***This chapter was posted same day as chapter 76, please read the previous chapter before proceeding. 18-10-2020

Warning: There are depictions of violence in this chapter.

Ironically, still one of my favourite chapters.


Who Is Prey?


She had known that wouldn't have been the last she heard of it. Although admittedly, this wasn't quite what she had been expecting.

The principal looked like he was nursing a headache. "…I've told you to lie low over the break, haven't I?"

Someone opened the door to the principal's office and allowed himself in. Actually, Shizuka didn't need to look behind her to know who it was.

The principal glanced up from having his forehead against his palm. "Student Council President Atobe. I can't not have this reported to her guardian this time."

As she had suspected… Atobe really had something to do with her foster mother not finding about her initial suspension.

Said student council president, Atobe Keigo, nonchalantly came up next to her before the principal's desk. They didn't exchange a look, but Shizuka knew he was there to be her support. He selected one of the sheets that looked like an email printout sprawled atop the desk, and held it up between two fingers for a close inspection.

The photos were taken in broad daylight, at what was supposedly one of their city's largest red light districts. Shizuka wasn't about to ask how their principal could tell based on the photos' background.

Anyhow, the report was apparently about her beating up some students from Raidoku Vocational High. There were even, apparently, bad photos of her being caught in the act. What didn't matter was the quality of the footage. What did matter was that she would have had a motive for revenge following what took place at the District Tournament.

Atobe's deep blue eyes shifted in her direction with some interest. "Not saying anything?" he asked her as though he had expected an outburst by now.

He might not know it, but she had been in similar situations before. "It's not me," Shizuka said simply as a formality.

Atobe looked back to their principal, dropping the sheet of paper back on the desk. "What's the damage?" he asked.

"Five injured, two hospitalized. No police involvement, but," the principal grimly brushed his gaze over the girl's arm that was held up by a sling, "clearly the victims know who their attacker is."

Atobe gave her another calm look, this time slightly arching his long eyebrow. "You couldn't have done it in a spot without a surveillance camera?"

"It's not me," Shizuka flatly repeated. He was joking at a time like this?

"Principal," Atobe addressed the stocky man. "Though her name wasn't registered, she was with us during the school trip in Kyoto. Are we suspecting she has somehow teleported?"

Generally, it wouldn't go over well questioning the bias of the figure of authority. What Shizuka didn't know was that Atobe had helped the school resolve a number of messy situations during his time as the student body president. Thus, at bare minimum, the principal didn't regard Atobe the same as his school's other students.

The principal questioned critically in response, "What of before and after that?"

Atobe replied upfront, "She was with me both days after the trip."

Both males looked to her questioningly. "Student," the principal prompted when it appeared that she didn't catch the drift. "Whereabouts were you at the start of the break?"

It wasn't that Shizuka didn't catch the drift. It was that she was suddenly recalling what Niou had said about the hacker being able to track her location through her phone, before he had fixed it.

"Not in Tokyo," she replied.

The principal had on a look of exasperation. "Where? Do you have an alibi?"

She had been off-grid on a camping trip in the mountains. With Rikkai.

Her contemplative glance travelled to Atobe. Their eyes held for a brief moment.

Over and over she turned the thought inside her head. In the end, she didn't say anything.

This…wasn't because she had been struck by a strange sense of guilt.

She had given Niou her word. In any shape or form, she can't be involving Yukimura in this.

"…If they dare frame me," Shizuka speculated, "They should be confident they can destroy whatever alibi I have."

"Shizuka." Atobe was probably wondering why she wasn't being cooperative.

"Student Council President," their principal pushed forth a few other documents that have been further away, asking him, "Do you believe she is being framed, after seeing these?"

Those have come into his inbox at the same time. Essentially, her not-so-stellar record of past suspensions and other disciplinary actions have been dug up. There were various accusations that backed up the rumours that have been floating around, namely, her questionable background and upbringing, bribery, and plagiarizing her fellow schoolmates.

Atobe's gaze on the documents was brief, but his attention on the girl beside him was long and drawn-out.

"I will vouch for her character," Atobe said after determining that she really wasn't going to say a word in defense. "Kagami Shizuka," he lightly arched an eyebrow sidelong at her, folding his arms before him, "wouldn't rush headlong into starting a fight."

She lightly raised an eyebrow in return.

"If the other side drops the issue, then there is no problem, is there?" Atobe questioned their school's principal. "I guarantee I will resolve this within seventy-two hours."

"Student Council President." The principal now looked like he was in dire need of medication for his growing headache. "As much as you want to defend this student, there are procedures the school must follow. Causing trouble at a school-related activity, and raising concern for maintaining a safe learning environment for other students," he indicated to the documents on his desk with a tap of his finger, "it is enough to warrant a suspension pending expulsion, or at minimum a suspension with referral to counselling."

"Counselling?" Kagami Shizuka hadn't said much since being summoned to the principal's office before morning classes started, but she reacted to this one word.

Now that was a scarier word to her than expulsion.

She didn't know what mindless thing she was about to say, but Atobe's sudden hand on her back held her in check. She peeked at his calm visage, and at the same time felt her phone inside her pocket vibrate with a notification.

As Atobe moved partially in front of her, Shizuka snuck a glance down at the screen. There was a new email alert, no subject in title, but the sender's name read, 'N.'

Niou certainly worked fast, was what she thought.

"Hmph. I thought they would try something if I let them off for the time being." Atobe dropped his conversational tone, his eyes taking on a predatory expression. "I'll make them confess. Everything." He concluded with a respectful request, "So hold off on that verdict."

What he did next went beyond her expectations. Before her very eyes, Student Council President Atobe lowered himself in a bow in front of their school's principal. She lost her train of thought for a moment.

One had to understand, not even when his life had been at the mercy of the assassin's fingertips, had he shown any deference; not even a little bit. In any case, this was not something she wanted to see.

Shizuka briefly regarded up at the ceiling before shutting her eyes. He who was defending her was already doing this, she couldn't not follow his cue.

"Principal." The brunette stepped up next to Atobe, similarly bending forward in a bow. "I am innocent." She held her pose to the count of three, debating with herself until the last moment. Shizuka slowly lifted her head to peer up at the balding man. "And I can clear my name within twenty-four hours."

Atobe looked over at her.

Towards these two young people who didn't seem to know the boundaries of heaven and earth, the principal was feeling exasperated. "Go." He waved his hand back and forth in dismissal. "I am not rescinding your suspension until I have conclusive evidence. Atobe."

Atobe confidently responded, "That is a matter of course. Leave it to me." He straightened fully and placed his hand above the small of Shizuka's back, leading her out of the principal's office.

"Where were you actually during those few days?" Atobe asked sidelong at her once he had shut the door behind them.

"Ah, well…" There were probably no secrets in the world that don't eventually get found out, Shizuka thought. "I can tell you after tomorrow."

Something flashed past his astute dark eyes, the handsome Hyoutei captain shifting to place himself before her, leaning in to be at eye-level. He lightly arched his long eyebrows. "Don't think I'm not aware what you're thinking of." This was a warning as well as an order. "This is their direct provocation to me," said Atobe, "I'll handle it."

…Was this why he said he'd vouch for her before the principal? To warn her against rushing headlong into a fight? Shizuka felt the corner of her mouth twitch. This guy…

"I'll get my driver to send you home," Atobe informed her, withdrawing a step. "These few days, just treat them as an extension to your break. As much as possible," he told her, "stay home and don't think unnecessary things." He paused, appraising her. He raised his hand and rapped lightly on her forehead. "Got it?"

She sighed.

As he was making a call on his phone, he heard her ask him a question.

