Racial slurs and sexual assault in this chapter. You have been warned
Confrontations and Competitions
"Welcome, Kyoto Prefectural Sagano Senior High School!" Asuka said as they exited the bus. "You are the second to last school to arrive. We're just awaiting Sapporo Minami High School from Sapporo. Please let me show you to your dorm for the weekend. The competition will begin tomorrow at eight in the morning. I'm Asuka Hitoshi, and I'll be your humble guide to and from the competition. If you'll just follow me…"
They followed the pretty hostess in silence for a while, the boys practically drooling over her attractive body and face.
"It's so nice that your teachers allowed your cheering section to come with you to the competition," Asuka said sweetly after a while.
"Actually, we're competing, Asuka-san," Misao said into the awkward silence that followed. "Aren't you competing this weekend?"
"Oh certainly not! I'm just a volunteer to represent our school. Kendo is a male sport, everyone knows that!"
"Well, thank goodness not everyone 'knows that'," Kaoru said firmly. "My family's style will be represented here by me this weekend, the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu."
"Oh, but don't you find all that stick waving and sweating…" the volunteer shuddered dramatically. "Don't you find it… unfeminine?"
"I've been raised to know my family style all my life!"
"Well, raised by your father, certainly. What does your mother think of all this?"
"My mother's dead," she ground out furiously.
"And a good thing too!" the girl tittered lightly, not realizing just how close she was to getting her own personal demonstration of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. "She would be ashamed to have her tomboyish daughter running around waving sticks at people. How do you plan to attract a boy if you're always trying to play with their toys? And just look at that crazy hairstyle and no makeup? Your poor mother must be rolling in her grave right now."
"I happen to have a boyfriend," Kaoru fired back, looking closer and closer to violence.
"Hey! That is totally uncalled for," Misao jumped to her friend's defense. The rest of the team murmured their agreement.
"You have a boyfriend?" Asuka said, ignoring the little girl completely along with the other team members. "Well, that's hard to believe." By now the whole group had stopped moving forward. They were all shocked by the volunteer's rudeness. "Who would date such a-"
"I would," Kenshin stepped in, coming to his girlfriend's defense. He was sick of the rude human girl's attitude.
"You? Huh. Well, you seem eccentric enough for such a violent, tomboyish girl. I certainly hope you fight as well as you look. Either way, you don't stand a chance-"
"Perhaps you should practice keeping your opinions to yourself, Hitoshi-san, seeing as you're just a volunteer and no one of actual significance or importance to the proceedings this weekend," Aggie said suddenly over everyone. She waited for a beat, until she had everyone's attention, including their rude hostess, before continuing. "Now, you were tasked to show us to our rooms. If your ineptitude hasn't affected your sense of direction, we would like to go there now. It's been a long eight hours of driving to get here and I'm sure we would all like to unpack and prepare for the fights tomorrow," Agatha said calmly, stepping around her frozen brother and his enraged girlfriend. Her face was a mask of zen-like calm, and the girl paled and took a step back and the battle aura coming off of the young fighter.
Asuka recovered from the shock of seeing an African among the competitors quickly, trying to regain her haughty attitude. Like the other volunteers, she'd been instructed to stir up as much strife as possible among the arriving schools, throwing them off their game and possibly making it harder to concentrate during the competition this weekend. This… this dark-skinned beauty didn't seem affected at all by the jabs at her teammates. In fact, she'd just expertly handed a number of insults to the volunteer without trying. "And you are?" she finally managed to get out after too long of a silence.
"Competing this weekend. And well trained in my craft," the girl answered, not bothering to give her name as the threat was much more appropriate to the situation. Again, the silence spun out as her teammates looked at the girl in awe and the volunteer glared, her face pale except for two bright spots of color in her cheeks from anger and humiliation. "Our rooms, Hitoshi-san? Unless you're too incompetent to remember the way." This got the attractive girl moving. She led the group to their rooms without another word, shaking with impotent rage. Just who the hell did she think she was? No one spoke to her that way! She tried to come up with an appropriately devastating parting shot for the raccoon-looking one, but the dark one simply stood in front of her and stared her down until she turned away.
