Chapter 06 – Ten Minutes' Tension
Previously: Takeshi Kitahara's next task assigned by the discipline master is to take down a lecherous gym teacher who is trying to take advantage of the girls in Year 1 Class 3. Junpei worked with him to film down the act as evidence against the teacher, and Takeshi defeated the gym teacher in just one blow. As the girls ran for shelter, Aiko avoided the squeeze and ended up inside a storeroom. Takeshi went there and found her inside, so they waited for the rain to subside and they plan to run for the sports complex but the metal door was forcibly shut from the outside, knocking Takeshi and Aiko back, in which Aiko collided with the old rack inside, causing the rack to collapse and crush the both of them. Aiko was crushed by the weight of the old rack while Takeshi was squeezed horizontally between the combined weight of both Aiko and the old rack, and the hard floor. How will they get out of this mess? Read on to find out!
Inside the storeroom, Takeshi and Aiko are now unconscious, crushed by the weight of the old rack and its contents. The three guys that locked the door from the outside have left, and there is silence… only for a minute in which after that, Takeshi's eyebrow moved a little – signs that mean he is trying to wake up.
When he tries to open his eyes again, his senses starts to come back to him bit by bit. As Takeshi has a relatively fast recovery rate, he managed to gain all his senses within a short period of time. After that he suddenly realizes that there is warmth on two large spots on his back, and he smells someone else's scent as well. Then he looked at his right as he is crushed with his face looking on his right, and saw black hair hanging down.
"This must be where this smell comes from…" thought Takeshi as he sees the hair that seemingly doesn't belong to him. "I remember that I collided with this girl I met here and something crushed the both of us, then I don't know what happened after that…"
Then he feels a head on the back of his right shoulder.
"This must be the girl that I collided with…!" Takeshi continued thinking. "…then she must be…!"
"Hey! Wake up!" Takeshi tries to shake his body in order to wake up Aiko, who is on top of him.
He continued shaking until the Aiko's head starts to move slowly.
"Uh…" Aiko let out a soft murmur before she starts to open her eyes and regain consciousness.
"Are you okay?" Takeshi asks Aiko out of concern.
"I guess so, but…" Aiko answers him, but as she realizes what was happening, she immediately blushes out of the blue.
"What happened…?" Takeshi asks again. "How come I feel something warm on my back…"
This made Aiko blush like a cherry!
"That's…" Aiko tries to find a definite answer, but is too embarassed to say it. "That's… my…"
"……" Takeshi couldn't say anything, but had some idea what that was, which made him blush too!
"How did we get into such a position like this…?" thought Takeshi after he realised it. "No time for that! Now we must get out of this awful place and fast! Before the guys there take advantage of the girls in Year 1 Class 3!"
Meanwhile, Junpei and the discipline master of Izumizaka High had rushed out of the disciplinary room to find Takeshi, leaving no stone unturned in order to find clues.
"Takeshi-kun! Where are you!" Junpei cried desperately to look for his mentee.
Inside the storeroom, Takeshi and Aiko are still crushed underneath the old rack, but Takeshi is thinking of ideas to try and remove the rack and set them free.
"I can't power-up here…!" thought Takeshi. "If I do, everybody will know how different I am from them!"
"…why couldn't I feel any anxiety when I'm with Kitahara-san…?" Aiko thought about at the same time.
Just then, Takeshi is pushing the floor in an attempt to push the whole weight of himself, Aiko and the old rack up.
"If I had a little more power…!" thought Takeshi as he pushes the floor.
"Stop! Kitahara-san, stop!" Aiko suddenly asks Takeshi to stop pushing the floor. "You'll crush me in between this way!"
Takeshi stopped pushing and Aiko heaved a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, the discipline master of the school keeps trying to contact Takeshi through his walkie-talkie. What he said went through his end and ended up transmitted out of the walkie-talkie in the storeroom which has been there for minutes. Takeshi tries to reach for it, but it is too far for him even to get close. Aiko saw this and was curious.
"Why are you reaching there for, Kitahara-san?" Aiko asked.
"My walkie-talkie is there…!" Takeshi answered as he desperately reach his hand in the direction of the communication device. "…if I can reach it…, maybe we can get out of here…!"
"Even with my powers enabled, I must get myself out first before I can grab the walkie-talkie and tell them the location of this storeroom…!" thought Takeshi as he continues reaching for the device without avail.
"I don't feel that I wanted to get out of here…" Aiko thought as she is still stuck in between. "…what I really feel is that I wanted to be like this for a little while longer…"
Takeshi continued trying to reach for the walkie-talkie while Aiko continued thinking.