"…Atobe Keigo…" she asked, "Do you not have the slightest doubt at all?"

He put his call on hold, gazing over at her unaffectedly. "Then, do you have something to confess?" Atobe asked, beckoningly arching an eyebrow.

"I was just wondering," Shizuka murmured dismissively, averting her eyes.

To her surprise he turned back to her, and closed the gap in two measured strides. The warmth of his calloused palms and fingers enclosed both sides of her face, along her jawline, just as she looked up.

"Don't doubt me. Don't abandon me." Atobe arched both shapely eyebrows with a light shake of his head, his handsome countenance that was as striking as a tempest, as magnificent as a morning after rain, containing traces of humour. He drawlingly remarked, "That's what I'm hearing right now."

"Pardon?" Shizuka unthinkingly reached up to grasp the back of one of his hands. This guy…ever since their school trip, didn't it seem like he was touching her more?

If anyone came upon them in this hallway, this scene would definitely generate a misunderstanding. Particularly, when he leaned in closer and asked with a subtly suggestive smile, "Do you want to know what else I'm hearing right now?"

She pried his hand loose and slipped away. He must have gone crazy, right?

She must be crazy, too, for she was sure what he must have heard was the thunderous pulsing of her heartbeat against his palms.

Atobe stopped laughing long enough to call after her, "Oi, Shizuka, my driver will be at the gates."

She looked back at him and insisted, "No…! I'm heading back myself!"

The girl retrieved her phone from her pocket when she felt she had gone a suitable distance. Deep breaths.

After a moment of consideration, Shizuka also took out her club phone and found Tajima's name on the contact list.

[I have a job for you guys. It should be something you three can handle this time.]

[Meet me during your free period.]


Tajima, Konoe, Yoshino.

These three were classmates of hers ever since her transfer last semester, ones whom she hadn't interacted much with until they've coincidentally involved her in trouble with Yukimura.

Ironically, she was in need of their help, now.

"What you're asking," Tajima was responding to her, "should be simple for us. But, are you not going to tell us what it's for?"

Shizuka stopped looking outside the street window of the internet cafe. She looked at him.

"Then, would you like to be my willing accomplice?" she asked. "Me?"

Perhaps because the way she said it that was reminiscent of the way she had spoken to him that time she had brought him to an empty clubroom alone, Tajima sat back in his seat and propped his elbow on the armrest, ruminatively picking at the edge of his lips.

"The less you guys know, the better for me," Shizuka said with a half-shrug.

Tajima shared a look of assessment with his buddies, Konoe and Yoshino. "Five hours," he said. "It'll be done before the end of afternoon club practice."

She was satisfied with that response.

It appeared that these three have actual skills, they just haven't been a match for Niou.

"One more thing." Shizuka asked the guys, "Who is going straight home after school, today?"

The three guys exchanged puzzled glances. "Me." Yoshino lazily unfurled his hand up.

Shizuka uncrossed her arm, holding her hand out towards Yoshino. "Your wallet," she said.

"Whoa, wait a sec," the most delicate-looking among the three, Yoshino, joked, "I don't think we're at the stage of relationship where-" The girl cut him off with a smart smack to the back of his head.

What the? Was their club's ex-manager always such a bully? Yoshino wondered while fishing out his wallet from his back pocket.

Shizuka checked his student ID, his train pass, keeping one of his credit cards and taking out everything else not mentioned. "You lost your wallet during the holidays." The brunette pocketed his wallet and removed the sling off her shoulder, straightening from leaning against the table behind her. "Remember that."


"Who were the people who came in late to practice?" Atobe questioned distractedly while he changed.

"Third year Tajima, Yoshino, Konoe," Kabaji answered the tennis team captain.

"Those three again?" Atobe mused suspiciously to himself.

"Oh, Ku-chan," Jirou answered his phone with a yawn, half-awake. "Yea, practice is over. Nope, I slept through all of it…! 'Kay." He hung up. Before anyone could question him about it, Shishido's phone rang.

"Yeah, it's me," Shishido answered. "Kagami?" He stopped toweling his hair, glancing over at the rest of them. "Yeah, my number hasn't changed." He hung up, looking confused.

The girl went around calling each of them, one by one. It was pretty obvious something was up by Hiyoshi's turn. The second-year regular answered the call, casually remarking, "Oi. I don't know what you're planning and I know I cannot stop you, but I should warn you…" He glanced over at Atobe. "Someone's looks can kill right now." He ended the call with an exasperated look at the ceiling.

Atobe's phone rang, the last of all of them.

"What are you up to right now?" he asked in a low warning tone.

"—Keigo...Couldn't you have answered normally?—" Kagami Shizuka was generally a calm person, but that calmness was a product of deep reflectiveness and self-restraint rather than her natural inclination. He knew this, which was why hearing her humorous and unbothered question only served to alarm him.

"Do you trust me?" she asked him.

"Call off the people you have following me. They won't be able to keep up if I want to lose them."

"Where are you right now?" Atobe demanded to know, feeling ice coursing through his veins.

Shizuka was inside one of the crowded subway stations, watching the few individuals whom she had noticed tailing her since this morning. "You won't be able to contact me for the next few hours," she told Atobe on the phone, "Don't bother trying."

Atobe abruptly gripped the locker door with his other hand, tightly clenching his eyes shut. His voice was taut like the rest of him as his intensely foreboding eyes reopened. "Do you really want to see me going insane?"

Such was the intensity of that question that Shizuka actually pulled her phone away for a moment, staring dazedly at it.

She thought about it a moment longer, before drawing it back next to her ear, asking him humorously, "Is it alright for the heir of the Atobe plutocracy to possess a weakness like this?"

"Shizuka." If it were possible for one's frustration to strangle her through the screen, she supposed she would be dead twice over. "I said to leave the matter to me," Atobe warned ominously.

A matter that had been carried over since their first year of senior high, Shizuka wondered if it would truly be that simple to tie up the loose ends?

"Sorry. I'll listen to all your scolding afterwards," she said. "Let me settle this my way." She ended the call.

Atobe slammed the locker shut with a curse. The other regulars were confounded to see their dark-haired captain dash out without as much as an explanation. "Atobe-!?"

They exchanged bewildered looks. Just what the heck was going on!?


[Kure Raiden. 18 years old, a senior at Raidoku Vocational High in the IT department.

His father runs a logistics company, but let's just say that's on the surface. His mother moved to the Canada six years ago. Neither parents control their son's behaviour, and merely cover up his wrongdoings.

Outside of school, he's a regular at this nightclub owned by his friend's brother. You can say it's a hub where young people of my sorta crowd gathers. Going by his pattern, I'll bet you can find him there today.]

Shizuka compared the street address and the photo in Niou's email to the nightclub entrance across the street from her.

Should be the right place.

It was one of the clubs that opened early, drawing the after-dinner crowd right as the sun went down.

Shizuka observed the line that was at the entrance for a couple minutes.

"Excuse me." She approached the bouncers at the door right after they've let in a group of people in after checking their IDs. She pretended to have rushed over. "The gentleman who just went in, I think he dropped this." She handed the wallet to the closest bouncer. "I think there's an ID inside."

There was, of course, an ID inside. A high school student ID. Because it was Yoshino's wallet she had just handed over.

"Excuse me, miss." Shizuka turned back when she was called after. The bouncer who had been given the wallet and had taken a look inside asked her cordially, "Did you get a chance to see his face?"

She carefully managed her expression, and nodded.


She really wasn't used to this scene.

The loud music and the flashing lights were disorienting to her.

She didn't know if the bouncer who had led her in was only making a token effort, but there was no way she could pinpoint someone in the crowd in a place like this, right?

