Author's Notes:
-Well, looks like we're back here again. And in an indirect sequel, to boot! Just as a heads up, while One-Track Mind is not required reading to understand this story, I would recommend it, as its events will be referenced in this story.
-All the same things I mentioned in my Author's Note at the beginning of One-Track Mind are valid here. Once more, Hyakkaou Private Academy has minimal to no adult supervision and going to the police usually isn't an option because the students are all extremely wealthy, and all the classrooms turn into gambling halls after school (although that part isn't relevant here).
-House pets are students who are either in debt or otherwise the lowest ranked students in terms of student-council-sanctioned gambling. They're essentially slaves for the rest of the student body. Life plans are essentially contracts house pets must fulfill regarding their futures if they are unable to pay their debts before they graduate.
-Furthermore, let's just say Jun, our main villain here, had a history of doing things like this (although never quite this extreme) before Yumeko knocked him down a peg and made him a house pet himself.
-In more general terms, one hundred Japanese yen is a little less than one American dollar.
-Finally, if Jun's friends (the ones shown in Episode 4) have given names, don't hesitate to tell me! I'll fix that as soon as I'm able.
-This time, there's no way this could pass as a T-rated story. Thus, this story is rated M for swearing, pretty much everything Midari does, and pretty much everything Jun does. Buckle up, and I hope you enjoy this story!
In the Darkest Hour
The security cameras at Hyakkaou Private Academy served almost no purpose, since the school had no formal security staff, but they were always running.
That fateful afternoon, a keen eye watching the cameras might have caught Nanami Tsubomi, a sheep amongst a pack of wolves, walking the halls shortly after the conclusion of the day's classes, her house pet name tag still on prominent display. Her destination remained unknown, but judging by the look on her face, it was probably an exit. Each step wary, each movement calculated, she advanced down the hall as if fearful of an invisible enemy.
If that watcher had noticed Nanami, they definitely would have noticed the pair of arms reaching out to grab her from out of view, strong hands stifling her attempts to scream for help. Said arms then dragged her offscreen despite her best efforts, reaching out once more to slam a door shut with a resounding bang.
From there, the cameras resumed their usual status of serving no purpose. However, anyone with a brain would assume the worst.
And if they knew who the perpetrator was, anyone with a brain would expect the worst.
Yumeko saw Mary light up with a smile as she slammed her last card down on the table. "Bang! I win, pay up the girl!"
Ryota groaned as he pulled out a hundred-yen bill from his wallet. Yumeko also retrieved the money, but she didn't mind. She'd never wanted for anything in her life, and with her, games like this weren't about whether she won or lost. She got the same rush either way, and that was what mattered in the end.
"Great game from you, Mary," Yumeko said. "You want to play a second round?"
Before Mary could answer that, Yumeko's cell phone began buzzing in her pocket. Without hesitation, she picked it up, donned her usual smile, then answered the call. "Hello, you've reached Yumeko Jabami, how may I help you?"
"Hello, dollface. Remember me?"
Yumeko stopped right in her tracks, the smile falling right off her face as a freezing spider crawled down her spine. She did remember this individual, unfortunately for her. She'd even met him. However, after one fateful game of Indian poker, she'd assumed the two of them would never cross paths again. Sadly, that presumption had just been proven false.
"Jun? How did you get my number?"
"Not important," Jun responded. "Here's what is. I've got a little something of yours, and it'd be nice if you could come pick it up from me."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Yumeko said. "Everything I bring with me is in my bag. And I don't even care that much about objects, or at least objects that I'd bring here; in this place, memories are far more important to me, and no one can take those."
"Oh, Yumeko. Wax philosophical all you want, it won't change the final outcome," Jun responded. "By the way, just asking, where do other people fit on that spectrum?"
Then came a noise that sounded like a slap, followed by a sharp cry far too high-pitched to be from Jun. It didn't take Yumeko long to connect the dots there. Before she could say anything, Jun picked up right where he left off.