"Oh, and Hitoshi-san? Since you were more interested in picking fights than doing your job and showing us around your beautiful campus, we will require an escort to the cafeteria before the competition begins tomorrow. Say, seven in the morning? We will expect you at that time. Goodnight." The girl cringed, nodded, then stomped away. Once the last of her indignant foot falls stopped echoing off the walls, Aggie whirled on her brother angrily.
"Damn Aggie, that was amazing. I couldn't have-"
"You need to get it together, Kenshin. You are the team captain for Kami-Sama's sake! That moron was obviously sent to rile us up before the competition. What were you doing stooping to her level? 'I would'," she imitated his tenor impressively. "What are you, five? Get a hold of yourself! And you," she turned to her friend with the same scolding attitude. "You should not have been so easily baited. You are absolutely beautiful, you have an amazing boyfriend, and you're a strong fighter. Own it." She cast a disapproving eye over the entire team. "You all need to get your emotions in check. Tokyo is cheating, and it should not be working as well as it is. I suggest that you all take the time to examine your consciences tonight and work out your issues. This team will look for any weaknesses to exploit and a psychological win is still a win for them. Goodnight. Unless you had something to add, Takahashi-sensei?"
The club moderator started at being addressed directly, but shook his head. "No, Agatha-san, you said it perfectly. Fuchu Nishi is known for its psychological warfare. Guard your mouths and hearts and focus on the task at hand. We're here to win. Period. Goodnight. Oh, and be ready to go to the cafeteria by seven tomorrow morning." The students headed to their assigned rooms, murmuring about the dressing-down they'd just gotten from their usually quiet teammate. Since there were only three girls on the team, they got their own suite. None of them felt like celebrating though. Misao and Kaoru were taking their hair down for the night in front of the mirror while Aggie was brushing her teeth.
"Aggie-chan," Misao said timidly, "what did you mean, 'work out your issues'?" The dark-skinned girl scoffed and turned to her after finishing her nightly rituals.
"Misao, if that awful girl had mentioned your height, your seeming age, or your lack of physical assets, she'd have been sporting a black eye and you would have been disqualified from the competition. That's what we're up against this weekend. You need to get those things under control, because you are short, you do look too young to be a sophomore in high school, and you are basically flat as a board in comparison to other girls our age. In spite of all these supposed 'shortcomings', you are an amazingly flexible martial artist, and have snagged yourself a seriously wonderful man."
"What do you mean, 'in spite of'?" Misao asked defensively, stung by the girl's evaluation of her.
"'In spite of these supposed shortcomings', Mi-chan," she sighed. "You were so angry that you stopped listening. Your agility and speed come from your physical attributes. People often underestimate you because of it and that usually turns out to be a nearly fatal mistake. Look, I'm not saying 'don't have any weak spots', I'm saying 'know what they are so that you can control your reaction to them'. Takahashi-sensei is right. We're here to fight. That's all. It's not going to be easy, but it helps to remember that."
"And what are your 'weak spots', Aggie?" Kaoru asked as the last of her bobby pins came free. Instead of putting her hair up in its customary ponytail, she quickly braided her hair for the night. Aggie was quick to put her hair supplies away before they ended up lost or underfoot.
"The same ones that I face anywhere in this country," Aggie said, coming over to help undo Misao's hair before she pulled it out in frustration.
"Why did Kenshin use so many damn tiny braids?"
"He's like that when he wants to show off. Here, let me help before you end up with a bald spot. Sit on the floor by the bed and I'll take care of it." The two settled themselves so that Aggie could help her friend with her hair. In the meantime, Kaoru was angry with her friend and wanted some answers.
"I want to know what your weak spots are, not where you face them," Kenshin's girlfriend ground out. Aggie stared at her blankly for a moment before cottoning on to what she was asking.
