Ch. 7

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Perhaps it was from the pain from getting shot, or it was the fear of death that caused Kei to begin to recall the pain of her past. The pain that had changed her to the parasite she once was. It was the pain that turned her life upside-down. She thought she'd gotten away from it, but now, after all this time, its memories began to resurface.

It was in the third year of middle school. Using her good looks Kei had climbed to the top ranks in the class hierarchy. She was an alpha female. Never given so much power before, it quickly got to her head. Her actions became ruder and hurtful. Before she knew it, she had become what she hated. She talked down to the girls in the class and harassed them without holding back. Sometimes she singled out one of her groupies and had the others collectively bully her. Once she got tired of it, she'd have the victim to switch the following week.

Life was at its peak but that soon came crashing down. The girls had enough of her pompous attitude and misdemeanor so they decided to teach her a lesson.

It had started off as any regular day, classes were boring and the birds were chirping. Fourth period had just ended and she ran to a vending machine to get a snack. There was a line so she waited while tapping her foot restlessly, she didn't want to be late again. She made it in the locker room just as the bell rang. The locker room was rather empty, but she paid it no mind. In any case, she had to hurry. Happy she wasn't tardy she walked down the rows of black lockers with a smile on her face and stopped when she came to hers.

WHORE

Etched into the front of her locker, the single word stared at her.

Footsteps sounded from the entrance of the locker room as a large number of female students, still in their uniforms, entered the locker room. Slowly the students surrounded Kei on all sides. None of them were in her P.E class but she knew all of them. They were all girls she'd made fun of in one way or another.

"What's the meaning of this?" She asked nervously to the glares in each girls' eyes.

Nobody responded, instead they moved closer to her. Forming an opening a single girl walked between the rows of girls. It was her, the first girl she'd messed with-Mari. Stopping a few feet in front of her the girl looked at her with disgust.

"Mari, what're you doing," Kei asked while shifting her eyes away from the crowd.

"Oh, nothing special, you're plenty familiar with it." With that, she snapped her fingers.

Arms shot out from every direction and grabbed hold of her, then pulled her to the showers. The arms detached from her and the girls made way for Mari. They had all retaliated against Kei. Trying to find an ally in the midst of the crowd, she looked all over. Nobody showed her any sympathy, not even those she considered her closest friends. Mari walked right in front of Kei and grabbed the collar of her shirt.

"We're done with you bossing all of us around, so we decided it was only fair for us to give you a little payback." As soon as she said that, she swung Kei with all her might onto the tiling behind. Her back bounced off the ground and her head swelled with pain. Having the wind knocked out of her, she let out a gasp for air. Lifting her head, she saw a smile creep across Mari's face.

"Girls, get her," Mari said with a dark expression.

All at once, each of the 17 girls lunged at her. They tore her clothes off her until she was bare. It was then a loud double clap resounded throughout the room and the girls stopped what they were doing.

"What's this Karuizawa? Did you get hurt?" On Kei's stomach was a band-aid concealing a cut from an accident with a knife she'd had yesterday in the kitchen.

Without warning, Mari stomped her bare foot directly onto Kei's wound. Kei screamed in pain as the wound reopened. Seeing blood come from the wound, Mari smiled.

"How's that feel?"

"Stop it." Kei pleaded with her face in tears.

"NO! NOT UNTIL YOU FEEL ALL THE PAIN YOU CAUSE MEEEEEEE!"

Mari kicked Kei's wound with all her might.

From then until the period was over Mari and the other girl ruthlessly attacked her. Kei screamed for help but nobody came to her aid. Mari, in particular, focused her blows on her wound causing it to open wider and wider. By the end of the period her wound had stretched to three times the size. One of the girls planted a knife in Kei's hand as she lay unconscious from the pain and called a teacher saying she cut herself. An ambulance took her away and she got stitches and a lasting scar.

