Translation-thing: Yatta: Sort of the Japanese equivalent of "boo-ya!" or "awesome!"/ Mikado: Japanese for "emperor" or "king"/
The next few days after that, word spread like wildfire through Taisho's ring of friends and acquaintances about the incident between she and Kazuki. Even Taisho's tutor asked a couple of questions. And the second that Aki got a hold of the information, Taisho was getting text messages almost every six minutes.
To make things worse, it would appear that Kazuki was attending Taisho's old school, and he had spread it around school that he had kissed Taisho Shindo-Yuki, making students stretch it so far that instead of a kiss, they were practically screwing in the hall. It was Friday when she had decided to confront Kazuki. Possibly find out what went on in that boy's head.
She was practically stomping the entire way to Touhoku High School. This was for two reasons. The first was she didn't want to look weak coming in the gate and she was furious as it was. It had finally dawned on her the embarrassment of having two sets of parents seeing you kissing. The second was she was trying to stomp away the horrible memories of this place.
"You fag loving whore!"
Urusei.
"I don't see how she can live with people like that!"
Urusei!
"Do you ever hear them at night? Hahaha!"
Urusei!
Taisho quickened her pace as she got to the school's gate. The students had just started their lunch break and she kept looking straight ahead as she walked through the crowds. More accurately, by just getting a glance of Taisho's face, they all parted like the Red Sea as she trekked to the doors of the school.
"Isn't that Shindo-Yuki?" whispered a ganguro fashion gal to her other gal friends. She avoided the girl with poor taste but still heard them.
"I thought she left!" her friend replied. "I hope Mochida didn't say something…if she heard about it…" Taisho gave that girl a glare and the two said nothing more.
The doors flew open as she walked even faster, realizing that now she was nearly sprinting up the stairs and to the one place she knew Kazuki would be. All delinquents in the school went up to the roof at lunch and, according to Aki's info, Kazuki had already made a tiny list of notorious deeds.
She literally kicked open the door to the roof with a loud BANG and let it close the same way. Taisho looked around the roof and her eyes were stuck to one source for half a second. A big, semi-muscular boy that was leaning against the fence saw Taisho, and his eyes widened in horror. Taisho put a painful smile on her face. "Don't worry, I'm not here for you." She moved her head towards the door. "I want everyone here to clear out, okay?" Everyone did so…hastily.
She turned around and looked up to the little building that sheltered the stairs. "Get down here, Kazuki."
"What are you doing here? I thought you did home schooling?" Came a deep voice form the roof. Sure enough, a head with light brown hair, ice blue eyes and a sleepy frown on his face peeked out from over the little building's roof.
"My tutor's on maternity leave for the next year or so, the new one's not showing up for a month." Taisho said monotonously. Kazuki scoffed and jumped down quickly, landing uncomfortably close to her. He leaned in to kiss her, as if it was acting as a reminder of his triumph, but Taisho moved her head to the left and gave him a good slap in the face, both took a few steps back. Taisho from disgust and Kazuki from disbelief.
"Stop thinking with your dick, you psycho!" She exclaimed, in near tears. Kazuki looked up at her, agitation on his face.
"I'm not!" He shouted back, running a finger across his bottom lip. There was a bit of red on it. "You made me bite my tongue."
"I don't care!" Taisho screamed at him. She grabbed him by the collar and held him up off the ground a bit. "What have you been telling people?"
"Only the truth," he said nonchalantly. "I kissed you in front of our folks and you didn't pull away." He was just so undeniably snide about it, it would make even the biggest critics want to vomit. "That's all."
"And because of that, I've been painted as a whore!" Taisho continued to scream. She threw Kazuki to the ground and took another step back. "And don't try to bullshit you way out of this. My friend Aki may be a gossip leech, but she's no liar." Kazuki just scoffed and turned his head. "Now," Taisho said ominously, "I think I deserve an apology for all the damage."
