A/N: Next chapter! Because I intended a triple update last week in celebration for Kyou's birthday but like I said last chapter, my family sucks and prevented me from doing so. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to still upload the one I wrote or re-write it with a preview of future characters... I'll probably do both, or write another birthday fic if this story manages to draw on for another year.

.

Kyou groaned internally as he was roughly grabbed by the elbow and shoved into an alley.

Really, of all the cliches...

He turned around, glaring at the two males.

They were both taller than him, one with blond hair - that was obviously dyed, or at least he thought so - with sunglasses, while the other had brown hair and goggles.

If he had to be honest, he probably would have thought they were cool if he didn't have the friends he did. Now they just looked ridiculous.

I guess there are people like this in the world...

He frowned deeply, more annoyed than angry. He knew these two - he'd seen them around Foo Fighters HQ when they - and he - were still around. He didn't know all the details, but apparently they'd mouthed off to Ren after he talked them down for losing a match during the last regionals and were thrown out immediately.

Well... he could probably relate to that a little. But he understood what he did, and these two obviously didn't.

"Hey, you're Yahagi Kyou, right?" The blond said, grinning widely. He didn't like that look.

"Yeah...?"

They only grinned wider.

"See? Told you it was him!"

"We only got to see you from afar back at Foo Fighters, so I wasn't sure if it was really you but..." The guy with the goggles scratched his cheek. "Anyway, we've got an offer for you."

Oh? Kyou raised his eyebrow. This should be good.

"Enter the regionals with us!"

... I knew it.

"We figured, you know, as someone that was kicked out of Foo Fighters like us-" Kyou wanted to laugh. "-you haven't been able to find a shop or team that's willing to take you in."

"So we decided to form our own team, with you as captain!"

... Wow.

He might feel bad after this.

"... Thanks, but no thanks." He said with a sigh. "I don't know if you've heard, but I'm done with Vanguard."

Their shocked expressions were just a little hilarious. But that was beside the point, because now they just looked pissed.

"What?!"

"What do you mean you're done with Vanguard?!"

Kyou mentally sighed. He'd expected to be approached by fighters wanting revenge on Foo Fighters and Ren, and he expected them to be angry, too.

He just didn't figure out how to deal with it.

"Look, that's it. I don't need to explain myself to you guys." He said irritably. "All you need to know is that I'm through with that stupid game. If you have a problem with it, well that sucks. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a nap to take."

As he turned, however, he wasn't surprised to see that they were still blocking his way.

"Mind moving?" He asked, raising an eyebrow again. The blond frowned.

"So you're just abandoning us? Peope who've shared the same experience as you? We even bothered reaching out to you!"

Kyou frowned back. "I didn't ask you to 'reach out' to me, you guys dragged me into an alley with no explaination or introductions other than the fact that you were apparently stalking me so you could catch me and convince me to join your team. Seems kinda counter-productive if you ask me."

When the one with the goggles opened his mouth to speak, Kyou slipped past them.

"Go find someone else that's stupid enough to challenge Foo Fighters, 'cuz I know I'm not."

He made a dash for the park, not bothering to look back.

.

"Keep a better watch on your other rejects, they're getting annoying."

It was three days later that he finally caved and dialed a familiar number. Three days of being harrassed and stalked and he was just happy the fools had enough sense to only go after him when he was alone, because he'd have a lot of explaining to do if his friends found out.

He heard a sigh on the other end.

"To think the first call I receive from you after that... interaction-" He scoffed. Leave it to Tetsu to cover it up with pretty words.

"Just go ahead and say fight, I bet no one's trying to listen in anyway." He said. Another sigh.

"I didn't expect to get a call from you complaining about some of our former members."

He didn't like the term "former members", because he knew what it implied.

"Whatever. You've had Bidou watching me, right?" There was a pause before Tetsu confirmed it. "Tell him to shoo and deal with the more troublesome drop-outs, or I'll do it myself."

"... I understand. You've already made it clear that you won't be getting involved in Vanguard again anytime soon, so we won't need to keep an eye on you anymore." His eye twitched at the "anytime soon" remark, because it was implying something again, but he didn't say anything. "I'll be sure to tell him this. Did you happen to catch the names of these two?"

"Uh..." He thought for a moment. He vaguely remembered hearing them referring to each other by names... "Akira and Jo I think, I didn't get their last names though."

There was a pause on the other end, he guessed that Tetsu was making a note somewhere.

"It's fine, we'll just search them up on the database and get their profiles from there."

"... You have the profiles of the people you kick out?"

"Of course. How else do we find ways to deal with the troublesome ones."

Well. That explained a lot.

"Alright. Thanks, I guess." He sighed. He never imagined he'd be thanking Tetsu, after how their last conversation ended.

"It's fine." He waited to hear the dial tone, but it never came. "One more thing."

Kyou raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"... Sorry."

His eyes widened.

"Huh?! What are you-"

The sound he was waiting for finally came.

Kyou pulled the phone away from his ear, staring at the screen that read "Call Ended". He huffed, tossing his phone onto the bed and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

.

A/N: I didn't really plan Kyou's confrontation with the World's Worst Babysitters that well, so it ended in a way I didn't really like... but the chapter is done, even if it's not very long. I guess this is about a third of the way through this part of the story? Oh, but I can't say too much, because that counts as a spoiler.