"I'm brown in a yellow society," the girl shrugged at last. "Because of that, people expect me to be slow and stupid. They expect me to act like those vapid sluts in the music videos, they expect me to fail in this society period; be it academically, physically, or otherwise. I'm constantly being underestimated for my abilities and treated like a fool until people get to know me, and even then, I'm treated like some ignorant ape, a nigger, by a lot of people that look shocked that I'm fluent in ten languages. These are the challenges I face daily. I'm no longer so sensitive to these challenges and I'm actually looking forward to finding out what these manipulative morons are thinking of using against me because I've heard it all before."
"Ten languages? What ten languages?"
"Japanese, Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Arabic, French, and Hindi." Kaoru started counting on her fingers.
"That's only nine languages," she smiled.
"Oh, and English," she nodded tiredly. "I sometimes forget that I can speak English because it's my default language." She kept working on Misao's hair in silence. It took till she was halfway through her long hair for Kaoru to address the proverbial 'elephant in the room'.
"You've been called a nigger before?" she whispered at last.
"I've been called that and worse," the girl nodded. "I mean 'monkey'? Seriously? What the hell?"
"I never realized how hard it must be for you to be here, Agatha. You're so strong."
"Yeah, well," Aggie would have blushed lightly if her skin tone allowed others to see it. "I enjoy some things about Japan, but it is a largely xenophobic society. Some people here believe I'm worth the air I breathe, but to most, I have to prove it."
"Damn! No wonder you want to go back to America so badly!" She thought about this as she worked on the now-sleeping girl's hair.
"I don't want to spend the rest of my life here, but America presents its own challenges."
"And what are those?" Kaoru asked curiously. It was extremely rare for Aggie to outline her burdens like this. She wanted to keep the girl talking for as long as possible.
"They're nothing I want to get into tonight," the girl yawned, releasing the last braid from Misao's hair. She quickly put her hair in its customary wrist-thick braid and shook the girl awake. "Go to bed," she said firmly to the sleepy girl. She helped the ninja into her bed and put her hair things away. "Goodnight, Kaoru. Remember what I said about your weak spots."
"I will, Aggie-chan," the girl promised before settling down to bed. They all woke up when Aggie's alarm went off at six in the morning. Showering and dressing quickly, the three went to wake up the rest of their teammates. Both girls noticed that Aggie hadn't taken her hair out of the style her brother had put it in yesterday, but neither one mentioned it out loud. By the time seven o'clock rolled around, the whole delegation from Sagano High was up and hungry. So when Asuka showed up at seven fifteen, there were a number of grumblings about her tardiness.
"I thought that we agreed on seven o'clock for breakfast time? Did you lose your way or simply do not have the ability to tell the time?" Agatha said calmly. The others were shocked when their guide burst into tears.
"Why are you always picking on me?" the volunteer blubbered.
"You seemed to have no problem picking on my teammates last night. Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," she quoted wisely. "Now, if you're done being dramatic, we're looking forward to breakfast. I do not compete on an empty stomach. Lead the way, please, Hitoshi-san." Asuka led the way, this time acting as a true guide and pointing out the places of significance for the students. She explained that the competition was a little tricky to get to and that she would pick them up at ten to eight to guide them to it.
"Oh, please, join us. I insist," Aggie said. The girl's stomach growled just then, making it impossible for her to weasel her way out of the invitation. She joined the queue for eggs and bacon, the students impressed with the hot, buttery rolls and fresh fruit. Aggie engaged the guide in civil conversation throughout breakfast, learning more about the school as a whole. At ten to eight, the group stood up to go to the competition. Two groups of people were looking for their guides.
Where is she?" the leader of the Sapporo delegation growled.
"Where is who?" Aggie asked politely.
"Our guide was supposed to be here ten minutes ago! We asked her to be here so we wouldn't be late!"
"Well, our guide is about to lead us to the auditorium right now. Why don't you tag along with us?"
"No! I mean, each school has been assigned a guide to escort around the campus. I'm sure that your guides will be here soon to take you to the competition." By now, the others had wandered over to the Kyoto table to find out just what was going on.
"Nonsense," Aggie smiled. "If your fellow volunteers got held up for some reason, I'm sure they would appreciate you taking the time to help out. Let's all go. There's only seven minutes left and you said so yourself that the way was complicated." Asuka's smile was brittle as she led the three groups out of the cafeteria. She led the group in a wide circle that led them back to the cafeteria.