Instead of scanning the people in the crowd, Shizuka's interest was on the corridor entrance on the upper level where there was a security guard stationed.

Taking the opportunity when the bouncer wasn't paying attention to her, she slipped from his side.

Someone was probably going to get in trouble for bringing her in, but she had other things to worry about.

Waiting patiently for her enemies to come after her first. That simply wasn't Shizuka's style.

"Young lady~" the security guard stationed on the upper level asked as she passed, "Did you think you could just waltz into the VIP area whenever you want?"

There was something about that voice that was not altogether unfamiliar to her.

Shizuka turned sideways, staring as the tall and slender man lowered his yellow-tinted shades to reveal a pair of cunning green eyes.

Her surprise halted her thoughts for a moment. "Niou?" Shizuka lifted a disbelieving eyebrow at the young man leaning with back against the wall. "Why are you-…?"

"Why, indeed?" the disguised Niou Masaharu remarked with an eye-roll and a sigh. "If someone were to ever find out I had just left you alone…" He casually trailed off, rubbing the legs of his shades against his chin. "Oi, you really don't waste any time charging in, huh?"

She could roughly figure out why he was here, but she didn't have time for this. "Don't get involved," Shizuka warned the Rikkai team's regular, moving backwards. "I'm serious." She turned back around.

Room A… Room B… She pushed open the door to Room C, as mentioned in Niou's email.

The occupants of the room were stunned silent by her dramatic entrance.

She quickly counted six of them, excluding the two females who appeared to be employees of the club.

"The 'invitation' you extended out to me this morning," Shizuka coolly said, crossing her arms, "I'm here to accept it."

Of all the people in the purple-lighted room, the calmest was directly across the low-rise table from her, no other than Raidoku Captain Kure Raiden himself. In the same suave and clandestine manner he had at the District Tournament grounds, the stylish man smiled to himself like this was all very amusing to him.

The guys on either side of him got up. Shizuka cast them an assessing look.

They came at her at the same time. In the confines of this room where they couldn't really spread out, Shizuka was not disadvantaged by their numbers. Startled screams from the female employees rang out as Shizuka knocked one guy away, then the next. Her sharp kicks and blows were quick and merciless. Bottles and crystal glasses cracked and shattered after being swept to the floor.

In any case, compared to the true professional she had faced at the Atobe building recently, dealing with a bunch of guys around her age was child's play.

"Bitch-!" A few of these guys were familiar faces by now. She didn't know why they bothered trying to fight her for what was the third time around. Even their cursing at her was exactly the same.

As the lot of them fell back, cursing and nursing fresh injuries, Shizuka circled around to their leader who hadn't even bothered sitting up from his lax posture on the black-and-white sofa.

She brought the heel of her foot down against the tableside and crossed her arms. "Hey. This is my warning. If you mess wi-"

A startling jolt of pain coursed through her. To give a comparison, it was like getting a leg cramp, but throughout the entire body and many times worse.

She glanced down at the perceived point of contact and saw that one of the female employees who had taken cover on the ground next to the table was pressing the prongs of a stun gun against her calf through the fabric. The frightened young woman met Shizuka's eyes with an expression of guilt and sympathy.

Shizuka didn't get to think much on this before collapsing entirely on the low-rise table beside her.

Niou had just diverted away the bouncer who came up to search for the girl when he heard one of the VIP room's door open. He turned in time to witness a seemingly unconscious girl being carried away to the fire exit at the end of the corridor.

Oh, for-! Niou gripped the front of his hairline. Was getting herself kidnapped part of her grand plan!?


There was blood pooling inside her mouth. She couldn't recall precisely how it happened, but she seemed to have cut the inside of her mouth with her teeth sometime earlier, maybe when she had landed against the edge of the table.

Anyhow, this was her situation right now:

It didn't look like a private residence they were in. It didn't look like a storehouse and there were windows. She would hazard a guess that they were inside a decommissioned building given the dilapidated state of her surroundings that she could make out.

There was a portable light that splayed a layer of visibility across the dust-covered floor.

There were seven of them; her kidnappers. Which meant one more had joined the gang along the way, or had been waiting here the entire time.

They've bound her hands and feet and have taken her belongings, but haven't taken off her jacket.

This was why they were amateurs.

"Kure-san." At least one of them were keeping a wary eye on her. "She's awake."

From what she had been able to observe, their leader, Kure Raiden, spoke little and acted less. Yet, there was something about him. For one, there was no doubt that he was the person whom they all deferred to.

Said Raidoku captain walked over, unhurried, and bent his knees to a crouch before her. In the unreliable light cast by the portable light, she saw a disquieting stir across his uncommon violet irises.

His voice was deep, though not as deep as Oshitari's. "Were you looking for this?" He dangled her Swiss Army knife in front of her. It made sense that they've done a body search, if they possessed any caution as kidnappers.

Shizuka didn't say anything, and the violet-eyed man lost interest speaking to her after a moment. He gestured for one of his buddies to bring her phone over to him. She saw with some alarm that her phone's screen lock had been disabled.

"Heh. Why are you surprised at this point?" Kure Raiden's cool laughing tone sounded surprisingly decent, like he wasn't mocking her. But, she knew that the hacker who had originally sabotaged her device was most likely his doing, if not done by his own hands. He slightly slanted his head, remarking, "It's technology."

There was one name he found on her contact list.

He pressed to dial it.

The call connected just before the end of the second ring. Their leader rose up and calmly placed the phone next to his ear.

"Atobe Keigo, I'm returning the care you've shown me in the past. If you want your girl back unharmed, come alone to the address I'm about to tell you." He looked down at her with a sidelong glance. "You have twenty minutes."

There was no way he expected twenty minutes to be sufficient time, the girl thought. He was trying to instill panic. She was going to be harmed either way.

Shizuka lowered her head, drawing quiet breaths. So they were after Atobe, after all. She could imagine the Hyoutei captain's livid reaction finding out that she had walked into their trap.

Her fingers stopped moving behind her back when Kure approached her again after issuing his ultimatum.

Actually, when that female employee had shocked her earlier, the stun gun had not been pressed to her longer than a couple seconds. Shizuka didn't know if it were out of pity or out of a lack of knowledge on how a stun weapon worked, but that duration wouldn't have been enough to render her unconscious.

Nevertheless, Shizuka had acted along, which had been a calculated risk on her part. That didn't mean she had accounted for everything that could happen.

Kure hooked a finger behind his black tie, slightly loosening it around his collar. All the while, those violet eyes of his that were sending her chills in an already chilly setting seemed to be appraising her.

"For someone in her situation," their leader nonchalantly remarked, "isn't she too calm?"

Shizuka involuntarily blinked.

Being mindful of her expression at all times was something she had been warned about often. But, honestly, some habits were difficult to break.

It looked like he was about to approach closer, and for the first time since getting herself kidnapped, Shizuka felt a shadow of apprehension.

At this time, it was Kure's own phone that rang. He glanced at the caller display, tossed her Swiss Army knife to one of his buddies, and walked off to one side to handle the call. "Yeah, no problem. He'll be here, soon. Remember what you promised to do for me."

Getting her hands free from the duct tape that bound her wrists was an easy matter: She had hidden a small razor inside the hem of her jacket's sleeve when she had returned home to prepare, this morning. They couldn't see what she was doing behind her back with their positioning, so she had been patiently whittling down her constraints.

The problem was the tape binding her ankles together. At least one of them were keeping their eyes on her the entire time. She was going to be severely disadvantaged if she weren't able to free her legs before facing them.

