another smile.

The embarrassment she felt was making her face go red and she could feel herself blushing. She couldn't handle looking at Keiichi or Duos. Before she could recover she felt a hand rubbing her head.

She looked up to see Keiichi smiling gently at her.

"Kei-chan?" Her blush deepened.

"I still think this whole thing was blown out of proportion, but I think that there's an easy way to even the score between you guys."

Satoko laughed maniacally, and all attention turned to her.

"Ohohohoh, are you really going to risk your advantage Keiichi-san?"

Keiichi laughed in reply, "It would only be fitting, what's the fun in a game when the winner has already been decided?"

The others caught on to what Keiichi was saying, leaving only Mion and Duos in the dark.

"What are you talking about?" said Duos.

"You showed a lot of interest in our game earlier and now you're going to become part of the fun," said Keiichi.

She finally understood what Keiichi was saying.

"You want him to join the game?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun! One thing though, the rest of us won't be playing. Just you and Duos," said Keiichi.

"But I don't…"

Rena and Satoko smiled and grabbed Duos by his hands and began leading him into the school. Satoko was eagerly explaining the rules of the game while Rena told him about what he could do if he won.

She looked at Keiichi, who gave her a wry smile and also began walking back into the school. She too smiled and followed him into the school. Only Rika and Hanyu remained in the yard.

Hanyu turned to Rika and stuttered.

"Rika?"

"Looks like the game really is going to get interesting," said a joyful Rika.

What do you mean by interesting?"

Rika chuckled slightly, "Come on, we shouldn't miss the main event," said Rika as she too walked back into the school.

The schoolyard was quiet, not even the cicadas made a sound. Hanyu knelt down and picked a small piece of white cloth off the ground and sighed.

"No, we shouldn't."

She clutched the piece of cloth and ran back into the school to her awaiting friends.

Author's Notes:

Who wants to play the game where we guess how long it's been since I last updated?

Probably no one considering how long I've been gone.

I won't make any promises, but I will try to write more.

I hope you readers like the story so far, and I will try to show it more appreciation.

Be productive and don't slack off like me :)