"…but I can't just keep on like this for too long. I won't be able to move my legs if this continues…" Aiko thinks as she saw Takeshi trying to reach what that is called his rescue device. The walkie-talkie kept emitting out the voice of the school's discipline master for Takeshi's name.
"Stop trying to reach that thing! You won't accomplish anything this way." Aiko suddenly said to Takeshi, in which Takeshi stopped his movements.
"But how are we going to contact anyone outside without us moving?" Takeshi asks her in return.
"Um… the only way is… one of us must get out of this spot so that he or she can grab that device and find a way to get out of here…" Aiko replied nervously, fearing that it might not help the situation.
However, this made Takeshi silent and deep in thought.
"What's wrong, Kitahara-san?" Aiko asks him out of concern, which shocked him.
"How did you know my surname?" Takeshi changes his facial expression to a serious look, and said.
"Um…" Aiko tries to search for words to explain this, but…
"I can't tell him I've known him since middle school! Everyone will laugh at me…!" Aiko was thinking while trying to explain what Takeshi has asked her.
"Um… you know…? You're famous around here, right?" Aiko answers with a silly laugh, trying to escape the embarassing conversation. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Tatsuma Aiko, nice to meet you… in a situation like this…"
But what she said made Takeshi think back to when he met Tomomi…
(from chapter 05)
"Do you know a person named Tatsuma Aiko?" Tomomi asked our protagionist.
Takeshi shook his head.
"No idea." was his answer.
"She's my friend since middle school, and knows about your dealings before you came here." Tomomi explained. "In fact, she knows you're quite famous for taking down bullies in your middle school days."
"So that's Tatsuma Aiko-san…" thought Takeshi. "…she must've known things about me and what I did in middle school…"
"But what am I supposed to do…?" he continued thinking. "…if I don't save her, she might not want to tell me why she's tracking me all these years…!"
"Looks like I have to get us out of here… even if I have to use my powers…!" he concluded in his mind.
"Okay, I need you to help me on one thing, Aiko-san." Takeshi asks for Aiko's help.
"Um…okay." Aiko agreed, not knowing how she can help.
Then Takeshi puts his right arm behind Aiko's back and near the metal rack.
"I place my left arm in your hands, Aiko-san." Takeshi said in a soft tone. "I need you to guide my arm so that I can use my left hand to grab onto the rack that's crushing you."
"Um… what do you want to do with your left hand?" Aiko asks curiously.
"I'm going to use the strength of my arms to create two gaps; one gap is between me and the floor, another is between you and the metal rack." Takeshi explained his plan. "My right arm will push my body up while my left hand will push the rack further up so that you can get out first. If I have enough strength I can get myself out as well, then we can reach for the walkie-talkie and tell the other end where we are so that we can get out of here."
This surprised Aiko.
"Will… this… work…?" Aiko seemed worried while asking this question.
"As far as I know… this is the only way to get free from the metal rack!" Takeshi replied seriously. "So… I need your help… on this one… okay?"
These words by Takeshi is enough to touch Aiko's heart by now, in which she agreed to help him in response.
After a few minutes, they commenced the operation to get them free of the rack.
Aiko holds Takeshi's wrist and guides him to her back while Takeshi reaches for the heavy rack.
"…I feel ticklish…" Aiko giggled as she feels the back of his hand on her back.
"Hang on, Aiko-san." Takeshi said while concentrating on grabbing the rack. "Just a little more and I can grab the side of the rack!"
When Takeshi's left hand touches the side of the rack he immediately grabs it, and places his right hand firmly on the floor below his neck. Then he starts to exert force on both his arms to push both the rack and himself up little by little. But there's a disadvantage: As Takeshi pushes himself upwards Aiko's breasts pushed themselves harder on his back. Takeshi ignores what happened to his back and continues the attempt to free himself and Aiko.
"When…I…have…pushed…enough…space…you…get…yourself…out…of…here…and…pass…the…walkie-talkie…to…me…!" Takeshi requested Aiko painstakingly as he pushes using his arms.
"Please… give…me…more…power…!" Takeshi thinks as he said the words above.
As he thinks of that, something deep within him starts to ignite, and the moment he opens his eyes, they turn blood red! This time Aiko starts to feel a strange power coming from within Takeshi.
"Oh no! Don't tell me… that this is Kitahara-san's hidden power…?" Aiko thought as soon as she sensed the strange energy.
The pushing keeps on for about half a minute, until enough space has been created between Takeshi and Aiko.
"Get…out…of…here…!" Takeshi said painstakingly to Aiko. "I…can't…hold…on…for…too…long…!"
"Oh…okay!" Aiko agreed, and tries to slowly come out on her own.
She finally managed to get out, but another problem arises out at this time while Takeshi keeps pushing the rack upwards. By the time it is high enough for him to stand on his knees, he turned and saw Aiko sitting there, seemingly unable to move.