"She must think Atobe will have a way to get her out unharmed." The guy whom Kure had tossed her Swiss Army knife to followed up on Kure's remark regarding her calm appearance. He brandished one of the blades on the knife. "She doesn't seem to understand…her knight in shining armour may end up paralyzed because of her," he said patronizingly to her.

If she really were someone with a cool rational mind and nerves of steel, she probably would have been able to feign fear instead of peering up at the speaker with a dangerous gaze.

Needless to say, this was not the reaction her captor wanted to see. Shizuka suddenly found the point of the knife biting into her neck.

"Kure-san." The knife-wielding guy was sporting a black-eye from earlier, and was coincidentally also one of them whom she had encountered on both prior occasions. He asked his leader, "I can mess her up as payback for before, right?"

Kure had retreated to the side, leaning back against one of the bare desks. His lack of interest in what was happening over at their side was his tacit approval.

Sharp pain burst inside her mouth as her captor swiped a slap across her face. That was alarming to her, because he had kept the knife against her neck the entire time. One slip, and it would have been more than just a trail of blood that was trickling down her neck, now. She wondered if he knew that he was pressing right beside her jugular vein. She wondered if she should have taken action just now.

Her breaths hurried in and out, but she persisted in not opening her mouth, not uttering a word. Calming her mind, calming the tension in the wrists of her clenched fists.

She shouldn't be rash here. An enemy holding a weapon changes the dynamics of things. This was. Something she had considered while debating with herself whether or not she should bring her Swiss Army knife when she had been getting ready at home: On one hand, her kidnappers should be able to put down their guards, assuming that her only means of setting herself free was gone. On the other hand, the presence of a weapon could aggravate them and in turn be used on her, like now.

Of course, there was no such thing as an infallible plan.

Which was why Kagami Shizuka was questioning her choices when, still pressing the knife to her neck, the guy grabbed the collar of her buttoned shirt and ripped open the front, ruining buttons and all.

Shizuka was chanting calming words inside her head, holding her breath. Alright. Not the dumbest situation she'd ever gotten herself into.

"What's with the resistance?" her captor mockingly asked. "Weren't you quick enough to strip at the District Tournament?" He was referring to the incident when he had slashed his own palm and had accused her of hiding a weapon on her. He gripped the strap of her black tank top that was underneath and yanked that, too.

Shizuka didn't need to feign nausea. After she had collapsed in the VIP room initially, they have periodically covered her nose and mouth with a soaked cloth. She presumed it had been an anesthetic mixed with other drugs, which explained why her consciousness had been murky along the way, and why she hadn't start feeling pain until afterwards.

Anyhow, this adverse reaction was not fake—even if timed.

All the blood dammed inside her mouth was spat out at once, splashing down her chin and the front of her chest as she bowled over, gurgling as though choking on her own blood.

"What…" Shizuka looked up at him with a wide-eyed expression of pain and horror, gasping in panic, "What did you guys drug me with-…?"

That their hostage would be throwing up blood on her own was definitely not something they have accounted for. "Kure-sa-!" His sudden disconcerted reaction.

It happened all too fast. He hadn't fully turned towards their leader before her arms shot out, locking his elbow and knocking the Swiss Army knife from the hand that was unwittingly loosened from her neck. In one continuous motion, the girl snatched the knife in a reverse grip and slashed free her legs before placing the blade against his throat from her safe position behind.

"Get up. Slowly." Shizuka kept his right arm locked behind his back with her left arm, the knife in her right hand pressing against the left side of his neck. She wasn't of small stature, so this wasn't a difficult reach for her. It would be bad for him if he were to make a reckless move.

"…Damn bitch…" the guy captured by her cursed beneath his breath, realizing that it had been a ruse.

This was why they were amateurs. A sudden unexpected variable arose, and they didn't have the experience not to panic.

The rest of her kidnappers, Kure excluded, have started towards her when the action began, but it was over before they could even fully process it.

"Come with me to the door. Don't try anything," Shizuka told her captive, forcing him to back up with her in tandem.

The longer time elapsed, the more they recovered their wits. Shizuka knew this. She was also aware of the indicative look that their leader was sending to her captive.

The door was old, an outdated style with a vent above the doorframe. It appeared like wood beneath the chipped paint, a lock and a bolt above the doorknob. It was currently shut.

Freeing one of her hands to turn the knob herself, or turning to a less disadvantaged position to have her captive open the door for her.

She did neither.

The lot of them immediately readied their weapons and moved forward when she suddenly kicked her captive on the back of his knee and knocked him out with two successive elbows to the back of his neck and head.

One.

To better understand their incredulity: This had all happened very fast. They saw her reach for the door—and saw her slide the bolt into 'locked' position.

The brunette turned to face them, feeling the size of the wound on her neck with the tips of her fingers while stretching her neck.

"Hey," the crimson-lipped girl demanded with a half-lidded gaze, "What was the plan if Atobe gets here?"

They may have been temporarily halted due to her unexpected action, but nothing was deterring them from charging at her all at the same time.

Normally, while Shizuka's fighting style leaned towards the offensive side, she still wouldn't risk simultaneously taking on multiple assailants armed with bats and batons. But, she had a pretty good grasp on their level of ability by now, and…

She was more than just a little pissed off right now.

She slanted her body aside just enough to avoid a downward swing, moved in towards another assailant who was about to swing and slashed across the back of his fingers. He instinctively released his grip on his metallic baton. She caught it.

She whacked the first guy on the side of his head just as he turned to see where she went. Another quick blow to the back of his neck toppled him.

Two.

Having weapons extended their reach, but their attacking motions were still large and excessive as before. The most ironic part was that they have to be mindful of hitting a nearby teammate with their wide swings while someone like her circled about with practiced ease.

She thrust the end of her baton backwards into the armpit of an assailant who was trying to swing at her from behind. She pulled back her arm and struck again, hard, on his forearm that was holding the weapon and registered him falling to his knees, howling.

Three.

This wasn't something she was proud to talk about, but there was also a 'flow state' for martial artists.

Except it wasn't as romantic as how people perceived it. Every cell in the body was anticipating that next move; searching for that one opening. Every person ceased being a name and became sensory cues; clockwork; numbers. There was only one narrative inside her head:

Enemy. Enemy. Enemy.

The last of the six tripped sideways while clutching his knee, and knocked his head into the edge of a cabinet as he fell. He tried to get up right away and failed, bracing his head with his expression contorted in pain.

Shizuka looked towards their leader.

Kure Raiden returned her stare, calmly uncrossing his arms. Just by the way he maintained that calm, almost indifferent attitude of an observer throughout everything, she didn't doubt that he believed they still have the upper hand.

As she was stepping towards him with caution, the guy with loosely styled black layered hair nearly obscuring his violet eyes also moved forward towards her. From inside his slim-fitting blazer jacket he unsheathed a knife with a blade the length of her hand.

Shizuka momentarily paused and changed from her direct trajectory to circling him.

He wielded his knife in a reverse grip, otherwise known as the ice-pick grip. People who gripped a knife this way were either complete beginners, or on the flipside, were expert knife-wielders.

Her opponent was likewise circling her.

She'd like to see it. The extent of his ability.

She launched her attacks first.

The first few blows, he actually parried effectively with his knife. She dodged to evade a slash and his knife trapped her baton on his downswing, the blade against the top of her hand while his other hand grabbed and locked her hand in place.

Shizuka felt a jolt of crisis and boldly thrust her entire arm forward just as he sliced his knife, freeing her captured arm from his grip just as his blade slashed a rip through her sleeve after losing its traction. A stinging sensation trailed across the side of her forearm, a flash of warmth followed by a cold trickling sensation.