"Anyway, I've got your package waiting for you. You are going to pick it up, alone, in the boys' bathroom outside the cafeteria within the next half hour," Jun said. "Otherwise… let's just say this bathroom is about to get a lot messier, if you know what I mean."
Yumeko did. She bit back the urge to call him every foul name in the book: her rage would be better suited for later, and she knew Jun's mood could change on a dime. "Okay, I will."
"I'll be waiting," Jun said, hanging up before Yumeko had the chance to respond. She gripped her phone hard enough to almost crack the screen, struggling to keep her anger at bay.
She must not have done a very good job, though, for a few seconds later, Mary popped the question. "Yumeko, what was that about?"
"From what I could tell, Jun has a girl with him against her will, probably Nanami if our history is anything to go by, and he's threatening to do unspeakable things to her if I don't meet him, alone, in half an hour," Yumeko said, the words tumbling out in one breathless sentence.
Mary held her head in her hands, a vein in her forehead throbbing like in some kind of cheesy cartoon. "Can we please have a week here without someone getting taken hostage? Is that suddenly too much to ask?"
"Welcome to Hyakkaou Private Academy," Ryota said. "The best education in Japan at the low, low cost of constantly fearing for your life."
They all came to the agreement that they couldn't just sit there and do nothing while someone got assaulted in more ways than one. However, Yumeko's idea of merely following his orders until she could take him down got shot down by both Mary and Ryota. As they put it, he definitely didn't get the girl in the bathroom by asking nicely, so he was either armed, not working alone, or both. That also shut down Ryota's idea of trying to lure him outside the bathroom: if he had someone else working with him, that wouldn't help.
"Well, I have an idea," Mary said. "There's no way in hell either of you is going to like it, but chances are it's our best option."
No objections there, so she finished her line of reasoning. "I think you know who I think we should ask for help."
Yumeko thought for a few seconds, then it came to her. "Oh, no. You mean Midari, don't you?"
Ryota suddenly looked sick. "For the love of all that is good, please don't mean Midari."
She meant Midari.
If nothing else, she was easy to find after school. Midari didn't spend time in the gambling hall like most other students did after school, so the best options were the council room and the basement. The council room had been empty when they checked, so there was only one place she could be.
Mary walked in front, Yumeko trailing behind her. Ryota hung well back, probably full of bad memories from his time detained here several short weeks ago.
The basement wasn't too large, so it didn't take long for them to find Midari. She was sitting in a chair in the room she'd kept Ryota captive in, the machine that had almost chopped his hand off still sitting in the corner (with the magnet that had saved Ryota's hand still attached, albeit with enough cracks to suggest Midari had been working on removing it). She was facing away from them, hunched over as she quietly hummed a tune to herself Yumeko didn't recognize. Then, before any of them could react, she spun around, her typical crazy grin plastered on her face and her trusty pistol in her lap.
"Well, well, well, I wasn't expecting company," Midari said. Then, she noticed Yumeko, flushing noticeably in the process. "And most certainly not from you, considering what you told me the last time we met…"
Mary, the only one of the trio who didn't have bad history with Midari, was the one who spoke. "Midari, Jun just took a girl hostage in one of the bathrooms. I think you can connect the dots there."
Midari's grin didn't falter, but her supposed tiredness faded in an instant. "Seems like I've got a problem to solve."
For the most part, the students at Hyakkaou Private Academy were left to their own devices on dealing with in-school problems, and school security was no exception. Midari and her friends were the closest things the school had to security guards, since most of the student body felt uncomfortable merely being in her presence, let alone with their attention focused on her. (For about half the students at Hyakkaou, including Ryota, that graduated to being scared shitless.) Thus, this was something that technically fell under her jurisdiction, even if Yumeko would much prefer that she stayed out of it.
"Naoe's still here, I can have her make a pass and see what's what," Midari said, whipping out her phone. A hushed conversation followed, to which Yumeko tried to understand, but Midari was a far better whisperer than she'd expected, and she hadn't caught a word before Midari put her phone back away, her grin stretching wider than Yumeko had seen in quite some time.