"Are you lost, Hitoshi-san? Cause that was a circle."
Asuka tried to ignore the infuriating girl that had become the unofficial spokesperson for the entire group. Sighing in defeat, she led them all to the auditorium, which proved to be amazingly straightforward. Aggie thanked the guide and wished luck to the other teams. They all took their seats with minutes to spare.
"What was all that about?" Kenshin asked as they sat down.
"More psychological warfare," she said in a quiet voice, turning her attention to the head of the Tokyo delegation, who looked annoyed that everyone had made it to the competition on time.
"Welcome to the annual National Kendo Championship," the man said pleasantly enough. "We thank all the teams for being prompt so that we can begin immediately. We would like the Kamaishi and Sakata delegations to select three students each and come up to compete on the mats. Remember, the rules are simple. Three points equal a win. No unsportsmanlike behavior. Shall we begin?"
The competition began promptly, the different delegations from around Japan competing heavily to eliminate each other from the competition. Asuka had been correct about one thing. While there were females represented on some of the teams, this was a very male-dominated sport. So far, no females had been picked to compete for their delegations yet. Agatha, Kaoru, and Misao held out little hope that they would be picked to compete. Sagano High had been competing furiously with the other schools in Kyoto all year for the chance to represent all of Kyoto at this competition. It was disappointing to make it this far only to be barred from competing based on their gender.
So when Kenshin passed a note to Aggie telling her that she and Soujiro would be competing, Aggie was over the moon and determined to make a good showing for her school. She started meditating immediately, knowing that she would need all the advantages she could get. The Kyoto delegation was set against the Osaka delegation which had been making a strong showing all day. Aggie went up against a giant of a teenager who clearly used to relying on his muscles instead of his brains. Both Kenshin and Soujiro had volunteered to take her place, but their talents were needed for their opponents. Resigned to two wins and a loss for their team, the two men focused on their matches.
"So, a little girl has been playing kendo," Isao mocked her loudly. "I'm Isao, the captain of the Osaka team and I'm going to teach you what happens when little girls get involved in a man's business."
"Don't take me lightly," Aggie said simply, already set in stance. Isao swung his sword, aiming for her breasts, and was surprised when she countered him, turning around and using his momentum to force him to the ground. He jumped up immediately and attacked her again, growling in frustration when his move was once again deflected. She landed a hit on his shoulder as she passed. Reaching out for the only part of her willowy body he could reach, he grabbed a handful of her thick hair and yanked her back towards him. He then fondled her breasts through her practice uniform, leering at the shocked crowd. Instead of freezing as he expected the dark-skinned girl to, she cracked her bokken on his head, stepped back on his foot and made an impressive swipe at the side of his head that hit his ear hard. Isao released her, holding his ear and head in pain and she took advantage to score hits to his other ear, his shoulder, and a hard one to his abdomen before tripping him. The boy hit the ground like a tree, fracturing his elbow. The girl danced back away from him as the referees came to break up the fight. After assessing the damage, the judges made their call.
"As Davis-san did not take a groin shot on her opponent, despite his unprovoked and shameful attack on her, she wins the point. Nakamura-san is disqualified for unsportsmanlike behavior."
"You can't do that," Isao shouted over a chorus of boos from the Osaka delegation. The rest of the auditorium burst into thunderous applause at the ruling. "I'm the team captain!"
"Then you should have demonstrated a better example to your teammates," the judge said with contempt. "Fondling a student like that was disgraceful and unsportsmanlike, something that is expressly forbidden in this tournament. You're lucky that your entire team isn't disqualified after the crude stunt you just pulled. Leave this auditorium immediately."
Isao turned to his opponent furiously, but the referees were in his path. "I'll get you for this, you lousy bitch."
"Bring it on, bitch," she said quietly, her expressive brown eyes narrowed to slits and her bokken still at the ready. Kenshin's eyes had turned golden when he heard about his savage behavior towards his sister. He stepped forward to attack the brute and was surprised when his sister stopped him in his tracks.