Damn. He had some skill to him.

Her eyes quickly glanced at the darkness outside the dirt-shrouded windows as the two circled one another again.

He knew how to flank. He knew how to trap with his blade. She didn't have time for a long, drawn-out fight.

She was taking a gamble.

Shizuka wound up her arm, turned and smashed the portable light she had sidled up to. The room was plunged into darkness.

She ran for the door.

Their leader realized her intention from the direction her footsteps took and went after her in the dark. Then halted, second-guessing from what he had seen of her personality. He spun, but was late on avoiding the metal-framed object swung at his knees.

The knife-wielder was knocked off balance, the blade he didn't let go of catching a small reflection of light as he fell.

Shizuka didn't hesitate. She moved in to grab his elbow with one hand, the other hand pressing down on his shoulder. She stepped over his armpit and pivoted with a back step on her other leg, trapping his knife-holding arm with the crook of her leg while gripping his hand with both of hers, forcibly taking the weapon from his hand.

The sequence played out fast, and was made that much faster in the perception of her opponent by the impairing darkness. He felt a dazing blow to his temple from a blunt object. As he tried to get up while guarding his head with his arms, a kick connected solidly with his solar plexus and he fell back on all fours.

Shizuka could finally take in an easy breath, her eyes attuning further to the scarce light. She grabbed the back of the uneven chair she had used to hit him with earlier, and dragged its metal legs across the uneven floor, to where the moonlight was seeping in from the dusty windows.

She threw the chair with enough force to smash through the window, the glass shattering in a cascade of pieces. She counted the seconds before she heard the impact the chair made below.

The brunette nodded to herself in acknowledgement. "Oh, we're pretty high up."

She moved back to their leader who was attempting to catch his breath.

"A threat…should have at least this much impact," Shizuka said, her expression obscured by the dark. "Watch and learn." She looped her arm around his neck.

"Kure-san-!"

Exclamations of alarm rose up when their leader was forced against the gaping gap in the shattered window, so far out that his back was hanging over the edge.

Honestly, the position she held him in put a lot of strain on her, but she couldn't show it. "You guys wouldn't want to startle me," Shizuka warned to the few guys who seemed to have recovered mobility. "I might just drop with him together."

Her left hand had the knot of his tie in a secure grip, and was the only extension of him she was holding onto. He clutched her wrist and arm, but was heavily winded from her kick earlier, and frankly, it wouldn't do him any good to make her let go.

"Hey." Shizuka repeated her question. "What was the plan if Atobe gets here?"

He may not be able to take in much air, but he did squeeze out, "You wouldn't dare. The consequences."

Shizuka gave a laugh that was not a laugh, a giggle but not a giggle. "Now this is interesting," she remarked. Her tone was languid and wryly amused.

"You've done an entire background check on me, and you think I…" Am someone who cares about consequences? Inside these young criminal minds that preyed on the weak, it was inconceivable for a victim to be mutually destructive, was that right? Shizuka delicately curved up an eyebrow, tauntingly. "What do I have to lose, hm?"

The next part, he read it from her lips more so than heard it from her suddenly hushed voice. Her blood-stained lips that were painted black in the moonlight.

Use your head for something besides scheming for once.

Her fingers unfurled around his tie.

Kure had a sudden change of mind. "I can tell you. Everything."

She paused and regarded down at him with some interest, indifferently lifting both eyebrows. This was the first time he had seen her cool and secretive smile. Devastatingly attractive and…devastatingly dangerous. "Oh my. Does it look like I'm still interested in what you have to say?"

He was already pulling on her arm, so there was no force restraining him when she shoved her arm forward—and pushed him off his precarious balance. His grip that was on her arm slipped backward from the suddenness. She grabbed the end of his tie as it slipped past her palm.

She waited until the shouting and cursing around her stopped.

She reached inside his blazer jacket with her free hand, and retrieved both her phone and his. Hers, she pocketed. She tapped the back of his phone on his raised knee. "Your passcode, buddy."

Those violet eyes of his were looking at her different for the first time, his pupils dilated. "…4…4263…"

She unlocked his phone, going to the call log. The last person who had called…should be from this number, right?

Shizuka pressed to redial the caller.

The call connected after three rings. On the other end of the line was silence.

She didn't need them to say anything.

While still keeping her body out of easy reach, Shizuka pointed his phone's microphone end towards her hostage. "Anything you have to say to your accomplice?"

She had to give the Raidoku captain credit. An average person would have soiled himself or would have dissolved into incoherency about now. As he was, Kure Raiden breathed out with a widening gaze, spacing his words, "She's insane. She's actual, fucking unhinged. Fuck. She'll even kill me."

Shizuka withdrew his phone, holding it before her mouth. "Judging by how ready he was to betray you, I don't think you're anyone impressive," the girl remarked. "I guess none of your sources have warned you those rumours about me…" A silent laugh that was not a laugh, her gaze becoming half-lidded. "All. True."

She was going to cut this short. Her arm and side were getting dreadfully tired.

"This is my second, and final warning to you. Atobe may be above staining his hands with blood, but I-" she emphasized with a quirk of her eyebrows, "I'm not."

After she hung up, Shizuka took in a good long breath.

She glanced at the Raidoku captain from the corner of her eyes.

She found the camera function on his phone. Well, this shirt was ruined anyways.

A trace of surprise flashed across his features as she reached over to the front of her chest, and yanked both shirt and tank down to expose her shoulder and a good expanse of her chest. She snapped a picture holding his phone from an upward angle, closing her eyes against the flash.

…Yikes. This was a baaad picture of her.

She glanced again at him and said while pocketing his phone away, like it wasn't already obvious, "I'm keeping this."

With a strong pull and knee, she had him against the wall below the window. She spotted him reaching for a shard of broken glass, and promptly stepped on his hand. He was held at knifepoint with his own knife that had been taken. Her other hand she used to draw out her own phone, and she pressed on the screen using her thumb.

He was further surprised by the playback of his own voice from her device, saying, "Atobe Keigo, I'm returning the care you've shown me in the past. If you want your girl back unharmed, come alone to the address I'm about to tell you… You have twenty minutes."

The Raidoku captain met her cool and languid gaze.

He hadn't thought…it was rather strange Atobe hadn't given a reaction when this had been said to him? Well, not that it would have made a difference for her purposes.

Ideally, she wanted to return his mocking words from earlier. But, for the life of her, she couldn't recall his exact words at this moment. "Technology," Shizuka instead said with a shrug of her brow. "Something you should be familiar with."

She subtly smiled.

Wasn't he adept at framing others? She didn't think she needed to spell this out for him.

Kure reached up with his free hand to grip the blade pointed at his throat, uncaring of hurting himself.

Inwardly, she was startled by his action, but she had established by now this guy wasn't exactly normal.

Oddly enough, he didn't seem to be executing a maneuver, coughing as his violet eyes fixated up at her with incredulity. "What are you even?"

She stared at him with a blank expression for a moment. She picked out the small and triangular shaped blade from inside her pocket. It was this object that they have used in an attempt to harm Shishido's eyes, and failing that, have inflicted self-harm in order to frame her for the blame. It was also this object that she had hidden inside the hem of her sleeve in order to free the bindings on her wrists.

This small, razor-like blade, she laid atop his eyelid. "Someone," Shizuka answered, "whose friends you shouldn't have messed with." Her lips lightly curved.

"The false report," she said to him, and was about to say more when her ears picked up new sounds disrupting their still surroundings. The girl paused and peered down from the window opening next to them.

She could see now that they were about seven stories up, inside one of the several run-down buildings in the immediate surroundings. The empty area in the center on ground level was being lit up by the headlights of the black vehicles that were rolling in.