"That's what this is about?" Kazuki said disappointedly. "You expect me to apologize after slapping me in the face and nearly strangling me? You want me to apologize for kissing you in front of our parents?" Now he sounded a bit angry.
"Yes!" Taisho replied angrily. "Do you know how mortifying that is? I still haven't heard the end of this, you--"
"Why are they afraid of you?" Kazuki said bluntly.
There was a stubborn silence "Quit changing the subject." She said quietly.
"I'm not going to apologize until I get some explanations." Kazuki held true to this specific subject. "Why were they scared?" Taisho looked at the ground, Kazuki got up and situated against the stairwell building "Mochida is a pretty big guy, but when he saw you he nearly wet himself." She still didn't respond. Kazuki pulled out a small pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket. "Otosan said that you left public school because people made fun of Yuki-san and Shuichi-san…that school wouldn't happen to be this one, would it?" No answer. "That's what I thought." Kazuki brought the cigarette to his lips and lit it. He blew out and made a little smoke blob in the air. "Anyway, you seem like a pretty overconfident individual, and since you're not getting your apology without an explanation. Take your time, I'm going to be ditching the rest of the day anyway, so I have all the time in the world."
It was silent for so many seconds, it felt like hours. Taisho looked at the death instrument in Kazuki's mouth and finally found it easy to explain. "I burned an insignia into someone's back in a gang fight." She said monotonously.
The brown haired boy looked down at his lighter, and then back at her. "Bullshit." He muttered. But that was when Taisho gave him a glare that would make Satan's blood run cold.
"Just ask Mochida."
Two months ago…"Hey, Tai-kun!" said a girl's voice. Taisho's head turned behind her, and her loose braid did a flip from one shoulder to the other. It was Aki and her hair was purple with neon green streaks in it this month, Hiroki was at his sister's side. A smile grew on Taisho's face as the two ran towards her. "So how goes the third month at normal school?"
"Hell in a box." She said tiredly, The last period of Taisho's day was PE, and since it was the lacrosse unit, she would be this exhausted for the next month or so.
You see, though she had many friends, Taisho had only started public school shortly before. Because Taisho couldn't stand to sit in one place for more than an hour at most, she would wander around Tokyo and end up with another friend or two. She had done this with Hiroki and Aki when she was seven. "What are you guys doing out here, anyway?" Taisho inquired as the twins stopped. "Your house is the other way."
"It is, but we were going to grab a bite to eat," Hiroki explained. He was always especially nice to Taisho when he spoke. "And we, um, wanted to now if you'd…like to come with us." Hiroki was also known to start blushing when talking to girls he didn't live with, meaning every girl in existence aside from his twin, his college-bound older sister, and his mother, and this was one of those moments.
Taisho's face lit up and flashed the both of them a big smile. "Of course! You know I can't resist food!"
The twins gave each other Cheshire Cat grins as they received high fives. "Yatta!" Aki exclaimed as Taisho took her place between the two, all three hooking their arms on each other's shoulders and singing random songs by the little-band-that-thought-they-could-yet-were-seriously-mistaken, ASK. As they walked on, our trio came upon a bridge, and under the pass way, stood someone Taisho really didn't want to see.
It was a group of people who loved to give her a bad time. But most of them were people she wasn't particularly worried about, except for one. He was in the center, with curly hair and a disgusting sneer on his face. Yasuhiko Mochida, a junior at Touhoku Academy, already titled Mikado of the Campus because he ruled with an iron fist. Rumor was that he beat the previous king to near death so he could take the poor guy's place. "Well look who we have here, fellas." He said with a jeering point. "If it ain't Fag Hugger and her sidekicks, the Spaz Squad." The gang around him chuckled stupidly.
Hiroki and Aki had looks of fear in their eyes, but Taisho only sighed. "That is so pathetic." She said without amusement. Aki looked up at the bravery-coated girl.