"Looks like simply persuading him to come out won't work," Midari said. "Naoe already tried to figure out what was going on because she heard a commotion in that bathroom, and got chased away by some other guy with a knife. Probably one of his friends. Jun's got company, so time is of the essence."
Yumeko bit her lip. "Then why are you smiling?"
"Because," she said, "now you need me, and you know it. And don't worry, I've got a plan."
Yumeko heard Ryota gulp behind her, resisting the urge to do it herself. When Midari had a plan, that was rarely a good thing. Usually, that plan ended with someone either being kidnapped or gravely injured or both.
Midari led the way back into the basement hall, Mary, Yumeko, and Ryota trailing behind. She stopped at what appeared to be nothing more than a broom closet, but when she swung it open, it appeared to be where Midari got all her supplies from. Pairs of handcuffs in several sizes hung on pegs in the back. Several magazines of bullets and a pistol rested on a shelf, the purchase date on the magazines indicating she'd just bought them. A coil of rope had been tucked in the back alongside an open package of zip ties and a mostly-gone roll of duct tape. All in all, it looked like the closet of a serial killer, which was about what Yumeko had expected from Midari.
"Wait," Mary said. "What do we need all of this for? You planning to shoot Jun or something?"
"Heavens, no," Midari said, her smile still present. "Lawsuits are too expensive, especially if I kill him on accident. The bullets are mostly for games. I don't enjoy using them senselessly."
Yumeko didn't know what to say there, so she kept her mouth shut. Mary and Ryota followed her example there. Just then, a girl darted around the corner, clearly out of breath, before stopping next to Midari, frantic whispers pouring out of her mouth.
Midari said a few words to her, once more too quiet for Yumeko to hear. Then, Midari passed the coil of rope, one of the sets of handcuffs, and several zip ties to the girl, who dashed off once more before Yumeko could ask her what any of those things were for.
Mary seemed fine with popping the question, though. "Midari? Hate to be that guy, but what is your plan, exactly?"
"Jun's got two close friends of his, only one of them is watching the girl with him, and the other is still here," Midari said. "You're all smart people, can you come to the conclusion for me?"
Once more, it only took Yumeko a few seconds to figure it out. "Oh, dear…"
"Oh, yes," Midari said. "Time to even things up."
The security cameras were still running, uncaring of the nightmare that was unfolding just offscreen.
Anyone who was still watching them after what had happened to Nanami might also have noticed someone pacing the halls: a taller boy with black hair who appeared to be marching in a loop, passing by the cafeteria, several bathrooms, and about a dozen classrooms before it began once more. If they had a good memory, they'd know one of the bathrooms was where Nanami had been dragged into a short time ago, provided they hadn't already gone for help or attempted to free her themselves.
From there, they'd see a girl join him for a few seconds, beginning to walk alongside him shortly after he'd passed the bathroom with Nanami inside it, one arm occupied with carrying a multitude of odd items. Everything was normal for a few seconds, but once the two of them approached the cafeteria, the charade unraveled.
With no warning, the girl grabbed the boy's arm, using her other arm to wrap what appeared to be a rope around him, holding it tight. The boy wasted no time on screaming, instead trying to lash out with a kick, but it missed, and the girl finished her job in several expert movements, tying the boy's arms to his sides with rope and adding several zip ties for good measure. From there, she had an arm free to cover his mouth as he tried to scream, shoving him hard inside the cafeteria before closing the door. Further viewing would see her tie him up quite well, rendering him unable to run or even crawl, as well as a large piece of duct tape over his mouth stifling any further attempts to scream.
That would be the precise point a casual observer might think, "What the heck is wrong with this place?"
For the first time since before that game of Indian poker, Jun Kiwatari felt like he was on top of the world.
Ever since that Indian poker game with Yumeko, everything had gone to hell. He'd taken every precaution to make sure he couldn't lose, he knew he couldn't lose, and yet he'd lost anyway. Not only had Yumeko and her partner in crime (he forgot her name, instead dismissing her as being under her influence) schemed relentlessly to even out anything he'd even thought would be an advantage, she'd even gotten Nanami to turn on him, despite everything he'd done for her. And done to her, for that matter.