What's this…? Their reinforcements?

She was just about to ask, when she picked up the sounds of the opening and slamming of doors, and what was unmistakably Atobe Keigo's voice from over down below.

Ah, shiii-…

"Never mind." Shizuka changed her plan, releasing her hostage and throwing him forward on the floor in front of her. "Get lost." She told them, "If you don't take your buddies and scram right now, all of you will be caught."

She believed she understood the psyche of someone like Kure Raiden.

Hence, she rested back against the window sill while playing with his knife in her hands. "I'm not afraid of you trying something again," Shizuka said. Her back against the moonlight, it was only the contours of her face and figure that they could see clearly. Her expression, they heard rather than saw. "If I see your faces again, I'll take it as you want to die."

Kure laughed.

It was the only sound that disrupted the stifled silence inside the room.

He laughed when his more sensible buddies helped him off the floor. He laughed, breathlessly, while he was being escorted away, the guys who could move taking the others with them.

Shizuka slowly lifted an eyebrow.

She peered out the window over her shoulder. She glanced at the time on her phone screen.

8:34 PM.

Unbelievable. It had only taken him, what, two hours?

Shizuka felt along the hem of her sleeve and fished out her phone's SIM card from the gap in it. She quickly inserted it into her phone and did a full restart.

It was easy to spot where Atobe was. He was the one being surrounded by his security police. She couldn't hear or see clear from this distance, but she could tell he picked up her call right away.

"How did you find me?" Shizuka forestalled by asking Atobe. "I'm sure I don't have a tracker on me."

She saw him stop in place, and heard his painstaking, steadying breaths. When he spoke, none of his barely suppressed anger was filtered over the line. "—You better show yourself before I turn this place upside down—"

"I'm coming to you," Shizuka agreed. "Wait where you are."

"—Don't you dare hang up on me—" Atobe crossly warned.

"I know." Shizuka mentally cringed. This was to be expected, but he sure sounded pissed right now.

Before she went anywhere, she took off her shirt and wiped herself as best as she could, discarding it. As she was about to slip her jacket back on, the long and bleeding cut on her arm caught her eyes.

Not sure why, but the words of her father's old partner came to mind then.

'If you are your father's daughter…'

'…you also won't be able to resist the calling.'

She pulled her arms through the sleeves, zipping all the way up to her chin.

"—Shizuka—?" Because she hadn't said anything for a bit, Atobe was on edge.

"I'm here," she answered him.

There was no guarantee those guys have truly left, so she kept her guard up proceeding to the hallway. A beam of light suddenly switched on, alarming her amidst the darkness. Even as she took up a stance, what her eyes have quickly taken in surprised her further.

"Seems like my going through the trouble was unnecessary," came the smooth drawling tone of the silver-haired young man leaning against the wall.

The flashlight in his hand was tossed to her, who caught it instinctively. "They've already left," said the Rikkai regular whom Shizuka hadn't expected to see.

"—Who's that?" She could hear the frown in Atobe's tone, the latter who could, apparently, recognize by voice. "—Niou—…?"

Niou glanced over at her phone and simply turned from her with an exasperated roll of his eyes. The Hyoutei captain, and his own captain, too. "These guys sure know how to pick 'em," he remarked ironically to himself as he walked away.

Shizuka was confounded by what just happened.

"—Oi, Shizuka—" Atobe was sounding like he was demanding an explanation right there and then.

"Huh?" Shizuka snapped out of it. "I-…don't know either." She resumed walking.

Also, was she really this easy to find?

Shizuka discarded Kure's knife before she exited the building from the front doors.

It looked like Atobe had brought along a legion of his family's security police who were securing the premises. Anyhow, they ironically seemed more relieved to see her than she was to see them. That probably spoke volumes on how terrible their young master's mood was right now.

As she was moving towards him with a quiet intake of breath, Atobe was also coming at her with no brakes.

"Just what is going on right now!?" Atobe abruptly demanded of her, his hands closing around her arms. It was above her elbows that he had gripped, Shizuka finding herself enclosed by a very close and imposing Atobe Keigo.

Heavens knew why the first thing to slip from her mouth was a semi-humorous, "I killed someone."

Those fierce and unblinking eyes of his could not have been any more disconcerted.

He reached a hand to cradle her face, his deep blue eyes narrowing bit by bit. "You're joking at a time like this?" Atobe darkly asked her.

Shizuka pursed her lips and changed her story. "I gave them a beating." Exactly what he had told her not to do. It would have thrown a wrench into his plans if nothing else. Nevertheless, she put on a smile and asked, "You'll cover for me, right?"

He should be able to understand by now.

Him. And her. They were very different people.

Even she didn't know when and if one day she might snap.

Shizuka patiently returned Atobe's tense and prolonged stare, after which she heard him curse.

She was suddenly pulled into his tight embrace. His hand pressing her head firm against his broad chest, she heard him say through clenched teeth, "It was me who didn't protect you well."

Shizuka was momentarily stunned. Both by his words, and by the strength of his heartbeat sounding from his chest.

When…had his feelings strengthened to this extent?

She felt her head lean into his warmth while her hands reached to brace against him. It was like her heart and her mind wanted to do separate things.

"…Listen to me. You don't owe me anything," Shizuka admitted to him, proud of being able to keep her voice calm. "And I… I don't-"

"Shut up before I do something I'm going to regret," Atobe Keigo irritably warned her.

She wisely fell silent.

He firmly held her against him for what seemed like a long time, the rise and fall of their troubled breaths eventually aligning. Shizuka was just beginning to feel a strange sense of vertigo when he shifted away his hand that was bracing the back of her neck.

Because at one point her loose long hair had stuck to the blood from her neck wound, and it was this wetness that he saw on his palm, now.

"Uh…" She didn't dare to meet his eyes, now. "I did more damage onto them than they have to me." Just so you know.

The livid young man actually shut his eyes, a brief instant. "Don't test me." Atobe moved an eyebrow, regarding her with an unamused gaze. "I'm this close to forsaking the rest of my rationality."

He was harder to deal with than any kidnapper, was what Shizuka then helplessly thought.

Checking her for injuries would have been Atobe's normal first course of action. He had simply been too relieved seeing her standing. He shot a look at the medic who had been waiting awkwardly at the sidelines.

Maybe it was due to the remnants of whatever drug that had been applied to her, but she seemed to be desensitized to pain than she otherwise would be. The grogginess and the nausea, in fact, was competing with her as the adrenaline wore off.

Shizuka reached to grip his sleeve. "Take me home," she told him. Though he had his security police with him, she wouldn't be able to rest assured not knowing if he would be safe lingering around here. "Alright?"

Things were strangely blurry for her after that. She vaguely registered the sound of Atobe's masculine voice in close proximity at all times, but didn't pick up on what was said. There was motion and the change in temperature. There was intermittent pain spreading and pulsing from her wounds.

She was cocooned inside an illusion where the world was speeding on around her, whereas what must have actually happened was that she had nodded off. For it was the sharp pain inside her cheek that woke her, and she instinctively bit down on his fingers.

"Oi." The sight of Atobe Keigo's chiding frown greeted her vision. "Let go."

"Nuo…" Shizuka slurred with a befuddled frown. What was he doing prying around inside her mouth?

"You're not letting go?" Atobe asked with a warning arch of his long eyebrows.

It came back to her gradually. She slowly released her jaw, and Atobe withdrew a bloodied gauze from the side of her mouth where her wound was.

"…Sorry?" Shizuka hesitantly offered. She hadn't bitten hard, had she?