"Taisho, are you insane!" She said in a hushed voice. "This guy could rip your face off!" Taisho did not heed Aki's warnings. Not very intelligent.
"People call you a king and that's what you come up with?" Taisho's objective was to chip away and then have she and her friends run for it when he got so angry he couldn't move right. "Oh, I get it. You go by "King" but the truth is, you're just the court fool."
Her plan worked quicker than anticipated. Not good. In what seemed like half a second, Mochida and all of his goons had bum rushed them. Two grabbed Aki from behind and covered her mouth so her screams were muffled, three kneed Hiroki in the stomach and got him to the ground and Taisho was pinned down to the concrete with her arms twisted behind her back. It was then that Mochida stepped in front of Taisho and kneeled down close to her eye level, tilting her head up with his index finger. "Short fuse too, I see." Taisho hissed through tightly gritted teeth, giving a cynical smile.
"Y'know, I hadn't noticed before, but you're really hot." Mochida said in an evil smirk. Taisho turned her eyes away and started to wish she didn't. Two of the boys where feeling around under Aki's shirt as she generated muffled screams of fear. Hiroki was forced to watch this traumatizing display and whenever he would try to look away, they would kick him. At that moment, something inside her completely snapped. She jerked her head back and forth, and when Mochida went to slap her she bit down on his hand. "You crazy skank! Get your fuckin' teeth off me!"
Despite the command, Taisho didn't let go. Not until something would come of it. And something did. After a few seconds, the boys behind her loosened their grip, fearing the act of insanity that was appearing. Even Aki and Hiroki's attackers let go to watch. Blood started to get in Taisho's mouth, Mochida screamed, yet she still did not let go and continued to bite down harder. And that was when they all heard it, the deafening snapping noise of Yasuhiko Mochida's hand being broken.
Taisho released her jaws and stood up quickly as Mochida stepped back as he held onto his hand and screamed in pain. Taisho saw her window of opportunity and ran straight at Mochida, shoving her knee into his stomach…over, and over, and over again. She kicked him right in the throat and then used the heel of her palm to break his nose. When he finally hit the ground, Mochida's breathing was so slow that it looked like he was dead. He sure was bloody enough to be.
His so-called friends had run long ago.
Aki and Hiroki stood in horror and amazement. Hiroki took a step forward. "Come on, Taisho," Hiroki said, his voice showing only the slightest quiver. "Let's just go, he's learned his lesson." She didn't listen. Taisho didn't even turn her head.
For once, she was in control. Taisho didn't know why she was doing these horrible things, considering she didn't know she even had the ability to do so. But it felt good. Oh so perfect. No wonder the boy in a heap on the ground liked to hurt others if he felt like this all the time. Everything down to the blood in her mouth gave her this empowering feeling. But all of a sudden, there was this horrible feeling in her gut.
Taisho stood over Mochida and made sure that he saw her statuesque expression. "That's what you get for going after my friends." She kneeled down to Mochida now. If he was even expecting a bit of mercy, even after all this, Mochida got a big reality slap as Taisho grabbed a handful of hair and yanked his head up. "You can hit me, cuss at me, or do anything that could pop into that twisted mind of yours, but don't you dare go after those that I care for." Then she let his head drop to the ground and stuck her hand in his pocket. Taisho ended up pulling out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes.
Now it was Aki's turn to speak up. "Taisho, no." She said, trying to be strong amidst the chaos. "You got what you wanted, let's just go get some food and forget all this happened! I'm serious."
"So am I!" Taisho half shouted. She turned to Aki and it would appear that something extremely strange had happened. Taisho had tears streaming down her face, mixing with some of the blood coming out of her mouth. There were no sounds of sobbing or whimpering, just unstoppable tears. Taisho tried to put on a smile, but Hiroki and Aki could see the misery. "I'm sorry, Aki-chan, but there's one thing I have to do, to make sure he never does this to you again." With that, Taisho made the flints on the lighter ignite, and stuck the flame over to the cigarette.