"I'm not a damsel. I'm not your damsel. Do not taint my victory," she demanded furiously. Isao was pale and shaking after seeing his golden eyes. The referees led him away, one of them looking at his elbow, and the matches continued as if nothing had happened. Aggie took her seat and was immediately surrounded by her teammates.
"Are you alright? That was… I can't believe anyone would do that to you, Aggie-chan!" Hikaru said in disbelief.
"Do you need to forfeit the rest of your matches for the day?" Daichi asked in concern.
"I'm fine," she reassured her teammates. "Luckily, I have on a sports bra and two layers of breast bindings, so he didn't actually touch anything. And no, I'm not forfeiting my matches for the day because some disgusting pig tried to cop a feel. I'm fine. But I'd really like to watch the rest of the matches to know what I'm up against." The group settled down at that, each indignant and angry at her mistreatment. For the girl herself, outrage trembled down every line of her body, but she was trying to show the others the value of not allowing the weak spots to show. No one had ever made a pass at her body before. But if she didn't stay calm, she was going to track that animal down and deliver her own form of justice to the pig. And Kenshin would be right behind her. No, she needed to stay calm and focused right now. She managed to observe all the matches, though she couldn't hear much of what was going on with the blood pounding in her ears from her rage. By the time Kyoto was up again - this time against the Kobe delegation - she was clear-headed enough to make it to her opponent with dignity and grace.
"Hello, Davis-san. My name is Katsumi. I promise you a fair match," he bowed and stepped into position. Aggie bowed back and took her own position. The two faced off, and attacked when the referee said to go. It was not an even match, Aggie having a distinct advantage from the first clash of their wooden swords, but it was a fair match. When she finished, helping the polite boy to his feet, she bowed to him again and left the stage with her brother and his friend.
By now it was lunch time. The matches were paused for one hour while the judges and everyone else ate. The main topic of conversation in the lunch room was Aggie's assault. The Osaka delegation seemed to think that the ruling was too harsh and unfair, but they were keeping quiet about it, for the most part, seeing as public opinion was not on their side. Many of the competitors came up to the Kyoto table to express their sympathy over the incident and indignation that such a thing should happen at a serious competition like this. Aggie bore it all with decorum, not speaking unless spoken to between her mechanical chewing. She was desperately trying to tamp down her rage over the incident. Daichi put a comforting hand on her shoulder when he felt her trembling next to him.
"Aggie-chan, how are you feeling?" Soujiro asked softly. The question got the attention of the whole table.
"How do you think I feel, Soujiro-san? I'm shocked, I'm embarrassed, I'm angry enough to go rip his lungs out through his ass and strangle him with them. But mostly, I'm determined to get through this tournament without any more incidents to call attention to myself."
"That I believe. You didn't give that Kobe kid a chance. I was surprised at how fast you took him down; have you been taking lessons from Sou-chan?" Hikaru chuckled. The rest of the table joined in the laughter and suddenly Aggie couldn't take it anymore.
"I have to go to the bathroom," she said, standing up before anyone else could. "I'll be right back." She waited until she made it to a stall and was safely locked away from prying eyes to let her tears fall. She felt impotent rage at the attack. Knowing that there was nothing that she could do to that… that beast without turning the tide of sympathy against her, she let the angry tears leak from her eyes as she did her business. Once she was finished, she felt a bit better. She cleaned herself up and rushed back to the cafeteria only to find a circle surrounding a fighting pair.
Having a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, Aggie pushed her way through the crowd. As she suspected, Kaoru was fighting one of the brutes from Osaka. She was also getting her ass handed to her. Kenshin was trying to convince her to let him take her place and she was being her usual stubborn self about it. Pushing Kenshin away and coming to kneel before her friend, Aggie grabbed her bruised face and pulled her close, glaring at her for good measure.
"You will not disgrace the name and pride of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu. Get in there and concentrate," she said emphatically. This seemed to motivate the woman and the next time the two met, it was the boy who was wounded and glaring. They fought again and again Kaoru came out victorious. Then the teachers then came and broke up the fight.