But now, he had Nanami back in his pocket. He was standing right next to her, Haruto blocking the exit just in case she tried to bolt. He had a knife out and he knew Haruto did as well. He also knew Yumeko would be the kind of person to follow his orders if it meant helping someone else, which was perfect. Nanami was an acceptable outlet for his revenge over that game, but Yumeko was the main target.
He'd been riding high until she showed up and changed everything for the worse. The house pet name tag all but strangling him was all the proof he needed for that.
Nanami trembled quietly, not making a sound even though Jun had stopped covering her mouth some time ago, which made this all the better. He liked the meek ones, for they knew better than to try and resist him.
Then, his phone buzzed. The call appeared to be coming from Yumeko, so he picked up the phone, motioning to Haruto to keep an eye on Nanami. "Why hello there, dollface. On your way?"
"Of course not. Do you really think I'd let something like this happen in this academy?"
Jun's face went white. "M-Midari? Why are you calling from Yumeko's phone?"
"Because she gave it to me, silly. Now, I'm not one to waste time on frivolous bullshit, so let's cut to the chase," Midari said. "Mary, would you do the honors?"
Then came a sharp ripping sound, followed by a screech that nearly made his heart stop. "Hold on. Why is Okabe with you? And what was that?"
"I decided to take a page out of your book, Jun," Midari responded. "And that was Mary ripping duct tape off his mouth. In case you're stupid, which I can safely say you are for trying to pull this shit on school grounds, he's kind of tied up right now."
Jun didn't even know what to say there. Midari may have been a special kind of fucked in the head, but that was a degree of insanity that he hadn't been willing to accept, even from her. What kind of thoughts went through that girl's head was a mystery for the ages, and one he was almost certain he didn't want to untangle.
"I know you have a girl in the bathroom against her will," Midari said. "So, I've got a deal for you. Bring her over to the cafeteria, we'll swap hostages, and then we'll figure out how to proceed from there. I can set up a nice, lively debate between you and Yumeko if that's what you want. I even made tea!"
"Oh, go to hell," Jun said.
"Don't worry, I'll save you a spot," Midari responded.
Jun knew better than to let this degrade into a putdown contest. Midari didn't sound like she was in a mood where she could be reasoned with, not that she ever was to begin with. "Okay, I'll be there in a few, with Nanami."
"You better be, you're not the only one here with a knife," Midari said, the call ending right afterward.
Jun's smile had faltered quite a bit due to that conversation, but now it simply got bigger and more twisted than ever.
"Well, looks like the big target is out of the question," he said while licking his lips, "but I think I'll be quite happy with the consolation prize."
Unfortunately for Jun (but fortunately for Nanami), he failed to notice Nanami straightening her posture just a little bit, a small spark of defiance forming in her eyes.
To the combined amusement and horror of Yumeko, Midari had actually made tea for the hostage exchange. No one was drinking it, even her, but it was the principle of the stuff. Casually providing refreshments at an event that saw one person tied up behind them and another potentially being scarred for life was one of the many things that set her apart from everyone else at Hyakkaou.
Everyone was waiting. They kept waiting. No sign of Jun or Nanami, even as Midari's deadline approached. The hall outside remained silent. No one entered or exited the cafeteria.
Eventually, Midari poured herself a cup of tea, looking bored out of her skull. "Ugh. Can he hurry up already? The tea's getting cold."
Mary rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because that's what's important about this."
Jun's friend, bound but not gagged, said, "How about he shows up so I can get the hell out of this stupid rope?"
Yumeko probably would have snapped at him there, but everyone's train of thought was suddenly derailed by a horrifying scream.
When Jun got the call, he knew if he wanted to get anything done at all, he'd need to do it fast. Thus, he began dropping his pants as Nanami blanched, probably well aware of what he planned. He finished the act, now naked below the waist save for his shoes, then gave Nanami a lecherous grin.
"Nanami, take off your clothes."
Nanami said nothing, instead trembling like a branch in a gale. Her hand moved toward her dress, then moved away. Her eyes never left the knife. She looked lost, scared, like she wanted to be anywhere but there.