She wiped her tears away quickly and went back to the expression that made demons cry for forgiveness. She lifted up the back of Mochida's shirt and muttered, "…yeah, I think a TSY on the spine is the best." If he had the strength, the attacker turned victim would have yelled. But there was no need. In half a second, he felt a searing hot pain in his back, forcing him to scream anyway, louder than any person should. When he quieted down a bit, she was able to say something. "Just use this as a reminder that if you ever come after me, my friends, or my family again, I'll reopen the son of a bitch and do it again, maybe even use battery acid." Aki buried her face in her brother's chest; Hiroki clamped his eyes shut. "A reminder that Taisho--Shindo--Yuki isn't afraid of the consequences." Taisho went back about her work, her tears kept putting out the cigarette, so she had to keep relighting…this went on for twenty minutes.
Kazuki looked as shocked as a soldier that is shot. It was nearly unbelievable. The girl in front of him, whom earlier that week was so friendly and nearly flawless in her ways, was part of the vicious cycle of abuse.
Taisho gave him a plain and exhausted look. "My parents, Aunt Mika, Uncle Tohma and Tatsuha, Noriko and Ryuichi had a debate on what to do. Novelist Otosan kept saying something about it being his fault, his past affecting his child, and that I'd be just as bitter as him when I get older. They and Uncle Tohma decided to cover it all up, so it never went to court." Taisho smirked. "When I heard that they bribed Mochida's lawyer, I refused to talk to them for almost a month."
There was a silence between the two teens. The bell signaling the end of lunch had rung long ago, Kazuki stayed true to his word that he was ditching class. Taisho stood up straight and began her walk towards the door. She got to the stairwell and realized suddenly that she had just explained that story, without getting so much as an…
"I'm sorry." Kazuki said quietly from the ground. Taisho stopped dead in her tracks, thinking that she had just heard things. She looked directly at Kazuki, who was using the building to put his cigarette out. He stood up and chucked the pack of Marlboros off the roof, then looked right into Taisho's eyes. She saw something that she hadn't seen even when she got Kazuki to lighten up that night. Sincerity, begging, an almost pleading look. "I really mean it, Taisho. It was more than I had really wanted to hear, and it couldn't have been easy for you to tell."
A wave of something had swept over her body. A force so great she was practically trembling. Taisho didn't know what motivated her to do what was in store next, but all of a sudden, she ran into Kazuki's arms and began to sob. It was whimpers, then full blown crying. She was only slightly surprised when Kazuki put his arms around her and pet Taisho on the top of her head. "Thanks for listening, Kazuki." She said in between breaths, her face still buried in Kazuki's strong arms.
"No problem." He said in a whisper. Kazuki continued to hold Taisho for what seemed like an hour, but for good reason. The former tin man didn't want this already emotionally frail girl to see that he also had a tear or two running down his face. They disappeared quickly and that was when Kazuki held Taisho a little farther from him and wiped away the tears on the blond angel's face. "Hey," he said gently, "let's go get some food or something, alright?" The girl looked up and nodded, with a bitter laugh. "And by the way, I'm still not apologizing for kissing you."
Taisho gave a loud giggle and Kazuki a playful punch on the shoulder, which wasn't all that playful feeling for Kazuki. It kind of hurt. "Not cool!"
"Come on, you know you liked it and everyone feels hungry after a good cry." Kazuki said in a bland voice.
"…Fine, but this time we're getting Italian!" Taisho surrendered.
And so the two walked out the school doors, flipping off the truant officer on the way out the schoolyard gates. The truant officers here were pansies anyway. The school was full of delinquents, they'd get over it.
But as the two walked hand in hand, Hiroki was watching out the window of his classroom. Since the seating arrangements were organized by last name and it was study period, he turned around in his seat and looked at his sister. "I thought Taisho was going to give Nakano-senpai a piece of her mind." Aki, sitting with rest of their friends looked up at her brother and let that sink in.