Saito Tadaaki, Kamiya Kaoru, you are both disqualified from the competition effective immediately. Everyone, finish your food and get back to the auditorium. Obviously there is a need to continue the competition if you all have this much aggression to get out." The judge looked extremely put out that a fight had broken out in the cafeteria at all. Everyone hurried to do as the judge bid them, finishing their food and heading back to the auditorium.
Misao was stunned that her best friend had been disqualified from the competition. Today was just full of surprises. Talk about weak spots! She had a feeling that having a man fondle her body was not on her list of things the American had expected to happen to her. The boys at their school had more dignity, more virtue, more respect for their limbs, and pride than to come after Aggie physically. This was going to rock the school when they got back to Kyoto. Luckily, her reaction to the attack proved that she was still a force to be reckoned with. The competition went on with no interruptions. Teams still weren't picking the females to go up and compete. Agatha was the only one and she was mopping the floors with her opponents. In fact, thanks to Kenshin, Soujiro, and Aggie's efforts, they were selected for the top ten teams to compete the next day. That evening the group went back to their rooms in high spirits. Although a member of their team had been disqualified from the competition, they were in the top ten kendo teams in the nation!
The group went to bed early, eager to see what would happen tomorrow. Therefore no one noticed when a hulking shadow made his way into the girls' suite. Isao quietly made his way through the rooms, quickly locating Aggie's. He intended to have her screaming his name soon enough, but for this first part, he would need to be stealthy. Ignoring the twinges of his broken elbow, he climbed on top of the dark-skinned girl and cut off her air supply, looking forward to seeing her eyes bulge and flash with fear and panic as he denied her this vital nutrient. He intended to then lean in and demand that she give her body to him or he would crush her windpipe.
Anticipating the success of his plan, he didn't notice the girl's eyes flash with fury and her reaching for her ironwood bokken. The first thing she did was break his elbow again, crack his skull open and knock his bulk off of her by bucking wildly under him while he was off balance. She was up in a flash, coming after him and breaking every exposed part of his body. She broke his jaw, one of his eye sockets, his legs, the arm he threw over his head to protect himself, several of his ribs, his cheek bones, his kneecaps, and his left foot before Kaoru and Misao were able to wrestle the silent girl back from him and call security. This woke up the boys and this time they had to haul Kenshin back when he tried to attack the boy as the ambulance workers wheeled him away. As it was, the one eye not swollen shut by Aggie's attack widened in terror as Kenshin's golden eyes promised a suffering death for his actions.
"Davis-san, can you please explain what happened here tonight?" the security officer asked the girl standing stiffly with her friends. The teenager had been silent as the grave since he'd walked in, almost calmly beating the ever-living snot out of her attacker with her bokken. He'd tried to confiscate the weapon from the girl, but she'd just… looked at him. Somehow that look had conveyed all the aggravated hell he would have to pay if he attempted to take her only weapon away from her. That look had chilled him and he hadn't attempted to take her wooden stick away from her again. Her eyes narrowed in thought and fury and the buzz of her teammates around her quieted.
"When I woke up, Nakamura was sitting on top of me, attempting to crush my windpipe. I couldn't breathe. I panicked. I always sleep with my bokken by my bedside; it was a present from my legal guardian. I started hitting him anywhere I could reach and buck wildly against him; anything that I could do to get air again. It worked and he went over in a heap. Then I-"
"You were still hitting him when I got here, Davis-san," he said over her angry tirade.
"Once he was off of me, my only objective was to keep him down. That behemoth is three times my weight and over a foot taller than me. If he'd been able to overpower me again, I knew that I would be dead. So my only thought was to do as much damage, break as many bones as possible on him so that he couldn't get to me again."
"Is there anything you'd like to add to your statement?" Tanaka asked, still recording the whole interview while his fellow officers kept the crowd of curious students back.
"Yeah. I have a question, one specifically for the volunteer that's been assigned to us since yesterday. 'How did that monster know where I was?' I don't know where any of the delegations are on this campus and I have to believe that was intentional on Tokyo's part. How did he know where we were staying? How did he know which suite was the girl's suite and how did he get the key card - this keycard, in fact - to our rooms?" She picked up the keycard that had fallen out of his pocket while the EMS personnel were loading him onto the stretcher and handed it to the officer. "My card is in my wallet, Misao's and Kaoru's are as well. So this card could only have come from the perpetrator. Who gave it to him? If I'm not mistaken, if you dusted it for prints, you'd find mine, his, and whoever gave him this card. And we've been having major problems with our volunteer this weekend."