"What happened?" Takeshi asks.
"I… must've hurt my feet… while…I was being crushed then…" Aiko said painstakingly, feeling pain inside the joint near her feet. "I'm… sorry… I couldn't… help… you…"
This made him a little frustrated, which he starts to move towards the walkie-talkie and releases his grip. The metal rack crashed down to the floor with a very loud thud! And this thud vibrated through the door and out of the storeroom in which it falls on the ears of both Junpei and the discipline master whom is near the sports complex.
"Hey, I've heard a loud sound…" Junpei said after hearing the sound made by the vibration.
Then the walkie-talkie that the discipline master has starts to emit a voice.
"Sir! Can you hear me?" the voice said from his walkie-talkie.
The discipline master immediately responded to the voice.
"Kitahara-kun! Where are you? We've been so worried, you know?" he said over the device.
"I finally got free and was trying to contact you." Takeshi said from the other end.
"What? You got trapped?" Junpei spoke from the discipline master's walkie-talkie.
"It's a long story. I'll talk about that later." Takeshi replied.
"So where exactly are you?" the discipline master asked him again.
"In one of the storerooms. There's a metal rack that crushed us before we got free." Takeshi responded.
These information rung a bell within the discipline master's mind.
"I know where Kitahara-kun is!" he alerted Junpei. "Follow me! There's only one storeroom with a metal rack inside!"
Junpei followed him round the exterior of the sports complex to a lone cubicle where its handle has been seemingly chained up.
They immediately broke the chain amd opened the metal door.
"The door is locked from the outside." Junpei commented as the discipline master opened the door.
What they see inside shocked them!
"Takeshi-kun! What is going on?" Junpei exclaimed when he saw Takeshi inside with a girl on the floor. Also inside is a fallen metal rack.
"What exactly happened?" the discipline master cannot believe that he had to save two people.
At this time…
"Kitahara-san…?" Aiko seems forgotten by the three and calls out to Takeshi. "My legs… I couldn't walk when my legs are injured… so…"
Takeshi was silent, and looked at Junpei and the discipline master, whom looked at each other without responding to his stare. So he went back and knelt down with his back facing Aiko.
"Do…you…mind… carrying…a weak girl…like…me…?" Aiko said with her eyes about to cry.
"Do you want to stay here until the end of the day?" Takeshi asks back at her, in which Aiko shook her head afterward. She then reached for his back and held his shoulders with her arms. Her chest pressed once again on his back just like the time they were crushed under the heavy metal rack. Takeshi held Aiko's thighs and carried her up, then walked out of the storeroom.
Both Junpei and the discipline master watched in shock as Takeshi went out carrying Aiko on his back.
During the journey to the school clinic, Takeshi said nothing. But Aiko tries to start the conversation by asking about his arms.
"Are you okay, Kitahara-san? It seems like your arms are injured…" Aiko asks Takeshi.
"I'm not afraid of pain anyhow." Takeshi said in a low tone.
This touched Aiko's heart once again.
"I'm not sure if he has a liking for me, but I know that my feelings for him have grown deeper with this…" Aiko thought to herself while she was being piggy-backed by Takeshi all the way to the school clinic.
"I trust you, Kitahara-san…" she thought, and leaned her head onto Takeshi's without him realizing it!
When they arrived at the clinic, Takeshi placed her on the white-coloured bed and left the place.
Fifteen minutes later, Tomomi came into the clinic to see her.
"Are you all right, Aiko?" Tomomi asks out of concern for her friend. "I heard that your legs are hurt somehow… and who carried you here?"
"It's… Kitahara-san…" Aiko answered meekly.
"What? That Modern Battousai carried you all the way here?" Tomomi said shockingly.
What Aiko said almost made Tomomi scream after saying that.
"Although I don't know much about him… but I understand that he has a kind soul inside him…" Aiko said with a little smile.
"I don't know about that…" Tomomi sighs as she says this. "But I hope you won't get too involved with him, you know."
However, these words came too late now. Aiko's feelings for Takeshi has somewhat grown to something more.
End of Chapter 06 and Book 1
Thoughts by Author: I am sad to say this is the end of Book 1. Quite a lot of events were connected to our main character Takeshi Kitahara. As I only started writing this fiction after I've finished reading the original Ichigo 100 manga, some of the events may resemble those found in the original manga. So I combined some events together and try to involve the main characters as much as possible. As for the ending of this chapter, I have to end it before it gets too long (the length of the chapters get longer as they are written…), so I have no choice but to end this chapter and book, after which I'll take a break from the fanfiction and concentrate on my studies. But I'll be back with Book 2 as I have lots of story ideas still inside my head! So ja ne and wait for my new volume to be uploaded!