Her heavy-lidded gaze wavered around, discovering the luxurious Rococo-styled interior decor themed in pastel blues, whites and gold of the bedroom they were in.

…Ah. Should she have clarified to take her back to her home?

"What was Niou Masaharu doing there?" Atobe, who was sitting next to her at the edge of the large canopied bed, asked her this while she lent her weight to the pillows propping up her back and neck.

That was a difficult question, Shizuka thought with a laugh that she couldn't muster.

That person evidently had a 'don't get me involved in this' attitude, and yet…

"I think…" Her eyelids shuttered close as she breathed. "…Have misjudged him…"

"Shizuka?" Atobe attentively inquired, extending a hand to support the drooping of her head. A muscle in his brow twitched. "You're not just doing this to avoid interrogation, are you?"

Her skin had been cleaned, her wounds treated and bandaged. A far cry from the bloodstained state he had found her in underneath her jacket. It had taken all his control to refrain from shaking her awake to demand what happened, exactly.

The dark-haired Hyoutei captain thought for a moment, and drew his face mere inches from hers. "If you don't wake yourself up," he challenged, "I'm going to kiss you for real."

There was no fluctuation in the rhythm of her breathing. She was really out of it again.

"For goodness' sake." Atobe laid her head in a proper position on the pillow. In any case, he wasn't going to kiss someone who was in a defenseless state.

He, who had been waited on hand and foot ever since he was born, when had he ever been made to lose sleep over a woman like now?

"Keigo-sama." The chief of his security police announced his presence outside the door.

Atobe briefly glanced in the door's direction. "Come in."

The man allowed himself in, closing the door behind him.

Atobe was applying an icepack to the exterior of Shizuka's injured cheek. The girl was uncooperative. Something about the coldness didn't sit right with her and after a moment, she subconsciously tried to swat his hand away with a slight frown. "Oi." The young master made a sound of disapproval and held her hand aside.

The sharp subordinate respectfully approached his young master, minding the volume of his voice and his words when he stopped to report. Because it was evident the young master held this young lady in special regard. "About the evidence at the scenes, and regarding what you've had us look into today, do we…"

He trailed off, awaiting command.

Atobe's glance went to the girl whose hand he was holding, stroking his thumb over the thin white scar on her palm. When he had pledged to make her his in front of his friends, no-…when he had witnessed the gunman first hold her at gunpoint back at the Atobe building, he had already decided to protect her from everything.

"Hold off on it." Atobe glanced decidedly over at his subordinate, slightly arching an eyebrow. "We'll first see how they plan to react."


…Shizuka was wondering how badly she had messed up last evening to have ended up here.

"Yes, Principal. Something came up at home, I'll be at school as soon as it's resolved here." Atobe was talking on his phone by the curtain of floor-to-ceiling window. Her sudden fit of uncontrollable coughing alerted him and the young man in school uniform immediately strode over to support her up to a sitting position, bringing a glass of water to her lips with a straw.

The pieces started fitting together inside her head.

"Yes, regarding that matter…" Meanwhile, Atobe carried on with his phone conversation, his free hand rubbing her back as she sipped. His hand slowed to a halt. "Is that right?" His long shapely eyebrows moved.

Atobe's serious sidelong gaze fixated on the girl next to him for a few prolonged seconds. "Understood. I can relay the message. Very well."

Seated toweringly at the edge of the bed, the Hyoutei student council president's deep blue eyes stared speculatively at her after he had hung up.

"Looks like your beating was real effective," Atobe Keigo remarked with a slight quirk of his eyebrows, the irony nuanced within his tone. "Your suspension ends Monday."

He was studying her reaction, but the girl's reaction was actually one of surprise.

"To think that those guys would admit to fabricating false charges," Atobe mulled over this piece of news. It wasn't their style to go down alone.

"Hmph." Atobe rose from the silk duvet covering. "Accusing a student of our school with false evidence is no dismissible matter," he said with marked intention. Anyhow, he'll have to get over to school to speak with their principal regarding this. "I'll come visit after school's over."

Shizuka felt her chest regain room with an escaped breath. She subconsciously reached a hand to her bandaged neck, feeling stifled by the wrappings.

She hadn't been a hundred percent certain how those guys would react. But seemed like they've simply taken a loss given that their original plot had already been thwarted.

"Out of an abundance of caution, I'm still going to have some people watch over you," Atobe adjusted his uniform and told her. This was him informing her of what's happening, not him asking for her opinion. "I advise you to actually remain home and not run about in this time."

Well, Shizuka wasn't planning to run about anyways. As she recalled, today was Thursday. Having these few days for herself to think worked better for her. Except, her foster mother was going to react badly once the woman learned that she had earned herself another suspension.

"Oi, Shizuka." Atobe had stopped by the door, the maid on the other side waiting for him to exit so that she may enter the spare bedroom in the young master's quarters. The handsome and majestic male looked back and astutely questioned her, "You're not withholding anything from me, are you?"

Shizuka blinked and looked over to meet his gaze.

"This morning…" Atobe deliberated when no response was forthcoming.

This morning…? Shizuka tried to compress her runaway doubts. She was sure she didn't have the issue of talking in her sleep.

"You kept trying to take off the bandages in your sleep," he said.

Ah. That did sound like something she would do. If she had felt constricted-

"You kept trying to loosen the shirt, too," he added.

She burst into another fit of coughs. Speaking of which, whose pink silken pajamas was she wearing right now?

"And because I wouldn't let you, you kept trying to smack me in your sleep," he continued stating.

When was this? Had he been with her the entire time? Shizuka subdued her coughing, saying something for the first time since waking from her dead sleep. "I'm sorr-"

"Ore-sama knows he's irresistible," Atobe remarked with a cocky grin, "but it was bold of you to try and take off my clothes."

—Shizuka choked on air, covering her mouth. "What!?"

"My clothes." Atobe answered with a humorous telltale twitch of his lips. "You're wearing them."

As the tall and dark-haired Hyoutei captain turned to leave while laughing at his own joke, Shizuka reached for a small decorative pillow next to her and flung it after his head. Atobe avoided it.

She could hear his laughter his entire way down the hall.

…Geez!


She had thought that since she had a few 'days off' for herself, she would be able to catch up with things she had fallen behind on.

Reality didn't humour her with her plans.

Shizuka clasped the end of her paintbrush between her teeth as she massaged her right arm around the elbow. The toning and the outline was done, and the dark colours had been filled in, but this was causing her issues with blending. She retrieved the paintbrush with her fingers.

Before reaching the canvas she stopped, observing the tremor in her arm.

Was it possible for a recent trauma to trigger a relapse to an old problem?

She didn't even recall when she had hurt this arm.

If you are your father's daughter…

As she was staring at the canvas the man's words resurfaced again, as they did countless times in the past days.

If you are your father's daughter…

Her gaze drooped to the brush in her hand slightly quivering hand. Her grip closed around it. She put the brush down.

Shizuka went over to her drafting table and sat down before it, placing head down on the surface with a sigh. Resting on the bottom ledge of the tilted surface was a business card, and it was this card that she slid upwards for its blank backside.

'Since you are off the next few days,' Atobe had told her, handing her this card, when he had come to check up on her Thursday, 'I want you to go for a thorough checkup just in case.'

Apparently, he was referring her to a doctor at a university hospital that Oshitari's father operates. Something about not wanting there to be lasting effects from the shooting last Sunday.

Shizuka hadn't said anything then, but haven't gone for the checkup either. It was the credentials printed below the doctor's title that have caught her eyes straight away.

Double-Boarded Family Medicine & Psychiatry

He couldn't have not noticed her obvious aversion to the word 'counselling' while they were back at the principal's office, could he?