"Aggie," Misao gasped, "you don't honestly think-"
"I think that some hulking lunatic just tried to kill me for humiliating him at the competition today. I think that somebody had to have given him our location and put this plan into his head - Nakamura-san isn't smart enough to have thought of this on his own. And I think that keycard came from somewhere. How better to get revenge than to let someone else extract it for you, isn't that right, Hitoshi-san?" she raised her voice at this last part, glaring in Asuka's direction. The girl gasped and tried to run, but the officers zeroed in on her automatically. They brought her forward and she burst into tears immediately.
"She's right. I did tell Nakamura-san where the Kyoto delegation was staying and gave him my keycard for the girls' suite. He said that he wanted to apologize privately to Davis-san and I believed him. I'm so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen!" The volunteer started sobbing into her hands brokenly.
"Be that as it may, it did happen," Officer Tanaka said over her blubbering. "I think that I will recommend a serious reprimand on your permanent record for your serious lack of judgment and your unintentional will to do harm. If he'd raped Davis-san or murdered her, you would have been a willing accomplice to the crime after all." Asuka looked up in shock and anger.
"You can't do that to me," she shouted angrily, her crocodile tears forgotten in her irritation at the officer. "A letter like that in my permanent record would hurt my chances of getting into Tokyo Gakugei University next year."
"You know, you're right," Agatha said with false sympathy. "The correct thing to do would be to take you to court as an accessory to this crime. Because a big, old, public trial with your name all over the papers and in the news wouldn't hurt your chances at that university at all. Yeah… that's probably the better option, Hitoshi-san." She looked stunned at her options, clearly looking for door number three. When she'd suggested this little plan as a means to get revenge on her rival, she'd expected it to work! She'd wanted the sharp-tongued girl humbled, she'd never in a million years expected her to beat the buffoon or figure out her involvement in the crime. Asuka was used to getting her own way. And when she didn't, bad things tended to happen to those that stood in her way. But this impudent little brat had spoiled all her plans, made a fool of her again, and was now threatening her whole future. It just wasn't fair!
"Fine, I'll take the stupid note in my permanent record," the girl said petulantly, not realizing that the cameras had been present and rolling since the security officer had started taping Aggie's statement. "I wish he had raped you, you arrogant hussy."
"Spoken like a person full of remorse over what has transpired here tonight," Aggie glared at the spoiled princess.
"Is that your official word on the matter, Hitoshi-san? We are live at Tokyo's own Metropolitan Fuchu Nishi High School, where Hitoshi Asuka has just confessed to being involved in a plot to do violent harm to visiting student Agatha Davis with the help of a student from the Osaka delegation, Isao Nakamura. Your thoughts on this matter, Officer Tanaka?"
"This is an unfortunate matter that will need to be investigated fully before the weight of blame can be assigned appropriately. It's too early in the investigation to come to conclusions."
"What about you, Davis-san? You are the wronged party here. What are your thoughts?"
"No comment, Yamamoto-san," she said sharply, recognizing the woman as one of the packs of roving reporters that constantly looked for dirt on her legal guardian and his family. The last thing she needed was word getting back to her father about this mess and drama. He'd likely not let her compete in the rest of the tournament.
By the next morning it was all over the news. People kept looking at her and whispering to each other. Officer Tanaka had gone to the hospital and taken pictures of her attempted rapist and the media had somehow ended up with copies which they plastered all over the news. Isao looked bad. He was bandaged literally from head to toe and had a concussion and multiple pockets of fluid in his lungs on top of the physical injuries. Because he was a legal adult, having been held back the last two years, his name and picture were everywhere on social media. Hitoshi-san, still being a minor, was a little more complicated. But the sound bytes of her admitting to masterminding the whole thing and her wishing harm on her fellow student somehow ended up on social media as well along with her name, even if her picture didn't. It was damning evidence either way. The trial would be interesting.