It just made Jun love it all the more.
"I'm not asking again. Do it."
Still nothing. Nanami kept staring at the knife. Silence for one, two, three more seconds.
Then, she lifted her head. Her eyes met Jun's. Her fists clenched. She opened her mouth to speak.
And to Jun's shock, she spoke in the strongest tone he'd ever heard from her. Her voice may have been quiet and choked with fear, but the words behind it were not.
"I am a human being," she said.
Her hands moved away from her skirt, instead, she raised her arms in an apparent effort to protect her face. Jun, however, merely laughed. "Seriously, sweetheart? That bitch Yumeko's advice coming back to you now? Pathetic. Looks like we're doing this the hard way."
With that, he bent over a bit and grabbed onto the hem of her dress, attempting to disrobe her himself.
That was when she punched him.
Nanami wasn't a hard hitter, but her aim was excellent. Even with a punch that amounted to little more than a poke, she'd hit him right in the eye, causing him to recoil for a second. Then, she stuck an arm out, forcing him aside for just long enough to slip past. Haruto tried to block the exit to the bathroom, but got bowled over by her sheer momentum as she dashed into the hall.
Jun began chasing after her, yanking his pants back up as he did, Haruto right behind him. Nanami had a decent head start, but at the rate he was closing the gap, Jun knew she would soon be caught, and then… payback time.
Nanami hazarded a look over her shoulder as she kept running, and that was precisely when she started to scream.
The screaming was loud enough that everyone in the school could probably hear it.
Yumeko turned her head toward the source of the noise, and everyone else seemed to follow. Even Midari did so, still gripping her teacup. Sure, the rest of the school population probably didn't know what it was, but for the five of them, they knew the cause beyond any reasonable doubt.
After a few seconds of this, Yumeko got to her feet and started to walk quickly toward the noise, Midari following her. Ryota and Mary hung back. When Yumeko glanced at the scene behind them, she noticed Mary watching Jun's friend to make sure he didn't try to bolt and Ryota trying to ignore the scene altogether, looking about a half-second away from trying to bolt himself.
As Yumeko and Midari watched, Nanami burst into the cafeteria through the main entrance, still screaming. Jun came in maybe three steps behind her, a wickedly sharp knife in his hand and a manic glee in his eyes, another friend of his trailing in his wake. Nanami passed Yumeko and Midari and kept running toward Mary and Ryota, seeming to not even notice the two of them were there. Midari managed to step in between Jun and Nanami, but he seemed not to notice she was there either, running straight into her and knocking her down, somehow neither of them losing their grip on their weapons even as they hit the ground and Midari's teacup shattered into a million fragments, glass and lukewarm tea flying everywhere. His friend kept going, but Mary was there to body-check him, which sent him crashing face-first into a cafeteria table and his knife flying into the wall.
Nanami's screams stopped, but as Yumeko ran to help Mary detain the person she'd knocked down, she noticed her move toward Ryota, making sure at least a few people were standing between her and her assailants. While Yumeko and Mary made sure Jun's friend couldn't get at her, Midari popped back up like a demented jack-in-the-box, grabbing Jun's knife arm with her free hand and twisting, causing him to drop the knife before he kicked her in the chin, causing her to lose her grip.
Jun's face had gone a very bright red, the glee forced out by sheer, unadulterated rage as he kicked and punched at Midari, even as she danced out of the way every time. "Fuck you. Fuck all of you! No one stands in the way of Jun Kitawari! You hear that? NO ONE STANDS-"
Midari sidestepped a particularly vicious punch, then proceeded to whack him in the side of the head with her pistol as hard as she could, causing him to wobble for a few seconds before crashing to the ground, out cold. She turned toward the others, saying, "I believe we just did."
Yumeko kept her grip on Jun's friend, Mary doing the same. The other one, still tied up, looked like someone had just killed his dog in front of him.