Kei would later find out that all the faculty in the gym were at a different teaching their classes about sexual education. Nobody was supposed to be in the gym. Kei had been intentionally kept out of the loop so that she would go to the locker room.

From the day she was discharged onwards, Kei would be bullied every time a chance presented itself. If anyone tried to help her, they'd be treated the same way. Unfortunately, nobody was brave enough to lend her a hand and so Kei became ostracized. Day after day she'd endure pain and humiliation. She'd become the lowest of the low.

The memory skipped forward. Kei was sitting on her bed with a knife pointed at her throat. Tears ran down her chin as she slowly brought it closer to her throat. Her hands began shaking and the knife fell to the floor. Kei fell to her knees and cried into a pillow. She was too much of a coward to go through with it. The fear of death was still far greater than the fear of going to school.

The scene changed to the day when she was on the rooftop with Ryuuen, the first day she'd truly been saved. Kiyotaka was holding her in his arms. He wore a smile that warmed her up inside. She was soaking wet but she felt comfortable. The next second, the surroundings began to go dark. A black void began moving towards them from all sides. The buildings and trees were swallowed whole, and there was nowhere to run. She blinked once and Kiyotaka, who'd just been holding her, disappeared. She was all alone. She called his name but the was no reply. She was scared. She called his name once more but the result was the same. Tears dripped from her chin as she kept calling out to him until she was swallowed whole by black miasma.

Kei's eyes, wet with tears that seemed to have been carried over from her memories, shot open with her lips still mouthing the name of her beloved. The first thing she noticed was an unfamiliar room coated in darkness. Where was she? She tried to look around but couldn't move. Strange tubes were attached to her arms and mouth. Everything was so scary, what was happening? With no answers to any of her questions, fear began taking hold of her. Her breaths became quicker and shallower. She began feeling dizzy and was on the verge of passing out.

"Kei everything's all right!" A voice came from her left.

The person turned her head towards them and opened the curtains. Light burst into the room and revealed Kiyotaka staring at her. Without warning, she burst into tears after seeing him. Kiyotaka quickly gave her a hug.

"I was so scared. I had a really bad dream and you disappeared. I thought I was alone again."

"That would never happen. I'm always here for you."

She clung to his shirt and took her time to calm herself. After gaining her composure she told him all about her past while he comforted her. It was something she'd never told anyone else but she wanted to be able to move on. She was scared to go back to the past but knowing that Kiyotaka was there made it easier to get it out of her system.

After she'd finished telling her story Kei began feeling exhausted and fell asleep soon after. Kiyotaka alerted the nurse that she'd regained consciousness earlier and stayed with her until she woke up again.

The next time she woke up, she found out it had been almost two days since the incident happened. She'd been shot twice and had suffered major external bleeding. While she was asleep, they'd removed the bullets and patched her up. It would take her a few weeks until she could be discharged. After their briefing was finished many of class 1-C's students came to visit Kei and Kiyotaka took his leave soon after. He had matters to attend to and crowds weren't really his thing.

Kiyotaka found her sitting at a table in the library reading a book without a care in the world. He walked over to her; she closed her book.

"It didn't take you long did it?" Sakayanagi said nonchalantly. "I'm guessing you want to take this somewhere else, perhaps somewhere secluded where nobody could hear a thing?"

"No, here is fine?" He sat down across from her.

"Well, I'm sure you want an explanation but I'd like to keep my secrets to myself." She mused.

"I don't care about that now. I just wanted to tell you something. As you know I don't have too many emotions I'm capable of expressing. However,…" His normally bored eyes turned ice-cold "you messed with Kei and you made me angry. Look forward to the next school exam, I'll make sure to pay you back ten times over."

He left right after leaving Sakayanagi frozen in place.

Wow

An incredible euphoria erupted inside Sakayanagi. Her cheeks burned red. She had been wrong. Ayanokouji had gotten even stronger now that he had something to protect. She couldn't wait to battle him.

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No deaths here.