"Did you really beat a man three times your weight and twice your height, Davis-san?" Chiaki asked shyly. "What style do you practice?"
Aggie didn't want to answer, but the freshman - their new volunteer - looked so sincere that she couldn't help but respond.
"My Poppi has been teaching me Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu since I was a child, but I'm a disciple of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. I'm a product of the two styles."
"Wow, Agatha-sama, you're so awesome! And talented! You really showed that bully a thing or two!"
"Th-thanks," the girl stuttered, her hand behind her head in embarrassment. "Just remember, there's a time to talk and a time to act. When a man is actively trying to do you harm, it's time to act." The little girl rushed off all flushed and excited, having promised to escort the group to the auditorium at ten to nine. The competition had been delayed an hour due to the incident the night before. After assuring the students and their moderator that they were perfectly safe on campus and offering to patrol their area more often for the duration of the tournament, Mr Takahashi had finally agreed not to leave the campus with his students and find a hotel to stay at.
"Look at you, trying to teach life lessons," Misao teased lightly. There were circles under her eyes this morning from the horrible nightmares she'd had after the incident. To think that she, a ninja, had slept through an attack on her friend! She should have sensed the man in her room at that hour of the night. She should have felt his evil intentions a mile away. Aoshi-sama would have. As it was, her friend had an interesting bruise around her neck and it was all her fault for not protecting her friends better. When the Kyoto delegation arrived at the auditorium, sympathy rained down on the girl from all directions. The Osaka delegation's moderator apologized to her formally before officially withdrawing from the competition. Personally, the girl wondered if it was the shame of a student attacking another student or the shame of a five foot nothing girl beating the ever-living shit out of his gargantuan student that prompted the apology, but it was an apology nonetheless.
The Kyoto delegation ended up fighting every single one of the other ten delegations that day. The losers were tallied and it ended up with Kyoto and Fukuoka being the undefeated champions. The three representatives from each delegation faced off at the beginning of the next day, each having been too tired to fight that Saturday night.
"Are you excited, Aggie? Thanks to you and the boys, Kyoto is now one of the top two schools in the country!" Kaoru said excitedly. She carried a great deal of guilt for what had happened to her friend the night before.
Kaoru? You haven't looked at me all day. What's the matter? Are you still mad at me for not realizing that animal was in our suite before it was too late?"
"What? No! I could never blame you for that, Agatha. We were supposed to be safe here."
"Well, good, because you really should listen to yourself on this one. We were supposed to be safe here, so we all fell asleep. That jackass Isao never would have known where we were if not for Hitoshi-san's petty need for revenge. I prefer to place the blame where it belongs."
"You mean, you're not… I mean, you don't blame us for not waking up sooner or something?" Misao asked with uncharacteristic gloom.
"Of course not," Aggie said, pulling the ninja into a hug, one that opened up to include Kaoru. "I wasn't exactly screaming for help. In fact, if you two hadn't been there, I would have done a lot more permanent damage to that worm-ridden piece of filth!"
Misao giggled, tears leaking from her eyes after two long days of stressing about this. "I sense a Star Wars marathon in our future."
"As long as we can skip the prequels," the dark-skinned girl agreed readily.
The next day everyone gathered to see who would win the national championship. It was a hard - but fair - fight, and in the end, Kyoto was just a little bit better than their Fukuoka counterparts. They won first place! After celebrating by going out to lunch, and displaying their trophy as they ate, the group piled back onto the bus for the long ride home. Everyone congratulated their representatives with many toasts with juice and speeches about their mighty prowess. Some people even suggested that Sou-chan and Aggie-chan get together as a couple. The girl was so emphatic that this wasn't going to happen, that she got teased mercilessly about protesting too much. She bore the teasing with good grace, not letting her continued distaste for the boy ruin the festive mood of the bus. By the time they arrived home, her hair was back in its trademark bun and Kenshin's was back in his top knot. All of Aggie's hair supplies were put away and they were ready for school the next day.
We're not done yet. See ya next week! :D