Midari, however, seemed unfazed by the whole ordeal. She casually sauntered over to Jun's tied-up friend, undoing his bonds like nothing had just happened. "Now, I suggest you and your friend over there take Jun and get the fuck out of here. The next time I catch wind of any of you anywhere near Nanami, or any other girls for that matter, I'll feel more like wasting a perfectly good bullet on you. Don't test me."
They did not. Once both of them were free, the two of them rushed over to Jun, who appeared to have just come to, supporting him on their shoulders as they trudged out of the cafeteria, heads down.
Midari tossed her pistol into the air, catching it in the opposite hand, then carefully put it back in her pocket. "Well, that was one hell of a fun time. Something like that happens again, you know who to talk to and you know where to find me."
With that, Midari jogged out of the cafeteria, giggling to herself like a little girl, before Yumeko or anyone else could say a word. Yumeko let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, Mary and Ryota appearing to do the same.
Nanami's ragged breathing had subdued quite a bit, and after Jun and his friends were gone, she stumbled over to a bench, looking exhausted. She turned to face the others, wearing no expression whatsoever but her body language expressing quite a bit of relief. "Words cannot express how grateful I am to you all. I don't know how I can ever repay you for this."
"Don't worry about it," Yumeko said. "No one should have to worry about being sexually assaulted. It was the least we could do."
Everyone agreed with that, and for good reason. Nanami had been through enough during her time here, and a lot of it had been at the hands of Jun. Adding anything to it, especially something heinous as that, would be nothing short of cruelty at its worst.
Mary volunteered to walk outside with Nanami, because the last thing anyone needed was for this whole horrific ordeal to happen again so soon after the first instance had ended. Yumeko and Ryota, the last two remaining, sat in relative silence, still not quite comprehending the events of the past half hour.
Like most things at Hyakkaou, everything had ended just as quickly as it began.
The end of the week had come so fast.
Now, the last day of school that week had ended, and Midari, alongside Beautification Council members Ayame, Naoe, and Nana, were having a rather subdued conversation centered around the events of earlier that week.
Jun's friends, Haruto Shuichi and Okabe Toyotomi, had transferred to another school following that string of events, although whether that was to prevent a scandal or just get away from her had yet to be determined. Since neither were in any debt to the student council, or anyone else for that matter, Kirari let them leave, no questions asked. Jun, on the other hand, was drowning in the stuff, so all Kirari needed to do there was add some extremely unpleasant things to his life plan. She refused to tell Midari exactly what, and Midari knew better than to push her.
Then, the conversation came to a halt as Midari heard footsteps coming down the stairs, then started up again, Ayame saying, "Don't worry, it's probably just a house pet looking for cleaning supplies."
That it was not. The outcome was far better than what she could have ever imagined. Before she could prepare herself, Yumeko stuck her head into the room, saying, "Good, I finally found you."
"Wait," Midari said. "Why were you looking for me in the first place?"
Yumeko paused for several seconds there, looking like words were trying to force their way out of her throat. Then, she spoke once more. "I'd like to thank you."
Midari froze for several seconds, not comprehending, before the world caught up to her in a rush. She flushed, heat racing through her body, struggling to hide it as she smiled. "For what? I was just doing my job."
"Well, if you'd done that badly, I shudder to think of what Jun might have done to Nanami," Yumeko said. "I'm sure we both knew he was an awful person, but I never thought he'd go there. If you hadn't gotten involved… the less said, the better."
Midari didn't have any response planned for that, so she just nodded, her grin creeping up toward her ears and her face going redder by the second.
"Don't think this changes much between us, I still hate you, and I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to Ryota," Yumeko said. "However, I do have a lot more respect for you than I did at the beginning of the week."
With that, she left, leaving Midari and her friends alone in the basement once more. Ayame and Nana turned toward her with expressions oozing more confusion than someone trying to decipher a letter with the worst handwriting in the world, while Naoe appeared to just stare off into the distance. Midari, on the other hand, almost started jumping and screaming like she'd won the local pistol-shooting championship again. As it was, though, she restrained herself just enough that Yumeko didn't appear to notice her, her grin larger than she ever remembered it being.
"Well," Midari said, "today just became one of the best days of my life."