Shizuka stared, face laid sideways towards the card. She flipped it over to its proper front. Should she go?

She flipped it over to its back. Should she not go?

Her self-debate was interrupted by the knocking coming over from her apartment door.

That shouldn't be Atobe. Although it was Saturday, school shouldn't be out just yet.

"Shizuka-chan," it was her neighbour from the next unit over who was calling outside her door. "Have you gone out?"

Shizuka went to get the door, unlocking it. "Yonamine-san," she greeted the woman.

"Oh, you're home," the middle-aged mother of one said when she saw her. "Thanks for your help the last couple days. Here, I've made plenty of home dishes today to share."

Shizuka was surprised when her neighbour entrusted a multi-tiered lunch box into her arms. "You didn't have t-"

Her neighbour would have none of her protests. "Oh, stop. It's not easy for a teenager to live by herself. You should eat healthy, home cooking is the best after all. I also have strawberries from my brother's place. Oh, now where are they?"

"Hold on a minute," the older woman told her as she quickened back to her own apartment. Shizuka was unable to decline her goodwill.

Smiling helplessly, the brunette brought the weighty cloth-bundled container inside her apartment. She set it down on the dining table, and saw on her phone that was on the table, a new notification on its screen.

It was a text message from a recently added name in her contact list, simply inputted as: Kana.

[Shizuka-san!]

[I'm running from home!]

That's not good, Shizuka thought with the raise of an eyebrow. Perhaps the siblings were fighting again?

And while she was holding onto her phone, a new message popped up from Kana.

[I'm in front of your school!]

She dropped her phone that fell to the table with a 'thud.'

The girl circled in place once, grabbed her cellphone and her uniform that was hanging by the door and quickly left.

"But Shizuka-chan." Her female neighbour was still about to come back out to the outside corridor with a carton of strawberries. "Didn't you have to attend school the last few days? How come you-…eh? Where are you going?" the woman inquired in puzzlement as the brunette swept past in a hurry.

"Sorry! I have to get to school!" Shizuka called back an apology.

"Eh?"


Sometimes. She cared a bit too much about this thing called 'image.'

Particularly. She cared about what kind of impression she was leaving on younger kids who looked up to her.

Which was why Shizuka practically ran all her way to her school's gates, just as Hyoutei Academy Senior High's students who didn't have club activities were leaving for the weekend.

"Kana-chan." A breathless Shizuka approached the young girl in Rikkai University Junior High's school uniform by the gate. The angelic-looking girl looked up from her phone, her large blue eyes lighting up as she took off the earphones she was listening with.

"Shizuka-san!" The black-haired Kana originally was hopping over with delight, and midway her expression noticeably scrunched up like she was recalling a grievance. "Let me sleep over at your place!" The willful girl latched onto Shizuka's arm, indignantly demanding, "Listen to this-!"

"Kagami-senpai~!" Shizuka felt her other arm being simultaneously latched on from the back. A sweet female voice belonging to Namisa chirped with pleasant surprise, "Why are you here? Weren't you not back till Monday?"

The two younger girls met gazes.

This was probably the instinctive reaction of a very cute girl who had just encountered another very cute girl.

"Kagami-senpai." "Shizuka-san." The two younger females voiced defensively at the same time, "Who's this?"

Shizuka was hit by the sudden insight on how it must feel to be a guy caught between two willful girls. "Let's-"

"Senior high first year, Kimio Namisa. I belong in the same club as senpai," Namisa proudly announced.

Speaking of which, shouldn't this girl be attending club activities right now? Shizuka passingly thought.

"Junior high third year, Yukimura Kana," the Rikkai student similarly introduced herself with might, "I'm her friend who's even shared a tent on our camping trip!"

"Let's not do this here-" Shizuka requested. She was already high-profile at school right now due to her suspension, and this awkward situation was drawing attention.

"Wait, when's this—?" "—During Golden Week, you didn't know?"

The two younger girls carried on without heeding her discomfort, and Shizuka who was being clung on either arm had just started wincing from the lingering pain of her previously dislocated shoulder—…when someone reached and pulled Kana away from her affected arm by the wrist. "EY-!" Kana exclaimed.

Atobe.

He had come from behind them, from the direction of the gates. His scrutinizing gaze scanned over Shizuka who was in her uniform before remarking, "Coming all the way to school on a day you are still suspended, what is this dedication?"

What Namisa cared about was, "—You didn't answer my texts, but went on a camping trip with this Kaya girl without me during the break?" She demanded this up at Shizuka with an expression of betrayal, squeezing the brunette's arm.

"—It's Kana!" Somehow the newfound rivalry between the two girls hadn't been severed even with Atobe still holding up Kana's wrist. She bristled and repeated her name to Namisa, "Yukimura Kana!" She then had a late reaction, peering curiously over at Shizuka with her large limpid eyes. "Shizuka-san, you're suspended?"

Atobe looked up from the school emblem on the front of Kana's uniform. He slanted a firm look at Shizuka with his head turned towards her. "So this is…Yukimura's sister?"

Shizuka had already zoned herself out to planet nowhere, holding onto her brow.

End her.

A displeased Atobe pulled out his phone from his pocket. He scrolled through his contact list and pressed to dial a number, in the meanwhile releasing Kana who was futilely pulling on her wrist.

"It's me." Atobe Keigo spoke to the individual on the other end once the call had connected. His dark gaze landed on Kana, who had reattached herself to Shizuka's arm after she had been let go. "I have your sister with me at my school. If you don't want anything happening to her, you had better order her back. Right now."

Shizuka was in disbelief hearing that, and seeing him hang up straight away after.

Well said. That was just the kind of threat a kidnapper might make.

Ringing sounded. Coming from her own pocket.

Shizuka kind of went wooden for a bit. Especially as three pairs of questioning eyes directed on her. She got a premonition.

Her ringtone patiently rang on. Atobe meaningfully folded his arms, arching his eyebrows at her. "Are you not going to pick that up?" he knowingly asked.

…Ahah...

Shizuka tried to step away from the girls and drew her phone from her pocket, glancing at the number on the screen briefly before placing it to her ear. "Yukimura," she greeted awkwardly. The stare Atobe was giving her was like knives stabbing into her side. "Don't worry about what he said, I'll-"

She heard his light chuckle and his pleasant but decided tone that interrupted her. "—Kagami-san. I am inconveniencing you to put me on speaker—"

…She sucked in a silent breath. She hesitantly did as bidden. "…It's on."

Yukimura Seiichi's voice came on speaker, directing at the guy whom he must have known was with her. "—Taking your dissatisfaction out on an unrelated party is not being very magnanimous, is it?—"

As Atobe's frown further darkened, the Rikkai captain continued. "—For the record, it was me who asked her to join us on our trip. I didn't realize she wasn't allowed to make friends?—" She could be imagining this, but she thought she picked up on the faint smile of challenge in his tone.

"—Kagami-san," the one-sided conversation turned to her, "I apologize for my sister. Hang on. I'm heading over—" Having said that, Yukimura disconnected before she or anyone else could get as much as a word in.

Shizuka uneasily met Atobe's gaze. Not because it was a good idea, but because he had slipped his fingers under her chin, and had turned her face towards him.

"Oi, Shizuka," Atobe said evenly, but forebodingly, down at her, "You…" he lifted his brow "have many things to tell me."


A/N: Hahahaha guys what is happening? (~‾∇‾)~

Anyhow, that's about as graphic as this story's ever gonna get. Some things I can't avoid since I've already given her this kind of background. Think your protagonists through before you start writing or you'll end up like me, LOL.