Aki wore a look of confusion on her face. "What do you mean? There's no way Taisho'd miss a chance to chew out a jerk."
"Then explain this to me," Hiroki said with agitation as he pointed out window, "why would the two be walking out the school gates withy smiles on their faces if she chewed him out?"
Aki, Aiko, Akira and Shuyu rushed to the window. Sure enough, Taisho and Kazuki were down the street, smiling and holding hands. Jaws dropped and eyes popped…it was strange enough seeing Taisho make up with a target…but Taisho with a boyfriend! That was too much. Shuyu recovered quickly and looked quite amused. "It would appear she's grown up a bit away from us," he glanced over at Hiroki, "it would also be apparent that you're out of the game."
Hiroki blushed violently. "Urusei! Don't tell me that you actually believe Aki!" He took a breath and his face went from a deep red to a light pink, still embarrassed. "I just don't think that Kazuki's good for her. He's an asshole with questionable nature."
"Yeah, and none of the guys here are?" Aiko said sarcastically. "You've had your fair share of run-ins with cops as well, Hiro-kun. Every kid in this school is a dumbass, just on a different level."
Akira raised her hand. "She does have a point. Even Shuyu here gets a C+ average, totally smashed every weekend and he's the smartest kid in school."
"How kind of you sweet heart." Shuyu said sadly. "I'm glad my girlfriend's opinion of me is so high."
"Well you know--" Akira stopped mid-sentence. "Hey, I'm not your girlfriend!"
"I was hoping you would catch that one." Shuyu brushed some strands of black hair out of his face and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Shit."
Aki went back to her brother. "Back on the subject of Tai-kun, let's say you didn't like her--"
"Which I don't." Hiroki added firmly.
"Right, that," Aki said before continuing, "You don't like her, so what are you going to do about this? It looks like she really likes Kazuki."
Hiroki looked down at his desk. What would he do about those two? It was a hard situation…"I'd split them up." He said plainly. BONK! Aki's elbow drilled into his skull and smashed his chin against the desk. "What'd you do that for?" He rubbed his head, looking like a sad puppy.
"You moron! You don't split them up!" Aki exclaimed. "You're supposed to be supporting Tai-kun in all her endeavors! Be them academically, athletically or romantically, one friend follows the other no matter what."
"Yeah." Aiko said strongly. "Nothing bad has happened yet, so at least give him a chance."
Shuyu put his hand on Hiroki's shoulder. "Besides, once something bad happens, then you can break them apart."
"Really?" Hiroki said curiously.
Akira stood next to him with her hand on his. "Don't worry, if he hurts Tai-kun in any way, we'll have your back. No one hurts Tai-kun without getting a visit from the Shindo-Yuki Mafia shortly after!"
Hiroki smiled at them. "I think her family would be all over it before we were. But you're right," he said with a happy twinkle in his eyes. "I should be content with the fact she's happy with Kazuki, right?"
"Atta' boy, Oniichan!" Aki said while grabbing her brother into a hug. She let him go shortly after so he could breathe. "An achievement for both you and Tai-kun in the same day is deserving of only one thing."
"Um…a car transmission?" Hiroki said suspiciously. Aki scoffed and stood on a desk in a hero-reminiscent pose. The friends on the floor followed suit pose-wise.
"No stupid!" Aki yelled, pointing a finger at Hiroki. "Tonight, we feast! Isn't that right men?"
"Yatta! Feast!" Came the roaring response of Aki's mini-cult.
Hiroki rested his chin in his hand and sighed, wondering why he was stuck with idiots like these. But at least they were fun idiots. He looked out the window again and Taisho was now out of sight. Sure, he would try to get along with Nakano to the best of his ability…but if things went bad then there'd be no stopping him. He'd comfort Taisho, beat up the Nakano Monster and keep protecting lady fair.